Thursday, December 31, 2020

Burrata cheese soba from Healthy Soba IKI

Healthy Soba IKI, burrata cheese soba

Healthy Soba IKI has a Christmas special. Burrata cheese topping on their soba. Nice. Again it's all sitting in some tsuyu with a fruity olive oil and tomatoes, topped with tomato salsa, burrata cheese and negi. And black pepper. Tangy and creamy at the same time paired with their freshly made soba.

Healthy Soba IKI, burrata cheese soba

Proprietor Noguchi-san came over and asked about the food. Short chat broached the topic of their previous cheese soba. Apparently the shavings of cheese were 36 month Parmigiano Reggiano. Who woulda thunk?!

Healthy Soba IKI, One Raffles Place

Wednesday, December 30, 2020

More food from Burger & Lobster

Burger & Lobster, pineapple tea

More food from Burger & Lobster.

Burger & Lobster, lobster nuggets

These above were their lobster nuggets. Each "nugget" was a claw, six pieces of them for $18. So if $3 is a fair amount to pay for a fried shelled lobster claw to you, here's where you can get some.

Burger & Lobster, lobster mac and cheese

That's the lobster mac & cheese. Nice crusty salty melted cheese that sealed a ramekin of macaroni which was soaked in something that tasted like a creamy lobster bisque. Full of creamy crustacean flavour and had bits of lobster meat as well.

Burger & Lobster, lobster rosti

Lobster rosti wasn't as impressive as the previous two items. Rosti wasn't bad but the lobster here was just salty without the sweetness. Will not order again.

Burger & Lobster, venison burger

They had this venison burger for the Christmas season. Venison patty with Brie, bacon and cranberry relish. Not bad. But I couldn't tell the meat from their beef burger.

Burger & Lobster, texas waffle chicken

Something they called Texan waffle chicken. Chicken's not bad. Buttermilk fried and very moist with a pleasant savoury marinade. The waffle was thick and sweet and had come crunchy sweet bits in them. For some reasons, I was popping mouthful after another of the waffle until I finished one. Didn't do it for the second piece because of the sugar overload by then.

Burger & Lobster, pineapple tea

Pretended to quench thirst with their expensive but delicious pineapple tea.

Burger & Lobster, Raffles Hotel

Tuesday, December 29, 2020

Sushiro in December

Sushiro

It's been a few months since we've hit Sushiro. While it can be fun to try some the items they've introduced into the menu which we haven't tried before, there's also us being us sticking to what we liked from them. 

Sushiro, ginger hiyashiame juice

One of the newer item their hiyashiame which was flavoured with cinnamon powder. This was sweet and pleasant from the combination of cinnamon and ginger.

Sushiro, madara shirako gunkan

There's a madara shirako gunkan. No idea why madara is in the name but this was a better one than the shirako gunkan they had last year. The ingredients were mostly the same. This one had more shirako.

Sushiro, stacked snow crab nigiri

The stacked snow crab nigiri looked better in pictures. It's okay. Not the better tasting snow crab out there since you do get what you will be paying for.

Sushiro, scallop nigiri

Their scallop sushi is generally not bad. Applies for this one with more scallops and ikura.......

Sushiro, scallop nigiri

......and the one which have larger scallops.

Sushiro, ankimo gunkan

This ankimo gunkan also looked nicer than the one we got from last year.

Sushiro, chutoro nigiri

We had chutoro. Not the better one out there but it's sometimes the luck of the draw for a conveyor belt sushi joint like this.

Sushiro, marinated sesame snapper nigiri

Some sesame marinated snapper nigiri. Unusual flavour profile for a sushi which we haven't had before from the sesame.

Sushiro, big red shrimp nigiri

The nigiri with the big red prawns are one of those good ones to pick.

Sushiro, ikura gunkan

The other no brainer is the gunkan overflowing with ikura.

Sushiro, tuna mayo gunkan

Not traditional but there's an appeal to tuna mayo.

Sushiro, whole spear squid nigiri

Tried their whole (yari ika) spear squid nigiri. Are these like babies? Tasted much like the regular squid sushi except for the mouthfeel. Wished they hadn't decided that there was a need to include that tiny dollop of ginger paste.

Sushiro, tamagoyaki nigiri

I liked that their tamago yaki was sweet and chilled. 

Sushiro, albacore tuna

Albacore tuna was tender.

Sushiro, chilled chawanmushi

Chilled chawanmushi with dashi jelly was unexpectedly refreshing. There's a scallop and shrimp in it.

Sushiro, shirako mazesoba
Sushiro, shirako mazesoba

The noodle item we hadn't tried before was their shirasu mazesoba. This looked better in real life than the pictures on the menu. There was a light sauce which I could describe as savoury and that was all that accompanied the shirasu and negi for the noodles. Nothing unnecessarily complicated. I'd eat this again.

Sushiro, albacore tuna nigiri

Amaebi not so sweet.

Sushiro, tai nigiri

Tai looked dry-ish. 

Sushiro, Hattendo earl grey pudding

The Earl Grey pudding from Hattendo was nice and creamy. Really creamy.

Sushiro, Hattendo sweet potato cream bun

They also had these sweet potato cream buns from Hattendo which were also nice. There was milky sweet potato flavour in the creamy filling.

Monday, December 28, 2020

Tambuah Mas, Great World


With this (B1-110/111 Great World, 1 Kim Seng Promenade, tel : +65 6235 6713), we've visited all the Tambuah Mas restaurants. The other two are at Paragon and Tanglin Shopping Centre. We had the idea that their menu never changes but we were wrong this time round because the introduced dishes of the month.

Tambuah Mas, urap

One of them was their urap. Not on the regular menu. We confirmed with the server that the vegetables were cooked before ordering because the raw rendition simply didn't work for me with all the green-y flavour. This one was not bad. Was also unexpectedly spicy.

Tambuah Mas, sayur lodeh

We had sayur lodeh. Vegetables were so tender.

Tambuah Mas, tempe goreng

We also liked their tempe goreng which I thought was good with their sambal belachan.

Tambuah Mas, udang petai belado

Tried their udang petai belado. Prawns were pretty fresh and easily removed from the shells. Wished there were more of the petai.

Tambuah Mas, sate ayam

Ordered a serving of their chunky sate which was accompanied by some nicely chilled cucumbers on the side.

Tambuah Mas, rice

Gotta have rice here. Otherwise, it'll be a crime to waste all the sauces and sambal. While I haven't actually paid attention before, I never noticed that they were using basmati. Was that a recent thing?

Tambuah Mas

Sunday, December 27, 2020

Revisiting Ma Maison Kitchen

Ma Maison Kitchen, yuzu latte

That's their yuzu latte. I had imagined that like a sweet potato or pumpkin latte, I'd be getting a flavoured milky drink. I didn't expect yuzu flavour in an actual latte. But that's what we got. And oddly, it worked without tasting weird. Just like the cucumber latte.

Ma Maison Kitchen, mushroom soup

Last time we were here was Halloween season. This time it was the Christmas. Ordered one of their Christmas special steak which came with mushroom soup. 

Ma Maison Kitchen, xmas steak

Australian Angus beef, no cut was mentioned.

Ma Maison Kitchen, xmas steak

Served with a sauce boat of their spiced berry and red wine sauce. It was a fruity tasty steak.

Ma Maison Kitchen, sirloin steak

We remembered their sirloin from their Scream curry rice the last time. So we got the steak today. Not bad. Very decent piece properly treated with a crusty char on the outside. No dry ageing needed.

Ma Maison Kitchen, mentaiko spaghetti

And their yummy umami mentaiko supagetti with wok hei. This has been more or less consistently good since the first time I've had it.

crystal skull

Saturday, December 26, 2020

Lobsters, scallops and venison at The Market Grill

The Market Grill, Telok Ayer

This was (one of) our Christmas-y year end lunch. We came over to The Market Grill because they had venison. Like the one we had a couple of years back.

The Market Grill, scallops

We splurged a bit. Got some starting scallops which were really good. The exterior was well caramelized with the char flavour. The insides were of medium doneness. Scallops were small but packed with flavour.

The Market Grill, lobster

Ordered their steamed lobster to get the most out of the flavour from the crustacean. So good dipped into the garlic butter. Those mashed potatoes on the side were also buttery-ly delicious.

The Market Grill, venison

Venison was overcooked today. I asked for medium rare and this obviously wasn't. Didn't expect such shoddiness from them. But I forgive them because the outcome was so satisfying. Great caramelization on the exterior along with a spiced blackberry jus. I'm feeling the justification for how much they charged for the loin. Roasted bone marrow was a bonus and that carrot puree thing on the side was also outstanding. 

The Market Grill, Telok Ayer