Beast & Butterflies, Robertson Quay

First time eating at Beast & Butterflies (Level 1, M Social Singapore, 90 Robertson Quay). They describe themselves as Mediterranean and Asian but there're also European influences.

I was upsold some tequila based cocktail. Pricey and it tasted just like a margarita.

Calamari. Not bad tasting. The menu described scallions so that's all the scallions they have in there. The quantity can barely even qualify as decorative.

We were recommended their Caesar salad. Something I don't order much.

Tasted not bad. What made this was their a la minute dressing which was nicely flavoured with anchovies. The kitchen seemed proud of it and extra portions of that dressing is chargeable.

This was called Breast & Butterflies - sous vide and seared chicken breast with morel and truffle cream sauce. And butterfly shaped pastries on the side. Chicken's pretty tender. What rounded up everything and made this dish for me was the rich velvety sauce with mushrooms.

A wagyu beef cheek rigatoni which they had inconspicuously named beef pasta on the menu. Sauce tasted tomato-y so it's not exactly my thing. The beef cheek texture was spongy which I didn't like. Something about that texture was off. No wagyu-ish taste if anyone was even wondering.

Their crispy pork knuckle was delicious. Crackling was crackling 😂 and the knuckle had enough fat to back up all that meat beneath the crispiness. I love the namjim which packed a invigorating sour and heat - even though there was coriander in it.

What's this? Blue cheese cream sauce made with a sweet white wine. First time having a blue cheese sauce that had a noticeable sweetness in it. Not that I didn't like it but I prefer them without. But what was this for?

I decided that it worked with the pork knuckle too.

Oven baked Mao Tai spring chicken. The bird was stuffed with glutinous rice which had hae bee, mushrooms and lup cheong. They brought it over wrapped in opeh leaf, unwrapped it and flamed the chicken. This was nice on the account that I could taste the wine and the bird was tender through the 4 hour sous vide. 

So Beast & Butterflies has this unlimited tiramisu deal at $6++ on Friday evenings only. We took advantage of it. It's not exactly unlimited serving per se though. You get a plate and there's no limit how much tiramisu you can scoop off their tray as long as you can fit them into said plate.

Round one was a decent pile. Which wasn't enough because there were a few people at the table.

So we got ambitious and scored a second plate. It was messy but I've to admit that their tiramisu was delicious.

SKAI, Swissôtel The Stamford

SKAI (#70-01 Swissôtel The Stamford, 2 Stamford Road, tel : +65 6837 3322) - Swissôtel describes it as a contemporary grill. One that is also accompanied with a view at City Hall, that by virtue of its location, encompasses the Marina Bay. We were here for lunch to celebrate a couple of occasions and decided to splurge.

Matcha Hiromeru - made with giffard ginger, nori green tea and tonic water. According to the menu. The nori green tea was just powder on the side of the glass. The drink was refreshingly tangy with something that reminded me of tamarind and just a little bit spicy from the ginger.

Apple Chizukeki's nice. Glenfiddich 12, Calvados, cheesecake foam, vanilla and something described as spiced cloudy apple milk punch. Foam's pretty creamy and smooth. I liked it.

The brioche here was so good. Each serving appeared to be fresh out of the oven. We had about five. Sweet and fluffy which paired harmoniously with that salted butter it came with.

That's the chicken liver and foie gras parfait. Never did I imagine that they'd be presented in the form of three gold flecked obsidian spheres.

There's suppose to be black truffle, sherry vinegar and Timut pepper from what the menu described. Pretty sure there's some other fruity stuff in there that's not mentioned. The sauce was tangy and umami at the same time. Timut pepper kinda reminded us of Sichuan peppercorn. It's that flavour which we associate with mala.

The chicken liver and foie gras parfait was as good as any we've had so that's that.

Their prime sirloin steak tartare that is suppose to contain gochujang. Couldn't taste gochujang. The seasoning was restrained to that point that we could actually taste the intrinsic flavour from beef and the meat was delicious. Flavour's nothing like the French tartare de boeuf. Portion was also kinda tiny.

Their crispy bread that came with the starters were salted so it's not the bland thin crusty stuff.

The bringing out of the more serious looking knives marked the start of the mains. Look at the pretty acid etching on them.

Black cod's superb. Meat was flaky and firm that you could scoop it out by layers. Creamy sauce had ikura, dill and capers and tasted like that. 👍🏼

Lamb was infused with enough cumin to remind us of 羊肉串儿 and mint to remind us that it wasn't 羊肉串儿. 😬 That romesco at the bottom tasted like a muhammara we once had.

Nice racks. Meat was tender, adequately spiced and yet still possessing the natural lamb-y flavour.

SKAI's Waldorf salad's pretty good. Properly tossed endive, apple and candied walnut with Tête de Moine.

This was creamed corn, not mac & cheese. Was a lot tastier than it looked. There was a bit of heat from togarashi and those black stripes were mushrooms. Don't know what kind but they've a nice flavour and a light toasty bitter that's seeped into the corn. 

We finished with Brillat-Savarin and coffee. Cheese was rich and creamy with earthiness from the rind - accompanied by cubes of Manuka honey, fig jam, chestnuts and I wonder why, a token sprinkle of buckwheat. That thick bitter coffee was just the pairing needed.

The Vermilion House, Marina Square

Never heard of The Vermilion House (#02-03/04 Marina Square, 6 Raffles Boulevard, tel : +65 8768 5368) until recently but apparently, they've been around for a couple of years. Folks here were friendly and enthusiastically shared that their ingredients are imported from Italy. Pretty sure not all of them are but that's not important.

We ordered their deep fried burrata. Panko crusted in a marinara sauce

Tasted pretty much like how it looked or how burrata normally is - creamy and milky. Plus fried breaded crust.

That's lemon pesto risotto with nicely seared prawns. Flavour was a mixture of pesto and seafood in the rice but I couldn't detect any lemon. I tried.

Then their signature rigatoni with what they described as aged brandy cream. Don't know if it was the brandy or the cream that was aged. Was looking forward to that brandy cream and was disappointed that the flavour barely registered. So much for ageing. This ended up being carbonara-ish. The salty pancetta was masking what little faint flavour there was in the sauce.

The lamb chops looked good and had a nice amount of fat. For some strange reasons, there was little flavour from the lamb. Tasted like beef tenderloin. Even the fat had very little flavour. How the...? 🤔 Pity because we liked everything about it except for the missing lamb flavour.

Food was not bad as a whole. Flavours were just off the mark based on expectations that were trying to reconcile with what was described.

Lolla this year

It's been a while. Every time we come here to eat, it feels like they're more expensive than the last time. Or we're paying for more food. Or both. But so far, we've always walked away happy.

Tonight was the first time we've been seated in their pretty dungeon in the basement. The past two visits have always been at the counter.

From the specials - burrata with grilled soursop. I liked it. The grilled soursop with all its sweet tanginess took the place of what might have normally been balsamic vinegar. And it worked.

We've always liked their squid ink pudding with uni. It's a little more chilled than what we remember today. More chilled means less wobbly and flavour is also less pronounced. When life gives you overly chilled squid ink pudding, just wait it out for a bit.

Patagonian prawn tartare - nice sweet prawns. The green stuff in the middle was a dill something and those strips were preserved orange peel. The latter tasted like Chinese preserved plums.

That's their steamed crab lasagna. Lasagna with Hokkaido scallop mousse (I thought it was egg white) and chunky crab meat in between along with some lemony butter sauce. This was so good. Lots of chunky crab. There was an almost delicate but very present crustacean flavour.

Nicely done rack of lamb. No nonsense marinate to the meat, just salt and pepper like we like it. The brown stuff tasted like some jus reduction. The blob was parsnip puree. Think it had cream and vanilla in it. Loved it.

Some crusty duck fat fried potatoes.

And then we chocolate-ed ourselves out with their steamed chocolate pudding. Rich stuff.