gretl German Burgergrill, Orchard Road

Isn't gretl just hans im glück with a different name? For all intents and purposes, they were the same. From the setup to the decor and even menu. We came to try their vegetarian burgers today.

There were a few patties to pick from. We had the one made with olives and the other made with walnuts. In retrospect, my expectations far exceeded what the restaurant was capable of delivering. Especially for the one made with walnuts.

In any case, both burger patties appear to have a lot of fillers and are much oiler than I was expecting. These did not even taste healthy for sure. We'll stick to their regular beef burgers in the future.

Note to self : the apricot ginger tea smelled pretty good but I couldn't even tell those flavours from how it tasted.

Limited time lamb menu and beef short rib at Huber's Bistro

We were at Huber's for their lamb menu - a limited time menu that would have been over by the time this post first basks in the light of day. Speaking of light - if one could move faster than light, one would theoretically be able to travel back in time and see what we've had here before. (一, 二, 三, 四, 五, 六, 七, 八, 九, 十, 十一, 十二, 十三, 十四, 十五) No? 😬

Finally tried their cheese soup. Creamy, salty and cheesy...just like I imagined and hoped. Gotta come back for more of these next time.

From their lamb menu was a pumpkin and potato soup with coconut cream. The orange hued soup had a texture like pureed potato and the flavour of pumpkin. Where's the lamb you might wonder? Those rolls that look like sausages in the middle - they were lamb filet with dried mangoes wrapped in prosciutto di Parma. Nice.

The other item we had from the lamb menu was their roasted butterflied leg of lamb that's been marinated with some anchovy paste. Delicious savoury saltiness that was tempered with sweetness from that red wine jus. Like.

Finally also tried their braised beef short rib. Looked a little smaller than what I remember seeing on other table in the past. Not bad. Creamy mash was deliciously buttery.

Dessert was their lamb cutlets from the lamb menu. Also with the red wine jus. These seemed to be meatier than what I remember of their lamb. Which was a good thing in case anyone was wondering. Great salting on the meat, especially on the caramelized fat that was so punchy with its natural aroma.

One thing I found myself liking was also their ratatouille which was served with both the leg of lamb and those cutlets. Have never been big on those but I kinda like the ones they do here. Maybe the red wine jus and rendered lamb fat had something to do with that.

Some Oktoberfest food from Huber's this year

Yeap, food from Huber's Oktoberfest menu. We ordered pretty much everything from there. (Into the Huber-verse! (一, 二, 三, 四, 五, 六, 七, 八, 九, 十, 十一, 十二, 十三, 十四)

Some lager called Bayrisch Hell, a brew for their Oktoberfest menu. It's okay. I prefer their regular Grevensteiner or Schneider Weisse to this.

That's a lentil stew with weinerli and liver spatzle. I was mostly curious about the liver spatzle in the stew which looked a little grey. Couldn't taste much of the liver in them though. Stew as a whole was pretty delicious.

Our half portion of schweinshaxe - or pork knuckles at a difficult to beat price of $12.50. Meat's not as tender as I was hoping for. In fact, I thought Brotzeit's gives these a run for their money. But where this excelled was the delicious crunchy crackling and their onion-y, thick and dark beer sauce which I thought was exceptional.

It would be remiss of me to not mention that cabbage slaw thing on the side which I thought was good and the nutmeg spiced bread dumpling on the side which I also liked.

Here's a half rack of ribs in sweet barbeque sauce. No, this wasn't the tangy vinegar infused smoky variety that one commonly finds. This was just sweet and a little smoky. Meat was easily taken off the bone but it also wasn't as tender as I was hoping for.

Plum cake. So says the menu. It was more like a pie/tart. Fillings were tart but I wouldn't say I didn't enjoy it. Pastry was pretty dense though.

What's this?!

White asparaguses and brunch at Huber's

The white asparagus season is upon us for this year. Huber's (一, 二, 三, 四, 五, 六, 七, 八, 九, 十, 十一, 十二, 十三) has gotten theirs from Germany and expectedly put out a limited time menu for the ivory shoots said to be grown in darkness. We were here to brunch on them.

But first some Ice Dazzle Berry Macchiato. Coffee with the citrus of berries mellowed with cream. This was kinda nice.

The unexpected surprise was their cream of white asparagus with curry and a strawberry & onion compote. Creamy and curry scented white asparagus-y soup accompanied by the tart sweetness from the spiced strawberry/onion. 👍🏼

Croissant with cooked ham and raclette cheese from their breakfast menu. Because we were here at the confluence of breakfast and the day menu. I liked this. For the buttery simplicity and the light pungent cheese.

White asparagus with Hollandaise, buttered boiled potatoes and Swiss farmer ham.

Same stuff with Tasmanian grass fed beef in mushroom cream sauce. 

White asparagus mousse with strawberry coulis for dessert. There was a lot of that white asparagus flavour in the mousse.

No white asparagus in this coffee. Just a regular one.

Marché, before dining out is out again

This was our last meal out before the Heightened Alert came into effect and we could no longer eat out again for another month. Since we hadn't eaten at Marché for a while, it sounded good.

They've introduced their XXXL schnitzel for a while now. I was curious. There's pork, beef and chicken. This was beef, presumably veal because while I could tell it was meat, I couldn't tell for sure what meat it was. The beef was pounded thin and the fried cutlet was huge. I was initially thinking that I might not be able to finish this but as it turned out, the breading was nice and crisp. Even though it was largely breading (maybe 60+%?), it was tasty and we did finished it.

Rosti with cheddar and fried egg was good. Very nice. Now I know specifically what to repeat orders for this in the future.

The lamb chops looked sizeable so we ordered some. Filled with generous layering of flavourful fat on the meat. Kinda happy that this last meal out for a while was satisfying.

Huber's - Easter Sunday

Easter Sunday lunch at Huber's. They have a bunch of lamb items on their menu this week. While I was tempted by a few of them, I stuck to something that was only available today. A spit roasted lamb which they carved and served on order. Yeah, they had a spit out back for that whole lamb.

But we were here early enough that the breakfast menu was still available. Had been curious about their "Savoyer" style beef tartare so why not to start? I don't know what Savoyer referred to but this was a delicious beef tartare with well moderated seasoning. Not as in your face as Le Bistrot du Sommelier (we liked that one too) with the seasoning and definitely more enjoyable than the one at Coucou.

I thought the Tomme de Savoie sauce they drizzled over was a good call. So yummy.

Their Easter spit roasted lamb was served with ratatouille and potatoes. Jus they drizzled over was nice, I wished they gave some bread to mop them up with.

These lamb chops were from the regular menu. Simple and nicely done.

Getting Oktoberfest-y with pigs ears, livers and shoulder at Brotzeit

 

It's that time of the year again. Brotzeit has got a bunch of items on the menu for that time of the year. Read that they will be around till the end of the month.

There's deep fried pigs years. Those ears had a bite and crunch (cartilage!) along with a light crisp from the breading. Accompanied by a porcine flavour with what might have been some fat. It's the one on the right if you're still trying to figure out which those are.

Liked their roasted pig's liver with apple dish. Those livers were tender. They wouldn't oblige when we asked for more of those poached apples claiming that the portions are fixed. Such inflexibility. What happened to the festive spirit?

The other Oktoberfest menu item we tried was their pork shoulder. A change from the usual schweinshaxe. Meat was much dryer so it needed the jus on the side. Speaking of which, the flavour from the jus was much milder than I had imagined. Much preferred the more flavourful one that Marché has. I liked those potato dumplings though. Dense, spongey and very potato-y tasting.

Home delivery food from Brotzeit Go

I ended up trying what Brotzeit Go has for the current "circuit breaker" season because I stumbled upon their advertisement by chance and saw that there's a bunch of stuff they didn't have previously. Perhaps these were designed for easy takeaway consumption since it was mostly their burgers and fladen. In fact, the only food item that wasn't those was their pork knuckle.

There was a pork knuckle fladen. It's not bad. Caramelized onions, cheese and a drizzle of sweet balsamic vinegar to cut through the fat. Came with a nice beery sauce. If there was anything I didn't really like about it, it'd be that this might have been better if you ate at the restaurant so that the fat from the knuckle was warmer, softer and the rind would be more crisp rather than hard.

Tried a porky cheeseburger because it was a pork burger - something a lot less common than it sounded. Patty was pretty salty, dry and mostly flavoured with rosemary. Bread added to the dryness. Good thing there was the sauce from the fladen.

Pork knuckles from Marché

Can't say that I know where I could find the better fried pork knuckles around but I thought that Marché has generally done a pretty good job of being dependable with them. I wouldn't say that it's good all the time, but I think they're very decent most of the time. Nice meaty trotters and crispy skin. Is it just me or am I tasting more beer in the sauce these days?

Cabbage parcels, boiled beef and steckerlfisch from Brotzeit

Been a while since we were last here at this branch of Brotzeit. The menu appears to have changed. Some of the old stuff we liked are no longer on the menu.

I don't know if their stuffed cabbage was available previously. We've just noticed it. Minced pork and beef wrapped in cabbage in tomato sauce. Braised they say. The flavour was pretty clean. Just the meaty flavour from the mince, the slightly sweet cabbage and the tangy tomato gravy. Especially when the sour cream that it was served with was just a tiny dollop.

We ordered the boiled beef to see if it was any good since the last time we've had anything similar was the tafelspitz at the defunct Kaiserhaus. This one was not as enjoyable. Supposed rib and oyster blade which were nowhere as tender as ones from Kaiserhaus. Not feeling this horseradish bread sauce which wasn't as tasty as the one Kaiserhaus. Yes, I've been repeating Kaiserhaus. They were so much better. I missed it. 

Steckerlfisch is fish grilled on a stick. Which was what this was. This one was on a.....hmmm, metal stick I guess. Just grilled mackerel like any other grilled mackerel. Nothing particularly special about it.