Revisiting Bakalaki

It's been almost a couple of years since we were last here.

One of the servers told us that were grilled sardines; not on the menu, so we got some. Fishes were served with some salt, olive oil and a squeeze of lemon.

Chicken souvlaki was not bad. I haven't had much experience with souvlaki and shouldn't be treated like any authority on it. Liked the grill flavour in the chunks of chicken. Today's fries were also much tastier than the last time. 

Moussaka was also not bad, I thought I detected something like goat's cheese in it. The dish was not as heavy as it appeared.

While we haven't had enough similar food (except grilled sardines and lamb chops) to make proper comparisons between, Blu Kouzina does have better variety at about the same price point.

Re-visiting Blu Kouzina

It's been a couple of years since the last time we were here at Blu Kouzina.

Had some refreshing watermelon salad with feta while waiting for the rest of the food. While this wasn't the first time we've had watermelon and feta, I've just noticed more of how nicely they paired up.

We had their spanakorizo a few years ago back at their old premise at Bt Timah. Enjoyed it. It was more lemon-y than I remembered it but that was about all that was different. I was of the opinion that the dill made this dish then and still think it today.

Some grilled sardines that were pretty delicious.

And a roasted Cornish hen that had a nice chicken-y flavour zested up with lemon as well. The bird was reasonably tender and wasn't dried out.

Looking forward to coming back.

Hellenic Republic, Kew, Melbourne

It was only after we had gotten our food that I realized that the restaurant (26 Cotham Road, Kew, Melbourne, tel : +61 3 9207 7477) was owned by a George Calombaris - an Australian chef of Greek heritage that's a judge in Masterchef Australia and a character of some repute, some of which controversial.

Anyways, we were here for their showcase of Greek food which I heard is good in Australia. Melbourne I read, is home to one of the largest Greek diaspora communities in the world as well as being the city with the largest Greek-speaking population outside Greece. These have got to count for something with their cuisine here. No?

We started with some lamb manti with mint yoghurt and what might have been chilli oil. The stuffings in the dumplings tasted like lamb sausages. Pretty tasty.

I thought their spanakopita was delicious with the crisp paper thin filo pastry crust. There was a good balance between the stuffings of vegetables and feta cheese 

And then a saganaki - grilled Kefalograviera (which is very much like halloumi) that was topped with some peppered figs that provided a bit of spice and citrus sweetness.

Our celebration of the beast were a combination of spit roasted chicken and slow roasted shoulder of lamb. The former was all dark meat which I liked. Lamb was delicious with sweet caramelized char.

These might look like brains but they're actually roasted cauliflower with buttermilk tahini. The dark parts were the char on the cauliflower from the roast and not cancerous brain cells. For a little while, I had found the nutty creaminess a little confusing with the cauliflower.

Bakalaki Greek Taverna, Seng Poh Road

Nice Greek restaurant (3 Seng Poh Road, tel : +65 6836 3688). The decor looked like quite a bit of work had gone into making the place look the part but we've had mixed feelings over the food.

Their patates tiganites were described on the menu as handmade fried potatoes with Graviera cheese. Those potatoes definitely look like regular shoestring fries to me and who would've known they're handmade. Pretty sure I can get frozen ones that look and taste the same. So much for that Graviera cheese. Here's where the flavour from the fried potatoes have drowned out whatever there might have been from the cheese. I recognize this as a bad call and a waste of money on our part.

Moving on to the keftedes which were suppose to come with mint. Not seeing nor tasting any of that mint. We had imagined them to be grilled or in sauce but these were just fried beef meatballs that were lacking in fat and texture and flavour. The thing that might have saved it a little would be salt and that was also lacking. Boring would be the right word. 

Thankfully, their pan fried feta cheese was tasty. The cheese was done with a light and slightly crisp skin with honey.

Their paidakia was nicely grilled with respectable char marks to a medium doneness. Meat was tender that only the butter knife was needed. While we enjoyed it, we found the lamb-y flavour lacking. Potatoes were nice.

For some reasons, we were given a complementary dessert of Greek yoghurt with honey and walnuts. Not bad.

Blu Kouzina, Dempsey Road

We had eaten at Blu Kouzina (10 Dempsey Road, tel : +65 6875 0872) previously when they were located at Bt. Timah. It was memorable because it was our first time having Greek food and we enjoyed it. On top of that, the restaurant was using that fruity olive oil which was obtained from their family farm in Greece. Today we had more of that olive oil with their dense and soft loaves. Nice bread!

We had taramosalata, a mildly fishy (in a good way) and creamy dip made with cured cod roe. Delicious with their olive oil and bread.

That's the Talagani cheese, a sheep's milk cheese from Messina. The pan fried cheese turned out to be very much like halloumi. Both cheese are of different origins, but possess the same salty and milky flavour with a chewy texture.

And then some nicely charred but still tender octopus tentacles. This was good.

Followed up with some lamb chops and fried potatoes. I'm looking forward to coming back again.

Blu Kouzina, Bukit Timah Road

I've passed by Blu Kouzina (893 Bukit Timah Rd, tel : +65 6875 0872) many times along the main road and never realised that it was just right on the ground floor. This is the first time we've been to a Greek restaurant. While what I know about their food is pretty limited to what I've read, the Mediterranean quality to their style of preparation wasn't unfamiliar.

By the way, the olive oil that they have on the table are pretty good stuff.

fasolosalata

Can't say that I've had lots of bean salads in my life but this one that they had with three different beans was not bad at all. The dill and spring onions were a great pairing for flavour. 

saganaki with figs

A saganaki as I've learnt, is a dish of fried cheese prepared in a small frying pan. They cheese that they used according to the menu was a sheep/goat cheese known as kefalotyri, something not unlike halloumi, but not wasn't entirely the same for taste and texture. It was heavy on the salt while the figs were concentrated sweetness.

spanakorizo

This spanakorizo which was basically spinach cooked with rice was my favourite item for the dinner. It's spinach and rice and some herbs. There was definitely dill. The rice was wet, textured like a stodgy porridge. But it was delicious. Something I would get again in revisits.

bifteki stin sxara

This was the only item off the mains we had. The portions of the salads and the rice before this were pretty big so there was only so much space we could afford. We even had to pass on the baklava for desserts after this. This, referring to their beef patty. I'm not particularly impressed because the meat was of a pretty fine mince, so that meant that there wasn't so much of texture to go around. The flavors were expected, but the food was doused with quite a bit of olive oil and lemon like everything they served prior to this dish. It tasted noticeably better eaten with bread than alone.

Well, my interest is piqued. It's been a while since I've had something really different and in spite of the fact that I wasn't blown away by the food, there were things that i liked and I really would give serious considerations to coming back. Service was pretty good.