Back in Piedra Negra

Haven't eaten at Piedra Negra (241 Beach Road) for years. Did not realized that they own half the street these days. Menu's different from the last time and vibe's more touristy than I recall. Gotta admit that the food was unexpectedly enjoyable.

Pretty impressed by how much lamb flavour was in their mixiote. I Googled and the description of it was a pit barbecued/steamed dish cooked in a wrapper of agave leave. This one came across like a stew so I don't know if it's the same. But hell yeah the lamb flavour was outstanding. So nice with the tortilla. 

Their albondigas featured nice beefy meatballs in what appeared to be tomato sauce/stew. Much better tasting than I had imagined from the menu's description.

That's the alambre...which looked different from pictures I saw after also Googling what they were. This one was grilled/pan fried beef cubes with melted cheese and caramelized onions with bell peppers and bacon. Those beef cubes were tender and actually pretty good. 

A safe chicken enchilada. Also not bad tasting though I have little to no references to what could be regarded as a well done one. I liked it more than I thought I might have.

Sadly, they failed with the tres leches cake. The cream tasted odd. Odd like it raised the question on whether we should take another bite. As a lover of blue cheese, even I had reservations.

There were four of us and this was how much progress we made before giving up. We gave feedback and they said that's how it was supposed to taste. I don't know better but I'm pretty sure that it was not a correct response.

California Burrito from Muchachos

Back at Muchachos. The menu said steak, fries, gravy, cheese and sour cream for this California Burrito. Not getting the latter two but I suppose they accounted for the creaminess. I liked it. Moreish brown sauce drenched over cubed beef and fries in a tube. This one was hefty and satisfying.

Chimichanga, Dunlop Street

I've read about these guys (36 Dunlop Street, tel : +65 6293 3314) but never got interested enough to look them up. Happened to be in the vicinity and came in for a light bit of lunch. Their carne asada tacos to be precise. It's not bad. Corn tacos enveloping a bit of that smokiness from the seared skirt. With the hot sauce, it was tangy, creamy and spicy at the same time so it went down pretty fast. Don't mind coming back to try other stuff. 

Chico Loco, Amoy Street

Chico Loco's (102 Amoy Street, tel  : +65 9738 7828) a Mexican styled rotisserie run by The Loco Group - the amigos who gave us Lucha Loco and Super Loco. From what I've read, one gets hormone-, antibiotic-, cage-free 42 day old chickens sourced from our neighbour Johor Bahru.

I just realized that we had been ordering elote every visit to the Loco restaurants. To their credit, they were nicely done. Corn was sweet and juicy pairing with saltiness from the cotija cheese. On top of that, a bit of heat from the spices along with citrus from the squeeze of lime. Very likeable combinations.

Chicken's not bad. The bird's been marinated and it showed in the meat. Spice rub/crust was not bad. All in all, it was good enough that the dips that they were selling was almost (I'll explain why it's almost) unnecessary. But we still enjoyed their chimichurri yoghurt (say raita-ish!) and the habenero mango.

Nicely done leg of lamb as well. Couldn't tell what was the gravy they used but it worked. Like the chicken, it did well enough on its own without any of the dips.

Got their Chico slaw because we needed some vegetables in our diet. Texturally loaded with different types of crunches from both the nuts, fruits and vegetables. Something in it oddly reminded me of chicken rice. Now was that sesame or chicken oil? The menu mentioned spiced macadamia granola - I detected what might have been candied macadamia and walnuts. Loved those nuts in the slaw. And the mint too.

This was where the dip came in handy. The rotisserie fat rice which possibly had the drippings from the roasts but were lacking in salt. Not so nice to eat until I doused some of the habanero mango dip into them. Speaking of which I liked that habanero mango sauce.  

Muchachos, Frasers Tower

Been wanting to visit Muchachos (#01-01 Frasers Tower, 182 Cecil Street, tel : +65 6513 0215) since they were at Keong Saik and it never happened. Now they're just across the street from Amoy Food Centre. These guys are open on public holidays. I'm thinking that they've got their hearts and minds in the right place.

Their breakfast burrito was not bad. You know - the scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, hash brown, cheese and sour cream in a package of comfort kind of not bad? We also got the burrito with tongue as well, sans salsa because their salsa has cilantro. Too bad for me because I'm sure that salsa would have made the burrito tastier.

Re-revisiting El Mero Mero

It's been a couple of years since the last time we were here. The status quo for upmarket and premium quality Mexican food has not changed. These guys are still the go to.

I had never realized that they have a michelada on the menu. It's a spiced beer with a bunch of condiments and spices. Everyone has their own mix. This one tasted like a tamarind flavoured Bloody Mary. Nice.

We started off with a few of their tacos. The one above was the Kurobuta al pastor which we've previously had. It seemed like the standard of that taco has declined compared to the last time. The meat was dryer and harder today. The treatment has also vindicated my wisdom against using Kurobuta. The grilled fish tacos on the other had were pretty good. They were accompanied with onion and shishito tempura. Possibly just ranked itself up among our favourites with the Dorper lamb tacos.

I thought their enmoladas was delicious. The dish featured a Oaxacan black mole which was rich, creamy, savoury, sweet, spicy and chocolate-y at the same time. The heat from the spices cumulated into a nice warmth. I'd eat this again. 

This was the Dorper lamb dish under their Josper Grill Mains section of the menu. I couldn't tell if the lamb had been through the grill. It didn't look nor taste like how they were done for their tacos because it was covered in sauce and lacked char aroma. The kitchen claimed that it had been grilled though. I had initially thought it was braised. Wasn't bad, but also wasn't what I had expected. Not something I would spend money on again. 

Vatos Urban Tacos, South Beach

Vatos Urban Tacos (#01-03, 36 Beach Road, tel : +65 6385 6010) opened with a little fanfare a little more than a couple of years ago. To be honest, visiting them had never crossed my mind until recently. For some reasons I just decided that I should give them a go.

The word 'fresh' on the menu is used fairly liberally here. While the guacamole was described as fresh, they wouldn't make any without cilantro when we asked for them, claiming that it was made in batches and that each batch would last for a couple of days. I'm pretty sure the word 'fresh' doesn't mean what they think it means.

While their food looks like a fusion of Korean and Mexican, calling them American is probably not too far off the mark. We were served some giant tortilla chips with salsa. 

Margaritas were a little expensive and had too much ice with too little drink. Now I know their standards.

Their galbi taco was not bad though. I had mine sans cilantro of course.

Couldn't taste any apple from the apple slaw in their Baja fish tacos but as fish tacos went, these were pretty tasty. As much as they looked like goreng pisang with a thick batter, they were mostly fish meat. 

Their tamales were disappointingly dry. 👎🏼 The pork carnitas inside them were as dry as the masa looked. 

We tried their kimchi galbi grilled cheese which sounded like a nice idea. Sounded is the operative word. Those kimchi didn't quite turn out as nice. Flat, sour and salty paired with more saltiness from the cheese (I did like the crusty cheese). It was a little too much salt and grease for me to like. Not to mention that the little chunks of galbi were tough. 👎🏼

China Poblano, The Cosmopolitan, Las Vegas

Whoosh....and it's off to the west coast we go.

It was getting late and we were just wandering around and chanced upon China Poblano (2nd floor The Cosmopolitan, 3708 S Las Vegas Blvd, Las Vegas, NV 89109, tel : +702 698 7900) by José Andrés which I had read about. I was surprised by my initial reaction of disbelief but after a while, I thought - this is America. I suppose the accurate description for the restaurant food would be American styled Chinese and Mexican done by a Spanish guy. Makes sense?

Long story short, we decided to give it a go. Both the Chinese and Mexican food are prepared in separate kitchens apparently.

I was curious about their salt air margarita and thus ended up with one while waiting. They had replaced the usual salt rim with salt foam instead. A take on the traditional which I thought was not bad. They made a pretty stiff drink.

Next up was guacamole which was prepared table side. Sans cilantro of course. The suitable adjectives would be tasty, light and refreshing.

There were some interesting tacos which we thought was worth a shot at. That above was cow tongue with salsa pasilla.

And there was an oddly named Viva China with crispy fried beef tendon and fresh oysters. This was pretty good.

Then something called Silencio - fried duck tongue and fresh lychee. This was unusual and also quite nice. I'm pretty sure this was where Chinese and Mexican collided.

To put into perspective, these upmarket tacos were as expensive as the ones from El Mero Mero and were as tasty.

We had a pozole rojo. The menu described it as a soup of guajillo chile broth with shredded pork and hominy. It wasn't as spicy as I thought it might have been. The lime made it refreshing and it came with a plate of chicharron on the side.

The lamb pot stickers (锅贴) were the only Chinese item we ordered. These were small and had quite a bit of cumin flavour in them. Not too bad.

The finishing was some churros. They were okay.