The Market Grill, Telok Ayer Street

My first encounter with the product of a certain Loh Lik Peng, restaurateur and hotelier, was a number of years back. At Restaurant Ember in Hotel 1929. And subsequently, Cocotte and Esquina. In retrospect, I have to admit that this man knows what people want, understands the concepts that work in the ever thriving F&B realm and sells those crystallized themes to the rest of us.

Market Grill (208 Telok Ayer Street, tel : +65 6221 3323) is one such conceptualization made material. I'm not too sure what people label them, but I personally think it's a rather clean concept with straightforward food with little frills, probably focused preparation from skilled kitchen staff and attention to quality. Of course, such things comes with a price tag to match. 

Their cod croquetas are balls of mashed potatoes and minced cod. Crispy on the outside, hot and soft on the inside. I'm sure those aren't very difficult to imagine. On top of that, seasoned with enough paprika to pack a little bit of heat. Not bad, but I guess these are one of those things that I'll never order again after having had them once.

We were looking forward to the lobster sliders. Live tank lobsters slain upon order so that we could have them stuffed brioche rolls at our pleasure. This was as fresh as freshness gets. This was good. Good meant large chunky springy pieces of lobster mean tossed in a mayo, looking as if it were about to burst out of the rolls. Even the fries tasted good. Expensive it ws too.

They had run out of ox tongue which was what I had originally wanted, so I settled for a hanging tender. Steak was a nice medium rare and no less. As the name implies, the meat is tender and has a very defined grainy texture. It was juicy, beefy and a lot more chewy than the regular prime cuts of meat. I thought that the exterior sear was well done to seal up the meat with that you know, umami meat crust that meat eaters generally like? Yes, that was pretty much what it was.

I did also like the accompanying black pepper sauce they did, but I had to hold them in reserve for their 'salardais styled' duck fat potatoes rather than mess up the flavour of a nice piece of seared beef.

Lamb rack was also pretty good. The meat was laced with quite a lot of flavourful fat. The trick was to eat them fast before the fat becomes brains. From this order, we discovered that the mashed potatoes that they do here were excellent. Milky and buttery in flavour, smooth and creamy in texture. Superb accompaniment with the lamb jus on the side.

Banana rum pockets for dessert. I tasted no rum in those bananas. Fortunately, the rum and raisin ice cream was nice.

Fee-fi-fo-farfalle!

Some home cooked colorful farfalle which we had previously picked up from the Marco Polo airport. So my knowledge of cooking pasta inches up a trifle more. These need to be boiled a little longer. Al dente wings means harder knots in the centre, so I'll have to settle for softer pasta the next time. If anyone wonders, it's just bacon and mushrooms. Flavoured by butter, truffle salsa and truffle salt.

PasarBella at the Grandstand

I am having difficulty trying to reconcile what the theme for PasarBella is after hearing words bandied about like 'freshest ingredients' and 'gourmet farmers' market' against what I've experienced there. Does anyone honestly think that those things exist and that we could truly establish an artisanal market for niche produce? We hardly have farmers. What fresh produce? Everything grown or organic that is sold is imported. I certainly didn't see any home grown brands for produce. So as much as they like to call it a market, it's really more of a mall with a market theme and a glamorized food court attached.

And do we really honestly need another Shiraz kebab stand or another Da Paulo's anything down in Bt Timah? The prominence of established brands point towards what most of this country has been doing with malls and food courts. Cut and paste templates spending a whole load of money, a little bit of effort and no originality.

End of rant.

Start of another.

Here's a look at the paella from Le Patio. I'm not sure if these guys are doing Spanish or French, but it's probably just the aesthetic charm that they're selling. The hook that lured me into the queue was a large cast iron platter of seafood on top of rice. And judging from the queue, these guys seem pretty popular.

The first thing I was expecting was freshness and value in a real farmer's market. The stock for the rice was to me, sub par. A random paella I had previously eaten in a food court in the airport in Barcelona seemed much better tasting. No, I don't have a picture to back that up. And soft mushy textured prawns? This wasn't anything I would associate with fresh or great quality. Yes I'm also about to gripe about the empty mussel I had there as well. And no, the drumstick is not part of the box. That's another $2.50 you've gotta top up.

To be fair, the crepe was quite good. Then again, it was freshly made and one simply shouldn't mess up sugar, butter and a squeeze of lemon.

The veal dog from Huber's was actually quite boring. I appreciated the freshly toasted buns and certainly better quality sauces that they were providing, but the fillings of the sausage are smoothly textured factory processed protein matter. It ends there for me. No texture to look forward to each bite, not big on flavors neither. Not exactly gourmet if you asked me.

Shami Banana Leaf Delights, Sembawang Road

Shami (349 Sembawang Road, tel : +65 6754 3898) is a local Indian eatery of a small fame up in the northern parts of this country that makes a mean fiery red chicken masala with a spicy nutty paste. They used to be just a stall in the food court at Northpoint with a history for long queues. The food in recent times has become somewhat inconsistent. The same might be said for their queues. Not too long back, they set up shop along Sembawang somewhere across the road from Khatib Camp.

The quality of the food I was told, is better here these days compared to the stall in the food court. It's something that I cannot deny or confirm. If this is an up in quality, does that mean that the one from the food court stall has truly fallen?

fish cutlet 

These balls of minced fish and potato were pretty tasty. As much as I'm avoiding comparison here, Samy's uglier looking ones were much better than these.

butter chicken 

No complains about the butter chicken, but this will like never beat Jaggi's.

Chennai cabbage?

 lentils and beans

 briyani

Orders of rice came with two choices of vegetables. The rice didn't seem to be as good as I remember them. Those vegetables were apparently nothing much to write home about neither.

mutton masala 

Kashmiri and cheese naan 

Naans were rather small serving and lacked fluffiness. Felt somewhat run of the mill. I suppose that's how they do these here.

 deep fried fish roe

We loved those freshly fried fish roe. So much that after dinner, we did a portion for take away as after dinner snacks! Sadly, these seem to come by uncommonly these days.

gobi manchurian

These stir fried cauliflowers were not the most memorable.

the washdown

Trattoria Gallo d' Oro, Central Mall

It was a quiet Wednesday evening down at Trattoria Gallo D' Oro (Blk 7 Magazine Road, #01-03 Central Mall, tel : +65 6438 8131) within the compounds of Central Mall. Luca of Bontá, perched on a chair near the entrance was in conversation, half watching any guest that might have appeared with his hawkish Stellan Skarsgård-like gaze.

Right till the point when the head chef Carlo Marengoni stood up and warm smiles broke out with 'hello's off the lips. They had probably meant 'benvenuto' as well. I hoped.

The website of the restaurant mentioned northern Italian home style food. Not sure what was northern Italian about it but home style hit the mark. If you're still reading at this point, the portions of the food before the first plates were quite generous.

sliced pork loin with tuna mayo

This was basically vitello tonnato. Except that pork was used instead of veal and underneath, a salad. The sauce was rich and smooth, but remember, must share. Easily feeds three.

a misto fritto of sardines and calamari

We opted to leave out the prawns from their fried seafood plate so that we could have more of the calamari and sardines, the latter which was something they were known for. The fish was fresh tasting, had a crispy batter nicely salted and was in simple terms - very delicious. The best part of the fry was the lack of excessive grease. I need to eat this again.

pappardelle with goose liver

Off menu was a goose liver pasta. We swapped the fettucine for pappardelle. Creamy and balanced off with spinach, it was served hot and a lot lighter than it looked. Good stuff.

sliced beef tenderloin sauteed with rosemary and spinach

I don't think beef is their forte here. Perhaps, I'm prejudiced with the treatment of bovine protein matter. And bias when it comes to the application of rosemary. I like my meat beefy and this was oiled with too much other flavours. It was in truth, a decently done up piece of meat, but I think this might be the last time I'm ordering sliced steaks that doesn't come with a Gorgonzola sauce in Italian restaurants.

strawberry panna cotta with cream pudding?

We pushed for a dessert in spite of being rather stuffed at this point. Strawberry panna cotta? It was a regular panna cotta with a sliced strawberry and sauce. What got me was the spice that I tasted in the pudding. I think it might have been aniseed or liquorice; faint and just enough presence to be tasted without being overbearing. I liked it. I just couldn't tell what it was.

mystery diner "A"

Tsuru-Koshi Udon, IMM

Another udon specialist joint (2 Jurong East Street 21, #01-19 IMM). I like their kamatama udon which really trumps the one at Tamoya with a single ingredient. The one secret ingredient that the French use for their cooking. Butter. Uncomplicated and delicious.

Atsu atsu tan tan udon is not too bad as well with that moderated hit of spice and minced meat, but I'll skip the tempura the next time.

A durian Guinness milkshake from Udders

As odd as this combination sounded, it actually worked. This was a combination of Guinness and the mao shan wang ice cream from Udders. The bitter accents and creaminess from the durian got along with that of the stout. The taste was unusual for sure but it worked. I enjoyed it.

A run in with white asparagus at Marché

Seems that the white asparagus season is upon us again. Marché has the asparagus offerings in almost all their stalls. Even a cream of white asparagus soup in their normally unchanging soup stand. It was actually pretty good with sliced pieces of the shoot. The flavour was rich from the cream and quite full of the sweet asparagus in spite of a very mundane look. A little Parmesan cheese and some spring onions were all that was needed to complete the bowl.

These guys also under tremendous order load, grill up one of the nicer budget steaks in town. The only problem with their rib eye usually is the quality of the meat which lacks the beautiful marbling of fat that is found in the more expensive steak places. Otherwise, we almost always get a medium rare spot on and sauces are always on the side.

From the pizza counter, one with white asparagus, egg and Black Forest ham. The sweet crunchy pieces of asparagus were paired nicely with the light salt from the cheese and ham. This topping profile was designed to allow the flavors of the white asparagus to shine.

Unfortunately, they didn't have white asparagus for desserts or we would have swiped one too......

Menya Musashi, Raffles City

This (252 North Bridge Road, #01-16 Raffles City Shopping Centre, tel : +65 6336 6500) was another one of numerous ramen-ya that has been making headlines in the past year that I haven't yet had a chance to visit until today. A ramen-ya that originates from the Shinjuku ward in Tokyo. This shop came with a odd story where the shop was named after a certain samurai with a double sword style. Much like a certain Drizzt Do'Urden I guess. Maybe not. I'll explain below.

So here's their black thunder and a Tokyo Akiba curry ramen.

The former was advertised in a poster with a large head of the oni on the back of what seemed to be a potent bowl of spicy ramen. An oni that perhaps Miyamoto Musashi was not skilled enough to defeat in the breath of his mortal existence and now permanently torments his spirit by appearing in bowls of his ramen. Lol! It wasn't as potent as it had looked. If I could break it down, I'm guessing that it's the regular tonkotsu broth that they have in the shop plus a little alchemy with what makes their reds and blacks and a small sprinkle of sliced chilli padi. Am I close? Not such a challenge for us locals. I've had more potent ba chor mee. Not delicious enough to have again too. 

Drizzt would have kicked oni butt. Easily. If not, there's always help from Wulfgar and Aegis-fang.

The latter was probably a little more interesting. I'm thinking the regular broth with Japanese curry. The regular broth being salty takes the sweetness off the curry - resulting in a broth that was still both savoury and flavoured with the curry. Nice portions of those shabu thin slices of pork in there and a half boiled egg to up the ante.

The noodles here are a class of their own aren't they? Needs more bite to gain my nod of approval. 

MexOut, Far East Square

Here's a rice bowl (mess tin actually) and some corn tortilla tacos from MexOut. I'm not sure how American Mexican this place (39 Peking St. #01-01, tel : +65 9770 7441) really is, but I actually quite like the food here. Those chopped up carne asada simply works on the tacos and I liked the heat from their salsa picanto. It's just too bad they were out of lamb today (already on a Wednesday afternoon?!). I'm not sure when's the next time I'll be able to come back. Food like these needs to be a little cheaper too.

Long Phung Vietnamese Restaurant, Joo Chiat Road

Delicious Vietnamese food to be found here (159 Joo Chiat Road, tel : +65 9105 8519).

We had the obligatory goi cuon which was......rustic. The rice paper skin was a little soggy and chewy.

The serving of oc nhay or boiled conch was sweet and fresh tasting. Tasty with and without the accompanying dip of fish sauce, pepper, salt and tamarind with sliced bits of chilli.

Following the snails was a perky green mango salad with strips of pork belly and shrimp flavoured with basil. The tangy notes from the shredded mango was appetizing. I liked this.

And then a bo tai chanh - described as an underdone beef salad. This was basically beef that was cooked to medium doneness enlivened by lemon and some sugar. A little salt would have upped the flavour game but I'm not sure how these are usually had.

My main bowl of a bun thit nuong cha gio. Rice noodles with grilled pork and a fried spring roll. Doused with the fish sauce and lime with peanuts, the rice noodles ended up a lot lighter and much tastier than it appeared. The only thing I didn't take to were the raw bean sprouts.

I forgot what this was called, but it's rice noodles in a light savoury broth that was loaded with ingredients like sliced pork, pork offal and shrimp. Tasty this was.

And to finish in the sweltering humidity of our merciless sun, a milk and egg soda.

Food here tasted authentic Vietnamese and importantly, delicious without being expensive. Would like to come back again.

Yang Gui Fei (羊贵妃), Smith Street

The play of words involved in the name of this shop should bring a smirk or a chuckle at least. Yang Gui Fei (18 Smith Street, tel : +65 6100 0629) does food from the city of Xi'an, a northern region of China that is the home of a large Chinese Muslim population; and I hear too, famed for the discovery of the thousands of buried terracotta soldiers that served standing as sentinels to the soul of the first emperor of China.  The latter point not withstanding, it means there will be lamb! Was it anything like the real McCoy? I can't say because I don't know. But the food was pretty good.

Chilled tofu with with diced century eggs and soy sauce. The equally chilled bits of century eggs had developed an interesting texture akin to cooked mushrooms.

These pickled string beans were an excellent wake up for the taste buds. Boldly sour and packed some heat in the midst of their crunchy textures.

The gui fei deep fried lamb ribs were a signature from this shop. Basically deep fried lamb ribs in a savory cumin (amongst other spices) batter. Cholesterol bomb? Sure. Delicious? Sure as well. Batter was tasty and crispy, wrapped around fatty lamb meat on the bone.

All that grease also meant that it doesn't take very much before you'll want to stop.

Yang rou pao mo was a very nicely done broth, made with broken bits of flatbread that will soak up all the flavour and slices of lamb. The broth was really nice. I meant, it was close to ramen grade broth kind of nice. Like a sort of lamb rendition of tonkotsu. Someone start making that already!

And some sour plum or haw juice to cut through all that grease. Who's kidding whom?

Emerald Green Tonkotsu from Ramen Bar Suzuki

I guess I came back here much faster than I expected. I ordered their Emerald Green which was a powdered Parmesan cheese and basil flavour of their tonkotsu ramen.

In spite of the sodium bomb that it was, I liked it.  Pity that they don't entertain requests for additional cheese. The cheese added a dimension to the broth which was countered by a light touch of basil that skimmered on the surface. Their 'harigane' option for the noodles was not much harder than the previous visit.

Liked it enough to finish up.