Bomba Paella Bar, Martin Road

The Spanish culinary conquistadors which have been making quite a bit of inroads on this sun blasted island in the past few years and have yet to show signs of abatement. A handful have gotten their flags planted firmly still going strong, some have collaborated with the Italians and others have failed to gain ground after a while. Bomba Paella Bar (38 Martin Road, tel : +65 6509 1680) opened their doors slightly over a year ago. I'm not about to venture a guess on which category they belong to but here's a look at what they've got.

The name of the place mentions paella bar, but it's just another Spanish joint serving limited varieties of tapas - some of a forward thinking nature and of course, a few options for paella. The latter were pretty pricey for their portions. 

First up was their fried ibérico ham croquetta.

Creamy and milky tasting ball of mashed potato flavoured with bits of jamon ibérico. This was quite nice.

Then came the Manzanilla olives with pork crackling. The pieces of crackling were still popping lightly when it was served and they weren't salted. What worked was the piquant olives which lasted as nibbles for the entire meal.

Bomba's Galician styled octopus served on a bed crushed potatoes and capers was actually pretty good. Slow cooked in water before hitting the flat top grill, the meat was rather tender but didn't score so much with the char from the grill. As disposed I am towards it, I've had better octopus.

Deep fried baby squids had a bit of heat that kept it from being monotonous. Was well fried but was ultimately just fried squids.

The tastiest part of these courgette flower stuffed with mackerel and shrimps was the courgette stem itself. The stuffings were creamy and all that cream pretty much left the bits of seafood quite unidentifiable.

Paella here is pricey. So it was a good thing that we were here on a Monday evening which is Paella Night for Bomba. All paella were going at 50% off the menu prices. This small portion which was good for one with healthy appetite was $45. Pretty sure I wouldn't come for paella here on any other days. 

Back to the rice, the arroz negro was rich and creamy and flavoured with squid ink....and a little bit more wet than I had been expecting. The bits of squid and black mushrooms inside were finely minced....and thus lost in the textures of the rice.

Tasty if ordinary chorizo tortilla.

There was a ribeye with piquillo peppers and bleu cheese. The meat was well greased but I wasn't sure if it's all from the fat of the ribeye. The char was minimal and the texture wasn't so firm. The restaurant also thought that we would be fine cutting it with butter knife as they had never even bothered getting us sharper tools until we requested. Don't know what was the blue cheese that they used but it was more salty than pungent. Not my kind of beef.

First dessert was their bitter chocolate ice cream, sour dough bread and salted olive oil. It is said that a picture paints a thousand words. Sometimes, a thousand words aren't enough so I'll add a few more here. 

The ice cream was light on the sugar which was a good thing for me, allowing the bitter to come through. The sour dough bread crisps were actually sugar glazed. Together and paired with the olive oil made it unusual but not un-enjoyable. What impressed me was the base, if I may call it chocolate soil, that was perfumed gently by rosemary. Not overwhelming with rosemary is something that I think a lot of cooks fail to master.

The chocolate and olive oil pairing reminded me of the mousse at Esquina.

And then, a rice pudding with caramelised apple and Spanish brandy. Don't know what's that Spanish brandy but I couldn't taste it. The creamy cinnamon scented rice was delicious and the toasted almond shavings were a nice touch.

Raj Restaurant, Syed Alwi Road

We were first introduced to Raj (76 Syed Alwi Rd, tel : + 65 6297 1716) some years ago by a couple of friends which left favourable impression of this restaurant from Calcutta. This visit felt different. I recalled it being a little upmarket then and it didn't quite feel that way today. Maybe the place just feels different at night compared to the day.

By the way, I didn't like their sweet lassi. It was way too sweet and much too viscous. The sugar bothered me more though and there are much better ones around. 

dahi gol gappa

Back in that first visit, was also my first experience with dahi golgappa and I thought they rocked. We order a portion of those dahi filled puri shells to start off and it was as I remembered them. There was a creamy sour from the yoghurt, tart sweetness from the tamarind chutney, heat from something I couldn't quite identify, spice from the potatoes and loads of texture from the creamy curd and puri shells, nuts, potato bits and sev. Party in the mouth as some people would call it. I didn't even mind the coriander juice thing that they added. Was really glad that there were none of the leaves in there.

paneer briyani

Never had a paneer briyani before, so this was a first. It did turn up like how I imagined it. The flavour of the spices in basmati rice was...... hmmm, rather engaging. In short, I liked it and it paired up excellently with their jeera (cumin) scented raita on the side. The paneer came in little cubes in the rice.

baingan korma

This was a korma-ed eggplant. I'm not sure what went into the making of the korma, but it was rich, creamy and nutty with measures of sweetness, heat and spice. Served piping hot. Nice.

rava dosai with onion and cheese

Rava dosai is dosai made with semolina flour. Many Indian restaurants that use cheese outside of paneer usually use mozzarella cheese. Raj uses Cheddar. Which ups the flavour game for everyone in my opinion since the distinctively sharper aroma and salt works with their fermented rice flour pancakes. The exterior of their dosai were enjoyably crisp. What caught me by surprise though, a pleasant surprise albeit, was that there were toasted peppercorns in them. Much to my relieve as well, I couldn't taste the coriander that were embedded in the flour.

Those peppercorns were remarkable bits of flavour in the dosai. Good stuff.

Chinatown Beef Noodle, Lavender Food Centre

This stall wasn't the old beef noodle that used to be in the food centre - this replaced that old beef noodle shop. Still they had put up some of those unreliable local media endorsements which meant that they've been around. Everything about the food was acceptably average tasting while the soup tasted thinner and much less savoury than I had been hoping for. 

But I did like the fact that these guys offer fresh juicy limes that you can help yourself with. A lime each into the noodle or the bowl of beef noticeably changes the flavour profile and perks up the beef broth. I wouldn't mind eating this again as long as they have those limes going.

Common Man Coffee Roasters, Martin Road

There are legions of Ctrl-C and Ctrl-V adepts everywhere that know little or next to nothing about coffee writing about this place (22 Martin Road, tel : +65 6836 4695), so I'll save myself the parroting. One can simply Google them. Strangely, no one talks about how different the standard roast that this place uses is quite different from 40 Hands. That being said, I liked the coffee here a lot better. It seemed stronger and less acidic.

The crowd was almost crazy on a late afternoon weekend. I can see how people like to be seen in a place like this and also the conveniences it provides for the those living in the vicinity. Was quite taken in by their croissant croque monsieur. I don't eat these things a lot, but I thought that it was certainly a bag of flavours from the creamy Béchamel, a little sour from the mustard, savoury ham and a fairly buttery croissant. The pastry was crispy to boot. Though not the best I can remember having, it's pretty good.

The other mention worthy was their side of grilled portobello mushroom with pine nuts, pesto and Parmesan cheese. It was a lot tastier than it sounded on menu. And I'm seeing things that I may like from neighbouring tables.

Jing Hua Restaurant (京华小吃), Neil Road

Wow, these pan fried guo tie from Jing Hua (21 Neil Road, tel : +65 6221 3060) were really really good. They were flavours of nostalgia for me having grown up with the ones from Tian Jin Fong Kee down at People's Park. These had that exact crisp and umami taste from the savoury stuffing of meat and greens. The shape was just a little odd as the dumplings looked like they've had their ends chopped off.

If not for anything else, I'd definitely come back just for them pot stickers again.

Their zha jiang mian was a little disappointing. The gravy had a little too much starch and not robust enough flavour. The chilli paste condiment they provide on table side helped but we've had better.

This rocks as well. Taste a little different most xiao long bao althought what exactly differs eluded me. The meat stuffing weren't as tightly packed and the dumplings as a whole were good enough on their own without the usual vinegar dip.

There wasn't much for desserts in this restaurant. We ordered tang yuan in osmanthus soup. The flavour caught us off as it tasted very much like rose rather than what we had in mind for osmanthus. I mean Paul Smith's Rose kind of rose. It's nice though.

Will definitely be back.

Madras New Woodlands Restaurant, Upper Dickson Road

This was a pretty enjoyable meal at Madras New Woodlands (12-14 Upper Dickson Road, +65 6297 1594) preluded by their delicious lassi. I heard that they're good for digestion, but that's not the reason why I drink them. 

Except maybe for the pani puri which wasn't so crispy and didn't taste fresh at all. It looked too hastily put together even for such a snack. The flavour profile for these were thin and sparse, worn down by too much sour from the tamarind water. I'll be sure to pick something with yoghurt the next time.

My first tomato uttapam ever. Deliciously filled with chopped onions and tomato accompanied by the usual chutney and sambar. What really got my attention was their orange chutney. I've never found out what went into making them or if there's a proper name for them. This one here was quite good.

This was their VIP thali, basically a thali with the works which came with both the white rice and briyani plus a pastry of choice along with vegetable options on the side . In our case, the pastry was a bhattura that was crusty, crisp and slightly chewy. I thought we were rather taken in by the savoury flavours from their blend of spices in the entire tray. Their creamy vegetable korma was exceptional, chickpea curry was spicy and the briyani, fragrant enough to eat on its own. Everything except the bhattura was entitled for refills.

Masala tea here was heavy with milk. Which was not necessarily a bad thing since it lent a mellow comforting quality. That being said, I could definitely appreciate a bit more spice and strength to the tea.

L'Angelus......after 2205 days

Time sure flies. It's been about 6 years since my very first and also last visit to L'Angelus (85 Club Street, tel : +65 6225 6897). I'm pretty glad that service this time round was much better than then.

Their rich unctuous foie gras de canard was still as good as I remember. This time round, I noticed the little bits of chewy and mellowly flavoured apple compote. Against convention, that wasn't part of the tart element of the dish at all. It was mostly sweet but enjoyably so. YMMV. 

Tonight, lamb that they had served was unfortunately not up to scratch. The meat looked haphazardly sliced and was cooked to different levels doneness. The menu had described it to come with Espelette pimento that tasted like just jus and red wine - which was actually quite good. For what they were charging (this place is a bit pricey by the way), I certainly had expected better for the meat. But then again, I've also been watching quite a bit of MasterChef UK. 

The unexpected find on the menu was an andouillette de Troyes, labelled with A.A.A.A.A. and no less. It looked vulgar and monstrous. If anyone's wondering, this andouillette was a fried sausage where the stuffings are mostly pig intestines. We were cautioned that it was an acquired taste. Since we could chug down kuey chap, this didn't sound so intimidating at all. It turned out pretty good. And expensively so too. Mustard on the side was creamy and really addictive.

For unknown reasons, I had been expecting to see it come with British styled chips since it was suppose to be served with Salardaise chips. They turn out to be real potato chips. Some a little over fried.

And some obligatory side of spinach with cream spiced with nutmeg. This tasted actually quite good too. Made me feel a lot less guilty about paying $14 for them. 

Dessert was a rum baba. They used Diplomatico rum here. Nothing very unexpected or exceptional about it. It's just something about a good chilled rum soaked cake that I like.

Truffle Gourmet, Club Street

You know the places where you hold back on the bread, saving precious space for the good stuff that you know is going come. Well, this (49 Club Street) was not one of them. I think they are trying too hard to appear swanky and in the process, make up some for the lacking substance. Place is helmed by a Takashi Okuno, formerly of L’Operetta.

These were complimentary crostinis. I don't remember much of them.

And then some pan fried polenta with caramelized apple and blue cheese. The portions were puny. Each piece was probably double the size of my thumbnails and two of them probably a little less than a mouthful, but I enjoyed the flavors. The corn from the polenta, the tart sweetness from the tiny chunks of apple and the pungent blue cheese worked. But.....I wouldn't pay what they were charging to eat them again though.

This is grilled tomino cheese with truffled honey and jamón ibérico. Pretty penny charged for the cheese which was pretty tasty actually. But this isn't exactly any showcase of what the restaurant could do since it was pretty much the ingredients that spoke for themselves. Frying cheese doesn't require so much skills.

That's their uovo fritto. Breaded and fried half cooked egg with black truffle cream sauce. I didn't quite like the fact that they had to emphasise that they had added truffle crumbs (they actually called those shaven truffle) on top of the truffle cream that's suppose to be in the dish. Especially when those truffle flavors left some to the imagination. But the egg was rather nicely done.

The tajarin with truffle left even more of the truffle flavors to imagination. The rest of it was pretty much butter and sage and the pasta was unforgivably limp. I understand that this place was rather new. But it's been a month since they've opened and if they cannot do this pasta in a month, they'll never be able to do it. Overpriced and waste of money.

Fortunately, their beef ravioli was still decent. Think there was truffle oil in there too. Couldn't really be bothered any further at this point. 

Here's a first and a last visit.

More lupinity...

This was suppose to be just a quick stop for desserts after an unsatisfying meal at Truffle Gourmet. More of that later....maybe. So they were filled to the brim and we ended up sitting at the bar.

Since we had room for more food and didn't mind pushing back the memories of the mediocre food we had just a while ago, here's more stuff which we ended up with. 

This sharp knife was a mystery at the beginning. Later we realised that it was for the fennel. Three little pigs danced atop.

potato skins 

house-cured smoked bacon, crème fraîche

We thought that their potato skins with crème fraîche was quite nicely done and not over the top. Just that crème fraîche, bacon and I think we detected some cheese. Toasted cheese which added a little chewiness and aroma.

charred fennel

house-made goat’s milk ricotta, 

black olive oil, pine nut

Their charred fennel looked boiled rather than grilled. But the fennel did have a very distinctive and clean char aroma, pairing off nicely with the richness from the goat's ricotta. Liked.

braised savoy cabbage....again!

Nothing further needs to be said on this.

chicken hearts & liver salad 

parsley, radish, roasted garlic dressing

If I had any gripes about the food - I only wished for larger portions. This was a pretty dime we paid for a small salad with offal, but it was good. 

chocolate beetroot cake

goat’s cheese frosting

I thought the combination here was rather unusual. There was some strength from the bittersweet chocolate without creamy richness. In replacement, was that faint beetroot taste which surprised me by getting through all the chocolate. The cake was rather dense, dry-ish, offset by the goat's cheese frosting. Great that it didn't taste as sweet as it looked.

Banoffee tart

This was also quite good. It came recommended and tasted better than I imagined. Light airy cream on top of fresh bananas and caramel in a dense, buttery and crumbly base.

Bornga, Star Vista

Despite the fact that the meats were the supposed stars of this dinner (#02‐24, The Star Vista, 1 Vista Exchange Green, tel : +65 6694 4696), the majority of what we ate for tonight were probably vegetables. There were loads of it from the wrap platter to cold soups to the banchan (purple sweet potato mash is really good). And it all didn't feel heavy with just minimal carbs from the refreshingly light tasting cold buckwheat noodles.

Between the meats, it was quite obvious that their signature woosamgyup was clearly tastier. Thin sliced fat laced brisket in a light marinate that resembled tender bacon accompanied by their special dip which tasted of some fermented bean and pepper. The marbled ggot sal on the other hand were sliced a little too thick resulting in some difficulty in cooking.

The food was a little pricey for sure, but I think I don't mind giving them another go.