Banoo, 7 Mohamed Sultan Road

Dinner tonight with Junie at Banoo. I've been hearing about this place for months, specifically about the lamb kebab koobideh. Tonight, I finally got to see what it's all about.

Banoo is a Persian restaurant along Mohd Sultan road. The interior of the restaurant was decorated with what looked to be Middle Eastern-ish ornaments but I'm just guessing since I haven't been to anywhere in the Middle East or Iran myself. Made a reservation for 8 p.m. to avoid having to wait or queue for a seat, however the place was actually quite empty when I arrived. Only one or two other tables were occupied.

Not having been here before, I didn't know what to try apart from the lamb Koobideh and hummus. The result were some hits and misses though there's a good chance that I will be back just to have the lamb Koobideh again. It's as good as the people whom have recommended me have described.

Since it was a first visit, I thought that we shouldn't miss trying the appetizers...

The above was the hummus. It's mashed chick peas with lemon juice, garlic, olive oil and tahini. This was delicious. I'm not sure how to describe this. I've had them before at a few other places including a pretty good one from The Original Sin. The chick pea paste which was a little creamy tasted lightly salted. It was accompanied by flat bread and what appeared to be Turkish bread. I'm not sure. This was really good.

I didn't find Naan-o-Paneer-o-Sabzi enjoyable much. It was a flat bread wrap with mint and basil, onions and feta cheese. It was served deconstructed. The best part about it for me was the feta cheese. The pile of greens which the menu described to be fresh basil also contained coriander, a vile herb that I thoroughly detest. I wonder how they could forget to mention that. The onions were rather sharp which meant that I could only eat a little before finding them overpowering.

This was the much talked about lamb Koobideh. This was every bit as enjoyable as I thought it would be after hearing so about it and imagining how it might taste every time I see it on picture. The minced lamb kebab was spiced and made into a tubed shaped roll and grilled. Texture was quite tender and the flavours were a mix of the lamb and the marinade, neither overpowering the other. The basmati rice was very delectable especially with the melted butter. I should have asked for more butter. This was one of those rice that made me want to overeat.

This above was the kebab barg, made of grilled beef fillet. It didn't taste bad except that it was overdone resulting in it becoming quite chewy. I generally enjoy beef so I thought it wasn't too bad. Just too well cooked. But that's probably just me.

The baklava wasn't on menu but the waiter specially pointed that out while we were browsing for dessert. I was aware that they do have them from D on his visit so I wanted to try it. They're a compact filo pastry filled with crushed mix nuts drizzled with syrup - something yellow which I couldn't really identify. Aside from the excessive sweetness, it didn't taste bad. This was my first baklava so I wasn't really sure what to expect.

And that's the Banoo Special. I recommend against this unless one is into into a nutty toasted rabbit food like thing soaked in syrup. It was mostly made of fried and crushed vermicelli with sesame seeds and a some nuts. To be eaten with the syrup which results in either being dry (if you use the syrup sparingly) or sticky sweet (if you're generous). The bits of the vermicelli got stuck between my teeth and every ridge in my mouth. I didn't enjoy this at all.

That's being said I would like to re-visit Banoo again. If just for the lamb Koobideh. There's probably a couple of other things in the menu which I don't mind checking out.

Crab Shack, Thomson Road

This place is seriously crabbed. Almost everything edible on the menu is crab or contains crab meat. Crab Shack is located along Thomson Road and the unit that houses this eatery looks to be previously a coffee shop that has been through very brief renovation, leaving hints of what it used to be before it became the "crabery" it is today. I came to know of this place from a good friend of mine (whom I had dinner with) who are pals with the owners of this place, so decided to check this joint out for evening chow.

I don't normally enjoy getting my hands dirty or dealing much with bones or shells with my food, so the orders were pretty much crab meat items. Besides those, the only other thing that Crab Shack sells are flower crabs which you can order piece meals like chicken from KFC. The tables of this place all come with a bucket of eating utensils which include a nutcracker and a slim crab pick.

These above the crab croquette. Coming from a place that specialises in serving crabs, I kinda expected a lot more out of the croquettes. In fact, I was thinking somewhere along the lines of the delicious crab cakes that I had at Riciotti, but it apparently wasn't close. These croquettes have breaded texture and creamy insides which contains, well, a faint hint of crab flavour. That is pretty much it for this. No morsels of meat detected. I'm actually quite disappointed.

The soft shell crab with chicken floss were quite decent. The crabs that they used for were actually rather small. It's usually larger sized crabs which are chopped into smaller pieces, but these are small enough that you can finish each crab in about 2 large bites. The chicken floss which were slightly crispy were a nice touch.

What's in the basket above are some members of poor stone crabs which will never pinch anything again. The stone crab claws were a fairly unmessy eat if you're armed with a cracker and a suitable pick. The shells were not as tough as the larger mangrove crabs and do not contain much sharp ridges like flower crabs. So they're fairly easy to crack open to get to the sweet meat inside which I thought was pretty good. I've had good and bad crabs and these frankly are not bad. But I feel that they're a little small, which meant that there isn't that much of meat to be had. Beats eating flower crabs though.

The crab au gratin is a small bowl of crab meat in a creamy mix containing shredded crab meat and chopped water chestnuts which are topped with cheese and baked. This small dish came scaldingly hot and was actually quite tasty. Again, I thought it might have been better with larger portions.

This is the crab spaghetti and was one of the mains of Crab Shack along with crab baked rice and the piece meal crabs. Everything else before were actually appetizers. Seriously. The portions of this spaghetti wasn't very big and neither was the taste. What they used was a very boring tomato based sauce, probably jarred variety and a very familiar shredded crab meat sauce on top of the pasta. The menu mentioned sun dried tomatoes and I'm positive these in the spaghetti aren't those. It was totally unremarkable. Pasta Mania does pasta better, so I don't really think much of this. For less than $8 I can think of better places for pasta, albeit without shredded crab meat sauce.

All in all, I would say that Crab Shack serves averagely food at affordable prices. It's decent at a point where you can probably come by and get some bites (beware the small portions), however nothing really stands out. And since what was ordered tonight was more than half of the menu, there isn't really much else to keep me coming back. Unless one enjoys the arduous process of picking out tiny scraps of meat off flower crabs where I personally find that the effort negates whatever joy gotten from eating them.

Here's a little trivia from the waiting number from the table.

Do you really want to hear me say Menotti again?

As chance would have it, I ended up here again. I didn't come here for their desserts as an original intent. Just an after dinner sit around and chit chat with old friends. Was actually thinking of just coffee. Browsing the dessert section of the menu, I came across something I haven't had before. Olive oil gelato. I just had to try.

It did look very ordinary. Could have easily been coconut, lemon or just milk. The first taste of the gelato reminded me of toffee. That quickly dissipated as it melted and the flavour morphed to that of olive oil leaving behind an almost subtle delicate bitter aftertaste. A rather interesting combination.

That's the San Pellegrino Blood Orange Soda. Never had blood oranges before but if the taste of the drink was any indication, there was a slight hint of grapefruit or pomelo at the start and ended up a more tangy and zesty orange.

Hog's Breath, CHIJMES

This Australian restaurant known for their prime rib serves pretty decent beef at a price that wouldn't make you tear or gasp when you get the bill. It did however seem to have raised it's prices of the prime rib by a couple of dollars in recent months. But it is Australian beef they're serving here so those of you who swear by U.S. beef, you can stop reading and go watch tv now.

This was my fourth visit to Hog's Breath this year and I've yet to order anything else apart from their prime rib. Which is served in various configurations.

As I was told, the prime rib here are slow cooked for 18 hours and then finished with a char grill. This I suppose might account for the meat being slightly less juicy. They were however very tender and flavourful. Get medium rare. I wouldn't recommend anything beyond that doneness.

prime rib with vegetables and Hog's tail fries

pink and fatty succulence

Their prime ribs come at 300g for a little above $30. There is the option for the mega cut which is 33% heavier at a heftier 400g for $8 extra. Each order comes with sides of vegetables (salad or boiled vegetables) and potatoes (Hog's tail fries, mashed potatoes or baked potato). You get to choose between the mushroom, black pepper or traditional brown sauce. I recommend the brown.

A shard of Chubby wisdom...

"The only people who can really get away with going to restaurant's anonymously are everyday people (which is why blogs have become great resources of reviews). But every person's tastes are different. And what you think stinks may be another person's best meal."

First (and second and third) impressions

Sunday, May 28, 2006

I was Googling Il Lido and Chubby Hubby's web inadvertently appeared out of the results. Being curious of what he had to say, I popped in and amidst the replies to the commentry, I found the above.

It's not a very deep insight, that above. No disparagement to Aun Koh intended here. Objectively, we're talking about the statement, not the person uttering the words so forget for a moment whom mouthed them.

Rings a whole lot of truth doesn't it? I don't know how many of us have ever given this any thought. But it's probably one of the most resonant statement in the niche of food blogs ever made. That I've read. And it follows with another liner which highlights subjectivity. One that many fails to remember. So what Aun has identified is that celebrity bloggers are disadvantaged (whether they think that or not) by their own statuses in the spirit of candid reviews whilst the everyday littlebodies like me still manage to get around without special treatment. What of individual taste? Does it skew opinions for you? What do you read in what you've read?

A roti by any other name...

Would it still be roti? Probably so. This was about a slightly different roti john I came across 105 Chong Pang Food Centre at Alsafaz Makan Stall. The highlight of this particular roti john was that they didn't use ground mutton but mutton chunks - kinda like those in Indian mutton chop.

The mutton chunks were drenched in a sweet brown sauce filled with onions. Also unlike the regular joe johns, the egg weren't not soaked into the bread and fried. The bread tasted like it was barely toasted, probably just heated for a very little while.

I'm thinking that it would have been nicer if the bread was actually French toasted. Having it pressed into beaten eggs and butter to soak before a pan fry would have resulted in a much flatter and tastier bread. The roti would then have scored better in my opinion instead of having to mow my way through thick dry and tasteless flour.