Muddy pub grub

Irish themed ale tavern/pub that has chunky chilli crab dip for chips. That's something to say about Muddy Murphy (442 Orchard Road #B1-01/01-06, Orchard Hotel Shopping Arcade). Well, maybe not so unusual here. I generally like Irish themed pubs because they normally do Strongbow on tap and I can find a couple of other reasons come back. Their bar snacks while was not amazing were things that I didn't mind . We had chips with chilli crab dip and green lip mussels tonight.

The chilli crab dip tasted like what one could expect from regular chilli crab sauce. It probably isn't as spicy, but it did taste the local and not just an attempt do a western rendition of the sauce. Don't expect Chinese restaurant standards. Those mussels we got were pretty fresh tasting, large and chewy - chewy in a good way that's full of bite. Something that the sweeter smaller varieties from Norway that Brussels Sprouts serve, doesn't have.

Marmalade Pantry, Palai Renaissance

Marmalade Pantry (Palai Renaissance, B1-08/11, Orchard Road) is a spiffy tai tai canteen secluded in the basement of a building laden with branded boutiques. I learnt of the ultimate beef burger and came here to try it. I had soup too. Service here on Saturday was pretty bad and the entire place looks pretty understaffed with only half the seats filled

The parsnip sweep potato and butternut soup was a bad call on my part. I didn't like it. For some reasons, I was expecting something like a butternut squash soup. It tasted more like a carrot flavoured dahl. Not something I enjoyed except for the cheese filled loaf on the side.

   

I thought their burger might have been better without the mayo but I'm not complaining. This was a serious heavyweight beef burger with a firm and thick patty accompanied by slices of gherkins. Made holding the burger together a tad slippery. Juice were dripping out of the patties as I ate. Quite impressive. The thick looking buns were also much softer than they looked and it was actually not bad. Though a bit pricey at $19.

Quarter chicken lunch at Kenny Rogers

We live in a world where commercial fast food restaurant chickens are sold by aged country singers and even long dead colonels. Kenny Rogers is but, another of those that used to have better tasting roasted chickens in the past, but has seen declining standards on their quality of food, very much like many other restaurants. It seems that all commercial food businesses are condemned somehow into a slow downward spiral which is a sad thing.


The chicken here is still edible actually if you asked me. The portions are however wildly inconsistent and very much dependent on the "luck of the draw". Sometimes, the portions can be just pathetic. The lack of consistency for that is a major drawback for me. Also, the signature roast chicken doesn't get into the lunch deals which offers the option of some chicken filet instead. I had to get the regular quarter chicken ($13.55 with tax) off the menu. Where's the deal here really? The people that decided on the menu of their lunch packages obviously didn't not care so much about what people come to this place for as opposed to how to sell meal boxes that cost less to produce. How much more obvious can that get when you throw in shitty lunch deals that make people not want to come back again after having them one time? So said my new Israeli colleague.

The side of macaroni with cheese and corn muffin fortunately still delivers.

Miss Clarity Smoked Gnocchi

Wow, this was probably the cheapest place I've encountered gnocchi so far. Am pleasantly surprised that Miss Clarity is making inroads with not so commonly available pasta. At $9.80 and no service charge, there's probably no one else with a lower price. It's almost three times more across the road at Garibaldi. This particular plate came with a smoky cream sauce topped with artichokes, sun dried tomatoes and real bacon. The cooking was done with good timing as none of them looked like they were about to disintergrate.

Taman Serasi Food Garden, Botanic Gardens

This not so hidden gem of a food court located near the Napier Road entrance of the Botanic Gardens reminded me of King Albert Park. It was actually quite a pleasant spot in the spacious outdoors from the serenity during the week evenings. I heard that it gets really crowded in the weekends and holidays. Food courts generally are boring pretty boring with a similar configurations everywhere since they are monopolised (mostly) by the food court conglomerates that inject little variables into individual outlets. There are exceptions though. Like the Food Republic at Wisma. The generally feel to them is that they are costly and do not have much that's good to eat. Once in a while, exceptions happen.

The stalls in Taman Serasi Food Garden (1 Cluny Road) are named after the food which they sell, so it's pretty easy to figure out what's what from the huge labels overhead at the stall fronts. There's the usual nasi padang, fish soup, chinese mixed rice, roasted meats, dessert and drink stall. The drink stall has Erdinger. Wow. A unique vendor here that doesn't go by the regular labels is Yummy Crab. Yummy Crab does a variety of food items with crab ( e.g. noodles & rice). And they whip up a mean fried rice with crab meat!


Besides the regular diced barbequed pork (larger chunks here!), egg and shrimps (larger shrimps too!), there's a generous amount of crab meat with the roe in their fried rice. It's not cheap though. This portion which I suppose feeds one hungry big eater or two smaller ones goes for $18.

For a week night, the crowd was sparse. I was told that it does get horrendously long during the weekends and crab noodles (which seem to be a trend these days) are also one of their specialty. I don't like do deal with shells and bones normally so this fried rice worked for me.


There was also a roasted meat stall which had excellent char siew. There's also the usual roast pork belly and duck which were pretty pedestrian though they came in rather generous portions.

We found a combo murtabak which was available at the Indian food store. I was told that this used to be a stall back in the old hawker centre (gone a long time ago) with leaky roofs during the rain which I fondly remember for the Roti John and teh tarik.


What made the combo murtabak was the use of variety in the fillings instead of a single meat option. We had one with shredded chicken and ground mutton. There was also sliced fresh green chilli which gave the prata more kick. I certainly appreciated that. There seemed to be a crab murtabak on menu as well and I'm speculating is that it's might have something to do with Yummy Crab.

Homemade burgers for dinner

These are one of my guilty pleasures in life. Buttered and lightly oven toasted buns, double patty, double cheddar cheese, lettuce and marinated ground beef hand made patties. It's a lot more work than it looks getting everything prepared. I'm still trying to find out how to make the patties more firm. Also trying to find someone who will hand chop the meat instead of getting minced ones. Suggestions will be entertained.