Peri Peri Prawns from Fish & Co

It looked pretty on the plate and did not taste too bad. The prawns have always been a tad dry in Fish & Co. The rice used to be better. The peri peri part of the name here refers to the sauce that accompanies the prawn which didn't turn out to be as invigoratingly spicy as I had imagined. They could do with more generosity with their lemon butter which I much prefer over the peri peri sauce. I got hungry a couple of hours after this. It's safer at Fish & Co for me at least, to just stick to fish and chips and the seafood platter for 2.

Aburiya, Holland Village

What I liked about these self help grills (specifically for beef) is that I get to decide how I want the meat done. It's also easier to tell if the meat is good. Not to mention that you need only cook them when you want them. Freshly cooked cannot get fresher than that. The downside was dealing with the oil fumes and the cloying scent that clung onto your clothes. Not something that I want after I have eaten.

Aburiya (17E Lorong Liput) is one of those Japanese/Korean? shops for grilled meats. I'm not sure if they're just Japanese since they do bibimbap and have a bunch of other kimchi stuff besides the meat and some seafood for the charcoal grill.

mushroom!

jo karubi (short prime rib)

jo rosu (loin)

hotate butteryaki

wagyu ishiyaki chahan

Between tare and shio dressing on the meat, I favour shio (salt/pepper) since it allows the flavour of the beef to be appreciated instead of being masked. The wagyu ishiyaki chahan arrived in a hot stone bowl and is mixed at the table with curry and spicy sauce. The result was steaming hot, sticky and flavourful with the spice. Heat was manageable though. The portions were also huge. I was surprised by the ginger in there. Now I know it'll be something I'm avoiding if I ever come back.

Lunch @ Wild Rocket

Wild Rocket at Hangout Hotel (10a Upper Wilkie Road) wasn't an easy place to find. Even with the aid of a mp, it was a much longer walk than I had expected up Mt Emily. The restaurant looked much nicer in pictures that I saw online than in reality. Sort of reminded me of Jaan. Anyways, there is a lunch 3 course here at $26++ that comes with a starter, a main and a dessert. I'm here today for the Wild Rocket Burger which is only available for lunch.

salad grilled aubergine, baby spinach and yasai dressing

deep fried soft shell crab with sweet thai chilli sauce

The starters for their lunch menu looked meh but since it came with lunch, we picked something. Those grilled aubergines are pretty much what they looked like. I had initially thought that the soft shell crab looked to be another boring item. To my surprise it was pretty good. Instead of being dried out, greasy logged and chewy, this was actually juicy and quite meaty. Quite impressed. I was thinking of just how much more unimaginative it could have gotten with their sweet Thai chilli sauce that was so cliche. That sauce was not bad with the crab. Never always trust what you think you know from the menus. Lol!

behold the Wild Rocket Burger

I liked this and I can see the possibility where I might just trek up this place to eat it again. The burger looked in real life a little smaller than I imagined, but the patty was thick like how I saw them in pictures. Any thicker, I wouldn't have been able to fit it into my mouth. It was so juicy that each bite I made had to be accompanied with the sucking of all the leaking juices that trickled down my chin. Damn juiciest burger I've ever had. The only condiments in it were sun dried tomato relish, some light mustard and sprigs of wild rocket. The sides that come with the burger are some token salad and papadum.

Desserts were a mixed bag with a very good "fresh Pandan infused" panna cotta with gula melaka taking lead over a much less interesting chilled black glutinous rice topped with coconut ice cream. I'm not too sure what to make out of the fresh pandan infusion since I've never actually had it before but the panna cotta did have a very distinctive flavour from the pandan leaf that can almost be described as 'invigorating'. On it's own, I thought it stood out well. The gula melaka was definitely an icing on the top. It wasn't overly sweet and was fragrant with crunchy bits of crystals. Nothing too heavy. The glutinous rice on the other hand I found uninteresting. The hint of coconut in the ice cream was barely discernible. Nothing special.

Risotto with seafood & lobster bisque from Menotti

This was quite good and filling. I counted 7 or 8 clams, a generous portion of squid and nice crunchy prawns. One could tell that the rice was cooked the proper way from ironically, the slight inconsistency in the doneness.

A few glimpses of Glutton Bay

Glutton Bay (Esplanade Mall) emerged after Glutton Square (Orchard Road) was closed and the premise is suppose to be representation of Asian food or popular local street food at its better. After a tryout, I was far from being impressed. To be fair, I did not manage to eat everything. But I do know of more than a handful of people who are able to recommend better players for most of the food representation. I wouldn't be too sure about Makansutra's term "top hawkers" which was definitely a very loose and superficial reference. It's a gathering spot for tourists to experience some local eats though. It's also tourist prices here anyway. Avoid the horrible sambal squid.

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.