Golden Peony, Conrad Centennial

Dinner with fatpig & friends. I enjoy Chinese food but am usually not a fan of big Chinese restaurants. Maybe I don't know where are the good places to go to. This leads to the impression that they're mostly unimaginative with their menu and exorbitant in prices with little to showcase of their food beyond Peking ducks, suckling pigs and their pricey treasures from the sea (read as abalone, lobsters and shark's fin soup) which apart from contributing to the slow but sure debilitating mercury poisoning, leaves a smouldering hole in my wallet as well. If you are deconstructing the last sentence still and trying to decipher the context in entirety, don't.

Golden Peony bore her badges of honour upon the walls featuring endorsements and awards from Wine & Dine Asia and some magazines listing various accolades the restaurant has received. While these aren't uncommon, the true gem is in finding one that provides the experience which makes me feel that the establishment is deserving of mentioned awards. This has led to the impression that many accolades of such nature are fundamentally unreliable because...well. That will be for another time.

peking duck

deep fried prawns in salted yolk batter

hand made tofu with stir fried mushroom and asparagus

tea smoked ribs

minced remnants of the peking duck

lobster noodle

tau huay

Here's what I thought of the food. There was little to fault with the Peking duck apart from the fact that there seemed to be a darn tiny amount of skin and meat for a whole duck. I have my suspicions which I will not go into here. The skin was crisp in a delicate manner. The salted egg battered prawns were disappointing. The prawns were okay but hardly brimming with freshness which I expect from a restaurant of this calibre.  Coupled that with a weakly flavoured batter that was more salty than salted egg in flavour. I suspect that not much of the actual salted egg went into the making it.

Tea smoked ribs were like any other regular barbecued ribs in Chinese restaurants. This one appeared to be larger than the usual but was totally devoid of smoke aroma. And I didn't think that the smoked flavour was suppose to be subtle for this dish because to plan so would be utter stupidity. There were already accompanying sweet sauces in there so subtle doesn't wiork. The lobster noodle if anyone was wondering, was uninspiring and apart from having some lobster meat, was unremarkable. Pretty damned unremarkable for $120 if you asked me. Tau huay was light and this was one of the instances deserving of the excessively whored "melt in your mouth" description. Texture was kinda rough though.

Another place where I can scratch off.

Brasserie Wolf, Robertson Quay

Good friend of mine brought up a point to ponder over our dinner at Brasserie Wolf. We were just making dinner conversation over the quality of gula melaka and the first squeeze of coconut milk for good chendols, over Jimmy Chok's dinners over at the Academy Bistro and my fetish for wanting to take on the largest burger on the menu whenever we go out and have dinner. The salient point to ponder was that, amidst the sea of dialogue which was mostly food related, nothing ventured into to the topic of the food we were eating at Brasserie Wolf. Good friend said it spoke volumes of the impression we had of the restaurant. I didn't have anything to disagree with that. Maybe that's just us.

Brasserie Wolf was a very spacious bistro...that plays techno music. Felt like a mismatch but it is what it is. Service was very prompt. The food was far from compelling. I've heard some good things mentioned about this place but on hindsight didn't think it as good as what I've heard.

french onion soup with comte cheese

escargots in garlic butter

Their onion soup was served piping hot and heavily draped with cheese. So much that it was a trial of dexterity trying to finish the soup navigating endless strands of the melted cheese. It turned out quite heavy for soup. Didn't taste so much of the onion as much as the sweetness. I suppose I might have enjoyed it much better if it wasn't for the sweltering evening humidity. Escargots arrive hot and full of chew but tasted only of the garlic. 

The grilled tenderloin was probably the salvation of the dinner. I'm not much of a fan of their Bearnaise which I left mostly untouched. The meat was uniformly grilled with a crusty charred surface. The meat on the inside was tender as it should be. Medium rare came out more of a medium to me for this one. This piece of steak also for some reason reminded me of the Argentinian beef I had once. If I had to complain, I suppose the meat was a little dry. While this isn't specifically the yardsticks of French restaurants in general, it does imply the skill or care in the preparation that the kitchen makes. Overall was very passable food but I wasn't too impressed.

Cowabunga!

Are the American cows or are the rentals at coffeeshops straight over the roof these days? Geez....I'm not so sure if it's all because of GST. Prices like these could just compete with Just Steak and pretty soon, Mortons.

the Bigrill, 110 Yishun Ring Road

The evolution of the local western food scene presses on slowly but surely, introducing standards and quality that slowly climb upwards and sometimes even sideways. Bigrill (Blk 110 Yishun Ring Road, You & Lai coffeeshop) looks to be one of those hailing from the newer era serving food that are not seen in shape, form or species, in the drab generic stalls of it's genre. For one, the steak here looks decent and one of the signature items from the menu is apparently, crocodile meat. There's no need to backtrack. You read it right the first time. I did say crocodile.

This Texas sirloin (200g, $10) according to the menu, is one of the favourites. On first look, one must admit that it's quite pretty considering the fact that most steaks from coffeeshop westerns are simply pieces of meat that I don't really consider to be real steaks. The downside is that the meat was actually a little tough for medium doneness. Apart from that, this is probably one of the better ones from coffeeshops that I've had. This is definitely better stuff than E.Blackboard which I thought was utterly disappointing.


I'm sure some of you might have heard the recurring joke about exotic meats tasting like chicken. On a serious note here, this crocodile filet (200g, $18) does taste like chicken. The main difference that I could detect from the meat is probably the texture which puts it a little more fish like from the way it breaks and crumbles slightly. Looking back, I should have requested for the white pepper sauce on the side to get more of the natural flavor of the meat. Otherwise, the bite and texture could really pass off for chicken. I've heard that it's low in fat and cholesterol and that really makes it a much more expensive and exotic chicken alternative?

Cafe Oliv, East Coast Road

This establishment has some ways to go with their food. Cafe Olive (220 East Coast Road) is affordable; costs less and provides equivalent or better quality than the run of the mill family restaurants in town. There isn't any GST and service charge. I dropped by on the notice from a reader regarding their tenderloin sandwich which I did not regret. In fact, I was surprised by what I had and judging from what I saw from the other tables, there were other offerings which looked good enough for me to come back. Including some good looking braised lamb shanks going around the tables.

Salty egg soft shell crab biscuit fritter

This would make the second soft shell crab in recent years that I've had that was good enough to be mention worthy amongst the gamut of many. Most soft shell crabs today have become unremarkable and many are poorly done. To the point that I've really been avoiding them. I picked this starter based on the recommendation of a friend and it turned out quite good. The entire of the exterior of the crab was crispy and the insides were hot, tender and juicy. And at $4.90, I couldn't complain. I only wonder what did the salty egg of the named referred to because I was expecting it to be covered in salted egg yolk sauce and it didn't really taste anything of that.

tenderloin foccacia

This tenderloin sandwich was surprisingly good. It's beat the ribeye sandwich from Marmalade Pantry which now paled badly in comparison. And this went at about half the cost at $10.90. There's a doneness option. Tenderloin cut for the sandwich was noticeably heftier than the ribeye in comparison. Shame on Marmalade Pantry. I believe that the buttered and lightly toasted focaccia stood out more than a ciabatta in a weak wasabi sauce in comparison as well. That said, if anyone does know of good steak sandwiches, I'd appreciate a heads up. For now, this recommendation is the best I've had around.

Some spoils from the Hokkaido Fair

I have no idea how often the Hokkaido Fairs come by, but I seem to see it every few times I pass by Istetan. This time round, they seem quite particular about people taking photos so I didn't get to get pictuers of some of the interesting sights of the fair. Temptation did succeed in making me part with some money for the Hokkaido produce which were really good stuff. These fairs are also really great for picking up tasty bites that one normally do not find elsewhere. Look out for the mouthwatering cheese scallops and check the price tags before you pay!

preserved octopus

cheesy cuttlefish

more processed cuttlefish

grilled, dried and sweetened scallops

candied crabs