En Japanese Dining Bar, UE Square

This Japanese bar/restaurant was one of those places I've passed by on numerous occasions but have never spared another look. On the other hand, En (#01-57, UE Square) was a name that I've heard of for some time before and had been curious about. Little did I realize that they were the same. Kinda liked this place because there's drinks and the food was pretty decent without being exorbitantly priced. There's one for one for Asahi from 5pm to 8pm. Quite a bit of the food here were made to go well if you're drinking.

kawaebi

I think kawaebi means small prawns in Japanese and these were really little river shrimps according to the menu. The shrimps were fried with seemingly no seasoning and are served with lemon and salt on the side. Like I said, good with drinks and very chewy.

sukugarasu

The sukurarasu was a serving of chilled tofu with little fishes on the top. I have no idea what those fishes were but they were very salty and definitely needed tofu to balance out that saltiness.

maguro tataki salad

This tuna salad here was pretty good. The slices of meat were seared along the edges. Dressing was some citrus sauce mixed with Dijon mustard I think. I found this very enjoyable.

yellowtail

For some reason, I like yellowtail sashimi. The fish that they served were of decent quality. Definitely above those from conveyor belt sushi shops. But after a couple of beers, much subtleties of the flavours are lost anyway.

enoki bacon

Crunchy, chewy enoki mushrooms wrapped in bacon. Most of the reasons are already there. The standards of the grills here of course cannot be compared to Kazu.

unagi fried rice

The fried rice was just passable, but dinner needed some carbs and it sounded more interesting than the standard garlic rice. I remember seeing mentaiko pasta on the menu so if I ever come back, I'll shoot for that.

Benny, Maxwell Hawker Center

This was a local western food stall by the name of Benny (01-16 Maxwell Food Centre, Maxwell Road) run by a very amicable proprietor of the same name. I read about them from Wine & Dine Asia and decided to check them. Got a cheesy pork which I thought looked the most interesting from the menu. Had mixed feeling about that. It looked a tad greasy and had too little cheese. I thought it had a little too much mayonnaise. 

The plus was that I did get a solid piece of fried pork (looks like layered meat) which wasn't cooked to death. Metaphorically of course. The food came with regular cutlery with the exception of the knife which was plastic and looked almost too frail to cut into the thick piece of meat. Fortunately, it held.


On the side was mashed potato which had bits of stuff which I couldn't identify. I was thinking shredded carrots or sweet potato but the proprietor mentioned pumpkin and other vegetables when I asked about what went into the mash.

Fusion or confusion, it's all perspective isn't it?

Perspectives from Anderson Ho of Le Papillon, courtesy of Wine & Dine Asia. I personally think perspective could be everything. It has to be managed. No Jedi mind tricks are required here.

'To me, it doesn't matter if it is fusion so long as the taste is there,' says Ho. One of the dishes he served at Le Papillon was a laksa cappuccino served with crabmeat salad, but he took it off the menu after some comments from diners about 'why should I pay top dollar for something I can get at a hawker centre'.

He adds that while some do appreciate the flavours, most don't. However, when he did a cooking promotion overseas and served the laksa cappuccino, it was a great hit.

He reckons that Singaporeans are generally biased towards chefs cooking Western food with local flavours. 'If fusion is done by a Western chef, people go 'wow'. But when a Chinese guy does it, they don't like it. I'm sorry, but that's a fact.'

For example, he referred to Saint Pierre's Emmanuel Stroobant who created an entire molecular gastronomy menu in April for the World Gourmet Summit based on local hawker food. His deconstructed versions of kaya toast, nasi lemak and chicken rice won raves. 'But if I do that at my restaurant, do you think people would come?' asks Ho.

Ooo....now we're pointing fingers.

Muthu's Curry, Race Course Road

An Indian curry fish head place at Race Course Road recommended by a colleague who couldn't recall the name. Turned out to be Muthu's Curry. This flagship branch of the restaurant was spacious compared to the other one at Suntec which I've eaten at on more than a couple of occasion. Even with the additional floor estate, they had a full house of customers. Since curry fish head what we were thinking of, it was a good opportunity for me to do comparison between both branches.

banana lassi

briyani

curry fish head

curry mutton

palek paneer

black squid

Besides the black squid which was suppose to be an outlet specialty, the other menu items were pretty much the same as the one at Suntec. I felt that the food here wasn't as satisfying as Suntec. Fish head had too little meat for a large portion and the briyani lacked fragrance which I was expecting. It was almost like eating plain basmati rice which might have been a better in this case.

There wasn't much to the black squid. Didn't taste too bad though. Their palak paneer didn't have any fragrance from the fried cheese which I was looking forward to. I'll probably stick to the outlet at Suntec next time round. This felt to me like compromises in cooking standards or just plain negligence.

Raffles Grill, Raffles Hotel

I wonder if the British gentleman who founded this island back in 1819 would be turning with indignance in his loamy resting ground if he found out today that the expensive restaurant christened after his name in an expensive hotel which also follows his name, serves French food instead of English.

Lame jokes aside, anything Raffles is an excuse for a hefty price tag. Raffles Hotel, Raffles class....erm Raffles Institution? I meant Raffles Grill (Raffles Hotel, 1 Beach Road) which is located directly across the Tiffin Room in the lobby of the hotel. One of the remnants of old fashioned classy restaurants where attire for dining is observed in a slightly more strict manner than most other places. Waiters here are trained to be waiters and there actually is a living person on the piano in the restaurant. The scent in the air is both floral and colonial.

This dinner was the Tour De France Menu Dégustation. Began with a complimentary snack of what I thought was a fresh warm crab roll and potato ball in a berry compote. I think. I didn't recall the elaborate name of this starter but I remembered the mentioning of the word 'mushroom' which I didn't taste and I was fairly sure that what's in the crispy rolls was either shredded crab or lobster. And the gnocchi like thing in the little glasses taste like an expensive potato ball of sorts. Back me up here Chris.

The actual courses of the dinner started with an amuse bouche that was not named. It was a light tasting and frothy mushroom-y cream broth topped with finely sliced fried potatoes. The bottom hides four little gnocchi-lets. Two of them tasted of liquorice.

amuse bouche

Following the tongue teaser came the starter which was a gratinated Marroilles cheese tartlet topped with scallops and summer truffle. This was quite good. The pastry was light and flaky variety that was buttery and could be savoured alongside the scallops. Did not remember tasting any cheese in this stuff. Each composite layer of this starter was individually discernable yet subtle. I'm sure you have no freaking clue what that meant because that's how it felt when we were eating it. That was the only way I could describe the flavour that sounded right. Couldn't identify the drizzle of yellow sauce but it tasted quite good and I suspect it might be butternut squash.

gratinated Marroilles cheese tartlet topped with scallops and summer truffle

After the scallops came the Topinambourg Velouté with chestnut puree and roasted Cepe mushrooms. Stripped from the glamor, this tasted like a good cream of mushroom. Again, these were topped with the tiny fried potato slices. The interesting element to this cream of mushroom was that it came drizzled again, with a certain oil which I could not identify but added a sublime fragrance. The roasted mushrooms here were only lightly roasted. What I thought was the best feature of this veloute was the chestnut puree resting at the bottom; sweet and creamy and textured very much like the Chinese yam paste dessert (orh nee anyone?). Created a conspicuous yet somehow complimentary contrast to the savoury aspect of the rest of the dish.

Topinambourg Velouté with chestnut puree and roasted Cepe mushrooms

Which brings us to the fish of the menu, the confit of Omble Knight in clarified Lavender butter, braised fennel with pastis and thyme. Omble Knight is a fish from the family of salmon. In appearance and taste, passes off easily as salmon. Again, it was the accompaniment of the Lavender butter which made the dish shine. Very light milky fragrance and as I recalled, tasting of a vegetable that I cannot remember. Pastis as I found out is actually a anise based liquor aperitif and fennel is one of the ingredients of absinthe. The liquorice aspect to this dish didn't elude me although the taste was otherwise.

confit of Omble Knight in clarified Lavender butter , braised fennel with pastis and thyme

Fish was followed by the other main of the menu that featured a stuffed cabbage with summer truffle, braised farmer sausages with potato. This made me ponder on how do chefs exactly decide on what to name their creations. I'm inclined to think that it's on a whim or seriously, whatever they feel like. This dish didn't have a name that described the better part of it which was really a thin layer of lard that was wrapped around minced duck before being stuffed into the cabbage and getting braised like xiao long bao. That was quite good. The other outstanding item here was the "potato" which appeared like a mini rosti of sorts. The strands/shreds that made up the potato cake were very fine. It sure looked like tedious effort involved especially when there were also sweet sauteed onions woven into the middle of the potato. This was probably the best potato cakes I've had. Sausages were not bad and supposedly home made. I wonder where is home here.

stuffed cabbage with summer truffle, braised farmer sausages with potato.

A pre dessert followed. This was a rolled chocolate sheet in a glass of three different layers of pudding. An orange mousse with a invigorating citrus flavour, a berry jelly or sorts and vanilla pudding at the bottom. Progressive sweetness in the works.

pre- dessert

The closure for the degustation menu was their dessert of roasted and poached figs in red wine, orange and Sauternes granitee. Apart from the poached figs which were actually quite delicious, I couldn't relate the name of the dessert to the actual item. Having the poached figs on the buttery cookie base turned out to be very simple and effective.


Dinner at Raffles Grill will be a affaire très chère. The ambience is great if you're not in any rush. It is crucial that you're eating with people that are not boring. In the midst of the elaboration, dinner was ultimately good.

Is the pen mightier than the wok?

You decide.