Hansang, Square 2

Starting to get the hang of and liking some of these Korean places. Especially those with the bottomless banchans. Something to keep the mouth busy with is much appreciated when you're hungry and waiting. With only one other experience, my thoughts were that Togi serves better banchan than Hansang (Square 2, #03-32 to 35/40 to 44). Service on a quiet Sunday evening was snappy and polite. Snappy meant that things were done fast in case you were wondering. They have a light Korean beer that goes by Hite which claims to be made from natural fresh water and thus providing a fresh taste. Wow! Lol. Maybe the reason that I don't visit Korean places often is because the menu tends to look very similar most of the time. Perceived or real, I'm under the impression that their food is generally same everywhere. Maybe I just haven't gotten to appreciate the subtleties of their cuisine. If such a word is applicable for that. The bulgogis were difficult to differentiate. Each one that I've had tasted similar to one another and that was that all there was to them for me. One can try so much bulgogi before the taste wears thin. Even though the ones here were better than those supposed Korean food stalls in food courts, there doesn't to be much difference. What I found myself liking at Hansang was that they did a very nice beef rib soup. In spite of its bland appearance, the soup was flavoursome. The meat from the ribs slid off the bone. I recommend this. The other thing I liked here was the rice which were steamed with root vegetables. There was a slice of carrot, some sweet potato, a piece of pumpkin and interestingly a date. The rice that stayed piping hot up to the last mouthful.

beef rib soup

Manhill Restaurant, 99 Pasir Panjang Road

This place was another recommendation from co workers. I was told they was known for their claypot dishes. I wonder what made the owner of this restaurant call it 'Manhill'. They are an old school Chinese restaurant. Certainly not with a name I would expect. And it's the first time I got to drink chrysanthemum tea in Tiger beer mugs. 

Some of their dishes stood out. There was a claypot sea cucumber with roasted pork featuring fragrant and chewy sea cumbers with roasted pork belly that were further braised in gravy. There was a apple pork rib soup that which was boiled with real apple wedges. The soup didn't really taste of apples but had a light sweetness. Nice stuff - considering that I'm usually not a fan of most Chinese soups. Another delicious item were their paper wrapped chicken which were essentially chicken thigh meat marinated in some Chinese cooking wine before they are wrapped in oiled paper to be cooked. The meat of the chicken was nicely done with the juices preserved in each paper package. There was also aroma from the cooking wine in each bite. The icing on the cake was the lack of bones in the meat!

If it helps, this restaurant is less than half a minutes drive from the Centre for Animal Welfare and Control Agri-Food & Veterinary Authority.

claypot sea cucumbers and roast pork

claypot beef

forgot what this is, but it contains a variety of vegetables and some seafood

apple pork rib soup

paper wrapped chicken

Al Forno Trattoria, Goldhill Centre

Clad in a cosy and rustic interior and hidden out of view from the main roads, Al Forno Trattoria (203 Thomson Road, Goldhill Centre) felt like a hidden find. The restaurant whipped up some pretty good pasta in generous portions. That was on top of the other options like pizzas, salads, seafood & meat that they also serve. My only gripe was that most of their pastas had boring tomato based sauce which I usually avoid. That's just me. I hear that this place has been around for quite a long while and that they do a nice rum infused Black Forest Cake which was available in a few days of the week and something I was curious about. We were actually served a complimentary starter of a warm slice of toast before we've even made orders for the food. The toast had  toppings I couldn't fully identify beyond bits of onions, garlic, gherkins and probably olive oil. Wasn't bad too.

Pappardelle alla Veneziana ($22)

This was pretty enjoyable. Pasta was served piping hot. It was essentially pappardelle with scallops and prawns in a rich creamy saffron sauce. Pleasantly surprised that the prawns weren't tiny shrimps and that they were crunchy. Scallops came whole with their 'wings'. This was probably the most interesting pasta on the menu.

Lasagna Emiliana ($22)

I've never been big lasagna. This wasn't bad. Just me not being so much into tomato sauces. From the menu's description of two cheeses, I was hoping that it would up the cheese factor of the lasagna by a notch. It was sadly not the case and turns out to be typical.


This was be the rum infused Black Forest Cake ($9 a slice) which I had mentioned earlier. Delicious chocolate cake. Wouldn't recommend passing on it if you like chocolate. Dense & rich chocolate cream and chocolate shavings over the top. The only gripe was that I had expected more rum than just a bare hint.

Hamoru Japanese Restaurant, Food Republic @ Suntec

Food Republic seemed to be making noticeable effort in bringing up the standards of local food courts and setting a benchmark for the other chain outlets. This applieed to both the quality and the cost of having a meal. 

I've been lunching at Hamoru for the past 2 consecutive days. This shop is sending a message to other claimants to serving Japanese food in food courts that they seriously need to do a whole lot better. Prices here get can get steep for work lunch though. While it's a bar above regular food courts, one should not expect top tier quality. Was surprised that they actually serve foie gras, otoro and uni. Hmmmm.....

Lunch day 1

Shiok maki

This looked local, name aside. Didn't look elegant for a maki. But it turns out to be pretty tasty. And pricey at $15 a pop. There's unagi and avocado in rice topped with strips of salmon, blanketed with some cheesy mayo and ebiko. The roll was then torched for the char. Nice.

asari (shortneck clam) soup

I was recommended this by the waitress and it turns out to be clams in a miso soup. Wasn't bad with the cold weather. There's quite a bit of clams hidden at the bottom. The only gripe wa that the miso flavour was as rich as I expected. There's an option to have ramen/soba in them for a top up of additional $2.

chicken liver

I was a little apprehensive when I saw their chicken liver so pink and dripping blood. Was the first time ordering these from a Japanese grill and to my surprise, this is more like foie gras. Liver was soft and creamy compared to the Chinese styled cooked chicken livers. Nope, they didn't exactly melt in your mouth. $2 a stick. Actually not bad despite it's slightly gruesome appearances.

foie gras

There's also foie gras at $8 a stick. This was more expensive than Kazu. There's no question that Kazu does this better. An Israeli colleague of mine also happens to be having them for the first time in his life. I think he's found himself a new sin. The crisp on the surface of the foie gras here was lacking and the insides didn't disintegrate as smoothly as I hoped, but what the hell.

Lunch Day 2

shiro maguro

The menu describes this as white tuna. Meat appeared to be marinated and lightly flavoured with shoyu. The texture of the meat is quite firm and on the whole, not bad tasting. Does anyone have any idea what's the difference of this from the regular tuna?

grilled saba shio

This soba shio wasn't a large piece. In spite of the grill, it retained quite a lot of juice. Salad on the side was topped with a citrus and sesame dressing which is quite appetizing. On the whole, quite decent if not remarkable.

cha soba

This was disappointing. Not that I expected top quality soba to be had here but the noodles were seriously, limp. Neither the soba nor the dripping sauce were sufficiently chilled. Do not order this if you enjoy soba.

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.