Crystal Jade Dining In, VivoCity

I thought this place was a good showcases of contemporary Chinese (Cantonese) food. The food here can be a little pricey, dependent on what you order. The dishes which will inflate the bill are the regular treasures from the sea like shark's fin, lobsters and for this place, geoduck clam as well. The experience was bolstered by very prompt and efficient service staff. The kind of Chinese restaurant I like. Would like to be back again to pursue their extensive menu. Now I wonder why is this one labelled "Dining In"...

 

deep fried fish fillet on crispy toast

sweet corn soup with minced fish and tomato

scallop and grapefruit salad

braised seasonal vegetable with crab roe

braised vermicelli with conpoy, dried shrimp & XO chilli sauce

double boiled hashima in fresh coconut

japanese glutinous rice dumping with fruit and cream

Sette formaggi pizza

Here's a simple cheating 4 step method of doing a cheesy pizza. Since I don't normally cook and it's a first time trying, there's really no need to get so authentic about the preparation. I'm quite sure I will fail at making the dough for the base anyway so to save on the time, most of the ingredients are already purchased for use. Since the four cheese varieties are rather common, I thought to take things up to another level. 7 cheeses. Firstly, get yourself one of those frozen pizzas from the supermarket that comes in quattro formaggi. I would recommend Dr. Oetker which is easily available at Cold Storage or Carrefour. They don't have a thick crust.

So there you go, the magnificent 7 of mozzarella, emmental, edam, blue, cheddar, feta and parmesan with the last 3 being the additional ones which I've heaped on top of the original frozen pizza. And it rocks. I thought it was much better than the triple cheese from the Pizza Place. If I ever get to do this again, I'll probably top it up with an egg.

Bontá Italian Restaurant & Bar, UE Square

This place felt like Garibaldi. Even the style of the decor relayed the same clean looks and the dining experience bore a close semblance. Speaking of which, I will digress and mention that the new French place by the Garibaldi group at Purvis Street, Gunther's, seems to have opened. The digression ends here.

 

The food at Bontá (#01-61, UE Square) was expectedly tame in the sense that nothing is really very different from the usual. The menu items looked the same after a while (angelhair pasta with lobster anyone?) but I'm don't know if consistency of templated menu is a good thing. It tends to get boring. But this is an early claim to things, since this is the first time I've visited. If the restaurant perseveres, changes are bound to roll in. I think. The most impressive dinner item was actually the bread. Impressive as it kinda wowed me. And no, dinner was not that bad. It was okay actually. One has to factor the law of diminishing returns in the due course of progress. The bread was so good, I asked for seconds which almost did me in after the starters of the Ocean Trout Crab Meat Rolls. But it was very good bread. Worthy of space in my stomach. The bread arrived hot in a cup much like a cupcake with a ceramic base. Beneath the crust was buried bits of walnuts and in the middle, feta cheese. It was seriously good stuff. With or without the olive oil and tapenade.

the bread

The starter of Ocean Trout Crab Meat Rolls wasn't really mention worthy. The trout rolls with the smooth and creamy crab meat felt contemporary Japanese. Beside a tiny handful of avocados, cherry tomatoes and an unidentifiable blood orange sauce there wasn't much to this dish. Didn't think much of it in the department of flavour.

the starter

the pasta

The homemade goose liver ravioli was heart stopping. It was full of cheese. Parmesan cheese sauce and scarmoza cheese melted over the top. The other heart clogging ingredient was of course the goose liver that spilt oil as I cut into the ravioli. As a whole, pretty enjoyable. I'm quite glad it didn't come in larger portions. 

For first visits, Bontá didn't feel impressive. It's not mediocre. Also not satisfying. The feeling I'm getting was neither here nor there.

Essential Brew, Holland Village

Essential Brew (269 Holland Ave, Holland Village) has been around for some years. Their food are fusion of sorts because they're paired with tea and flowers. I didn't think all of it were a success in the department of flavours. That being said, the food here wasn't bad. In fact, I wouldn't mind eating here again if I had to.

Some of the dishes were pretty good. Or maybe, I came here expecting little. Judging by how long this establishment has been around, I also think that this place is probably one of the early adopters of such tea and flower food fusion places. The only other place that I know of was actually Helio Cafe.

grilled tofu steak ($4.75)

nutmeg marinade prawns ($7.50)

The grilled tofu steak which I was told was good was actually good. It was was tau kwa with sliced mushrooms wedged inside. Tasted light and clean and a little salty which I enjoyed. Compared with the elaborate tau kwa tower from Buko Nero, this was less pretentious and represented better value for money in my not so humble opinion.

The nutmeg marinade prawns on the other hand didn't do as well. The prawns were decent if not outstanding. What didn't work for me were the overwhelming lemongrass and ginger in the sauce which totally overwhelmed any flavour from the nutmeg. Bad fusion. Confusion.

earl grey ribeye ($18.95)

honey mustard chicken ($14.95)

Earl Grey and steak isn't....two words that come together usually. Piqued my curiosity so I ordered it. The ribeye was quite decent. I opted for the medium doneness and it did turned out to be a very good medium. Was a little larger than what I expected. The accompanying sauce was an Earl Grey and red wine concoction. Neither of which came through sufficiently. The red wine flavour was thin. Even if it were to be robust, it would totally drown out the subtle tea flavour. I had only managed to detect very a faint taste of the Earl Grey after I was more than halfway done with the steak.

The honey mustard chicken too didn't quite live up in flavour to its name. The mustard flavour was a tad too light. It was however a nice honey chicken chop. The ball on the side was actually jasmine rice which had quite a strong flavour from the jasmine.

Long live Sharon!

Woohooo! Fresh from Holland!

Philadelphia fish & chips, Fish & Co @ Paragon

There's usually not much that's compelling for me at Fish & Co. The food standards like many restaurant chains have spiralled downwards. Their regular fish and chips (quite decent) and the seafood platter for two are probably the only items that I would come for and honestly, it probably wouldn't keep me coming back for much longer. Lately, I've discovered that the one at Paragon serves some items that are exclusive only to that outlet. That's what the Philadelphia fish & chips is about, stuffed with Philadelphia cream cheese which sounded interesting. It looked pretty much like the NY version or the regular one. The difference was just the cheese.

The resultant flavour was a little different from what I had thought. This was something that's probably worth checking out once, not something I'd be keen to come back for. On another note, the seafood platter here looked to have bigger prawns and the shellfish are scallops instead of the usual mussels. I'm not sure if that's something just from this outlet or things have changed.