Molly Malone, 56 Circular Road

If anyone was wondering how I spent the hours of the national day parade this year, it was in this Irish pub. Interestingly, a Dutch friend who's in town (who was here with me) mentioned that Molly Malone's is in Holland too. And while I haven't any measure on how Irish the food here might be, the portions were pretty generous without being overly expensive. If not anything else, food here is definitely filling - from the piping hot fish & chips to the Calgary stampede burger, which I thought was kinda strange an idea for a burger here. What does Canada have to do with this Irish bar? The food was hearty rather than sophisticated. Expect not the subliminal layers of complexity. Simple fare that's good with beer here. Yes! There is Strongbow.

 

fish & chips

Calgary stampede burger

tuna melt

A sandwich for your thoughts?

New diner-esque place town just across the road from the National Library at Bras Brasah. They're called Food for Thought. Menu is small and there was an excruciating slow wait when the place was crowded. Place really doesn't have much of floor estate - it was difficult to even walk in when we were there. We didn't eat much, just tried a sandwich of theirs.

It was a pretty decent slow roasted pulled pork sandwich ($7.50) which I thought wasn't bad at all. The pulled pork tasted like meat from pork knuckles and is packed together with sliced sweet potatoes. Not bad. What I liked especially about the sandwich was that the focaccia warm and moist. Better than what O'Briens offers at a similar price point.

Mustard, 32 Race Course Road

This was a good find. I first found out about Mustard some months back while I was lunching in the vicinity. Told myself that I'll be back to see what this place was about and though it was a few months, I'm glad it happened. Mustard specializes in Bengali and Punjabi cuisine. The differences between the two types of regional foods are highlight in their menu using colour codes. The interior of the restaurant reminded me more than a little of Banoo.

Kolkatta Kathi Kebab Rolls

These kebab rolls which were served piping hot were pretty good. They were found under the "trailblazers" section of the menu which presumably are the starters. The rolls were stuffed with meat, onions, crunchy green peppers and a tasty pepper sauce. Made excellent snacks. There were also other options for fillings like mutton, chicken with eggs or even cheese. One could just eat a couple of these things and be filled.

Kolkatta Shingara

pyramid asunder

The kolkatta shingara was a delicious non-spicy pyramid shaped vegetable puff. The insides were filled with cauliflowers, potatoes and peanuts. Texture of the puff was bolstered because of the peanuts which provided quite a bit of crunch. They were however a little bland, but it seemed that quite a few of the dishes here were served with little salt. Like the kebab rolls, these puffs were filling.

palek paneer

These palek paneer (cottage cheese in puree-ed spinach) wasn't so good for me because of the bits of ginger. It's the first time I've encountered ginger in them. It was otherwise like the regular variety.

Kosha Mangsho (mutton masala)

mutton bryani

Bryani here was a little different from what we were used to. There was hardly any salt. There appeared to be very little little oil in the rice and what we could mostly taste were the spices that were used to cook the dish. The serving was large enough to feed two and came with a generous portion of tender mutton and some potatoes. I could eat this again if I ever come back here. What I liked about the briyani was also the accompanying yoghurt on the side which was good with the rice.

cheese naan

Their cheese naans here aren't so special. You might have guessed that they're probably not cheesy enough. Still they were served hot and freshly made.

Chingri Maacher Malai Curry

This coconut curry with shrimps was apparently a signature dish from the restaurant and it was delicious. The curry looked liked oatmeal instead of the usual spicy hues. The flavour was intense with coconut and spices. It tasted quite rich but was not quite as spicy as what I normally expect of curries. The was meat in the fruit which could scraped out. I suppose that was an assurance that the fruit as a bowl wasn't recycled. The shrimps looked to have been cooked in the curry for some time and texture was stiff. In spite of that, I think I would recommend this.

Rossomalai

The rossomlai was cottage cheese in some sweet milk. I detected ginger in the milk and that wasn't something that I was expecting. The texture of the cottage cheese was like a wet dense bread. 

Dinner @ Ma Maison

This is an ad hoc decision for dinner at Central. Did I mention having good memories of this place? Yeah, I think I did. I also grabbed the opportunity to check out the jumbo hamburger steak which is essentially just a beef patty. The jumbo size at 300g felt kinda small really. In fact, I wasn't all that sure it was really at 300. I was sure I could still eat more after I was done with it. My conclusion is, 300g of beef patty doesn't fill as much as 300g of prime rib which doesn't fill as much as 300g of other cuts of steak. Lol. That explains why I can do a Diamond Jim Brady while the Texas burger at Seah Street almost did me in. Lol. The menu here has a relatively small selection and I haven't actually tried most of their food since I have the tendency to want to order stuff that has meat or looks like it has a lot of meat. Prices here are quite reasonable and nothing in the menu cost even $30.

jumbo hamburger steak

caesar salad

scallop carpaccio

The main draw of the hamburger steaks here are probably the sauce which is claimed to have been stewed for 28 days. Hmmmm.....28 Days Later eh? I really don't know. The becomes what I would describe to be a Worcestershire sauce and red wine reduction of sorts which tastes not too bad. However, it wasn't that much special considering that a lot of effort seemed to have gone into it. I'm not going to mention caesar's salad since everyone has their rendition of it and I don't even know what's the original like. The scallop carpaccios are quite tasty though they really aren't carpaccios. Firstly they aren't raw and also, they're sliced far too thickly. The edges of the scallops are lightly seared and the shellfish is then topped with a chilled and sourish ebiko & radish/onion mix which was pretty damn good. It's something I wouldn't mind ordering again if I return.

Can you smell Molecular Gastronomy?

If not, you can read about it.

Sun With Moon, Clark Quay Central

This reminded me of the first time I visited a couple of years back at their branch in Wheelock Place. Before this blog was born. The impression from that first visit seemed quite different from today. But we know memory can be a fickle mistress. Since then, the menu appeared to have changed a little with new items.

salmon & yellowtail sashimi

Their sashimi was quite ordinary. One can see that the kitchen here obviously do not put in enough skill points into their knife mastery as does a certain Kaiser Phua from the lack of clean-ness on the edges of the cuts. The presentation was fanciful for a few pieces of meat and style is over substance here.

dragon roll

Am not normally big on makis as I generally bit occasionally I do feel like them. This dragon roll  sounded a bit more promising than the usual because avocado and cheese. I was right about it and this was pretty good with cream cheese at the centre. The other filling on the inside was unagi - ordinary was the word.

rainbow roll

The rainbow roll contained crab fillings at the centre. I was thinking of chunks of crab meat but what they put in were finely minced crab meat in mayo. Kinda disappointing there. The ebiko at the top was more interesting than the crab mayo.

uni sushi

Do not order this here. It's not good at all and it actually costed more than Akashi. That is all I have to say of the uni.

foie gras sushi

Their foie gras was broiled. It didn't come with the crispy or toasty surface. Not impressive. This one so not creamy.

ebi & hotate yaki (prawn & scallop)

This prawn and scallop dish was pretty good. The scallops had char fragrance from the pan fry which made them tasty. Prawns were crunchy. My only complain was that the portions were small.

ton toro yaki

I think I had these pork cheeks the first time I was at the other branch. They were grilled with black pepper. Tasted like bacon minus the fat. Salty, slightly chewy and a bit dry. Again, portions aren't generous.

kani tamago toji

gyu foie gras grill

This gyu foie gras grill was foie gras on top of some grilled beef. Did not expected the entire thing to be drenched in a sweet teriyaki sauce which drowned out all the flavour of the beef. There's eggplant blanketed foie gras sitting on apple slices. Foie gras also did not have crispy surface. Will never order again.

tofu cheese cake

The tofu cheesecake seemed popular here. Thought it's pretty good. The texture felt more tofu than cheesecake but wasn't as soft as real tofu. Flavour's light yet had enough of the cheesecake taste. Wasn't heavy or overwhelmingly sweet.

murasaki imo mont-blanc (purple sweet potato cake)

This was a pleasant surprise. Most of the sweet potato flavour came from the purple yarn surface which housed whipped cream and a few chestnuts (that's the yellowish ball at the top too!) inside. This dessert was not excessively sweet. Quite good stuff.

mineoka ninjin creme brulee (carrot creme brulee)

Carrot creme brulees - not run of the mill creme brulee for sure. Which was why I just had to try it. The carrot flavours were mild but noticeable the same. I thought the caramel top could have been more charred.

tomato ame

Another interesting dessert were the spicy candy glazed tomatoes. These tomatoes were coated with a sugar glaze that was both sweet and mildly spicy. The fruit itself was actually fresh and the tomato bursted with juices when bitten into.