Noodle Place Restaurant, Centrepoint

Noodle Place Restaurant (#01-53/56, Centrepoint), a Hong Kong styled noodle restaurant has been around in the secluded back of Centrepoint for many years. Tends to be overlooked by many because of the location though that did not seem to be a deterrence against queues of the initiated waiting for seats.

 

One of the highlights of Noodle Place is their selection of roast meats. Which includes roasted chicken, steamed chicken, roasted duck, soya sauce chicken, roasted pork belly, barbecued ribs and char siew. The quality of the mixed roast meats were evidenced by the number of tables that ordered them in some combination or another. Enjoyed the duck, pork belly and char siew that came with some fat. 

 

Another dish I found enjoyable was the crispy fried cod which was available without sauce or like this one which was done with egg white and teriyaki sauce. Fish was crispy on the outside and tender on the inside. The starchy gravy didn't particularly add much to the dish but I found myself enjoying it. Might be because of the egg.

 

Mayo wasabi prawns are on the menu. This dish consisted of battered fried prawns that are coated in a sauce that was a mixture of mayonnaise and wasabi paste. Tasted okay, the mayo wasabi cream was quite mild and leaned towards the sweet side. Think a bit more of the wasabi flavour would be nice. That made the ones I had at Peach Garden a notch better.

 

The beef brisket noodles from this restaurant were pretty good. Generous when compared with the portions of the briskets that are served at Crystal Jade. Meat was succulent and tender.

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.

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