Papa de Lamb de Clarity

I remain impressed sufficiently by the pasta at Miss Clarity (this visit at the new outlet, Yew Lian Park, 205 Upper Thomson Road (S)574345) to seem to always order something from that section of the menu up to this point and apart from their risotto, I've never actually eaten anything else here despite a few visits. This is not the best pasta in town (or out of) but it's quite well done because the chefs apparently understand al dente. I did think that there could be room for abit more improvement in that area, but it seems that consistency can be a double edged sword in this case. That consistency has kept them at the same standards.

This Papa de Lamb is a non complex slow braised lamb in tomato concassé tossed with parpadelle. I like parpadelle because like tagliatelle, reminds me of mee pok. The former is just the thicker and larger version. The importance of being al dente for these large pasta strips is because, you wouldn't want them to taste like thick wanton skins. Firmness and bite to me is something that pasta should preserve after being prepared. The tomato concassé reminds me of arrabiata, meaning that it's also mildly spicy. I'm not too sure of how the braise is done for the lamb, but it appears to be dry on the surface and a little harder than what I expect of the usual braised meats. My only gripe with this pasta, is the portions. It could really do with larger portions. Seriously.

On a side note, the escargots (garlic and chilli oil where all I could taste of the seasoning) here are pretty tasty and inexpensive.

Australian Ribeye from Botak Jones

It's been a while since the US beef option has been put up at Botak Jones. I'm still not that sure I'll be willing to pay their prices considering that there's nothing remarkable about the quality of their steaks. So here's an 400g Australian beef ribeye. In retrospect, there's not too much to complain for the price since it was probably one of the best priced, if not indeed the cheapest steak to be had at that weight for $27. Those guys cooking did put in some effort at trying to get medium rare. Knowing that in life one tends to get what one pays for; allow me a little criticism. The texture of the meat was stringy (also fibrous near the fat) and the consistency of the doneness was a little lacking. Despite saying that it was a valid effort, I don't think that was the medium rare that I'd be happy with if it were an expensive cut of meat. Still, if you're in for big meat at affordable price, the Australian ribeye here works.

Persepolis, Prinsep Place

Chew on this for a bit. 'Persepolis' is the Greek interpretation of the ancient capital of Persia which many of us know of today as Iran and this place serves Italian food. Are we getting confused yet? Persepolis (46A Prinsep Street, #01-01) also happens to be located along Prinsep Place just next door to a better known Trattoria Lafiandra. Despite claiming to be an Italian restaurant and bearing those national colours of Italy, there was a section of the menu which has Persian cuisine. And shishar too! There was also a finger food section which looked like fried frozen food that one can buy from the supermarket. That's how bad those looked.

The kebab koobideh at this place bore some similarity with the one from Banoo. For $15.00, it was a bit more expensive too. Banoo had a better version of this dish. For a start, the meat here was dangerously close to being an unidentifiable meat substances. The saffron flavouring was lighter than I was hoping for and the butter was actually buried in the rice. I didn't have anything against the butter being in the rice, but I thought more butter would have been great. Rice was pretty good though. I noticed that most of the people seem to be here for drinks and snacks rather than actual food.

Sultan Kebab, Peace Centre

I've been hearing mentions of this place (1 Sophia Road, #01-15 Peace Centre) which indicated that the food was good and wanted to find out for myself if it was good as people were saying. A couple of those good things I was told was the affordability and the generosity of their portions. So I came into the shop expecting really big portions.

I was disappointed with what they had. The shop had also run out of beef so I was limited to chicken. From which I could choose between a sandwich, roll, with rice, or iskender kebab. I haven't figured out what the iskender kebab was so I stuck to the safe option of rice ($7.00). That'ss shaven chicken bits from the vertical spit grill on rice. Tasted like how I thought it would. Aside from the small portions, I thought it tasted pretty good. Good enough for me to come back another time if I happen by.

Moo Moo Burger from Vittles

For $10.90, this burger was pretty decent. Was surprised by size and it's not often that this happens. Vittles at Sembawang Cottage across the road from Khatib Camp is a relatively new diner for western food. Prices look affordable and there's not GST and service charge. The place works like Cafe Cartel where one writes their orders on a chit and brings the chit to the counter for payment. Then you wait for your orders and help yourself with free popcorn.

Back to the burger, I think is worth checking. Big hand chopped patty meat (250g) with onions, sautéed mushrooms, real bacon, cheese and lettuce between an oat bun. Said bun probably uses the oatss for decorations than anything else. Patty was beefy and better than the quality from Botak Jones. Not a big fan of the barbeque sauce though. With an egg, it'll give the Epicurious burger a run for their money. This burger's pretty. Try not to dislodge your jaws if you're eating with your hands.

Watershed Wine Dinner @ Senso

Watershed as I've learnt is one of the vineyards that resides in the region of Margaret River down in Australia. This wine dinner - a collaboration of WineBOS and Senso. As one may have surmised from the name, the dinner was accompanied by various wine from Watershed. I'm not knowledgeable about wines but I do drink it and preferences at this point of time is purely dictated by the tongue. I know what I like or not base on taste. I know very little else despite having attended wine appreciation. The differences between the new and the old world hasn't settled in me and I haven't gotten the grasp of the varietal of grapes that are used. So I'm not engaging in the subtleties of the drink. But for those that might be interested, I do have the listed course and accompaniment of this 5 course dinner.

Poached crabmeat salad with avocado, orange and green apple with Sambuca dressing served with
Watershed Sauvignon Blanc/ Semillon, 2006

Rigatoni pasta with braised rabbit in tomato sauce with Taggiasche black olives and fresh thyme served with
Watershed unoaked Chardonnay, 2005

Traditional Carnaroli risotto with braised duck and Italian porcini mushrooms served with Watershed Shades, 2004

Braised veal shank "Ossobuco" served with mashed potatoes, rosemary and lemon Gremolata served with
Watershed Cabernet Sauvignon/ Merlot, 2004

Chef's selection of cheese served with
Watershed Shiraz, 2003

The food was more or less as I had expected. Not so much on satisfaction. It was uninteresting without any highlights that the cheese was actually a highlight of the 5 courses. Those cheeses were quite good and to think that it required the least preparation.

There were a few items that I thought could have been improved. The rabbit in the rigatoni tasted much like fish and the braised shredded duck meat of the risotto tasted boringly flat. And had too little meat, rendering it almost unidentifiable as duck. This poached crabmeat salad seemed quite overdone and brought up more than a faint reminder of a unremarkable trout and crab roll from Bontá. Tthe osso buco was fine. I guess. It only had a small part of the meat from the shank. If I had to call it, the justification to the price tag of the dinner were the generous pours of wine.