Stiff Chilli, Jalan Besar

"when a chilli is stiff, it's dead" ~ Ah Teo

I had a bit of difficulty trying to locate this place at 279 Jalan Besar from the map on Streetdirectory.com. It's actually 2 or 3 bus stops from Sim Lim Square in the direction away from town. The restaurant was an old-ish and modern/quaint little place nested in a row of dilapidated looking shophouse with crumbling whitewash. From what I've read, this place was run by an Italian-Australian chef Rodney Holt who had opened four other Stiff Chilli outlets in Bali. From the way things were looking, this place looked like it was doing pretty good. This was one of those times I walked out of the restaurant feeling happy about the dinner. The question I had was - if it were to be successful as an eatery in this country, would it be able to gracefully meet the challenge of compromise and not bow to mediocrity as many others have.


One of the signature dishes here was Burrata which was essentially a cream filled ball of mozzarella cheese heaped over with rockets, Parma ham, some cherry tomatoes and then drizzled generously with olive oil and vinegar. The cheese was of a soft and smooth texture, light on flavours and has the consistency akin to a portobello mushroom cap. In spite of the size, wasn't overwhelming or heavy. This stuff was definitely worth a try. Came in two options of either parma ham ($22) or grilled vegetables ($18).


The bruschetta here were limited to two or three different toppings but I thought that their mozzarella e rucola ($6) which featured tomatoes, basil, little pieces of bocconcini cheese and roasted garlic (what a pleasant surprise!) was a pretty good starter. For me, the best part of the bruschetta was the addition of the soft roasted garlic and I definitely wished that there were more of it. That would have in my books made it great!


The speck pizza ($18) which featured, according to the menu, double smoked mountain ham (what's this?!) and blue cheese was something that I thought I shouldn't pass up on. This turned out to be something that I found myself liking quite a bit. I thought that a little more generosity with the blue cheese was in order and I'm not sure what's the deal with that salty double smoked mountain ham which tasted almost like Parma ham. The pizza came with an excellent thin crust that was really crispy at the edges and a bottom that did not turn soggy because of the toppings.


There was a variety of pastas to pick from. There was a cannelloni which I spied on the menu, but I had unfortunately limited space. We managed to decide on the ravioli di zucca ($8.50) which was pumpkin filled raviolis cooked in butter and sage. The ravioli was decent in a light buttery broth which I would have preferred to be more buttery. The only thing the sage did for me was to provide a little dimension to the taste.


Interesting thing about their chocolate ice cream was that there were actually flecks of chilli inside. The effect of which was a subtle chilli flavour which doesn't change the chocolate ice cream, but rather sits above it. There was only a very mild spiciness that can be felt and left a ticklish sensation in the throat. The taste was honestly not bizarre or weird. Just different.

I would probably want to come back again to check out other things on the menu. I liked this place enough with first impressions.

Beer Butt Chicken from Blooie's Roadhouse

This turned out to be a little gimmicky. The beer butt chicken which required pre-order from Blooie's (21 Science Park Road #01-01, The Aquarius, Science Park II) was something that had caught my attention a some time back when I first visited them. Been wanting to try it out now that I've finally had it, I'd say it's expensive for a chicken ($38) without any special taste to boot.

The restaurant explained that the the bird needed a day of marination from the pre-order. An opened can of beer was inserted up the behind before it's cooked in line with the logic that the beer would actually evaporate and infuse the meat in the chicken with its flavour. After the chicken was cooked, the kitchen brought it out for display before chopping up the bird a bowl along with cajun fries. They used Kilkenny. We ended up with a pretty decent roasted chicken without any beer flavour. The salty and slightly spicy marinate was quite flavourful. Especially so for the skin. I tried a couple of the pieces of the meat sans skin to see if there was any difference from regular roasted chicken. There wasn't. Because I had been given heads up by a friend prior to this not to expect much out of it, I wasn't actually disappointed at the outcome. I just needed to convince myself by eating it.

Mamma Lucia, Robertson Walk

Churrascaria has been around for some years now. Besides the term 'grilled meat buffet', there isn't much more one can do to describe them. I'm saying that because it gives me the excuse to write less and just put up pictures which describe better. Mamma Lucia (Robertson Walk #01-03/04/07) actually exists as 2 separate restaurants. One of which does Italian food and the other, Brazilian which serves only churrascaria. For $38++, one can pig out from their selection of grilled meats which includes also some seafood and fruits. That and also a small salad/tapas bar to help yourself to. What I didn't like was that they didn't serve ice water. We were cornered into buying drinks since all of the meats were pretty salted.

Food was still good though. Hot meat sizzling off the spit onto the plate doesn't come by that very often.

Shinryoku Yakitori Restaurant, Purvis Street

This was a spot which I have passed by numerous times when I'm about Purvis Street. Occasionally I've even peeked through the glass out of curiosity to see what they were about. Unsuccessfully. A suggestion from a friend landed me a dinner spot on this yakitori place which was actually not too bad at all. Of course it's not in the same leagues as Kazu or Kushigin. Not in terms of both quality and quantity or even options options. But this was much more affordable too. The buffet option for dinner runs at $48++ for an all you can eat izakaya styled from the menu which includes sashimi, charcoal grills, salads and tempura.

Service can be excruciatingly spotty when the crowd picks up. I do mean seriously slow. And there's no iced water to be had!

maguro and hamachi sashimi

fried cod

crispy pork

grilled chicken hearts

tempura prawns

pan fried beef

quail eggs

smoked duck

golden mushroom wrapped in pork belly

salmon and swordfish sashimi

grilled squid

battered fried mint wrapped oysters

more beef

prawn wrapped in pork belly
duh!

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Another Sunday lunch at Café Iguana ( 2 eggs??)

I'll stop writing about this place after this one since it comprises of most of the Mexican category. It's pretty obvious that I haven't tried much of elsewhere. I thought that it's strange that this huevos verdes which was essentially, pretty much the same thing as their green chile stew with additional two eggs on the top, is only served on the weekends up to 4pm. What's the deal with the two eggs that cannot be made anytime after that?

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.