Half time at the Japanese Food Festival with the sabazushi

The Japanese Food Festival at Isetan Scotts this time round seems to be smaller in scale in terms of what is available but it still is attracting its usual crowd. I grabbed a box of sabazushi for a snack before bracing myself to head back into the crowd to check out the other offerings. The sabazushi is apparently a salted and vinegar marinated slab of mackerel fillet over a roll of vinegared rice. Both the mackerel and the rice are pressed into a bar shaped roll of sorts and then sliced. The slices were pretty thick and this stuff is very enjoyable. The taste of the fish is fatty, atypical of mackerel and each slice of the fish is accompanied by a thick wad of sticky comforting rice. What makes it appetizing is obviously the vinegar which really helps and makes you want to wolf more of them down. If you're considering this, the fair ends on Monday, 17th December. I'm probably going to be down to pick up more of this before it ends.


I also decided to pick up a white bean wafer which they called Yoshifuku Monaka for $3.30 a piece which turned out to be quite unimpressive. My decision to try the wafers was due to the fact that it was a white bean rather than the usual red bean variety. In the end, the taste of the custard-like bean filling was merely sweet without much of an aroma. I wonder if it's because of the sabazushi that I ate before.

There is no marrow in the walnut

If you're seeking the bottom line without having to negotiate the mire of my convoluted grammar, I was disappointed by the dinner at La Noce (3 Chu Lin Road). Disappointments happen because expectations surpass reality. And little things add up. No offence intended to the good chef Salvatore Catalano and his crew - the service was good and well appreciated. But for what they were charging, the food here definitely has ways to go. Good service doesn't quite make up for everything. It wasn't that we came in expecting flawless culinary execution of the highest level. In fact, I thought we had very grounded expectations.


The menu was pretty straightforward. Mostly "run of the mill" range of antipasti, pasta, meats and dessert. There was also pizza which wasn't listed in the menu and small list of weekly specials. One of which was a ravioli with white truffle stuffing which didn't quite turn out as it sounded.

prosciutto e melone ($18)

The 18 month Parma ham with melon was atypical. The ham had a velvet-like in texture (which I liked) but otherwise, not much noteworthy. The melon didn't taste sweet to me and wasn't juicy.

ravioli with white truffle stuffing ($24)

The waiter had, when asked, insisted that the ravioli was stuffed only with white truffles and we were knew that it could not be true because it cost $24. After the first ravioli, we were beyond certain. While I did not reasonably expect the waiter's claim to be true, it was the insistence on their part that unsettled me. If you wanted to know, there was a bit of shaven white truffles on the top of the ravioli and there was a hint of the flavour from the them. Otherwise, it was a creamy cheese sauce and I was quite sure that the stuffings, if it included any white truffle at all, was mostly cheese.

grilled lamb rack

This grilled lamb rack was pretty good. Found it rather enjoyable and it was probably the best thing served tonight. Despite the meat being a little dry, the doneness was good and there was natural flavour of lamb with a nice rosemary aroma on the surface. I still think that the charcoal grilled ones from Kazu are superior, but these here were definitely more meaty. If there was anything I would recommend from what we had, it would be this.

grilled tenderloin ($36)

This beef tenderloin was actually a replacement dish after the restaurant failed a total of three attempts to do an ossobuco for two persons. That beef tenderloin was competent if unexceptional. A proper medium rare but the meat wasn't juicy like we had hoped for. Back to the failed ossobuco which I wanted get off my system - it was redone twice. When it first arrived, I was shocked (yes, 'aghast' would be a an appropriate word too) at how hard the meat was when I first tried to prod it with my fork thinking that the fork was all I needed to eat it. I made  mention to the waiter and the dish was brought it back to the kitchen for a replacement. I wasn't sure if it was changed or merely redone but in the second round, the results were similar. The third attempt at the dish resulted in something that was rubbery and dry. Yeap, I said rubbery. The sauces look dried out from having being redone and the meat on the shank looked blistered. Definitely not something that one would expect of braised meat. And through it all, the waiter looked like he was totally ignorant of the fact that the meat was supposed to be tender and should be fork tender. The chef did personally apologise regarding the quality of the meat which we had graciously accepted, but a disappointment's a disappointment.

dessert platter ($30)

For $30, I didn't quite find this dessert platter enjoyable. We've had better tiramisu and our home made version was more enjoyable. I shit you not. The panna cotta was very ordinary and actually tasted better without the berry compote. Profiterole was ordinary and the pie which was supposedly a pine tart tasted like it only has custard filling.

I'm not sure if I'm ever coming back given the remote location and food.

Chen Li Yuan, Tanjong Pagar

This eatery (72 Tanjong Pagar) does Northern Chinese cuisine. I've been hearing about them from a couple of sources. After a bit of asking around and reading, I decided to do dinner with the family. Even though I had some idea of what to expect from friends whom have eaten at this here, some things turned out pretty unexpected. For one, the restaurant looked a lot older than I had in mind. The heavily accented Chinese spoken by the people running the place was also difficult to understand. There were also hits and misses from the food. We left with a mixed feelings about the restaurant. On the bright side, the prices here were rather affordable. This dinner for seven people came up to just about $97 and the portions aren't too stingy.

fried Mao's pork

I think I got the name of this greasy and spicy pork belly dish right. I had the impression from somewhere that the slices of pork belly would be thicker but these were thinly sliced. Reminded me of bacon. There was also actually much less meat than it looked because most of the plate is filled with onions and chillies. This could have been pretty good with beer from all the flavour but I thought that portions of meat needs to go up. No one orders Mao's pork for the vegetables.

braised lamb ribs

The spiced braised lamb ribs were good. If I come back again, this would be on the re-order list. I couldn't help but compare with a disappointing rendition of lamb ribs which I have had recently. For the record that this one was many times more satisfying than that was. The tender braised meat had enough of the natural lamb flavours which had not been drowned out by the sauces. Meat also easily slid off the bone. Good stuff here not to be missed if you enjoy lamb. There were some sliced egg tofu on the sides which looked oddly out of place. I'm not too sure what to make out of them, but since I do like them, I thought it was good with the sauce from the dish.

fried pumpkin slices in salted yolk

We had some praises for these pumpkin slices. They were sweet, much like sweet potatoes and were great when eaten hot. The only gripe would be that the salted egg yolk lacked flavour and was mostly just salty. I've developed a recent liking for salted yolk things. Having them on fried pumpkin slices was a refreshing change to the usual prawn rendition that everyone is doing. 

marinated duck's tongue

I didn't expect the duck tongue to have bones (the spiny or feeler like things that you see) in them. Was eating them for the first time. The flavour of the marinate was pretty good but as I ate them, I couldn't help myself from thinking that they were tongues and after a while it got kind of creepy. This was especially so when the meat started to get cold. Haha! I'm sure I didn't feel that way about eating gyutan from Kazu and I don't understand why this one did so. I'm probably not going to order them again.

xiao long bao

The xiao long baos here were disappointing. This was probably one of the worst ones that I've ever had. The dumplings were dry and had little or no juice in them. They were also served barely lukewarm. No worries about scalded tongue here. All of us had expected the meat under the skin to be bursting with hot juices. I meant, that's one of the reasons why we eat them too right? They looked pretty good when they were served.

broccoli, egg white, fish and dried scallops

This broccoli and shredded fish dish was nice. Predictably nice. There always seems to be a broccoli and a seafood dish about in most Chinese restaurants and this one definitely looks to be just one of them. I had forgotten to add vinegar and also didn't really taste any of the dried scallops that is supposed to be in the dish. But it was still good the same.

shredded pork with poh piah skin

The shredded pork here were regular shredded stir fried pork. Their sauce was rather flavourful and the chives added flavour and texture. The dish was served with flour skins. What you had to do is to wrap the pork and vegetables in those skins and eat them. Like a fajita if you would.

caramelised apple

One of the highlights of the dinner were this caramelized apples. These apples were battered and deep fried and then coated in hot caramel. Accompanying them were bowls of cold water. What you had to do was to dunk the hot apple slices in to the water to harden the caramel surface which would then form a crispy and sticky shell.

What I liked about it was that the citrus flavour of the fruit was intact and was essential in balancing the sweetness from the caramel on the surface. They had to be eaten fast since the caramel cooled pretty quickly and would stick the apple slices on the plate. The apples remained hot for quite a while and oddly, it came with rainbow sprinkles on the top. Pretty sure they were meant to be purely cosmetic.

red bean snow buns

These "incredible shrinking" puffs of egg white are quite common as Chinese desserts. They're stuffed with red bean paste and are suppose to be light and fluffy. These ones here were unfortunately not so fluffy as the egg white skins were dense and a little heavy. The sugar coated puffs looked huge when they arrived one could literally see them shrink slowly. The taste was otherwise quite the norm.

Pick me up!

Tiramisu, if your discerning capabilities haven't figured out from the above picture is in some strange ways like chicken rice. Firstly, it has become quite ubiquitous. One can certainly without much difficulty get them it in many places. It is also not too complex to make from instructions but requires a measure of experience to work with the separate ingredients to fine tune. On top of that, the appreciation of the dessert varies in expectations based on its ingredients. Agree, or agree to disagree.

Experience is probably the most important determinant as to whether the dessert comes out as desired or results in a hair ripping disaster. Another deciding factor would be the actual ingredients involved. Some recipes have included whiskey, rum or even Kalua. May be that the best could be marsala wine. It works like credit accumulation. Each ingredient adds a certain amount of points to the making process. The better or more appropriate it is, the more points each of them earns. The skill and experience adds more separate points and the sum of the individual credits should preferably fall within an imaginary boundary for it to become a good tiramisu.

Fortunately when it is done at home, one can always be forgiving. This is one that still requires fine tuning for better results but as it is, was pretty good. Recipe is shared by a secret contributor whom has made anonymous star appearances in this blog several times. Remember, YMMV.

• 1 tub mascarpone cheese
• 1 tub Cool Whip (whipped cream)
• 2 egg yolks
• Sugar (approximately 3-4 teaspoons)
• Espresso coffee
• Port
• Sponge fingers
• Cocoa Powder

1. Prepare coffee and port mixture.
2. Beat 2 egg yolks with sugar (depending on how sweet you like) until creamy, custard like texture.
3. Beat mascarpone cheese for about a minute and add in the beaten egg yolks.
4. Mix them well then add cool whip.
5. Soak sponge fingers in coffee & port (c&p) mixture using the 4 secs rule.
6. Place the fingers nicely in a deep dish casserole or any containers that you can find.
7. Once the first layer is done, spread the mascarpone on top evenly. Sprinkle cocoa powder.
8. Repeat the same for 2nd layer.
9. Chill for at least 3-4 hrs. Some say it is 6hrs.

Now is the time to keep your fingers crossed and hope that it turns out the way you imagine it.

Ben & Jerry...... and Dave??

What in the world has ice cream gotten itself into?! Encore Edition indeed...

Another Kazu visit chronicled...

Guess what? I'm back here again. This must be the fourth time that I'm writing about Kazu and I bet that some of you whom have been following this must be pretty damn tired of hearing me talk about their fantastic charcoal grill. If you're here and reading this, deal with it. This time round, I'll be easing on the incessant chatter on the food since I there are previous mentions done already (1st, 2nd and 3rd previous visit) . I'll be letting the pictures do some their own talking since most of them have been mentioned and the standards here have so far been very consistently good.

home made crab pudding topped with ikura

This cold starter definitely deserves special mention. At the base of the cup was minced crab tofu and it's topped with ikura and some ponzu. Excellent chilled amuse bouche, if you will. Flavour was slightly salty and tangy. Something that awakens the taste buds. This comes highly recommended.

anglerfish liver with vinegar jelly

The anglerfish is back in season for the year. This time round, there was a jelly of ponzu which I thought was awesome. Almost a surrealistic rendition of foie gras in balsamic vinegar glaze. The parallels drew themselves to me. Silently, I had applauded Kazu for wowing me again.

shimeji mushroom wrapped in wagyu

ox tongue (left) and kurobuta with eggplant (right)

asparagus in pork belly (back) and foie gras (front)

scallop and prawn in pork belly strip

salt baked chestnuts

Sadly, this visit would be the first time when I have something negative to say about the food. These chestnuts baked in salt tasted half cooked. The meat in the chestnuts were difficult to extract and had little taste beyond salt. The texture came out very dry and crunchy and I didn't enjoy it one bit.

chicken hearts (back) and apple with fatty pork (front)

lamb chops

oyster in pork belly

miso grilled maguro

grilled squid tentacles

yaki tiramisu

One of the things that changes but doesn't really change is Kazu's tiramisu. Their rendition doesn't taste quite like the Italian version. It's their own. This time round, there were blueberries in them and I recall from the past occasions, the sorbet in the centre was changed once from mango to musk melon.