Festive lunch from Il Lido

Il Lido (Sentosa Golf Club, Bukit Manis Road) is up again this year end with a festive menu for Christmas. Apparently, this festive menu has been ongoing since the 5th of November and will continue until the 28th December before the switch into the New Year Menu. I haven't had the opportunity to visit before so we decided to try the 4 course festive lunch ($58 before tax) just to go with that festive mood. The restaurant is located at the not so accessible spot in the golf club at Sentosa. Which can be a hassle if one is not driving. On the other hand, it was a pleasant place with a rather scenic view of the sea looking past the blistering sun or the sweltering humidity or both. I wisely requested for an indoor seat near the al fresco area to get both the air conditioning and most of the view which was far from the stunning portrait that it is often imagined to be.

complimentary bread crisps

These dry bread crisps are surprisingly quite enjoyable to munch. They were served in a coral patterned metal bowl which I've noticed have turned up in photos everywhere. The crisps were lightly flavoured with a hint of olive oil and bits of garlic. A fresh bowl was brought out just as we were a third done with the first. I'm not complaining though.

insalata di granseola con avocado e salsa di agrumi siciliani
blue swimmer crab salad with avocado and sicilian citrus sauce

These crab salads felt overdone, but there wasn't anything else I could choose. Does the minced crab salad with avocado and orange slices look familiar to anyone? I didn't think that these things would be the "caesar's salad" of starters in restaurants everywhere. I thought this felt quite uninspiring. Light flaky crab meat over creamy avocado that was abruptly interrupted by a boring diced local tomatos. I don't know what went into the sicilian citrus sauce, but I was glad it did contain enough of the citrus.

tagliolini con fegato d'oca e pere al marsala
homemade tagliolini pasta with goose liver, pears and marsala wine sauce

This was the most enjoyable course for me. It wasn't a very fanciful plate of pasta. What was like-able about it included the poached pears which was not overdone. The diced pears had both a light residual crunch and the soft texture of cooked fruit. The complement flavours between the goose liver and the pears was enjoyable. Pasta was al dente. I haven't figured out the marsala wine sauce which was well flavoured without being overbearing. Now if only the portions were bigger...

involtino di tacchino farcito al tartufo con puree di mele e castagne
roasted turkey stuffed with pancetta and truffle, apple and chestnut puree

Tiny pieces of turkey breasts that Il Lido serves. The mixed stuffings tasted mostly of the pancetta. The rest flavours were mashed up and lost. Credit though goes to the meat for retaining a measure of succulence and a rather delectable flavour on the surface. All in all, quite enjoyable.

merluzzo nero con porcini, crema di patate e salsa al vino rosso
chilean seabass with porcini mushroom, potato cream and red wine sauce

What was remarkable about this chilean seabass were actually the char grilled mushrooms on the side. Nothing so much about fish here. This was certainly one of the more delicious enjoyable grilled mushrooms that I've had. I thought the creamy potato bed was rather good as well, light in flavour and texture. As for the chilean seabass, it's just a chilean seabass. Fresh enough, firm and soft but otherwise a very regular small piece of fish. The red wine sauce was mostly aesthetics since it didn't contribute much in the way of flavour for that small drizzle.

sorpresa natalizia
traditional italian festive pudding

I'm not sure how far this tradition goes back for the making of festive pudding or if tradition has changed for puddings over the years for the Italians. It certainly did look quite contemporary for a traditional pudding. This was a heavy layered mousse clad in a super thin chocolate shell and dusted with a very fine chocolate powder topped with a meringue. According to the server, the three different layers of the insides were chocolate, coffee and vanilla. I thought I had tasted mascarpone in there. There were some bits of candied chestnuts on the side with a golden brown drizzle which was distinctively bitter-ish sweet which that the server insisted was just honey. Hmmm......

Chew on this!

I took a plunge and decided to check out a couple of the gimmicky sounding desserts from Ah Chew in this re-revisit. As I had suspected, they were no big deals. The green bean soup with seaweed tasted nothing of seaweed. I was actually disappointed since I was actually hoping to taste it in the soup.

There was a sign on the counter that mentioned their steamed milk egg with cookies which was not on the menu. The adventurous soul in me decided to order it and it turned out to be nothing more than a regular steamed egg dessert with a thin layer of cookie crumbs blanketed over the top. The crumbs didn't really enhance the steamed egg much IMNSHO. Seriously, I thought very little of it. To reiterate, gimmick!

Lai Lai again!

No surprise I found myself heading back for late evening grub again since the last visit left us with a favourable impression. We ordered almost exactly the same today. The tasty lu rou fan, braised intestines and their signature beef noodles. In this second run in with their lu rou fan, I managed to eat them slowly enough to notice that the gravy contained minced pork besides the braised pork belly. To digress out of the blue at this point, we've also noticed that there is a shop by the name of Taiwan Delights along Bugis next to the entrance of Liang Seah Street that is doing similar Taiwanese food. I'll probably check them out when I'm next in the vicinity.

We opted for the potato noodle option for their beef noodles. They appeared similar to what I thought were glass noodles. Rather "Q" to coin a Taiwanese term, which meant that they were springy in consistency. The texture was smooth and coupled with the chewiness, reminded me that crab tang hoon in Geylang. Pretty easy to slurp without even actually chewing which I though was fun.

Hyang To Gol Korean Restaurant, Amara Hotel

I was told that this restaurant (Amara Singapore Hotel Level 2, 165 Tanjong Pagar Road) was pretty good by word of mouth from a friend who heard it from a Korean guy. I suppose that's as good as any a reason to give them a try. That being said, I'm still of the opinion that I prefer Japanese is even though I don't mind these now and then. Maybe it's too much of that similar taste of spicy and sour which makes many of their dishes a little difficult to distinct from one another. But I suppose it could also be the fact that my palate isn't quite as discerning for all things kimchi.

small array of condiments

spread shot

spread shot II

cold appetizer soup

Kimcheejeon

Here's the almost obligatory pancake. I'm not too sure of how good these are against the original things since I've only had them once in Togi, but the ones here were pretty good. Crispy exterior and hot soft insides. These pancakes were quite similar to Chinese carrot cakes in texture. Except for the onions and chilli and that it's orange. One could imagine them as a hybrid between Indian dough fritters and Chinese pan cakes in some strange manner.

vegetables for the grilled meat wrap

Saeng-Galbi (non marinated beef short ribs)

Yangnyeom-Galbi (marinated beef ribs)

The marinated meats here were pretty much like how they're done in other Korean places. There's a choice of cuts and quantity and the meats were served and grilled at the table by the servers. After which you eat them as they are or attempt to wrapped them in lettuce. The meats were quite pricey here. The more expensive options costed more than some steaks Morton's. And those didn't even look to be as good as what I've had back in Aburiya. I recommend to do the wrap and enjoy the kick of the spices. I don't think they're big here on the original flavor of the meat.

Gopchang-Jeongol (beef mixed innards with noodles in soup)

The gopchang-jeongol was recommended. This dish was essentially a beef innards stew with intestines, tripe, tofu along with some vegetables and noodles. I was surprised by the fact that the flavour of the beef was strong in the broth and not drowned out by all the spiciness. This was definitely a reminiscence of a beef kuey chap.

Jajangmyeon

As you may gather from the name jajangmyeon which sounds similar to the Chinese zha jiang mian, this noodle was basically very much the same. A bowl of noodle topped with thick sticky gravy that's filled with diced meat (probably pork) and vegetables. The main difference was that zha jiang mian, doesn't have vegetables besides shredded cucumbers. Instead of being savoury, this jajangmyeon's gravy was actually sweet. The viscosity along with rather generous portion made these noodles cloying after a bit. I much prefer the Chinese version to this.

what do you think?!

ginger drink

Some loot from the Japanese Food Festival

You didn't think that I had visited the Japanese Food Festival without buying anything did you?

sabazushi roll

sabazushi roll with konbu kelp

mixed fried seafood (scallops, smelt and squid)

squid in sauce filled with eggs

smoked squid

fish soup bags

Ah Chew's Desserts, Liang Seah Street

So far, I have been here twice in the span of a few days. I noticed that this shop (1 Liang Seah Street, 01-11) stays crowded well past 10pm. There's a bunch of Cantonese desserts including some variants which I have not seen elsewhere like green bean soup with seaweeds and steamed milk egg with hashima. Those options, no doubt piqued my interest at Ah Chew's.

I've also found a new favourite. It's papaya boiled in fresh milk and these things tasted pretty awesome served hot. The fruit was boiled in the milk to the point that they are soft and basically breaks apart easily in the mouth, allwith the nice aroma of hot milk. I had expected their steamed milk egg to with red beans to contain the beans within the steamed egg itself, but apparently, the beans are just heaped on top of the eggs. It wasn't too bad, but the red beans didn't taste as good as azuki beans. The coffee flavored steamed milk eggs was a first for me too and surprising the coffee flavour weren't as weak as I had expected. There was enough of it to mask the egginess in the pudding. I've a feeling that I'll be back again.

Hawaiian papaya boiled in fresh milk

steamed milk egg with red bean

coffee flavored steamed milk egg