The Universal, Duxton Hill

I didn't find this place (36 Duxton Hill, S089614, tel:63250188) agreeable. Half an afternoon of repeated phone calls failed to get through to the restaurant which resulted in my attempt to do a reservation via their website. The web reservation had no acknowledgement and by the time I managed to get through to someone sometime in the evening, it became apparent that the web reservation didn't register. An email which I had sent inquiring the menu didn't get any replies. By the time I was seated in the restaurant, I found that most of the items on their website is no longer being served. Can you spell bummer?

amuse bouche

The current menu from the very recent change (why is everyone using the same excuses?) didn't quite seem as interesting. At this point, there wasn't much other options and I wasn't about to adjourn to another location. I didn't feel that these guys were worth the money and ended up with pastas for mains.

cappucino of mushroom

The impression I had was that they were trying and not quite getting there. Service was very polite if somewhat sculpted. Their  amuse bouche of a pan fried scallop and parma ham on a cheese cracker did look promising but the promising pretty much stopped at that point. A cappucino of mushroom, thyme infused milk and white truffle oil tasted just like a plain, albeit decent mushroom soup with none of the other mentioned ingredients detected. This paled very much in comparison with a cappucino of cauliflower veloute which I've had some time back. 

The very modestly sized pan fried foie gras with duck breast, caramelized banana with rum and port reduction at $36 turned out to be too mushy. The first thought that came to mind when I put the first piece into my mouth was "I've definitely had better". Better and less expensive ones too. And in larger portions. It had almost none of the crispy exterior to speak of to contrast. Duck breast's so ordinary, I can hardly find words to describe them. Help me out here.

risotto

I found the spinach gnocchi with home made tomato sauce and smoked scarmoza cheese unimpressive. Sauce didn't taste good. It was tangy, but not in a refreshing way. I have a suspicious feelings that it was probably mixed from something that came in a can/jar. Did not detect any scarmoza. Parmesan, yes. Scarmoza, definitely not in there. Visually, it looked a mess with bits of unidentifiable vegetable bits in the sauce topped with what tasted like fried tapioca chips. From the way the melted cheese looked, it looked like it had been heated in the microwave. Their wild mushroom risotto with octopus perfumed with truffle oil featured the same tapioca chips. It was served with mussels instead of octopus because they were out of octopus. The reason they gave was that there was no delivery for the weekend. On a Friday night. After I had made the order. This restaurant has serious communication issues.

Or maybe, they just don't like me.

Kolo mee @ Tampines Round Market and Food Centre

This looked to be a popular stall selling wanton noodles at the Tampines Round Market. Apparently, they have Sarawak kolo mee too. I have no idea what is the name of this stall (Blk 137 Tampines Street 11, #01-45, S521137) but it attracts a queue during lunch hours. Part of the reason for that queue as I've found out today is the leisurely pace at which the owners prepare their noodles.

The kolo mee was $2.50 with a $3.00 happy meal set option. I *wonder* where they got that from. That happy meal has a slightly larger portion and has some skinny braised pork ribs. Sounded like a good deal with a bowl of soup with wanton and shrimp dumpling. But I didn't think they were as tasty as Jia Xiang Kolo Mee which goes for a pricier $6 with more measly portions. This was one of those instances where a chain noodle shop (think mass produced and applied formulas) outdoes a individual outlet. Noodles here were a bit more cooked than I liked, resulting in a less firm consistency. Their slightly sweetish and viscous gravy was also not my thing over the fragrance of the oil of fried shallots from the Jia Xiang. The chilli in this case helped whereas the ones from Jia Xiang didn't need much of other extras for the noodles to be good. Also included in the bowl was a fried wanton skin. Just the skin. I guess these are where the differences in price comes in.

A revisit to Shinryoku

I'm back in Shinryoku (8 Purvis Street, #01-01, S188587, tel:63388472) and predictably, what we ordered were pretty much what we liked from the previous visit. Plus others. These guys apparently make changes to menu and thus time round there was no more oysters. Yep, ditto that for Miss Clarity just around the corner too and I heard it was because of a recent spate of food poisoning that caused the shortage?

There were some items which we hadn't eaten before and it included a gravy drenched grilled chicken liver. I was hoping would be similar to the ones at Hamoru, but these are apparently more cooked and thus, less soft. Making the debuts on the table were also a pretty decent grilled garlic pork with leeks, agedashi tofu, chicken skins, grilled cherry tomatoes, chicken meat balls, shishamo, chawanmushi and a very unexpected deep fried garlic. The garlic was initially more of a curiosity but it turned out to be pretty good. It was apparently deep fried with the skin intact. That created a hard skin which was easily broken, revealing the soft and fragrant cloves inside.

the score cup

It seems that Shinryoku has an add on option to the a la carte buffet. For $20++ more, bottled beer is free flow too. Which is a pretty good deal since a bottle of Kirin here is already $9. Something to consider I suppose.

Peng Lai Ge Taiwan Delight, North Bridge Road

This shop across the road from Swenson's at Bugis Junction (520 North Bridge Road, #01-01 Wisma Alsagoff) serves Taiwanese food and was operated by mainland Chinese. For some reasons, I was expecting the staff to be either local or Taiwanese. That aside, I noticed this place previously and was curious. They apparently have another outlet at Joo Chiat as well.

lu rou fan (steamed rice with braised pork belly)

steamed rice with minced meat

deep fried chitterling

egg rolls with pork floss

The gravy for their lu rou fan here tasted different from the one at Lai Lai. This concoction was more savoury/umami while the one at Lai Lai was a little sweet. In any case both were good enough that I could wolf down in short order. Their deep fried chitterling (pig intestines) which were served on bean sprouts were palatable but lacked much flavour compared the braised rendition. The fried surface was thin and didn't have a good crisp as what I've had imagined. The chilli however provided a nice kick. Egg rolls with pork floss would have been much better with more floss for sure.

Vintage vongole!

Fancy a 4 century old clam?

The Cellar Door, Bukit Timah

We came upon this place (619 Bukit Timah Road S269720, tel:64635296) by happenstance while in the vicinity looking for lunch. Originally, we wanted  to check out Karma Kettle and Rhapsody or the recently opened gourmet burger outlet Relish down in Cluny Court. Didn't feel like the former location and the latter was fully occupied; didn't feel like waiting either. Just past Culina, I noticed the Cellar Door and it wasn't until I had entered and sat down that I remembered that Bottomless Pit had made mention of this place before about their burger. A don't particularly remember seeing a burger on the menu, but there was a lamb burger that was listed under their Specials on the board. That alone was good enough to pique my interest. Happenstance decided that I would have my burger after all.


I kinda liked the place form the start. Interior was cosy and armed with a crew of polite staff that apart from being a friendly, actually knew enough of the menu to answer questions on about their food. The small space and knowledgeable wait staff reminded of Wine Garage. Along with the bottles of wines that line the wall. We went with a cheese board. Speaking of cheeses, the portions here were generous and a bit more exotic than what we were used to. This will probably be my first and last encounter with Iron Gate. Lol.

cheese board ($28)

The selection of the day featured a few cheeses which I've never heard of. Feeling adventurous, we picked five of the stronger sounding options out of six. The platter was served with with dried apricots, black seedless grapes, some walnuts, rice or wheat crackers. There was also some Rutherford & Meyer quince paste and Kato roasted peach chutney. The peach chutney had an unexpected ginger flavour. On the whole, the cheeses were enjoyable apart from the Te Mata Iron Gate which was the one with shrivelled looking sides beside the walnuts. The pungence of could almost be described as out of this world. Here I had thought myself capable of meeting almost any challenge of the fromage kind. Notable mention goes to the Awa Blue which was different from other blue cheeses I've had. This was infused with a spicy and heady aroma of an almost ethereal quality. Swirled up from the tongue into the nose and I was more than a little surprised at spicy blue cheese. I'm pretty sure I'll be remembering this one.

lamb burger ($19)

"one all lamb special seasoning no lettuce no cheese cucumber relish tomatoes in a buttered and toasted super sesame seed bun!"

I have good things to say about this lamb burger. One of the better burgers that I've had around. The texture of the heavyweight patty was uncannily similar to the Ultimate Beef Burger from Marmalade Pantry with two main differences. This was lamb and that the taste of the marinade was Middle Eastern-ish. Which kinda made it unique. Topped on the juicy lamb patty was a cucumber relish which added a lightness to the lamb flavour of the lamb. Lamb patty was enclosed in a buttered and toasted bun that was absolutely studded with sesame seeds. Had a nice sesame aroma. The crinkle cut fries had a nice salty seasoning. Not over fried as well. Definitely wouldn't mind returning for this again.

turkey and cranberry pie ($19)

The turkey and cranberry pie was something also on the specials. Haven't made it a habit to order pies unless it is recommended. Most of them I've had were just filled root vegetables soaked in a unidentifiable yet generic starchy gravy which I'm not a fan of. The exceptions were the chicken pies from M Hotel (a great chunky chicken filled potato-less pie here!!) and Don's Pies. This one was pretty decent pie filled with chunky pieces of turkey and some carrots without potatoes; swimming in a hot and light creamy sauce with cranberry flavour. We were told the pies rotate through the weeks. Each order was a 20 minute wait as they were made to order.

green apple sorbet ($3)

The green apple sorbet didn't taste as refreshing as I was hoping. They were are the slick and sweet. Too sweet for my liking.