Sage 2008

Revisits usually mean that there was something that I liked about a particular place and that it was worth the effort getting another post up. Sage (11 Unity Street, #02 -12 Robertson Walk, S237995, tel:6333 8726) was one of the places which I've been to a couple of previous occasions and so far, the restaurant has always had something up their menu that had impressed me. So we're back today because I said "I'd like to come back" the last time I was here for dinner.

That being said, I'd like to digress into the topic of consistency. That was something Anthony Bourdain mentioned once to be an important trait (I personally felt it was under rated characteristic) that should be ironclad because that would be what customers return for. A remembered experience that they would like to re-live again. Barring bad experiences obviously.

Being popular raises the bar for maintaining consistency.

Service would be subject to the experience as well. Speaking of which, service at Sage was very pleasant and still teemed with what I define as a human touch. The friendliness was never mechanical or cold.

Culinary standards or food gets more scrutiny. These are affected by availability of ingredients, the skills of the chef and cooks, discipline in the kitchen and numerous strings of chaos theory which introduce variables. Food is the more often remembered experience because they are the core of a restaurant's business. Pretty glad that the variables at Sage do not stray far.

amuse bouche of chilled green pea soup with lemon cream and lumpfish caviar

Compounded with increasing expectations and needless hype, much of the sense from the above rationale above is lost. But I digress...

...on with the dinner and the poor pictures my phone camera can manage in subdued lightings.

The Appetizers

A risotto of Burgundy escargot and tiger prawns flambéed with pastis, Parmesan crusted poached egg and Italian parsley foam

Pan-seared duck foie gras with roasted Granny Smith apple mille-feuille crusted with walnuts, fig compote and spiced glaze of port wine and balsamico

The parsley foam looked subdued. I assumed that the kitchen either took too long to plate or that the foam didn't turn up the way it was planned to. Or I assumed wrong. I remembered their foie gras being creamier and had a more crisp surface. The char was done better previously too. Today felt flakey. I preferred the accompaniment of the apple puree then to this apple mille-feuille and the old pistachio crust was also decidedly more fragrant. Still it was a pretty nice foie gras.

The Soups

Chestnut mousseline topped with double boiled consommé of oxtail, parmentier of oxtail meat with shavings of black truffle

Veloute of butternut pumpkin topped with pistachio froth, confit of foie gras and Navel orange marmalade

I am compelled at this point to extol the sublime virtues of their flavours of their soup. Lol. Starting with the oxtail consomme which was interesting pairing of the crystal clear savoury broth topped with it's foam and a sprinkle of fragrant pepper. That was accompanied with a rich sweet creaminess from the chestnut mousseline. The oxtail consomme tasted like a richer chicken essence/Borvil drink while chestnut was luxuriant and not overly sweet. Impressive. The butternut veloute was piping hot and likewise, a cup of sweet richness like the oxtail consomme. I could certainly return just for the soups.

It is my opinion that the soups could not be understood through words. One has to experience it.

The Mains

Australian grain fed lamb short loin with a cassoulet of summer beans scented with garlic, thyme and lardons, crispy Parmigiano Reggiano and Roma tomato puree

Charcoal grilled U.S. Black Angus beef sirloin resting on pommes gratin topped with horseradish cream, glazed vegetables with smoked bacon and jus gras

I was slightly disappointed with the mains. While I didn't have much in the way of complains and the doneness was quite spot on, I thought it could have been better. The lamb could have tasted stronger and I've decided that sirloin isn't so much my cut. I'll prefer a tenderloin or a ribeye anytime. Still there were winners in the form of the crispy Parmigiano Reggiano and the potato gratin topped with charred cheese.

RedDot Brewhouse, Dempsey Hill

I didn't think much of RedDot Brewhouse (Blk 25A , #01-01 Dempsey Road, tel:64750500) at all. Didn't leave the place with any positive impressions and that's a good indicator that I'm not likely to come back. They're pricey and didn't have much going on except that they brew their own beer and were selling pints cheaper than almost everywhere else. Not that I'm very impressed after trying a couple of their brews. Methinks that they have a long way to go before they're anywhere close to the likes of Paulaners or Brewerkz.

Marbled beef
Here's a puny bland tasting $29 piece of sirloin. I'm not too sure why this was called the marbled beef because it definitely wasn't well marbled. Hell, they didn't even get medium rare right and I can offhand and easily bring into count, cheaper and more satisfying alternatives to steaks which will beat this hands down. 1, 2, 3, 4.... I think you get the point of my opinion of this. The fancy presentation didn't make up for the quality of the meat nor the diluted cheese sauce they attempted to pass off as gorgonzola drizzled over the top. There's definitely too much gloss for the too little substance in this. I consider this a waste of money.


RedDot beef and mushroom burger
This burger had a thick patty which is much smaller than the bread which was not toasted. The menu described it to be accompanied by healthy greens and yummy chips. The greens were so healthy that it came with not a drop of dressing. There wasn't any vinaigrette. Not even olive oil. Nada! In my mind, the word 'chips' had registered as chunks of cut and fried potatoes. Calbee BBQ flavoured potato chips would be the accurate description for those chips rather than yummy chips because that's what they were. Didn't find anything yummy about them. This was a burger that lacked even the decency of fries. While the patty was decent tasting, it was a little too charred and wasn't beefy enough. I'd gladly top up a couple of dollars more for something more satisfying.

Squid ink ice cream
Interesting as it sounds, this was just a chalky tasting vanilla ice-cream. The ice cream was ash grey (not black as I had imagined). Wasn't anything in the flavour that was readily identifiable as squid ink. Spoke volumes about the amount of actual squid ink that was mixed in to the ice cream. Didn't look nor taste like the name implied.

Banana Zabaglione
I was quite surprised that these sliced bananas came at room temperature. For a dessert, I was expecting them bananas to be hot but then again, the menu never mentioned anything about them being grilled or baked. It came topped with zabaglione (or sabayon, the egg, custard and marsala wine mix) some berries and basil ice cream which tasted like a vanilla ice cream (again!) mixed with powdered basil leaves. A bit of banana, some custard with marsala wine and a scoop of gimmicky ice cream for $15?

I managed to sample the Weizen and some lime wheat beer. Both beers were light and mildly spicy brews. The latter did taste of lime. There was some green monster beer that was suppose to contain spirulina which was sold out and a new batch was currently in the process of being brewed. I guess that was just a poor judgement of the quantities they had to keep in production since this place wasn't exactly brimming with customers.

Al-Ameen Eating House, Upper Bukit Timah

Al-Ameen Eating House (2, 3, 4 Cheong Chin Nam Road, tel: 64621996), located just across the road from Beauty World at Bukit Timah is a pretty recognizable landmark for Indian Muslim food for many locals. It is for me. Been visiting since I was a student. They're open 24 hours a day. Prices are pretty affordable. There's a range of local Indian and Thai Muslim favourites to be had. All to be readily washed down by teh tariks or any of the variable sweet, milk based and/or caffeine laced beverages.

I've been curious about the bunch of conspicuously coloured grilled meats at the front for quite a long time. Chance brought me to this end of Bukit Timah and dinner it was here.



To be honest, I got a little greedy and ordered too much food for two persons. There was a mixed kebab which featured chicken tikka, tandoori chicken, reshmi kebab (grilled chicken again, marinated in yoghurt), hariyali kebab (those green looking, mint marinated grilled chicken). Those were accompanied by a mint and coriander dip which I didn't touch beyond an experimental dip just to check. Coriander isn't my friend. The chicken was lukewarm instead of piping hot which I would have preferred. The colourful bunch of meats didn't taste as interesting as they looked. There was also a spicy bee hoon goreng which I thought was nicely done. Is it me or do not that many places make a good old spicy bee hoon or mee goreng these days. And there was also a deliciously rich paneer butter marsala with cubes of cottage cheese and some cheese naan to dip into the cholesterol laden gravy.


And as I said, all washed down with a nice milky mug of teh tarik.

Charco's The Flaming Chicken, Ang Mo Kio Ave 5

There's a new western food place down at Ang Mo Kio (Blk 608, Ang Mo Kio Ave 5) run by an Australian guy where Botak Jones used to be. A place for roasted chicken, chicken burgers, ribs, kebabs and salad. The food reminded me of Nando's and Kenny Rogers, Coffeeshop styled of course. The stall looked to be still at the teething stages of getting into their groove with spotty service, wrong orders and a noticeable wait time for the food. Ordered a quarter Hawaiian chicken ($6.50) on the grounds that this was basically a roasted chicken joint. For a dollar top up, one can get a Portugese chicken instead of the regular Charco's chicken. The difference? Portuguese chicken was spicy while Charco's wasn't. So does that make it a Hawaiian Portuguese chicken?! 

The chicken, to it's Hawaiian namesake came with two slices of pineapple fritters. Those were not bad when you ate them fresh. The meat from the bird was a little dry and didn't taste like it was different from any other roasted chicken. The spices weren't really special. What was notable though were their tangy, smoky and spicy bbq sauce on the side. This sauce was so smoky, it tasted almost carcinogenic. Seriously, but it was pretty delicious.

Mimigar, Gallery Hotel

Aside from being the name of this Okinawan restaurant, Mimigar (1 Nanson Road, #01-08 Gallery Hotel, tel : 6235 1511) also refers to pig's ears which happens to be one of the specialty of the restaurant. Okinawan cuisine as I have learnt share similarity in style or are influenced by Chinese/Taiwanese food. There seemed quite a bit of stir frying involved. Pork is widely used and considered to be an important ingredient. Seafood here seemed to be much less visible then in other Japanese restaurants. More interestingly, Okinawan cuisine also features taco rice. Tomato salsa, melted cheese and shredded lettuce over rice. Those taco rice here comes in the regular variety and also a chef's special which include curry.

Ambience was nice. The location suggest that the restaurant would be pricey, but that is apparently not so true. That being said, the bill does add up. Servings are mostly small plates and you tend to add on. This place charges for their otoshi which consisted of some simmered vegetable, pickled vegetables and a fried potato ball. There was no mention on the menu or by the wait staff on that. Considering that most of the dishes were priced less than the otoshi itself, I thought it was quite expensive at $10 per person.

mimigar with peanut paste

The mimigar was essentially the skin from the pig's ears with cartilage. The texture was both chewy and crunchy. Beside the texture, there wasn't much flavour beyond the creamy peanut paste. Interesting as it might be (it didn't taste bad), I'm in no hurry to order them again.

umi budou

These umi budou are also known as sea grapes. I hadn't any idea what sea grapes were until the proprietress/chef explained that they had texture akin to tobiko but was actually an aquatic plant from the sea. These pretty jade coloured globules did look like bunches of flying fish roe. The taste was akin to a very mild flavoured seaweed. Bursts in the mouth. They were served with ponzu.

rafute

Was quite impressed with the rafute which was simmered pork belly. They were served hot in a sweet soy broth and had fat that disintegrated in your mouth. What impressed me about them also was that it stayed soft even after the dish got cold and tasted still as good. Would get more of these if I come back.

rayu-ae

The rayu-ae was actually an appetizer, the first of it's kind I've had and I enjoyed it a lot. There were cubes of maguro, cream cheese and shredded leek tossed in what is described on the menu as Ishigaki Island special chilli oil. Which was very fragrant stuff. What impressed me about this dish was how that chilli oil harmonized in flavour with the tuna and cream cheese. Very mouth watering.

hirayahci with curry and cheese

These hirayahcis were some sort of Japanese pancakes. The curry and cheese flavour didn't quite turn out the way I imagined. There was little cheese in the pancake. The curry had the spice but not the edge from any heat. The menu mentioned daikon which I could neither see nor taste. It was supposed to be served with a citrus sauce which didn't come with the dish. Instead, there were bits of minced meat (I think it was beef) and the pancake reminded me of murtabak. This was actually quite good. Comfort food that I was happily stuffing my face with.

nakami-jiru

This was pork innards soup. The main difference between nakam-jiru and the pretty commonly found Chinese variety here was that the dominant flavour was mushroom rather than the other pork innards. I was tempted to ask for pepper. Haha. Not because it tasted bad. I guess it's just a reaction to pork innards soup which I think rocks with healthy dose of pepper.

macha baravoi

I was initially a apprehensive of this dessert because green tea and matcha based desserts are everywhere. The pairing has become a diluted replica of a flavour profile with little depth and originality for the most part. Fortunately this green tea mousse of theirs was retained a good amount of the green tea fragrance. I enjoyed this one.

On the whole, the food at Mimigar was unexpected but also pleasant. Liked this place enough to consider returning to try more of their food in the future.

Ham, cheese and strawberry pizza

Dr Oetker has been providing me moments of fun with making pizza since their frozen pizzas provide a pretty good base. What I liked about their crust was that they weren't too thick and also not overly thin. This meant minimal fillers and still a base which was firm enough to heap a bunch of toppings without having to worry if that crust was able to hold the weight. I happened upon some sliced strawberries in Cold Storage going for $2 a pack. That pack contained enough cut strawberries to quite generously top 2 regular sized pizzas so I grabbed one with some shaven breakfast ham, scrounged my supply of shredded mozzarella and parmesan......and this was the result.

The good toppings to use for this are their mozzarella and the quad formaggi since they contain mostly only cheese. This one was made from a mozzarella sprinkled with the above mentioned shredded cheese, carpeted with sliced breakfast ham and then laid over with the strawberries. Scattered more cheese over the top and it was ready to go into the over.

The lesson learnt from this time round was that, the strawberries lose their moisture by oozing out their juices, so the idea would be to to keep them closer to the centre or they'll drip over the edges of the crust. Not so different from pineapples - adding some sweetness and tangy flavour to the salty cheese and ham.