Pork knuckles from Werner's Oven

Lunch with fatpig. Finally got down to this place (6 Upper East Coast Road. #01-01/02/03, S455220, tel : 6442 3897) to try the fried pork knuckles which we have been hearing good things about. Turns out that it was bit of a disappointment and it wasn't much of a big deal. The crispy crackling was fragrant and the size of the knuckle was pretty big, but the knuckle was filled with so much fats that at the end, it felt overwhelming. I prefer the ones down at Brotzeit and Paulaners which were cleaner in taste, a bit more costly and also strangely, had better separation between the fat and the meat in the pork knuckle. This has possibly given me a week's worth of cholesterol in a single seating if not more. I'll be laying off these things for some time and definitely in no hurry to come back if ever.

Jaggi's North Indian Cuisine, Race Course Road

Jaggi's, located at the fringe of Little India (34 Race Course Road, S218553, tel:6296-6141) serves pretty good Punjabi/North Indian food. Pretty good like I'm sure I'll come back kind of good. Prices weren't cheap but it was still affordable and frills were minimal. One orders at the food counter like a cafeteria and it's all self service to the table for everything that can be served upfront. The other items that require preparation (like naans which are made to order) will be brought to you when they are ready. The selection of food was pretty decent if not extensive.


Notable mentions for me were the butter chicken. While it was lacking in much of the edge from spices as compared to others we've had before, it was rich, creamy and delectable. Filled with chunks of smoky tasting chicken tikka. That smoky gravy made one want to eat them with copious amounts with rice. The kashmiri naan here was also pretty unique. So far, I've had them with a mixture of candied fruit and dried fruits, fully candy fruited and also wholly with dried fruits. This one here had finely minced candied fruit with cheese. Found myself liking this rendition. The cheese naan which they made was also loaded with generous amounts of cheese. Quite different from the usual variety which generally just has cheese sprinkled over the top of the bread. There is no charred cheese thus. But as I said, the portions of the cheese were pretty generous.

There was also pretty tasty mutton keema simmered with vegetables, a mild and delicious lentil stew and some potato filled with cottage cheese. The latter didn't turn out as I imagined it to be. Thought little of it. Lassi was of course one of the drinks that they served. I grabbed the mango flavoured which turned out to be much more of mango than the yoghurt flavour. It did look excessively yellow. Maybe I'll just go for the regular version the next time.

The damage for dinner for 2 came up to $33 which I thought a pretty good deal.

Nam Kee Chicken Rice, Upper Thomson Road

I'm pretty disappointed with the chicken rice at this place (201 Upper Thomson Road, S574343, tel:6253 4502). Having passed by this area on various occasions, I've noticed the crowd and had assumed that the chicken rice ought to be good at least. Instead, what was delivered through their half steamed chicken ($12) was reasonably tender breast meat and soggy everything else. There wasn't much flavour in the meat which was drowned in the soya/sesame sauce and there was quite a bit of fat scrapping which I had to do. With a soft and limp looking skin and what I thought to be excessive fat, the plate didn't look so impressive after it was reduced to just meat. Rice was just passable which didn't really make me want to go beyond the first plate. Chilli sauce while decent, tasted too much of ginger for me to like. I've definitely had better, and easily at that. There was salad prawns on the menu which didn't look nor taste impressive. I guess this can be one chicken rice stop that I can cross out for the future.

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.