Pho24, Upper Thomson Road

I haven't much experience with pho bo beside a store that used to be at Novena and Va Va Vroom down at Seah Street which served a bowl filled with herbs that killed beef flavour in the soup. I was told by someone who's had pho in Vietnam that the broth was more oily and served very hot so as to help blanch the vegetables/herbs that accompany them. Pho24 (215M Upper Thomson Road, tel:6451-6811) was a fairly new establishment. They did a pretty tasty broth for their rice noodles. Was not able to comment on the authenticity of the cooking but it tasted pretty good to me because the broth was pretty beefy. That was from a bowl I tried with meat and offal. Adding sliced chilli and onions kinda enhanced it. For $12.90, it wasn't cheap but it was enjoyable.

6" in the Subway

I've always wondered at the slogan of 'Eat Fresh' at Subway. What do those two words really mean and what are the layers of meaning behind the the thoughts of the people who came out with that tagline and the ones who approved it for the marketing. Does it just mean that it's just freshly made? If so, many fast food places could "Eat Fresh" themselves too. A number of the ingredients are anything but fresh.

This 6 inch, double meat-ed cold cut trio was just basically ham which is essentially salted and preserved meat. What's so fresh about ham? The roast beef on the counter would probably appear fresh to a blind man. Cheese options are plasticky and cheap for even sandwiches. The vegetables aren't too bad, but I really don't know about having label them as fresh. Sure their sandwiches are probably healthier than the whole slew of other fast food joints, but a double meat-ed sandwich would cost at least around the region of $7, which isn't exactly cheap for food like this. Anything without double meat is simply sandwich fillings travesty because the default fillings are just pathetic. With the cookies and chips and sugar laden drinks, I suppose "Eat Healthy" isn't such an appropriate option for advertisement. That being said, I wouldn't mind eating them once in a while.

Eat fresh everyone!

More from Muthu's Curry

I've had cravings for Indian food these couple of weeks. After the recent trips to Race Course Road, the options at Muthu's Curry (#B1-056, Suntec City Mall, 3 Temasek Boulevard, tel: 68357707) didn't look as attractive as before. In spite of comments I've heard about them being commercialized, I still thought that the food wasn't too far off from what's cooking in Little India. Was I mistaken about that? I found myself enjoying both the spicier butter chicken here and the subdued and creamier version down at Jaggi's. The masala prawns slathered in the spicy and nutty gravy were still crunchy though they appear to be a little smaller than I remember them. I had the navratan korma for the first time. That was a mixed vegetable dish in a cashew and cream gravy. The gravy was pretty good though I couldn't taste any flavour of cashew or even any nuttiness. Flavour from the cloves was rather strong. And now, I too recognize that the lassi over at Delhi Restaurant and Spice Junction were way better than the ones served here.

Considering how much it cost to eat here, the restaurants down at Race Course Road or anywhere else in Little India looked a lot more appealing.

chennai cabbage

butter chicken

navratan korma

marsala prawns

More fruity Kit Kats from Hokkaido

Both these Kyoho grape and the apple flavors in the chocolate wafers were very superficial and definitely pales in fruity flavored comparison with the rock melon rendition. I was thinking that since these are Japanese, they might actually be good. Apparently, not everything Japanese tastes fabulous. Ahem!

Seafood platter from Fish & Co @ Paragon

I've noticed that the prawns in the Fish & Co here (290 Orchard Rd, #B1-35/36 Paragon, S238859, tel: 6733 0938) are meatier and the seafood platter for two came with scallops instead of mussels. The portions have fortunately remained as large as I remember them and most of the time, I find it quite difficult to want to order anything else than this. The wok was laden with the usual suspects of the grilled prawns, very generous portions of salty peppered grilled squid, four scallops, a forgettable fish fillet, the delicious orange raisin rice and fries. All good to go into the gut with the tangy spicy chilli and dragon breath inducing chopped garlic. Prices seem to have gone up from what I recall last by about $7 or so. I'm not sure if it's just this particular outlet or has it gone up across the board for all the other outlets as well.


Another regular item on their menu which I've only started ordering recently are the mussels in garlic butter. More than a half dozen mussels swimming in a garlicky butter broth which makes good a dip for bread. Yep, even the uninteresting focaccia at this place become tasty after a couple of dunks in that creamy and heart clogging broth which happens to be also pretty awesome when slathered over the rice in the seafood platter too. It's been around for ages and I've only started noticing them last year.

Nogawa, Le Meridien

I've been contemplating this restaurant (100 Orchard Road, #03-25 Lobby Level, Le Meridien, tel:6732 2911) for a while now, wondering about how much it might cost to eat here since this place is associated with the now defunct Akane - a bastion of quality Japanese cuisine. That translated into expensive. Fortunately, lunch was still a viable option. While one cannot reasonably expect to eat for low cost here, there is still an element of value for money as the restaurant did appear fairly affordable if you picked the appropriate options.

The food here was good. No complains at all. What I have are comparisons between the other places. Chiraishi ($35 with chawanmushi) here looked visually slightly less impressive than say Sushi Yoshida, Botan or the mazechiraishi from Aoki, but the quality was by no means inferior. Let's just say that frills are minimal, but the quality remains unquestioned.

The order of otoro ($24 for 2) and uni ($20 for 2) came out exquisite as I had anticipated. They were very enjoyable. The well marbled otoro had arrived with the requisite smooth fattiness and I thought that it was almost buttery as the tuna belly fell apart in the mouth. The uni was very well chilled and creamy and was definitely one of the better ones I've had. I'd eat loads of them if they weren't so costly.

Here's their chirashi set with the sashimi served in a separate container. The sashimi box included sake, maguro, chutoro, ama ebi, some white fish which I couldn't identify and something which appeared to be a cross section of a thick sliced squid tentacle. On the main box with the rice were some boiled vegetables (root and green), tamago, ikura, shredded egg, nori and sakura denbu which I like. The steaming chawanmushi came with a single fat shrimp and a chunk of chicken. Miso soup was likewise, just a plain miso soup with the usual tofu cubes and seaweed. It would seem as they claim, that their focus is on the freshness of the ingredients, not embellishments. Accompanying fruit dish comes with a fragrant and sweet slice of rock melon.