Fried devil's horns...

...as a particular lady calls them. I'm normally not big on chicken wings and I usually like my meat without bones. But these ones from cafeteria at Ikea (Level 2F, 317 Alexandra Road S159965, tel : 63781604) which goes at $7.50 for 6 (the first number of the beast!) are pretty good and are one of the exceptions with regards to how I generally view them. What I like about them is the lack of batter and the nice browning of the crispy skin. They're also not too tiny that there is barely any meat on the bones. Of course they are juicy and laden with grease and padded with some fat beneath the skin. Which self respecting delectable doesn't kill you in small delicious steps. Fried devil's horns does.

Funny Lasagna, Alexandra Village

I found out about this place (Blk 127, Bukit Merah Lane 1 # 01-230, Alexandra Village, tel: 6270 5464) from the papers which featured the the chef owner, Peter Bontoi whom has served a couple of "tour of duties" in some other restaurants before opening Funny Lasagna down in this quiet coffeeshop. They've a squid ink lasagna that sounded interesting as described by our 141st(?) media to possess "homemade sheets of inky black pasta are layered with remarkably unchewy pieces of squid".  Whatever that means. Also mentioned was a sauce that is intense, savoury and "dark as night". Heh! Well, fool me twice and shame on me. I must in terrible luck for the stall to run out of those home made sheets of inky black pasta and a sauce that was far from being dark as night. In fact, the colour dark brown wasn't too far off.


Jibes aside, there was a obvious lack of squid ink flavour in the lasagna. Not sure why the layers in between the pasta needed so much tomato sauce which made them too tart for my liking. I would have gotten the regular lasagna if I had wanted tomato sauce. Seriously, why bother with the squid ink option if it tastes like tomato in the first place? The gnocchi were decent, quite soft and came with a predictably flavoured tomato cream sauce. For $7, the portions were pretty generous but the accompanying asparaguses looked and tasted a tad wilted.


To call the cake what it is, this shouldn't be called a tiramisu. A rip off, perhaps. An attempt, maybe. I can make them better myself. And so can my mum in all seriousness. This rendition came with dry sponge fingers and only the top layer that tasted like mascarpone, albeit one with a lumpy texture. The middle layer of cream was definitely not mascarpone and tasted like some hard and dried custard.

The food gets credit for affordability, but at their price point, you do get what you pay for. Wouldn't becoming back in a hurry though.

Tenshin, Regent Hotel

I'm going on record that Tenshin (The Regent Singapore Hotel #03-01, 1 Cuscaden Road, S249715, tel : 67354588) serves tempura with the thinnest and lightest tasting batter I've ever had. Bar none - now and possibly for a while. Being the only tempura bar ad specialist around from what I've gathered, these guys ought to be one of the best if not indeed number one at what they do in their art of deep frying battered food. I suspect that the truth would be the latter but since taste is subjective, I would leave it at these guys are doubtlessly experts and do a damn good job.

Lunch was a $30 tempura set which consisted of an appetizer, salad, tsukemono, miso soup. Tempura consisted of a couple of prawns, a couple of slices of pumpkin, asparagus, maitake mushroom and white fish with rice. Dessert was a lime sorbet. We were urged by a friend to try the tempura uni. Something which we already had our mind/eyes on in spite of the hefty tag of $25 for a single portion. We landed a counter seat so we could watch the preparation of the food, much like in a sushi bar. In this case at Tenshin we got to witness preparation of the batter for each batch of tempura that was about to be served. These guys mix the batter upon each order and each piece of tempura is then individually dusted in the flour before taking a batter bath and then into the oil. They're all then served individually as would be for sushi in sushi bars.

There were various condiments to accompany the dishes - a generous bowl of grated daikon and a selection of flavoured salts; green tea, regular sea salt, chilli salt and a curry one. Tried them based on the recommendation of the chef and found that they were pretty flavourful. The curry salt in particular went well with their white rice. However, one can simply just eat the tempura without those as they tasted good on their own.

Found it amusing that while eating at Tenshin, we made more noise eating the vegetables than the tempura. All the vegetables served were crisp or crunchy or both and made crunchy noises. The paper thin crispy lotus root slices on the salad definitely contributed. Speaking of which, the salad had a tasty sesame dressing with a slight hint of mustard and pepper,

Beside being airily thin, crispy and not grease logged, what's noticeable about the tempura at Tenshin was that their vegetables didn't taste fried at all. The juices and crunch retained and if not for the batter, they could have pass off as steamed vegetables. The flavour of the produce were sealed in and it's been a while since I've noticed how crunchy a properly cooked asparagus could be or that the pumpkin was so sweet and fragrant. Mushroom they used was maitake. Had a nutty flavour which was quite pleasant. The fish and prawn were delicious as well.

The uni tempura deserved special mention because we enjoyed it plenty. We would have ordered one or two or even three more if it wasn't so costly. It was essentially generous portion of the sea urchin that was wrapped in a seaweed package - like a stuffed pillow. The package was subsequently dipped into their batter and then into the fryer for a few seconds. The result was a tight rectangular bundle of seaweed containing the warm uni inside which spilt out as you bit into them. I don't know if it was because of the heat from that short frying but the uni tasted especially fragrant here. The bouquet of the sea urchin was definitely much more accentuated than the chilled ones and it was very enjoyable.

Because of their almost ethereal batter, lunch turned out be quite light. There was no heaviness of grease and little over and hour after lunch, we felt like we needed to eat something again. Would love to be back to try something else from that lunch menu too.

7th Storey Restaurant, Rochor Road

I don't remember how I came to learn of this place (New 7th Storey Hotel, 228/229 Rochor Road, S188451) down in Bugis but I'm guessing that I must have read it off somewhere that there's chicken rice to be had at the restaurant and that it was suppose to be good or at least better than the usual. I do recall having had a disappointing steamboat at the back of the building once a long time back but little did I realise that there was actually a restaurant located in the same place. Does anyone know why is there the mention of Honjin on the paper sheaths on their chopsticks here?

There was only the steamed variety of chicken to be had. As well as a bunch of other dishes that can be ordered from the menu. We got ourselves a small portion of the chicken, sambal kangkong and marmite pork ribs along with the chicken rice.


The chicken wasn't very special. Sure the meat was tender, slightly chilled and had a nice thin skin that didn't have excessive fat. It was in the end something that I didn't think I'll be looking forward to coming back for. Their rice was more heavily accented with ginger than garlic - which wasn't exactly something that I'm fond of. The same can be said for the chilli which was moderately spicy but just a tad too much ginger for me to like. The sambal kangkong was crunchy and was otherwise unremarkable. I had expected the marmite chicken to taste of marmite but it was just some sweet pork ribs. Flavours aside, it was far from the better stir fried pork ribs which I've had. I guess I won't be re-visiting anytime soon.

Porta Porta, Upper Changi Road North

Eclectic would be the word to describe the setting of this little restaurant (971 Upper Changi North Road, Changi Garden, tel : 65453108) with a bohemian charm, located at a remote spot beside a coffeeshop just across the road from Changi Prison. Homely would probably be the the best word to describe the food served. The dishes were in short tasty and as unostentatious they can come. If you're looking for Italian food with minimal to no frills involved, Porta Porta would be a very good bet.


I wasn't sure what was good from the menu, so we opted for what was describe as the "faite" set at $48 which comprised of what the chef could bring out from the kitchen for the day. The set which looked like a sampler of various dishes consisted of a four course - of which the first were starters and soup followed by a tasting of two pastas. The third course would be the meats along with calamari and prawns and then two desserts. The variety that this set offer looked pretty astounding as the dishes were brought out from the kitchen in quick order.

Starters & soup

Beside the bread basket that featured a hard, olive oil flavoured and dense crusty loaf, there was a wooden platter of marinated vegetable antipasti. Followed by caprese with some smoked cheese instead of the usual mozzarella, some cold unexciting pizza, marinated eggplant, freshly toasted bruschetta, deep fried risotto balls with cheese, some fresh tasting plump mussels cooked in a spicy tomato and garlic broth and a rich savoury fish bisque.

I hardly know how to begin with this much food. The soup and mussels stood out pretty well in terms of flavour. The shellfish on the first serving had a weird smell so we requested for a change. A new bowl of freshly cooked mussels was brought back and was soft yet firm with a good bite. The densely flavoured brown fish bisque they brought was better fish soups I've ever tasted. I didn't even mind the mild coriander taste in it.

Two tastings of pasta

The pastas were a pesto ravioli stuffed with cheese and spinach and a very tasty tagliatelle with prawn cream sauce. Both pastas were had good textures even though they weren't the best we've had. The savoury prawn cream sauce was rich and good that I didn't mind the mild coriander taste in them. Something I'd look forward to if I ever return to Porta Porta.

The meats

The meats was for me we the least interesting. There was a braised beef (no beefiness) that was sweet with the onions it was cooked with and a stringy piece of chicken in some cream sauce.

The fried seafood deserved mention. The batter on the squids were tissue paper thin that they almost weren't there. All there appeared to be was a light dusting of batter over the piping hot and fresh tasting squids. Despite appearances, the prawns were also delicious. They were unseasoned and tasted like the steamed variety from Chinese restaurants with sweetness in the crunchy meat. The shells were a tad difficult to remove though as they were a slightly stuck to the meat.

Desserts

Dessert was a lemon sorbet and a tiramisu. With the myriads of standards in tiramisu these days, I kept expecations low. This one served in a Chinese tea cup turned out very robust with the expresso. On top, a very light and well beaten mascarpone cream.

On the whole, I thought that the seafood scored better than the meats. The bill included just a service charge, no GST. This place is definitely worth re-visiting. I'll probably head for the one at Stanley Street the next time to see what's up with that branch.

Mango Tree, East Coast Parkway

There are sometimes mixed feelings that I get from restaurants. I don't know my final verdict on it. Eventually, it gets ignored and forgotten. Other times, I'm somewhat a little more sure. Mango Tree (Marine Cove B23, 1000 East Coast Parkway, S449876, tel : 64428655) was one of them. I enjoyed some of the food and thought well of the service but the chances of returning would be minimal. Cost was also taken into consideration.

I came to know about this place by the way of a heads up from Camemberu whom has mentioned coastal Indian cuisine from Goa and Kerala. Thought it would be a good opportunity to check out what Indian coastal seafood was about since I had missed those back in Spice Junction.

murg makhani

green mango curry

mango tree garlic prawns

mango and cheese naans

I'm taking a shot in the dark here by saying this, but I am presuming that the murg makhani (or butter chicken) was less creamy because this was essentially a southern Indian rendition. The gravy was more tangy since it wasn't masked by so much cream. I like the northern versions better. The green mango curry was something we tried out of the spirit of adventure. Turned out to be quite a pleasant surprise. The curry was generally quite mild and tangy with a hint of mango citrus with a creamy texture. There were pieces of the fruit in the curry which were soft (not mushy) like boiled potatoes. Enjoyable as it was appetizing.

I thought that the green mango garlic prawns looked like a Chinese dish. I was initially disappointed by the appearance. These prawns weren't large for tiger prawns and didn't look vibrant. But the taste was pretty awesome. Belying the dull steamed prawn look was meat that was unexpectedly firm and crunchy, soaked in a buttery sauce loaded with minced garlic. Quite pricey ($27) considering that it was just three small-ish prawns.

The naans here were good. Light and fluffy. I meant freshly made kind of light and fluffy here. In fact it was so light and fluffy that we had to top up with portion of basmati rice (pretty costly at $3.80 and not much fragrance) after two naans. Speaking of naan, we tried the mango one. Apart from tasting slightly sweet, it didn't taste like it had mango. At all. I ate the most of that without any gravy so I was sure about it. Likewise, the cheese naan didn't taste like it had any cheese baked into them. At all. Bummer. The restaurant was kind enough to offer replacements but we didn't pursue that since they were insistent that it did contained cheese.

I hadn't been in this area for so long that I had forgotten that restaurants here could be expensive like it was in town. I had ordered a glass of lassi without looking from the menu and it turned out to be a small glass that set me back by $7.