A green tandoori roll from Highlander Coffee

Honestly, I was more intrigued by the colour of the rolls rather than anything else. I had almost mistaken them for kueh dadar. This place was Highlander Coffee (49 Kampong Bahru Road, S169362, tel : 6226 1686). While they were definitely not known for tandoori chicken, the rolls turned out to be pretty tasty. Doesn't come close in terms of flavour to the real yoghurt marinated chicken from Punjab. But one can definitely deduce from the first bite that it's suppose to be something like that. I wouldn't mind eating these cheese filled chicken rolls again if I ever come back for a snack.

Speaking of which, Highlander Coffee does really nice coffee. There's a share of those fancy flavoured lattes and there's the more serious alternatives like the espresso con panna which had a bit of cream for a smoother finish. It's not your regular coffee chain. There is just this outlet. The place sells coffee, provide cafe consultancy and conducts barista courses.

Some ice cream from Udders

There's an interesting ice cream shop at Novena by the name of Udders (155 Thomson Road, Goldhill Centre, tel: 6254 6629). What's interesting about them was that they're a home grown label and the ice cream was actually pretty good. I dropped by one afternoon and tried the vanilla almond marzipan and their kopi c flavours which I thought wasn't too bad. The almond ice cream was loaded with bits of the nut and despite me not being a fan of marzipan at all, it turned out pretty enjoyable. The kopi c? Tasted just like decent coffee that one can get from coffeeshops - in ice cream form. It's the worthy competitor of local caffeine beverage flavours to the teh tarik from Island Creamery. The guys that did the decor were apparently people that appreciate the brand of humour from Gary Larson. No, no bovine jokes from me here.

Matsuo Sushi, Goldhill Plaza

At the behest of several urgings and a few tempting photographs later, I've finally made my way down to Matsuo (1 Goldhill Plaza, #01-17 Goldhill Plaza, Tel: 6356 2603) for their lunch. Matsuo does a daily lunch special, of which on Mondays and Fridays, they're actually chirashi.

For $15, I have certainly nothing to complain with this set that comes with chawanmushi and miso soup. In fact, this turned out to be one of those good recommendations and I'm pretty sure I'll be returning in the not so distant future again. The chirashi as reasonably expected isn't fancy. For this price, I'm not sure if anyone should be expecting so. The blanket of sake, maguro, ebi, amaebi, hotate, hamachi, mekajiki, grilled unagi, a small piece of ika and tamago was definitely of fresh origins and a bigger bang for the buck in this don as compared to anything else which the plethora of pseudo Japanese chain outlets elsewhere is offering. The half prawn and piece of unagi in the chawanmushi was a little pleasant surprise too. Oh, did I mention a fatty unagi it was at that.

Another crack at the walnut...

Lunch with some a.m.i.gos. I remembered that the previous visit here at La Noce (3 Chu Lin Road, S669890, tel : 6877 1986) wasn't one that inspired much confidence. I've convinced myself to give this place another chance to see if things will improve since it's been several months from that last time and sometimes, things change for the better. Sometimes. Two things happened here. I shook hands with Salvatore Catalano. I shook hands with Mia, the Skinny Epicurean. Lol.

The draw for this journey into the obscure part of the west was their fagotino. It's a dumpling based pasta stuffed with pear and cheese which I thought was interesting. This pasta which was made in house came with the option of the regular/boring pomodoro, arrabiata or quattro formmagi sauce. To form, it arrived pretty much like how I imagined it to be. Dumplings of pasta skin filled with cheese and pear. The texture of the fruit was lost along with the sweetness. There was an almost indiscernible fruitiness which was buried under the sauce and cheeses. Could have been a lot better. Funny thing is, the old fried calamari starter was actually pretty good. Crispy batter and chewy insides. That's something that many places can't get right.


The other special of the week was a ravioli stuffed with ricotta and porcini mushrooms. The commendable part was the robust flavour of the mushrooms. The skin seemed a tad undercooked.

Little pig little pig let me in...

This was actually just a little side trip back to Mimigar for small bites and desserts. Apparently I have become quite fond of this orange hue saturated place that plays quirky and sometimes folksy (and sometimes also, strange & harmoniously discordant) Japanese music. The menu has changed a little from the last time I visited but I noticed that they no longer place the otoshi (which they charge $10 per person for) on the table. I guess they must have gotten feedback that it's either too costly or that no one really likes them.



I decided to check out a couple of the cocktail beers which they did not have on their menu previously. Those turned out to be a more delicious than I had expected. The sikuwasa which was actually draft Tiger beer mixed with what is described as Okinawan kalamansi juice turned out to be invigoratingly zesty a drink. There was enough of the kalamansi juice in there that the lime-ish flavour was actually predominant. This was actually addictively pleasing. The glass actually emptied itself before I knew it. The other cocktail beer from the same origins came mixed with tomato juice. This didn't turn out weird in any way at all and the taste was like a mildly carbonated gazpacho of sorts.  I think I might have found new drinks to like.

I mentioned small bites back at the top there so here's the rafute (fatty braised pork belly) and the umi budou (sea grapes) which I enjoyed.


The department of desserts has seen some changes as well. There was a rather enjoyable macha baravoi which isn't on the menu anymore, but we got a brown sugar mousse and red sweet potato ice cream. The brown sugar mousse which was smothered in a blanket of powdered peanut. The brown sugar flavour was quite....subtle. I had thought it to be some peanut mousse if not for the name. There wasn't too much that could be said for the ice cream which tasted slightly butter-y and milky, but then again. Not so much sweet potato flavour in there.

Ryoriya Sangokushi, Robertson Quay

I've walked past Ryoriya Sangokushi (30 Robertson Quay, #01-03 Riverside View, tel: 6238 8962) from time to time. Was told their food was a mixture of Taiwanese and Japanese. I'm not sure which was suppose to come first. There's bottled beer from both countries and the food was very much Chinese styled while a large number of the clientele were Japanese. I'm guessing that there was an element of Okinawan influence in the food as the Okinawa Prefecture extends all the way to Taiwan and the food that hails from that region is very much similar to Chinese food.

The menu item ranges from really affordable ($3 braised meat rice) to a brow raising pricey ($35 for fried oysters). I'm not sure I have the prices figured out here. Food was pretty enjoyable. Would like to come back again another time.

fried rice

deep fried pig liver with garlic

ruo cuo fan (braised spiced pork with rice)

guo tie (minced meat and chives dumpling)

One of the items which we got was the braised pork rice. I love that stuff. The one served here tasted much like the ones served in Peng Lai Ge - more savoury than slightly sweet. The portions were a little smaller than I had expected but it was so good that I could have easily downed two of them. 

There was a pretty good fried rice as well as deep fried pig liver - something I haven't had deep fried before. The guo tie was decent. No as memorable as a local stall at People's Park which were meatier, has more flavourful fillings and crispier skins.

I was hoping to see braised or fried pig intestines on the menu but they didn't have that. And I'll also stick to Asahi over their Taiwan Beer the next time. The coarse bubbly from the Taiwan beer reminds me so much of Tiger.