New York Strip from Astons Specialties

We've been to the newest outlet of Astons Specialties (2 Handy Road, #04-03 The Cathay, tel: 6887 5889) a couple of times in the past few days for steaks. I think they represented good value for what they charge. Still. Reliving the extra cut prime ribeye gave me a better experience this time round with a fatter looking cut and darker char markings. I also decided to try their New York Strip which was a 250g cut for an affordable $14.90. Had leaner meat than the ribeye and a very enjoyable strip of fragrant charred fat on the side. Thumbs up to them. This was the kind of entry level steak places that we all need without burning holes in the pockets. Service was a little spotty and the meat was a little more cooked than requested but there was little else to fault.

RK Eating House, Kensington Park Road

I happened to be wandering in Serangoon Gardens looking for dinner and came across RK Eating House (1 Kensington Park Road, Serangoon Garden Estate, tel : 6289 5379) and I thought to myself "cool, this could be someplace good". Almost subconsciously, I felt that I must have seen or heard of this place before. I made the call to step in for some bee hoon goreng and mutton murtabak.


Unfortunately, my instincts failed me this time. The bee hoon goreng didn't quite look as red as I had imagined and the portions were a little small. It packed very little of the spiciness I was hoping for and their ground mutton portions were so little that it would not have made a difference if they hadn't put them in. Didn't like those root end pieces of cabbage they threw in. The slightly soggy murtabak appeared quite generic and felt flat. There wasn't any additional pan frying to bring out those ground mutton inside and the onions were a bore. And there was an equally flat teh tarik which was made from a weak tea that didn't taste milky. Definitely the dampener here. I'll cross this place out for the future.

Tandoori Restaurant, Serangoon Road

This was a rich lunch I hadn't expect getting. It was also our first visit to Tandoori Restaurant (320 Serangoon Road, #01-26 Serangoon Plaza, tel: 6294 2232) which had been around for as long as I can remember. That I suppose warranted a visit. By virtue of long standing, I thought they ought to be at least pretty decent. The vibes when we sat down didn't feel quite the same as before we walked in. This restaurant felt a little westernized if you know what I mean. Despite appearances.

I was disappointed that their paneer tikka wasn't available for order so I had to settle for the closest substitute which was paneer butter masala. Along with the butter chicken, cheese naan, kashmiri pilau and some refreshing raita. We also had a glass of overly sweet lassi and very bland cup of masala tea.

butter chicken

paneer butter masala

The chicken and cottage cheese tasted much as I had imagined. If I had to describe a little more, their butter chicken wasn't "not spicy" as they had claimed. I was hoping for a mellow smoky version similar to Jaggi's (yes them again!) but this was still quite tasty even though the chicken lacked the smoky aroma from the tandoor.

Kashmiri pulao

Their Kashmiri pulao turned out different from what I had in mind. I was thinking dried fruits and nuts which are the common descriptions of ingredients. To my surprise there were also bits of pineapple, little round balls which tasted like papaya and even nata de coco (aka sea coconut). In the end, I found myself enjoying this fragrant fruit rice. So much that I ate them without any gravy. Portions were sadly quite small for a single order.

raita

cheese naan

The raita had onions on the side instead of in the yoghurt. There were barely any cucumbers. Wasn't quite what I had in mind when I ordered it. I had thought we would be getting a yoghurt drenched salad. Instead, we got ourselves just a refreshing watery yoghurt. The cheese naans looked deceptively boring like stale pizza rather than naan. Fortunately, it was quite delicious.

It's a tough call to consider this place again seeing that the lunch set us back by $55. I know there are cheaper options around, many of which I've yet to explore.

Chooks, grease and grains...

A $2 chicken rice was made known to me down at the Lobby Cafe at Toa Payoh Central. Seeing that it wasn't something that turned up to often, I gave it a go. The stall only does take away so one has to find their own spot to eat. Now this wasn't close to any of the better chicken rice which I've had but it also wasn't too shabby for the cost. Flavours were little thin on the rice but the stall was pretty generous with their chilli. The portions were a little too skimpy for me that I had to look for something else to fill me up. 

Which drove me to Mooi Kee (Blk 183, Toa Payoh Central) for another plate that turned out much more satisfying. This sure didn't look like the factory roasted variety of chicken and was much more tender and glisteningly greasy in a good way. The likewise greasy rice wasn't of the fluffy variety and sat heavily but it was still all good. Strangely, the chilli was mostly just salty.

Chuan Yang Ji Mutton Soup Steamboat, Balestier Road

The general rule of behaviour for broth in steamboats is that it tends to get better towards the end. The simple explanation behind that is due to the enrichment of the soup flavours from the "essence" of all the bits and ends of meats and vegetables that has been cooking in it. This results in the broth becoming more deeply flavoursome or "sweet". That's when it gets tasty. This however didn't quite turn out to be the case here at Chuang Yang Ji Mutton Steamboat (432 Balestier Road, #01-434 Public Mansion, tel: 90033244). And I didn't mean it in a bad way.


The broth in this steamboat was a milky looking concoction of a mutton based soup with herbs which restaurant had explained, takes around 6 hours of preparation. We were all requested to enjoy the soup right at the start before cooking anything to experience the flavour which turned out to be moderately light on the sweet herbs and balanced on the other end with the taste of mutton. I thought that this was quite enjoyable. The food menu was relatively simple; which consisted mostly of lamb (thin sliced meat, ribs, tendon, spare parts and mutton wanton), vegetable options for steamboat and some spicy Szechuan based dishes which we ordered a couple as starters.


There was a chilled saliva chicken and another dish that was described as mixed sliced meats, but the latter was basically thinly sliced beef and tripe. Both are dressed in some spicy and savoury sauces that includes chilli oil and neither was really numbing the palate. Apart from these side order options for the dishes, the only other spicy thing from the restaurant seems to be the dried chilli condiment which looked like a mixture of dried chilli flakes, sesame seed and salt which I used for the meats from the steamboat. It was initially spicy and quite aromatic, but progressively got quite salty that I had to ignore it in favour of eating without condiments instead.

I liked this place enough to seriously consider coming back another day. The next time, I'll probably do with less of the vegetables which made the soup much too sweet for my likings. I'll definitely forgo the mutton dumplings which had thick starchy skin, was filled with meat that I couldn't quite identify as lamb and had some chopped herb that I didn't personally enjoy. All in all, it was a pretty good steamboat and at this point of time, quite the unique place since I don't know of any other mutton hotpots around.

Lamb kebab from Charco's

This lamb kebab from Charco's was not bad but I didn't recall seeing any of those vertical spits of roasting meat down in the stall. It's about a dollar more than Sultan Kebab (which only has beef and chicken) but the fillings of meat were quite generous. What I liked about these kebabs was that there was actually cheese other than the sauces and they didn't pull the vegetable filler on us. The meat might have been a little dry but those sauces made up for the lack of "juices". We saw that there was a briyani option with the lamb too so something tells me I may be back.