Fried kaki curry rice from Romantic Kobe

After having these fried oysters with rice for a couple of times already down at Romantic Kobe (177 River Valley Road, #B1-50 Liang Court Shopping Centre, tel: 6333 0630), I'm glad to verdict-fy (premature as that might be) that it's good and it looked that they could be keeping some consistent standards here. At least I hope that to be the case. This place was certainly leagues ahead of that defunct outlet at United Square. The main draw for the kaki fried curry were the oysters rather than the curry which was atypical of the usual Japanese types. While it made the rice much more appetising, it also tasted similar to most of the others. The oysters were however fat, succulent and tasted fairly fresh (as they can get here). Enough has been said.

Bak chor mee @ Seng Huat

There's always been some sort of crowd whenever I happen by the area and I thought that the ba chor mee looked pretty good. As it turned out, this was a passable bowl. The options here were pretty simple. One can choose the portion for the noodles portions and can request for additional toppings for a dollar more. The mee pok was firm and none too starchy while their chilli wasn't bad as well. Those mentioned toppings included minced meat, liver, some sliced pork, two meatballs and some mushrooms. Not bad if you're wanting to grab a quick bowl to satisfy a craving. It however wasn't as memorable as the one from the fat hero in the west.

Resto Surabaya, Lucky Plaza

This shop at Lucky Plaza (304 Orchard Road, #02-63/64 Lucky Plaza, tel: 6732 1803) wasn't bad considering the variety of stuff that the restaurant was selling. To disclaim, I'm not so experienced in the realms of ayam penyet, having only tried a few places locally and. Have had one in Bintan where the chicken was just fried and not even smashed. This one here actually ranked pretty well in terms of taste and their tender fried chicken was really beaten up and easily removed from the bones. To add on, the tauhu goreng and tempeh were freshly fried. That weak looking chilli on the side was pretty potent. Actual portions were much smaller than it looks on photo.

 

On the side, we ordered a tauhu telur and a longtong cap go meh. The latter was kinda like lontong in a coconut rich gravy with a chicken drumstick and a keropok on the top. The gravy was rich and flavourful -  made me want to eat beyond just one serving of rice. But it was otherwise just a lontong with measly bits of boiled vegetables. I thought that the tauhu telur looked small. The good thing about that was that it didn't appear over-fried and that it came with a bowl of nutty sauce with shrimp paste that upped the flavour game of the dish.

 

Their savoury sop buntut (oxtail soup) wasn't bad as well tasting lightly of the beef used. I caught a pepper-ish aroma and fried shallots. I noticed afterward that they had grilled oxtails and ayam bakar on the menu too. Could consider a re-visit some time.

Key lime pie from PS Cafe

I remember having key lime pies for the first time a few years back in California Pizza Kitchen. Recently, I've discovered that these are actually available in PS Cafe (290 Orchard Road, #03-41/44 The Paragon, tel: 6735 6765) and these pies as I have learnt are actually the state pie for Florida since 2006? Anyway, the original ones are apparently yellow in colour from the lime juice and egg yolks that are used to make the fillings. There's mention that the traditional pie makers frown upon the green colouring that is added. Not that I particularly care about that. Lol.

I kinda like these which are $12 a slice from PS Cafe. Pretty pricey for a slice of pie but this has got to be one of the more memorable ones that I've had since that upside down apple pie from Morton's quite a while back. The stiff and creamy fillings in that buttery crushed cracker crust were full of that limey zest which was invigorating as a flavour. It also didn't bring on the feeling of sugar overload. This stuff was actually pretty appetizing as a dessert.

Mooncakes from Shang

I don't usually enjoy this stuff because I find them cloyingly sweet. Once a year, some of them get distributed around because of the Mooncake Festival some of them will inevitably end up with my family. The only fond recollection of those I enjoyed was something that Raffles Hotel once sold. That was mostly because, the fillings were cream cheese and raisins. I was actually kinda sad that those aren't available anymore. Anyway, this was one of those uncommon instances when I decided to eat some and thought that they weren't bad. Having those salted yolks to offset the sweet lotus paste was important.

I'm curious about how quadruple yolk mooncakes are like though since no one I know have ever bought them.

Ristorante da Valentino, Jalan Bingka

Woah, that was quite a bit of good food here down at Valentino's (11 Jalan Binka, S588908, tel 6462 0555). I daresay it was one of the better Italian places around with cost and quality taken into consideration. Certainly was very encouraging for a return. And it's taken me such a long time to visit for this first time. This must be one of those places that has lived up to its hype eh? Almost everyone had good things to say about the restaurant. Thanks to fatpig for organizing the dinner.

Service here was a notch up. And was also very discreetly patient towards a table of people whom were late for the reservations and were taking a long time with deciding what to order. For a rather busy restaurant, the magnanimity of the host was unquestionably obliging. That aside, I enjoyed the food.

The table started off with some ubiquitous looking bread with an excellent emerald tapanade that had pesto with parsley, anchovy and garlic. Ordered some imported vongole off menu which came in a delicious spicy sauce that formed instant kinship with the bread on the table. I was quite impressed by the meaty shellfish. Following closely were the mains of pizzas, pasta and a very good tenderloin that's made itself quite unforgettable.

pan fried, tomino cheese sheathed in Parma ham

This was very good if rather small for what it costed. Tasting rather delicately of the goat cheese aroma (or pungence if you will), it was certainly as delicious as it looked, cloaked in that crispy prosciutto de Parma and their combined grease.

buffalo mozzarella and Sicilian cherry tomato

This twisted looking bundle of chilled creamy mozzarella was both appetizing and refreshing with those sweet tomatoes. Enthusiastic and hungry, I really couldn't find anything to dislike this. The last statement shouldn't be read negatively in spite of how I said it.

fettucine al granchio

Valentino's crab and squid ink pasta in tomato cream sauce easily made the top of my favourites. This was at least on par with that tomato cream tagliatelle from Da Paolo with the bonus of chunky bits of crab meat.

Filetto Di Manzo al Gorgonzola

The tenderloin drenched in a mild Gorgonzola sauce was definitely my highlight of the night. I was initially a little apprehensive at the estimated 170-200g of steak, but I guess the choice paid off tonight. The creamy sauce seeped in its flavour wasn't too overpowering from the blue cheese while the tenderloin was expectedly tender. In the right doneness at medium rare too. Amazing steak well done. I would have no qualms ordering it again even though it was smaller than what I would normally go for. A side of small potatoes were there and I had to just mop up all the sauces with the salad.

Bismark

porcini, rucola and prosciutto de Parma

The pizzas here were quite tasty but nothing out of the ordinary. It had a generic thin and crispy crust that was barely able to hold the toppings. I personally preferred the flavour of the bitter rocket on Parma ham versus the bismark of bacon and egg. Not that any one was in any way inferior to the other.


There was more than a handful of desserts going around the table so I'm going to just mention what made the deepest impressions. The house made profiteroles were decidedly the one that reached out to me despite being the simplest. It was a cream stuffed choux pastry coated in a milk chocolate that wasn't too sweet. Apparently, their profiteroles used to be brought in frozen but are now made in house. Couldn't have asked for much more out of them actually. A chocolate and pear tart didn't quite turn out quite as delicious as I had hoped. With a light whipped chocolate and a limp buttery crust, the tart tasted tired and felt like it's been around for a little too long. The slices of pears were amazingly thin though.

Great coffee here too.