Kashmir, Race Course Road

The web page of Kashmir (52 Race Course Road, tel : 6293 6003) made a very confident claim that once one has visited the restaurant, said person will add them to their personal list of best restaurants in this country and will subsequently come back for more. I thought that was a rather bold statement. In retrospect I wouldn't dispute it. This was one of those restaurants where I left happy and telling myself that I would love to come back. Definitely not the first time that I've gotten such a feel about a restaurant. But I suppose that doesn't happen in many occasions.

We started off promisingly with some really good kabargah. This were lamb ribs that were boiled in milk and spices before getting the deep fried treatment. There wasn't a lot of meat for a $12 portion, but what was available was very nicely done. The dish retained the natural aroma the lamb and was quite tender to boot. I could have finished two portions of these easily by myself.

I was very impressed with this Afghani murg. Basically chicken that was marinated in almond paste, cream, ginger and garlic before being charcoal grilled on skewers. It was marked with very nice char on the surface and was surprisingly juicy inside. That robust char could almost be described as....beautiful. The portions felt a little too small though, but I would give two thumbs up to the chef.

We ordered their chilly cheese naan for novelty's sake. Turned out to be pretty good. The crumbly cheese that they used was unexpectedly light and each mouthful of the naan was accompanied by a burst of flavours of the bits of sliced green chillis.

The malai kofta was a mixed bag. Nice sweet creamy sauce of saffron and cashew that had something described as cheese dumplings. It was a mixed bag feeling because the gravy didn't taste very nutty or had much of the saffron flavour. But it was still good in its own ways especially as a dip for their naan. Those cheese dumplings didn't taste much like cheese. This one took the cake of being the weirdest tasting one with a texture that reminded me of sweet potatoes.

Known as 'Honeymoon' on the menu, this dessert was basically a gulab jamun served with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Gulab jamuns were my first introductions to Indian desserts. I have thus become little wary of them since they were mostly too sweet. Adding vanilla ice cream seems to have oddly detracted from much of the sweetness. While it was still so, this was pretty good.

This would be the phirni, which was a steamed semolina dessert. The sliced almonds didn't so much enhance the flavour than the texture. Delicious as well. Pretty happy with the desserts.

More roasted meat from Jin Xing...

Kept my word from the last visit. I am back in Serangoon Ave 4 for more of their delicious roasted meats. This time I got myself a favourite sweet and savoury combination of char siew, roasted pork and roasted duck breast. If it wasn't already apparent from the pictures, they're all greasy and succulent cuts of meats with tender fatty sections that are ready to fall apart in your mouth. Not to mention the nicely charred char siew and crispy pork crackling from the roast pork. My mouth waters just at their mention....

Pity about the rice though and the sauces as well. I could do without them. Not a deal breaker.

Mixed beef laksa from Hong Heng

Quite an interesting find by happenstance at Hong Heng Beef Noodle & Katong Laksa (Blk 233 Ang Mo Kio Ave 3, #01-1194 Bing Garden Eating House). They're at the coffee shop where Uncle Leong Seafood is located in Ang Mo Kio. I was initially drawn to this stall because of their regular soup beef noodles with kuey teow. The laksa option caught my attention and I wasted no time giving it a go.

I'm not sure about the Katong Laksa referenced in the name up there but the gravy which didn't even have the right viscosity didn't taste like any of the Katong laksas I've had before. The flavour was not bad, albeit a little watery and served just lukewarm instead of hot. That's pretty much the only gripe I have. The toppings of the beef and other cow offal were delicious and not over cooked. The tendons in the bowl looked rather raw and gave me pause initially. As I put them in my mouth I realised that they fell apart easily in the mouth with little chewing. On the side, they had some pretty nice chinchalok chilli.


Notable mention goes to their beef balls which despite their regular looking appearances, didn't taste so regular. These meaty tasting ones certainly were nothing like those regular mass produced variety. I quite liked them.

Mughals Hyderabadi Biryani Restaurant, Race Course Road

Mughals Hyderabadi Biryani Restaurant (72 Race Course Road) in spite of its name does not serve just biryani. There were other things as well. We came here for their biryani because I had heard mention that they were pretty good.

We started off with some freshly fried onion pakoras. These should replace onion rings at all fast food. Crispy dram batter on the outside and still slightly crunchy onions on the inside. I wonder how come these things never got popular outside of Indian restaurants.

egg biryani

mutton biryani

We ordered a couple of biryanis which were served with a thin raita and some nutty tasting curry which was just a little spicy. I wanted to try the egg briyani because I had always been curious about the flavours came about when dum briyani is cooked with eggs. And because I like eggs. There wasn't any eggy flavors involved, but mashing the hard boiled yolk into the rice made it delicious.

The mutton biryani wasn't what I had in mind. The flavour from the mutton didn't seem to seep onto the rice. The lean meat wasn't moist but was quite flavorful. I thought that Mustard and the goat variant at Swaadhisht did a better job of infusing the biryani with the meat juices.

For both the egg and mutton biryani, the basmati rice was a little dry (that's what the gravies are for). Also quite strongly scented with spices, especially heavy with cloves.


We had a Kadai paneer on the side which didn't look like how the menu described it. We were given the impression that it would be stir fried, dry and contained dried fruits. This tasted like a cashew nut curry which wasn't bad at all. Came with those soft chunks of paneer. It was the shreds of ginger that got to me.


Tried both their Irani and masala tea just to see what were the differences between them. The menu described the former to contain bits of biscuits and the server claimed that the latter was just more spicy than the first. Having tried it ourselves, we concluded that they tasted exactly the same.

Prices were pretty affordable here. I realized after getting the bill that there was no GST or service charge incurred.

River South (Hoe Nam) Prawn Noodle, Thai Thong Crescent

It was apparent from the dexterity and speed of the man behind the stall catering to a full house that this noodle shop (31 Tai Thong Crescent, tel : 6281 9293) is a veteran. From what I heard, they've been serving prawn and pork rib noodles for a long time. They're open almost every day of the year and only take a day off once a month. I've been hearing some good things about them and decided to come down to try their noodles which are supposedly one of the best.

In retrospect, I would suppose that the main draw of Hoe Nam would be the slightly peppery prawn and rib based soup. Which was good but nothing decidedly outstanding. At least for me. No discredit to the folks that have been running this place forever here. It wasn't mind blowing in the department of flavour nor were the noodle outstanding. Those noodles were mostly flavoured by the chilli and fried shallots. Did I mentioned that their abalone clams tasted like where it came from? Cans.

What I thought was rather good were the plain old fried fish cakes that were sold on the side. These and the intestines could just be what that could make me consider a re-visit. If I could ever convince myself to brave the mad crowd again.

Pho Lan, Prinsep Street

Finally got to drop by Pho Lan (44A Prinsep Street, Prinsep Place, tel : 6835 9441) after wondering about them for a while now. Legend claimed, according to the restaurant at least, that the word 'pho' could have been a French derivative of pot-au-feu which roughly translated into "simmering pot in a stove or fire."

We weren't sure what to expect but still ended up a little disappointed because the broth from their pho wasn't hot enough. That resulted in rather raw bean sprouts. They obliged in our request to heat up that broth (in a pot, not microwave mind you) which overcooked those thin slices of beef in the process. I also detected quite a bit of cinnamon in their broth. While I thought the pho was pretty ok, I preferred the one from Pho24. The portions here were also a little small.


There was a chao tom (shrimp paste on sugar cane) on the side which tasted quite shrimpy. It reminded me of something that I used to have as a kid at the Prima Tower Revolving Restaurant. They had some shrimp or crab fritter thingy that had a stick of sugar cane stuck in them. The sugarcane in this didn't taste as sweet.

I should give the pho at Madam Saigon a try.