OverEasy, One Fullerton

Found out about this place (1 Fullerton Rd, #01-06 One Fullerton, tel : 6423 0701) from a timely tip off and a piss poor email advertisement from IS magazine which mentioned that the place does miniburgers for a dollar each in the evenings. Of course the advertisement has conveniently neglected to mention that those were not applicable during the weekends and that the STI performance also had something to do with whether those mini burgers were available or not. One can but smell the reek of cheap ploy oozing through the cracks.

 

On a more positive note, the grub was noticeably better than what normally passes off for bar food since the menu design was crafted by a Travis Masiero, formerly of Wine Garage whom now runs a place call Spruce down at Tanglin. So we got a tasty but pricey Philly cheesesteak sliders ($16) which was actually a misnomer since they were actually just pan fried beef cubes in mini toasted and buttered buns which looked and tasted nothing like cheese steaks. The strange melted cheese on the medium rare seared beef had texture like custard. Or kaya. No kidding. Otherwise, all was actually pretty good, along with a truffled egg toast ($14) thing which really just struck me with the strength of the truffle aroma as soon as it was brought to the table. I could eat 2 or 3 of these cheesy poached eggs on bread at a go.

 

All I could say about the burger with the tacky name was that, it was not bad. I wouldn't though, put it past a quarter pounder with a very nicely done medium rare patty that was absolutely leaking meat juices as you bit on them. That's pretty much what it was with a side of that nice crispy haystack fries that was actually quite addictive.

Good Friday mee shay

Hey Crystal, when you're reading this, thanks for the mouth watering mee shay again. I thought that these noodles were better for texture than the kuey teows from the previous time. What's that semolina cake thingy with poppy seeds called again?

Oriole Cafe & Bar, Pan Pacific Serviced Suites

As the name of the place suggests, this was a cafe (96 Somerset Road, #01-01 Pan Pacific Serviced Suites, tel: 6238 8348). Food ranked to me, just a little above the likes of NYNY. Their Guinness braised spring chicken and beef cheek tagliatelle were mediocre. Fish and chips had thin crisp batter. Was decent.  The wait staff were definitely most obliging, but at the pace which things were done, the waits were almost excruciating. Even when it came to the bill. Would have been great if they could simply inform of the coverage in the happy hour which did not apply for most of the beers on the menu. I forgot that this place has an award winning barista in the house and I do like coffee.

 

Bites from Isetan

This was the outcome of one of those forays into one of my haunts in town. My favourite squido rice have gotten standardized with their glutinous rice packings into larger squids and they cost more these days. I guess they must have been pretty popular with the other people too. The clam onigiri just above didn't pack as much flavour or meat as I would have liked. Those small squids stuffed with roe are still as heart cloggingly tasty as usual. One of the notable items we also bought this time round were toasted rice crackers coated in chocolate powder. Those were amazingly fragrant and tasted much better than their mundane appearances suggested. The braised pork was mouth watering-ly sweet and savoury. They did cost a bit though.

Chye Lye Restaurant, Jalan Legundi

This was one of those places that I've probably passed by and never realised that it was there until now. It's actually located just a couple of units away from Sum's Kitchen which I've visited on a few occasions in the past year. Yet I've never noticed. Talk about being oblivious. I'm not about to lament on the lost opportunities for having not known about this place earlier (it looks like it's been around for a really long time) and instead, make excuses to come back again for the pretty good assam fish head curry.

The place can be scorchingly warm in the afternoon and has no ambience to speak of except for the brand of really old school charm of old coffeeshops which isn't that common these days anymore. But the food is good.


The initial impression of the tamarind based curry was that it tasted a little on the watery side. As the curry cooled, it gained a viscosity and the flavor was enhanced as well. Apart from making an excellent topping for the rice, the remains served decently as soup of sorts as well. For $18, I thought this portion which can feed 3-4 persons is probably better value than what I could have gotten at Muthu's Curry which costs more for less. Not to mention the tender deep fried chicken that comes with a belacan chilli with a kick which really was a steal at $6.50 for half a chicken and a very decent dish of stir fried sambal sweet potato leaves which turned out to be one of the better ones that I've had in while.

Oso, Bukit Pasoh

In the event that anyone was wondering if this had become some sort of photo blog, it's not. With what little time I've had lately, I just thought that I could just put up the photos before I got down to writing, so there you go....I'm back. And this time for a place call Oso (46 Bukit Pasoh Road, tel: 6327 8378) which I thought I should have discovered much earlier.

Apart from some little splotches in service, dinner here was what I was hoping to be. A few people have been egging me to try on numerous occasions. Turned out to be one of those that left me with a satisfactory smirk and I'll probably be returning again in the not too far future.

We got a very creamy burrata in very generous portions for two to start with along with some accompaniments of cherry tomatoes and a mustard coloured tomato sabayon. The effect of the colour of that sabayon (which really tasted like a fresh tomato dip of sorts) pairing with the plaster white cheese reminded me of a giant poached egg. Certainly nothing at all to fault with the hearty braised wild boar stracci luxuriantly saddled in a blanket of that rich tasting sauce robust with the aroma of red wine. Something I'm fairly sure I'll be tempted to order again when I do return. Those gnocchi with gorgonzola and parsley sauce was surprising in ways that I didn't expect as the fresh green flavour of the herbs held up with the not so strong gorgonzola. It was salty without the pungence to match, but I supposed the parsley novelty made up for it since it was good enough for us to mop up all the remaining sauces second servings of bread.

Dessert of the double vanilla panna cotta in black pepper caramel sauce was interesting, but wasn't mind blowing as desserts went. It was a nice milky panna cotta and the pepper caramel was refreshing.

Daily made “burrata” cheese from Puglia filled with tomato sabayon “for 2

Whole wheat “stracci” with braised wild boar in red wine

Potato dumpling “gnocchi” in Gorgonzola and parsley sauce

Double cream vanilla flan “panna cotta” in black pepper caramel sauce