Singing the blues?!

This was a discovery of chance. We were looking for some food after a movie at Filmgarde in Iluma and ended up in a very suspect and what I thought to be pseudo Japanese joint that goes by Benten Cafe (201 Victoria Street Bugis, #01-14). We were totally impressed by their amazing blue cheese and honey pizza which I swear, contained more blue cheese than any others that I've had ever. I did not expect it to be half decent but what turned up definitely surpassed our expectations. Mind blown. One can surmise from the mottled surface of the pizza that no exaggeration was involved here on my part. If not for anything else, the pizza was the one thing that validated this establishment's existence. I hope that this wasn't a one off incident and I intend to come back again to find out.

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.