Some Korean beef and rice set from SGH food court

Having had to spend quite a few evenings at the hospital recently put me through some dinner options that I normally would avoid. One such option is the food court which serves, in my not so humbled opinion, generally expensive food with mediocre quality and poor taste to boot. There are definitely exceptions and this beef and rice set from the Korean stall in the Kopitiam at SGH was unexpectedly satisfying. I've gotten into my head that this isn't really Korean food and I needed not to view them as such.

In the end it was a very decently done beef still simmering in the it's own juices along with that of the shredded cabbage and onions. The seasoning was well handled in a way whereby the added flavours didn't overwhelm the beefiness and I could actually taste the natural sweetness of the cabbage from the residual broth left at the bottom of the bowl of meat. Rice was unexpectedly soft and very agreeable.

Chili's, Tanglin Mall

As a student many many dozens of moons ago, I've visited Chili's (#02-23 Tanglin Mall, 163 Tanglin Road, tel : +65 6733-3317) once. It was such a long time back that I have little to no recollection of my experience there. Then again, it could have been that it wasn't memorable at all. This impromptu visit could be consider a clean slate for myself in getting acquainted with the food from this Tex Mex restaurant.

The food was pretty decent tasting with generous portions. There was a curiously named fajita quesadillas which was basically just quesadillas with chunks of beef (or chicken) in them. The skins were buttery, meat was a little more cooked than I would have preferred and the lime flavoured rice was addictive. Unexpectedly better than I had anticipated was their Southern Smokehouse Bacon Big Mouth Burger. Big mouthful there for the name as well. Lol. Wasn't expecting much from the meat which was surprisingly not too bad in the department of beefiness. What got my attention was the description of the brown sugar and chilli rubbed bacon which tasted very much like ba kwa.

All in all rather meaty meals that were heavy on grease, cheese and carbs. Reminded me of the early days of Tony Romas. I have suspicions on the decline of the food quality as time passes. We'll have to see about that.

Mang Kiko's Lechon, Lau Pa Sat

This stall (18 Raffles Quay, Stall #27 Lau Pa Sat Festival Market) was brought to my attention by a Filipino colleague at work. Mang Kiko's Lechon basically serves roasted pork (lechon) and chicken on a rotisserie.

The food stood out. Roast pork belly was quite similar Chinese roast pork but had a much more smokey aroma from the roast. These guys were quite generous with the portions as well. Which might or might not be a good thing since roast meat was laced with quite a bit of fat. Some of the skin was a little tough though. Chicken was well roasted, greasy and had breast meat which was surprisingly tender. Loved the spicy vinegar and a black sauce - which tasted much like dark soya sauce. There was an aroma from chilli though it wasn't really spicy. On the side, there was also a sour and garlicky soup that one could have free refills on. Needless to say, we're going to come back.

The Bratwurst Shop, Plaza Singapura

It must have been a few years since I've last eaten at The Bratwurst Shop (68 Orchard Road, #B2-39C Plaza Singapura, tel : +65 6884 4093). I was thinking about coming down after seeing them grill a beef patty the last time I was around. It did look pretty good on that grill. This place as some of you might already know is a no frills sandwich and hotdog stall. There's not too much to look forward to aside from a variety of sandwiches and hotdogs while the burgers were something that I've only noticed recently. 

We tried the basic burger so that we could get an opinion on the patty. The patty of the burger was quite marinated which resulted in a tussle between the marinate and the flavour of the beef. Despite that, I've to admit that the nicely grilled patty was decent and the first couple of bites drew dripping juices. What could have made it much better were onions that were surprisingly absent. The cheese used was sadly the regular pre-packed sliced variety (major disappointment here) which I remember someone once telling me that they tasted like plastic. Lol. Sliced cheddar from the block would have been great. As you can see, we're just a couple of steps away from a decent burger here.

The initial reaction to the chilli dog was also a tad underwhelming as the sauce didn't look like it was of that meaty consistency that I was hoping for. True enough, it was forgettable there. To be fair, the entire hotdog pretty much held up with the hearty sausage (spicy beef and pork option there). What's up with the scarcity of onions?

The Handburger, Raffles City

This was a relatively new burger joint (252 North Bridge Road, #B1-77/78 Raffles City Shopping Centre, tel : +65 6334 4577) that's opened in town. Apparently they are by the management that runs Soup Spoon just next door. I recalled seeing the unit boarded up for renovation previously and made a mental note to watch out for the opening even though I hadn't any idea then what they were about. There were some things that that I liked and didn't about them but the impression that was left was positive.

What they called The Works was pretty much.....well, the works. Onion jam, sunny side up, cheese, mushrooms with pesto, lettuce and bacon. The issue I have with stacked burgers like these are that they are next to impossible to eat with your hands unless you start taking out some of the extras that are piled on top of the patty. Eating them with a fork and knife just felt different. Apart from that, they had a reasonably well made patty which had a nice char on the exterior, juicy on the insides and beefy enough for me. The bacon was unfortunately dry-ish and a little hard.

The blue cheese burger had potential to be good if not for the fact that the amount of blue cheese was underwhelming. In some of the bites, I could barely taste the cheese. It was the singular disappointment for this one. Not likely to order this again even though I really like those generous slices of poached pears they had. Interestingly, the chilled tomato stuffed with coleslaw on the side could have been pretty good if not for the carrot and sesame dressing which I thought ruined it. I guess burgers in this country have a lot of catching up to do if that's the standards we're getting out of a new, dare I say, specialist. Personal peeves aside, I wouldn't mind coming back to try something else from the menu. These guys did a decent peanut butter and banana shake with some barely toasted marshmallow. Again, portions have room for improvement.

   

Bon Goût, Robertson Quay

Found another place which I could get myself some pretty good home styled Japanese cooking right down at Robertson Quay (60 Robertson Quay, #01-01 The Quayside, S238252). After hearing about the rather unfortunate change of management down at Wasabi Tei, Bon Goût could just be the next best thing to happen. Funny thing is, I've actually eaten here once quite a few years back. Didn't really register much except for the fact that the shop was a bookstore of sorts as well. This time round, I found myself liking the food that I dropped by in consecutive nights for dinner.

With little idea of what was good from the place apart from what I had heard about their curry, I decided to wander off the beaten path to try something else. Landed myself a maguro zuke don and their beef steak don. Both of which turned out to be good choices. I couldn't really identify what about the tuna that was great. Perhaps it was the fact that the slices of tuna was of a suitable temperature. The result was tender and flavourful meat. Delicious with just a drizzle of shoyu and accompanied with a bit of that strong wasabi, it was something that I couldn't get enough of. Already deciding to come back again.

The beef steak don came in a form of sliced pan fried beef done medium with little but shoyu and butter. This was also really good stuff. These couple of dons have assured my return at least for the next couple of times.

2nd dinner

Having had a good impression of their "beef steak" we tried their beef steak curry with rice which was very decent by its own. But it wasn't something that wowed me that I would order again soon. I would have preferred enjoy the flavours of the beef without having the sweetish and mildly spicy curry come into the picture. But still, it wasn't bad at all.

Another pleasant surprise came from their curry pork udon which featured a more savoury curry in comparison to the one that was used for the rice. I don't order udon much and I guess this would be one of those times that I'm pretty glad that I did. The noodles were soft and springy without being overly chewy and I'm guessing that this ought to be the correct texture. Now that Wakashachiya is no longer around, this would probably be the next place I'll be seeing myself getting curry udon. The generous portions of shabu thin slices of pork buried underneath that savoury curry made up for it. Awesome option for those cool weathers if only they would come more frequently.