A taste of Burgundy...

This visit happened at Bistro Du Vin because I was informed by a little bird that the consultant chef Maria Goncalves from Burgundy was to be in this weekend and that she would be whipping up some of her own food which was off the regular menu. I got interested and got table for lunch in the weekend.

We started off with a zucchini minestrone with prawns and poached eggs and a pasta and broccoli in skate wing broth. 

The former was different from the commonly seen minestrone from the lack of tomatoes in the soup. The flavours in the light vegetable broth came mostly from the bits of bacon which accented it with savoury smokiness. Upping the ante for this soup were a couple of crunchy textured prawns and a wobbly poached egg. 

The pasta in skate wing broth was also delicious. Soup based pastas aren't generally a thing for me. This one surpassed what I had expected. Robust and flavourful with bits garlic, highlights of poached tomatoes and some spiciness from red chilli. As if accentuate how much we had enjoyed this, we had to ask for extra bread to mop the plate dry with.

After a warm up from the delicious soups, came the braised veal knuckle with ratatouille and a roasted duck breast with foie gras and truffles sauce. 

The former looked to me much like an osso buco rather than a veal knuckle, complete with the boned in middle that contained that precious scrap of oesophagus clogging marrow. The meat was expectedly, "fall off the bone" tender that one could just attack with a mere fork. 

Well done also were the thinly sliced tender roasted duck breast, medium done and lying in a pool of very fragrant truffle sauce. The accompanying slices of foie gras weren't as impressive as I would have liked, but the highlight was the nicely done duck in the sauce. Would be really great if this ever turned up on the regular menu.

This dessert was known as Poires Belle Hélène. A spiced poached pear with vanilla bean ice cream, slathered with melted dark chocolate and shaved almond flakes. I liked that the fruit still retained a little hint of crunch in the texture and the rest of the dessert tasted pretty much as it looked. In a good way that is.

Khao kha moo

This khao kha moo which was essentially a sort of 5 spice braised pork trotters ,was introduced by a colleague who seems to be a regular down in these parts at Golden Mile Complex. This place (Sin Lai Lai Snack House, #01-30) serves a variety of Chinese Thai food and their braised pork trotters with rice is apparently one of the signature dishes. The meat of the pork was "fall off the bone" tender without excessive fats and accompanying skin. The gravy that was used to braise the pork seemed to be soy based with hints of cinnamon and cloves and is apparently used to simmer the eggs that come with this rice dish. The eggs cooked as such were in a way similar to tea leaf eggs, but lacked in the department of flavor. Still this turned out to be quite tasty and generously portioned for $4 and minimal fuss.

Will definitely consider coming back to get more of the khao kha moo and probably pineapple fried rice.

More pho...

To satiate more of the beef noodle craving that I've been having lately, I dropped by Madam Saigon for more pho. I prefer the broth here to the mildly sweetish rendition from Pho House. As with the previous experience, the broth was not as warm as I was hoping for. This lukewarm broth syndrome was at least consistent about Madam Saigon. Also, this place was an easier reach then Suntec.

Pho House, Suntec City

I've been craving for something light after a recent spell of flu which left me with a residual cough. Soup beef noodles were pretty much all I was thinking of for some reasons. Which was why I ended up at Pho House (,#03-008 Suntec City Mall, 3 Temasek Boulevard, tel : +65 6820 2455).

Their large bowl of pho bo came with pretty generous portions of sliced beef. Broth was also a little sweet instead of just savoury. I don't mind it again though. There was a sort of bean sauce on the side which was tasty. Not sure what that was.

On the side, we had a tasty beef salad of sorts which resembled a lettuce wrap with a spicy fish sauce dip. I forgot what this was called, but those "lettuce tacos" were appetizing with the dip.

Shuang Yuan, Liang Seah Street

This was another Taiwanese themed place (1 Liang Seah Street, #01-05/06, tel : +65 6336 9338) that was relatively new in the vicinity. Their lu rou fan didn't quite look like how we expected. In fact, it came generously filled with thin sliced pork and looked like a yakiniku don rather than braised pork rice with gravy. The accompanying portions of gravy was a little too little. We also ordered up a bowl of their shuang yuan noodles which came with a couple of renditions of pork - braised belly, minced and balls. Guess it was just an ordinary bowl of noodles. Nothing much to say about the flavour or texture of the noodles so I won't try. What was unexpectedly good were those very porky tasting meatballs which were made in house. The textures were chewy in a good way and the flavour was pork-alicious.

On the side, their breaded fried oysters were dry and couldn't hold up to the recent ones that we've had at Ootoya even. The stewed eggs came with overcooked yolk which really made them very ordinary.

If I ever come back, those large pork balls would probably be the only reason.

Nasrin Restaurant, Baghdad Street

This place (12 Baghdad Street, tel : +65 6295 1280) looked to be one of numerous Middle Eastern (Persian for this specifically) themed joints that catered more to people who were into smoking shisha rather than eating food. Evidenced by the number of hookahs that were laying around and the people that were smoking them. But I was told that there was a kebab koobideh on their menu and it's been quite a while since the defunct Banoo or even Persepolis. True enough, there was a menu that offered a small selection of various grilled meats with rice along with finger food and assorted drinks. As per my initial impression, this was indeed a place that people lingered over smokes as I found my way up to the carpet draped second storey; where there were even more people smoking shisha.

What I didn't expect of the kebab koobideh was that it tasted very much like mystery meat. That was not to say that it wasn't tasty but I was hoping for the flavour of lamb that should have been in it. The lightly buttered basmati rice was fragrant and delicious while the grilled chilli on the side brought a welcomed kick to the food. The suspiciously smooth and creamy hummus tasted more lemony than I was expecting.

In retrospect though, this place was quite pleasant to chill over apple tea, especially by their window under the rain.