The Jackson Plan, Duxton Hill

This was a new British styled gastrobar (40 Duxton Hill, tel : +65 6866 1988) located but a few units from L'Entrecote. The intriguing name which this establishment has came from a plan which was done to engineer district distribution in this country back in 1822. Shortly after the arrival of Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles. Then in recent years, an Italian man Beppe De Vito, who had brought us Il Lido and Forlino decided that it was probably a good idea to turn the name of that into one of a restaurant/watering hole.

How the reconciliation had happened, I did not know.

Westons organic cider

The bar features a bunch of ciders that I knew next to nothing about. I decided on a bottle of Westons organic cider by virtue of name and then decided that it wasn't really what I had been looking forward in a cider. However, their very helpful wait staff did follow up with a recommendation of the vintage cider of the same brand. That was pretty good stuff with what I felt was a better balance of body, apple citrus and of course, more alcohol. We had seconds.

Potted smoked mackerel, rye toast

The smoked mackerel was unexpectedly good. It didn't look like much and I was expecting bits of things I would recognize as fish instead of an oatmeal paste. The aroma of the smoked fish was appetizing and we enjoyed it sufficiently on its own that the lemon was left untouched. But the story of the lemon doesn't end here.

Cured ox tongue, celeriac & caper coleslaw

I had little idea of what to expect for the ox tongue and didn't imagine it to be soft with a velvet like texture on the surface. Much like thick wet cardboard. Lol. Jokes aside, the flavour was a little subdued for my liking for ox tongue. But if you had recalled the lemon that was left behind earlier...a squeeze of it along with a sprinkle of salt did quite a bit to spruce things up.

Scallops, black pudding, smoked cheese

The scallops and blood pudding were enjoyable. Almost everything came across as slightly sweet. The pudding tasted very much like sweet corn with a meaty afternote. The light tasting mashed potatoes were creamy and addictive. What was described as smoked cheese was actually aburied (torched). I'm not even sure if it was just cheese as it was a too fluffy and creamy.

Beef shin, bone marrow, potato cakes

This was probably the least exciting of what we had. The beef shin was tender, but much too lean for my preferences. The bone was a little small with not much marrow to speak of. I think it would be fair to mention that the French guys nearby do a much better job with that. All those capers did nothing to help either.

Real chips

Thick cut fried potatoes. One can even taste the natural sweetness from the tubers. Enjoyed it.

Eccles cake, rum and raisin ice cream

I had never heard of an Eccles cake until today. It is apparently a sort of fruit danish with sugar sprinkled over the top. It might have been great if it were freshly made instead of chewy and cold. The scoop of ice cream which was in all likelihood 50% raisins could have done with more rum. I didn't feel that dessert was much to get excited over.

Would I come back? Certainly.

Saboten, Parco Marina Bay

I am telling myself that it is very likely that I have stumbled upon a new favorite tonkatsu joint down at Saboten (9 Raffles Boulevard, #P3-01 Parco Marina Bay, Millenia Walk, tel: +65 6333 3432). In this place I have found myself porky goodness encased in a crisp breaded shell with no excessive grease. While at that, it was also true that there have been other places which I had thought, provided compelling offerings. And there was also the fact that this restaurant belongs to a chain that has more than 500 outlets worldwide.


The leaner katu rosu from the set came bolstered with nice strip of fat on the side while the hire nuggets from their katsudon (which scored with molten yolk!) were expectedly tender and juicy. The former set also came with a tasty prawn cake/fritter which was made of chunks of the said crustacean chopped up, fused together and encased in a similar breaded shell. I hear that these prawn cakes will only be available until the end of July.


Each order comes with a free flow of rice, shredded cabbage and miso soup. The ponzu sauce and their exceptionally fragrant creamy sesame dressing on the side were responsible for more servings of these than I care to admit and the latter was nothing short of spectacular over a bowl of steaming hot rice. Who needs tonkatsu sauce here?

Salta, Icon Village

I've been wanting to come down to Salta (12 Gopeng Street, #01-56/57 ICON Village, tel : +65 6225 8443) for quite a while. This place is relatively (still) new to the scene for steaks in this country and what was essentially different about them was that they are an Argentinian steakhouse. Argentinian meat with their styles of cooking (coal fueled flames, no less!) being the key of the offerings.

Just to get things off my chest, I didn't enjoy much of their Corazon de Cuadril, which was a cut described as heart of rump. It was probably the delicious thin slices of well salted hump from churrascaria that have gotten me confused and thinking that this might have been similar. The grainy textured lean meat was less than flavourful beyond the seasoning of salt and was a little too tough to be enjoyable. They might have been better thinly sliced from spits rather than in the form of the thick chunk of meat where the insides were just....boring and tough. The rest of what I had, I liked. Pretty much.

Started off with a small selection in a bread basket. These served today were warm and that made them enjoyable.

What made the bread better were the little pots of dips that we had used for almost everything else that was served. My favorite of the three provided was definitely the spicy chimichurri. I was told that there was coriander inside, but I tasted none of it so it was all good. These dips they had tasted like they weren't made too long ago. The salsa and anchovy dips were pretty good as well and they actually taste quite good with butter on the bread. This Provoleta was a dish of melted Provolone cheese spiced with oregano and pink pepper. And to the point, it was awesome. The accompanied spices added to the flavours but did little to detract from the original milky and salty taste of the chewy cheese which was bolstered with the char aroma from the browned bits at the edges. I liked this so much that I would probably come back just to eat it again. We had a salchicha as well. It was a nicely grilled and juicy sausage there but the fillings were far from coarse and felt like it was processed by a machine rather than hand. I did enjoy the flavour but it was texture that was found lacking here. I couldn't say the ribeye was anywhere close to awesomeness, but I think it was a good enough job for the meat to be enjoyable. Then again, I must have meant that from the source of the meat rather than the execution because there was really nothing I could have been faulting from the grill. The flavour from the fat wasn't distributed well as I was hoping for. Wouldn't avoid ordering this again a next time though. Damn my habitual usage of double negatives. The mushroom and potato puree on the side tasted slightly sweet. Every potato that arrived on the table tonight tasted like sweet potatoes. That was unexpected.  Except for the sweet potato fries which we had deliberately ordered. The one with mushrooms was addictively tasty. It wasn't actually puree as most of us would have understood it. More like mashed. For all the food that we've already had, we managed to polish off the entire dish. The fries however became a tad too greasy and cloying at the end.

Dinner at Old Hong Kong Kitchen

Feel like I'm on the fence about food here. On one hand, it was respectable cooking. I did enjoy the Peking duck even though it wasn't one of the more memorable I've had. Tofu was competently done and the ee fu noodles made from the leftover meat from the duck were more fragrant than I had expected. The garlicky broth from the poached vegetables was not bad tasting too.

In that same breath, the uninspiring durian paste prawns that lacked oomph in both flavour and aroma was disappointing. 
I don't see myself be looking forward to coming back for dinner. Maybe for dim sum.

Peking duck rolls

deep fried prawns with durian paste

braised tofu with wild mushrooms and scallops

poached spinach with 3 eggs

braised ee fu noodles with shredded duck

sesame seed crusted deep fried black sesame paste pancakes

Steaking out at Pepper Lunch

This was a pleasant surprise after throwing my usual caution to the winds and getting caught up with the advertisement banners outside Pepper Lunch (350 Orchard Road, Basement Level Shaw House). I hadn't stepped into this place in years. We were drawn in mostly by the big ribeye and thick steak on the said advertisements. Fortunately, they arrived pretty much like how it looked in the pictures.

We got to work as soon as possible on the sizzling hot plates, flipping the steaks and having them rested on the bowls of rice after getting the nice browning on the surface, trying not to let them get overdone. The end turned out to be pretty enjoyable even though frozen meat might have been involved. The steaks were pretty decent for what we were paying. It was nice to note that the mashed potato on the side was addictively buttery. The accompanying cheese sauce option on the side of the thick steak was however, totally forgettable.

Am considering coming back in spite of the smell that the splattering grease tends to cling onto the clothes.

The Ship, Shaw Centre

Being something of an institution for western food in this country, The Ship (1 Scotts Road, #04-34 Shaw Centre, tel : +65 6235 2235) sure brought back memories. It was about two decades back since I had eaten here the first time as a young lad impressed as I was with the restaurant. There was definitely something approaching reminiscence from the layout of the tables, the dimly lit ambiance; down to the round ubiquitous looking cold buns with the single serving portions of SCS butter.

It might be because of the places that I've been eating, but these oysters Kirkpatrick aren't too commonly found these days. They were however delicious with the jus from the shellfish soaked through the wilted spinach stuffed into the back of the shells providing a briny flavour throughout bolstered by the smokey aroma from the baked bits of bacon. So good that we had been ordering them twice in two visits.

The prime rib from The Ship was a first for me. Have never ordered them here and had never even realized that they were even available (only Fridays and Saturdays albeit). Nor was I expecting them to be served on cast iron hot plates. I have to admit it was an interesting and pretty enjoyable experience since it wasn't likely that I would be eating prime rib served like these - with their viscous brown sauce slathered over the top. The meat was kept much hotter than I'm used to but did not overcook because they were actually lying on a bed of sliced onions that literally took the heat from the plate. Yeah, a baked potato with the works on the side as well. And no, there wasn't any option for creamed corn or spinach nor Yorkshire pudding to be had.

The wrap up was an old school tart-ish and sweet mango pudding plus a serving of coffee with a small aluminium pitcher of evaporated milk which screamed old school for me. That coffee tasted surprisingly decent. Wouldn't fall into the radars of Java connoisseurs but it sure tasted better than some acidic double espresso with foam and milk concoction down at Loysel's Toys that didn't deserve to be call espresso.