A choco lamb burger from De Burg

I had ordered this from De Burg out of curiosity. Of having hazelnut chocolate spread paired with a grilled lamb patty. The flavours were..... interesting to say the least. I haven't had chocolate with lamb before. Didn't taste too bizarre as well. It was just, unusual.

There was enough of the Nutella spread in the bun for the chocolate taste to be noticeable and in spite of everything else that was piled into the well constructed burger, I could still taste some flavour from the meat. Although, I would have preferred for that lamb flavour to be more robust.

Leng Kee fish soup and Seng Kee carrot cake

Here's an unbeatable radish cake (#02-182) and sliced fish soup (#02-192) combo down at Bukit Timah Food Centre (116 Upper Bukit Timah Road). The former was carbs for lunch.

What I liked about Seng Kee was the lightly crispy yet chewy skin of browned eggy crust that bound the chunky slabs of radish cake. The insides were soft and wasn't excessive greasy. Because of how they made them, I found it to be more hearty than the usual radish cake.

What draws many to Leng Kee Fish Soup, is their generous slices of fresh tasting batang and a tasty soup that puts the ubiquitous and soulless clones in countless food courts to shame. The cost of each bowl was comparable to what can be found in food courts. However with that same amount, I had also paid for extra fish roe and the portions of sliced fish are more than doubled.

Luke's Oyster Bar | Chop House, Gemmill Lane

Travis Masiero, formerly of a few places has done it again apparently. This time, it's a cleanly furbished oyster bar and grill joint (20 Gemmill Lane, tel : + 65 6221 4468) off one end of Club Street that serves seafood that are as I read, imported from Maine. Apparently, the oysters and the lobsters are the much talked about things that one could order around here.

Green Goblin

Clean tasting refreshing drink that I thought served well as a palate cleanser. I think there was cucumber in it though I do not remember what else. Enjoyable.

house made corn bread

The corn bread came with whipped butter on the side and a sprinkle of what looked to be paprika. Cutting to the kernel of it (lol!), the flavour of the corn were robust. Definitely one of the better ones if not the best in town.

tuna tartare

Excellent tuna tartare was served at Luke's. The clean flavour of the chopped tuna went along nicely with a fragrant soy based dressing with a hint of citrus and chives. This was a western version of negitoro on toast if you would. It almost felt like eating sashimi here. This was definitely worth coming back for.

fried oyster po boys

Their oyster po boys were served bite sized. The crispy battered oysters were of a smaller variety and were nicely fried. I couldn't however taste much of them as a lot of the flavours came from the delicious coleslaw dressing. I have no idea what it was made with.

MFK Fisher's oyster pan roast, sea urchin toast, smoked paprika and bottarga

Luke's oyster pan roast was in short, a smokey cream based oyster soup. Albeit one that is expertly done where the cream was rich and not excessively so while harbouring a more than subtle hint of the fat oysters swimming in there. I had a little difficulty identifying the smoked paprika and bottarga there, but what the heck. I wished there were more oysters and for as hard as I tried, I couldn't derive any of the uni-ness from the toast. In fact, the toast contained a pungent flavour I normally associate with blue cheese. In short, I enjoyed it.

Luke's clam chowder, sage butter and little neck clams

The other shellfish soup was a little more peppery and filled quite generously with the little neck clams. Again, easily one of the better clam chowders I've had.

boned in tenderloin au poivre, mustard cognac jus

A very expertly done, medium rare tenderloin with a pepper corn crust cradled in a plateful of savoury sauce that was the mustard cognac jus. Enjoyed every bit of it down to the bone.

lobster mac and cheese

The creamy portions of the mac and cheese reminded me of the soups we had earlier. Robust, thin in consistency and not cloying. This one also inherited more than a little hint of the natural sweetness of lobster.

banana and coconut crumble, avocado ice cream

Luke's banana and coconut crumble was deceptively light in spite of appearances. One could possibly imagine the taste and texture formed by sweet and semi melted bananas along with bits of shredded coconut, warm flaky pastry and crumbles. Nothing very surprising here in terms of flavour, just an enjoyable pastry well done. Didn't think much of the avocado ice cream though.

key lime pie

This was possibly the first time I had enjoyed meringue. The ones from the key lime pie were soft and definitely not excessively sweet. Key lime custard was robust and packed with lime zest which left a nice bitter aftertaste. The crushed cracker base (assuming that it was that) tasted oat-y-ier rather than buttery. I thought this was quite nicely done.

I'm very tempted to come by again really soon but the prices here are pretty steep.

mystery diner "A"

More Indian food from Tanjong Pagar Railway

The crowd and queues at the stalls were mad on a weekend, but we persisted and managed to get us some freshly baked chapati with keema and fried Indian rojak. Because they were freshly made and still piping hot, the chapati pieces were airy and light. All of the lightness pretty much went away with the oil drenched keema and with the assorted "deep fried from a trough" items from the Indian rojak. Both made for a greasy lunch. I wouldn't say that these were the best I've had around, but I couldn't complain neither.

Singapore Food Trail, Singapore Flyer

The original intention was to come down here (Level 1, Singapore Flyer, 30 Raffles Avenue) to check out the promotion Guinness had with a couple of the hawker stalls. In the end, we ordered a spread from the various stalls down at the Food Trail. What did I like about the food here? 

The compact poh piah was pretty decent if a little expensive ($2 a roll). Oyster omelette was competently done and I wouldn't mind eating those here again for sure. The satay bee hoon was a little different from the usual in both the flavour and viscosity of the satay sauce. The consistency felt like a watered down version of the sauce, but had an interesting seafood aroma. Portions for the smallest option was dismal. 

Back to the Guinness items, those were simply disappointing. The hokkien mee contained the barest trace of malty flavour and tasted like it was doused with some sweet sauce instead. The regular savoury rendition would have no doubt tasted much better. So I guess the noodles were largely saved by a very nice chilli sauce which broke the cloying monotony. The tiny flat tasting and limp textured Guinness squids (from Boon Tat BBQ Seafood) were pathetic in portions and taste for what it cost. It could have been uplifted with a bit more char. Note to myself to avoid this stall in the future. Even their frozen bbq stingrays were little to write home about.

satay bee hoon

Guinness Hokkien mee

oyster omelette

bbq stingray

poh piah

Guinness fried squid

An eggy lunch at Colbar

ox liver and egg sandwich

Any doctor worth their salt would probably comment that this was an ill advised lunch. But I don't eat like this every day so I think it's going to be fine. I hope. There's enough cholesterol to raise some alarms and enough carbs to induce stupor in the afternoon. 

Health concerns aside, the ox liver sandwich was quite good. The thinly sliced pan fried livers were well browned, appropriately salted and had enough texture for a bit of bite. Adding a fried egg into the the sandwich just made it richer in more ways than one. Knowing that it'll probably be insufficient, there was an order of egg curry which was quite good as well. Nutty, savoury and moderately spicy to be paired up with plain white rice. Quite worth the stupor if I might add.

egg curry