Kam Boat House, Singapore Swimming Club

Here's a spread of dim sum and an order of roasted goose from Kam Boat House (45 Tanjong Rhu Road, tel : +65 6342 3659). From the menu, variety here was generally limited but the food was generally wasn't too shabby.

I'm sure I would like enjoyed a fluffier skin for the char siew bao, a creamier textured pan fried radish cake, more tender steamed pork ribs, a more distinctively defined siew mai flavors or even a lighter pastry for the char siew sou. Even the roasted goose could have been more tender. But that's just me picking on little things that I would have preferred. The food here was not bad. I could have gotten used to the more refined quality down at Imperial Treasure, which has to me been consistently one of the better and affordable dim sum places.

Was there anything that might have stood out from the food which we ordered at Kam Boat House? I guess I had enjoyed the nice flavourful aroma from the fat underneath the roasted light and crispy skin of the goose and their siew mai was actually competently done in spite of my rambling.

Milk fish and crispy pata from 7107 Flavours

Curiosity was what got the better of us when the unsuspecting order of milk fish was served down at 7107 Flavours. What we couldn't quite figure out here, was how did all the minced fish stuffings with raisins and green peas got filled out into the unbroken skin of the fish again entirely intact! There weren't any bones in there for that matter and even the head was entirely filled with the marinated minced fish. 

The crispy pata was just as the name implied, full of crispy skin from the pork. The meat was dry and was pretty much saved by the garlic and chilli vinegar on the side there. I didn't think it was impressive enough to ever come back for that again. Their sinigang however, was still as enjoyable as I remember them.

Hippopotamus Restaurant Grill, Marina Square

I was skeptical at first. Hippopotamus (6 Raffles Boulevard, #01-204/205 Marina Square, tel : +65 6338 5352) sounded neither the likes of a restaurant nor French nor both. Apparently though, these guys are a Parisian family styled restaurant that's been around for almost half a century. 

Food was pretty decent. I was also sold by their XL rib eye which was large, juicy and quite bloody. Granted that there're no special premium cuts from pedigreed bovines with exceptional marbling here, it was still a good hunk of meat. Glad that I picked a medium doneness over my regular medium rare which might have been a tad undercooked for my preferences. Portions were generous (it might have been 340g) and I enjoyed the sides. One of the gems in this restaurant was a their blue cheese sauce! Yay for that blue cheese sauce because I know there's a dreary lack of decent ones around. I'm definitely coming back for the steaks and perhaps the burgers.

french onion soup

The French onion soup was passable. Love the toasted cheese, but the flavour lacked body.

300g bone marrow

We were served a pretty large bone marrow - costing also much less than what most restaurants would charge for it. But I suspect this was frozen and not thawed nor baked well as the marrow wasn't as quivery as it should have been. Certain parts were almost as hard as warm wax. Eek!

squid fries

These not so chewy squid fries were also passable. It got boring after a couple of pieces.

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"