Union Farm Eating House

I had recently seen this place (435A Clementi Road) on a local food television program and it got me all curious about them. In spite of various heads up from friends telling me that the place was way overrated and not worth the time, curiosity prevailed. The last time I had eaten here could have been two decades back and I certainly didn't have very much memories of the food here. Union Farm had once, decades ago, been an actual chicken farm that ventured into the business of selling their chicken cooked. Throughout the years, it had converted into an actual food establishment selling kampong styled food.

Here was an order of their 15 piece paper wrapped chicken. The seasoning on the meat was sweetish with a hint of ginger. If I had to put some figures into this, about a good 60% of the plate were skin, bones and paper. Chicken pieces were stuck to the paper wrappings. The above mentioned food program said that one way of eating these paper wrapped chicken was to open them over a plate of their noodle so that the juices from the meat trapped within the paper wrappings could just dribble in added flavour. 

The chicken was pretty dry apart from some grease. Nothing dripped. There was very little meat in there and for what it cost, wasn't cheap at all. We certainly didn't adopt the looks of bliss like they portrayed on tv.

Our obligatory greens came in the from of kailan with oyster sauce. The serving was literally a plate of boiled kailan with a dollop of oyster sauce on the side. It didn't taste bad, but it just wasn't how I had expected it.

Previously, I had been griping over $34 noodles. This time round, my gripes are over $3 noodles. Boiled, unseasoned and garnished with a few stalks of vegetables, it certainly didn't look to me like it should cost that much. The portions weren't even close to being substantial.

I cannot in good conscience recommend this place to anyone.

Gattopardo revisited

For a few moments, I was contemplating the abstinence of superfluous narratives because I was trying to decide on something and my thoughts are somewhat disjointed. One may question what's the link between the two. But I have just proven that I have failed right here at that. With honorable discredits. Oxymoron.

There I did it again.

Still I shall try.

There is no simple way that I can come to terms with this, but there were some things that I liked and definitely some that I didn't about the food at Gattopardo. Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of what I liked most about the food tonight. Their grilled calamari which I have three words for. Awesome, awesome and awesome. Really.

Sweet Red Onion from Calabria with Light Saffron Ragusano Cheese Fondue

I liked the sweet onion pudding. The texture was so souffle light and creamy at the same time. Taste was sweet and wasn't overwhelmed by the Ragusano cheese.

Homemade Squid Ink Spaghetti with King Crab and Cognac Sauce

Unimpressive portions. No bloody idea what the Cognac sauce was suppose to be or tasted like. Tasted light tomato and flavors of the crab. And a savory something else that didn't remind me the slightest of Cognac. Crab meat possessed natural sweetness, meat was a little difficult to remove from the shells for some segments. Noodles were ordinary.

Angel Hair Pasta with Grey Mullet “Bottarga” Roe and Sea Urchin

I think I know bottarga and I didn't think I tasted it much. Pasta was more than a little bland. Not the uni I was thinking of neither. In fact, it tasted rather fishy, was a little stiff and little like my good memories of sea urchin. Very disappointed with this $34 bowl of noodles.

White Garlic Focaccia with Smoked Mozzarella, Italian Sausage, Onion and Potatoes

Pretty good there, but couldn't help linking my thoughts of it with northern Chinese pancakes.

Toasted Almond Panna cotta with Bitter Chocolate Mousse and Pear Confit

This was an unusual panna cotta. If I had to describe it, it would probably be almond agar agar. Pear confit was lightly tart and sweet coupling nicely with the creamy caramel sauce daubed over them.

Crispy Espresso-infused Wafer Filled with Sweet Ricotta Cheese

Not too bad there, but I ate a little more than half this and still couldn't identify what in the world is that red sauce. Enjoyed the creamy ricotta fillings. Most outstanding item in there, were the toasted and chopped pistachios. Fragrant especially when masticated. Pistachio gelato was good too.

Signature Mascarpone & Espresso Tiramisu Cake with Sicilian Bitter Cocoa

Ordinary, not lousy.

So how did I do?

Joo Siah Bak Koot Teh, Jurong East

This ba kut teh here trumped the one at Founder . If not for the location, I can see myself becoming a semi regular at Joo Siah (Blk 347 Jurong East Ave 1, #01-220, Yuhua Market & Hawker Centre). 

Can't quite put a finger to what exactly about Joo Siah that made me decide with certainty that I preferred them. Perhaps it was a clearer and sharper broth that had bits of white peppercorn at the base and those morsels of tender rib meat that one could easily suck off the bone. That and a combination of those and the excellent braised pork trotters in dark soy sauce. And I really do mean excellent. The medley of textures from the soft meat, fat and skin were slurp inducing and I found a homely aspect to the taste of their dark soy sauce. Tasted very much like how my grandmother used to make them. 

The pickled vegetables were pretty pedestrian. They had unfortunately ran out of tau kee for the day and I hear that the prime ribs are usually sold out by the afternoon. I guess it's good enough reasons for an excuse to revisit.

De Yun Bak Kut Teh, Yishun

Even though this wasn't anything mind blowing, the stall had pretty good stuff going on there (Blk 417, Yishun Ave 11). For one, they were cooking a variety of stuff including boiled pig stomach and steamed fish. The bak kut teh was peppery and not shabby at all. I liked that the cai buay came with thinly sliced bits of chilli padi which added a bit of heat to the salty chopped bits of mustard greens. The meat from the rib was nice and fatty even though it wasn't quite of the "fall off the bone tender" standards.

Definitely more than good enough for a quick fix there with variety to boot at this remote corner of Yishun. Like braised pork trotters in dark soy sauce!

Paradise Dynasty, ION Orchard

Perhaps it had been that very recent trip down to the Ramen Champion stadium that I had felt that the la mian at Paradise Dynasty (2 Orchard Turn, #04-12A ION Orchard, tel : +65 6509 9118) lacked punch. While the flavors of the broth in the ramen had been salty and "in your face" impactful, this pork bone broth in the la mian appeared to be refined and subtle. Just like the difference between karate and taichi. If that means anything. Hiiieeeyaaah!

This was my first visit down to a restaurant by the Paradise Group. The food concept for Paradise Dynasty, is northern and southern Chinese. I know...it's vague. At least superficially it is.

The egg loaf above was made of century egg, salted egg and omelette. Apart from being egg-y, it was rather bland.

What this restaurant is well known for, are their xiao long bao. These black skinned ones above are black truffle flavour. To be honest, the black truffle was subtle and little. One would have to be consciously tasting the dumpling instead of gobbling them down to recognize that there was actually something else lurking inside them. On the other hand, these xiao long baos did taste a lot like the original versions, not detracting much from their original porky taste.

These are the foie gras flavoured versions of the xiao long bao. Like the black truffle variety, the flavour from the foie was subtle. But I have to admit that this place makes a pretty decent pork and fat dumpling.

These chilled Shaoxing marinated drunken chicken were great. Flavour from the wine was thoroughly seeped into the soft flesh of the bird. Will likely to order these again if I come back.

Regretted ordering the mala beef innards. I suppose I didn't really enjoy the spices and that it was filled with chopped coriander. With all the spiciness, I couldn't really taste much of the beef.

In spite of the earlier comparison, I had actually enjoyed the la mian here. Sure these silky noodles weren't the chewy or firm ones that I normally prefer. But these noodles were suppose to be another thing entirely. This place also did a much better job out of the molten yolked boiled egg. Fresh sweetness of the scallops and crab legs were also very apparent in the seafood here. Surprised and pleasantly so.

Ramen Champion at Iluma

Hey, the annual Ultimate Ramen Championship has made it to our local shores down at Iluma (201 Victoria Street, ILUMA @ BUGIS, #04 – 08/09/10). Seems that six stalls located in a "stadium" will be around until this time next year vying for our votes so that the winner is able to set up their ramen shop. 

The above was a bowl of Bario ramen from the stall of the same name. This stall from Tokyo featured semi squiggly noodles made from bread flour. What's visible from the above picture was but the proverbial tip of the iceberg for the amount of bean sprouts that went into the bowl of noodles. There's more of them sprouts in this bowl than a single serving in some chicken rice stalls!

I sampled more than a few spoonfuls of the garlicky broth before mixing in the grated garlic that one could help themselves to from the stall. The original broth tasted much like a hearty minced pork soup. 

What I liked about this particular bowl was the play of textures from both the thick chewy noodles and the crunchy bean sprouts. The former when put in a local context, was akin to lor mee noodles - albeit with more bite and none of that yellow noodle taste. I'm thinking this was very much like a Japanese lor mee. Guardian UK apparently put it as "50 best things to eat in the world" list. While I don't know if I would agree to that statement, I also do not think I would mind at all giving this a another go. With much less garlic the next time. On the side, Bario does have some crispy skinned and meaty gyozas which I found to be pretty good.

By a stroke of chance, Ikkousha that does my favourite Hakata styled tonkotsu ramen was just next door to Bario. Didn't have to navigate too far away through the lengthy queues/crowd. What stood out for me in their bowl of creamy broth was a depth of porcine smokiness that created a pretty unique flavour I've not encountered. Their thin noodles were sadly overcooked and weren't as firm and chewy as I liked.

I would like to give this stall my vote since I feel that they're definitely on a toe to toe with Nantsuttei, but I'm also keen on giving some of the others in the competition a go before I decide on it.

What was universal for both ramen stalls were the aromatic charshu that were so tender that they fell apart easily in the mouth. What's sad was that the ajitama from both stalls did not have the molten yolk and the shoyu flavour that I was expecting to be infused into the egg.