Brunch @ Hummerstons

 

While the attempt was applaudable at least in concept, the outcome wasn't so and didn't quite work out for me. I don't see myself coming back (11 Unity Street, #02-14 Robertson Walk, tel : +65 6737 8863) for brunch.

 

The Montreal styled poutine was fries, gravy, some mushrooms and a small piece of  foie gras. The gravy was salty, but stingy in portions. It wasn't curd cheese that they had used and the portions were so miserable that you could sometimes taste, but not really see them. You know what I'm saying?

The country eggs benedict looked to be an interesting option but fell short in execution. Just like the poutine. The texture of the sausage gravy felt curdled. It tasted of a lot of nothing but cream. Seriously, the visual representations also hints that there was a whole lot of nothing in them but cream. Sausage bits aside. In a sad revelation, Popeye's biscuits tasted even better than these ones. The only thing that was done properly were the poached eggs. Not worth a third of what they had charged for these at all.

The Grecian squid looked like it had a lot of spices and a good accompanying sauce going on, but had about one tenth of the flavors that one would expect. There was little char on the squid and apart from being tender, was mostly devoided of flavors.

The mildly spicy deep fried fish was seriously nice and so was the tasty and tangy slaw; which could have helped the the fish tacos if they came in larger portions. But having large crispy corn tortillas to eat this with is a fucking stupid idea. Think tacos breaking apart and greasy fish and slaw falling all over your hands.

Breakfast biscuit at Wendy's

Following up from the offer in the previous week, this was what's available for $2.30 in the current. A rosemary chicken patty in some dense and not so crisp on the outside biscuit. And a cup of iced Milo. Interestingly, the biscuit was a little sweet in contrast with the salty chicken patty. The look and texture pretty much crushed my hopes of finding something similar to what McD used to offer a couple of decades back. 

In retrospect, the burrito tasted a lot better. This on the other hand was a lot more filling. Not that it really matters since I'm sure I will not be coming back for more. The blessing from this trip came in the form of a discovery that they're actually giving free Milo mugs for orders of breakfast that are on the regular menu.

If you're wondering why I'm writing about Wendy's breakfast all of the sudden, I could ask the same question of myself.

A tonkotsu ramen from RamenPlay

To my surprise the basic tonkotsu broth from RamenPlay (313 Orchard Road, #B3-04/06 313 @ Somerset, tel : +65 6634 0051) was actually not bad at all. I suppose I had initially been prejudiced since this was a venture by Breadtalk and local bakeries dipping their fingers into the already competitive ramen business wasn't exactly what I had felt to be something I would have thought to be "competitive".

Here was a creamy thick broth without some of the additional layer of dimension as compared to Ikkousha or perhaps Keisuke's Tonkotsu King, but it did possess the basic flavors that were sufficient that I wouldn't discount them so readily in the future. Even if they hadn't been using the firmer textured Hakata styled thin noodles which I would very much prefer. Even the soft and thin sliced charshu wasn't too bad as well. I couldn't say that RamenPlay is anywhere up amongst my favorites, but I still have to admit they're doing a decent job.

Limoncello Italian Pizza & Grill, Rivergate @ Robertson Quay

 

About the only thing I knew about Limoncello (95 Robertson Quay, #01-19/20 Rivergate, tel : +65 6634 5117) was that it was opened up by the chef that used to La Braceria. I remember having walked past the locale quite some time back and it had then been still the shop front of the previous occupant whom had subsequently gone out of business. Then a friend tipped me off and suggested that I give them a try.

 

We decided to give a poke on their antipasto Limoncello which turned out to be pretty enormous in portions. It was a pretty standard smorgasbord of cured meats that included salami, prosciutto di Parma, something else that might have been pancetta and a creamy burrata.  That and some tasty San Marzano tomatoes in olive oil and a spicy garlic toast. The cold cuts were aromatic and salty, cheese was milky rich which clicked with the rockets and the garlic bread was really delicious with the ham. Their unexpectedly large portions (which was described to be good for 2) was almost a meal for 2.

The inevitable comparison came about from their porcini and truffle risotto with the ones from La Braceria. This was pretty good and I had little reason to expect much discernable differences between the two. But if I had to say it, I think the latter had a stronger truffle flavour.

We had to pack half of their pizza della casa for take away because the antipasto and risotto already had us at the seams. Not to mention that this was one packed pizza with rolls of thinly sliced tenderloin and luxuriant amounts of mozzarella on top of a crust that was folding beneath all the weight of the toppings. The meat was unexpectedly tender and the portions altogether was generous on a not so thin and chewy crush. Della casa indeed, and a hearty one too. Will definitely consider this when I have a craving for pizza again.

Dessert was a crumbly Limoncello cake with almonds. Wasn't very exciting, didn't taste any of the liquor.

Breakfast burritos at Wendy's...?

This was what Wendy's passed off as a breakfast burrito. There's a certain veneer thin marketing attempt promotion for the week. Basically, one gets a "free" burrito for getting a coffee. For a dollar ninety. Get it?

To put into local context, this was really more poh piah than burrito. It looked to be about a third in thickness as the posters had misled me to believe and it was about as long as the plastic stirrer they dispensed for the coffee which was by the way, really lousy. What I did like about them was that they were freshly prepared. It was almost 5 minutes of wait for each order and they were served piping hot. They were filled with eggs, bits of chicken and cheese and I actually kinda liked them for what they were.

I wouldn't discount two of these for breakfast. Only if it's for a dollar ninety a piece.

A Diamond in July

It has been quite a while since we were last prime ribbing at Lawry's. This would be our second visit down at the current location in Mandarin Gallery (333A Orchard Road, #04-01/31 Mandarin Gallery, tel : +65 6836 3333). Since it's been a while, it was actually also a little exciting to see them carve up my Diamond Jimbo as the beefy fragrance wafted across the table. 

The meat as my last recollection, was tender and excellent. And it seems that the current service crew is noticeably a notch up from the last ones back in Paragon. Well done there.