&MADE by Bruno Ménard

 

I'll skip the interesting stories about how Bruno Ménard used to run a 3 Michelin starred French restaurant in Tokyo and fate has relegated him onto our sunny shores to run a burger/sandwich joint (9 Scotts Road, #01-04/05/06 Pacific Plaza, tel : +65 6238 5549) these days. That's what Google is for.

I prefer talk about the food. Do I like it?  Yes, it was pretty tasty.  The dry aged beef burger with Comte cheese and sautéed onions was impressively one of the better, juicier and beefier pink medium rare doneness burger that I've had in a while. In a light, soft and airy bun. It's one of those things that you sink your teeth into and then quietly exclaim to yourself, "wow!". Those toastoo things which were buckwheat crepes were nicely made as well. I had the one stuffed with smoked salmon, cheese and spinach. The food was all freshly prepared and arrived hot. And juicy.

What didn't work for me were the dainty portions. Too damned small for a hungry person was my first impression and I could easily do three of those toastoos for breakfast. That though, would make it a rather expensive breakfast. Ditto for the burger which probably had one of the smallest non slider patty I've come across. 

Service was prettyy good and the food was great. I'd like to give it another shot someday. Maybe.

Mr Prata, Evans Road

Here's a maggi goreng mutton and a mutton dum briyani (weekends special apparently) from Mr Prata (26 Evans Road, #01-02, tel : +65 6235 6993).

The place was better than I had imagined. The prices on the whole were competitive compared to the other "famous prata shacks". That being said, I haven't really tried any other prata except for their "Italian" one which featured fillings of cheese, ground mutton, onions and strips of green peppers. It wasn't anything mind blowing though.

The dum briyani mutton was cooked with basmati rice that was infused with spices. That rice was tasty that one could just eat them naked. The cooked in meat was on the other hand too dry even though it wasn't tough. Maggi goreng mutton was competently stir fried with a semi liquid yolk egg. I wouldn't mind coming back again.

A worthy mee pok at Whampoa food centre

...can only mention the firm mee pok flavoured with bits of browned garlic and deep fried lard. Also the refillable soup that included wanton which had dried sole in its stuffings.

Ack!

Wooloomooloo Steakhouse, Swissotel The Stamford

focaccia with caramelised onions 

I've heard about this (2 Stamford Road, Level 3 Swissotel the Stamford, tel : +65 6338 0261) Australia-esque steakhouse from Hong Kong and decided to check them out. The setup of their menu reminded us of a mini-Morton's. Even the prices were a little more mini in comparison as well. But service from the restaurant was excellent and not miniaturised.

Dinner started by serving a freshly baked caramelised onion focaccia.

half portion of an excellent lobster bisque

The rendition of the cognac laced lobster bisque from Wooloomooloo was luxuriant. Natural sweetness from the crustacean was rich in the creamy broth backed with a trickle of prickling spice as it ran down the throat. Glad to find that the token piece of lobster that came with the bisque retained a great deal of its natural sweetness as well.

jumbo lump crab cake

Crab cakes were mixed with breadcrumbs. The result left a slightly floury texture but the crabs were tender and fresh tasting, spiced with little but salt and pepper. It also understandably didn't leave as much of an impression as the ones from Morton's.

beef wellington

For a country that's self proclaimed as a food paradise, beef wellingtons are somewhat a rarity. Wooloomooloo's tasted pretty good. 8oz tenderloin with mushroom duxelle, topped with foie gras and baked in a buttery crust. The inevitable comparison for me came between this and the filo pastry tenderloin from Etna which had actually more flavour in the seared meat. This one had foie gras and more buttery pastry. But then the latter had blue cheese sauce. Well, this came with a pretty good Maidera sauce which couldn't be discounted as well. And so forth.

ribeye (150-day grain fed, 2-3 weeks wet aged, Grainge Farms, Gippsland, Victoria)

The ribeye was in short, delicious. Their 12oz Australian Black Angus was a stellar representative of a properly done medium rib steak laced with a decent amount of fat and finished with a nice char on the surface with little to detract from the natural flavour of the meat but salt and pepper.

sauces and sides

Accompanying sides of sautéed spinach and mushrooms and the thin hash browns were nice. What I thought was outstanding was their creamy peppercorn sauce. In a wonderful, strange, sweet and peppery manner it got me.

As much as we would have wanted sweet ending, we had no more room for desserts.

Dim sum at My Little Spanish Place

This was my first time attempting to update the blog with an iPhone and there's been some hiccups. The Blogger app on iPhone sucks big time. It really needs to be updated. Nonetheless, it's given me some lessons about mobile blogging and this is My Little Spanish Place (619 Bukit Timah Road, tel : +65 6463 2810).

We trudged off the Spanish dim sum with something safe and traditional; tortillas. This was something that would easily recognized by taste and texture to be comfort food by pretty much anyone. Essentially, chopped potatoes and onions in egg. The texture of the omelette felt a little bread-y. 

House platter. Featuring some mild and nutty lomo, some umami salchichon, chorizo aromatic with paprika and jamon Joselito. The last item being a grand reserve grade of the Iberico as I understand; made from pedigree Iberian pigs with a extended duration of curing. Full bodied, nutty, savoury and naturally sweet at the same time. I had never been able to reconcile with people whom had always described these things as melt in your mouth, because most of the ham doesn't melt in your mouth. It's the prolonging of sustained flavour from the continual mastication that makes this really an awesome jamon.

Also, Manchego cheese very nice.

To further elevate our blood pressure, there were some savoury and spicy chorizo fritos which we had with additional orders of bread. Altogether, it was akin to a salty and paprika laced lup cheong with more aromas.

Unfortunately, it seemed that their calamare fritos in its ink was really more aesthetics than substance. Couldn't taste any of that seafood-y flavour of the ink on the batter and it was in the end, a pretty boring fried calamari rescued by their aioli.

Dessert was a leche frita, a traditional fried milk dessert from Spain. It tasted like hot custard in batter that was pretty good with the cinnamon dusted fresh cream. A heart clogging kind of good if you know what I mean.

Supreme Pork Chop Rice, Beach Road

This particular stall (basement of 67 Beach Road) has had its history for sure. I can not so vaguely recall the time over a decade past when a camp mate of mine brought me for the first time to savour their freshly fried pork chop rice. Back then it was located in a coffeeshop in a shophouse just beside Allson Hotel. In my earlier working life, it shifted to the food court at Shaw Leisure Gallery. The next relocation saw them at the food court at Bras Brasah Complex. Then came the Middle Road unit and now, the current premise is a basement just at the junction of Middle Road and Beach Road.

And in the past 4 years, the price has gone up by a mere twenty cents. How good is that?  The chops were still pretty much as I remembered them. Backed up with frozen variety peas, corns and carrots. And an egg if you would.

They may not be the best (screw superlatives sometimes!) in the world, but they're still definitely freshly fried, thin crisp batter and enough moist meat in there to qualify itself as a real pork chop. And they're still pulling a pretty big crowd.