Esquina, Jiak Chuan Road

Word from the ether is that this lot in the corner (16 Jiak Chuan Road, tel : +65 6222 1616) is run by a Jason Atherton with an El Bulli pedigree hued with some Michelin starred Ramsey and whose fame stretched from Pollen Street Social in London to Table No. 1 in Shanghai and then down further south to the recent Pollen at Gardens by the Bay. The name itself, has sent up bars of branding which was subconsciously raised even before I stepped in. Even though I know nothing about the man nor his other restaurants.

Even though he probably doesn't cook here and probably has little oversight on what happens on a micro daily basis behind his open counter kitchen.

oysters, Vietnamese dressing

The oysters in Vietnamese dressing were....well, oysters with some tangy dressing with a light citrus punch and fish sauce. The briny shellfish weren't as chilled as I was expecting but I suppose they tasted fine. Just what one generally expects of oysters.

salt & pepper squid, black ink aioli

What I liked about this was the use of thinly sliced green chillis with the fried squid. Never had them this way before and I think it's a level of compliment which is seldom explored. Unfortunately, the squid ink aioli tasted just like a regular aioli. Garlic, olive oil and whatever. Nada of that squid ink which in the end was just only visuals. As competently done as they are, I can't think that these were the best fried squids out there.

smoked haddock, omelette and Manchego cheese

This was a dish that was probably hard to go wrong. Straightforward as cooking eggs, throwing torn up chunks of fish and cheese and then sprinkling bits of chopped spring onions and paprika. Perhaps even I can do it. That being said, the flavours were expectedly comforting with a smokiness from the fish infused with bits of cheesiness within what tasted more like scrambled eggs.

veal sweet meat and foie gras empanada with burnt onion and caper jam

This empanada dish came across as refined. Foie gras was delicious - had a thin and light crisp on the exterior while the innards were a little pink, tender and richly flavoured. There seemed to be a sweet and salty combination on the upper crust which I thought it was pretty good. The empanada in its refinement had a light and soft crust which was really nothing like the traditional street food puff. Onion jam was good.

wild berry and sangria ice cream

Not bad. Not amazing either.

chocolate mousse, olive oil jelly, coffee soil espresso drizzle I think...

This was the first item that I felt was truly outstanding. It had gotten till the last item before deep impressions were set. The chocolate mouse was rich, smooth and creamy and I liked the bitter aroma in them.

The olive oil jelly was mind blowing in a simple way I hadn't quite anticipated. Textually, it reminded me of a very soft pak tong ko (white sugar cake). They were redolent of the fruity aromas of the oil and was seeped in a moderated level of sweetness that wasn't excessive or too little.

Coffee soil tasted like crushed coffee biscuits. Not impressionably awesome like what I've had once but I guess they served their purpose well as contrast for the entire dessert. I would order this again. Yeap, I endorse this!

I think we like Lolla much better than here.

SPRMKT, McCallum Street

This place (2 McCallum Street, tel : +65 6221 2105) just adjacent to Amoy Food Centre was unexpectedly different from what I had in mind from the time I had known about them, to the point I thought I knew what was what on the menu to the time when the food was served and the moment when I started eating.

For one, they did a nicely tender fish and chips with a thin squid ink batter.  I could have sworn that there was an aroma of the squid ink when they were served (and interestingly a hint of curry as well) but as I ate, I realised that it tasted nothing like how I thought it smelled. No squid ink nor curry flavour. Still a very decent fish and chips and interestingly so like a lump of coal.

 

Their delicious smoked tomato soup was both sweet and tangy and worked great with those little chunks of chewy milky mozzarella cheese swimming in the midst. Oxtail stew was generously portioned, tasted homely, packed with collagen and had tasty fat off the tail meat with chunky root vegetables. I wished I worked nearby. 

Ipoh Lou Yau Bean Sprouts Chicken, Centrepoint

This chicken rice joint (#01-62, tel : +65 6735 2292) hailing from Malaysia must have been pretty new since I've never seen it around before. My initial impression was that it was probably an overpriced sub par quality franchisee of a brand that has seen better days. I was actually glad that I was wrong and the food was actually pretty decent, although a little small in portions.

What was really good about the chicken rice set were the perfectly blanched beansprouts which was super crunchy and had none of the associated taste of being undercooked. The timing of that would have to be pretty impeccable. The chilli sauce that they had offered also turned out to be an extry lime-ed up rendition of chicken rice chilli which I thought was rather refreshing as well on top of the heat. The yellow skinned chickens tasted rather ordinary and looked unattractively like those chooks that are marketed as kampung chickens.

Of the black truffled, sanma and daffodils...

Here's a couple of stuff from my favourite Japanese family restaurant at Liang Court that I haven't had before because it's been a while. Some of these new items have actually made it into the core menu. One of these was a black pig black truffle fried rice which was actually pretty good.

There was no lacking of the black truffle aroma in each of the puree coated grains. Diced bits of shitake added a mushroomy depth and the bits of pork was relegated mostly to provide texture. That was all there was to them, it was a little greasy but I think I like it.

We picked a sanma off the seasonal menu and it turned out to be much better than the one which we previously had at Itacho. The flavors of the fish were both more pronounced (in a good way) and was more tender than the latter location. The fried up bones was just greasy enough without being excessive, crispy and nicely salted. Brought an 'mmmm....' from us.

A 'Freshly Baked' breakfast

These were a couple of "brunch" option items from Freshly Baked. The corned beef from the item on top tasted pretty good actually, but the portions were really quite little to be satisfactory. Ciabatta was pretty tasty, but otherwise it was all very much like how it looked.

Plum Village Restaurant, Jalan Leban

Plum Village Restaurant (16 Jalan Leban, tel : +65 6458 9005) is an institution for Hakka food. They have been around for at least a couple of decades and it was only a few years back that I was first introduced to their salt baked chicken which I remembered being delicious. When one mentions traditional, old school and no frills, this would be one of those.

One of the specialties of the restaurant is known as 'abacus seeds'. They look like gnocchi and are made from flour and yam. These dumplings of flour and yam are cooked before hitting the stir fry with minced pork, dried shrimp, mushrooms and dried cuttlefish which makes up the dominant flavour of the dish.

There was sweet and sour pig stomach on the menu described. The actual dish turned out to be more savoury and sour. The pig's stomach were stir fried with exactly the same ingredient one finds in regular sweet and sour pork sans the red sauce - like diced cucumbers, pineapples, capsicums and onions in a familiar tasting stir fry without the sweet element. Tasted pretty good. I liked this.

The signature dish that almost every other table ordered was their salt baked chicken. The main flavours of the ripped up chicken came from salt, pepper and sesame oil. Tasty with white rice. It was unfortunate that the white rice cooked here was beady, dry and boring.

What I liked about their cabbage and meatball soup, was that the flavouring ingredient in those meatballs included powdered dried sole which added that depth of flavour to them.

Braised pork belly with mustard greens was one of those dishes that almost every other table had. I hadn't realised until recently that this was of Hakka origins. The ones here were delicious with tender fat from the pork belly melting into the stewed mustard greens, imparting the flavour of lard into the vegetables.

The stuffed tofu was tau kwa, not tau hu. The minced meat stuffings that they used for the bean curd were exactly the same ones that were used to make the meatballs for the soup.

Food's not mind blowing. One doesn't look for that here. But if one is looking for some straight forward Hakka cuisine using traditional recipes that has stuck to its roots against the winds of change for decades, this place would be it.