Bangkok Jam, Great World City

I've been wondering if the 'jam' part of the name in Bangkok Jam (1 Kim Seng Promenade, #02-26 Great World City, tel : +65 67324523) referred to the playing of music or was it just pointing to the infamous traffic jams in Bangkok. Maybe it was neither. Perhaps it was just an unlikely commemorative to the delicious fruit relishes and preserves one uses on bread.

Anyway, these guys do Thai food.  Albeit on a more refined level that one commonly finds in the streets of Bangkok.

Their pomelo salad with shrimps a.k.a. yum som o was good. The flavours of saltiness, sweet, spicy and sour created a refreshing taste with citrus coupled with very nice textural contrast from the chunky segments of the fruit, cashew nuts and what looked like tiny crispy shrimps. This alone would make me come back again.

Lemongrass prawn cakes were pretty decent. What it doesn't say is that there are kernels of corn in those prawn cakes and there wasn't any lemongrass flavour I could detect. The only "lemongrassiness" were the stalks of lemongrass that were made into handles for the prawn cakes.

No real complains about the fried chicken wings here but I thought that the split mid wings were done better at Greyhound Cafe. These ones here were strangely accompanied with dried chilli which seemed to be on the plate for only presentation purposes?

Here's a serving of a phad kra prow gai. This tasted a lot more refined (think savoury chicken basil Bolognese sans tomato) and less spicy than the one I've had once in Geylang. What I meant by spicy was a lip numbing burn that sent prickling sensations all over my perspiring scalp.

Bangkok Jam's tom khai gai was nothing like what I had expected. The rendition here was heavy on the coconut milk and mild on the sour and spicy flavours. I could have described this to be a savoury version of bubor charchar with pieces of chicken inside.

Dessert was steamed tapioca with syrup and coconut milk. We ordered this because the restaurant had run out of khao neow mamuang. In retrospect, this wasn't bad. The dessert wasn't as heavy as I had feared and  the chunks of tapioca were suitably sweeten and tender that it reminded me of sweet potatoes.

I am determined to come back again to try their mango sticky rice though.

Crust Gourmet Pizza Bar, Upper Thomson Road

wild mushroom

I noticed this place (215R Upper Thomson Road, tel : +65 6456 1555) some weeks back and did a little reading online about them. So they're Australian, from Sydney and are apparently quite popular there for quality pizza. Being Australian, their options had influences of the Mediterranean and Asia. Nothing surprising about that.

What I did like about their pizzas were the both the quantity and type of ingredients that were used for their toppings. The mushroom one was filled with a load of chopped fresh mushrooms, some fibrous asparagus and pine nuts; the latter which was lost in translation for me. The added truffle oil was really but a hint. Morrocan lamb pizza was enjoyable with the mint yoghurt but the baby spinach were also lost in the pie. 

We ordered a neutral sounding sausage duo topping which had initially appeared to be rather mundane. I was pleasantly surprised by how sweet the strips of red peppers were.

I wouldn't mind coming back again.

Moroccan lamb

sausage duo

Rosu ham cold ramen from Tampopo

This was a something that was from their seasonal menu, featuring slices of Kurobuta pork ham on their cold ramen. The ham was really smooth and tender and I couldn't really tell the difference from that and ham from regular pigs. The nicely chilled shoyu and sesame broth was refreshing. Too bad Noodle House Ken is no longer around. Their sesame based hiyashi chuka was definitely my favourite and I don't know if there is any other ramen-ya around that does it that way.

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.