Handlebar, Jalan Mempurong

Paris Baguette, Wisma Atria

We stumbled upon this place (435 Orchard Road, #02-48/53 Wisma Atria, tel : +65 6836 2010) a couple of weeks back after not having stepped into the mall for ages and made a mental note to come back early on another day after seeing the crowd.

Trust the Koreans to be the ones that have set up a French styled bakery/cafe that got me interested. From what I had heard from a friend who had been to Korea, this place is as common as how often one encounters McDonald's here. Which is to say that there's one outlet in every couple of blocks and not surprisingly, they're less expensive over there.

What pushed the comfort buttons for me from this bakery included stuff like a sweet bacon roll stuffed with chopped boiled eggs, a wrap containing a fatty sausage cushioned by a bolognese-esque minced beef and mustard, pricey and ridiculously addictive charred cheese sticks and even a bulgogi sandwich that featured a sweet braised meat piled inside a bed of textures consisting of fresh vegetables in a soft and heavy milk bun. And then, BLTs with walnut cream cheese and sweet relish, a smokey aburi-ed seafood chowder in a super chewy bread bowl and even a brunch plate of sliced chorizos and scrambled eggs on brioche.

I haven't even begun on their snackingly delicious calzones yet.

A breakfast of pig's organ porridge and char kuey teow at the end of Woodlands

That'll be pig's organ porridge with an egg from #02-46 to richen things and yes, this would be located at the same end of Woodlands food centre as the last time I had the seafood soup. Let's see....there's home made meatballs, lean pork, small intestines, sliced livers sloshed into a gruel that's flavored by spring onions, fried shallots and as much soy sauce and pepper as one fancies. What's missing to make this perfect was probably pigs blood (one can dream) and pig's stomach.

Below from stall 38A was a less sweet than usual char kuey teow. I think it was due to less sweet sauce being used which resulted in a rather tasty and more savory rendtion. I liked that the bean sprouts were cooked and crunchy for the texture. Not too bad here.

Yakitori Uma, Orchard Plaza

I make this out to be both a kushiyaki and kushikatsu joint right at the backlanes just beside Cuppage. Albeit one with a relatively small selection on the menu. Having been spoilt by Kazu (a respoiling session is in order!) in the years past, I had inevitably benchmarked the food against them; and others too as well. To which the bar hadn't quite been met. In both variety and quality.

That does not mean that the food was mediocre, what I felt was that it just didn't quite go the distance for me in terms of satisfaction. And this is probably just an opinion formed from a single visit and having more of the grilled items and not so much of the fried ones.

I had expected a fuller smokey aroma from the grill rather than the relatively flat accent that this place had. Certainly also was looking forward to larger portions per stick of their tasty and nicely peppered gyutan than what they're serving.

 

gyutan


pork belly & leeks, kawa and beef tripe


octopus, ginko nuts


cow liver
 

chicken & leeks, chicken gizzard

The Sushi Bar, Far East Plaza

This place in honesty, looks to be still trying to find its own feet. The Sushi Bar (14 Scotts Road, #03-89 Far East Plaza) is essentially what seems to be a one man show behind a space optimized counter. I had discounted the wait staff as manpower since she looked confused a third of the time, milled around and served food to the wrong tables and somehow thought it was a normal thing to relay a customer inquiry to the chef if they served curry fish head. In a little joint called The Sushi Bar that has only about 4 tables. Seriously.

I think the food is pretty decent for what they charged. One shouldn't come here expecting expensive types and cuts from higher end Japanese restaurants. I have a gripe with the uni and would have loved for it to have been a better experience where the creamy was creamier and where the aroma, I had hoped to be more ethereal. These guys need to portion more rice into their food. Wouldn't do at all for any of those premium don that does not fill. And no miso soup too.

Did I mention that their scallop carpaccio mentaiyaki was pretty mouth watering in a smokey manner if a little measly in portions. This place is not yet at the level of the once vaunted Wasabi Tei for that frills free value edition of decent Japanese food. But I sense an earnesty that might get them there.

hotate mentaiyaki

ikura & uni don

premium chirashi

deep fried amaebi head

Soya sauce chicken from Sum's Kitchen

This kampong chicken from Sum's Kitchen (3 Jalan Legundi, tel : +65 6757 2118) was certainly toe to toe with the Hong Kong Soya Sauce Chicken stall in Chinatown for in terms of flavour. The meat was tender, both the sweet and savoury elements of the soya sauce seeped through the skin. But it seems that it's only available here during the Lunar New Year.