Windowsill In The Woods, Horne Road

This establishment previously known as just Windowsill Pies as I know it used to sell just pies. Sweet dessert pies to be exact. Recently, they seem to have come up with a concept for their pie shop, interestingly named Windowsill in the Woods (78 Horne Road, tel : +65 9004 7827) with a Nordic decor, that does pop up themes in their kitchen for savory food with each theme lasting a fortnight.

This was basically the first run and I'm seeing that the current theme is poultry.

I think it wasn't too bad at all. I would've liked more sausage in those scotch eggs with curry mayo but I'm not complaining. Fried chicken with waffles was fairly crispy and definitely greasy (the bird!) with the sweet and savory thing going on. What I really liked was their arrabbiata styled spicy pasta with chicken hearts and baby octopus. Portions of those chicken hearts were a little measley for me, but the taste and chew was right up my alley. Gotta give those buffalo quails in sour cream dip on the side a try. I actually liked the spicy tangy morsels of bird much better than I had expected.

 scotch eggs three

scotch eggs de-brained

fried chicken and waffles

linguine with chicken hearts and octopus

buffalo quails

Ramen Bari-Uma, Tanglin Shopping Centre

I was wondering what the shoyu based tonkotsu broth by Ramen Bari-Uma (19 Tanglin Road, #B1-01/02 Tanglin Shopping Centre, tel : +65 68874484) from Hiroshima was about before stepping in today. Turned out that the brown, cloudy broth did taste like a robust mix of both flavours with a thick consistency.

I enjoyed this to some degree even though I'm not sure how I actually feel about it. Yes I'm strangely conflicted. While this might not replace the regular tonkotsu as my favourite soup base anytime soon, I did definitely dig the savoury depth. Not to mention that the bowl was served with aburied charshu. Those strong caramelized flavours made their slices a winner and I'll be sure to add on extras in my next visit. No molten yolk from their ajitama there.

We spied some yakitori and ordered some pork belly and gizzards in tare. Enjoyed the juicy belly, but gizzard was just ordinary and crunchily textured.

Teriyaki beef chahan from Ohsho

There wasn't much teriyaki or beef flavour in there but one does get others from chopped onions and strips of dried seaweed. I'll probably hit the ebi chahan next, but meanwhile, the charshu chahan is still the best.

Lucha Loco, Duxton Hill

Nice! I'm really glad to see more joints doing "the more" of Mexican food in the country than the tired stereotyped items and these were delicious. Right here at this bar/taqueria call Lucha Loco (15 Duxton Hill, tel : +65 6226 3938) in the first unit at Duxton Hill.

First up were grilled corn on sticks known as elote. These were nice. Juicy, on the cob and subsequently greased in mayo and coated in crumbled Cojita cheese with a sprinkle of chilli powder, this was a bag of flavours that were altogether savoury, sweet, spicy and tart (from the squeeze of lime).

Then a taco with beef briskets and chorizo, packed with flavour and cooled by the diced onions and the squeeze lime on the side. Very tasty in a savoury, spicy and smoky manner at the same time. I'd order these again in a heartbeat.

There was quesadilla with cheese and Huitlacoche. Those corn smut certainly didn't taste like those I had previously and the quesadilla was by far the least exciting tasting item. With all the flavours going around in the other orders, this was almost bland. 

Following up was a taco with pork belly and a stick of what tasted like turnip. Meat was rather tender, but not to the degree that disintegrates in the mouth. Flavours were pretty Asian, like caramelized dark soy sauce and sugar. Pretty tasty but I think this doesn't hold up against the brisket and chorizo one.

A side of baked black beans that showcased the aroma of spices in a heat packed dish. I like this.

We ended with some sweet and nutty blue cornmeal cakes. The texture of the cake was coarse, a little crumbly and gritty at the same time. Other than loads of corn, there seems to be some grainy bits which might be semolina or quinoa in them. Lightly drenched in agave nectar and Mezcal cream on the side.

Some sandwiches from Bergs Gourmet Burgers

The original plan was to lunch at Smoke Shack which has very recently, relocated to Far East Square. But we were one day too early from the actual opening and ended up checking out Bergs (1 Amoy Street) instead.

While I liked what they did with the sauteed onions, mushroom and peppers for the steak sandwich, the beef with the beef was that it was well cooked and a little tough for how thick they had sliced the meat. The lamb burger had a patty that tasted like it was full of seeds, herbs and paprika that really detracted from the natural flavour of the meat. Which was disappointing since the rest of the sandwich from the freshly sliced red onions and even beetroot was doing good.

I think for what these guys are charging, one certainly can get much better value in the vicinity at Sarnies.

Menya Sanji, Orchid Hotel

The number of ramen joints that have mushroomed in this island have started to becoming bewildering. Thankfully, my interest in them lies mainly within those of tonkotsu base and hiyashi chuka - which limits the ramen-ya that pique my interest.

Kagoshima's Menya Sanji (1 Tras Link, #01-14 Orchid Hotel, tel : +65 6604 8891) is located conveniently in the central Tanjong Pagar district not a minute's walk from Keisuke's Tonkotsu King. Kagoshima which is the capital of the Kagoshima Prefecture sits in Kyushu, southwestern edge. The ramen style is hence understandably similar to Hakata styled ramen. But not the same. I'm not an expert on these, but the noticeable difference was a less heavy hand in the salt and oil along with noodles that aren't thin and wiry.

The broth was creamy and rich and as mentioned, much less salty. I was about to make the analogy between this and the Kyushu style ramen with decaf coffee and regular coffee, but I guess that wouldn't be quite accurate. I'd eat this again if opportunity presented, but I probably wouldn't drink decaf. The eggs were in the hue of aged ivory but the flavour was somewhat absent. The other obvious thing was that charshu wasn't the soft variety. It was meaty and with much more bite.