Skirt, W Singapore

Skirt is a lovely place (21 Ocean Way, tel : +65 6808 7278). A contemporary steak joint clad in some swank facing the marina, that houses an Argentinian parilla and their own ageing cabinets for cuts of meat from various sources. Great smiley service. Have been wanting to come here since I first heard of them.

bread with chorizo oil and seaweed dip

The seaweed dip works with their freshly toasted bread. To be tried to understand.

roasted tomato, basil soup

grilled baby vegetables, Roquefort

braised and grilled beef tongue, shallot, scallion, beef salt

We started with some soup, grilled baby vegetables with some crumbled pungent Roquefort and beef tongue. No real complains here but I think I would have been more impressed if the soup was smoked tomato rather than just roasted.

sheathed weapons for the real battle...looks so druidic

Donald Russell Irish Grass fed Hereford 21 days dry aged tenderloin

This was meat from a Hereford cattle, branded by Donald Russell. If you're wondering what does that mean, it's generally a recognition for meat that's dry aged for 3 weeks on the bone. The cows graze on grass mostly and are certified to have no growth or appetite hormones administered in their diet or any other form.

Which means what? That one is eating meat that's organic and natural as far as an administration can ascertain that's matured for enhanced flavouring. Fluff aside, it was a lovely cut of tenderloin, done in a good spot of none too bloody medium rare.

asparagus, quail egg, burnt butter

The asparagus from the sides were fresh and crunchy. The burnt butter was unsalted and hence, a bore without additional condiments.

Blackmore Australian full blood 9+ Wagyu skirt

Blackmore full blood is pedigreed from Wagyu that doesn't contain any inferior bloodline in the family tree. In short, the cream of bovine as far as quality categorization goes. The skirt was lovely, intensed in flavoring with minimal fat. Possibly not the best cut to get one's eyes glazed over for Wagyu, but still pretty enjoyable meat there.

some flamed Granny Smith apple crumble

Mr Rawon Hong Kong Seafood, Yishun Central

I had initially mistook this place (Block 935, Yishun Central 1, #01-45) for the other Mr Rawon near the Darul Makmur mosque that might have relocated here, but it turned out that they were different altogether. The difference came from the quality of the food. It was a notch better at the latter location which also had a larger variety in both dishes and condiments. Still there was enough of some of my favourite staples going around like the paru goreng, sotong hitam and a decent begedil. But I scratch my head over the name.

The most important meal of the day for $10

Filled with wholesome intestines, pig skin, braised pork belly and eggs. This!

Coocci Contemporary Japanese, Commonwealth Crescent Market

smoked chicken

The operative word for this stall (#02-92, Commonwealth Crescent Market, 118 Commonwealth Crescent) is 'contemporary'. Beyond aesthetics which are nice by the way, it was a little difficult for me to categorise this as Japanese food and I probably wouldn't have recognized it as such if not for the name of the stall. Even the short grained rice that they used was not sticky at all, which was unusual there.

chicken roulade

Now that we've gotten past the superficial, the food was pretty good and good value as well. Be it their light and tender apple wood smoked half spring chicken that was aromatic in tandem with some black pepper or the torched chicken roulade that arrived with somen in a lightly sweet and savoury broth of pumpkin and chicken. The tori nanban laced with tartar sauce was pretty decent too. For what they were charging, their food, especially that smoked chicken certainly represented unbeatable value.

tori nanban

For what appeared to be a two person show in the stall, I'd give them marks for effort, given all the preparation they had to do. Certainly no qualms revisiting if I'm in the vicinity. 

Blue skies and mentaiko cream

Wow, did the winds of change blow in our favor today. The sudden return of clear skies made things look pretty HD. So much has been taken for granted that we didn't realise until it got all smoggy. Like eating out which became a whole lot more daunting a task with everyone not feeling well and not wanting to be out anywhere outside of work.

This was a trip down to Meidi Ya for some grocery top up and hence a quick dinner as well. Pecori is still around fortunately and they've finally gotten round to serving their mentaiko cream rice with shrimps like they show in the menu. Sushi Ikeikemaru still has that crazy queue at dinner time and I'm buying stuff to fill up the space in the fridge which we've been trying hard to free up. Seems like normalcy has returned for a bit.

San Laksa Steamboat, Telok Blangah Road

I quite liked the laksa broth for steamboat here (404 Telok Blangah Road, tel : + 65 6275 7069). It had initially appeared to be a little thin but the wisdom of that was that after some cooking, it thickens up. Considerably. Unfortunately, that was all about it that was really appealing for me. The dishes weren't of even good quality and the plates of relatively tasteless meat were too thin even for shabu shabu standards. Certainly didn't like the powdery tasting pig livers that they served. Most of the options were pretty run of the mill. If that was the quality of food we were getting charged for a la carte orders, I would think that the cheap steamboat joints along Beach Road would be a better bang for buck.