Raj Restaurant, Syed Alwi Road

We were first introduced to Raj (76 Syed Alwi Rd, tel : + 65 6297 1716) some years ago by a couple of friends which left favourable impression of this restaurant from Calcutta. This visit felt different. I recalled it being a little upmarket then and it didn't quite feel that way today. Maybe the place just feels different at night compared to the day.

By the way, I didn't like their sweet lassi. It was way too sweet and much too viscous. The sugar bothered me more though and there are much better ones around. 

dahi gol gappa

Back in that first visit, was also my first experience with dahi golgappa and I thought they rocked. We order a portion of those dahi filled puri shells to start off and it was as I remembered them. There was a creamy sour from the yoghurt, tart sweetness from the tamarind chutney, heat from something I couldn't quite identify, spice from the potatoes and loads of texture from the creamy curd and puri shells, nuts, potato bits and sev. Party in the mouth as some people would call it. I didn't even mind the coriander juice thing that they added. Was really glad that there were none of the leaves in there.

paneer briyani

Never had a paneer briyani before, so this was a first. It did turn up like how I imagined it. The flavour of the spices in basmati rice was...... hmmm, rather engaging. In short, I liked it and it paired up excellently with their jeera (cumin) scented raita on the side. The paneer came in little cubes in the rice.

baingan korma

This was a korma-ed eggplant. I'm not sure what went into the making of the korma, but it was rich, creamy and nutty with measures of sweetness, heat and spice. Served piping hot. Nice.

rava dosai with onion and cheese

Rava dosai is dosai made with semolina flour. Many Indian restaurants that use cheese outside of paneer usually use mozzarella cheese. Raj uses Cheddar. Which ups the flavour game for everyone in my opinion since the distinctively sharper aroma and salt works with their fermented rice flour pancakes. The exterior of their dosai were enjoyably crisp. What caught me by surprise though, a pleasant surprise albeit, was that there were toasted peppercorns in them. Much to my relieve as well, I couldn't taste the coriander that were embedded in the flour.

Those peppercorns were remarkable bits of flavour in the dosai. Good stuff.

Chinatown Beef Noodle, Lavender Food Centre

This stall wasn't the old beef noodle that used to be in the food centre - this replaced that old beef noodle shop. Still they had put up some of those unreliable local media endorsements which meant that they've been around. Everything about the food was acceptably average tasting while the soup tasted thinner and much less savoury than I had been hoping for. 

But I did like the fact that these guys offer fresh juicy limes that you can help yourself with. A lime each into the noodle or the bowl of beef noticeably changes the flavour profile and perks up the beef broth. I wouldn't mind eating this again as long as they have those limes going.

Common Man Coffee Roasters, Martin Road

There are legions of Ctrl-C and Ctrl-V adepts everywhere that know little or next to nothing about coffee writing about this place (22 Martin Road, tel : +65 6836 4695), so I'll save myself the parroting. One can simply Google them. Strangely, no one talks about how different the standard roast that this place uses is quite different from 40 Hands. That being said, I liked the coffee here a lot better. It seemed stronger and less acidic.

The crowd was almost crazy on a late afternoon weekend. I can see how people like to be seen in a place like this and also the conveniences it provides for the those living in the vicinity. Was quite taken in by their croissant croque monsieur. I don't eat these things a lot, but I thought that it was certainly a bag of flavours from the creamy Béchamel, a little sour from the mustard, savoury ham and a fairly buttery croissant. The pastry was crispy to boot. Though not the best I can remember having, it's pretty good.

The other mention worthy was their side of grilled portobello mushroom with pine nuts, pesto and Parmesan cheese. It was a lot tastier than it sounded on menu. And I'm seeing things that I may like from neighbouring tables.

Jing Hua Restaurant (京华小吃), Neil Road

Wow, these pan fried guo tie from Jing Hua (21 Neil Road, tel : +65 6221 3060) were really really good. They were flavours of nostalgia for me having grown up with the ones from Tian Jin Fong Kee down at People's Park. These had that exact crisp and umami taste from the savoury stuffing of meat and greens. The shape was just a little odd as the dumplings looked like they've had their ends chopped off.

If not for anything else, I'd definitely come back just for them pot stickers again.

Their zha jiang mian was a little disappointing. The gravy had a little too much starch and not robust enough flavour. The chilli paste condiment they provide on table side helped but we've had better.

This rocks as well. Taste a little different most xiao long bao althought what exactly differs eluded me. The meat stuffing weren't as tightly packed and the dumplings as a whole were good enough on their own without the usual vinegar dip.

There wasn't much for desserts in this restaurant. We ordered tang yuan in osmanthus soup. The flavour caught us off as it tasted very much like rose rather than what we had in mind for osmanthus. I mean Paul Smith's Rose kind of rose. It's nice though.

Will definitely be back.

Madras New Woodlands Restaurant, Upper Dickson Road

This was a pretty enjoyable meal at Madras New Woodlands (12-14 Upper Dickson Road, +65 6297 1594) preluded by their delicious lassi. I heard that they're good for digestion, but that's not the reason why I drink them. 

Except maybe for the pani puri which wasn't so crispy and didn't taste fresh at all. It looked too hastily put together even for such a snack. The flavour profile for these were thin and sparse, worn down by too much sour from the tamarind water. I'll be sure to pick something with yoghurt the next time.

My first tomato uttapam ever. Deliciously filled with chopped onions and tomato accompanied by the usual chutney and sambar. What really got my attention was their orange chutney. I've never found out what went into making them or if there's a proper name for them. This one here was quite good.

This was their VIP thali, basically a thali with the works which came with both the white rice and briyani plus a pastry of choice along with vegetable options on the side . In our case, the pastry was a bhattura that was crusty, crisp and slightly chewy. I thought we were rather taken in by the savoury flavours from their blend of spices in the entire tray. Their creamy vegetable korma was exceptional, chickpea curry was spicy and the briyani, fragrant enough to eat on its own. Everything except the bhattura was entitled for refills.

Masala tea here was heavy with milk. Which was not necessarily a bad thing since it lent a mellow comforting quality. That being said, I could definitely appreciate a bit more spice and strength to the tea.

L'Angelus......after 2205 days

Time sure flies. It's been about 6 years since my very first and also last visit to L'Angelus (85 Club Street, tel : +65 6225 6897). I'm pretty glad that service this time round was much better than then.

Their rich unctuous foie gras de canard was still as good as I remember. This time round, I noticed the little bits of chewy and mellowly flavoured apple compote. Against convention, that wasn't part of the tart element of the dish at all. It was mostly sweet but enjoyably so. YMMV. 

Tonight, lamb that they had served was unfortunately not up to scratch. The meat looked haphazardly sliced and was cooked to different levels doneness. The menu had described it to come with Espelette pimento that tasted like just jus and red wine - which was actually quite good. For what they were charging (this place is a bit pricey by the way), I certainly had expected better for the meat. But then again, I've also been watching quite a bit of MasterChef UK. 

The unexpected find on the menu was an andouillette de Troyes, labelled with A.A.A.A.A. and no less. It looked vulgar and monstrous. If anyone's wondering, this andouillette was a fried sausage where the stuffings are mostly pig intestines. We were cautioned that it was an acquired taste. Since we could chug down kuey chap, this didn't sound so intimidating at all. It turned out pretty good. And expensively so too. Mustard on the side was creamy and really addictive.

For unknown reasons, I had been expecting to see it come with British styled chips since it was suppose to be served with Salardaise chips. They turn out to be real potato chips. Some a little over fried.

And some obligatory side of spinach with cream spiced with nutmeg. This tasted actually quite good too. Made me feel a lot less guilty about paying $14 for them. 

Dessert was a rum baba. They used Diplomatico rum here. Nothing very unexpected or exceptional about it. It's just something about a good chilled rum soaked cake that I like.