Noi's Mushroom Minced Meat Noodles, Jalan Datoh

Here's a large bowl of ba chor mee from Noi's. I've been wanting to try this stall (588F Jalan Datoh) for a while, having noticed the crowd on numerous occasions on the way to Balestier. As I've discovered later, half of that crowd were actually having ba kut teh from the neighbouring stall. Anyways, I would have liked for the vinegar in this bowl to have more presence and the mee pok with that bit more of bite. Still, this was a fairly satisfying and above average bowl which I wouldn't mind having again if I'm nearby. There's prawns instead of the the usual pig liver. Note to self, soup is forgettable.

Gayatri, Telok Ayer Street

Note to myself : I think I may have found my other favourite butter chicken in this location (212 Telok Ayer Street, tel : +65 6225 4221). We stumbled here for a late dinner on a Sunday evening. This particular outfit is not the same as the restaurant. It's an open air shophouse unit by the junction of Telok Ayer Street and McCallum Street where food is self serviced after selection from display troughs. This spot is what most locals would call "coffeeshop".

Why did this work for me? I guess it matches Jaggi's in term of rich creaminess while the undertones of the spices were a bit more robust. Explosion of flavours if you would. What was different was that the tandoori chicken that they used here wasn't deboned. Competent sambar and rasam on the side too. 

Ginza Lion Beer Hall, Rodyk Street

So this Ginza Lion Beer Hall (#01-01/02, 8 Rodyk Street, tel : +65 6634 9113) is an outlet of the first beer hall set up in Tokyo in 1899. The group that runs this place, Sapporo Lion, is also responsible for Tonkichi and a few other restaurants. The drink to have here is Sapporo draft. There're other imported brews, but I wouldn't really consider them for the price point. There is a 700ml option that's served in a boot shaped glass.

Food here's generally Japanese and their brand of western. It's mostly the latter and looks pub grub. Their Black Angus roast beef which is apparently a recommended item was pretty good. It's frills free sliced beef crusted with black pepper and flavored with shoyu, served with grated horseradish and wasabi. Oddly, no au jus. The caprese that they have was decent if otherwise unremarkable. Don't mind coming back again for some more drinks and the other grub on menu.

That reddish drink up there is the Red Eye, Sapporo with tomato juice. Kinda like what I had back in Mimigar which is just round the corner.

Omakase Burger at Wisma Atria

I confess to being suckered into this fairly new outlet (#01-02/03/37-41, Wisma Atria Shopping Centre, 435 Orchard Road, tel : +65 6737 3218) of Omakase Burger for their exclusives. One of them being their nitrates free Applewood smoked bacon which are sourced from hormone & antibiotic free pork which they had cleverly marketed as the Rolls Royce of bacon; and more importantly beef tallow fries! How was it? The bacon cheeseburger was nice, but then we all knew that with their juicy customized blend of medium done ground beef patties already. The American cheese was rich and creamy and the bacon was crisp, adequately salted and smoky. In summary, pretty darn good. Their beef tallow fries were the real talking point today. I don't remember the last time I've had potato fried in rendered beef fat. Yes, that beef fat can be tasted on each strip of fried potato. And you know all those dripping juices that end up at the bottom of the burger wrapper? 

It's liquid steak and bacon.

Bistecca Tuscan Steakhouse, Mohd Sultan Road

Bistecca Tuscan Steakhouse (25 Mohamed Sultan Road, tel : +65 67356739) was one of those places we told ourselves we'll go to someday - for quite a long time. It finally happened today. As the name of the restaurant implies, they're a Tuscan styled steak restaurant. As with all Italian restaurants that serve bistecca in this country, none of the meat is from the Chianina/Maremmana cattle. The cooking method remains how bistecca is traditionally done but Bistecca uses a Wagyu-Holstein cross breed instead.

Service here was pretty good.

We started with some Pacific oysters. I'm not an expert with oysters but these were pretty good tasting.

And then roasted octopus tentacles with preserved lemons. Love it. The meat had a very distinguished char aroma. It reminded me of the ones at Valentino's but these here weren't as big. Then again, they were also not as expensive.

On hindsight, this tagliatelle with rabbit ragout, pancetta and porcini was a little small to share amongst three. We liked it. At least I did. The texture of the noodles were great and the sauces, deliciously savoury.

This was the costata, bone in rib eye with MBS 6+. Not bad, but the marbling and flavour from the meat wasn't what we were expecting. The fat was not evenly distributed. It was just a large ribeye. To be clear, it wasn't a bad piece of meat by any stretch; it was tasty, but didn't blow away anyone.

Some lentils with house guanciale.

I think you know what are these.

Thick cut, but not the most tasty of fries.

I may not have sounded very excited over all these, but the food on the whole was actually enjoyable. Didn't manage to get any pictures of the desserts but the one with rhubarb was good. Actually so was the panna cotta. I spied their single portion steaks coming out of the kitchen on the way to the back of the restaurant. Don't mind trying them the next time.

Xperience Restaurant & Bar, Sofitel So Singapore, Robinson Road

This place (35 Robinson Rd) has surprises. The least of all being the chef Anne-Cecile Degenne of Bordeaux who managed top 6 in this year's Top Chef in France. There was also the fact that she managed to capture Asian flavors really well. The other surprises? The food portions were really small and the prices were however not so. It made me recall an old joke I had with some friends over the tiny portions in fine dining and having to go McDonalds after. We went McDonalds after. True story.

But this place was really a lot about the flavours and textures which hopefully could endure with consistency. The menu segregates items by textures and taste. Most of the food on the menu here comes in three sizes. xs for tapas portion, xm for single person and xl for sharing. These were all xm.

This was simply called fish ceviche, cucumber, jalapeño. As one can see, it's rather refined. The acidity of the dish was really too low for ceviche as I know it and in spite of the fact that they had sliced jalapeño in there, it probably would work as a palate cleanser. That being said, the cucumber sorbet was pretty damned good. Made a nice starter.

Then, their foie gras & truffle siew mai sitting a light dashi broth. It's softer than regular siew mai as the meat fillings were a wrapper for a little chunk of the foie on the inside. The shape barely held. I liked that there was enough liver to live up to its name. Realistically, these aren't the best siew mai I've tasted. But they were competent. That says a bit. And for $7.50 a pop, it's a little pricey. Oh, no truffle flavour.

The siew mai came with chilli sauce and vinegar. I thought that the dumplings didn't need the condiments. But the chilli was actually good stuff and the vinegar was good quality as well. It might have been an overkill here.

That above was the roasted lamb, lentils, coconut & curry. This place makes excellent foam. Why? Because we got a full bodied dhal aroma just from eating the foam alone. And it wasn't just a mere interpretation of dhal. It tastes exactly like dhal we can get here with a moderated heat. Lentils weren't too mushy and the toasted ones provided a crunchy texture to the base. The roasted lamb was tender and very good even though I would have liked it to be a little more pink. The portions were a little too small for me with the expectations of a single person quantity.

This is where I say 'Pardon my French' and that it's fucking good. Bear with me on the abused word 'authentic'. Authenticity is a range. There's no quantified precision. The laksa flavours from the risotto falls well within that "authentic" range and impressively so. I could taste the hae bi (dried shrimp) in the stock, there was sufficient laksa leaves to aromatize the rice and the coconut content came from the foam. Hell, I've had laksas from local stalls that didn't taste half as good. Seafood was fresh and sweet and did not get overpowered by the flavor of the spices. The portions were again, too damned small. 

I feel like Michel Roux Jr. here.

And because the portions were small, I asked for white rice which they probably steamed upon my request. The chef was quite apologetic about the portions and the fact that I needed a filler after all the food. She delivered the rice personally. It was also an excuse for me to use up the chilli sauce and vinegar which I had been licking off my spoon. 

The modernist or contemporary (or lazy) description of the menu sometimes does little favours when you're trying to sell the menu. This dessert was just called banana and passion fruit. It's melted bananas and passion fruit pulp (with seeds) stoppered with some tangy mousse on both ends of a caramel snap cigar. And I think the medley of sweet, fruity and tangy in that midst of creamy and crispy was jaw clenching good.