Pomegranate cake from Laman's Delight

This was pretty enjoyable. I've never had cake (or anything else) with so much pomegranates before. Certainly not one in a shade of enchanting red and layered with cream, sold by a couple of ladies that looked like grumpy Russian gypsies. Laman's Delight (PasarBella @ The Grandstand, 200 Turf Club Road) the shop's called. I hear that this particular cake has been infused with hibiscus juices too. Anyway, the shop's located right beside Keith Crackling Roast - which does very delicious caramelized char siew by the way. For $12 a slice, this cake sure didn't come cheap. But I'm pretty sure I'll pop by the shop to buy again the next time I'm there.

Portico, Alexandra Road

I guess my primary interests in Portico (#01-10, 991B Alexandra Rd, tel : +65 6276 7337) was due to Leandros Stagogiannis (doesn't that guy look like Mike Portnoy) who had previously been chef de cuisine at Saint Pierre, head chef also at the defunct Fi53fty Three and had previously been doing pastry at The Fat Duck. It makes for an interesting resume for progressive/modernist cooking with Asian influences. And that they served sweetbread on menu.

Which was unfortunately not available when we were there.

On hindsight, there were hits and misses from what we've had. More hits than misses fortunately and then some thoughts. It's not a full measure by any yardstick of the food at Portico, just some of my thoughts on what we ate.

grape and quinoa salad, sugar snap peas and fresh raspberries

This salad was chilled and refreshing. The quinoa was properly cooked, the raspberries tart and the grapes sweet. A simple medley of flavours and textures. That being said, I could probably reproduce this at home with the exception of the watermelon which seemed to be flavoured with honey. 

kombu soba noodles, truffle and crispy brown shrimp

The Japanese influence cannot be more obvious here. This was probably another thing I could try replicating. I have no idea where to get kombu soba, but I'm pretty sure regular soba would do the trick since the flavours of the seaweed were virtually non-discernible in the noodle. But there was sufficient salt and truffle oil and the noodles were springy that made good eating. Those little shrimps added crisp and their bit of fragrance. The flavour grows onto you. I can't figure out what those little bits of stuff in there are though.

fish and chips, crushed peas and fresh mint

Let's start with my favourite part. The crushed peas with mint was really good. It's crushed peas, mint and probably loads of butter as I could tell. The flavours weren't complicated and very delicious. Fish was also pretty good. I hear it's locally sourced sea bass. The meat was tender, moist and flaky at the same time clad in a thin batter. That batter seemed a little over done in the fryer though. 

Did not expect the curly fries. Those tasted exactly like the ones that can be gotten from McDonalds. In fact, the reminder of McDonalds kinda ruined the experience. They should have stuck with regular fat chips and maybe triple fried them instead of these.

the Portico burger

The Portico burger was a little disappointing. I think pretty much everything worked. The toasted brioche, the cheese, the bacon and I didn't even mind their home made BBQ sauce and ketchup which were not excessively used. That's some care right there which I appreciated. What didn't work for me was the beef patty. The meat lacked the natural flavour of beef and I read that it's a 28/72 ratio that they're using. Omakase Burger makes better tasting patties than these. And these overdone fries, were again a reminder of McDonald's. Expected much better for those.

tart aux citron and onion ice cream

Their onion ice cream with crispy fried shallots were interesting. This was a first for me; it actually worked and played nicely with their smooth and creamy lemon curd which I liked.

Tian Jin Fong Kee (天津冯记), People's Park Complex Food Centre

This stall (#01-1148, People's Park Complex Food Centre, 32 New Market Road) which has been around since before I was born serves a bunch of stuff like dumplings, Chinese rice cakes, spicy & sour soup and zha jiang mian amongst a few other things. What they are really known for are their guo tie (pot stickers). Notably their pan fried ones. Which I've been eating since I was a kid. For years, it was an bi-monthly affair until a certainly point, we stopped patronizing for some reasons. I don't remember why. In the past 8 years or so, I recall only having had them once.

Well, that deserved a mention doesn't it? This stall pretty much formed the impression of what I thought a typical guo tie should look or even taste like. I had grown up thinking that this was local food rather than one of Chinese origins. They were also the benchmark guo tie that was etched in my memory with their crisp browned skin that wasn't overly thick with juicy fillings of minced pork and chives. This visit, I noticed the change. Well....the dumplings were probably a little bit bigger in the past (I cannot verify for memory can be fickle), but that wasn't what jarred that memory. The marinate used in the minced pork fillings have changed. Those minced meat are now brown instead of a lighter shade of fully cooked pork. I'm certain it wasn't how it had been in the past.

Not that it tasted bad but it's just not as good as what I had remembered. Good thing I've an alternative these days.

Immanuel French Kitchen, Bukit Merah Lane

chicken liver pâté with port

The owner of this stall (Blk 119 Bukit Merah Lane 1, #01-40), Immanuel Tee, has a heavyweight resume. Names like Restaurant Andre, Jaan, Guy Savoy at Marina Bay Sands, Le Bistrot du Sommelier, the two-Michelin starred Pastorale in Brussels and sous to head chef at the defunct Keystone Restaurant. And he's what? 27 this year? In many industries, it could have been construed as job hopping! Lol. So modern European/French it seems then.

sous vide chicken breast

Food here was French bistro styled with a very curated menu. They were pretty good for their price point and there was not much to complain about except the need for a bit more salt. The liver pâté was smooth and creamy while the sous vide chicken breast was impressively tender. There was also an onglet which was spot on medium rare, had an excellent sear and the meat tender. Unfortunately, some parts were rather chewy. I'm trying not to compare with my favourite place since this was really 54% the cost of that one.

steak & fries

A bowl of torched toro and avocado rice bowl from Kaiho Sushi

Wow, this was pretty good. I wouldn't say that the flavours were anything new since it consisted of hand chopped tuna belly, sliced avocados, Japanese mayo, teriyaki sauce and wasabi. Nothing exotic. But it was the kind of good that we just sat and ate in silence for at least half a bowl. Melting tuna belly fat, seeping all their warmed up flavors into that mash of richness over the vinegared rice. I would have liked for this bowl to be bigger . Like maybe 50% bigger since it wasn't cheap at all.

Since we were at Kaiho Sushi at lunch their chirashi don made an appearance as well.

While it did look visibly less impressive than the ones we had in the past (very visibly less, mind you), the quality of the seafood that they gave were still very decent. Special mentions to the sweet and succulent scallops.  There was fish with skin so silver and mirrored that I could have sworn that I saw myself in it. Then again, we got some salmon and it wasn't really belly. I missed the pink fish floss. I sense cost cutting at work based on the variety of toppings that was given.

The Royal Mail, Finlayson Green

The Royal Mail (Ascott Raffles Place, 2 Finlayson Green, tel : +65 6509 3589) purports to provide a modern take on classic British cuisine. It was a really small bit of classic British judging from the menu. 

The first impressions of the food were their gougères which were all freshly baked before service and dangerously good. The flavours were just pepper and cheese in their not so puffy choux pastry. Good that we asked for seconds.

Followed by an amuse bouche of tuna with cream cheese and dill foam. From this point, we realised that the wait for food was going to be really long. We needed more amusing of the bouche and it arrived from in the form of the seconds of their delicious gougère. Which probably took a while to prepare but were inhaled in 15 seconds.

Their starters of scallops and octopus were nicely done. Scallops were really good and I was wishing that they were larger so that there would be more of the sweet seared meat to go around. The ikura which they had added were super briny. One can hence imagine the burst of flavours when it popped in the mouth. The dark sheet of shadow at the bottom of the seafood was suppose to be a squid ink crust. It didn't taste very much like squid ink, had a sandy texture and was pretty wet for a crust. Didn't taste bad, just didn't taste like how it was described.

Soup of the day was cream of cauliflower. 

Cauliflower alone would have been a little too mainstream, so we asked for some blue cheese for the soup. Needless to say, it tasted a lot better than just straight old cream of cauliflower.

Here's their 340g prime rib, which was really more of an English roast of rib rather than the prime rib that I had in mind. The meat was tender, expertly seasoned and in essence pretty good. But it just didn't give me that level of satisfaction that I get at Lawry's. Which by the way also does a much better Yorkshire pudding. 

The veal jus that they provided on the side was good stuff. It was rich, robust, salty and malty at the same time. Tasted like it has a base of Borvil.

This was their Kurobuta pork chop served with apples and what they describe as apple jus. These guys were so modest with their descriptions. The said apple jus was luxuriant and liquid velvet. I'm pretty sure I tasted butterscotch. It had that sweet and savoury element with a bit of tart going on.  For a thick piece of chop, it was almost inevitable that the middle of the cut will become a little dry. But that's what the apple jus was there for.

On the side, some autumn-y dish of chestnuts, grapes, almonds, apricots and blue cheese. Loved those warm grapes.

Dessert was a Banoffee tart. The salted caramel had the typically agreeable notes of the smoky sweet and salty. And then cream, bananas and buttery pastry....need I embellish further?

Service was good. There were only two wait staff in the restaurant, but it was apparent that they know their work and that they were doing as best as they could. Since this was just a single visit, I think it would be a little pre-mature for me to venture an assessment of the food. But I will anyway since it's my blog. 

It's British food as they say and a little more refined than rustic. From what we had, we could appreciate what they meant by modern interpretations (not that we had that much of it). But that was probably not true of the meats nor soup which were really just what they were or have been.  I'm quite sure that it would have applied to some of the other stuff that we hadn't ordered as well. Which was just basic food without frills. There was definitely quality here. Presentation wasn't over the top. I couldn't help but to think that they're a little too pricey. Must be the damned location eh?