COMNAM Broken Rice, Raffles City

The mainstay of this shop (252 North Bridge Road #B1-46, tel : +65 6334 7377) is cơm tấm, a Vietnamese dish made with broken grained rice. Which I liked and felt better about than Nam Nam next door. While I couldn't tell at all if any of the renditions served here came close to the original dish, the food was pretty tasty. I liked the soup option which one could basically trick out in flavours after a few splashes of fish sauce and that Maggi condiment on the table.  The shredded cabbage salad with peanuts and grilled chicken was appetisingly delicious too. 

If I had to gripe over anything, it'd be that I would like more grilled meat options on the menu rather than deep fried ones. And really, charging for chilli padi here?

Sacha & Sons, Mandarin Gallery

I had been wondering to myself after stepping into Sacha & Sons (333A Orchard Road. Mandarin Gallery, #03-02, tel : +65 6735 6961) if there was a difference between a New York-styled delicatessen and a shop that is merely styled after a New York-styled delicatessen. Don't know if that's occurred to anyone but I guess it's food for thought. 

Anyway, to keep this short, the chopped liver sandwich was really good. Comes recommended to anyone who doesn't have aversion to livers. The pastrami in their Reuben was just passable for me. Smoked in house I hear. The meat was somewhat dried out and definitely not so tender. For the quality of the meat, these guys should have used a meat slicer (of the non-human kind) which would have achieved thinner and more tender stacks. 

For what it's worth, the defunct Sweet Spot Deli at Marina Bay Sands had a much more delicious corned beef and pastrami Reuben for probably half of what this place charges; the same sandwich from even Brewerkz was more enjoyable. And for a sandwich experience, I personally feel that Nassim Hill Bakery's hot Reuben was much more worth the while than this was. I'm not too impressed here. But I probably will come back, even if it's just for the chopped liver.

A Murtaburger from The Prata Place

From what I understood, this was suppose to be the amalgamation of a murtabak and a Ramly burger. Which effectively only makes sense in this part of the world since most of the rest of the world would probably have no idea what were those. Hence making this a uniquely regional beast that could only be appreciated (in idea) by the people here and our northern neighbours. It also happens to be the item that The Prata Place had put up for last year's Ultimate Hawker Fest.

The idea I'm sure was to produce flavours and maybe some textures that resembled both. In that, they had quite succeeded. I enjoyed those crusty mutton patties that they had stuffed into the prata along with eggs and a generous portion of gooey mozzarella cheese. What didn't quite work for me were the sauces. It was quite a bit of sweet chilli, mayo and sweet black pepper sauce that they had gleefully squeezed into the pastry and as much as it helped replicate the Ramly flavour, it was also a sweetness overload for me. Perhaps, I should ask for less sauce the next time. If a next time happens. 

Auntie Kim's Korean Restaurant, Upper Thomson Road

I've lost count of the number of times I've passed by Auntie Kim's (265 Upper Thomson Road, tel : +65 6452 2112) and telling myself that I'm dropping by some day. Now that it's finally happened, I suppose the overarching impression is that they're home styled Korean cooking at CBD prices.

Here's us opting the lazy way out with the saeng galbi by getting them to grill the meat for us instead of breaking out the grill (and our perspiration) at the table. On hindsight, this should be the last time we don't cook our own meat. Their kimchi fried rice with pork was altogether comforting, quite delicious and rather pricey. Certainly not so much value for what we paid in comparison with the one at Kim Dae Mun which was equally satisfying, but what the heck. Those kimchi mandu aren't actually stuffed with real kimchi much?

Sarnies, the evening edition

I've been meaning to drop by at Sarnies for some time during the evenings and it's never happened until recently when they had started a beer and burger for $15 on Thursdays and Fridays. Which sounded like a pretty cool idea to get people heading to this part of town after work. 

What I was basically curious about was their burger and what they could deliver at that price point. As much as it was something between sliced bread - something they've proven to be pretty competent at, this wasn't part of their usual sarny repertoire. I'd say they did a decent job (but nothing to really get too excited over) with the burger if I wasn't comparing the quality of their patty to my last, but I did wish it was a bit more substantial. Buttered brioche with black sesame seeds, sautéed onions, sliced tomatoes, lettuce, well melted cheese over the meat and mayo. Pretty much the standard works.

There was a risotto which turned out to be some sort of a wet rice (like mui fan without the starchy gravy) than what I had expected of risotto. Done with Kabocha pumpkin and some prosciutto.

The Ultimate Black Truffle Burger from Omakase Burger

This did not look as impressive as the name sounded nor even as good as the product shot on their social media. But these guys still managed to sucker me into dropping $22.90 to try it out. Apparently a Christmas special from their outlet at The Grandstand. Let's see, the truffle shavings were nowhere near the "generous" portions that they had claimed and the black truffle honey that was "slathered" over was so subtle that I tasted nothing of it. At all. I'm not sure if they achieved any success with that ash grey black truffle cheese but it tasted very much like their regular cheese. There was truffle flavour in the burger, just don't expect too much of it. And for what it costed, shame on me.

The beef patty was still good though.