Masa Steak & Hamburg, Robertson Walk

Been wanting to visit Masa (#01-03, Robertson Walk, 11 Unity Street, tel : +65 68362529) for a long time. The restaurant serves mainly wagyu, so eating here is - generally for people who are willing to shell out big dollars for prized quality meat. Me? I was mainly drawn in because they also do hambaagu, or Japanese hamburg. A noticeably less expensive proposition which was also made with wagyu beef.

We supplemented our 200g hamburgs with their gyutoro don which featured hand chopped beef with an egg yolk over Japanese rice. That was really good by the way. To the meat of the matter (pun intended), the quality of the beef was irrefutable. To be tried to be understood.

The hamburgs were quite good. A shell of nicely brown sear encapsulating a juicy interior. Their meat was packed dense, wasn't crumbly when cut and yet still arrived tender at their medium doneness. The mince was quite fine, somewhat like how Morton's does for their Prime burgers. So don't expect the chew that comes with gristles because they don't do the meat that way here. While it wasn't exactly my preferred composite for the mince, I liked it enough that I wouldn't mind having them again.

inItaly re-visited

Popped by on a quiet Sunday for lunch at inItaly. Every time I pass by the restaurant, I recall their rose flavoured soufflé. But unfortunately, it doesn't seem to be on the menu anymore.

We started off with their carpaccio which was quite good. Thinly sliced Angus tenderloin flavoured with a light mustard dressing that didn't overwhelm the meat at all; topped with thin shavings of truffled cheese. And all that with sprigs of rocket underneath. If I had to gripe, it would be that I wished there was more of the carpaccio.

Coming as a follow up pleasant surprise, their pan seared foie gras was delicious as well. Again, I'd love for the cut of the liver to be a little bigger. But the sweet and sour pumpkin sauce was a very delicious and creamy foil to the richness of the liver along with the candied fruit. What impressed me was that the pumpkin flavours stood out still. I'd eat this again easily.

Another unexpected mention worthy was their sautéed broccolini. Sautéed with garlic, anchovies and a bit of chilli. Again, the sauce was drool worthy. We had additional bread just to mop up after the crunchy greens. By the way, this came from the il contorno. 

That's gnocchi with Parmigiano cream and balsamic syrup. It's made in house, tender without too much chew and the sauce was - well, a light and creamy Parmigiano flavouring accented with the reduced vinegar. And then some pepper. 

This was risoni, not rice. We ordered this out of curiosity because the menu said lobster and gold with squid ink. The pasta pretty much provided a smoother finish to each of the grains then regular rice does - all steeped in the squid ink flavour. Lobster was a little dry, but still with the natural sweetness of the meat. If you don't already know by now, gold flakes doesn't have any taste, but it contributed (in cost as well) to the aesthetics.

Seng Kee Mushroom Minced Pork Noodle, Serangoon Gardens Food Centre

the fish moar! maw soup

the BCM

tossed!

I first tried Seng Kee (#4 Serangoon Gardens Food Centre, 49A Serangoon Garden Way) years ago back when they were operating at Changi Road. They don't taste as impressive these days as compared to the first times I had them. Maybe I've realised that I'm not so big on that brown sauce that seems to be their thing with their minced meat noodles. With enough of their sliced chilli, it was still relatively tasty enough to inhale with ease though.

What made queueing at their stall worth the while was actually the superb fish maw soup. Like what I remembered of their soup; dense, cloudy, and flavourful. Laden with minced pork, slice pork, pork liver, fish maw, seaweed and he kiao (fish dumpling). With a generous splash of light soy sauce, it's a tough bowl to beat. I'd queue for that again. But probably not their minced meat noodles.

A chocolate & salami sandwich

This was a sandwich of circumstance if you would because I had these at home and it occurred to me that these two could work. It didn't taste strange, in fact, I kinda liked it. Like that peanut butter and pickle sandwich previously.

Coocci Contemporary Japanese has shifted

The stall has shifted to the ground floor of one of the shophouses surrounding the food centre that they were located in previously. The kitchen space had gotten bigger and there were definitely more people running the show, but the wait for the food and the sorting of the payment were still at a snail's pace.

Well, the menu has gotten much bigger. They're doing drinks/shakes now and there's some ice blended black sesame and banana drink that's pretty decent. The menu options had expanded to include lamb and beef. Unfortunately for me, their ribeye was pretty poor quality stuff even though it didn't look that way. They got the medium rare at medium well, meat was riddled with sinews and for a ribeye - it didn't have much of that beefy flavour I was looking forward to. Thankfully the smoked chicken still tasted good.

A recent couple of fried rice

That above was a bacon fried rice from Han's. Their technique of the stir frying as well as the ingredient that colours the rice differs in comparison to the egg coated variety which is generally regarded as superior. But this bacon fried rice did taste more satisfying that the last one that I had at Aberdeen fishball noodle shop which was of egg coated variety.  Yes, I just couldn't resist the comparison since we don't get so much bacon fried rice around. Maybe it's the smokier and crispier bacon.

This one below is from Cafe de Hong Kong. An often overlooked place with gem. That fried rice is signature of theirs and the ingredients include tobiko. This stuff is pretty darned tasty. The excellent dispersion of the roe guaranteed that every mouthful was filled with the bursty fish roe. For something that's traditionally well coated with grease, it sure felt light and got inhaled easily. Those brown stuff over the top were are dried scallops.