Wildfire Kitchen + Bar, Evans Road

I wanted to describe this place (26 Evans Road, tel : +65 6734 2080) as nice. But after a moment's ponder, it's not nice. It's looks just like any other establishments opened up in recent years that everyone's labelling "hipster". So it is in the context of this place and time - just another. What drove me here though was the theme of burgers and steaks in a casual environment with beer. That up there was Sankt Gallen orange chocolate stout. Yes, there was that orange at the front that morphs somewhat into a bitter chocolate. Apparently, they're a Japanese brew. Interesting....

Wildfire does various burgers to cover various bases. The regular varieties don't have pedigree stated on board but the more expensive ones are their full blood Blackmore wagyu burger and another that features dry aged Hunter Valley Angus beef. I had the former, thought it was quite nicely build with a 180g patty enveloped with melted cheddar, butterhead lettuce, some gherkins and caramelized onions. All between nicely browned brioche which was sturdy enough to hold the meat and juices. Honestly, I didn't care very much about the their "Signature Master Sauce". It just tasted like mayo and this setup honestly, works with no sauce. 

But I don't know if they knew that.

The meat was nice, coarse minced and had an odd aged aroma. But the balance of the flavours didn't quite work out ideally for me. There was too little sear and salt to support the meat. Maybe they didn't like their customers leaving with a carcinogenic cholesterol spike, but it certainly downplayed specifically, any quality to the meat that they had used.

As I was finishing up the last of this, I was reminiscing the "Travis" burger and the other from Butchers Club Burgers, both of which I felt kicked more proverbial ass.

I had been expecting to be impressed by their Blackmore Wagyu minute steak. It was a little more than minute, and the doneness was well over the medium rare that we requested for. Honestly, I have no idea what cut is a minute steak, but I intelligently hypothesise that it's not one of those with sufficient fat in the meat to bring out the wagyu-ness? It tasted like a very nice piece of char grilled beef, albeit overcooked. Absolutely lacks that trademark flavour though.

Nice? Yes. But not impressive. And certainly speaks of how slip shod things are when you actually bother to boast the pedigree of your meats to and yet, failing to cook it properly to request.

Bochinche, Martin Road

sea bream ceviche, tiger’s milk and sweet potato

Provoleta, almonds and honey

Argentinian grass fed rib eye 400g

Been wanting to visit Bochinche (22 Martin Road #02-01, tel : +65 6235 4990) for some time already and for some reasons, it's always been a case of out of mind from out of sight. 

As with the previous experiences at Salta with Argentine beef, the meat yielded noticeably less flavour than that what we're used to with the Australian/New Zealand/USDA imports. So while I didn't mind this , I'm not such a big fan. Especially when the bone marrow sauce on the side which was suppose to help was unimpressive to say the least. Their creamed spinach which looked like it was some spinach & cheese (in line with mac & cheese) was nicely done underneath the toasted cheese, flavoured by a hit of nutmeg. 

What we felt were more interesting were their ceviche and their Provoleta cheese. The former was lively with the citrus of limes on the firm but tender texture of the fish. All refreshingly chilled. The only bummer was the cilantro/coriander. What I'll definitely order again the next time would be their Provoleta cheese - rocked with it's milky saltiness, sweetness from the honey and the fragrance of the toasted almond shards.

Tonkotsu Ikkyu from Ramen Champion

Tonkotsu Ikkyu is the current resident "closest to Hakata styled" pork bone broth ramen at Ramen Champion in Bugis+. I suppose they're the successor to the prior Tokotsu Itto and even before that, the rather well known Ikkousha.

I didn't try their basic bowl but shot straight for the unusually green tinted spinach tonkotsu special bowl. The special part merely refers to an "upsize" in ingredients. Sadly, those pieces of sous vide charshu didn't quite look as big as featured in the menu or their social media photos. The broth was interesting because it tasted like it had a mellow nutty flavour rather than the leafy taste that one would expect out of spinach. And that little dollop of chilli paste really did nothing at all for the broth.

Didn't dislike this - I'm just not quite sure know how I feel about it. That being said, it doesn't taste bad at all. Scout's honour. And the ajisuke tamago was very properly done with the prerequisite golden molten yolk, nicely flavoured with shoyu. I must also admit to finding their black garlic tonkotsu option rather fragrant as well. The only real complain I have was the lack of proper firmness of the noodles. Maybe I should have indicated that specifically.

It's probably not very fair to declare and compare against the above mentioned predecessors at this point since I hadn't had the chance to let their basic bowl sit in, but I'm of the opinion at this point that Tonkotsu Ikkyu may not be in the same leagues as them. 

Pizza Fabbrica, Bussorah Street

Fior di latte, pancetta, portobello mushroom, onions, goat cheese

Fior di latte, Gorgonzola, Grana Padano, Provola

Fior di latte, porcini mushroom, scamorza cheese with truffle

Here's news. A fairly new Italian pizza place (70 Bussorah Street, tel : +65 6291 0434) in the Arab Street zone helmed by a chef that had previously stinted at the The Fat Duck. Hmmm...name dropping credentials. And doppio zero flour.

While nothing out-of-the-world outstanding, their pizzas were pretty good. The base was light, doughy and chewy without being too dense and the toppings were of good quality. I liked that I could actually have a brimful of Gorgonzola flavours from their quattro formaggi. Will check back again for sure.

Feedlot Steakhouse Bar & Grill, Tanglin Road

This place was not bad at all. If you didn't know, Feedlot Steakhouse (56 Tanglin Road #B1-01, tel : +65 6463 8080) is owned by Swiss Butchery located just above them; the butchery that also supplies/sources the meat for their menu.

Their scallop starter was pretty good. The shellfish was seared nicely brown along the edges which provided that char aroma and wasn't overcooked. While these didn't quite match the quality that one can find in places like The Naked Finn, it was definitely not shabby. Would have liked for them to be larger though. 

Tenderloin linguine was very nice too. Meat was properly done, though a tiny shade above medium rare towards medium. This was basically a properly treated piece of filet unmasked by unnecessary seasoning on aglio olio pasta spiked with sliced chilli.

Remember macaroni chicken soup. Well, this was macaroni lobster bisque. Even though it was called a lobster mac & cheese on menu, it didn't have so much cheese and whatever they had was scorched fragrant. Which was a good thing since that lobster bisque was really what made the dish. Along with the little, yet discernible chunks of lobster meat. I'm impressed. 

Nakhon Kitchen, Ang Mo Kio Ave. 10

Believe it or not, sitting down at a shop house along Ang Mo Kio and having some pretty delicious Thai food while being serenaded with Thai heavy metal blasting in the background can be somewhat surreal. And there I once was, thinking that Dream Theater was it. That was Nakhon Kitchen (#01-2371, 529 Ang Mo Kio Avenue 10, tel : +65 6451 1332) for me, two separate visits so far. Heavy metal on both visits.

We've had quite a number of dishes from the two visits, so I'm going to just keep it down to those that I thought were memorable or mention worthy.

That above was the pineapple curry with mussels. It was rather good in a lemon grass-y sort of way that was also creamy and somewhat spicy. The draw for this was the meaty mussels - shelled, and the chunks of pineapple in curry. I'd come back again just for this.

We were initially skeptical about the prawn cakes. While I might not have had a lot of these Thai styled prawn cakes before, I remember having had pretty disappointing ones. These were actually pretty good. I'm gonna be lazy with the description this time and just say that these are best tried to understand what brand of goodness they pack. Again, good for returns.

Yes, that's their som tam mamuang, or commonly referred to as the Thai green mango salad. Not bad a rendition, but didn't beat Pra Ram Thai Cuisine for me. I suppose this one felt a little more muted in comparison without those more noticeable spikes of heat and pronounced fragrance from the dried shrimps.

I liked their pad krapaw with squid. It was pretty straight forward stir fry that was served hot and spicy and satisfying. The sauce, wonderful condiment to the rice.

I've never been a big fan of tom yam locally. But this clear rendition from Nakhon Kitchen was enjoyable.