Potato Head Folk, Keong Saik Road

Much has already been said about Potato Head Folk (36 Keong Saik Road, tel : +65 6327 1939) so I'll save myself the parroting. If anything, these guys certainly knew how to market their presence sufficiently. Frankly, I was quite disappointed with the food.

I wanted to like their burgers which in my opinion were rather well constructed. My beef with their beef was their T.O.M. sauce, whatever that means. Quite liberally applied, it contested in flavours with their actually decent patty, cooked properly at medium rare. Maybe it was just me, but I certainly didn't like so much contention. I didn't even finish up.

Their naughty fries were passably decent. I'm not sure what went into that spice Bearnaise, but it didn't taste like Bearnaise. It was a little cheesy and packed a little heat. Actually quite tasty. But those fried shallots they used were those that came from plastic packets. Essentially almost flavourless. For the kind of prices this places charges, it'd not be unreasonable to expect freshly fried shallots. Really.

The lamb burger was okay. Nothing that I could complain over, but at this point, I've already formed the impression that their food is not for me. This was one meal that I walked away from unsatisfied.

Paradise Dynasty, Causeway Point

Family meals are sometimes fun. There's more people involved and more food can be ordered. Communal dining is not just a wannabe trendy buzzword from recent years. Many of us have been enjoying it for ages.

Here's some stuff from Paradise Dynasty (1 Woodlands Square, Causeway Point, #05-16/17/18, tel : +65 6894 6322). That's the fried rice above, which was quite competent. The lack of residual oil is one particular benchmark and those up there are in the leagues of Din Tai Fung.

Braised duck tongues. Supposedly in oyster sauce but I tasted a lot more spices going on than just oyster sauce. The meat was tender, chewy and I suppose it's probably not something you would want to order if you are very hungry since it was some effort for small rewards eating this. Otherwise, this was pretty tasty.

These were their mao shan wang durian xiao long bao.

Truth be told, I'd rather eat the durian. This texture was desiccated for a fruit that is supposed to be creamy and the trademark aromas of the fruit was muted.

These brown stuff floating on the top are called malva nut. I've just learnt that after having had them in cheng tng since I was a kid. Which part of the nut makes these, I don't know yet. The wait staff mentioned that this item wasn't dessert, but it tasted like dessert. Sweet and chilled with bits of diced pear.

Some fish in some Chinese wine sauce. This was soft and flakily delicious from the flavoursome sauce.

These are supposed to be sour and spicy potato strips (酸辣土豆丝). The rendition here is far less sour and spicy than I had expected. The flavours have been diluted for whatever reasons, so we're never ordering these here again.

This last dish that almost never arrived was steamed bullfrog. There's scallions and chilli and a sauce that reminded me a lot of fermented black bean sauce. That sauce would have been excellent pairing with white rice. I'm impressed. The heat was a slow and steady build up until as we were about to be done, I felt the burn on my lip. The meat from the frog was smooth, fairly tender as frogs go and easily slurped off the bone. Even those on the torso. I'd come back for this again.

Store in a cool, dark, secret place.

A much appreciated gift all the way from London. Thanks Crystal!

I had gotten one of these some time back in Meidi-Ya and they are apparently on very limited runs. Could never find them again since.

Meatsmith, Telok Ayer Street

I was intrigued by Meatsmith mostly because it's a new venture by Loh Lik Peng. And I must admit that the name did ring of a certain bent to the theme that would interest me. But expectations can be a bitch. While that name wasn't far off what they did, which was American Southern styled bbq and smokes, it wasn't quite what I had in mind for a joint call Meatsmith. I had expected more meat smithing and smithereens.

But there are certain attributes to the food that one can relate to this venture that seemed uniform to the previous. Refinement over rustic and the occasional trimmings would be a clear indications as part of what they do. Flavours as usual were up to the job. Take this chicken liver mousse with red pepper gelée and smoked salt. The French would just do the pate and trim the fancies. Not to digress, this was quite good. The mousse was rich, creamy and packing with that liver flavours, balanced off by some of the pretty pickled foliage by the side and freshly toasted bread.

This was called ham hock greens on the menu. It's a braise of sorts maybe, but I think could have passed off as stir fry. Of chunks of pork and rainbow chard. And something that tasted like mustard greens. Very nice.

That's the Nashville fried chicken sandwich. Nice, really nice spicy fried chicken flavouring. Would have liked it to be bigger since this was almost a slider portion. Somehow, the thought that subconsciously came to mind was Sarnies' chicken schnitzel. That had the volume satisfaction that this didn't. And isn't quantity sometimes a form of quality? 

Smoked beef brisket sandwich was not bad tasting too. But I had been thinking slices rather than bits of the brisket between buns.

Dessert was apple and cinnamon cobbler with smoked vanilla ice cream. I'd come back just for this again.

More from Sumiya Charcoal Grill

 

We liked Sumiya. They have rather attractive lunch sets that's not too hard on the wallet and the place is casual. Food is decent to boot so we came back. I don't get the izakaya vibe of the place at all. For a self styled izakaya, a large portion of the menu Sumiya seems to be raw food. Not that it's bad, but it feels confused.

The above on ice is aburi-ed sashimi of tuna head. It's from the menu specially for tuna parts, not the regular one. It's indicated as something that's limited to three servings, I'm not sure if that's per table or per day. This stuff was really nice. The meat was tender and oily; almost akin to otoro. The flavours of the tuna were present, but delicate.

Those skewers are tuna diaphragm. Never had them before, so we ordered them out of curiosity. The texture was soft and slightly chewy and it tasted like....well, tuna. And I think they forgot to salt.

That's kani miso with little crab legs served in the shell. This stuff is awesome. Awesome, awesome, awesome. To be tried to understand.

So this is something new, possibly on a limited run since it's not on the regular menu. An amaebi and uni don. With a splash of shoyu, the seafood on the vinegared rice became extra magical. We've definitely had better quality prawns and sea urchin but there's no point in comparison. This was what it was for what they charged. And it's definitely not mediocre in case anyone misunderstood.

Yep, didn't skip the bara kaisen don which many people seems to be ordering. For good reasons.

We got matcha flavoured mochi from the lunch sets today. Nice.

Saveur Art, ION Orchard

This place (2 Orchard Turn, #04-11, Ion Orchard, tel : +65 6634 1141) was brought to the world by the Saveur Group, the same people that did Saveur. The attribute that both restaurants have in common defines French styled quality cooking and affordability in the same sentence. What Saveur did for French bistro styled food, Saveur Art is doing for more progressive French/European styled cooking. In that respect, these guys are changing the game in the culinary field for us. Why so? It has redefined a new bar for entry level expectations for fine dining without the tablecloth and napkins.

The challenge of course is the juggle between affordability and quality. Which I think a good balance has been struck. YMMV.

There was even amuse bouche. Of a seaweed foam with rice crisps and potato broth which packed a rather respectable umami and nutty punch. Great start there.

This was the salmon confit starter which has the description 'marinated ikura, cauliflower, horseradish'. I'm generally not big on salmon but I was sold on this. The fish was sous-vide-ed into the state just between rare and cooked, tender yet firm and flaking nicely along the grains. The blob with leaves sticking out was the cauliflower. It's pureed of course.  

The other starter that left an impression was their 64 degree Celcius slow cooked egg and truffle. Featuring an ethereal truffle potato mousseline, roasted bits of hazel nuts for fragrance & texture along with browned butter. Hell this was nice. Yeah.  

Fish of the day. Braised red drum in a saffron broth and some ratatouille. And apparently also some charred octopus slices layered over the top which the menu didn't describe. Fish was excellent; tender and firm and flaky at the same time. I'm not good with describing the flavour, but I liked it. Almost licked the broth clean from the bowl. And this added encouragement towards something that I do not order very often.

And then some tender Mangalica pork belly with barley risotto. Pork belly was nicely done, but I think I liked the nutty tasting barley risotto much better with the mushroom and foie gras sauce Bordelaise.

This was some salted yolk cake. Rather dense, fairly flavoured with the egg. They had admitted that this was outsourced. Perhaps with the calibre that had created the rest of the food, they could consider sticking to just what they can make.