Re-savouring Saveur Art

Just a quick update with this re-visit to Saveur Art.

Saveur's pasta, chorizo, grilled prawn, chopped kombu, chilli oil

The pasta starter here is different from the one at Saveur. This one had diced prawns and chorizo while the other has chicken. Both had very nicely timed noodles with a firm bite which I liked.

spiced pumpkin velouté, chive cream

A sweet spiced pumpkin soup. I couldn't tell that it was chive cream. Even if it was regular cream, it was a little too little to make much of a difference.

egg confit, truffled potato mousseline, macadamia nuts, brown butter

I remembered liking this a lot from the last visit. I still like it a lot. The bits of macadamia nuts were aromatic and had a very good crunch which really worked with the egg and potato mousse.

roasted stuffed quail

This was definitely my favourite plate from the dinner. Quail was roasted medium well-ish and was stuffed with foie gras. On the side, more of that grilled foie and some mushrooms.

sautéed forest mushrooms

As it says, mushrooms.

grilled pork belly, provençal artichoke barigoule

I remembered that the pork belly wasn't bad at all, but there was a little too much fat on some of the pieces and I'm now at a loss for how to further describe it.

Hong Kong Wanton Noodle, Plaza Singapura

The Taste of Japan Group from Hong Kong which is responsible for Itacho Sushi has opened up a very straightforwardly named wanton noodle shop called Hong Kong Wanton Noodle (68 Orchard Road, Plaza Singapura #B2-25, tel : +65 6694 0923). One does not simply walk into Mordor mistaken their offerings for anything else. Not with such a name.

Honestly, it's not too bad. The noodles were wiry and had some bite. It's much better than most of what is passed of as Hong Kong styled wanton noodles here. While it will never be the same as the genuine article, good enough is good enough and what was the very thing they said about not letting perfect become the enemy of the good? Especially when you have no better option on hand? We've had Noodle Place and Mak's opened up here as well. I suppose we do have an appetite for this particular brand of wanton mee. 

Usman Restaurant, Serangoon Road

I heard about this place (238 Serangoon Road, tel : +65 6296 8949) some time back but never got a chance to drop by until today. While the address just stated Serangoon Road, a more accurate description of the location would be corner of the junction of Serangoon Road and Desker Road. Food seems to be Pakistani/Indian.

Their palak paneer tasted freshly made. You could taste quite a bit of the spinach from the puree which I suppose also meant that there wasn't too much of any other things (whatever those may be) added as part of the flavouring. The paneer had a rather rustic texture.

The keema on the other hand tasted a little burnt. It was smoky like what keema should not normally be. Some of the peas were charred, so I guess it was really burnt at some point.

Those seekh kebab that they had were made upon order, so it's as fresh as it could get. What I liked about it was that it wasn't infused with excessive herbs so that we could taste the meat.

The naan was also a little burnt. One's garlic and the other sesame and both were pretty decent if one would look past the char. The bread reminded me of an overdone Neapolitan pizza crust.

The only drink we had was their lime juice. It's not bad

Sapporo Ramen Miharu, Millenia Walk

It's been quite a long while since I've had ramen at Sapporo Ramen Miharu (Millenia Walk #01-06, 9 Raffles Boulevard, tel: +65 6733 8464). I guess it's mostly because I've never really been so big on Sapporo styled ramen and about the only time I recall being quite impressed by those miso based bowls was Gantetsu - previously at Ramen Champion.

So here's a revisit with their Shiretoko tori dashi shio (top) and a Noukou gyokai dashi (bottom) bowl with a trusty sidekick of shisho gyoza. The former bowl had a lightweight chicken shio broth which tasted like it was good for someone with a cold. That came with quail eggs. Interesting to try but I probably will not order again. The latter was a seafood infused thick broth which was really delicious. Not unique in any sense, but a robust dependable smoky bonito flavour. Those gyoza on the side had bits of shisho leaves in  the stuffings - quite a dimension of flavour from the regular ones. We rather liked it.

I wouldn't say that I wouldn't revisit because I likely would. I remembered liking their tsukemen dip and their rice bowl. Their noodles had the springy chew that I like and I'm thinking also that shoyu broth agrees with me. I just don't know when again.

A nasi goreng ayam from Dahlia Cafe

We found Dahlia Cafe in Golden Landmark (#02-21/22 Golden Landmark Shopping Complex, 390 Victoria St) near the entrance/exit facing the Arab Street quarter teeming with people during lunch. So here's their nasi goreng ayam - fried rice with fried chicken. It was pretty decent, but I found flavour lacking in the nasi goreng. That aside, the tray was very recognisable comfort food and that ayam goreng tasted freshly fried and crispy. Enjoyed it. Don't pass on their belachan sauce which you can help yourself to. I think I should resist the impulse at this point to compare this fried chicken with the one from Mat Noh & Rose which I feel is better.

Fill-a-Pita, China Square

If you're wondering, this shop (3 Pickering Street, China Square Central, #01-29 Nankin Row) is the very same Fill-a-Pita that was previously located at Shenton Way. It seems that they've just relocated last week and if you get there early enough, one can actually get seats with air conditioning - which was certainly an improvement over the old location. But this current shop doesn't come equipped with a fryer/grill so their current falafels are baked and halloumi cheese is off the menu. #sad

The food's still pretty much the same though. Those baked falafel were equally as delicious as the old ones and today, we tried a recommendation from them which was their fava bean pita with labna. Delicious stuff - but our labna sunk to the bottom of the pita instead of being spread out evenly. Not a problem really. I certainly hope they find a way to get the halloumi back on the menu though.