Dehesa, North Canal Road

This was an eve of the eve Christmas dinner at the newly opened Dehesa (12 North Canal Road, tel : +65 6221 7790) helmed by a Joe Pantoliano-esque (Cypher in the kitchen!) chef/owner Jean-Philippe Patruno. Apparently, they are claiming to be the first nose to tail dining in this country and I'm giving them credit for it. This restaurant kicks lupine ass for what it's worth!

Wildfire Burgers, 313 Somerset

These guys must have been doing quite well for some reasons to be able to expand into the current premise at 313 (#01-28 313@Somerset , 313 Orchard Road, tel: +65 6509 4408). So well in fact that I was convinced to stop for another couple of burgers even though I didn't think so much of them previously. In retrospect, I still don't agree with their burgers. Half the people were eating with fork and knife which likely meant the sandwiches were too stacked to be eaten comfortably with just hands.

Let's look at the Umami burger (obviously inspired by Umami Burger) above for example. The bottom bun was a little hard. Maybe it was meant to be to catch the juices. But it couldn't be reasonably compressed and even I had difficulty trying to fit both buns and the contents in a bite. On the other plate, the Black Ebi (breaded prawn patty burger) had soft but dense squid ink buns which also didn't squeeze well.

The Umami burger was tastier. Even though we couldn't taste any of that smoke from the smoked mushrooms, the Parmesan crisp should have been a Parmesan chew and their Umami dust would never truly rise beyond a marketing gimmick. 

I was disappointed that the shrimp patty from the Black Ebi was even less shrimpy that the one at McD and that the only flavour that was outstanding in it was their spicy yuzu sauce thing. Just that one dominant flavour. It's all a pile up of frills with little care over whether they worked with the burger or if they would be lost in translation.

I don't see a third time happening.

Hakumai, International Plaza

I've been wanting to come down to Hakumai (#01-50A International Plaza, 10 Anson Rd, tel : +65 6224 4790) since they opened up so I guess it took quite a while for that to happen. Here's a truffle tekka don for lunch which featured ingredients that are a little contemporary for Japanese food; their truffle sauce being the first obvious ingredient for the bowl. That sauce over the slices of yellowfin tuna with the finely chopped negi was rather pleasant and the flavours were not overpowering. I also suppose this would be the first donburi I've had that featured arugula in them. And if you looked a little more closely, there was dried sakura ebi to spruce up flavours in the rice too.

Hakumai is not so traditional as traditional goes for Japanese food. That has been said and done by its chef Gary since the days of Hinoki so I ate what I had without much surprises. While the basis of the food stems from tradition, the ones here have definitely gone through evolution; an evolutionary bent for the locals if I might say so. And I say that passing no judgement.

More sandwiches from Park Bench Deli

Quick update. This cold cuts sandwich from Park Bench Deli was quite nice, but I realized that I could easily make this myself at home.

Their vegetarian sandwich was a warm one. It wasn't so much fresh greens rather than processed vegetables of some slaw, tomato salsa and guacamole (which had cilantro!). While this was nothing like the one from Sarnies, I'd have to admit it was pretty good especially with the cheese and egg. There was also a flavour which I would associate with a commonly used spice in Indian cooking, but can't for the life of me recall what it was at this point.

An update with Two Blur Guys

I had thought that Two Blur Guys have been doing a fine job of keeping their basic Prime beef burger simple in their own ways and affordable until the past weekend. Prices have gone up by about $3 since my last recollection and the menu seemed to have evolved with more options which kept me wondering if that was really what people had wanted?

The part that bothered me was the change in the setup of their burger. That Prime beef patty did not taste as good as I remembered it while the requested medium doneness of the patty was hovering just past medium well. In fact, it did not taste of very much. To further complicate things - they've added a slice of tomato and even a pat of sweet relish into the burger. Sweet relish? Was that even necessary? Maybe that's what that $3 was about.

Hajah Maimunah this year

sayur lodeh

sambal goreng

gulai nangka

siput sedut

paru balado

This was a pretty good lunch down at Hajah Maimunah except for one little thing. The rice was kinda dry in spite of appearances and couldn't even quite absorb the curries or sauces well. But the paru belado was tender, sambal goreng was surprisingly creamy and the siput sedut was kinda fun to suck out of their shells up to the point that the lemak gravy was burning my lips. Those begedil were delicious too.