Black truffle ramen from Kanshoku Ramen Bar

As far as I could gather, Kanshoku (#01-06 Orchard Central, 277 Orchard Road, tel : +65 6384 4770) is formed by two local guys. Not that I don't support the local guys venturing out into foreign food, but my opinion is that their shop brought nothing new to the table considering that there's already loads of ramen shops around. And already, a handful of those shops are clearly superior (read as something I prefer) to this one. I know it's Dutch pork for the charshu, Japanese egg for the ajitama and Hakata styled noodles made in house; it doesn't change the status quo that I described, no?

Island Cafe version whatever...

Island Cafe has recently completed renovations. The place no longer resembles the tropical retro stained restaurant that had been its look for the past years. It’s now clean, white and almost colonial-industrial from the expose pipings without the false ceiling to conceal. Along with the facelift was also a change with the kitchen crew.

Kay Lee Roast Meat, Upper Paya Lebar

Truth be told, I've never heard of Kay Lee (125 Upper Paya Lebar Road) until the recent years when they were mentioned online about the sale of their stall/name/recipe which went for 4 million SGD by the way. Living in the smallest country in the world and blogging about food I've been eating in general for almost a decade; I have never prior to that buzz heard of this apparently famous roast meat stall. That about sums up my relationship with them.

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.