French beets, boudin noir and turbot at Le Bistrot du Sommelier

I think the restaurant is still on the winter menu.

chataigne, bettrave et Sabayon aux Cèpes

chestnut mousseline, steamed beetroot and cèpes mushroom sabayon

That explains the steamed beetroot, which by the way were really delicious. From France. These beetroot had none of that earthy taste that most of us associate with beetroots and they come in other colours than just purple. Though those were mostly hidden under the spinach salad which was ladled with their also delicious savoury cèpes sabayon. Also hidden at the bottom of the plate was the sweet and creamy chestnut mousseline and some brown crust on the beetroot which they did not list on the menu. That brown crust thing tasted like some sort of sweet hazelnut crust. Also awesome. This must have been the most impressive warm salad I've had in years.

boudin noir

I never realised that Le Bistrot du Sommerlier had boudin noir on the charcuterie menu before. So we just had to order it. Because reasons. This was their rendition, more pâté than sausage and equally delicious. Served simply with just mustard and a little salad. The boudin noir rocks with their bread.

turbot

The turbot was from the board and for the night only. Cooked in a robust citrusy lemon butter and stuffed with thyme. The portion as you can see from above was huge; could have fed three persons quite easily. The fish tasted fresh with tender and flaky meat. Pretty impressive.

This on record would be my first time ordering a whole fish in a French restaurant. My first time probably getting owned by a fish as well. We could barely finish it and ran out of room for dessert. Maybe the next time.

Revisiting Hakumai

Here's the sushi platter from the Hakumai Sushi Gozen teishoku. Which comes with soup, a truffle sauce chawanmushi and fruit. I suppose I could consider this middling standards as far as local sushi goes and I did enjoy it. I'm quite certain their omakase offers better but until then...

PerBacco Enoteca con Cucina, Craig Road

We must have passed by this restaurant numerous times thinking from the facade that it was probably one of those bars that had appeared and will soon make way for another better player in a proverbial blink of an eye. Little did we know until recently that PerBacco (20 Craig Road, #01-03 Craig Place, tel : +65 6635 7130) was actually a proper Italian restaurant and one which had left us impressed at that.

Curry chicken and toasted bread from Killiney Kopitiam at Purvis Street

It's been a very long time since I've last stepped into a Killiney Kopitiam. Was pleasantly surprised after I did this one (30 Purvis Street) to break fast with their curry chicken. It wasn't bad at all; I enjoyed it and there was something about their toasted bread that made them special. In an aromatic way that is.

Sushiro, Thomson Plaza

This was a small local Japanese shop (#01-113F Thomson Plaza, 301 Upper Thomson Road). Very small space that doesn't seat many people but apparently accept reservations. They looked family run. Sushi there doesn't look very enticing as they appear to be the same quality as the mass market variety. So we haven't really tried anything else except their donburi which were pretty good.

Swee Kee Fish Head Noodle House, Amoy Street

Some of the older folks will know this restaurant as Ka Soh (96 Amoy Street, tel : +65 6224 9920). An institution with a claim to fame for their fish soup noodles. I recall only one prior visit to them before today and that was just early this year if my memory serves.

The food was not bad, but places like this tends to get expectations up because of reputation. I thought their sum lou hor fun was a decent stir fry of flat rice noodles, bean sprouts and sliced fish; but nothing particularly memorable. I liked this dish in the first place so I suppose I'm generally not hard on them as long as it's competent. But there was really little that would make me think that this was better than another decent rendition.

I generally like kung bao frogs. The ones here were a little unexpected because they frogs had been deep fried to a crusty exterior before the stir fry. The result was tougher meat which was less succulent than I had been hoping for. With the kung bao gravy being forgettable and a rather expensive charge per frog, I'd have to be paid to eat this again. The last part was a joke. Haha. But I wouldn't order them again.

We had their stir fried kailan the last time I was here. The vegetables were fresh and sweet. Better quality than many a same dish that one can get in a nicer Chinese restaurant. It's what many people would classify as a "must try".

This was bean sprouts stir fried with fish liver and stomach or intestine. We've definitely had better and I guess I was kinda disappointed since not many people do this particular dish much these days.

Har cheong kai. Competent too. Greasy enough without being excessively so and had sufficient flavour from the prawn paste.