Kajiken (歌志軒), Orchid Hotel

So we finally made out way down to Kajiken (#01-07 Orchid Hotel, 1 Tras Link) for their mazesoba after passing it by on numerous occasions. That above is their Nagoya styled bowl - with an additional piece of tori karaage. The flavours were pretty much how one could expect with the tossing of spicy minced meat, strips of seaweed and the chopped negi in those noodles enriched by an onsen tamago. Which kinda reeled me in by how straightforwardly comforting it was. I couldn't help but to see it as a Japanese version of ba chor mee. I liked it and will be back.

Gin Khao, One Raffles Place

Gin Khao (#04-29 One Raffles Place, One Raffles Place, tel : +65 6532 2387) serves contemporary Thai. The food that they do is what anyone with some familiarity with Thai cuisine would acknowledge as internationally recognized Thai food - nothing with much surprises going on here. The contemporary element simply redefines the recognisable with refinement on the ingredients, preparation and presentation. The roots remain.

yam mamuang

I liked their mango salad. Nothing unnecessarily fancy, properly made and there was that citrus fragrance from the fruit that was on going there. Not just strips of sour crunchy stuff that you sometimes get. Would have been great if they were more generous with those crushed peanuts.

paw pia tod

These prawn spring rolls was unexpectedly better than I had imagined. There seemed to be nothing but prawns stuffed in the rolls and the flavours of the skin was...much tastier than they looked. Could have easily finished a serving of them myself.

stir fried squid with runny salted egg

Stir fried squid was not bad tasting but the larger pieces were kinda chewy. 

tom kha gai

Their tom khai gai was addictive. It was lightly creamy from the coconut milk with a vibrant tanginess which left me spooning mouthful after mouthful of the broth. I would be willing to return just for this.

khao phat dtaeng moe

The only thing that I probably haven't tried before from the bunch of stuff we ordered was their watermelon fried rice. This was a seafood fried rice which came laden with quite a bit of squid, prawns and mussels and strewn on top of that - cashew nuts, crispy deep fried bean curd strips and chicken floss. Not forgetting, warm chunks of warm watermelon. I liked it.

larb moo

The lard moo was served late for a salad. But it was good. Nice hit of mint and lime over fish sauce in textures of ground pork, onions and leaves.

kang ob woon seng

And we had some vermicelli with crayfish which was pretty flavourful.

For some reasons, our table had a free dessert. It was a Thai tea mousse cake of sorts which tasted like how it looked. I realised that did not really describe anything to anyone who doesn't know how Thai tea tastes like, but...

The other dessert which wasn't free was their green curry gelato over steamed black glutinous rice. There was nice creamy heat that left prickles on the back of the throat from the gelato and the rice was moist and tender. I liked this.

And some Thai coffee to wash the food down. This was a rather strong brew. Strong like how I can remember feeling palpitations when I get my triple grande at Starbucks in Bangkok. But the fragrance of the roast wasn't as full bodied as I would prefer. The coconut cream that came with it made it taste a little salty so I recommend it with a little bit of the syrup that they also provided.

Patty Melt on rye from Park Bench Deli

Here's a quick warm sandwich for dinner. Chuck patty with cheese, bread & butter pickles and caramelised onions between toasted rye from Park Bench Deli. Greasy and a little salty for the most of it, but also delicious.

iO Italian Osteria, HillV2

This place (#02-01 HillV2, 4 Hillview Rise, tel : +65 6710 7150) is by the people who runs Etna. I wanted to check them out because I liked Etna and I was hoping to see what they would do out of the concept of an osteria.

We had porchetta, a roasted layered pork stuffed with herbs. The portions were pretty large so my advice is to share it. As a starter, it could have been easily split two or three ways. I thought it was not bad; super crisp (I do mean super crisp) on the outside while moist and fatty on the insides. But they were very light handed with the salt on the meat. I supposed that worked with the accompanying mustard which seemed to have been nicely salted.

The other thing was their schiacciata, an Italian flatbread. This one was stuffed with ricotta, mushrooms and some truffle oil. Again, the portions were huge. This could have been breakfast for two. But it was also quite nice. The bread was served hot and crisp with the cheese oozing out of the edges.

Feeling adventurous, I tried a home made tagliolini with prawns and lemon. It was something that was probably off my usual flavour train and I was hoping that having lemons would zest up the noodles or the sauce. I couldn't taste the lemons and the sauce was a generic one that was made with the ingredients on the plate. Being adventurous doesn't always pay off. While I liked the texture of the pasta, the rest of the flavours was kinda boring. #disappointment

The steamed bullfrog with chilli is back, now on the regular menu of Paradise Dynasty

I've previously said all there is to say about this particular dish which was on a limited run menu. I'm guessing that it had been well received enough for the restaurant to have included it into the regular menu. Still burning hot and tasty this is, so not for beginners.

Lollapalooza - ɒzoolɒqɒllo⅃

Here's back to Lollapalooza. If there was one thing I felt that they could have improved, it would be to update their menu of the week/day instead of waiting for people asking for them. That's why there is social media, yes? To facilitate incessant timely updates?

But I bear no grudges. Table service was good and the food was enjoyable.

glazed Brussels sprouts with chestnuts

We had Brussels sprouts with chestnuts. Nothing surprising going on here. I just like them

cockscombs braised in veal jus with sautéed sweetcorn

Cockscombs has texture like a slightly crunchy abalone or cockle. Kinda nice to chew on but isn't by itself big on flavour. I don't think it absorbs flavour well too. But the accompanying corn was good. Very nice. As a dish altogether, I thought this worked.

sea urchin and crab tart

This tart sounded good on paper, but I had my suspicions otherwise before ordering it. We ordered it anyway because it sounded good on paper. As it turned out, I was spot on about the part on the uni. It was a waste of a nice piece of sea urchin because the flavour in the stuffings of tart were rich and creamy. Which by itself was a good thing but didn't work with something with the subtle floral of uni. And hence knowing that already, we were ate them apart.

white asparagus (Mazan, France) with diced Bayonne ham and hazelnuts

White asparagus season has started. These ones that Lollapalooza had gotten were amazing. I meant that they were naturally sweet, char etched with a smokiness from the grill and very juicy. I guess that's why they costed so much.

leeks poached in nut-brown butter and vanilla served with hazelnut crumble

Leeks were tender and juicy too. The hazelnuts worked better here than on the asparaguses because there was more and there's no ham here to distract from the aroma of the nuts. But between this and the asparagus, we preferred the latter.

roasted Australian wild-caught scampi (langoustine) with seaweed butter

The scampi was not bad, but it was an odd pair. We had a little difficulty removing the flesh off the first one which had a head full of delicious fat. The second one had flesh that was easily stripped off the shell, but didn't have so much head fat. At this point, I cannot in good conscience say that it was amazing because these were not yet at that level. Our benchmarks had once upon a time been established and sadly may never be met again.

roasted lamb hearts with wild garlic shoots

Lamb hearts were nice. Actually, I'm still surprised that a muscular organ like the heart would be so tender and chewy. I was glad that it was respectfully treated in the grill with little but salt and pepper. That orange blob at the side - I think it's some kind of tomato pesto. I'm not too sure exactly.

spicy dark chocolate ice cream with milk chocolate mousse and chocolate brownie

This triple chocolate dessert was not bad. The brownie was rather fudgey which I liked and the spicy dark chocolate was rich, smooth and spicy enough.