2it & drink, Valley Point

2it & drink (#01-01 Valley Point, 491 River Valley Road, tel : +65 6737 3001) - I couldn't understand the thought processes that came out with that name but it's a casual dining joint by Otto Ristorante. While I haven't been to Otto myself, I've heard things about them and I supposed that by virtue of that association, these guys shouldn't be too bad.

The atmosphere was really casual. Reminded me of iO Italian Osteria because of both their naming styles and the setup. It was so casual that the decorum of sequence was totally ignored when we informed them that they food can come as soon as they are ready. We were served our starters just before dessert. :p 

We had a pizza bianca special from the board for the Chrismas season. Mozzarella, goat's cheese, porcini and speck. The speck brought a nice smoky aroma to the pizza. For something that was made on order and had to go into the oven for a little while, this was surprisingly the first thing that hit our table. Not complaining, just an observation.

That's a pappardelle con salciccia from their menu. We requested for blue cheese to be added. Plus a healthy sprinkle of black pepper it made their regular tomato ragu more mellow and rich.

The bruschetta arrived last. Next to last. It's something I normally don't do because I don't have much good experiences with, but these ones had chopped octopus in the tomatoes. And whole olives. Not bad.

Because we had a very positive episode with tiramisu recently, we decided to give this one here a go. It's not bad, however the mascarpone cream to sponge finger ratio was wide.  There was a lot more of the mascarpone than the cake, but it was cake well soaked through. If only the flavour from the alcohol hit harder.

More Cameliciousness

I bought the chocolate flavour this time round. Not surprisingly, it tasted like any of the other chocolate milk out there. It's probably the most regular tasting out of the other ones which I've tried and my favourite is still the saffron one.

Nadai Fujisoba Ni-Hachi, 100AM

This was a new soba shop (#03-14 100AM, 100 Tras Street, tel : +65 6443 8827) that's part of the Itadakimasu cluster along with Numazu Uogashizushi located just beside Keisuke Tori King - which seemed to have become part of that group without having actually moved.

Besides soba and mazesoba, there's tempura to be had. Of which the tori tempura was actually pretty good. Thick, chunky yet tender pieces of freshly fried chicken. We tried a couple of their mazesoba. There was the kamo bowl featured tough pieces of duck (#disappointing) and duck meatball. The yuzu accents were welcomed and altogether, the soba was rather pleasant once the onsen tamago was mixed it but was otherwise in my opinion not as delicious as the mentai bowl. 

The Coconut Club, Ann Siang Hill

These folks (6 Ann Siang Hill, tel : +65 6635 2999) have gotten by with word of mouth and social media that they've gathered themselves quite a crowd over the weekend. It certainly helped from the curiosity angle that the place is out of reach of many and the opening hours are short. The main stay is nasi lemak - an elevated version with possibly better ingredients along with careful treatment of those ingredients in the cooking that takes this traditional rice plate beyond where it's been before. At least that was likely to be the intention.

Unfortunately, this doesn't quite cut it for me. There was coconut fragrance in the rice for sure. But - it's not rich enough, not satisfying enough. I could name a couple of places where we've had better. The basmati rice rendition from the defunct Island Cafe beats this hands down and hell, it was more enjoyable even at Nasi Lemak Kukus. So while there's a story to be told about the founders spending a couple of years finding their fresh coconut milk from their perfect hybrid of the fruit and a fair share of R&D on the recipe, the outcome was that their rice was just passable. 

Sambal's not too bad, had some shrimpy flavour. While the chicken was good frying done, the tumeric was overwhelming. Otak-otak was not bad too - looked a little like those from Muar but doesn't quite taste like one. Would I come back? Maybe just to try the cendol. 

Fusion mee pok from Ah Hoe Mee Pok

Here's a bowl of fusion mee pok from Ah Hoe Mee Pok. The fusion element in this bowl stems from the Japanese styled charshu which they included on top of sliced boiled pork, minced pork, pork meat balls, deep fried lard and some abalone. Altogether making this a very porky bowl of mee pok. Similar but not the same with our local bowl. I couldn't help but compare this to the recent ba chor mee from Capitol Bak Chor Mee which cost a dollar less but didn't have half the ingredients that this one did and wasn't quite as hearty. I am aware of the differences in rental of both stalls, but they are what they are.

Back to this bowl from Ah Hoe, I maintain what I had previously mentioned about the first time about their noodles. It's a balance of flavours with nothing that was particularly dominant. As much as I enjoy the strength of the chilli and vinegar from our local rendition, the equilibrium wasn't such a bad thing. This shoyu bowl was unexpectedly sweet though. I wonder why's that.

Jumbo prawns simply grilled with olive oil at Les Bouchons

Well, they are really known as jumbo prawns simply grilled with olive oil on the menu at Les Bouchons Rive Gauche, which by the way has shifted to the current premise (#01-02, 60 Robertson Quay, tel : +65 6733 4414) still by the river. This new location seemed much less cosy than the old one at the Tyler Print Institute.

But those prawns were really nice. The fragrance from the char, the moisture in the meat and were pretty easy to shell with fork and knife. Couldn't get any of that olive oil that they were talking about but they're still nicely grilled prawns. In the same note, the fries were rather tiny and their creamed spinach was dry and fibrous tonight.