Singapore Blond Ale by Archipelago Brewery

I haven't had anything from Archipelago Brewery for a long time. Not that I could specifically recall in the last decade anyway. Their business model have obviously expanded over the years and their brews are distributed throughout a number of watering holes and restaurants. So I came across a tacky poster promoting their Singapore Blond Ale featuring calamansi and pandan leaves. Really?

Maybe the finesse the brewers are trying to incorporate into craft beers don't always work for me. I'm reading sweet grain, sweet malt, pine, spices, yeast, coriander spice and mango sweet. Reading from somewhere else that is. I think that's all bull. Personally it's bitter yeasty and sour. A more genteel Tiger perhaps. 

Not quite getting the pandan and nothing on the calamansi unless the sour is all they managed from the fruit. For the ingredients list that have made marketing, I expect the flavours to be discernible or it is otherwise deemed a failure in my books. This is a beer - any subtleties are lost beyond the first couple of sips. And to me, many of these pretentious craft brews are but swill with attached psychosis.

Well, first and last glass with the local blond I'm sure.

Buttermilk fried chicken plate and country breakfast from Clinton Street Baking Co.

These Southern styled buttermilk fried chicken from Clinton Street Baking Company were pretty good. While these things aren't exactly commonplace in this part of the world and I have little frame of reference, I could judge them by the nicely flavoured crisp on the exterior, the lack of excessive residual grease and the tender meat that was on the bird. Just good fried chicken if a little expensive. That corn bread with jalapeño was nice.

Unfortunately, their country breakfast was disappointing. Their biscuits were shockingly dull - tasted like something that was mass produced. I had honestly expected better biscuits than the kind at Popeyes. Meat Smith sure whipped the ass of this one. My over easy eggs hadn't the yolks I wanted!

A Christmas dinner at Keisuke Tokyo

This was the first time we had noticed Keisuke Tokyo do something like a Christmas special. A 3 course dinner which I had initially mistaken the main course for a stew when it was actually a ramen. A ramen that possibly brings  Takeda-san back to the days of doing French food.

Starter was rice with shoyu marinated egg yolk and black truffle that was shaven at the table. While those truffles lent their aroma, I personally felt the star of this was the marinated yolk which brought the richness and the salt to the dish. I'd eat this again easily.

This was the bouillabaisse ramen that was the second highlight. A thick lobster flavoured ramen broth, much thicker than their previous ise ebi tonkotsu from their Four Seasons outlet, with seafood imported from Niigata. Lobster, pan fried sea bream and abalone. The thick broth was rich and robust with flavour as opposed to the accompanying seafood which were more delicate tasting. There was even some garlicky mashed potatoes at the bottom and little bits of charred bacon in the broth.

Dessert was a Shine Muscat blancmange with mint. This was quite sweet and we were glad for the small portions.

Hot oyster tamago toji soba from Yomoda Soba

This was an especially satisfying bowl of soba from Yomoda Soba. I think it might have been done as part of the Christmas specials for Japan Food Town. Little oysters in egg and soba in a lightly sweet broth that is also flavoured by the shell fish. Just add negi and a bit of sansho and that broth springs into life in another dimension. An oyster soup for the soul if you would. I wonder if this will stay on as part of the regular menu.

Due Italian at Ramen Gallery Takumen

I had read about Due Italian some years ago on a blog that featured food in Tokyo so I was kinda surprised that the shop’s ramen turned up as an offering in Ramen Gallery Takumen. I’ve previously mentioned my thoughts on how I felt about how these guys operated, but I was curious enough about Due Italian and decided to see if it was any good.

The guy who started Due Italian is a Kazuo Ishizuka who had been honing his skills with Italian cuisine for more than a couple of decades before going into ramen. What his shop is apparently known for is his fromage ramen which features his blend of cheeses and the inclusion of sliced prosciutto with the bowl. And from what’s mentioned, the shop has been the Bib Gourmand winner for Michelin Tokyo 2015, 2016 and 2017.

So here’s a bowl of their special fromage ramen. The special as it is the practice in ramen-yas, refers to the bowl with the works. For this case, the slice of prosciutto di Parma draped over the rim of the bowl and an ajitama. The broth is chicken based shio. For a start, one gets the melted cheese over the noodles as you eat. After a while when the cheese fully melts, the shio broth becomes milky and cheesy tasting. And kinda salty right at the end.

Wanton Seng's Noodle Bar, Amoy Street

I've been wanting to try this (52 Amoy Street, tel : +65 6221 1336) for a while. A noodle bar that's doing things with our local wanton mee. This bowl was named twosome - to describe the roast pork belly and the char siew that came with the wanton noodles. Char siew that seemed to be made from exactly the same pork belly cuts as the roasted pork belly. Hmmm....

I liked it. This would be one of those successful elevation updates of our local food which did not destroy what it had traditionally represented. It tasted like a nicely done bowl of wanton mee. The roast pork was tasty with crisp crackling and I think I liked the char siew a little better. Wantons were pretty decent if a little tiny. Those egg noodles were probably the best part. They had a nice bite tossed with lard and fried shallots and whatever soy/sesame sauce they were using. Too bad their "shiok" chilli sauce wasn't much to go with. I wouldn't mind trying them again for dinner.