Wagyu roasted beef donburi and chika karaage from Hokkaido Izakaya

This (#04-51 Wisma Atria, 434 Orchard Road) was that same Hokkaido Izakaya - a branch that opened up in Japan Food Town in Wisma Atria. That gyudon didn't look nor taste as impressive as its name would lead one to believe but it was still a decent eat. Their chika karaage was freshly fried and surprisingly tasty though.

What pleasantly surprised us was that this place had free soft boiled eggs! Almost always a welcomed thing for donburi.

Shirokane Tori-Tama, Robertson Walk

We finally made our way to Shirokane Tori-Tama (#01-02 Robertson Walk, 11 Unity Street, tel : +65 6836 5680), an outpost of the Tori-Tama Group which originates from Tokyo. And yes, these guys who do yakitori in the true sense of the word are grilled chicken specialist. There's a good variety of chicken parts to choose from, more than a few of which I never even knew existed or had names.

I'll try to keep this short and just mention some items of interest since it was all good. 

toritama don

maruhatsu - whole heart

Maruhatsu was a first time for us since prior to this, we've only ever had hatsu.

hatsu - heart

saezuri - windpipe

Not much taste from the windpipe, but excellent chewy texture.

otafuku - could be esophagus, lymph nodes or meat from side of the neck

The otafuku was fatty and flavourful, I gathered that the name represented those few parts of the chicken so it could be either the neck or sweetbread from the chicken. But honestly, I couldn't really tell what part it was.

chigimo - liver

tebamoto - drum stick

kanmuri - cockscomb/crown

inariyaki with raclette cheese

jaga - baby potatoes

gyutan - ox tongue

lamu - lamb

There weren't much non-chicken meat options but gyutan and lamb were a couple of them. Their lamb was pretty gamey, fatty and delicious. For those that would enjoy this particular flavour like we did, this skewer was kickass tasty. And expensive too at $12 a stick.

Shabestan, Robertson Quay

Shabestan (#01-13 The Pier, 80 Mohamed Sultan Road, tel : +65 6836 1270) is an upmarket Persian/Iranian restaurant located down the riverside where Brasserie Wolf used to be. We've been eyeing the place for quite a while as we've passed by the location multiple times, seen their menu and thought they looked interesting. Yes, it's another one of those places.

We were recommended the muhamara to start - a paste of pepper, walnuts, olive oil and pomegranate served with lavash . The muhamara was sweet, nutty and had some citrus in the flavours. Delicious.

We ordered a duo of their rice; or polo/polow which incidentally sounds like pulau. One was a Zereshk polo which is sometimes known as the Persian jewelled rice - rice made with saffron, dried barberries and pomegranate. The other was a Baghala polo, cooked with lima beans and dill. Both were delicious. The square on top is cut off from the rice crust in their cooking vessel. Something like a socarrat.

Did anyone think that we have forgotten lamb? We did not. Here's a soltani which featured a koobideh and grilled filet. Meat was marinated, but not to death. 

We ordered a stewed duck with walnut sauce with pomegranate. This was the first duck dish we've ever had in any Middle Eastern restaurant. The sauce was rich, sweet, tangy and nutty. Not so different from the muhamara. There was a whole duck thigh in the dish and the meat was fall off the bone tender. 

Dessert was a saffron ice cream with pistachio. With more pomegranate. That ice cream was rich and creamy with saffron flavours. Good stuff.

Shabestan has a fancy looking dough/doogh. The drink is similar to ayran - basically a salted yoghurt drink with mint and sometimes with club soda. This one has masala spices and dried rose petals too.

More Saravanaa Bhavan-ing

Another stop over to address the craving for Indian food. Today we had a mini thali, which I guess represents a slightly smaller subset of something like say, their North Indian Thali. Instead of naan, there was chapati together with the briyani. Alongside some watery aloo kurma, dal, raita and scoop of kesari bath for sweets. Pretty tasty but not quite the kickass satisfaction I was hoping for. Seems like the chapati had been lying around for a while too.

Oh, we tried their paneer 65 as well. Tasted pretty much like how we thought it would. A little salty, a little spicy and made good munching. Syed Alwi Road alone promises many return trips.

Ristorante Da Valentino 2017

Another few years have whisked by since our last visit to Valentino's. If you're wondering why we took so long, it's mostly because of their location. Not exactly the most accessible of places.

Today they had sakura ebi tossed with bottarga special that was off the menu. Those little shrimps were freshly fried and had a nice crisp. Paired with the briny bottarga, it was addictive to say the least.

This was their Bormio salad - with julienned apples, pine nuts, ricotta cheese and a an appetizing dressing. Tasty.

We had a pretty good saffron risotto with porcini. Beady grains of rice infused with the flavour of saffron and cheese. One of those things that some people would be wont to say is uncomplicated and tasty.

There was also a spaghetti frutti di mare with olive oil and bottarga. Couldn't get much from the oil but there was also zesty lemon which together with the cured roe made very good flavours on the pasta. The prawn even had some head fat!

Dessert was a conservative profiterole. Conservative and trusty.

And a nice glass of chilled moscato for lunch.

While it may sound cliché, Valentino's is a great place to eat. Getting pricier by the years though.

A pasta from Hoshino Coffee

Yes, this was the pasta from Hoshino Coffee. The one that is called Hoshino on the menu. It's actually kinda nice in a Japanese wafu kind of way. Nothing too heavy tasting as it's a soy sauce and olive oil base if I'm not mistaken. There's bacon, sausages, tomato, some spinach, a soft boiled egg and shimeiji mushrooms. A little salty, a little smoky and...just Japanese I suppose.