Mao shan wang pizza from Tino's

One would be very hard pressed to find something like this anywhere else in the world - not to mention the fact that it's made with the expensive mao shan wang varietal. Tino's might have gotten themselves a first around here. They have a D24 option as well but I thought I should just shoot for the better.

I suppose I was both anticipating and somewhat wary of a durian pizza. So part of me was hoping that it'll be amazing while the other, reminded me not to set too much of expectations.

How did this go? While it wasn't as robustly flavoured as the eating the actual fruit but the pie didn't taste bad at all. The durian topping was pretty generous but I wonder if it was purely mao shan wang. No, it wasn't really so weird together with cheese. This should be eaten while it's still hot though.

Re-visiting Spice Junction

What have we here? It looks like the usual chilled sweet lassi that I would normally order. Except that it is not. It's a ginger lassi. Sweet and a bit of aroma from the ginger with a lot of that yoghurt flavour that I enjoy. Even though I was hoping for a stronger ginger taste, I found myself liking this.

That's a kozhi porichathu, another KFC if you would. This one represents Keralan fried chicken that's marinated in a spice paste. The spice paste was a little gingery, a little garlic-y and had some heat. The meat from the bird was dry though. While we didn't dislike this, I don't think it's something that we would be coming back for especially when there's a lot of other interesting stuff on their menu.

We were thinking of a richer and creamier gravy when we ordered the vegetable korma. This was much less viscous in texture but had quite a bit of coconut and some tomato flavours.

What I was looking forward to was their Malabar styled mutton briyani. Briyani that is supposedly prepared in the style that they do in Thalassery, a town in the Malabar coast of Kerala. While I'm not really sure what's the difference between the this particular kind and the other styles of briyani, it appeared paler in colour than the ones we normally find here. Spice Junction uses basmati which I read isn't the usual type of rice for this particular type of briyani.

Like other dum briyani, the meat is layered into the rice and cooked with the rice. I'm out of adjectives at the moment so I'm going to stick to a 'this kicks ass'. I would come back just for this alone.

We finished up with their payasam of the day which had a lot of coconut flavour it as opposed to that milky saffron flavour that is usually the case. Because of that coconut flavour, this reminded me of bubur terigu infused with cardamom. Plus raisins and nuts.

Marmite flavoured chocolate

Came across this at Meidi Ya. While I was curious how Marmite flavoured chocolate tasted like, I didn't think it was such a good idea getting one seeing that it was the size of an actual bottle. Oh well...

Morton's Sunday Lunch

It's been a while since our last visit. Not counting their bar that is. But thanks to their CRM tools, Morton's remembers us. The decor of the interior has changed some. Those glass panels letting the sun in were actually a good idea. A bit of furnishing has been replaced and the layout has changed a little. Otherwise, it's not unrecognizeable from the old setup which looked a little more dark and golden. 

We've been here enough times to know that we have to manage their onion loaf so it's half time at half a loaf even though it was tempting to go on with their salted butter. The other half gets bagged home.

The lunch came with a small cup of lobster bisque. Piping hot, umami-stic and crustacean-ily flavoured with a velvet texture. The atrocity of made up words.  There was also a chunk of the tail meat in the bisque. 

We've never had their centre cut iceberg before and have alway wondered what it was all about. Today we found out. While this wouldn't be considered healthy as salads went - damn, this was good eating. What worked for us were the chilled crisp leaves, the cream & blue cheese, bits of egg and bacon that made it a delight to eat.

Our last experience with their prime rib was a long time back. Here's 10 years later, eating it again. We prefer Lawry's slow roast version that doesn't get onto the grill. They've also got tastier creamed spinach but Morton's win with their mashed potatoes which were tastier on its own.

One of the desserts we picked was the key lime pie. We picked it because we've never had it from Morton's before. The fillings had a nice flavour from the lime and was rather sweet. I thought it was nicely done but if I had to choose, I'd pick the green one from PS Cafe over this.

Their chocolate mousse was smooth and airy. While it wasn't out of this world amazing, it was still nice. Because it didn't taste as sweet as the pie, it was also a lot easier to eat.

After the sweets, this was the perfect drink for closure. Black and no sugar. Not one of the more aromatic coffee around, but drinkable stuff because there was some strength in it.

Hon maguro don at Tampopo

This was a super deal at $19 (before tax and service charge) from Tampopo (#01-23 Liang Court, 177 River Valley Road). Yes, it's that tripartite of akami, chutoro and otoro again from bluefin tuna which seems to be in season now. This was the uncommon occasion when the actual product looked better than the picture that the restaurant used. It's too bad that their foie gras and truffle tonkatsu is no longer around but the old favourites remain as good. And now, this maguro donburi....

Crackerjack, Tanjong Pagar Road

Where we were seated in Crackerjack (43 Tanjong Pagar Road, tel : +65 8121 1462) was a little dim so I was switching between an older Canon point & shoot and the iPhone 7+. Turns out the iPhone auto adjusts lighting much better better as seen with the barramundi on top. Major colour filtering going on though while the Canon rendered something more....erm, natural with what appears to be a weaker light sensor.

The food was honestly pretty decent. Decent but not spectacular. What I read was that the chef, an Alysia Chan, was previously from Wolf/Meat Smith. Yeah, the former restaurant being that nose to tail place that unfortunately didn't last for very long. But I could recognize nothing from the chef's former cooking in Crackerjack. Plating has also taken a nose dive. That was by the way, an observation rather than a complaint.

In retrospect, I did enjoy everything we ordered in spite of the rather small portions. While the skin of their barramundi didn't have any of the crisp I was hoping for, it was well flavoured and the meat was very good with or without the tasty Romesco sauce. Those charred beans were much better tasting than they looked. Likewise for the very edible bavette with an interesting tangy/sweet roasted grape salsa which I found quite addictive. Kale salad was very agreeable too.

Looks like I could come back.