Senso 2017

The last time we were here in Senso (21 Club Street) was about a year back. It was the summer truffle season then and hence it is the same summer truffle season now.

I don't know much about wines but the Moscato that Senso pours is pretty nice stuff.

We had salmon tartare with pan seared scallops topped with Avruga caviar. It was a light and delicious starter. By the way, I just found out that Avruga caviar is really just a caviar substitute and doesn't actually contain any roe.

That's the foie gras and truffle panna cotta with figs and Parmesan crisps from the truffle menu. If anyone was wondering, it's not soft and wobbly like one would generally expect of panna cotta. This one was dense, rich and buttery just like a foie gras terrine - luxed up with a little bit of aroma from the shaven black truffle and countered by a some slices of fig and droplets of balsamic vinegar. There was enough of the foie for us to make good use of their bread basket.

Also from the truffle menu, a creamy bucattini with mushrooms and shaven black truffles. I liked the bite and texture from the bucattini but the rest of the dish didn't leave much of an impression. Perhaps that truffle cream was a little too rich that it desensitized the palate from anything subtler that might have been enjoyable.

The other truffle menu item we thought was worth trying was the potato ball. Just kidding...... that's quail stuffed with spinach and morels. It did look like a potato ball though. Stuffing was very nice and the quail was very small. 

Even though the menu mentions the Senso truffle puree and black truffle jus, there was just too little of those truffle flavours going around. A surprisingly poor showcase of ingredient based cooking by Senso here. But I did enjoy the quail.

It ended with an affogato. Just like last year.

Luke's 2017

We're back!

The pepper and salt flakes have changed for their Bloody Mary. This time round, they were much smaller. Why?! But I'm glad the drink itself hasn't changed.

Been having their burger since the "Garage burger" days back in Wine Garage. It's changed a little from that rendition to the Travis burger of today. Through the years, I've liked it enough to resist adding their kurobuta bacon. For the first time ever, I'm having it with bacon. Not bad.

This time round, I also had it in medium rare instead of the usual medium. It's just a little bloodier looking and also dripping with a bit more juices.

There's grilled fish for on the lunch menu now. This was actually pretty damned good. Not to mention expensive like they normally are. The house tartar sauce has dill and something that tasted like shreds of coconut. Wow! That kale salad still makes me go 'Mmmmm.....'

Blueberry pie for dessert. That peach and yoghurt sorbet didn't make it better since the pie itself was quite nice. It also oddly tasted somewhat like apple pie. But the crust was light and buttery.

Mala xiang guo from Tian Fu Ren Jia (天府人家)

I've never had much experience with mala xiang guo with the exception of a pretty unpleasant one once in town years ago. I thought this one was pretty tasty. These guys don't have the variety that many of the mala xiang guo shops in town have but it's definitely works for me as a convenient quick fix. The middling heat (中辣) was manageable, possibly turned down a notch or two to suit the locals. I like the combination of savoury heat, salt and spices. There's few options for meat, some bean curd products, vegetables and mushrooms. I can see us coming back.

Scaled by Ah Hua Kelong at Bar Stories

Ah Hua Kelong is a local fish farm. They've a couple of cooked food restaurants showcasing the seafood they work with and Scaled (55 Haji Lane, tel : +65 98300117) is something new these guys are trying out with styles and flavours that are a little more borderless and progressive. The last part is relative though. 

If anyone's wondering why the picture up there looks like a bar, it is because they're sharing their premise with Bar Stories.

The menu is a literal handful of small plates and big plates. From what they're described, everything is still pretty experimental. The above is smoked sea bass pate. The texture reminded me more of rillette than pate. It's smoky as the name implied but the portions were a little tiny to go around those toasties. Those pickled cucumbers that came with them were more sweet than sour and I found them quite addictive.

There's prawn with seaweed butter. Too little butter in my opinion because I couldn't taste any of it. Their house pickled konbu's quite nice. Prawns were a little skinny and somewhat lacking in sweetness for such small prawns. 

The only big plate item we tried was their confit seabass with hummus, caramelized onions and lemon dill vinaigrette. The pairing of hummus and seabass was quite unusual but I couldn't say that I didn't enjoy it. Textures were mostly soft and creamy with crunchy bits from....I dunno, cookie crumbs? More dill would be nice. Onions tasted like raisins. I liked this.

There was a complementary bowl clams in sake going around. The broth was pretty tasty but nothing that's not already out there.

Bar Stories make their drinks based on the flavour profiles that one requests for. I'm sure they have some formulaic templates for common requests but there's nothing on the menu. They drinks are made according to how you think you want them, how well you can articulate that and how the bar guy interprets. I got some yuzu stuff with torched rosemary.

Mixing udon at Tamoya Udon

Tamoya Udon at Liang Court has something call Mixing Udon. It's much like a mazesoba - or a mazeudon if you would. A collection of dry ingredients to be mixed with the noodles. Spicy minced chicken, chopped onions, scallions, dried nori, a bit of bonito and an egg. Here I've topped mine with additional konbu and bits of tempura batter.

Toss, add crushed sesame seeds and eat. I thought those onions provided a welcomed sharpness to the flavours. If anyone got reminded of those Nagoya styled mazesoba from Kajiken, this was pretty similar in taste. 

Revisiting Gerry's Grill

I realized that my challenge with ordering at Gerry's is trying to get something that looks good that doesn't contain pork.

There was a measure of success with that from the green mangoes with bagoong. Bagoong as I've recently learnt is a condiment made with fermented fish or krill. It's sweet and salty and has a shrimp-y flavour akin to what one an taste in belachan or rojak sauce. The bagoong a complement to the sour from the green mangos. I'm thinking it's something that'll also be great with rice.

The porking began with sisig, the almost universally recognized Filipino dish of sizzling chopped pig's face on a hotplate. The menu understates by mentioning pork cheeks as the ingredients but we're pretty damn sure it was more than just cheeks in there. Perhaps snout and skin and ears. 

We had an order of their adobong puso rice which was steamed rice with strips of tender pork belly in adobo sauce wrapped in banana leaf. Sweet and savoury and just a tiny bit smokey with pepper. This was pretty good.

And a green mango shake for that make believe ending.