Pasta Brava 2018

The last time we were here was a couple of years back. I remember commenting about how the restaurant doesn't change. Apparently, things have changed since. Some things have been taken off and some new stuff seemed to have been added. I'm not sure if it was all for the better.

Finally got to try their scallop gratin which was done with a tomato bechamel sauce. Not bad.

These guys do a competent spaghetti vongole. Nice plump clams and a healthy dose of garlic along with flavours that are absorbed into the noodles. One can also customize the level of spiciness. But the portions were kinda small. Even though it's under the primi piatti section of the menu, I don't think any restaurant these days actually serves in those portions unless they're specifically spelled (and priced) on the menu.  

What I was looking forward to was their tenderloin with chocolate and red wine sauce. I thought this was still good. A nicely paired balance of richness from both the chocolate and the wine. While prices didn't go up very much over the years, the portions felt smaller. Noticeably.

After lamenting over the puny portions, we decided to follow up with their stracci. Came with scallops and prawns. Prawns tasted like it was frozen. Something that felt out of place with the rest of the dish. The green pepper and saffron cream sauce was nice though. Creamy and light with seafood-y flavours. Again the portions felt undersized.

Had previously never realized that they had a limoncello cake with key lime mousse before so we thought we'd try it. Tasted just like most lemon torte with a disappointing key lime mousse that added very little to the cake.

Like I mentioned earlier, I'm not sure if the change at Pasta Brava was for the better. If these portions are a permanent feature, I don't think I'll be eager to come back. 

Burger Joint, Amoy Street

So we finally managed to visit Burger Joint (#01-03, 115 Amoy St, tel : +65 6221 8648). With a reputation as a somewhat game changing poorly kept secret from NYC, we had expectations. We expected to be impressed to some degree.

I'll skip further introductions since some has been written or talked about them. I've heard that they've kept the ingredients pretty much the same as the original so I'm guess it's still that Nebraskan Black Angus that they've brought in for the meat here done at an 80/20 coarse grind.

Here's my double cheese burger. Just onions and pickles and no sauce. I needed something to cut through the meat and mayo/ketchup doesn't quite work for me. All the pickles I got ended up at the other side of the burger. For people that are serious about their burgers, I find the lack of attention to this detail disturbing.

I had it medium. In retrospect, medium rare might have been a better choice. This ended up looking more like medium well. The beef was nice but just that. I'm not buying their reason for not salting the beef and justifying that by saying it would cover up the quality of the meat. In fact, I thought having salt would enhance those qualities. But what do I know?

The main salt in the flavour came from the cheese. Again if the ingredients have not been messed with, it's white cheddar and Colby. Melts nice, tastes pretty good but not heavy hitting with the salt. Unlike American cheese which is pretty much what makes things tick for me at McD and Omakase Burger. Forgive the comparison to the former. I just needed to bring it up. 

In contrast with the burger which was light on the salt, the chilli fries hit hard. Lego Batman hard with heat and salt and more than a little grease. I was still burping those flavours a few hours after this. Some of those fries were a little hard. It wasn't bad though.

There's boozy shakes on the menu. This one had Baileys. And not enough of it. For the cost of two of these and less than 10 bucks, I could have gotten a whole bottle of Baileys at DFS. Not impressive.

I guess I needed to give this a verdict maybe because I like burgers as a whole and I had though this might have been a good joint. It's kinda expensive. As much as I have accepted that things generally just become more expensive once it emerges in our sunny island, I didn't think what we had represented good value. And while it didn't cost as much as my current favourite burger, Burger Joint also certainly wasn't anywhere close to edging it off that number one perch anytime soon.

Pepper King from Ramen Nagi

This was the Pepper King from Ramen Nagi, the current seasonal "Limited King" that's supposedly limited to 400 bowls before it's taken off the menu. I'm not sure what's so special about this since it could have been assembled by any of their ingredients that they have already been using. It didn't taste very peppery initially so I had to grind in a little more black pepper of my own. And some crushed sesame too. At the end of the bowl, I was sweating quite a bit from the heat. I thought it might have tasted like bak kut teh but this broth was clearly richer and sweeter. 

初二 at hans im glück

It's day 2 (初二) of the Chinese New Year. Still a great deal of eateries wrapped in the warm embrace of a good rest or the torture of visiting one place to another. I saw that hans im glück was open from the first day so I thought it might be a good place to get lunch.

Apparently these guys bothered with a CNY special. Grilled chicken breast with apricot jam and grilled mandarin called glücklichmacher according to the menu. Internet translations got me 'happy maker' or 'happy pills'. Sounded like something that would send me on a trip. The apricot jam didn't taste very apricot-y beyond being tangy. Overwhelmingly so if I might add. It was also pretty obvious that the mandarins were not grilled. Liars!

That's the birkenwald with sour cream and mushrooms on a beef patty. Like the previous beef burger, it was pretty edible if unexceptional. I'm still trying to understand the relationship this place (or just maybe.....Germans?) has with their beef patties.

Merci Marcel, Eng Hoon Street

French casual restaurant at Tiong Bahru (56 Eng Hoon Street, tel : +65 6224 0113) run by the people from Ô Batignolles Wine Bar at Club Street. Serving food from locally distributed ingredients where possible (Tiong Bahru Market) and even coffee from a local roast.

That above was their goat cheese tartar with mint. I don't know what's a cheese tartar. This tasted like goat's cheese mixed with a lot of sour cream. With little goat's cheese and barely any mint. Those flatbread were't that flat and had texture like tapioca kueh. Won't be getting these again. 

Their ravioles de Royan was nice. Creamily rich without being overwhelmingly so (ymmv) and cheesy with that delicious Tête de Moine.

Not much good things to say about their Angus beef item. Think it was flank steak which is a pretty lean cut of meat. Wasn't very flavourful. A little chewier than I normally prefer. Creamy mushrooms on top were nice though. Wondered why this didn't come with frites. For some reasons this was making me miss the onglet at Le Bistrot du Sommelier very much.

Bedrock Bar & Grill on Vday

It's been quite a long time since we were last here. Really long. We were here trying to squeeze in a quick dinner which we made no reservations for before rushing off to catch a movie in the vein of an odd love story by a cool Mexican director. Timing was a little tight. The restaurant knew, did their best to accomodate but still took longer than what was comfortable for us. 

To their credit, they came to check on us, assured us a few times that the food was in preparation and on the way. To top that off, their service recovery was excellent.

I remember mentioning their Applewood smoked tomato soup as being one of the best I've had around. This still has not changed.

Got ourselves an order of their full lamb rack to get a measure of how they make them. It's tender, a little chewy and just passed muster. They were not the better ones we've had but not bad that I would have wanted to complain about them. Those ribs would have benefitted from a little more char, a little more salt and also a little more fat so that it would have been that much more satisfying. Didn't dislike this but wouldn't get them again.

On the side, some sweet potatoes with bacon and blue cheese. I recognize that I'm can be an almost perpetual critic about blue cheese in food because the quantity is often too little. A critic I personally feel with valid critique in this particular context. For this dish, we got a nice cheese that was robust but not sufficiently pungent that I'd class them into the blue cheese category. 

Before your thoughts get ahead of what I'm about to say, this was fortunately good enough. Paired with a nice salty cheese crust, those sweet potatoes were addictively delicious. We finished all of it leaving us very stuffed that we collapsed on the theatre seats into the shape of water while enjoying The Shape of Water. Go Guillermo del Toro!