Kebabs 'n Curries, Mustafa Centre

The restaurant (#07-00 Mustafa Centre, 171 Syed Alwi Road, tel : +65 6419 0749) reminded me of a post apocalyptic greenhouse setting. The interior appeared a lot older than what I had seen on photos and was almost - just almost looking like it was in a state of disrepair. In silence, it might have been Blade Runner-esque. The blazing sun that filtered in through the dome didn't help the fact that air conditioning was makeshift. Pretty sure we got tanned by just having lunch.

But their badam milk was really nice. Sweet, creamy, appropriately chilled and infused with aroma from cardamom. Very promising start here.

We enjoyed their murg makhani (butter chicken). It was creamy like most of the things we ordered coupled with a warmth from the spices and also the associated sweetness. One could also detect the smokiness from the chunks of chicken tikka mired in the gravy.

The other heart clogging goodness we went with was their gosht panipat - lamb with a pistachio gravy. Sweet, spicy, nutty and also rich. Couldn't identify any pistachio but we never expected to when we ordered it. This one had chunks of tender lamb.

One of the starches came in the form of their coconut uttapam. A competently done uttapam that was crisp on the edges and made better with the generous topping of finely shredded coconut.

Followed by some garlic cheese naan which was used to mop up all the delicious gravy options that we had.

Re-revisiting El Mero Mero

It's been a couple of years since the last time we were here. The status quo for upmarket and premium quality Mexican food has not changed. These guys are still the go to.

I had never realized that they have a michelada on the menu. It's a spiced beer with a bunch of condiments and spices. Everyone has their own mix. This one tasted like a tamarind flavoured Bloody Mary. Nice.

We started off with a few of their tacos. The one above was the Kurobuta al pastor which we've previously had. It seemed like the standard of that taco has declined compared to the last time. The meat was dryer and harder today. The treatment has also vindicated my wisdom against using Kurobuta. The grilled fish tacos on the other had were pretty good. They were accompanied with onion and shishito tempura. Possibly just ranked itself up among our favourites with the Dorper lamb tacos.

I thought their enmoladas was delicious. The dish featured a Oaxacan black mole which was rich, creamy, savoury, sweet, spicy and chocolate-y at the same time. The heat from the spices cumulated into a nice warmth. I'd eat this again. 

This was the Dorper lamb dish under their Josper Grill Mains section of the menu. I couldn't tell if the lamb had been through the grill. It didn't look nor taste like how they were done for their tacos because it was covered in sauce and lacked char aroma. The kitchen claimed that it had been grilled though. I had initially thought it was braised. Wasn't bad, but also wasn't what I had expected. Not something I would spend money on again. 

Capri Trattoria & Pizzeria, Binjai Park

So, another one of those location (3 Binjai Park, tel : +65 6468 4886) that's been on radar and didn't happen until now. I take it that anyone who knows where Binjai Park is and doesn't live in that vicinity understands how one needs to make their way specially there for anything because it's a location that's not in the way for more than 99% of the people here. I digress......

We started with a couple of anitpasti. This one was amusingly named ricostruzione di un fungo which translates into 'reconstruction of a fungus'. I'm seeing it as how the stems of the mushrooms have been replaced by scallops. This was delicious. Expensive but very tasty with little but salt and the natural flavours of the mushrooms and scallops.

Capri Trattoria has cold cuts that are allegedly made in house. Maybe except for the mortadella.  This is mention worthy because not many Italian restaurants here cure their meats.

There was a citrus risotto with quenelles of prawn tartare which we couldn't pass on. The citrus flavour was refreshing while the rice was light that we inhaled it off the plate easily. Not to mention that those prawn tartare were really good. The meat was barely cooked and filled with flavours and sweetness of the crustacean. Pretty impressive. For now, a runner up to my favourite fruit risotto.   

These guys do a pretty competent fettuccine alla nocerina. The egg noodles had great texture, sauce was creamy and rich and the flavours on the whole came through nicely. It just needed a bit more salt. It seemed that the restaurant had just recently recalibrate the salt for some of the dishes from feedback.

Another go at SBCD Korean Tofu House

Even though we weren't very impressed by the food the last time, we had for some reasons decided to come back. It was much better eating here this time though but their ham and cheese sundubu/soontofu didn't taste like it had any cheese in it and the ham was actually luncheon meat. Those fried croakers that they serve were also much more delicious today and even had roe in them.

Here's a dish that one doesn't normally see nor associate with Korean food - orange chicken! The serving was pretty generous. I've never had these before but I'm assuming that orange chicken doesn't really taste like orange. The sauce had a nice citrus in it even though it wasn't definitively orange. Not so different from sweet and sour meat here.

Vatos Urban Tacos, South Beach

Vatos Urban Tacos (#01-03, 36 Beach Road, tel : +65 6385 6010) opened with a little fanfare a little more than a couple of years ago. To be honest, visiting them had never crossed my mind until recently. For some reasons I just decided that I should give them a go.

The word 'fresh' on the menu is used fairly liberally here. While the guacamole was described as fresh, they wouldn't make any without cilantro when we asked for them, claiming that it was made in batches and that each batch would last for a couple of days. I'm pretty sure the word 'fresh' doesn't mean what they think it means.

While their food looks like a fusion of Korean and Mexican, calling them American is probably not too far off the mark. We were served some giant tortilla chips with salsa. 

Margaritas were a little expensive and had too much ice with too little drink. Now I know their standards.

Their galbi taco was not bad though. I had mine sans cilantro of course.

Couldn't taste any apple from the apple slaw in their Baja fish tacos but as fish tacos went, these were pretty tasty. As much as they looked like goreng pisang with a thick batter, they were mostly fish meat. 

Their tamales were disappointingly dry. 👎🏼 The pork carnitas inside them were as dry as the masa looked. 

We tried their kimchi galbi grilled cheese which sounded like a nice idea. Sounded is the operative word. Those kimchi didn't quite turn out as nice. Flat, sour and salty paired with more saltiness from the cheese (I did like the crusty cheese). It was a little too much salt and grease for me to like. Not to mention that the little chunks of galbi were tough. 👎🏼

Sliced lamb bagels from Two Men Bagel House

So what made me head down to Two Men Bagel House this time? I felt like some bagels for breakfast. With sriracha. I saw that there was something called Hot Links on their web site that featured lamb sausages with eggs and that sounded good. Down at the shop, their menu description said just sausage so I asked them what kind they were and they said it was pork sausages. Since I had already been psyched up for lamb so I ended up with this other one which had sliced lamb.

It wasn't too bad. Meat's a little tough but some of the flavour from the meat got through. It was also saved by the sriracha though.