Tess Bar & Kitchen, Seah Street

Been wanting to come to Tess Bar & Kitchen (38 Seah Street, tel : +65 6337 7355) for a few years now so it's finally happened. We ordered a number of small plates which was what this place was essentially about. Plates that goes with drinks. 

Delicious lamb short rib they do here. The menu described a pomegranate crust which I was unable to relate with those ribs. There was a glaze though. Tangy and sweet and spiced up. The lamb was flavourfully fatty and slide off the bone tender.

Camembert with truffle salsa and garlic toasts. Yum! Where were the thyme flowers?

Roasted cauliflower with cheese was also pretty good. It was supposed to be aged cheddar according to the menu. Not getting any sharpness or much salt from the cheddar. Menu mentioned scorched cashew nuts as well. Quantities of those cashews must have been so little that I don't recall having had them.

Their bone marrow's a signature item. Those beef cubes that was served with the marrow were incredibly tender, layered by a warm sweet glaze made with some jus and some wine. I think. I thought that the point of to dish was lost because I ordered this for bone marrow. Which the dish had very little of.

I liked the chicken liver toasts. There might have been a bit too much of the grape and port chutney left things a bit too sweet but I thought it was a forgivable off balance. Still delicious.

Fried pork belly passed muster. That black sauce on the side was described as Asian dip. Liked the sweet and spicy from it which worked with both those guava and pork belly. More of the guava would be nice though.

This was a dessert called Tess 1.0. Interesting because it had salty elements in it like the truffle salsa and pretty generous sprinkle of diced Gorgonzola piccante. Sweetness came from dried fruits and honeycomb. So this ended up being quite intensely salty and sweet. But no truffle honey or compressed grapes like the menu described.

Revisiting Sushi Kou

It's a been a while since we last ate at Sushi Kou. Maybe not that long. A month back or so was the last. We landed ourselves counter seats today.

We had ankimo ponzu while we waited. We tried this the last time we were here and thought it was good. Salty and light liver-y flavoured bits coupled with the bursts of citrus from the ponzu and flavour from the chopped negi.

Among the things we ordered, was their grilled akauo teishoku. Seasonal apparently.

Fish was firm and flaky with that light crustacean-y aroma that I enjoyed. Beware the dangerous bits of sharp bones that one would have to navigate.

The teishoku came with some sansai bonito and miso soup on the side.

And what tasted like lychee jelly with nata de coco.

This was their aka ebi lobster sauce. The aka ebi was pan fried and served with a garlic-ky lobster cream sauce that was crazy creamy delicious. The heads of the prawns were filled with the head fat which oozed out into the cream sauce while I was extracting the meat. That head fat infused portions of the sauce tasted like it might stop one's heart.

A second serving of rice was gotten because this. Hotate uni sauce.

Seared scallops with uni and ikura in an uni infused cream sauce. Hell yeah this was good too! There wasn't so much uni flavour in the sauce but that didn't stop it from being heart stopping good. Those uni on top of the scallops were cooked somehow. The texture has changed to something akin to crab roe. I liked it still though.

Revisiting Merci Marcel

Dinner by happenstance at Merci Marcel.

We hadn't an idea how the duck rillette with marinated pear and Camembert would look like when we ordered it. Made sense that they were on toast. This was a flavour bomb. The savouriness from the rillette, a mild sweetness from the pear (marinated ones, not those sliced ones) and then the nutty melty Camembert. Umami and dripping with grease on bread. How could we not?

Merci Marcel's tarte flambée had a thin crust. Kinda like a sturdy pastry rather than a dough crust. That thinness made it lighter and easier to eat. Textures from the asparaguses, thin bacon strips and rocket and their flavours. Savoury.

The menu mentioned blue cheese and apples. Very little blue cheese of unknown origins and I don't remember tasting anything like apples in there.

We ordered a striploin. It's okay. Sauce was not bad. Creamy mushrooms were delicious like I remembered them. Meat was a little sinewy. Wished it wasn't. I didn't dislike it as a whole. In my head, I just kept comparing and comparing and comparing and comparing. And comparing.

We finished with a simple chocolate cake. Not the one that will elicit the most pleasurable moan but pretty competent. If I had to nitpick, I wished that the chocolate were a bit more intense. But we liked it. Cake was dense, soft and not overly sweet. Loved it for the simplicity and cream. 

Cinque formaggo pizza from La Nonna

I came across this cinque formaggo pizza from La Nonna from a recent food delivery so we came back for another go at it in the restaurant. On hindsight, I kinda liked it better from food delivery because it wasn't so hot. Where the flavours from the cheeses were a bit more pronounced and wasn't as gooey. Was glad that my favourites - the mottled Gorgonzola and the goat's cheese were up there among the flavours that stood out. The crust was unfortunately not a match for Luka's.

This could also possibly be my limit for the number of cheeses for pizza since it was so salty and rich. Would love to have it again with some honey. Note to self : La Nonna's vongole is lousy. Might be the reason why it's not on the regular menu.

Shen Ji Chicken Rice (申记鸡饭), Tanglin Halt

Pretty impressed with Shen Ji Chicken Rice (Guan Kim Coffeeshop, 47 Tanglin Halt Road). If the addressed looked familiar, it was because this chicken rice stall was located right next to Maria's Corner.

To be more precise what I was impressed with was the boiled chicken rather than the roasted one. Not that the roasted one was bad. Their boiled chicken was served chilled, smooth, was slurp off the bone tender and had those delicious gelatinous layer under the skin. This was dangerously close to the standards at Sin Kee.

We had a serving of liver on the side which was creamy.

Boiled eggs were boiled eggs.

I was taken in by their rice. It was greasy without being excessive. Had sufficient flavour going on with enough salt and savoury that every spoonful was torn between just rice, with chilli or dark soy sauce. Yes it was good enough to be eaten on its own. So good that I had seconds. Speaking of the chilli - Shen Ji's packed a bit of heat, not enough ginger to bother me and zest from the limes they used. Lightly salted and pretty appetizing. 

Baristart Coffee, Tras Street

Been hearing quite a bit about Baristart Coffee (65 Tras Street, tel : +65 6904 3168). About them coming from Sapporo. About them using the premium creamy milk from the Jersey cows in the farms of Biei in Hokkaido. About the higher fat content from the "Jersey milk" which produces a deeper flavour. About how those cows there makes up less than one per cent of the total cow population in Hokkaido numbering at only about 800. Hasn't all that marketing gotten us all intrigued already?

Cream puff's pretty good. Reminded me of those from Beard Papa. The puffs here were more crusty and sturdy.

The custard filling was made with their precious milk. That custard had a particular quality to the flavour - an aftertaste from the eggy sweetness that bordered on cheesiness. Nice.

Cappuccino was okay. Like many Japanese coffee joints here, strength of coffee isn't what they're known for. Apparently latte art was more important than cocoa. What was different about this cuppa was its smoothness which I attributed to the milk they used.