The Wine & Gourmet Friends, Bukit Pasoh

We were here (48 Bukit Pasoh Road, tel : +65 6224 1982) by the way of recommendations. It's a wine place - with food, better food than the run of the mill wine places. Prices for house pours were half what one would pay for outside. Look at my Moscato - it's a glowing glass of nectar!

That's their Momotaro tomato - pickled with something that tasted like plum. Ume perhaps. For some reasons the texture reminded me of oysters. It was chilled, tangy, refreshing and dripping with juices that paired with sweetness from the white corn kernels in the creamy Stracciatella di bufala in olive oil. Those bits of furikake were a nice touch.

We had cheese. The Fourme d'Ambert was a nice semi-crumbly blue. Comte appeared to be nutty and sweet after my confused tongue has been swayed by wine, bubbled in porter and seduced by pickled Japanese tomatoes. Yummy with Jacob's cream crackers.

Didn't think much of the truffle Camembert. Not the better Camembert we've had - meaning that the cheese tasted young with little complexity or the pungent aroma usually associated. Not impressed by the truffle stuffings neither.

One of the reasons we were here was to try their bak kut teh risotto. It's not bad but I wouldn't say I'm a fan because it's based on the dark broth-ed herbal bak kut teh rather than the local less-herbal-more-peppery-and-garlic-ky rendition. Those Iberico pork ribs tasted like barbecued lor bak - not bad but would probably have worked as well with without the use of the more expensive pork.

The other reason was to try their onglet from the chocolate fed Mayura Platinum wagyu. For some context, Mayura Platinum is a grade/series of wagyu product from the Mayura Station ranch in Southern Australia. They only do full blood wagyu and yes, the cows were chocolate fed for reasons.

Very nice. But they screwed up the order and totally forgot about the sauce on the side request so their "Bordelaise" sauce was all over the meat. They drained it off and re-plated. I'm getting a bunch of sweetness which I'm not sure if it was from the residual sauce. But the flavourful onglet was obviously fat laced and didn't even need a knife.

goo Italiano, North Canal Road

A Japanese Italian restaurant, goo Italiano from Tokyo (#01-01 35 North Canal Road, tel  : +65 6226 1182) has newly opened up south side. Food was pretty good.

On the menu was burrata with diced strawberries and San Marzano tomatoes. Pretty refreshing and was quite delicious with balsamic vinegar.

goo Italiano also featured their rendition of focaccia di Recco - a bread whose make and name is protected by European law ensuring that it can only be called so if it came from Recco, a town in Liguria. Just like champagne can only come from Champagne.

There were a few options for toppings; this one had mushrooms. The insides of the bread was stuffed with cheese. Delicious, especially when doused with extra EVOO.

We had a spaghettone with clams and bottarga.  The pasta was competently done with an umami punch from the cured roe, aroma from minced garlic and meaty clams. Portions were kinda small. By the way, those slices of brown stuff were also bottarga and not garlic. 

The other pasta on menu which deserved mention was their spaghettone with lemon cream. Pretty impressed by the velvety rich lemon sauce that coated the noodles. Nice.

Ended with a dessert of panna cotta with strawberry compote and Banda Rossa balsamic vinegar. Also nice.

And the conclusion between China Street Fritters and He Ji Wu Xiang is......

So I was back at China Street Fritters recently and I was actually trying to discern the differences between the fritters and bee hoon between them and He Ji Wu Xiang. At least for the items that we obviously prefer anyways. While I could tell that they were a little different, I still couldn't precisely pinpoint what were those little differences. So in conclusion, it's not important. At least it's not for me. The take away is that we have two pretty solid wu xiang stalls in Maxwell FC.

A-One Signature, Tiong Bahru Plaza

A-One is known for their porridge and some cze char dishes. They've a number of branches around. I can't say if their porridges are one of the better ones because I don't know. But it's generally pretty okay. Offhand, the places I recall that makes good porridges which I like better were Zhen Zhen and Raan Jay Fai. I know it's not fair to compare it to the latter. Mui Kee does not make that list as much as I like their kanpachi yu shen and beancurd skin.

Have been to this outlet (#02-134 Tiong Bahru Plaza, 302 Tiong Bahru Road) once before. First time trying their - or for that matter, any porridge with shredded chicken and cereals. The cereals clumped into lumps while I was trying to stir them into the porridge. Flavour was okay-ish. Every porridge option they have would probably taste similar because they're all flavoured with the same dried scallop base. The only variable to the flavour were the ingredients they added.

There was kung bao frog on the menu. The dish wasn't cooked in the claypot, just served in it. I knew because I could move the claypot with my hands. Flavour's also okay and I've definitely had better. Comparing it with the specialists would only disappoint.

Steamed egg with salted and century egg was decent. Quite a bit of minced pork in it. Reminded me of the one from Founder.

Bacon, egg and cheese on rye from Two Men Bagel House

It seems that I've been cozying up a little in the past week with Two Men Bagel House. That's their BEC on rye bagel. For reasons, it triggered memories of BKK Bagel. Maybe it was the flavour. Not bad. I personally thought it would have worked without the mayo and a stronger/saltier cheese type would have upped their game.

Xin Curry Fish Head Zhu Chao (鑫咖喱鱼头煮炒), Tanglin Halt

Possibly the first coffeeshop where I could say that I've tried the food from all the stalls because this one only has three. Xin Curry Fish Head Zhu Chao (Guan Kim Coffeeshop, 47 Tanglin Halt Road) is located in Guan Kim Restaurant (it's a local coffee shop) where Maria's Corner and Shen Ji Chicken Rice are at. The latter two are closed after lunch hours.

Bitter gourd in the omelette are in slightly thicker strips rather than thin sliced. It's okay. Not one of the better ones I've had but nothing to gripe about either. 

This deep fried salted egg chicken reminded me of the Ultraman chicken from Sum Kee Food at Telok Blangah. These were a little saucier and became a little hard after they were cooled down. The ones from Sum Kee were meatier. I found the ones from Sum Kee to be more addictive.

Stir fried nai bai was nice. Sweet, savoury and garlic-ky.

Those fried bits all over the fish were chai por (preserved turnip), not garlic. Fish was tender and flakey so that much can be said for the freshness. The soy sauce that they used was also a little sweet. I wonder if it's added sugar. Pretty good with rice though with the bits of fried chai por and slices of chilli padi. 

The rendition of sambal petai here had onions which added texture. Interestingly this rendition was also a little sweet. I don't know if that sweetness came from the onions or was it sugar. The flavour profile was different from the punchy savoury ones that Tian Tian Seafood and Sin Hoi Sai does because of the sweetness. Still very nice with rice.

It wouldn't be a cze char dinner without some rice.