Tsingtao Stout

I may have gotten this from Meidi Ya. I'm not sure. But I got it because I never knew that Tsing Tao had stouts and I was curious. It's not bad though. A little yeasty, not very bitter and pretty smooth going down.

Curious Palette, Prinsep Street

Got curious about Curious Palette (64 Prinsep Street, tel : +65 6238 1068) because their food appeared to be a little more interesting than the 99% run of the mill cafes that's proliferated our sunny island.

Nursed some salty chocolate while waiting for the food.

The first item we had was a little disappointing. Kaya toast with coffee butter, eggs and espresso shoyu sounded good. The kaya was the Hainanese variety so the flavour was predominantly coconut. Didn't think much of the coffee butter which had a weak coffee flavour and didn't taste like any butter. Espresso shoyu? I thought it was just soya sauce. 

The confit tomatoes and lardo got us sold on this one. I think it was pretty good. Loved that those tomatoes were sweet and juicy.

One of the things we were curious about was their sugarloaf cabbage with seaweed butter. The flavour was outstanding. A creamy umami richness from the seaweed butter and egg that was paired with a caramelized sweetness from the burnt cabbage and a fragrant nuttiness from toasted pine nuts and peanuts. Not forgetting aroma from the curry leaves as well. This was savoury, complex and delicious. 

Starter Lab, Havelock Road

These guys (721 Havelock Road, tel : +65 9839 0408) from Bali. Barely two years old. Found some measure of success marketing their baker Emerson Manibo who can drop some names from his previous work. 

Nothing much noteworthy to be said about what he has done but plenty of duplicated references to where he's work at so it is that kind of "marketing". Reminded me much of how the education system in this country has been geared for the past decades entrenched into glossing over the branding of one's academia rather than what one has actually achieved.

But I took the bait.

That's the Starter Lab 3 Cheese. Maybe it's me and my soft upper palate but the sourdough has a crust that's too hard. That crusty hardness was exacerbated by the toasting and it didn't have any texture or flavour that was particularly endearing compared to the other sourdough. My personal and not so humble opinion is that it also needs more butter. But otherwise, pretty nice grilled cheese.

The most memorable sourdough I've had came from Belon. For bread, that was worth talking about - not this.

Mortadella on focaccia was not bad but I'd say the saving grace was the Mortadella.

Not that the focaccia was bad. It was hard and crusty just like their sourdough. Slicked with olive oil that didn't have much flavour. 

Their honeyed Mascarpone posh toast was the easiest to eat because it was single sliced bread. I'll also credit the toppings of honey and mascarpone which was delicious topped with walnuts and black sea salt. Not sure which were the bee pollen though. Failsafe charming flavours I'd say.

Ah Chiang's Porridge, Tiong Poh Road

I've heard about Ah Chiang's Porridge mentioned before and also had people asking me if I've tried it. I've never been much of a porridge person so it wasn't the thing I would do to hunt the place down. We happened to discover one of their branches (#01-38, 65 Tiong Poh Road, tel : +65 6557 0084) near where we were and we were looking for something not so heavy.....

That's the bowl with mixed offal with meat (猪什) and century egg. Offal consisted of intestines and liver. Not much ingredients for $7.50 which makes it a little pricey. Tasted okay.

Yu sheng (魚生) is not on menu anywhere on this island anymore. Politically correct speaking. At least not for the more traditional raw wolf herring type. Businesses have adapted. There's a kanpachi rendition around. Ah Chiang does theirs with fatty salmon. With the traditional toppings of sliced chilli, julienned ginger, chopped spring onions and then doused with some soy sauce and sesame oil. Single serving portions were kinda measly. But it was nice.

Some dough fritters to dip into the porridge. These were soft. Not even the slightest crisp. I prefer the soft ones with a light crisp like those they do at Old Street BKT.

We filled the vegetable quota for the evening with kailan (芥兰) stir fried with garlic. Nice crunch from the savoury leafy greens. This was pretty good. 

Calculations and the pastrami Reuben from Park Bench Deli

I'll never make a Reuben at home. I don't know where to get good/fresh pastrami and won't bother to pan fry even if I did. It's a drag to butter toast the rye and last I checked, I don't know how to make a Russian slaw. It is an effort in itself, not something I could lazily quickly assemble. And then that whole grain mustard and sliced Swiss cheese. I've resigned to paying for one when I want one. Speaking of which, I was hoping that at $24 (before tax) I could have gotten more pastrami in this one from Park Bench Deli.

It's actually pretty good. Balanced even that I could taste all the ingredients from the cheese to the mustard and the slaw and meat combination. Balanced that it had varying dimensions in each bite. That doesn't excuse it from being expensive. I've had one or two that could have beat this. I've had ones that were good enough and much less expensive. And had those that I shouldn't even be comparing to. As I've said, pretty good. Just wished that they were more generous with what's between the bread.

Muchachos, Frasers Tower

Been wanting to visit Muchachos (#01-01 Frasers Tower, 182 Cecil Street, tel : +65 6513 0215) since they were at Keong Saik and it never happened. Now they're just across the street from Amoy Food Centre. These guys are open on public holidays. I'm thinking that they've got their hearts and minds in the right place.

Their breakfast burrito was not bad. You know - the scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, hash brown, cheese and sour cream in a package of comfort kind of not bad? We also got the burrito with tongue as well, sans salsa because their salsa has cilantro. Too bad for me because I'm sure that salsa would have made the burrito tastier.