Tambuah Mas, Great World

With this (B1-110/111 Great World, 1 Kim Seng Promenade, tel : +65 6235 6713), we've visited all the Tambuah Mas restaurants. The other two are at Paragon and Tanglin Shopping Centre. We had the idea that their menu never changes but we were wrong this time round because the introduced dishes of the month.

One of them was their urap. Not on the regular menu. We confirmed with the server that the vegetables were cooked before ordering because the raw rendition simply didn't work for me with all the green-y flavour. This one was not bad. Was also unexpectedly spicy.

We had sayur lodeh. Vegetables were so tender.

We also liked their tempe goreng which I thought was good with their sambal belachan.

Tried their udang petai belado. Prawns were pretty fresh and easily removed from the shells. Wished there were more of the petai.

Ordered a serving of their chunky sate which was accompanied by some nicely chilled cucumbers on the side.

Gotta have rice here. Otherwise, it'll be a crime to not show proper appreciation to all the gravies and sambal. While I haven't actually paid attention before, I've never noticed that they were using basmati. Was that a recent thing?

Revisiting Ma Maison Kitchen

That's their yuzu latte. I had imagined that like a sweet potato or pumpkin latte, I'd be getting a flavoured milky drink. I didn't expect yuzu flavour in an actual latte. But that's what we got. And oddly, it worked without tasting weird. Just like the cucumber latte.

Last time we were here was Halloween season. This time it was the Christmas. Ordered one of their Christmas special steak which came with mushroom soup. 

Australian Angus beef, no cut was mentioned.

Served with a sauce boat of their spiced berry and red wine sauce. It was a fruity tasty steak.

We remembered their sirloin from their Scream curry rice the last time. So we got the steak today. Not bad. Very decent piece properly treated with a crusty char on the outside. No dry ageing needed.

And their yummy umami mentaiko supagetti with wok hei. This has been more or less consistently good since the first time I've had it.

Lobsters, scallops and venison at The Market Grill

This was (one of) our Christmas-y year end lunch. We came over to The Market Grill because they had venison. Like the one we had a couple of years back.

We splurged a bit. Got some starting scallops which were really good. The exterior was well caramelized with the char flavour. The insides were of medium doneness. Scallops were small but packed with flavour.

Ordered their steamed lobster to get the most out of the flavour from the crustacean. So good dipped into the garlic butter. Those mashed potatoes on the side were also buttery-ly delicious.

Venison was overcooked today. I asked for medium rare and this obviously wasn't. Didn't expect such shoddiness from them. But I forgive them because the outcome was so satisfying. Great caramelization on the exterior along with a spiced blackberry jus. I'm feeling the justification for how much they charged for the loin. Roasted bone marrow was a bonus and that carrot puree thing on the side was also outstanding. 

Lengkok Bahru fishball/minced meat noodles

I've come across the mention of this stall (58 Lengkok Bahru) as fishball noodles or minced meat noodles. I'm not sure which is the correct one since I couldn't find a name of the stall and the soup that came along with my mee pok did look like it might have had minced pork.

It's not bad. The flavour was old school and like the other Teochew Fish Ball Noodle stall without signage at Crawford Lane, this could make an everyday bowl.

Soup's pleasant with a light sweetness from the ingredients which were mainly the pork and fish paste items. They even have the option of having a raw egg cracked into the bowl of soup so that you could "eggdrop" it yourself. Which I did.

Capped short loin of lamb from iSteaks (and grilled chicken)

I came across what was described as capped short loin of lamb at iSteaks. The printed menu said 250g. There's an online menu which one could access and order via QR which was a little cheaper. That online menu stated 200g. I asked the wait staff, they checked and confirmed it's 200g. When it arrived, I thought it looked more than 200g.

The bottom line was, it's good. Unexpectedly outstanding piece of meat that was properly treated without unnecessary marinade. There was a cap of fat that was nicely caramelized and salted to go with the dusky pink meat of medium doneness. Meat was juicy so I guess the side of olive rice was just the perfect thing to soak up all the lamb-y juices. It was more expensive than their other lamb options but it sure was good.

In other stories, I added on a grilled chicken to my order of lamb. The chicken was served before the lamb. Finished it before the lamb arrived. But it's pretty good. Meat was properly charred and very moist on the inside. This is also where I remind myself that the mushroom sauce wasn't as good as the one from Aston's and that I should never choose it again.

Trattoria La Vita, North Canal Road

Trattoria La Vita (#01-01, 35 North Canal Road, tel  : +65 6226 1182) rose from the ashes of goo Italiano which I was sad to see go because I really liked their lemon pasta. I don't know if these guys merely rebranded but Trattoria La Vita is another Japanese Italian restaurant. The decor remained largely unchanged.

Bread wasn't amazing. They were made airy and porous and as a vehicle to mop up sauces. But they did a pretty good job out of the food from their menu.

Like their persimmon salad which contained ingredients like stracciatella cheese, prosciutto, barley and raspberry vinegar.

We ordered the linguine with oysters, bottarga and shungiku (edible Chrysanthemum leaves). Lots of umami from the pasta. Off the bat, this was way more delicious than the other recent pasta with bottarga we had. There was one large oyster and cubed pieces of more oyster the pasta. Very good stuff.

They did a good job out of the gnocchi with a light Gorgonzola sauce with pears too. Rich and wasn't cloying. The walnuts were nicely toasted and the black pepper came through all the creaminess.

I didn't like their panna cotta. Didn't think it was good. Too much gelatine in it. The texture wasn't light and wobbly.

Coffee was strong and bitter but not particularly fragrant.