Cowaramup, Telok Blangah Road

Heard about Cowaramup (404 Telok Blangah Road, tel : +65 8500 1111) a while ago. They're apparently Australian styled and set up with the chef Jimmy Teo who's also responsible for Meat 4 Meet at East Coast Road so there're parallels in the menu which I had initially thought to be the same dishes. Didn't taste so. Sadly by the time we visited, the fried sweetbread that used to be on the menu a couple of months back were not longer available.

I remember this as the double bacon cheese burger pappardelle on their older menu and it's been renamed to omit the 'double bacon cheese burger'. Someone must have noticed that it was outright misleading because this was just a bolognese with some cheese sauce. No onions, or pickles or cheese burger cheese in there that would have made it cheeseburger-y.  

One of the parallels in the menu mentioned earlier was their lamb cutlet. Looked very similar to the one at Meet 4 Meat. Just more expensive and smaller portions. The flavour from one at Meet 4 Meat made me think of balsamic glaze while the sweetness of this one tasted more sugary like char siew. Not bad tasting but I felt the lamb flavour was a tad subdued. Menu also mention corn ribs but this was obviously some generic mesclun salad on the side. Would have been basic courtesy for them to mention what they're failing to deliver.

The ordering person registered medium rare but it arrived more like medium well.

Duck Wellington's not bad. The crust looked like it had a nicer egg wash and was more buttery than the one on the Beef Wellington at Meet 4 Meat. Generous portions of duck and foie gras in this one. Not bad.

Extra vegetables and another Purple Cow at Shake Shack

So that's what extra lettuce, onions and tomatoes in Shake Shack's (一, 二, 三, 四, 五, 六, 七, 八, 九, 十, 十一, 十二) double ShackBurger looked like. Not as much as I had imagined. Not complaining though. Go Purple Cow!

It did feel a little more well balanced between the meat/cheese and vegetables in each bite compared to the regular double which is generally more beefy/cheesy.

Zhong Pin Noodle House (众品麵萬家), Bukit Merah Central Food Centre

Came here because this stall (#02-04 Bukit Merah Central Food Centre, 163 Bukit Merah Central) has kolo mee. Haven't had one that's good for a long time and I've personally felt that the Traditional Sarawak Kolo Mee chain have been on the decline for a long time. Except for that curry one which I liked. But that's because of the curry. 165 Pork Rib Noodles nearby doesn't count because that's just a hybridized rendition of prawn noodles.

Not much saucing in this bowl of noodles so it's a little dry but I've never really had much against dryness as long as the flavours got through. I asked for extra fried lard and they were generous with it. Not big on their char siew though. Noodle texture had just enough bite so......not bad. Will not mind eating again.

Since we were already here, we tried a bowl of bak chor mee. This bowl has dark soya sauce and it's not exactly vinegary. Again, extra fried lard there. Ingredients were the generic factory sourced ones except for the stewed mushrooms which were kinda juicy. Wouldn't say it's bad bowl but nothing about it makes me want to eat it again.

Small Potatoes Make The Steak Look Bigger : Year Sixteen

Year XVI. 22.M2. Will the number of years surpass the number of legions by the Emperor of Mankind?

Les Bouchons, Rochester Commons

Les Bouchons has a new location just behind Star Vista (Rochester Commons, 10 Rochester Park, tel : +65 6904 8972).

Pretty little Parisian styled restaurant sequestered behind tropical verdant lushery. Then again, their decor have always adhered to a similar visual style to their parent L'Angelus.

There's a few items on the menu that aren't available at both their Ann Siang and Robertson Quay restaurants. One of those was their heirloom beetroot salad. Loved the earthy sweetness of those beets. Had these once or twice previously at Le Bistrot du Sommelier. I especially liked how the fragrance of the lightly toasted walnuts and pine nuts added to the salad.

Pretty impressive ceps soup which I'm sure was loaded with butter and cream. Flavour of the mushroom in the piping hot soup was robust to say the least and that was paved by a smooth velvet texture. Would come back for this. Also not available at the other two restaurants as far as I know.

No complains on the pan fried foie gras. It was delicious. The caramelized liver had the prerequisite crusty exterior and quivery insides I was looking forward to. At the end, we were mopping the rendered oils from from the foie with bread. The onion compote/jam thingy on the side seemed to have curry flavour. Pretty sure I did not imagine it.

Great grilled wagyu onglet which we haven't seen on their menu before. Pretty sure it's available only here. Not cheap at all but seeing how much Le Bistrot du Sommelier charges for their onglet these days, this one didn't feel quite so expensive. Knife sliced through this like butter. Mostly. Flavour was also a beefy intensity like I was expecting. 👍🏼 

The sauces were kinda wasted tonight because the onglet definitely did not need them. Neither did their fries.

I've always been curious about the 40 garlic chicken dish I've seen around. For some reasons, it has appeared in this restaurant. Again, not in the menu at Ann Siang and Robertson Quay.

The chook was fork tender seeped in the rendered garlic butter in the pot, perfumed with just enough rosemary. Part of what was enjoyable about this was slurping out the creamy cloves of garlic from their skins.

At this point of time, we had neither the room nor interest with the salad. I did tried to dig out as much of the walnuts and the cherry tomatoes with a few leaves before throwing in the fork towel.

Would have liked to get something bigger but we only had room for an affogato after all the food.

Star Coffee, Bukit Merah Central Food Centre

Came across this stall (#02-22 Bukit Merah Central Food Centre, 163 Bukit Merah Central). Freshly ground local styled coffee pulled with an espresso machine.

This was their signature coffee which has condense milk. Coffee's ok-ish. Lacked smoothness and was not particularly outstanding or aromatic. Drinkable would be an appropriate description for me. I spied a garlic toast set which I don't mind coming back to try.