Raw Kitchen Bar, Upper Bukit Timah

Not bad...

Pupella Pizza, ION Orchard

This was another relatively new pizza joint down at the basement of ION. I've been walking past them on numerous occasions and finally decided to give these fellas, which reminded me of Donatos a try.

Understandably, there was only so much in the "freshly made" taste that one can derive from pizza that's sold over the counter that were heated up only when you ordered them. These were their unheated Parma ham with rocket and their quad cheese pizza which had unexpectedly featured two thickness of crusts. The former being thicker and much chewier since it was left unheated and the other, pretty nice thin crust. I did like the salty Parma ham over a generous bed of rockets, nicely concealed under the pizza. But it was kind of tough chewing through the cold crust. Couldn't complain there since I turned down their offer to have them heated up.

As usual, I would have preferred more blue cheese from that quattro formmagi.

Eating at the Noodle Place

It's been quite a long time since I last visited this place (176 Orchard Road, #01-53/56 Centrepoint, tel : +65 6733 3171). That was way before that chef from Mak's Noodle in Hong Kong had come across and created a little stir over wanton noodles. I thought that it would be interesting to see how the food was with the new chef and also gauge how the noodles compared versus the pretty good one over at Canton-i.

We got ourselves an order of roast duck and char siew rice and found them to be pretty decent. Their char siew is done in a similar style as they do in Hong Kong - which meant much less caramelization on the outsides, little to no charred surface and has a much more savoury taste. Different from the sweeter versions that are more common locally.

It certainly didn't hurt to top up our dosage of greens.

 

Back to the wanton noodles, I prefer this one over the Canton-i rendition. The wiry noodles here had chewy textures that were comparable. Wantons here were noticeably smaller in comparison but I couldn't really discern much of a difference in flavour. What won me over was the superb soup that they had over here. This wasn't just the regular wanton noodle soup - there's also dried prawn roe and sole fish for flavour. Certainly made a hell of a difference when compared to the regular variety.

Smiths Fish and Chips, Tanjong Katong Rd

Little had expected that a British styled fish and chips joint would open up in such a location (230 Tanjong Katong Road, tel : +65 9639 8348) here. What's more, this shop had brought in their own frying range to do their job.

Let's see....it was all golden brown on the battered fried fish and the chips with a healthy amount of grease to soak. White, piping hot, firm and flaky fish meat on the insides. I definitely preferred the haddock over the cod. The sour pickled eggs were a novelty for me and I probably preferred the nutty tasting dried up mashed peas at the defunct Fisherman's Wharf than the gooey one over here. These weren't bad, but it just reminded me of unsweetened green bean.

Wouldn't mind visiting again if it weren't such an effort just to reach this location.

Huhu Udon, ION Orchard

So this is a new joint (2 Orchard Turn, #B4-56 ION Orchard, tel : +65 6509 3256) brought in by the En Group after Go!Go! Curry! down at the basement of ION Orchard. As the name implies, it's a place that sells udon and I've never really been big on those thick chewy noodles except for the unfortunate Wakashachiya.

I had to admit that the creamy mentaiko broth base attracted me more than a little and it turned out to be a very good thing. The piping hot soup was milky, yet light tasting and was quite generously laden with the flavors of the roe with the associated spiciness. Each mouthful brought eggs that burst between the teeth. So good that I practically drank it all up after finishing the udon. They also had the curry with shabu beef version which wasn't as spectacular, but featured a very decent light curry that was not slouch on the spice like most Japanese curry. The meat was however quite forgettable, but this was probably one of the better curry udons I've had along with that one from Bon Goût.

Wait a minute, I haven't had that much curry udon to speak of......

Al Qasr, Holland Village

I've found another place to return to for Lebanese food at Al Qasr (46 Lorong Mambong, Holland Village, tel : +65 6467 7793). I had heard about this place some time back when they started business and had always been wanting to visit. This was another one of those places that had been put on the "to check out" list for quite a long time until today.

The restaurant started off serving some appetizers which was consisted of olives, vegetable sticks and pickles. Which looked pretty much like what I remember from a neighbouring Lebanese restaurant Al Hamra.

We ordered a serving of their flat breads for the benefit of the hummus which we were also getting. The flat bread were surprisingly fragrant. They were freshly made and steaming hot and puffy when they were served.

The grilled Halloumi cheese were really good. These mozzarella-like cheese have a richer milky flavour and a higher content of salt, making them pretty salty if you ate them on their own. The melting point of these cheeses were also higher due to their composition. Hence they can be grilled or pan fried without melting into a gooey mess. The texture was enjoyably chewy coupled with fragrance from the charred parts.

Their hommos karwarma was our order of hummus. Topped with pan fried minced lamb and a sprinkle of pine nuts. Nothing better than this creamy meaty dip for the flat bread. Nothing on their menu at least.

To satiate the craving of lamb, we also went with a serving of sawda ghanam. Pan fried lamb livers with butter, some spices and lemon juice. The livers were a little tough after the cooking but made up for themselves from their lamb-y livery flavour and an appetizing sauce paired with the squeeze of lemon. Also great with the flat bread.

To top off the bunch of Lebanese tapas, we ordered a Sultani kebab which featured a spiced, but unidentifiable as lamb piece of grilled meat and a couple of kebab koobideh accompanied by saffron infused basmati rice. The kebabs were finely minced and and had a taste that reminded me of sausages. Not really how I had expected them but I guess the important thing was that they were tasty.

Dessert was a chilled almond pudding scented with rose and topped with bits of ground pistachio. This was very delicious. Sweet and creamily textured, they reminded me of a very milky panna cotta.