Sunday, July 03, 2016

Casa Roma, Bukit Timah Road

Casa Roma, Bukit Timah

Casa Roma (#01-09 Royal Ville, 833 Bukit Timah Road, tel : +65 6464 8509) has been around for the longest time. About two decades to be precise and while I've always wondered about them, I've never really had the chance to drop by since they were easily out of mind from being out of sight. They are one of those restaurants that have been humming along with quiet dignity throughout the years just below the radars and right under our noses. For the most of us that is.

Casa Roma, bread butter

The restaurant provided bread and butter. Hmmm...I don't remember the last time, if at all ever, that we've been given butter in an Italian restaurant. But butter is as good as olive oil with balsamic vinegar to me so I'm not complaining.

Casa Roma, tagliatelle black truffle

The black truffle season has not yet passed by so there was tagliatelle in butter with shaven black truffle. I've always enjoyed that aroma that wafts across the table when plates of these pasta are brought in. That truffle-y aroma. You know how it is often lip serviced that simplicity is good? This would be one of those good things.

Casa Roma, spaghetti bottarga

We had spaghetti with shaven bottarga and rockets. Again, unsophisticated and delicious.

Casa Roma, tenderloin gorgonzola

Casa Roma's tenderloin with Gorgonzola sauce was good. As good as the one at Pasta Brava; crusted with the char, salt & black pepper and then blanketed in the mouth watering stinky cheese sauce. This made us happy.

Casa Roma, tiramisu

Tiramisu wasn't so much fun. I would have liked more soaked lady's finger and a softer mascarpone layer, but these were pre-made and refrigerated. Powdered with the cocoa on order so I guess it's probably the best they can do.

Friday, July 01, 2016

Mr Fish, Chinatown Food Centre

Mr Fish, Chinatown Food Centre, black bean sauce hor fun

Decided to check out this stall (#02-073 Chinatown Food Centre, 335 Smith Street) after reading about them online. The stall is run by an old couple who has been in the business for more than a couple of decades prior to setting up shop in Chinatown. Hence, one can expect old school. And wow, the food was pretty good.

The broth from the fish bee hoon was what could have been described as smooth and rich. As rich as could be without cream and after a few splashes of soy sauce, flavours got more pronounced. What got me was their black bean sauce hor fun. I had initially been just a little apprehensive from appearances, but the taste from the sauce convinced me that these people are the real deal. I haven't had black bean gravy like that for ages. That coupled with that light smoky wok hei. If you're wondering, those shrivelled looking ochre stuff on top are fried fish roe. Not giant cordyceps. They are add ons.

Mr Fish, Chinatown Food Centre, fish bee hoon soup

The shop had ran out of the fish collars, oddly named as yu gai (鱼鸡), at half past twelve. I hadn't known that 鱼鸡 was collar meat from the chunky appearances.  There was only belly meat left. I'm happy with that though. Note - go earlier the next time.

Thursday, June 30, 2016

Choo Choo Chicken, Bali Lane

Choo Choo Chicken, Bali Lane

This shop (33 Bali Lane) was one of numerous Korean fried chicken joints that have been popping up like fungi in recent years. Their fried chicken was fine - nothing I could tell that really defined them from the rest of the other shops. What I particularly enjoyed was their kimchi spam rice burger that was offered with their lunch sets and the shredded cabbage salad that had a tasty sesame dressing. Those fried chicken they have on paper cones has a honey garlic option. That honey garlic sauce actually tasted like it had honey rather than just being plain sweet.

Choo Choo Chicken, Bali Lane

Wednesday, June 29, 2016

For a moment there......

meat jam

......the thought of jams made with meat crossed my mind.

Tuesday, June 28, 2016

More beefiness from Sandaime Bunji

Sandaime Bunji, US ribeye teishoku

We didn't get any tongue this time round at Sandaime Bunji. Haha!

Sandaime Bunji, US ribeye

There was though a US ribeye steak teishoku set in their lunch menu. That 300g of cow was nicely grilled but a little more cooked than the medium rare that we had asked for. Wasn't really an issue though.

Sandaime Bunji, round roast beef

The kickass item from their lunch menu was their wagyu round roast beef set. From what we were told, there's a limited quantity prepared daily. The bowl had 250g of shaven roasted beef on rice with barley. If the picture didn't already convey how good it was, I would like to add the adjectives tender and flavourful. Am pretty damn sure I would come back for this again. 

Sandaime Bunji, chamame ice cream

For dessert, we tried their chamame ice cream. An actual vegetable ice cream if you would. Chamame apparently is a variety of edamame. We were expecting a nuttier flavour but it tasted like sweet corn ice cream. 

Saturday, June 25, 2016

Keria Japanese Restaurant, Cuppage Plaza

Keria Japanese Restaurant, Cuppage Plaza

This was a small shop (#B1-28 Cuppage Plaza, 5 Koek Rd, tel : +65 6733 0654) nestled in the basement of Cuppage Plaza. You know - the homely izakaya kind of place? We've been to Cuppage Plaza countless times and never knew they existed until recently.

Keria Japanese Restaurant, uni temaki

We had uni temaki. Tasty hand rolls with filled with sea urchin on shiso and rice.

Keria Japanese Restaurant, mentaiko cabbage

That's cabbage stir fried with mentaiko. I found this very addictive. These would be just perfect with a bowl of steamed white rice.

Keria Japanese Restaurant, momotaro tomatoes

We had momotaro tomatoes. Man these were sweet and juicy. Not to mention expensive as well.

Keria Japanese Restaurant, chutoro maki

We munched through a couple of chutoro maki too. Tasty and also rather dearly priced.

Keria Japanese Restaurant, beef curry rice

Their beef curry was one of the more memorable ones I've had in a while. The flavours were rich and packed a nice warmth from the heat along with very tender pieces of meat and tendon. This was a half portion with miso soup which was an option on menu.

Keria Japanese Restaurant, gyoza

Some meaty gyozas were also in the cards.

Keria Japanese Restaurant, tonteki

And something the menu described as 'pork steak wasabi soya sause'. Through the erroneous spelling and wrongly sequenced gramma, we found out that it was some kind of wasabi butter on pork loin. The butter made the pork very tasty though the meat was much tougher than what we had expected out of a slab of rosu.

Keria Japanese Restaurant, soramame

Today was a first time for us with grilled soramame (broad beans). These were like a larger and more flavourful version of edamame. I like these.

Keria Japanese Restaurant, ayu



Because ayu was in season, we just had to have them. The bitter sweetness from the head and belly from the grilled fish was amazing. The meat was tender with a light texture and there was also that flavourful skin. This was superior to the last ones we had from Kanda Wadatsumi.