Shabestan, Robertson Quay

Shabestan (#01-13 The Pier, 80 Mohamed Sultan Road, tel : +65 6836 1270) is an upmarket Persian/Iranian restaurant located down the riverside where Brasserie Wolf used to be. We've been eyeing the place for quite a while as we've passed by the location multiple times, seen their menu and thought they looked interesting. Yes, it's another one of those places.

We were recommended the muhamara to start - a paste of pepper, walnuts, olive oil and pomegranate served with lavash . The muhamara was sweet, nutty and had some citrus in the flavours. Delicious.

We ordered a duo of their rice; or polo/polow which incidentally sounds like pulau. One was a Zereshk polo which is sometimes known as the Persian jewelled rice - rice made with saffron, dried barberries and pomegranate. The other was a Baghala polo, cooked with lima beans and dill. Both were delicious. The square on top is cut off from the rice crust in their cooking vessel. Something like a socarrat.

Did anyone think that we have forgotten lamb? We did not. Here's a soltani which featured a koobideh and grilled filet. Meat was marinated, but not to death. 

We ordered a stewed duck with walnut sauce with pomegranate. This was the first duck dish we've ever had in any Middle Eastern restaurant. The sauce was rich, sweet, tangy and nutty. Not so different from the muhamara. There was a whole duck thigh in the dish and the meat was fall off the bone tender. 

Dessert was a saffron ice cream with pistachio. With more pomegranate. That ice cream was rich and creamy with saffron flavours. Good stuff.

Shabestan has a fancy looking dough/doogh. The drink is similar to ayran - basically a salted yoghurt drink with mint and sometimes with club soda. This one has masala spices and dried rose petals too.

More Saravanaa Bhavan-ing

Another stop over to address the craving for Indian food. Today we had a mini thali, which I guess represents a slightly smaller subset of something like say, their North Indian Thali. Instead of naan, there was chapati together with the briyani. Alongside some watery aloo kurma, dal, raita and scoop of kesari bath for sweets. Pretty tasty but not quite the kickass satisfaction I was hoping for. Seems like the chapati had been lying around for a while too.

Oh, we tried their paneer 65 as well. Tasted pretty much like how we thought it would. A little salty, a little spicy and made good munching. Syed Alwi Road alone promises many return trips.

Ristorante Da Valentino 2017

Another few years have whisked by since our last visit to Valentino's. If you're wondering why we took so long, it's mostly because of their location. Not exactly the most accessible of places.

Today they had sakura ebi tossed with bottarga special that was off the menu. Those little shrimps were freshly fried and had a nice crisp. Paired with the briny bottarga, it was addictive to say the least.

This was their Bormio salad - with julienned apples, pine nuts, ricotta cheese and a an appetizing dressing. Tasty.

We had a pretty good saffron risotto with porcini. Beady grains of rice infused with the flavour of saffron and cheese. One of those things that some people would be wont to say is uncomplicated and tasty.

There was also a spaghetti frutti di mare with olive oil and bottarga. Couldn't get much from the oil but there was also zesty lemon which together with the cured roe made very good flavours on the pasta. The prawn even had some head fat!

Dessert was a conservative profiterole. Conservative and trusty.

And a nice glass of chilled moscato for lunch.

While it may sound cliché, Valentino's is a great place to eat. Getting pricier by the years though.

A pasta from Hoshino Coffee

Yes, this was the pasta from Hoshino Coffee. The one that is called Hoshino on the menu. It's actually kinda nice in a Japanese wafu kind of way. Nothing too heavy tasting as it's a soy sauce and olive oil base if I'm not mistaken. There's bacon, sausages, tomato, some spinach, a soft boiled egg and shimeiji mushrooms. A little salty, a little smoky and...just Japanese I suppose.

Ananda Bhavan, Syed Alwi Road

Apparently, Ananda Bhavan (95 Syed Alwi Road, tel : +65 6398 0837) which was set up in 1924 is the first Indian restaurant in the country. Wow, I never knew that till today. Too bad my first experience at their restaurant near Tekka market wasn't so memorable. But hey - this visit turned out to be an enjoyable re-acquaintence.

Their pav bhaji was delicious. Amazing flavours of mashed vegetables with the crunch and that bit of sharpness from the chopped onions along with a breath of zing from the squeeze of lime. Those pav were nicely buttered and that definitely helped. Vegetable briyani was likewise hearty and flavoursome, especially so with the refreshing raita or their rich kourma. Notable mentions also goes to the savoury aloo masala and the Chennai cabbage which for the first time, I've noticed having flavours of mustard. The little container in the middle was the dessert of the meal and that was actually pulut hitam. Pleasant and unexpected surprise there. As one can imagine, a good riot of flavours from the platter. And a meal to send one into a post lunch coma. Hah!

We were initially apprehensive of their pale looking masala tea, but it turned out to be quite nice. Not excessively sweet, milky and enough of the masala registered. Will be back again.

Tandoori chicken sandwich from Sarnies

Possibly the weakest offering from Sarnies (136 Telok Ayer Street) compared to the other mainstays that I've had. The chicken was a cold dry chopped up meat marinated with tikka spices. While I didn't expect that it would come from a tandoor, they could have really upped the game by putting it on the grill or do a pan fry for that char which would have done wonders for the flavour. The meat was barely better than the one at Subway. I'll stick to their chicken schnitzel the next time if I want a chicken sandwich here. And no more tandoori anything from any place I know doesn't have a tandoor.