25 Degrees Burger, Hotel G

Man this was disappointing. At the same price point, Omakase Burger beats this hands down and I actually get more bang with a McD double quarter pounder at half the price.

Oops, did I type that out loud? This was 25 Degrees Burger (200 Middle Road). Yet another unremarkable import - this time from Los Angeles. 

Their tomato soup was not bad. I think that might have been parmesan foam on top.

I decided to just try to build my own burger because I thought it didn't make sense to have Thousand Island and blue cheese and bacon together. What better way to hide poor quality meat. Instead, I went for a basic burger with American cheese and arugula.

We had three orders for them burgers - one medium rare and two mediums. All arrived like they were well done. Obviously the guys flipping in the kitchen know nothing about cooking patties to even not get doneness right. Obviously management doesn't give a flying fuck.

Let's compare American cheeses. Here's Omakase Burger and here's McD. And the one from 25 Degrees is in the picture above. Could barely taste it.

The bright spot to all of this? I don't even have to remember this place exists the next time I want a burger.

Le Bistrot Du Sommelier 2017

Le Bistrot Du Sommelier has always been a dependable venue for French food. At least for us it has. By some chance, we've stumbled upon the end of their winter menu again. The spring one starts next month according to them.

So we grabbed the French beet salad. We had something similar last year around the same time. These multi coloured beetroot were mostly sweet. The yellow ones less sweet than the orange and red ones. This year's rendition of the salad included something they called a celery "cannelloni". I'm pretty sure it was celeriac rather than celery.

Anyways, there were two rolls of those "cannelloni" under all the beets. Looked like they were steamed as well and stuffed with some creamy goat's cheese. Good stuff!

Can you tell what this is from the picture? We couldn't neither. It's their andouillette, made in house by their chef Brandon Foo. Not much of these gets served here so it's rather easy to remember the ones we've had.  

Looked like a mess mash even when we portioned it out. Nothing like the tightly packed sausage of intestines it was suppose to resemble. Between the one made by Patrick Heuberger at the defunct Casse Croûte, the labelled A.A.A.A.A. ones from L'Angelus and this one - the former two beats this hands down. I'm sorry to say that this wasn't good at all. The flavours were as messy as its appearances and that mustardy green marinate didn't help.

The unexpected thing from this serving was that the potatoes au gratin tasted of ginger. I know, right? Who the hell puts ginger into these things? What was ginger even doing in this restaurant? And I don't even like ginger unless it's for desserts. But actually, this tasted pretty good. Didn't see that coming did you? Neither did we. Maybe the cream made the difference. It could have been a mistake in the kitchen for all we knew and it will be the only one time ever that a gingered potatoes au gratin is ever served.

This andouillette was the first time we've ever had something that was disappointing from Le Bistrot Du Sommelier.

We've seen their Welsh lamb saddle on the menu for a while now and decided to give it a go since it was recommended by the server tonight. It was lamb saddle cooked in a bread crust. Cool huh?

The saddle was served with lamb jus along with a very smooth and very creamy buttery mash. The kind that would coat your oesophagus and trigger thoughts of seizures and heart attacks.

We were wondering if they put the lamb into a hollowed out baked bread of was the lamb encased in the flour and baked together. The inner top part of the bread seemed to have absorbed the lamb juices and flavours from the herbs turning itself into a crusty garlic bread of sorts. 

The meat was pink and tender. There was some chermoula which didn't taste very French-y but worked with the lamb.   

That's the bone that's cooked with the saddle in the bread after we were done with the meat.

Not enough room for desserts today.

More food from Ananda Bhavan

One of the times I'm having a dosai with no stuffings. It's usually been with masala or onions or cheese or a combination of those. Today, it was just a simple ghee rava dosai. Made with clarified butter (ghee) and semolina flour (rava) if anyone was wondering. They sprinkled some sliced green chillis in them. I like how these rava dosai texturize which ends up with that mix of a little bit of chew and the crisp from the browned portions - spiced up with those chutneys and sambar that they provide.

The last time we stopped by here we had their pav bhaji and it was only after I ordered that I realized that they had the cheese version as well. Something that I've not had for ages so here's one. I think they might have added less ghee compared to the regular one because there was cheese in it. Still a pretty tasty snack it made.

Longer operating hours at Sap Thai Food

Good news, Sap Thai Food is now open for dinner these days and even in the weekends. Hence here's another amongst a handful of stalls that's still available at dinner time at Amoy FC. They're located just next door to Quan Ji who happens to be more "aggressive" with getting their customers.

We got a plate of their yum mama noodles, tom yum-ish curly instant noodles in a lime-y broth. This was pretty good but I would probably want to dial the heat down a notch to the less spicy option the next time since this left me with burning lips.

The last time I ate here, I saw larb gai and wanted to try. It was called mint chicken salad or something. There was something else in it other than mint. Some jagged leaf thing that reminded me of coriander even though the stall claimed that it was only mint since I've already requested for no coriander. Ack!

Here's a pad krapow gai where we opted for basil minced chicken to be non-spicy. Pretty darned good I must say even without the invigorating heat that it is normally prepared with.

Brotzeit, Raffles City

Brotzeit's (#01-17 Raffles City, 252 North Bridge Road) menu doesn't change much. Or perhaps I should say didn't change much. With the exception of a few things. I think. It's been largely the same since they opened years ago and the mainstays, stay. People usually just come for the schweinshaxe, sausages and beer anyways. Me, I dig their spiced red cabbage. Or rotkohl.

Also enjoy their fladen. I've always referred to them as German pizza which is pretty much what they were. Good munching it made. There's one with pulled beef cheek that's actually pretty good. Now I know there's another one that I like other than the Black Forest one.

The other thing which I thought was worth getting were their pork medallions. Something I don't remember from their old days but it's been around. Bacon wrapped pork....medallions and some garlic butter I think. Meaty and hearty. It doesn't always have to be schweinshaxe just so that you know.

Shun Xing Wanton Noodles, Beo Crescent Food Centre

This stall (#01-89, 38A Beo Crescent) was old school kinda tasty. Noodles had bite, didn't have that horrendous alkali taste and weren't clumped together. They had char siew which were the lean and red dyed kind that used to be ubiquitous when I was a kid. Nothing extraordinary, just what they are. Their wanton were not bad though. Smooth, slurpy skinned and definitely not the size of your thumbnails. For a local wanton mee stall, they are pretty decent and I'd eat this again.