Back in Banana Leaf Apolo

It's been quite a while since we've last visited Banana Leaf (56 Race Course Road, tel : +65 6293 8682). A lot of people come here for their curry fish head. We didn't get that today.

We had fried fish roe instead. While the dish on the menu simply called it fish roe, there's actually fish milt in it as well. This stuff is pretty good.

A decent gobi 65 can be gotten here, tasty with the mint chutney on the side. If you're wondering still, these are cauliflower florets battered in a spiced gram flour and deep fried.

Their mutton masala was nutty and spicy. Actually, it was more spicy than I had imagined.

To accompany the naan and rice, a rich and creamy paneer makhani - or butter paneer. Cubed cottage cheese in a spiced creamy tomato gravy. This rendition from Banana Leaf was pretty good. 

The only thing that was disappointing this time round was their peshwari naan. The menu described powdered almond and cashew nut spread. Didn't quite look like what I had in mind. The flavours that came through were strangely just garlic and butter though we were pretty sure this was not their garlic naan. But now we know we're never getting this again.

More from La Tapería

We're back. Here's a bunch of other stuff which we haven't had before. Before the food, a rant. The tables for two at La Tapería were rather small. But the plates that they used tends not to be. The setup of the restaurant is optimized for as much seating as they can comfortably squeeze and honestly, it wasn't very comfortable when the room was packed.

There was white asparagus on the menu so we took advantage of the season for more of them, wrapped in prosciutto di Parma and soft boiled egg. 

Some Galician styled octopus. Not the most tender we've had and the potato slices were pathetically thin. But otherwise, it was quite tasty. The quality of the olive oil they used was good. Won't order again though.

We had frog legs with broad beans. These amphibian legs were chopped up and served sizzling. The main flavour we were getting was heat from whatever spice and garlic - that tasted rather Asian. Not to mention also a little bland coming from a Les Amis restaurant.

This was their Welsh lamb rack - the other lamb dish they had on menu. Grilled rather than confit and was also quite good in its own way if I had to compare with the other. There was enough char on the meat for it to be respectable and little to muddle up the natural flavours. Grilled vegetables with fried potatoes on the side were nicely done and not just an afterthought.

Hong Seng Curry Rice (鴻森咖喱飯), Redhill Food Centre

Man, this sure was a satisfying plate. While I enjoy Hainanese styled curry rice, I wouldn't say that I'm a big fan of the most of them because I'm generally not a starchy sauce person. A number of these stalls have starchy looking curry/gravy concoctions.

What worked for me here was the absence of those gloopiness. This plate of curry rice from Hong Seng (#01-74 Redhill Food Centre, 85 Redhill Lane) featured tender stewed chap chye (braised cabbage), savoury chai poh (preserved radish) omelette, strips of meaty braised pork belly and salty (enjoyably so if I might add) minced pork balls. All heaped over rice that's drenched in their mildly spicy curry and braising sauce from the meats. Comfort food as local as it gets.

Dinnering at The Lokal

I just realized that the last time I was here was almost three years back. In retrospect, we were glad that we came for dinner because we liked the food.

What did we like? Pretty much everything we ordered this time. Starting with their creamy chicken parfait with lots of bread to go around and caramelised onions to pair with. There's even house cured pickles.

This was just called fried pork belly on the menu. There's also blue cheese, obviously some radicchio, quinoa, some delicious beetroots and prunes. While it might not be apparent from appearances, the pork belly was pretty tender underneath that crisp skin. Like the chicken parfait, portions were hearty and the food was delicious. Much bold flavours going on for this plate.

Here's cauliflowers three ways - fried, pickled and pureed. Tossed with watercress, ricotta and skinned almonds. Can you imagine that? Skinned almonds. All whipped up with some nice olive oil. Tasty.

The only main we picked up was their lamb chops which came with some spicy couscous, pomegranate and yoghurt. Served on a Staub, no less. Each rib was small, tender and grilled to a nice medium doneness.

Octopus pizza and tagliatelle alla bolognese from 2it & drink

My first octopus pizza. One with olives and potatoes and a little bit of parsley. I don't understand potatoes on pizza but I can't say that this wasn't tasty. Double negatives! O_o Would have been great if there were more of the octopus though.

Alla bolognese is something I generally avoid for reasons that I'm not going into in this post. This particular one from 2it & drink was actually kinda nice. I liked that the ragu was actually beefy rather than too tart from too much tomato concentrate. In all probability, I'm never getting anything close to my grail for ragu in this country but I honestly don't mind having another plate of this.

The Butcher's Kitchen, Suntec City

I have mixed feelings about this place (#02-472 Suntec City Mall, 3 Temasek Boulevard, tel : +65 9616 0111). But let's start with a positive note. I liked their Hawaiian pizza. It had thinly sliced fresh pineapples rather than the usual little chunks of the canned variety and the ham that they used was of a much better quality than most if not all the other Hawaiian pizzas. The crust was thin and light, not Neapolitan styled, but had sufficient crisp and I enjoyed it.

This was where the good feelings about the place kinda diffused. The restaurant presented themselves to be a specialist for meats. The various cuts that they were offering had their origins listed on the menu and it did look to be a proper grill joint. But we were given butter knives to work with the meat. Their rack of lamb, decent quality by the way, was doused in a brown sauce. I'm sure it's not just me but I would think that a meat and grill specialist would treat their produce with a little more respect by having the sauce on the side. Even Aston's knows better.