Warong M. Nasir, Killiney Road

I read about this nasi padang place and their beef rendang before and since we were in the vicinity today, Junie and I decided to check the place out. The eatery was quite easy to locate along the row of shop house at Killiney Road where the Killiney kaya toast place is located. The food here was pretty decent. Nothing was particularly exceptional though. I don't mind eating here but I don't think I'll specially come here to it unless I happen to be in the vicinity.

beef rendang

ayam bakar

sayur lodeh

gulai daun singkong

curry from yoghurt chicken

rice

I didn't think there was anything special about the beef rendang. The meat was a little too tough. The tapioca leaves were seriously in need of some kind of quality control. Some of the leaves tasted almost raw.

Pasta Brava, Craig Road

Dinner with Bird. There's quite a bit of pasta options in the menu of this restaurant. Enough to have me spoilt for choice while deciding what to order for dinner. Pasta Brava at Craig Road is located a few minutes of walk from Tanjong Pagar MRT station. From there, one can head towards Duxton Hill and Craig Road is just off the main road at Duxton within the vicinity.

Bread came cold. Vinegar wasn't available until requested for. So apart from the food, homely pleasant decor and very prompt removal of finished plates, there wasn't very much else to expect from first impressions. The wait staff need to appear more inconspicuous instead of hovering around like vultures ready to swoop. We got everything to share from the menu which covers just an antipasti, two pastas and a dessert.

Underneath the 2 slices of ham of the Proscuitto Con Melone, are the melons. 2 slices. I was expecting the ham to be rolled around the fruit. On the overall, I found it to be a combination of a rather pleasant sweet and savory appetizer.

This Risotto Nero Alla Sinfonia Dei Nostri Mari has got to be one of the better risotto I've ever had. If anyone knows of really good ones, feel free to drop me a note. Especially if there's squid ink involved. This one is done with squid ink, white wine and seafood.


It seems that quite a number of people that I know have had concerns about having squid ink pastas. It looks either unappetizing or it's a worry for having black teeth. I have no such concerns. Lol. I was quite impressed by the aroma from the rice. It's probably the stock and the squid ink. The risotto actually came with decent portions of scallops, prawns and little squid rings. Not apparent at first sight though. What I had in mind with the seafood description of the menu painted quite a different picture.


Sitting on a paper boat, the Tagliolini con Aragosta didn't appear to be impressive. In very regular tasting tomato sauce and lobster flesh that's a little tougher than I was expecting, I didn't find anything compelling about the pasta. But for $27, it was probably one of the more affordable lobster pastas around. I know what I'll avoid the next time I'm here though. Which brings me to the dessert.

I remember mentioning that tiramisus for me are generally a shot in the dark. I decided on this here because it's Italian and usually with them, they are not too bad. It appeared okay I guess. I was not really sure what my beef with this, but I didn't really enjoy the tiramisu here as much as I thought I would. There's something about it that set it apart from most others and I couldn't quite identify what about it which I didn't take to.

Holland V X.O. Fish Bee Hoon

We braved the rain tonight from Buona Vista MRT. Of all the after office hours in the past week, it just had to rain tonight when we planned to have dinner out instead of working overtime. Don't really remember the name of the coffee shop but it's known as that X.O. fish bee hoon place at Holland Village. Tonight was exceptionally crowded because of the downpour and it took a long while to find seats. But I suppose you can say that it was worth the trouble. For their sum lou hor fun which we thought was rather good. 

Don't know how many places that sells X.O. fish bee hoon are around but this isn't the only one. Or for that matter, also don't really care if this stall uses milk in the soup or it's simply fish bones that make the soup milky. Not really concerned here since I like the milky flavour and as long as it tastes good, doesn't matter so much to me. 

Anyways, this stall is known for the X.O. infused soup which adds depth to the flavour. Probably just a dash of the liquor though. I don't know if I imagined it or if it really did its job of warming me up. Especially after that rain. 

Here's the hor fun dish. Looked mostly white but it's far from being bland. Thought there was a good portioning of the three main ingredients. Sauce was deliciously savour. I liked how the bean sprouts kept their crunchiness which added texture to the sliced fish and rice noodles. We also ordered a portion of the prawn paste chicken which is also for some reasons, always available in these fish bee hoon/sum lou hor fun stalls.

If I had to be honest, the prawn paste chicken was just okay. Generally not so big on fried chicken and if I have to eat them, I try not to think about all the grease I'm ingesting. The prawn paste they used lacked punch although the chicken was crispy and not too heavy with the batter. Will give this a pass the next time. 

All things considered, it was still worth the effort getting slightly drenched for this dinner. The damage, inclusive of a teh-C and a kopi came up to $21.50 for two. Wasn't too hard on the pockets. In fact, what we had probably would have fed one more person if not for us being such pigs.

Rock Melon Jelly from Hokkaido

This was a gift from someone whom has recently visited Hokkaido. I was told that these jellies can only be made during the fruit's season. In each of this elegantly packaged boxes were 6 containers of the really fragrant jellies. Included in the box was an envelope packed with plastic spoons for use. The texture of these melon jellies were slightly more coarse unlike the usual smooth gelatine. The jellies were sweet and literally bursts into a pretty strong rock melon flavour when it hits your tongue. There was even tiny specks of rock melon skin in them. Really nice stuff. No idea how much a box cost but it probably didn't come cheap where it came from.

 

Cranberry cheese bun from Panaderia Bakery

This was pretty nice. For $1.15, one gets a CD sized soft bun with dried cranberries and importantly, a generous amount of yummy cream cheese fillings in the bread. It's also available in raisin and walnut, also with cream cheese. I managed to get it while they were warm so the cheese was still soft and creamy. Very good for an inexpensive quick bite.

Brunch @ Keyaki, Pan Pacific Hotel

This was an informal wedding bruncheon (is there even such a word?) of an old friend of mine. Hi Chris and Christy. You've been punk'd blogged. Enclosed in a Japanese garden, Keyaki at the 4th floor of Pan Pacific Hotel does a la carte buffet brunch at $58++ a head. Food was pretty good, though marred by less than enthusiastic service from their staff. The selection of the a la carte menu does provide a range of items with the baby lobster and sashimi being the ones that can only be ordered once. Do not expect the exotic and expensive. Like I have mentioned, the food's decent. Some were noteworthy and others, more mundane.

Here's are some photos which I managed to take. They're not exhaustive of what the brunch has. In fact, it was just round one for a table of eight.

cold sake

Not reviewing the sake. I'm not an expert on it and I don't drink it on any regular basis. At this point, sake is just sake. Perhaps I haven't the experience or develop a refined tongue for the subtleties of the drink. Drinks aren't part of the brunch, so it's something on top of the bill.

baby lobster

underside

"nude"

Not sure what to say about the lobster except that it is not bad. I know it's probably one of the laziest description. Not bad usually means not great also. Double negatives do not always imply a positive. But honestly, it is not bad. Just not exceptional. Couldn't really tell what was the greenish cream. The only ingredient which I could detect was mayo. I don't know what else was inside.

sashimi

The sashimi was not bad too. Just didn't look impressive. It tasted good, came in small portions and probably underwent fish carving skills of an apprentice. I'm generally in for variety with sashimi and three types in tiny portions does not much of a variety make.

stir fried bean sprouts

This was really popular at the table. There were a lot of garlic in the stir fried bean sprouts. The heads and the roots have also been removed. Fresh and crunchy with not the slightest hint of rawness in the bite. So we're getting well timed stir frying.

Ebi shioyaki (grilled prawns)

I liked these prawns. They're simply grilled prawns but they tasted good. Good in the sense that one's getting is the natural flavours of the crustacean and the meat was quite easy to extract from the shells. This one was at least twice as good as what I had from Azhang. For the production speed at this was done for a brunch, it speaks a volume or two about the quality twixt the two.

Hotate ebi miso (scallop with prawn miso paste)

Scallop which was neither warm nor chilled. The prawn miso paste was saturated with flavour. Miso, no prawn flavour and very salty.

Horenso gorna ae (poached spinach with sesame dressing)

Interestingly stacked like firewood, these spinach require an exercise of jaw muscle. There was not much of the sesame flavour with the dressing. I'm sure there's more to it than sesame, however the dominant taste was saltiness.

Gindara teriyaki (grilled cod with teriyaki sauce)

I like cod and am not so much into teriyaki. This really came well together. Being grilled, it's actually a little dry. Apart from that, this grilled cod had a good flavour from the meat and we didn't get a cheap drizzle of teriyaki sauce. It was a brush to coat the meat for the grill.

smoked salmon salad

No so interesting unless you really love salmon. It's so uninteresting I'm at a loss for words to describe the salad.

Yakitori

Competent and pretty tasty yakitori. The differences with these versus something like say ToriQ are the quality of the chicken and sauce. This one was not bad.

one of several tempura plates

I'm not so big on tempuras. This one comes with a hint of what I thought to be ginger in the batter. What the? As someone who generally doesn't like ginger, I tend to trust my ability to acutely detect them. Decently done, nothing more.

some really good creamy croquette which I don't remember the name

I am assuming these are croquettes. I couldn't feel the potatoes inside because it's a mostly rich creamy interior. Think comfort food. Think crispy breaded shell that explodes with scalding hot creamy insides.

Teppanyaki beef fillet....fantastic stuff

Hmmm....I'm a beef guy so this one really worked out for me. It's 'medium well' done and retained a lot of meat juices and had nice beefy flavour. I didn't see or hear of any disapproval of this at all. Went superbly with the fragrant garlic chips on the side. One of the dishes that saw repeated orders.

Jamaigo bacon maki (grilled bacon blanketed potato)

Bacon and potatoes are savouries of the masses. Everyone was ordering this. I'm not sure why this particular item took a really long time to prepare but it was pretty good. These are one of the not so salty bacon. The potato chunks were well cooked, no raw crunchiness.

Raw tuna cubes in grated mountain yam paste and quail egg

The grated mountain yam could have been grated paper for all I know. I could only understand the raw tuna and seaweed....and the raw egg.

nasu dengaku (grilled eggplant with miso)

Nothing description worthy. Just as it is.

Kamo roast yaki (roasted duck breast)

Okay tasting, medium well done roast duck breast. Meat was a little dry and not so tender. I still generally thought well of it. YMMV.

Fresh fruits

rum & raisin ice cream which tasted really of neither

lime sorbet which isn't really sorbet

There were more stuff was ordered but these were the only pics I managed. It's generally easier to get the pictures in smaller groups with smaller tables but I didn't intent to blog this in the first place. It's not a place I would write off , but it does need work with the service.