Crystal Jade La Mian Xiao Long Bao, Scotts

Dinner with Junie. I had almost forgotten about the existence of this place at the basement of Scotts which I first visited (and was introduced to) about 3 years ago. Was recommended their fried pork ribs with soup noodles and their fiery bottled peppers on the table. Today 3 years later, the quality of the food seems to have remain the same and I actually sat on a table just one away from the one I did 3 years back. This place brings me memories.

One of the things I liked about this la mian outlets of Crystal Jade was that the food here is generally quite nice and the price is on the whole, reasonable.

braised beef in hand cut kway teow

This dish came with tender braised beef and hand cut kway teow that has irregular thickness. I guess those must be hand made instead of machine pressed rice noodles. And it's quite good.

Fried rice with ham and prawns

I enjoy a good fried rice and the ones here haven't disappointed me yet. The ham in the fried rice taste like the air dried ones and there's quite a few prawns in there. It's comfort food which I can wolf down in large quantities.

Picked or sauteed jellyfish

Tofu and century egg

Xiao Long Bao

Vegetable and meat dumpling soup

Fried buns with salmon and mushrooms

There are a couple of personal dislikes I have here, one of which involves the vile herb coriander which was found in the dumpling soup. My dislike for the herb makes me very sensitive to even trace amounts of the taste. The other involves the fried buns which was suppose to contain salmon and the stuffings look to me like 95% mushroom. That to me is simply bad practice because I could hardly taste the salmon. And the name of the dish can be reasonably construed as intentionally misleading because it wouldn't have made any difference if the salmon was absent.

Apart from these couple of peeves, it was on the whole pretty good especially the fried rice which I always enjoyed from any Crystal Jade outlets. The total bill ran to $49.90 and offset by a $30 voucher from Junie. That made a pig out for 2 at $10.

Something about small leeks sinking big ships...

This one just made it into my little black book of places/food to avoid and recommend against. And I'm sure it's not because of an unfortunate luck of the draw that this experience is way below expectations. It's the leek and bacon with goat cheese tart from Toast and and tastes nothing like what it is named. First of all, it's filled up with leeks and hardly any bacon. A cheaper and smaller quiche from Delifrance would probably have multitudes more ham in them than this has bacon. I only detected my first small bits by the time I'm about done with this. And there wasn't the slightest hint of goat cheese flavor. So what you're getting is a regular quiche like tart filled mostly with leeks. I wonder if the quality at Toast is any indication of what to expect from Marmalade Pantry and Pierside.

Lunch anyone?

I'm on leave from the 21st so I'm taking the opportunity to go for lunches at places that I'm not likely to when i have to be at work. I have 3 tentative locations in mind, so if any of you readers u (regulars or not) are interested and adventurous enough to do lunch with a stranger(or not), please drop me a note via comments and we'll see if something can be arranged. Do not worry about having your contacts on my site because comments are not published unless I approve them which I will not for this time round.

The three locations are

1. Garibaldi http://www.garibaldi.com.sg/g.htm ($26-29++ vicinity, not sure); Purvis Street
2. Au Petit Salut http://www.aupetitsalut.com/ ($22++); Jalan Merah Saga, opp. Holland V
3. Prix Fixe lunch set at Ikkukan as seen in Ivan's entry ($59+++); off Club Street near Senso

Hogwashed

Dinner with my brother. It seemed that the standards of the prime ribs at Hog's Breath is either falling sharply of late or are becoming terribly inconsistent during peak hours. Tonight's dinner was off from their usual standards and while it was filling, was far from satisfying. It wasn't that long ago when I last visited and I remember enjoying the meat. Tonight's prime rib tasted flat. The char flavour was barely getting across. It was also a lot more fatty than usual. The El Grando also came without the usual jalapenos (I had to ask for them) which I thought was

something that shouldn't have happened, mistake or not. I mean, I'm sure people didn't order this just for cheese sauce. I should've just ordered the plain prime rib and just requested for jalapenos instead which would've been much better. The cheese and salsa were drowning out what little flavour that is left of the prime rib. I think I should lay off this place for a long while before revisiting.

On recommendation by Junie, I took a shot at their apple crumble. Which looked rather different from what I expected out apple crumbles. It looked like a square block and only crumbled when you cut it. Despite appearances, it was quite good. Savoury sweet with light pastry, cream and caramel. Nice when eaten hot.

Dinner @ Yishun 81

I'm back here again, having dinner with Mike.

It hadn't been too long back since I last ate at the Pontian wanton mee stall. This time we got the $3 portions of noodles which was noticeable larger than the $2.50 ones. It also came with more of that spicy tomato/chilli sauce. Visibly more messy from my last visit. Lol. The fried wantons tasted as nice as I remember them. Tasted much better than their looks suggested. Don't go expecting large ones filled with chunks of succulent prawn or pork because they're small and are simply not those kinds. Also, in the last visit, I didn't get the mayo and chilli on the sides, so I guess business is evolving. The other kuey chap dishes came from another store in the same coffee shop, not the wanton mee store.

The Coffee Club, Hotel Rendezvous

Lunch with Gweezer. I came here today because I remembered having their garlic prawn pasta before and that it was quite tasty and inexpensive. It seems that memory has again betrayed me as it appeared different from what I had remembered. It's a glaring reminder of Mr Bean where the differences could have been attributed to the fact that I haven't eaten there for years. Has my taste changed so much or was it a differently done thing?

From what I hear, the garlic prawn pasta was a talked about dish. There have been more than a few people who have been asking me if I've had it and I've always given them the same affirmative reply saying that I liked it. It's time to re-program my automated reply to that. 

 Lunch began with an interesting mushroom, pesto & parmesan frittata.

The frittata was pretty good. Was soft, almost akin to densely layered steamed egg with portpbello mushrooms buried inside. The egg was generously drizzled in olive oil and some pesto. The overall taste was light in flavour and portions were pretty generous.

    

The garlic prawn pasta definitely didn't look like what I remembered, so I'm wondering if I remembered it wrong. This looked and tasted like it had been pan fried on a wok. It's also spicier than I recall. From the picture you can see that the spaghetti is really cut up. It's much better than what Mr Bean offers, however there's too much of a reminder of each other. The slick oily aftertaste didn't sit that well. So, I guess it'll be the last time I'm eating this.