thefoodieinme

Maison fatien volnay

2012-02-08T07:28:00.001-08:00

Had this the other day at Maison Fatien ( located at Duxton road). A volnay from maison fatien's own vineyards in burgundy and this was pretty good - started off really extremely tight that I was a little disappointed, but after a while in the decanter it began to show some mushrooms on the nose while becoming pretty elegant with fine tannins and good ripe fruit on the palate. Quite a bold expression of a Pinot noir in that it's quite full bodied compared to other burgundies but still very good

Brasserie Gavroche

2012-01-31T10:17:00.000-08:00

Had an amazing dining experience at Brasserie Gavroche, one of the best of this year and the last, since of ourse, this year's just started. We actually wanted to book another restaurant, but it was a blessing God gave us in disguise, as Brasserie Gavroche was great and the food was exceptional. In the hands of chef Frederic Colin, a really charming Frenchman, the food really shone. Charmingly located at 66 Tras street (where Table 66 used to be), Brasserie Gavroche exudes the quintessential charm of a Parisian bistro, replete with photographs on the walls, dim lighting, and even huge menu boards ala those you'd find in Paris. Was pretty charmed with the ambience.

The lovely ambience (right)

We were expertly ushered to our seats, and very soon, some amuse-bouche-like choux cheese and duck fat balls came out, which were really delicious eaten hot, especially the fat, but well, could feel it going to my foodie friend (a friend has affectionately termed it 'tubs' o_0). Couldn't eat too much then.

Whilst waiting for my third dining companion, we ordered a wine. I had done some research and so it was between a Beaune Premier Cru and a Cote-Rotie. The former was out of stock, so we had the Cote-ERotie. By no means a stunner i.e. it's not E Guigal's La Landonne or Mouline, but a humble Rene Rostaing Cote-Rotie Cuvee Terroirs 2008. Smoky bacon on the nose, and the palate was smoky, and yet fragrant in a charming sort of way. Pity that there wasn't much depth or complexity to it though - too young by far. It kind of ended pretty quickly, the finish. (7.5/10) Would love to try other Cote-Roties.

My first course (entree) was the oysters from Brittany, and this was a joy to eat. The waiter informed me that it was from Cancale, Brittany - quite near St Malo (where I was in 2010). This was lovely - sweet, mineral finish, tasting of the sea, simply delicious. (8.5/10)

My friend's French Onion Soupe (forgot to take a photo) was exceptional - very beefy stock.

My main came soon enough, and I ordered the Sea Bream with Ratatouille to be shared with a friend- very provencal. On hindsight I think I should have ordered a meat - I was in a 'fish' mood at the time of ordering but then moved to a 'meat' mood - but hey I've already ordered.....but never mind...this was good, the ratatouille I am told was excellent (by a ratatouille-loving friend of mine) and yeah it tasted really....fresh and healthy and harmonious. The fish was alright, pan-fried to a crisp. (7.5/10)

I also partook of the Sous-Vide Salmon which was quite delicious - delicate flesh, very delicate, and so soft and tender from the sous-vide method. Paired well with a sauce of potatoes and clams - pretty delicious. (8.25/10)

My friend had the pork hotpot - apparently learnt from the chef's father, this was very delicious: pork ribs and sausages in a consomme-like gravy with hints of ginger and herbs, allowing the natural flavours to shine. (8.25/10)

Desserts came, and the two dining companions of mine decided it was a good idea to order 4 desserts for the 3 of us! And i thought i was on a 'diet' of sorts. Tried the Crepes Suzette which was exceptional. This was lovely and just delicious - enough orange and Grand Marnier for the sauce to actually taste 'oraginy', i.e. that the orange flavours really shone through. The crepes were also of lovely texture. Classic rendition. (9/10)

Next up was the Profiteroles with vanilla ice cream / chocolate sauce - classic dessert. The profiteroles, you could taste, were freshly made, and the choux pastry shells were quite delicious. Maybe it wouldn't hurt to be a bit lighter, but this was great. (8/10)

The tarte tartin was again very good: not too sweet, and a very fragrant apple/cinnamon classic combination, with a puff pastry base. (8.5/10)

Lastly, we had the mille-feuille. Could have been much lighter, I feel! Not Sadoharu Aoki by any stretch of the imagination.

We finished off with a flourish with some freshly baked Madelines. Delicious!

Service was extremely excellent. The host, a beautiful French lady in her mid 40s, was quite the charmer, speaking to us effusively about the food and always giving us good recommendations, being honest about the place, and was just a joy to see her being so happy to take good care of customers. That's what service is all about really. The other wait staff were excellent as well, especially the sommelier who came to give us the wine recommendations. We finished by talking with the chef himself telling him how amazing the food was.

Whilst the food was not cheap (the total bill was in excess of $350 including wine and taxes), certainly a keeper. Exceptional food that is so quintessentially French. Amazing dining experience, and highly recommended.

Brunch @ Spruce

2012-01-23T02:52:00.001-08:00

After service a few of us trooped down to Spruce for brunch- many options available including crab cakes eggs Benedict, tuna tartare, etc. I ordered the British breakfast which came with the usual scrambled eggs, sausages, mushrooms, etc. the mushrooms were delicious - scrambled eggs however were too cooked and not runny enough. Not bad, decent. Coffee at spruce s a fail though. 7/10

My friend's crab cakes eggs Benedict were rather delicious , and so was another friend's tuna tartare- very flavorful.

Porterhouse steak house

2012-01-19T20:23:00.001-08:00

Porterhouse is one of the most highly regarded steakhouses in Singapore, with an Argentinian focus to its steak. The chef hails from Argentina as well, and as you know, the Argentinians are well known for their steak. Located at Killiney road, the interior is pretty rustic with lots of old photos and wood.

We went straight for the main courses . G had a US tenderloin while I went for the Australian ribeye - on a budget. The steaks were very good- well seasoned definitely with enough salt and flavor to make it tasty even though the meat is not wagyu or even us black angus. My ribeye was pretty tasty with good marbling and the pieces of fat were just so delicious. Mmmm.

I had a bite of my friend's us tenderloin and it was pretty good - perfectly cooked to pink in the middle with a beefy if delicate texture that is delicate.

The sides were good too - perfectly crisp fries with a hint of truffle oil, and delicious sautéed mushrooms. Went very well with the steak.

We also had chimmichirri as a sauce which is a mixture of oreganos , herbs, peppers, olive oil, vinegar. Delicious and went extremely well with the meat, never overpowering it and in fact complimenting it very well.

Overall: 8.5/10
One of the best and most value for money places for steak considering the quality.

Pamplemousse

2012-01-15T08:56:00.001-08:00

Located just next to cmpb and the Dempsey brasserie is Pamplemousse, which is really well fitted- a thing of beauty. High ceilings , antique paintings , warm lights, and a touch of modern. The ambience alone was a 9/10. So how was the food ?

Pamplemousse offers set lunches and dinners and so we had to have one of those . I had a Salmon Confit with Pamplemousse - it came out looking a bit like the piece of raw salmon that my mother buys from the market. So so only - not much taste to the salmon, that was the problem, and I do like my food robust and tasty (who doesn't!). The little bits of pamplemousse on the side didn't help what was a lesson in mediocrity. (6/10)

Thankfully the main course went much better - a confit de canard , cooked quite expertly. Crispy skin, tasty meat, tender and not too dry on the inside. Maybe a bit too salty but was okay. (7.5/10)

Dessert was a forgettable creme brûlée . Passable but I've had much better (7:10)

Paul, Singapore

2012-01-08T19:47:00.001-08:00

When I was in London, one of my all time favorites was Paul, a French boulangerie / patisserie selling delicious pastries and breads. You could find them in many places eg regent street, covent garden, holborn, etc. and guess what, they're in Singapore now!

Yup they've recently opened at level 3 , takashimaya. I went down yesterday night to grab some breads and breakfast and found a snaking queue awaiting me- bought a mirabelle tart, chocolate tart and a rye flour bread. I nibbled on the chocolate tart and it was deliciously yummy quite like those I had in London - fragrant buttery crust and dark chocolate with enough sweetness. Delectable .

Shall return for more of Paul's offerings .

Pizzeria Mozza

2011-12-30T04:48:00.001-08:00

Finally managed to visit pizzeria Mozza which is reputedly the pizza restaurant to beat. We needed a quick bite before watching the awesome "wicked" (which I have had the pleasure of watching in my previous London visits - but well this is a food blog or else I could wax lyrical about the show huh ) - so w popped by the pizzeria. Thank god that notwithstanding the fact that the restaurant was packed, they still had one table that they could give us provided we evict by 730- alls good, since it meant that we could catch wicked in time.

First up was calamari which was expertly done - seared nicely on the outside to give it the charred flavor while remaining soft inside and paired with a zesty sauce. Yummeh! 8/10

The chicken wings were done competently as well - full of flavor and juice and with a spicy sauce to go alongside it. I enjoyed this too 7.5/10

The pizzas then arrived and my word were they good - possibly the best crust I have eaten so far as far as pizzerias in Singapore go - the crust was salty , chewy , crisp enough , and with the right texture and taste of dough that made each mouthful a delight. Paired with the toppings of Parma ham and rocket, the classic combination didn't fail and was given new life by the presence of the lovely crust. 8.5/10

The other pizza we had was the fennel sausage . This was full of spring onions ? the sausage had a Thai influence to
It which took a while to grow on me - 7.5/10- still prefer the prosciutto e Parma pizza heh

Overall pizzeria Mozza is a wonderful restaurant serving great pizzas and nice sides and won't burn a hole in your wallet thankfully. Highly
Recommended .

2011-12-28T20:33:00.001-08:00

I have decided to create a new "category", i.e. "exceptional", for food that is so amazing that putting it under "excellent" won't do it justice, i.e. you have to separate the Audi R8 from the Audi A4, which, though good, will never be an R8. Get the drift? (pun intended).

Anyway, there aren't that many places that fall into the category of "exceptional", however, all those that have been listed there truly belong to such a description. Highlights would include:

a) Steirereck in Vienna;

b) L'Atelier Joel Robuchon in London

c) Oysters from Borough Market

and so on.

Gunther's

2011-12-28T18:44:00.001-08:00

I have really no idea why I'm blogging about Gunther's, because any food blogger worth his calories, salt, sugar, etc. would have already visited this esteemed fine-dining establishment in Singapore many times over, and still have cash to spare. I digress. But really, Gunther's is a household name in Singapore, as it was voted one of the places to eat in the world (by San Pellegrino), and is consistently in Miele's Top 5 list. So of course I had high expectations.

I went for lunch, and was duly escorted into a large private dining room. Just so happened that we got the corner seat, which was fine by me. It was a little stuffy, but soon the "specials" trolley arrived...Alba white truffles, large lobsters, etc. Pretty much my kinda thing, except for the horrible prize tags. Oh well. Never mind.

The humbler bread rolls then arrived, which was pretty much di rigeurwhen you consider that, when I went to Steirereck in Vienna, there was a huge bread basket with different kinds of loaves, and different permutations of flour, style, etc, to choose from. But well, it wasn't bad, though to be honest I much prefer the humbler fluffy bun as opposed to this phallic looking thing.

We all ordered set lunches, with a serving of their signature Cold Angel Hair Pasta with Truffle Oil and Caviar to share. It arrived first, and it was good, of course. Served chilled, it was full of umami, with a distinctive Japanese flavour (I believe, from the use of kombu), heightened by the lashings of truffle oil. Good stuff. I wasn't exactly blown away (I seldom am, actually) but this was good. Delicious, and too bad there was only that much on my plate (since we were sharing the course). (8.5/10).

The main appetizer arrived soon after, a delicately plated Asparagus with Foie Gras Ravioli. This was absolutely delicious, very delicately flavoured, with the pan seared foie gras flavours coming through at the end, in the aftertaste, as it burst through the thin ravioli wrappings and into my mouth. The sauce was great as well, tasty, with the right creamy texture, and filled with foie gras essence. Overall, a delicious dish, well executed. The asparagus was extremely tasty also. (8.5/10)

Sadly, the main course didn't live up to my high expectations. We ordered the chef's special, a duck confit, but well, while the duck confit itself was competently done, and I mean the skin was actually very delicious since it was cooked in its own fat (artery clogging too), the accompaniments were quite a letdown. Tomato rice - and not even risotto. It felt like eating chicken rice with duck confit. I'm serious. Nothing wrong with chicken rice, of course, but for me, not a good companion to the confit. (7/10)

The panna cotta we had for dessert was just average, actually. Milky, but with not enough vanilla bean. I think I have been eating too well so this dessert was just, NAH. (6.5/10)

We ended with some petit fours. Okay only. Don't bother to rate.

Gunther's is a nice place, but overall some hits and misses. The thing is, it wasn't too pricey I guess, for the chance of eating at a fine dining establishment. Still, wish it had made small adjustments here and there and I would have given it an exceptional rating.

Coal Pit Central Otago Tiwha Pinot Noir

2011-12-23T20:14:00.001-08:00

This was ridiculously tasty - lots of ripe fruit on the palate, complex structure, and a long finish. Bob Campbell gave it 94 points and I'd have to agree.
(8.5/10)

Guatamala el tambor cup of excellence

2011-12-22T18:19:00.001-08:00

Had this amazing coffee at Tobys estate today and it is truly a delight. Vanilla scents and extremely sweet (in a good sort of way) on the palate. Pineapple sweetness is a good way of putting it I guess - at first I thought pear but pineapple is more accurate. Very sweet and long sweet clean finish. Notice how many times I've used the word sweet yet? Great. (9/10) comparable to the costa rica I had at seven seeds in Melb

Skyve Elementary Bistro and Bar

2011-12-22T08:50:00.000-08:00

A friend of mine who works at Chope highly recommended this place, Skyve Elementary bistro and bar, so G and I made our way there today after work to check it out. Located in a school complex in Windsted Road, Skyve (for short) is one of those charming little places. The bar area is decadently plush, with sofas and dim lighting, while the bistro (i.e. dining area) is bright and cheery, which makes for good photographs, of course.

Skyve offers a breakfast menu, oysters, the usual appetizers and mains, and dessert. It boasts an extensive wine list but that time G wasn't planning on having wine - he was just in the mood for the creative. So he ordered a lemongrass drink - which was not bad, came with sugar cane which was unusual. The owner, Celene, came along, introduced herself, and recommended, for appetizers, the steak tartare. We were like, why not - so we agreed and ordered the same, and boy was it pretty amazing. Just simple, the minced beef was lightly charred on the outside, and the egg was prepared sous-vide (probably), and there were some garlic crackers and also wasabi mayonnaise which went very well with the beef. The whole combination worked brilliantly, the beef was flavourful and paired well with the wasabi mayonnaise. Good job. (8.5/10)

G had the pork belly sous vide, while I had the sous vide ocean trout. The pork belly was pretty amazing and one could tell that G was very happy with his meal, which was great. Tasty, with good crackling, and well seasoned, the pork belly I tried from him was up to the mark.

I had the sous vide ocean trout, which was great - the fish was perfectly cooked, slightly pinkish in the middle and still retaining its sweet delicate flavour, nice and red. Flaked so easily. Paired with a simple sauce of olive oil, this was another winner. What i liked about the food was its attention to detail, for e.g. the shitake mushrooms that accompanied the dish were very tasty and probably of very good quality. (8.5/10)

Excellent food in a wonderful setting. Highly recommended.

Sarnies (Revisted)

2011-12-07T05:53:00.000-08:00

When one is working, one settles for cheap thrills, i.e. literally cheap treats throughout the day that can satisfy one's miserable working life routine and the humdrum of it all. Sarnies is one of these places for cheap treats that don't bust a whole in your wallet, but gives you wonderful happy-times.

I've blogged about the wonderful coffees Sarnies serves, but today I discovered something brilliant as well - lovely scrambled eggs. Their scrambled eggs are creamy, eggy, and just the way I like it, as compared to Toby's where it's a little tougher.

And their house blend of coffee was back, i.e. the costa rica - ethopian yirgacheffe blend. I had it as a cappuccino and it excelled again with just enough acidity to bring out the coffee flavours. Good stuff.

Smitten Coffee and Tea Bar

2011-12-06T07:26:00.000-08:00

Darren and hongyuan are one of the nicest fellas in the Coffee industry, and Smitten is their little cafe at the Quayside, along the Robertson stretch which I incidentally love. A little hole-in-the-wall, it serves delicious coffees and a selection of pastries and confectioneries from all over the island, such as Gobi's cakes, and macarons from ET Artisans. Do try their "black sesame" macaron - it's delicious.

In terms of coffee preparation, they use a Mirage, and the beans are roasted in-house from all over the world. They also offer other 'slow-brew' methods such as a cold drip, and also other pourover methods such as the v60 and the chemex. Recently, however, they've come up with the "Prancing Elf" Christmas Blend for the holiday season. I popped by on Sunday and was suitably impressed - this was an impressive drink. A mixture of Sumatra Blue Batak and Ethiopian Yirgacheffe, the Christmas Blend was very spicy, i.e. full of spice notes, with notes of cloves, cinnamon, dark chocolate, and roasted nuts, particularly pistachos, with a long nutty aftertaste of pistachos. My friend said she could discern cranberries and turkey, but I would not go that far, as yet. Even so, it is a great blend - one should check it out. [8.5/10]

Their usual blend is called the Thumper, and it's great if you like fruity coffees. It's a 4-bean blend, although I have forgotten the exact composition of beans. This one is nice and it's constantly evolving; well balanced. [8/10].

Do check out this place!

Sarnies

2011-11-17T17:54:00.001-08:00

Sarnies serves the most amazing coffee in singapore, no kidding. It's just good stuff. Owned by a brother and a sister who hail from Sydney, they serve consistently great coffee- I've been there quite a few times and all the time it's good. Their cappuccino (which is what I usually order - no I don't mean the ones with the huge amount of froth but a proper cappuccino) is always very nice - full of "coffee" flavour, if you know what I mean, properly dark, nutty, chocolatey, with a hint of acidity to bring out the flavour. As an espresso, which is the picture you see here, it is nice and bright, with good acidity and a very 'sweet' aftertaste that helps to clean everything up nicely. Excellent coffee, especially in Singapore (8.5/10). In fact, Sarnies, as the name suggests, is great for sandwiches. I have heard great things of the Roast Beef Sandwich and I have to try it soon - haven't had a chance to go there for lunch , yet. It's a pity the place closes at 3pm though -would be nice for dinner!

Baliwag Lechon Manok

2011-11-10T07:12:00.000-08:00

I just came from the gym, and I guess I was too hungry to walk to my car [at tanjong pagar], so I decided to pop by Lao Pa Sat for a quick bite - and I stumbled upon a long queue at about 9.30pm at this stall called Baliwag Lechon Manok - So, what the hell, I decided to give it a shot. Roast chicken was just the thing, and from the Phillippines some more. And boy am i glad I decided to try it instead of going for tried and tested ramen or some other place - it was awesomely delicious. Half a roast chicken, some cauliflower, and rice - perfect after-gym food. The roast chicken was just so flavorful in its own juices and the breast meat was deliciously moist and everything - and the skin had the perfect combination of sweet, savoury, and all the malliard reactions giving it a nice charred roast flavour that just made you crave for more. It went down in a jiffy and it didn't need any of the accompanying sauce. The cauliflower was very tasty, and so was the beef sauce slathered on my rice.

Really - now you can get really good food at lao pa sat! (9/10). Moreover, it's pretty value for money: the above set me back only 14 dollars.

Toby's Estate

2011-11-08T01:23:00.001-08:00

Ah I am reminded, going through my photos, that I have yet to blog about Toby's estate. Toby's estate was established by Toby smith some time ago in Sydney and has recently made its way here. Located In a sprawling shophouse cum warehouse along Robertson quay, the space shouts Australia. In fact the feel is very much like the auction rooms in north Melbourne; or a tinge of brother baba budan in Melbourne. High ceilings, lots of plants, and industrial walls with modern furniture though still wooden. Interesting.

The head barista is suhaimi who is one of the most well respected baristas in Singapore, formerly from cuppachoice: I've returned a few times already and they have been slowly tweaking their house blend called the rodyk blend- it moved from a very bright blend, to a three bean blend about two weeks ago that was pleasant but maybe lacking in body especially when paired with milk, to today's present four bean blend which was a bit bright at the start of last week but has now mellowed to create a nice base for espresso based drinks.

Toby's is one of my usual spots for a pre-work coffee, and so I've encountered a wide variety of shots and flavours in their coffee ever since they've opened. It can range from an espresso with grape-like acidity, to a toasty nutty shot, to a balanced cup, etc. A good go-to place for coffee, they are usually very consistent in their shots so you can be assured of a good cup everytime you go. I really like the Rodyk blend, one of the best blends in Singapore.

Their breakfast is quite brilliant as well - the full english breakfast consists of scrambled eggs, brioche, bacon, and mushrooms - pretty delicious, especially the brioche. have to go back soon, maybe sometime this week. or you can order just scrambled eggs with brioche which is a good option if you're not too hungry.

Toby's just has a great Australian vibe to it [of course, since it's Australian] - and it is a great place to chill. Too bad it opens only until 6pm though. Reminds me a lot of Auction Rooms in Melbourne, with high ceilings and alot of plants and an industrial vibe about it. Great atmosphere to sit down there and laze away a couple of hours.

Overall Rating: Coffee: 8.5/10
Breakfast food: 7.5/10

Drips bakery cafe

2011-11-07T17:54:00.001-08:00

Heard so much about drips that I felt I just had to come here. I'm a sucker for cakes. So off I went before cell group to try some of these delicious tarts.

The ambience wasn't what I was expecting - it was bright and breezy with a lot of whites and modern furniture - I plopped down and ordered some of their tarts along with a coffee .

I had the brandied cherry tart and ther macadamia tart and both were not bad. The brandied cherry tart had a rather sour zing from the brandy and cherries though perhaps the alcoholic taste was a bit strong or else the brandy was of not so premium quality. Either way or was still decent with a flaky shortcrust base which went well with the cherries.

The other one was the macadamia nut tart and this wasnt bad - the nuts were quite delicious and contrasted in texture with the softer shortcrust base.

The coffee was roasted darker than the other places I've been to- you get little acidity and more of the roasty flavors though I felt that not much of the flavor showed through - it became rather dark and murky and a little too over roasted . Not so good IMHO but this could be due to the fact that the beans may not have been that fresh.

Cakes : 8/10
Coffee : 5/10

Yuan wei seafood restaurant

2011-11-07T17:53:00.001-08:00

Been looking for this place that sells the giant garoupa and the different parts. The first time i couldn't find it bit after having seen a photo of the entrance I finally spotted it and so off we went.

Heard good things about the fried kway teow from ieat so had to order that - wasn't bad, good wok hei if the dish was a bit bland ie lacking in salt. Good smoky aroma though. 7/10

The beam curd with mushrooms were excellent - a very very good Shang tang being the key. This Shang tang was very fragrant savory and Unami. 8.5/10

Sadly the garoupa meat steamed with garlic was rather hard. Not tenderx I suspect it's because it's a big fish but so totally dashed our expectations. Oh well. 6/10

Maybe you guys cld tell me what to order next time?

Wimbly Lu

2011-10-30T20:48:00.001-07:00

A new cafe has opened up, fellas! Recently there has been a slew of cafes opening up to feed the Singaporean insatiable love fr food and wimbly Wu is one of them. Located at Jalan riang which is a neighborhood called braddell heights which is the terraced houses near Sommerville road and woleski road, this is a small little cafe specializing in chocolates and cakes .

The place is really cosy almost like a living room. It has a very homely feel about the place which I guess is what you want from a good cafe. Having heard so many good things about the waffles, well, you just had to order the waffles! It took a while to arrive, but o my, was it good! Very light with just the right doughy taste, if you know what I mean - in fact it was extremely light but still crisp as well, reminding me alot of the old A&W Waffles. (9/10)

The other really yummy thing we had was a Cheesecake with raspberry compote. absolutely divine. the cheesecake was not too dense but not too light as well with just enough cheesiness and the raspberry compote had much of the natural flavour of raspberries and it wasn't too sweet. excellent. (8.5/10)

Lao San kway chap

2011-10-30T20:42:00.001-07:00

Ieatishootipost recently voted this the best kway chap in Singapore and as a kway chap lover I absolutely had to go down to see what the fuss was all about. Located in a kopitiam in toa payoh, there was no long queue, nothing. You'd be hard pressed to believe that this shop is a legend. But it is.

We wasted no time in ordering and in a jiffy the food came. My word it was pretty amazing. The kway had perfect texture and the soup was so flavorful, and pang, enhanced by the shallot oil and fried shallots. The braising sauce was a perfectly balanced mix with hints of cloves star anise and very good soy sauce: each morsel ie intestines etc was infused with the braising sauce which brought a slightly spicy hint that came from the star anise into every bite tender as well.

Absolutely excellent (9/10)

Lukes oyster bar

2011-10-06T03:41:00.001-07:00

Read about lukes oyster bar from some of these new Singapore websites that pop up all over the place , and after tennis today I decided to drive down to check it out . Off gemmill lane stood lukes the oyster bar, with a very elegant and posh white marble decor which was, I'm told, reminiscent of the big apple. A big American was shucking them oysters whilst chatting with a couple of other American customers at the bar, and, after having purveyed the wonderful decor and ambience, I plonked myself at the bar, and ordered their promotion, half a dozen oysters with beer, either Stella or hoegarden.

The American couple sitting beside me at the bar were really friendly and before long we were making small talk about their travels where they wre gg next etc. Turns out that they went to Phuket bkk phi phi and bali - for surfing. How nice.

First up, the corn bread arrived. Sweet and almost cake-like.

The oysters came afterwards, six juicy bivalves in the half shell with some lemon and shallot vinegar. Started squeezing lemon on one, and tried it- tried it, very good, slightly mineralish, and with a clean finish with a bit of sweetness. Being just about medium sized also helped I guess. The second to sixth one, I decided, needed no lemon as the lemon was threatening to oversour the taste of the oysters, and this time it was even better. Clean with some minerality is how I would describe it. Paired quite well with the Stella they were offering as part of the promotion . (8.5/10)

I asked the owner later and he said that the oysters were from new england- ah can't wait to try oysters from other places then!

Not being contented with eating just oysters I ordered the clam chowder since well you know it's nice to have something soupy and hot to warm up the foodieinme. And so the Boston clam chowder arrived, served in a glass jar. And boy it was really good. Extremely
Buttery, with fresh clams, potatoes, which contributed to the flavorful and savory taste in each mouthful. Lots of butter definitely. And of course what's really important was the addition of freshly ground black pepper which made all the difference to cut through the richness - and it has to be freshly ground, mind, since the aroma is never there with non-freshly ground pepper. This Was an exquisite clam chowder (9/10)

Overall the food here is great but not cheap- a lobster roll would set you back 40 quid and a steak maybe 80 quid. However it's an excellent place if you decide to treat yourself every once in a while after a long days work.

Ramen champion - tetsu

2011-09-27T10:22:00.001-07:00

Went down to ramen champion with d because I had a ramen craving. You know the late at night just finish working kind. My friend ordered iroha so, not wanting to replicate, I tried tetsu instead. Tetsu sells the dipping style ramen where the soup is served separately - actually more like a gravy- and you dip your noodles soba style. The noodles was pretty chewy a bit like la mian or more accurately shou dao mian. Dip it into the gravy and its delicious- the gravy was very umami and powerful, salty even, but packed with a huge punch. The seafood umami flavors really shown through - pretty robust I have to add.

The tamago was nothing much to shout about but at least it was not hard boiled.

And the good thing is when youve finished your dipping, and return your bowl to the stall, and they will add some daishi stock to mix with the gravy - now it's drinkable as soup. Try it! It is one bowl of tasty soup especially sweet and fragrant, with the daishi stock and all.
8/10

Kiraku

2011-09-26T22:22:00.001-07:00

Had dinner at kiraku (market street) prior to the big d birthday bash at royal room, and this was indeed a wonderful meal. Slightly pricey yes but well I would say pretty much a healthy delicious and well prepared Japanese meal.

Having coincidentally bumped into a couple of my friends on the way out whilst we were entering the restaurant, I asked them what was nice and they told me - spicy salmon maki- so I had to try that and indeed it was delicious. Fresh salmon in a spicy sauce with other delicious goodies. Yummy. So good I ordered another after that. (8/10)

I was very tempted by the possibility of eating aburi salmon and eel and so I ordered the aburi salmon and Eel set and this was divine - smokey aburi salmon and eel on top of sushi rice- ahhhh the simple pleasure of life. Trust me, I was very sad when the last piece of aburi salmon was gone. (8.5/10)

Sian I think I'm going to get myself a blow torch for good measure. It might be fun aburing salmon, not to mention delicious.

This restaurant is famous for wagyu shabu shabu apparently but the budget told me not to indulge in it- the alternatives dare I say were better

Little part one cafe

2011-09-26T07:04:00.001-07:00

Am on a blogging spree now and let's just ignore the picture quality that comes from uploading from the iPhone. N s and I went to the little part one cafe which is a really quaint homely and beautifully decorated cafe in upper Thomson namely along jasmine road. The decor is really amazing full of photos and weird stuff ,

N and s were a little held up in traffic so I had a beer to start off with, a hacker pschorr steinweissbier. Beeradvocate only rated it a b+ so I didn't expect to be wowed but really this was great! Strong aroma, full of spiced bread, and it really tastes of banana and spiced bread just like a good heffweissbier should taste like. So drinkable that in a short Span of time it was gone. My rating: A-

N and s finally arrived so we had our mains which for me was the Belgian fish stew. Pretty good, fresh fish and mussels in a usual marinara styled stock. Pretty pricey though- and I wish there was just more of the hearty tomato stock- and maybe less tomatoish and more- rich.

And at last I finished with a la trappe quadruple which was brilliant - hints of vanilla and very complex. Very nice. I dare say, somewhat more drinkable to my mind than a chimay. A

Kah hiang restaurant - international plaza

2011-09-26T06:32:00.001-07:00

The good thing about working at tanjong pagar is the easy access to all sorts of wonderful food and kah hiang is one of them, an old gem that packs in the crowds week in week out, and only during lunchtime mind you.

My partner brought us out for lunch the first time, when I was still a trainee, but this time I went with a few colleagues, for a taste of their heavenly Claypot chicken with cabbage. A heavenly smoky aroma escapes from the claypot, with tender chicken in a delicious gravy which is both smoky, savoury, tasty, and oh so addictive, great for lacing over white rice. So good, it deserves a (9/10). Can still imagine the taste now.

The next dish was the pork with Szechuan vegetables because e wanted to eat this. Good stuff. Not as impressive as the chicken , obviously.

The sambal kangkong was done competently , crisp and fresh. The sauce was just run of the mill but still good. (7/10 for the other dishes)

Be Disloyal!

2011-09-14T07:51:00.000-07:00

Indie coffee joints are sprouting up in Singapore at a incredible rate. Recently, someone came up with the idea of introducing a 'disloyalty card', where one would go around to all these little coffee joints to collect 'stamps', and after you've finished going to all 8 cafes, you get a free drink. Pretty good, isn't it? It's good publicity. If you've been to one, you will be tempted to try the other outlets, and you may find something that you'd like (or else just go back to your favourite coffee joint) -

I have had the pleasure of going to all 8 coffee places, so here's a run-through of all the places. I notice that it would not be fair to actually put a rating to it, especially since i'm friends with quite a few of the owners, so I will just give you the low-down, and what to expect.

Here goes, in the order that's presented on the card:

1. The Broers Cafe:
Located at Petain Road, at the start of Jln Besar, the Broers cafe is brightly lit, and is in fact in one of the condominiums in that area. The beans are from Highlander, and they use a Vibienne, if i am not mistaken. You get what you expect from Highlander, pretty consistent, 4 bean blend. Some chocolatey notes, and good with milk.

2. Forty Hands
Harry is the owner of Forty Hands, located at Yong Siak street, in tiong bahru. It is an aussie-style cafe, the beans are sourced from 5 senses which is a famous roastery in Perth. On its day it is one of the best in Singapore. Especially when it first opened, some of the cups i have had from 40 hands were just exceptional: rich, chocolatey, complex, etc. They also have some single origins, which you might be fortunate to have a chance to try. Recently though consistency has been an issue. They do very good tau-sa-pias as well.

3. Jewel Coffee
Jewel Coffee is one of my favourites. The barista, Shin Hao, and owner Adrian, are extremely friendly and nice people, making it a pleasure to come here. And besides it's near my workplace. In fact i think i frequent this joint almost every day. They specialise in single origin coffees, to be drunk any way you want it, syphon, drip, or espresso-based, with their Strada machine [top of the end]. You get all sorts of single origins, from a delightful Tanzania full of berry-like, blackcurrenty flavours, to Lintong, which was very herbal, and of course Brazil, with chocolate notes, and sometimes Sidamo. I often ask for some special favours here, but I should not mention it lest shin Hao and Adrian kill me. ha-ha. but it's excellent.

4. Jimmy Monkey Cafe and Bar
Located at Buona Vista residences off One North, jimmy Monkey was opened by a husband and wife team, with the husband hailing from Melbourne, the land of coffee. It's got an interior that is reminscient of the great melbourne cafes, such as seven seeds and st ali - think tall roofs, natural materials, almost a warehouse look - and of course, there's a slayer as well. Their blend is a blend of costa rica and guatamala. Pretty bright and probably better drunk without milk.

5. Loysel's Toy
Another one of my favourites, Loysel's Toy is from the people that brought you Papa Palheta - Leon's brainchild. They roast their own beans, and it's a great place to chill, with some nice pastries, hot food, etc. and of course the coffee is excellent. Their signature blend is the Terra Firma, which goes very well with milk. Recently they have started offering single origins which are great for me because sometimes you wanna try something different. Loysel's is extremely popular especially on weekends.

6. Oriole Cafe and bar
Oriole boasts two of Singapore's leading baristas, John and Keith, and roasts in-house as well. They supply to many outlets, such as Black, and jewel Coffee. At one time when their beans came from Spinellis they were excellent; at the start when they started roasting their own, standards dropped pretty drastically and I admit I haven't gone back for a long time. But now having tasted their beans from other outlets, they must be doing something right again - probably i will go back soon, ha-ha.

7. Smitten Coffee and Tea Bar
Darren and his wife runs this place - located at Robertson Quay, the Quayside. They roast in-house as well and their blend is called the Thumper blend. It is pretty bright, and quite fruity, although I've given feedback to Darren to perhaps add more body - which he is thinking of doing. Nice environment, and of course, you get great macarons sourced from ET-Artisan Sweets.

8. SOHO Coffee
SOHO coffee is a pretty cool cafe, which has just opened. Located off armenian street, it is a proper food place with lunch, dinner, and brunch menus. I had a pretty good breakfast set that day, but of course today we're here to talk about their coffee. Their blend was pretty good, a 3-bean blend. As a piccolo latte it was competent, but it really shines as an espresso. Nice body, sweet and well-balanced aftertaste.

Melbourne Coffee

2011-08-23T12:40:00.000-07:00

To most coffeegeeks (and not just those on the website), Melbourne is the centre for bespoke coffee, or third-wave coffee (the second wave being the introduction of arabica beans instead of robusta). To the uninformed, third-wave coffee focuses on the bean itself, on extracting the characteristics of the bean to reflect the terroir of the place where it is grown. Typically single origin coffees would be a part of this, as well as lightly roasted espresso blends. To the knowledgable, this is a relatively bad description but it will suffice for now.

So I went to Melbourne armed with a list prepared by a friend of mine Ryan (who incidentally happens to be Singapore's barista champion), so of course this list has to be good since he works for a reputed coffeehouse in Melbourne as a, well, what do you know, a barista. Since incidentally, coffee and food are inextricably linked, most of these coffee joints would have food as well, and I would review them together to save you the trouble of seeing me repeat myself.

First stop was Auction Rooms. Everyone has raved about this place and so it felt like somewhere I must go. I was very fortunate to bump into A & G on the plane and so I joined them for breakfast (thanks for the car ride) at Auction Rooms. Located in the suburb of North melbourne, this felt extremely un-citylike. Think low rise houses and streets - but this place was still buzzing with life. On a Sunday morning, this was packed to the brim so we had to wait. Thankfully it was a short 10 min wait, and I had a look-around in the meantime. They seemed pretty serious about their coffee - coffee in all forms, a Synesso in the middle, a few chemexes and v60s on the side, and so on.

We ordered the poached eggs on sourdough toast, with additional sides. I opted for bacon and mushrooms, which were all pretty good choices. The eggs were fresh and poached well enough though perhaps I would have preferred mine slightly less done - the bacon and mushrooms were decent pairing as well. And to the coffee, pretty good, chocolatey notes. I should have ordered the coffee with a double shot because it was a tad diluted, but well hindsight is always fifty-fifty.

Overall breakfast: 8/10
Coffee: 7.5/10

Seven Seeds

The next stop was Seven seeds, which is a melbourne institution, having been set up by Mark Dundon after he sold off his stake at St Ali (another coffee house we will review later on). i had really high expectations for this place. Set in a refurbished warehouse, it was very tastefully done, with a wall aplete with bicycles, and rather high ceilings and a pretty textured feel to the place. I ordered a latte, as well as the coffee of the day in espresso form, which was a costa rican. The espresso was brilliant: very sweet with a toasty aftertaste - 9/10. The latte, however, didn't pass muster. The milk was too watery and not smooth enough I felt. Rather disappointing. I had a much better experience at their city outpost, brother Buda budan, which used the same beans but had better baristas, hence better results.
(Latte: 6.5/10)
(Espresso: 9/10)

Proud Mary
the next stop brought us to Proud Mary. A pretty hot spot in Collingwood, Proud Mary has been extensively featured by the who's who of Melbourne, and apparently Jamie Oliver of naked chef fame tried the food there and loved it. Located in a little suburb of Collingwood, proud Mary is one of the hottest cafes around, and has been for a few years now. The decor is really lovely, with artistic curvy lights and a sense of balance and lightness to the designs, and of course a synesso with many many groupheads.

The food - I had the pork belly sandwich which was pretty good. Garlic aioli I think it was, with slabs of pork belly. Has a Kenyan on a siphon which was not bad, if a bit diluted after drinking so much espresso. Ordered a piccolo after that which was alright- should have made it a double shot though because again I could taste more milk than coffee. And finally I had a single origin espresso- brazil I think it was. Not very good. Very buttery with nothing much else. But of course being a single origin, it all depends on the bean and the roasting.
Still however a much recommended destination especially for the food. 8.5/10
Coffee: on average, 8/10

De Clieu
Another one of Seven seeds' many joints, this time located along Gertrude Street, Brunswick. It was only okay, so-so. Nothing stood out. [7/10]

Sensory lab
Located at David jones in the cbd, to be honest, sensory lab didn't make much of an impression on me. The coffee was robust and strong- it was alright I guess.

St Ali:
St Alis is another Melbourne coffee institution, and was opened by Mark Dundon (of Seven Seeds). The place itself is like a big warehouse, with a really industrial look - a little chat with the baristas there, however, and one could sense their enthusiasm for all things java. They were frantically telling me how their new COE honduras was an amazing coffee, etc, and well - I ordered a latte and an espresso of that honduras COE. And my my was I godsmacked by the honduras COE as an espresso. It had notes of green apple, fruits, slight toffee, and all sorts of incongruous flavours. Amazing. One of the best espressos i have had in my life (9.5/10).

The latte was not bad as well - but doesn't hold a candle to the single origin espresso I had at St Alis. (8/10)

Brothers Baba Budan (BBB)
BBB is Seven Seed's city joint and is well known when you need to pick up a good coffee in the CBD. Characteristic of the place is the chairs that you see dangling from the ceiling. And I have heard that the baristas here are very good. And so my cup of coffee was quite excellent - balanced, smooth, quite dark, and aromatic. The best out of all the seven seeds joints. (8.5/10)

Market lane coffee at Queen Victoria Market - now this was a little bit strange. It didn't really do it for me. A kind of weird blend, if I may say so. (7/10)

Overall:
Melbourne is still tops for coffee I believe, but Singapore is catching up! At the high end, Melbourne's coffee joints being far more experienced in roasting etc still has the edge over Singapore, and generally the standard is better, but well Singapore is making fast progress with its new influx of third wave coffee joints such as Toby's, Smitten, Sarnies, Loysel's, Jewel, etc.

Melbourne - Mart 130

2011-08-15T06:04:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone. I recently headed over to Melbourne for a short holiday (one week) and tried some amazing food, and some, well, not-so-amazing. Having said that, though, the general standard in Melbourne is pretty pretty high. for example, in random cafes you can hope to get a decent coffee. No wonder that Starbucks has only a few outlets around the city - where the coffee is bad, such as in France, people drink Starbucks since that's the next best thing, but when you have bespoke coffee, you wouldn't need such things as Starbucks, would you?

Anyway the first place I'm going to blog about is Mart 130. Mart 130 is actually not a coffee place, since I didn't have coffee here but a mango lassi - but then, it's probably the best breakfast place that I went to on my visit to melbourne, anyway. To get here, one usually takes the tram, but since we were on the road to the great ocean road, we rented a car and drove.

Mart 130 is located in a refurbished tram station, apparently where the trains were actually used. the proprietress introduced herself as a new-zealander, and ushered us to our seats. Our seats overlooked a tennis court where housewives would be playing their tennis in the freezing cold of winter - in their track suits of course. some were pretty good. but here we were to have our breakfast.

Most of my friends / travelling companions ordered the Mart sets 1 - 4 [no replacements] , but I felt like eating some set stuff, so I ordered my english-styled brekkie of scrambled eggs, sausages, and mushrooms. This was excellent, excellent. The scrambled eggs had just enough of that eggy flavour [free-ranged eggs apparently], while the sausages were robustly seasoned with the spices and herbs that makes a good sausage, and not forgetting the mushrooms, which were done competently. Excellent. (9/10).

Mart 130, according to my melbourne friends, is one of those popular places to have brekkie/brunch, and it thoroughly deserves the accolades.

Creperie Des Arts

2011-07-17T20:49:00.000-07:00

It's about a month since I've posted in TFIM (the foodie in me), and I guess everyone's a little tired out from work, well, at least I am. I haven't taken a single day of leave since January 3rd so I guess I am entitled to be a little wee bit, jaded, for the lack of a better word in my humble vocabulary.

Anyway, back to TFIM. Last May (2010) I had the wonderful privilege of going to Brittany (Bretagne in French), a province in north-western France, and in particular, St Malo and Dinard. It juts out into the Atlantic Ocean, and presumably being a coastal province seafood features heavily. Oysters are fresh (directly from Cancale, which is a major producer of oysters) and cheap - you could get a dozen oysters for 3 euros (the good kind). Also they are famous for their crepes and galettes, which were invented in Brittany, to be washed down with apple cider (cidre). Another famous dish was the Soupe De Poissons, or fish soup, which would traditionally be slathered on with a rouille and some cheese.

That was in May last year. Since then I haven't had the opportunity to have food from Brittany, until I came across Creperie Des Arts, which is a little non-descript bistro/creperie at Prinsep Street. Apparently the chef hails from Brittany as well and so everything is authentic. And having dined there, I have to say, that's very much the case here.

We started off with Soupe de Poissons - and it was as wonderful as I imagined it to be. Rich and comforting on a cold day, and being very tasty yet not too heavy like some lobster bisques are, with the 'bisquesque' method used to extract all the goodness out from fish. A worthy contender. (8/10).
[PS I tried making soupe de poissons at home once - it failed miserably. we just don't have the fish required to make the dish work].

For our mains, I had the galette with parma ham, sunny side up egg and cheese; the traditional recipe would substitute the original shoulder ham for parma ham. This definitely passed muster, and was in fact delicious. Hot, with the buckwheat flour going so well with the savoury ingredients, it transported me back to Brittany all over again. Good stuff. Excellent. In fact it could give some of the creperies back in Brittany a run for their money. And the portion was huge, so, top marks. (9/10).

For dessert we ordered crepes suzette since my friend decided he wanted to see Grand Marnier flambeed. It was good - though I'm not a big fan of crepes suzette! I much prefer crepes nutella or crepes maron(chestnut).

Do try it out!
Creperie Des Arts
[budget about $50 per person].

Mitzi Cantonese Restaurant

2011-06-20T02:45:00.000-07:00

Mitzi is apparently (according to Makansutra) a very old name in Singapore food, having previously been situated at Murray Terrace, but they've moved down a little bit to Tanjong Pagar Road itself (about where Tanjong Pagar Road intersects with Duxton Hill). I went there alone at 9pm looking for some good grub after the gym workout, and makansutra led me to Mitzi Cantonese Restaurant for some good 'horfun' which was highly touted as one of the best in town. With such good accolodates coming from a respected guide, that's where I went.

It's an old-style cantonese restaurant, not much in terms of decor, just mirrors, and a bunch of old ladies (the proprietor's family, mostly) sitting around talking in Cantonese. Being the only person there, I asked if they were still open. They were. The waitress was almost like a mother, asking me to "qing zuo", and in response to the fact that I don't speak cantonese, spoke to me in Mandarin with the usual banter - "oh i'm teochew/hokkien" "oh i see" (whispering to everyone else - he's a teochew!) and all of the rest were "ohhh"...you know, something you see in the dramas.

I ordered the seafood horfun, waited for it to come. When it came, it looked wonderful. Eggy starchy gravy on top of the horfun, with many pieces of fish, prawns, scallops, and the like. And the taste was outstanding as well. The eggy hor fun had so much flavour in every bite, and it was filled with the "wok hei" flavour of a good hot wok in the hor fun. The seafood was very fresh and sweet as well, and, coupled with the cut chilli, made for a very satisfying meal. Highly recommended.

Next time I shall come with more people to try their (apparently) delectable offerings such as the 'pai kuat wang'. Anyone who wants to join me, please pm me!

Marmalade Pantry, Ion Orchard

2011-05-19T21:16:00.001-07:00

I am sorry I have not been updating the food blog, as I have been much too busy and lazy to do so. It's relatively tiring because one has to firstly download the photos from my phone to my computer, and then upload it again later. Which makes for a great big hassle which contributes to my lack of postings.

I went with C to Marmalade Pantry, Ion Orchard, for a little dinner. Which was pretty nice, and atas and all chi-chi, if you know what I mean, since well, marmalade pantry is a quintessential tai-tai hangout. But as I remember, it used to serve good food, so I guess that's why we were there.

Two of us shared the 'caesar salad with poached egg and avocado' which was, well, caesar salad. The poached egg was alright but I think I have had better - it was rather too vinegarish. the avocados were nice, though. 'twas a nice appetizer I guess. could have got much worse.

Next up, for my mains, I had the ubiquitous beef burger - which was well, RELATIVELY LOUSY compared to what I had imagined it to be. Yes the beefy flavours were still there, the chutney was good, but it was really HARD. Yes, unfortunately, hard beef and myself don't really go together well. [6.5/10]. And the portions were quite small and on hindsight I should have gone for the steak sandwich.

Last but definitely not least we shared the sticky date toffee pudding. marmalade pantry's sticky date toffee pudding is to me the de-facto standard. It's too good to share but since I'm on a weight-loss program I had to share. *shows face*. the rich and warm intensity of the pudding balanced by naturally flavoured vanilla ice cream always does it for me. [8/10]

Cotton Bleu

2011-04-22T00:13:00.000-07:00

It was my birthday, so the family decided to ... well, take me out for dinner, and I was in the mood for some French. I usually never eat French because well it's usually very expensive, but hey shawty it's my birthday we're gonna party like it's my birthday. So you get the idea - I get to choose what I want to eat because hey it's my birthday!

So I googled up Hungrygowhere (actually not google lah, it's just an app) and I came across this place - Cotton Bleu. The reviews were very glowing and so i thought, why not! Let's give it a try.

located at Yew lian Park (near the Chicken Rice at Thomson), Cotton Bleu is a quaint family-owned establishment, like those you'll get at Parisian bistros. it's not fine-dining, but it doesn't have to be. It's a homely French-style bistro with, well, very tasty French classics, executed superbly. The decor had well, lots of black-and-white photos of Paris, and the walls were decked in, you guessed it, pastel-blue wallpaper. All made for a good meal.

Everyday, there was an option of a S$42 set dinner, which comprises of one choice from the entree, one choice from the mains (plats), and one choice from the dessert menu. Very affordable, especially considering $42 might be the price of one dish in a high-end French restaurant.

Before the entrees came though, we were treated to their homemade bread, and this was brilliant. Crispy on the outside, soft on the inside, full of bread fragrance, fluffy as well - a joy to eat even without any butter. my dad enjoyed it so much he had three more. yes.

For the entree, i ordered a Pate - this wasn't bad, it wasn't too gamey, with quite a bit of fat and innards to get things going on nicely; Not too bad, but on hindsight the scallops would have been better: the scallops were fat and sweet and served with rosemary. Excellent, well-executed dish. (7/10)

For my main, I ordered a Rosemary Rack of Lamb; Sprigs of rosemary on lamb cooked to perfection, pinkish and, succulent. The rack was a delight to gnaw; the meat had enough lamb flavour without being overpowering and I also enjoyed the lentil beans that it was served with. Very nice. (8/10)

I tried my mum's Beouf Bourginionne and this was brilliant: i tried to make it a few weeks ago but not to any success, while this version was a revelation; perfect beefy flavour, with the roundness coming from the wine, and served of course with mash. totally hearty, and I tell you, it thrashed many a beouf Borginnione (sic) in Paris. Totally. (9/10)

For desserts, i had the boring creme brulee; it was prettty good, competently executed. (7/10)

Later on, the chef came to talk to us: and it turned out that he's French! He married a singaporean and came here to set up a bistro/restaurant, and that probably explains the high quality of the food. Cotton Bleu is a place totally worth going, and comes highly recommended. Won't blow a hole in your wallet, too.

Ah Orh Teochew Restaurant

2011-03-03T08:07:00.000-08:00

Ah Orh is one of those classic Teochew restaurants that any self-respecting foodie would go to, and know, and especially if the foodie is from a clan of Teochews, he had better know Ah Orh. So the foodie trooped down to Ah Orh one day with his father's cousins (okay so those are his uncles and aunties) - and he had a feast.

First up was Jellied Pork Terrine - classic teochew dish, especially delicious and refreshing when dipped in the tangy chilli sauce.

Oyster omelette ("Orh luak") was next - this was the classic dish. Ah Orh's version had, well, pretty fluffy egg and relatively fresh oysters. That did the trick for me even if I'm not a big fan of orh luak. I much prefer raw oysters, but of course, those have to be really fresh.

The steamed pomfret was amazing. Such sweet flesh, steamed to perfection, with just a bit of salted vegetables and sour plums on the side. Fish should be cooked this way, such that the sweetness of a pomfret can be unadulterated. This is a 9/10. Seriously.

Then we had some la-las which were, well, usual....

Some vegetables as well....

A quite delicious gooey gravy-like thinggi with mushrooms and ....well, tasted quite delicious. Who says teochew food is only bland?

Cold crabs were next. not as good as "Singapura", admittedly, but still good.

And of course, some baby clams in a tangy thai-like salad concoction. Sorry i'm really bad with names.

And orh-nee for dessert. a great meal, washed down with some good old carlsberg.

overall: 7.5/10

China Square Fish Soup (Blanco Court), Tanjong Pagar XChange

2011-02-27T19:08:00.000-08:00

Working in Tanjong Pagar ("TP") means that for lunch I only eat around here, which is not so bad really, since you have a wide range of choices, from cheap eats to even atas to the max eats if you really wanted. For starters there's Amoy FC, Maxwell FC, all legends of food gastronomy in their own right, and bestway building; then you have mid-tier outlets such as the Indonesian Restaurant "worong Lele", among others. But well, hop down to the tanjong pagar xchange and you'll be rewarded with a gem of a fish soup,China Square Fried Fish Soup. "Za - yu " tang, this place apparently used to be at Blanco Court before moving to China Square and now here.

At lunchtime, the queue is insane; but the good thing is that they are very fast so the food arrives quickly. The fish chunks coated and fried are delicious: with a hint of sweetness, fresh, tasty and pretty generous. The soup's quite robust if a bit oily - good for slurping up noodles with. And the fried eggs on top add sinful pleasures to the dish. This is certainly not one healthy fish soup, if I may caution. But it is good. (8/10)

A tale of two Tai Wah/Hwas

2011-02-27T05:21:00.000-08:00

Bak Chor Mee is a perennial favourite of mine, i guess because it's just a dish that is so ... Singaporean - and when done well is an amazing potpourri of flavours; the tartness of vinegar, the chilli, the unami of the tee-poh, and all that - mixed together - is an awesome combination, and i'm so glad I'm from the dialect group (teochew) that invented BCM.

The most famous BCM chain is undoubtedly 'Tai Wah/Hwa', which is actually a family business; Three brothers sell the stuff, and the most famous outlet is probably 'Hill street tai Hwa Noodles' at Crawford Lane. This stall used to be at Hill Street, and after that Marina square. Their brother runs this other outlet at Bestway building, spelt slightly differently as 'Tai Wah', and apparently his son runs 'Tai Wah' at Hong Lim. So yeah as you can tell, there's a whole family business right there.

I work near Bestway, so sometimes i'd pop by to have the Tai Wah BCM. Some days I just am amazed by it - the flavours all come together, the noodles are usually al-dente, the flavours are balanced and not too overpowering. With the teepoh giving the unami burst, and the dumplings all very fresh, and meatballs also done very well, this is one quite amazing bowl of BCM. I usually ask for more vinegar to give it a more 'teochew punch'. But very excellent bowl of BCM. (9/10)

The other one is the famous crawford lane branch; i went with my parents the other day, and after queuing up for nearly an hour, we were rewarded with piquant, al-dente meepok, with the usual teepoh, dumplings, meatballs, and bak chor. To be honest it is almost impossible to compare the flavours with each other because you'd almost have to eat it side by side to tell the difference, but both were very good, this one included. The 'geow' was a bit salty, but otherwise everything was almost bcm perfection. also a (9/10).

I guess since I work at TP, i'd be frequenting the bestway branch much much more than the Crawford lane branch, but I think it's just as good. Be prepared to wait, though.

L'Operetta, Boat Quay

2011-01-31T19:45:00.000-08:00

Disclaimer: Because I'm not at home, I can't put up photos now. Will do so when I get back!

L'Operetta was blogged about enthusiastically by Leslie of ieatishootipost.sg a few weeks ago as the most authentic Neapolitan pizza around, and almost good enough to get some kind of certification. Regardless of whatever certification it is, it's a great place. Located just near Jazz @ Southbridge (poor thing they're going to close, I had fond memories), L'Operetta had quite a lavish decor of opulent whites, giving it a very regal look. With opera music playing in the background, large mirrors, and bottles of wine, you could see this place was tastefully decked up.

I bumped into T & A having their meal there and the first thing they did was to give us some free grappa. apparently the chef had given them free grappa and well they passed it to us since A already had 5 glasses and he looked like one more would pass out. so. we gladly took it. and it was really nice. haha.

Later on, they actually gave us free grappa as well, and I have to say it's really excellent: very fresh, light, fruity, and quite delicious. very drinkable. yums. and the best part is, it's free!

So we ordered one pizza each (to share); we ordered the Napolitana (the normal one with basil, tomato, mozerella, oregano), one with fish, and the parma ham and rocket pizza.

The Napolitana was awesome! Very pronounced oregano and basil flavour, and the tomatoes were clearly from fresh tomatoes which were ripe and sweet. Excellent. (8.5/10)

The "fish" pizza was great as well - "ice-fish" and some other stuff. very savoury. honestly, forgotten what the flavours were. (8/10)

The rocket and proscuitto pizza was quite a standout; hard to go wrong with this if you have good ingredients, but what I liked about it was that they were generous with the proscuitto and well everything went together nicely. (8.5/10)

The great thing about the pizzas here is the crust. It's thin, but not like a biscuit, there's still some chewiness in it, and its just the right taste and texture. Perfecto.

And the best part was the complimentary blue cheese, honey and fig dessert pizza at the end. Fresh from the oven, piping hot, with just nary the slightest hint of blue cheese for after-taste and honey which just oozes subdued sweeetnes, this was a joy to eat. For sure. (9/10)

Definitely a place you must try.

Notes Music and Coffee

2011-01-15T09:08:00.000-08:00

The final coffee stop in London was at Notes Music and Coffee, St Martins Lane; I had tried to visit this place the night before but couldn't find it, but thankfully armed with google maps it was a much easier task this time. I quickly sneaked out from the train station to buy a takeaway while the family waited at leicester square, as we were heading to heathrow. So it was a jiffy affair, really, but then I was quite impressed with everything.

The interior of the cafe was really well done; very warm, with alot of old furnishings, music, cds, and of course, the coffee machine. I started chatting with the barista and he told me I was really fortunate to have come that day because the 'winter espresso' blend had just come in, and so I could try both the 'winter espresso' blends, and the old 'autumn' blend (Both from Square mile roasters), and so, why not! I first had the "autumn" espresso, and I remembered tasting much spice and fruit in it, it was quite "spicy" in flavour. Quite enjoyable.

next up, I ordered the winter espresso - this one had less of the spice notes - it did however have a more "cream" finish, very nice aftertaste.

And at the end - i ordered a flat white to go - and this was quite excellent; notes of dark chocolate, luscious on the palate - as the espresso interacted with the steamed milk. Good stuff.

Coffee probably: 8.5/10
Highly recommended if you're in london.

More coffee in london: Flat White and Milkbar

2011-01-05T07:27:00.001-08:00

Sigh work has started - so well gone are the free days of sleeping a bit longer, later, and lazing away, but then again, work is, well, challenging and fun and I like using my mind again, which has been dormant ever since JC days.
yes i'm not kidding.

Anyway, here's more coffee in London. I'm reviewing both flat White and milkbar since they are related to each other. Flat White is located at Berwick street while Milkbar is at Bateman street, and they are like sister outlets. Having said that though flat white is tons better. Tons. First up, the proprietor was really friendly and cordial, typical Aussie, I talked to him a bit about coffee and all that. Had a really really amazing amazing carrot cake there - which he said, in his own words, was "beautiful" and I totally agree. It was chock-filled with nuts and carrots, with an amazing cream cheese topping, and the taste was just magical, really worked like magic. It's funny how cream cheese, dairy products, and all that, are so much NICER - more creamy!! This was great. (9/10)

The coffee was quite good as well, at Flat White: my flat white was quite strong, and full bodied. not bad. (7.5/10).

Milkbar though was a disappointment: my flat white didn't have wet foam at all, it was just of horrible texture poured in, and in the end looked nothing better than urm, KOPI. Really. lousy. (3/10)

So if u want to go to one of these, go to flat white instead. haha. but there are other better ones.

Monmouth Coffee

2011-01-01T09:03:00.000-08:00

Monmouth coffee is an institution in London - it has been a specialist roaster for almost 30 years already, now, and it's the "de-facto" place of choice for coffee connosieurs in London - all the way before Square Mile Roasters and all the new coffee places came about. Monmouth coffee has been roasting and serving good coffee ever since 1970 and is still one of my de-facto standard coffee places to go in London. Truth be told, though, i much prefer the borough market branch as compared to covent garden, because, in comparing the 2 outlets, in my last visit to london i have had Much better latte at Borough market's Monmouth Coffee (complete with a snaking queue that lasted 30 minutes, at least) as compared to Covent Garden. But maybe it was just a bad day for the Covent garden branch, although many of you would agree with me / have agreed with me.

They sell beans as well - with little cooperatives from far away places and farms - which manages to maintain quality. It's nice. I have had the pleasure of trying many single origins from Monmouth, each with its own taste notes and flavours - and one exceptionally brilliant one was a drip from Kenya which had notes of red wine, and berries. This time, the latte (at Borough market) was nothing short of magical - cocoa notes, complex tastes, sweet, rich, creamy and intense. Almost a perfect score, I'd have to add. (9.5/10)

The other time at the Covent garden branch wasn't so good - it was a bit bitter, without the natural sweetness of coffee interacting with milk. Probably only a 7/10.

Well, do try it out and tell me!

Monmouth Coffee
Borough Market, London Bridge Tube

monmouth coffee
Seven dials (Monmouth Street)

Random Brasserie in Paris, St Michel

2010-12-28T05:59:00.000-08:00

This is criminal since I do not have a NAME for this place (I forgot to take a photo and now it's too late to investigate): I can give u general directions though; it's right on Boulevard St Michel just outside the RER station, and overlooking the Seine River. It should have been very touristy, but it was not - pretty good food.

Duck confit was not bad - not as salty as the first one, with good meat; however the skin wasn't too crisp - which was a pity; still good duck fats when eaten is just so delicious - OOHHH the oomph in your mouth. just....bliss. (7/10)

Had a very good creme brulee after that as well - creme brulee always seems to taste nice in Paris, I wonder why. (8/10)

L'Ecu de France, Paris

2010-12-27T23:09:00.000-08:00

L'Ecu de France is a little brasserie/bistro that we went to in Paris - like the rest of our eating places in Paris this is not a "big name" place where everyone must go to, like Pierre Gagnaire, but just a little bistro we stumbled upon to satisfy our hunger craving. Paris is like that - with a million and one different restaurants all serving french-style Parisian food, your best bet is to be equipped with a food guide which will tell you where to go: unfortunately this isn't one, and neither did we have one. So, no choice - the only way to decide properly is to see if there's alot of people inside, which would tend to SHOW that the food is of certain quality.

So - this place was quite full, and thankfully it turned out alright, and pretty good too. I started with some beer - to cleanse the palate - I think it was a Saisons, and it tasted pretty interesting. Quite nice =D.
We were quite full from lunch and snacks, so I had a Plat (main course) + Dessert: the Plat was really good! It was a braised rabbit with a delicious sauce of butter, parsley, some other herbs which, pardon me, I am unable to recognise, but safe to say that it went very well with the rabbit. Rabbit is awesome meat food: full of gamey flavour, and very tender too - the gamey flavour is interesting and so so delicious especially with the sauce which was rather buttery and complemented the meat perfectly. Good stuff. (8.5/10)

The dessert was a rather RICH chocolate mousse - this was pretty good as well - rich and chocolatey as mousse should be - not like the insipid chocolate we get here. i somehow think chocolate is nicer in Europe, but maybe that's just me - can someone educate me why? (7.5/10)

Anyway L'Ecu de france is located near Gare D' l'Est, between that station and the boulevard de Magenta, on the right of the road linking towards it.

Yauatcha, London

2010-12-27T03:41:00.000-08:00

Yauatcha is a restaurant opened by Alan Yau in London, and has managed to garner one michelin star; so on Sunday after church at All Souls me J and K went to check it out. The location opposite Flat White made it relatively convenient for us to grab a latte before the meal - or for K, since she needed her coffee fix. Well, how was the food, and decor, and service?

Well upon entering it is admittedly quite pretty, being modern and minimalist with chic black interiors, and lots of nice touches like swimming goldfish located in a square "fish tank" which also serves as the counter.

Service was top notch, faultless. Friendly without being too intrusive. We were offered tea, sat down, removed our coats, before we proceeded to peruse the menu. So many choices! Dim sum is usually like that, and they had many "novel" items which are non-traditional, but all the same refined.

We thus ordered the "winter melon dumplings", which were, admittedly, refined; smooth skin housing quite crisp winter melon fillings which managed to retain its juiciness. A bit short on flavour but nevertheless quite good. (7/10)

Next up was some roasted pumpkin duck puffs - this was quite interesting, since the duck was quite flavoursome and quite mushy, housed in crisp pastry. (7/10)

Century egg congee had hints of salted egg and century egg - and was flavoursome enough. Good. (7/10)

I liked the "chee cheong fun" with fried beancurd skin inside which made for interesting clashes of texture (smooth, vs crispy): (7.5/10).

Overall Service deserved an 8.5/10
But the food was well, decent, but not mind-blowing, maybe because well the dishes we ordered did not allow the chef to show his true prowess. Still, competent refined Dim Sum if you are in London. It did not blow me away like l'Atelier de Joel Robuchon, but that is a 2 star restaurant and I guess there are some differences in comparison between french food and Chinese.

Hummingbird Bakery, London

2010-12-25T22:19:00.000-08:00

I'm sure all you fellow foodies have heard of the ubiquitous Hummingbird Bakery, that famous Bakery selling wonderful cupcakes at Portobello Market (among other locations), which has been intensely blogged about before. It's a pity that I only managed to go down to Hummingbird this trip to London (having missed out on it the previous few times because I never went to Portobello), thus this time I went not once, but twice.

But boy was it worth it. You enter and the bakery is adorned with pink walls and delectable furnishings, almost out of a candy bar. The cupcakes are all lined out there, with plenty of flavours to choose from, Red Velvet, Vanilla with Vanilla Frosting, Chocolate with Vanilla Frosting, and so on.

The first time I went, i had the Red Velvet, my brother had the Vanilla, and my mother, the Rocky Road. Needless to say, the Red Velvet was extremely exquisite - one of the best cupcakes I have had in my life. Flavoursome Red velvet with sugary sweet and creamy toppings with luscious mouthfeel - what could be better (in cupcake world?) Worthy of a (9/10).

The second time I went, which was about a week later, i had the Vanilla with Vanilla Frosting, and this was good as well; light hints of vanilla in the cake, and another sweet, luscious, and also with hints of vanilla and a bit of tartness, frosting. I bought another Red Velvet for my family but my dad happily THREW AWAY THE FROSTING! (it's too sweet, he complained). BAHHHH. I was mad. haha. especially since I had taken the last red Velvet and the person behind me complained that there wasn't any more Red Velvet.
Ack!

Worth a visit definitely, if a bit far away.
Hummingbird Bakery, London
Portobello Road
Notting Hill Gate tube station (central line, district line, circle line)

Le Zinc D'Honore, Paris

2010-12-25T22:11:00.000-08:00

Had a quick bite at Le Zinc D'Honore, Marche de St Honore, before heading off for more sightseeing - so this was just a random restaurant we visited. It fared pretty, okay, with the French Onion Soup being slightly salty but palatable all the same, and my Assorted Fish being quite satisfactory; the fish (i think it was tilapia) tasted of the sea, really, the fresh ocean, which is quite awesome, although the fillet of fish was rather small - it was accompanied by salmon in mash, but I was really too full to be digging out salmon from the mash. Ha.

(7/10)
nothing spectacular, really!
Le Zinc d'honore

Au Baroudeur, Paris

2010-12-25T11:33:00.000-08:00

Hello folks; I've just come back from a really LONG trip to London and paris filled with great eats, sightseeing, and family bonding. Here are some reviews of some restaurants I've been to: (the series starts). Nevertheless it must be said that, sometimes I can't remember exactly what the restaurant's name is, or the exact location; I will try to give you best locations as far as possible, especially for Paris, but it is really hard because there are really 1001 bistros in Paris.

Nevertheless, here goes.

Au Baroudeur, having finally looked it up on google, is a restaurant in Montparnasse, a bistro of sorts, located just outside the large square outside Gare Montparnasse. Glad to say that the food here was excellent.

I started off with some Foie Gras - I think i felt cheated because when I ordered Foie Gras i expected it to be a proper whole Foie Gras and instead I got Pate - but nevertheless the Pate was pretty delicious, being rich and sinful and smooth and livery, especially when smeared on toast. So I didn't mind. (7/10)

The main course was entrecote steak, which was, suffice to say, probably the best steak frites I have had in Paris over the course of 4 days (okay, it isn't alot, but I think i've had at least 3 steak-frites). Parisians love their steak frites, and almost every bistro will greet you with Entrecote Steak, or Bavette steak, or just 'Steak frites', nevertheless it's really just different cuts of beef served with Fries. This one was quite delicious, the meat having a flavour of its own that was so good you didn't really need the Onion sauce - which was a bit salty but complemented the dish pretty well. (8/10)

No desserts for me that day though - suffice to say in Paris and London i've been eating so well that i've put on a bit, so sometimes no desserts are good.

Au boradoeur

2010-12-18T13:48:00.001-08:00

I've been having a great time eating in Paris, and I'm back in london now but I feel compelled to blog about some food now lest I forget the immaculate tastes amidst the new pleasures i am about to receive.
Here's a brilliant soup de poissons aka fish soup. I had quite a bit of this in Brittany since it is a specialty of that area, but this one was brilliant. Intense rich fish flavor with a complex smooth deep taste and aroma that seem to smell even better in the cold winter. Soak it with croutons spread with the special mustard sauce and dip it into the broth and you get a magical rich combination of flavors thats well quite irresistible. I'm tempted to give it a 9/10. Yes. 9/10 it is. Just for the sheer pleasure of drinking soup de poissons on a wintry day.

Ended off with some crepes with chocolate which was passable. Quite a nice texture from the crepe, suffciently fresh and pull-ey. 7/10

The service left much to be desired though. Absolutely bad.

Au boradoeur
Just outside gare du nord

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Les Bouchons

2010-12-09T05:39:00.001-08:00

Will be off to London and Paris like in a few hours, so here's my last post before I go and take more photos of food and eat -in london and Paris, of course.
we celebrated Z's birthday at Les Bouchons this week, and surprisingly, it's my first time there. I know I sound like a fake foodie, but really unlike everyone else who's earning money and rolling in the dough I'm still a student, and I can't justify eating at those expensive places. So I've never been to Jaan, Les Amis, Gunther's, FiftyThree, OTTO, et al. The only real expensive places i've been to are well, Joel Robuchon (in London), and Steirereck (in Vienna). But name hawker food and I just love that - I just find hawker food to be so appealing especially in Singapore, where there's just so much tradition in all those hawkers. And you know, it'll be a shame to let it all go to waste.

Back to les Bouchons, it's quite a famous bistro in Singapore for all the Francophiles, serving a mean steak-frites, and nothing much else. I mean, that's what they're famous for. So I guess all of us ordered the steak-frites; some ordered Sirloin and some Rib-Eye; I had my Rib-Eye medium rare, just the way I like it. It came with free flow of double-cooked fries that were pretty awesome.

Of course, before the steak there was plenty of "openers", namely the bread, and salad - they were alright. Nothing much to shout at - I've eaten at Parisian bistros, and of course the bread there is much better, but i'm not complaining. The salad - nuff. 'nuff said.

Back to the real meat, the beef, or boeuf - steak frites - this was pretty good, for Singapore standards.Quite a large slab of steak, well marbled, cooked to perfection - the insides were nicely red without being bloody - the outside, slightly charred. The taste: good, robust, beefy taste, characteristic of a well-done steak. I'm not such a steak person to be honest - but this was good. Definitely the real thing, perhaps, if Morton's is way too expensive (of course it is for an everyday meal) then Les Bouchons will be better. (S$32.50 for the steak). Oh yeah - the butter spread on top of the steak made for a heavenly pairing - the butter went so so well with the steak. Smooth, rich, delicious, and satisfying.

We headed over for drinks across the road, and there's a real quaint Parisian "wine bar" there. Ann Siang Hill's really trying to be little Paris - there's even a fake Parisian "blue" road sign - (those who've been to Paris will know what I mean) - along the walls. But it's a very nice little side street; reminds me of a little European town, with its little hills and all that. Nice.

Les bouchons
Ann Siang Road
(behind maxwell)

Dong Ji CKT

2010-12-02T03:24:00.000-08:00

All the food bloggers have recently been raving about Dong Ji CKT at Old Airport Road Food Centre (next to To-Ricos kway chap) and so i guess i had to find out what the big fuss was. Went down the other day after one of my papers to try it out - and what was the verdict?

Quite good wok hei, the kway teow was slippery and lively. Not too sweet, unlike some places; full of chives, a prawn here and there. I don't think it was as flavourful as the Hill Street or Outram Park one, unfortunately - but maybe that's just me. Still, quite a goodplate! (7.5/10)

Bee Kia Seafood

2010-11-30T01:32:00.000-08:00

M and L wanted to have dinner, and so suggested a place near M's house - a little zhi char called Bee Kia seafood, located at Balestier Hills Shopping Centre. It is pretty non-descript, just a little coffeehouse by the road, but my word the food was good. The four of us (L brought his girlfriend along) only paid about S$8 each for the meal, which was a steal.

We had sliced beef with kailan - this was really nice; the beef was in the beef-hor-fun style gravy (except with no hor fun, of course), with tender beef and kailan. Nice. (8/10)

I was very impressed with the HotPot Beancurd as well; the gravy was just soooo yummy, you know, it was starchy and gooey and eggy at the same time but there was a wonderful smokiness of flavour to it, that made it all the more yummy and perfect for splashing on rice. a great find - worth recommending! (8.5/10)

Everyone loved the fried baby squid and i have to concur - though I don't really like baby squid but this was done very well. (7/10)

Sweet and sour pork's their specialty: this was pretty good, with the right amount of tanginess and crispness. (7/10)

Michel Cluizel's Mandago

2010-11-29T07:59:00.001-08:00

Bought a bar of Michel Cluizel's Mandago from Culina (S$7) for the studying haul - it's been excellent! dark, rich, with full of texture; and a flavour reminiscent of spices, namely spice cake, cinammon, and i swear, even a bit of smokiness from the cigars. Which sometimes is amazing considering it's chocolate, but sometimes I like to eat just chocolate - methinks I might go back to try another bar. It's got a long, incredibly long, aftertaste - after I uploaded all the photos and done all the editing, it's still in my mouth. haha. Exams are until the end of this week so time for another bar, i'd reckon.

Xu Jun Sheng Teochew Porridge

2010-11-29T07:38:00.000-08:00

the great thing about having exams in the east is that i get to try all the yummilicious east food which is just yummy. and today i went to a place highly recommended by ieatishootipost and by makansutra called Xu Jun Sheng Teochew Porridge, located at 59 Joo Chiat Place. Seriously joo Chiat Place must be the king of food streets - it has fei fei wantan mee, kim choo bak chang, and xu jun sheng teochew porridge just a block from each other. and of course, Private affairs.

This place was absolutely rustic - a little corner shophouse; and well, alot of things we could order. of course - as in teochew porridge. We, having just finished our exams, were famished beyond belief - so we just ordered away. Here goes nothing!

Otah - freshly made, soft.

the freshly fried sweet potato leaves was a revelation - very fresh shoots, and with garlic. yums.

fresh squid was not bad - not too chewy, with just the right texture.

Chai Po Neng, aka "chai po omelette" was extremely nice - freshly fried, full of aroma of the hot wok and oil.

Fish cake - can't go wrong; i suspect this was homemade.

And the piece de-resistance was the Duck with Chestnuts - braised duck so tender that the meat just fell-off-the-bone, with "san cheng rou" on the side in the sauce to make it a lovely slurpadelicious sauce to go with porridge. this was a standout.

I really wanted to order the 'Orh-nee' because apparently that's their speciality which, word has it, can thrash some top Teochew restaurants, and since I'm teochew and I love orh-hee, had to order that. Unfortunately, (fortunately for my waistline), they were out that day. hmmph.

One of the best teochew muay places, I can give it a (8.5/10). Great stuff! worth going, especially if you live in the east and love teochew porridge like i do.

Fremantle Seafood Market

2010-10-27T00:21:00.000-07:00

Clarke Quay's having some kind of promotion now, where most places serve a $15 nett set lunch, with free parking to boot. Thus one of these days after our class we hopped down to clarke quay to look for some good eats. and this place sprang out - fremantle seafood market. for $15, they served a pretty nice set lunch, consisting of three courses, namely a Seafood Minestrone Soup that came with mussels, and quite a lot of choices for the mains. My dining companions had a Roasted Barramundi over risotto, which was nice - fresh fish, flaky, and also, the risotto was not overcooked, with the right kind of texture.

I had the fish and chips which was pretty awesome. one of the best i've tried. very fresh, flaky fish, with a very nice "batter" of sorts that was just crisp and light, and the fries were quite awesome and went well with chilli. i mean, fish and chips is a dish that you really cannot go very wrong with - so long as the fish is fresh, the batter nice and crisp, that's good enough for me.

Dessert was just a light "strawberry-cheese" thinggum that was just aww-right, you know. nothing much to shout about but i'm happy with it.

Quite a good meal for S$15! Do try.'

Loo's Hainanese Curry Rice

2010-10-18T08:48:00.000-07:00

Decided to flip the Makansutra after school (course) today for some food ideas, which led me to Loo's Hainanese Curry Rice - an institution, it was given 6 chopsticks (the highest rating) by makansutra, and with such high praise from THE food guide of singapore, I decided to check it out. Haha. So off we went.

Loo's Hainanese Curry Rice is located along Eng Hoon Street, at the corner with Seng poh Road, ie. just opposite tiong bahru market. There was a queue, which means - good stuff. There's not much ambience by the way, it's just located in a traditional old shophouse that hasn't changed for many eons, but usually these sort of places serve excellent food - tradition just makes it better.

So two friends of mine and myself ordered, well, loads of dishes: Squid in curry gravy, cabbage with tang hoon, sweet/sour fish, stewed pork, curry chicken, and pork chops. And of course, rice with curry slathered on top. And I'm happy to report that most dishes passed muster.

in fact, some were really excellent. the pork chops were simple and homely, the squid was very very good, tender and flavourful in the curry, and the curry was quite nice as well. The fish had just the right amount of sweet/sour, and well, the stewed pork was flavourful and fatty. just the way, well, i shouldn't like it. Hmm. but this was good. A very good choice.

Worth going!
Overall: (8/10)

PS: it's a bit different from the beo-crescent style curry rice, i mean, but i guess each place has their own fans. the pork at beo is crispier, but this one has more meat.

40 Hands

2010-10-17T08:02:00.000-07:00

40 hands is a relatively new cafe located in Tiong Bahru: it is very ulu, like you probably need a car to reach it, but it's a hidden gem. RIght now im trying to find the location of it, but i just can't: it's located well, if you travel along Tiong Poh Road all the way to the end, and then turn right, and then turn left into the condos, and then turn left again, you'll find 40 hands on your right in the low-rise HDB shophouses. Opened by Harry, who hails from Perth, this place boasts fantastic coffee, with beans imported from Australia (five senses, a household name). Apparently they even made a blend for him, so that's how serious he is about the coffee.

And the coffee, my goodness, is excellent. Very excellent. The latte has a roundedness and smoothness that cuts through the milk, and it is rich with nicely balanced flavours - I cannot describe it, just go try it. All that i know was that it was as fragrant and aromatic and yummy as good coffee should be. They use a Synesso and a Mazzer, serious stuff.

Only gripe potentially is the price: $5 for a single latte is a bit on the steep side. Still you get what you pay for, top quality coffee that's hard to beat in singapore.

Definitely a must-try and worth many return visits. I heard the almost croissant is nice as well.

Por Kee Eating House

2010-10-15T23:52:00.000-07:00

Por Kee, is apparently, a very old institution well known among the Cantonese for serving authentic Canto zhi char. My family was there last sunday to try out the food. Located in the neo-deco low-rise blocks of tiong bahru, it makes for a very retro setting: outdoor seating amidst the car park, night breeze, and low rise buildings all around. quite old school, and nicely so.

NOTE: SORRY for the poor images, we were outside and the lighting was bad.

I heard that the hor fun was good, and so we had to order that. When it came, we weren't disappointed: the hor fun was very fragrant, delicious, and full of that wok-hei. Very flavourful, perfect to go with a bit of red chilli they serve on the side for that little kick. the seafood accompanying it was very fresh as well: prawns, fish, squid. Only thing was that the vegetables were a bit overcooked, but well, the positives far outweigh the negatives. (8.5/10)

The next dish was their "zhao pai (signature) bean curd" - and this was truly wonderful; the beancurd was homemade, the sauce had this smoky flavour to it, perfect for spooning over rice. It was a complex mix of flavours that was very alluring. nice stuff. (8.5/10)

the stir-fried venison with ginger and spring onions was just okay: nothing much to shout about. (7/10)

Stir-fried sweet potato leaves with garlic was alright as well, but I prefer the one at Siang Hee - this one was a bit too well-cooked (6.5/10)

And the last dish, the piece de resistance, was the 'champagne pork ribs'. I'm not so sure where the champagne was, in all of that, i suppose there were hints of some acidic stuff used in the marinade, but overall the pork ribs were smoky, charred, flavourfully robust, and a joy to eat. tender as well. great dish. (8.5/10)

Great zhi char worth a visit.

POR KEE EATING HOUSE
69 SENG POH LANE #01-02

Platypus test Kitchen

2010-10-14T10:53:00.000-07:00

S's friend recently opened this place located at clifford centre and urged us all to go down, so we went with him yesterday to try out platypus test kitchen, located at 2nd floor, clifford centre, in raffles place. It occupies a little corner, and is decored in the cafe style, with wooden chairs and stuff. They specialise in pastas, which are, according to owner nicholas, made fresh everyday - and there are of course dried pastas as well. And another great thing is that there's no gst/service charge, and upgrading to a set-meal is just an additional S$3 for drinks and soup, which you have a choice of.

Well, first up was the wild mushroom soup, which was quite nice; quite full of garlicky goodness, a bit of truffle oil perhaps and loads of wild mushrooms. you could tell the flavour was there and the chef really did his homework. nice work. (7.5/10)

The pasta I had was the recommended 'Summer truffles with reggiano pasta' - and this was really quite awesome! Shaved truffles accompanied fresh pasta, and the earthly reggiano cheese (with some truffle oil) to create a powerful, rich, complex, and earthly flavour - more complex than mushrooms with a delicious aftertaste. no wonder truffles are so sought after. but this was very very good. didn't need any other ingredients to liven up the taste, this was great on its own. (9/10) - yah usually i don't give 9s but this was quite amazing.

The other pastas were nice as well: crab meat tagilitale (how do you spell it) tastes of the sea, while squid ink pasta with marinara sauce had alot of seafood goodness as well.

And kudos to nicholas the owner for indulging us with some drinks afterwards +) go support him!

Worth a return visit, and many more.

Platypus test kitchen
Clifford centre, level 2.
walk right to the end

Sinur Pagi Nasi Padang

2010-10-02T09:54:00.001-07:00

Since work is around the area (city hall / boat quay) - okay not technically work but a course i'm attending - we'd go around the area for good eats, and Sinar Pagi Nasi Padang along circular quay is one of them; a famous nasi padang place with flavourful aromatic and spicy authentic dishes to be eaten with rice.

I ordered 2 meats and sayur lodeh, to accompany white rice. the beef rendang was superb - very flavourful, rich, spicy, and with a very deliciously complex mix of spices that made it so appealing - especially when you coat your rice with the rendang, not even beef was necessary, you could just eat it with rice, know what i'm saying? the beef was very tender also. great. (8.5/10)

although the "fried beef" was supposed to be their speciality, i just can't appreciate it very much, it just seems a little too tough for me; maybe it's just me, but it was really, really, tough. almost like eating jerky. (6.5/10)

the sayur lodeh, on the other hand, was passable. fragrant from the use of coconut milk and quite generous as well. average. (7/10)

it's a bit on the pricey side compared to the wonderful meepok next door, but then i've eaten that meepok so many times already that it's nice to try new things. this one is worth going again.

Nakhon Kitchen

2010-09-15T07:02:00.000-07:00

I played tennis in the east, and afterwards C brought us out for FOOD - we were supposed to go to his friend's zhi char place but they were closed, and so we went to block 85 which was closed as well. Eerily. Perhaps there was a bedok gang going around beating people. or something along those lines. anyway, c then recommended us this place called Nakhon Kitchen, which apparently had very good thai food at cheap prices. Only thing is, we'd have to queue, but that's fine, so long as the food's decent and good.

And sure enough, the queue was about 6 "groups" long - zzz, bopian, we were famished, and had to eat, so queued up, and in a while we had our table, and our food! yums.

First dish that arrived was the Sambal kangkong, and the great thing about this dish was the real 'wok hei' that made its way into the kangkong, searing it with a lovely charred aroma - the accompanying garlic/sambal gravy was also seriously addictive stuff. Nice. (8/10). c loved it to bits - he couldn't stop eating it.

Then, all the dishes came: pork stir fried with basil was actually really with green beans - this was really delicious as well; again there was the wok hei charred aroma, and the pork had a nice zesty kick with much savoury goodness. i quite enjoyed this as well (8/10)

The Green curry was super authentic - it had all the little gourds that you'd find if you go to thailand (i know in chiangmai i hated those, but....that's another story) - and this one had lots of spices and herbs, with a very flavourful curry to go with it that wasn't too cloying and full of basilic goodness. (8.5/10)

the tom yam soup was pretty good - unadulterated, hot stuff, with a soury tang - not watered down for local palates, and i like that! (8/10)

the only dish i found that didn't really pass muster was the fish cakes, because that was a bit, insipid, to say the least. however, with so many wonderful dishes, that costs, between the 4 of us only SGD48 means this place is a place for keeps. too bad it's in the east. well all your easties have fun with it!

Moi Lum

2010-09-07T10:49:00.000-07:00

moi lum is a decades-old cantonese restaurant, very popular with the old crowd, and foodies in the know. i was fortunate to be friends with the chef's son, chris, while both serving national service in the civil defence. he had always asked me to go to his restaurant and im glad i did, coz the food was good, and very reasonable.

I went back once, a few months back, but well I can't find the photos for that time, so i'll make do with just blogging about this newest visit to his restaurant.

(moi lum, by the way, is located at maxwell road, just opposite maxwell market).

with the family, sometimes it's crazy to decide what to order; the $88 set menu for 5-6 people looked appetizing enough, so we went for that.

the first dish was sea cucumber with crab meat soup: this was very well done, flavourful superior stock with pieces of sea cucumber and crabmeat. flavourful. im a sucker for double boiled sharks-fin-esque soups, i admit.
(8/10)

their majestic roast chicken is a thing to behold: crisp skin, tender meat, with just the right amount of seasoning. it's tasty to eat on its own but also good with the accompanying sea salt. great. (8/10)

i didn't take a photo of the vegetable dish but it was "big vegetable" (i dont know how to put it in english) with a sauce of mushroom, braised. quite delicious as well.

then there were some pork ribs, deep fried and breaded. this was tasty but not my favourite. (6.5/10)

the last dish was quite impressive as well: live prawns boiled in stock; the stock was really quite awesome, it had wolfberries, and a copious amount of hua-tiaojiu, me thinks. so good. the prawns were very fresh, and the stock was meant to be slurped. haha.
(8/10)

definitely a place you should go. recommended.

Papa Palheta

2010-09-07T10:39:00.000-07:00

I'm a regular at Papa's (also known as PPP), and what i like is the real bohemian, relaxed vibe that infuses the place from the quaint "tasting bar", to the palm-lined alfresco area, to the unique antique turntables and gramophones, or just the friendly baristas and waitresses that have come to know me (and vice versa) such that it's one big happy family, and a family of friends. And the funny thing is everytime i go to papa's i always seem to meet some other friend that i know, which is really very quaint. maybe there are really that few places in singapore for good coffee, but i think, well, maybe there's all the other places, and there's PPP.

Papa palheta roasts their own coffee: leon ,the proprietor, was apparently influenced by the joints in melbourne, and came back to set up his own coffee shop selling coffee beans. there are many blends, such as the terra firma, or the ippolito, and many single origin beans such as the "sidamo", the "toraja", kenya, sumatra mandheling, and many others. i must confess that i've gone back so many times so that i can blog about this offhand. and yes, they do all sorts of coffee as well, from the espresso-based drinks made from their synesso machine (it's about the only place that uses a synesso, actually) to drip (paper-filter) coffee, which are more for single origins.

and of course, their coffee is good. i remember once trying a very lovely kenya drip coffee, which was done to perfection; fruity notes, rounded finish. for their espresso drinks, they normally use the terra firma blend, which gives some chocolatey notes, dark notes, and a bit of acidity and liveliness. it's a good drink to have. i usually order lattes anyway, but you could have it anyway you want, ristretto, macchiato, latte macchiato, etc, etc, etc.

in fact, im going back tomorrow. haha. say hie if you see me there .(if you know who i am).

(9/10)
hooper road, singapore. (near newton circus)

Guan Kee Kway Chap

2010-09-07T10:31:00.001-07:00

Guan Kee Kway Chap is one of those kway chap places listed on makansutra, so me and g went down after class to see what the fuss was about. we originally wanted to eat at the other place: toa payoh lor 4, but they're closed until 11 september, so we had to make do with guan kee instead.
but it was very good! usually when i go in the afternoons the china people make the kway and its just not as good as getting the original people to do it, and this time the original storeowners were there, so i got kway that was just right, slippery, smooth, and not too overdone; the innards were yummy as well, small intestines, stomach, and the like, all braised in a savoury soy sauce. flavourful without being too herby.
(8/10)

Block 16, bedok south road

2010-08-14T22:27:00.000-07:00

After soccer we went to the east for a time of feasting on really cheap and good food, you know the type that you can eat like a king for ten dollars.
We went thus to bedok south block 16 which is opposite tjc for some really cheap and good food.

Hill street ckt needs no introduction and this time I felt that it was up to form. The wok hei was sufficient, there was lots of 'heat', was savoury and each morsel pretty delicious. We shared a plate since ckt is too sinful to finish a plate all by oneself. But yeah I felt it was up to form at this time. 8/10

Next up was my main course, fish soup from Choon huat fish heAd steamboat. They offer a choice of garoupa or sea bass so of course garoupa is for me! Was quite awesome. The fish in chunky slices was quite fresh and soft while the soup was very tasty and full of fish oils if a bit too much of the fried onions which made it a pleasure to slurp nptwithstanding my poor arteries. Slurped it all up! 8/10

Location:Clementi West Street 2,,Singapore

Sapporo bishamon ramen

2010-08-14T22:11:00.000-07:00

Had sapporo bishamon ramen, funan centre - it was really nice, to my surprise! The Miso ramen was rich and quite flavorful and full of Unami, with all the sweetcorn and the egg was pretty tender. Very unami - this was a good find which is near the place of work now. 8/10

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:W Coast Rd,Singapore,Singapore

Lee tong kee

2010-08-14T22:05:00.000-07:00

Lee tong kee is a household name for Ipoh hor fun apparently but I never knew about it. My friend recommended it and so we trooped down after class to try this place.

We started off with some Kailan which was done quite competently.

This was a highlight- Beancurd with egg white was deliciously tasty- very nice- with a bit of smoky and rounded flavours. 8/10

This was the highlight of the show- soya sauce chicken was perfectly cooked and so tender inside and full of flavor and taste.
8.5/10.

The Ipoh hor fun itself - smooth and lively with an agreeable sauce to go along with it. Nice.

This place is pretty nice and well recommended and worth a visit. Located at south bridge road opposite Maxwell market and tong Heng.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:W Coast Rd,Clementi,Singapore

Chikuwa tei

2010-07-08T08:37:00.001-07:00

A break from my Europe posts - in fact there havent been many, because I've been so lazy, but well, this is one that is a joy to write. Chikuwa Tei is really familiar to most bloggers because the chef is the same chef from Wasabi Tei, which is pretty much an institution amongst floggers for the fun/harrowing experience of eating in his restaurant. So now he's moved to comparatively more spacious premises, and the prices have moved upmarket to match as well. It's a proper restaurant now, with tables, waitresses, the lot. The old grumpy chef now looks much happier, without his assistant - was it her fault, really? Either way, he was all smiles. A welcome change!

I ordered my usual Chirashi Sushi, which is pictured here:

Chirashi Sushi: S$25++:
This was just as excellent as I remembered it, if the price had gone up by 5 dollars. Thick thick slices of salmon, full of flavour; 2 large sweet hotate (scallops); tuna which was quite palatable. 4 fat slices of hamachi (or is it kempachi, i can't tell), which were also very tasty. And to top it off, some uni, yums. Love the seaish metallic taste. Yum.

My friend had the Set dinner that night ($39) which was pretty worth it - it came with 4 slices of salmon sashimi, tempura, and a real large slab of salmon - it was so big, omg, but done so well, flaky and tasty at the same time.

Still good after these years. Highly recommended.
(8/10)

Cafe De St Malo

2010-06-25T11:05:00.001-07:00

There's a backload of Europe restaurant reviews, and certainly I'm not going to blog about all, because, in truth some of them I've really forgetten what they taste like, and when that happens it probably means the food's just average, and well perhaps it doesn't make much sense for me to blog about something just average.
I mean, if that's the case I could tell you about my KFC that night after a night out in London's Notting hill (opposite the notting hill arts club), but that wouldn't do it justice. the chicken was really nice, by the way.

Here's Cafe de St Malo, located in, st malo, no prizes for guessing, at the entrance of the Walled City (Intra muros) of St Malo. St Malo's a touristy town in Brittany, in the Northwest of France, where all the oysters are caught. The oysters here were selling for about 4 euros for a dozen, so you can imagine how awesome that must have been. So here's seafood city, and of course, Cafe De St Malo offers seafood, seafood, and more seafood. They had different varieties of their Plateau de Fruits de mer, which is really, seafood platter in French, but the French love their courses, and so often for lunch the "set menu" consisting of a starter, main, and dessert is usually offered, and it's called le "menu". This is, as opposed to Germany, or Austria, where such a concept is quite alien to them - they just have one course which is really so filling that you can't really have much else. But back to the menu, usually you can't choose that many things for the menu (in other Parisian restaurants), but for this one you can, i mean, they offered us quite alot of choices. So here goes.

Well, being in seafood town means eating seafood; so my friends had a famous seafood dish, "Soup de Poissons", which is basically fish soup, but it's done in such a way that all the goodness of the fish is extracted out into the soup to form a really flavourful, fish-based soup with all the nice seafood flavours. Recipes can be found online - apparently it's a Provencial soup (from Provence, south of France), and it's very similar to bouillabaisse, with saffron, white wine, etc, and it's served with croutons and gruyere cheese. Well, this one was served similarly, and it was pretty good! Very very good. I had a sip of my friend's soup and regretted not ordering it as I was sick that day and hot soup would have done much good. It was very flavourful, probably the best soup de poissons we ate. (yes we ate at two other places the same soup, which weren't as good).

For my starter though I chose the assorted seafood platter, which came with bulots (snails), which were, okay, ugh, much like eating chut chut, very nice, sweet prawns, Cancale oysters, which were pretty alright if a bit salty, and they had a special oyster which was a supplement of 1 euro, which tasted pretty much better than the ordinary oysters in that it had a more complex taste, and a longer finish. And of course, langostines - which is something very wonderful to eat because the meat's very sweet, sweeter than a prawn, and it's much easier to eat due to its thin skin. There were crab legs too, which had roe. yums. (8/10)

For my main, I ordered assorted fish on "cabbage", which turned out to be Sauerkraut. The fish was fine, salmon, haddock, and all, but I didn't care much for their version of sauerkraut, which should have been named sour-krat, it was that sour. too much vinegar! But the fish was fresh, I guess.... (6.5/10)

Dessert was Creme Brulee, which was pretty good, actually. a decent rendition. (7/10)

Pretty decent meal at Cafe de st malo!

Cafe De St Malo
St Malo (at the entrance)

Steirereck, Vienna, Austria

2010-06-21T08:02:00.001-07:00

Steirereck is, frankly, the best dining experience I have had, in my life. It may not have such a famous name as Joel Robuchon, or Pierre Gagnaire, but to anyone in the culinary world who knows his stuff, Steirereck is definitely up there with the best. It was rated the 21th best restaurant in the world by San Pellegrino for 2010, and upon seeing the list I knew I had to try the delicious food. So I emailed the manager, and thank God we managed to get a reservation, on the 9th of June, for lunch.

The hardest part of the journey was, frankly, to find the restaurant; located in the Stadtpark, just outside the Ringstrasse, we scoured the whole of the Park before finding it behind the kindergarten's corner, after asking many a local. So here we were! The wait staff promptly ushered us to our table, on the verandah overlooking the gardens.

Instead of having the menu thrusted at us, they offered either still or sparkling - I guess we couldn't ask for "tap", since we were in a really atas restaurant - so we said still. Fine. More on this later. We were then served some crackers which were quite nice.

And then the amuse bouche came, which was brilliant - four little lovely nibbles - the first was an interesting cheese, the second, apparently some ox's tongue or something, the third was something carroty, and the fourth was something tart - sorry for the hazy descriptions, I'll just let the photos do the talking. What impressed me was the how the flavours worked together, which was quite impressive.

Everyone's looking happy - yeah they have reason to be!

The first course was called "Sturgeon with seaweed, avocado, preserved tomatoes and buddha's hand lemon"; the sturgeon is pan-fried, then confited, served with avocado creme and crunchy tempura balls. The tempura balls added delicious crunch on the top of the fish, which was fresh, delicate, and with a firm texture. the avocado creme also lent itself well into creating some excitement into the fish, without overpowering its delicate flavours. On the other side was "tomatoes preserved with riesling vinegar and olive oil" and this was quite exciting - the tomatoes were oh so delicious, sweet, and zingy at the same time, while it was a delight biting into the candied buddha's hand lemon peel. Great starter (8.5/10)

The next course was confited pike with walnut, kohlrabi, rhubarb and sorrel. In this course, the Pike was confited in walnut butter, and the chef left some walnut butter on to flavour the fish, which added some earthly notes to a delicate fish. It was very subtle, nonetheless, not to detract from the clean-tasting fish which was quite delicious. There was also preserved rhubarb with "kohlrabi pomace, liquorice" which added some sweetness to the dish. Quite good, if not as good as the first course. (8/10). Yes, I ate two fish dishes. But well, that's me!

The main course was a "Lightly smoked and pan-fried veal's liver with liquorice, grapes and radish". The veal's liver was cold smoked and then pan-fried, and served with veal jus, with verjus, liquorice, shallots and citron. The sauce was tart enough to cut through the richness of the meat, and quite sweet. But there was something - I didn't really enjoy veal's liver - I thought it would be something like chicken or duck liver, but it was more akin to pig's liver, in that while there was the flavour there, I didn't really like the texture. Still it's my fault for ordering something unknown. The jus was quite nice though. This was served with a roasted potato and white radish "croissant" with roasted hazelnuts, chervil, parsley and tarragon. It was pretty interesting biting into the roasted potato and finding the herbs inside - nice presentation. Oh well, I had expected my main course to wow, but it didn't. Still, no worries. (7.5/10).

Because the other two courses were just just brilliant. Just brilliant. Amazing. Stupendous. Magnificient. El bravo! The first of these great courses was a Cheese Platter - Usually in lesser restaurants they'd already selected the cheeses for you, but not for Steirereck, for here the waiter pushed an entire trolley of cheeses (according to an Internet source, there's about 150 varieties) all from its cellar, for me to choose. How to choose from such a selection?
So i told the waiter that I liked strong cheese - and so he recommended 5 cheeses for me - and boy, each of them were just, unfailingly great. The mildest one - top right, was pretty interesting, quite mild and delicate; the next one was the goat's cheese (top, orange), which was a bit stronger, with a nice lovely aftertaste. But the best three for me were the ones in front (in the picture); the one to the left was rich, creamy, tart, fresh, and full of intense flavour, salty, all at once.

The one in the middle was even better, this time even more powerfully rich and strong, pungent, and with a taste not unlike durians. It was just delicious, delicious, wish i could have some more. But the piece de resistance was the Blue cheese - I can't remember the name, i think it was Bleu de Casses or something - but this one was just like entering gourmet heaven. One bite of this, and suddenly, all the flavours rush out into your mouth, filling your cavity with intense heightened flavours which are too complex and magical to be described in mere words, but if I were to use words, it was rich, intense, salty, warm, overflowing, etc. A rush, I'd call it. Lovely lovely. The blue cheese deserves a (10/10); the whole cheese platter, (9.5/10)

And the last course, the dessert, was just as good. The dessert was described as 'Warm Trinatario" chocolate with pineapple-pericon sorbet and coconut macaroons. It consisted of a creamy shortcrust tart with chocolate, egg yolk, heavy cream, vanilla and rum, and garnished with coconut macaroons, and a pineapple pericon sorbet and salad. And I have to say, hands down, this is the BEST CHOCOLATE i have ever ever tasted. BY FAR. The combination of flavours was just perfect.

The chocolate was very intense and chocolatey, very smooth, while not being too bitter, too sweet - it was seriously the perfect combination of bitter and sweet. So so deliciously awesome. All my friends also agreed with me how awesomely delicious it is - it thrashes Laurent Bernard's by a mile (okay sorry - but you're the best in singapore). And the great thing was how generous they were - they gave us 3 large portions of chocolate, so I was a happy boy. Very very good. (9.75/10) i didn't really care much for the pineapple salad, but those were fine too, in contrast.

The meal came up to an exorbitant 80 euros per head, but it was well worth the money. Of note was the money we paid for the water (52 euros in all), because they kept refilling our water - but I guess one needs water to balance out the diet!

The service, as well, was impeccable, quite perfect service. The waiters and waitresses were all very well trained, always smiling, and very professional, always able to give you recommendations about what to eat, and always jolly, never intrusive; especially the waiter in charge of the bread basket, was very knowledgeable and humourous in making a joke about how he'd had to eat all the bread if you guys don't order it! Such service makes the dining experience such a pleasure.

Well, i'd highly highly recommend Steirereck if you go to Vienna, because this is a dining experience never to be missed, or forgotten. Very very good.

L'Atelier De Joel Robuchon (London)

2010-06-19T04:37:00.001-07:00

I'm back from my 1 month whirlwind tour of Europe, so be prepared for some heavy updating!

The first on the list is the splendid L'Atelier De Joel Robuchon in London, which was seriously very very good, well worth its 1 michelin star. Awesome. Let's start from the beginning - Joel Robuchon is located near the Seven Dials in Covent Garden, and is an offshoot of the Joel Robuchon range of restaurants (which has come to Singapore, I have heard). Anyway, it's located in a pretty lonely alley - but when we went in, we were greeted with splendid service, giving us space in the cloakroom, allowing us to sit in the comfy sofa areas while waiting for another friend to arrive. The decor, I must add, is pretty neat - Black with dark red gives a modern zen-like setting which is both minimalist and posh at the same time. There are no real tables and chairs, just modernist blocks. Being a party of six, we sat three-three in an L shape around the bar, which made for good watching, and besides we could talk to the chef as well.

The bread came in a fancy shaped dish and was quite excellent.

The first course I had was Pea Soup with Mint, and this was a revelation, much better than I had expected. There was such an intense pea flavour, of sweet vegetables coming through, a complex and rounded taste, and a long finish. It was served with bits of cheese (I'm not sure what) surrounding croutons floating on the Soup which combined beautifully. Also there was some mint which complemented perfectly. All in all, quite brilliant. (8.5/10)

The main course I had was a White fish (I can't remember the name now), with the skin lightly charred, served with leeks and white asparagus, tomatoes, onions, and olives. The fish was superbly clean-tasting - delicious! And the vegetables were superb garnishes to the delicate flavours of the fish. (8/10)

We struck up good conversation with the chefs, talking about the food, their lives, where they're from, everything - and they realised we were going to Paris, and they were really quite excited, saying that oh the food is great, etc etc etc. One of them was even from brittany, so mere mention that we were going there as well made him very excited.

The chefs gave us some of their special Mashed Potatoes to try (the famous Joel Robuchon mashed potatoes) and this was really quite awesome. The potatoes and butter combined together to create such splendid oomph in your mouth - light, buttery, and full of potatoey goodness. So good I just needed some more. The chef shared that it's done by combining half potatoes and half butter, but the butter must first be melted, and then whisked in to create a foamy texture. Oooh i'm dying to try it. (9.5/10)

A view of the neat kitchen

The dessert I had was a selection of cheeses, which were all pretty good. Nothing spectacular though (7.5/10)
(Okay maybe this is from hindsight since I did have the cheese platter from Steirereck - it was still good though!)

Overall a fantastic dining experience, at only 27 quid. Very highly recommended!

Report from Vienna

2010-06-09T16:14:00.001-07:00

Just had one of the most amazing lunches in my short life, at Steirereck in Vienna. Rated 21 in the world by San Pellegrino, this was nothing short of an experience in food gastronomy and art, elevating cuisine to an art form in all senses of the word. Impeccable service as well. Full review once im back with the photos!

Dinard, Berlin

2010-06-03T18:21:00.000-07:00

Had amazing oysters in Dinard, and the great thing about it was how cheap it was - think about it, 3 euros for a dozen! the best were the ones from st jacut, which were so so sweet and yet fresh, tasting of the sea. those from cancale were nice too, if a bit too salty.

Im in berlin now, and i've tried Curry36 which is really overrated! or maybe currywurst just doesn't taste special, more like putting mcdonalds nuggets with curry sauce. you get the idea. but we also tried Hasir's, which impressed me with their meat dishes, especially lamb.

more to come! full reviews coming.

2010-05-24T06:24:00.000-07:00

Am blogging from a computer at my hostel now; Im in dijon, just finished the tour of Paris, which was for four days. Paris is really quite a beautiful city; if a bit dirty, but the architectures splendid; however i didnt enjoy it as much as london, mainly because je paux le pas francais: so it was a bit tough communicating: heh:
When I return from the trip on 18 june I will blog about the wonderful food in all the cities; Iùve already been to LAtelier de joel robuchon and that was quite amazing and a wonderful dining experience; Ive stored the tasting notes in my primitive handphone so i dont forget the flavours: they were quite unforgettable actually. The guys were so nice to us that we got free desserts from them; A must try. Wait for the full review.

Parisian food did not blow me away, mainly because we werent really prepared to blow our fortune on a Tallievant or something like that; so much was spent eating in little bistros by the street. a particularly good bistro was our first place, located near the Latin Quarter, near the Pantheon. Had lamb shanks which were great; paired with red wine: the wines amawingly cheap like 3 euro for a bottle for pretty good wines; you can get appellation de controlleè for that price. had the usual steak fritès, duck confit, usual stuff like that:

Oh and I finally tried the latte from Monmouth coffee in London: Now that is a thing of beauty; Perfectly balanced, there was lots of bright acidity, a rounded finish, something magical about the blend and the creation; A perfect cuppa; Again wait for my review!

Journey to the East

2010-05-13T11:02:00.000-07:00

A, M, and I embarked on a journey to the east - I'm a westie, so once you go to the east you have to try pretty much everything: thus boy, we were stuffed full at the end! It all started with the famous Hill Street CKT - Block 16 Bedok South Road. This is a makansutra institution, at at my suggestion (being the makanguru with a food blog) A and M decided to trot happily to bedok south to try this one out. The queue wasn't as long as I'd have expected; how did it taste? well, still very good wok hei; nice chives; the best bits were the parts where the egg, noodles, and everything else combine for flavour; however, i think the standard has dropped; it wasn't jaw-droppingly good. the first time i tried it i think a year back (or two), it was just perfect. This time maybe I'm not in the mood for CKT already, or perhaps this one has just dropped in standard a wee bit.
(8/10) - still one of the best around.

Next up was Ye Lai Xiang Cheng Tng (Bedok Corner); this one still hits the mark; i think i have blogged about it before but this is undisputedly the best cheng tng in singapore. nothing else comes close. the dried longan infused soup is just so refreshing. (9/10)

We adjourned to East Coast Lagoon Village after that; I really wanted to try Leng Heng's (the BBQ stall) Kiam Chye Ar but they were closed; so i had the next best thing - Hwa Eng BBQ Wantan mee - and boy this was great! The noodles were very QQ and al-dente; the sauce was very flavourful and the use of thickening agent meant that it coated the noodles well; the chilli was just shiok; the char siew was great; even the wantans were good. the soup could have been better, but hey i'm not complaining! One of the best bowls of Wantan noodles, comparable to the one at Lavender Street. Probably also edges old airport road. (8.5/10)

Also on the menu was Haron's Satay; this is the one with the green and yellow labels; ah this was very good. very flavourful - A eats it without the sauce and i can see why. The chicken still tastes like chicken! (8/10)

Last, we went to Sin Heng Claypot Bak Kut Teh. We were pretty stuffed by then - (you could see why) - so we just shared one claypot's worth of BKT among 3 people. This is the herbal hokkien style where it's boiled with lots of herbs. this one was not bad; quite peppery and herbal at the same time, the soup had much flavour, and a very clean aftertaste from the herbs. We kept downing the soup till the waiters i bet were pretty annoyed. (WHAT - orderONE Bowl and keep refilling soup? what do you think we are!) - but hey, people eat BKT to enjoy free soup yah. haha. that's taken into account in the rather high price tag too!
(7.5/10)

We were absolutely stuffed, but happy=) Here's to europe!

Spruce

2010-05-13T10:56:00.001-07:00

I'm flying off to London, and to the rest of Europe (Berlin, Vienna, Paris) on Sunday, so be prepared for lots more food entries as I scour Europe for wonderful eats! Am definitely going to bring my camera; have already booked L'Atelier Joel Robuchon (London) and Steirereck (Vienna), so let's see how that turns out =) . Especially looking forward to Steirereck because of the rave reviews and that it's ranked 21st in the world. How cool is that!

Anyway back to old Singapore. I have been eating, that's true, but because the foodie in me needs rest, well, I eat less now. usually just one meal's a proper one. the rest is just fish and oats, really.

Headed down to Spruce with p the other day since it was my first time there; The ambience was really lovely, i really loved the outdoor seating area which was next to a playground; very cosy and one'd imagine it to be a great place for brunch (which apparently it is, I just haven't had a chance to have brunch there). But dinner was perfect, since there were warm lights, delightful candles, and a nice buzz of conversation from the full tables nearby.

I ordered my "European Burger", which consisted of Beef, Blue cheese, and onions; pretty much the 'bistro burger' from brewerkz, if you'd like. this was not bad; the beef was quite flavourful and well marinated; the blue cheese was infused into the patty so that each bite had the tartness of the blue cheese contrasting with the richness of the beef. good stuff. and the bun was a joy to eat as well with those black sesame seeds. one of the better burgers around - it could be bigger though! (8/10)

The desserts we ordered were just monstrous; Here's the Salted Caramel with chocolate cake; it was sooo rich; it was good, but perhaps too rich! i could tell that the chocolate was not grade A chocolate - check out the next post on laurient bernard for proper chocolate. this one was a bit more commercial - maybe nydc standard. but still good. we couldn't finish it, even sharing it for 2; it was that big!
(6.5/10)

Peach Garden

2010-05-01T04:53:00.001-07:00

Celebrated P's birthday at Peach Garden, Novena. Peach Garden is one of those institutions of chinese cuisine where it had slowly garnered a good reputation for itself from providing tasty food with good service. This time it wasn't different; our server was one of the most charming waitresses I've had for a while, in being frank, candid, and professional at the same time.

On to the menu.
Started off with Roasted Pork - just the normal siew yoke. this one was quite fatty, but it went well with the chinese mustard.
(6.5/10)

Next up was the Peking Duck - Nice crisp skin, very flavourful duck wrapped with crepes. was not bad but i would have preferred more duck to crepes.
(7.5/10)

wok fried Beef Tenderloin came next; this was really good. the tenderloin was really urm, tender, for want of a better word, and it had a lovely caramelised wok-hei flavour which can only be achieved through intense heat, till the onions have slightly caramelised. probably with the addition of some sweet-teriyaki sauce. i'm not sure, don't quote me on that. either way, it was good. (8/10)

Prawn balls with plum sauce and well, onions came next; I'm not sure what to make of this one. Didn't really dig it; the prawns were fried until crisp tempura-style, and paired with a plum sauce which was of course, tangy. not my kinda thing. (6/10) - im being generous here

Three-egg spinach - this was much better than the BTK one; the spinach was really fresh, the eggs flavorful, and the gravy was a joy to behold. very clean tastes in the gravy. yums. (8.5/10)

Ee-fu-noodles: nothing to shout about really. just, well, noodles. (5/10)

the fried rice was a disappointment. let's just say i didn't take photos of it coz it was that bad. (3/10)

But the dinner rounded up on a nice note with Orh-Nee (Yam Paste with gingko nuts). this one was not bad; very rich, starchy, and yammy, almost too rich for me! but well, yums.
(7.5/10)

Papa Palheta

2010-05-01T01:34:00.000-07:00

I have to share with you one of my favourite coffee joints - Papa Palheta. Papa Palheta is nested in a very cosy corner along Hooper Road [it's off Bukit Timah Road - just after Newton circus, towards town, after the Shell petrol kiosk]. Turn in, and walk in, and enter by a backdoor. yes, and a little comforting oasis awaits you. it's rather bohemian. [i have no pictures because my camera doesn't do it justice - but then, just enjoy the words]. you enter via an alley of whitewashed walls, and palm trees dance overhead, giving valuable shade with its foliage. inside, there's a coffee bar of wooden teak, an antique tube-stereo, and of course the coffee machine - a syneso [they're the official distributors of syneso for singapore], as well as drip coffee if you'd like. enter the seating area - and you get comfortable carpets, a gramophone, reclining chairs, antique furniture in little corners, textiles hidden in cupboards, tables with chi-chi magazines, and teak furniture. my friend remarked that it feels remarkably like one of the cafes in Melbourne, you know, where each store proprietor dresses up the cafe in his/her own unique style, imbuing the place with his/her personality. it's very bohemian, like i said. actually, please go. it's hard to describe this in words, really!

How was the coffee? Good! What I like is that they have many different beans, which means that you get different flavours for different moods. The terra firma is full bodied, robust, and goes well with milk; the japanese blend (i can't remember the name) is fragrant, not that heavy, but still very interesting. then there are single origins to satiate your palate, such as costa rican (a bit smoky, like cigarettes), guatamalan, ethopian sidamo, etc. go check out the official website www.papapalheta.com for more information. What i really loved was the Kenyan fair trade coffee; it had the scent of peach, nice fruit, and lovely balance. great stuff.

coffee: 8.5/10
atmosphere: 9/10

go check it out!
(yes they're my friends, but then it doesn't mean the coffee is anything worse!)

K-Ki

2010-04-21T05:09:00.000-07:00

After all the talk about K-Ki, from all the bloggers (ice especially has been constantly raving about the pastries here), I decided to go down and try it for myself, as a little treat for yours truly.
I already had good "vibes" upon entering the place; the smell of fresh cream and pastries, and butter lingers in the air. There were just a few small tables; the rest was a clothing shop apparently. By the counter, there were only a few cakes left, so i went for the "annabelle" (i think) which was white chocolate and mango. It was really small (like half my palm size) and it costs SDG$8. EIther something was really good or i was just being ripped off. Hope it was the former.

Sat down and had a bite; ooh it was good. Delicate white chocolate with a mousse-like texture; the flavours were very well-balanced, with just the right amount of sweetness. you could tell that they used premium ingredients to make this. There were hints of, dare i say, coconut, just a tad, the creaminess and flavour of good white chocolate, and all this was complemented very well with the slightly-tart but fragrant mango puree inside. great.

(8.5/10) - i would bump it up to a 9 if it were bigger. haha.

after that i had my usual cuppa from CuppaChoice round the corner (across the road); now that was excellent. Usually I'd travel down to Papa Palheta for great service and excellent coffee - one day i'll review it properly - but this cuppachoice was just as excellent. very aromatic coffee with the right amount of brightness and acidity.

Tom's Palette (again)

2010-04-08T05:35:00.001-07:00

It's been a while since I've returned to Tom's Palette, a very long while; I think the last time i went there was probably about a year ago, and returning there to that little corner in Shaw Towers really brought back memories of going out on foodie trips with J, and hopping from place to place - first the main course, then the ice cream. But now I have tried to cut down on the eating - instead what I do is to have tried to become a coffee connoisseur rather than an ice cream connoisseur - i figured it would be better for the waistline.

But I just went back to Tom's, and my my, was it soooo good. Eunice the affable shopkeeper has a wonderful knack of creating such delicious flavours you can't help but go ooooh... she's been creating alot of new flavours ever since i came around, and there was this april fool's flavour that consisted of onions, and i actually thought it was durian. cute. and another one called "hot and sizzle" - when you put the ice cream in your mouth there's actually a sizzling sound. again, very cute! I had what i usually had, salted caramel cheesecake - still as creamy and cheesy and a bit salty as ever, and the buttered pecans,which is not always available but is so good because there's this butteriness to the ice cream, a bit of coffee undertone, and lots of nutti earthliness - and definitely some salt to bring out the flavour. very very good. (9/10).

Maybe absence makes the heart grow fonder - and the taste ever better. but tom's. oh man. if only you werent' so far away and there was a better way to lose some calories....

Julien Bompard

2010-03-24T02:38:00.000-07:00

Just came back from Julien Bompard, again for Restaurant Week. The decor this time was far different from Forlino's - almost diametrically opposite, with light pastel walls, comfortable airy high ceilings, glass panels, open concept - as opposed to the rather more European dark timbres of Forlino's.

The food was also different; Julien Bompard specialises in Spanish-French cuisine, thus for the set lunch the menu consisted of smoked duck breast; the main course was a choice between Paella or Pork lion/jowl with apple sauce, and the dessert was coconut cake with Chocolate gelato.

We ordered some Foie Gras to start; Foie Gras is always excellent. I just love the richness of the liver and THAT liver taste, which is nearly always complemented by tart sauce to cut through the richness. Wow its been so long since I have had foie gras - so for that, it deserves a (8/10)

First course was the smoked duck breast - it was not too bad, quite subtle in flavour; what was nice was the little portions of wild mushrooms which added a nice earthly twist to the dish, complementing the duck. didn't see what the point is with the vegetables though. (7/10)

Second course was Pork Jowl, Loin, and other parts of the pork, with roast apples and onions; now this was truly stunning. The pork was extremely flavourful and porky, with a nice hearty, earthly, rich flavour that really shone through; what was nice was that they gave us different parts of pork which really was a nice contrast in flavour and texture; there was a bacon-like bit which had a more earthly duck-confit-like flavour; the loin was more tender, and there was some bits that really were melt in your mouth tender. Lovely. (8.5/10)

Dessert was coconut cake with chocolate fondant i thought the cake was a bit hard, unfortunately; the chocolate wasn't as rich as I would have liked it to be; this wasn't that good. (6.5/10)

Forlino's

2010-03-24T02:10:00.000-07:00

Went for Restaurant Week set lunch at Forlino's on Monday - so excited to try the food because, as you know, Forlino's is one of the premier restaurants dishing up Italian food in Singapore. So a few uni friends and I trooped down to Forlino's to try the food there.

We were ushered into a labyrinth of sorts - as I was climbing up the stairs, I remarked that this place really looks like China Black. Because okay there are stairs, and because it's black, but really because China Black was one of those places where you'd need to climb a nice flight of stairs, in the dark, around and around. Okay this is really out of point but never mind - really loved the walls, they were like in a pale shade of blue with lovely gold platings. We were led into a board room which was pretty nice, with black walls and gold plated ornaments adoring those walls. Floor-to-ceiling windows gave us a fantastic view of Marina Bay and the soon-to-be-finished Integrated Resort.

First course was the amuse bouche: salmon with some leaves. alright, nothing spectacular. i have had better amuse bouches from my friend's kitchen. (colin's).

Next up was the wonderful wonderful freshly baked foccacia with sea-salt. Baked with lots of olive oil, it was extremely fragrant and tasty, and a sprinkling of sea salt melded wonderfully with the freshness of the bread. (8/10)

Appetizer was crab meat with some melon puree; this was a bit like eating, pardon me, chinese fruit salad. okay not that bad. but the crabmeat could have been more flavourful. It was a bit...subtle. (6.5/10)

The main course was Spaghetti with Black Cod, prawns; the spaghetti was wonderfully al dente, and there was just enough sauce to render everything very tasty and savoury. Nice subtle crustacean flavours. Not particularly stunning (maybe I was still sick that day) but still good. (7.5/10)

Dessert blew me away. Warm chocolate fondant with banana gelato, this was amazing. The fondant was extremely rich and satisfying, with a wonderful balance of sweetness and bitterness. The banana gelato went perfectly with it (think Chocolate Banana but much better) - Excellent. (8.5/10)

We finished with coffee and petit fours, and I ordered some more bread just for the sake of it. And the great news was, it was only S$25++ per head. Great stuff.

Nara Japanese Restaurant

2010-03-21T19:46:00.000-07:00

Wanted to go to Matsuo's but the queue was ridiculously long (requiring a one hour wait) - so we ended up at Nara instead. Nara's at Goldhill as well, in a pretty nondescript shophouse nearby Udders. The interior was pretty dark and wooden - perfect for quiet conversation, I guess.

For lunch they had a few lunch sets which were quite reasonable, below $20. I ordered the sashimi set which came with rice, sashimi, chawan mushi, and a little appetizers on the side.
The sashimi was of pretty high quality; the tuna was ok, the salmon was very fresh and tasty, full of fish oils; there was swordfish as well - yummy - i love swordfish; and a few pieces of hamachi which were quite delicious too.

The chawan mushi didn't fare as well though - it was of a very nice texture, but the taste was a bit lacking, as though the daiko stock was not good.
(7.5/10)

Crystal Jade Kitchen

2010-03-17T02:27:00.000-07:00

I went to Crystal Jade Kitchen twice over the last weekend, once on Friday with friends and once on Sunday with the family, for unpretentious, delicious, Cantonese cuisine. I only took photos the second time with the family, so here goes:

Hor Fun with seafood in gravy - this was quite excellent; superior stock reminscient of the stock that you'd get with Sharks Fin, fragrant, savoury brown sauce, smothering smooth hor fun. i wished the horfun had more wok hei though, that was really what i was looking for, but can't complain. the portions were quite generous - it came with scallops, prawns, and fish. ($14.50)
(7.5/10)

Roasted Duck - our family ordered half a duck to share and this was quite excellent; very tasty meat, with a wonderful roasted smoky flavour, and went very well with the "plum" sauce on the side. (8.5/10)

Riccioti

2010-03-09T07:56:00.000-08:00

Haven't updated for a very long time, sorry guys! (as if there's any one reading anyway, but if you are, thanks)

Went to Riccioti for K's birthday, after a long hiatus. I used to come here often when they had the 1/2 price offers for desserts, which made it extremely worthwhile.
This time they had some set dinner, consisting of a starter, main and dessert, for $30 quid.

For the starter, I was served Caprese, which is a salad made of fresh buffalo mozzerella, tomatoes, and sprinkled with olive oil, balsamic vinegar (I think) and basil. This was extremely good: very tasty, with the ingredients being well coated with the dressing.simple but delicious. full thumbs up! (8/10)

Next up, I had the Rib-eye ;this one was a bit peculiar in that the rib-eye was very thin, so thin that it became impossible to cook it to a medium rare doneness, and true enough, this was really just medium, because there wasn't any space beyond the surface to be pink, anyway. But still quite delicious with the peppercorns on the side. (7/10)

For dessert, we could choose anything on the "desserts/pastries" menu, so, true to my boring self, i went for the Soffiato. Why change a good thing right? This is their house special, and so why wouldn't you go for the best? True enough I was rewarded with one of the best Chocolate Molten Cakes in town. The balance of sweetness and bitterness was absolutely spot on, and it was chocolatey to the core. The texture was perfect as well, just gooey enough but not too wet. Perfect.
(8.5/10)

Triple Three, Mandarin Meritus

2010-02-14T09:06:00.000-08:00

Heard loads about Triple Three before our family went down for our CNY dinner - mum kept boasting about how good the food is - so I had to try it out for myself. First impressions on the decor: rather modern in design, with slabs of granite? and a rather contemporary feel.
I scoured the food section to see what the range was. It seemed quite promising: there was Oysters and the usual seafood, sashimi sliced to order, wagyu beef selection, lamb, teppanyaki, tempura, the usual western dishes, noodles, soups, indian food, and of course, desserts.
I shall just run through what I ate - the good, the bad, the average:
First up, sashimi: oh this was good; the mekajiki was as fresh as can be, the salmon belly very palatable, the salmon also very fresh; hamachi not too bad tho i'm not really a fan.
Next up, oysters on the half-shell: this was quite good; out of the eight i ate, only one wasn't really fresh; they were good enough to be eaten with just lemon alone, although i think borough market oysters still takes the cake.
The main dishes next:
Wagyu roast beef was exquisite; full of flavour, with a truffle gravy, and lovely marbled fat giving good mouthfeel.
Lamb leg was just average really.
Miso Chilean Sea Bass was really excellent, one of the highlights; very flavourful caramelised miso-glazed sea bass which flaked very nicely.
Lobster bisque was very rich though it could have done with more lobster flavour.
Baked lobster was good - with a bit of dijon mustard on the side.
Tempura was very light and crisp; good.
Had a selection of cheeses after that, and after that desserts:
it was mainly an assortment of cakes, nothing that spectacular, though the apple strudel was amazing, still very hot and rich with a vanilla sauce giving a good contrast to raisins and apples and cinnamon; the other highlight was the hazelnut crunch. the others were rather nondescript though.
Of particular note was the live "spanish guitar" band making their rounds. full of jokes, with good music and singing, we were entertained throughout.

(8.5/10)

Black Coffee, 111 Somerset

2010-02-10T06:22:00.000-08:00

Opposite the really great coffee at Oriole is another great coffee place, called Black Coffee, located right across the road (Somerset Road)! I've been there many times ever since the first time that i went to that place with E, and never looked back. Black's coffee is amazing. It has the rich chocolately earthly flavours which go very well with milk. Although the coffee is not as 'acidic', read - bright as Oriole's, i feel that each place has its own flavours; Go to oriole if you want brighter notes and overtones, go to Black if you want darker richer undertones.
Black coffee, it's great! and the service staff are very nice too. (8.5/10)

Nowadays for my coffee fix i only go to Black, Oriole, or Papa Palheta. There were some other places but so far now these are the three that I'm frequenting.
Ciao!

Ippudo Ramen

2010-01-27T00:56:00.000-08:00

Went down to Ippudo on Monday to try out their Ramen, which i heard is the 'best in singapore' (from a friend).and because it was so famous, i had to try it. any self-respecting food blogger would need to try ippudo, anyway, since it is, like, how famous. Luckily my expectations were not pushed up too greatly because some food blogs (notably 'never trust a scrawny foodie' - see e link at e side) have said that this ramen is merely average.

So W and I went to the mandarin gallery to check out ippudo ramen. the decor was really nice. there was a chandelier right in the middle with seating on all sides. and bowls of different colours, red and white. very minimalist.

the food came very fast; i ordered the red one (which is the one which is spicy, with miso paste, and garlic oil), and when it came it looked pretty good. What was good was the noodles, perfectly springy with good bite; the egg was very very good, very fresh and full of eggy taste. and the pork was just exquisite, very very flavourful.
what was not so good was the soup; yes it was savoury, but had just alot of MSG, and while spicy, it did not have the 'rounded' taste characteristic of santouka's stock, where you can really taste the collagen and pork that comes from boiling much pork. it tasted a bit like bak chor mee soup, in the idea of pork savouriness, but not that 'rounded' taste.

(7/10)

Morton's, Oriental

2010-01-23T06:59:00.001-08:00

Morton's is an institution, widely regarded as THE place for steak. so apart from the joy of celebrating a dear friend's birthday, I was also quite excited about the food, when T and her generous family (thanks!) invited a few of us friends over to Morton's. The last time I came to Morton's was probably in 2004 when i still subscribed to the Economist and they gave us a Steak FOC courtesy of the magazine. But that was a long time ago. Now who can resist Morton's?

The atmosphere of the place was very lively, think wood panelling, black wood, and a lively atmosphere comprising waitresses and waiters who seek to infuse the restaurant with a carnivalesque atmosphere. Think random 'happy birthdays', 'menu presentations' featuring trolleys of aged beef, you know, the works.

Okay, so I should probably be talking about the food. Yes. We ordered 2 appetizers to share, Crab Cakes and Oysters.
The Oysters were wonderful. Very fresh, tasting of the sea, with none of the stale flavours from not-fresh oysters. This is probably the closest I'll ever get to the Borough Market oysters (1 pound per oyster). The saline flavours of the sea engulfed my tastebuds as I slurped the oyster down, with just a bit of Lemon. That's all was needed, really! Excellent (9/10)

Crab Cakes were very very good! The crabs used were very very fresh, and it was superbly tasty. It's not like those crab cakes where it's mainly flour, this one was chock-full of crab meat. It was as though you were eating Jumbo Crabs but without the hassle of the shell preparations. Seasoned lightly with some salt and pepper and dipped in mayonaise, this was a true delight to eat. (9/10)

In the tradition of some esteemed food bloggers, I had my Ribeye Chicago-style, ie charred on the outside and pink inside, cooked to medium rare doneness. The photos are courtesy of my friend SJ which means that for the first time I do have nice photos for the blog! Amazing. This was a joy to eat. From the first bite, i absolutely LOVED the interplay between the charred broiled flavours on the outside, and the beefiness and depth of flavour of aged beef cooked just right to medium rare. It didn't need none of those hollandaise sauces on the side: it was great just eating good USDA Prime meat in its own juices. Sublime, with very good marbling just like a ribeye. Best steak in SGP by far, but of course super expensive. (9/10)

We had desserts, of course, starting with Morton's Signature Chocolate Cake. One bite of this and I was hooked: Full of chocolate flavour and yet not too sweet (which is the pitfall of many molten chocolate cakes), this one was rich and luscious and somehow light enough not to make it too "jelak". One of the best (9/10)

We also ordered the apple crumble. This was not too bad, but compared to the sublime cuisine featured above, I have to say this was just okay. still good though (7.5/10)

Oriole Cafe

2010-01-21T23:20:00.000-08:00

Going to oriole is a habitual thing for me: i go at least once a week, or sometimes maybe a bit more. So usually i don't blog about oriole, especially if i'm just going to buy my usual takeaway latte / iced latte, which they do wonderfully well. But this time I'll blog because there were some new beans that they were roasting, Sumatran, and so I asked for my latte done with those beans.

Boy it was pretty good. Very low acidity, dark flavours, hints of wood, tobacco, and a burnt toasted finish, with sweetness from the milk. a very smooth cup. i'm liking this pretty much, it was quite awesome. (8/10)

The chocolate cake that we had was very good as well. It was very very rich, with very good chocolate used, and enough sweetness. the accompanying ice cream helped cut through the richness of the fudge, which was great. (8/10)

Matsuo Sushi Restaurant

2010-01-21T23:14:00.000-08:00

Blogged about this before, but we went back to Matsuo to try out the Lunch Set on Wed. The lunch set on wed was tempura udon and mixed sushi. It was quite a substantial portion: the tempura udon was quite generous in a nice savoury broth, while the sushi was relatively flavourful and fresh (e fish), but only thing was that the pieces of fish were relatively small. but well, quality is better than quantity, i guess.

(7/10)

Lei Garden, Chijmes

2010-01-18T07:43:00.000-08:00

A friend was celebrating his 25th birthday (okay, quarterlife crisis maybe) and so we decided to pop down to Lei Garden, at Chijmes. First, let me just start off by saying that the ambience at Chijmes is really awesome. It feels just like Central Vienna, you can imagine the 'chapel' being the St Stephansdom around with the surrounding cafes and shops and lots of people just thronging the areas. it is the life. and what i love most are the trees, with their little "lights" that shine so brightly. Anyway i digress. lei garden is at chijmes right, and the decor is super nice. Think about it, high ceilings, victorian lights, big big glass windows.

P decided to order the food for us because he knows cantonese and apparently it would be nice, so we trusted him. it was good. First up was a soup; it seemed like a very rich chicken broth, with pork bones, and mushrooms. very "cheng".

Next up was roast char siew. This was very well done, with just the right hints of "sweetness" in the sauce and tender meat. Could have been more charred but no complaints.

The piece de resistance came next: Peking Duck, their specialty. This was done pretty well, served the usual style in a crepe. The skin was nicely roasted and flavourful with all the usual "duck" juices, the meat was a bit fatty. but it was good. Only problem was that i wish we had more!

Next up: stir-fried beef with Foie Gras apparently. but i can't taste no foie gras. the beef was done quite well, in a refined, flavourful sauce with no overpowering ingredients.

Vegetables came next, and it was a let down; i don't really care much for big kai lan.

The duck meat came next (from the peking duck): this was okay.

And lastly, some "beans", minced meat, all to be eaten by stuffing it in fresh lettuce. Quite an interesting mix of textures, the cold crisp lettuce pairing with savoury meats. Interesting.

We ended the day with a yum seng to W and some Moet for the occasion. oh it was fun. we adjourned somewhere else but i shall not blog about that because it would spoil e occasion. Have a great day fellas!

Marutama Ramen, Central

2010-01-18T07:38:00.001-08:00

Tried this famous Ramen in Central, Marutama Ramen. It is known for being one of the few ramen shops in Singapore to serve ramen with chicken broth, instead of the usual pork broth. I went in there ravenous on a hungry Monday afternoon after class to try out this famous ramen. So I ordered the "Nama Ramen" with a Tamago (half-boiled egg), and it came pretty fast. So how did it taste?

Very thin, springy noodles, Hakata style, as opposed to the more curly Santouka style. good, firm texture. The soup was very addictive. Quite flavourful, tasty, tasting of savoury chicken broth with just enough spiciness for my liking. The egg was good too. I was quite impressed.
(7.5/10)

Don't ask me how this compares to Santouka because honestly it is very hard to compare unless you realy put them side by side. Just take it from me that it's pretty good.

Gen Shu Mei Shi She Jia

2010-01-13T02:16:00.000-08:00

Got the recommendation from Ieat's website (as a really must try) so I went down after class this morning to try the food here, which he says is a hidden gem. And indeed it was a great recommendation. Located at Toa Payoh Lorong 4, block 74, it's just a hawker centre, but the food here is quite outstanding.

We had the Yam Cake, which was one of the best I've eaten, comparable to the great one at Chinatown Complex (open only after 5). It was very soft, tasty, and savoury, with a delicious sweet sauce and sting in the chilli accompanying it. Very very good! I would come back for this [8.5/10]

I also had the Steamed Rice with Chicken and Lap Cheong which was also excellent. The chicken was tasty enough and imparted a smoky flavour to the rice, with the addition of some salted fish. Not too salty, but yet tasty. (8/10)

Gen Shu came out to talk to us about Hong Kong, China, and he was just going on and on; felt bad to stop him but we really needed to go, so my friend told him that, come back next time got discountor not! haha. i think my friend really liked the food here too.

313 @ Somerset Bak Chor Mee (Lai Heng)

2010-01-07T08:48:00.000-08:00

This was seriously one of the best BCMs i have eaten in a long time. Being in a food court, I didn't expect much, but this BCM was really very good. The noodles were blanched just right, and the sauce was flavourful and very savoury, with bits of pork, liver, etc, and mushrooms. The chilli was really spicy, just the way I like it. and the clincher was the flavourful soup to spoon down the goodness.
Great stuff.
(8.5/10)

Cugini Trattoria

2010-01-04T08:35:00.000-08:00

Everyone has been blogging about Cugini, and thus when R and J celebrated their 22nd birthday at Cugini, there was more than the usual excitement about a friend's birthday party, i also get to try some good food.

The place is very traditional, and i guess it must be pretty authentic. very high ceilings, with light blue panellings in place. guitar. open kitchen concept. but i guess this doesn't matter. its a nice place and pretty casual in style.

I ordered the Seafood Pasta, which, if you follow ieat's blog, you'd notice that they created the pasta specially for him because they ran out of sea urchin pasta that time. So I had to try it, which I did. Boy it was great. Very very yummilicious. It was really just tomato-based seafood pasta with mussels, fish, prawns, but each mouthful was so delicious, since the "unami" flavours of the sea really came through. A very harmonious blend of seafood flavours, tasting of the sea, inter-melded with a sweet tomato base that balanced these flavours perfectly. It was so good i was so sad when i finished it. aww.

oh well.

(9/10)

Coffee Coffee Coffee

2010-01-04T08:26:00.000-08:00

Coffee is my latest addiction; it has been for the past well, half a year, i suppose. I just love the robustness of a good espresso-based coffee, with its full body and earthly aromas. But seriously most of the places in SGP are really CMI, merely existing to satisfy a lifestyle, or to make money from ignorant Singaporeans. But thankfully there are a few places that serve a really good cup of java.

Oh btw speaking of coffee there's a song by Kristen Chenoweth called "Taylor the latte boy" which is really cute. it's about how a girl falls in love with a barista known as taylor, and how they flirt as he gives her free shots, free foam. all that in a very big coffee chain.

i'm not really a fan of that big coffee chain though. yes, it is a CMI place for real coffee aficionados. So here are some more suggestions [i realised that i've actually posted alot of coffee links before]:

I've already blogged about Oriole Cafe, and Cafe Beviamo, but now add Papa Palheta to the list. Located at Hooper Road off Bukit Timah Road, it is a non-descript place. You enter by the back which brings u into an outdoor area. The indoor seating area is very individualistically quirky, reminding my coffee companion of some of the cafes in melbourne. indeed it could even be someone's house. Think antiques on one side, random objects artfully placed around the seating area, fabrics, etc.

It is actually a place where they sell beans so they don't actually retail coffee as an F n B beverage. But i guess what often happens is that they serve you coffee and you offer them a tip to cover their costs.

Their Terra Firma latte was well done. Very robust and full bodied with earthly aromas that could cut through the milk.

(8/10)

2010-01-04T08:15:00.000-08:00

It has been ages since I've last posted.

the rigours of composing a musical, plus school work, has meant that the poor foodie in me has been neglected for about, 6 months! oh well. such is life.

I have been eating, really. just not posting. i'm just going to randomly update what i've been eating, in no particular order.

Ye Lai Xiang Chng Tng

This is seriously seriously awesome. Without hesitation, this is THE best cheng tng in Singapore. It's a pity i don't stay in the East, if not i'll come here everyday. It is absolutely fantabulous. The cheng tng has a lovely "cooling" effect, with fragrant pandan sweetness. The ingredients used are very fresh, and what makes it special is the little 'secret ingredients' that you find in the soup, bits of watermelon peel, pumpkin peel, candied fruits, that lend a bit of texture and sweetness to the soup. The longans are also very flavourful and fresh.

(9/10)

Bistro Du Vin

2009-07-26T06:58:00.000-07:00

After hearing so many reviews of the new Les-Amis themed restaurant known as Bistro Du Vin, i trooped down with a few friends to try out the food there.

Blogger seems to have difficulty uploading photos but i will try my best=)

We stepped into a little quaint oasis of charm and quirkiness very typical (or so i heard) of a Parisian Bistro - that was obviously the inspiration. Red walls, pictures of artwork, parisian buildings, as well as with marble table-tops and brown chairs make for a lovely atmosphere. Very well-decorated and quaint - if every parisian bistro was like that, i would love to go there anytime.

We were served some fresh bread first - nothing much to shout about, but i did like the unsalted butter accompanying it. it was actually very good that i had some seconds.

ZH had a mushroom friscasee with morels and a poached egg; it was really good. Very earthly flavours of mushrooms and herbs (i was trying to figure out what they were - seemed like some fresh parsley, thyme) - all with a nice poached egg on top. classic bistro fare. served with a salad.

The mains came; myself and J did not order starter since we are not working yet and can't afford to spend extravagantly on food. i ordered a duck confit, while J had a lamb stew and ZH had beef braised in red wine.

The duck confit was excellent; very tasty, with a very crispy skin and very tasty duck fat; the meat wasn't that tender (still fine by me) but it was very tasty, with a nice saltiness and savouriness that a confit is supposed to have. i found it a bit too salty, but i guess some folks like it that way. The tasty duck fat was really oomph-inducing, reminders of why i like french food so much (but is so sadly expensive). A pot of "coffee sauce" accompanied my confit and that really added a new dimension to the dish and went very well with the duck, with a bit of sweetness to nullify the savouriness. The fries accompanying it were a nice touch.

The beef braised in red wine was very nice - very robust flavours of beef and red wine, hearty flavours. only gripe could be that it wasn't as generous as it should have been.

the lamb with green peas was not bad -alot of gamey lamb flavours.

Desserts:
J had a lemon tart which was quite excellent; very tart (pardon the pun), and light, refreshingly ending off the meal.

ZH's profiteroles were bad: the crust wasn't too light, probably because it was kept in the fridge for too long or something.

i had a creme brulee; it was served in a shallow dish to allow for more "burnt caramel" per total caramel; it was excellent, if a bit too sweet; at least real vanilla beans were used. It would be perfect if the dish was slightly deeper and less wide, so that you don't get so much burnt caramel per total caramel - at some points it felt like eating candy.

Overall not bad but not worth the price we paid. Hmm. (7.5/10)
Not value for money!

Brussel Sprouts

2009-07-20T07:54:00.000-07:00

Had a small 'dinner' for some friends for my birthday=)

So I 'jioed' the friends all down to brussels sprouts, coz they were having a mussels promotion - half price after 10, or before seven.

since everyone was late and i was having exams, it'd have to be after 10 then.

so i ordered some beer to start things off:

we had an Orval. this being the first time i tried orval, it was actually very good - very refreshing, light, punchy....

it's been so long i cant remember the taste actually but i really liked it :) wanted to switch with my friend haha but she liked it too. soh well.

Had a main course of duck confit. the rendition here is pretty good. the skin is crisp, the meat is tasty, flavourful, and flakes off easily. how a good confit should be. and it is accompanied by a cherry beer (kwak) reduction that cuts through the richness of the meat.

The mussels came later: we ordered quite a few to share:

white wine sauce, provence sauce, beer sauce, and another....

all very good, with sweet delicate mussels in a tasty sauce. great to mop up with the fries served on the side.

pity the fries weren't very good though - cut too thick.

2009-07-05T11:04:00.000-07:00

AGes since i posted huh.

well.u noe that my food blogging days of travelling around scouring for good food is kinda gone. kinda because i dont have that many classes so alot of my days are spent eating at home (which is good and cheap) and that u noe maybe im a bit lazy and petrol is a bit more expensive and yadayadayada.

well hope u like reading what i write. i hope i do also.

sometimes we write for posterity's sake. like for our own goodselves to read and maybe chuckle at how lovely we are.

hmm.

as for me.

alrite.

let me blog.

i shall blog about this nice place called Paradise Inn, a branch of Taste Paradise, and it is really quite nice. location: west coast plaza, just next to my church.

went there twice already, and i shall just recapture my experiences.

first time was with zh and friends.

this is watercress soup - very nutritious. loads of watercress.

the stewed su-dong-po pork. gelatinious layers of pork (esp with the fats lovingly melting in your mouth) in tasty viscous sauce.

wok-fried noodles: quite tasty.

this was quite nice: wasabi mayo prawns. very fresh prawns: however there could be more wasabi.

sauteed eggplant with chilli: very nice.

The second time i came with my parents and this is what we had:

Spinach with 3 eggs: this was good, a bit of minced meat with the 3 eggs: can't really go wrong with this dish huh.

Fried Rice: very fragrant, good wok hei.

Hotplate tofu: very good! the sauce coating the tofu was very delicious. loads of oyster sauce and whatnot, i bet.

AH, THE piece de-resistance: steamed fish head (carp) with spicy hot sauce, all covered with crackling lard bits. this was super delicious. the fish was very fresh and had a nice delicate flavour that went very well with the deliciously spicy gravy, which was tangy, savoury, a bit sweet, all at once - it is what is known as 'hot sauce', go try this! the lard bits on the top were very sinful tho, could feel my arteries being clogged.
(8/10)
(no need to rate the others huh)

Wasabi Tei - Fantastico! Oishi!

2009-04-07T06:04:00.001-07:00

Went to Wasabi Tei today for a second try at their much-lauded Japanese food. As you all already know, Wasabi Tei is well known to contain owners who are food nazis, who will scowl at you, never serve you with a smile, etc....But with the reputation of the food, we had to go again.
So off we went.

We were served with an appetizer, which was some pickled seaweed, and that was really delicious. Savoury, salty, with hints of sweetness. Very nice.

Couldn't decide what to order, so i went with the same thing i had the other time just to see how good it really was, since everyone talks about it and loves the food here so I had to really try it out again. Had the Chirashi Don (S$20). And i tell you, it was the most value-for-money amazing set I have tried. The pieces of sashimi were sliced so thickly, each slice was the thickness of a human finger (I'm not joking). And I was served, hmms, let me see:

So how was the fish? incredibly fresh, delicious, savoury, tasty, with all the lovely oomphy fish oils and juices and fish flavours.

I first tried the Hamachi (Yellowtail): Ah,this was good. very fresh, with the usual yellowtail flavours. Very thick.

The salmon was next: Ah, this was very thick as well, and absolutely delicious. very fresh, with no bad flavours.

Tamago: very well done. sweet enough.

Swordfish: Ah, this was really the BEST! Very thick, very "crunchy" with perfect texture of a good mekaji, and the taste was really shiokkkk, OISHI!!! OOMPHY! Very very savoury and delicious, with the lovely fish juices oozing out once u bite into the swordfish at the back of your tongue.

Another fish was served: didn't know what it was. It wasn't bad.

And the creme de la creme that i've saved for last: Some little bits of UNI! (sea urchin) A metallic sort of taste of the sea, creamy, sweet seafood taste of slight brine, with a lovely sensation at the back of your tongue. Sorry i'm really bad at describing the food, you know. =) It was good.

Rating: 9/10

Oh btw i tried my friend's chawan mushi. it was delicious. very fresh steamed egg just freshly made, with bits of mushroom and prawn!