because calories are too precious to be wasted on bad food.

b.r.b.

2008-11-12T16:37:00.003+08:00

I know you people have been checking on us (yes, the statcounter does not lie. we even know who you are ;) )

You're probably wondering why we haven't posted in a week since we are so fond of posting 3,4 times a day (that's how much we eat). Well, the truth is, when exams beckon, Sheryl has to study, or at least try to.

And we all know how Sharon is lazy.

Nevertheless, stay tuned. New posts will come up soon enough in say, 2 more weeks? (Or sooner if Sharon gets active.)

Cheers.

hooked II

2008-11-05T00:06:00.002+08:00

Did we not say previoulsy that we were hooked on Hooked?

For a number of reasons, Sheryl and I found ourselves back at Hooked for lunch last weekend. Well, truth be told, we didn't plan on coming back here quite so soon. Neither was this place our first choice for lunch.

Reason 1: We both had a busy morning and could only do lunch at 2. By this time, all the places we had intended to visit were just about rounding up their lunchtime orders.
Reason 2: We were near the area and didn't want to travel too far for lunch.
Reason 3: We had originally wanted to go to Sushi Tei at Thomson Plaza but were instantly repelled from the shopping centre by the LONG line of cars waiting to enter the carpark. (Why is there ALWAYS a queue to enter the carpark on weekends? Always. No matter what time in the day you go, there's a queue. And when it's raining outside? Oh man, don't even get me started on that) Being at the mercy of the few good restaurants located in the area, Hooked thus presented itself as a viable alternative.
Reason 4: We didn't want something too heavy as a late lunch would mean we would still probably be filled by dinner and, being the foodies that we are, we weren't about to let anything mess with our dinner. (Yes, we make it a point to have 3 meals a day, no matter wat. Having more is always welcomed. But 3 at the minimun. No two ways about it)
Reason 5 (and perhaps the most poignant one): We were hungry and needed to fill our stomachs. Pronto.

So Hooked it was to be again.

As with our previous visit, the restautant was quite empty when we got there. Worryingly so actually. Save for two other tables and us, there were no other patrons for the entire time we were there. Then again, it could also be because it was rather late to be having lunch. Quite a few groups of people walked past the restaurant though, but they merely gleamed through the menu, and left.Why people? Why? Does the menu not interest you?! Come on! it has over 100 items! Surely you can find something that catches your eye? Hell, I don't even like fish and I already know what I'm having my next visit there. Aye, next time, just go in. I promise you you won't be disappointed.

Again, we had a tough time deciding what to order. Everything on the menu looked so good, we wanted to try everything. That was when I had an epiphany (or rather when I just got greedy). Why not order a combo? That way, we would get to sample a little of everything. Closest thing to ordering everything on the menu we could get, I say. And so we did just that. Lover's platter for two. Steamed snapper with asaparagus, grilled half-shell scallops, baked squid, grilled prawns, fries. Call me greedy but I had expected the plate to come teeming with glorious seafood. But by golly, look at the white expense of the platter! (Think the seafood platter for two at Fish & Co and this serving seems like it was meant for 1. Ok, 1.5 people at most.)

No I'm serious about this. Someone (else) should tell them to increase the size of their portions.

The baked squid was adequately prepared. Slightly firm to the bite but not overbaked till the point where it became rubbery. It came with a mayo-like dressing which I thought added a pleasant dimension of flavor to an otherwise uninspiring dish. Maybe it's because I prefer my squid grilled, slightly charred around around the edges and boasting of smokey flavor. Sheryl didn't take to this dish as readily though as she's never been a "mayo-groupie".

Next was the steamed snapper. The steamed snapper was served steaming hot. It was a bit tough but snappers are tougher fish. I quite liked this dish, the broth(?) was delightfully tasty. Infused with the succulence of seafood and laced with a tinge of lemon, this broth was light and invigorating and reminiscent of homemade goodness. The taste was clean and brisk, keenly sapid yet not overbearing. This went particularly well with the rice pilaf that we ordered, although the rice pilaf is a far far far cry from the one at Canopy.

The prawns were, in my opinion, the best offering on the platter (I think Sheryl would contend this though. I have a feeling she prefered the fish). Albeit being a little on the small side, the prawns were firm to the bite and blanketed in a delicious creamy sauce. The sauce actually tasted like ba-hu to me, a mixture of savoury and sweet. The combination was strikingly successful and was a bit reminiscent of lobster mentai for me, except with the added taste of pork floss.

The baked scallops were a let-down. For starters, they were overbaked. As a result, the shellfish had atrophied and became really tough to the bite. Sheryl literally had to pry the scallop from its shell. The butter sauce used to flavor this dish teetered on the overbearing side which I felt took away from the natural sweetness of the shellfish. They offer this as a starter too but my vote would be to give this a miss and try the salmon wonder rolls instead.

Hooked! Leaving second time satisfied and awaiting our 3rd visit there. Hmm, sometime next week perhaps, Sheryl? Anyone wanna join us? !

Hooked!
203 Upper Thomson Road

Yan Kee aka BK Eating House

2008-10-31T02:18:00.014+08:00

When people talk about BK Eating House, they refer to this fishball noodles stall. It's like Yan Kee and BK Eating House are synonymous. They have no identity outside of each other.

Go around and ask "eh you know the Yan Kee fishball noodles?" I promise you, most people will say "don't know." If, however, you ask "eh you know the BK Eating House fishball noodles?" Chances are people will go "yar yar yar, that one." Try it!

Well, Sharon and I are a bit queer. We know it as the "Circular Road fishball noodles." We first went there to try their dry mee sua. I love mee sua. But that's a different story. Anyhow, we weren't very impressed by it. I prefer the authentic mee sua in soup. What struck us though, was the fishball. The fishball here is quite 'tok-kong'.

Bak Chor Mee (mee pok tar). The pork was tender but no way as tender as Meng Kitchen. It also came with only ONE slice of mushroom. ONE. And ONE mandatory leaf. Might as well don't give right?

Another thing about this place is that I think they think vinegar is very expensive. You can hardly taste any vinegar in this at all. I like my mee pok to be laced with a tinge of vinegar, that baffling acetous twang that whets your appetite and keeps you wanting more and more.

That said, the sauce was still commendable. Definitely above average. Just not shiokalicious.

The noodles were slightly limp, but as usual, because we let it sit for too long. Nonetheless, this bak chor mee is definitely better than Singapore's average bowl.

I had the fishball noodles (mee kia) The mee kia was very good. I liked it a lot. It was 'hou-Q-ah', springy with a bite. Loved it.

The fishballs were as usual, fantastic. This was what we came here for anyway. The fishballs are, according to the stall, "special handmade fishballs". Very very springy, with a high fish:flour ratio. Only thing is that they are very big and I don't really like big fishballs. I like them bite-sized, don't know why.

I remember liking the East Coast 132 mee poh kueh teow mee fishballs very much. I should go back and try them again, to see which fishball I prefer, that or the Yan Kee one.

Yan Kee

Boat Quay BK Eating House

21 South Bridge Road

udders - a new porn star is born!

2008-10-31T01:24:00.020+08:00

I knew that title would capture your attention. But the porn star is not u.d.d.e.r.s. That word just cannot be linked with porn. Even if it is associated with breasts. (If, however, you find udders porn material, well, what can I say? Whatever rocks your bed, I mean boat.)

We've always passed by this U.d.d.e.r.s. but we've never actually tried it. Then Dewi tells me that U.d.d.e.r.s has the best ice-cream in Singapore and insists that I try it. So off we went, in search of the best ice-cream Singapore has to offer.

When we were there, we started to think, "how can we make the ice-cream look as tempting as possible?" You see, Sharon and I are really into porn, food porn that is. And of course we would like to create some porn of our own (food porn ah! naughty you). However, as you can tell, our photography skills are not very up to scratch and our photos are really embarrassing at times.

We then found out to our dismay that just a plain picture of an ice-cream cone is not very exciting at all. Imagine, we already have a lousy camera, lousy photography skills. Now we have a lousy subject!

We put on our thinking hats and started to brainstorm on how to make this ice-cream look inviting. Then I had an epiphany. Why not photograph me eating it? I was positive that this would provide a novel twist on our photographs, if we could capture the raptures of elation that we experienced when we have had something (well, since this is a cheeky post) orgasm-worthy. ;)

Alas, I proved to be very unphotogenic. The photos were complete failures. We decided to change subjects. Why not have Sharon do the honours for us? The result? You won't believe how sexy our photos turned out to be. Check it out. Sharon is an official porn (food porn!) star.

Look at that mint ice-cream melting uncontrollably on her tongue! Look at those colours, the white of her teeth, the pink of her tongue, the red of her plush lips and that mint-green! If we set up a kissing booth to raise funds for charity, we should post this picture. The queue would extend to JB and back. Any interested soul? ;)

On a side-note, the ice-cream tasted like Colgate to me. (notice how the review becomes the peripheral issue?) It was SO minty. Sharon loved it. I think the first lick was fine, but I definitely cannot stomach an entire cone of pure-mint. You might as well give me the leaf itself to munch on. I can guarantee you'll have kiss-worthy breath after this though. (It doesn't take a genius to guess that Sharon had very kissable breath after that right? Still no takers?)

If you like mint, this is the ice-cream to go for.

I love this shot. The pear sorbet is literally glowing, like a beautiful iridescent pale white pearl.

At first 'lick', the sorbet was not very good. The pear taste was much too subtle. But compared to eating toothpaste, well, let's just say the one-eyed's king in the land of the blind. To be fair though, when the sorbet had melted a little, it tasted a lot better. Somehow the pear's sweet tang was a lot more pronounced and so much sharper in semi-liquid form.

The texture of the sorbet was quite good. They had actual diced pear bits in them. These little pear chips were still firm and crunchy and it was very interesting. The granular texture of the sorbet also imitated the beady disposition of the pear nicely.

That said, if you're looking for first-rate, this is definitely not it.

(Sharon sampled the mango and the soursop sorbets too. She says that the suggestion of soursop is even more imperceptible than the pear. She thinks the mango is the best)

I was expecting a lot more from this place, after all, Dewi had said it was better than Island Creamery, The Daily Scoop etc. But it's probably our own fault because U.d.d.e.r.s. is famous for their liquored ice-cream, which we did not try because well, we are members of A.A. and we didn't think it wise to jeopardise our recovery. (of course not. we're just really guai girls who dislike the taste of alcohol. We never get drunk, never get into drunk-escapade-trouble.)

U.d.d.e.r.s. Ice-Cream

Goldhill Centre

155 Thomson Road

p/s- Sharon would like to clarify that she is not really a porn star. She is the next bright star in the financial sector.

first thai

2008-10-30T02:45:00.009+08:00

Sharon's colleague Christine introduced her to this Thai restaurant and she swears by it. Being the crazy foodies we are, we wasted no time checking this place out. I've been wanting to go to a proper authentic Thai restaurant to flaunt my Thai abilities after taking a course in Thai. (Alas, I've forgotten the most part of it)

First Thai Food turned out to be situated in an old-school coffeeshop setting. It seemed very promising and I immediately conjured up thoughts of authentic piping hot tom yum soup in cheapo metal bowls. There's a certain rustic charm about these coffee-shops that I cannot resist.

Parking is a problem if you are driving, because there are only limited PARALLEL parking lots. (It's a big problem for me la ok.)

The menu, which is a bit unsettling for me. I'm guessing it's a thai girl there. But she looks nothing like a Thai. in fact, I think she looks almost Indian. I think it's the huge huge eyes.

Mango salad. We ordered it "phet maak dai mai" which means literally means "very spicy, can or not?" (I told you I need to show off a bit right?) Well phet (spicy) it was. Not crazily spicy but with a very satisfactory kick to it. The mangoes were very fresh, and just unripe so they were still very firm and crunchy. Somehow, they weren't very sour as I find mango salads are wont to be. The zest was just right. We were very impressed by this unassuming dish. Very good.

We had a crabmeat fried rice. This was amazing. The crabmeat was sweet and succulent; they were generous with their serving, the rice was perfectly dry and fluffy and individually encased in that adored wok-hei. After the mango salad and this, I couldn't wait for what was coming up!

The tom yum was great. They were so generous with the ingredients that the soup was cloudy with the precipitate. I've never had clear tomyum made murky like this before. The bowl was literally overflowing with ingredients. Very very good.

The soup tasted great. It was very authentic, with that sour-sweet-spicy thing down pat. We spotted occasional chicken pieces (treasure!!) and the chicken was oh-so-soft. The prawns however, were not very fresh. Other than that, it was good.

Chicken fried with cashew nuts. I did not like this. There were more cashew nuts than chicken. More chicken skin than chicken meat. In short, where's the chicken?! It was also way too salty for my liking. I felt like I was chewing on deep fried chicken skin doused in gravy.

The hotplate tofu did not taste very Thai and we were disappointed with this too. I thought it was very average and Sharon thought it was too salty.

There were more hits than misses. I would say this is a good place for some-what authentic Thai food although I think that it is slightly overrated. There must be a better Thai restaurant waiting to be discovered. That's why we call our blog next-stop-ambrosia right?

First Thai Food
23 Purvis Street

Bobby's

2008-10-29T23:45:00.014+08:00

We had wanted to check out the new restaurants at Cuppage Terrace and found ourselves in Bobby's. There is quite a story behind Bobby's as we later found out from the Manager, Desmond, who turned out to be quite a character. (If you do make a trip there, be sure to steal a conversation with him. You wil be thoroughly entertained)

Well, rumour has it that Bobby's was originally known as Bobby Rubino's, the restaurant at Chijmes. It was set up and owned by a Canadian couple who got into trouble with the law and sold the business off to an enterprising lady in the finance industry named Susan. She chose a new name for a restaurant, hired a new team, launched a new menu and Wala! Bobby's was born.

Yeap. I hear you. AS IF it were that easy right? Well, seems easy enough that Bobby's just set up its second branch at Cuppage Terrace.

The first thing that struck Sheryl and I when we entered the restaurant was how discordant everything seemed to be. From the zebra-print couches, to the plasma TV showing ESPN to the piped-in hip hop music, everything about the restaurant screamed incongruous. "Think of this restaurant as an American restaurant with an African beat" was what we were told by Desmond.

Uhm, ok Desmond, whatever floats your boat. I guess sometimes incongruity can be lost by novelty-seekers? Perhaps others would like the feel of this retaurant. But us? not so much. Give me either Africa or America. I don't understand the concept of an African-America. Or an American-Africa for that matter.

Moving on to serious business, the menu. Don't expect any surprises here. Yes, the menu is rather extensive. Yes, some of the food do sound appetising. But if its eye-catching, attention-grabbing, EAT-ME-NOW kind of food you're after, Bobby's is not the place for you. Bobby's offers standard American fare. We're talking Pizza, Pasta, Burgers and Grills here.

Bobby's is having a discount for lunch-goers. Order a main course between 12noon - 3pm and get a Caesar salad and dessert on the house! We had 2 of their signature dishes; ribs and the beef burger. Unfortunately, the beef burger did not qualify as a main and did not come with the promotion. This, as we later found out, was to be a good thing. Be warned that the servings here are huge. For a moment there, I felt like Gulliver in Brobdingnag.

The Caesar Salad, pressumably. I don't know about you but this did not look like a Caesar Salad to us. It was more like a garden salad served with some random tasting dressing that they tried to pass off as Caesar. Oh not that it was bad or anything. It was passable. Just definitely not Casesar dressing. So more like a Garden Salad served with a dressing that tasted remotely like Caesar. Need I say more about the incongruity of this place?Next up, the ribs. Mind you, this is the smallest order of ribs they offer. The menu reads "the lighter appetite". I'm not sure I want to know how big "the steel city rack" would be. These ribs were succulent and finger-licking good. I appreciated that the BBQ sauce wasn't too overbearing that it took away from the taste of the ribs. That said, I've had better and I felt that the ribs were a bit tough and did not fall off the bone. The coleslaw served with the ribs was forgettable too. The cabbage was limp and lifeless, as if it had been soaking in the slaw dressing for far too long. I've had better- at KFC.

Sheryl had the beef burger. We had asked for it to be medium-rare but it came more like well-done. No blood! No sweet blood! Nonetheless, the patty was juicy and flavourful. It was rather decent. It was supposed to come with Swiss Cheese but came with a disappointing thin slice of Kraft Cheddar Cheese look-a-like, taste-a-like. It wasn't even melted properly and it lacked that glorious cheese-in-every-nook-and-cranny, stretchy, gooey, wonderful cheesy thing. In fact, I thought that the amount of cheese was too pathetic and was completely lost in that gigantic patty.

The apple pie was great. The apples were not cooked till they were mushy but instead retained that firmness and crunch. It was not sickeningly sweet either and was in fact all rather tart. It looked more like a mini-chicken-pie, the size of a tart, that you can get at Delifrance. In fact, it tastes like that too. The pastry was commendable. Very buttery and nicely browned. I'm just not sure I would come back to Bobby's just for it.

Bobby's. Definitely a place to go if you're into food sharing. Or if you have one helluva appetite. But, with the myraid of options diners have at the revamped Cuppage Terrace, its easy to overlook this restaurant in favor of the other, more unique, ones.

P.S We didn't take many photos this round as we got stopped by Desmond who told us that they had a 'no food photography' policy lest other restaurants follow their recipes, presentation etc. This I don't understand. How can you copy a recipe from a photo? And seriously now, how many different ways are there to plate a burger or ribs?

Announcement

2008-10-29T00:17:00.006+08:00

Hello Friends (and random pple who just happen to chance upon our blog. BUT all are welcome),

Our apologies to those of you who have come to our blog in the hopes of seeing an updated post but are leaving disappointed. (Oh, we know who you are). Sheryl has been busy with work; Shally doesn't even have a gmail account and does not know how to post; and Sharon has been, well, Sharon IS lazy (Read: October 23rd's post on Sun Moulin).

Nevertheless, thanks for supporting our blog. Thanks to those who've linked us to their blog, tagged on ours as well as those who've been sending us emails. Check back in with us later today and we should have a new review posted. In the meantime, keep those emails coming! Remember that you can request for us to review anywhere and we'll do our best to accomodate your request.

Cheers, from all of us.

MOF の my izakaya

2008-10-26T02:37:00.007+08:00

Here's a little japanese language lesson: the character の (pronounced like a forceful 'no') is what is known in English as a possessive adjective, or rather, it transforms the root word into a posessive adjective. Like watashi means Me, I etc and watashi(no) means My.

eg. Watashiwa Sheryl desu = I am Sheryl.

Watashino namae (name) wa Sheryl desu = My name is Sheryl.

(ignore the desu and wa, take it that they are punctuation)

Therefore, MOF の my izakaya really means MOF's 'my izakaya.' I'm not really sure whether this means that 'My Izakaya' refers to the restaurant and 'MOF' refers to the group (like Tung Lok group) etc. But that's the only way that makes sense to me. And if so, I guess we can expect MOF to come up with restaurants other than My Izakaya.

An Izakaya is a popular japanese drinking place that also serves food much like a bar that sells bar food in our context. So imagine my surprise when My Izakaya is branded as a cafe/restaurant in Singapore. It's supposed to be a watering hole!

Nonetheless, I am very pleased by My Izakaya. Their menu is admittedly limited but offers quite a few interesting dishes. And, the food served is actually quite good.

Mekajiki (swordfish) sashimi.

This was rather good; firm and fresh. However, it was nothing out of the ordinary.

This is the plum rice sushi. It is pretty darn fantastic, if I may say so. I like tamago a lot but I always think tamago sushi is quite 'bo-hua'. So I usually end up ordering unatama maki (unagi+tamago maki) hoping that it will be good. But it never is. Somehow the combi just does not work for me. And it is difficult to find a tamago that is really spectacular and which hits that oomph spot. Yes, the humble tamago is easy to make but it is not easy to perfect it. I think it says a lot about a chef if he pays attention to this simple dish.

The tamago is in, Shally's words, "eggy like eggo pancakes" (though Shally didn't even try it and Sharon doesn't think that eggo pancakes taste eggy. Sheryl doesn't know what to say.)

But in all honesty, the tamago was quite good. It was very sweet and the firmness was just right, just that it lacked a bit of the eggy oomph.

The main thing about this plum rice tamago is not the tamago but the plum rice. Sharon really liked this because the plum rice is not too sour and is super fragrant. Without even putting it in my mouth, I could already smell the plum fragrance. I kept putting it at my nose and sniffing it. A bit unglam. It was an interesting dish; I think the plum kinda whetted our appetites for more food to come. You know, 'kai wei', which literally means 'to open stomachs'.

I love this dish. This is the salmon mango sushi. I expect Hong Kongers especially to love this. Everything in HK is mango-inspired. EVERYTHING. They put it into every plausible dish. They have mango desserts that are super mango-ey. Like mango pudding with mango bits topped with mango syrup and mango sago. These Hong Kongers are crazy over this fruit.

So anyway, I liked this a lot. I thought that the mango made a normally dull dish very refreshing. I liked the sudden burst of sweetness the mango provided as I put it in my mouth. In particular, the sauce that they drizzled over the sushi was delectable. Sharon reckons that it's a mango-mayo sauce. I have no idea but it went with the sushi and that's all that mattered. The sauce, the mango and the muted salmon flavour.. Very nice.

It is definitely not your traditional sushi and I think purists would probably balk at this but I thought this was very unique. I know that Sushi-Tei has a mango-inspired sushi too but I've never tried it so I can't compare. But I do like the version here. Sweet squishy mango with salmon. MMmmm.

What I did not like though, was how much rice there was. I felt that the proportion of rice to salmon/mango was too great and that took away from that wondrous flavour a little.

We ordered a seafood toji set. The seafood toji was forgettable. The gravy was ok, the prawns were fresh, the scallops overdone. It was aight but nothing to shout about. You can get such standards anywhere.
Our seafood toji set came with chicken katsu. It was nicely fried and you can see the salt/pepper seasoning on the chicken. The chicken was very soft too. Other than that, I think I'll pass on this the next time I come here. I have a feeling their mains are not as good as their side dishes.

We had a imo dessert. It came with a card, this is what it said. "The imo series is a marriage between hot and cold desserts. While sweet potato is hot the Hokkaido milk base soft serve ice cream is icy cold. The best way to eat our japanese sweet potato series is to spoon a bit of everything and then eat them together. MOF uses premium Grade A Jap sweet potatoes imported from Japan. It is so sweet we do not add in sugar to it!"

It was goooood. The imo set we ordered came with the soft serve ice-cream, red bean paste, deep fried sweet potato and deep fried yam. It was so good. The ice-cream was reminiscent of McDonald's cone ice-cream. In fact, the one at McDonald's was stronger-tasting; sweeter with more vanilla kick. I quite liked the red bean but Sharon thought it tasted like chinese red bean soup and not japanese an pan. We liked the yam and the sweet potato A LOT but (despite the shortcomings of the red bean paste and the ice-cream) I'm sure it was the combination of everything that created that magic and left us spell-bound.
The sweet potato was mashed but not too finely, so that you can still savour the odd lumps of sweet potato. And the sweet potato was really sweet and full-bodied. It's one of the better Japanese sweet potatoes I have had. It's fried to a nice crisp golden and the crispness and the half-mashed/half-lump creation was quite a marvellous marriage. It was also pretty to look at, like a golden pillow.

The yam is outstanding. It had a very strong yam taste to it. Normal yam desserts out there are quite bland and dull, with merely a whiff of the yam taste. This was not one such dessert. The yam taste was very 'full-on' and potent. It wasn't very sweet, I don't think they added sugar or anything to it, it was just very yam-mish! It did not taste like orh-nee because it was unadulterated by sugar/coconut milk or anything. Just straight up pure yam. It wasn't very smooth and had the same lumpy consistency that made it all the more authentic. Very hard to come by indeed.

The yam is not the "star dish", the sweet potato is supposed to be the selling point. But the yam stole the limelight from the sweet potato in our opinions. This is because good yam stuff are just so hard to come by. And this yam flavour really shone through, even when we ate it with the ice-cream and red bean sauce and all that. The batter was somehow "chewier" according to Sharon.

We liked this dessert so much we ordered it again, this time with black sesame. (No photo) It was even better. The black sesame was very authentic and very pang. We liked this imo series so much we were craving it the next day.

MOF の My Izakaya

Marina Square (Cafe & Restaurant)

6 Raffles Boulevard

#02-128E Center Stage

S(039594)

ji dan zai aka tumour

2008-10-25T02:27:00.008+08:00

Whenever I watch TVB dramas I always think to myself how wonderful the food in HK looks. In particular, I wanted to try the curry fishballs and ji dan zai oh-so-badly. (not so much the smelly tofu. they stink way too bad for me to try them.)

When I first went to HK, I told Tina that I wanted to try the ji dan zai. She replied in surprise that Singapore sells these at Plaza Singapura and commented that they look horrible and resemble tumours. That's how we coined the term tumour and that's how this term became synonymous with ji dan zai. Sometimes I even feel like telling the Auntie 'tumour' when she asks me what I want.

I recommended this to Sharon and Sharon is even more in love with Tumour than I am. For the uninitiated, Tumour (or more accurately ji dan zai, which is loosely translated as 'egg boy'), is a sheet of many golf-ballish erm well, balls made from waffle-like batter.

It tastes like the waffles that you buy from Prima Deli (not the belgium waffles) with the kaya/peanut butter/blueberry/chocolate/red bean/whatever spread you can think of. But it's less coconut-milky and more eggy. It's still very fragrant and incredibly tasty. I don't think it's bland at all, even if you can't add a spread to it. It's perfect the way it is. (although I think that the stall sells it in an assortment of other flavours too)

It's very crispy, crunchy almost, especially at the fringe of the sheet, where the batter spreads out thinly. But even the tumours themselves are perfectly crispy on the outside. The inside is slightly hollow and therefore very light. It is also super spongy and dewy, although some tumours at the periphery are just crispy and hollow inside. It is very good.

I just don't understand why no other place sells this. I've never seen it anywhere except in PS. When I was in HK, they sell it everywhere! You'll find a vendor selling this around every nook and corner. It's easy to make too, it's simply a matter of putting the batter into the mould and voila! Tumour!

Ok, so it may not be easy to replicate the perfect HK version but I'm sure even the imitation will be good and can't go very far off. So why not? Singaporeans are so peckish and into snacks; there's no reason why this will not take off in Singapore. It tastes like waffles, is cheap, light and delicious. It tastes very traditional too and has a certain nostalgic ring to it (even though I first ate them last year). I can see many Singaporeans taking it as comfort food because it's a very familiar taste.

There are days when I crave Tumour but I can only find them in PS. I wish more vendors would sell this. It's really good and I believe Singaporeans will love them.

Ji Dan Zai store (beside D'Bun, stall no.2)
Plaza Singapura
Kopitiam Level 6

the canopy@Aramsa

2008-10-24T02:10:00.009+08:00

I can't believe it took me this long to come to this gem of a restaurant. It's nestled in the heart of Bishan Park II and so very convenient. I read a few bad reviews of this place online but I've also heard some good stuff about this place from friends who have been here so it was with mixed feelings that I came here. I loved it.

For one, the ambience is amazing. Stashed away from the glaring street lights, shrouded beneath the lush green foliage of the park, all within the vicinity of your own home. From the moment you step out of your car, you're greeted by the warm light that beckons you towards the restaurant. You're in the heartlands but it feels nothing like it.

It's so peaceful and quaint; and not in the least bit pretentious that many restaurants in Singapore are like. Even in the restaurant, people were joking and laughing merrily, clinking of glasses and hearty guffaws could be heard from tables all around us. It was very comfortable and yet very elegant. No forced hushed whispers or anything like that. I see joggers and dog-walkers ending their day off here, it is such a fantastic whimsical joint.
Grilled Snapper Fillet with Moroccan flavours served with rice pilaf. The fish was way way way too overdone. It was hard. Normally when I eat fish, I can cut the fillet using just a fork. I had to use my knife for this fish. It was so tough it was more like chicken. Snapper tends to be tougher but this was obviously way too overcooked.

The moroccan sauce was unusual. I quite liked it. It was a very intense tomato-based sauce with roasted red peppers undertones. I liked how tangy it was and the slight spicy punch the peppers gave. It was not fantastic but it was unique. Sharon HATED it. She wanted to gag because she hates hates hates roasted peppers. I guess that means no moroccan food for her in future.

Now, the star of the meal is not the fish, not the sauce but the rice. The rice is amazing. I don't know why but it tastes like chicken rice. It's probably cooked in chicken broth. It is amazingly fragrant and gorgeously savoury. Raisins were sprinkled into the rice and anything with raisins works for me. The raisins gave a nice burst of sweetness when bitten into and that complemented the rice very nicely. It was very refreshing, to say the least. I also liked that they added toasted almond slices to it. The rice was fluffy; the raisins were plump; and the almond's crunch really pepped things up. It brought a fascinating contrast to the already differring textures. The rice is the thing to go for here.

We also ordered Duck Meatballs with Fettucine and fresh herbs.

The pasta was overdone but it was very tasty. It was engaging and sapid, with a faint aftertaste of the duck.

I thought that the meatballs tasted of duck but Sharon thought that they tasted like normal meatballs. I could smell the distinct aroma of duck as I bit into the meatballs. I think this dish is not bad at all. The only thing is that it was a bit oily.

The serving is small and I think deliberately so, because one gets very jelat of the taste after a while.

We wanted to order the flourless chocolate cake but they were out of it so we opted for strawberry shortcake as recommended instead. It's more like apple pie than strawberry shortcake, except that in place of apples they used strawberries. I wouldn't say that it is spectacularly good but it is pretty good. It tastes very homemade, old-fashioned and is exceedinly comforting. The vanilla added a wonderful warm touch to this dessert and I was properly satisfied by it.

All in all, I enjoyed my dinner very much. I guess the bad reviews stemmed from people ordering the wrong dishes (as is the usual case) because the food was really not bad! So the trick, is to order what the restaurant is known to be good for, and not hazard a guess from the descriptions. That's why food reviews are important, so you know what to order and what not to.

The Canopy @ Aramsa
1382 Ang Mo Kio Ave 1

Bishan Park II

THE legendary zhen zhen porridge

2008-10-24T01:59:00.003+08:00

There was a time when I thought that I had no fate with Zhen Zhen Porridge. I have gone to Maxwell SO many times, specially to try the porridge famed as Singapore's best. Unfortunately, they're always either closed or sold out.

But my luck has changed for the better. I have managed to try THE porridge. No more Tuesday boo-boos for me, going after lunch or going at lunch or going on days with only an hour to spare.(They're closed on Tuesdays and they sell out quick on other days and you almost always have to queue) Today, before 8am, I was savouring the legendary Zhen Zhen Porridge. I feel privileged.

This bowl of porridge is not Singapore's most famous bowl of porridge without a reason. The porridge is supposed to be the Hainanese type, which means in between the Teochew grainy version and the Cantonese creamy gruel. It is definitely not as creamy as the Cantonese chok I'm used to (can't find those around anymore, you have to cook it yourself for a full day to get it right); but close enough. The rice grains in Zhen Zhen's porridge are not totally dissolved to form a thick velvet paste but cooked long enough for the grains to partially disintegrate into a smooth consistency. It is definitely more Cantonese than Teochew. For sure.

I like congee so I liked this one. I think it might be a bit too smooth for some people, they may think it's like drinking soup rather than eating porridge. But I think true blue porridge-lovers will like this. Because porridge is not water + rice. Porridge is a completely different substance altogether. It takes on a different dimension. Cooking porridge is an art.

I like my porridge to be really really thick and smooth, the really old school chok that my grandmother used to cook. First you have to soak the rice in sesame oil. Then she would boil it for a full day till the grains have dissolved completely into a thick paste. Throw in some pork (or whatever ingredient you fancy, ) a dash of pepper, a lot of sesame oil, a raw egg.. Her porridge was good enough to beat any top restaurants. But proper chok requires so much work I can't imagine anyone willing to put in that effort. Only dear old grandmothers who love you so much would go to such extent for you.

So anyway, Zhen Zhen's porridge is really smooth and nice, the way I think porridge-lovers will like it. Look at that consistency! It's really quite hard to find a place that sells it this thick.

They are also very generous with their ingredients so its very good.

The fish was a bit overcooked but it can't really be helped since the fish will continue to cook in the steaming-hot porridge, after the initial douse in hot water. I don't understand why they gave so much ginger too, it almost felt like I was eating ginger porridge than fish porridge. I like my porridge to be infused with the fragrance of sesame oil and there was not enough sesame oil so my porridge wasn't very pang initially. Luckily, the stall offers you extra sesame oil in a saucer if you request for it. Other than that, no complaints. Zhen Zhen's Porridge is really quite a formidable bowl of porridge and I fully understand why it's hailed as Singapore's best.

Zhen Zhen Porridge

Maxwell Food Centre

Stall 54

tapioca cake @ maxwell

2008-10-24T01:24:00.002+08:00

Our next introduction is the humble tapioca cake and we will be introducing the best one that we know of at Maxwell Food Centre. I didn't what the shop name is till I took notice of it this time round, we just know it as the Maxwell Tapioca Cake. (I'm not even sure why we know it as Tapioca Cake. It's obviously a steamed kueh.)

The most striking thing about this tapioca cake is the texture. The tapioca cake here is the softest thing ever. It's a downy pillow showered in coconut shavings. It's so soft that when I press it, I feel like it's melting from the pressure. My fingers are moist from just handling it because its so full of water. It's really more like gel than kueh. These darlings melt in your mouth AND in your hand. This place is extremely generous with the amount of coconut they give so the kueh is very coconutty. A few hours later I could still taste the coconut in my mouth. The coconut shavings are very very good. The top-grade kind of coconut without the sour aftertaste of stale coconut. This kueh also had the very distinct tapioca flavour; very clean, subtle and light. I could eat 10 of these!

Xing Xing Tapioca Cake/Ondeh Ondeh

Maxwell Food Centre

Stall 31

p/s- Remember to go early because this place sells out quick!

sun moulin II - Sharon's virgin post

2008-10-23T01:22:00.018+08:00

The following post is written by Sharon:

Disclaimer: Just in case any of you were wondering. Yes, Sharon exists. See I wished I had a good excuse for my silence thus far. Maybe some fantastic story about how my fingers had grown too fat from all the eating (in a bid to start out this blog) and so I had to wait till I had slimmed down some to regain my shapely, slender, and not to mention, keyboard-friendly fingers. But sadly, no. I think the word we're all looking for here is: LAZINESS. (Right Sheryl?) Nevertheless, Sharon is here to stay. Hopefully. Reminder, Sharon is Lazy.

Here goes my first post. Damn my hands are clamy.

So Sheryl and I paid another visit to Sun Moulin. No, it's not because we were blown away from our first visit there but more because there's a shortage of good bakeries in town. Save for Breadtalk (which anyway can be found at any mall in the heartlands) and maybe Four Leaves at Takashimaya, (Sheryl: erm, Four Leaves good meh?) there just aren't any other good bakeries in the city area. Someone should really tell Provence to open an outlet in town.

Well, the truth of the matter is that I was feeling snackish and craved the Brazillian bun from Provence. Sun Moulin's cheese mochi was the closest substitute to be had, hence our decision to go there. (Again, someone please tell Provence to open an outlet in town. Someone. Anyone! Just SOMEONE please tell them!!) (Sheryl: ok people, forgive Sharon. She's a bit passionate about Provence.)

My craving for just the cheese mochi gave way to greed once I was presented with the delightful spread of breads that were for sale. Everytime I go to a bakery, I feel like a two year old girl in a sweet shop. I see everything and I want everything. I know they're bad for me, but I still want everything. I know I can't have them all, but I still try to get away with as much as I can. Today was no different. After a very full lunch, I still bought three breads to try, the snow custard, the an pan and the cheese mochi. (Yes Sheryl, you shared them with me so it cannot be counted as me having eaten all by myself. I know the drill.)

First up, the snow custard. It's a cake. No, it's a bun. No, it's a cake. No, it's a bun. Actually, its neither a cake nor a bun. It's BOTH a cake AND a bun. Think a rich custard bun enveloped in butter cake with the top encrusted like a hokkaido dome from BreadTalk and you would come close to the textural treat this provided in your mouth. Can't imagine it? Well, you know where you're headed for this weekend. Trust me, this is Gooooooooood.

Sheryl: The custard is the same as the cream coronet, which we reviewed in the last post. I still can't get over how fantastic this custard is. It's eggy and milky and eggy and milky.. it's the perfect cross between Provence's milk pan and custard pan. There's also a slight hint of lemon in it which made it all the more invigorating. The only thing I wish they could do is to make it cold, the way Provence does theirs. Oh if only it could be cold. Imagine cold delicious custard, smooth and satin-like, milky and sweet, oozing out of a warm freshly baked bun. Oh I know! Even better, put it in a mochi-donut!! A mochi-donut is a little donut ball (much like the size a Dunkin Donut ball) that's chewy. I've had it in HK and it was darn friggin' good. Combine that with the custard, lip-smacking I tell you. Lip-smacking. Just imagine it!

Sun Moulin has a few offerings of an pans and we decided to try another one of them, just for the heck of it. I had remembered this to be quite good from a previous visit but boy were we disappointed. Then again, that was before Sheryl introduced me to the an pan from Provence. Since then, I haven't found one that even comes close to matching it. Well well, another one bites the dust. (Seriously now, do we need more reasons for Provence to open an outlet in town?)

Sheryl: The an pan was, as you can see for yourself, clearly too dry. They might as well have given us a lump of an-pan flavoured clay. They're obviously not very consistent. Anyway, the main reason why we chose this was because Sharon said that this an pan uses hawaiian bread and which is incredibly soft and fluffy. I agreed that it was soft but it was a bit dry and (I can't believe I'm saying this) yeasty. I did not think that it was exceptional. I thought it was quite normal actually.

Disclaimer: Lest any of you are tempted to call me out for being lazy and not reviewing the cheese mochi, I didn't review it as Sheryl had already done so in our previous post on Sun Moulin. Ah-huh!
Sheryl: Yes, we tried the mochi. Just an update though, the mochi was considerably a lot more chewy than we remembered so that was good. But the cheese taste was very strong too and it was too overwhelming. Again another testimony to Sun Moulin's inconsistent standards. Nonetheless, its a great bakery.

In an ideal world, there would be a bakery that sold the fiery floss and steamed green tea cake (yes, we do like those too), the snow custard from Sun Moulin along with the Brazillian bun from Provence, amongst other things of course. Remember, little girl in the sweet shop?

hooked on hooked!

2008-10-23T01:17:00.012+08:00

ok people. I eat my words. I said that there was no good food in the North. I said that when right across Meng Kitchen, there was Hooked!

This is not their flagship outlet, the original is at Upper Bukit Timah but I've never tried that. To be honest, it would never have crossed my mind to even consider this place. We wanted to try the Vietnamese place along Upp Thomson Road but it closed down. It was late, we had just gone to the gym and I was starving. I'm positive Sharon heard my stomach growl.

I must say they have a very extensive menu. I think there were 700 plus items in their menu! I deduced this because the last item on their menu had a number 700-something. Although I must admit that their first item started on 100-something. (Ee. Play cheat) But really, in all honesty, their menu is very interesting and very extensive. I was quite blown away by the variety.

After we ordered, we waited a long time for our food to come. I fell asleep at the table. Yes, I did, like Goldilocks.

We ordered Salmon Wonder rolls. Thin slices of Salmon fillet spread with Medelov sauce, wrapped with asparagus carrots, topped with fish roe and slow-baked till just under-cooked. 3 for $10.90. (Kill people set fire)

But, it was good. Boy did they deliver. Wonder rolls they say? Wonder rolls they are. It was not fishy at all and salmon normally is. The crunch of the asparagus complemented the salmon's molten texture perfectly. The sauce was brilliant and the fish was done just undercooked, just like they promised. I enjoyed this thoroughly.

Roasted Cod in Lemongrass Miso. This is how they described it: Generous portion of Cod steak roasted till the full aroma of the lemongrass miso comes through.

When this first came, I thought to myself. This dish is not going to be good. I've never been so wrong. It is ohmygawdicantbelieveit-good. If I thought the wonder rolls were good, these were magnificent. I have nothing but glowing reviews for it. This cod is truly ambrosial. It was remarkably fresh and the miso sauce was sensational.

I think the service staff thought we were weird. We kept stuffing fish into our mouths all the time muttering "wahlaueh this is damn good". (Eh. When I say wahlaueh, its really wahlaueh.) Utter disbelief at how good this tasted.

The texture was faultless. It was so tender you can't pick it up with a fork. That's not all. Despite the fish being so gloriously tender, the skin was astoundingly crispy. As I chewed on it, I literally heard the crackling of the skin. And that magnificent collagen-providing fat under the skin was so succulent so soft. "Oh. my, gawdddd...." (like Janice from Friends)

Seriously, this is possibly the BEST cod I have had. The texture was so good it was surreal. This fish died a martyr. It was a monumental moment for me there. Other fish I have had were good, they were fresh and sweet and succulent. But none gave me texture like this. This beats the like of Fish and Co. hands down. Hands down baby, hands down. Oh what the heck, feets down too if there's such a thing.

The only thing I can say is that the portion is pathetic. Look at that anorexic slice of fish and tell me is it a generous portion like they said it would be? I left the place still hungry. Otherwise, I'm coming back here. For sure. I love fish and seafood, and the food here is relatively healthy. Steamed, baked, roasted, grilled.. My daddy's going to love this place.

Thank you Hooked for giving us Northies hope!

Hooked!
203 Upper Thomson Road

loong fatt v 603. may the best tau sar piah win.

2008-10-23T00:41:00.008+08:00

Today, we bring you the battle of the tau sar piahs. Actually, we wanted to review Loong Fatt only but Sharon decided that we should do a comparison with the only other stall that was open, 603.

Everyone knows the best tau sar piahs are found along the Balestier Road stretch. (You there shaking your head.. Don't tell me you don't know. You're lying.) And the most famous of all is of course Loong Fatt.

You cannot claim to have eaten tau sar piah till you have tried these. No, don't show me those pandan flavoured tau sar piahs from JB. Don't show me those dry and coarse ones in the pink paper wrapping. Those put tau sar piahs to shame.

And what is the deal with these tau sar piahs? They are very very smooth and buttery. Did you not know? Haven't you heard? It's the love story of when Chinese-Flaky-Pastry (Huaiyang) met Butter, fell in love, got married and had kids.

(you know that was a joke right? Sharon thought it was a Chinese fable)

trivia: Did you know that the Huaiyang pastry is basically made up of two separate dough, the water dough and the lard or shortened dough? After the water dough and lard dough are mixed separately, the lard dough is wrapped inside the water dough, then the combined dough is layered by rolling and folding. Did you also know that the 'water dough' also has lard? No wonder its so bLARDy oily. (did not mean to swear)

Loong Fatt is more famous for its sweet than salty tau sar piah. Their tau sar piah is really one of a kind. The crust has the melts-in-your-mouth thing down pat. Normal tau sar piahs are flaky. This is crumbly. Normal tau sar piahs are dry and tasteless. This is buttery. See the difference? Yet the crust is not so buttery that it sticks to your teeth when you eat it.

The lotus paste is very smooth and sweet and oily. It's pure oily decadence. Have it when it's still warm, it makes a world of a difference. It's well, comforting. Yummy-yummy-yummy-I've-got-love-in-my-tummy childlike comfort.

This is the 603 tau sar piah. It's also nice just not as good. The pastry was not as fragrant and crumbly as Loong Fatt's. Sharon suspects that they gave us overnight tau sar piahs instead of fresh ones because it was too early in the morning. The paste fared poorly compared to Loong Fatt's delightful smooth one. According to Sharon, "overall its a 'rougher' tau sah piah than loong fatt".

The first thing you notice about Loong Fatt's salty tau sar piah is that it is very thin. It's almost flat! The next thing you will notice is that the filling is not the usual salty filling. Instead, it's almost difficult to tell the filling apart from the sweet ones. I think they mixed the sweet filling and the salty filling. You can tell because the filling is more pasty than powdery. (Look at the photo below)

Not only does it look like the sweet one, it even tastes like the sweet one. You can't really tell the sweet apart from the salty. The difference is minuscule. The only way I could be sure it was salty was because the sweet one had sesame seeds on it and this one didn't. For Sharon, this had a placebo effect. After noticing the absence of sesame seeds, she started to appreciate the savouriness.

This is the 603 salty tau sar piah. I preferred this because I like salty tau sar piah and this tastes properly salty the way it should be. I quite like the way the filling disintegrates into minced portions as you crush them between your teeth and you have to scramble to catch the random bits that fall out of your mouth. Messy, old-fashioned goodness, I say.

Sharon thinks that 603 sweet tau sar piah is better than their salty ones but I'm biased towards the salty one (no one fed me the sweet one when I was growing up so the salty tau sar piah is like childhood food to me) so I liked the salty one more the sweet one. But for Loong Fatt, it's clear that the salty is inferior to the sweet.

We also tried the egg tarts from Loong Fatt. One look at it you know it's not what they're famous for.

Sharon: dun need to review la... nothing good to say about them also.

Well, what else can I say? The boss has spoken. zip.

Maybe just this bit, the crust at 603 was better. But don't waste your calories.

Loong Fatt Eating House and Confectionary
639 Balestier Road

and

603 Tau Sar Piah
603 Balestier Road

tonkichi

2008-10-21T22:26:00.008+08:00

We heard that Tonkichi has better katsu-don than tampopo and have been wanting to check this place out. I've always wondered which place could have better katsu-don than Tampopo?!

Trivia: Tonkichi means 'lucky pig' although I wonder what's so lucky about a pig that gets savagely murdered and devoured.

First up, my sliced pork with rice set. I really liked this one. It tasted like teppanyaki, especially with the fried beansprouts and all. The pork was very well-done and the seasoning was flawless. It was so flavourful and so full-bodied.

There was a lot of that wondrous savoury gravy, enough gravy to envelop each grain of rice entirely. The rice, however, was a little soggy. Also, I got a bit bored of the taste after a while. It was spectacular at first bite, but I soon grew weary of it. That did not stop me from polishing off the entire set though.

This is what we came for, the hire katsu-don. I do not think it is better than tampopo. Not at all. The katsu-don at tampopo is so good, the egg is so well-done, it is as if it melts into the rice, amalgamating into perfect unity and symbiosis. The rice is infused with the katsudon sauce. That is the perfect katsu-don man.

The rice here was nothing like that. The egg was overdone and the amount given was meagre. The katsudon sauce was also lacklustre and insufficient. It tasted more like katsu + don than proper katsudon. (Of course, I'm comparing it to Tampopo which has excellent katsudon)

One thing for sure though, their katsu kicks ass. This is one of the best katsu I have had. It is so crispy and yet so light. It doesn't taste cloying or oily at all. It is the elite of elite of katsu. When you bite into it, the bread crumbs literally sputter and crackle. You can feel the breadcrumbs giving way helplessly to the pressure of your teeth and then sprinkling mercilessly into your mouth. I am not kidding.

What amazes me is how NOT oily it tastes. The meat is so lean and yet so tender. Look at how lean it is! It looks a bit dry, I know, but trust me, it is very very good.

The texture is unbelievable. It is so crispy but not the least bit cloying, not at all. A superb katsu. It also helped that they were crazy-generous with the amount of meat they gave. Sharon almost couldn't finish it.

The next time I'm here, I will definitely have the katsu.

Tonkichi

Isetan Scotts,

4th Level

350 Orchard Road

Shaw House

Singapore 238868

granny's pancake, coconut explosion

2008-10-19T15:36:00.020+08:00

When I think of Min Jiang Kueh, I think of Granny's Pancake. Not that my grandmother can make Min Jiang Kueh. But because this is the BEST the BEST coconut Min Jiang Kueh. I have yet to come across another stall that even comes close. Balestier/Whampoa dwellers will almost always know this stall, it's like a household name.

The queue is very long, especially on Sunday mornings around 9am. I was there at 8am, 8!! And there was a relatively long queue already. Not to worry, the queue moves fast. They do not sell out till around noon, so you still can get your fix if you go later.

The coconut is goodness-gracious-me-super-shiokkk (with three Ks). It's so juicy and unbelievably fragrant. Bess (the store owner) says that the secret is in frying the coconut first. I can't overemphasize how juicy it is. When I first bit into it and the coconut fillings fell apart in my mouth, I could literally suckle on them and it was good. It was so good. It is so good we crave these almost every weekend. I could taste the coconut, the sugars.. It's so juicy the coconut filling lumps together, so you get morsels of extreme coconut goodness.

Another reason why this pancake is so good is because they are very generous with the amount of coconut filling they give. Just look at how the pancake is bursting and the filling overflows! Most other places don't even give half the amount of filling.

We should also highlight that the kueh is very good. It's very very fluffy (as you can see), like they beat pockets of air into the batter. Sharon likens it to a honeycomb, which I find very apt, because it is so light and not overly dense like many other commercialised places (go figure). It is superbly moist with a hint of sweetness so it's good by itself.

They don't put it on the pan for very long, so that only the tip of the top is browned, and it is perfectly and evenly browned throughout. It looks like it's a separate layer all by itself, as if it is wearing a golden crown. The rest of the kueh is deliciously white and cushy, a little undercooked and moist. The batter is mixed very evenly so don't worry about lumps of flour.

The red bean pancake. It's more like an pan than tausar, because it's not very sweet. Elderly folk particularly like this because it's not very sweet at all. Shally loves these and will have them every week if she could. Sharon, on the other hand, did not take to them. She felt that there was not enough filling and that the tausar was not aromatic. I thought that the tausar was good, the kueh was good, but the combination of the two wasn't not good, because the tausar was a bit too genteel for a traditional kueh like this. It was neither oily nor robust enough. It was too mild-tasting.

The peanut pancake was average. The peanut was not pang enough, like it was not sufficiently roasted. The peanut taste was shrouded and did not shine though. The texture was good though, because the ground peanut was neither too coarse nor too fine. The filling was very crunchy because they used coarse sugar instead of fine sugar. Combine that with the plush, moist kueh, and you're set for a sensory rollercoaster. (You can actually see the sugar granules mingled with the ground peanut.)

With the like of Granny's Pancake, I don't understand why people are still eating those mass-produced min jiang kuehs. They taste half as good at twice the price. Someone should do a Breadtalk, and bring a proper good traditional min jiang kueh into Orchard Road, package and market it well, twiddle thumbs and watch his bank account grow.

Granny's Pancake
Whampoa Market
# 01-28

childhood carrot cake fries. :D

2008-10-19T14:58:00.005+08:00

I grew up adoring these fries. Deep fried carrot cake fries. I used to hate carrot cake as a kid but I adored these with a vengeance. How ingenious of them to think of cutting up carrot cake as fries.

This stall used to be perenially crowded and I used to queue for at least half an hour everytime I had a carrot cake fries craving. It is no longer as popular but still good.

These do not taste like normal carrot cake. As I said, I used to hate carrot cake as a child but I loved these. It does not have the "oomph-sei" of carrot cake and actually tastes more like kueh. Sharon prefers the normal carrot cake because this is not strong-tasting enough for her.

Why do I like these then? Because these are exceptionally and utterly pang. Just a sniff of its redolent aroma is enough to make me salivate. They are fragrant to a fault. The aroma is ridiculously powerful. I remember dashing downstairs from the upper level in church because just a whiff of it was enough to bring about effusive waves of hunger pangs.

The carrot cake is very firm, not hard but firm. It is very smooth and you will not spot the occasional carrot cake shreds so highly treasured in other carrot cakes. (As I said, it does not taste like the normal carrot cake!) Children will love these, I did!

These are utterly scrumptious, utterly deep-fried and so sinful. They are fried at extreme temperatures till they are splendidly bronzed, crispy on the outside yet still so wondrously moist and soft inside. Eat it freshly-fried when the outside is slightly scabrous and firm.

If you leave it for too long, it becomes limp and does not do its initial state justice at all.

Deep Fried Carrot Cake

Whampoa Market

#01-36

(oomph)atico's

2008-10-19T13:16:00.013+08:00

There's a reason behind the title of this post, or rather, why this post is spelt this way. The place is called oomphatico's, but there is no oomph. Not in the least bit.

I've been to oomphatico's before, about a year ago and thoroughly enjoyed my nice breezy lunch. A year later, I visited this place again, this time much to my chagrin. They changed the menu and the food there is quite nasty now.

Props to them for decor though. This cafe is extremely pretty, with rainbow chairs and funky signage like this. It is difficult not to feel cheery just being in the cafe. There's indoor and alfresco seating, and the place is generally bright, sunny, chipper and pleasant. This place is designed with the fairer sex in mind and it shows.

Lok at the cute "saucers". Talk about eye-CATching.

ok, bad pun, sorry.

The chicken caesar salad was not that bad, the egg was a tad over-cooked but nonetheless it was a very laudable attempt. It was almost just-right, just that underneath that glorious golden runny outlook, the yolk was unfortunately a bit powdery.

*Sharon, on the other hand, says that it is very easy to cook the perfect egg. She says, just give her 5,6 tries and she will get it right. It's either, 2, or 2.5 or 3 minutes depending on the size of the egg. (talk big only la she)

The croutons were fried to a gorgeous crisp and tasted fabulous. The chicken was beautifully roasted and very fragrant. It tasted a bit like barbeque chicken. :) The vegetables were fresh (but also uncut and huge and difficult to eat.)

The salad dressing though, was ghastly. It did not taste like caesar dressing at all. It was acrid and not palatable at all. I like tart-tasting food and I didn't like it. I only had it because the salad would be too dry otherwise. Pui.

The farmer's club sandwich. The rye bread had only a faint aftertaste of rye and otherwise tasted like normal wheat bread. The texture was nothing like bread and instead more like an extremely dense teacake.

The chicken was very very tough and much too dry for my liking. It tasted gamey and nothing like the chicken in the caesar salad. I have only one reaction to it. pfftttttt!

The only redeeming factor was the grain mustard spread. However, they were stingy with it and the sandwhich ended up exceedingly dry and unappetizing.

The chicken and the sandwich was so bad Sharon ended up eating only the avocado.

Another grouse is that while the description said chicken, tomatoes and avocado, the sandwich came in three mini sandwiches of chicken and tomato sandwiches on the sides and a plain avocado sandwich well, sandwiched in the middle. We had to deconstruct and reconstruct the sandwich ourselves. (Sharon: I did not pay $18 to make my own sandwich ok)

Where's the oomph in oomphatico's?

Oomphatico's!

Tanglin Mall

#01-03 & 01-35/36

163 Tanglin Road

tatsuya

2008-10-18T00:23:00.007+08:00

We were supposed to go to Wasabi-Tei but changed our minds and decided to try out Tatsuya which had raving reviews. We ordered a bento set, a gindara, and sake (salmon) sashimi.
The bento is not supposed to come with california roll, but we decided not to have the unajyu and opted to change it to a california roll instead.

The california roll was not bad. Normal japanese rice taste of vinegar but is not very sweet. Somehow the rice here is very sweet. I'm not sure how they cooked the rice, but you know how when you chew on rice for a considerable period of time they start to digest and start tasting sweet? That's how it tasted, coupled with the vinegared taste of course. It probably sounds disgusting, but it is really quite good. The sweetness instantly erupts when you put it in your mouth and lingers long after you have swallowed.

Sharon thinks it is one of the best california rolls she has eaten. I don't think it is that good, but it is quite good, frankly. The avocado was very creamy, the tobiko burst into frenzied raptures when bitten into, the rice was an immaculate balance of acetous and sweet. It was definitely pleasurable. However, I wouldn't go so far as to say it is the most outstanding one I have tried. I'm certainly not about to run down the roads proclaiming Tatsuya as the King of california rolls.

The chawanmushi is very unique indeed. It is very soft, very smooth, very eggy and very tart. Yes you read right, tart! There is a distinct yuzu taste to it. That added an interesting dimension to a very traditional dish. I quite liked it. I thought it was refreshing and well, nippy.

However, this chawanmushi had no other ingredients added whatsoever so I got a bit bored of the taste. The yuzu was unable to sustain my interest for very long. As much as Sharon likes yuzu, she thought that this was a corruption of chawanmushi and did not like this at all.

Their tuna looked amazing. So thick and succulent. However, we did not like this. It was limp and very fishy. Then again, we're not big fans of maguro anyway. Somehow, we like tuna belly but not tuna sashimi. To me, it has a very metallic taste about it and I don't like it. So maybe maguro-fans will like this?

I thought the Salmon Sashimi was not bad. It was fresh and firm to the bite. However, compared to Akashi? It's a long long long way off. I don't know why, but Akashi's Salmon sashimi is simply out of this world. It's in a whole different league of its own. Akashi's other stuff are not that great but their salmon sashimi is darn freaking good. I have never had anything like that before.

Ok, I digress, back to Tatsuya. Their salmon sashimi was good, but it was not THAT good. It was definitely better than what you would get from sushi-tei, but I don't think the discrepancy is that great to command that wide a price gap.

Tai (sea bream/red snapper) sashimi. I did not like this. I thought it was limp (and not just cos it was sliced so thinly) and not very fresh.

Mekajiki (Swordfish) Sashimi. Sharon liked it, she thought it was very good and comparable to Akashi (though Akashi is better). In her own words "u know how when u eat swordfish, coz its a firmer fish, wen u bite into it.. there's a slight crunch to it? and lk the 'juice' comes out from the meat? this was lk that... just that akashi's is better"

The cod was flavourful. The seasoning was quite marvellous. Sharon found it too salty for her liking, which I found odd, cos I'm usually the one more sensitive to extremely salty food. Towards the end, her tastebuds could no longer handle the excessive sodium and she could only eat two slivers of it.

The gindara was overcooked and much too tough. Fish is always difficult to cook. A minute less and it is slimy, a minute more and it's too tough. But this fish was obviously wayyy overdone. The charred skin was great, I loved the smoky taste, but the texture was verging on rubbery. This does not make me a happy girl.

All in all, Tatsuya was a complete disappointment. I think I would have enjoyed myself a lot better eating at Sushi-Tei for half the price. I can't believe we chose Tatsuya over Wasabi-Tei. Why why why?!

Tatsuya Japanese Restaurant

270 Orchard Road

#01-05

Park Hotel Orchard

meng kitchen

2008-10-17T13:40:00.001+08:00

I live in the North and I find it so unfair that all the good food is anywhere but in the North. Everytime I want to find something to eat, there's nothing spectacular I will crave in the North. There is an absolute dearth of good food in the North. Hear me restauranteurs/food stalleurs.. Come save us Northies. Petrol is expensive, I don't want to travel half of Singapore to get a good fix.

Meng Kitchen is one of the best places in the North I would say. Their bak chor mee is extremely popular. Come here on a Sunday afternoon and expect to wait up till about an hour. It's not cheap too, at $4 a bowl. It is the Tai Hwa of the North. It's actually a far cry from Tai Hwa, but nonetheless, I think it is really quite good.

We decided to check out their fish soup and fishball noodles.

Their fish soup is very very peppery. They added so much pepper when you scrutinize the fish slices, you can see spots of pepper settled on them. I like pepper so I liked this. However, I do think that most people will find it too peppery.

The fish soup is also saltier and more savoury than most other fish soups. This is probably because they used a lot of MSG. (I couldn't stop drinking water when I got home.)

The fish was much too overcooked. It was tough and just bad. They added a lot of ginger in the soup to mask the fishy smell to no avail.

It is tasty, but only because of the abundance of MSG and pepper. This is merely average.

This is the fishball noodles. Sharon prefers the bak chor mee over the fishball meepok. The fishballs were not springy enough and a bit limp. I've had it before and I'm not sure if this is just an off-night. They are normally quite springy.

The chilli here is quite shiok. The balance of the vinegar to sauce was immaculate. You can still taste the vinegar but it was not overpowering. I found this very agreeable. Sharon only likes her noodles with vinegar here and at Tai Hwa. She thinks that the proportions at Tai Hwa and Meng Kitchen are just right. (Hence reaffirming my point that Meng Kitchen is Tai Hwa of the North)

The noodles were a bit overcooked for some reason. They were a bit soggy. They are normally perfectly Q. I guess the standard really differs from day to day. Catch them on a good day, and the noodles are perfect. Catch them on a not-so-good day and the standard dips dramatically. "dramatically, it's really dramatically lor" says Sharon.

I still think these noodles are good, just that we had it on a bad day. And the bak chor mee is a lot better than the fishball noodles so try that if you come to Meng Kitchen.

Meng Kitchen

246B Upper Thomson Road

"Where O Death, is thy Victory? where O Death is thy sting?"

2008-10-17T04:47:00.003+08:00

Death is nothing at all,
I have only slipped into the next room
I am I and you are you
Whatever we were to each other, that we are still.
Call me by my old familiar name,
Speak to me in the easy way which you always used
Put no difference in your tone,
Wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow
Laugh as we always laughed at the little jokes we enjoyed together.
Play, smile, think of me, pray for me.
Let my name be ever the household world that it always was,
Let it be spoken without effect, without the trace of shadow on it.
Life means all that it ever meant.
It it the same as it ever was, there is unbroken continuity.
Why should I be out of mind because I am out of sight?
I am waiting for you, for an interval, somewhere very near,
Just around the corner.
All is well.

Henry Scott Holland (1847-1918)
Canon of St Paul's Cathedral

Our mind thinks of death.
Our heart thinks of life
Our soul thinks of Immortality.

sun moulin v. provence - the faceoff!

2008-10-17T03:51:00.012+08:00

This is the official sun moulin v. provence faceoff. They have so many similar breads that we have taken it upon ourselves to find out which bakery is better.

Round 1: Cheese bun.

First up, the cheese mochi. The cheese mochi from Sun Moulin is very nice. It's not chewy, its very soft and its very palatable. There is considerably a lot more of that cheese taste in this one than Provence's brazilian cheese bun.

Nonetheless, the texture of Provence's brazilian cheese bun is clearly absent here. The beauty of Provence's bun is not only in its fantastic taste but it is so addictive because the texture is just that good. It is extremely crusty, extremely moist, extremely chewy. The Sun Moulin's version is nice but boring. It's enjoyable but not addictive. Provence, my friend is the real deal.

Round 1 goes to Provence.

Round 2: An Pan

The an pan at Sun Moulin is commendable. It's slightly coarse, not too sweet but still not as good as the an pan at Provence. The an pan at Provence is stronger-tasting and a lot more fragrant. Without even biting into it, one can already smell the an pan. That's how good the an pan there is. Perhaps it is also better at Provence because the an pan there is with skin. This obviously contributes to the granular texture and makes the taste better.

But the main reason why Provence wins this round is because the bread of the an pan at Provence is just simply too darn good. The bread there has a certain crusty, elastic bite around the edges and yet remains so awfully cushy and moist when you tear it apart. The bread at Sun Moulin is regrettably dry and bland. There was no 'pangness' to it, it tasted more like a sloppy combination of flour and water compared to Provence's conscientious baking efforts.

There is no doubt at all, that Provence wins hands down.

Round 2 goes to Provence.

Round 3: Wassant

Ok, this was not reviewed in our post about Provence, but we've tried it enough times to know what it tastes like. The wassant at Sun Moulin was definitely stronger tasting. The chocolate definitely shone through a lot more than the wassant at Provence. Truth be told, I think the taste of the chocolate wassant at Provence is a little too faint.

But the chocolate taste at Sun Moulin was not a nice rich chocolate taste. It tasted a lot like coco-crunch, the cheap-skate type of chocolate.

The main difference between Provence and Sun Moulin lies in the texture. While the cheese bun was soft at Sun Moulin and chewy at Provence, it was the complete opposite when it came to the wassant. The wassant was very crispy here. Yes, crispy. It was literally hard. You could break off the layers in crisp bits. I think they don't call it wassant at Sun Moulin. They call it a zebra croissant? This is crispy even by a croissant's standard. It was literally crunchy. But beneath that exterior lies a soft inside, that's very very moist. (I feel like I'm describing a person's character. But its true, the zebra croissant is a sensitive bun. Treat it with lots of TLC.) The wassant at Provence is unbelievably soft, like cloud. It's so light, so airy!

Sharon preferred the soft-like-cotton wassant at Provence. I was undecided. The Sun Moulin one is, to me, a lot more addictive. It tastes cheap, I'll admit that, but it's damn shiok to eat something so crispy and chocolatey (even if it tastes like deep-fried cheap chocolate).

Round 3 goes to.. no one, although if I were going for value for money, definitely Provence. Sun Moulin's is not exactly delicate but costs like 65c for a tiny tiny tiny piece.

Round 4: Custard roll

Now, the Sun Moulin one is EXCELLENT. EXCELLENT. EXCELLENT. The custard is one of the best I have ever had. It's so smooth, so milky.. I am not exaggerating when I say it is like silk. It really is like silk blanketing your tastebuds. Plush, delicious silk to boot. The custard's lushness tickles your tastebuds, its smooth (have I said smooth yet? oh but it's so smooth) milky sweetness enveloping and pampering the many sensory receptors till you're lulled into a place of just absolute bliss. It is so...luxurious.

When I first tasted it, I got super-excited, like a child drinking coke for the first time. It is that good.

Even Sharon agrees that their custard is out-of-this-world. I think I prefer the custard here because as much as I like the custard at Provence, it's a little too eggy for me; the same reason why I can't really appreciate custard baos. But this custard at Sun Moulin is like a cross between the milk pan and the custard roll. Shiokkk. Even that's not enough to describe it. Let me add a couple of Ks. SHIOkkkkkkkkk. That's more like it, with emphasis on the SHIO part too.

If there's any quarrel, its that the bread isn't very aromatic and its not very soft. But the custard is good.

Round 4: Sun Moulin

After 4 rounds, I conclude that the winner is Provence. Sun Moulin is a great bakery but Provence is just magnificent, too zai already. If there's one area where Sun Moulin can aim to improve, its the quality of their bread. Their fillings are not bad, but their bread isn't anything to shout about. It was a good match, nonetheless.

Sun Moulin
Isetan Scotts Basement 1
350 Orchard Road

royal copenhagen

2008-10-17T01:54:00.009+08:00

We finally got down to going to Royal Copenhagen after talking about it for so long. When we arrived, we were pleasantly surprised by the dazzling array of cakes and pastries. Even a non-dessert person like me was excited. I am still excited.

Come on, don't you want to lick the screen? Check out that chocolate in the extreme right corner! I want to stick my thumb in it like Little Jack Horner..

We were here to check out the famous Royal Copenhagen scones. I used to hear Sharon go on and on about how wonderful these are. And boy do they look good. I was bumbling with excitement.

I was quite disappointed. The texture of the scone was very nice. It's nice, warm and dense.

But the taste left much to be desired. It was simply not fragrant. That buttery aroma and taste was sorely absent. It would have been so much nicer if they had used more (quality) butter; so that the scone crumbles beautifully and melts irresistably in your mouth. I don't mean, crumble as in disintegrate when you hold it.

I imagine the perfect scone to be somewhat resistant to pressure so that it does not end up in crushed crumbs the moment you hold it, but not so hard that you need to gnaw your way through it. The ideal scone holds up to pressure in your hand, succumbs suitably to a good bite and then the edges crumble, melt, dissolve, leavin good-sized (notice I didn't say tiny), near-crunchy morsels of buttery perfection. Oh sweet heavens.

You know, I can just imagine the way it should have been and it already makes me mad that the famous Royal Copenhagen scones are so ridiculously far off.

The jam was shockingly horrid. It tasted artificial and treacly. I rather they give me fairprice jam. Sharon explained that the jam used to be a lot better but they're probably trying to cut costs. The butter was not fragrant (again). 'Disappointment' is not even the word to be used here. Try 'aghast'.

We also ordered the Honey Date pudding because it sounded too good to miss out on. A Scandinavian dessert served with fresh fruits, homemade butterscotch sauce and fresh cream. Now, this was a different story altogether. I liked this one, and not just because it looks like something only found in paradise. I want to fly to Scandinavia right here right now.

To be honest, it was a bit dry. But the taste was oh-so-scrumptious! The honey and the butterscotch were delightful. In so many desserts, you taste the faint sweetness of the honey but you can't really taste the honey. In this one, you can literally smell the honey, savour the distinct honey taste, all while enjoying that marvellous butterscotch goodness too! Oh..top this power combination with cream as light as air.. You have got me going once, going twice, sold.

I really quite like the taste of this treasure. I like it so much I polished it off, and I'm not usually the one who finishes dessert. It's a pity its really quite dry. If they could improve on that, this would be a formidable dessert.

Sharon tells me that Marmalade Pantry has better sticky date pudding but I've never tried that one, but I will soon and let you know if it really is better.

Royal Copenhagen Tea Lounge and Restaurant
Takashimaya Singapore Department Store
391 Orchard Road
Level 2
Singapore 238873

ThaiExpress

2008-10-15T02:37:00.005+08:00

As with every restaurant with multiple branches, there will always be branches better than others. We like Sushi-Tei at Raffles City, Akashi at Orchard Parade Hotel, Canele at Robertson Quay, MacDonald's at Amk Ave 6...

When it comes to ThaiExpress, we like the one at Raffles City and the one at Holland V. The last time we were at Raffles City, service sucked so bad. They were understaffed, underexperienced, horrible.

We waited to be shown a table but there was no one to bring us to the table. So we stood there looking at an empty table, knowing that could be our seat but were not shown to the seat. We had to call the manager in, and tell him hey there's an empty table there, can we sit there? We had to show ourselves in!

Then, food took horribly long to come. I really mean HORRIBLY long. After half an hour, SOUP came. Not even the main dishes. And these stuff are already pre-prepared, the waiting time was simply crazy. We asked two different waiters to check on our orders. None came back to us. We had to push and push and push the waiters. We had to remind them to check a simple thing like how much we have ordered twice. Service was horrible. There wasn't even service recovery. Thank goodness the food was good.

The tomyum soup here is especially sweet. This was why we came back here, because we thought that this branch served better food. And the tomyum soup was really good. I ordered the tomyum soup with fish and glass noodles.

I eat a lot of chilli yes. This is not even all that I added.

This is the final product. I'm not kidding when I say I like chilli. This was one fiery tomyum soup. My tongue felt a bit numb after this.

But disregarding the chilli, the soup by itself is really better than the ones served other branches. It's very very sweet, the tomyum taste is a lot more intense and even without adding chilli, it has a bit of kick already. (If I don't add chilli I don't normally feel the kick) The taste is the same, just that it's more 'gao' here. This means that the proportion is exactly the same except that the cooks are more generous here?

The glass noodles were chewy and absorbed the robust soup to perfection. I still prefer the Korean type, which is thicker and chewier and absorbs the flavours better, but this will do.

The fish was a bit overdone and mushy but you're at ThaiExpress, you don't expect gourmet standard, do you? I don't.

Crayfish in red tomyum soup with glass noodles. We thought this would also be good at Raffles City. I did not like this. The crayfish was sadly overcooked and did not fall from its shell willingly. We had to pry it apart.

The cooks here really are heavy-handed with the sugar man. It's not just the clear tomyum soup, even this tomyum was sweet. This was too sweet. It tasted like mee siam. It even looks like mee siam. It's so thick too, it looked more like gravy/curry than soup. But other than that, Sharon enjoyed this.

Seems like not everything is better at this branch. For the crayfish in red tomyum (which is fiery and robust compared to the clear tomyum, as must have for chilli-lovers) go to the Holland V branch. It's good.

ThaiExpress
Raffles City Shopping Centre
252 North Bridge RoadB1-13/14
The Raffles MarketPlace
Singapore 179103

best kueh baulu/bahulu/balu

2008-10-15T02:14:00.008+08:00

Anyone knows what it is actually called? I've heard so many names for it, I can't be sure anymore. I know it as Kueh Bahulu, Sharon knows it as Kueh Balu, we've seen some spell it as Kueh Baulu (combination).

The only confirmed syllables are 'kueh', 'ba' and 'lu'. (Sharon, this does not mean Kueh Balu is correct.) Anyone knows what the correct term is? Please tell us! For now, it's known as kueh B. to us.

So I was walking around People's Park Complex and decided to buy a bag home. I had no idea they would turn out to be the best I have eaten. Those I have had are usually very dehydrated inside and normally quite hard. I only eat these at Chinese New Year, maybe my family buys inferior goods?

These were wonderfully moist and soft. When I first held them in my hand, I gently squeezed them to make sure I wasn't dreaming. It was not hard! It was not crusty! I have never had kueh B. like these before. Excellent, excellent.

the canteen - but hardly canteen prices

2008-10-15T01:28:00.007+08:00

I've always wanted to check out The Canteen. The crab mee pok always looks so inviting whenever I pass it. Today we finally made the effort to go down.

This canteen is anything but school canteen standard. They sell simple "canteen" food at very not canteen prices. Toast is a whopping $8.50.

You can tell it is upmarket just from the place itself. The decor is chic, clean and very tasteful. I particularly like this shot.

Even the ladles are lacquered beautifully. Their cutlery is top-quality, heavy and thick. Their spoons and their chopsticks are according to Sharon, "for giants". So this is Les Amis' canteens' standards, for those with "giant" wallets to match as well.Their serviettes are the thickest I've come across. It's like a napkin! It's even the size of a proper napkin. I almost wanted to ask them for the napkin dish to put the serviette on it. Yes, that IS paper. Atas is like that la. The kiamsiap gui in me wanted to bring some home.

XO sauce lao shu fen aka mee tai mak. I HATE mee tai mak. I have never ever ever liked it. But I decided to try it for the XO sauce.

It turned out really well. The mee tai mak is extremely smooth and not the inferior powdery type I used to eat in pre-primary. It literally glides down your throat. The texture was fabulous. Prepared to perfection I say.

The sauce was great. I thought that this dish was very unique. Extremely savoury and packed with a full-bodied punch. It was very satiating, the meat sauce was very fragrant, and the chilli was gratifying. The only thing is that towards the end, it got very oily and that took away from the pleasure of eating it, but as Sharon said, "without the oil how to make it pang?"

The crab mee pok. I was quite disappointed when it came because it looked so average.
It tasted average too, I actually think I prefer my $2.50 bak-chor-mee. Somehow crab doesn't do it for me when it comes to meepok. Only meat can. The soft-shell crab was aight. It was freshly-fried so when we bit into it, the oil spurted into our mouths. That was good. But other than that, aiiighhtttt..

I thought that the noodles were a bit soggy (but Sharon insists that it is because we let it sit for too long cos we were busy taking pictures). Aye, but whatever the case, it's really no big deal. Without the bak chor, the mee pok just doesn't hit home, it's just not shiok enough. Crab is just too... genteel for this.

I must add however, that as we got to the end of the meal, the mee pok started to grow on us. There was a lot more crab at the bottom and more sauce too. (But I sompa we mixed in the sauce evenly. We are both very particular about proper mixing when it comes to noodles.) Does it mean that they should be more generous with the sauce and the crab?

The meal came up to about $40 for 2 small mains (guys should not eat here). The most expensive "hawker" food I have had. I don't think I will be coming back here anytime soon, unless I 'zhong' 4d or something.

The Canteen by Les Amis

Shaw Centre

1 Scotts Rd

#02-10

Singapore 228208

canele - food porn ahead

2008-10-15T00:26:00.010+08:00

Today is give-Les-Amis-money day. After a crazy expensive dinner at Canteen, we proceeded to Canele for their desserts. I think I still prefer the Robertson Quay branch but this was good too. Warning, foodporn alert!

No, we didn't have this, but this is my favourite cake. MMM..

The lighting was perfect tonight. All the photos required no touching up at all because they are so so so pretty. (not that we do a lot of touching up normally)

This is the Asiana, lychee mousse, yuzu jelly, almond crumble, lychee and raspberry. This is extremely sweet, nectarine-sweet. You can actually see the pretty layers all pieced together to form a splendid array of colours.

The almond taste is quite faint, but strong enough that you get a whiff of the almond with each morsel. This is nice, because I usually find almonds very overpowering. The yuzu jelly was very tart and contrasted nicely with the velvety, saccharine quality of the lychee mousse. The mousse was extremely sweet, extremely intense. This was nice only when eaten with the other layers. If you eat the mousse by itself, it is too sweet. Thank goodness the yuzu jelly and the almond crumble neutralised the candied mousse.

This is very nice, but I can't eat too much of it. It's so sweet I got sick of it after a while.

The macha - greentea mascapone mousse, chestnut cremuex, greantea biscuit, almond crumble.

Now, this is a must-have for green-tea lovers. The green tea flavour shines through the dessert. The mouse is fantastic. My first mouthful was just ecstastical. The mouse was so silky-smooth and literally dissolved in my mouth, that luscious green tea flavour spreading out over my tastebuds. Oh that mellow aroma, that understated sweetness.. I almost wanted to stand up and shout. But no, because I was honestly a bit awe-struck. I kept quiet for a second or two, looked up at Sharon and said plainly with a thumbs-up, "this is damn good man."

Again, you can see the gorgeous layers. I liked that this dessert was not cloying at all and very very light. The chestnut taste was subtly imbued, the crumble and biscuit brought differing and contrasting textures to the mouse. This was excellent.

The only thing is that after the Asiana, this dessert tasted really bland. After another bite of the Asiana, I couldn't taste the green tea again till I cleared my palate with a douse of water first.

What a pleasing macha dessert. Shally LOVES macha. Now you see, now you don't! This baby will be gone in a jiffy in front of Shally.

Canele is really my favourite dessert place. I've heard some bad stuff about it, but I don't get it. It's excellent, really. Very refined, top-notch, superb desserts in my view. But my favourite branch will still be the one at Robertson Quay.

Canelé Pâtisserie Chocolaterie
1 Scotts Road
#01-01A,
Shaw Centre
Singapore 228208

black angus

2008-10-13T23:48:00.008+08:00

Black Angus is one of those places I always remind myself to come back to but hardly ever do. I think Black Angus is one of the better steakhouses in Singapore and serves up great food. It's not exactly cheap (be prepared to spend $50 per head for dinner) but the food is definitely above average.

Went there with Gabrielle, Shally and a few others for dinner today. Their entrees are pricey but they all come with salad or soup so that kinda salves the pinch right?

The mushroom soup was too salty and not thick enough. This was a let-down. It did not have the aroma of mushrooms but tasted like Campbell meets Marmite.

The baked potato soup looks really appetizing. It looks like a baked potato!

It even tastes like baked potato in puree form, except they do have solid potato cubes in it. Think baked potato drowning in baked potato puree. It's not bad, but I found it a tad too jelat.

Shally had the Stuart Steak Soup. It is nothing to look at and tastes like salty beef stew. Shally found it decent but I think its too salty for a soup.

This is my favourite Honey Mustard Salad, chicken breast, diced eggs & tomato, croutons, orange slices on fresh lettuce. It's a big salad, definitely not starter size.

The honey mustard's flawless. It's sweet and tangy, the way it should be. It dressed the salad wondrously, any parchness gone in a flash with the miracle balm. The chicken was a bit dry but the honey mustard made it all better. I particularly liked the orange bits that were served. They were an invigorating touch. The crisp juicy sweetness complemented the fresh lettuce perfectly. I just wish they were more generous with the amount they gave. Two measly slices are hardly enough.
I wish I could eat it as a main. It's so light and crispy, bountiful in flavour and tastes so good it should be sinful. What glorious greasy goodness!

The steak was very well-done. Not over-cooked well-done, but excellently executed well-done. It had that carnivorous thing down pat. The flesh was astoundingly marbled and tender, so soft and chewy and sapid. A sensational piece of meat.
The Top Sirloin & Salmon Combo comprised of a slab of steak and a portion of salmon, both proper meals in themselves. The steak was good, as above, but was less marbled. But of course, how can you compare a top sirloin to a nice fatty oleaginous ribeye cut? The salmon however was overcooked. Nothing worse than an overcooked piece of fish. It was dry, even though salmon's an oily fish. It was not fresh and the fishy odour was overwhelming. It was bad.

Shally had the Rib Sticking Baby Pork Ribs which was so bad. It was dry and tasted like turkey with generic barbeque sauce. The meat did not fall off the bone, the way it's supposed to be. I think these are the WORST ribs I have had. I don't know if this was a bad night, but it was definitely bad. You can get better ribs from Cafe Cartel.
The Pan Fried Black Cod was a lot better than its salmon counterpart. It looks a whole lot better too. It's light, clean-tasting and very tender. It's not rave-material but it's decent.

Stuart Anderson's Black Angus

Orchard Parade Hotel
#03-21, 1 Tanglin Road
Singapore 247905

all-day brunch @ relish

2008-10-13T22:30:00.005+08:00

I like Relish, I like brunch, so when I heard about Relish's all-day brunch menu, I was just dying to try it. Somehow, we only got down to it on Sunday. We went with Shally and Gabrielle. I was mighty excited.

Relish is such a bright chillout place. Everytime I am there, I feel transported away from Singapore. It's high walls and white beams, graffiti walls and chalkboards, how can you not love this place?

Gabrielle had the Eggs Wild Benedict, wild rocket, toasted muffin, poached eggs, bacon and of course, hollandaise. I was quite disappointed with this. The eggs were overdone and slightly powdery on the inside. I like my eggs to be runny. The kind which oozes and melts so decadently in your mouth. Even better than runny is near-runny, it's soft its wet but its not gooey.

I thought that this dish was a bit bland, to be honest. It's probably because I didn't eat it with the bacon because Sharon says that it is a lot better with the bacon and she says the bacon was really well-done. But I thought that the hollandaise was not very well-prepared and didn't provide any winning touch or consolation in this case.

On the bright side, the sauteed potatoes were excellent. They were diced into tiny potato cubes and fried to a magnificent brown tan. These darlings were crisp on the outside and moist on the inside. Very nice..

My breakfast burger, home-made apple and pork sausage patty, emmental cheese, layered omelettle, baked beans, sauteed mushrooms. Now this dish really hit home with me. At first when it came I wanted to run away from it because gawd-the-mushrooms-stink. Shally and I did not want to be near it. The mushroom smell is overwhelming. But Sharon convinced us to try the mushrooms. They were mmmmmm. Need I say more? Possibly the best mushrooms I have had in a long long time. So chewy, so savoury, so delicious.

Now for the real test. My breakfast burger was so good. It tastes like sausage mcmuffin but so much better. When you dissect the patty you can actually make out the pieces of granny smith apples and sausage bits. You can taste the sweet-sour tang from the apples. The sausage was extraodinarily satisfying. The omelette was nicely done, runny the way I like them. The cheese was like icing atop a cake. The muffin was toasted to perfection. I'm sorry I'm gushing but Relish really knows how to do a burger well.

The only thing is that it's quite pricey and you're paying 10times the price of a sausage mcmuffin for an improved version of it. (very much improved I must add, though).

3 words. I ADORED IT. mmm.

The ONLY thing I can fault this burger for? It's crazy-tall! If Relish burgers were difficult to eat in the first place, these are insanely arduous. What a pretty sight when it is presented to you, but it is definitely NOT a pretty sight once you start tucking in.

Shally's open striploin steak sandwich, minute steak, truffle aioli, caramelised onions, baby spinach, fries. The onions were wondrously caramelised but the beef was tough and not well-seasoned. There was also not enough cheese. Sharon felt that the bread:meat proportion was too skewed in the former's favour and that severely compromised on the sandwich's taste. Shally swears she can smell the yeast in the bread (everyone repeat after me, nose of a hound..).

Sharon's pancakes were not fluffy enough and a bit too dense. I liked that the edges were a bit crispy but she doesn't like it. She likes soft fluffy pancakes that are moist right through the edges. I liked that the batter was even and was not clumpy but that was about it. The blueberry sauce was not rich enough. It might have been better if they had beaten blueberries into the pancake batter itself. Then the pancakes would have "double blueberry power".

Oh yes, not a first-date choice. It has the same effect as squid ink pasta. Your teeth, your lips will be stained. Unless your date likes a joke, stay clear.

These are the two desserts that were given on the house. The first was the Wild Rocket Strawberry cheesecake. I don't like cheesecake so I didn't partake of this dessert but they loved it. Shally particularly liked the digestive biscuit base although she did admit to liking anything digestive biscuit.

This is new, the ice-cream burger. Two crisp waffles enclosing on two scoops of chocolate ice-cream and kiwi slices. This was quite nice. The waffles were really crispy and nicely toasted. The strawberry-kiwi sauce that came with it was simply excellent. Sharon claims that the sauce literally fizzes in her mouth like coke, the taste reverberating and exciting the tastebuds so that you taste the sauce even after it has glided down your throat.

My only quarrel is that it's not special. The ice-cream, the waffle, the strawberry-kiwi sauce, they tasted store-bought. The chocolate ice-cream was not rich and creamy enough. The sauce tasted artificial because it was unnaturally sweet. The waffles, well, let's just say we have a suspicion which brand it is. ;)

Nonetheless, it was definitely tasty. Whether it's value-for-money, well I don't know. Afterall, this is something you can put together at home.

All in all, brunch was uneventful and sadly quite a let-down. We must add that this menu is still in its experimental stage and they are still trying to figure out how to make this work. This means that many of these dishes are still being tweaked. Hopefully, when the new FINALISED versions are out, I will be able to recognise the Relish-standard once again. Till then, brunch@Relish is average with more misses than hits. I expected better.

Relish
#02-01 Cluny Court
Singapore 259760

Teck Kee Pau

2008-10-12T23:24:00.006+08:00

We've heard so much about this Famous Teck Kee Pau and how its charsiew paus are the best in Singapore blahblah we had to try this for ourselves.
This is the celebrated charsiew pau. It lives up to its name as a superb charsiew pau. It is very savoury, very fragrant and very very juicy. But I still like my Tanjong Rhu Pau.

Because the Tanjong Rhu charsiew pau is very unique. It is dazzlingly outstanding. The sweetness and the gelatinous sauce is mammamia-oh-so-good. It is spec-ta-cu-lar.

This one is also very good. It is a very traditional charsiew and it has a bit of that smoked, barbeque taste, a sign of an elite charsiew pau. But it's not something I will daydream and gush all day long about. It is definitely delicious, I'm just not so sure that it charms my socks off.

The lianrong (lotus paste) pau was hard and dry. The skin was powdery like it was understeamed. But the lotus paste was fair, smooth and sweet, rather palatable.

The red bean pau fared more poorly than its lianrong counterpart. The paste was a bit dry and hence not smooth enough. It's no big deal at all.

This is the vegetable pau. Sharon thinks it is interesting, I think she probably never had vegetable pau before. It's average at best. The only redeeming factor was that the turnip was nice and firm which provided a crisp bite.

The chicken pau was not very good at all. I thought it was not fragrant at all. It was not oily enough, it was not seasoned well, it severely lacked the oomph, the punch of a savoury pau. Not good. Honestly, I prefer the chicken pau I used to buy from my school canteen. It was so juicy and fragrant, the taste would permeate even the skin. The skin would be steeped in the fabulous flavour. This was completely absent in the Teck Kee Pau.

What was commendable though, was the use of actual chicken cubes instead of a huge meatball of dubious origin. Other than that, save your money, go for the charsiew paus.

Teck Kee Pau

320 Orchard Road

C.K. Tang Market Place Basement

Singapore 238864

A Japanese Provence

2008-10-11T18:21:00.016+08:00

When we speak of bakeries in Singapore, it would be a cardinal sin to leave out Provence. Provence is a (check this out) Japanese bakery, despite its French name, located in Holland Village. It is hugely popular and offers a wide range of breads. It is so popular they have since set up Petit Provence, a small store selling their most famous items, in the basement of The Central.

Presenting, my favourite bakery in Singapore. It's not just a bakery, it's also a cafe, with indoor and alfresco seating, so you can sip on coffee while having a tea-time snack, all while watching the world go by, very French indeed.

This is Provence's new layout. They have such an extensive selection that they have to pigeonhole all their breads and make use of all the vertical space they have. Very Japanese indeed. ;)
And if you think that's all the bread they have, you are sadly mistaken. They have even more! The choice is simply staggering.

First, we had the this custard roll. Sharon is absolutely in love with this. The custard is so smooth so eggy so milky.. It's very, very good. The custard melts in your mouth and then the taste lingers and erupts into pure warm comfort. I found it peculiar that the custard was cold while the bread was not. The bread was soft and fluffy and warm. The warm-cold combination of the two added to the sensory pleasure. It is a must-have for those with a sweet-tooth. I don't really like sweet stuff and I quite like it, so this must really be good.

Actually, it is a bit too sweet for me, but as I said, I'm really weird, I don't like sweet stuff. But Sharon just adores this one. I expect that most people will too. :)

The milk pan is also very good. The custard is a milky white and, like the custard above, so very smooth. It's like silk draped across your tongue, but richer and thicker. It's like a more solidified version of milk foam.

It tastes somewhat like the custard pan but different. The milky taste is a lot more prominent in this one and there is a slight tinge of sourness in the milk custard. This balances out the sweetness so that it is not treacly. The bread is also a little salty compared to the other breads. Again, this emphasises the taste of the custard. This is one of their hot favourites and for a reason too.

This is their brown rice anpan. One of my favourites.

The anpan is not too sweet and the texture is very coarse because the anpan is not grinded very finely. This is good. This is very good. You can taste and see the anpan skin. The skin is excellent. The top-most part is a bit 'crisp' but the inside is moist and soft.

The anpan is possibly the best I have ever had. It's sweet, but the sweetness is muted and does not overpower the bread. Many red bean buns out there are so sweet you only taste sugar and nothing else. Those are nauseatingly saccharine. Disgusting. You don't get to savour the bread properly. This anpan tastes healthy not decadent and is nothing short of first-rate. No other an pan has even come close.

This is my favourite of favourites. The brazilian cheese bun. It looks so normal and boring. And it costs a whopping 80c for that tiny bun. I would never have thought of trying that. But Sharon wanted to try it because she thought it sounded interesting. When I first tried it, I was in awe. These babies are Exceptional, with a capital E.

It's crusty on the outside, but the inside is exceedingly moist and chewy. It's like a crusty mochi except much better. The bun is also salty and very addictive.

I don't know how to describe it. You have to try this for yourself. It's one of a kind.

This is also available in The Central but those are sweet because there's a sprinkling of icing over them. The ones sold at Holland Village are so much more palatable. I love them.

The only thing is that you have to eat them while they're fresh if not they get too chewy and hard. Unless you are looking for a jaw-workout, eat it freshly-baked!

Look at the chewy chewy chewy bun! You can tell its really just air inside. It looks plain but its so scrumptious!! There is no filling just straight-up brazillian cheese bun goodness. The crust on the outside combined with the moist chewy inside is the most curious combination ever. Who needs filling with buns so good.

Provence

17A Lorong Liput

Holland Village

Singapore 277731

Fosters, the Steak Cafe

2008-10-11T18:12:00.016+08:00

We never planned on going to Fosters. We wanted to check out the all-day brunch menu (burger inspired) at Relish but it was closed for an event today. We wanted to go to Bistro Petit Salut but we were too late for lunch. It seemed that almost every place was closed for lunch. Sharon wanted to go to Monster Mash but I didn't want to. She suggested pizza but I didn't feel like Italian. Fosters was like our last choice.

Not that Fosters is not good. In fact Fosters is one of my favourite places. Why? Because this is the only place where they know how to get my steak a beautiful medium-rare. And I always insist that steak is wasted unless it is done medium-rare. There needs to be a bit of blood, a bit of that raw fibrous texture. You need to taste the beef. 'Nuff said. Sorry to those who like their beef well-done (like Sharon who has since seen the light), but that's not the way to eat your beef.

We started out with a bread basket. The bread's most probably from Delifrance but they did a really good job of toasting it because the bread was nice and hot and crusty when we had it. Nothing to boast about though.

Sharon ordered the Pan-Grilled Marinated Chicken dusted with seasoned flour served with black pepper sauce. I ordered the Pepper Steak, juicy tenderloin coated with crushed black pepper.

This is my steak, my glorious steak. It is not merely coated in black pepper, it is encrusted, to be exact. Do not order this if you do not like black pepper. Every mouthful is an explosion of biting, full-bodied succulence. The robust meat paired with caramelised onions, don't even get me started.

No place has ever given me steak like this before. It's a thick slab but look how evenly done the steak is. See how the steak is such a deep pink throughout? Marvellous job. It's actually a bit overcooked for a medium-rare and there isn't much blood at all. It's like in between medium-rare and medium, to me. But it's good enough, one can't be too picky.

Although Fosters doesn't always get it right, it is the only restaurant that has ever given me a proper medium-rare steak, that is medium-rare throughout. I don't know what they do, but they do it so well. Tell me, do you know anywhere else which serves up such thick steak, so evenly done?

The steak came with a jacket potato. Sharon had it, I don't like baked potatoes. She didn't seem to like it very much.

Her order of chicken. It was done quite nicely. The pepper sauce was delectable. It first tastes like barbeque sauce but the sweet-savoury sensation on your tongue quickly gives way to the peppery punch. It reminded me of the chicken chop at Jerry's. Other than that, nothing great. The fries were double-fried and the vegetables were limp. It's a reasonable dish.

Come here for the steak.

Fosters
277 Holland Ave
Holland Village
Singapore 278994

tanjong rhu pau - the best paus?

2008-10-11T03:39:00.018+08:00

Tanjong Rhu Paus are good. They are very very good. This is despite Daphne's mother's appalled reaction to them because the men are always shirtless and wet with perspiration while making these nuggets of absolute ambrosia.

Sharon and I decided to stop by the Thomson branch today. We bought many paus. A total of 5 different types of paus to try. Da Bao, charsiew, lianrong (lotus paste), red bean, and yuanyang (lotus paste and red bean).

For some odd reason, Sharon likes this picture. She thinks the charsiew paus are queueing up to be eaten?!

This, my dear reader, is the average size of the paus here. It's tinyyy. A midget pau. I wonder if that's why the paus taste so good though; because it's so small, the proportion of filling to skin seems to be higher. Also, these are small enough to pop in your mouth, so they make for a good tapas-like snack. Not to mention that when you do pop the whole thing in your mouth, all the flavours and juices explode at once on your tongue.

The paus are expensive for the size but somehow, I keep going back for more.

First up, the red bean pau. The skin was a tad bit hard and dry, but the paste was commendable. It was extremely smooth and just a little bit granular. The texture was just right, I liked this, with the exception of the dehydrated skin. The paste was also a nice mellow sweet, which I enjoyed.

The lianrong pau suffered from the same dry skin as the red bean pau. We noticed that the non-meat paus are all like this. For some reason they also peel off in layers whereas the meat paus skin don't. Anyhow, this lianrong was also nice and smooth. I prefer the red bean one though. And while these two paus were good, I'm sure there are better ones out there.

This to me, is the star of Tanjong Rhu. Their charsiew paus. I know people like the Da Bao but I really really really really really (get the point?) like the charsiew paus.

The charsiew sauce is amazing to say the least. It's like a stunning red velvet gravy that envelops the meat and fat so lusciously. The marinate is just wonderful. I've never had such good charsiew paus before. I've tried handmade paus from other places but none compares to this one. The charsiew taste is a lot more intense than normal charsiew paus and more fragrant too. You cannot stop at one, you just can't.

The pau's skin is a bit tough at the top. For some reason, you can't readily break the pau apart from the top. We normally break it apart from the botton where the skin is thin and moist. Apart from that, the skin is sweet and the texture is great. It's not powdery nor oversteamed. It was purrrfect.

Can you see just how juicy it is? And the charsiew taste is extremely intense. The sauce is a wee bit gelatinous too so that it blankets and clings onto each and every piece of meat/fat relentlessly and entirely. There's not a lot of fat in it, but just enough to give it the fragrant, wholesome burst of flavour. Many handmade paus I've tried are made from overly fatty parts of the meat without any real lean meat at all. These normally turn out extremely oily, and the oil usually soaks through the box it is kept in. Tanjong Rhu's charsiew pau is not cloying at all. It's.. divine.

We forgot to take photos of the yuanyang pau. But we did play with the four paus and took pictures of their cross-section areas. Basically, the yuanyang pau (third from left) has both lianrong and red bean paste. They also add a salted egg into it. I've tried it before and I'm not a fan. But that's also probably because I don't like salted egg. Sharon likes this one though, she think's its unique.

I must also add that this is a big pau compared to the other paus. Compare the size! It is however, just a normal-sized pau, just big enough to fit into your palm.
Lastly, we have the famous Tanjong Rhu Da Bao. I don't really like Da Bao and neither does Sharon, but she likes the Da Bao here. It's definitely very pang and more tasty than other Da Baos I have tried. The meat is deliciously scrumptious. The savoury and the sweet of the pau is a winning partnership. Da Bao lovers will adore this one. I'm not so sure that I am a Da Bao convert because of this though.

Is Tanjong Rhu Pau the best there is in Singapore? Based on their charsiew pau, I'd say yes a hundred times.

Tanjong Rhu Pau
72 Thomson Rd
Singapore 307589

hock lam beef

2008-10-10T17:17:00.019+08:00

Hock Lam Beef Kway Teow is arguably the most famous beef kway teow in Singapore. Every respectable beef kway teow lover will have at least heard of this old name. It has also made news multiple times because the owner, Tina, used to be a banker who gave up a five-figure monthly salary to continue her family business.

Hock Lam has been around for 4 generations and dates back to 1921. So this my friend, is as old-school as it gets.

There are many different Hock Lams around and sometimes I get really confused. There's the Purvis Street one, Empress Place one, someday I really need to sort out this whole beef kway teow history. But as far as I am concerned, Hock Lam is this one. The one with the crazy long queues at lunch hours.

I'm not a huge fan of beef kway teow but this is one bowl that I will crave from time to time. Look at how smooth and silky the noodles are! They are literally glistening, beckoning to be eaten.

I don't like how other places give you SO much gravy that your noodles are literally drowning in starch. It reminds me too much of lor-mee. This place is good because they don't give you a lot of gravy which I like. However, they gave TOO little gravy today and it was a tad bit dry, Sharon had to go back and ask for extra gravy.

They gave a bit too much gravy and the kway teow was just positively drowning, engulfed in the gravy.

They gave me vegetables today and they have never given me vegetables. I wonder if this was to make up for their drastic cut in the amount of beef they serve with the kway teow. My beef slices and beef ball kway teow came with 2 miserable beef balls and maybe 3,4 slices of beef max. The beef slices were very tender though.

The noodles were a bit soggy, probably because we let it sit in the gravy for a tad bit too long while we were taking pictures. They are not like this normally.

I like chilli A LOT so I was a little heavy-handed with the chilli. (Not telling you how much I added.) I really like Hock Lam's chilli. The taste is excellent; faultless balance of fiery and sweet. Mmm.

I did regret putting so much chilli though. Not because it was too spicy, but because I tried Sharon's unblemished version and it was so much better. The gravy's hearty sapor really shone through. The chilli was good but it shrouded the gravy's glory a little.

A minor grouse was that the gravy was not as thick as it used to be and lacked the beefy oomph it used to have.

Sharon likes the soup here. However, today's was a bit watered down and tasted too briney and not beefy enough. You can still see the beef sediments here but it used to be a lot more concentrated. Instead, it seemed that they tried to compensate for it by adding more soya sauce.

We still like this place. It's just a pity that rising costs have resulted in dips in both quality and quantity. A good bowl of beef kway teow, nonetheless.

Hock Lam Beef

Far East Square

22 China Street

#01-01

the wild rocket experience

2008-10-10T00:49:00.013+08:00

I admit that I am biased towards the Wilin-Low empire. I was disappointed, very actually, to see that the reviews for Wild Rocket and Relish have not been so rosy for a while now. Truth be told, I find that very perplexing because I really do enjoy those places.

I was asked to choose a dinner place today, either Giraffe or Wild Rocket. I was tempted to go to Giraffe because

I’ve heard that it has improved since last year when I last went
Wild Rocket has been reviewed to death; it’s quite unexciting to review a restaurant everyone has tried right?
I was afraid the reviews were true.

However, my loyalties took over and I chose Wild Rocket. And I am glad I did because I thoroughly enjoyed dinner.

Let me start by saying what a gorgeous place Wild Rocket is. It’s nestled away from the hustle and bustle of Orchard Road all while still being in extremely close proximity to town. The restaurant’s capacity is very small and thus very cosy. The decor is immaculate; it’s simple and graceful. It’s the perfect place for a perfect date. Trust me.

The pretty pretty flower. :)

When we arrived at Wild Rocket, they promptly ushered us to a table that they had specially chosen for us “because it was more private”. (Although I’m not sure why we needed privacy for, are we very unpresentable?) Somehow Sam, the manager of the Wilin-Low empire, caught wind that we were going to be there. (He knows us because we go to Relish so often) He was not there but he made sure that we got a message that he said hi. I love how the people at Wild Rocket make the effort to ensure that their patrons are well taken care of. It was all so sweet and charming.

We started our night with the bread that is served at Wild Rocket. It comes with a dip of olive oil. We're both huge carb fans and especially fond of bread. I have to admit that I don't really fancy this one though.

We were presented with two glasses of wine on the house, apparently sent from Sam. It was a perfect surprise. I thought that he was very sweet, and I appreciated that he was so thoughtful towards us, even when he wasn't around. TWO thumbs up to him!

I ordered my spicy crabmeat linguine with tomato cream. I have to admit that it's not always ambrosial. There are times when I have had it and it was merely aight and I start to wonder whether I really like it. Some nights it is spicier, some nights it is more creamy.. I like this dish, I like Wild Rocket but I have to say that it's not very consistent. But when it is good, it just blows you away.

It was gorgeous tonight. Somehow it was creamier than I remembered it to be and it was slightly spicier. I suspected that they cut down on the crabmeat since the last time too. Nonetheless, it was still marvellously coated in that spectacular flavour I have grown to love. I still think this one beats Marmalade Pantry.

It is extremely lush, but not so rich that it becomes very jelat. That balance was splendid tonight. And I like that it's not drowning in cream like carbonara. The linguine is tenderly swathed in the orange-red cream without overpowering the other flavours. You can still taste the tang from the tomato paste, the sweetness of the crab and just a tinge of heat from the spice.

Look at that. No touch-ups, nothing! Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous. I'm hungry again.

The servings are a bit small, I'd have to say. Even Sharon felt that she was just having an appetiser. But then again, you're not in an All-American diners cafe.

Sharon had the seafood crustacean oil spaghetti, but she changed the spaghetti to linguine. This is Sharon's first oil-based pasta. She was particulary impressed by the fact that it was not cloying at all.

At first instance, her pasta tasted a bit like prawn noodles because it has a certain Asian twist to it that made it especially piquant. I quite liked this actually. I know Sharon was not wowed at first but she said that the taste grew on her and that she would order this again.

I thought that this was a very inviting dish. Truth be told, it wasn't something very unique but it had that satiating element and the seafood distillate was flawlessly infused through the dish. In Sharon's own words, "they weren't kidding when they called it crustacean oil man."

The scallops weren't great. They weren't very fresh. But the prawns were fwahlaueh-damn-shiok. So fresh, so firm, so Q. We adored the prawns.

We ordered coconut ice-cream. It came with a grated coconut wafer and coconut jelly nestled below the ice-cream. This is Sharon's favourite. It tastes like bubor chacha to me. It's super coconutty. It is really really really bubor chacha in ice-cream form. The coconut taste is extremely 'gao', I'm honestly quite amazed by how authentic it tastes. This is something you can bring your ah-ma to try and she will love it. SOMPA.

Ah now we come to this red date ice-cream with longan. This was given to us with compliments from Sam, Sam's assistant. The former is Sam Tan, the assistant to Sam Lim as we later learned. It was our first time meeting him but already he displayed such warmness towards us. Need I say more why Wild Rocket really rocks?

Well, I am honestly struggling with this dessert. I do like it and I think it is an extremely interesting dish. Tastewise, the coconut ice-cream is a lot easier to fall in love with. But there is something about this dish. I call it the elusive dessert.

Let me explain. When it first dissolved on my tongue, I tasted red bean. I know it's red date but I swear I tasted red bean. And it's the cheapo Potong brand red bean ice-cream that we used to eat as kids, that comes on an ice-cream stick. WAIT. If that was all I tasted, I wouldn't like this dessert so much. After the Potong ice-cream taste, I taste the dulcet longans. And then I taste this elusive aftertaste.

Sharon didn't taste it, but I did. I can't put my finger on exactly what that taste is. It reminded me a bit of coffee, maybe it's because it's aromatic? I'm really not sure. I spent a really long time grappling with this aftertaste. It's not a distinct taste that I can capture and remember. It was so fragile, like bubbles that burst when you try to touch them. I find that extremely intrigueing.

So while Sharon loved the coconut ice-cream she didn't really take to the red date ice-cream. I liked the red date ice-cream because it was (I'm going to say the word again) elusive. It's mind-boggling, seriously. The coconut ice-cream was delectable, no doubt, but it was just one flavour, one taste, sweet. If I were critical, I would say this ice-cream was one-dimensional. But the red date one, there were layers to it.

I think the coconut ice-cream is definitely more tasty, but the red date one is interesting. I'm not sure if I would try it again though.

All in all, a lovely evening. I still adore this place, even though they need to be more consistent with their quality of food. Other than that, what a place man, what a place.

Wild Rocket
Hangout Hotel
10a Upper Wilkie Road
Singapore 228119

trusty marmalade pantry

2008-10-09T00:04:00.011+08:00

It's a long story how we ended up at Marmalade Pantry. We wanted to go to Superfamous but the reviews were so bad we decided against it. We then wanted to check out the Moomba but it was raining and we didn't feel like braving the torrential storms for a cold sandwich. Finally, we decided on VietCafe. It was closed. And since Sharon could only spare about half an hour or so, we went to the Marmalade Pantry since it was close to her office.

It's really quite a pretty place isn't it? All that crisp whiteness and understated elegance? Anyone noticed that all their servers are (rather) good-looking? Even their servers' all white attire spells casual-chic comfort. Although I must object to the quality of their tshirts. Even my secondary school PE tshirt is better quality than that. It looks like it will stretch in the washing machine after just one wash and it's so thin! Apparently, they are designed by Song+Kelly. If so, I'd say defunct for a reason.

If they used better quality tshirts, I promise the servers will look so much better; and confident.

Their signature white chrysanthemuns at each table, with white salt and pepper shakers on white tables with white chairs and white placemats. Everything's so pristine and bright, you feel shy to even laugh loudly. It's definitely a girl's place, for girls to feel like cherubic princesses.

My crab caesar salad. I normally order the crabmeat linguine with tomato chilli and pinenuts. I fell in love with this dish at Wild Rocket/Relish and despite Sharon's insistence that Marmalade Pantry offers a better version, I insist on Wilin Low's version. I'm fiercely loyal to the Wilin Low Empire like that. (But honestly, I really do prefer the Wild Rocket version)

So anyway, my salad was pleasurable. I was a bit disappointed at the obvious lack of food-porn quality, the food looked bland and unappetising. It was just romaine lettuce with crabmeat and toasted bread with their own caesar dressing. Boy they weren't kidding when they said crab caesar salad. It was expensive too, at $22!

To be fair though, they used real crab meat and the dressing was really good. It reminded me of how the Caesar dressing at The Line, Shangri-La used to be. Really thick, creamy with a distinct zing to it.

Sharon ordered her usual grilled pesto chicken wholemeal wrap with oven roasted butternut. This was even better than usual. The chicken was impossibly moist today and it was extremely well-seasoned. It was not fatty at all so some may find it not luscious enough for them. But I felt that the creamy pumpkin in the wrap compensated for whatever lack of fat perfectly. The smooth consistency complemented the meat's firm texture and the sugars in it accentuated the chicken's succulence.

The wrap was quite nicely done too. True, it wasn't exactly flavourful but the taste was definitely not flat. It wasn't too limp or too thick and gooey, and you could actually cut through the wrap without everything falling apart when you do. This is actually a neat wrap!

I particularly liked the sweet potato and tapioca chips that are served as a side. They are oh-so-crispy and oh-so-toothsome. And they are cut so fine, they are light to boot! I could eat 1kg of these and not be sick of them.

Marmalade Pantry, not exactly an exciting dining experience, but count on them to deliver consistent quality food.

The Marmalade Pantry
Hitachi Tower
16Collyer Quay
#01-04
Singapore 049318

(Jewel in) The Palace?

2008-10-07T23:52:00.007+08:00

I wonder if the shopowners were trying to ride on the fame in the popular Korean Drama "Jewel in the Palace" also known as Da Chang Jin. I remember thinking how fantabulous the food looked. I didn't even enjoy the storyline, I just liked to watch her cook. After she stopped cooking and went on to medicine, suddenly the show's appeal skyrocketed downwards for me.

For the uninitiated, this drama caused a huge stir around the world and restaurants all over went crazy. The recipes in the show were adopted by restaurants. People sat up and noticed Korean food. I heard that there was even a restaurant in China where you were served by waitresses who looked like Da Chang Jin!

The Palace is possibly one of the cheapest Korean places you can find in Singapore. It's actually more like Korean fast-food, because you literally have to find your own table, queue at the counter, place an order and wait for them to deliver the food to you. It's MOS Burger style at MOS Burger speed. (Someone should really tell MOS Burger that their food is self-service but definitely not fast service) Yes so, The Palace isn't exactly the usual atas Korean restaurant.

CBD-goers will know that this place is packed packed packed during lunch hours and it is almost impossible to get a seat. Well, I don't think that the food here is really to-die-for, but it's convenient and (relatively) cheap Korean food.

I would say that the standard of food is actually ok, at least it tastes authentic. But it's definitely not high. It's somewhat like HK Cafe. They serve somewhat authentic HK food but its not exactly quality food. It's better than foodcourt standards but far from restaurants'.

Why do I say so? For one, my kimchi ramyuen is actually instant noodles. (see the resemblance to HK Cafe?) I even know which brand they use. It's NONGSHIM, the kind you can get at NTUC. And they're not shy about it, I've seen them opening boxes of Nongshim.

But for what it's worth, I like Nongshim. So I did like my ramyuen although it was a lil overcooked and I like my noodles "Q-Q" or as some of you more atas folk would say, "al dente".

It's definitely not value-for-money. Do your math; a packet of Nongshim costs 70c at NTUC, a bowl of ramyuen costs like 7,8bucks at The Palace. If you think gas and a few pieces of cabbage and labour costs for that 3min (or 5min here, since they overcooked the noodles) is worth 6,7bucks, then yea it's worth it.

That said, I would still pay for it, because sometimes you really just want a bowl of savoury piping hot noodles that hits the umami spot.

Sharon ordered the beef stew. I'm not sure what its called in Korean. Its like Bulgogi beef stew with glass noodles (tanghoon). I have a particular weakness for tanghoon. Especially the Korean ones. I think its magical how they absorb all that flavour and still remain so Q.

This was no exception. The noodles were soaking up all the delicious wonder. Every bite was a winning bite. I think these are even better than the Jap Chae, the stir-fried glass noodles. The texture of the glass noodles was excellent. It was so perfectly springy. When you bite into them, they are soft at first instance and then you meet with just a little resistance to complete that final clench. (I do realise of course that tanghoon is almost always like that but hey that's why I like tanghoon!)

We've had this before, it was good. We had this again today, it was still good. There's just something about that broth. It's very sweet, it's full-bodied, and it is also very savoury. The beef makes it very rich but it's still light because of the sweet broth. (I cannot overemphasis how sweet the broth is. It's like dessert.) The whole combination of the nectarine and meat-infused goodness is so very enticing. It's dainty and carnivorous. It's like when you eat it, there's this whole splash of lively flavours dancing upon your tongue. Heaven's what I feel.

What can I say? It may be Korean fast-food, but darn, it's one tasty dish.

The dishes came with kimchi. Unfortunately, the kimchi was unexciting. It was more sweet and salty than spicy. The perfect kimchi is a triangle with each edge governing sweet, salty and spicy respectively. Unfortunately, the proportions were off for this one.

This is some place I would go to for lunch once in a while when I'm craving something soupy and hearty, IF I am in the area. Not something I would travel across Singapore for. Whether there really is Jewel in The Palace? I'm not so sure though.

Nonetheless, it makes for a reasonable lunch place, and confirm-guarantee-plus-chop a lot better than a lot of so-called restaurants in the basement.

The Palace Korean Restaurant

Chevron House

30 Raffles Place

#B1-03A

canele

2008-10-07T00:04:00.030+08:00

Have you ever wondered what a canele is? Here's what I found from Wiki:

A canelé is a small French pastry with a soft and tender custard center and a dark, thick caramelized crust. The dessert, which is in the shape of small, striated cylinder approximately two inches in height, is a specialty of the Bordeaux region of France but can often be found in Parisian patisseries as well. Made from egg, milk and flourflavored with rum and vanilla, the custard batter is baked in a mold, giving the canelé a caramelized crust and custard-like inside.

For more trivia, look up canele in wiki, there's a story behind it! Here's what a canele looks like.

I love Canele. I think it is my favourite dessert place. I love their kalamansi sorbet. I love their strawberry shortcake. mmm.. I like how their desserts are not overly-cloying. Of course I don't like everything on their menu and frankly I'm not really a dessert conoisseur but I do like Canele.

I wonder why, though, we don't go to Canele often. We like their crepes a lot and we always talk about them but somehow, its been nearly a year since we went to Canele. Sharon had a craving for their nougatine crepe today so we went down to the outlet at Shaw Centre.

I tried their Salade Concorde, which was made up of roasted chicken breast, frisée, tomato and mixed salad with mustard vinaigrette.

It is very difficult to find a salad that I genuinely really like. Most of the time it is passable but hardly ever something I will go home and reminisce about. The last salad I was so fond of was the Caesar salad at The Line, Shangri-La. But they have since tweaked the salad "recipe" and well, let's just say I'm no longer a fan. Another salad that I like is at Black Angus with chicken and orange.

This salad at Canele was very well-done. I did not expect it at all. To be honest, I thought that Canele would not serve good food-food. To my surprise, they were very generous with the cracked black pepper and it was scrumptious. The chicken was succulent and tender, unlike other salads where the chicken is bone-dry and gloomily bland. Excellent job, Canele!

The vegetables were fresh and the tomatoes were bursting with sappy goodness. The vegetables were seasoned, not just the chicken, so that every bite had that provocative peppery punch. The dressing was a bit too sour for my liking; I think they went a teeny bit overboard with the vinegar there, but it was still good, I definitely enjoyed it. I would go back for it!

Sharon had the Croque Madame, white toast bread with ham, cheese, with a sunny side up. Well, what can I say about this dish? It is notoriously difficult to photograph. All the pictures came up horrible. These are the best ones, check it out:

I don't know what came over the camera, the photos were all blurred and off-focus. The colours were all wrong. Snapping a respectable picture was so arduous. Trust me, the actual sandwich looks a lot better; these pictures do not do it justice. Luckily, Sharon displayed a burst of photography flair at the very end and we managed to take at least one presentable picture.

Tastewise, I didn't really like this one. I thought that the ham overpowered the sandwich because it was so salty. It's pretty decent, just not gourmet material. Then again, I wasn't expecting Canele to serve good mains anyway. Sharon, though, quite enjoyed her meal because it resembled eggs benedicte and she adores egg benedicte.

After ok-mains, we were looking forward to the fantabulous Canele desserts we had come so far for. This was not to be.

First, we wanted the nougatine crepe. They told us the kitchen was closed. (They didn't even bother asking us for our last orders) Then we wanted the kalamansi sorbet. They were out. We eventually settled for matcha cake and nougatine ice-cream. We also asked if they would allow us to eat MacDonald fries at their premise. THEY SAID NO.

I was gianing fries and since their kitchen was closed, and Macs was just beside it, I figured they would let us eat Mac fries there. I mean, it's not like I didn't want to order fries from them, their kitchen was closed! Besides, we had two mains and were ordering two desserts. I don't see why they didn't allow it! We even told the manager that if anyone wanted to bring 'outside food' in, he could then report it to us and 'scold' us. And honestly, at 11pm on a Monday night, how many customers were there at Canele?! Besides, it's not like they are really such an atas establishment that bringing outside food in would shatter their image or whatever. I don't get it.

We decided to eat at Macs instead and forego Canele's desserts. See how silly the manager was? He was throwing business away because it was 'against company's policy'. Come on now. We were willing to order 2 desserts from you! I was genuinely ticked off by the service standards at Canele.

So we went over to MacDonalds and ordered a Oreo McFlurry and large fries. The guy was quite funny. When we ordered the McFlurry he asked "Oreo?"

"What other McFlurrys do you have?"

"Err, only Oreo."

Sometimes ah.. We need to evaluate our service standards. But other than that, service was impeccable. He gave us the Wasabi shaker powder even though we did not order it. He also gave us water in a regular cup instead of those pathetic tiny plastic thimbles. See, even MacDonalds has better service than Canele, part of the Les Amis group. Tsk to Les Amis.

Ok, I don't like Wasabi. I don't like Wasabi flavoured stuff. But this was really good. I have always liked shaker fries and this was no exception. It wasn't extremely salty, in fact it had a startling sweetness to it. (We confirmed this because sugar was top on the ingredients list of the wasabi shaker powder.) The wasabi did not shoot up my nose and threaten to make my eyes water. It was tart but not acerbic; even a Wasabi non-fan like me took to it.

I foresee a lot of trips to MacDonalds now.

Canelé Pâtisserie Chocolaterie
Shaw Centre
1 Scotts Road, #01-01A
Singapore 228208

wah lok blah.

2008-10-05T21:05:00.005+08:00

I've always wanted to try Wah Lok for their dimsum. I've heard so many raving reviews about it that it has always been on my MUST-TRY list. So today, we chose to go to Wah Lok over Peach Garden at OCBC.

The first dish that was served, the eefu noodles. Sharon's a great fan of this dish and to be honest it was ok. It didn't blow us away but it was decent. But that's the problem you see. Decent doesn't cut it here. I was expecting more than just decent from such an established old-school brand like Wah Lok. You can probably get the same standard at any other Cantonese restaurant for slightly lower prices. Nonetheless, it was decent. A bit oily and too salty for my liking but pass.

The next up was the charsiew baos. This is Sharon's "test" of a good dimsum place. The charsiew baos here are not bad at all. The bun part was soft and sweet, the way we liked it. The filling was quite nice too. It wasn't extremely fatty the way some restaurants make theirs so it scored a point with me there. However, there still was some fat and the charsiew sauce was juicy enough so that the bao was still oozing with flavour. Check out the photos below if you don't believe me!

Look at how nicely the filling falls from the bun.

See the delicious fat? My only gripe about the bun is that they weren't very generous with the filling. I like my charsiew to "overflow" the bun so to speak. Like the magic porridge pot that wouldn't stop cooking delicious creamy porridge. But I'm being picky here.

Sharon on the other hand, felt that the meat was not pork! Horror of horrors! What's a charsiew bao without pork? She said that it was made with chicken?! I don't think an established brand like Wah Lok would cheat and compromise on their charsiew baos so I think her tastebuds are just off-tangent (by a mile!) today.

Their charsiew baos were what we came for and I have to say it was not bad. Although again, it didn't blow me away. I've had better. ;)

If Sharon's test subject is the charsiew bao, mine is the hargows. The ideal hargow has nice thin translucent skin. The kind where you get a glimpse of the tiger tinge that lies beneath. Like this.

It is important to get the skin to be thin so that the hargow doesn't taste like chee cheong fun instead of hargow. There's nothing worse than thick white oversteamed skin on a hargow. The result is just a nasty paste-like substance.

We had such an experience at Xing Wang Hongkong Cafe at Heartland Mall. Up till today, I curse why I didn't listen to Sharon when she warned me that it was bad. I mean, so it's not great but what do you expect from a Hongkong Cafe right? But trust me, it was SO BAD. I have never, never, NEVER had such HORRIBLE hargows in my life. I literally had to force myself to eat one of it. NEVER, I repeat, NEVER order that. It's life-threateningly bad.

The next worse thing than thick oversteamed skin is oversteamed hargows which fall apart. See, the trick is to get the hargow's skin thin enough to see the orange but thick enough so that it remains a hargow when you pick it up instead of just prawn and skin that sticks to your chopsticks. Like this.

Sorry man Wah Lok, ultimate failure. I did not expect this from Wah Lok at all. It was a rude shock. It was also oversteamed and pasty. You can get much better hargows from any dimsum restaurant. I'm still reeling from displeasure. I love hargows and this ruined my lunch.

(to be fair, it did look promising. Pity.)

We also had the steamed carrot cake. Did not make it with me as well. It lacked that oomph of carrot cake. It was not aromatic enough and frankly, tasted more like gelatine. I like my carrot cake to be smooth with just a teeny bit of roughness around the edge. This was just too smooth and severely lacking in 'pang-ness'.

The chee cheong fun wasn't fabulous. To be fair, it was very smooth and nice. And the soy sauce was not bad at all.

But they were stingy with the scallops so that did not hit home with me. To make things worse, the scallops were not very fresh. They were a little fishy and soft. Scallops should be firm to the bite. Not hard, mind you, but should retain that bouncy bite.

Next up, siewmai. Ok this was not too bad. Again, it wasn't wow, but so much better than their hargows. It did not look polished and instead resembled something you would get off a coffeeshop. But oh well, a little roughness can be good right? It definitely was not delicate like normal top-end dimsum restaurants. But it still tasted good. It was actually the way I expect authentic old school restaurants to serve siew mai. Shiok old-school goodness.

Again, it was good but did not hit the oomph spot. Sharon felt that the prawns were overcooked and hard, just like the hargows. I thought the prawns were fine though. So either she's fussy or I'm not discerning.

By now, we were so full and the egg tarts were taking forever to arrive. By the time the egg tarts arrived we had already resorted to bargaining with each other to finish up the food. We did not touch the hargows and the carrot cake because honestly, it is such a waste of calories.

Now, apart from the charsiew baos, we've also heard a lot of good stuff about the egg tarts.

It was quite good, the filling was done just right so that the filling wobbled when you bit into it. The crust was buttery and flaky, the way authentic egg tarts are. I'm not a fan of such pastry but I expect people who are to really like the egg tarts here.

My only grouse? The texture was good but the taste wasn't really there. It lacked the overwhelming eggy edge and was not sweet enough. I tasted more crust than filling, which I do not like. But other than that, I understand why most people like this egg tart. But then again, the egg tarts may have tasted good in comparison to all the other blah dishes.

The food at Wah Lok really was not as fabulous as I had expected. It is at best, average. I have no idea why people are so crazy about this place. As it stands, Lei Garden and Peach Garden are way way way better than Wah Lok.

Wah Lok Cantonese Restaurant

Carlton Hotel Level 2

76 Bras Basah Road

Singapore 189558

p/s: now Sharon says that the last bit of pau we had confirmed that it was pork not chicken. If I didn't know better, I'd think she was trying to cover her ass.

kimchi goes to japan

2008-10-04T14:41:00.013+08:00

About two weeks ago, Sharon and I were standing in front of Sushi Tei Holland Village, looking at their new menu. Apparently, they have included some healthier alternatives including beancurd, bittergourd and kimchi inspired dishes.

Fast forward a week, we found ourselves in Thomson Plaza, trying out this new menu. Mind you, it was with trepidation that we decided to give Sushi Tei Thomson Plaza another try; experience has told us that this outlet is not very good at all. Normally, I wouldn't order fried rice, but that time, we ordered the kimchi fried rice and the kimchi hotpot. Boy am I glad we ordered the fried rice. It was shioookk.

From the very first bite, I was awe-struck. It had a very distinct wok hei, the kind that you can only find in tze-char places. The kimchi and the japanese rice went very well together, it was a delightful blend of spicy, sweet and savoury. And of course that heaven-sent wok hei. We really really liked it. Although come to think of it, its really just tze-char right?

So anyway, we liked it so much we decided to go back the next day. This time to the Taka outlet.

As usual, we had our quintessential salmon sashimi which was aight, nothing to shout about. (Nothing compares to Akashi's salmon sashimi.)

We also had the aburi salmon belly. Which is always good. Fatty oily fish with rice. :) Although I have to admit that you can get better elsewhere, at a premium of course.

We had this deep-fried octopus dish, which was really a surprise find. It was on the conveyor belt and we decided to try it for fun. It tasted like calamari to me actually, and frankly, its hard to go wrong with deep-fried food right?

Soft-shell crab maki. Again, you can't go very off with deep fried food. Especially since I have a weakness for soft-shell crab. That said, not the best I have had again. It was aight, no biggie.

Now, the highly anticipated fried rice. After the hype of the previous day, we were really looking forward to this dish. Unfortunately, this was a far far far cry from the one we had at Thomson Plaza. It did not have that wok hei. It was a lot less oily. (You could see the oil glistening in the bowl after our meal at Thomson Plaza. Not here.) And the chef was a bit heavy handed on the garlic.

My guess is that the Sushi Tei outlet at Thomson Plaza is a lot "rougher" than the one at Taka. Which is normally frowned upon, since Japanese food is usually so delicate with an emphasis on exquisite skill and fresh fine ingredients. Fried rice, especially tze-char styled fried rice, on the other hand is a lot more robust with strong flavours etc. So is Korean food.

It naturally follows then, that a more cavalier culinary showing would be more appropriate than dainty handling. And if we are right in that the chefs at Thomson Plaza cater more to the average robust Singapore palate then naturally, they would be better at preparing kimchi fried rice than those at Taka.

As you can tell, it has actually really little kimchi. Maybe we really are just paying jacked-up prices for yangzhou fried rice with a morsel of kimchi.

I would not want to try the tofu and bittergourd dishes. They seem like such an utter waste of money. Especially the "century egg tofu". I don't get it. We tried the hotpot the day before so we decided to try the kimchi with pork this time. Sharon thought it would be good since she likes the Korean version.

I don't know if the Thomson Plaza would have delivered a better version, but the one we had was blah. We were not impressed.

The one dish that did get us talking, however, was the gindara. Now, we have had the gindara multiple times at Sushi Tei and enjoyed it thoroughly each time. Especially if we were at Raffles City. And that night, the gindara stole the limelight.

Not for a good reason.

It was overcooked and rubbery. It had a nasty aftertaste. I mean, I didn't think it was that bad, I think an undiscerning eater would have eaten it. But it was definitely off. Sharon, on the other hand, was greatly displeased. In her own words, she calls it the "pui cod".

Naturally, she complained to the manager who did not find anything wrong with the cod but who also waived the cost. Great service, I have to say.

Not just because they waived the cost of the gindara, but because they also threw in not one but TWO desserts for free. Ahh, the power of complaints..

The first dessert we had was this wafer in the shape of a fish enveloping vanilla ice-cream (not photographed). It brought back fond nostalgic memories of the ice-cream man in Primary School who sold ice-cream for 50c. You know, cool thick slaps of raspberry ice-cream sandwiched by cheapo wafer slices? Yea, good times honey.

The second one was similar. Wafer biscuits positioned to resemble a clam with yuzu sorbet in its clasp with mochi and red-bean encircling the sorbet, much like a chain of maidservants around the princess pearl ;)

The yuzu sorbet was refreshingly tart and light. It was not sour at all, it had an invigorating zest to it and did not have the squeamish saccharine-infusion that desserts are wont to have.

I like desserts like that, but that's just a personal choice. I know many people who adore that sugared taste in their desserts that I find so cloying.

Sushi Tei

391 Orchard Road

#02-13

Ngee Ann City

Singapore 238873

the best of sofra :)

2008-10-03T14:35:00.003+08:00

So we went to Sofra today AND we brought a camera along! Finally, this foodblog (or whatever semblance it has of it) has photos! :D :D

This was our second time there (together). The first time, we had the salad platter which was an assortment of various different salads and hummus. We also shared a chef's plate which was 'highly recommended' and which consisted of turkish bread, beef patty, chicken patty, doner kebab (lamb and chicken) and shish kebab (chicken).

We loved the eggplant salad and the hummus so this time, we ordered just the eggplant salad and the hummus with turkish bread.

The eggplant salad, as usual, was really good. Despite sharon's insistence that eggplant does not have taste, I put my foot down because I do think that eggplant has taste. It has this really slight twang to it and the texture is unmistakable. Yes, it does absorb the flavours of whatever it is cooked in, but there is just something unique about eggplant.

Well, I havent had many eggplant dishes in my life, but from whatever little I have had, this was quite good. It's a tad bit oily but well, if I remember correctly, eggplant is virtually calorie-less, so who cares?

We also had mussaka with chicken, which is basically like stewed eggplant and minced chicken. (yes, we really like eggplant.) I had this the first time I came so I knew it was good. And it was still good. This didn't really taste very "turkish" I think, it reminded me of something that my maid used to cook as I was growing up. The stew was aromatically seasoned, the tomato paste was really nice and tangy.

Worthy of special mention is the rice, which tasted like brown rice according to Sharon. It was really nice and fluffy. It wasn't damp, more to the dry side like fried rice, but still soft.

The mussaka atop the rice.. MMMM. makes me want more.

Everything that we ordered put together. From left, mussaka, eggplant salad, hummus. We're just missing the bread because we had finished it. That does NOT mean that the other dishes were not good therefore we had leftovers; in fact, SHARON finished it, picking at it irresistably even though we concluded that we were full!

All in all, it was a good meal. My favourite dishes from Sofra, the other dishes that we've tried from there before were just aight, not that great in our opinion. These are, the best of Sofra.

Sofra Turkish Cafe & Restaurant

#02-42

100 Beach Road

Shaw Towers

Singapore 189702

P/S - Sharon says she is not a glutton

tampopo!

2008-10-02T22:07:00.003+08:00

relish-mania

2008-04-23T21:57:00.001+08:00

it was the third time going to relish today and instead of going for the normal wildrocket burger (which is sublime by the way), we opted for the spicy crabmeat linguine with tomato cream and the much raved about charsiew burger.

now, this would be the third time giving the linguine a chance. The first time we had it was ok but nothing to rave about. In fact, we didn't have it. Y had it and she doesn't even take spicy food. We just tried a mouthful. It was aight, but not whoa-gimme-some-of that. After reading so much about how absolutely scrumptious it was, we decided to give it a second shot at Wild Rocket. Sadly, we weren't too impressed by it then and P was adamant that the chilli tomato crabmeat linguine with pinenuts at Marmalade Pantry would beat the version at Wild Rocket hands down.

So it was with apprehension that we ordered that instead of the wild rocket burger. And it was whoa tonight. Like really, whoa. Wild Rocket has always been known to serve good pasta, their pasta is always perfectly al dente and this was no exception. But even more than that, today's pasta really created a symbiosis with the tomato cream, a perfect amalgation. It was also a lot spicier than the last time which was really good. True, they weren't crazy generous about the crabmeat, but there was always a sufficient amount in every mouthful. The best part about it was that the crabmeat had actually 'fused' with the pasta so that they are one and the same. You know how you always end up with a lot of crabmeat after downing the pasta because the crabmeat doesn't 'stick' to the pasta so you don't end up eating much crabmeat during your meal and find a whole lump of it after you have finished all your pasta? Well, no worries about that today. Every mouthful was blessed with a chockful of crabmeat and equally coated in that delicious cream, so that you really do eat crabmeat linguine instead of crabmeat and linguine. Kudo to Relish for that!

Now, for the star of the meal. The charsiew burger. FWAH. It was so good. It was sweet and savoury the way charsiew should be. Although it didn't really taste like charsiew. It was more of a cross between charsiew and the sauce for kongbak bao. And I have to admit that when it was served, it looked like a lump of black substance above toasted bread. Very not appetising indeed. But boy was it good. From the first bite, I was stunned for a while because the taste was so unexpected. The meat was tender (apparently quite fatty but we took the fat off) and so so well-marinated. I'm not a fan for pork and apparently, it is poison for all blood types (I've been reading up on the blood type diet) but this is one poison I would die for. The bread, well, nothing to shout about, but hey, they're not a bakery so I'm less fastidious about that.

Interestingly enough, this burger was not slated to be a hit at all. They had only included the burger because they wanted more variety. Since we have beef, chicken lamb, seafood, hey let's throw in some pork kinda thing. And it was charsiew so Wilin and Sam (boss and manager respectively) did not expect the burger to be such the success it is. And according to Sam, it is his favourite burger. Fantastic.

Dinner was extremely enjoyable. I just love Relish for its gorgeous ambience, the high ceilings and understated chicness. It's like casual for the high-living man. And Sam, who we thought would to be reserved initially, turned out to be quite a lively character, sitting and joking with us a good portion of the meal. From pretty but dao girls at Island Creamery to Wilin as Cleo's top 50 EB to even Daiso and 1.99 shop, maybe next time he will direct sit down and eat with us.Maybe we will really be part of the Wilin Empire in future!

We set up an appointment for Friday lunch, my favourite burger place with (one of) my favourite people. :)