the wild rocket experience

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

1. I’ve heard that it has improved since last year when I last went
2. Wild Rocket has been reviewed to death; it’s quite unexciting to review a restaurant everyone has tried right?
3. 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

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?

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

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.

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.