a little taste of heaven

Chinatown

2009-08-21T22:02:00.003+08:00

Hello All,

i just wanted to update everyone on my situation at this point in time. i'm no longer in sg, and i don't know how long i won't be doing food reviews for. i'm currently in china, travelling mostly around beijing and the shandong province for business, so i might not be updating much. been quite busy with work and it's not really cool to take food pictures with business associates. but anyway, if i do get to eat interesting things out for leisure, i'll be sure to try to update.

meanwhile, the best way to not have to keep coming back to post anything is to sign up with the newsletter, on the right column of my main page. just enter your email address and you'll receive updates when there are new posts. and if there aren't any, there won't be any spam/mail either!

anyway, before i left sg, i tried gunthers. it was really good. i never got the time to write about it, but i'd like to say that it's really good, maybe just a little bit below iggy's, but much cheaper ($195 at iggy's and $120 at gunther's). besides, gunther's has the most incredible apple pie/tart that you'll ever taste.

other than that, you've got to eat morton's molten lava cake. it's sooo good. i had it before i left. best ever.

wish me luck here in china. add me on facebook if you want. it's shaunlim@umich.edu

happy eating!

Saint Pierre

2009-07-27T12:30:00.015+08:00

emmanuel stroobant. one of tv's most famous celebrity chefs. i'm sure most of you recognize his face from his uber cool "chef in black" series, where he takes local cuisine and gives it a fantastic personal, high end twist. from charsiew/roast pork to bak chor mee, this guy knows how to keep his readers glued to the tv (that plus the chicks, including my dinner date l, think he's like mega sexy). i keep saying it's because of his blond hair, just so i can console myself. i think i need to get me some of that. i am never going to bring another chick to this place again. they swoon over the chef more than their dinner date. NOT cool emmanuel. not cool.

given that i was already annoyed (as aforementioned), i decided i was going to use it as an excuse to diss his food (insert evil conspiring thoughts here). but honestly, there wasn't really much i could diss about. i enjoyed it, at least definitely much more than jaan. i'd be hard pressed to say it's as good as iggy's, but it's definitely different. it has it's own french flair to it, and a slightly more personal, comforting touch as compared to iggy's. wine and dine 2009 gave it 2 stars (out of a max of 3), which in itself is very prestigious. additionally, they are the only restaurant in singapore to be accepted into the relais & chateaux fold in 2008. st pierre first opened in 2001, and it has seemed to doing just as well. the chef-owner is emmanuel, but the head chef who does the day to day cooking is paul frogatt. apparently emmanuel is there on most days to oversee the cooking, and he was that day. he came out and chatted for awhile with the guests during the course of the dinner.

the cheese tray - for the cheese supplement, you pick 3-4 different cheeses and they'll cut out a portion for your on the spot, served with mixed dried fruit, bread, and biscuits

l and i both got the menu degustation, which is $118 per person (compared to jaan at $240 and iggy's at $195). as usual, if you decide to have the degustation menu, the whole table needs to take it. in addition, we got one order of the foie gras supplement ($14), and one order of the cheese supplement ($15). both were excellent choices. the cheese supplement can definitely be shared by two people, whereas if you're really into foie gras, which l was not, you might want to consider getting one each. because it is really good.

foie gras supplement - served with caramelized green apples and port sauce

we started off with a mushroom soup in a tiny tea cup. it was veryy good. the soup was thick and creamy, with the perfectly viscous consistency and very tantilising aromas. the standard amuse bouche of beef carparcio, salmon and ebi tempura. it was pretty good. after that came out the cherry soup with mousse. all were good.

next we had the tuna loin with tomato confit, black olive crumble, fresh green bean salad and tomato jelly. the tuna was soft and tender, but lacked the flair of the blue fin tuna at iggys. still good nonetheless though.

after that came the escargot with soft boiled egg and pea puree. this one was good. i thoroughly enjoyed this dish very much. the egg was cooked soft boiled so that the yolk was runny, and it went will with the foamy pea puree and perfectly cooked escargot. this was probably one of my favourite dishes of the night.

out next was a tiny tart, with foie gras and peach compote, with riesling jelly. l totally loved this, but i thought it was abit to sweet and i could hardly taste any foie gras. and way too small.

the foie gras supplement came next though (as pictured above), and wow was it good. the foie gras supplement that you get is actually the "foie gras classic" that you can order as a starter. the foie gras served with cameralized green apples and port sauce, along with the peach tart thingy at the side went together in perfect harmony. the foie gras is supposed to be their speciality here, and boy was it wonderful. for those foie gras fans out there, you need to get the supplement!

next out came the cod with razor clams. the cod was very soft and tender, and not flaky. very well cooked. the razor clams (like bamboo clams) came with butter and cheese smothered on top of it. delicious.

poached duck breast with marbles of mixed vegetables

the mains were next. l had the duck breast, and i had the pork loin. the duck breast was very soft and tender. good restaurants have a way of doing duck breasts that makes it just taste so good. i have no idea how they do it without making it dry. l thought her duck breast was ok but i thought it was really good.

my pork loin was pretty good. not fantastic, but good nonetheless. pretty tender and still juicy, it was served fresh and without the complications of too many sauces or other ingredients.

out next was the cheese platter. probably the most fun dish of the night. he had a whole tray of cheese to choose from, and asked which ones we would like. we could get up to choices. i told him to get us 1 really strong one, which was actually kept in a cover because it smells so pungent, blue cheese (which was my fav) and two others that he recommended. all 4 were soft cheeses as that's what l and i both liked. i liked the blue cheese most. it was really nice, cheesy, pungent and salty. it went really well with the crackers that were provided. it came with a bunch of dried fruit and bread too. the portion was actually quite large for a degustation menu. we both enjoyed this tremendously.

last was the desserts. the first dessert was the meringue with strawberry marmalade and strawberry sorbet. all i can say was that it was insanely sweet. i don't have a huge sweet tooth, so this was way too sweet for me. but l does have a sweet tooth and even she thought it was way too sweet!

the second dessert and last course of the night was the iced cheese cake with tomato jam, white peach sorbet and maple syrup. it wasn't as sweet as the previous. but still really sweet. if you really like sweet stuff, you'll love the desserts here. but make sure you really really like it super sweet, because that's exactly what it was.

overall, i think the food is pretty good. i wouldn't say it's fantastic, but i think it's still very good. what really left an impression was the foie gras and the escargot. i defintely wouldn't mind coming back for the foie gras and some of the regular mains.

overall degustation menu score: 8/10

http://www.saintpierre.com.sg/main/default.asp

Yoshimaru Ramen

2009-07-25T20:42:00.011+08:00

yoshimaru is the latest ramen joint to hit the island. they have 2 main outlets, one at holland v and one at east coast parkway. given that i'm a ramen junkie, i needed to try this place even though i wasn't expecting much. the reviews weren't raving, and even if they were, i've been disappointed more than once by raving reviews of ramen. to be honest, i'm extremely particular about my ramen. really really particular. but i came with an open mind (and a hungry belly).

the place looks very clean and new. a medium sized joint that is very organized and neat. the cooks cook their ramen behind a glass panel and the staff is ample enough to provide for your needs, although it could be hard to communicate as most of them don't speak much english.

i ordered a bowl of traditional hakata ramen and chicken gyoza (because they don't have pork!). l had just eaten (actually we both did) so she didn't get anything. instead, she watched me eat while playing around with my blackberry. all these crazy snoopy chicks. actually all the ramen is pork bone based, but i wanted to try the traditional, basic one in order to provide a good judge of its standard.

the food came soon enough. on first sight, it looks pretty alright. the egg looks very appetizing and the soup is not as thick as i would like, but then again, the proof of the pudding is in the eating. the noodles came with mushrooms, leeks, seaweed, charsiew and one egg.

i first tasted the soup. in fact, i tasted it several times before i could put my hand on it's familiarity. i swore recognized that taste somewhere. i finally realized that the soup tasted like pre-mixed bovril. for those of you who don't know, bovril is this soup drink that comes in a little jar, and you mix a teaspoon of it with hot water to get nice salty soup. basically the soup here tastes like premix broth. the quality is not very good. it doesn't taste fresh at all. in fact, i would go as far to say that the soup of the take home ajisen ramen packets are better than this.

the noodles are thin and white. i believe they're home made or semi home-made, and they are very similar to that of marutama ramen. i don't fancy the noodles that much because they are too thin for my liking, which gives it less texture when you bite into it.

the charsiew is fatty, but not intramuscularly fatty, but more of a piece of meat with fat on the side. i wasn't impressed at all. almost all decent places have better charsiew than this. the egg was the only thing that was decent. the white was cooked soft with a very orange molten center. pretty good if you ask me. the yolk is still very soft.

the side order of gyoza came awhile later. i tried one of them and didn't enjoy it too much. it wasn't bad. it was just very average. the flour of the gyoza is a little too soft and slightly rubbery. the filling is made of chicken instead of pork and isn't generous at all. taste like some gyoza you can buy from the supermarket and make at home yourself.

to be honest, this place isn't flattering at all. it's not horrible, it's just horribly average. nothing special or fantastic to rave about. i guess if i were really craving ramen i might come here, since it opens till about 11 on weekends. but other than that, i see no need to waste calories on such mediocre food. (and money too, since you can get much better ramen for the same price).

but as always, try it for yourself and make a judgement. after all, food is about personal preference.

http://www.yoshimaruramen.com.sg/

Wonton Mee Goodness - Chomp Chomp

2009-07-23T00:00:00.002+08:00

if there's something that i really love about singapore - it's the food. (that and the fact that you don't have to pay capital gains tax when you sell stock). so, every singaporean has a few favorite local foods. it's interesting to see the difference in what people find to be their favourite dish in sg. and love asking people about what their favourite food is.

you have the usual meepok, bak chor mee, chicken rice, char kway teow, hokkien mee, etc etc. sometimes, you may find people who have a strange favourite food. the strangest i've come across was this guy who apparently told me that his favourite food was pigs trotter in black vinegar. now, this is not the regular "te kah" that you eat. this is the old chinese style of cooking it, with BLACK VINEGAR. now that is some pungent stuff.

regardless, if there's one thing that i really like, it's wonton mee. (okay that and bak chor mee). to be honest, it's not easy to find a good wonton mee. i've had several that were supposed to be good, but they never really tickled my fancy all too much. i'm really anal retentive about my wonton noodles (d will tell you i'm anal retentive fullstop). i need it to be just right. the noodles need to be of perfect al-denteness, not too thick and not too thin. the charsiew has to be lean and coated with a nice sweet sauce, sliced not too thinly to be unable to enjoy the texture and flavor and yet not too thickly until you feel like you're eating steak. at the same time, it needs to be soft on the inside and slightly crisp on the outer ends. and the wontons have to be good, with just the right meat-to-flour ratio, and without the filling being overly soft and gooey or fatty.

i was about to give up hope on my quest for the perfect wonton noodles when one day d comes along and says: have you eaten the wonton mee at chomp chomp? i gave her a beffudled look on my face (aka the i'm retarded look) and said "huh?" then somewhere at the back of my head i somewhat recall that the wonton mee there is good. i go back again to my makansutra and BAM! there it was. i was right. it was good (i recently bought an extra copy of makansutra 2009 for my car so that i won't ever be lost without it again. everyone knows the horrors of being unable to find good food when you most need it. *shivers).

it was 5 chopstix (out of 6). in makansutra, there is no wanton mee stall that has received 6 choptix. so 5 is the best. i happened to try other one with 5 chopstix (eng's wanton mee) and was impressed, but not blown away. for those who are interested, eng's wonton mee serves really al-dente noodles that are slightly thin. it comes with thinly sliced pieces of charsiew and nicely cooked wonton's. but the main attraction for people is the chilli. it is spicy to the touch and stings.

now before i go on i'd like to briefly talk about a very important issue; sauce. there are mainly two types of sauce that make a dish. one is the traditional sauce type, and the other is the chilli type of sauce. when you eat food, say meepok/fishball noodles for example, you have stalls which sell ther fishball noodles with all the ingredients, then they put in their chilli as the main ingredient for the "sauce" of the noodles. without the chilli, the fishball noodles will just taste like fishball noodles. but there are other fishball noodles stalls have have good sauce. so what this means is they do not rely on the chilli itself to make a good meal. and this is what i truly admire. i'm not saying that they are better, all i'm saying is i greatly respect the ability of a chef to make a good dish WITHOUT using his chilli sauce as the main flavor for it.

so, to make a comparison, it's like eng's wonton mee and the chompchomp one. eng's wanton mee rely's on it's chilli sauce to make the dish, whereas the wanton mee at chompchomp tastes fantastic with or without chilli. the dark colored sauce makes a terribly good tasting wanton mee. in fact, i might go as far to say that the wanton mee might taste better without the chilli! having it chilli-less really allows you to get down into the bowl of noodles. you can really taste the combination of slightly sweet and salty flavors that go into the dish, coating the noodles perfectly.

this is what i really define as textbook wanton mee. good aldente noodles with delicious, meaty charsiew and the right sized wantons, all mixed together with a perfect sauce. it's something that i'm sure most of you have tried before, but because i was a late bloomer (in more ways than one), i was really able to appreciate this, after tasting all the half-hearted wanton noodles. wash it all down with one of the huge jugs of sugar cane juice with lemon, and there will only be one look on my face - satisfaction.

Swee Heng Wanton Noodles
20 Kensington Park
#01-12 Serangoon Gardens Food Centre, Chomp Chomp
5pm-12.45am

Iggy's - short review

2009-07-22T02:45:00.007+08:00

i'm sorry. i really am. to everyone. to my readers. to myself. i honestly made an unforgivable mistake that i shouldn't have. it caused me much distress over recent weeks. i really feel terrible about it. so much so that i've actually been hesitating to post about it. ok, here it is. brace yourself.

i forgot to bring my camera to iggy's. yeah. the number 1 restaurant in singapore! rarrrr..

ok. since now that that's out, we can get on to the issue at hand. i only have one thing to say. iggy's is pretty damn f***ing good. it didn't make it to the world's 50 best restaurants for nothing.

i had it awhile back, and so at this point in time, i don't have all the specifics to post. we had the degustation menu ($195), and it was fantastic. there were SEVERAL courses which really blew me away. i specifically remember the blue fin tuna. what impressed me was the fact this i loved this dish. ok, i hate cooked fish in general (sashimi is ok). in fact, i really really hate cooked fish. so if you can get me to just eat fish, it must be pretty damn good. well, iggy's got me to love their blue fin tuna. it was incredible.

in addition, i remember they had this suckling pig which was the absolute best. the super super crispy skin on top with the ultimate melt-in-your-mouth pork flesh was just mind-blowingly fantastic.

unfortunately, they only offer the degustation menu at dinner. they have the set lunch for $55 (2 starters, 1 main and 1 dessert), which is quite a bargain. and they also have ala carte at lunch (ala carte to me usually means bigger portions. yayy).

so anyway, that's what i'm going back for. lunch some time. but for those of you that have some cash to spare, the dinner degustation is a definite must try.

overall degustation menu score 9.5/10

the regent singapore
1 cuscaden rd
67322234

http://www.iggys.com.sg/

Jaan

2009-07-22T00:05:00.040+08:00

uni & king crab risotto

the wine and dine 3 star club is a title that's difficult to attain. it is supposed to represent the epitome of culinary skill. a 3-star hallmark is one that represents not only exquisite taste for the (apparently) discerning palate, but also that of the highest level of service in the best ambience possible. for fine dining is not about taste, but a complete experience to be thoroughly enjoyed by all your senses. here in Singapore, only 3 restaurants achieved 3 stars from wine and dine 2009. they are:

1) Crystal Jade Golden Palace

2) Gunther's Modern French Cuisine

3) Jaan

don't ask my what happened to iggy's because i honestly don't know. i'm pretty sure it was so assumed to be 3-stared that they didn't even bother putting it there.

given that 3 star food was so rare, i decided to go try jaan. well, it was more like g decided to bring me there than me choosing to try it. but what can say, am i supposed to consciously refuse free 3-star food by such a lovely, fine woman? i don't think so. my new sugar mama sure new how to thank me for my fine services rendered.

here's some background info: jaan is a french restaurant headed by chef andre chiang. apparently andre has worked in several michelin star restaurants and now is the executive chef at jaan, boasting culinary delights that stem from southern french cuisine. even the wines that are paired with the meal are all french.

we made reservations for jaan at about 7 and arrived there pretty much at that time. the restaurant is located at the swissotel, the stamford, and it's at the equinox complex, level 70. for it's a little restaurant right above the equinox restaurant, and it has maybe only 15 tables. the view faces the ecp and the flyer and it did look pretty nice (granted not as nice as forlino where it faces the marina). it's very exclusive due to it's size, and the waitstaff is superb, extremely attentive without being intrusive.

we were given the menu and faced with several options. there was the menu degustation (tasting menu, in this case 7 official courses), which costs $240 per pax and $390 if you add the wine pairing option which g had. don't look at me strange, i was driving so i couldn't drink too much. (i did steal loads of it from g though. especially when she started giggling uncontrollably at the slightest lame comments that i made). they serve you a different glass of wine with each course to match the flavors and texture of that particular course.

we also had the choice of another set menu, which looked pretty good. the price was just as "good" and it ran at $240 also.

the interesting thing here is that if you pick the degustation menu, the whole table has to pick it for some strange reason. they say it's because the degustation menu is meant to be enjoyed "as a group experience". but alternatively, you can order the set dinner (which is 6 courses) and your partner can order ala carte.

the prices at jaan are definitely up there. at $240, it makes it a good $45 bucks more than iggy's, which is the best restaurant in singapore. so i thought this better be good. g and i both opted for the degustation menu. a degustion menu is really the best way to savor all the chef's finest creations in one sitting, in addition to judging his culinary skill. you get to taste all sorts of his creations, from the appetizers to the desserts, and you can see what kind of chef he truly is.

-----

menu degustation

amuse bouche 1

pronounced ah-myuz-boosh, the term is literally translated to be "mouth amuser". it is a bite sized snack that is served at the start of the meal. it differs from an appetitzer as it is not ordered by the patron, but usually given complimentary by the chef. it's meant as a teaser to the tastebuds before the actual commencement of the meal. in this instance, we had the crispy flour, chicken skin, and the fried crispy nut cracker. very crispy. i enjoyed the chicken skin (middle 2) best.

amuse bouche 2

it came along with this "fish and chips in trufle soil" that andre had prepared. the fish was nicely fried, coming up slightly salty and crisp on the outside. the truffle soil possessed a sweet, soil like texture that was quite unique.

lemon "sous vide"

this is a 3 week old lemon that has been preserved in a gelatinous capsule with salt. it tastes exactly like how you'd expect it to. the gelatin texture along with a salty lemon insert. just to start.

mediterranean red prawn "escabeche"

over here with have sweet red prawns with an escabeche (a mediterranean vegetable medley). the prawns were fantastically sweet and raw or almost raw. they are extremely tender and delicious. i wansn't too fond of the vegetables though. it was slightly cold and undercooked, but i presume it was meant to be served that way. so i gave mine away go g who keeps telling me that vegetables are good for me (as though i didn't know).

grilled tuna belly "otoro" with smoked basil oil and aromatic charcoal powder

we had a side order of blue fin tuna as an appetizer. the tuna was very tender, just as otoro should be, but what made it good was the sauce that it went with. a very good mixture of the two flavors.

foie gras with apricot and gingerbread

this was good. it was really tiny and i had a hard time trying to combine the apricot, gingerbread (the standing thin strip) and foie gras together on my fork. but surprisingly it complimented each other very well. one of the better dishes i enjoyed. btw, the little thing at the bottom of the picture is strawberry jam.

caviar tarte tatin

this dish came out sweet. i was expecting something more savoury but it wasn't. this was ok. the thing about jaan is that i feel that there are too many sweet dishes. i personally like them to be more savoury (as they were in iggy's), and leave the sweets for the end of the meal. but for those of you who enjoy sweetness before your desserts, i think you'll enjoy jaan.

live squid - compliments from the chef

sea urchin and king crab risotto - compliments from the chef

the above two came together in a ceramic two-part bowl. the squid was stacked on top of the uni, then removed upon serving. the dry ice came gushing out of the risotto upon revelation. this is one of the best dishes of the night. g thoroughly enjoyed this. the squid was nice and fresh but what stole the thunder was the risotto. the uni and the chunks of king crab meat, along with the cheese on top and the perfectly cooked risotto was a pleasure to the tastebuds. one of the best risottos i've ever had. i would order this as a main if i could.

wild baby barracuda char grilled, smoked artichoke and brittany wheat

we found out from andre later on, when he came out and talked to us, that the baby baracuda was in season. andre, like most other top chefs, like to use ingredients that are in season to make up their tasting menu. that is partly why the menu changes each season. i'm not a huge fan of fish, but i enjoyed this dish. the barracuda was tender but retained a good texture, and it went really well with the tiny bits of brittany wheat, which had a grainy, nutty texture.

grade 9 wagyu beef - ordered as an additional main

to be honest, i don't think many people truly appreciate what good beef is. it's like me with fish and desserts. i'm a total nimwit (aka dumbass) when it comes to judging how good a fish or a dessert is. all i know is whether i lke it or not, and it takes alot for me to like fish, or a particular dessert for that matter. but BEEF, my most splendid readers, is my forte. i love beef. and i especially love a good highly marbled (aka super fatty) steak. for those of you who aren't into beef, please don't have the misconception that fatty beef is beef with chucks of fat around the edges and stuff. good, highly marbled beef is high in intramuscular fat, which means that the fat is not chunky and around the edges of the meat, but it is inside the meat. layers and layers of great marbling as stips of fat within the meat, making the end taste utterly staggering.

by the way, kobe beef is a subcategory of wagyu beef. wagyu beef is a general categorization of the type of beef, whereas the specifics of the location depends upon where each cattle comes from. kobe, or matsuzaka for example.

in the picture above, we actually ordered an additional main of wagyu beef, because g thought the beef in the degustation menu wouldn't be enough. (how brilliantly right of her!) those 3 strips of beef cost 120 bucks, which i find extremely expensive. but, however, i must say that this is one of the best steaks i've had. i would rate this as on par or even better than morton's. especially considering the way it was cooked to perfection. cooked perfectly medium, just lightly seared on the outside. the beef is so tender that i encounted practically no resistance when biting through the meat. resistance was light and even throughout, and it was so tender and delicious. this dish blew me away. under a great set of hands, good beef turns to magic.

g found the beef to be too fatty. i guess the thought of all that intramuscular fat scared her. oh well, more for me then. by this time she was also giggling nonstop from the wine, which i must admit was paired very well with the food. the selection of the wines were exquisite.

japanese wagyu, gnocchi and roasted onion broth

this was the one that came with the menu degustation. as you can see, it comes with only one (very yummy) piece of meat. definitely not enough for me. but it was soo good. exactly similar to the main that we ordered. the little potato was done surprisingly well. cooked to the right timing with a tinge of salt, along with the tiny little gnocchi. such a simple dish but yet so profound on the senses.

Desserts

first and foremost, i must warn you that i'm not a huge dessert fan. i'm pretty picky when it comes to dessert and i'm definitely not an expert on defining whats a good dessert or not. the only desserts i truly love are; chocolate anything eg. chocolate souffle and good ice cream. even when i was at iggy's, i thoroughly enjoyed all the savoury entrees and starters but i found the desserts to be average. so take this section with a pinch of salt. or sugar.

pre-dessert: japanese black cherries with almond ice cream and spice crumble

i honestly loved this one. the black cherries were so fresh and sweet, and it complimented the freshly made almond ice cream perfectly. probably my favourite part of the dessert.

lemon tart with churrios and orange sorbet

this was the dessert of the season. personally, i wasn't that impressed by this. the churrios in itself were nice. although abit tiny compared to the gigantic ones you get at disneyland. but then again, everything on the degustation menu is tiny. this dish looks rather phallic if you ask me. one of my churrio towers actually starting tilting downwards like the tower of pisa when i was taking photos (insert own freudian joke here).

snickers version 2009 (side order)

this is andre's version of a snickers bar. basically what he did was to find out all the ingredients in a snickers bar and make his own uber high quality version of it. it tasted pretty... fresh. you can really taste the high quality ingredients inside, and it really did kinda taste like snickers. unfortunately, i dont know if i'd rather eat this or the real snickers. sometimes i think junk food is best left the way it is.

almond fiancier, creme brulee of macaroon, iced lollipop w/strawberries & earl grey, fizzy chocolate w/orange (compliments from the chef)

to me, these were all alright. nothing fantastic. i'm starting to realize that i have a horrible dessert reviewing abilities. but i'll try. the almosd cake was soft and moist, melted quite nicely in your mouth. the macaroon was sweeett.. really sweet, but it had good texture to it. the ice lollipop had a pink strawberry inside that was like an icy popsicle. and i thought the fizzy chocolate with orange tasted just plain strange.

overall, i think that jaan is a pretty good place. the food is pretty good, the service is impeccable, and the ambience is exclusive and classy. however, when you look at the price tag, at 240 per head, i'd pick iggy's any day. hands down. the food at iggy's is definitely way better. it's more creative, and there were many dishes in which i had "wow" moments. the only thing i find utterly fantastic here is the wagyu beef. but other than that, i wasn't very impressed by the other dishes.

bottom line: if you have plenty of cash to spare (which in that case you should wire some over to me) and you're bored of all the other good restaurants, then come here. otherwise, i think you can better spend your money elsewhere. the food here isn't bad or average by any means. it's just not great. your utility per dollar can be maximized at some other location. but do come for the wagyu. it is out of this world.

degustaion menu score - 7/10

wagyu beef ala carte - 10/10

Chilli Mee

2009-05-31T20:30:00.007+08:00

chilli mee - 8.5/10

"fiery and fragrant. a singaporean-chinese fashioned this dish with its spicy multi-ethnic influences. noodles are smothered with special burn-your-lips chilli sauce, topped with prawns, fishcake, or porkribs, and slices of fried beancurd. originally a humble dish of just noodles topped with chilli sauce, it has evolved with more ingredients, upping its "yum" factor."

i never really knew what chilli me was until my cousin brought me there one fine day for lunch. he said he knew this place that has really good chilli mee. i remember reading through makansutra and always wondering wth chilli mee was, but i never got around to trying it. coincedentally that day though, the chilli mee stall that my cousin brought me to WAS the one in the makansutra book. interestingly, there is only ONE chilli mee stall that made it to makansutra, and this is it.

what i love about this stall is the pork ribs. they use the soft bone pork ribs, so you can chew on the whole thing and eat it without having to spit out the bones. and the taste is fantastic. personally, i think the choice of noodles should be "mee". those mee rebus type of thick yellow noodles. that's what i find goes perfectly well with the texture and viscousity of the chilli sauce. the chilli isn't that spicy, it's more savoury than spicy in fact. i usually get an extra helping of chilli to up the yum factor a couple notches.

definitely something to try for those of you who don't know what chilli mee is.

505 beach rd #01-59
golden mile food centre
9am-8pm, closed on tuesdays

Privé

2009-05-17T22:00:00.014+08:00

roast saddle of welsh lamb, with walnuts, herbs and white cocoa beans - 8.5/10

it's been quite awhile since i wrote about proper restaurants. like i mentioned before, i haven't really been going to really nice places much. in part because i tend to get sick of expensive pretentious food all the time and also in part cause i'm trying to save money. eating at nice restaurants all the time is a definite way to go broke. it's almost as bad as speculating in an overvalued stock markets like cinderella at the ball. not the way you wanna go.

but there are times when you should spend. special occasions like when you complete the latest edition of resident evil or when you finally manage to win your friends in an arm wrestling competition all call for a celebration. and of course not to mention your anniversary.

so it was our 2 year "get together anniversary". don't ask me when the exact date is cause i can't really remember. all i know is that it was "magically" implanted into the calendar on my blackberry with an XOXO and a heart shaped icon. goodness knows i didn't put it there.

12 oz/340g usda prime angus ribeye steak - 9/10

so given that cupid himself (yes, that is indeed what d said) had marked the date, i knew i would totally get a kick in the nuts if i didn't do anything. so fast forward to the date, and i knew that i had to be the slave and look for somewhere "nice" to eat (interestingly though, i didn't have to search very hard because a not so subtle *hint came from d just the day before). Privé (pronouced pri-veh) is apparently a new "hot" restaurant at keppel bay. it's just along the waterfront where all the rich people (or not so rich people who spend all their net worth buying boats to look rich) park all their nice yatchs. it's a really romantic place (not from personal opinion) to take a walk down at night with your s/o and just chill and enjoy the view and cool breeze.

Privé is divided into 3 main sections. you have the restaurant (which we went to), the waterfront bar (which has a gorgeous view), and the bakery cafe (which smells so damn good). the restaurant is at the deeper end, and it boasts michelin star chef wayne nish. in order to get there, you have to pass by the bakery and the bar. the aromas that drifted as we passed by the bakery beckoned us, and i nearly gave up on the restaurant as i unconsciously walked closer into the bakery. of course i was awakened back to reality by a really hard smack on my head upon my suggestion of doing just that. apparently the bakery has really good desserts; so for all you dessert fans out there, do give it a shot and let me know!

sautéed bobby veal loin with french shallots, sultanas and gnocchi - 7.5/10

we finally made it to the restaurant, and a big door greeted us into a brightly lit open room, layed out with just bare tables and walls. bare in a sense that there wasn't much decor or anything. but it was definitely lavishly bare. what greeted you was a sense of opulence, a nice, richly fine restaurant that was bare not because it needed to be, but because it wanted to be.

the waitstaff were nice and attentive without being overly annoying. they presented us with a large menu that was decently varied. not the best, but i've seen worse. then again sometimes the best restaurants don't really have much of a menu (the worst restaurants too though). nonetheless, we got through it pretty quickly and d ordered the veal loin, while i had (surprise surprise) the ribeye steak. we also ordered the roast lamb to share, along with sides of ragout mushrooms and bone marrows. yes, i do agree that bone marrows are kind of a strange choice, but i never really had them, and just the day before i saw on AFC this chef making a bone marrow sandwich which looked really good, so i was inspired to eat it (i wasn't too enthusiastic about the outcome though).

so the food came soon enough. i sliced into the lamb first. mmm.. my knife cut right through the lamb like it was firm butter. just fantastic. i loved how smooth it's texture was, which had a totally mild taste to it without much gamey taste. it was just mildly chewy, similar to that of your thanksgiving honey baked ham, but it had a better, less salty taste to it. done very well. i didn't fancy the walnuts and white cocoa beans very much but the lamb itself definitely suited my taste.

i cut into my ribeye next. done perfectly medium as ordered, with a pink shade in the center, charred nicely on the outside to give it a nice flavor. i salted it a little more and tasted it. the meat was very good. great marbling and wonderful texture. the secret to a good steak always starts with the best cuts of beef. that's why great steaks are so expensive. it's not something you can just cook. without the right piece of meat, no amount of culinary skill can make it good.

the ribeye here was one of the better ones i had outside of morton's. honestly, if you're a steak lover, you have to go to morton's. the problem is though, once you go there, steaks anywhere else, even at good establishments, mostly taste sub-par. the quality of the meats at morton's is just incredible. i always get either prime rib or rib eye there. and it's definitely something you can share because alot of people do that since the portions are really big. but other than morton's, i really enjoyed the steak here.

ragout of organic mushrooms with dried cepes in veal jus

next up was the veal loin. very tender to the touch, it gave a slightly chewy, tasty texture that not all might appreciate. it was done medium, and i think for veal, medium might be a tad to rare. but that's my personal taste. to me veal becomes too chewy and raw if not done enough. don't be mistaken, the first few bites were good. but coming to the end of it, i felt as though i was chewing on a raw piece of meat or some rubber.

on the side, we had the mushrooms, which i found were a delightful accompaniment, and the bone marrow. the mushrooms where fresh and definitely had that whole "fresh from the farms organic" feel to them. the bone marrow, on the other hand, was a first for me and something i found semi unusual. it had a nice, mild taste to it but the gelatinous texture was something i was not used to. overall it was quite abit of food and it took awhile (for her at least) to get through it.

molten center chocolate souffle

we got to the end of the meal and we decided "hell, lets just finish of a sinful meal with some sweet, calorie-filled goodness". we ordered the chocolate souffle. i was expecting alot from it, considering he did have a michelin star, but i was disappointed. the chocolate souffle turned out too soft, which lacked the richness that a good souffle should have not only on the outside, but inside also. the molten center was not hot enough and definitely not flavorful enough. so i took 2 bites of it and gave all the empty calories to d, who is the sugar queen (no points for guessing who her sugar daddy is, pun absolutely intended).

all in all, i think Privé is one of the better fine dining establishments i've been to. the food is top notch, and all the ingredients used are very fresh and authentic. they don't try to cover up the freshness with all sorts of fancy sauces and toppings, but rather try to stay true to form with sauces only meant to bring out the best of the natural flavors, letting you sample what real good, wholesome food is about.

http://www.prive.com.sg/Prive%20Menu_1604.pdf

Santouka - Ramen @ Central Mall

2009-05-05T22:41:00.015+08:00

santouka charsiew ramen - 8.5/10

honestly it has been awhile since did any food posts, and i must admit i have no reason for doing so. but thinking about it, i haven't really had much new good food recently. it's been awhile since the adventurous (and tasting food is as wild as i get) foodie in me found some place nice.

one thing i've been eating alot recently is santaoka ramen. In my continual never ending quest for singapore’s best ramen, I just had to try this place. For one, it’s rated 6 chopstix by makansutra. Now for those of you who are familiar with the bible of street food, 6 chopstix is one mean feat. It apparently signifies culinary excellence. I’ve had stuff with 4 chopstix and even 5 which I didn’t really like, but I don’t recall having ever tasted anything with 6 chopstix that I didn’t at least enjoy significantly. So that being said, I needed to try this place. Plus some of my blog readers (who I hope still read considering I’ve been MIA) have pointed out that I wasn’t being a fair ramen judge if I didn’t go try santouka. So, for the sake of impartial judgement (at least that's what i tell d when i bring her for ramen the 100th time in a row), I had to try this place out.

So I called santouka just to check that they were open at about 2pm on a weekend afternoon. It’s always a good idea to call and check to see if any restaurant is still open. After all, you wouldn’t want to go somewhere, expecting some yumyum and then get totally disappointed due to an anticlimactic turn of events. And it’s happened to me more than once, so nowadays I usually call before I go. Plus I’m just plain kiasu. Must be benjamin graham. Damn that margin of safety.

So I hoped into the batmobile and zoomed down to central. For those of you who know central, they have an amazingly winding carpark which is about 6-7 storeys high. If you think taka was bad, wait till you try this. Plus they don’t have the “200m more to go" sign which they recently implemented in taka. For those of you who nauseate easily, you might wanna consider taking a break halfway in the middle. but don’t forget to pull your handbrake!

So anyway I’m at central and I climb down the escalator, briefly passing “marutama ramen” and scoffing at the same time. Hearing it’s name just makes me wanna hurl (insert gross vomitting noises here). For those of you who’ve read my previous posts, I absolutely abhor marutama. They simply bring a bad name to ramen. Ok, I know a lot of you like it. Blah blah blah. But you CANNOT use chicken soup for ramen! It’s just culinary blasphemy. it's the equivalent of saying kate beckinsale is just "ok pretty". or that hugh jackman is "pretty hunky". hugh jackman is NOT pretty hunky. hugh jackman is the freaking hunkiest thing to walk this earth. ok wait... i think that last sentence didn't reflect too well on me.

Anyway I go down to the 2^nd floor and try to look for it. being the klutz that i am, i must have gone around the mall a couple times before i found it. For those of you going, you have to walk pass GRAINS restaurant. It’s an empty, sad looking Chinese restaurant with waitresses standing around inviting you to eat there, like a cheap hooker on the streets, motioning for you to taste the forbidden fruit (or food in this case). So just ignore them and walk straight pass. you’ll see a tiny shop at the corner, a small little ramen shop.

The menu is made up mainly of ramen. You got the regular ramen, and you have the charsiew ramen (which is basically the regular ramen with extra charsiew). you can get it in shio (salt) or shoyu (soy sauce) flavor. just for the record, i always get shio. shio is the super popular original flavor or ramen. the natural salt allows you to truly taste the richness of the stock, instead of masking it with the flavor of soy sauce. the regular ramen is about 12 bucks I think and the charsiew ramen is about 18 bucks. They even have premium fatty charsiew ramen.

In addition, they sell this ikura (salmon roe) on rice thingy which d really likes. Talk about greedy, she eats both the ikura rice AND the ramen. Now that’s my kinda girl.

So the ramen comes out. It doesn’t come with the usual half egg so you’ll have to order it on the side. It comes with a slice of pink and white Japanese fishcake, bamboo shots and char siew. nothing fantastic, but as always, the proof of the pudding is in the eating.

The soup is nice and salty. Slightly oily and very tasty. somehow though, it lacks a little bit of depth. I’m not saying it’s not flavorful, but it’s not the absolute best. Pretty good nonetheless though. you can tell the stock has been simmering for a long time. The regular charsiew is firm and lean to the taste. for those of you who don't like fatty meats, you will like this. i for one, personally don't like my pork fatty. oh there's nothing i love more than a fatty steak, but somehow fatty pork doesn't really spank my monkey.

The fatty charsiew, ordered separately, doesn’t look fatty at all but is very center with a lot of intramuscular fat. It melts in your mouth. kinda akin to wagyu or any other highly marbled beef, like rib eye.

The egg is cooked very soft. It’s hard boiled but even the white is tender to the touch. The yolk is semi-molten. The taste is great for those who like their eggs done this way. d never eats the soft eggs cause it makes her nauseaus. yay. more food for me. The bamboo shoots are more natural then the regular one’s you get and quite similar to that of menya shinchan. So it’s pretty good. The noodles are nice and pretty al dente. So this may be a good or bad, depending on your preference.

They have really good gyoza too for those who like it. Small and nicely pan fried with pork and chives inside. A must to go with your ramen. petite in size and wonderfully delicious.

Overall, I kinda like the ramen here. I’ve been back quite a few times and the food is very consistent. I would rate it a 2^nd as compared to menya shinchan, but it definitely is a nice change of pace. It’s very popular and I really can see why. The ambience is nice and clean, and the food is good. But somehow, it never gives me the “wow” that menya shinchan has. Interestingly enough, it’s rated higher than menya (menya has 5 chopstix) in makansutra. Maybe it’s a good thing. Less crowds over there for me.

ramen adventure continued - miharu and tampopo

2009-01-13T21:45:00.004+08:00

miharu's salty pork bone ramen - 8/10

it was a saturday night and i was craving more good ramen. i'd already been to menya a dozen times. i kind of wanted to try other ramen places. i really wanted to find the best ramen in singapore, but it was getting tough. my research pointed me in a couple more directions, but i read mixed reviews about them. there is no place in singapore that has a unanimously positive review of any ramen restaurant here. i guess it's hard because food is such a personal thing. some people would say that not all people have good taste. but i'm not one of those people. i think it doesn't matter what others think, as long as it spanks your monkey. so i decided that i would try to find my own favorite.

a little more research thus left me with two more places to try. Miharu, at the Gallery Hotel, and Tampopo, at Liang Court. it's extremely unusual how all the good ramen places tend to congregate at the robertson quay area. Amongst all the reviews that i read, these two were the most promising. they were both supposed to be pretty authentic, and both had alot of positive comments. i couldn't pick which place i wanted to go to for dinner. it was tough. they both sounded pretty good. one had special noodles and the other had special ingredients.

so i just decided to go to both.

d and i headed off to miharu first. gallery hotel is actually pretty close to Menya Shinchan, except that you have to drive deeper in instead of turning into the carpark. menya shinchan, as most of you will know, is already my absolute favorite ramen. great broth, wonderful noodles in different thickness and hardness available, and pretty good gyoza too. so i wasn't really expecting much from this trip. i just needed to know in my own head that the others weren't as good.

ramen from tampopo - 6/10

we were kinda racing against time because both places closed at 10 and it was already 8 plus by the time we left home. so i didn't have much time to try both outlets. i sped down in my car and a couple of illegal u-turns later, i reached miharu. it's a little shop on the outside part of gallery hotel. they have a couple of restaurants, and a couple jap ones too so make sure you get the right one when you come here. i ordered the standard pork bone soup one. (there is only one white colored salty pork bone based soup), and got some gyoza along the way. one thing that i hated were the tables. the tables are really small, and there is no way you're going to fit two guys on one side of it. it's a standard 4 person table, but the only 4 people that are going to fit in it are 4 tiny girls. either that or some skinny ass dudes. and the chairs don't fit inside properly either.

anyway, the food came soon enough. now for the taste test. the soup. WOW, the soup was good. nice and very rich, and the good part, there are no fatty bits in it! unlike menya shinchan. so you don't feel like you just ate a whole bowl of lard. it comes with corn, bamboo shoots, charsiew and egg.

the corn was a nice add. it gives the noodles some crunch when eaten together with it. the charsiew came in a lean and thick slice. good if you don't like fatty meats. the egg yolk was slightly too hard for the usual half boiled egg in ramen, but nonetheless still good. but what was interesting here was the noodles. they use sapporo noodles, which are supposed to be a japanese favourite. they are yellow and springy. it looks slightly like instant noodles but tastes different. it reminds me of a place i used to go to in indo called tai chan, which had fantastic shoyu ramen. anyway, i was quite impressed by this place. it's probably a good try, especially if you haven't had sapporo noodles before.

so i finished up, paid, and got on to the next destination. liang court wasn't too far away i we drove down and managed to reach there soon enough. the specialty of tampopo is supposed to be the black big, or better known as kurobuta pork, aka berkshire pig. yeah, if you're a fan of warren too then you know what i'm thinking. anyway, i ordered the kurobuta pork ramen (pork bone based) and the regular pork bone ramen. the only difference between the two was in the ingredients. the soup and noodles were the same. it turned out to be a disappointment though.

the soup was disappointing. salty, but not rich enough. so you have this overly salty soup, probably laden with MSG, and yet you didn't get the richness or flavor that you want in a ramen. really makes you rethink about them saying that they boiled the soup for 2 days. it comes with a pink colored fish roe that you stir into the soup. the regular ramen comes with egg and black fungus. no bamboo shoots. the noodles seemed handmade, and it came with a big piece of fatty charsiew. the noodles were bland, and the other ingredients were less that spectacular.

with the other black pig ramen, all you got was pork and noodles. it was barren. the pork was good, but sliced wayy too thin for my liking. but i guess you can't expect so much pork because the ramen only costs 14 bucks or so. tampopo was definitely not in my to try list for ramen.

overall, i thought miharu was an good try. i would return again, but only if i got bored of menya. the noodles were nice for a change, but definitely not for a mainstay in my book. overall i preferred menya, but i would rank miharu a close second. i guess it just proves that you shouldn't be cheating on your true love.

i am BIG

2009-01-12T11:59:00.005+08:00

so it seems that singapore has been supersizing it. i don't know what has gotten into these chains, but they sure are piling it on. first you got carls jr, the huge burgers in which you can add an unlimited number of patties for 4 bucks each. now that is badass. i don't know about you, but a triple patty with cheese (and have you tried the waffle fries by the way) really hits the spot. my little (ok not so little) bro insists that 4 is optimum. ain't nothing like 5,000 calories to really make your day, eh? then there was mickey D's coming up with the mega series. first the mega mac and mega mcspicy, then the mega sausage mcmuffin with eggs. and now, the even have the mega prosperity burger! i love the mega mac and the mega sausage mcmuffin. especially the latter. double sausage patties is so good. for those of you who haven't, go try it.

funny thing is, i used to love the mcspicy, but it sucks now. for some reason, all the chicken patties taste different. they aren't as meaty and juicy anymore. in fact, it seems like they're replacing the meat with (gasp!) flour. holy cheap cost cutting strategies batman!

yeah, and i've tried the chicken several times. BOTH the double ones and the regular ones. and they don't taste as good as before. something fishy is going on here.

then now you got the BK stackers stuff too. i haven't tried it yet, but i'm sure it'll be pretty good.

why am i bringing this up? i don't know. i never thought super sizing stuff was such a good idea. well i like lots of food, but in general, it's not really healthy for the general public. i know, i know, you're thinking since when did i care about health? who gives a damn anyway. but then again, it is important. if you keep eating crap all the time, one day you're going to either get diebetes, or hypertension, or heart disease and you're not going to be able to eat the foods you love. well i guess you could. my uncle has had 3 heart bypasses and still eats crap everyday. talk about food lover.

i guess asians for most part don't seem to have the genes for getting fat. the general population as least. look at all the skinny girls at mcdonalds. i used to wonder how these chicks could eat so much crap and never get fat. then i discovered the solution. the singaporean skinny girl diet plan. it's a simple 2 part plan. here you go. are you ready?

1) starve all day

2) eat a tiny bit of crap for dinner (1-2 slices of pizza)

this way, you get to eat yummy oily foods and stay fabulously skinny. who would have thought?

funny thing is, i was at carls the other day, and a significant portion of them were fat. i guess maybe, just maybe, they were eating a tad bit too much?

but why am i even bringing this up. i guess partly it's cause i used to be a FFB. (former fat boy). yeah. so things like this are sensitive to me. i have no qualms about people who eat crap and can still stay healthy and not get out of shape. but for those of you who can't, be careful. otherwise sooner or later you'll end up looking like the fat purple dude from the cartoon. and the dudes below.

-mega mcfatties

enough said. more food adventures coming up.

marutama ramen

2008-12-21T22:22:00.008+08:00

ok. i'll admit. i lied. perhaps i said things that i shouldn't have. perhaps it was inappropriate given the circumstances. perhaps i wasn't being fair. perhaps.

yeah. i've said some mean things about marutama. truth is though, i haven't eaten there. but i've read alot of reviews and i have foodie relatives, in addition to my mum and sis, who have gone there and said that it wasn't anything great. but worse of all, they use chicken broth..

chubby hubby wrote about it a long time ago and he quite liked it. i guess maybe the standard has gone down, or maybe CH really likes the chicken soup ramen. i guess everybody has different tastes.

i wasn't really interested in going down to central (or liang court) just to try chicken soup noodles. but then after awhile i started feeling guilty. so one fine day, i decided to go down to central to try it out for myself.

so i drove down to central, and parked there. now, for those of you who haven't parked at central before, the carpark is insanely head-splitting. it's like taka X 2. it goes round and round and round and doesn't stop. at least at taka you have that "50m left" sign to tell you that your pain is coming to an end. but at central, no such consolation was provided. i must admit though that the central carpark has a damn nice view of the city. you could put a restaurant up there and no one would know better.

so we took the escalator down to the 3rd floor and we could see marutama right there. a nice, clean shop, which looked neatly new with black furniture and an open kitchen where you could see the cooking going on. i sat down and stared at the bare menu. there were only 2 types of ramen. the marutama ramen, and the spicy marutama ramen. along with that were a few appetizers, some skewered chicken, grilled charsiew (pictured) and other little compliments. i was unimpressed. nonetheless, i tried to remain objective and looked forward to the ramen.

by the time the food arrived, it was about noon. now i didn't have any breakfast. considering i woke up at 9am, that meant i was hungry. and cranky. and that everything should taste damn good. the charsiew on rice came first, and i took a couple mouthfuls of it. the charsiew was dry. it seemed cooked to long, in addition to being to lean, causing it to be absent of flavor. it wasn't horrible, but neither was it anything to hoot about. it went alright with the pickles though, which i kind of enjoyed.

the ramen arrived shortly after. now if you're looking for a ramen that has loads of garnishing, you'll be sorely disappointed. all you get was one or two slices of charsiew (for $12). and that doesn't even come with the standard half egg. you had to actually order the egg as a side.

i tasted the soup. salty and bland. it definitely tasted like chicken flavored instant noodle soup. "ok, i thought. you should have expected this. it's chicken soup base ramen." then i tried the noodles. they tasted like the thin nissin instant noodles that you get. it's thin and springy and really instant-noodle-ish. considering i was staring when i ate this, it was definitely not a good sign. however, i must admit that the egg was really good. perfectly cooked to retain its soft interior. the best part of the meal.

to be honest, i'm hard pressed to find any reason to go back there. the food is definitely not as good, and it's even more expensive then menya. so i'm quite sure you'll probably never catch me here again. well, at least we had good green tea ice cream from central for dessert.

Etna Restaurant and Pizzaria

2008-12-13T08:12:00.011+08:00

spicy aglio olio with prawns - 9/10

i've been trying to find some good, authentic italian food near my place for quite awhile now. i like pasta, and i get annoyed because i can't seem to find any decent ones around my area. so one day i was cruising along in the batmobile along east coast road and i saw a small little restaurant with said "etna restaurant and pizzaria". i thought, "hmm, the name sounds mighty familiar to me".

so i went home and dug through the bible (aka wine and dine) and realized that yes, i was right. it really was in my book. considering the fact that i went cover to cover on the book, i don't think that's much of a surprise. regardless, i realized that in fact they did open a second outlet along east coast (insert great happy music here).

i've never been to the original etna, but i've heard mixed things about it. so i decided to try it for myself one day. so i decided to take mum along for a little dinner date (or rather, she took me along). we got to the restaurant at 6:25 and had to wait for 5 min because they were only opened at 6:30 and were having a briefing inside. very well.

we were seated soon enough and i lauched head into the menu. looks good, they have lots of things. the squid ink caught my eye and so i got that. i needed more places for good squid ink anyway. my mum didn't really know what she wanted. all she knew was that it was a plain based pasta with a little tinge of spice and prawns. so that's what we got her.

linguini al nero di seppia - 9/10

this place is really good because they can just do up whatever you like. i told the girl thta i wanted squid ink, and to change the pasta to linguini. she was more than happy to oblige. and i told her to get my mum aglio olio (olive oil and garlic based pasta) with spaghetti and prawns (not on the menu), and make it spicy. they can even do other things like arrabiata. i haven't asked for pesto yet though, but i'm sure they could. you can also put in ingredients like ham or bacon or other types of seafood, whatever floats your boat.

additionally, we got the etna pizza (from sicily). it's interesting because on the menu, you have some items which have this "from sicily" bracketed next to the item. apparently it's authentic italian style.

etna pizza - 7/10

the wasn't any crowd on a friday evening, and the food came out soon enough. it sure looked pretty good. so i hungrily took a first bite. my squid ink came with squid and prawns. i usually poke into the pasta to taste it first but somehow this time i accidentally fished out a prawn instead. it was all black and so it made things difficult to see. i put it into my mouth and took a bite. mmm.. the prawns were very fresh and crunchy. nice and big too. you know that springy texture you can from really fresh, cooked-just-right prawns? yup. very nice.

i tried mum's. the spiciness hit me a little, and then i could taste the al-dente spagheti with the fragrant olive oil and garlic flavor. really good. although i must disagree with mum about the spiciness. i always liked my aglio olio non-spicy. i believe the spiciness kills the subtle flavor of the aglio olio. but delicious nontheless.

the pizza though, was mildly dissappointing. the pizza came with ham, mozerella, mushrooms and pistachio. ok don't ask me why pistachio. apparently that's how the italianos eat it. i thought i was going to get whole pistachios, but to my delight, they were ground up. i can't really imagine having whole pistachios on your pizza. that would be weird.

i didn't like the pizza that much, but i think it was my fault though. i forgot to check whether it was cheese based or tomato based. i'm adamant that my pizza be tomato based. i can't stomach all that cheese, so when it came out cheese based i knew i wouldn't like it that much. there needs to be a thin layer of tomato over it for me to truly like it. but the texture of the crust was very good. thin-crusted, firm bottom with a very crispy and all-too-slightly charred crust. i decided that the next time i go back, i'm going to try something more tomato based. i think it would be much better.

i think i finally found a nice place to eat around home. it's pretty good. the squid ink is almost up to par with borgo's and the other pastas very well done too. additionally, the prices are reasonable for the autheticity. (about 18-22 per plate), so i think i'll be back here more often. but for those of you who don't stay near the east, they're main location is at lau pat sat. i'll give you the address down below. happy eating.

#01-68/70 lau pat sat festival market
18 raffles quay
tel: 62205513

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i went back to etna again recently and had more things. i got the squid ink pasta with linguini, a seafood linguini pasta in pink lobster sauce, and the carbonara with chicken.

i'm not sure if it's on the menu because i just told the waiter what we wanted and had them make it for us. the squid ink was just as good as before. the carbonara with chicken was really good. super creamy and thick (might be over the top for some), with lots of cheese. this goes really well if you're sharing a lighter pasta (eg marinara or some other tomato based one), but might be a little too much if eaten on its own.

the seafood with pink lobster sauce was fantastic. it tasted like a mix between the carbonara and the marinara. so it's pinkish from the tomato and yet just a tad thicker because of the cream. it was well balanced with lots of seafood and pleasant to eat on its own.

from menya shinchan with love

2008-11-30T10:17:00.015+08:00

spicy mazesoba - dry ramen with charsiew, crispy bits, mayo and cheese - 10/10

yeah. i know i haven't posted for awhile. please don't blame me. it's not that i've been particularly lazy (ok maybe i have) or particularly busy. truth be told, i haven't been trying that many new things for me to write about. why, you may ask. could it be possible that i'm actually stopped being a glutton? or worse, could it be possible that i'm on a diet? (insert creepy twilight zone music here)

well, the answer is no. in fact, i've actually been eating alot of the same food recently. because there is actually something that has made me go back almost every week since i tried that place. it's so bad that it's become an obsession, a love affair, so seductive that it can't be resisted. in fact, i half-considered not publishing this post because i didn't want more people to go out and eat there. the place is wonderful and i really don't want it to get overcrowded. but after battling with my conscience, i finally overcame my innate selfish, gluttonous desires and decided to share the love.

i wrote about menya shinchan's ramen before. but i'm going to write about it again. this time a more updated version, as i've tried several more things. i've been back so often now that the girl there kinda knows what i want. well two of the girls there never get my order right so i always go back to this particular girl.

lets start off. for those of you who haven't read my other post, menya shinchan is THE absolute best place for ramen in singapore. first of all, please don't compare this to the one at central (marutama ramen), or the one at shenton way (men-tai ramen). firstly, the one that is overly popular (marutama) serves their ramen with chicken-based soup! can you believe it. that is absoulutely insane. blasphemous. there is no way in the world that chicken soup ramen is going to be better than pork bone. don't even try to convince me. if your'e going to have chicken soup ramen, you may as well get instant noodles. some of that nissin should do the trick. ok, maybe its not as bad as it sounds, but it's no where near as good as menya. secondly, mentai (at shenton) is no where near as good too. ok they do use pork for the broth, but the place is so damn crowded. the reason they are so popular is because they cater to the lunch crowd at shenton. any restaurant that opens there is going to do decently well. i must admit i think it is better than marutama, but still it's no menya.

salty pork bone ramen (rich) - 10/10

menya shinchan is located at robertson quay. if you drive and park there, you come up the stairs from the basement and you turn around to face the 7-eleven. go straight past it and then turn at the alley on the left. the restaurant will be on your left from there. well it's more like a little shop that serves ramen. there is a counter where you can sit and several tables, both inside and outside if you choose to.

now on to the menu. if it's your first time there, you're really going to be confused with the menu. it's written half in japanese and half in english, and there is no structure or organization whatsover. now they make damn good ramen, but i think they need to up their marketing and presentation skills just a tad. the owner handmakes his ramen daily in the noodle making room, which is on the right of the entrance as you can see. so it's always fresh. the outcome, is somewhat different from what you would get in regular ramen shops. the ramen is more al-dente and firmer to the bite.

for all your ramen dishes, you can choose from three types of noodles. you can have it thin (like mee kia) type, medium sized, or thick (like prawn noodle size). the default is medium sized, which i think is the perfect size for the soup ramen.

there are several types of raman that you can choose from.

charsiew

first, you have a selection of pork bone ramens. you have the shoyu pork bone ramen, the miso pork bone ramen, and salty pork bone ramen. they also have the chilli pork bone ramen and the scorched sesame pork bone ramen. for each of these, you can choose if you want the soup to be rich or light. over here, "light" is already the stuff you get at most other restaurants. it's tasty and rich. but if you want the real thing, you have to get the rich version. mind you though, this is not for the faint of heart. it's really oily and you can actually see the little bits of fat floating around (see picture above). but if you can get past its looks, the taste is well worth it. (i usually quickly stir it in the moment i get it so that i don't see all the oil and fat. talk about kidding yourself).

the shoyu pork bone ramen is the soya sauce based one. it's good, and you get it in most ramen shops in singapore.

the miso is the miso soup based pork bone ramen. i never liked miso ramen, so i didn't really fancy this.

the chilli is just the spicier version of the pork bone ramen.

the scorched sesame is the salty pork bone ramen, which has scorched sesame over it so that when you stir it in, it becomes all black. the taste is quite unique for those of you who want to try it. i like it, but it's not as good as my favorite.

all the soup ramens are about $11, which is think is quite fair given the quality you get.

my absolute favorite of all time is the salty pork bone ramen, rich version. i always get the large size. it comes with a white soup base, with charsiew, bamboo shoots, half an egg and a truckload of flavor. mmm.. the soup is really rich and delicious. but i like to up it a notch by adding minced garlic that they provide on the table. it really takes the already tasty soup and shoots it to the moon. the egg is soft on the inside and slightly salty, making it uber yummy. my buddy from japan says it's really good and quite similar to the ones there.

a little note on the portion sizes. the regular size that they give you is already pretty decent. it should be more than enough for any girl (d can finish the whole thing with extra charsiew and bamboo shoots). but if you're a real man, you gotta at least get a large. the large size has 1.5 times more noodles that the regular size for one buck more. for 2 dollars more, you can get the "double" which is 2 times the size of the regular or you can get the "triple" for 4 bucks more. now i was wondering who in the world eats the triple when i can barely finish the large. so i asked the girl there and she said apparently some guy comes in regularly and always gets triple. respect.

ok, so besides the pork bone ones, they do have other things. i tried the cold ramen. i tried it cause i saw some japanese family eating it. it was interesting. like cold soba but it's ramen. and the dipping sauce is hot. not may favourite, but a nice, refreshing change.

they also have the seafood based one's which i haven't tried. i've read that it tastes like sardine stock or ikan bilis stock.

but what i really liked was the mazesoba ramen, spicy version. it's dry ramen (they use the thick noodles)which is topped with some crunchy noodles, cabbage, bean sprouts, charsiew and some mayo and a slice of cheese. unusual if you asked me, but when you stir it all it, it is damn tasty if i do say so myself. i brought my brother and mom here and they liked the dry one better than the salty pork bone one! i must admit that it is really good, and i would gladly have it anyday. my second favourite.

another one of their specials is the sinjiro ramen. it comprises of thick noodles, with your choice of broth and a HEAPload of vegetables. when i say heapload, i mean it. it comes with a pile of vegetables on top. way too much veggies for me. i already have a hard time shoving down the 3 pieces of brocolli that mum gives me. no way can i finish a heap. but it's one of the house specials.

lastly, i almost forget to mention. you cannot eat ramen without gyoza. it's like cardinal sin. you got to have good gyoza with ramen. otherwise the meal isn't just complete. so get it. the gyoza comes in five pieces and it's really yummy. they have the steam ones too if you like. but the grilled ones are better.

i'm sure you can tell how enthused i am about this place. i really love it. and maybe if you try it, you will too. just don't be surprised if one day you bump into me at menya shinchan, cause i'm definitely going back again.

Brunch at Graze

2008-11-28T19:08:00.003+08:00

the cast iron pan

on some days, i wake up really hungry. its those days that i feel like eating a giant, oily breakfast with loads of yummy greasy food with lots of sweet goodness along with it. sunday was one of those days. i really wanted to try the brunch at graze because i've heard lots of good things about it (namely that the portions were nice and big). so i decided to make our way there at have a huge feast.

for those of you who've been to graze, you know the ambience there is fantastic. for dinner, i would say that the food there isn't too great overall, but they do serve a really mean pork hork. but brunch is another thing. it seems like the whole place is totally transformed in the light of day and the ambience, is so lively and well.. so brunch-y.

so we drove down to rochester park and made our little walk up the stairs to the enclave of restaurants. the scenery is fantastic, and it's like the whole rochester park is somehow just a little different from singapore. lush greenery surrounded by the maze like compound of restaurants makes for a really nice morning visit.

banana pancakes

when we walked in, we noticed that the waitstaff were all chic-ly dressed (or pretentiously, whichever you prefer) in black and half of them are gay. honestly, go there and you'll know what i mean. not that i have anything agaist people's sexual preference, but i think that the waitstaff just gives the place more character. like sort of a little "atas" or mild chicly snobbish type of atmosphere. it's not a bad thing, because the service is pretty decent. the ambience is utterly fantastic, if i may repeat myself. we sat down on one of the tables outside, scanned the menu and ordered our food.

i knew i wanted the cast iron pan the moment i got there. GRAZE bratwurst sausage, smoked bacon, mushroom, tomato, country potato, fried egg, baked beans and plum chilli salsa all sound damn good to me.

d got the graze baked omlette, stacked high with your choice of 4 extras: bacon, ham, GRAZE bratwurst sausage, cheese, onion, smoked salmon, mushroom, country potato or tomatoes.

additionally, we ordered the banana pancakes smothered in grilled bananas, walnuts and redcurrant syrup crowned with whipped butter (or ice cream), and also the GRAZE prime rump hamburger with bacon, fried egg, cheese, fresh tomato, spanish onion, pickle dill, lettuce and chips.

prime rump hamburger

our food came soon enough and it looked damn good. i think i'm biased cause i like food in large portions and my cast iron pan looked full of food. so i was a pretty happy kid. and it tasted good too. the sausages were nice and juicy and the potatoes were cooked just right. the plum chilli salsa on the tomato tasted really good and i was pretty impressed.

the pancakes were nice and fluffy, with a wonderfully caramelized bananas and lots of butter and syrup to go with it. not that best i had, but nothing to complain about. actually it might have been a little too fluffy.

baked omlette

d seemed pleased with her omlette, which was soft but firm to the texture and and cooked perfectly with all it's ingredients. the potatoes were really good.

what i really liked was the burger. nice, tender juicy chuck of meat, done medium so it's juicy inside. the bacon and egg made it even more flavorful. you know, there's really not much in this world that i like more than a good hamburger and fries. how can anyone not like hamburgers and fries. the juicy flesh of the burger goes perfectly well with the cheese and starchy bun, all complemented with crispy, salty fries. mmm..

all in all, i must say that i enjoyed the brunch here at graze. good food, wonderful ambience, and great company always make for good times. especially true if you wake up hungry in the mornings.

http://www.graze.com.sg/main/

we'll be back!

2008-10-09T23:22:00.002+08:00

we're sorry for the lack of updates! and we promise we'll be back with more in about a couple of weeks. please don't give up on us! and continue to check back for more yummylicious food.

love d (:

yummy hospital food

2008-09-26T00:43:00.006+08:00

Although I do wish it otherwise, good food isn't easy to find. Most of the time, we end up eating whatever's convenient. And since I practically live in the hospitals, eating out isn't that much of an option except for those rare days where we have fabulously long breaks and we can drive out for our meals.

Having said that, there is good food to be found in hospital canteens. My favourite has to be the yong tau foo from the 8th floor cafeteria in SGH. Yong tau foo, for the uninitiated, is essentially a clear consomme soup containing a varied selection of food items including fish balls, crab sticks, bittergourds, cuttlefish, lettuce, lettuce fingers, as well as chilis and various forms of fresh produce, seafood and meats common in Chinese cuisine. The foods are then sliced into bite-size pieces, cooked briefly in boiling broth and then served either in the broth as soup or with the broth in a separate bowl. (taken from ever reliant Wikipedia)

What I really love about this yong tau foo store is the widely variable selection of food items. Sometimes I can't help myself and end up picking about $7 worth of items (and if you eat yong tau foo often enough you know that's a crazy amount of items). Being in a hospital, it's fabulously clean, without flies lying around the way they do in food court or hawker centres. But what makes it really special is the broth. It doesn't look particularly remarkable, but heck, it sure taste pretty good. If I'm not wrong, the broth is derieved partially from yellow beans, which gives the soup a slightly cloudy tinge as oppossed to the usual clear soup you'll find. Apparently the laksa version is award-winning. I didn't try it though, I can't take spicy food and the oil in the soup freaks me out a little. (I know, I know. Please don't judge me) I loved it so much I ate it nearly every day for the entire 8 weeks I was at SGH. Now that I'm not longer at SGH, I find myself pining for the yong tau foo pretty often. And I'm not the only one who feels that way!

It can be pretty hard to find though. It's at the 8th floor at the connecting pathway between Blk 6 and Blk 5.

So that's just headups for those who find themselves in SGH for lunch one of these days. You know where to go!

-deb

photo from the world wide web

7 deadly sins

2008-09-11T19:56:00.026+08:00

after posting on quite a few places, i decided that i wanted to share something new. i know having too many posts make it hard for readers to decide whats best, or what they should really try or look out for. besides, alot of times my favourite foods aren't even in any restaurants, but they're just so good that i need to put it somewhere. so here it is. in no particular order; the 7 deadly sins. cause i swear eating too much of them isn't going to make you very pretty.

1. morton's famous hot chocolate cake

i doubt this one needs any introduction. this little gem is soo good. its good whether you have the full meal or if you just pop by for dessert. its a little pricey though ($25), but the experience is worth it. there's a reason why its called morton's famous hot chocolate cake. the cake is cooked perfectly. the texture is so consistent on various occassions, fluffy yet not to soft, and at the same time dense enough to savor the thick chocolatey taste. then when you cut into it, you can see the hot molten chocolate inside oozing with seductive goodness. flowing slowly like viscous molten lava, so thick and incredibly delicious. and on the side with it, the slightly lighter taste of the vanilla ice cream, which brings balance to all that chocolate flavor. just heavenly.

2. johnsonville beddar cheddar sausage

craving for something a little more savoury? i've got just the perfect thing. johnsonville sausage. the perfect savoury snack. there was a period of time where i was so hooked on to this that i used to eat a bag a day. just plain. with no bun, to toppings, no sauce. just pure old beddar cheddar johnsonville sausage. i know i've posted on this before. but for goodness sake, if you still haven't tried it, please do. there's a reason its emphasized.

3. godiva dark chocolate decadence drink

i think this goodie has been around for years, but i never knew about it until last year. apparently, at all the godiva stands (like the one at the basement food court of takashimaya), they have this chocolate drink. i believe they have several flavors; milk chocolate, dark chocolate etc. the one that i tried was the dark chocolate decadence. it was the best chocolate drink i've ever had in my life. i don't know what they put in it, but it was fantastic. initially, i d and i agreed that we'd just share one, you know, calories and all. but in the end were were both fighting over it. warning though: this is super sinful. its so thick, chocolatey and delicious that you'd forget all about your diet and just temporarily be zoned out into your little chocolate world.

4. in-n-out burgers

i like burgers. i think i've said that on more than one occassion. so for those of you who are burgerholics too, listen up. somewhere out there, on the western coast of the US of A, there lives in-n-out buger. its only available on the western states of the US. The California area and all (and in turn white castle is mostly on the eastern states). but in and out buger is insanely good. alot of the in-n-out places are just little stores with a drive through and a couple open air benches on the side. so you just go there, buy your burger, sit down and eat. the first time i had it was in cali. the burger was so good that i immediately went back to order a second meal, fries and all. and you can do your burger "animal style", which sounds kinda wrong but its really good. animal style includes, pickles, extra sauce, grilled onions and mustard fried with the patty. over here you can over as many patties as you like. i've only had up to 4 and that was too much. i still think have several double patties is better and tastier instead of one giant burger. definitely try give it a try if you're in the area. ps: they have really mean fries too. the type where you can really savour the potato taste in it.

5. indonesian martabak manis (sweet martabak)

this one is interesting. i'm sure alot of you haven't tried this before. martabak is a pancake-like dish/snack in indonesia, served in the evening by street vendors or hawkers. it's NOT the martabak that you can buy in sg. its totally different and way better. it's made in a large pan, where they put lots and lots of butter, then pour the batter, then put in all the ingredients and the fold in it half to make a it like a giant crepe. ingredients that are usually put into martabak are chocolate, shredded cheese, crushed peanuts, condensed milk and sesame seeds. the outcome is a folded pancake with all the sweet chocolate goodness inside. its so good i once ate the whole thing myself! (its usually shared amongst 3-4 people) the texture is firm, and it is chocolatey and sweet when you bite inside.

they also make a savoury version of martabak (martabak asin aka salty martabak) which is made of eggs and other ingredients. very good too. sometimes i can't decide which is better. usually i try to alternate between eating the two. so you get a piece of sweet martabak, the the savoury egg one, then sweet, then salty.

6. snyder's cheddar cheese pieces

another one of my favourite foods in the world is snyder's cheddar cheese pieces. i used to eat this all the time when i was back in the states. at one point, it got so bad that i was eating one large pack a day. it was utterly insane. i couldn't stop myself from eating it. sometimes, i would buy it and just eat half a pack. i'd throw the other half away because i didn't want to finish it. worst part was, there was once that i took it out of the bin to continue eating it! talk about trashy food. i've totally given this one up cold turkey. this and peanut butter. it's like cocaine.

7. indomie

last but definitely not least, my childhood favourite. indomie dry. i've talked about this lots of times throughout the site. just eat the damn thing will you? and make sure you put all the seasoning in it, along with the sweet sauce, chilli, and seasoning oil thats inside. thats at least half the fun. the best tasting noodles ever. i don't care if it's crappy and cheap and instant. get real man. its damn good. you got to admit at least that.

so there it is, my seven favourite foods in the world; my seven deadly sins. drop me a line if you start trying any of these, or if you agree with me. but don't even think about getting me started on snyder's again.

pictures courtesy of the www.

Spanish Fly

2008-09-06T20:35:00.007+08:00

paella valenciana

i never really had much spanish food in my life. for most part, the only influence of spanish cuisine that i had in my mind was that of tapas. tapas is a generic term for spanish appetizers, which can be served warm or cold. it spans a huge range and can cover practically anything. apparently in the US and UK, tapas has evolved such that people eat it for a whole meal (wiki). which is true. i used to eat lots and lots of tapas in the states as a whole meal, and not really as an appetizer of any sort. and it was really cool coz on thursday afternoons, they would have all the tapas for half price. haha..

but back here in singapore, i was only introduced to tapas, and paella, by d. originally, i didn't even know what paella was. so off we went to this place called tapas tree, somewhere along clarke quay. the place is pretty nice, and you have a choice of sitting indoors, where it is very dark and more quiet, or outdoors, which is much more breezy, energetic and where all the fun is. during the night, a live band comes to play and they start singing all sorts of spanish classics. pretty nice. but i got annoyed when i sat too close to them coz they were practically singing in my ear.

the menu has a nice selection of tapas, both warm and cold, meat and seafood types. i've only tried a few of them as we've always been eating paellas. (that plus tapas is so expensive for so little food). i've tried the meatballs (which were just ok), the mussels in white wine, and some others. but honestly i think that the star of the restaurant is the paella.

churros

They serve various types of paella here. They have the all meat paella, the seafood paella, the meat and seafood paella, squid ink paella and several others. i prefer the seafood paella and the squid ink paella. the meat paella isn't too good to me. the chicken is kind of dry and tasteless and the sausages aren't really too good. but the seafood one is great. i love the fish and the squid and all the shrimp. so that's the one i usually get. the rice is moist and slightly salty, and you can really taste all the flavorful goodness in it.

i've also tried the squid ink paella. this one is one more that i really like. the whole pan is pitch black and the rice is cooked in yummy squid ink and lots of squid. but i think eating this alone can get a little boring. i think its best to go in a large group and get them both. it's usually meant for sharing, so you don't really order your own food. then you get the tapas as starters.

for dessert, what d really likes here is the churros. wonderfully sweet, soft, and fluffy, the churros come freshly made and served with a side of chocolate sauce. yum..

so come try this place if you feel in the mood for something different than usual. maybe you won't like it, or maybe you will. but be sure to not sit too close to the band.

Tapas Tree

menu
http://www.thetapastree.com/TheTapasTreeMenu2007.pdf

3D River Valley Road
#01-08 Clarke Quay
Tel: 6837 2938

Ramen Reloaded - Men Tai Ramen

2008-08-23T14:05:00.004+08:00

after that little trip to menya shinchan, i decided that i needed to find more good ramen. i did more online research and found this place that i thought i should try. it's called men tai ramen, and it's located on robinson road in the middle of the business district. it's only opened mon-fri, so i went down one weekday afternoon to try it out.

i reached the place at about 12, then as i was walking towards the shop, i saw this huge queue that already formed up. and it only got longer after i came. the lunch crowd here is insane. all the office workers dropping by for a nice bowl of ramen. make sure that you come at 1130 or before if you intend to try it out. otherwise, you can come at night for dinner. they open till 10pm mon to fri. but i heard the air conditioning in the building is turned off after 7, so you'll have to eat without it.

this place is really efficient. if the queue gets long, a guy comes to take your order while you're still queueing up outside and then hands you the piece of paper he wrote on so you can give it to the waitstaff the moment you enter the place. then you pay on the spot and get your food. its hyper efficient, reminds me of those little curry shops in japan where you buy a little coupon from the vending machine and give your coupon to the cook.

the menu here is really simple. all they have is tonkotsu ramen (white pork bone soup), miso ramen and shoyu ramen, all spicy or non-spicy. all the noodles come with the usual charsiew, bamboo shoots and half a boiled egg. the boiled egg (tamago) is done semi hard boiled, where the white is firm but the yolk is still soft inside. i really liked it this way. their ramen is supposedly made fresh daily too and it's really firm and dense (like menya shinchan).

they took our order while we were still outside in line. we had two tonkotsu ramen, one of them spicy, and extra bamboo shoots and charsiew. i asked them if they had a large size for me, and they said they didn't, but he could give me more noodles free of charge! no kidding. i was really surprised. for once retail wasn't as profit laundering as it usually is. impressive i say.

out food came less than 5 min after we were seated. by that time i was famished. i tried some of d's original non-spicy pork bone version. mmm.. good. then i took a little more to analyze the taste. its good. you can taste the richness of the broth, but its not as good as menya shinchan. the soup isn't as thick and they just lack that little oomph that menya provides. maybe its the jap cooks at menya or maybe its just all those japanese people at the place that makes it seem better. but i doubt it.

next, on to the spicy tonkotsu version. the spicy chilli paste is supposedly made specially for this ramen dish, so it's supposed to complement it very well. i tasted mine and honestly thought that it was kinda unusual. its not spicy at all, more of a pungent type of chilli paste. additionally, it has quite an usual aroma to it which is hard for me to describe. i personally didn't like it too much.

the tamago was really nice though. but only if you like your yolk soft and mildly runny. it was timed perfectly to create that effect. the charsiew, on the other hand, isn't as good as it should be. it was a little tough to chew on, and not very flavorful. it definitely didn't taste like something hand cut and freshly made.

overall, i think this ramen place is a pretty ok place to go too if you like to eat ramen. but amongst the two, i would say that menya shinchan is definitely a better eat. men tai gives me a kind of mcdonald's type of ramen feel. very efficient, quick, good tasting, but not authentic enough. it's more mechanical and mass produced. on the other hand, menya shinchan is more authentic, and tastier too. but i guess if you're working around the area, this is a really nice place to drop by for lunch. but don't forget to reach there early.

61 Robinson Road
#01-01 Robinson Centre

Tel: 6438 4140

The Best Prawn Noodles in Singapore

2008-08-22T23:39:00.000+08:00

prawn noodles - 10/10

where do you think the best prawn noodle in Singapore is? for those of you who love prawn noodles, I'm sure you have your picks. the tasty soup, the succulent prawns with the delicious noodles, there are many great places in singapore that i've been too. i know some of you are thinking, jln sultan, beach road and joo chiat. but those pale in comparison. what i'm talking about here is the king of prawn noodles. the yummiest, most decadently delicious. the numero uno of prawn noodles.

its called river south prawn noodles. there. i said it. and yes, it is the best. not just by me, but by makansutra too. its the only prawn noodles stall in singapore to receive 6 chopstix, which is the highest grade in makansutra. so this place is pretty damn good.

its slightly hard to get to, but its well worth it. its a hawker center, with the shop being run by two sisters. the menu is simple. soup or dry, either with pork ribs or without, and your choice of noodles. they have kway teow (my fav), the mee fen, and the regular yellow noodles. additionally, i usually order an extra bowl of pork ribs on the side because they're so good.

the noodles are cooked well, and the soup is fantastic. the pork ribs have been cooking in the soup for so long that the soup is opaque, and not transparent. thats how thick and delicious the soup is. the prawns are big and juicy too, cooked just long enough to give it the right texture. the combination of all three is heavenly. so what are you waiting for. go get a bowl today.

River South (Hoe Nam) Prawn Noodles
630am-430pm

No. 31 Tai Thong Crescent (Near 24hrs Jackson Centre)
S347859
Tel: 62819293

Shimbashi Soba

2008-08-22T19:09:00.004+08:00

shimbashi soba is one of those places that i go to rather often when i feel like eating soba. i like soba, and d really loves it (what do you expect, its neither fried nor oily). anyway, shimbashi restaurant specializes in soba. they hand make theirs fresh everyday, so you really get good, healthy soba thats hand made and fresh at the same time. their whole menu consists of many different types of soba. you can get it hot or cold, with tempura, with duck meat or plain. or you could even get it in a set. i think they have set lunch menus too which is pretty reasonably priced.

my favourite is the soba with roasted duck and poached egg. i've tried the hot ones, and didn't really like it that much. Eventually after trying several other things, i decided that i liked the one with the duck best. so now i always get this when i go there. i like to break the yolk and mix it into the noodles and soba sauce underneath to give it a nicer flavor and texture. but judging from the other tables, the hot soba can be quite popular too. i see quite a number of people having it. i guess its all personal preference. it would be nice on a cold rainy day though.

the soba is hand made, so the texture is quite different from the regular soba that you buy in packets. its like hand made ramen versus the packet types. the hand made ones are usually more dense, so to speak, and more satisfying. i must admit that the soba here is really top notch. additionally i like to get a side of ebi tempura, which is done very well too.

on a side note, i did try this steamed rice topped with baby sardine dish. it looked pretty interesting, so i decided to order it. its pretty good, went really well with the ebi tempura too.

i really like the soba here. its the only place i go to when i feel like eating soba, simply because its so good. a queue can form up during peak hours though, but it usually clears pretty fast.

290 Orchard Road
#B1-41 The Paragon

Tel: 6735 9882

Ristorante Da Valentino - More Good Pizza

2008-08-22T19:04:00.005+08:00

Pizza Porcini, Rucola, Prosciutto di Parma
Tomato, Mozzarella, Italian Gourmet Mushroom, Parma Ham & Rocket Salad - 9/10

i was looking for a place to get some good italian food and squid ink pasta when i came across this joint. it was on hungrygowhere, and listed as one of the best restaurants in singapore for food. for those of you who don't know, you can categorize the restaurants according to whatever you want, for example, food, or overall ratings, or ambience if you desire. i usually filter out those with less than 5 reviews to have at least a mildly significant sample size. this is one of the highest rated restaurants for italian food. its not listed in wine and dine though. i somehow think that wine and dine favors larger establishments with slightly better ambience. they leave out little places like borgos or valentino, even though the food can be better or at least on par. i guess they try to take into account other factors besides just food. but it's usually these smaller establishments where you can get warmer service and better value.

Linguine al Nero di Seppia - 5/10

this place is really small. it's about the size of borgo's. i went there on a friday afternoon and was greeted by really friendly waitstaff. the service here is extremely warm. they're not the snobby professional waitstaff that you see in 5 star restaurants or cova-types. over here, the service is polite and down to earth, very warm and friendly, making you feel right at home. the served us our bread with a parsley dip. the dip was incredibly good. initially, i mistook the dip for a pesto dip, but i was later told it was parsley instead. i finished all the dip up greedily and they gladly gave me another little bowl and more bread. the bread was freshly baked, hot from the oven.

i ordered the Linguine al Nero di Seppia, or squid ink linguini. up to now, i haven't had better squid ink than the one at borgo's, though i admit i haven't had the chance to try a wide selection yet. alot of people on HGW commented that the linguini was the best they've eaten, so i decided to try the one here and see how it compares. but i was quite disappointed. the dish wasn't as tasty as i'd like, the only flavor that pushed through was a slightly sourish, vinegar flavor that i didn't find all to appealing. i honestly thought the one at borgo's was much better.

Ristotto ai Frutti di Mare / Traditional Italian Rice cooked with Seafood - 8.5/10

the risotto, however, turned out to be much better. the rice was very flavorful, and the seafood was cooked very well. a tad salty if you eat to much of it, but very bold and tasty nonetheless. we also had the pizza with parma ham and rocket salad. it came a little later than the first two, but it was freshly made, and the wait was definitely worth it. it wasn't so much the toppings that were good, more the pizza itself. the crust was thin and baked to perfection. crispy and authentically italian. just the way i like it. it was crispy without being too dense. i think this is a must-try here. but pick a topping you like though. i didn't like the ham and salad topping too much. i don't like greens on my pizza, and the ham was a little too salty for my taste. i think the seafood pizza would be great. but the pizza itself is really one of the best i've had. next time i think i'll try the trio cheese or the seafood.

overall, a very nice casual place to come around to. its a little hard to find, but i think the warm service and comforting food make for a great visit. do try the pizza though.

Restaurant Website:
http://www.valentino.sg/index.html

Menu:
http://www.valentino.sg/ristorante_dineinmenu.pdf

11 Jalan Bingka
Mayfair Park

Tel: 6462 0555

Werner's Oven - Beer and Sausages in Singapore

2008-08-22T18:58:00.011+08:00

ox tail stew - 8.5/10

i first ate at werner's because we were walking past that area and d suggested it to me. she knows how much i like my meat and sausages and she said that her friend had tried the place and it was pretty good. now i love sausages. you know, i've tried them everywhere the best ones are still the johnsonville ones that you can get at the local cold storage. now its so good that i've decided to upload a pic of it midway through writing my post. so here it is:

for those of you that haven't tried this, go down to your local cold storage immediately and get your hands on it! you can cook it either by boiling it in water and just leaving it there, or you can microwave it (which is faster). if you microwave it, make sure that you do it in little batches of time. if you microwave it for too long at one go, the skin will pop and all the cheesy goodness will leak out and be gone forever. i recommend microwaving it for 45 sec, then let it rest for a few sec, then do another 15-20 secs at a time until its nice and hot.

but back to werners... after the first visit, i realized that they were actually listed on makansutra because of their ox-tail stew. now i didn't manage to try that the firs time so i went back for it. and i must say that they're ox-tail stew is pretty darn good. nice, super tender chunks of ox-tail that drops of the bone and simmered in a wonderfully thick and tasty sauce, served with potatoes and a breadroll. really makes for a nice warm meal.

pork loin and sausage - 8/10

but that isn't the only good thing they had. i had the liberty of trying their pork loin and sausage. i loved the pork loin (which is kinda like a slightly firmer version of your christmas ham). if you like the whole chunks of ham which you cut out on your own, you're going to love this. its firm, juicy and tasty. and the sausages here are all good an authentic. juicy on the inside with a slight crunch on the outside.

i also managed to try the pork knuckle on another occassion. super crispy on the outside and nice tasty meat on the inside. the only thing that i didn't like that much was the meatloaf. i thought it tasted more like a very soft ham rather than a meatloaf, no that i didn't like too much. but other than that, most of the dishes were pretty good. all the meat really gives you a rarrr feeling after eating you. especially with the beer. i feel mildly carnivore-ish and makes me want to pick up my spear of the floor and go hunt some wild boar. definitely not a pretty sight.

they have a whole range of brews here. from mild to bold to flavored to non-alcoholic, they have them all. its all a matter of preference. so if you're in the mood for some meat, do drop in. either that or head down to cold storage.

6 Upper East Coast Road
#01-02 Hacienda Grove

Tel: 6442 3897

http://www.wernersoven.com.sg/

Majestic Restaurant

2008-08-20T17:37:00.007+08:00

combination of crispy wasabi prawns on watermelon, peking duck and pan seared foie gras - 9/10

if there's one thing i realized, it's that good chinese food can be fabulous. you know, i used to prefer to not explore the territory of chinese cuisine, simply because i used to foolishly think "how good can chinese food get?" i used to think that chinese food is chinese food. yeah, there's good chinese food and bad chinese, but i never thought chinese food could be artistic, delicious and creative at the same time. however, in more recent times, i think i've changed my mind.

and i think alot of people feel the same way. i've written on this topic more than once, so i shan't continue incessantly. the gist of it is that in eating, i think its really important that you open your mind to different things, and don't take anything at face value or have pre-conceived notions. for example, if you think you don't like to eat a certain food that you hated when you were young, try it again if you get the chance. you never know when your tastebuds change. or maybe you just happened to have something that was prepared horribly in the past, and never ever bothered trying it again. or perhaps you see a combination of foods that look or sound utterly horrible. but you never know until you try it. and go try it with an open mind. perhaps only then will you be able to appreciate the different culinary cultures.

drunken chicken marinated with "shao xin jiu" - 5/10

but enough philosophy. i doubt that descartes would be pleased with my rant on culinary logic. as i was saying, chinese food can be great. and majestic restaurant is just another one place which is on my return list. i first stumbled across this place in my holy wine and dine book. it earned one star to its name, which signifies a decent standard to it. additionally, i did further research online and reviews were mostly positive in general. so i decided to try it.

we went to new majestic hotel in chinatown. it's a small little boutique hotel with just one restaurant there. its a nice, small, chic chinese restaurant. it can get hard to get seats so make sure that you make reservations in advance. they have a several set lunch menus and ala carte items. additionally, they have a little dim sum (just 4-5 items). i ordered some dim sum to start, drunken chicken, the wasabi prawns with peking duck and foie gras, fillet of sea perch, grilled rack of lamb, XO sauce seafood, and japanese hand pulled noodles.

the har kau (prawn dumplings) and siew mai (pork dumplings) came first. both were top-notch. the siew mai was meaty and juicy, and the prawn dumplings were really bursting with flavor. the har kau here was exceptional. big, juicy prawns were used to make these little dumplings. i was really impressed with it.

the drunken chicken was slightly disappointing though. but then again, up to now, no place has beaten ye shanghai's drunken chicken. theirs is truly heavenly.

next came the wasabi prawns with peking duck and foie gras. this one was recommended amongst the reviews and i really wanted to try this. this was really good. the wasabi prawns with nice and slightly crispy, and the wasabi sauce was not to pungent, being mildly sweet and very flavorful. a crispy peking duck skin overlayed the foie gras underneath, and you cut a piece and eat it together. the crispyness of the duck went very well with the creaminess of the foie gras.

grilled rack of lamb in chinese honey with pan-fried carrot cake - 8.5/10

i was served my lamb soon later. i thought it smelled really good. all the sweetness of the honey created a nice aroma, along with the freshly cooked carrot cake. the lamb was tender and tangy, and the carrot cake was really good. soft and really fluffy, it almost feels like you're eating a really soft, savourly marshmellow.

fillet of sea perch, steamed with dried leaf mustards and soya sauce - 8/10

the fish was good too. very fresh, a simply taste of the sea. gives you a really refreshing feel when you eat it. healthy and light, with great texture to it too. good and simple.

wok-fried scallops, prawns, squids and honey bean in xo chilli sauce - 7.5/10

up next, the seafood in xo sauce was sweet and tangy. the xo sauce was very mild in spicy, and coated the fresh seafood all around. it had a pretty nice touch to it. but i wouldn't say that you couldn't find this dish elsewhere. finally out came the wok-fried japanese hand-pulled noodles with seafood. i thought this was quite ordinary. nothing fantistic to mention. they were just simply decent noodles that you have at the end of the meal.

overall, i really like majestic. but as with most restaurants, you're not going to find all winners. its all a matter of trying things out and seeing what you like. in this case, i loved the wasabi prawns, and the lamb was something i thought was quite good too. so i think this place is quite worth the try. just don't forget to keep an open mind though.

31-37 Bukit Pasoh Road
New Majestic Hotel
Tel: 6511 4718

real ramen @ menya shinchan

2008-08-19T01:40:00.010+08:00

there are times when you just feel like being full. you're tired of eating nice pretentious foods in little portions. you're tired of all the dressing up, the going out, the slow process of sitting down, ordering, and waiting for the food to come one course at a time. the chatting, the small talk. basically, you're tired of all the fuss. it's times like these that you just want to go out to a nice, semi-casual restaurant to get some good food in incredibly large portions that really fill you up. these are the places that truly leave you satisfied without burning a huge hole in your pocket while doing so. you know that feeling when you leave a place and you really feel happy? thats it. and thats exactly what you'll get out of menya shinchan japanese noodle restaurant. but wait, there's more.

menya shinchan not only serves food in nice large portions at a reasonable price. they serve incredibly good food too. more specifically, they serve incredibly good ramen. i was doing a little foodie research (thats what happens to nerdy boys who like to eat) and discovered this little place that supposedly serves really authentic ramen. the reviews were really good, so i decided to give this place a try.

we got to robertson quay, and kinda almost got lost finding the place. actually its quite easy. when you enter through the main area, just pass by the open area and make a left, through the little alleyway and you'll see the shop. it's a tiny little no-fuss restaurant. from the moment you enter the restaurant, you can tell that the place is really authentic. half the signs inside are written in japanese, and half of the patrons are japanese too. its kinda confusing when they hand you the menu cause its written in a mix of japanese and english. but eventually after asking the waitress, my tiny brain managed to figure things out.

apparently the place was opened by this japanese guy who decided to tour japan for the best ramen. one day he was posted to singapore for work and decided that this little island lacked good ramen. so he decided to open his own shop. apparently he was the president of the japanese ramen association or something, so this guy knows his ramen.

the ramen here is made fresh daily. the main menu is divided into several types. you have the seafood soup base (which i hear is really good), the pork-bone soup base (which i had and was incredible), the shoyu aka soy sauce base and the miso base. when you order, you have the choice of ordering your ramen soft or hard, depending on how you like it. or you can just not say anything and they'll do it default style. additionally, on weekdays, they make shin jiro ramen, which is a thicker type of ramen, usually only found in japan, and apparently quite fond amongst the japanese. the shin jiro ramen can be ordered with your choice of soup base, and comes with lots of vegetables and bean sprouts. on the sign pasted on the wall, it says that ladies can order the small portion (where they halve the noodles for you) and replace it with a grape vinegar drink or ice cream. by the way, if you pay by citibank, you can get up-sized, additional noodles free. score.

shin jiro ramen - 8/10

d got the lady shin jiro ramen and i got the pork bone soup (done milky style) ramen. additionally, we ordered an extra side of char siew ($3) and bamboo shoots ($2), and a plate of gyoza (which the waitress recommended). the side orders came first. i took a bite of the bamboo shoots. mmm.. i like bamboo shoots as it is, but these were really incredible. they tasted really fresh, not those that you find in most restaurants that taste very machine made. these tasted slightly soft, yet crunchy at the same time. the charsiew was soo tasty too. the charsiew is not tough at all. its perfectly soft, moist and has just the right amount of fat to add great texture to the meat. both of these were so good that we ended up ordering another plate of each.

the gyozas came and i immediately poured some soy sauce and dipped them into it. mmm.. these were really good. i haven't had good gyoza in awhile and the flavors and tastes came flooding back into my memories. they were done incredibly well. 8.5/10

then came the noodles. d's came first, followed by mine. i took a taste of d's soup. delicious. you can tell immediately that the soup has been simmering for an incredibly long time. d got the miso. i never believed that ramen should be eaten with miso. i always thought that you should get pork base or shoyu. but this wasn't so bad. the noodles were thick. almost as thick as the mee rebus type noodles or the prawn mee type noodles. but the unique thing is that they give you an incredibly large amount of vegetables on top. so much that you probably won't be able to finish it. d really enjoyed it and she said that the noodles weren't enough. so i think if you're hungry don't get the half-noodles version. just get it full. its not as much as they say it is.

ramen in pork bone soup - 9.5/10

now on to mine. i really thoroughly enjoyed mine. the texture of the ramen is really authentic. usually, when you eat at most ramen shops, the noodles is soft and springy. over here, because its hand made, its slightly more al dente and really "compact" or so to speak. the noodles are denser in nature. the soup was incredible. they really cooked the pork bones for an amazingly long time with the soup in order to get all the flavor in. the noodles, combined with the great soup, the tender charsiew, the egg and the bamboo shoots was indeed very satisfying. mine didn't have as much vegetables as the shin jiro, which i liked, cause i hate all the veges getting in the way of my real food. its just me and the ramen. additionally i think the pork bone soup is definitely better than the miso, but i guess its all personal preference. i had the upsized noodles and was really full after that. but i think most people would be full with the regular servings. but up size it if you're super hungry :)

all in all, this is a really great place for anyone to get some authentic, high quality ramen in nicely sized portions. it ain't all to fancy, but the food sure delivers. plus, its pretty reasonably priced too. so try it. a return visit is definitely a must in my book.

30 Robertson Quay
#01-05 Riverside View
Tel: 6732 0114

Operating Hours:
11.30am - 3pm
6.30pm - 10pm
(Closed on Tuesdays)

Cova

2008-08-17T22:08:00.014+08:00

selection of cova pastries

there's something about this place that just screams opulence. from the moment i stepped in, memories of the bund in shanghai cropped up into my tiny little head. it seems eerily familiar. the middle of the mall atmosphere that leaves you slightly uncomfortable, seemingly being a victim of voyeur from shoppers and little children walking around in tiny costumes and squeeky shoes. and yet, the decor and beauty of the place makes you feel like you're stuck in your own world, as though two parallel universes collided and merged in time and space.

it seems a little over the top, but thats exactly the way that you feel when you come here. cova is a newly opened establishment located in paragon mall. its on the first floor of the mall, right at the back (closer to mt elizabeth area). its an open concept restaurant, which has two parts. the restaurant, and the tea room which is enclosed in the corner. the restaurant houses a nicely stocked bar for those who fancy a mid day drink. the decor in marvelous. brightly lit yellow, old english style decor with waitstaff dressed smartly in suits. the service is impeccable, and you can tell that they've been highly trained. from the way they serve your food to the way they present the bill, the service here is a hallmark of exellence. the place has been said to be very tai tai, where housewives of rich men come to take a break from all their boutique indulgence at paragon. and thats a great way to describe it.

salmon quiche - 8.5/10

d and i decided to have lunch here. she's been begging me to come here ever since it opened. i secretly suspect that she's trying to practice her tai tai-ness. "darling, would you like some tea?" she says to me in a thick english accent. so much for med school. think they fried those pretty brains of hers. (strangely, i never noticed much difference though) we sat down and we were presented with the set menu and the ala carte menu. the set menu looked pretty interesting, and you can have either a 2 course starter and entree (plus dessert) or three course where they serve you a second entree. prices are about $30-40, which is ok relative to the ala carte menu in which each entree is already $30+. i decided to get the squid ink with scallops and prawns in white wine sauce, and d had the veal ravioli with mushroom sauce, both from the ala carte menu. i substituted linguini for the tagliolini cause i'm sure you know how much i love linguini. we also ordered the salmon quiche (which is kind of like a savoury pie) to share.

the first to arrive was the quiche. i took a casual glance at it. not bad. looks alright i guess. like any normal quiche. i took my fork and gently cut through it. the fork glided right through. the texture was delicately soft. i put it into my mouth and tasted it. it was amazingly soft and delicious. you could taste the slight cheesyness of the quiche. the salmon was blended in very well into the custard and you can taste the distinct features of it when you bit into it. this was surprisingly good.

linguini with scallops and prawns in white wine sauce - 9/10

our mains arrived together. the linguini looked very presentable. i actually totally forgot that it was white wine sauce, as i was expecting a squid ink sauce. but this turned out to be fantastic. one of the most memorable pastas i've had. i haven't had many good white wine pastas, and cova surely makes a very good one. the sauce is slightly thick, with a yummy mild salty-creamy taste to it. the taste of the seafood really came through the sauce, and it was extremely tasty. i was thoroughly impressed. the portions were a little tiny though. but it really left me wanting much more.

homemade ravioli filled with braised veal and porcini mushroom sauce - 8.5/10

the ravioli was very good too. the soft and tender veal enclaves where delicious, with a thick mushroom sauce that brought the dish to life. there was enough meat to give the ravioli a nice touch, yet not too much to overpower the pasta itself.

we had the cova pastries too. cova is supposed to be famous for their pastries. so we had to try it. i'm not much of a pastry person, but d is a huge sweet goods fan. she eats anything sweet. sugar, brown sugar, powdered sugar. it all sounds good to her. but anyway, she said the pastries were really good. they're extremely tiny though.

to be honest, i didn't really expect much from this place. being specialized in pastry, i thought they wouldn't do too well in the savoury foods department. but i think i was wrong. i was impressed by all three dishes that came out, especially the white wine pasta. that was really a winner, and something that deserves a return visit soon.

290 Orchard Road
#01-20A Paragon Shopping Centre
Tel: 6733 0777

Chicken Marsala Wrap at Toast

2008-08-17T09:21:00.006+08:00

as i was looking through some old photos, i realized that there was a place i never posted about. i remember making casual mention on it in the original marmalade pantry post, but i never gave it a post of its own that it deserved. all because of their chicken marsala wrap.

toast is located at ngee ann city. to get there, you need to walk from the taxi stand. area. imagine facing sushi tei. now walk to the right along the road for about 50 metres and you'll see it. its not really in taka, its just on the outskirt of the mall. the decor is very cafe style were you can see them making the wraps and sandwiches in front of you. note for straight men: this place is filled with girls, tai-tais and gay men. so you might want to bring a girl partner along if you're not comfortable with that kind of thing like i do.

chicken marsala - 9/10

the first time i went there was sometime early last year. since then i've been back countless times. they simply have one of the best wraps i've ever eaten. and it's not like i really fancied eating wraps. i always thought the portions were too small. but this one is ok. i always get the chicken marsala wrap with extra chicken. they have other things too that you can get like wild rice or potato salad, but it depends on what they decide to whip up that day.

the chicken marsala wrap is fantastic. get it on wheat bread to give it a slight crisp on the outside. its freshly made with a warm chunky tender chicken filling inside that goes amazingly with the sweet mangos and the creamy mayo. you'll love it.

391 Orchard Road
#02-11 Ngee Ann City
Tel: 6733 8489

Si Chuan Dou Hua - Stardom in Singapore

2008-08-12T21:03:00.011+08:00

braised pork ribs - 10/10

i think that sometimes we are all guilty of associating fine dining with western cuisine. i'm sure that the first thoughts that come to your mind when the two words "fine dining" come out mostly relate to some sort of expensive pretty fusion/contemporary food in the tiniest of portions. to be honest, i'm quite guilty of that too. i mean i have had pretty good chinese cuisine, but i think that alot of times i subconsciously associate fine food to contemporary food. but si chuan dou hua restaurant really wiped that out of my mind.

si chuan dou hua restaurant is rated 3 stars by wine and dine. there are only 5 restaurants in singapore which are given three stars (crystal jade golden palace, gunther's, iggy's, jiang-nan chun and si chuan dou hua). these are thus supposed to represent the best of the best. to be honest, reading the review in wine and dine, i wasn't 100% enthusiastic about coming here. don't get me wrong. the food sounded fantastic, but i just never really had the appeal to sichuan cuisine. but actually, this restaurant serves a mix of both sichuan food and cantonese food, and they do it fantastically well.

five delicacies combination - 10/10 for the sliced pork with garlic chilli (top right)

the restaurant is located in UOB Plaza, at raffles place. its on the 60th storey so you get a fantasic view of the city. you have to change lifts twice just to get to the restaurant, and you even have to get through security. the location is pretty unusual, and during the day it mostly caters to the business crowd. they have 3 and 4 course set lunches too if i'm not mistaken.

anyway, fatty, along with d and i, got up to the restaurant, and were greeted by a brightly lit place and a little mainland chinese waitress. most of the staff are from mainland china, but the managers are not. fortunately, the one who took my order wasn't. i'd kind of have a hard time telling her what i wanted.

stir-fried venison with black pepper - 8.5/10

we looked through the menu, which was quite extensive. they have everything from soups to dim sum to proper restaurant dishes. after making a few picks, i called the head waitress to take our orders. we asked her for some house specialties and finally finished ordering. the tea-dude comes around soon enough. he pours your tea china style. he uses a tea pot with a super long spout. maybe about 3-4 feet long. and he's pretty action packed about it too, flipping his little tea pot and all.

the appetizer came first. it was the five delicacies combination. it was a tray that had 5 little platters on it. in the picture, starting clockwise with the tofu with cashew nuts (bottom left platter), is the jellyfish, mushrooms, sliced pork with garlic, and cocktail shrimp with sweet mayo. they were all very well done, but the sliced pork with garlic was INTENSE. it was spicy and incredibly delicious. the thinly sliced porked was cooked and served cool with the special garlic chilli sauce and spring onions. when you eat the pork, you can taste the firm texture of the meat, along with the crunchiness of the spring onions and the fantastic garlic chilli. i really can't describe this well enough. it was so good that i called the head waitress and asked her about the dish. she said that if we liked, we could get it as an ala-carte instead of just an appetizer. that i will do.

next up we had our soups. fatty had hot and sour soup, d had the eight treasure seafood soup and i had the double-boiled deluxe seafood soup with pork ribs. the soups were all done very well. you can taste the rich broth in each of the soups, and it really got the dinner off to a right start.

pan-fried beef in pepper sauce - 9/10

next we were served the pan-fried beef in pepper sauce. we were served this on three individual plates, and of course forks and knives to cut. i wasn't really expecting beef steak, but thats what we got. it was really good though. the beef was sliced thinly and very tender, yet firm and not too fatty at the same time. the sauce that dripped around it was a slightly sweet and tangy barbeque style sauce which was great.

prawns with minced garlic and chilli - 8.5/10

after that, the rest of the dishes came out together. we had the stir-fried venison with black pepper, which was juicy and tender. we also had the prawns with minced garlic and chilli. these were nice. the prawns were nice and big, and cooked in a tangy sweet chilli sauce that blended in very well. we also had the mei chai pai gu, which was the braised pork ribs (first picture). these were marvelous. they look really fatty when you cut into them. it might be a turnoff for those of you who are kinda paranoid (which is me). so i was like eww. not cool. but when i bit into it, it was bursting was tender and juicy goodness that i never expected from sight. this is another one of their must try dishes. it ws recommended by the waitress and it was fabulous.

"chong qing" diced chicken with dried chilli - 8/10 (points reduced slightly for attempted homicide)

and now came the crazy dish. haha. its called "chong qing" diced chicken with dried chilli. apparently this is the spiciest stuff on earth. my bro spent a month in chong qing in some homestay and he said the food was insane. it was so spicy that he couldn't eat anything. that was how bad it was. i took a piece of chicken. it was perfectly fried, just a nice thin layer over it and a tender and juicy flesh hiding inside it. but it was wayyy too spicy. i took two pieces and gave up. i took some more intermittently but it was to spicy to continue. d took one piece and that was it. she looked like she was going to pass out. when the waitress served us the dish, she told us to be careful of the tiny peppercorns. my brother said its called "ma" (3rd intonation). he said when he was there they added it to everything. he had to tell them no "ma" in his food all the time. anyway the waitress said be careful of the ma cause it numbs your tongue. i thought that sounded really cool so i happily decided to pop one in my mouth. not such a good idea. i wasn't too spicy (after all that chicken) but it really numbed your tongue. it was as though someone took a needle and injected anaesthesia into it. crazy sichuaneze dudes. it was good, but we couldn't finish it. we only ate about 1/5 of the dish.

homemade beancurd with spinach and dried scallop sauce - 7.5/10

last but not least we had the homemade beancurd with spinach and dried scallop sauce. this was nice. simple and delicious. the tofu was really soft and the scallop sauce was tasty. this went really well as a complement to the other dishes. a little more subtle to the tongue, but definitely not undeserving.

we finished of the meal with dessert, we had mango pudding, gui ling gao and the read bean pancake. the mango pudding was standard, nothing to rave about. the gui ling gao was pretty good, nice and refreshing with that herb taste to it. the red bean pancake was done very well though. definitely a good ending to the meal.

overall, i think this restaurant is damn good. probably the best chinese restaurant in sg. you probably won't be disappointed with any dish that you try here, but the ones i really liked are the pork ribs and the sliced pork in garlic and chilli sauce. those for me were really spectacular. a return visit is a must in my book.

80 Raffles Place
#60-01 UOB Plaza
Tel: 6535 6006

Sunday Brunch at Marmalade Pantry

2008-08-11T21:47:00.009+08:00

the ultimate beef burger - 8.5/10

i love sunday brunch. there's nothing better than waking up on a weekend morning, lazing around in bed and then heading out for some great, filling food in nice big portions to satisfy that overnight fast. but i've never really been scoping around for where to eat brunch on a weekend, so it was always kind of hard for me to decide where to go for that mid-morning meal.

but then d, being that little kaypoh queen that she is, told me that she read that marmalade pantry had pretty yummy brunch. i went to their website, and true enough, they had an all day brunch on sunday from 10-4.30pm. the menu looked pretty good so we decided to head down to Palais Renaissance, which is directly opposite the hilton hotel and forum along orchard road. now i've been to marmalade pantry a few times, but never for brunch. the food has always been pretty up to standard and they serve a really mean sticky date pudding(check my other entry for more details). so brunch sounded pretty good to me.

scrambled eggs with smoked salmon and creme fraiche - 8/10

we arrived at parlais renaissance and went to the basement. marmalade pantry practically occupies the whole floor. you can sit inside, which is a little cramp. but its much nicer out in the open in the center of the area. its really big and surrounded by lots of mirrors so you can check yourself out if you're into that kind of thing. we glanced through the menu and i already knew what i wanted. i got the ultimate beef burger, and d got scrambled eggs with salmon. we also got the fried peanut butter and banana sandwich and eggs with sausages and hash browns to share.

the ambience was really nice and brunch-y. you could see people sitting down, chatting and enjoying their lazy sunday morning. our food came a little later and we started digging in. i first took a bite of my beef burger. mmm.. soo good. its been awhile since i had a really good burger. i like burgers that are plain and simple, and thats exactly what these were. a nice thick juicy patty, cooked till medium and some mayo, pickles and ketchup inside. nothing fancy, just quality beef burger. it was fantasically moist and tender. perfectly done. what i really like about it is a can actually eat it with my hands. i can squeeze the buns together and put the whole thing in my mouth. which is why i was so annoyed with the relish burgers. they were so tall that it was really difficult to eat. and they didn't taste as good. whats more, the fries here were fantastic! i loved the fries. they were freshly cooked and so fluffy and lightly crisp. i finished it all.

eggs with sausages and hash brown - 8.5/10

d tried her scrambled eggs and salmon. she said she really liked it. i tried some and thought it was pretty good. its not something that i would order but i think for those of you who really like salmon, you can give this a shot. the eggs were scrambled very well, nicely consistent and fluffy throughout. the other dish that we had was the eggs with sausages and hash browns. these were good. the sausages were nice and springy on the outside, the casing giving it a nice crunch to the warm juicy meat inside. the eggs were done very well, and the hash browns were nice and crisp. it isn't out of this world, but then again how good can eggs and sausages get?

fried peanut butter and banana sandwiches - 10/10

but i've been saving the best for last. this, my friends, is THE ultimate winner. i took one bite of this and swore i was in heaven. the slightly crisp bread encased the delicate banana and peanut butter filling, sprinkled all over with the heavenly sweet powdered sugar. this is a definite must try. it was so good all the way to the last bite. i insist you try this if you haven't already. i'm sure you won't regret it.

http://www.themarmaladepantry.com/index.html

390 Orchard Road
#B1-08 Palais Renaissance
Tel: 6734 2700

Graze

2008-08-06T20:22:00.011+08:00

i went to graze a couple of weeks back when my uncle and aunt were in sg. they're from indo, and they came over for the weekend for some medical checkup cum vacation. they're foodies too, so brian and i ended up chatting with them about all the good food places to eat. in addition to hedge funds.

but anyway, my uncle told me that jakarta has a ton of nice restaurants nowadays that cater to the fine dining crowd. and later when he was back in indo he sent me 2 jakarta's best restaurant books. and they look really good. they wanted to go to graze cause they've been here before and my aunt really likes the place. during the weekend, they also went to saint pierre (wine & dine 2 stars) and iggy's (3 stars). they said saint pierre wasn't worth the price but iggy's was indeed really good. iggy's is in the world's top 100 restaurants but apparently it really lives up to its reputation.

crispy hand-rolled pork hork - 9/10

so brian and i met them there, at about 8 on a saturday night. it was full, but not excessively crowded. i highly recommened that if you go anywhere on a friday or saturday night, be sure to make reservations just in case. anyway, once you reach the place at rochester park, you take a flight of stairs down and you're greeted by a big screen, which has movies projected onto it. (check out picture below). the little couple booths on that day faced the projector, so it was really private and romantic if you're with your s/o. we got the indoor table and were presented with the menu. i read up on the place before i came so i immediately knew that i wanted to order the pork hork. it was supposed to be really good.

uncle ordered 2 more starters for us to share and a large salad, which we couldn't finish. i can't remember what the starters were, but i remember both of them to be really good. i also remembered that brian ordered the lamb, which was he finished in record time. additionally, my pork hork was excellent. the crispy hand-rolled pork hork is cooked with spiced plum, cucumber, marinated bean shoot salad, and a redcurrant chilli caramel sauce. the outside is crispy, and you can taste the very moist and very soft pork flesh on the inside. very delicious. i would definitely recommend you to get this if you come here. my uncle's t-bone steak came out a little undercooked though, and he sent it back to get it re-done.

overall, i think that the restaurant, the food, and the ambience was very good. one thing to note though. i've heard some bad things about graze from awhile back. some people say that the food here isn't up to standard and that the service is bad, but on that day i experiences none of this so maybe management has taken care of it. try it and let me know.

http://www.graze.sg/menu_alacarte.pdf

by the way i got the above photos off the web because i didn't manage to take any

4 Rochester Park
Rochester Park
Tel: 6775 9000

Lawry's

2008-08-05T21:33:00.005+08:00

prime rib (diamond jim brady cut) - 8.5/10

i went to lawry's one day for lunch at paragon with the parents. i've been wanting to try lawry's for quite some time and compare it to morton's. since two of the supposedly best steakhouses in sg are morton's and lawry's, i naturally wanted to see which i prefered.

we came into the restaurant on a sunday afternoon. we were walking around paragon and decided to get something to eat. lawry's is conveniently located in paragon, so it was a pretty easy to just walk to the second floor to eat. brian and i both ordered the diamond jim brady cut, which was the largest cut at about 500g if i'm not mistaken. prices for the prime rib ranged from $79 to $99, which is about the same as morton's. however, the prime rib dinner at lawry's includes the famous original spinning bowl salad, yorkshire pudding, and idaho mashed potatoes, along with whipped cream horseradish to go with it. therefore, in that sense, its cheaper than morton's because morton's doesn't come with any sides, and each side can cost $15-20, which is incredibly expensive.

once you order your prime rib (otherwise why else would you be at lawry's), they'll serve you the spinning bowl salad. the waitress comes to your table with a big glass bowl with salad, then she spins the bowl around and then pours all sorts of sauces and spices inside. its pretty cool to watch. then she serves you the salad on individual plates. verdict: honestly, the salad is way overrated. i've had much better salads in my lifetime, although i must say the performance was rather captivating. after you're done with your salad, they push a giant covered cart to your table. the waitperson then flips open the lid to reveal a giant slab of prime rib. he'll then slice you a chunk according to how much you ordered. if you prefer it slightly more done he has a really hot pot of au jus to further "cook" it in. he'll then dump some mashed potatoes on your plate and drizzle everything with gravy. another waitress will come around the table simultaneously, serving you your yorkshire pudding (pictured far back on the left).

i bit into yorkshire pudding that was damp with gravy. mmmm.. absolutely marvelous. its soft and tender, a puffy and golden little pudding that goes perfectly with the steak. best part, you get an unlimited amount of it. i had quite a few. the mash was pretty good. not spectacular, but not bad. above average is all i can say. the steak is good, but thats only if you like huge chunks of prime rib. otherwise the jim brady cut may be wayy too big for anyone, even me. i think its a much better idea to ask them to divide your order up into smaller slices, instead of one huge chunk of meat. i heard they'll gladly do that for you. the meat is very soft and tender, easily recognized from the hours of marinating and cooking. medium rare might be a little too red for most, so unless you truly are a badass carnivore, you might want to stick to medium or medium well. we had a side of creamed spinach as well, which was nowhere near excellent. after having the one at morton's you won't touch the creamed spinach anywhere else. the cheese fries, on the other hand, wasn't too bad. but then again i'm not really a fries kinda guy. my dad, who is the self proclaimed fries expert, says the fries were downright lousy. but he does know his fries. so i wouldn't really doubt him.

now, onto the comparison. lawry's steak is very soft and wet all around. to me, it gets a little boring after awhile. its like munching on a salty wet chunk of meat. the initial 300g or so is ok, but after that, taste runs abit flat. morton's, on the other hand, is different. the reason why i prefer morton's is because they can do your steak cowboy style, meaning after they cut that giant slab, they put it on the hot grill for you until the outside becomes slightly charred. this makes the slightly burnt outside super tasty (because of all the juices), especially when you eat it with the soft and tender inner flesh. therefore the result to me is much more satisfying. brian however, much prefers lawry's. he said that he doesn't like the burnt stuff at morton's as much. but i'd rather go to morton's. they have great creamed spinach, plus they have the most fantastic morton's famous chocolate cake, which is to die for. so i guess you'll just have to try them both out and decide for yourself.

you can find the menu here:

http://www.lawrys.com.sg/acdinner.asp?location=menu

Häagen-Dazs

2008-08-04T20:55:00.001+08:00

now i like ice cream. i like ben & jerry's, ice cream chefs, cold stone. ice cream with chocolate, ice cream with souffle, and green tea ice cream. to me, ice cream comes in many different forms. the bold strong forms, the gentle, mildly sweet form, the ones with mix ins and the funky creative ones like from b&j's. but what i always consistently liked is haagen dazs.

i used to go the the haagen dazs shop pretty often. my dad loves ice cream too, and so we all go as one big family to go get some good ice cream. we'd get 4 banana splits (my mom and dad will share) and we'd all shove our faces with it. now b&j's is good. but haagen dazs is haagen dazs. if you want something funky and fun, sure, eat ben & jerry's. but if you wanted something classic, seductive, sexy, yet bold and mature at the same time, haagen dazs wins hands down. b&j's is like the cute little girl, but haagen dazs is the sexy lady in the diamond jewelry ad. but as most good things, haagen dazs ain't cheap. our banana split cost us 22 bucks. now thats not cheap for ice cream. but it sure does serve as a great treat.

we got belgium chocolate, stawberry and cookies and cream. the belgium chocolate was exquisite, the stawberry was refreshingly delicious, and the cookies and cream just brought you to another world. i've tried quite a few falvors. my favorites are strawberry, chocolate, cookies and cream, vanilla and green tea. i tried melon and the mixed berries one and didn't like it that much. in all honesty though, i think that haagen dazs makes the best plain strawberry ice cream in the world. its absolutely fantasic. if you like strawberry ice cream and you haven't tried the ones from haagen dazs, you simply don't know what you're missing. haagen dazs strawberry ice cream is the lamborghini of strawberry ice creams. you gotta try it.

all i'm saying is, sometimes, just sometimes, quality is better than quantity. so smile, and get yourself a pint today.

love for the asian food channel

2008-08-04T19:00:00.000+08:00

steak, shrimp and scallops salad, topped with a zesty italian dressing and sides of surimi - courtesy of mom

i love the asian food channel. not because they teach me how to cook. nor because you get to see nigella strutting around in her little kitchen and having a ball of a time. nope. i love afc because i get to eat good food. now i know what you're thinking. "shaun, you've totally gone off your rockers. the afc doesn't bring you good food. its not a food catering service. its a damn food channel!" well yes. but you see, its more than that.

my mom has always been a fine cook (but then again, all boys think the world of their moms). matter of fact, i think she kicks nigella's little (and oh so fine) ass any day. but after afc, she's no longer fine. no, not nigella, my mom. oh no. my world changed after afc. sometimes i get down on my knees and thank the culinary gods for bring afc to my home (well i thank starhub too, but its kinda weird when people see me praying to my cable box set). i learnt that when i came in one day to find my cable guy having just finished repairing my set. i got down on my knees and did the usual prayer ritual. the guy immediately looked at me in horror and pee'd in his pants. now i make sure i lock the doors before i do.

but anyway, so i love afc because i get good food. ever since we got afc, my mom has been watching it non-stop. now my mom doesn't work. so she gets bored and starts finding things to clean and stuff. so now that my dad bought her a big ass flat scren tv in her room, i no longer see her. i used to wonder what in the world she was doing inside there. i imagined a little place like in narnia where you walk into a closet and enter a secret little world with goblins and witches.

but turns out she was simply watching afc. so now, everytime i go look for her to cook me something, she's watching afc. damn. how much afc can you watch. you got nigella, license to grill, that old english man that goes around the world cooking at the countryside and eating at lots of out-of-the-way places. but its not a bad thing. after awhile i used to come home from work to a yummy roasted rack of lamb, dripping with moist flavor and topped of with a delicious mint sauce. or, because i'm such a protein junkie, a huge pot of slow cooked chicken cooked with garlic, onions, carrots and potatoes; baked in the oven, so tender that the meat from the chicken is dropping of the bones and the flavor from the sauce drenches the flesh. mmmm...

so i proclaim my love for afc. without afc, none of this would have happened. i'd be doomed to eating oatmeal and chicken breasts for the rest of my days, until my brain dies from bordom and insanity. but it isn't so. so i guess i'm pretty happy. i think maybe i'll just go celebrate by doing the nigella dance in the kitchen right now.

halia at the botanical gardens

2008-08-03T21:34:00.000+08:00

to some people, eating is solely about the food. but to most others, there is more to dining then just what's on your plate. of course there are times when you just feel like eating a damn good plate of chicken rice and you don't care if it's in a wet and stinky hawker center. but then once in awhile, when the urge to splurge hits you, or when you have the special occasion to celebrate. you want to go somewhere nice. some place where you can sit down, enjoy a nice quiet conversation, and just take in the beauty of the surroundings and enjoy the simple things in life. and thats what you'll get at halia.

halia is a comtemporary/fusion restaurant located smack in the middle of the botanical gardens. and if its ambience you're looking for, there is probably no better place then this. it's rated one star by wine and dine (not many even earn a star and the maximum is only 3). it's seductively romantic, a perfect place to go if you want to impress (aka seduce) that special someone or rekindle the sparks in your mature relationship. the senery is nice, like the botanical gardens always is, and its not hot nor humid.

i walked in from the entrace closest to the restaurant, and was greeted by the fresh smell of evening dew and rainwater. walking further along, the sounds of a waterfall came through the surroundings. to be honest, i'm not really a nature person and i've never been to the botanical gardens in my life. yes, not once. but i think i'll be back soon enough. the place is beautiful, the lush flora all around you and the cool breeze blowing in your face. i was really taken aback by it all (and no i didn't start weeping like the women on oprah in case you're curious).

a couple steps further in and we reached the restaurant. i approached the restaurant on the right. it apparently was the lounge/bar area. it was really nice; they had a band playing nice spanish music and comfy looking couches to sit and relax in. after pulling out our reservations, we were ushered to the opposite end of the place. that was where the restaurant was.

the restaurant is divided into two sections. the indoor section and the al fresco section. my reservation was for indoor, but after a saw the outside section, i decided to shift out instead. the outside section was very nice. dark wood lined the floors with fans above you gently twirling in a hypnotic state. the tables are covered with a clean, white tablecloth and each chair is covered with a little cushion. the waiter brought us our menu's and i glanced through it. they had a nice selection of starters and entrees. not huge, but decent. i read through online reviews before i came, so i kind of already knew what i wanted. i ordered the rack of lamb and a glass of shiraz for myself, and d had the fish. we also ordered the tofu tower and a glass of halia infusion, which yours truly recommended to her because i heard it really completes the meal.

the halia infusion was great. it's the house specialty of sun-dried ginger and wild mountain honey. you stir it first to mix the honey in and then enjoy. the sweet taste combines nicely with the strong piercing taste of the ginger, giving you a nice contrast of flavors. i highly recommend it. we enjoyed it throroughly. the bread came along with it and it was a lovely soft and warm.

roasted rack of lamb - 9/10

awhile later, our mains came. my rack of lamb was delicious. if was one of the chef's recommendations. marinated in javanese spice, with ratatouille, potato cutlet and calamansi bell pepper coulis. the lamb was done medium as ordered, and it had just the right chewiness to it. it was immensely flavorful, and i love how the taste of the slightly chargrilled outside along with the juicy flesh. the ratatouille was a nice small side of potato and vagetables, and a mild garlic chilli sauce was drizzled all around. the portion was a little on the small side though. it definitely left me wanting more.

d's dish turned out pretty nice also. sea perched fillet en papillote. with truffle aioli, sesame japanse rice and wakame salad. it was really healthy looking. the fish was very tender with a mild salty taste. d enjoyed it cause she likes eating healthy stuff. ok she's one of those weird people who don't eat fried foods. haha. so more for me, yay. anyway, i thought the fish was really nice too. very soft and tender.

sea perch fillet - 7/10

the tofu, however, was a slight disappointment. i actually have no doubt that a person would thoroughly enjoy it if he were vegetarian. but i'm not. i like my meat. yeah, all types. i guess i was kinda swayed by the tau kwa tower at buko nero (which was fantastic). but this tasted totally different so i wasn't all too impressed. d quite liked it though. i guess i might be kinda biased, being a protein junkie and all. no soy for me. all that estrogen's just going to go to my head (and my adipocytes).

overall, i think this is a great place to go if you are looking for a great ambience. you can walk around the park after dinner and through the waterfalls or you can just chill at the lounge and enjoy a nice cold drink. the food however, can be good or bad depending on what you order. the lamb was really good, but the portions were definitely too small for my liking. i heard really good things about the tenderloin, so if i ever come back, i'll definitely try it and update here. the price is a little more expensive considering how little food you get. the fish was about $30 and the lamb was $40 or so. so if you're really hungry this might not be the right place to go. but if you're just looking for a great ambience and good quality food and don't mind paying for it, i have no doubt you'll thoroughly enjoy halia too. but if not, scope one of my other picks instead :)

an affair with indomie

2008-08-03T16:26:00.000+08:00

courtesy of mom

indomie brings back alot of memories for me. i'm not sure about you guys, but as a child, i ate copious amounts of instant noodles. for breakfast, lunch or dinner. and lots of times in the middle of the night for supper. i used to sneak down with my brother in the middle of the night and cook indomie. we tried to keep it as quiet as possible because if my parents found out, they were sure to kick a big fuss. they didn't like my brother and snacking because we were both kinda fat at that time and we all know what wonders eating in the middle of the night does for central adiposity. but that only made it taste all the better. like eve, indomie was our forbidden fruit. but it's not just because of that.

indomie - the ones found in singapore

now i've eaten alot of instant noodles. i've tried lots of different brands and different forms. dry, soup, cup, non-cup, mini's nissin, maggi, koka, maruchan, nong shim, etc etc. but indomie remains supreme. and its not just me. people (non-indonesians) swear by it. they say its THE best instant noodles they've ever eaten. and i concur. i'm talking about the dry version here. the soup version is good, but i wouldn't say its really cut above the rest. but the dry version is fantastic. ok, i know you're thinking i'm insanely unhealthy and crazy for eating so much instant noodles. but i'm telling you, once you've tried this, you won't go back. everything else tastes like mudwater.

you can get indomie in singapore, but its not that easy. i've searched for quite awhile before i found indomie inconspicuously lying around at giant. they sell them in packs of 5 i believe, and they taste pretty much the same as the ones bought in indo. but i have friends who insist that the ones you get from indo taste better. indomie has quite a significant place in indonesian culture and cuisine. in indo, real hawkers (yes they still do exist) peddle their carts along the streets, going door to door with their food. different hawkers sell almost everything. some of the things include fried tofu with vegetable filling (reallyyy good), beef ball noodles, fried rice and lots of other stuff. my mom never lets me eat the hawker food cause its kind of unhygienic. which is true. if you're not local and you didn't grow up eating street food you probably would get diarrhea for the next few days. the tofu is usally ok cause they put it in a paper bag. but i wouldn't recommend the rest.

the interesting thing is, in indo, you can buy indomie cooked for you. you go up to the little hawker cart, order your noodles, and take a seat in his tiny foldable chair. they then boil your noodles, then when it is cooked, they take it out onto another pan, then pan fry it with a nice slab of butter. the pan frying with butter makes it incredibly tasty. and they then top it off with a fried egg. my indo friend swears its so good. its nostalgic coz in indo kids eat it for lunch from the hawkers that peddle outsite their schools.

indomie - hand carried from indo

there are several ways to cook indomie. my personal favorite is to eat with with SPAM or ma ling (the china version). spam is one of those things that you either love or hate. if you never grew up with spam, you'd probably hate it. but i know there are those of you that just love it. personally, i'm the latter. i know spam is incredibly unhealthy with tons of fat and nitrates that's going to give you cancer. but then again, you gotta enjoy life a little. or you could get turkey spam. those are interesting. they don't actually taste that bad considering they have half the fat. so anyway what i do with the spam is to take about half a tin, chop it up into cubes, then pan fry it till slightly crispy on the outside. then you cook your noodles, either by just boiling it or boiling then pan-frying it, and the dump the spam on it. yummy. my mom refuses to cook it for me like that. she insists that i eat it with sliced chicken breast and vegetables. haha. so much for trying to be healthy.

so that about sums it up for my indomie post. i strongly encourage all of you to try indomie (the dry one) if you haven't already. maybe after awhile you'll start sneaking into the kitchen in the middle of the night too.

Michelangelo's

2008-08-01T18:23:00.001+08:00

penne vodka; penne sauteed in clarified butter and onions flamed with russian vodka and finished in a rose sauce topped with a crown of fresh parmesan shavings - 8/10

i've been wanting to try michelangelo's for quite some time now but never got around to doing it. i've heard some good things about it, so being me, i wanted to see (or taste) it for myself. initially i was slightly put of because of the limited selection of the online menu, but apparently i found out that what you see online is only a small portion of what they actually have at the restaurant. i remember reading through the online food reviews and hearing good things about their food, so one day i decided to pop by for a weekday lunch.

michelangelo's is located in holland v, chip bee gardens area. it's along the row of restaurants, where da paolo, bistro petit salut and sistino all are. it was a hot afternoon, and as i approached the restaurant, i saw the outside al fresco seating option. wine and dine recommends sitting outsite because it mentioned that the inside "could get stuffy". with the scorching hot weather, i declined and opted for the inside dining instead. after about 5 minutes, i realized what they meant. michelangelo's has an open kitchen concept, and it gets insanely hot because of the radiating heat from the kitchen. They had quite a few air conditioners but it felt as though they weren't even turned on. i couldn't take it much more so i decided to move outside.

spaghetti frutti de mare; an ensemble of local & imported seafood sauteed with garlic and fresh chilli served on a bed of spaghetti pasta in a zesty tomato sauce - 7/10

the waitstaff brought us two menus, one was the promotional/set lunch menu, and one was the ala carte menu. i realized that they had a great deal on the former. apparently all amex cardmembers get a 1-for-1 set lunch. so you order one and you get one free. i think its about $28 if i remember correctly. on the other side of the menu is the citibank 1-for-1 ala carte menu. the choices on the set lunch menu were kind of limited, and they only allowed you to choose between 2 mains and 2 starters (i think they do have dessert and coffee/tea if i remember correctly).

initially i wanted to order 2 dishes and get 2 free. so i'd pay for two mains and get the other two, using the citibank. however, the waitstaff said they couldn't do that. so i was a little peeved and asked them why, and he said its meant for two people. i tried to reason that i'm still paying for the second one so its not like they're giving it to me for free, and besides, they didn't even mention the limitation on the menu. he said they couldn't do that. if da paolo (which is just next door) can do it, why can't they? if there is something i hate, its unflexible restaurants. restaurants that can't cater to your order or have to "check with the chef" as to whether they can change your choice of pasta. i believe running a restaurant is simply about pleasing the customer, so if linguini makes him happy instead of spaghetti, give him the damn linguini. its not going to kill you. flexibility and keeping the customers happy is the cornerstone of any successful business. and besides, its not that hard when it comes to a restaurant. Ray Kroc (the founder of mcdonalds) used to say "keep the customers happy and the rest will take care of itself". i think people should give that some thought.

so i decided to order from the citibank promotional ala carte menu instead. they had a pretty large selection of mains, and it seemed quite similar to the normal ala carte menu too. i remember reading reviews online about the penne vodka, so i decided to get that. d wanted to get the frutti de mare. we got the fettuccine in light pesto cream sauce to share also.

the food didn't take that long to arrive. they all came out at the same time, and soon we were shoving our faces with it. i tried my penne vodka first; not bad i thought. the penne was al dente, with the rose (cream and tomato sauce) gently clinging onto the pasta. the taste was light, with a mildly creamy texture to it. but the parmesan cheese really topped it off well. it gave the dish a slightly cheesier side to it, making it quite delightful.

next came the frutti de mare. it was served with a generous portion of seafood and a light, tomato sauce. it tasted really zesty-tomato-ey. not fantastic to be honest. i wasn't very impressed. perhaps it was because i expected more from michelangelo's.

fettuccine genovese; fettuccini pasta sauteed with smoked salmon in a light basil pesto cream sauce finished with roasted peanuts - 7.5/10

last up was the cream sauce pesto with fettuccine. the salmon was cooked till firm, then mixed in with the pesto and cream sauce along with the fettuccine. there wasn't any fishy smell, and the overall taste was pretty good. the pasta was done al dente and the cream pesto was quite an intereting taste. but after awhile, i got bored of it and realized that i probably would have preferred either pesto alone or cream alone.

all in all, i wasn't very impressed with michelangelo's. perhaps it was because i expected too much. but honestly, i really didn't like the ambience and the food wasn't say excellent either. i don't think i'l be back very soon.

http://www.michelangelos.com.sg/

Michelangelo's - Chip Bee Gardens, Blk 44 Jln Merah Saga
Price - about $20-25 per entree

au petit salut

2008-07-29T19:06:00.002+08:00

choux buns

Au Petit Salut! I've always loved french food for being so pretty. So on a rainy summer day, I headed down to Au Petit Salut in Dempsey for lunch with a friend.

It's located rather off the beaten track (as all restaraunts in Dempsey are anyway) and impossible to get to without a car and worse still to leave. It's located in this gorgeous glass building that lets in light without the heat. It's a really pretty chic and casual place to have lunch in.I have no idea what it's like for dinner though, and if it remains the way it does for lunch, it may just be a tad bit too casual to justify the price for dinner. But you never know, they seemed like an amazing restaurant that was capable of transformation post lunch.

So we had the set lunch which was approximately 30+ per person which included a started, a main and rounds off nicely with dessert. The menu wasn't limited the way you'd expect a set lunch to be. After sneaking a peek at the dinner menu, it was evident that the lunch menu items weren't run offs from last night dinner too. There was also the option of the executive set lunch at about 60+ for those who wanted more options.

As a starter, I had the half dozen baked burgundy snails with tomato and garlic butter. It was absolutely yummy. But then again, I really do love snails, escargot or gong gong. The snails were soaked in the sauce. The greatest problem I've found in most food is that the food doesn't quite absorb the fragrance and taste of the sauce, making the dish extremely dissatisfying and bland when eaten. It wasn't the case with this dish though. (:

For the main, I had the Pan-seared “Onglet” beef served with confit shallots and French fries. Sad to say, this was disappointing. It was dry and the beef over done even though I asked for it medium. The fries were just average as well. Perhaps I'd picked the wrong dish for my main.

Finally, for the dessert, I had Choux buns filled with vanilla ice cream in warm chocolate sauce, sliced almonds. They were absolutely mindblowingly delicious. I really do have quite a sweet tooth and if there's one thing I think I'm discerning about, it's definitely desserts. These were really really really good. There was a nice mixture of warm and cold which didn't give that annoying freezing, cloying feeling that is sometimes experienced when chefs try to mix foods of different temperature. I suspect thought that some might find the dish a little too sweet for their liking. I really liked this dish though. Sometimes when you take different bits and put them together, you get just that - vanilla, chocolate and almonds. I particularly like this dish because the three ingredients were put together to produce a very unique seperate individual taste.

So after all is said and done, Au Petit Salut does provide a pretty decent meal for the price. It's also a really good place to catch up with friends over lunch. However, having it being so far from my house and being such a chore to get to and to make reservations for, it simply wasn't worth the effort and we haven't quite gone back in awhile.

au petit salut - dempsey road

price - $30 for set lunch

- d

Le Viet

2008-07-28T20:48:00.001+08:00

sugar cane prawns - 8.5/10

i like tze char. basically good old chinese food with a steaming hot bowl of rice and dishes in the center. but then, i don't really know that many good tze char places near my house. sometimes when you're lazy, you don't want to eat nice pretentious food. you just want something satisfying, convenient, and tasty at the same time. and for that, i like to go to Le Viet. now le viet isn't really chinese. well its vietnamese, but apparently the owner is local, so i guess thats where the local influnces come from. regardless, most of the waitresses are vietnamese which makes it just a tad difficult to speak with them when you're ordering your food, especially if you're fussy and like you food altered or done in a specific way. however, they're all really friendly helpful, which makes things much better. although le viet has pho and all, i much prefer to eat their main dishes. usually, the first thing that comes to my mind when i go there is sugar cane prawns. these are absolutely delicious. little sugar cane sticks are wrapped around in a prawn paste and then pan fried. this makes them incredibly succulent and tasty. the sweetness of the sugarcane penetrates the meat and really brings out the incredible flavor. the meat is slightly salty and firm to the bite, with a strong prawn taste to it. at the same time, when you bite hard into the sugarcane, you can taste the fruity sweetness of it and that combines fantastically well with the flesh of the prawns.

one thing that d really likes is the vietnamese summer roll. summer rolls are basically the healthy version of spring rolls. there's lettuce, some other vegetables and prawns wrapped around in a thin rice wrapper. they are then dipped into a thick, dark sweet sauce and then eaten. some people like this and some people don't. if you're really into deep fried spring rolls, you may not really like this. but if you're the type of person that doesn't really like fried food (and why in the world would you not?) then you'd probably like this. its super healthy. taste like eating grass. but in all honesty, its really not bad.

this was not to bad too. the broccoli was firm, stir fried lightly and not overcooked. so you still end up with that crunchy texture that you find when you don't cook vegetables for too long. some people like it, some people don't. i'm pretty ok with it. the scallops wer nicely done. but nothing spectacular. just wholesome veggies.

the guiness pork chops was something else that i like to order. its nice and sweet. i couldn't really taste much stout, maybe just a tiny hint of it. but its fried well, with the sticky sauce all over it.

black pepper beef on hot plate. the beef was succulent, soft and tender. the black pepper sauce gives it a slightly spicy taste.

so thats about it for le viet. i didn't plan to say much in this post. just showing you something interesting that i like to eat. a worthwhile try if you're in for some simple asian cuisine.

British Take Away

2008-07-28T20:30:00.000+08:00

if there's one thing i always wanted to try because of the way it sounds, its fried mars bars. its located at the basement of raffles city mall, just opposite the place where the famous donuts were (that was before Jco came to town and totally stole all its customers). anyway, i've passed by it a few times before and looked through the glass to see what they were cooking, however, the black sea of oil always kinda turned me off. however, i kept wondering what in the world they tasted like. so one day, after dinner at chijmes, d, fatty and i went to raffles city and decided to try the fried mars bar (and we got the fried curried chicken and sausages along the way).

so i went up to the lady and ordered. then i waited for awhile, got my food, and proceeded to the little counter next to it to eat while standing. d watched while fatty and i chomped down on the fried mars bars and chicken and sausages. the fried mars bar was really interesting. if you're wondering how they taste like, there's only one thing i can say. they taste exactly like they sound. fried mars bars. when i bit into it, i was like... hmm.. this taste like.. fried mars bars! its really funny but you got to try it to get what i mean. its not as great as it was hyped to be, but its an interesting (and disgustingly) sinful try nonetheless.

interestingly, i ended up liking the fried curried chicken pieces more than the mars bars. they come with a side of cheese so you can dip your tasty fried chicken into the cheesy sauce to create a great wonderful happy dance in your mouth. they're nice and salty, and they have a little crisp to it too. i really enjoyed it. as for the sausages, they seem to be regular bratwurst type sausages, nice and fatty with a crunch casing when you bite into it. its nothing spectacular, its just yummy as all good sausages are.

i finally tried it. so off to Jco we went...

Ice Cream Chefs

2008-07-27T20:13:00.001+08:00

you know you get the cravings for ice cream once in the while? then you think, hmm.. should i get them some phish food from ben and jerry's, some strawberry ice cream from haagen daz, or some gelare. well next time, add ice cream chefs to your list.

ice cream chefs is this little shop along east coast road which opened i think a year or two back. the concept is somewhat similar to that of cold stone and cold rock (which is a horrible copy of cold stone). however, ice cream chefs has a much more interesting flavor selection such as milo and granny smith apples. the taste is very light and definitely not overly creamy. although i enjoy my creamy ice cream, the ice cream chefs ice cream was a deliciously refreshing taste to remember. after finishing it, you don't feel the least bit full or "heavy" from the ice cream. instead, you leave with a satisfied yet craving for more feeling.

so you pick your ice cream. you can pick one or two flavors and they will mix it up on a cold stone plate for you. then you can tell them what mix-in you like. they have lots. from granola to peanut butter to m&m's. my personal favorite is milo ice cream with oreos. nice and simple yet super delicious. d's favorite is granny smith apple with granola. that one is really light and fruity.

one little tip; try not to mix chocolate stuff with fruity stuff. unless you're really into that kinda thing. other than that its up to your creativity. its a great little date place for you guys hunting around. its a very chill atmosphere with no pressure.

you can check out their website here:
http://icecreamchefs.blogspot.com/

Al Forno

2008-07-27T19:44:00.000+08:00

linguine vongole; linguine with clams tossed in white wine and olive oil - 5/10

its been awhile since i had dinner with chickb (aka fatty aka brian - don't ask me why he's called chick b. it just spanks his monkey) and my mom so we decided to have a nice quiet dinner, just the 3 of us, somewhere near my place. i've always wanted to try al forno's. partly coz its in wine and dine and partly coz its really near my house and i love italian. so off we went to al forno's. we got there jsut as it opened at 6.30. they sat us down next to the window (by the way there's really good hokkien mee next to al forno's at the kopitiam) and we checked out the menu. they have a pretty extensive list of pastas and pizzas. additionally, they have rissotto and other mains.

risotto fruitti de mare - 5/10

i heard the vongole was good so i got that. and chickb got the uber creamy carbonara (how boring). but then again carbonara is always good. who doesn't love cream and bacon anyway. a fat boy's favorite. mum's perpetually cutting (aka dieting) so she said she'll just share with us whatever we got. so we decided to get the risotto with seafood. and the 4 cheese pizza. the risotto was alright. very creamy and cheesy. sort of like a carbonara/fettucine sauce with the rice. the rice wasn't flavorful enough though. could have been better.

linguine carbonara - 6/10

the linguine carbonara was standard. not bad, but not great either. i guess its hard to do great carbonara. but then again its hard to make carbonara taste bad. its just lots of cream with eggs and bacon. i ended up eating quite a bit of chickb's carbonara. it was better than my vogole.

quattro formaggi; tomato, mozarella cheese, gorgonzola, parmesan and emmental- 7/10

the pizza was pretty good. very cheesy with a nice, fluffy yet crispy crust. my mum loves cheese pizza and she ate 4 slices. so much for cutting. my vongole turned out to be a disappointment. i guess its a little too light for my liking. the pasta was al dente, but other than that the pasta was kind of bland and not too good.

overall, the place wasn't as good as i expected it to be. definitely not wine and dine standard. i don't know how it got in. but nonetheless, a decent close by relaxing eat.

Al Forno - along East Coast Road, next to Margarita's
Price - about $20 per main

a little taste of Taipei

2008-07-27T09:10:00.000+08:00

there are some places that you go to and say, "oh, nice". these places are interesting, fun, but something is lacking. after awhile, you tend to put the memories into one little corner of your brain, waiting to be resurfaced in response to a question with a simple "it was fun". but then, there are other places which are different. these places are equally fun and exciting, but there's something more to it than that. perhaps its the company. or perhaps just the place. but i think not. the place is different. but its more than that. it has a niche. for me, taipei is one of those countries. the culture there is uniquely taipei. its not chinese, its not american (although you can clearly see the influences), its simply taipei.

well i arrived in taipei in the early afternoon. we chugged our luggage into a cab, which is really convenient and incredibly cheap in taipei, and left for our hotel. we stayed at caesar park hotel. its a really nice place which was really convenient because it was so central. there was even a train station next to the hotel, which had lots of shopping and restaurants and other interesting things. regardless, we checked into the room (which was really surprisingly clean and large. we were lucky to get a corner room), and then headed out - for food.

i was starving by then. it was 3+ by then and i haven't eaten lunch yet. so we decided to just roam around the hotel to get our bearings. we just casualy walked along the streets around the area, taking in the sights. one of the first things that i noticed was that there was an insanely huge amount of americano in taipei. starbucks, mcd's, kfc, pizza and many many other chains were there. additionally, i think taipei is only one of the few countries that has cold stone. for those of you who haven't tried this (and what's wrong with you), cold stone is the original mix your ice-cream and mix-in palor. ok, i'm not 100% sure if its the first, but it damn hell is the best. the ice cream is incredibly creamy and tasty. its fantasically rich and smooth. the sizes are pretty large too. they come in "like it", "love it" and "gotta have it" sizes. most of us probably take the smallest one. but i'm seen chunky (excuse the lack of PC-ness) american chicks downing the large ass (no pun intended) size right out of the store. in the states the queue can get pretty insane on weekends. where people even queuse out of the palor in the freezing -20 degree winter. talk about brain freeze.

but anyway, as i was saying, there is a large amount of american-ness in taipei. even the guys dress hip-hop style, which turns out to be kind of hilarious when asian dudes wear jeans that fall off they're crotches and large chains that hang down their necks. so you really can see the influence. its quite interesting because i've never seen such a strong mix of chinese and american culture splattered side by side anywhere else.

so we passed by all the mickey d's and stuckbucks around the area, and we were so hungry that we just popped by into some random shop along the street selling beef noodles. it was pretty good considering the randomness of selection. the noodles were really thick, kind of like ban mian type, with chunks of beef and a great spicy chilli sauce to go along with it.

after, that, we continued walking along and we came across this shop with a insanely long queue. being the curious glutton that i am, i peeped over the crowds and saw that they were pulling buns out of a giant pot thingy (2nd pic at the far back). i asked one of the guys in my horribly broken chinese what they were and he replied "shen jian bao" as though i was some idiot. but i guess if you were making, say, i dunno, porridge or something and some guy comes and asks you what you were cooking, you'd look at him like he was form mars too. anyway, the guy at the fore of the 2nd pic is shoving all the ingredients (which consists of meat, an assortment of vegetables) into the bun then, when the ones in the cooker and nice and crisp, they take all of them out and put the new batch in. all the freshly cooked ones are immediately sold off to the throng of people waiting. they put it into little paper bags and you can eat it while walking around, although i seems to be the only one doing this. i bought 6. i figured that if i ended up liking it i sure as hell wouldn't want to wait there another 20 mins to get more. d started commenting on what a fat pig i was but i couldn't really hear her admist all the food. so i got my buns and i took a bite of it. it took a couple of seconds to register this new food into my slow brain, but after while i said, mmm.. pretty good. not fantastic, but not bad. i gave some to d but she doesn't like all those little vegetables pieces inside. all those spring onion thingys. yay. all the more for me. i like it when she doesn't eat food that i buy. it gives me an excuse to eat all the food myself instead of feeling guilty that i'm going to get fat.

one thing i forgot to mention. taipei is hot in summer. insansely hot. not like singapore hot. like dry to the bones scorching hot. then again heat is my kryptonite. so my perspective may be a little skewed. don't bother bringing jeans to taipei in summer. i wore shorts all day. and i was melting already. and this was in may. thank god i brought shorts. i almost didn't want to.

so all the heat and the food got to our little bodies, the insulin was setting in and the heat was tiring us out. we marched back to the hotel and took a nice nap. fresh and recharged, we went out at night to shilin market. the cab driver told us that shilin is made up of two places, the marketplace, and the food center. we decided to head to the shopping area first. ok fine, d made me. much to my delight there was lots of food there too.

shopping was really fun in shilin. we were packed like sardines though. crowded as hell. but it was great. i think the atmosphere wouldn't have been so lively without the crowds. they really brought out the animal shopper in you. pushing and shoving, what a wonderful place. in all seriousness the people really did make the place more lively. i'm sure you're been to shopping areas which were so secluded that it was boring. well shilin was not like that. the place is basically a whole area that is cordoned off. so you're just walking on the roads meat for cars and there's shops left and right. in the center of the roads there are little food stalls, like the one pictured above. the pretty things really caught my attention and i asked the old lady who was manning (why not womanning?) the store what she was peddling. she said that was bread (2nd look of retardation given). i said "oh", and proceeded to order some just to try. they were dirt cheap but they tasted that way too. ok it wasn't that bad. it was just like normal bread. apparently all the bright colors were just artificial coloring, and they didn't really correspond to any particular taste.

so we walked along more and then came across this tofu place. these two guys (how come they're stick thin when they eat deep fried tofu all day) were cooking their chou tofu aka stinky tofu. now i had stinky tofu when i was in LA. yeah i know what you're thinking. LA is no place for stinky tofu. and you're right. my friend who brought me there said the tofus weren't stinky enough. and they didn't taste as good either. to be honest, i don't really find the tofus that stinky. perhaps its coz i actually like the tofu. i guess its like durians. you don't really find if stinky if you actually like to eat the food. but to those who don't, it smells like rat's ass. but anyway stinky tofu kind of smells more like sour milk. it has a real sour piss smell to it. but the shop is crowded to the max! if you look carefully at the picture below, you can see that the shop actually has a seating area behind it, and patrons just flock to this place. apparently they order a plate of tofu with noodles or something. its really cheap and good. i wanted to order two packets, one for me and one for d (coz i know she won't finish it than i can eat it) but d insisted she didn't want any. damn. there goes my grand plan.

so in the end i trudged away with only one sad packet. its actually 10 pieces of tofu inside (i actually counted it) and they put it in a normal clear plastic bag. then they dump in some pickle like thingy. it looks like a lot of coleslaw but its actually a pile of pickled vegetables. and then they dump in their special chilli sauce. i walked a few steps from the shop and used my chopstix to pick a piece. INSANE. IN-FREAKING-SANE. i was blown away. it was so good. i swear. i know you can't fathom how tofu can be so good. i honestly didn't expect it to be so good either. but damn. that is whack! its so good i'm not even kidding. oh man. i exclaimed to d and immediately turned around to get more. d probably thought i dropped my wallet or something and had to rush back to go look for it. i bought two more packs and one without chilli for d. even she ended up trying it and liking it. but its nowhere near as good without the chilli. you've got to get it with the chilli.

additionally, we got this drink called "ah yu" (pictured below). i have absolutely no idea what i means. all i know is that they always sell it next to the frog's eggs drink. so everything i'm out, i just look for the neon picture of the frog then i can find the ah yu. well i do know that ah yu is a fruit that is indigenous to taiwan. its a jelly drink that has a lemon flavor to it. its really good and thrist quenching. i drank this practically everywhere i went in taipei. (okay, a little editing here. d read the post and now she's making a fuss coz she said that SHE saw the ah yu first and she wants to be credited for that. ok no credit for ah yu --> d) happy now? :P

a couple days later we decided to go back to shilin again. however, this time it was for the food. we went straight to the food center and a huge sign greeted us at the entrance:

for those of you who can't read chinese (like me), it apparently translates to really big-ass fried chicken cutlet. i presume it isn't so vulgar but thats about the jist of it. the queue is really long and as i was queueing up i could see those patrons who got their chicken walk back. and damn if it didn't look good. the smell was intoxicating. the goodness of fried chicken along with the ever so powerful seasoning made it something to remember. when i got to the front, i was as excited as a little boy on christmas morning (or matter of fact me on christmas morning). i could see tons of fried chicken pieces freshly fried and seasoned in a little paper bag. mmm.. you know you can buy those pseudo taiwanese chicken cutlets in singapore but it doesn't taste anywhere near the real thing. no way man. this is the best.

carrying our chicken, we walked into the food center it was huge. lots of food which i totally couldn't understand. all the signs are written in chinese and when you ask the vendors what they're selling they just tell you the name of it, which isn't really much help. like if you come to singapore and i tell you that i'm selling char kway teow you wouldn't know what it was either. so no help there. in the end we left with an assortment of goodies. some sausages, taiwanese oyster omlette and some other funky bread thing that was kinda weird.

ok, so i was expecting a little more from the taiwanese oyster omlette coz i heard so much about it. basically its like an oyster omlette in singapore except they don't chop it up into little pieces. instead, they leave it as one big omlette. additionally, they poured some goey sauce all over it which i thought made it taste really bad. so the only thing that was memorable was the cutlet. but it was really good.

we did lots of eating and stuff along the way. but most of the stuff that i wanted to highlight is aforementioned. additionally, midway through we got really sick of chinese food and we decided to visit the mickey d's. thank god for that americano. mcdonalds never tasted so good. we ordered practically everything on the menu. fish fillet, double cheeseburger, fries, nuggets, big mac. haha.. and more nuggets. i guess you can never leave the food you grew up with.

on the last night, we visited this teahouse place up in the mountains. apparently its where alot of taiwanese celebrities go to chill out. the view was amazing. it was so quite and serene in the middle of the night, totally no sound of city life. however on the way there, the cab driver got lost and we spent like an hour going up and down the mountains to look for the place. i ended up having to pay 60bucks SGD! insane. but it was really nice. we drank tea for a couple of hours and at the end, as we were paying at the cashier, the owner invited us to drink more tea with them. apparently all they do is farm tea and drink tea. so we drank with them and chit chatted about life there and stuff. its really interesting to see how happy some ppl are with a simple way of life. coming from a metropolitan city, it really makes you reflect on whats important in life. because sometimes it seems, happiness really is everything.

Yummy Yummy Tako Yaki

2008-07-26T17:28:00.001+08:00

Yummy Tako Yaki - 10/10!

you know i was looking through some of my old pictures the other day and came across this baby. this was from last year on my trip to taipei. i stayed at a hotel right above the mrt underpass. the underpass is cool. it's like full of shops and restaurants and stuff like that, kind of a little like citilink but slightly more run down.

anyway, i was walking along the underpass one day and i came across this tiny little store, probably abour 8m-5m, and i was just walking pass it when i noticed that the two girls there were cooking something incredibly familiar. tako yaki. now tako yaki kind of has a nostalgic soft spot in my heart. i remember when tako pachi first came out in singapore (i think i was about 12), i would go to bugis junction so often just to eat it. originally, i my favorite was the octupus. but soon i started liking the ham and cheese one too. the cheese really gives it a nice creamy, and slightly salty texture to the tako pachi. its especially great with all the mayo on it.

but after a few years tako pachi kind of got a little old and passé and thus i stopped going there so often. but i never fail to introduce it to friends who drop by in singapore. and somehow they never fail to like it. so this tako yaki was just a little hole in the wall. its a tiny store. it didn't seem like a chain or franchise. additionally, the tako yaki itself didn't look all too appealing. the balls aren't as fluffy and perfectly round like the ones in singapore. they don't look as good (but then again, they don't look so mass produced either). but being the really curious foodie that i am, i decided to just try a couple.

we took our seats on these little short bar stools along the counter, just like how you would eat curry rice in a little shop in japan. so we asked them whats on the menu. i bet they thought we were total retards because the only thing on the menu was the octupus tako yaki, and they didn't have any other selection. so i was like cool, i'll get some. so they came in 6 or 12 (i ate 2 already in the picture) and i decided to get 6. they make ours fresh and we had to wait about 5 minutes before it came out. they laid it on a little dish and drizzled some special wasabi sauce on the side and another type of orange colored sauce on top of it, along with the standard fish flakes.

i took my first bite, WOW. fantastic. really really good. i don't want to overemphasize the point, but wayyyy better than the ones at tako pachi. it doesn't look as good, but it tastes much much better. the dough is really perfectly soft, and the octupus filling is nice and chewy, but not overly so like the tako pachi here. but the orange sauce on top is fabulous. and with a light dip of the wasabi sauce, it really hits the spot. a testament to this; d hates tako pachi, but after a few times i convinced her to try this one because it was so good. and she ended up being able to finish all 6 herself! i ended up going back a few more times and ate over 30 balls the course of my trip. we even brought some back to the hotel. i wish they had something just as good here.

anyway, for those of you who are going to taipei, i don't have the exact location, but its somewhere along the beginning of the underpass at Caesar Park Hotel, Taipei. go down the stairs next to the hotel and you'll see it pretty quick :) enjoy-

Zambuca

2008-07-19T23:02:00.001+08:00

pasta frutti de mare: fetuccine entwined with fresh seafood, fresh chillies, white wine and extra virgin olive oil with your choice of sauce; aglio olio, cream sauce or rosé sauce - 8.5/10

we've been wanting to try michelangelo's for awhile now, so i made reservations for the place. being the greedy overzealous food lover that i am, i went online to the site to check out the menu. disappointingly, i realized that the menu was extremely limited. they only had about 5 mains and even less starters. so i had second thoughts. on its site, however, i saw a link to zambuca, in addition to original sin and sistina. the menu there looked much better, and wine and dine seemed to give its stamp of approval too. so of we went to the pan pacific.

when you walk in, you turn to your right and you're greeted by a large open room dressed in noir. the whole place is dimly lit, and the decor is simply black. it wasn't even crowded for a saturday night, which made it great for a quiet dinner. the waitstaff were attentive, but i got mildly annoyed when the waiter had to "ask the chef" if i could change my choice of pasta. its the first time i ever had been told to wait when i asked to change my pasta. such inflexibility. regardless, they managed to do it so everything was fine. i only eat carbonara with linguini so i'm really particular about that. plus d just likes fetuccine on everything.

the menu was good. nice and extensive with a wide choice of pastas and risottos, along with a nice selection of other mains. the wine list was huge. a whole booklet that was thicker than the menu. apparently all the michelangelos wine lists are really complete. i had the pinot noir which was great, very smooth and not to dry.

all 3 mains came out together, despite me telling them to just bring out whatever is cooked first. i took a taste of the frutti de mare. very nice. the rosé sauce is a mixture of cream sauce and tomato sauce, so its like a little carbonara combined with some marinara, and the mixture turned out to be pretty good. a slight tinge of sweetness and sourness from the tomatos, but at the same time nicely fused with the cream. they were really generous with the seafood (unlike prego's), and the portions were very large.

linguini carbonara: linguini cooked with bacon and mushroom in a tasty cream sauce - 9/10

i tried my carbonara. excellent. pasta was al dente with the right amount of creaminess in it. not overwhelming at all. and one thing i like was that it came with lots of bacon and mushrooms. the portions was large. one full serving would be about just nice for me. this is probably one of the better carbonara's i had. restaurants either cook it too creamy or not creamy enough. i think this was about just right for my taste.

squid in tagliatelle: tossed with Jerusalem artichoke cream, freshwater crab, asparagus and sea urchin - 8/10

when i ordered this, i thought it would come out black; ie squid in pasta with squid ink sauce. so apparently i was wrong. the tagliatelle was squid ink but the sauce wasn't. nonetheless, this wasn't a bad choice. generous servings of crab meat were found inside, which went really well with the pasta and the creaminess of the dish. i couldn't find any sea urchin though, but it then again it was all smothered in the cream sauce and i couldn't even see the crab until i ate it. the sauce was creamy, but not like that of a carbonara. it had a slight cheesy taste to it.

by the end of the meal, we were totally stuffed. i think we made a mistake of ordering too many creamy dishes. but it was good..

Zambuca - Pan Pacific Hotel

Prices are about 30+ for mains

Red House Seafood

2008-07-19T08:37:00.000+08:00

ketchup crab - 8/10

we had a little of a seafood craving one day. so i decided to go to one of my favourite seafood places that i always go to; Red House. its one of those restaurants in the seafood center at east coast park. I've been going there for years and there is alot of great food here. the seafood is fresh and they even recently renovated so now its really nice and clean, with an air-conditioned second floor too for those who don't like to dine al-fresco.

the pepper crab here is probably one of the best and the chilli crab is not bad too.

fresh steamed prawns - 9/10

we started off with some freshly steamed prawns. i really like how they do their prawns so well. juicy and succulent, it's served with grounded chillies in a dark sweet sauce.

venison with spring onion and ginger - 4/10

the venison wasn't too good though. a little hard and rubbery. it tasted really lean as though there wasn't enough fat in the meat.

spicy thai-style seafood combination - 8.5/10

this one was a surprise. one of the house specialties that i never tried before. its sort of hard to describe. its slightly creamy and spicy, with a hint of thai sweet sauce. its really good though. squid, fish slices, scallops and prawns were cooked together in the sauce to make it nice and tasty.

we also had ketchup crab (we got the sri lankan ones. they're usually bigger and meatier). yup, gotcha there didn't i. yeah, its ketchup crab. and not chilli crab. no prizes for guessing why. it wasn't too bad though. i just dunked it in the spicy thai seafood sauce to give it a little kick.

The Final Day - Shintori

2008-07-12T17:43:00.000+08:00

We had our last dinner in Shanghai at Shintori. Shintori is a famous Japanese fusion restaurant set in an industrial like building. Great exquisite Japanese fusion food is served.

The ambience was very interesting. It was a large restaurant set in a giant building with an open kitchen, with chic-ly dressed waitstaff lots of mid twenties/thirties clientele. a someone what funky and trendy restaurant that borderlines on too new age and cool for me. we were seated on the second floor and had a great view of the restaurant. they used this little "food elevator" to deliver the food up so the waitstaff don't havet o climb up and down to give you your food. pretty cool.

we started with this jelly like appetizer. very good.

trio of tuna sushi - 8.5/10

this was really good. the tuna was perfectly fresh. each one was from a different part of the tuna. the tuna belly was really nice and fatty. the meat melts in your mouth. the other pieces were perfectly soft and very well cut.

south pacific style duck meat rolls - 8.5/10

Tendered duck meat rolls - South Pacific Style. Done extremely well. The duck was tender, gently wrapping the mango and the other ingredients inside. slightly tangy and sweet inside. delicious.

beef sashimi - 8.5/10

the beef sashimi was great too. you can see all the marlbling on it. really melts in your mouth. soft and tender. it might taste a little wierd at first, but if you're used to eating raw fish, i think you'll like it.

cuttlefish in butter sauce - 8.5/10

the squid was cooked with lots of butter and other sauces to make it really tasty. the texture was firm like squid usually is and very springy.

curried noodles - 9/10

next up, curried noodles. these came in tiny little bundles of noodles that you were supposed to lightly blanch before putting it on your bowl and smothering it with the thick delicious japanese curry sauce. the texture of the noodles was thin and al dente, even slightly thinner than ramen noodles. very fine texture and really smooth in your mouth.

the curry sauce

the japanese curry sauce was rich and tasty. very thick and strong peppery/curry taste that really flavored up your tongue. really satisfying.
blanch the noodles here before pouring the curry sauce all over it.

ingredients for the sukiyaki: the sukiyaki - 8.5/10

heavily marbled beef was introduced. thinly sliced sukiyaki style so it cooked really quickly. the sauce was simmering upon arrival, fresh and sweet, boiled for hours with other ingredients like onions in order to give it that rich broth.

the sukiyaki broth

cha soba - 6/10

cold green tea noodles. always refreshing.

green tea tiramisu - 8/10

this was an interesting combination. tasted exactly like it sounds. a combination of tiramisu and green tea made for quite a delightfully new taste. a great way to end the night.

The Final Day - Ye Shanghai Part Deux

2008-07-12T11:27:00.000+08:00

drunken chicken - 10/10

if you read by initial post of ye shanghai, you'd know what a huge fan of this place i am. therefore, it wasn't very surprising when we decided to go back to ye shanghai on the last day of our trip. back exactly to the same location for brunch again. the verdict? the experience was just every bit as good as the first, if not better. you know usually when you come across something good for the first time you're wow'd by it, then the second time you go there you don't think its as great anymore? well, thats what separates the good restaurants from the great. great restaurants are constantly able to get your attention, serving quality food with great service consistently. thats what makes the difference. its not that hard to make great food. but its hard to make great food consistently.

back to the food - we started off with drunken chicken again. this was one of the things we returned for. just as good as the first. fabulous.

crispy tofu skin - 6/10

we decided to try this dish. it was pretty alright. crispy and very light, the tofu skin just crumbles with crisp in your mouth.

river shrimps - 9/10

River Shrimps once more. Simple cooking with fresh ingredients always yield great results. I love this dish. I think CJ - La Mian in sg has a similar one.

sauteed beancurd with crabmeat - 7/10

soft tofu was simmered with a crabmeat sauce and sprinkled with mixed vegetables all over it.

noodles with dried shrimp - 9/10

Noodles with spring onions, sun-dried shrimp and soy. This was a new try and it turned out to be a great surprise. The noodles were cooked very well, al dente, providing a nice resistance in texture with just the right touch of soy and oiled lightly to preserve a smooth outer texture.

ye shanghai fried rice - 9/10

Fried rice in Ye Shanghai Style. The scrambled egg whites gave the fried rice great texture. The rice was really grainy and fresh. this was good. went really well with the other dishes.

steam shanghai pork bun/sheng jian bao - 10/10

More of the heavenly Shen Jian Baos. The best. i can't emphasize enough how good this is. you have got to try it. the bun is nice and fluffy soft on the outside, and crusted on the bottom. inside you'll find a nice chunk of meat and a whole lot of juicy goodness.

shrimp dumplings - 9/10

i remember feeling really satisfied after coming back here. then after that we were kind of sad cause we were leaving shanghai, and we realized that we definitely would miss this place and this restaurant. so many good memories and so much good food.

Day 7 - Dinner at Shanghai Uncle

2008-07-11T15:29:00.000+08:00

appetizer: dried tofu and vegetables - 8/10

so apparently shanghai uncle is THE place to go for shanghainese food in shanghai. according to frommer's, if you had only one restaurant to go to in the whole of shanghai, this would be it. it displays great spread of shanghai cuisine, and really introduces you to the culture of the food.

drunken chicken - 5/10

the restaurant was already really crowded by the time we arrived, and we were surprised because we were there early at 6. it looked like a good start. in typical shanghainese fashion, the place was rowdy and noisy, and the restaurant was bustling and brightly lit.

we started our meal with the complementary dried tofu and vegetables, along with the drunken chicken. the tofu and vegetables were great. the tofu was firm and slightly spicy while the vegetables were salty and crunchy. the drunken chicken wasn't as good as the ones we had in ye shanghai. somehow there was a really strong chinese herb inside that i didn't really like. (something about this whole restaurant and all the food there simply screamed chinese). it was like you knew you were eating mainland shanghainese food just by tasting the food. thats the only way i can describe it.

stir fried crystal shrimps - 8/10

akin to the river shrimps, these tasted just as good as any that we had througout our little shanghai journey. i must admit that we loved this dish alot.

the Uncle's Crispy Pork of FLAME - 9/10

the crispy pork with the tender meat underneath it

this was good. they served this to us and just as they came close, the lit it us. the flame was huge at first, so much so that i couldn't even take a proper picture. i only manged to get one when the flame died down a little. the dish was super hot and fresh. the pork was reallyy crispy and good. it was crispy all around but really nice and tender on the inside. at the same time the crust was nicely marinated with spices so that the flavor was greatly enhanced. highly recommended.

beef in stone pot - 9/10

the beef was super tender and really highly marbled. it almost melted in your mouth. it reminds me of those korean bbq dishes where they just grill the beef. it was nicely marinated and cooked with onions. and the portion was huge. this really was good.

tang bao - 7/10

Tang Bao. Like a really big Xiaolong bao but without the meat. You poke it with a straw and savor the broth inside. the soup was a rich broth, really tasty and delicious.

pine seed pork ribs - 8/10

this is supposed to be the house specialty. a nice slab of meaty and fatty pork ribs marinated in pine seed and other sauces then stewed till the meat is so tender it almost falls of the bone.

all in all i thought this place was a great place to eat at if you wanted to try some local cuisine. it really is quite different from most chinese food you eat. if you live in singapore, most of the time the food that you're exposed to is cantonese, so this shanghainese restaurant really exposes you to some new adventures

Day 7 - The Tiny Little Italian Place

2008-07-11T15:03:00.000+08:00

so the pasta craving came back. i flipped through frommer's again and discovered that this little place was in it. supposed to have fantastic, cheap pasta. the shop is so small its barely 20m by 20m. it was hard to even move inside the restaurant. i was actually quite surprised that this place made it into the book, because usually all these travel books recommend more established places with better ambience and decor. so actually i had pretty high expectations of the place. i mean if this little place is actually recommended, the food must be pretty good right?

well i was right. the food was reallyy good. and it was cheap too. less than 10 bucks per dish, which is quite cheap for an italian place in shanghai. and for the food you get, its really value for $$$. the menu is really limited, with a selection of maybe 6-7 pastas, some risotto and some lasagna and stuff. nothing to fancy, but it more than made up in quality (and price). i like cheap hearty food. haha..

Fettucini pesto with seafood - 9/10

i'm sure you can guess who ordered this. hahah.. Fettucini pesto with seafood. there's only a few sauces that i love, and here they are in order or lovin': 1) carbonara/alfredo 2) pesto 3) squid ink 4) good aglio olio. it was really wonderful. This was mine. The pesto was just right, aromatic basil and garlic with a tinge of saltiness. Went well with the denser al dente Fettucini.

Fettucini alfredo with chicken and mushrooms - 8.5/10

this was d's. really good too. fettucini with chicken and mushrooms. sliced chunky chicken breasts cooked till tender with the thick alfredo sauce and topped with mushrooms. in perfect symphony.

i really liked this hole in the wall, and i sure was glad to find it. it was kinda hard to find though. in the middle of nowhere with no sign at all.

Day 6 - Jala's Restaurant

2008-07-11T14:52:00.000+08:00

it was a blistery cold night in shanghai and we decided to stay in for dinner. we were kind of tired and didn't want to travel out too far for dinner, so we decided to check out the restaurant downstairs. so after gym, we went downstairs and decided that we needed a protein mix. ok, I needed a protein fix. thus we decided to try that jamaican/american restaurant - Jala's

lobster bisque - 5/10

we got some lobster bisque to start. nothing to rave about. i wouldn't say its bad, but it wasn't that great either.

surf and turf - 6/10

i had the surf and turf for my main. it was not bad. the steak was nicely grilled to a medium and it was tender and meaty. and the prawn was big and succulent, not over cooked and very juicy.

baked salmon on a bed of vegetables with mashed potatoes - 7/10

this was better. the salmon was grilled nicely and the mashed potatoes were buttery soft and mashed until super fine. the butter sauce on the salmon made it have a nice, slightly salty texture.

not the best i guess, but nothing to complain about.

Day 6 - Brunch at La Na Thai

2008-07-10T20:04:00.000+08:00

i was reading my little frommer's travel guide and there was this thai restaurant in it called la na thai. its supposed to hav reallyy good thai food with great ambience. its located around the french concession, in a 1920's-style colonial red brick building, within the compounds of the Ruijin guesthouse gardens. when we entered the place, it was like a giant mansion. we were greeted by a huge garden with several buildings around the area. we got off the cab and tried to find our restaurant. in the end we had to walk really deep into the place, but it was really nice and the scenery was amazing. for awhile we forgot we were in shanghai at all.

so we finally arrived at our brick building and we were greeted by a hostess dressed in her traditional thai costume. she led us to the second floor where the restaurant was, and we had a seat by the window. the view was really nice, we could see out onto the gardens and it was so peaceful and serene. no sounds of traffic and people. we came really early on a weekday and so it was totally silent. we had the whole place to ourselves.

the restaurant. perfectly quiet and peaceful.

everything on the menu looked really good. i took quite awhile to check out the menu and finally ordered what i wanted.

prawn cakes - 8.5/10

We had the prawn cakes to start. A meaty and succulent prawn filling was filled inside these cakes. they were then deep fried till the outside was just nice and crispy. served with a tangy sweet and spicy chilli sauce that complemented the dish perfectly.

soft shell crabs - 9/10

these soft shell crabs were super meaty. usually the ones we eat back here in sg feel kind of hollow and empty inside. but these were bursting with chunks of crab meat which made them really satisfying

beef satay - 8.5/10

Large chunks of skewered beef were grilled to perfection. Served with extra finely ground peanut sauce and a side of sliced chillies and onions. The peanut sauce was so finely grounded that it became close to a puree. It went very well with the satay.

green curry - 9/10

this spicy to the touch green curry was extremely addictive. full of flavor and spicess with tender chunks of meat inside. fantastic.

crispy pork - 10/10

Crispy pork with vegetables. I loved this dish. reminds me of the crispy pork that i used to eat at this thai restaurant back in the states. this was really good. he pork was layered, with the top being extra crispy whilst being able to retain the meaty texture on the bottom, less fatty parts.

pad thai - 8/10

lastly, we had the pad thai. peanut-ty and slightly tangy at the same time, this was a great accompaniment to the meal.

overall, this restaurant was really fantastic. one of the best thai restaurants i've ever eaten at. i highly recommend it.

Day 5 - Breakfast in bed and Crystal Jade

2008-07-10T19:31:00.001+08:00

breakfast in bed - eggs, sausages and ham. oatmeal. dim sum, congee, toast and a fruit platter

on day 5, we decided to go to tong li, this little chinese village that has preserved all its old buildings and stuff. it was quite cool cause it was so well preserved, it looked like it came out of an old chinese movie set. the town was nice and it really was so similar to what you see in the movies. but anyway, we drove back to shanghai and then we went to the french concession, where we had crystal jade. we decided to go there because 1) we had heard that the food was pretty good 2) we wanted to see how it fared compared to ding tai fung there.

well it turned out to be really good. the photos didn't come out too well though, so i shall spare your eyes of the trouble. regardless, i just wanted to say that it was just as good as DTF. and to be honest, i wouldn't be able to say which one was better overall even if you asked me. plus, they had horfun too!

Day 4 - The Whampoa Club

2008-07-07T19:11:00.002+08:00

Dinner for the night at The Whampoa Club. This award winning restaurant serves modern shanghai cuisine - fine dining style. Its name has been floating around all over from various dining magazines to even the financial times. Needless to say, it was a must try. The decor was stunning. The food and service was impeccable. Located at three on the bund, the Whampoa Club was founded by Jereme Leung, one of the world's most innovative and well regarded chinese chefs.

pre-appetizer: beef in a light vinegar sauce with quail egg - 9/10

this was really good. in fact all the dishes were really good. the beef was shredded and very tender, with a mild black vinegar taste which combined fantastically well with the quail egg.

the appetizer:

Seasonal vegetable rolls topped with stir fried spicy sea whelk - 9.5/10

Pickled radish rolled with long beans and crispy fluffy sesame pastry - 9.5/10

Braised wind-dried snow vegetables with thin sliced cuttlefish - 9/10

all of the three appetizers were great. unique and adventurous, yet bolstering on the great tastes and flavors of traditional chinese cuisine.

fresh potato soup with a duo of tofu and fresh peeled crab claw - 9.5/10 roasted chicken fillet in chinese herbs dressing and braised winter melon - 10/10

the chicken was insanely tender, yet the skin was just slightly crispy, making it soo delicious especially when you ate it with the winter melon. this was incredible. i loved the chicken.

Dou cooking style king prawn served. Crispy five-spiced and wok braised served with crispy egg noodles - 9.5/10

the prawn was really tasty. you could really taste all the different spices and herbs on your tongue. and its crispyness made it great.

The Sweets:

Trio Pumpkin Combination. Double boiled white fungus pumpkin soup, home made pumpkin ice cream and pumpkin cookies.

home made pumpkin ice cream and pumpkin cookies - 10/10

i don't even really like pumpkin. but the home made ice cream didn't have that bad aftertaste that i dislike, and the COOKIE was so incredible. not to sweet but tasted so freshly made.

double boiled white fungus pumpkin soup - 9/10

overall a fantastic restaurant, definitely recommened to anyone who travels to shanghai.

check out their website at http://whampoaclub.com/e_sh_w.htm

Day 4 - The Best Brunch in Shanghai

2008-07-06T21:16:00.000+08:00

fantastic. thats all i have to say about this restaurant. there's no better word to describe it. i'm telling you now, in the whole trip, this WAS the best restaurant that we ate at. in fact, i'll go as far as to say that this is one of the best restaurants i've ever eaten. ye shanghai in shanghai. its so good that we went there a second time on our vacation! ok, i think i'm getting a little over-excited here. i think i should start by introducing a little about the restaurant.

this restaurant is located in xintiandi, aka the french consession. there's a whole block of restaurants around that area, and its great to just take a nice walk there in the mild cold. the place has a rustic, old colonial feel to it, with brick buildings and nice cobbled walkways. i love the fact that the inside of this restaurant is decorated beautifully. nice and colorful, perfect for a weekday lunch or evening dinner. its two-storeyed, with a stage for singers and more tables on the second floor. wonderful. the restaurant was supposedly started in hk, but they opened a second outlet in shanghai and the shanghai one is said to serve better food. (d says that the shanghai one is definitely better than the hk one coz she went there, especially in terms of ambience)

so we sat down and took a look at the menu. there's lots of food to choose from, all of which looks incredibly good. so in the end i ended up ordering alot (whats new), and got some recommendation from the waitress too.

drunken chicken - 10/10

first came the cold drunken chicken, recommended by the waitress. DAMN this was good. i initially took a look at it and scoffed to myself, saying that it looked kinda gross plain. but DAMNN once again. this was incredible. its like a jack in the box. boring on the outside but lots of fun and surprises on the inside. the meat was incredibly tasty, and the skin was not even too fatty. extremely tender and full of alcoholic goodness. you could taste the wine and sherry, seeping deep into the moist flesh. and it wasn't the least bit oily. i haven't been so shocked by a dish in awhile. what a good way to start the meal. but read on..

river shrimps - 9/10

next up was the river shrimps. if you've been following the shanghai series, you'd know that i really like this. its really good and tastes fantastic. the freshness of the shrimps and the crunch of it makes it wonderful.

har kau - 9/10

excellent har kau. perfectly, compactly wrapped with the skin of just the right thickness; and a juicy, succulent shrimp filling inside.

siew mai - 5/10

ok. this was the only disappointing dish. or maybe we just weren't acquired to the taste. what we have here is ye shanghai's version of siew mai. so what they did was instead of having a regular meaty filling, they somehow puréed the meat and now we have puréed siew mai. i thought it tasted really unusual. personally, i didn't like it that much. but thats ok because..

ORGASM ON A PLATE

steam shanghai pork bun/sheng jian bao - 10/10

like having pocket aces for your starting hand in poker, this dish just makes you want to do the happy naked dance. This Sheng Jian Bao beats those in Taipei hands DOWN. Unbelievably fantastic. The bun is baked, but the moisture is so well retained that the outer layers are still soft and chewy. However, the bottom is perfectly cursted. With each bite, you can taste the chewiness of the bun, along with the crust from the bottom, brining out an intense flavor. Combine this with the meaty moist filling inside, so well made that the broth from the meat is retained, leaving a reservoir of juices trapped inside the bun. The outcome is mindblowing. it was so good that i was totally unaware of what d was yapping about. but then i proceeded to stuff one in her mouth. that seemed to help.

stewed tofu cooked in crab sauce - 7.5/10

this was really nice. i thought it went really with with the fried rice (pictured below). the tofu was soft to the touch, mildly spicy with a nice tinge of crab meat that created that robust flavor. went well when paired with the freshness of the fried rice.

steamed rice with spring onions and slices of meat - 8.5/10

The rice is steamed, not fried, so the moistness remains, creating a simple dish that goes well with the bolder flavors of the others.

xiaolong bao - 7/10

Xiaolong bao. Apparently we ventured to find the best of these in Shanghai. Crystal Jade and Din Tai Fung come out tops. Its a tough call between the two. Though these were done well too.

i'm sure that i've overemphasized this, but this restaurant was good. all the dishes were of a very high standard. you can tell that the chef really put his heart and soul into every single plate, without a single detail left unattended to. so if you go to shanghai; please, please, eat at this damn place and tell me about it. but even if you told me you didn't like it i would never believe you.

keep a lookout for part deux of ye shanghai!

Day 3 - Cloud 9

2008-07-06T21:03:00.001+08:00

spicy peanuts appetizer

After dinner we decided to go to cloud 9, the 60th+ floor bar at Grand Hyatt. it was close by in puxi so it was really convenient for us. the view was supposed to be magnificent, overlooking the whole of shanghai.

so we took a cab to the grand hyatt and went up several lifts before we managed to even reach the place. the bar was really big, spanning the whole floor in a circular fashion, overlooking the city. it was a little cloudy that night (no pun intended) but it really nice. the ambience was really great too, nice and romantic. perfect for a getaway with that someone. we got some champagne and fondue and just sat there and chit chatted the night away..

Day 3 - Buffet dinner at the hotel

2008-07-06T18:00:00.000+08:00

Spaghetti carbonara. Accompanied with tender pieces of skewered chicken and bell peppers - 6/10

we came back in the afternoon on day 3 after some tiring shopping (and eating). i never had much stamina for shopping, so apparently i tend to get grumpy and give up after awhile. but thats besides the point.

Ratatouille. The vegetable stew, with eggplant, tomatoes, zucchini, peppers, and onions and seasoned with herbs and garlic - 5/10

so when we woke up we were famished, and since it was blistery cold outside, we decided to just have dinner in the hotel. we went down and we saw this pretty nice spread at the buffet, so we took up its offer.

chocolate cake - 5/10

there's not much to say in this post. mostly buffet food. i like eating alot but sometimes i think that buffets sacrifice their quality for quantity. but then again i was hungry so i didn't care that much. the pictures are some of what was offered. i shall not elaborate and waste your time since this place wasn't anything to rave about.

Day 3 - Dim Sum at Yu Ting

2008-07-05T22:31:00.000+08:00

pork dumplings/siew mai - 9/10

so midway through our little shanghai adventure we discovered that our hotel actually had some pretty good restaurants. one of the restaurants was this cantonese place which suposedly served really good dim sum. i love dim sum, so i really wanted to try the one just downstairs. so on day 3, we decided to go to yu ting's for some lunch.

we took the escalator to the restaurant floor, and walked really deep into the other end of the building to get to the place. we really walked and walked and walked and i was surprised how far the place was and how big the hotel was too. so we finally arrived at the restaurant at a quiet 11am and we were greeted by a large nice chinese restaurant, with glass from wall to wall and the sun lighting up the whole place. the ambience was really great, and since it was so early on a weekday morn, we were one of the first few customers in the restaurant.

so i glanced through the menu and ordered, and started talking with d and patiently waiting for the food to arrive. it took a little bit longer than i would have liked but the quality really made up for it.

shrimp dumplings/har kau - 9/10

so we got the basics in. ha kau and siew mai are always there when we order dim sum. the har kau was really good. very nice and fat with lots of shrimp filling inside. the skin was firm but easy to bite through, and the filling was really delicious with lots of crunch that you get when you bite into well cooked shrimp.

the siew mai was really interesting. they made it nice and big too. the pork was firm and meaty, and each bite was bursting with meaty, chewy flavor. they decorated it with big round fish roe on the top, which provided a unique and interesting contrast to the taste.

rice wrapper roll with shrimp/chang fen - 7/10

up here we have the shirmp rice wrapper roll, served and then freshly drizzled with sweet sauce. the flour was nice and soft, wrapping the perfectly cooked shrimp snugly.

glutinous rice - 8/10

the glutinous rice was steamed and presented very prettyly and neatly. it was piping hot when opened and you could see all the steam coming out. the insides were filled with pork and mushrooms that were nicely stewed.

the insides of the glutinous rice

chicken feet / feng jiao - 8/10

Feng Jiao. Done slightly differently from the usual black bean sauce, preserving more of the natural flavor. I don't usually like this very much, but i must admit this one was done very well.

bbq pork bun/char siew pau - 8/10

the charsiew pau was nice and fluffy and you can see how the dough really is like in this picture. its so fluffly its almost like candy floss. the texture was really chewy and the filling was nice and moist.

steamed pork ribs/pai kut - 9/10

this is probably my favorite dish. perfectly steamed pork ribs with a nice amount of fat, so tender and meaty at the same time. cooked with black beans and a hint of chilli for extra flavor.

i think this restaurant has really good dim sum. if i were in shanghai i'd definitely go back again. plus the ambience and the service were both very good.

Prego - Great Fruitti de Mare Pizza

2008-07-04T23:35:00.001+08:00

pizza frutti de mare - 9/10

so i was reading about Prego's and it said supposedly had some really good hearty italian food. so d made reservations for friday evening and soon, the day arrived. we drove to raffles city mall and walked to fairmont hotel (which is connected from level 1). i was really hungry when i arrived, and was greeted by a huge restaurant, with tall ceilings and a very cafe like atmosphere.

the ambience wasn't as posh or romantic as most would like it to be. its very cafe style and the atmosphere was really nice and relaxed. we were presented with the menu and the list was really long. they had lots of starters and a large selection of pastas, lasagnas and other meaty mains of steak, fish etc.

linguini with guanciale bacon, pecorino cheese, egg yolk - 8.5/10

i was really craving some good pasta and i knew exactly what i wanted; some thick, super creamy carbonara. and thats exactly what i got. i had linguini to go with it because i love how the larger surface area per volume of pasta (as compared to broader varieties like fettucine) is coated with the creamy sauce, which makes each mouthful drenched with the thick sauce. the pasta was really good. it came super creamy with lots of bacon strips inside, making it wonderfully tasty and aromatic.

saffron risotto with sauteed prawns and seared sea scallop - 8.5/10

d got the saffron risotto. this was reallyyy good. the seafood flavor totally seeped deep into the rice, making it immensely rich and flavorful. super moist and yet mildly grainy at the same time, but all the while preserving the taste of the seafood.

squid ink lagsana - 7/10

we also got the squid ink lasagna. the lasagna was layered with squid ink pasta sheets. it was firm and really easy to eat, with a top that wasn't to wet or crumbly and could be easily cut into with a fork. it sheets were firm and you could really taste the texture of it. i thought this was pretty good.

pizza parma ham and mozzarella - 7/10

we got 2 pizzas. one was the frutti de mare aka seafood and the other was parma ham with mozzarella cheese. both pizzas came in a fabulous thin crust, done perfectly well. the pizzas here were really made very well, probably done firewood style. the crust comes out nice and crispy, with just the right amount of fluff in the dough. personnaly, i thought that the frutti de mare was excellent. the seafood nicely complimented the dough and the marinara sauce. the parma ham was a little too plain and cheesy for my liking. but some people like their pizzas plain and with less meat, so i guess its all about personal preference. the mozarella cheese was nice and soft on top of the pizza, and the super thin slices of salty parma ham were pretty tasty.

traditional beef lasagna - 5/10

the traditional lasagna was not too bad. not impressive, but then again i never really liked lasagna that much, so i guess i'm not in a great position to judge. ask the lasagna experts out there.

nice place overall. already made a return visit ;)

Prego - Fairmont Hotel, next to Raffles City Shopping Mall
Price - about $30 per main

Day 2 - Dinner at Danielli's

2008-07-03T22:01:00.000+08:00

so on day 2, after lots of shopping and sightseeing on day 2 (ok not that much. i hate shopping) we were getting hungry. we had researched before we went out and we decided that we wanted to try this restaurant that we heard about. it was this restaurant called Danielli's at the St. Regis. its supposed to have loads of awards from wine and dine and shanghai tattler and was even named "best pasta" in shanghai. being the huge pasta-sucker that i am, we decided to try this place.

the open kitchen

the ambience of the place was really good. quiet, dimly lit and very classy. the waitstaff were super attentive and pretty knowledgable about the food too. however, it seemed like a recurring theme throughout china that it was really hard to communicate if you don't speak chinese too well like me. even d had problems communicating alot of the times. so much for higher chinese classes in secondary school. can't even talk to the cab driver. in fact my frantic gesturing turned out to be pretty useful and very understandable alot of the times. must be all the charades i played when i was young. that and from watching win, lose or draw.

sliced beef - 8/10

we started out being served this sliced beef appetizer which was pretty good. served medium. it was really tender with very natural flavors. not much seasoning was put onto this. presentation was very nice. two teeeny pieces of meat. no wonder its an appetizer. leaves you hungrier than you were before you ate it.

the antipasti platter - 8/10

The antipasti platter. The hard cheddar. The soft cheese with tomato, thin slices of cold cut ham, and a cheese baked tart amongst others. The cheeses were very pungent and bold in flavor. for those of you who like cheese, you'll love this. but for those of you who are not too fond of them, you might find the smell and taste a little overpowering. i really liked the soft cheese, which was easily cut through with a fork. it went really well with the fresh tomato that was served.

tagliatella cooked in squid ink with cream sauce - 9/10

next up were our mains. i had the tagliatella cooked in squid ink with seafood in a mild cream sauce. this was truly cooked to perfection. the pasta was first cooked in squid ink and them with the cream sauce, which was just right in its texture and viscousity. it was not too heavy so as to overwhelm the pasta, but yet creamy enough to create that heavier texture and taste. The clams and shrimps served as perfect accompainiments.

seafood pasta - 8.5/10

d had the seafood pasta. it really looked uncannily liked udon. in fact, it kinda tasted a little like it too. but it was still very good nonetheless.

tiramisu - 8.5/10

we ended of the meal with tiramisu for dessert. served with a little chocalate piece which d was more than happy to eat. the tiramisu was firm and cold inside. just the right amount of moisture to allow the sweetness to flow out into your mouth when you bite into it.

great meal overall. definitely one of the better italian places i've been too ever.

Day 2 - Brunch at the French Concession

2008-07-03T20:56:00.000+08:00

the restaurant in the french concession

so on the second day we woke up and decided to start our day off with some brunch. we had planned to visit this resraurant in the french concession that we had read about in frommer's. it is supposedly pretty famous and has been frequented by both local and foreign celebrities.

pickled olives

we walked in at 11 sharp, just as they were opening. the whole area around the restaurant seems like this little chinatown that has been cordoned off. it definitely didn't look french at all. regardless, we entered the restaurant and upon ordering, were confronted by these things pictured above. i tasted it and thought it was horrible. it was bitter and sour at the same time. i think they give it to you so that when you actually eat some real food you'll think its really good. haha.. i cringed and d asked the waitress what it was. turned out to be pickled olives, served as an appetizer. i didn't take a second bite.

stir fried noodles with seafood in clear sauce - 8.5/10

the first real dish that came out was the stir fried noodles cooked with mixed vegetables and shrimps in a clear sauce. i know it doesn't look all too appealing. that's exactly the same thing i thought. it definitely wasn't what i had in mind when i ordered it. but then i took a mouthful and wow, was it good (maybe it was the pickles). this dish probably has the highest taste:looks ratio that i have ever eaten. it looks so bland and tasteless and kinda yucky and gooey but it was actually reallyyy tasty and full of shrimps and scallops and other goodies. the noodles were nice and springy and the clear sauce was surprisingly delicious. i hate peas though but even then i thought this was fantastic.

river shrimps sauteed with crab meat - 8/10

next came the river shrimps sauteed with crab meat. this is a variation of the river shrimps that we had the night before. instead of having it plain, they cooked this in a yummy crab meat sauce which blended perfectly with the crunch of the shrimps. it was mildly spicy but didn't overwhelm the taste of the shrimps at all.

xiao long bao - 8/10

next we had the xiao long baos. on a side note, no matter where we ate, the xiao long baos in shanghai had at least a decent standard. i presume its because its so commonly eaten there and that there is so much competition that you at least have to make a decent xiao long bao otherwise you won't be respected as a restaurant, especially since its one of the national dishes.

Braised sea scallops on a bed of asparagus - 8/10

over here we have some sea scallops with asparagus. these were done pretty well too. the scallops were cooked just right. my mum tells me timing is everything with scallops. cook too short and they come out tasting sticky and raw. but cook them a minute too long and they come out too hard and rubbery. well these were done pretty alright. braised lightly with oyster sauce which gives the dish its distict chinese taste.

Dumplings with shark's fin - 7/10

these were intesting. they were shark's fin inside a xiao long bao wrap. the juice was flavorful and you could taste the sharks fin. but somehow i personally prefer the taste of meat inside the dough.

pork pastry - 8/10

last but not least we have the pork pastry. apparently this is kind of meant to be eaten last. its supposed to be a favorite of president clinton when he dined here. its a very delicately soft pastry with a nice warm moist pork filling inside that really makes you feel happy after eating it. the meat is tender and slightly sweet, oozing with lots of flavor. yum. no wonder he liked it. (apparently these aren't the only soft things he likes though)

Day 1 - Dinner at Din Tai Fung

2008-07-03T20:21:00.000+08:00

stir fried kailan with garlic - 7/10

so sometime close to christmas last year i took a trip to shanghai. it felt good to be out of ns (even though i don't really do anything there) and to take a week plus of work to just relax. it so happened that i decided to go overseas so there was so much new food to try!

xiao long baos - 9/10

so anyway, after we landed and checked it, it was late evening already. we decided to take a cab out to the nearest huge mall around the corner and decided that we would eat whatever whatever we found. we were walking and walking and super hungry by that time, and i was desperately craving some xiao long baos. i think it must have been all the damn hype that i got reading about shanghai and all the food. anyway, we saw din tai fung! the din tai fung in taipei is supposed to be the 4th best restaurant in the world. anyway i tried it before and thought it was pretty good, but definitely not top 10 restaurants standard.

so anyway we walked in and after staring at the menu for quite awhile, we ordered. by that time i was already starving and was sure that i was going to pass out from low blood sugar levels if i didn't get some food into my mouth. but apparently i didn't.

fresh river shrimps - 9/10

so one by one our food came. overall, i thought that the food was fantastic. the din tai fung in shanghai is not like the DTF in sg. its much nicer there and the food selection is totally different. its more like crytal jade/imperial treasure type menu.

one of the first dishes that arrived was the fresh river shrimp.Turns out to be our staple favorite dish in Shanghai. We tried the same dish at several other restaurants too. The shrimps always had a fresh spring to them and were really tasty.

tofu cooked in crab sauce - 8.5/10

the xiao long baos came next. they were insanely good! much better than the dtf-taipei ones! it was so good that i lost count of how many i ate. perfect texture of dough on the outside; not to thick to ruin the taste of filling and yet not too thin to cause premature punturing of the skin. the meat was tender and there was lots of juice inside.

the tofu on crab sauce (pictured) was another thing that we saw all over shanghai restaurants. its basically a soft tofu served in a crab based sauce with chunks of crab meat and some crab roe mixed together inside. it you like crab and tofu, you'll definitely like this. the taste was very strong and bold.

pork and shrimp dumplings - 8/10

last but not least we have the pork and shrimp dumplings. its kind of like a shiu mai plus xiao long bao combo where they put shrimps on top of the pork filling that is inside. its really meaty and tasty and was super juicy to the bite.

zha jiang mian - 8.5/10

last but not least we have the zha jiang mian. i don't know why i have such a fascination with zha jiang mian. i think its cause when i was in the states and super craving chinese food i suddenly was recommended by the chinese chef to try his new dish which was zha jiang mian. i remember it turned out to be very good and from then on i fell in love with the dish. anyway its basically la mian with some minced meat on top. a very simple but tasty dish.

all in all i think that this place was really good. if i lived there, its definitely one place that you could count on me going back to time and time again.

Cupcakes Galore

2008-07-02T22:00:00.000+08:00

so d really likes cupcakes. alot. so she keeps raving about cupcakes all day and all night till once when i was sleeping i get dreams of little cupcake men (basically cupcakes that have sprouted hands and legs and has strawberries for eyes) chasing and throwing little chocolate balls at me while i frantically run away from them. (i guarantee they looked much scarier in the dream).

so i took that as a sign that i had better get some cupcakes before things start to get out of hand. so d surfed around for some cupcakes and she told me about this site which sells cupcakes. apparently there was a 3 week waiting time for these damn things. damn. anyway we ordered a bunch of them and i think they turned out pretty well. i've never been huge on cupcakes but she says these are really good. i really liked the one in the center (the BIG one) because it kinda tasted for like muffins which is what i prefer. regardless, i got to taste all of them and i must say that they're all pretty good. the ones i like more is the one right at the top (black tie event) and the one with the strawberry. d liked the bright yellow lemony ones best and the black tie event. all in all pretty nice.

you can get them here:
http://www.c-cup.biz/