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old school delights

July 13, 2011
Local, Upper Thomson | Novena, Value (less than $15)
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playful eating.

ya’know how when you were young and your mom told you not to play while eating your food, else you would get indigestion? well, mom, tell that to old school delights then. =) a brightly lit themed eatery intending to bring back one’s childhood memories, this place found along upper thomson road is one nice place to chill and just enjoy the cheerful ambience.

i say themed because the restaurant really does try its best to recreate the old time feeling — what with menus decorated as report card books, enid blyton books stacked on shelves along with wooden toy guns and a gratuitous use of the chalkboard for all sorts of scribbling. furthermore, each table has a toy box filled with old time favourites like five stones, country-flagged erasers and snap cards — i just realised how cheap our fun was compared to the children of today who demand ipads and tamagotchis to satisfy their interests.

anyways, come to this place more for the ambience and just for chill out sakes, but don’t expect too much fancy stuff on the food front.

mee siam, $5.50

you see, the problem with trying to create a cafe that sells simple Singaporean style hawker food at slightly pricier prices usually doesn’t work because it is so easy for people to find another standard for comparison. in a sense, such comparisons are so easily accessible to us as compared to say good french food and good japanese food that it takes an astoundingly outstanding rendition of a local fare to really justify an increase of price based on taste. indeed, old school delights doesn’t succeed on this front — whilst eating my mee siam, i was instantly drawn back to a time in JC where i would head to ghim moh for $2.00 mee siam that tasted pretty much the same.

i would argue that most cafes that serve local fare will suffer similar fates, though I would recommend people to head to Space @ Humble House, at Esplanade, as they renditions of local fares are really a step up, with choice ingredients such as scallops and prawns in your carrot cake, and a really cool, sleek, minimalistic atmosphere (and of course they make you pay for it).

well, old school delights doesn’t exactly make a mark on the food front, though the desserts look tempting (and perhaps one day I would try it). nevertheless, what it succeeds in doing is to create a warm, cheerful atmosphere that invites people to come in and relax, drink in the cheeriness and recollect on days gone by. 6/10

old school delights | 215M Upper Thomson Road | local, comfort food, desserts

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artichoke

July 11, 2011
Brunch, Bugis | Little India, Contemporary, Others, Pricey ($30 - $70)
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cosy little art corner.

when i suggested to my cornell friends to come to artichoke to eat, i guess they weren’t used to my liking of hidden finds and the likes and hence i got this sms from one of my friends when she was reaching..

“frank, im reaching, but are you sure this is correct? im opposite fortune center and it looks positively seedy“

lol. well, sculpture garden is tucked away at the edge of middle road facing dubious looking buildings like fortune center and ma-kwang TCM clinic but well, its a hidden haven away from the bustle of the city — the compound was converted from an old church into an art gallery with an ensuite restaurant space that used to house the secret garden. we decided to visit the art gallery after our meal and found it a really cool exhibition space for up and coming artists. this is the side of singapore i like.

anyways, the interior of artichoke is like that of a casual relaxed cafe, with simple wooden chairs surrounding normal tables, the monotony of white washed walls interrupted with graffiti-esque designs and blackboards chalked with today’s specials. its kinda warm, perhaps to give the impression of an semi-alfresco dining but there’s a sense of an otherworldly-ness due to its secluded location.

service-wise, lets just say this place doesn’t exactly win any awards on that front. the servers aren’t exactly the friendliest and weren’t too helpful. first of all, considering there were 7 people on my table and the water jug on our table was perennially empty, i wonder why it wouldn’t have been easier to just give us two jugs. also, when we asked for recommendations for dessert, this dude said we could share a date pudding among three people, prompting us to recoil and wonder just how big the pudding was (it turned out to be nice for one -_-”). finally, the cardinal sin was when a server came and swiftly took awake our dish of date pudding with one final morsel left that we had been struggling to decide who to finish since we are chinese and we all have the “last piece aversion syndrome”. what a crime.. lol

nevertheless, the food was excellent, so lets get to it.

grilled haloumi cheese, $14

delicious. the grilled cheese tasted amazing and paired well with the savory condiments of walnuts, olive oil, tomatoes and the likes. that being said, we quickly realised an issue with 7 people at the table — simply put it, the style of dining at artichoke and the portion size of the dishes makes it exceedingly difficult for a group of 7 to feel satiated, considering one gets small morsels of every dish ordered, no matter how many. and mind you, i think we got a little carried away ordering dishes to satisfy our hungry stomachs to the point that the meal became an exorbitantly priced affair. you see, artichoke encourages you to share your dishes, and whilst sharing such-sized dishes is decent for 3 – 4 people, it’s not the case for 7.. you practically have to order double for each, which we failed to realise. (i blame all ordering issues to the service, since the servers should be astute enough to advise on such stuff)

its irritating when the food is actually really good, with really complex and interesting flavor profiles, and yet the service, portions, price and just the overall satisfaction level lets you down.

home-grown grilled mushrooms – $15

i never knew mushrooms could taste so good. nuff’ said. the seasoning, along with the freshness of the shrooms made for a refreshing and delicious dish.

poutine (hashbrowns pieces doused in oxtail gravy with oxtail bits, fresh prawns, red cheddar and argula) $28

i would have ordered this online for myself had i the choice. Poutine is something i had when i first headed to Canada and had always wished for it to appear on menus in Singapore  - essentially a dish of french fries, fresh cheese curds covered with brown gravy, this version of your common fries is really something. I remember us students driving around trying to find a KFC along the Candian highway in order to get our poutine fix. anyways, this dish was really satisfying and good — the oxtail gravy and fresh prawns interpretation of a classic dish was creative and elevating the flavor profile of a long time classic. yum.

lamb rack, $28

there were six pieces on the dish. and seven of us. mind you, rationing of food was never as painful before, especially since the ribs were really tasty. but by then i was realizing the amount that we had ordered and how weirdly unsatisfying the portions were — like some tasting menu where u only got morsels of something good, instead of like servings of comfort food that you could really tuck in.

the date pudding that could be shared among 3 people. -_-”, $14

ok look at that dish and tell me that it can be honestly shared among 3 people. 3 anorexic ladies who had just weighed themselves a moment ago perhaps, but not 3 normal size individuals who weren’t feeling particular satiated. that being said, this dessert was amazingly good as well – the mixture of flavors from the peanut beanut, date pudding and salted caramel added many layers of complexity to the dessert experience, though i did feel that the sea salt grains were tad too large and made the salty profile a little heavy.

the bill eventually came up to around $40 a person (i am omitting some dishes we ordered). i mean, actually on hindsight, dining at a fine dining restaurant and having a dessert and a main course would probably have worked up to roughly that amount, but this place just felt oddly overpriced. i guess it was the fact that we were sharing what was single portions of desserts and small portions of mains and that the atmosphere spoke of comfort food than that of fine dining that made the meal seem really overpriced.

all in all, really delicious, good food that’s worth a try. don’t come with too large groups of people and know what to expect of the price range. the service is a little upsetting i guess and could be improved. 6.75*/10

*grr.. this is my first time giving a part score, mainly bcos the food was much above a 7.00 but the service and everything else threatened to drag it to a 6.5

artichoke | 161 middle road, sculpture square, s188978 | mediterranean, comfort food, desserts, delicious, little india

saboten

July 3, 2011
Japanese, Mid - Range ($15 - $30), Other Locations, Raffles City | Marina Bay
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the japanese do breaded the best.

in bid to perform some analytics to my this pseudo blog business operations (allow me to indulge awhile), i wanted to see exactly how long it took me to blog a food post – first with the selection of pictures, touching them up slightly, loading, and then the actual blogging. mind you, i’m quickly realising that this blog thingy requires a fair bit of discipline. of course, one could argue that ya’know.. just blog when you feel like it, but that’s precisely my issue for most things — if you do things when you feel like it, you mostly do nothing much. and hence this blogging has become more of a discipline for me at times, just to show myself (haha) that i can carry through what i say and plan to do a few months ago.

ok back to food business. so yesterday we headed to the airport, T1 to pick up my sis who had finally flown back from vancouver to the sunny, crowded shores of singapore. our initial intention was just to have a simple meal at paradise inn, but after seeing the miling crowds outside the place, and the surprisingly long queue at astons specialities, we settled for saboten.

now for people who don’t know about restaurants like saboten and tonkichi, these tonkatsu restaurants have a laser focus on perfecting the art of the tonkatsu, otherwise known as the breaded pork cutlet. try going there to order your typically chawanmushi or tempura and be prepared to be disappointed, because every page of the menu is some tonkatsu set meal or a variant of that. the restaurants operate under a very simple theory, we serve only one thing — the tonkatsu, and damnit we’ll do it damn well. its a pretty decent idea, but you need to know what you’re in for. furthermore, rice and cabbage come free flow, so for the mighty hungry, you can satiate yourself by carbo loading or veggie loading.

now a word on the condiments. the restaurant doesn’t make it very easy for first timers to figure out which sauce goes with which, so here’s some friendly reference. the small bowl filled with sesame seeds is for one to pound to your desired level of fragmentation before ladling out copious amounts of sweet tonkatsu sauce (look for the thick, brown, syrupy one). that sauce+sesame is reserved for the dipping with your tonkatsu. and honestly, the combination is pretty darn good. traditions last for a reason ehh. in terms of salad dressing, saboten offers a vinaigrette-esque sauce or a more traditional thousand island-esque sauce for one to dump on their salad. i prefer the vinaigrette one, so its up to you.

now lets talk tonkatsu. the tonkatsu here is good, and expectedly so. the bread crumbs exterior is delicately crunchy and melts in one’s mouth and doesn’t give you a sense of oilyness (which happens if you use stale oil or too much oil) or jer-lak ness. it is fragrant, delicious, though i somewhat wish the pork within was pounded/tenderized slightly more. good, hearty comfort food from the japanese.

price-wise, its pretty decent. a medium-order of the tonkatsu set will set you back by about 19 dollars, and with the salad/miso soup/rice/green tea ice cream as accompaniments, you are guaranteed to be satisfied. the place is slightly cheaper than tonkichi with no apparently drop in taste level. service is acceptable, and almost gives the place a street-cred of being authentic what with japanglish-speaking waitresses. notice i didnt talk about the ambience, because seriously, what do u expect of a airport establishment — its very open concept, cafeteria style that can get relatively noisy.  6.5/10

saboten |   80 Airport Boulevard, #031-004 Departure Check-in Hall Level 3, Changi Airport Terminal 1 -and- 9 Raffles Boulevard, #P3-01 Parco Marina Bay, Millenia Walk | japanese, comfort food, tonkatsu

*the post took a grand total of 30 mins.

sole pomodoro

June 22, 2011
Bugis | Little India, Italian, Pricey ($30 - $70)
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an acquired taste.

oh dear, i think my one month stint at italy has certainly spoilt me in terms of italian cuisine. i’ll never judge a singaporean pizzeria fairly again, not especially when i’m comparing them to cheap good joints in italy that sell whole delicious, piping hot pizzas at 7euro each. ahh well, lets get on to reviewing sole pomodoro, tucked away in a small corner near little india mrt.

i suspect sole pomodoro took over some old kopitiam space last time, as it’s location is one more suited for it — right by the roadside amidst those old-fashion shophouses, with the indian cinema diagonally across the street. its a pretty chill ambience, no air-conditioning but sufficiently ‘insulated’ from the outside world to give a sense of otherworldiness. the decor is of a hearty simple italian restaurant that reminded me of those in italy, complete with the big wood fired oven and the large wooden pizza ladles.

foodwise, mind you, it’s not exactly a value experience, with parma ham and melon (the classic combination) going at $18.90 and fried calamari at $14.90. slightly more expensive then normal joints giving the portions, and i honestly do think that italians dont exactly do their appetizers well (or at least, not as well as the french). so it was kinda unmemorable.

the pizzas were the highlight i guess. our group of 10+ people shared 4 pizzas — for the first two, we chose bufala (tomato sauce and buffalo mozarella, $24.90) to satisfy cheese lovers (mind you, try buffalo mozarella if you have not done so before.. it’s really delicious and goes superbly well in pizza) and crudo e rucola (tomato sauce, mozarella, parma ham, rocket salad, $24.90) for those wanting some veg. they’re delicious i must admit, reminding me of the great italian pizzas i had – the rocket and ham pairing went surprisingly well, with the semi-bitterness of the rocket leaves going very well with the saltiness of the parma ham and the sweetness of the tomato sauce. all in all a well balanced, delicious pizza.

and as you can see above, we ordered some pizza with artichoke, which i promptly avoided. i dun see how artichokes go well in pizza, and if i were to eat a slice, i usually pluck out the artichokes. to me, there are some ingredients in traditional pizzas that i scratch my head at — one is artichokes, and the other is anchovies. ewwww. the intense saltiness and fishiness of anchovies really turns me off. pair it with capers, and it reaches inedible-ville for me.

sole pomodoro (mozarella, sun dried tomatoes, cream, potato, sausage, onion, $24.90)

delicious pizza that warrants another visit if not for the price (which somehow to me, just tips over the overpriced range.) i don’t get the name though. i know pomodoro is italian for tomato, and i google translated sole to be sun.. so i suppose the pizza is centered aroung the sun dried tomatoes? however, the predominant taste that makes this pizza a hit is the cream/potato base paired with sausages. its like those waraku pizzas but with more intense and complex flavors, supposedly from the sun dried tomatoes and mozarella. but its really good.

all in all, a decent italian restaurant (the chef is italian i think, but i think he kinda bullies on the hapless philipino servers) that is tad overpriced to me, but worth a visit if you’re up for some good authentic italian pizza. yummy. 7/10

sole pomodoro | 19/21 Mackenzie Road #01-01 s228678| italian, authentic, comfort food

hatched

June 4, 2011
Brunch, Bukit Timah, Mid - Range ($15 - $30)
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brunch the cute way.

my dad loves eggs benedict. i dont know if its the runniness of the egg yolk or just the combination of the hollandaise sauce, yolk and english muffin but well, he always tries to get eggs benedict at brunch places. so yeah, i decided to bring him to hatched @ evans lodge to give him his fill of eggs benedict one weekend.

hatched is this cute cartoonish and cosy brunch establishment located near to the nus city campus confines near botanic gardens (guess it’s geared toward hip university students?). the interior is warmly lit, utilizing their egg-characters sketched on large blackboards on walls to create a fun, pleasant and very homely feel. service is pretty good – maybe a little tad too attentive when i was there (i wonder if that’s possible) – in a sense, the server kept returning to fill my water and the likes, interrupting my conversation with my dad. anyways, as per their namesake, hatched basically serves all sorts of egg dishes. let’s get to it.

burly benedict – half a muffin, topped with corned wagyu beef, poached egg and Mornay sauce, served with sauteed potatoes and caramelised onions – $12 for one (egg), $18 for two

yay for creativity! i guess my dad’s order might have disappointed him initially since he had been expecting the traditional eggs benedict, but well, i think he enjoyed it since i wasn’t allowed to even taste a morsel of it to judge. -_-. nvm next time. this being said, i like the fact that the food combination is creative, and that this place actually lists down the ingredients of the dish so you can kinda guess and anticipate a certain flavor profile. yay!

papillote – smoked salmon over scrambled eggs with chive cream on toast, with sauteed potatoes and tomato with pesto -$14

mm.. the MVP of this dish turned out to be the humble chive cream which brought together the flavors of the smoked salmon and scrambled eggs, creating a delicious and unique dish. the smoked salmon wasn’t too overly salty and hence did not overpower the other ingredients. yummy. i avoid the potatoes (carbs) for vanity reasons. lol. but wow, this place is nice!

overall, a kitschy, creative and food-loving place perfect for food lovers and early risers. do reserve your table during the weekends cos it might get crowded. but imo, this place is best enjoyed on a lazy weekday morning when you wake up late, saunter to botanic gardens for a walk before settling down in the cool, air-conditioned confines of hatched for a comfortable meal. yummy. oh! and this place has standard chartered 10% discount!  7.5/10

hatched | 26 evans road, #01-06 evans lodge, s259367 | contemporary, creative, brunch, comfort food

yoshimaru ramen bar

May 30, 2011
Holland Village, Japanese, Mid - Range ($15 - $30)
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looks pretty legit.

Yoshimaru Ramen Bar is this ramen place located in holland village that actually looks pretty much like a traditional japanese ramen-ya you would find in japan, complete with the chef-facing-you-preparing-the-dish-separated-by-a-glass-panel experience. that being said, the pretense of being traditional quickly evaporates when you notice that the servers are mainly foreign hires either from phillipines or china and that, well, the restaurant chain is managed by jumbo seafood. not that there is anything wrong with jumbo seafood — in fact i think jumbo seafood does a great job with food-related business, both with yoshimaru as well as one of the nicer restaurants @ vivocity, j-pot. that being said, it’s just kinda nicer to watch a wizened old japanese uncle laboring to make ramen noodles whilst one sips hot green tea in the cosy confines of a ramen-ya.. (ok getting carried away). let’s talk food.

hakata traditional ramen – $11

now, considering the growing popularity of ramen stalls in singapore, it’s kinda difficult at times to pinpoint what makes a good bowl of ramen worth it — that is, worth 2 – 3 times more than a common bowl of prawn mee or the likes at hawker centers. in my opinion, the crux lies with the soup as well as the char siu pieces. the soup really separates the wheat from the chaff, as good soups are fragrant, immensely rich in flavors and when served piping hot, is the ultimate comfort food in winter. the char siew creates the additional savory taste that enhances the dish greatly and also breaks the monotony of flavor by just eating the noodles alone. so what about yoshimaru? well.. honestly, i wasn’t too impressed with their ramen this time round– considering that this place to me is a sentimental value-priced favorite where I have really tasted good soup before. yet, the soup i tasted this time round was rather flat, as though it hadn’t been fully and thoroughly boiled. i dunno. kinda disappointed. the char siew was decent, but yet again, not impressive. i have tasted better. =(

 hakata mini burgers – mentaiko mayo prawn burger, $3.50

this appetizer dish is simple, relatively cheap and delicious. in fact, i have always wanted to order 3 mini burgers (other flavors include spicy char siu and teriyaki chicken) for a value price of $8 and just treat that as my dinner. but usually i come here to satisfy my craving of ramen.. so there. the fusion of east and west flavors creates a really good combination and is well worth a try.

overall, i expected better i guess. and well, i’m not gonna let one misstep (in my opinion) stop me from patronizing the place again. i’ll give u another chance, yoshimaru. anyways, you’re pretty value for money compared to other ramen chains. 6.5/10

a word of caution though: avoid the other ‘side dishes’ like ebi tempura or the likes.. i think the only authentic stuff is the ramen, so stick to it.

Yoshimaru Ramen Bar | 31 Lorong Liput Holland Village s277742 | japanese, ramen, comfort

hearty comfort

May 19, 2011
Uncategorized
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intense stuff.

you know, achieving that perfect meal at a good restaurant is often not easy — to balance the carbs, proteins, veggies to get a sense that one is consuming healthy food, to pair food and wine properly at each stage, to pair each course such that one doesn’t overshadow the other. that’s why the rich and famous get to eat expert-decided prix fixe menu at premium prices (prix fixe actually just means a collection of pre-determined items (determined by the chef i suppose) presented as a multi-course set menu). as for the rest of us, we are left to our own devices to create our own meals… which is kinda fun, provided one doesn’t screw up too much. here is a classic case of how.. well.. i kinda screwed up at one of my favourite (for nostalgia sake) restaurants in Vancouver, at burgoo restaurant.

frank’s prix fixe menu mess

Bread – Burgoo Biscuits, $4

delicious stuff.. the biscuit was crunchy on the outside and soft and savory on the inside. sprinkled with cheddar and parsley, it was a simple “bread” starter to replace the common bun. score 1 for frank.

Appetizer – Brie Fondue – $13

 now as a standalone, this dish is simply awesome – roast garlic, honey and white wine mixed with brie to create a delicious cheese fondue that, in my opnion, trumped le bistrot du sommelier’s version (and was also cheaper). it helped that the cheese was kept warm throughout so we didn’t need to fight to finish the course. anyways, the honey added a little sweetness and complexity to the brie whilst the white wine kept the cheese smooth. amazing stuff.

problem is.. you notice how the first two courses basically made one pretty dried up? not to mention they were both of the heaty side, especially the cheese? therein lay the issue.. but for now.. it was still good. score 2 for frank.

Vegetable – Ratatouille Provencale, $14 – oven roasted vegetables in savoury tomato and garlic baked with parsley, breadcrumbs and Chevre

for those of you who watched ratatouille and wondered how the dish actually looked like, well here it is. and i fully blame disney for conjuring up the impression that ratatouille was some refreshing vegetable dish served on a plate that could double up as a salad, and not a hearty, tomato rich cassarole-ish dish. mind you, the ratatouille was intense in flavor and delicious.. just.. hmm, it was the wrong choice in the sequence of dishes. and mind you, this dish is also the epitome of comfort food if eaten at the right time, say like when one just came in from the cold weather outside, and not when one was in a semi-stuffy pub restaurant having been sufficiently heated up with hot cheese. -_- frank 2, fail 1

Main – Paella – $19, Tomato Saffron Rice with vegetables, chicken, chorizo, prawns and mussels, finished with olive oil and parsley

heat overload. oops, yet another hearty tomato dish that was equally intense and flavorful. by then our faces were flushed and I was motioning at the waitress every few minutes to replenish our ice cold water. talk about overheating on food! and mind you yet again, this dish was comfort food at its best and really pretty decent. but it was my fail. =( frank 2, fail 2.

so honestly, i cant give a good judgement of burgoo. the service is miles ahead of any singaporean establishment (as usual) and had I ordered a balanced menu of food, then perhaps the ambience might have been more inviting at the end of the meal — as it is, we finished our meal and dashed out into the cold for a cool down, skipping any notions of dessert. but well, in all honestly, this place probably warrants around a 7/10. phew.. im sweating even whilst writing about this place.

izakaya nijumaru

May 17, 2011
Japanese, Orchard Road, Pricey ($30 - $70)
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catty.

so we headed to izakaya nijumaru for dinner monday night since the next day was a public holiday and well.. anything warrants as an excuse to eat/drink/have fun. so there. i was pretty excited to be going to izakaya nijumaru since it was mentioned by my friend from cell as being a decent japanese comfort food place and that was exactly my craving for the night. i was also excited to see how singapore izakaya food compared to the amazing food i had in hapa izakaya in vancouver.  first things first, the restaurant is tucked away on the second floor of cuppage plaza, otherwise known as seedy-ville with a plethora of skimpily clad female escorts trawling the alleys of the dark shopping center looking for customers. the interior is plain and indeed quite authentically japanese but the poor ventilation of the restaurant meant that the fumes from the grill/kitchen permeated the entire restaurant and at times was pungent enough to lead to some coughing displeasures. hmmz.

next thing that annoyed me was the service – euphemistically, we would call it ‘auntie’-service because indeed we were being served by busy aunties bustling around with a whole assortment of foodstuff. honestly though, i semi-felt like i was back in school, to which any additional orders or slower-than-usual deliberations was glared at or just roughly answered with. it was careless, thoughtless, inattentive service that really did mar my impression of the place. in fact, that combined with the poor ventilation made me really feel like leaving. the issue is further compounded by the fact that the menu is super non-japanese unfriendly — the english menu is literally phonetical translations of the japanese terms which made it really difficult to order. furthermore, when i asked for recommendations of appetizers, the servers really made no effort to find out what we were interested in eating or made any really cogent recommendations. annoyed.

lets get to the food.

steph’s curry katsu rice – $10

hmm.. uninspiring. well, i didnt really try the katsu but the curry was pretty much standard fare (ie. you can buy the packet and pretty much do it yourself-style). its acceptable for the price point.

agedashi tofu – $5

 grilled asparagus wrapped in bacon – $8

ehh.. honestly the appetizers we got were pretty unmemorable. we also got a salmon sashimi dish that cost $15 and yielded FIVE pieces of salmon sashimi. really? like, the sashimi salad in sushi tei cost $9 and has much more sashimi? ok maybe i am noob at sashimi. ah wells.

the litmus test – katsudon, the comfort food – $8

ok i think this is likewise pretty decent for its price point, but i did feel that the katsu (pork cutlet) pieces was drowned in the sauce and wasn’t crispy enough to assert its flavor within the dish. and sadly, this doesn’t taste like home. don’t ask me why. maybe i was quite annoyed by the service already, or maybe the dish wasn’t served hot enough, i dunno.. i felt like i could have gotten the exact same bowl at the common food court for a slightly cheaper price.

i had enough of their service after this, so we adjourned to wine connection after the meal without any dessert. hmpf. well, turns out, my friend told me today that we should have ordered the nijumaru set ($20) which was apparently value for money and good (and i do remember the server actually recommending this dish.. haha give them back one point). also, my other friend ordered a grilled codfish that actually tasted really good and not at all too oily or jelak. so yeah, there are redemption points.

but honestly, this place needs to improve on their service. majorly. the food is decently priced (besides the sashimi) and of a certain standard. but i doubt i would head back for a second try in a long while. 5.5/10

riders cafe

May 15, 2011
Brunch, Bukit Timah, Mid - Range ($15 - $30)
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in a far flung, forgotten, horse strewn place in singapore.

so members of my cell decided to head down to riders cafe on a smotheringly hot sunday afternoon for an alfresco brunch. mind you, riders cafe isn’t what i would recommend on a smotheringly hot sunday afternoon if one does not own a car or isnt willing to fork out for a cab ride into 51 fairways drive, tucked deep in eng neo avenue. i guess the idea of citing of kitschy restaurant at relatively far flung places is also for customer self-selection since the clientele is mainly expats and 30+ year old fresh looking and preppy-attired singaporeans. oh yah, and us, whom upon ladyironchef‘s recommendations, headed to place after golf (not me, my friends). ahh.. the wonders of internet and social media.

[grabbed from the riders cafe blog]

the general design of the place exudes a typical colonial styled charm that aptly suits the serene surroundings — the interior similarly uses largely black and white as the design base to subtly complement the colonial architecture. i particularly liked the feel of the bar area, with large coffee cups hanging from hooks and with simple boards chalked with today’s specials. and despite the smotheringly hot afternoon surroundings, the interior was sufficiently cooled with black ceiling fans. though i might have appreciated aircon more.. and rest assured, despite the fact that horses do trot by, their smell doesn’t intrude into the establishment.

the riders cafe burger – beef patty with brie, bacon, beet relish, caramelized onion, served with a side of seasoned fries – $17

the usual (big breakfast) – sausage, basil sprinkled tomato, mushrooms, bacon and scrambled eggs on sourdough -$16

the savory mains – now the food is pretty good and yes, the portions are certainly generous but.. to me, there’s just something lacking that doesn’t elevate the dish (mine was the usual) to one that doesn’t look as though the chef merely dumped in grilled sausages, plated a grilled tomato and dumped simple eggs on top of a pre-bought sourdough. i dunno, maybe its just me being irritatingly atas, but the dishes lacked a certain nuance and distinct flavor profile and creativity that vaunts it past other similar brunch establishments. and well, i think amanda (my housemate in Cornell) makes better butter mushrooms.

its like how there isn’t much thought gone into thinking of how to pair the various foods on the plate or some playful creativity in mixing and matching unique ingredients and herbs — something i got used to in brunch establishments overseas. all in all, decent, hearty food, but for the effort to come to this place, i kinda expected something better.

something sweet to share – broiche french toast with caramelized bananas, strawberries and bacon – $14

ahhh… i miss my french experience of the pan brioche =(. this dish similarly tastes good – there’s some interest in flavor in pairing bacon with all the sweet components of the bananas, strawberries and french toast but to me, it didn’t really conjure up any magic. the french toast was good stuff but i think caramelizing the bananas kinda made the dish a little jelak. and no.. none of these dishes satisfies the “feels like i am eating healthy food” happiness criteria =(. (i even checked the bread for the usual to see if it was wholewheat or rye bread but was dismayed to see simple sourdough… lol actually i don’t really know my bread types.. someone needs to tell me whether sourdough is healthy)

so.. all in all, a decent, comfort-food styled contemporary brunch place that’s a little too far flung to justify a trip there unless you are nearby. 6/10

japanese comfort food

May 9, 2011
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tastes like mom’s cooking.

there are certain dishes that are used as standards to judge how good a restaurant is in their region’s specialties - be it the har gau (prawn dumpling) in cantonese dim sum, foie gras pairings in french cuisine or the standard pasta dish in italy, the taste of these dishes tell you just how authentic the place is and perhaps, how well the chef understands the cuisine of the locale.

well in my opinion, the katsu don is one such dish in the japanese cusine – a tasty blend of egg, onions, semi-crispy breaded pork chop served ontop of a bowl of rice – simple yet deceptively hard to master well. the katsu don i remember the best was one cooked by my oka-san  in my host family in hamamatsu, japan during a secondary school exchange program. she would deftly whip up a perfectly balanced katsu-don that gleamed in the kitchen light and tasted fantastic. since then, well… every bowl of katsu don i take transports me back to that location and allows me a part re-enactment of that scene (somebody stop me.. i’m acting like that ratatouille food-critic dude..lol).

cant really remember the name of this restaurant in vancouver that my sis brought me to, but suffice to say, the food did really remind me of home cooked japanese food made with tender, loving care. it wasn’t the fancy japanese-western fusion taste concoctions like that of nobu or hapa izakaya, and neither was it some high end, exquisitely made japanese delicacy. just home-cooked japanese goodness in a bowl. =)

  [katsu don, accompanied with pickles and miso soup]

truth be told, the katsu don wasn’t that fantastic in terms of the pork texture within — seemed as though the taste hadn’t fully permeated into the meat within which took points away from a taste perspective. but that aside, the dish was well.. good.

[taiyaki and black sesame ice cream]

for desserts, my sis opted for the taiyaki (fish-shaped pastry with red bean paste filling) with black sesame ice cream. the taiyaki was delicious, well baked and crunchy. you really can’t fault the japanese on their desserts at all. and in this case, the taiyaki brought back memories for my sis – something about buying them from the now defunct yaohan, where plaza singapura now stands. hmm.. food memories.. they do color our future food experiences don’t they?