u m a m i

Back from Paris

Paris was cold, then hot, and some days very wet. Still, we had things to do, places to see, people to meet and lots of eating to accomplish. It wasn't our first visit and this time I did not bother, as I had in the past, to map our eating destinations, and we ate whenever we felt hungry and took our chances. Which turned out quite well, even discounting the fact that we were traipsing around the heavily touristed parts of the city.

                     

Every morning we ate a splendid breakfast which was part of our hotel package. The spread was by no means extravagant but quite adequate with the usual cereals, baked goods, fruits, yoghurts, cold cuts, fried bullet sausages, over-crisped bacon, hash browns and even instant ramen. The coffee was good, most mornings they have the most delicious stewed prunes which can be further improved by a dollop of fromage blanc, add some bread with gorgeous butter and voila, I was ready to charge forth into the city.

                     

We found ourselves in a cafebar quite often. These unpretentious places with formica counters and dinky jugs are where the locals drop by for a quick drink and a cigarette, the food is not too bad too, especially after spending a cold morning checking out some depressing apartment prospects. 

                     

My default order was usually steak frites. The frites looked startlingly yellow when the whiskery old man set the plate before me but it tasted fine. The meat was a little charred but still juicy and tender inside. The best steak frites of this trip was definitely the indulgent creamy version at Chez Omar's, where we met up with food blogger Roboppy. She has pictures of the steak sauce over at her blog.

                     

In between the naughty steaks, we ate loads of salads too. This salad above, at the Cafe Comedian next to our hotel for example, contained all the ordinary boring ingredients like tomato, ham, boiled egg, corn and lettuce, none of that chi-chi mesclun or rocket leaves, but the ingredients were fresh and everything came together beautifully. We also ordered Diet Cokes which turned out to be very expensive, more expensive than wine or water, hmm, anyhow, lesson learnt.

                     

Above, a salad of spinach, smoked duck, emmenthal, pears, tomatoes made a very satisfying lunch after browsing the food shops at Rue Montorgeuil.

                     

Fourth sister, who came over from London for the weekend, had a handkering for cheese, and her cheese platter was excellent with a good variety and just-so ripeness. The Eurostar is only 2 hours and a bit from Waterloo, London, we will definitely be seeing more of each other.

                      

One rainy night we yearned for noodles and took the metro to Port d'Ivry for a big bowl of pho and further stuffed our stomachs with their perfect spring rolls. There wasn't enough room for flambeed bananas which I would have loved too, alas.

                      

And yes, there were pastries and sweet treats aplenty since every street corner had one or more of boulangeries and patisseries. Laduree, Stohrer, Y. Martin, Stohrer and a few others whose names I didn't remember. Pierre Herme I went into but walked out without trying anything because it was for takeaway only and I wanted to keep my hands free to change my camera lenses and I didn't want to eat on the streets, must be the only stupid tourist to walk out without succumbing.

While husband went to Sweden for work, I stayed back to meet with dubious agents and do homework like find out how much things costs at the supermarket. Fortunately I was rescued from this tedium by a friend from Singapore. He was with a well known wine expert for a boozy trip to Burgundy and invited me to join his friends for lunch on the day he arrived in Paris. The venue was Relais Louis XIII on Rue de Grands-Augustins -opposite a very famous house where Picasso painted the very famous Guernica btw- a small but elegantly appointed restaurant with a reasonable 45 euro lunch menu and an excellent wine list. There was a delightful amuse-bouche of cauliflower foamy something, lightly grilled fish, pork leg done two sinful ways and finally a classic poached pear dessert altogether making this one of the best lunch of my trip.                

                      

Finally we found an apartment we liked. To celebrate we decided to go for a nice lunch, so we called our hotel concierge and he recommended Chez Andre. We duly made our way there and when I saw the menu of once again, all the french classical and traditional dishes like entrecote and oysters, I said no, we want cuisine inventif. And the concierge directed us around the corner to Spoon. Even I've heard of Spoon so we went to check out this Alain Ducasse restaurant. It is very trendy, very modern, and the menu is made up of small dishes called Spoon-sum and for those in a rush there is a bento set of sorts but served on a large square plate. I tried the Spoon-sum set which seems to be what everyone else was eating. It came with 3 appetisers, 1 meat, 1 fish and a trio of desserts, everything in small tasting portions. Husband ordered the day's bento-plate.

                      

The food was modern with plenty of new world and Asian influences, inventive certainly but not always successful. The Spoon 'ravioli' was very much like our wonton, a sliver of grilled duck was a little too sweet but I loved its accompaniment of a paper-thin potato crisp, cod was served almost raw with a weird white sauce that husband liked and I didn't. Husband's lunch of couscous was beautifully cooked and flavourful and I liked very much the grilled liver that came with his lamb skewers. Desserts were very pedestrian cheesecake and ice cream but the fresh cookies that came made up for the disappointment.

And then we had to rush to the bank, and to his work appointment, and back to the agent, and well, all over town. Five hours later, hungry again, we ventured near our hotel and looked in the windows of Japanese and Korean restaurants. Finally I decided to go into a tiny and slightly shabby sushi joint, where the fish was fresh, the food authentic and the prices nearly the same as Singapore's. But I shall not say the name of the place, it is really too small and may get overcrowded.

There's much to do from now on, first- I must get a flat bottomed wok, the apartment is nice but it doesn't have gas cookers.....

Flying Off

To Paris tonight. Will post if I can good internet connection.

Restaurants Update- Kuriya and House of Hunan

So the other day I was telling Andrew about how I am disatisfied with Kuriya Japanese restaurant. Well my friend Andrew is wise, he said, why don't you say so in your blog?

So here it is. Was it just five months ago that I voted it my personal favourite restaurant in Singapore? Now I have to state that I no longer like this place. From June till Oct, I have eaten at the Shaw Centre restaurant about 6 times. The food is good and I was a fan of their value-for-money ladies lunch sets but recently, the service has been noticeably slack. On our last visit one late October evening, a waitress was particularly patronising and lazy, our dishes were not cleared in a timely manner, and they even wanted to charge for the fresh wasabi which had never happened before. The meal was spoilt by such examples of poor service. A far cry from previous visits where they remembered that I prefer cold tea and the staff were just the right balance of friendly and helpful without being intrusive. Most of the older staff were not around now, I don't know whether they've been moved to newer outlets. At the end of the meal they did offer complimentary desserts but by that time I was so fed up we declined, we're not that cheap.

I do still patronise their Ichiban outlets for quick meals, but for quieter indulgences there are many other options in town. Incidentally I was not impressed with the food at their new Raffles City branch,. The fine dining standards of this group, I do feel has been quite eroded with the frantic expansion.

Another place that has gone down in my esteem is House of Hunan. We've eaten there three times since I wrote my review. On our last visit a recent Sunday, we had a most unsatisfactory lunch. Braised sharks fin came in a large bowl but the soup was mediocre in taste, reminding me of canned soup. The soup as well as a dish of pork stirfried with bamboo shoot had a distinct, dominating and terribly off-putting smell of cornflour. Braised cabbage with pork balls came with unappetising lumps of soggy overcooked glass noodles. Braised yeefoo noodles was half-heartedly stirred in a brown sauce, instead of wok hei aroma we were assailed by too much white pepper. The only good dish was of a seabass steamed with minced pickled chilli. We complained to the manager, and he took our feedback well. Like Kuriya, he offered us free desserts but we declined. Here the service was fine, it was the food that was bad. Upon questioning they revealed that one of their key chefs had been moved to their new outlet at Vivo City and concurred that standards may have slipped. Looking around, we were only one of a handful of tables in that large space on a Sunday afternoon, sure signs indeed that the rot had set in for some time.

Andrew was right. Sure my blog is hardly influential, but over the past weekend alone my sister and my friend Carrie both said to me, in separate conversations, that their friends follow my blog, even to the extent of remarking if I have been tardy in posting. Which reminds me that in my own small way I have a responsibility to report updates like this.

Yumeya Japanese Restaurant

A couple of Fridays ago husband and I were walking up and down Mohamed Sultan Road, with the vague idea of eating Japanese food for dinner. Trendy En and Yoyogi were crowded, but I was not exactly curious and gagging to go in because the bright lighting did not suit my mood. A few doors away from Yoyogi, at a corner shophouse, was Yumeya. It too, was full that night, I was disappointed as I was more ready to settle down in its warmly lit wood and tatami interior. Fortunately a couple paid up and exited even as I was moping about half-distractedly outside, so we were able to get a table eventually.

The menu covered the usual gamut from sushi to ochazuke, so we did likewise and ordered a bit of everything. Sashimis of otoro and kampachi were fine, very fresh, but it was a Friday and I was not expecting any less. The uni sushi that followed, impressively creamy, rich and highly evocative of the ocean, made me pause- it is the season for uni to be sure, but the little details like temperature, rice, methinks someone in the kitchen knows what he is doing. There followed more nibbles and bites, like chawan mushi for husband and uni chawan mushi for me- the slightly warm uni over silky custard, sensual, voluptuous textures gliding down the throat, well a girl can't wish for more to start her weekend off no? Then there were some scallops grilled in their shell with spicy mentaiko mayonnaise, very nice. Grilled mackerel, oily and salty as it should be, was quickly demolished. A few more pieces of negitoro maki, again, unimpeachable, to round up the meal. Like my friend G would say, ham-pa-lang good. We were not unhappy that we couldn't finish the last dish that husband ordered out of curiousity, a hotpot of braised tiny whitebaits braised finished with a poached egg; there was nothing wrong with the execution but we haven't got to that stage that we can appreciate its delicacy and nuances. Together with some Asahi, the bill that was presented was by no means cheap but we considered it reasonable for the high standard of cooking. Sorry, no photos, it would have been too dim for decent images in any case.

As we were leaving and husband was settling the bill at the counter, the chef, he was about to go somewhere else, so he introduced himself to me  and we chatted briefly. Lee Loon, or Loon as he prefers to be called, had in the past worked for Yoshida when it was at Lucky Plaza and then at the Devonshire offshoot. After Yoshida he drifted around the Japanese restaurant community for a bit before settling down to this restaurant. Loon apologised for the noisy ambience, he had noticed that the tables to our left and right were full of raucous drinkers, some of whom apparently came over only for the drinking. We too were initially under the impression that this place was some sort of neighbourhood izakaya joint, as the young waitresses engaged in friendly banter and kanpai sessions with the customers. Loon assured us it isn't always this noisy, though actually we didn't mind it much as the food was good and the noise did not deter us from our conversations. Also, now that I know who is in charge of the kitchen, we will definitely return, noise or no noise.

Yumeya Japanese Restaurant

22 Mohamed Sultan Road

#01-01 Singapore 238977

Tel: 6887 0282

Laksa Party

                   

We haven't done a scrap of packing. The dogs got their rabies jabs this afternoon but we're still muddling through the 10 page visa application forms and procrastinating about ridding the apartment of unused stuff and junk, vaguely rationalising that since the movers won't be here until early December then we have loads of time. Which is kind of OK since we don't actually make the big move until January.

My friends though, are better organised. Last Friday, Mrs L, superb hostess and most excellent cook, probably anticipating that we'll be homesick for Asian food when we go over, threw an extravagant laksa party to send us off. Three types of laksa- Nonya, Sarawak and Penang- were served. In addition to the fantastic laksa spread, there was also her signature sedap pakoras made with 15 secret ingredients and fingerlicking deep fried quails. Jeremy couldn't make it to the party but he sent M with three whole lemon cheesecakes. The host, Mr L, made sure everyone was well lubricated with plenty of wines and Trappist beer. Yes, wow! I don't know how we came to deserve this but we know we are truly blessed to have such thoughtful and generous friends.

                     

The laksas were amazing. For noodles there was a choice of yellow mee, thick beehoon and for the Malaysians among us, fine beehoon. Toppings included peeled prawns, shredded chicken, quail eggs, char siew (another Malaysian touch) and the compulsory raw cockles. My favourite was the Sarawak laksa, Mrs L went to considerable trouble and expense to have it airflown from the East Malaysian state to ensure authenticity, the gravy was that distinctive style of deep, multilayered flavours, not overwhelmingly rich but with a unique spicyness that is also herbal and nutty. Most of the guests, husband included, went crazy for the Nonya laksa which was just the right balance of rich, spicy and fragrant. My sister though, loved the Penang laksa, its tanginess and fresh herbs a refreshing foil to its rich Nonya counterpart. It was only at the end of the evening that Mrs L revealed that she had never made laksa before!

                     

Apologies for the blurry image, but I was too distracted with chatting, eating and drinking to focus on the photographs. Ivan was more hardworking, check out his flickr set.