u m a m i

Singapore Makan Highlights Part II

The cze char scene in Singapore just gets better and better, and one of the best is Ming Kee Live Seafood. Our friend Lester and his wife Chane are two of our long-time favourite eating buddies, this dinner was on them and they gave us a really good treat. Starting with a basket of very more-ish deep fried fish skin. Then plump la-la clams in a garlicky soy sauce which husband was totally in love with. Also a whole river fish and some delicious coffee ribs.  

The highlight though, was their crab beehoon. For me, this dish is all about the beehoon and in this aspect, Ming Kee exceeded my expectations. There wasn't much noodles but every strand was 100% clean, sweet, crab flavour. One of the crab was a female, its roe gave the noodles even more oomph. I definitely prefer this version to the one at Sin Huat,  which had always striked me as a tad too sweet and occasionally blowzy with its heightened seafood umami-ness; nothing wrong with that, but I definitely prefer Ming Kee's minimalist rendition.

The following day was one of meeting with ex-colleagues and their families at a dim-sum lunch at Imperial Treasures Nan Bei, Takashimaya Shopping Centre. My friend really likes their special pork-belly char siew and I could see why. The meat, self-basting fatty melting deliciousness in itself, was coated in a gorgeous sweet-savoury glaze that turned it into meat bonbons, terribly addictive.  

Knowing husband's fondness for fiery Sichuan cuisine, Andrew and a bunch of close makan friends organised a no-holds-barred dinner at Ba Yu Ren Jia restaurant near Bugis. It started off innocuously enough with an appetite-stimulating salad of liangpi (greenbean noodles), century eggs and shredded cucumbers dressed in sesame oil, vinegar and chilli oil.

Saliva chicken was snapped up quickly. Done right, it is supposed to be so delicious that the drooling reflex goes into overdrive, hence its name.  The chicken itself was juicy and nicely muscular with a good ratio of springy skin, picking up lots of of the delicious yet mysterious sauce. A quick succession of dishes came out, all very tasty, and some rather spicy, but nothing I couldn't handle.

Until I ate a few strands of the vermicelli noodles from this platter of braised eel and my taste buds went into seizure. The noodles had absorbed all the heat from the little peppercorns, the dried peppers and the inflammatory chilli oil. This dish was way too hot to handle, and we had to resort to eating sugar to counter the spiciness. Till today I am not sure if this is the norm in Sichuan, or were the cooks trying to play a joke on us. But would I eat it again? Absolutely!

Delicious desserts of red bean paste pancakes and fried mochi balls ended the meal on a calmer note. What a ride. Thank you my dear friends!    

Ming Kee Live Seafood

556 Macpherson Road (Jn Macpherson Lane) T: 67474075

Imperial Treasure Nan Bei

5th floor, Takashimaya Shopping Centre

Ba Yu Ren Jia Restaurant

791 North Bridge Road T: 62979148

 

Singapore Makan Highlights Part I

The Singapore weather was cool and occasionally rainy the week we visited. As usual we were spoiled rotten by friends who made time to meet and host us for lots of delicious meals.

Actually, on our own we didn't fare too badly either. Within 1 hour of our plane landing we were rubbing shoulders with pyjama-wearing aunties at the Bendemeer Rd Market Food Centre and eating our favourite "chye tow kuay", only SGD2 for a generous portion of garlicky, eggy, sweet-savoury wok-fried turnip dough. Before long husband was hungry again and we sat down to a large spread of more local delights. 

Dinner on our first night was at Old Mother Hen, an old haunt for bacchanalian excesses and font of claypot wisdom. The food was quite stunning, it felt like we were at a "best-of" relay. Stir-fried fallopian tubes was a novelty for most people, especially our V who couldn't seem to get enough of it.

Still, the most memorable dish had to be a shark's head steamed in Cantonese style. The head was mostly cartilage, the gelatine tamed to a silky texture akin to tofu. Flavour came from an elegant garlic-infused master soy sauce. The chef's urgings to finish the fish quickly, lest it gets cold and turns rubbery and fishy, were quite redundant, even the bones were not spared.

Fried pork trotters, nothing to look at but the skin was crispy and the meat and fats tender and melting.

What is a meal here without their famous claypot rice? We demolished two large pots. They don't skimp on the quality of the ingredients, the salted fish and liver sausages were particularly fine touches. We staggered home with huge silly grins on our faces.

The following day I was running back and forth between two banks for my parents who came down from KL. We finally finished at 2.30 p.m. which was too late for a good Japanese meal so we settled for Din Tai Fung at Paragon. The dumplings were delicious but my father commented that the dumplings are now quite tiny. V loved their mochi-stuffed red dates.

Not pictured (because I suck at getting my white balance right) but dinner that night was cooked by my good friend Ivan. Authentic hungarian sausages and massive slabs of air-dried dry-aged USDA Angus beef with pan-fried foie gras and a killer potato salad almost did me in, thankfully dessert was relatively light, only two types of real Sarawak pineapples which I loved.

Speaking of friends, the Lims have got to be one of the most unassuming and generous people I know. A so-called 'simple dinner at home' was so bountiful I had to wave the white flag midway through the meal. Lots of meat and a deep bowl of soup.  "Top de top" though,  as my French friends would say, goes to the really humble dish of bean sprouts stir-fried with salted fish. Everyone, including myself, knows how to cook this, but their Indonesian cook Noor has a particularly deft touch that turned this into a masterpiece, getting each element right (crunchy sprouts, perfectly fried fish etc etc) and harmonising them just-so.

A green carpet over a fried fish. What is this my friend?

Florence said, it is my new creation. Fried fish, topped with sambal, then fried minced pork followed by freshly chopped spring onion greens. Flavour explosion? Absolutely. 

There will be more in the next post, but before we finish, here is some snacks to think about. Breadtalk may rule the roost in Singapore, but I reckon Bread Society is a worthy new competitor. Update: Reader Yun Huei informed me that Bread Society is part of Breadtalk. I'd say that this is a welcome new concept. Bread is very fashionable in Japan right now, if even 10% of this perfectionist streak filters through to Singapore it would raise the bar considerably.

The pedigree is very fine, at least what I can see from their tall posters of cute Jap-TV chefs, and their Japanese style breads very good from a random sample of three items. Granted, one item was not that random, I saw a tray of the mont-blanc tarts being assembled, they obligingly finished one for me upon request. It is basically chestnut paste piled on flakey pastry base but embedded inside is a little chestnut-like cookie with a fine chocolate shell. Yuzu flecks lightened the pared-down French classic making this a relatively guilt-free treat. The pizza-esque thing on the left is a remake of Floss, amped up with spicy floss and grilled eggplants, it was so delicious I gobbled it up in about five bites, all the while telling husband how good it was.

All the restaurants in my stomach- Part 2

Our family in KL is still very much in Korean mood. We went to Daorae, chosen randomly by my brother from the dozens of similar restaurants in mini-Korea of Sri Hartamas, not once but twice over a week. Daorae is huge and popular. They are also friendly and efficient even though the staff speak very little English.

 

Their BBQ selection is big, and comes with lots of garlic, lettuce and side dishes. Come to think of it the rest of the menu selection is pretty big too. Something for everyone, who cares about authenticity as long as it tastes good?

I love their bo-ssam served with terrific oyster kimchi. They also do stir-fried rice cakes with spicy sauce, excellent. For chilli head husband, he was in nirvana with all their spicy stews. Soon dubu was not so good, but that's because I've had some good ones in Korea where the portions are so generous they are a meal in themselves especially at the end when they would cook rice in any leftover broth; here it is just a supporting player to the big BBQ boys.

The political scene in Malaysia is one big hysterical joke but it's okay, we still love you. 

Not least because in Malaysia the eating is so good. Even in shopping malls. One night at dinner at Reunion restaurant in Bangsar Village my brother kept saying how good their dim sum was. He was right, the dim sum here is as refined as their downtown competitors.

Poor V, she was not used to eating restaurant Chinese food especially dim sum because the one time we ate at a dim sum restaurant in Paris our food came with a serving of little black pellets that I suspect were rat droppings. Anyways, she spat out her first bites of dan dart, cheong fun etc but curiousity eventually got the better of her and she was soon happily digging into custards and fishing out sweet nuggets of cha siu from the cheong funs.

We went to Bangsar Village almost every day. The Japanese restaurant Mizu is very good and it's my mother's favourite neighbourhood restaurant for she almost always suggests this when she does have time to eat lunch with us. Their set lunches are delicious and well-priced and their a-la-carte menu has some innovative east-meets-west combinations.

What I also like is the little push cart stall outside the supermarket that sells kueh. It's only one of many stalls of the La Cucur chain but the quality is above average.

This trip I managed to satiate my craving for popiah, starting with the twee little 'basah'(wet) version here and when Sunday night rolled round, we headed to the pasar malam at Bangsar where the uncle who operates the Stadium Popiah stall has been a fixture for nearly 30 years, assembling and rolling out his signature popiah. It's very relaxed even though the queue never abates. He even told the crowd not to bother queuing, his memory is so good he can remember everyone's order in the correct sequence.

Another 'nearly 30 years' experience is at the coffeeshop in the corner of Jalan Batai/Jalan Beringin. It has a grandioise name of Shangri La. I say 30 years because our family moved to this Damansara neighbourhood when I was 13 and I am now already 39 years old, but it's been around even longer. The food may not be the best in KL, though I would still maintain that the char kway teow (CKT) from the coffeeshop a few doors down (he was in Shangri La at one time) is my favourite in all of Malaysia. A trip home will not seem right without meeting my dad for lunch in Shangri La. He and husband will ta-pow the char kway teow before meeting up the coffeeshop for rojak, wantan noodles and cups of strong coffee. The wantan noodles have just the right springiness. At one time there was a very good prawn noodle stall, unfortunately the owner had a gambling habit and he eventually gave up his stall.

 

(Updated 24 September with this 5 year old image of my favourite CKT man. If you click on this slightly more recent review by Robyn of EatingAsia you will notice he still has the same t-shirt  but the cap has changed. Oh the microphone? It was only Mr K F Seetoh and his crew filming him for the Malaysian edition of Makansutra, wonder if any one has seen it?)

The vendor of the minced pork noodles worked really hard to send their children to university. When their children grew up, the couple retired. Their pork balls were handmade and the noodles always very tasty. The new owners added liver sausage to their noodles, but these days the sausages are of lower quality and the pork balls a lot more industrial tasting. So much for nolstagia.

There is another Shangri La that we grew up with. The Shangri La Hotel was the first five star hotel in KL when it opened, about 30 years ago. My maternal grandparents love their Chinese restaurant Shang Palace. Over the years they would often invite us to join them for lunch at other fine-dining Chinese restaurants as they open all over the city, but Shang Palace was always a constant. Shang Palace today is better than ever I have to say, the decor is up to date modern Chinese, the service impeccable and the dim sum exemplary.

They provide two condiment dishes. Default chilli sauce and brown bean sauce the latter of which is hardly seen in most dim sum places now. House XO sauce not as good as that of Li Yen, Ritz Carlton Hotel, but bonus points for the elusive yellow mustard. On the lazy susan would also be found chopped raw garlic. Another memory of those languid dim sum lunches with the grandparents is the pungent overhanging reek in the car as everyone, except me and my sisters, would have chomped through a tonne of garlic in bravado and blind belief that garlic is the universal cure.

We stack the baskets high to keep them warm, also they are no more space on the lazy susan.

Cha xiu sou is already very good, the walnut topping was just more gilding but I'm not complaining. The dim sums are very old-school here, no cute rabbits. 

Fried fishballs. Nobody did steamed fish balls like them, now the fried version reigns. Some people like it with a bit of fishy sauce on the side, I liked them fine just as they were. I think I ate like 2 plates by myself.

The other day I was very happy to discover red bean desserts in Paris. But lotus paste, that is a rare thing. Not here, pure lotus-ness.

Where else did we eat? Madam Kwan's of course. Satay Kajang H.J Samuri in Damansara Uptown. A ghastly and expensive dinner at Sri Ayutthaya in Damansara Heights. Nasi kandar and roti canai in Bangsar. Plus a magnificient seafood dinner at Greenview Restaurant. Previous dinners have always fallen short of my expectations yet the family return there again and again, well this time I saw the light. Sweet firm-fleshed crabs fried with egg yolk PLUS curry leaves was die, die must try good. Live Prawn noodles was equally good, the prawns particularly large, succulent and their heads heavy with roe.

On the bus journey back to Singapore I bought a packet of nasi lemak at the rest-stop because I don't know why but I am unable to walk past a nasi lemak bungkus without wanting to eat it.

In Singapore we ate some more. Thosai at one of the coffeeshops near the Old Rex cinema. Our hosts invited us to a Veuve Clicquot dinner. The 1988 vintage was so delicious, it tasted like preserved limes the wine expert said, he was quite right and I had about 3 or 4 glasses which left little room for the other years. There was also a seafood dinner with friends at Long Beach Restaurant in Dempsey Road, burp. Finally ending with a big, and rather emotional, bang of a lunch at Hokkaido Sushi. Goodbye my beloved family and friends, until the next time we meet!

All the restaurants in my stomach- Part 1

Some of the roads outside our apartment is closed. There are security people and police all over the place and the helicopters are circling overhead. The occasion: visit of Pope Benoit XVI. He arrived this morning and the afternoon is taken up with meeting the Sarkozys and religious leaders. Tonight he says mass at Notre Dame and tomorrow there is an open air mass at Les Invalides. Do not attempt to visit these areas this weekend.

At the gym, actually it is called an 'institute' which sounds so much more glamorous, my Power Plate coach told me that the pope will be staying at a convent on Avenue President Wilson. Which explains why the market along that avenue is not open tomorrow. Apparently they even have snipers at the ready in case of assasination attempts. Many shops and business around the area are not bothering to open because their customers cannot reach them until the Pope leaves for Lourdes on Sunday.

I went back to the gym last week. The first day was really tough, the coach who knows that my holidays are food-focussed joked that all the restaurants went into my stomach and made it all flabby again. He was so right!

We didn't have to make much of an effort. Most of the times our friends chose the venue and we simply showed up. Like the first dinner at Cherry Garden of the Mandarin Oriental Hotel. The host booked a private room and being a regular, the chef and the service staff did their best to make it a memorable dinner. Beautiful decor, smart service and excellent food. Ahh so nice to be back. One of the most memorable dishes was a noodles braised with mushroom in a spicy sour soup, characteristic of the part of China close to its Indochinese neighbours. Thanks KS!

The next day husband took V to the zoo. I went for a Pilates session and sent my quilt for professional quilting. Lunch was at Patara in Tanglin Mall, they serve very competent Thai food in an upmarket setting.

Dinner was with the Makankakis on their monthly event. This time we revisit Old Mother Hen at 136 Sims Avenue. The chef Jimmy has revamped the menu and their food is better than ever. The restaurant is 'poshed up' now with chandeliers and tablecloths but the cooking remains very much in the classic tze char tradition. When the fish came I made sure to clean up every last morsel of its delicious flesh.

Then I wanted to eat durians and we went across the road to eat some. My holiday stomach is an amazing thing.

The chef, at the end of a raucous dinner.

There was also dimsum at Crytal Jade Golden Palace with the bloggers. The same night Mia The Skinny Epicurean organised a dinner with other bloggers at Hokkaido Sushi. I had been particularly looking forward to this because this is Chef Thomas Kok's new venture. After some lost years at Kaisan he found his rhythm at Tomo Fine Dining but this is even better. Fresh seafood flown in directly from Hokkaido, only the very best is served here and we had a hell of a good time. So good I came back with husband and V just before we flew home.

Our degustation menu had everything that was delicious like Hokkaido crab, chawan mushi with ikura, squid marinated in garlic soy, fish noodle soup and sushi so perfect we were asked to eat it with our hands for maximum enjoyment.

The Thomas came by and decided we needed more food.He asked the waitress to serve us foie gras chawan mushi. Later more good stuff would arrive.

Aji sushi.

Scallop sushi.

This is not a fish sushi but beef sushi. Very special beef. The meat was so tender and sweet hardly any chewing was required. The only thing to do would be to close your eyes, savour the exquisiteness and thank your lucky stars.

To finish, we had beautiful Furano melon and fruit tomato. Thank you Thomas you are magnificient.

While we have been away in Paris, our friend TTC and SuperfineFeline of Gastronomic Ruminations have formed a club of sorts for lovers of super spicy Chinese/ Sichuan food. We received a text saying to go to Chuan Gardens in Chinatown. Read TTC's review here:

http://www.makansutra.com/forums/singapore/viewtopic.php?t=15867&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=30

I enjoyed the lunch very much. The heat level was just nice for me though the die hard chilli fans like TTC, Superfinefeline and my husband would beg to disagree.

Bean thread noodles with minced meat.

La Zhi Ji, or spicy pepper chicken. Very fragrant but not too hot. After all that hot food we cooled down with desserts at nearby Temple Street. V became acquainted with more Chinese desserts like peanut soup which she loved as she is already a peanut butter lover. 

It seems like I am rushing this entry and it's true. I have to go pick V up at school. So to finish, here is an image of the wo-peng at Asia Grand Restaurant in Bugis where we had dinner with good friends and ex-colleagues. We ate and drank well and then we proceeded to S's house to drink more wines and enjoy the televised opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Games.

The following day we went back to KL, which I will detail in Part II. Bon Weekend à tous!

Caterpillar Cafe

             

Back in KL. Where good food can be had with a smile and won't leave big holes in your pocket.

Before resuming regular posting I would like to shout out that my sister has, only last Friday (auspicious date 8.08.08!) taken over the management of a bright and welcoming neighbourhood cafe known as Caterpillar Cafe in 11, Jalan Sri Hartamas 7.

She revampled the menu and will go on to make more changes in the weeks ahead. Presently, breakfast options include crepes, French toast and omelettes. Examples of main dishes are chicken rice, asam seafood rice (above image), beef stew and a duck with chilli coriander pasta that is her signature dish from her catering business Special Treats. Lighter options available among her sandwiches and cakes. Kids get their own menu and their own corner to read and draw. No MSG used in any of the dishes, and everything is made from scratch, with a lot of heart, like her breads and complimentary cakes for customers. On Sundays she serves her popular Seafood Paella. Come on over!

Opening hours 8-8 Mon-Sat, 8-3 Sundays.

KL mini road trip Part 2

                

After hanging around the ferry terminal we returned to the car and headed back to the city. Then there were some moments of debate and discussion about the next destination. Since we failed to make it to Ipoh brother suggested we go eat Ipoh hor fun.

                

I don't remember where this coffeeshop is, the address is probably google-able, but the Ipoh hor fun is sedap! It comes with shredded chicken or prawn, but the noodles take centre-stage, slick and slippery smooth. The prawn version comes with the mandatory layer of prawn oil and the combination goes down all too easily.

Then there was some desserts of very decent dan-tan (steamed egg custards) from Zhongguo Hua Tuoguan, which I learnt about from EatingAsia too. Especially popular with the little one. We tar-powed extra portions for people at home.

Then it was off to Petaling Street to try their famous chee cheong fun. Unfortunately they were sold out. We came back two days later, even at 12 pm they had sold out. And the food guides state that they are open till 4pm. Urgh!! But Petaling Street had other consolations, like the tow foo fa stall, and for my nephew, the toy shops which sold all sorts of new and retro toys. We spent a good hour and a half picking out toys for him and the other children at home.

                

Third Sister asked us to buy something for dinner, so we went to Bangsar Baru. Sate Kajang H.J. Samuri was introduced to us by brother-in-law whose office is nearby. No need to drive all the way to Kajang, this quick fix promises to be authentic, yummy and reasonably priced.

                

Looking back at these photos bring back powerful memories of the good times shared with my family. Also, if I stare long enough at the bowl of horfun I can almost imagine myself slurping it up.....

KL mini road trip Part 1

               

On our last trip home to KL, we at first wanted to make a short makan trip to either Ipoh or Penang with my brother and father. That didn't materialise as we didn't have much time and a four year old boy travelling with us, instead we decided to explore the eats in and around our own city. 

First stop, Bah Kut Teh (BKT) at Old Klang Road. On the way there, my brother recounted the story of his friend who married a girl from this area. On his wedding day, after his male friends and himself had "stormed" the bride's house to claim the bride they then had some spare time waiting for the bride to ready herself for other ceremonies. Instead of staying with his in-laws to chit chat, the groom took his entourage to have a BKT breakfast. Because he loves the BKT here.

We circled the neighbourhood that boasted the highest concentration of BKT operators and finally settled arbitrarily on one of the corner coffeeshops. Upon stepping out of the car we were greeted with the most foul stench of burning rubber. If you have never smelled this smell before you will have to imagine something like sewage, rodent decomposition and fungating vegetables all mingled together and it will be close to it. But we were not going to turn back and look like cowards in front of the townsfolks, reasoning that our minds will habituate to the smell. While that did happen the smell continued to linger and occasionally asserted itself, but not enough to detract from the experience which was largely enjoyable but not really a highlight.

Old Klang Road BKT is of a lighter style than the KL/ Jalan Imbi version we grew up eating- less heavy on the Chinese herbs so that the soup is more of a balance between meaty and herbal. It is also traditionally cooked in a claypot. The ribs were tender and tasty enough and digging through the pot revealed succulently braised shitake mushrooms, dried beancurd sheets and melting sweet cabbage. Our stomachs warm and nearly full, we piled back into the car and planned our route to Port Klang.

               

Port Klang is not worth visiting unless you have a reason to. It is ugly and industrialised, mostly it is the cargo trains and container trucks that populate the town. But there are some ferries that take passengers and goods across to small neighbouring islands so brother can show his son some 'ships and boats'.

               

Another reason for visiting was this very old coffeeshop which I learnt about from robyn's blog EatingAsia. Husband likes mee goreng, or mee mamak as it is called here and robyn had said nice things about the rendition here so we decided on this place for lunch.   

               

But I was distracted by the neighbouring table's lunch of what appeared to be Hainanese style pork chops. They're actually chicken chops because the coffeeshop is a halal establishment. No matter, our order came with delicious crumbed chicken covered in a familiarly old-fashioned and very tasty tomato sauce and accompanied by proper fried potatoes and peas. Pork would make it perfect though....

The mee mamak was good, even Daddy said so. More pictures of the coffeeshop below. In Part 2, we drive back to KL and ate some more. 

               

               

               

               

Bosses Restaurant

                     

Like thousands of Singapore residents, we find ourselves in Vivo City more times than we care to admit. Parking is a nightmare, the directions and signboards hopelessly confusing and the crowds are particularly irksome. But we are not deterred. Because the eating here's good, and one particularly good example is Bosses Restaurant.

We noticed the name first- in Cantonese it reads as the more attention-grabbing 'hak se wui' which means the secret society, not a typical Chinese restaurant name obviously. Intrigued, we wandered over to have a gawp at the contemporary black-themed decor and couldn't see much beyond a lounge area with black patent-finish couches and a bar. Susan Hui, the manager, enthusiatically invited us to view the dining area and peruse the menu, never mind the fact that we've just had lunch. The dining room is very elegant, the black theme striking against the view of the water and Sentosa beyond. The menu looked promising, with dim sum, handmade noodles, uniquely HK style dishes, and reasonable prices to boot. 

I was curious to try out the place and decided to organise a dinner with friends. emails were exchanged, Susan was extremely accommodating to our requests, and finally we were gathered, in our mostly black outfits, at one of their two private rooms. There was a universal rumbling of discontent when we realised that they do not serve complimentary water and grudgingly ordered mini-bottles of Ice Mountain ($2) to drink with our wines. We were only mollified when the first course of a duo of dim-sum was served.

Susan explained that they do not routinely serve dim-sum for dinner but she wanted us to try some of their special items. The har-kow was exemplary, dainty in appearance, bursting with fresh prawns from its smoothly resilient skin. But it was the nondescript looking prawn ball that surprised us, within the prawn paste was embedded a nugget of what we thought were rather delicious minced fatty pork but which Susan revealed later was foie gras. Nice, understated but nice.

There followed a succession of dishes that impressed us further with their excellent cooking and judgement of flavours. A Fruit Salad with Crispy Aromatic Duck and slightly spicy XO-style dressing served its appetiser function well, our palates were more than gratified with the subsequent Pig Stomach Soup with dried beancurd skin, gingko and barley. Not too peppery, the meaty soup was rendered smoother and more silky with the addition of the barley and beancurd skin; this was husband's favourite dish.

"Yau Cham Soon Hock" was not as disgusting as its name may suggest, the soon hock was very fresh and meaty and drowned not in oil but a classic fragrant soy sauce. "Fong Sa" or Wind and Sand Chicken sounded more romantic than what it actually was, fried chicken with deep fried garlic bits; personally I felt that this was a bit weak, the chicken bland and not absorbed well of its marinade. Top shell with Braised Sea Cucumber was likewise decent but not memorable.

Iced Kai Lan was simply that, stalks of quick-boiled kai lan in a bowl of shaved ice, to be eaten with good soy sauce and wasabi, a vegetarian sashimi of sorts. Simple and a refreshing change from the usual stirfried version, and a cinch to duplicate for home dining too. Then a whole Crispy Aromatic Duck was served with a simple hoisin dip instead of crepes or scallions a la UK-Chinese restaurant; the duck was crispy and still moist in parts, and did well to accompany the wines we brought along.

                     

The best was yet to come though. La Mian with Seafood, one of their signature dish, appeared ordinary but was my favourite dish. The la-mian had a freshly pulled texture, light and springy, and porous enough to absorb well the fantastic brown sauce, rendering the seafood component rather superfluous. I could have slurped up another three of four bowlfuls.

                        

There were two desserts: one of boring Mango Sago with Fresh Pomelo, and another of Creamy and Flowy Custard Bun. The bun looks like normal fluffy dessert buns, pretty and cute, albeit with yellower complexion than its paler cousins.

                   

The paper cases tear away with much difficulty, and we had to be careful to turn the bun upside down because its inside was a liquid version of the usual custard bun filling, the molten custard buttery sweet and tempered with just the right touch of salted egg yolks. Two bites and it was gone, a final indulgent taste to mark the end of a great meal.

Bosses Restaurant

1 Harbourfront Walk

02-156 Vivo City

T: 63769740

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