Cafe Melba

I got pretty excited when Ailing told me about this new cafe over at Goodman Arts Centre. It is right in my hood - would have been the perfect place to chill over nice weekend brunches at... Haiz.

Anyways.. so I arranged a double date for B, myself, Sis and hubby to have saturday brunch and on first impression it looked great - place looked lovely - nice comfy seats and a cool vibe. Unfortunately, the food and service left much to be desired.

My eggs florentine was served without spinach and when I asked about it, they told me it does not come with spinach. "It's written on the menu" I said. The waitress just shrugged. WTF. The portions were miserable and whilst the eggs were well poached, the hollandaise sauce was erm.. tasteless.

B's "big" breakfast looked pathetic. $24 for this?? The picture says it all.

The pancakes we had to share did not fare better. At $18 (or was it more), I could have gone to Macs for better pancakes. Seriously a massive letdown.

I think my bro-in-law's roast beef might well be the best dish for that afternoon. But again, portions were too small. What kind of business are they running?

Not happy. Over-priced with unenthusiastic staff - they better act their act together or else.. Such a good location, I'm hoping a new better-run cafe with (at the minimum) DECENT food takes over the spot.

Masa Steak and Hamburg

B is a big fan of beef so for our 8 month non-anniversary (it's a long story), we decided to check out this relatively new steak place at Robertson Walk. It's just beside Orihara, the sake bar, so when making reservations I made it a point to ask about corkage - it's $20 for wine and $30 for sake (per 750ml bottle).

The decor of the place was simple but welcoming - soft lighting, dark panelling and cosy booths. The price of the steak was not cheap so we both decided to just go with the hamburgs plus some appetizers. B popped next door to buy a bottle of his choice of poison - sake. I had glasses of the house red and white wine which were quite palatable. The red wine - Three Rings Baroosa Shiraz in particular, went well with the hamburg, portions were generous at $12. 

We settled in quickly and waited in anticipation. Luckily, the food did not disappoint. The Masa salad and steak tartare were perfect for starting the meal off with. B has a high standard for beef tartare (I am indifferent) so when he says it's good.. well, trust the meat man.

The french onion soup we had to share was also very tasty. I loved the cheese flavour and the soup was robust, full of onion goodness. Definitely will order again.









The star of the meal were of course the hamburgs. We both had ours with a sunny side egg and B added garlic chips as an add-on. I had the demiglace sauce and B had the traditional. We compared sauces - definitely go with the demiglace. We didn't try the ponzu though.

At $28 for a 200g patty and $38 for 300g,  this was definitely good value hamburg. The hamburg was perfectly done and it was just such an enjoyable meal (excellent company aside). I am definitely going back to Masa!

Tatsu Sushi

Chijmes has never been a culinary hotspot for me. Sure there are a few reasonably good places such as Lei Garden but these are likely to be expensive (and often unimpressive).

Well, B proved me wrong by taking me to Tatsu, one Monday afternoon when I needed some respite from the blues. I gotta say, the set lunches here are good value! We took some time deciding which lunch sets to order, mainly because they all looked good and came with so many different permutations of sashimi, sushi, grilled fish and meats and tempura.

Finally I decided to widen my Chiraishi Horizon and ordered the Bara Chiraishi set $20 (comes with Chawamushi, soup, fruits). It wasn't the best I've had (see my post here) but for that price, there was a good mix of sashimi, grilled eel and tamago in the treasure bento box so... I was still happily stuffed.

I thought B's sushi set looked impressive. Note, the pic below was just half of his set - there was still another bento with mixed tempura and misc stuff I didn't take a picture of. All for $26 (if my memory serves me right)!

The star of the lunch were the tofus. I ordered the century egg tofu (yes I'm so predictable) and B tried the sesame tofu. OMG this century egg tofu beats the Shinjuu and Fukuichi versions hands down. It's nothing fancy but the taste of the century egg was just so robust and ... I'll definitely go back for this.

The sesame tofu was great too - very unique beancurd made off seasame with a light sauce and a precious sliver of uni on top. Very unique and well thought out dish, bravo. Another great lunch destination to check out, everyone!

Smoke Shack Breakfast

Yay new breakfast option in the CBD! I love breakfast food (who doesn't) and there's nothing like a hearty eggy meal to kick-start a long hard day at work - takes the pain away (a bit). We loved the meaty sandwiches from Smoke Shack, so when we heard they had a new breakfast menu, we couldn't resist checking it out.

It was a no-brainer for my order - scrambled egg with smoked salmon please! Yes, I am boring this way :)

It was sheer salmon-egg creaminess bliss.. Scrambled perfection without being too jelat (gotta watch that waistline) and I was surprised how generous they were with the smoked salmon. I definitely got my money's worth muhahaha.   

My second choice would have been the english muffin with eggs and cheese and ham/bacon/pastrami. Looks a bit like the Mac's Egg Mcmuffin, doesn't it? Aha! Bite into this and tell me if it tastes the same. 

The quality of the  ham/bacon/pastrami was wayyy superior - this IS the Smoke shack ya know. I don't know about you but paying a couple of dollars more for this version seems reasonable to me.

B loves his meat so I imagine he would love the Corned Beef hash set - with 2 fried eggs, grilled tomato with toast. Done properly, corned beef hash to me is the perfect marriage of savory, sweet and salty succulence. An incomparable pleasure. I haven't tried any other versions in Singapore but this one from Smoke shack was pretty darn good.  

I didn't try this but I thought the smoked salmon bagel (choice of sour cream/ jam/cream cheese) was most photogenic. 

At $3.50-$7 per set (if my memory serves me right) including coffee,  I'd say the gourmet breakfast sets from Smoke shack are a darned good deal.


Not convinced? Go check out the place yourself, it's at the basement of Republic Plaza.  Power breakfast!

Purple Mustard

I had never seen purple mustard in my life. Until today, anyway. It's a pretty colour. Tastewise, it's not as spicy and edgy as I would have liked it but oh well, it's a novelty. Which was what drew B and I into the shop (ICON village), I suppose - we were at a bit of a loss as to where to grab a quick bite before our respective conference calls and the cute decor of the smallish joint caught our eye.

B ordered the signature barnyard dog (ze one with the purple stuff), a side of Asian slaw and the horchata drink. B liked his barnyard dog, though he went through very many napkins and killed many trees. A messy hotdog to eat, that one. I didn't try it but the sausage did look nice and juicy.

I thought the horchata was a tad too sweet. Not my type of drink but I imagine some people might like it.

 

Me, I decided on the pulled pork wrap - it had a really cute name which I cannot remember). I have been having pulled pork burger cravings for the longest time (if anyone knows of a good place please share)! 

Well the wrap wasn't too bad - I liked the asian slaw in it and they used mesclun which I love. The pork, on the other hand, didn't impress. It was lumpy, rather than pulled. A tad dry too. 

Each hotdog/ wrap cost us about $8 - $10, thereabouts. Not the cheapest snack but it was good enough to cheer me up (slightly) for a late night in the office.

The hotdogs clearly shone more than the wraps though. I still prefer the wraps at Salads and Wraps (Icon Village) - I have the stamp card!

BYOF at the Straits Wine Company (East Coast)

I love the east. I've lived in Katong, Siglap, and now Mountbatten.. It's the best area on the island, I swear - this Katong kia stands her ground!

I also love wine. (Shocker?)

So when I found out that this non-descript wine shop along East Coast Road has a second floor dining/chilling/lazing area and that we can (i) buy a bottle of wine at retail price; (ii) lounge on the nice sofas to drink the wine on-site and (iii) GET THIS - tabao food from any of the food outlets and eat there, I knew I had found a new favourite hangout.

That location is superb for BYOF-ing! There's tze char from my eat-since-young Sin Hoi Shan restaurant and Boon Tong Kee just across the road, this Beijing dumpling place down the road and SO MUCH MORE... 

In the end, we settled (no pain in that) for tze char and a lovely bottle of $60 burgundy white (I don't remember because I was too happy drinking).

I can totally see myself returning here again - hmm need to do some homework on what wine goes with chilli crab *rubs hands in glee*

They have loads of wine magazines for browsing. Impressed with the setup!

I Want to be a Domesticated Goddess (Part 4)

An occasion to cook for my family- my dear Sis' Susan's birthday! Look Ma, I can cook!

I think my mum was very proud of me tonight - it's the first time I've seen her whip out her phone to take a food picture - she took about 4 (?) from all angles :p

My dear nephews love pasta so this time, I attempted making aglio olio. Granted, it's a simple dish but hey, to do it well takes some kungfu ok.. I did intensive research on this one, combined the best of the recipes I found online and tweaked the recipe abit for more omphm.

Yes, I should never open a restaurant because I will be making losses from being  too generous with the prawns. They were fresh and sweet, but it sure wasn't a cheap dinner, this one.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SIS! I love you for the wonderful (dare I say nurturing) person you are, how you stood by me through my "wildchild" years, gave me a roof over my head when I first moved back home... You are the perfect sister and I will always cherish our bond.

*Sniff*

Ok, enough public display of affection. Here's the recipe:

Serves 5

Spicy shrimp:
1 kg jumbo shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 lemon, juiced
1/4 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley
2 teaspoon crushed chili padi
4 cloves garlic, crushed and peeled
Coarse salt
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

Aglio Olio:
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 (100g) tin anchovy fillets
6 to 8 large cloves garlic, crushed and minced
2 teaspoon crushed chili padi
1/4 cup finely chopped flat leaf parsley, a couple of handfuls
Coarse salt
500ml spaghetti, cooked to al dente

Combine shrimp with next 6 ingredients and toss to coat shrimp evenly. Heat a large, nonstick skillet over medium high heat, then add half of the shrimp. Cook shrimp 3 minutes until pink and just firm. Remove shrimp to a warm platter and repeat process with remaining shrimp.

Return pan to heat and reduce heat to medium low. Add 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil. Add anchovies, garlic, and pepper flakes to oil. Break up anchovies with a wooden spoon until they melt away into the oil and garlic mixture.

Cook spaghetti and toss in the pan with parsley and the garlic oil, then season with a little coarse salt, to your taste. Top servings of garlic and oil spaghetti with spicy shrimp.