Botanist at Neil Road

The cafe is housed in an old shop house in the Tanjong Pagar conservation area.  The sign is not very prominent.  We almost walked right past it without noticing it.

The place is quite small, with 5-6 tables in the alfresco area, indoors there was only the cashier, kitchen and product displays .  The alfresco area is just a stone's throw away from Neil Road, so sometimes it can be quite noisy when there is a lot of traffic.

You have to go the cashier to order your food and drinks, make the payment and then came back with a number plate for your order.  Surprisingly, there is no service charge, GST is included in the stated price.

Slow Cooked Beef Cheek, $24.00

I ordered their signature slow cooked beef cheek.  Well, beef cheek is the cow's facial muscle, which works really hard throughout a cow's life, munching grass.  This tough muscle transforms into tender stew after being cooked low and slow.  You could still see the coarse fibre-like tissues but it was pleasant to bite and chew.

Underneath the beef cheek was the truffle mash, which is mash potato cooked with butter and truffle oil.  Butter and truffle oil added layers of complex sensations to this otherwise common ingredient, in particular the fragrance, which enhances your appetite.

Piccolo Latte, $4.50

Other than food, this cafe is famous for its coffee.  They are by the Pacamara people.  Well, as if I knew what Pacamara are.  Frankly speaking, I have never heard of Pacamara, until now.  Obviously they are a well-known boutique coffee roaster in Singapore, providing good coffee to the Singapore connoisseurs.  At first, I wanted to try their cold brew, but then it was not available on the day of my visit (why?).  I ordered a piccolo latte instead.

I always wonder why there are so many different names for the same stuff, coffee is just coffee.  Piccolo latte is a kind of 'new' invention that became popular in Sydney about 10 years ago.  It is coffee with milk served in a small glass.

The milk tames the bitterness of the coffee, while retains the nutty flavor of the beans.  It is gentle to the stomach, stimulating to the brain, fresh for the nose.  It would be great to have it after meal, but too bad, they served it before my food arrived.  Still not bad.

Overall, it was a pleasant dining experience.  The staff were friendly, service with a smile.  The place can be noisy and hot sometimes, mostly due to its close proximity to the main road.  Food and coffee are both good.  My friend whose standard comment on food is always 'so-so', surprised me with an 'above average' comment for Botanist.

Santouka at Clark Quay Central

This is my second visit to this ramen restaurant in 8 or 9 years.  During my last visit, their ramen was way too authentic for me.  The soup base was so salty that it was unpleasant to eat.

Shio Ramen, $13.50++

This time, I ordered their Shio ramen.  The soup base was still as thick and milky, but the taste was a lot less salty.  I think they had made adjustment to their soup base so that it is more acceptable to the local taste.  It is also better from the health point of view.  Too much salt in a person's diet will have many serious consequences, including high blood pressure, diabetes and even stomach cancer.  Japan has one of the highest stomach cancer cases in the world, partially because of their diet.  It is great that they made the adjustment. 

Back to my Shio ramen.  The chashu was thinly sliced.  The proportion of fat and lean meat was good.  Melt-in-your-mouth element was still there for the fat part.

Ramen-wise, it was like our egg noodle, and I think it was slightly over-cooked, leaving the contour less clearly defined. 

Overall, their ramen was quite enjoyable, with good adaption to the local taste for the soup base.
The staff were friendly and service efficient.  If you choose your table correctly, you can enjoy the view of Clark Quay while enjoying your ramen too.

Sik Bao Sin Eating House at Geylang Road

Spotted this Sik Bao Sin Cantonese eating house along Geylang Road the other day and decided to give it a try.  The place is open for dinner from 5.45pm, we arrived at around 6.20pm, the place was already almost full.  Luckily there were only the two of us, and we were warmly ushered in immediately.

We were given a menu to order, but there was no price tag on the menu, so you have to be a bit thick-skinned to ask them for the prices.  There are not many items on the menu, so almost every item on the menu is their recommended dish.

Black Chicken Herbal Soup, $26.00

My friend wanted the black chicken soup, so we ordered one.  When it arrived, it gave us a shock.  Usually the soup is in a small bowl, and you get some body parts of the black chicken, and some tiny amount of herbs, but the black chicken soup here came in a giant bowl, with an entire black chicken in it.  There were generous portions of Chinese herbs of YuZhu (玉竹), BeiQi (北芪）, QiZi （杞子）, etc.   The soup was excellent, 真材实料, boiled for hours with authentic ingredients.  The sweetness of the soup came from the ingredients, not some added sugar or artificial flavouring.  As the portion is quite big, I think it can be shared by at least 3 persons.

Steamed Song Fish-head, $26.00

We also ordered their signature dish, the steamed Song fish-head.  When the dish came, we got another shock.   When I ordered the steamed Song fishhead in another local restaurant, the fishhead was of palm size, but the one here again was of giant size.  It was steamed with preserved vegetables, and deep-fried pork lard, topped with spring onion and then finally hot oil was poured on it to spark off the fragrance.

Cantonese like to eat fishheads, as it has lots of collagen, which is tender and smooth, full of nutrients.  The fish head was done just nice.  The meat was still tender but fully cooked.  The collagen was still juicy.  It was good!  However, there was something I didn't like.  Somehow they use fermented tofu (豆腐乳) as part of the sauce.  Fermented tofu's flavor was too strong for such a delicate dish, it grossly dominated the entire sensation system.   Well, it is just my opinion, maybe many other patrons like the strong taste.

We also ordered a vegetable dish, together with two bowls of rice and two teas, in grand total we paid $68.00 for the entire meal.  No GST and no service charge.

I think I will go back for their soup, but with more people.  Their soup is simply too big for just one or two persons.

Jumbo Seafood at Riverside Point

It has been quite some time since I last visited Jumbo Seafood restaurant, as some foreign visitors were in town so we decided to have dinner at Jumbo Riverside Point.  I didn't know their business had become so successful.  On a weekday night, we almost couldn't secure a table.  The restaurant opens at 5.30pm for its alfresco section, 6.00pm for its indoor section.  At 5.30pm, there was already a huge queue, for people with reservations!  We waited for about 15 minutes before we were seated.

We ordered a very expensive set menu, which is not shown at their website.

The first dish that came was the PingPang (拼盘), a combination of appetizers of roast duck salad with mango, crispy fried baby squid, bacon wrapped sausage, and fried seafood beancurd.  We had motley crew of people that night, 3 Americans, 1 Italian, 1 Korean, 1 Japanese, 1 Mexican, 1 Indonesian and of course 1 Singaporean.  The Italian didn't like sweet dishes other than dessert, so he didn't like the fried baby squid.  I don't like sausages in general.  The rest of the guys somehow finished all that appetizer in no time.  For the next few dishes, they were gone before I could take a photo!

The next dish I managed a photo was steamed bamboo clam.  Vermicelli was strategically placed underneath the clam meat, and minced garlic was placed on top the clam meat.  When the clam was steamed, all the richly flavored juice was absorbed in the vermicelli.  At first, I was a bit concerned that the clam meat may be too tough to chew.  As it turned out, it was good.  Fully cooked, but it was crispy, easy to bite it off, not the rubbery type.  The chef did a good job.  Other than one Italian American who doesn't like garlic, all the bamboo clams were gone in an instant.

Our expensive set menu offered Alaska crab.  We decided to have half to cook with black pepper, and half with chili.  I must say that Alaska crab itself was very good, but the black pepper was really too strong and overwhelmed the taste of the Alaska crab itself.  In my opinion,

The chili crab somehow still managed to retain the original taste of the Alaska crab itself.  Alaska crab itself was sweet, the chili sauce added an added layer of complexity to the taste, while not overwhelming its original taste.  The Italian, Indonesian and Singaporean like the chili crab, while one American favors the black pepper crab, while the rest like both, so chili crab had a small edge.

Having had two strong flavor dishes of black pepper and chili crabs, we savor something less spicy - steamed grouper.  It was done in typical Cantonese style, steamed with nothing but some tiny pieces of ginger, topped with some spring onion and parsley for decoration, and seasoned with boiled soy sauce.  This way of cooking is an ultimate test of the freshness of the fish.  If the fish is just a tad less fresh, the dish will stink!  In our case, we got a really good fish.  And to the chef's credit, he didn't over cook it, the meat was just nice, fully cooked yet still tender.

Our meal finished with a grand finale of desserts.  They offered mango pudding and chilled jelly with mixed fruits.  The mango pudding was excellent.  Fragrant but not too sweet, helps you to digest that abundance of food that you just had.

The staff there were worth a praise.  The place was crazy busy at night, there were really so many customers there.  I can imagine their work load must be damned heavy, yet they could still manage to have a smile on their faces.   In all that chaos, they didn't make mistakes, and still manage to meet my requests, although trifle.

I very much enjoyed their food, although it was quite expensive.  For the 17 of us, we spent a total of ~$2100.   The food was good but still has room for improvement.  The downside is the huge crowd, you can't really have a very relaxed meal.  Well, is this the curse of the winner?

Curry Times at Westgate

Curry Times is a subsidiary of the well-established local delight franchise Old Chan Kee.   They pride themselves in serving up good local food at affordable prices. 

I visited their branch at Westgate at a Sunday morning.  The place was just opened and not many customers yet.  The interior decoration is very 60s or 70s, reminding you of the days of guys with long hairs. 

Prata with egg, $2.00

My first dish was an egg prata. The curry, and the prata, were both quite decent.  The curry was not very spicy, probably to cater to the patrons who can't take very spicy food.  Prata is just a piece of bread, except that all that flip flopping makes it very elastic, and the frying of the prata on a hot plate with generous portion of oil makes it sinfully fragrant and people mouth-watering.  In Indian, prata is the favor mostly by the working class, especially truck drivers, who have to work very hard but with pathetic pay.  Prata's social status in India is kind of low.  However in Singapore, the early Indian immigrants passed down their favorite food and it is almost a national delicacy here.  If you have never had prata before, you can't say you have ever seen the multi-racial, multi-cultural side of Singapore. 

Sambal Chicken Drumstick with rice, $8.50

My second dish was sambal chicken drumstick with rice.  It was served in a plate, well. probably dated before my birthday.  The sambal was not bad, but it was on the sweet side, rather than the spicy side.  The pickles added additional flavour to the chicken and the rice. 

Overall, I think they serve decent local food in an air-conditioned environment, at affordable prices, but then you know for the many hygiene standards to meet in order to operate as a restaurant, so flavors are lost.  I most probably will still go back from time to time, just for some nostalgia sensations. 

Pince and Pints (Duxton)

Pince and Pints Restaurant and Bar is a restaurant specialized in lobsters!  There are two branches in Singapore, and we went to the Duxton Road branch on a Saturday for lunch.  Reservation was easy at the restaurant's website.  Once your reservation is confirmed, they will send you a confirmation by email.  Pretty efficient.

The restaurant takes up two shop houses in the conservation area, one for the bar, one for the restaurant.  The seating capacity is about 30-40 people.  The interior is simple but cosy.  It is a good place for a few friends gathering for a meal and some drinks.

When I checked their menu online, the cheapest dish was $58.00++, but when I got to the restaurant, they actually have a lunch set menu, which offers some sets at more affordable prices.  I took a picture of the menu for your reference here.  I am not sure whether they change this lunch menu from time to time, so it is best for you to check with the restaurant before hand.

Lunch Set Menu

I ordered their lobster in Lemon Beurre Blanc sauce.  What is beurre blanc sauce?  Google's answer is:

Beurre blanc — literally translated from French as "white butter" — is a hot emulsified butter sauce made with a reduction of vinegar and/or white wine (normally Muscadet) and grey shallots into which cold, whole butter is blended off the heat to prevent separation.

Lobster in Lemon Beurre Blanc Sauce, $34.00++

A picture is worth a thousand words.  It is better for you take a look for yourself.  The food was artistically arranged for the best presentation.  Wow...I almost mistook it as the Japanese flower arrangement.  It is so picturesque that I almost didn't want to destroy such a beautiful piece of art.

The lobster was muscular.  When I poked it with my fork, it was like poking a muscle hunk's biceps.  I suspect the lobster must have done a lot of heavy-lifting to build that muscle.  The mashed potato was simmering in the fragrant beurre blanc sauce.   Butter and mashed potato are a perfect match, with the addition of wine, that's a sure-fire recipe for great taste, which is very true in this case.

We arrived at the restaurant at 12.00 noon, by the time we finished our lunch, it was already 1.50pm.  The wait time was pretty long, probably because the preparation process was complex.  Please take this into account if you consider dining there.

Just in case you didn't notice, the set lunch comes with a soft drink and a dessert.

Overall, I like the food and enjoyed it greatly.

Man Man Unagi at Duo Galleria

The famous Japanese restaurant Man Man Unagi recently opened a new branch at DUO Galleria.  Where is DUO Galleria?  If you are taking MRT, alight at Bugis station, then take Exit F from Bugis Downtown line station.  Once you come out of Exit F, you will enter the building called DUO, which is very much like a ghost town, as 99% of the shops are yet to open.  It is very new.  Take the escalator to street level.  Here you will see three paths, take the center one, and soon you will see Man Man Unagi on your right.  It is the only restaurant that is in operation at the time of my visit.

Man Man's operation hour is 11.30 - 15.00 for lunch, 18.00 - 22.30 for dinner, closed on Sundays.  I arrived there at 11.45 on a Saturday morning.  There was already a small queue at the door.  The restaurant is really small, even smaller than a normal sized Ya Kun store.

After waiting for about 15 minutes, I was ushered into the restaurant.  The interior is of a typical Japanese restaurant, small, crammed, but cosy.  The chef was busy preparing the grilled unagi in the kitchen which is behind a glass wall, right in front of me.

Large Hitsumabushi, $39.40+

I ordered the large hitsumabushi set.  Hitsumabushi basically means eating the grilled eels in three different ways.

1. Scoop the rice and the eel into the eating bowl, eat it with its original taste
2. Scoop the rice and the eel into the eating bowl, pour some soup, add spring onions, wasabi, and eat them together
3. Eat in your most preferred way, whichever it is

I like all three ways of eating their unagi, although my most preferred way is eating it original.  Their unagi is freshly flown in from Japan daily, so it is very fresh.  The chef skillfully grills the eel to just nicely cooked, but still keeping the unagi's tenderness and its juice.  Coupled with the fragrance of the Japanese short-grain rice, it was a heavenly treat.  I greatly enjoyed my unagi meals when I visited Japan last year, and Man Man brought back all the good memories.  I must say Man Man's unagi in Singapore tasted just as delicious as those that I had in Japan.  Two thumbs up for Man Man.

Another special point is that Man Man provides its patrons a real wasabi plant and a grinder to make their own wasabi paste.  You don't have to wonder whether your wasabi is coming from a natural plant or a mixture of chemicals.  It is 100% natural!  This is the very first time that I made the wasabi paste myself.  The spicy taste was discretely strong, giving you a sporadic stimulant from time to time, without overwhelming the taste of your food.

Overall, I greatly enjoyed my lunch.  I will come back whenever I have my cravings for unagi.  

Serenity Spanish Bar & Restaurant at VivoCity

Serenity Spanish Bar & Restaurant has long been a go-to place for Spanish food here in Singapore.  We visited its VivoCity branch on a busy Friday evening.

Pulpitos, $16.80

We ordered a pulpitos as appetizer.  This is considered part of their tapas selection.  Tapas is a Spanish word to describe food that falls into the appetizer or snack categories.  Pulpitos is basically cooked squid marinated with some Mediterranean sauce.   The squids were brittle, the taste was a bit sour nevertheless quite appetizing. I did enjoy this dish, except that the portion was really tiny, what you see in the picture above was all that we had for $16.80.

Paella Valen for 2 pax, $43.00

For the main, we ordered the seafood rice, or Paella in Spanish.  Paella is another dish that is quite open for interpretation.  You will find many variations across the world, however, the basic ingredients are more or less the same.  The main ingredient is, of course, the rice.  Not the kind of Asian rice that we eat normally, but the Italian risotto type of short-grain rice.  For the seafood part, prawns and squids are normally the main ingredients.

For the authentic Spanish paella, the rice is wet & soggy, and worse, it will not be fully cooked and it is done intentionally!  Most Asians don't like it.  To cater to the Asian taste, Serenity modifies their paella so that the rice is fully cooked and less soggy.  Well, it is definitely inauthentic, but, frankly speaking, I like it.

The restaurant advises that normally it will take 30 minutes for the paella to be ready for serving, longer if it is on a busy day.  At the end, our paella came after 45 minutes.  My stomach was already  drumming in protest.  The rice was not bad, not too soft, not too hard.  It was cooked together with some squid rings, soaking in the flavor of the sea.  It was a tad salty to my taste, but still acceptable.  Prawns and mussels were cooked separately and placed atop the rice.  Portion-wise, it was just nice for two no-so-hungry stomachs.  For young army boys, probably one can finish the whole portion.

Overall, I think the restaurant provides an opportunity for locals to have a taste of Spanish food, although with an Asian twist.  The service was alright, but the price is a bit on the high side, probably it is also a bar.  I will still go back if I have a sudden craving for Spanish food.

Seasonal Tastes at The Westin Singapore

Seasonal Tastes is located on the 32nd floor of The Westin Singapore, amid the Marina Bay Financial Center area.  It offers quite a view of Singapore.  On the east, you can have a peek of the Singapore Flyer and the Art and Science Museum, through a narrow view point between other skyscrapers. 

On the south, you can see the mostly vacated Tanjong Pagar port, which is almost ready for new development.  Most amazingly, on both east and south side, you can easily see Malaysia and Indonesia.  It is a reminder just how small our little red dot is, and how amazing it is that we could enjoy great prosperity and safety in such a tiny island.

Their international buffet lunch offers a combination of western, Chinese, and Indian cuisines, plus seafood, fruits and desserts.

Fresh Prawns

Crabs

Their seafood section offers plenty of fresh prawns, which were very good.  The refill was fast too, I didn't encounter any shortage of prawns.  However, the same can't be said of the crabs.  At first, mud crabs were served, but most of the time, that container was empty.  Later on, when it was closer to the end of the lunch time, they replaced the mud crabs with the cheaper flower crabs.

For the Japanese section, the salmon sashimi was in constant supply, never a shortage.  I would say the salmon was not the best in class, but acceptable, especially considering the generous supply.  I didn't try the sushi, as I found that sushi consists mostly of rice, and it will fill up your stomach pretty fast, leaving no room for you to try any other more interesting, more pricey items.

Braised Lamb

Steamed Pork Belly

For the Chinese section, I would like to sing praise to their braised lamb.  I didn't know braised lamb could be so good.  The lamb was cooked with slow fire, together with beancurd skin and water chestnuts.  The lamb was really tender and you can effortlessly bite the meat of the bones.  The steamed pork belly was not bad, but then at my age, it was still a good idea to avoid excessive fat.

Rolley Turkey

Probably because Christmas is just around the corner, they also offered rolley turkey.  I am never a big fan of turkey.  To me, it is nothing more than a big chunk of very dry meat, bland in taste, and unpleasant to chew.  It was the very first time that I saw turkey cooked differently.  Here, the turkey was not just turkey, but with dry fruits fillings inside.  The juice from the fruits provided the much needed moisture to the otherwise dry turkey meat.  At the same time, the fruits also helped to bring some flavors to the bland turkey meat.

Hokkien Mee

Indian Crackers

For the Singapore section, they offered Hokkien Mee and Laksa.  Too bad, didn't have the stomach capacity to give them a try.  For the Indian section, plenty of crackers, and some vegetable and meat dishes which I didn't really try.  I only managed to try some crackers, but they were too salty to my liking.

Salads from Western Section

Other than those I showed above, they also had a very western section which offers plenty of greens, and many different types of cheeses and breads.  The salads were not bad, and I particularly liked their cheese.  I couldn't believe myself that I actually like blue cheese.  My friends warned me that such cheese was smelly and strong in taste.  Probably I had a natural inclination towards cheese, or my smell and taste functions no longer in working order, I found the blue cheese fragrant and taste was enjoyable.

Then there was the sinful dessert section.  I saw my friends swallowing up scoops and scoops of ice cream covered with thick chocolates, and other mouth-watering sweet items.  Somehow they all suddenly agreed that dessert was not counted as food, and it won't take up space in their stomach.

The dining environment was pleasant with a view, the staff were friendly and service was prompt.  And guess how much this lunch buffet cost?  It was just S$32++ for a weekday buffet lunch.

Overall I found the experience pleasant and not heavy on the pocket.  Good place to go if you are looking for a simple buffet with a view.

Tonkotsu Kazan Ramen at JEM

I spotted this new ramen shop in JEM recently.  They are specialized in Volcano ramen, which was really new to me, so I decided to give them a try. 

The shop is really just a hole in the wall kind of operation, although it is a much more 'luxury' hole in the mid-scale JEM shopping center.  The dining environment is very intimate (read 'cramped'), just like those ramen shops in Japan. 

On the table, you are given a 1-min timer and the instructions to handle the 'volcano'.  However, later on I found out that neither is useful.  The staff will handle almost everything for you, you can put your timer aside, and forget about the instructions. 

I ordered the Kazan Shoyu.  My ramen came in a pre-heated stone bowl, like those used in Korean bimbimban.  Then the staff poured about 1/4 of the soup base into the stone bowl, and put on the lid.  Hot stream gushed out of the inverted funnel furiously, just like an erupting volcano.   Haha...Now you know how it got its name, volcano ramen. 

A minute later, the staff removed the lid.  The ramen was piping hot, and the steam was still quite furious.  At this time, you were supposed to stir the ramen just as furiously. 

If you would like to know how strong the stream was, look at this photo.  My phone's camera lens was completely fogged up in less than a minute.  If you have kids with you, it is advisable for you to keep you kids in some safe distance. 

Next step is to scoop out some portions of the content to a small bowl for your consumption.  Now let's look at what we got in that 'volcano'.  Char siew, plenty of vegetables, including cabbage, bean sprouts, some slices of carrot and green pepper and onions. 

Their char siew is big and thick, unlike other ramen whose char siew are just very thin slices.  However, the texture of the char siew is quite uneven.  Some pieces were really nice.  It was tender soft although it was thick,  easy to bite, pleasant to eat.  Some other pieces tended to be very tough and dry, reminding me of sugar canes that had been squeezed out all of its juice.  Eating those pieces was like a tug of war between your teeth and the char siew. 

The ramen is pretty thick and strong, like a samurai.  The portion of ramen was quite small though, a few scoops later all the ramen was gone.  More than 50% of the content of that stone bowl were cabbage and bean sprouts.  If you like plenty of vegetables, it is a good choice. 

To judge whether a ramen is good, the first thing to test is the soup.  The soup here is very thick.  When the staff poured only 1/4 of the soup into the bowl, the taste was good, probably diluted by all the vegetables.  Later, the staff poured all the soup into the bowl, and that was the beginning of my misery.  The soup was TOO salty!  I think 50% or less will be good for me. 

My order also came with a bowl of plain rice.  You were supposed to pour the rice into the remaining reman soup and eat it together.  In my case, as I found the soup was way way too salty, I decided to eat the rice separately, with the vegetables, to lessen the saltiness.

On the table, they also gave me some eggs.  At first, I thought they were raw eggs for me to add into the ramen, but then I found out they were actually cooked eggs.  What are the eggs for?  No idea. 

Overall, I find it a pleasant experience.  In total, I spent $22.13, including service charge and GST.