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.