Wolf Burger at Funan Mall

Wolf Burger is located on the ground floor of the newly re-opened Funan Mall.  The concept is a bit like MacDonald, you place your order at the machine.  There are many different choices and you can  choose how you like to customize your burger.  Everything is done on the machine, including payment.  No human interaction is required. Once you pay for your order, you will get a payment slip like the one below.

On the payment slip, there is an order number and a QR code.  You can sit down and wait for your number to be called. 

Once your number is called, your food will appear at the collection box with your number clearly displayed.  Now, bring your payment slip to the collection point, scan the QR code at the scanner on the left of the collection box, then the box will open, and voila, your food is all yours.  Everything is  automatic.  Theoretically,  there is no need for any human in the shop front at all.  However, as this is still new to many customers, there are still 2-3 staff available at the shop front to provide help, which is very much appreciated. 

Impossible Truffle, $17.90

I ordered the Impossible Truffle burger.  If nobody tells me, I wouldn't know the meat is actually fake meat, made from vegetables such as potatoes, etc.   The taste is just like any other burger patty, with almost the same type of flavor and taste, but the texture is much more smooth.  This is my very first encounter with fake meat, and the impression is way better than I had thought.  My attitude towards fake meat has changed from total rejection to an open-mind, at least it is worth trying.  My concerned for fake meat, just like any other heavily processed food, is the long-term effect on humans. 

I like the burger here and the price is quite reasonable.  Most likely I will come back here if I have a sudden craving for burgers, or fake meat :-)

Stuttgart Blackforest Boutique S-Café

Stuttgart Blackforest Boutique S-Café is located in the busy Orchard Road, but it is also hidden in one corner of Rendezvous Hotel Gallery, with a very low profile. 

The interior of the restaurant is styled in western style with some German elements, such as the iconic German wooden dolls, life-sized ones.  And to my surprise, they even have some live music. 

Single Portion Pork Knuckle, $22.80++

Coming to a German restaurant, of course I must order their famous German pork knuckle.  I have tried German pork knuckle in Frankfurt, German, Singapore's Brotzeit, and Brisbane, Australia,  and I like the pork knuckle here.  Why? 

First, their portion is 1-person portion, it is perfect for one to enjoy the pork knuckle without worrying about the waistline. They have options for 3-4 persons and more.  Second, their pork knuckle is not as salty as all the others that I have tasted before.  I think they have customized the salt level to suit the Singaporean taste.  Well, maybe it is not authentic, but it is a good modification, a healthier evolution.  Third, their pork knuckle is really good.  The skin is not only crispy, but it manages to have some fragrance too.  When the skin is crushed in your mouth, you can hear that crunching sound, and the fragrance lingers in your mouth.  The meat itself is tender, but not greasy.  Thumbs up for their pork knuckle.

Specialty Sausages, $19.80++

Another signature dish on their menu is their Specialty Sausages.  You can choose two out of three types of meat, beef, pork or chicken.  We opted for beef and pork. 

The pork sausage comes curled up nicely with a bamboo stick.  I am not really a sausage person, so I find the sausages are, just like sausages. 

The restaurant has 'Blackforest' in its name, and said to be famous for their blackforest cake.  We were just a bit too full on that day to try the cake.  Maybe next time? 

The food is good, the atmosphere is nice, I will definitely come back when I have a craving for German food next time.

When we paid for our meal, there was a mix-up though.  The waitress presented us with someone else' bill who was a bigger amount.  Lucky I did check my bill, and got it sorted out quickly. 

Tsuta at Funan

Tsuta opened a new branch at the newly opened Funan life-style mall.  In case you don't know, Tsuta is a Michelin 1-star Japanese ramen restaurant, it is very rare.  And this ramen restaurant is also mentioned in the 2019 Japanese drama Ramen Loving Girls special edition, so don't play play, this is a seriously famous ramen restaurant.

The Funan branch is not very big, probably with a seating capacity of 20-30 persons only.  It is small open concept kitchen is manned by a grand total of two chefs, both are local Singaporean/Malaysian Chinese.  I think they have a central kitchen somewhere where they prepare all the soup base, as I saw the chef scooping out the soup base from a stainless steel container, and I don't see any facilities for cooking the soup base.

Once you are seated, you can place your order with a sheet provided.  You can customize your ramen to your own liking.  The best part for me is I can choose the level of salt in the soup base.  Authentic Japanese ramen tends to have a very salty flavor, too much for me, so I am glad that here I can get a less salty option.

I ordered the teriyaki chicken soba.  The soup base is thick in flavor, but not as salty as the authentic Japanese soup base, I like it.  The ramen in this case is actually soba.  Compared with conventional ramen, it is more smooth, offers a clean sensation, and easy to bite.  To me, this soba probably is the crown jewel of this place.  The teriyaki chicken is not bad, tender and juicy.

I also tried their steamed gyoza (dumplings).  The gyoza skin is paper thin, and you can see the fillings inside.   It is not bad, but the fillings are a bit salty.  Too bad they don't give you an option to choose a less salty version.

In total, spent $26 for this simple meal.  The soba is good, enjoy the pleasant sensation very much.  

Yun Nans at Jewel Changi Airport

Yun Nans 云海肴 is a Chinese restaurant from China specialized in Yunnan cuisine.  This one at Jewel Changi Airport is their first foray into an overseas market.  Their dinner starts at 5pm, we arrived a bit earlier at about 4.50pm on a normal Sunday, there was already a small queue at the entrance.  At 5pm sharp we were ushered into the restaurant. 

The restaurant is not very big, the number of seats is quite limited, so if you want to secure a table, the only trick is to go there early.  The interior design is simple, bright and pleasant, nothing fancy, but comfortable. 

Yunnan Classic Steam Pot Chicken Soup, $23.90++

Their signature dish is the Yunnan steam port chicken soup.  What it is different from other chicken soup is the way it is cooked, and the pot used.  Do you notice there is a 'chimney' in the middle of the pot?  Yes, that's the key.  The chicken is placed in the pot, without adding any water.  Then the entire pot is placed on top of boiling water, and the water steam will come in from the 'chimney' and becomes your soup.  This is also an ingenious way of doing water desalination! 

I like the chicken soup very much.  It is clear, and sweet!  The essence of chicken all goes into the soup.  However, the chicken itself, is quite dry and a bit tasteless.  Overall, I will give a score of 9/10 for this dish, and it is a must try here. 

Truffle Rice Noodles, $13.90++

We also ordered their truffle rice noodles (黑松露虾汤米线).  The soup was excellent.  Very thick in the flavor of prawns, great.  The noodle itself was a bit over-cooked though.  Overall, I will give it a score of 7/10.

Grilled Seabass, $22.90++

My friend recommended the grilled seabass, it is his most favourite.  The seabass was perfectly grilled, a flower pepper was generously spread on top.  At this point, I must be a bit critical about their service, or the service of one waitress.  She took our order, knowing we already ordered a chicken soup and a rice noodle with plenty of soup, she still pushed us to order drinks.  And she didn't tell us for the grilled fish, we had the choice of how spice it should be.  It is a waitress with Malaysian Chinese accent. 

Ok, back to the fish.  The flower pepper makes the whole fish only have one and only one taste - spicy.  It is perfect for people who like spicy food, but unfortunately not for me. 

All in all, we spent $100 for two persons.  It is not too expensive, the food is decent.  I will definitely go back for that pot of chicken soup, it is just too good to forget. 

Nanjing Impressions Plaza Singapura

Previously, I visited Nanjing Impressions in Guangzhou (you can find the post here), as they also opened a branch here at Plaza Singapura back in 2017, I decided to give it a try. 

The Plaza Singapura branch is located on the 4th floor of Plaza Sing Annex, directly opposite Ya Kun Toast.  It has the same design as its Guangzhou branch, with a very traditional Chinese concept. 

Once you step into the restaurant, you feel like you have time-travelled back to Qinhuai River, Nanjing in ancient China.  The place is illuminated with yellow lanterns, each lantern bears the name of a dish on their menu.  The background music is Qinhuai Xiaoqu (秦淮小曲), it is a kind of Chinese opera popular in Nanjing, very soft and tender.  Qinhuai River and Qinhuai Xiaoqu were made famous by a Tang Dynasty poet, Du Mu (杜牧), in his poem Berthing at Night Along Qinhuai River.

泊 秦 淮

杜 牧

烟笼寒水月笼沙，夜泊秦淮近酒家。

商女不知亡国恨，隔江犹唱后庭花。

Literally, the poem means: 

In a foggy night, my boat berthed along Qinhuai River near the drinking places.  The resident singers  didn't care about the sadness that their home country had been annexed, they were still singing the song Backyard Flower. 

I don't know what Backyard Flower is in botanic terms, but it is a form of poetry invented by the last Emperor of the Chen Dynasty, which was annexed by Sui Dynasty. 

Ok, enough history stuff, back to the modern restaurant.  At first, I thought the Qinhuai Xiaoqu was from some recording, but hell no, there was actually a stage at the very back of the restaurant and a team were singing live! 

I ordered quite a bit of food, for one person, as I wanted to try as many as possible, but mostly were small portions. 

Wanton in Supreme Chicken Broth, $4.80++

I didn't have any expectation for the wanton with chicken broth.  It is such a common dish, but then it kind of exceeded my expectation.  The wanton skin was very smooth, and filling was fresh.  The Supreme chicken broth also lived up to its name.  I must give a thumbs up for this dish.

Celestial roast duck dumplings (left), $4.80++, Steamed shrimp and silky gourd dumpling, $5.80++

The celestial roast duck dumpling was kind of a strange combination.  The dumplings were steamed, usually steamed food goes for its freshness, and exhibits the ingredients original taste, but in this case, the filling was actually roast duck meat.  The fillings gave out a roast fragrance, there was quite a clash of tastes.  You should give it a try, it is unique.  But don't blame it if you don't like it. 

The steamed shrimp and silky gourd dumplings were average.  Somehow, it didn't bring out the freshness of the shrimps, nor the silky gourd.  I could only tell one flavor - salty. 

Braised Pig Trotters, $5.80++

The braised pig trotters should be a very 'safe' dish, as even the normal coffee shop stalls can turn up with finger-licking pig trotters.  Hell no, the pig trotters here were a failure.  The skin was hard, and the worse was I felt something spiky on the skin.  Go figure what it could be.  Take my advice, don't order this at this place. 

Imperial Scholar Spring Roll, $5.80++

The spring roll was ok, but it was a bit too salty to my taste, and a bit too oily. 

If you want to have a bit more privacy, you can reserve one of those individual rooms.  It is quite nice for a few friends gathering together to chitchat. 

Will I go back to Nanjing Impression again?  Yes, definitely, but not so much for their food, but for that atmosphere, that feel of traveling back in time. 

Nanjing Impressions Guangzhou China

Nanjing Impressions, or 南京大排档 in Chinese, is located in a modern shopping mall in Guangzhou's busy and up-class Tiyu Xi Lu (体育西路), the country's most busy metro interchange.  The mall is ultra modern, but once you step into Nanjing Impressions, it feels like you have been transported back in time to the era of end of Qing Dynasty, and the beginning of Republic of China. 

The interior design is of the Qin-huai (秦淮) style, after Nanjing's famous Qin-huai River, a go-to place for night entertainment in the early 1900s.  Records of Qin-opera, a form of opera popular in Zhejiang Province and Jiangsu Province, is being played as the background music. 

Braised Duck, CNY29.00

Nanjing is famous for its Xiaochi, small bites.  The concept is like the Spanish tapas, snacks for you to have wide selections of food to enhance your taste buds but not too heavy for the stomach, and perfect as companions for the rice wine. 

The first one that came was braised duck.  It is a cold dish.  The duck drumstick is first braised till tender, then chilled to retain all that collagen.  It is actually crunchy, with a hint of Huadiao, a popular Chinese rice wine. 

Lion's Head, CNY 28.00

 Next was stewed Lion's Head.  Lion's Head?  Are you sure?  Don't worry, it is not the real Lion, nor its head.  Lion's Head is just a name for the dish.  It is actually stewed meat ball, a really big meat ball.  The chef mixes minced pork, fresh mushroom and some other ingredients together and makes it into a giant meat ball.  Then this meat ball is slowly stewed to cooked.  The meat is very tender.  It breaks into small pieces easily in your mouth.  It is a dish that is very suitable for people who have problems with their teeth, and senior citizens. 

家传云斗煮干丝, CNY28.00

The next dish is a bit hard to translate the name into English, but it is their signature dish.  Looking at the picture, you might think that it is vermicelli or noodles in that pot of soup.  No, you are wrong.  It is actually tofu skin sliced into small slices to make it look like vermicelli.  And then it is served with a very thick stock.  The tofu skin is excellent, I must say.  Unlike noodle's softness, or vermicelli's smoothness, the tofu skin offers its unique texture.  It is crunchy, yet the texture is more rough.  It gives sparks upon your tongue.  However, I didn't like the stock, way too salty for my liking. 

We ordered some other dishes, but I am not able to cover them all here.  Overall, it was a very pleasant experience.  Good food, accompanied by that feel of transporting back in time. 

Don't get upset if you think Nanjing Impressions is only available in China, it actually has a branch right in the busy Orchard Road in Singapore.  I have not given it a try yet, but hopefully I will do that soon.

Grillmarket Reykjavik Iceland

Grillmarkadurinn, which means Grillmarket in English, is a restaurant located in the center of Iceland's capital city of Reykjavik.  It doesn't have a street front, but behind another restaurant, so you have to walk behind the other restaurant to get to Grillmarket. 

We were there at 5.30pm, when the restaurant just opened for dinner service, as we didn't make a reservation before hand.  The place was quite empty at that time.  The atmosphere of the place was very cosy.  Warm lights dominate the place, very comforting in a cold winter evening. 

As a norm, bread and cheese were served as the 'capitol'.  The cheese was definitely worth mentioning.  They served 3 types of cheese:  cheese with sea salt, cheese with yogurt, and cheese with Iceland's iconic lava salt.  This experience was really unique for me.  First time having cheese with yogurt, which offered a layered sensation to the taste buds.  The black lava salt was less salty than your normal salt.  The waitress was kind to explain to us the difference between the different types of cheese. 

Whale Meat Steak, ~USD69.00

The 'exotic' dish we ordered to share was the whale meat steak.  It looked very much like your normal beef steak, but the texture was quite different.  It was very tender, and the texture was fine and smooth, a quality that beef steaks don't possess.  The cuisine here was a bit of fusion, providing soy sauce and wasabi as condiments.  Personally, I prefer to eat it as is, without any additional foreign taste to the very fine flavor of the whale.  It is a must-try if you visit this restaurant. 

Lamb Fillet, ~USD60.00

Main course was lamb fillet.  Lamb cooked to medium well, and served together with some preserved vegetables.  The fillet was a bit on the tough side for me, and the preserved vegetable was a bit too salty.  Maybe it was due to the local taste and weather. 

The staff there were very friendly and service was prompt.  Overall experience was excellent.  Price-wise it was a bit on the high side, but hey, it is Iceland.