Monday, February 27, 2006

Beeef

C says:

I’ve been on some sort of beef research recently, which started with the steaks that we got from The Butcher for Valentine’s Day. Since then I’ve tried the beef stall at Ghim Moh market, and today Swiss Butchery was supposed to be the last stop in my experiment. I got 2 rib-eye steaks, 200g each, and seared them in a pan for dinner tonite, with mushroom pasta and a mushroom cream sauce for dipping the steak (I strongly believe that steaks should not be smothered with sauces. Sauces for steaks should always be served on the side).

The meat was very sweet, but somehow it still didn’t have the super-fine texture of the steaks from The Butcher. Then… I realized that The Butcher’s steaks that we got that day were possibly NOT rib-eyes. A quick check of their website revealed the most ridiculous thing – they have Beef Rib Fillet Steak, and Beef Eye Fillet Steak. Argh! So which is the rib-eye and which is the fillet?! Based on the website photos and the prices, the steaks we got were the Eye Fillet Steak and looked suspiciously like fillet steak, and the picture of the Rib Fillet Steak looked a lot more like regular rib-eyes.

Sigh… so my experiment is flawed because I’ve been comparing the wrong cuts of meat. Which means that, after a couple of weeks of detoxing with fish and white meats, I’ll have to visit Swiss Butchery yet again, to try the quality of their fillet steaks.

Groan………..

A says:

Maybe should get litmus paper and test acidity/alkalinity of meat. Haha. At least I get another treat and eat more meat.

Sunday, February 26, 2006

Peperoni Pizzeria

C says:

We finally tried Peperoni Pizzeria today, a pizza joint at Greenwood which is part of the Les Amis empire. Thankfully it doesn’t feel all that ponce-y; it’s just a simple family restaurant serving pizzas baked in an old-fashioned wood-fired pizza oven.

A and I shared a starter and a medium (9 inch) pizza. Our starter could have been a main on its own – a huge Portobello mushroom covered with seasoned breadcrumbs and deep fried, with chicken and rocket leaves. This was good, although I found the breadcrumb batter a tad salty.

We had the Pancetta pizza, which was tomato sauce, mozzarella, pancetta ham (basically bacon roll), diced tomatoes and a soft sunny-side up egg. The pizza was wonderful mainly because of its simplicity – the crust was wonderfully thin and crisp, and there was nothing to interfere with the simple ingredients. I can safely say that we’ll be going back to this place a lot more in future.

A says:

I think this place has overtaken Valentino’s as my choice for pizza. Valentino’s gives you hearty pizza with intoxicating flavour, while the clean, quality fare at Peperoni is just plain satisfying for simple folk like me.

Also, you get paper tablecloth you can draw on! Some of the art left behind not bad, siah! One funny thing i noticed was that the name and logo say "Peperoni", yet the shade outside says "Pepperoni".

Saturday, February 25, 2006

Aburiya

C says:

We brought Y and J to Aburiya on Friday night, a Japanese restaurant serving Sumiyaki – Japanese charcoal grill. A and I had gone to the Holland Village branch a few weeks ago and were pretty blown away by the vast array and amazing quality of the meats on offer, so as usual we wanted to spread the word.

On Friday we went to the Robertson Quay branch, incidentally the restaurant’s first branch - The Holland V one was only opened in July 2005. It was packed, leaving me grateful that I had made a reservation. Here’s a list of what we ordered, before I give my views on some of them:

- wagyu beef prime short rib
- beef tenderloin
- beef karubi short rib
- beef liver
- belly pork
- chicken
- lamb loin
- shitake mushroom
- foie gras with butter
- fried rice with beef and garlic

(Each cut of meat is marinated in a sauce of your choice, ranging from simple salt and pepper, to miso, to a range of soy sauce-based marinades. It’s probably advisable to get the recommendations of the waitstaff on which marinade works best for which type/cut of meat.)

I guess a comparison of the beefs is in order. I would say that if you’re looking for tenderness, the tenderloin (or fillet) is unsurpassed. It comes in cubes, and we had it with the Tare marinade, which was a soy-based Yakiniku sauce. A few turns of the beef cubes on the hot grill is all it takes. The outside is seared and the inside is still so tender you could probably cut it with your chopsticks. This is definitely A’s favourite. The wagyu beef was seasoned with the Shio marinade, which was simply salt and pepper. The thing about the wagyu is, it’s slightly tough to bite into at first (it definitely doesn’t have the tenderloin’s softness), but once you do, the marbled bits of fat in the meat literally make it melt in your mouth as you chew. However, having said that, the beef karubi, which we also had with the Tare sauce, was pretty similar in both taste and texture to the wagyu, and at almost a third of the price of the wagyu, I’ll definitely order it instead of the wagyu in future.

The lamb loin was another winner. We had it with the GK sauce – soya sauce with a hint of garlic. The meat was tender with just the right amount of fat, and didn’t have any overpowering lamb-y flavour.

By far the most unhealthy orders of the night were the belly pork and the foie gras. We had the belly pork with miso sauce, which was tasty but as it came smothered with the sauce, I think it was somewhat overpowering. Still, the grilled fatty meat was absolutely sinful but oh-so-yummy. The foie gras, which was actually duck liver, came in a cute little foil dish with a cube of butter. You’re meant to put the entire foil dish onto the grill, and cook the liver in the melted butter. Tasted divine, and at $9.90 for 3 slices of foie gras, I thought it was a steal. Of course, seeing the melted butter in the dish wasn’t quite as fun…

The liver and the chicken were ok but pretty ordinary so I won’t say anything more about them. The shitake mushrooms were a welcome respite from the otherwise meat-intensive menu. They were drizzled with teriyaki sauce, and SOME of us decided to add more salt to them while grilling…

This is definitely a place I’ll be frequenting whenever I’m in a particularly carnivorous mood.

A says:

I like to eat the meat. Garlic fried rice with beef very nice also. Oi! How come the guests never write anything?

Tuesday, February 21, 2006

Pancakes

C says:

I had some leftover buttermilk after baking on Saturday (cake was a failure so let's not talk about it...) so instead of leaving it in the fridge until after the expiry date, I decided to make buttermilk pancakes on Sunday, following the recipe on the carton. Since we were having them for lunch, we needed something savoury to go with the pancakes so we went to The Butcher for some pork sausages. Grilled them in the oven while making the pancakes. The sausages were great - I'm definitely going to slowly make my way through the rest of The Butcher's extensive array of sausages. As for the pancakes, think they turned out ok but I'll leave A to tell you about them.

A says:

I actually thought C’s marble cake was not bad. Am having a slice for breakfast for as long as it keeps. Being a spoilt semi-Malaysian goblin princess, she’ll just throw away food that’s not up to her high standard. Even when it’s perfectly edible. Her tendency to keep good food till it’s gone off is another thing, but I’ll save that rant for another time. She don’t know what it be like to go hungry. She don’t know what it’s like on the streetz…

But I digress and I digest. The pigs in a blanket were really good. As good as IHOP or better. Way better than Mac’s.

Monday, February 20, 2006

Choupinette

C says:

On Saturday we went to one of our favourite cafes, Choupinette, for an early dinner. It's along Bukit Timah Road, right next to Coronation Plaza. It's a delightful, quaint little French patisserie/café that has awesome food and even more amazing bread and pastries. We've been there for brunch before, for their incredible all-day breakfasts but more on those some other time.

It's a little corner café that can seat maybe 20, with simple yet charming décor. In fact, most of the décor is for sale, if you're so inclined. It's quite the expat hangout, especially at lunchtime where about 80% of the clientele are foreigners, and if you distance yourself from the world outside and the local waitstaff, you'd think you weren't in Singapore.

On this visit we had a light dinner. A had the smoked salmon caesar salad, and I had a Croque Poulet (a Croque Monsieur with chicken rather than ham). Both were wonderful, as always. The salad had very generous portions of smoked salmon, which was wonderfully flavoured and not too salty. The Croque Poulet was very good as well - toasted soft white bread with grilled chicken, cheese and bechemel sauce. This place also serves one of the best flat whites (half espresso, half milk) I've had in Singapore. We got hooked on flat whites after visiting Australia and New Zealand, and we've been looking for decent flat whites in Singapore ever since. Most coffee joints in Singapore serve lattes, which have more milk than espresso, so imagine our delight at finally finding good strong flat whites at Choupinette.

We were too full after dinner, but the apple tart was calling to me so we got a slice to go and microwaved it for supper, with some vanilla ice cream. The apple slices were paper thin and it wasn't too sour, as some apple desserts can be. Yummm....

A says:

I like Choupinette. Atas without being super “I scare go in” atas. Very friendly (can chit chat with Ang Moh) staff. They can even order special bread and call you when it comes in. Food is very good. Even though they specialize in pastries and desserts, the mains are not bad and the breakfast specials rock. Laurent’s set (Egg Benedict with smoked salmon instead of ham) has some wicked hollandaise sauce.

The place is a bit cramped though. And the freaking cushions on the chairs keep sliding off. What’s up with that?

Friday, February 17, 2006

Naxos

C says:

We went to Naxos tonight, a Greek restaurant along China Square Central. Whenever I walk along that stretch of restaurants at lunchtime, Naxos always looks quite forlorn, with just 1 or 2 tables occupied. Fortunately it comes slightly more alive in the evenings, and the place was about 3/4 full tonight.

The tortillas we were served as a bread course came with 3 dips - a standard olive oil and balsamic vinegar one, one with chopped capsicums, and the best one by far was the salsa which had fresh chopped tomatoes subtly flavoured with garlic.

We shared a few tapas and a main course. The tapas were:
- Fried chicken with garlic: Boneless chicken thigh pieces and sliced garlic with a delicate sauce
- Grilled fresh tuna with avocado sauce: Tuna cubes skewered and topped with a creamy avocado sauce. This was amazing. The tuna was still pink in the center and the avocado sauce complemented it perfectly.
- Pork rolled with crabmeat and mushroom: This was tasty but not spectacular, especially compared to the tuna.
- Mushrooms with lemon sauce: Sauteed shitake mushrooms with a lemon butter sauce. This was good - the tartness of the lemon prevented it from being too rich.

Our main course was lamb medallions with spinach, gorgonzola and lavender sauce. After the wonderful tapas, this was a slight letdown, perhaps because we expected lamb slices rather than cubes. This was more like a lamb stew than lamb medallions. I definitely recommend the tapas over the main course.

The service here is great. We ordered a tiramisu to share, but the owner came and told us that he would prefer not serving us the tiramisu as he felt it was dry and not up to scratch. So instead, we ordered the profiteroles which were pretty good, and to apologise he gave us 2 shots of limoncello on the house. A had a sip and I finished the rest. *hic*

A says:

Mii Tuna good good. Waitresses young, smart and friendly, like "almost hot" JC girls. If i heard right, owner said he was from Napoli, which makes him an Italian with a Greek restaurant, which makes him a little kooky, which makes him okay in my book. Comes over to check on you periodically but he's more fun and not imposing like Valentino. Like C says, he gave us discount so i'm definitely going to support.

Tuesday, February 14, 2006

Home cookin'

Hello all! And Happy Valentine's Day!

For my first post, i'll describe my recreation of our old Tamade dinners.

We started with a fusion salad of Japanese cucumbers with garlic/soy sauce/teriyaki sauce dressing.

Entree was a ribeye steak with aglio olio pasta. I must say that what Jamie Oliver says is true - good quality ingredients almost guarantee good results. The steaks were from The Butcher at Holland Village, and the quality of the meat was incredible. The steaks tasted good with minimum effort. They were seared on the outside and quite rare inside, and the meat was sweet and tender.

Finished off with the gooey chocolate pudding with tons of vanilla ice cream.

Ooooo...

I think we ate too much...

A&C