Meat Smith

C says:

We had an unexpectedly good dinner at Meat Smith, a smokehouse on Telok Ayer Street. Their menu is quite limited - no more than 10 choices each for appetizers and mains, but what they do, they do really well.

The starters were very good. The sliced beef tongue had an unexpected heat from the Szechuan aioli, and while I normally don't really like peanuts as a garnish, these worked very well. 

The smoked burrata, which was a special for the day, was excellent. It was served with slices of prosciutto and cubes of compressed melon. The burrata was creamy and smokey, and the melon had a very interesting texture and a very intense melon flavour.

The brisket burger with rocket on a soft brioche bun was also very good. Nothing fancy, just very flavourful. 

 

We had a half slab of pork ribs, which you can order either dry or wet. Because I don't like ribs slathered in sauce, we opted for dry. These were fall-off-the-bone tender, with a smokey spice rub. There's a range of sauces at the table to accompany them; our favourite was the Honey BBQ sauce. 

The menu isn't too varied, so if there aren't any specials then it may be hard to come here very often, but definitely worth going back at some point.

A says:

The meat is indeed well smithed.

Anniversary at Ember

C says:

Our anniversary is on Sunday, and because Ember is closed, we had dinner there on the Friday before. 

Imagine our surprise when we realised that the entire menu had been overhauled. No more old favourites - not the deep fried tofu, the cold capellini with konbu and abalone, and the greatest travesty, no more Chilean seabass anniversary dish.

This then, was their final audition, to convince us that it was worth continuing to make Ember our anniversary restaurant when everything that we knew and loved was gone. 

Unfortunately they didn't. Some dishes were quite tasty, like the Sakura ebi capellini and the lobster, but they were only good relative to the meal in general. Certainly not memorable dishes in their own right.

The main courses - a duo of duck and a pan roasted Welsh lamb rack, were a bit incongruous with the rest of the dishes. Everything thus far had been prettily plated on clean white crockery. The mains, on the other hand, were very rustic and hearty. Taste-wise, they weren't particularly outstanding either.

It's pretty much a different restaurant now, so we don't feel that bad about making the decision to stop coming back for our anniversaries. Now we just need to create new atetoomuch traditions. 

A says:

The food is tasty, but sadly not as good as before. 

Tribute to Wholefoods

C says:

I really wish we had a Wholefoods in Singapore. The one at High Street Kensington is drool worthy. Granted, it may be overpriced for basic staples, but check out some of their amazing offerings:

Cheese room, with some varieties that I haven't seen in Singapore, like Brie de Melun (a more aged version of the Brie de Meaux that you can find at home), and a Shropshire blue. 

Their hot deli items look really good too. If this sort of choice was readily available at supermarkets at home, I probably won't even bother cooking any more.

I could just have a bucket of chicken wings every day! 

They even have a DIY station for you to freshly grind your own nut butters!

I love checking out supermarkets whenever we're on holiday, and this Wholefoods is definitely one of the nicest ones we've seen.

A says:

Overpriced but very good.

 

Maltby Street Market

C says:

Borough Market is still the place to get a sensory overload - brilliantly coloured fruit and veg, piles of fresh bread, and stores selling cheeses, olives and truffles. 

It's also gotten quite crowded, especially on weekends, so a calmer alternative is nearby Maltby Street Market. The Ropewalk there is made up of about 20 vendors, and the vibe is a lot less frenetic. 

Highlights are The Cheese Truck, which serves gourmet grilled cheese sandwiches. There were 4 options, all sounding very enticing - Stilton bacon and pear chutney, queso chihuahua with chorizo and rocket, cheddar and bacon, and goats cheese honey and rosemary butter. The Stilton one was probably the best bite of the day. 

There was a stall dedicated to scotch eggs, which was good but could have been great if the eggs were served hot and crispy. They were at room temperature, i.e. 15 degrees or so, which was a bit cold for my liking. 

We walked past a stall just as they were unveiling their cauldron of Tartiflette, and both the sight and smell stopped us dead in our tracks. It was worth the food coma just to have that plate of deliciousness. The oozy cheese, potato, ham and onion combination was out of this world. 

Other stalls include a chocolate/cookie stall, artisanal gin, honey beer and even one selling beard balm. It's a lovely alternative to Borough; I just hope it continues to retain its charm.

A says:

Fantastic hipster food without the over-the-top hipster douchiness.

Halloween at Bincho

C says:

Bincho is all decked out for Halloween, with a special Halloween menu to boot. 

Infant hand, which is actually a cheese tsukune. 

Eyeballs and brains - quails egg and wagyu beef tartare. Unfortunately, to make the tartare sufficiently bloody and brain-like, they used a bit too much hot sauce so I couldn't really taste the beef. 

This isn't on the Halloween menu but it looks like it could well be. It's actually goose barnacles which chef brought from a recent trip to Spain. After pinching off the tough skin, you get to the sweet clam-like flesh inside. Very interesting.

Granted, the Halloween dishes are slightly gimmicky and the regular food is still better, but it was a fun experience nonetheless. 

A says:

The claw... 

Two Fat Men is back!

C says:

After a change of ownership last year, Two Fat Men's shutters were down until a few months ago, when we saw their Facebook feed come alive again with a post about their re-opening.

The menu is a little different - no more creamy tom yam with instant noodles or fish and chips, but old favorites like the grilled pork neck and mid-joint wings are still around. There are also a few new gems, like the pad thai, green curry and chicken skin. 

Ah, the chicken skin. Perfectly fried so that it's all crispy and not greasy, served with a tart dip that really complements it.

The pork neck with tamarind dip is a little less fatty and charred than it used to be - which is probably good news to most people except us - but it's still very good.

I daresay the skinny wings are even better now. They still use the best part - the juicy mid joint - but they don't split it in half any more. At first I didn't approve, preferring them split because that makes it so much easier to eat, but that also runs the risk of the wings being overfried and dried out. Now they're perfectly golden and juicy on the inside. 

Both the pad thai and the basil chicken rice are very good if you want some substantial carbs to go with the finger foods. Both have a very good wok hei, and good balance of flavours. 

Prices are slightly higher than before, and parking is still a bitch, but I couldn't be happier that they're back. A great option for weekends because they open on both Saturday and Sunday till late, and there's no need to make reservations.

A says:

Cheap(ish) and good. Wish they had the Thai iced tea permanently on the menu.

@Atetoomuchsg is now on Instagram!

C says:

We've decided to jump on the Instagram bandwagon. Find us @atetoomuchsg. Bear with us (me) as we figure out what goes where, and how much repetition there should be. 

I'd say we're too old for this, but I guess we ought to move with the times. I draw the line at meaningless hashtags though.

A says:

#finally

Sous vide at home

C says:

I've always been intrigued by sous vide cooking. The thought of being able to cook a protein to a perfect doneness each and every time, without the stressful guesswork of just over or just under-done  meat/fish, is a major plus point for investing in a sous vide machine. However, until recently, most home sous vide machines were still quite expensive and most of all, still occupied quite a large footprint in the kitchen.

All that's changed in the last year or so. Portable sous vide machines for approximately US$200, which you simply attach to your pot or other receptacle, make it so much more practical for home cooks to make sous vide part of their cooking routine. 

I did a fair amount of research, and it came down to 2 brands - Sansaire and Anova. Honestly, both looked good, and the only reason I went with the Anova is because they had stock of the International version; Sansaire was sold out.

The device clamps onto the side of any receptacle, and heats and circulates the water, effectively turning any pot or even plastic container into a sous vide machine. What I love about it is that when you're done with it, you just put it away; it doesn't take any countertop space at all. 

Ever since I got it, I've been on a sous vice rampage. It's especially good for salmon and chicken breast. Salmon overvcooks way too easily, particularly when we (and especially A) like our salmon very much on the rare side. 

Chicken breast also dries out when cooked using normal methods (roasting or pan frying), because by the time the centre is cooked, the outside is overdone and dry. When cooked sous vide, it's perfectly moist all the way through, and just needs a quick sear to finish it off and add some colour and flavour. 

Note: after I bought my Anova Precision Cooker in June, they've since launched a Wifi version. In theory it sounds amazing, since it lets you program and operate it remotely. However, from a food safety perspective, I don't think there'll be much practical benefit. 

Think about it - if you leave the house at 8 am, and want the Anova to start at 6 pm for a 90 minute cooking time so that the food is ready at 7.30 pm, that means the meat has to be in room temperature water from 8 am to 6 pm, which is a big no-no, especially at Singapore's room temperature.

This may not be for everyone, because it does have the potential to be a white elephant if you buy it just for the novelty, but I've been using it every weekend since I got it, and eating much healthier as a result. 

A says:

Sous vide, so good.

The Sushi Bar

C says:

The Sushi Bar at Ngee Ann City opened quite recently. Its first/original outlet, a nondescript unit in Far East Plaza, is well known for its chirashi dons brimming with generous slices of fish, and it appears that the Ngee Ann City outlet is no different. 

The small kaisen chirashi don ($22.90) was already smothered with seafood - salmon, salmon belly, tuna, swordfish, hamachi, scallop, ikura and tamago. I can't imagine how much bigger the large would be. There's also a premium version where you get seasonal premium offerings like uni and ebi.

For some variety, we also ordered one aburi kaisen chirashi don ($26.90), which is basically the same, but with the seafood slightly torched. 

I'm actually not sure which I prefer. The aburi adds a nice char, and some of he seafood like the salmon does benefit from it. Others, however, like the swordfish, are actually better completely raw. 

The scallop mentaiko was quite tasty too, but I think they could have gone a bit lighter with the mentaiko so that we could appreciate the sweetness of the scallop more. 

I'm not sure how crowded this outlet gets; we were there early-ish on a Sunday so we didn't have to queue. Definitely worth coming back for the chirashi dons. 

A says:

Not cheap but very good. Probably the best in the mid to high range.

Butahage

C says:

Butahage at Liang Court clearly sticks to what they do best - butadon, which is grilled sliced pork flavoured with a sweet-savoury tare sauce over Japanese rice. They have a few other items on the menu but the butadon is clearly the star. 

They have a regular butadon set for $13.80, and a premium set for $22.80, the main difference being where the pork is from. The regular uses US pork, and the premium has Japanese pork. 

Atetoomuch can never resist a taste test, so we ordered both to see if we could tell the difference. The Japanese pork was definitely better - it was more juicy, tender and fattier, and the fat was sweet and flavourful.

The US pork was objectively still very good, and would have been great if we didn't have the Japanese one to compare it with. It was just slightly more dry and tough, and had a little less fat. Both were basted with a delicious tare sauce, and the rice was very tasty too. 

They have sides of deep fried cheese, and crab croquettes. We tried the latter, which was quite good. Well fried and not oily at all. 

This time it's my turn to be jealous of A. His office is currently near Liang Court, and Butahage does takeaways, so he can have this as often as he likes. 

A says:

Pretty good. You can tell the difference between the regular and the premium when you have them side by side, but in not sure if it's worth the extra cost. 

Nude Seafood's Friday Feasts

C says:

On Friday evenings, Nude Seafood transforms from a casual establishment selling no-frills but well executed seafood to CBD lunchtime folk, to a proper restaurant serving dishes that could rival any fine-dining joint. 

The menu for Friday Feast, $68 for 4 courses, changes seasonally. They've just started the Autumn installment, which is the one we tried on Friday. 

First course was Four Variations of Japanese Pumpkin - roasted pumpkin, pumpkin croquette, pumpkin creme brûlée, and pumpkin seed tuile. 

Second was King Prawn and Capellini. The prawn was freshly caught just the day before, and cooked sous vide before a smoky char on the grill. The result was a perfectly cooked and super sweet prawn with a lovely smokiness. The capellini was tossed in a nutty wakame dressing, and was a nice earthy counterpart to the prawn. 

Third course (the photo really doesn't do it justice) was Salmon and Ikura. A disc of  sashimi-grade salmon was cooked at 45 degrees then flash seared on one side. It was served with ikura tossed with lime zest, and Japanese anchovies that were hickory smoked in-house. Another delicious dish - the lime added an interesting twist to the ikura, and I absolutely loved the smoked anchovies. 

Dessert was little chocolate and rum choux puffs with home-made vanilla ice cream.

I really like Nude Seafood, both their casual offerings and Friday Feasts. Even with their casual dishes, you can tell by the techniques and execution that the chefs definitely have fine dining backgrounds. Prices may be on the slightly higher side of affordable, but the quality totally justifies it. Not to mention the consistently great service. 

A says:

High end food in a casual setting. Which explains the small portion sizes compared to the price. We need to order 3 mains between the 2 of us to be full on a usual day, but for the Friday Feast set, you'll get just enough. 

Overall, I think many would consider it not worth it, but once you factor in the fine dining quality of the food, it definitely is worth the price. 

Lunch at Bincho

C says:

The lunch sets at Bincho, available daily even on weekends, are a slightly less extravagant way to sample what Bincho has to offer. Even better, most of their a la carte menu is still available at lunch time too if, like us, you can't resist supplementing your lunch sets with an extra side or two. 

We ordered the Beef Tongue Don ($38) and the Pork Jowl Ikura Don ($40). First is an amuse bouche and a chicken skin salad. 

Next up was karaage - fried drumlets coated in a sweet teriyaki sauce. Both the salad and the karaage were good, but were really just there to pave the way for the awesome mains. 

The beef tongue was sensational. It was perfectly cooked, so flavourful and so incredibly unctuous. Bliss at first bite. 

The pork jowl and ikura don was also amazing. The pork had a wonderful texture, and the flavour combination of the fatty seared pork, sweet glaze and savory ikura was heavenly. 

Even the black sesame ice cream dessert was simple but really good. 

We honestly can't get enough of Bincho. Always immensely satisfying, and now with the lunch sets, maybe just a little easier on the wallet. 

A says:

Awesome.

Flock Ghim Moh

C says:

Flock Ghim Moh, a branch of Flock Cafe at Tiong Bahru, has a nice, easygoing vibe. The menu isn't very extensive, so I don't think we can come here that often without getting bored, but so far there are definitely some dishes worth coming back for. 

Like the waffles with scrambled egg and bacon. The waffles were super light and crispy, but what surprised me the most was the scrambled egg. A lot of places overcook their scrambled eggs so they're dry and rubbery (like buffet breakfast style). Here though, the eggs were silky smooth and creamy. Really good. 

The rigatoni with pulled pork was quite tasty too, but I found the pulled pork was a tad too sweet for my liking. I think it's because they also use it as a topping for one of their eggs Ben dishes, so the sweetness makes it more of a brunch offering.

I'm also impressed that they offer coffees other than lattes and flat whites here. They have a piccolo latte and, to my peasant surprise, a cortado too. 

Definitely a viable brunch or even dinner place when we're short of ideas. 

A says:

A much better option to the hipster-y one at Tiong Bahru.

Bincho

C says:

Calling Bincho a yakitori joint is doing it a disservice. The term brings to mind casual izakayas serving all manner of (fairly cheap) food on sticks. At Bincho, on the other hand, the food is served not on sticks, but artfully sliced, plated and accompanied by the perfect condiments for each dish.

If, like us, you crave a full-on grilled meat experience, I would recommend passing on the omakase menus in favour of ordering from the a la carte menu. We had the omakase on our first visit and found it ok but not stellar. This time, on our second, we just went with a la carte orders and were completely blown away.

 

The neck was excellent. I expected actual bony portions of neck, but somehow they've managed to extract the tastiest fillet of meat from the neck - tender and juicy. Our first order was served with a simple ponzu sauce. 

When we ordered a second helping, they recommended it Miyazaki-style. Those massive sky-high flames? Yes, they were for the charred Miyazaki necks. This version packed loads of flavour, but I think I preferred the cleanliness of the normal ponzu necks. 

Not many places do chicken ass well; most of the time it's under-charred and therefore a bit icky, and the central cartilage isn't removed. Not so here. They were crispy nuggets of juicy fattiness, with all bones and cartilage removed. The hearts were also perfectly cooked, with a char yet still very tender. 

The marinated thigh grilled with cedar wood had a lovely fragrance from the wood and the light dusting of lime zest, and went really well with the mushroom salt. We also ordered the cock's combs, which turned out to be like tender bits of gelatinous cartilage.

One of their new dishes is the unagi clay pot rice. They advise you to eat one helping with just the rice and unagi, and another helping almost as a porridge, with dashi broth, freshly grated wasabi and sesame seeds. 

This was excellent. The eel was perfectly cooked - I dare say it was even better than the eel we had at the speciality eel restaurant we went to in Arashimaya. Adding the dashi turned it into the perfect comfort food to end the meal. 

I couldn't resist ordering the uni pudding for dessert. It was a base of creme caramel topped with maple syrup, and a couple of lobes of uni. It was a bit strange to have uni for dessert but it actually worked very well. 

This may be my new favourite splurge restaurant. Granted, it's not cheap (budget about $120 per person), but everything is executed perfectly. Try to get a counter seat, it's great watching the chefs work their magic right before their creations are placed before you. 

A says:

The omakase is overrated. But if you go early and order the right things a la carte, you'll actually get amazing food and amazing service.