Grand Mandrina

I'm not a big fan of Chinese Food (other than Dim Sum) but during special occasions/once in a (rare) while my parents do like to get some Chinese food. If I get it my way, I would go to a Japanese or Italian or French restaurant without a doubt. So we ended up at Grand Mandrina cos my parents friends invited them for a meal and I tagged along. 

The charsiew from Grand Mnadrina really lives up to its reputation. This is a charsiew not meant for daily nomms, it's a charsiew that should be reserved for special occasions (i.e. CNY, impress your MIL, impress your colleagues at some house party). I really love the crispy layer of caramelised sugar (think the surface of a perfectly done creme brûlée ). I'm not particularly fond of the layer of fat, but it does make the charsiew more juicy than the lean ones. Which is why I say that this isn't meant for daily consumption - not only will you get high cholesterol, you will very likely get diabetes too. The roasted duck was also perfectly done - with the skin shatteringly crispy and not a trace of fat under the skin. Paired with the truffle sauce, it was really memorable.

 The steamed Sea Bass - well executed and no complaints about this dish at all.

The prawn with egg white is a variation on the usual scallops and egg white, and goes really well when topped on white rice.

 Stir Fried Dou Miao with Garlic
The obligatory vegetable dish. I really love dou miao, especially the one from Ding Tai Fung. No complaints about this Dou Miao.

We also tried the Ee Fu Noodles but I've somehow lost the photo.
The ee fu noodles were really one of the best I have tasted - neither too soggy nor too dry, just perfectly braised with minimal interfering toppings so that the full texture and taste of the noodles could be enjoyed.

Out of the 3 desserts we sampled, I would strongly recommend you to take the hot hashima and red dates. For $15, you get a bowl that's packed with hashima. Not just a few miserable bits. Compared to the other desserts that I tried (coconut ice cream with ai yu jelly, and the pumpkin puree with yam ice cream, which costs $12 each), the hashima was the most worth it dessert. I would suggest that if you don't like desserts to be too sweet, do request for it to have less sugar added.

The parking here's a major pain. They should really build a huge multi-storey carpark somewhere...

Grand Mandrina 
325 New Bridge Road 
#01-02-00
Singapore 088760
PHone 6222 3355

PS Cafe at Ann Siang Hill

I'm not a big fan of PS cafe, but after visiting their branch tucked away in a quiet corner at Ann Siang Hill, I'm now a convert! The decor is so quaint and plush it feels as if I've stepped back into time. Best of all, it's not overrun by hyperactive screaming kids (unlike the Dempsy one where there are SCREAMING kids) so it's a perfect place to chill and catch up!I had the Eggs Benedict with smoked salmon and avocado. There's wilted spinach under tha pile of lovely goodness and the muffin is spread with cream cheese. Delicious! The hollandaise is really good - thick, creamy with a slight tinge of sourness. Chorizo sausage breakfast with foie gras and scrambled egg whites and a sourdough bread. It's a really hearty breakfast and the sausage is really tasty and mildly spicy.

Vanilla pancakes with whipped cream (the delicious fatty kind not the one that comes from a cannister!) and freshly chopped mint leaves. Topped with poached berries and maple syrup! YUM! These pancakes have similar consistency and texture to the macdonalds pancakes (whic are my 'gold standard' for pancakes). I liked how they added creshly chopped mint to the whipped cream.And these are strawberry vanilla pancakes so there's slices of strawberries in them :D
What better way to end the meal than to have a towering plate of truffle fries... Yellow is the cheerful feeling that you get when you sit in front of a pile of these :D The Truffle fries here come with fresh grated parmesan cheese. If Macdonalds served this, I would have a heart attack in an instant...

On a side note, after brunch, I had to RUSH down to my car cos my carpark coupon had expired about 30min ago and the carpark attendant was FINING people. It was such a relief when I reached my car and the attendant was 5 cars away. Whew! Saved myself a massive fine which would have to come out from my food allowance....

45 Ann Siang Road
#02-02
Singapore 069719
T:(+65) 6222 3143

Goto Revisited

Spent the last weekday of my 2week break having a leisurely lunch at Goto. My blog is sorely lacking in updates, because I've just started another month of a super intense posting. The dishes here are prettily presented - so I dragged my fat camera out to take many many photos of the dishes, to do justice to the chef's artistic presentation.Starter

In the petal shaped cup, there's blanched spinach topped with bonito flakes, and in the white dish, yam with steamed egg. I quite liked the yam with steamed egg, which had a pale purple piece of yam encased within the soft egg custard.

In the front row, I had the fishcake with prawn, stewed eggplant and the Japanese green chilli (that usually comes out during autumn, tastes like a more pleasant version of capsicum), as well as a piece of sweet potato.

I tried eating the fern like thing on top of the fish cake, but it's really bitter and I don't think it's edible. The yellow petal on the left isn't edible (I asked the waitress).

Sashimi: Extremely fresh high quality sashimi - we had Hamachi (yellowtail), salmon, hirame (flounder) and scallop. The sashimi was excellent. The wasabi served here is fresh wasabi, and there's also some sliced spring onion mixed with shisho leaf.
Mashed lotus root with eel

I've never eaten lotus root in this form before, and I think the chef soakes it in some acidic solution because the lotus root was cream coloured, unlike the oxidized brown looking lotus roots I have with my soup.

The lotus root paste was quite sticky, but light flavour of the lotus root wasn't masked by any other sauces or flavourings.

I think I was taking too long to eat this dish (and snapping photos), because the next dish came out before I was done. Perhaps because it's tempura and it can't sit around waiting.

Tempura: with big prawn, ladies finger, Japanese yam wrapped in shisho leaf, sweet potato strips and pumpkin coated with black sesame seeds. I've only eaten the Japanese yam in the grated form, and it actually has quite a high water concent - it was crunchy, had a slight slimy taste and was juicier tan it looked. The sweet potato tempura was very interesting - thinly sliced strips of sweet potato in a cluster. I wonder how the chef gets the strips to stay together in the deep fryer. I liked the pumpkin which was coated in a thick layer of fragrant black sesame seeds.

Instead of the usual tempura dipping sauce, the tempura was served with some special salt (I asked the waitress what it was, and wrote it down, but I lost the piece of paper! :/)

Pickles - which I really didn't enjoy. To begin with, I don't particularly like Japanese pickles and I'll usually just take a bite off the yellow semicircular ones. I think the chef makes these pickles himself, so they aren't very salty. But they have this aftertaste which I really don't like. I did try to eat the pickled daikon but I really couldn't bring myself finish the pink pickle. The cabbage-leaf like pickle at the back was pretty bland, but crunchy.

Glutinous rice topped with chestnuts, ginko nuts and sprinkled with white sesame seeds. The glutious rice didn't have the oily taste or feeling, and the chestnuts had a delicate taste. Miso soup served together with the pickles and glutinous rice.

The waitress also gives us another kind of tea to drink once she served this dish. It tastes like chinese tea, but is not bitter at all. Perhaps it's supposed to aid digestion or something?

Trio of desserts - my favourite being the brown sugar ice cream. I like brown sugar and gula melaka lots, so I tried to make the little scoop of ice cream last longer by scraping at it and savouring its taste.
The fruits were garnished with a red autumn leaf (wonder where the chef gets it from?) which I didn't eat cos the last time I tried eating some red colour leaf it was really bitter and gross. Milk pudding came in a shot glass and was nice and creamy, but mine was more of a viscous liquid rather than a pudding.

I think I liked the dishes I had here the previous time better than the dishes I had during this lunch. Probably because I don't like some of the items on the menu (especially the PICKLES). Or maybe because I had much higher expectations this time compared to my first visit. It's $75 nett for a 6 course set lunch, and the chef chooses the dishes - so there's no menu. Good in that you'll be pleasantly suprised, and bad if you don't like eating certian dishes.

Hopefully, I'll be able to try their super expensive dinner in the near future... perhaps I will once I start working (and have no time to go on a holiday).

Goto Japanese Restaurant
14 Ang Siang Road
#01-01
Tel: 6438 1553

Barcook Bakery

I tried Barcook quite a while ago, but because I was hungry, I didn't get nice photos of the buns, so I didn't blog about it. Just as well, since I finally had the time to go down, get the buns, and take nicer, blog-able photos.

It's no wonder why their cream cheese raisin bun ($1.30) is their most popular item - savoury cream cheese and sweet raisins embedded within a cottony soft bread. It's best eaten when it's straight out of the oven. Although microwaving them for a few seconds on each side will suffice in mimicking the fresh-from-the-oven temperature.To make my trip and queueing even more worth it, I grabbed a bak kwa bun as well as a hotdog bun. The bak kwa bun is pretty good - fatty pieces of bak kwa and mayo/cream cheese. Their buns are so soft and delicious -I had to take extra care not to accidentally squash them. Coffee bun - it's somewhere around Rotiboy's standard - the crispy coffee layer, soft white bread and a oozing salty butter center. I just ate Rotimum (from IMM) today, and I actually think that Barcook does a better version of the coffee bun.

My spoils from all that queueing - I ordered 8 cream cheese raisin buns because I figured since I was trudging all the way down to Chinatown, and queueing up, and paying so much for carpark, I must as well get more to make my trip worth it. Especially since I had to call them >10x before they picked up the phone!

Here's a picture of the poster with all their different kinds of bread. I'm eyeing the Mexi cheese bun next, as well as the coconut bun. Prior to this, I didn't have their menu, so other than cream cheese raisin, I didn't know what else to order when I called them. It's only 1 day later, and there's no trace of the 6 (I ate 2) cream cheese raisin buns left in my fridge.

Barcook Bakery

Blk 531, Upper Cross Street

#01-54 Hong Lim Complex

Mon-Fri: 8am-6pm (or when bread is sold out)

Sat-Sun: 8am-4pm (or when bread is sold out)

To avoid disappointment, please call 65336588 (manymany times till they pick up the phone) to place an order, so that they can reserve the much coveted buns for you.

Qun Zhong Eating House

This is where I ate my first zha jiang mian ever during one of my cfsc cg's many food expeditions. Anyway, it's the best zha jiang mian which I've tasted in my limited zha jiang mian repertoire. I've been back twice so far - I have to visit this place at least once if I'm posted nearby. The bowl of zha jiang mian ($5.50), served steaming hot with minced pork and salted bean sauce, with lots of shredded cucumbers, green leafy vegetables and beansprouts. The noodles are soft but not soggy, and everytime I come here I have to resist the urge to slurp the whole bowl of noodles down. I think the portion has shrunk since I last came here (about 6mths ago), but maybe I was hungrier? The noodles are fresh and moist, and the salty black sauce is delicious when paired with a bit of vinegar and chilli. This is probably one of the few places where I actually add chilli into my food.The fried guo tie (gyoza) was golden brown on one side, and are filled with minced pork and chives. I can't remember how much it is but it's less than 10 bucks.
The crispy pancake ($9) comes with 2 fillings, either red bean or lotus paste. I like to think of this as the Chinese version of puff pastry, and the outer layer is crispy and brittle. It's also generously sprinkled with fragrant sesame seeds. There's a soft layer of pastry underneath the crispy outer layer. The lotus filling is also very generous. I really like lotus paste cos it reminds me of mooncakes. It's served once it comes out of the fryer, so be careful while eating this cos the filling's scorchingly hot.

I'll give it 4/5 stars, just that I'm not on my usual computer, so I can't upload any stars. The service sucks - as evidenced by the many poor reviews on hungrygowhere. They won't let you get a table till everyone arrives, and they hate taking 2nd orders, which I did, and they took over 15 min to cook the lotus pancake, and when we told the waitress that if they haven't started cooking it, we'll cancel the order, the stupid old guy (I'm such an ageist!) said so loudly (in chinese) that if we wanted it quickly, we should have ordered it together. Anyway, lucky it was raining pretty heavily so he had no other customers, or I'm pretty sure he'd have chased us away.

btw, this was what one of the reviewers on hgw said : AWFUL OLD UNCLE!!!
OMG!! My wife is pregnant 6 months and so called "the owner" asked her to wait OUTSIDE while I was parking my car across the street parking lot!! Luckily I could manage my temper at that time. There was 2 empty tables while my wife was waiting outside!Stay away from this coffee shop!!! His attitude ruin my appetite!!OLD UNCLE, HOPE YOU READ THIS!! THINK IF THIS HAPPEN TO YOUR DAUGHTER!!!"

and another by weightyman on hgw : "Reservation: Don't think they accept - just queue up and rush in."

and by food goddess2 on hgw : "The ambience of the restaurant was obviously very stuffy. I came out of it smelling like beansprout."

by MY, on hgw: "And the uncle @ the reception area can try to a little happier ;) Life is beautiful!"

ok I'm gg to go and do my last set of 100 MCQs before tmr, and I wanna watch Lifewatch at 9, so I shall stop rofl-ing at the comments on hgw!

They only accept cash, so make sure you have enough, since I doubt there's any ATMs nearby. Bet the uncle will throw a hissy fit when he finds out you don't have cash lol!

Qun Zhong Eating House
21 Neil Road
Tel: 6221 3060
Operating Hours:11.30am - 3.00pm
5.30pm - 9.30pm
(Closed on Wed, as I unhappily found out the previous time I came here, and tore my $2 coupon)

Mei Hong Yuen

I had this post sitting around for the past 3 weeks, but after reading the sunday life (my fave newspaper day, since they review tonnes of food!), I have been motivated to faster blog about it. I saw Travellinghungryboy's irresistable photo of the mango snow ice in it's towering glory, and decided to eat it the next day, since it was so hot, and since I'm near chinatown. Each of the snow ices cost $5. I'm pretty glad that the snow ice fad has been revived, it was around a few years back - there was one at chompchomp and another at queensway, but they both closed down! Anyway, the ones that I go to now is the AMK hub one, and the Mei Hong Yuen.

Anyway, I attempted to eat this by myself, and sadly overestimated my dessert capacity. I think I left about a third (all melted into a sad yellow puddle). Oh wells, they should have these in half sized portions. This is way too big for one person!

Peanut snow ice, which has lucious layers of peanut snow ice topped with rainbow rice. It tastes like peanut butter, just that it's not as cloying and doesn't leave you with a dry sore-feeling throat.

Ohr Nee - for people who want to eat more traditional chinese desserts, Mei Hong Yuen's famous for it's almond, walnut and sesame paste, and it's mango pomelo sago. They also have the steamed egg milk (which is like milk pudding, super delicious when it's eaten extremely chilled). Though I must say that the mangopomelosago wasn't v nice that day we went. Not milky, and pretty sour. The orh nee tastes as good as it looks - I'm currently craving for good not so oily ohr nee. There was a recipe for healthy ohr nee in the Sunday Life I think? I better go and cut it out before my maid uses it to line the bird cage.

Mei Hong Yuen
65-67 Temple Street

Kreta Ayer Conservation Area

Tel: 6221 1156

Zha Jiang Mian, Chinawtown Hawker Center

Zha Jiang Mian (炸酱面) $3.50 from the newly renovated Chinatown hawker center (Smith Street) from stall 02-135. It's a Northern Chinese stall, and it's name begins with 中國something something... The noodles here are hand-made/pulled and the chef will get a lump of dough and pull and pull and pull it to form noodles (Random thought: his deltoids must be super big! It looks so tiring to pull!), which he will throw into a boiling pot of water. His wife/assistant will use a pair of super long chopsticks to pick the noodles out, and top it with a thick, salty bean and pork paste, and garnish it with crunchy shredded cucumbers, carrots and beansprouts.

They also have all the other Northern Chinese foods such as Guo Tie, Xiao Long Pau, Da Bing (big pancake with red bean) etc etc. Don't forget to ask for vinegar to add to the noodles.

Great that I stumbled upon this stall, cos I was just craving for some Zha Jiang Mian from Qun Zhong restaurant along Neil Road. Makes me realize how un-worth it Kopitiam food is, even with the 20% discount. At least the food has improved, thanks to the Koran stall (I'm going to survive on that till my posting is done!)

Btw, the carpark sucks, I always bang my front right wheel on the stupid short kerb, which I can't see while going up the slope. The kerb is so freaking chipped from all the banging. I bet I contributed alot to it's chipping! I'm sure my wheel alignment is out now! D:<

Oso Ristorante

I've been itching to try the Oso's for the longest time, and the review of Oso on ice's blog was so tempting, I went down a few days after patho (finally) ended. Bread - I liked the cakey focaccia bread, which was slightly moist, with a bright red sweet sundried tomato on top. Although I was really hungry, I'm glad that I abstained from asking for more focaccia so that I'll have space for the 3 courses I ordered.

The pan fried eggs “tegamino” with black truffle purée and mixed cheese fondue ($20), which was the dish that I came specially for. They kindly split the portion into two, cos we were sharing. My egg was slightly over cooked, and the yolk was pretty hard. Not like ice's one, but nonetheless, the salty cheese and generous dollops of black truffle puree (very very generous! especially for $20) was delightful. It also comes with a sprig of fresh rosemary, which you can sprinkle over your egg.

I'm very sad to say that I didn't copy down the item on the menu, and trusted my fatigued brain to remember it. My friend convinced me that I won't be able to remember it, but then I was quite sure I would. Obviously, I have forgotten. But this is a special cheese with black truffle ($20++, I love truffles! I think I should just buy truffle oil so I'll be able to try other things on the menu and not zoom into and order the dish with truffles) and pear. The saltiness and sharpness of the cheese went perfectly well with the sweet pear.

Whole wheat “stracci” with braised wild boar in red wine ($23++)
Again, I stole the dish's name from ice's blog cos I didn't write it down :( And her pictures are so drool-worthy I had to order this. This is the firs time I'm eating wild boar, and it doesn't taste of anything in particular. Not porky, and not very gamey. Maybe cos there's red wine inside? The sauce is pretty thick, and there's quite a bit of olive oil used in the pasta here. Indeed, the amount of wild boar is extremely generous for the $23. I was stuffed by the end of this. And I always have space for desserts.

Again, I didn't take down the exact name, but this is some saffron pasta with monk fish. ($23 or 24?) Initially, we didn't want to order this dish cos we don't quite like the texture monk fish, but then we concluded that ordering a Black Truffle risotto would be truffle overdose (for my friend, not me - truffles are good). The pasta is infused with saffron, and are a bright yellow colour. The monk fish is shredded up and is mixed with sweet tomatoes. I actually prefered this dish to my wild boar. We ordered desserts right at the start, but before it came, we were stuffed. We both ordered the Hot Dark Chocolate Tart "Crostata" with Milk Ice Cream and we didn't regret our decision even though we were extremely full. I was sold when I heard milk ice cream - it's one of my most my favourite ice cream flavours (it's not really a flavour). The chocolate was slightly set on the periphery of the tart, and it was still liquid in the center. Although I'm not crazy over chocolate, the chocolate here was really delicious. I'll definitely come back for more chocolate tart. Alas I was unable to finish the tart, which says alot about the pasta, since I always finish my dessert, especially if it's this yummy. But I did scrape up all traces of the chocolate so the tart base I left behind was white.

Great stuff here. Really worth going. Get the pasta and the chocolate tart. I'm definitely going to come back to try other things on the menu. And you have to checkout the cool aircon units - they have a mirrored surface :O

Oso Ristorante

46 Bukit Pasoh Road

Tel: 6327 8378

Mon-Fri: 12pm-2.30pm, 6.30pm-10.30pm

Sat: 6.30pm-10.30pm (Closed on Sundays)

Goto Lunch

Goto is a tiny Japanese restaurnat tucked in a sleepy shophouse along Ann Siang Hill. It's a vast contrast between the hustle and bustle of the Chinese New Year temporary stalls along the streets, and the crowds there (which we had to pass through along the way to Goto).

We had a 6 course kaiseki-style set lunch, with the request of no pork or beef.


Starter comprised of 4 small dishes, from front:
Asparagus with sesame cream - I really liked this dish because the creamy sesame went well with the light asparagus. The sauce was not salty at all, and the sesame taste was very strong.
Fried chicken with lemon - a piece of lemon was skewered in between two diced chicken pieces and deep fried. The chicken was lightly marinated and although I really hate lemon/lime with all my food, the lemon taste was very subtle.
Snow pea with black sesame, arrowroot, and cooked prawn - the black sesame was roughly ground, and the slight bitterness went well with the sweet crunchy snow pea. It was my first time trying arrowroot, and it is a little firmer than potato, and doesn't actually have much flavour. The prawn was expectedly fresh.
Some seaweed thing, I'm not sure of the name - it's a bit mucoid and slightly gooey, and there are fine strands of seaweed. It doesn't really taste of anything, and the minced ginger goes very well with it. I tried eating the red leaf at the side, but then it's really bitter, thick and yucky. Oh well, I thought that I could eat everything that's on my plate, but I'm not sure if the leaf is edible now. Sashimi - which comes with fresh wasabi :D It's the only wasabi that I'll eat voluntarily. Salmon, Hamachi and Hirame (flounder). Extremely fresh, and it's made even bettter with the fresh wasabi. Fresh wasabi has a much milder taste than the powdered kind (which is sometimes horseradish with food colouring and not real wasabi), and it doesn't go up your nose. Just an interesting thought, unlike chilli, the spiciness of wasabi doesn't cause tongue numbness. Maybe it's a different type of receptor?
Japanese yam with unagi(eel) and ginko nuts. This dish reminds me of the Teochew dessert Ohrnee, but it's a non-oily (do you know that ohrnee is made from lard or super alot of vegetable oil! >.<) healthier savoury version. The sauce is very light, and does not overpower the subtle yam taste. Codfish, bamboo shoots, mushrooms, tofu, leek and chinese cabbage soup. The soup is very light, allowing the light taste from the vegetables to come out. The chinese cabbage is very sweet, and the soyabean taste from the tofu is very distinct. There's some soyasauce for people who would like more flavour to the soup, as well as spicy grated radish and spring onions for flavour.

Sushi - Futomaki (egg, sweet preserved vegetable, spinach, cucumber) and prawn maki. The sushi rice is the pearly, glossy Japanese kind, and it's perfectly vinegared. Also, the miso soup is not the usual whitish brown kind but it has a deeper reddish hue and is not so salty. They also changed our tea right before this dish.
Dessert

Banana ice cream with brown sugar sauce was my favourite, because I like the complex taste it has. It works extremely well paired with an extremely fruity banana ice cream. Somehow, I'm now thinking of the ultimate dessert - which will be freshly fried goreng pisang, topped with vanilla bean ice cream and drizzled with gula melaka or brown sugar sauce. I'm very hungry now!

Green Tea Mousse has a very light green tea taste and the portion is really small so you dont feel too full.

Sesame Biscuit - my least favourite dessert cos the other 2 were cold and sweet, and this was just room temperature. There were both black and white sesame seeds inside, and it was very fragrant. Goto serves a 6 course kaiseki-style set lunch for $68++ ($75 nett). The dinner here costs a whopping $180++ or $280++. Actually, as must as I love food, I'll rather go on a short holiday (since I'm in the holiday mood now).

Every dish was served on exquisite tableware, and they all were very neat and prettily presented. All the dishes are very light and 'clean', with no extremely strong flavours and is also not salty. The lightness brings out the natural taste in each ingredient. We were served by Mr Goto's wife, who was prettily dressed in a kimono. She introduced every dish to us, and topped up our tea, cleared the dishes, and brought our food with great efficacy.

Overall, I really liked the pacing of the meal, the presentation and all the dishes. Though I'm more excited about suprising combinations of flavours, I liked the way the dishes brought out the taste in every ingredient used. Also, where else can you get to eat the food cooked by the Japanese ambassador's former chef?

The interior decor is very Zen, with light wood finishes and lots of Japanese displays. The decor plus the delicious food makes me feel like Im in Japan.

The seating is very limited, with a maximum of 16 diners, which is great if you want a really private lunch/dinner. There is no ala carte orders, and the chef serves what's fresh and available in the market. Advance reservation is a must, because the chef needs to know how many dishes to prepare in advance. Also, you have to inform them of any dietary restrictions.

For the dinner review, go to chubbyhubby to take a peek at what delicacies $280 can get you, cos I'm 99.9% not going to do it anytime soon (even thought I would really really like to!)

Goto Japanese Restaurant

14 Ang Siang Road

#01-01

Tel: 6438 1553