Comnam

Comnam is the sister restaurant of Namnam. Namnam at Raffles City had a ridiculously long queue so we decided to give Comnam a try. Dishes are quite affordably priced and the mains were around $10. 

We got some starters to share - including a refreshing salad, grilled pork belly with corn (of which I liked the corn better) and some sticky rice based dish (bottom right) which I cannot remember what it is... not very memorable I think.

 The main dishes are rice based - the rice used here is broken rice, which supposedly absorbs up the gravy and sauces better than normal rice. I'm not a big fan of rice unless it's sushi rice, so I wasn't particularly impressed with my main of grilled pork with broken rice.

Generally, from the assortment of mains we ordered (4 different) we came to a conclusion that the fried ones tasted the best...  It reminds me a bit too much of cai fan so I'm not a fan, but I suppose that if you're looking for a not very crowded place to eat at, this should do the trick.

Comnam
Raffles City
252 North Bridge Road
Singapore 179103
B1-46/47

Anti:Dote

The bar scene in Singapore has been getting more and more interesting of late - lots of new cocktail bars popping up like mushrooms. I've been trying some of them before I hole myself up and hibernate for the next month and stuff my brain full of facts. 

And oops I forgot to take a photo of my drink. I can't even remember how it looks like anymore but it's the one on the top left hand side of the picture. The Treat for Kings. Actually, out of the 10 signature cocktails in the menu, only the Treat for Kings does't have citrus. So that was my default choice. 

It comes with pineapple and mint, and wasn't as boozy as I had hoped it to be (especially for the price) but then it didn't rate very high on the potency scale on the menu. 

 The Akami tuna, green apple, kaffir lime and ponzu, which came with a little plastic dropper with more ponzu sauce. ($18). Taste wise it's really good but size wise, you'll definitely blow your budget before you're full.

 The clam sphere, bacon and parsley oil was pretty interesting - think a rich and creamy Boston clam chowder within the capsule. For 14 dollars, you'll get 4 capsules. I might be really unimaginative, and missing the whole point of this molecular gastronomy thing, but I prefer a nice big bowl of the same clam sphere and slurp it down with a big spoon.

Crispy Parmesan Pizza, olive oil caviar, powdered tomato and basil cress ($12)
The pizza fared the best in terms of flavour and taste, as well as value for money. The base was parmesan cheese, with little pops of olive oil. I strongly recommend trying this if you're heading down.

 The baked chocolate mousse, hazelnut praline, and pear sorbet ($12) was actually in a proper regular sized portion. Which was a sweet surprise. Very chocolatey and delicious.

My 2 cents worth of advice to you will be to have a good dinner, then come here for desserts and drinks, seeing how the portions are.Honestly, I think the food is extremely expensive - think Bacchanalia prices and portions, and they even have that swanky lighting in the middle like Bacchanalia.

Anti:Dote
Level 1 Fairmont Singapore 
80 Bras Brasah Road 189560
Tel 64315315

Soup Broth Asia

My life is passing so slowly it feels like 2 months has passed in the last 10 days. Omg! I still have 15 more weeks left!!! :( I am damn sad cos the canteen has the worst food possible. And then there are issues of respecting privacy which is important to me +++++ So the whole sum of nonsense things is making my life damn sad that I cannot sigh enough times to make myself feel happier. HAIZ!!
Anyway onto a nice meal I had what seems EONS ago cos my life is crawling by sooooo slooooooooowly like a geriatric snail.


Went to try Soup broth Asia at Raffles City. They have these mix and match set meals where you can have either a 1 appetiser, 2 sides, rice and a soup for about 12-15 bucks. Some of their soups are very commonly found in S'pore like their fish slice soup, which I think I will not spend my money on cos I can get it for much cheaper in a hawker centre, but they have other interesting ones from different regions in Asia like some Korean chicken ginseng soup (which apparently has no ginseng taste), some Indonesian duck (or was it chicken) soup, some spicy curry etc.


I tried the soup which has soy milk added and tofu as well as some weird gluten ball thing as well as pork slices. It's really pretty tasty, not too salty (considering my salt tolerance is v long) and there's an option of upgrading (for aobut 1.50 or 2 bucks) the plain white rice to either yam rice (which I wanted, but was sold out) or fried rice (which I took cos I don't like eating white rice).


The fried rice has lots of egg and a mild wok hei taste and smell, though it's nothing spectacular.
Their sides are pretty interesting - I tried the stir fried kai lan with garlic which wasn't too bad just that it was slightly too oily, sweet and sour pork which was average, and the potato salad. I think the wasabi prawns looked much better - dunno why I didn't choose that? And they have healthy cold tofu with ponzu sauce.
The soups tend to sell out when it's too late (like when we decided to have dinner) so if you want all the options available, go early...
Bumped into Julie there too!

Soup broth Asia
Raffles City B1-62

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Handburger

My super long overdue post from the night before my Kelong trip (can't believe it my sister actually wants to go to a kelong after her exams!!). Was trying to rush this post yesterday night, but then I was too tired to finish it :/ Plus, it's distracting me from writing my dreaded personal statement that my entire working life will hinge on... Handburger is set up by the same people who started the Soup Spoon, but that's probably where the similarities end. There was a half page article on the Handburger quite some time ago in the Sunday lifestyle section, and I've finally gotten down to trying it. Waffle Vegetable Crisps ($3.80)
Thin cut waffle crisps of a mixed of freshly cut potato, sweet potato and taro

Personally, I really disliked the dish. Other than the sweetish sauce (which was really delicious, and goes very well with fries), which was the saving grace of this dish, the vegetable crisps tasted horribly burnt. Though I must admit that they were very addictively crunchy (makes me think of Ruffles with Ridges).
What impressed me was that when we decided that it was inedible since it was so burnt, and informed the waiter, who returned it to the kitchen. He then informed us that the chef would be cooking us another batch. When the second batch came back, served personally to us by a very apologetic chef (see the picture, it still looks as burnt) and tasted burnt, we decided to 'leave it' after a few nibbles, and not to complain. After all, it was $3.80 split amongst the 3 of us, and they had already made the effort to cook another batch. It was a pleasant suprise when the bill came, and we found that the restaurant had waived the charges for the waffle vegetable crisps. Talk about a pleasant suprise indeed:)

My Chicken Caesar burger ($12 something)
Baked chicken breast wrapped with bacon, fresh mozzarella, sauteed basil pesto, mushroom, handmade caesar dressing on a bed of romaine lettuce, tomato on toasted sundried tomato with olive bun

I found the chicken breast a bit too dry and hard for my liking, but it was definitely not lacking in any flavour, especially since it was wrapped with a rasher of crisped, streaky bacon. I particularly enjoyed the juicy sauteed mushrooms, which were infused in a creamy and buttery sauce, as well as the fresh mozzarella cheese and aromatic pesto. The olive bun had the subtle salty taste of black olives, but the olive taste was not overpowering.

Pulled Pork Burger with Rustic Cornmeal bun (Around $12)
The pork shreds were moist and tender, and infused with a rich marinade. The pickled cabbage added a nice sourish tang to the pork, which would otherwise have tasted too heavy and meaty on it's own.

The Handburger Original ($13 something)

Their Original burger came with a beef patty, and is served on a caramelized onion bun.

The burgers at Handburger come with different burger buns. In fact, they even sell their burger buns (1 for $1.40, 3 for $3.80).

I'm not a big french fries fan, but the fries here are really good. Perhaps it's because I like my fries partially soggy. But these fries are the real thing - starchy strips of potatoes, with the skin on too. Sure beats the skinny, artificially golden or overly crisped fries from Macdonalds.

For people who don't mind a little rabbit food to balance out the unhealthy calorie laden burgers, opt for the chilled tomato stuffed with coleslaw. Delicious tangy and crunchy coleslaw stuffed into a poached, skinned tomato (which is rather big too - same size as my fist) drizzled with a beta-carotene rich carrot puree. This chilled tomato gives a nice zing and a refreshing tang to the oily, heavy main course.

For me, it's a hard fight choosing between the fries and the tomato - but no worries since the chilled stuffed tomato costs $3 for an alacarte order, I won't have to stress my poor little braincells thinking of which to order ;)Nutella milkshake ($6)

The highlight of this milkshake was the perfectly roasted marshmellows -they look rather unassuming at first, but once you take a bite, the crisped outer layer gives way to a gooey, strandy mess and, for me, the feeling that you get a barbecues when you roast your own marshmellows over the dying fire. The milkshake could do with way more nutella, but it's rather sweet already, so I suppose that more nutella would make it nearly impossible to drink without seriously stressing your pancreas.Lychee Mint Crush ($3.50)
Which had so many bits of lychee that it was quite a chore sucking the lychee bits through the straw. There's lots of fresh mint leaves in this extremely refreshing drink.

Service here was impressive - I was expecting cafe/bistro standard, but then I was pleasantly suprised by our waiter, who patiently took orders from 3 extremely fickle diners. I'll definitely be back, maybe to try their Prawncake burger as well as the stuffed portabello burger. And of course, I'll make sure I have space for dessert - I'm eyeing the Lemony Curd already!

The Handburger

252 North Bridge Road

#B1-77/78

Raffles City Shopping Centre

Tel: +65 6334 4577

Double Bay Restaurant

Double Bay's manager screwed up our seating. We called in on the Friday morning itself, and were told that we could only get a table for 3 at 8.30pm.

We arrived early for our dinner - at 750pm, cos we were tired of shopping and wanted to try our luck. We were told that our table wasn't ready, but we could sit outisde on one of their high tables in the meantime. After about 15min, the manager came to our table and asked if we had specified any preference for seating (they have both indoors and al fresco seats). My friend who made the reservation said that she was not asked, but our preference was for indoor seating. The manager then continued on to say that "since you didn't specify what kind of seating you want, we only have outdoor tables for you".

Firstly, this is the problem with her staff who took the call.
More importanly, she was implying that it was our fault that we couldn't get indoor seating because we didnt' specify where we wanted to seat, when it was really the restaurant's fault.
She didn't even bother to apologise, and instead tried to shift the blame.

When 830 came, we asked another waitress if our table was ready - a resonable request since we had made a booking for 830pm. She pointed to an empty 2 seater table inside, which was beside another 2seater table occupied by a Caucasian couple and said that the empty table was ours, and we had to wait for the Caucasian couple to finish eating.

I then asked why was the couple not informed that they would have to give up the their table by 830, since the table was reserved for us. All other restaurants would inform you what time you had to vacate the table, if they are expecting customers with reservation. She then said that they had informed the couple, but since they were still eating, there was nothing that the restaurant could do about it. She then suggested that I speak with her manager.

Of course, the manager herself never turned up - but we were finally ushered to the empty 6 seater table (which was empty since we arrived) without any apology or explaination.
Kurobuta Pork Belly ($12) wth apple sauce.
The pork belly was pretty good - tastes like Chinese Roast pork, just that it had apple sauce.

For the fish and chips, a miserable portion as pictured above ranges from $21 to $26, depending on the type of fish you pick. Between the three of us, we tried the Snapper ($21.90++), Grouper aka Barred Cod ($24.90++) and the Chilean Seabass ($26.90++). You get to choose the type of batter - we all choose beer battered.

Obviously, you're supposed to fill yourself with lots of carbo cos there's a tonne of thick cut fries on the plate. They should just rename the dish Chips and Fish, since there's so much more chips and a meager portion of fish.

We actually wanted to share 2 desserts amongst the three of us, but then being the greedy people we were, we were unable to decide which two desserts to pick (cos all of them are 'Australian' desserts, or had the word 'Australian' in them, so we felt compelled to try all).

We came to the unanimous conclusion that the pavalova (I think it was about $12, all the desserts were around the same price) was the best tasting of the lot. Refreshingly tangy berry sorbet, fresh cut berries embedded over a smooth and creamy lemon curd, on top of a palm sized pavalova. The pavalova was crispy on the outside, and it crumbled into a chewy sticky mess when eaten with the lemon curd and sorbet.
The 'Australian' apple pie was so-so - the tart was made from shortcrust pastry which was really quite thick, and the apples and sauce reminded me of the applepie from Macdonalds. Not very inspiring - it was served with normal vanilla flavoured ice cream.

The 'Australian' Sticky Date Pudding was a dissappointment. Marmalade Pantry's sticky date pudding ia a million times better. This just tasted like kueh, and had the texture of kueh, and had hardly any dates inside. If this was my first sticky date pudding, I'd have refused to try anymore cos it was so tasteless and unspiring and completely not sticky at all.

My unbiased recommendation for the food (food only, not service): Come here for the Pavalova - the rest aren't worth eating. If you're craving for Fish and Chips, go to either Fisherios at the Takashimaya Basement Food Court (less than 10 bucks can get you a great Beer Battered Fish and Chips - though I haven't been there recently so I'm not sure of the standard now, but I shall go and try soon) or Fish and Co!

Double Bay Restaurant

252 North Bridge Road

#01-22A Raffles City Shopping Centre

Tel: 6334 6530
(Facing Raffles Hotel, right next to the main road, so unless you want all the pollution and dirt to get into your food, call early and specify that you want a table INSIDE, cos their incompetent staff will not ask you).

Savoury Food at Canele

Though Canele is more famed for its macaroons and desserts, their food is pretty good.Went to the Raffles City branch for lunch on a Saturday, and it was suprisingly pretty empty. Which is great since I hate going to crowded places - it's the time of the year to avoid town like plague. The best dish there was the Croque Madame - 2 homemade pain de mie (white toast bread) baked with ham, Swiss Gruyère cheese, sunny side up, and side salad with house dressing ($13.50)
The white bread was thick and cottony, stuffed with delicious shaved ham, with oozing melted cheese, and sunnyside up egg with a runny yolk. Very nice! I am going to order this the next time I go to Canele for lunch.

The crepe I had wasn't as nice as the croque madame, though it looked pretty impressive and very healthy. Roasted chicken, figs compote, tomato, gruyère cheese sauce ($13.50) had a measly sprinkling of cheese (bah since I like cheese and it makes the crepe creamy and nice), so measly that the cheese was extremely hard to find. It tastes very healthy though, with lots of leaves and tomatoes, and a handful of sunflower (or pumpkin?) seeds on the side. The crepe itself reminds me of a thosai, crispy outside and nice white inside, though the croque Madam stole the show, so much that I can't really remember much else.

The crepe with the egg right on top is the Paris ham, Emmental cheese and sunny side up crepe ($12.50). I like how egg look when they're sunny side up, even though I don't quite like eating the yolks. So messy.

The waitress there (probably a part-timer) who took our order was in such a rush in repeating the order, she rambled and muttered her way through our seemingly 5 orders (but she missed out one, we didn't know). So we ended up missing one of our orders (out of 5 mains. We thought, at first, that they were still making the Croque Madame. Cos the crepes took super long to come out, and came out one by one (perhaps they only have one crepe plate??) but in the end, this more observant waiter came to ask my friend what her missing order was.

So please don't come here if you're a stickler about starting your meals together cos you'll just wait till your crepe is cold soggy and disgusting.

Canele

Raffles City

Yoguru

Soft serve ice cream yoghurts are my favourite form of dessert, especially if it comes as a soft serve. I like my yoghurts to have the sourish yoghurty taste, not like those extremely creamy kind, which tastes like normal ice cream. I've been eating Yami yoghurt since ever I can remember, and when I'm at Great World City, I try to drop by to get a Why Yoghurt fruit packed yoghurt cone. I also like the intense yoghurty taste at Frolick, but their prices are really steep (plus they didn't give me my badge!D:<). I'm so happy to find that Yoguru has opened a new branch at Raffles City, which is way more accessible (for me) than their Kallang branch. Actually, my favourite (and expensive) Vietnamese Baguette store, Saigon Baguette used to be located at the same shop space, and I was very upset when it closed down. At least it hasn't gone to waste, since Yoguru has now replaced it. Yoguru's yoghurt comes in 2 flavours, Original and YoguBliss, which is a mix of dragon fruit and pomegranate. It's supposed to be full of antioxidants (antiaging :D) but I'm not that much of a health freak to be really concerned by the additional health benefits - just as long as it tastes nice it works for me. Since I couldn't decide which flavour I would like to try, they have a mixed one, and they charge an in-between price of $4.10 (original costs $3.80 and YoguBliss is $4.30 for a regular cup). Actually, I had the large cup (shared between 2 people). I was very happy to see such a large cup (it is really big) but after digging into it, I was very dissappointed to find that the hole under the swirls of ice cream was even larger than I expected.

Tastewise, it's not as yoghurty as I would have liked it, means that it's more creamy and lacks that tartness that I look forward to when I eat yoghurt. But I do like that they have the interesting flavour of dragonfruit and pomegranate, which no other yoghurt outltet has. Even though I still prefer Yami Yoghurt's and Frolicks sour yoghurt, I'll definitely drop by Yoguru if I'm at Raffles City (will be avoiding it like plague cos of F1).

Yoguru
Raffles City Mall
Unit #B1-55 (opp Cedele/ Next to Mrs Fields)

5 Stadium Walk, Unit 01-10A
Kallang Leisure Park
Tel 63448860
http://www.yoguru.com.sg/

LIC's Food Outing - Ochacha

LadyIron Chef (who isn't a lady) organized a food-sampling-friend-meeting session at Ochacha, and since I've always wanted to try Ochacha (but the 2 previous times I walked past and went in to sample the drinks I was too full). So I thought it was a great opportunity to sample most of their menu for $17.50, and also, to meet other bloggers.
Price quoted is for normal size portions, this is just a sampler.
Shitake Mushroom Soup and Tomato Soup. I liked the tomato soup because it was very tangy, and full of chewy bits of vegatables, but I found it slightly too salty. The mushroom soup was thick and creamy, with lots and lots of shitake mushroom bits. However, there was a slight bitter after taste (prob due to the mushroom).
From Front to Back: Matcha Rocks, Ochacha Rocks, Azuki Freezie.
These are just small shots, but the actual size is much bigger, about the size of Starbucks/Coffeebean drinks.
Matcha Rocks ($4.95) is slightly sweetened cold green tea, and there is really alot of green tea powder inside - there was a thick layer of sediment on the bottom of mine.
My favourite was the Ochacha Rocks ($4.95), which green tea with milk in good proportions such that neither the milk or green tea overpowers the other. People who like milk will enjoy this.
The Azuki Freezie ($6.50) is green tea, milk and azuki beans. I think of the azuki beans as a healthier alternative to the pearls in bubble tea, cos it gives you something to bite on while drinking.
What I liked about the drinks was that they are not too sweet and thus taste very refreshing. I suppose that the more health conscious people who love their green tea and antioxidents will like it too.
The drinks come in 2 sizes, "Thirsty" and "Parched". The lady boss said that she was contemplating calling it "Dehydrated" but thought this wouldn't sit too well with her customers. I suppose if she called the normal sized one "Dehydrated", she could call the big cup "Hypovolemic shock". This is the complimentary salad which was so kindly provided by the boss as she noted that our tasting menu didn't have a vegetable dish:) The lettuce isn't the cheapskate iceberg lettuce you get for $1.50 a head at supermarkets (thought I'm not botanist and can't identify what type of lettuce it is but it's not Romaine either). It's dressed in a light citrus dressing (is it yuzu? tastes a bit orang-ish to me).These are the sandwiches we had: Sakura Egg ($4.80), Wasabi Tuna ($5.90) and Salmon Furikake ($5.90).
I enjoyed the salmon furikake the most, perhaps because there was a interesting Jap twist to the usual boring smoked salmon sandwich in the form of the furikake powder (seaweed, sesame seeds, fish flakes etc). I wasn't very impressed by the sakura egg since I don't really like eating egg sandwiches, and there was just a sprinkling of sakura powder, which I couldn't really taste very well. I found the wasabi in the wasabi tuna sandwich too strong, and it kept going up my nose. As you can tell, I don't like wasabi (unless it's the freshly grated kind). If you are a wasabi fan, you'll probably like this since the wasabi is reall very strong.
The bread was nicely toasted and it was very fresh and soft on the inside. I think that the salmon furikake is much more worth it than Delifrance's sandwiches for the same cafe style dining and pricing.
Matcha Financier ($2.90) is this quite thin, half cake half biscuit dessert which I think is very small (volume wise) for the price. It's based on a French recipe, and modified by adding the green tea powder. The good point about this is that it's very well made, with the crispiness on the bottom and sides, and the green tea taste is very strong. I'll eat this very willingly and happily if it were free, but not if I had to buy it for $2.90.Green Tea Panna Cotta ($4.90) was served last, and a good thing too because it's really creamy and heavy. The consistency is more like mousse, and if I weren't so stuffed, I would have liked it better. Diminishing returns indeed.This is the Matcha Azuki ($4.90), which isgenerously sprinkled with lots of green tea powder. Green tea and azuki beans make a great combination for desserts! I really like the intense colour that the green tea gives the sponge layers.
This is my favourite dessert of the day! It's the Matcha Cotton ($2.90) which is a Japanese style cotton cake but with green tea. It reminds me of the cotton cake at Tampopo, just that it has green tea and copious amounts of decadent fresh cream. The cake itself is very light and fluffy. I think it's quite worth the $2.90 pricing (even if it's mostly air, it appears big and impressions make a big difference ;)
I will definitely come back to eat this:DThe dinner ended on a pleasant note with the Ochacha Latte. It's the warm version of the Ochacha Rocks. By this time, I couldn't taste if it was sweet or unsweetened cos we just ate all the desserts, and there were many diminishing returns.

There's a variation of the Ochacha Latte called the Ochacha Silk, which comes with soyamilk instead of milk. I think that it's a very good idea since most Asians, especially Chinese are lactose intolerant.

Overall, I will recommend Ochacha for desserts, as well as a great place to sit and chill with a healthier, less sugary drink. AND you have to enjoy green tea - which is the whole idea of going to this place :)

Thanks to LIC for organizing the event:D

And now, for my new michellelim star rating:

Ochacha, rating for DESSERT only:

OChaCha
252 North Bridge Road
#B1-44F Raffles City
Tel: 6333 5886