Tetsu - Tasting Session

I've been to Tetsu before for ladyironchef's food outing (quite long ago), so when I was invited for a tasting session, I jumped at the chance. Tetsu specialises in serving Kushi-style tempura and tonkatsu.

The photos here look much nicer than my usual photos cos they're taken by my sister (who is 1000x more pro than me at photography, and uses all her fierce lenses - my p&s camera is no match...)
Sashimi Moriwase
The skinny fish in the middle is a saiyouri (aka halfbeak) is a long slender fish with a pointy snout. It's flesh is white, slightly translucent, and tastes best when paired with grated ginger and finely sliced shallots. It is clean tasting and doesn't have an oily or fatty taste. The amaebi, scallop, salmon, tuna sashimi were all extremely fresh, and the presentation was really pretty.
Dragon Roll
Tetsu uses tobiko (flying fish roe) which is slightly bigger than the usual prawn roe for their dragon roll. Initially, I thought that the dragon roll would taste weird as there was lettuce wrapped into the sushi (just like how the western countries have carrots and lettuce and other weird things in their mega big maki rolls), but it tasted great - espeically with the generous scoops of tobiko (flying fish roe) on each piece of sushi.
Appetiser of Fugu Mirin Boshi ($10++)
Fugu is the much coveted puffer fish. In the fresh form, the flesh of the pufferfish is transulcent and whitish. It's usually served as sashimi, and is presented in a crysanthemum pattern (the flower at funerals) because if the chef doesn't prepare the pufferfish properly, the meal will definitely be that diner's last one. The dried sweetened and preserved pufferfish has the texture of jerky, and goes very well with japanese mayonnaise.Renkon Chips ($4++)
The deep frying sealed in the sweet nutty flavour of the lotus root, and each thinly sliced piece was crunchy but didn't have an oily aftertaste. Grilled Aji (mackeral)

The lightly salted aji was grilled to perfection - the skin was crisped and not charred. It went very well with the grated daikon (radish).

Katsu Curry Rice ($16.50)

Served with Miso soup and pickled cabbage
The curry sauce tastes robust, with lots of aromatic spices and didn't taste too sweet. The sauce was golden brown, thick and stewed with carrots, potatoes and onions.

The pork cutlet was very well done - the batter was very crispy, but was not hard and pokey like how some of the breaded batter used for other pork cutlets are. The pork cutlet was juicy, and didn't have the oily taste even though it was deep fried.

The Katsu curry rice was so nice we decided to request for an additional pork cutlet. This special pork cutlet was served with fresh shredded cabbage to counter the oilyness (even though it didn't taste oily, it's still deep fried). The yellow mustard went really well with the pork chop too. Freshly ground sesame seeds to go with the barbecue sauce for the pork chop.

Cheese Pork Cutlet

The pork chop is stuffed with cheese, which makes it an even more decadant dish. The cheese is runny, gooey and has a slightly alcoholic smell. We think that they use a mix of alcohol and cheese, so that the cheese stuffing would be more runny. Yaki Niku ($16++)

Since I didn't eat it, this is what it's supposed to taste like:

The grilled prime beef tenderloin is served medium rare, and is very soft and juicy.

It's served with a slightly spicy and sweetich sauce made from onion, ginger.

Hiyashi udon

The smooth udon was served chilled, with grated ginger and finely sliced spring onions, as well as dipping sauce. The udon was smooth and chewy, and we happily slurped up both plates of udon.

Yuzu Ice Cream on Strawberry Sherbert ($5.80++)

I dont' particularly like yuzu, since it tastes like orange, but my sister enjoyed her ice cream. I did pinch a bit of her strawberry sherbert, which was very light and refreshing.

Jikasei Goma Ice Cream ($4++)
Homemade black sesame ice cream - it's packed with loads of black sesame seeds, and is probably my favourite dessert from Tetsu. Very fragrant, and creamy.

Maccha Ice Cream with Azuki and Shiratama ($4.80++)
Green tea ice cream with sweetened red beans and dumplings. I liked the chunky red bean paste, as well as the smooth, white glutinous rice dumplings.

Tetsu also has a private room, which has a projector and screen. They even have blinds so that the room can be darkened during the day.

The food at Tetsu is very well executed, and they have a really wide variety of food. They also have special lunch menu with bento sets starting from a very affordable $18, available from 1130-3pm on weekdays.

Thanks to Rachael for the invite, Pris and Alex, as well as to all the staff at Tetsu.

Tetsu

163 Tanglin Road

#03-18 Tanglin Mall

Tel: 68363112

Keng Eng Kee Seafood - Alexander Rd

Had a super heavy tzechar lunch at Dennis' uncle's tzechar stall, which Dennis didn't want to recommendMarmite Chicken ($12)

This was our favourite dish, and it was polished off really quickly. The boneless chicken was coated with marmite sauce, and each bite was a taste explosion - the salty marmite sauce had an intense flavour and went really well with steaming white plain rice. The chicken skin is left intact, for those people who like eating chicken skin - the skin was very crispy.

I think I'm always hungry at night cos I'm always blogging about all the delicious food I had in the day, and now I feel like eating this again.

Coffee Pork Ribs ($20)
The coffee pork ribs were sliced thinly, and since there is an increased surface area, each piece was coated in the sweetish coffee sauce. The sauce is also slightly caramelized, which gives it a yummy looking glaze. The coffee taste is also very strong, and I liked how the additional white sesame seeds made the pork more fragrant.

Ming Zhu Juan ($9)
One of their signature dishes - beancurd skin (tau kee) stuffed with lots of ingredients - prawns, sliced chinese mushrooms, ham as well as a salted egg yolk. Reminds me of a deep fried version of inari (sweet beancurd skin) sushi.

Do note that there's a piece of parsley hidden within all the ingredients - I quite like eating parsley but my friends who didn't like parsley had to dig through the roll and remove the sprig of parsley.

Cuttlefish with Kangkong ($16)
Heaps of juicy cuttlefish pieces and

The cuttlefish was very juicy, and went really well with the slightly spicy brown sauce. This dish is cooked with lard, so all the lard-eaters will be very happy when they discover the crispy oil laden gems hidden within the cuttlefish and kangkong.

Homemade Waterchestnut drink

Complimentary Almond Jelly with Longan, which ended the lunch on a sweet note.

I'm going to come back to eat the salted egg crab. According to the reviews on hungrygowhere, the salted egg crab is supposed to be very good. The food was quite heavy and oily (since it's tze char anyway), and it was just as well that we ordered 4 dishes cos everyone was very full at the end of lunch. Fortunately, we've been having half days, and I happily went home to take a long afternoon nap.

They have an airconditioned dining area opposite the original coffeeshop, and that's where we had our lunch. The aircon is nice and strong, which was a relief as the weather has been scorching hot lately. For the pricing, the portions are huge, and the lunch I had was extremely satisfying. Looking forward to trying the salted egg crab!

Keng Eng Kee Seafood

Blk 124 Bukit Merah Lane 1

#01-136

Singapore 150124

(Where all the car workshops are)

Tel 62721038

Spize (River Valley)

Eating Spize for supper makes me extremely happy - reminds me of all the slacker days spent playing mahjong and eating Spize delivery for supper.

One of their must try dishes is their Nasi Goreng Pattaya ($5.50)

Fried rice with a tinge of curry, chicken, fish cake and prawns encased in an fluffy yellow omelette and doused with lots of sweet chili sauce. It reminds me vaguely of Thai pineapple rice, just that it's missing the pineapple. Topped with lots of fried shallots and spring onion, it makes a satisfying late night meal.

Roti John Special ($5)

The roti john special is another must try at Spize. Marinated minced chicken (I hope it's chicken and not beef. Maybe it's lamb? Cos this place is Indian and Halal so hopefully it's lamb...) with button mushrooms all cooked together in an omelette. The ingredients are all 'stuck' together by the creamy and gooey melted cheese. I like the orange sauce which comes with it - it's something like cocktail sauce (tastes like thousand island mixed with sweet chili sauce) and goes extremely well with the roti john. They also give black pepper sauce, though I think the roti john tastes best with sweet chili sauce and the orange sauce.

My favourite dessert prata - the Honey Tissue Prata ($2.80+ 7% GST). It's an architectual feat - normally floppy prata made into a crispy conical structure. One of the few dishes that you can't take away (we tried taking it away before, and it was all squashed and broken by the time we ate it). Freshly made crispy thin prata, coated with sugar granules inside, and drizzled with fragrant honey on the outside. The lovely buttery smell (I suspect it comes from the ghee) of the prata mixing with the floral fragrance of the honey is divine.

The crispy prata is the perfect dessert to share with friends - spear it with a fork to crack it into fragments and pull it apart. Best enjoyed if you eat it using your hands.

They also serve the savoury version of the Tissue Prata, served with the usual prata curry sauce.

Service here is pretty bad, especially if you're sitting in the dark along the pavement outside. You'll definitely get ignored, and the only thing that they'll do quickly is to collect your money once your food is served. Their smoking area is really huge! They're doing a roaring business, with the diners spilling way over the shop front, and up to 4 stores away.

Part of their success can be attributed to their strategic location, just 2 streets away from Zouk, as well as being in the vicinity of all the popular nightspots in Singapore. Also, they have a really extensive menu. They have western food like Burgers and Fries, Steak, Chicken Chop, as well as Asian Food such as hor fun, hot plate tofu etc (tried the hotplate tofu, it's not very impressive).

It's my current favourite supper place (since about 2-3 years ago) and although the service is very bad (nearly all the time), for my nasi goreng pattaya and my roti john special, I'll usually just try to tahan it.

Spize The Makan Place

409 River Valley Road

Tel: +65 6734 9194

Opening Hours: 6am-6pm

Carpark on weekends (especially late at night) is really bad, and you definitely shouldn't park illegally cos the police are always patrolling the area and catching illegal parkers.

Spize - Supper Club

336/338 Bedok Road (Simpang Bedok)

Tel: +65 6445 3211

Opening Hours : 11am-3am

This one has a wider menu, and includes Mediterranean food and some Italian food. It's much less crowded than the River Valley Road branch - probably because they do delivery? Their website is currently down, but it's supposed to be http://spizeconcepts.com/ According to what I've read online, there's a minimum order of $20 as well as a delivery charge.

Btw, did anyone see the newspapers a few months ago? The owner of Spize got caught for evading income tax! Thankfully his restaurant chains didn't close down, or I'll be missing my supper food.

Deep Fried Mooncake

Before I forget (which I already did earlier), I ate a deep fried mooncake at My Humble House for dinner on Thursday. Though I've never tried the deep fried mars bar before (don't like mars bars to begin with), the deep fried mooncake exceeded my expectations (and my mooncake imaginations). Half a mini red bean snowskin mooncake with some alcoholic center encased in golden batter, which was thick enough to bite through, but not overly floury, and a warm sweet mooncake waiting in the middle. Delicious!

(Not as if mooncakes aren't packed with enough calories, now they've started deep frying them...)


Too bad they don't allow pictures of the dishes (huge sign outside saying no photography, as well as no berms, shorts, slippers, singlets blablabla) so you all will just have to imagine it...

The White Rabbit

Went to the White Rabbit to celebrate my sister's bday, and since she's into photography, most of the photos in this post comes from her.The meal started off with warm onion bread, which was a bit dry on the outside, but the savoury bun tasted pretty good.Dressed crab ($22++)
Freshly handpicked crab tossed with mayonnaise, tomato jelly and avocados
We had this to share, and the waitress kindly gave us plates and cutlery so we could share the appetiser. The crab was lacklusture, and didn't have the sweet taste of freshly handpicked crab. The transparent film was the tomato jelly, which had the taste of tomato, but was gelatinous in nature. I liked the creamy avocado paste, whcih went well with the skinless tomato (fresh, sweet and juciy).
Lobster Sweetcorn Chowder ($16++)
A light summer corn chowder made with lobster served iwth slipper lobster and drizzled with tarragon oil
I liked how the bittersweet tarragon tasted with the creamy lobster broth, and the corn lent it crunchy, juicy sweetness to the heartwarming soup.Beef and Barley Consomme ($14++)
Light clear soup made with fresh beef, vegetables and barley served with a delicate beef roulade
Didn’t try this dish, but according to the people that ate it, it was really salty. Lol I have just noticed that the waiter's aim with the teapot is slightly off in the photo! White Rabbit Mac and Cheese ($28++)
Served with spring vegetables and indulgent truffle sauce
A souped up version of the classic Mac and Cheese. I was really excited about trying it, but it falls short of its reputation. The amount of truffle sauce was really pathetic, and I could barely detect the truffle smell. For this meatless dish (it's just carbs, cheese, cream) and a drizzle of truffle oil, garnished with 2 thin slivers of black truffle, I think you’re better off baking mac and cheese at home.
The summer vegetables were very interesting, and included a piece of purple cauliflower, beetroot, some asparagus and a mini-carrot.

Pan Roasted Salmon ($29++)
Served with confit of fennel and citrus ginger beurre blanc
The portion of fish is quite small, but it was freah, juicy and delicious. Live Manie Lobster Thermidor ($58++)
Gratinated lobster topped with Momay sauce, served with a choice of salad or fries
The lobster was fresh, no doubt, but the sauce didn’t blow me away. And if you’re the kind that wont’ get full on a small-medium sized lobster, please order the fries. The dish isn’t very filling at all.

You definitely can't be like Scrooge if you want to dine here. Being a chapel, the place resonated with the clinking of cutlery and the lively chatter from the many diners. It was quite noisy, and although we were sitting in a small table, we could hardly hear each other speak. I quite liked the privacy the the round tables along the sides offered, rather than sitting in the middle in full view of everyone. White Rabbit's value for money is really poor, but it is a really nice place to chill and relax - I imagine weekend brunches/tea here would be supberb - I'm eyeing the deconstructed black forest cake for dessert!

The White Rabbit

39C Harding Road

Tel: +65 6473 9965

F.I.S.H.

This restaurant run by the people behind fish and co has the same name as my cg mate's nickname, so when I walked past, I had to try it. And even more so cos I was nearby (not going to trudge all the way back to the far east to try the restaurant). So I ended up going there for lunch 2 days in a row, and I snitched one of the disposable coasters so I could give it to.

Their lunch sets are pretty affordable, and on Mondays, 4 of their main courses go for $12++. The 4 choices char-grilled codfish fillet, Barramundi with cheddar cheese crust, and Prawns Fettuccine.
The Codfish Fillet (usual price $15.90++), which is rather small. Then again, at $12++ is pretty reasonable for cod. The cod's pretty fresh, and is quite well done - nice and flaky, drizzled with a creamy lemon sauce. Completely not filling if you're eating this alone. Prawns Fettuccine ($13.90++) comes with a herb based cream sauce, and is really heavy, especially if you're eating it by yourself. Quite a few prawns (I think there were at least 6-7 pieces), but they're the bicarbonated/crystal kind which aren't really that tasty.
The Mediterranean Fried Fish ($9.90++) is a good-sized portion Mediterranean fish (not sure what kind of fish cos I forgot to ask) coated in a light, crispy golden batter. This was quite nice, and the creamy cheese sauce went really well with the fish.


All the mains come with new potatoes and grilled tomatoes. The portion of new potatoes is rather small, and I think most people will not be full from the meal. Not that I'm complaining, cos I prefer new potatoes to fries anytime.

They also have a salad bar buffet (lunch price is quite reasonable). Although they're Fish and Co's sister restaurant, their menu is quite different. The service was quite slow on the 2 days I went, and it took painfully long (about 30min) for our dishes to arrive on the 2 occasions I went there, even though the restaurant was 1/4 full. So don't come here if you're rushing cos you'll definitely be frustrated by the slow service.

F.I.S.H
10 Tampines Central 1

#04-11 Tampines 1

Tel: +65 6260 0183

No Signboard Seafood Restaurant (Vivo)

I think I'm super sua koo cos I've never been to Jumbo or No Signboard Seafood before. My usual seafood repertoire is usually limited to Eng Seng and Mellben and Uncle Leong's. Somehow my family doesn't eat much seafood outside?

The restaurant didn't have big Sri Lanken crabs when we went (the waitress said each crab was less than 1kg) and she was quite insistent on us getting one of the angmoh crabs (Alaskan and Australian). Angmoh crabs are very leggy, and have v small bodies.

No Signboard does crab in 5 ways - the boring garlic ginger steamed crab, white pepper, butter, and chili (can't remember what's the 5th one, but it sounds boring). They don't have the salted egg yolk crab (which is very yummy! feel like eating it now).

Butter Crab
I think this was the Australian snow crab, and it looked like an albino crab cos the shell was very pale.

White Pepper Crab
This is No Signboard's signature crab dish, whic is also very spicy. It's quite dry, and the sauce looks like silt (but doesn't taste grainy at all). It's an interesting change from the usual black pepper crab.
Chilli Crab
Don't care if its Singaporean or Malaysian, just as long as Msia doesn't patent it. My fave crab dish ever. It was quite spicy (for my pathetic chilli tolerance, but for everyone else it was fine) - it's very sweet and syrupy sauce.
The restaurant is very atas, even dissects out the crab. Good for people who have just done manicures and want to eat crab.

After eating these 2 kinds of angmoh crab, I think I prefer the Sri Lanken crabs cos they have so much more body. Don't particularly like the hard leg meat. If I ever come back, I'll be sure to call and reserve some big Sri Lanken crabs for myself.

Mushroom and Asparagus, Drunken prawns with herbs, Yang Zhou Fried Rice with Prawn, Mango Pomelo Sago
I particularly liked the drunken prawns with herbs - never had my drunken prawns this way before, and although I don't eat the herbs (the wierd roots and ginseng lookalike things), the soup tasted really nice.

Mango Pomelo Sago ($8++)

It's not the milky kind, but it's more like mango nectar with sago, some pomelo and a little scoop of diced mango. The bowl was only half full, and it's really quite a small portion for $8 (and very little mango too). They really shouldn't be so stingy with the dessert - maybe they're trying to use a bigger bowl so the dessert appears bigger?

I forgot to take a photo of the interior of the restaurant, but it looks quite posh (aquariums, pillars with dragon carvings etc etc), looks very clean, and there's a decent amount of space in between tables.

The best part of the meal - listening to all the interesting stories and 'sharing information'. Lol. Will miss the time spent during SIP, but definitely not the rushing to get equipment every morning. Thanks for the dinner - it was a good ending to SIP :D

No Signboard Seafood Restaurant

1 Harbourfront Walk

#03-02 VivoCity

Tel: +65 6376 9959