Journey to the far East: Tampines1 - Luo Chun Ge

At these panfried Shanghainese paus from Luo Chun Ge - I ate them pretty early, around 5pm cos I was hungry and in want of a pre-dinner snack. After my dinner (at Manpuku), I saw an uber long queue when I walked past- I was feeling so pleased with myself since I beat the queue. And I wouldn't have bothered to queue up to try the panfried pau with such a long queue.

The paus are panfried with lots and lots of oil, and the bottom is crispy and brown. The pau skin is pretty good - fragrant, sweet and slightly chewy. There's lots and lots of juice inside - when I ate my first pau, it spurted so much juice (onto the floor, fortunately not onto my foot, since it was steaming hot). The pork meat inside is not as porky as ding tai fung's, but I'm not a big fan of pork meat found in paus/xiaolongpaus/dumplings/gyozas so I'm not going to comment on it.

There's even a sign showing the 'correct' way of eating these panfried paus! It's $3 for 2, and it's slightly cheaper if you buy more (can't remember the pricing).

Luo Chun Ge - found on the same level as frolick and the supermarket (I cant remember where, but it's either ground or basement)

Bon Gout - Japanese Curry

The last time I visited Bon Gout, the delicious aroma of Japanese curry was warfting about the whole restaurant. I've finally found enough time to return to try the curry. For those people who haven't tried Japanese Curry, it's totally different from the local curries. It's more of a sweetish thick sauce which has a vague curry taste. It usually comes with lots of onions, carrots and potatoes. Sometimes, it comes with stewed pieces of meat cooked with the sauce, and othertimes, it comes doused over a fried pork/chicken cutlet. It also comes with different levels of spiciness, from mild to hot, and usually the hot isn't very hot (esp for all those chilli queens/kings). I don't really know how to appreciate Japanese Curry - it's just that I really like the curry smells. For me, most of the time, I find that Japanese Curry smells better than it tastes. But since the proof of the pudding is in the eating, more often than not, I end up eating it;) Unless it's made with beef - I've realized that lots of the Japanese Curry use beef as the curry base - so I make a mental note to make sure that there isn't beef inside my curry. Hope the waiter I asked understands me, since his English didn't seem too good :O (but he was v efficient in topping up our water).


Bon Gout's curry isn't too salty, and there's lots of carrots (which I don't eat) and onions. It's pretty good when eaten over steaming white rice. I ordered the pork cutlet with curry rice set ($12.50). The pork cutlet was moist and juicy, and went really well with the curry sauce.
I also couldn't resist ordering the Maguro Natto ($8) which is raw chunks of tuna with natto, a traditional Japanese fermented soyabean.
I personally think that natto smells slightly like coffee, and doesn't really taste like anything (maybe somewhat bean-y?). The part that most people don't like about natto is the copious amount of slime it produces. To eat natto, you will have to take your chopsticks and stir the natto until it produces loads of slime. Soyasauce, mustard and spring onions can be added to give natto more flavour. It's usually eaten with rice for breakfast in Japan, and is supposed to have lots of medical benefits (which isn't really important, since most people eat stuff that they like and not because of medical benefits right?)

This is my natto after a bit of stirring - not enough slime yet, but I didn't get a picture after all the stirring, cos my curry rice came and I forgot about the maguro natto :O

Of course, miso chicken with eggplant is a must when I come to Bon Gout. The eggplant here is fantastic. I think eggplant isn't an easy vegetable to cook - too little cooking and it'll end up spongy in the middle (yucks!) and when it's overcooked, it isn't purple anymore, and ends up limp and soggy. Soggy is definitely better than spongy. The dish isn't too salty or oily, and there's lots of other vegetables to make this a very balanced meal (if you order the set - rice + appetiser+pickles).
In my previous review, I gave Bon Gout 4 stars, but then I think it raises people's expectations by alot, so I think 3.5 stars will be enough, even though I'll definitely return (many times). Good, simple and straightforward homely Japanese food, at reasonable prices.

All prices stated are nett - they don't charge for service. Not too sure if GST is included. Hmm I can't remember, but I dont think so :)

Ok this is quite a lengthy and rambly post - my paint shop pro isn't working! WHY! it keeps doing weird things like not opening up my photos properly. Urgh!

Bon Gout

60 Robertson Quay

#01-01 The Quayside

Tel: 6732 5234

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.

Gunther's Lunch

Went to Gunther's for lunch with ice after procrastinating for an extremely long time. Looks like I'll be having lots of time on my hands, just as long as Singapore DORS orange. My brain is already happily soggy from the lack of use since Thursday. Gunther's tray of daily specials - from front: Dover sole (for 2 people), some exotic mushroom, sea urchin, lobster, white asparagus, and some clam.

Uni (sea urchin) - my fave type of sushi.

Bread - I was being greedy so I had 2.5pieces of this! Especially useful for mopping up those delicious sauces.

Amuse bouche - egg cocotte
Sour cream, chives and a hint of sweetness from
Cold angel hair pasta with chives, kombu, truffle jus and oscietra caviar

I really can't appreciate good caviar. The last time I had some expensive caviar, it was quite disasterous, and I ended up wasting the dish. The caviar just tasted slightly salty to me. But if you did a blinded test, I probably won't be able to tell the difference between the real thing and some cheap stuff.

The angel hair pasta itself was really delicious - it also comes with truffle juice! And the bits of konbu made it incredibly tasty. I feel like coming here just to eat the angel hair pasta, minus the caviar of course. I think I've finally found something comparable to Iggy's sakura ebi cappellini...

Roasted foie gras, crushed candied almonds, caramelized date, petit salad

I got an uber huge slab of goose foie gras - it was slightly firmer than duck foie gras, and not as oozey. Its the hugest piece of foie gras I've ever eaten. And every bite was delicious! Especially whtn paired with the caramalized date and the crunchy bits of candied almonds.

The liver edge looks exactly like how it looks like in patho pots! Smooth, yellowish, and with rounded buldging corners.

White asparagus gratiné, carpaccio of champignon de Paris, beef jus
Ok I hope I didn't eat any of the beef jus. I probably did tho. Argh!! It's white asparagus season (May-June) now, so it's a great time to eat all these delicacies. They're supposed to be less bitter and have a more delicate flavour. To grow white asparagus, the plant is deprived of light, so that it can't produce any chlorophyll.

Gunther's white asparagus was served with finely sliced button mushrooms and hollandaise sauce.

Brittany langoustine “Armoricaine”
Langoustine is also known as Norway Lobster, and is sometimes known as scampi. The pan roasted langoustine was extremely juicy, tender and flavourful. And the accompanying sauce was an emulsion bursting with seafood flavour. Needless to say, my bread came into good use for mopping up the plate.

Grilled rack of pork, apple compote, crispy potato
My main - you can't get swine flu from eating pork! The pork was juicy and succulent, rosy pink, and didn't have any porcine smells, with a rind of fat surrounding the tender meat. The potato thing is like a huge rectangular potato chip, sprinkled with some spice powder (I think it's curry powder?).

bar de ligne, steamed sea bass à la Provençal, savoy cabbage, rice pilaf

Seabass was extremely fresh - I think I will order fish the next time I come. The rice pilaf was extremely aromatic, and was exactly like how great chicken rice - just without any oiliness. Each grain was fluffy, soft and completely infused in the delicious scents and flavours.

Fine apple tart a la dragées, Havana rum raisin ice-cream
My apple tart - makes me think about my foie gras cos they are both coated in candied almonds. The apple tart was delicious - the pastry was crispy, thin and not flakey, filled with thinly sliced apples. The combination of buttery pastry, crunchy almonds, cooked apples was delightful, and I was quite sorry when I finished my tart. Rum and raisin ice cream goes really well with apple tart - next time if I have apple tart, I'm going to get rum and raisin ice cream to accompany it, instead of the usual vanilla.

Sabayon of Champagne, chocolate, blood orange, vanilla
I've never had this dessert before, but since it had orange, I just stole a bit from ice. Julie will probably love this dessert - alcohol with lots of chocolate. Go to ice's blog for a more detailed description.

My decadant lunch ended on a sweet note with petit fors, with Valrhona Manjari chocolate, financiers and chocolate cookies. As well as fresh peppermint tea. Simply delicious.

Eating the lunch felt like like my gs elects - Halfway through, it was like uh-oh it's so enjoyable but it's going to end! And after it ended, it left really good memories.

Gunther’s

36 Purvis Street

#01-03 Talib Centre

Tel: 6338 8955

Mon-Sat: 12pm-3pm

Mon-Sun: 6.30pm-10.30pm

Smoochies Bistro and Bar

Smoochies was having a hungrygowhere offer - 50% off every 2nd main course. Since it ends on 30th Apil (which was ytd), we visited it. It was completely empty, and only one other pair of diners came the whole time we were there (from 6-830pm). I suppose it's cos it's pretty inaccessible unless you drive. And I nearly got caught by the LTA cos I was looking for the place (it's a short distance after Gillman Village). Lucky I saw the single yellow bus lane line (right after a long stretch of dotted bus lane lines) and swerved out of the bus lane).

Penne Prima Vera ($14++)

Penne pasta in rose sauce and fresh vegetables, topped with parmesan cheese.

This one is supposed to come with rose sauce, which is a sauce that I really like. I found this dish slightly spicy - I have no idea why it's spicy cos it's not supposed to be! They really put quite alot of vegetables inside, including sugar peas, mushrooms (lots!), asparagus, peppers and the sauce was not bad, just that it's not like the other rose sauce I've tasted. More cheese would have definitely been good. Penne Arabiatta ($14++)

Garlic and prawns in a spicy tomato basil sauce. This one was really quite spicy. The prawns are the bicarbonated kind, crunchy but tasteless. The sauce has lots of onions and is very garlicky.

For both pastas, the penne was al dente - great since I really hate soggy pastas.

Smoochies Smoked Duck Pizza($14++)

This pizza has tea-smoked duck slices with onions, peppers and tomatoes. There's lots of gooey cheese and tomato sauce. I felt that the tomato sauce and cheese overwhelmed the duck flavour (as expected) but the duck itself was pretty nice if you eat it by itself and not with the rest of the pizza.

Somehow, all of us felt that the pasta sauces, and the pizza tomato sauce all tasted about the same. Perhaps it would have been better to have ordered a wider variety of dishes, but due to their restrictions on the dish pricings (see below), we didnt.Fish and Chips ($16++), which is 'a favourite' according to the menu. It's not bad, just that I won't pay $16 for beer battered fish and chips, cos I can easily get a great tasting one from Taka basement foodcourt for half the price and without the taxes.

My friends thought that the fish was a bit soggy. Personally, I thought that it tastes a bit like snapper cos it's not the oily kind of fish, and its texture was a bit like snapper (which I don't like). Anyway, I hope that it was snapper and that it wasn't not-fresh. Batter was pretty good - crispy and puffy just like how nice beer batter should be like.

Warm Chocolate Larva Cake ($16++ or wat it $14??)

I found the molten chocolate slightly too oily for my liking. And it wasn't as chocolatey as I had expected. The vanilla ice cream was deliciously creamy though. Actually, we would have ordered the Apple crumble, but it doesn't come with ice cream - and what good is apple crumble without ice cream? (Anyway, I went to epicurious the next day to eat my apple crumble).

The food's pretty passable - average, nothing to rave about, and not particularly cheap (maybe cos we ordered dessert) so our bill came to $17 per person, for 4 people. I suppose if they extend their 50% off every 2nd dish, I'll be ok with coming back if I'm nearby. I doubt that I would have tried this place if not for the promo.

Furthermore, if you order 4 items, the 50% off applies only to the two cheapest mains you order. In fact, we actually wanted to try the lamb rack ($32) and Baked Chilean Cod Fish ($28). However, the offer only applied to the cheapest items, which were pastas (~$14). So we ended up getting more of the cheaper stuff.

Ambience is pretty nice - the place is quite big, and there's a small fountain/pond thing outside. It was too hot so we sat inside.

Something that irked me - when I called to ask if a booking was necessary, and if they would be very crowded on a Wednesday evening, the lady who answered the phone said they are very busy, and that from Wednesday onwards, they tend to be very full. However, when we were there, there was only one other table with 2 diners. I guess it's better to book cos I'd rather have a table than waste time waiting, but they are completely not crowded. Ohwells, no loss I suppose.

Smoochies Bistro and Bar
991B Alexandra Road

#01-10

Tel: 6276 7337

Irritated

they should seriously go and just get rid of ALL the pig farms. Everytime spreading viruses. I mean ppl can live without pigs! Got so many other kinds of animals to eat - like chicken beef lamb fish deer ostrich crocadile. chicken charsiew, siew mai and ramen are the only reason why I still eat pork.

so now i have 2 mths to sit arnd and shake leg and rot, since all postings have been suspended till further notice. was so looking fw to my next posting!! lucky i already finished gs (or I'd be even more depressed)! Drats - was just complementing myself on choosing all local electives. Now I know how all the ppl who were flying away feel.

Anw, according to em, she said she went to eat bak kwa out of vengence. lol!

I'm quite irritated now (by something else). Urgh!

At least I have a good lunch to look fw to tmr...

*Btw, does anyone know if there's a cruise/boat/ship whatever to sydney? My parents aren't letting me fly and I really don't want to rot here in sgp D:<

Ikea's Ice Cream

I went to Ikea on Saturday cos my mum wanted to get photo frames but was too busy to go, and I ended up buying alot more than I intended to! I was quite glad that the one at Alexander wasn't crowded on Saturday - thanks to the new and bigger AMK hub Ikea, I don't have to contend with millions of screaming kids and prams rolling over my feet.

I got a good sized plastic rubbish bin for $3, a new yellow shower curtain (cos my old one is fungusy and gross), a black plate (cos it was only $2.50 for a pretty big plate, and it will be nice to take food photos with - on hindsight I should have bought 2 since the plates in my house keeps getting chipped), and the multi-coloured ikea plastic cups (6 for $3something). My plastic rubbish bin was incredibly handy, since Ikea is super environmentally friendly and charges for plastic bags. So I conveniently dumped everything inside it.

The best part about going to ikea is the Ikea ice cream. Even though the portion size has shrunk quite a bit, it still tastes great. It has a mild butterscotch after taste and is not overly creamy like the Macdonalds one. Its $1.50 for the cone.

Apart from the ice cream and hotdog ($1 per hotdog bun), I don't think that anything else is worth eating in Ikea. Especially the Rubberized Fish and Chips. (I wrote such an angsty post about the fish and chips last time - I must have been very distressed about eating at Ikea then!)

That reminds, me, I bought a bottle of Sweedish mustard from Ikea's food section ($4.20) but I don't know where it went - perhaps its still rolling around in the back of my car since I jam-breaked and my rubbish bin fell onto the floor and everything was rolling about in the back seat.
This is Fish, from 1.5 yrs ago - I think this was in Oct 2007. She was very happy when I told her that she actually looks a bit younger today, cos she wasn't wearing her specs. I'm the one holding the mad-looking puppet :P

Selera Currypuff aka Rex Currypuff

This is the currypuff which my mum's crazy over. According to her, it's known as the Rex Currypuff, and was very famous last time (very long ago). Until now, the only few currypuffs that I've been eating is the famous Old Chang Kee, and, when I'm really desperate (rarely), I get the Polar Currypuffs (only cos it's 24hrs at the petrol stations).

I've only recently tried the Rex Theater currypuffs. The curry paste is 100000x more robust than Old Chang Kee's, and it's filled with moist, melt in the mouth potato cubes, and discernable chicken chunks (very few currypuffs have proper chunks of chicken) and a pieces of egg with crumbly yolk. The puff is not the flakey kind. Personally, I prefer the non-flakey pastry. I find that the flakey kind tends to taste very oily and it flakes all over the places so it's troublesome to eat. Sometimes, I find that the pastry part is a bit thick at the edges where it's sealed together, but if it's like that, I just break it off and not eat that part. Best of all, the filling isn't so spicy that I have to gulp lots of water, but it's still very tasty - at least there isn't too much chilli to mask all the spices used. I think that the paper bag's so funny - there's Chinese words on it! Even though it's from a Malay store? Ok I haven't been there before (my mum has been da-paoing the currypuffs for me), but the name sounds Malay right?

Selera Restaurant

15 Mackenzie Road (Opp former Rex Theatre)

Singapore 228677

Tel 63385687

Selera Cuppage Food Corner

#01-16 Cuppage Plaza (Facing Cuppage Rd)

Singapore 229467

Tel 62358770/62350520

Kueh Tutu

I'm currently carving for some good Kueh Tutu! Tan's Tutu Kueh stall at Clementi now has this slow (old) woman making Kueh Tutu - she's so slow and takes forever to make the kueh tutu, so now the kueh tutu stall has a que as long as the popiah stall (which has the annoying anal and purposely-make-popiah-slowly-so-her-que-becomes-longer woman). So I didn't want to que behind 6 other people to get my kueh tutu, and when i got back at 940pm, she was already cleaning the stall up:(
Maybe I'll go vivo to get my Kueh Tutu fix at the food republic cos there's always some young energetic person making the kueh tutu - anyway, both are the same price (4 for $2) now.
So I'm now looking sadly at my Kueh Tutu Magnets, which I got from the Esplanade Shop a few weeks ago, thinking how nice it'll be to eat the freshly steamed treats, filled with the delicious brown dessicated coconut with gula melaka. Sigh! A box of 3 kueh tutu magnets cost $14. I'm pretty sure it was $9 when I got it, cos I was thinkig that $3 for such a cute magnet (it even has a 'banana leaf' at the bottom) was quite worth it. But the next time I dropped by, it was $14! The creative person who made it has a blog too. I'm actually considering buying the kueh tutu mould and making my own magnets with plaster of paris - if I'm bored enough in the coming weeks, that is.