TV NYC - Green Edition

Its Sunday and after the baptism of my nephew, we decided to eat something because I haven't eaten anything the whole day.

K-Bo and Lola decided to bring us to Pepe Verde, which was near the church and for only $10 a person and plus drinks, we ordered Spaghetti Meatballs, Pasta Monica (a vegetarian pasta) and some garlic bread; it was fantastic!

Most worthwhile meal in the Village so far.

The Voluptuary NYC Edition - Spotted Pig

The great thing about New York is actually how food and restaurants are actually close to where movie stars live. And one of the most famous movie stars that live near a restaurant is called The Spotted Pig.

Highly recommended by my foodie idol Anthony Bourdain, I had to drag my sister Carrie along, and of course its 2 blocks after Magnolia Bakery, so it was along the way of good food!

We were told to go early because the restaurant doesn't take reservations and it is a first come first served basis. We had a smooth jog there to the train station and when we reached, we found out that the restaurant is really small but very popular!

The Spotted Pig is a 3 level restaurant and bar and I have to say everything was incredibly small. I didn't want to order any head cheese (brains) but we did order the following:

Crispy Fried Pig Ears with radicchio cabbage and lemon

Jerusalem Artichoke Salad

Legendary Spotted Pig Burger with the Famous String Fries

Prosciutto Fritters with Spinach Filling

Spotted Pig's very own self Braised Corned Beef with Cabbage and carrots with a side of horseradish

The pig ears was fantastic, artichoke salad was good, string fries were lovely but the fritters we all agreed was a misnomer because we didn't taste no prosciutto. The corned beef was excellent but a tad too salty/briny for our liking. We washed it down with a bottle of Spain's great football player Albarino, and the service was decent.

I would recommend nearly everybody to come here and try the food, its an experience. nearly everybody except for vegetarians.

Magnolia Bakery

Magnolia Bakery is made popular by Sex in the City and sure enough, my sister Carrie (named after the main character from the populous TV show because my parents actually watch that show) wanted to go and have a try, we walked about 10 miles from the nearest train station and we finally found the place.

Unfortunately for all the hype, the pastry portion for the cup cake was too dry and the icing was too sweet. The cake looked pretty but verdict remains the same as the cup cake.

In the spirit of March Madness - the verdict is Over-rated.

Seattle - Random Food Related Pics

Some Random Pics from my short food tour:

Pike's Place Market - a tourist trap I tell you! And you might get hit by a fish thrown in your face! But a great place to eat all things Seattle. And the produce looked beautiful!

A cheap bottle of Semi Sweet Hungarian Pinot Noir bought and tasted from Whole Foods for $10!

Pizzas were from Pagliacci Pizza, ordered one night when the 4 of us were not very hungry.

Seattle - Seafood Edition

Reese and Joaquin decided to take us on some local Seattle seafood fare. Instead of going to another fancy schmancy restaurant, we decided to try some messy seafood grub.

We throttled to The Crab Pot down by pier for some crab legs, shrimp, oysters and clam chowder, its the kind of place where the restaurant gives you a bib, a hammer and let you have at it with the seafood, and I have to say the outcome was a messy but satisfying one!

Seattle - Wine Edition

While in Seattle, drink what the Seattle knights drink. And one of the great Pinot Noir of the great state of Oregon, as well as the United States, Domaine Serene!

Jammy, sweet tannins and a medium finish, I highly recommend this Pinot Noir, if you can find it! Good with most red meats and appe-teasers.

Seattle - Breakfast Edition

So Reese decides to bring us to breakfast before we leave for the eastern portion of the tour of the United States!

We head to Brown Bag Cafe and you know what. What a send off !! The plate of the day was the French Toast Cinnamon Roll, so imagine a Cinnamon roll with one side of the roll placed in French Toast batter and fried!

And I ordered the hash brown and eggs, and I swear that there was almost 3 russet potatoes on my plate.

And bacon, bacon? The girth was almost the size of 5 pieces of bacon. It was that much.

And the size of the english muffins were the size of my palm!

I love American breakfasts!

Seattle - Doughnut Edition, Part 00

Another reason why we went to Seattle was the doughnuts!

Top Pot hand forged doughnuts is one of the most highly recommended doughnuts by Reese and Joaquin and guess what? They're right! Doughnuts were excellent! They're so bad for you that its so good! Right amount of "cake-iness," and never too sweet. So big but not big enough!

Another place was the doughnut place at Pike's Place Market. The Daily Dozen Doughnut Company was excellent for different reasons! Their small little cinnamon sugar doughnuts were something to die for!

And can I just say that the Singapore doughnuts absolutely suck!

Thank you.

The Voluptuary - Seattle Style!!! Part Deux

So for something different: the mrs and I are on a short holiday and 2 hours after we've landed in Seattle in the great Pacfic NorthWest, our friend Reese picked us up from the Tacoma International Airport and drove us down to Pionner Square to have some SALUMI!

Salumi is one of the very reasons why I wanted to go Seattle in the first place (sorry Reese & Joaquin!!) and I had to insist to everybody why we had to go there first because we land in Seattle on a Friday and the store is closed on the weekends, and we leave Seattle on Tuesday and I had to be in San Francisco on Monday!

So there we were, 2 hours after that long flight from Singapore, lining up to eat some great cured meats. What a life eh?

I would highly recommend the store and do order the meats. DELICIOUS!

Fifty Three

53 has replaced my favorite numbers of 7, 10, 19, 5 and other numbers that has some or no sexual reference. Like a ballerina swirling on my taste buds, I come to my readers a happy man.

Long have I been tortured by the mediocrity and the over priced nonsense I have been made to force feed myself to eat but all thanks for Jigga Man and B (What Up?), I was uplifted ironically during Valentine's Day. We went together for a non celebratory lunch at Fifty Three; and I was impressed.

The food was delicate, unusual, beautiful and sometimes weird (imagine the first time you ever see Salma Hayek), but the overall dining experience was one that I felt was something to talk about. We had the lunch menu and its not a typical restaurant where the stretch themselves to infinity, while making lots of dishes but specializing in none. 53 has 3 choices for appetizer, entree and dessert and that was it. I for one am not too comfortable with fine dining and the hyperbole used to describe those food items but I was rather blown away by what we ordered.

We ordered a various combination of food but in general as a table, we ordered (in order of the pictures) the following:

- Sirloin with 3 textured potatoes
- Roasted Figs with Sweet Olives
- Fillet of Fish with a piece of fried baguette
- Chicken with parsnips

Each dish was lovely on it own. Each a surprise and wonder in the mouth and I would like to say now that I would go back again before they increase their prices!

Tucked in a corner of Armenian Street, across from Singapore Management University. The owners of this restaurant have found that quality is not in quantity but the service, dedication and the honing of their culinary skills are virtues that their customers would admire.

We sat on the 2nd level of the shop house and I have to say that for such a great restaurant, having only 6 tables on that level shows why people should go back. 6 tables not because they won't have enough customers, 6 tables because the quality of the food is such that only you can replicate it, so many times.

Lunch was a steal. $45 +++ per person. Dinner is more expensive at $190 +++ per person. Their wine list, which in my opinion looks like one of the better ones in Singapore (You can't get a Parker Rated 98, Leoville Poyferre 2003 for $120 for half a bottle anywhere in Singapore)

Advise: Go before it gets too popular.

Aston's Prime

I have decided to drop some knowledge on my reader (Hi Mum!) today. Are you ready?

Astons Specialities : Is a well known local "western food," (how Singaporean term steaks, burgers fries and everything else they can't explain in a culinary sense) joint that I have, because of Pampadam Pam begun to fall in love with. Its my secret way of being in touch with my "Singaporean esque," cravings and my sometimes irreverent choices for food.

Transit of Property: Is a term that can be best explained by using the example of if x is as good as y, and y isn't as good as z therefore z is better than x. So because something is a part of another, it does not mean that it is the same.

Aston's Prime: Out of my desire to continually torture my wife with bad food, I dragged her by her hair to Aston's Prime for a quick Sunday lunch and to my surprise, or not. It was terrible. The medium rare burger I ordered turned out rare (I also didn't want the "mushroom sauce," on the burger which was understood by the server to put nothing else on the burger but a slice of cheese) and even though we were the only 2 people in the restaurant, service was non existent. The baramundi the wife ordered was fishy and the crab cake, which I believe to be from a box, was probably the only decent thing I had.

What have we learnt here today kids?

Just because Aston's Prime is from the popular chain Aston's Specialities, it doesn't mean that it serves good food.

This blog entry has been sponsored by the letters:

S, U, C and K.

Kuriya

I have blogged countless of times about the bad Japanese food situation in Singapore but I have to say that lately, I have been impressed with a chain that I have never tried until recently.

Kuriya Restaurant at Shaw Center is a place worth going. Its right up there with the "middle class," of Japanese food in Singapore. Not quite top end like Shiraishi at the Ritz, and not disgusting like Genki Sushi has become. Its what the experts call, "The Soft Spot."

With only 4 restaurants, I don't think Kuriya can be considered a chain but I just think that we share similar values. The food quality is high. Fish is fresh. They don't do alot of things like the typical Japanese fare but the few things that they do, they do it right. And I think its not ridiculous if each time you go into a restaurant, you expect good food. Fresh food. Tasty foods.

Kuriya @ Shaw Centre Shaw Centre #05-011 Scotts Road. Tel: 6735 5300Lunch: 11.30am - 2.30pm (Last Order: 2.00pm)Dinner: 6.00pm - 10.30pm (Last Order: 10.00pm)

There are several stores but I do recommend the one at Shaw Center. Its relatively quiet.

I have read differentiating opinions about this place but 2 out of 2 Doctors I know, recommend this place. So I don't think its that bad.

Kuriya. Its worth a punt.

Mimolette Restaurant

Mimolette restaurant had been the bane of my existence. I have had never been to the restaurant before and I have heard mixed reviews about how good or bad the restaurant is. To challenge myself, I decided to give it a go. Tucked in the midst of a turf club where little unicorns ride up and down the borough with ring wraiths and Lord Voldermort apparently lives in the neighborhood, the Gohs, the missus and I decided to put our lives at risk one more time, but this time did we risk too much?

Standing like the Imperial guards securing the perimeter of the Sith Lord in Star Wars, the servers stood and welcomed us. And like the Phantom Menace, the food like the movie was atrociously average. I don't understand how George Lucas continuously gets aways with making such bad movies but he does. So why in the world does Mimolette serve such atrociously average fare that really is befuddling.

A Waldorf salad with countable (less than a handful) amount of cashews was $26 a plate. My desert of apple pie was not even Luke Skywalker warm. The orders of duck confit, sea bass and (Geez, I can't even remember what I ordered because it was that forgettable but lets call it chewey) chewey was bland. The total meal cost $250 and I don't understand why Singaporeans continue to pay their valuable alliance credit, to such terrible restaurants is way beyond me.

The only saving grace to this restaurant is that if you really want to impress somebody and bring them to a corner of Singapore that is very unlike Singapore (think Death Star), and thank goodness for the company in the Millennium Falcon (think cool droids with crazy bounty hunter, a walking carpet and a death wish), the restaurant might be worth going. The furnishings make the restaurant look awesome too.

Just too bad, I can't taste the furniture.

Boba Fett Out.

Got Ice?

You can tell Zhi really really wants to eat carrots today.



The recent snow storm helps Zhi with her luke warm juice box situation.

Stop Eating Frogs!!!

Because we're endangering them! At least so says this report!

I had my last Kermit over a year ago, and it was gooooood. Soaked in Chicken Essence and steamed while tied with stripped spring onion. Good times.

That Kermit is quite a looker ain't it?

Ember

"Ember is the colour of your energy." Cheesy? I know. Food? It was actually quite good but for some reason, I wasn't too impressed with it.

The things that I loved about the restaurant:

1. Small restaurant atmosphere
2. Great wine list
3. Friendly service
4. Interesting Menu
5. Good Desserts

Things I didn't like about the restaurant:

1. Food portions were small
2. Friendly but pushy service
3. Menu was too short
4. Not enough specials
5. I could have whatever I had some where else.

Don't get me wrong. I like the place. The problem I had was like a jilted lover, I wanted to love the place but realized that I was too good for the restaurant. Get what I mean? I had a great time at the restaurant even though I went there in a bad mood but something wasn't right. Something in that mediocrity didn't cry out "Come back to the restaurant again!" What it did tell me was "I'm good, and I like where I am."

But don't take my word on this. Go and try it yourself. I would recommend it to most people. But not to myself.