Morganfield's Ribfest 2013 @ The Star Vista

Located at Level 2 of Star Vista, next to Buona Vista MRT. This place is known for its Sticky Bones aka ribs! Only lunched there once, and was pleasantly surprised to be invited to Morganfield's Singapore 1st Birthday Party, Ribfest 2013. Can't wait to sink my teeth into 'em sticky bones! WoOhoO!~

Happy 1st Birthday Morganfield's Singapore!

Story of Morganfield's

ticket to delicious food, boisterous crowds and music!

Sticky Bones board

The interior of the restaurant have an American wild wild west kind of feel. Just the right ambiance to chug down a mug of beer while tearing the meat off a rack of ribs *grrowwl*

Alas, in reality, the welcome drink was a whole lot tamer. Sweet, citrussy and fizzy. Refreshing after a long day at work.

tasted kid-friendly

Guests were quickly ushered to their table while waiting for the event to start. The table setup includes an apron-bib for diners to wear. You wouldn't want hickory bbq sauce on that white shirt, do you?

it's gonna get messy!

psst, a secret compartment?

Morganfield's has arranged for live music that night. Powerful vocals to bring the house down, yeah!

getting rapt attention

And so, the stage was set...all that's missing? Food! So, let the feast begin! Started off with a salad. Light and gave off a healthy feel. Variety of stuffs in that bowl. Greens, cherry tomatoes, corn, chickpeas, beans...never be bored with just one taste.

ample greens

Then, the meats arrived. Chicken, fish and grilled sweet corn.

two baby chickens, sweet corn and fish

closer view of barramundi

Barramundi's texture would probably be considered 'harsh' as compared to cod. Not the delicately sweet and smooth texture, but yet has its own merits.

What was my favourite on this platter? Why, the grilled baby chickens of course. *licks lips* Hahaha, ok. That sounded a bit wrong! But the chicken was seriously tender, maybe just barely cooked. Didn't even mind eating the breast meat. But why have white meat when one can have drumsticks. Muahahaa!!
When queried on what seasoning were used. The reply was "Some secret rub..." Okaay...

juicy chicky, flavoured by special rub

best way to eat (credit to Rong Ge for lending his hands. Literally.)

Don't worry about fork and knife. Best way to enjoy the food. Use hands. Clean ones, of course.

sweet corn

How about some happy juice? Sure, let's bring out the wine. One white to go with poultry dish. Good life.

a glass of white, please

fruity, slight acidity, smooth

The party was going on great. Ample food, free-flow of drinks, boisterous crowd, live music but it was about to get even better! The unveiling of 'Mega Rib', touted as the biggest rack of BBQ pork ribs in Singapore! Whoa, this we gotta see!

Mega Rib ~ 2.5kg of a monster pork ribs!

5 flavours of Sticky Bones, united in Mega Rib

Not a trivial feat. To be able to cook that humongous slab of ribs evenly, as well as ensuring that the differing flavours came out as intended. Kudos to the chefs!

The 5 flavours were hickory bbq, garlic bbq, smoked peppercorn, tuscan baked spicy and honey rum! Sounds like a good platter to have for parties! One-shot try all! Unfortunately, Ms Chui May Yee (Marketing Manager of Morganfield's Singapore) revealed that Mega Rib will not be available on a day-to-day basis as the huge slab of ribs needed to be pre-ordered in advance.

a single bone, covering the diameter of the plate

The Sticky Bones BBQ Pork Ribs were well-cooked, generously coated with tasty sauce and basically, a dream come true for meat lovers. Some parts were more charred and gave more bite than others, while some remained tender and moist. Fatty bits were fun to eat too!

Sauce-wise, had always thought that the original Hickory BBQ was something that I'd stay true to. But Garlic BBQ managed to sway that preference. And, after munching through all those BBQ flavours, the Tuscan sauce with its tangy spicy tomato was like an oasis in the desert. So, the choice is yours!

While the meat was all good, the corn muffin was very likeable too. A tad too sweet (a quarter of a notch down on the sugar would be good!) but I'd eat this even if too full from all the meat.

sweet sweet muffin

browned crust, soft moist golden hued corn muffin

As the night drew on, it was time for one final speech.

Mr Kevin Chung, Managing Director of Morganfield's Singapore, thanking the crowd for their support

Happy Birthday, Morganfield's and birthday girls~

all smiles

Congratulations to Morganfield's Singapore on its 1st Birthday! For people who thinks Star Vista is a bit too far to travel to, fret not. Watch out for Morganfield's nearer to town, come next year in 2014.

Thank you to May Yee and Kevin for the invite and for your gracious hospitality. And not forgetting Morganfield's friendly service crew that took care of us that night. Cheers!

Was great sharing a table with the sporting Rong Ge and wife, and pretty Gin from Ginevi. Thanks for being such good company!

sweet endings, honey rum dessert, on limited time promo

Morganfield's

Location:    1 Vista Exchange Green, Unit #02-23, The Star Vista, Singapore 138617
Telephone:  66943635
Fax:            66943651
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MorganfieldsSingapore

Sū Korean Cuisine (千秀) @ Far East Plaza (Part 2)

Located at Level 1 of Far East Plaza, somewhere near the corner. Have always thought that this level was basement since we needed to walk down the stairs from road level.

Haven't visited for quite a while (maybe two years), and everything still looks the same. Noticeable difference was the inclusion of buffet option, and of course, a brand new service crew.

menu

just need to add water to expand

While waiting for one of our friend to arrive, two of us decided to have seafood pancake and some apple soju to stave off the hunger pangs.

apple soju 500ml (@$19++)

The apple soju tasted probably of 97% apple juice and 3% soju.

seafood pancake (@$15++)

Didn't like the seafood pancake. Had better ones elsewhere.

refillable banchans (complimentary side dishes)

kimchi

pancake

beansprouts

non crispy anchovies

fishcake strips

It was actually quite filling, by the time we were half-done with the pancakes and had a round of the banchans.

Set meal for two consist of a soup, two plates of meat for BBQ, 2 plain rice and 2 lime juice. Customers can change up to two items in this set. For us, we changed the default kimchi soup to spicy seafood soup.

grill on

Diners can opt for service staff to grill the meat or DIY. We chose the latter. More fun!

pork and beef

Two strips of pork and two smaller strips of beef. The beef was really good! Tender and well marinated. Only managed to have one piece since my friends walloped the rest!

spicy seafood soup

clams, prawns, tofu, egg and radish (probably)

The soup wasn't that spicy though.

watermelon hearts

The meal costs around $35 per pax. Service staff was efficient. If not wrong, the dinner buffet is also about $35++ per pax. Hmm, maybe buffet might be a better choice if one wants more meat!

Geylang Lor 9 Fresh Frog Porridge (芽笼九巷活田鸡) @ Geylang

It's been a decade (or more) since I last ate in Geylang. Kid you not. So, it was with some anticipation when friend suggested a trip there to eat porridge. Yay!

bright red signboard

The road was super busy, with cars turning round and round in search of a parking lot. Pedestrians dashing out of the road or strolling at a snail pace without care...probably everyday occurrences there.

The signboard definitely wasn't like that, way back in the 'olden days'. Yes...am ancient btw. Could still remember the beef hor fun from across the road. Beef hor fun was't good looking but super tender and very yummy black peppery beef. But frog's porridge...can't really recall how it tasted like back then.

orh luak (oyster omelette)

Actually, don't know if its 'orh jian' or 'orh luak' but it's panfried oyster omelette flour (@$5, I think). This was a rather tasty plate. The bits of well-fried flour has some heat in it (chili?), and a certain fragrant ingredient. Perhaps, dried shrimp or something. But the oysters were limited edition. Few and scarce.

pre-packed drink of lime juice with sour plum

Done with appetisers, and the main course came after a 20 minutes wait.

spicy fresh frog legs (3 pieces)

plain porridge

The porridge has quite a thick consistency but thankfully, it wasn't clumpy. The frog legs cooked in dried chili sauce goes very well with the hot porridge. Definitely need to drizzle the sauce onto the porridge for oomph! The meat was sweet but very bony as well. Shioks. Porridge and the frog legs costs $25.

comfort food

Hamanoya @ Marina Square

Located at Level 2 of Marina Square, at the section also known as 'The Dining Edition'. Walked in on a Saturday afternoon for a late lunch, and the place was pretty empty. This restaurant offers robatayaki cuisine (炉端焼き). But its setup was non-traditional, in the sense that one does not sit around the grill area.

robata at the far end

window seats..sort of

The place has bento sets as well as ala-carte items. Friend had a yakitori rice bowl (@$12.99++) and we shared two ala-carte items; Ayu fish (@$14.99++) and Beef Tataki (@$14.99++).

Hamanoya menus

Hot japanese tea was served in a small little nice pot, but it came with a price tag.

hot japanese tea (@$3.99++)

iced green tea (@$1.99++)

First plate to arrive, the Gyu Tataki (たたき). According to wiki, tataki means 'pounded', or 'hit into pieces'. Slices of beef briefly seared. Beef was lean, and the flavour actually came from the dabs of brownish paste (was it miso?). The bell peppers were rather sweet but everything was cold. Not something that I'd order again.

beef tataki

eating up the greens

Friend's yakitori (焼き鳥) don came next, and it looked quite appealing.

yakitori rice bowl, served with miso soup and pickles

tsukune, chicken meat with leek and tebasaki

Portion was not very big, so guys might find this bowl too little for them. The skinny tebasaki was nice with charred flavour but the chicken with leek was a little tough.

Ayu fish (年魚) was the last to arrive. It required at least 15 to 20 minutes of preparation time. A tiny expensive fish, and one that I had wanted to try, ever since it was shown over at Japan Hour years ago (and it didn't look so tiny then!). Ayu fish is also known as sweetfish.

Ayu fish

sweet cottony flesh

Any fish that's done over the charcoal grill and sprinkled with salt, equates to just one word...yums. The fish was presented whole, and with all its intestinal stuffs intact. Asked the service staff, and he confirmed that it was intentionally served that way. So, when eating, you may want to avoid the bitter stuffs.