[Media Invite] Fifth Season Tangra Chinese Restaurant @ 28 Race Course Road

It has been quite a while since I last visited Race Course Road. Last visit was mainly for naan's or curry fish head. However, little did I realise that there is an interesting place located there as well called Fifth Season Tangra Chinese Restaurant. An Indian restaurant serving up Chinese fare. Excited to try!

order via iPad

We started with soups; Hot n Sour Chicken Soup, Thukpa Chicken Soup and Manchow Chicken Soup. Portions are good for two to share. My favourite was the Hot n Sour Chicken Soup. Tasty and spicy.

Hot n Sour Chicken Soup @$9.80++

The Tibetan Thukpa Chicken Soup was tangy and refreshing with lots of vege while the Manchow Chicken Soup was comfortingly familar.

Tibetan Thukpa Chicken Soup @$9.80++

Manchow Chicken Soup @$9.80++

One of the items in the menu that caught my interest was the momo. Momo's are basically dumplings stuffed with either vegetables or minced chicken meat. One can have it deep fried or steamed.

Pan-fried Chicken Momo Spicy Plate (5 pcs) @$12++

Steamed Chicken Momo (5 pcs) @$10.90++

The spicy momo was tasty and the spice level was awakening but it doesn't linger. Liked the steamed momo more as it resembled a bit like a chicken xiao long bao.

The restaurant offers a wide range of sauces that will cater to most tastebuds. Go from  Parsley, Oyster, Mustard, Mild Garlic, Manchurian, Sweet Garlic, Sweet and Sour, Chili Soya, Hot Garlic and Szechwan.

Crispy Chili Baby Corn @$14.20++

Fish Kasundi @$16.90++

All the mains at Fifth Season are strongly flavoured and suitable to have it with rice. The Fish Kasundi has the pickled mustard sauce flavour and this was one taste that you either love it or leave it.

Coriander Chili Chicken @$15.20++

The dish that Purple Taste would recommend is the Corander Chili Chicken. The taste was just superb. Lovely flavours, and good juicy chicken texture. Couldn't get enough of this.

Corn Curd Balls in Pickled Szechwan (Semi Gravy) @$14.20++

The corn curd was interesting. It was almost like a corn tofu but firmer. Loved the fragrance of corn in this. The restaurant charges a dollar for each bottled water and they serve drinks like lassi, soft drinks and alcoholic beverages too. The mango lassi was good. Thick and sweet. So appetising!

Mango Lassi @$6.90++

Next up, let's have some carbs. Usually, one would order either a rice or noodles. At Fifth Season, you could have both in one order. For example, the Chow Chow Rice which is a mix of hakka noodles and fried rice with vegetables, egg and spiced with black pepper.

Chow Chow Rice @$13.10

Have you heard of American Chop Suey? It is vegetables in sweet and sour sauce, with a fried egg and topped with crispy muruku. Ecletic, yes.

American Chopsuey @$15.30++

Another favourite dish of mine that night, was the chili prawns. So good. Prawns were of a good size and firm. The sauce would go well with rice.

Chili Prawn Soya @$18.90++

The recommendation would be to come in a small group to try out perhaps just one or two sauces and the momos.

Of course, do try the dessert as the restaurant has some that are not so commonly found. A party of 5 pax could try about 3 to 4 desserts. Thankfully, the sweetness level was manageable.

Rossomalai @$8.90++

Mishti Doi @$6.90++

The Rossomalai is a type of Bengali dessert which has cottage cheese balls, in thickened flavoured milk and pistachio. The texture was a tad spongy and easy to eat. I adored the Mishti Doi, a dessert of caramelized yoghurt. The smooth yoghurt flavour served cold, was good. The last special dessert, baked Sondesh was seasonal and of limited edition. It was made of fresh cheese, dates, jaggery and has a grainy texture. Quite lovely and sweet without added sugar.

special dessert - baked Sondesh

The Fifth Season Tangra Chinese Restaurant has a seating capacity of about 70-pax and they are on major delivery platforms too. The peak timing for the restaurant during dinner is after 730pm.

Thank you Fifth Season for hosting the tasting and HGW for the invite.

[Media Invite] nALAn Restaurant @ Capitol Piazza

nALAn Restaurant is located at B2 of Capitol Piazza and serves purely vegetarian food. Its menu has the usual northern and southern Indian dishes, a sprinkle of Desi Chinese dishes and a few western-influenced items. The restaurant is spacious and could easily accommodate a cosy 2-pax party or larger groups of say 10 to 16 pax.

menu

interior

Have always wanted to try lassi, a popular drink that is  blend of yoghurt, water and spices. The adventurous one took the butter milk lassi (white), the semi-adventurous one took the badam milk lassi while the safe-ones chose mango lassi. The butter milk was watery, has cardamom in it and most sour amongst the three while mango lassi was the sweetest. Am most delighted with mango lassi!

butter milk @$3, badam milk @$5 and mango lassi @$5

For our meal, we started with western-styled cream of mushroom soup. The soup came with a rather peppery taste. So hold on to the pepper and salt shakers till you've tasted it.

cream of mushroom soup @$7

If you are in a group of say 6 to 8 pax, then you might want to order the Tandoori Platter for sharing. It was an interesting plate with an assortment of kebabs; paneer tikka, hara bara kebab, vegetable sheek kebab, button mushrooms and cauliflower. Loved the hara bara kebab which is essentially made of green vegetables such as spinach and peas. Crunchy flavours of onions on its outer batter and fragrance of green peas on its insides. Lovely.

Tandoori Platter @$25

there's vegetables in my kebab

The Daaba Salad was rather spicy and it contains mostly raw vegetables such as carrots, onions, and capsicum. Beware of the chopped bird's eye chilies in it.
 

Daaba Salad @$6

Gobi Manchurian @$13

My favourite was the Gobi Manchurian, an addictive dish of fried cauliflower where its sauteed with garlic, ginger, chilies, onions, capsicum, soy sauce and ketchup and decorated with chopped spring onions. Yummy.

Our main course consists of butter and garlic naans, chappati, rumali roti and kashmiri bread. The accompaniment were communal dining portions of aloo palak, dal makhani, mushroom mutter methi and kadai paneer.

main course

naan @$4.50 per piece

Dal Makhani @$11

Jeera (cumin) Rice @$8

Would like to recommend Jeera (cumin) rice with Mushroom Mutter Methi. These two should win an award for best partner/combination. The ingredients in the mushroom mutter methi are ginger, onions, corriander powder, turmeric, paprika, cayenne, black pepper, tomato puree, cardamom, black pepper, green peas, dried fenugreek leaves and coconut cream. The result was simply creamy tasty magic!

Mushroom Mutter Methi @$13

But best bread has to be Rumali Roti. How is it that I've not discovered this flatbread till now! If you unfold it, it is really a large large piece of thin (almost paper thin) dough. Non-oily and light to taste. Eat it with a pinch of this and that, and chew. The flavours were just so agreeable.

Rumali Roti @$4.50

For a healthier choice, then that'll be chappati. Made of ground whole wheat and contains complex carbs and low in fat content.

For dessert, one could end with the sweet Kashmiri Naan. This flatbread has cashews, badam and glazed cherries.

Kashmiri Naan @$7.70

Otherwise, one could opt for the traditional Indian desserts of gulab jamun and carrot halwa. Do note that these are very very sweet! Take small small bites and savour. The carrot halwa has a strong milky aroma and garnished with pistachio.

Gulab Jamun @$4.50

Carrot Halwa गाजर का हलवा @$5.50

Thank you HGW for the invite and nALAn Restaurant for hosting the dinner. It was fun learning the names of the dishes and its ingredients.

[Media Invite] Apolo Bistro @ Little India Arcade

Am sure you must know The Banana Leaf Apolo Restaurant at Race Course Road, and for the older generations, am assuming that the there's a high chance that you have tried the fish head curry from Banana Leaf? For the young-ones, no worries. Banana Leaf Apolo has been around since 1974 (older than me!) and is no stranger to the Indian food scene in Singapore. But we may not be aware that there is an Apolo Bistro that was just opened in April 2016.

Little India Arcade is about 12 minutes walk from Little India Station. From Rochor Station, it seemed nearer and just about half the time. That is, if you had gone the right way. For some of us, we went one whole big round and ended up spending as much time to both directions. But that's how life is. Some would have taken the short and straight path while some might have taken one big detour but ended up in the same destination.

bistro signage

Apolo Bistro offers a modern and fuss-free comfortable dining space with ample choices for drinks (alcohol and non-alcoholic) and a wide variety of cuisine that was reinterpreted by their native chefs. Besides ala-carte, they do lunch buffet as well and for just $19.90 nett per pax. Buffet menu goes through major change once every month and the items on the menu changes on a daily basis.

current promo

lunch buffet menu for August 2016

Walk up the stairs as the bistro is at Level 2 and turn left. There is a big basin in front of its entrance. Inside, there is one main hall for dining, an alfresco area allowing diners a view of the streets and a quieter area to enjoy pre and post dinner drinks.

indoor seats

alfresco seats overlooking the street

pre and post dinner drinks area

A quick peruse of its menu revealed a pretty ecletic ensemble. To start, would you like to have some Chicken Long Fung Soup or Avocado Crab Soup? Some examples for main course include Red Thai Curry with Pineapple rice, Tandoori Platter and Honey Lemon Chicken with egg. They've got noodles too. Like Teochew Seafood Mee Goreng. Now, tell me that aint fusion. Expectantly, the House favourites are still the Fish Head Curry, Masala Chicken and Mysore Mutton.

menu in a tablet

Chicken Long Fung Soup has gotten me pretty curious. Googled and here is what it says about Long Fung Soup (龍鳳湯):

Lung fung soup (龍鳳湯; pinyin: lóng fèng tāng), or Dragon phoenix soup, is a thick seafood or gou rou soup made with lemon, chili peppers, chicken, snake, and Chinese vegetables.

Wait...rewind. Double-take and rub eyes. Yes, it said 'snake'. The 龍 (dragon) refers to the snake while 鳳 refers to the chicken. Not sure whether the version here uses two of the ingredients or just one. Should have ordered the soup! Hahaha. So excited to see such curious stuffs on the menu.

 Let's see what we tried from Apolo Bistro. We got four items (out of 6) from the starters menu; Turkey Bacon wrapped Prawns, Smoked Duck on Garlic Toast, Deep-fried Devil's Eggs and Buffalo Wings.

Deep Fried Devil's Eggs @ $8++

Turkey Bacon wrapped Prawns @$14.90++

The Devil's eggs (devilled eggs) refers to stuffed eggs where it is basically hard boiled egg with its yolk taken out, seasoned and mixed with mayo, mustard etc. The version here uses a smaller sized eggs, so it was an easy to eat in one bite. Mild tasting and bouncy texture.

Enjoyed the spice marinade in the prawns and Chef revealed that the prawns were marinated with spices first before wrapping it up with turkey bacon and deep fried till turkey bacon turned crisp.

Smoked Duck on Garlic Toast @$12++

Bite into crunchy airy toast but unfortunately, it didn't have much garlic taste. The Smoked Duck on Garlic Toast looked pretty.

Buffalo Wings 1/2 dozen @$15.90++

For about the same price as the prawn starters, one could get the buffalo wings. Meaty and marinated in secret spices, this was a new interpretation of buffalo wings marinade. Good with a beer. Happy Hour till 6pm where house draft (Heineken and Tiger) are on 1-for-1.

For mains, there are Red Thai Curry with Pineapple Rice and Green Curry with Basil Rice. Must say that this dish was rather photegenic. The white rice was served in a pineapple so extra points for presentation effort. Liked the achar served.

Red Thai Curry with Pineapple Rice @$16.90++

The Green Curry on the other hand...was rather concerned with the shade of green in its curry. It was also unfortunately heavily salted. Has an intense coconut milk lemakness to it. The rice tasted of just normal basmati rice.

Apolo's resident Chef has worked in Bangkok prior and hence, the Thai-influenced items in the menu.

Green Curry with Basil Rice@$15.90++

Next, we ordered items that Apolo excels at. Fish Head curry, Palak Paneer, Rogan Josh, Yellow Daal and naans.

favourites

The Fish Head Curry (small) was actually large enough to feed an army. Ok, kidding. It feeds 4-5 pax. The curry was tangy and whets the appetite. Spice level was probably just 2 out of 5. Fish head was good and fresh. Yums!

Fish Head Curry (S) @$22++

Next, the tandoori chicken. The full portion has about 8 pieces of chicken to it. Found the flavours a tad too mild though.

Tandoori Chicken @$20++

If you like chewy naans, then the version here would suit your taste. Quite QQ in my opinion. Ate my naans with the trio of Rogan Josh (not spicy), yellow daal (@$8++) and palak paneer (@$10++). The Rogan Josh was surprisingly not spicy.

garlic naan @$3.50++ per piece (plain naan @$3 per piece) (pictured 2 pieces portion)

Rogan Josh (@$15++)

Oh, how about desserts? Yes, we did try some. Traditional Indian sweets as well as the usual bistro fare. The chocolate fondant tasted of the usual. Rasmalai was a tad too interesting for me. Wiki'ed it up and discovered that the yellow curd/cheese looking like flat balls is believed to have originated from West Bengal. The head Chef at Apolo Bistro is from Bangalore. Perhaps, a homage to his hometown?

Chocolate Fondant @$8++

Rasmalai @$6++

In Hindi, ras means juice and malai means cream. Indeed this flattened yellow balls are juicy and has cottage-like kinda spongy creamy. But, it is an acquired taste. Sorry, but this one is not for me.

Now, kulfi is quite lovely. Nicely cold and sweet but not overly sweet. However, the mango taste eluded me in this mango kulfi.

Mango Kulfi @$6++

Apolo Bistro offers not just Indian food but there is something for everyone. You'd like a Yamazaki whisky or some wine with the fragrantly spiced food? Not a problem, the option is available.

Thank you Apolo Bistro for hosting the dinner and HGW for the invite. Glad to know that there is such a cosy place where one could enjoy a wide variety of options in food and drinks menu.