Saturday, February 18, 2012

The House of Robert Timms @ Wheelock Place Part II

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Revisited again on a Thursday night for a post-dinner coffee and some dessert. The place was still lively even though it was already past 10pm.

coffee menu and cakes on display

Ordered the sticky date pudding, one hazelnut latte and a piccolo latte.

sticky date pudding
closer view

Our order of sticky date pudding came pretty fast. It was served warm and with vanilla ice-cream that has a sprinkling of raisins. The warm and soft texture of the cake was nice. More sauce would be nicer too. The ice-cream was a tad too sweet for me.



cute bunny in my cup of piccolo latte

According to Wiki, piccolo latte is also known as caffe macchiato or 'espresso stained with milk'. It's a small small cup. Tasted thick, milky and slightly bitter. Had a taste of the hazelnut latte and it was really fragrant and very milky.


can you bear to drink this? heh heh

Total costs was about $26.

Friday, February 17, 2012

Yakitori Enmaru 焼鳥 炎丸 @ ION Orchard

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Located at Level 4 of ION Orchard. Went on a weekday evening before 8pm and there wasn't as much of a crowd. Mostly walk-in customers.

shopfront

There are two small boards outside that shows the Happy Hour offerings; with $5 Tiger beer from 5pm-7pm, and selected shochu at $5 per glass from till 5pm - 8pm. What's an izakaya without a drink or two right? Happy hours like these made it all sweeter.

interior
menu

Once seated, an order for shochu (can't resist a good offer!) was quickly placed, and upon recommendation from the friendly and helpful service crew, we had the Tomino Hozan (Imo), a sweet potato shochu served on the rocks (or can opt for with soda).

Tomino Hozan, on the rocks

The Tomino from Kagoshima prefecture has a well-rounded light and clear taste, with a tingle of sweetness. Smooth on the tongue. High on alcohol content at 25%. Wheeee~

Otoshi (appetizer) is served here, free of charge. It's a simple dish of raw cabbage and a spoonful of miso paste. Crunchy vege with natural sweetness made tastier by the miso.

otoshi

Ordered the Ibushi Yaki, a shop specialty. Small pieces of chicken meat grilled, licked and smoked by high flames. The open kitchen allows customers to catch glimpse of charged up fire sizzling the meat whenever this order is prepared. Served on a hotplate with cabbages and with a small dash (on a separate small dish) of grated wasabi mixed with radish (wasn't really paying attention when the service crew was describing it) but it was pretty salty.

Ibushi Yaki (sorry for the messed up picture, was trying not to get the camera melted by the intense heat)
close-up view of Ibushi Yaki and cooked cabbage

It's somewhat different from expectation (in terms of appearance and taste) but still liked its smokiness and was pretty juicy and tasty too. Perhaps, it's the idea of how it was cooked that gave it its novelty.

One thing about this place is that when a skewered item is ordered, it must be in pairs. Meaning, if you want to eat buta bara, it must be ordered as 2 sticks. "So how if you're eating alone?" My friend asked. Hmm...I guess eat two of the same thing? Or order the 5 kinds yakitori and you'll get 5 different types of skewered items which changes on a daily basis. Do ask the friendly service crew if you'd like.

The person who took our order (a young helpful chap) was really patient and can rattle off recommendations should you need any. We ordered wagyu harami (beef outside skirt, one done rare and the other stick done medium), shishito (Japanese variety of capsicum that looks like peppers), tsukune oroshi (chicken balls), and buta bara (pork belly).

shishito, high in vitamin C
buta bara
wagyu harami (medium)
wagyu harami (rare)
closer view of wagyu harami (done rare)

The shishito tasted natural (think it was unsalted, though not sure if that's intentional or not), and it's like a distant cousin of capsicum but definitely can taste the resemblance of flavour.

Buta bara (pork belly) was really quite lean and gives a chewy bite. The wagyu harami was tender for both doneness but I liked it rare. It was considerably light flavoured as well. Less salt is good.

tsukune oroshi (chicken meatballs with grated radish)

The tsukune or chicken meatballs were good. Tasty. Actually this dish and the ibushi yaki gets the vote of being the more stronger tasting items out of all the items that we ordered.

Total bill came up to around $65 for 2 pax.

Saturday, February 11, 2012

Lai Lai Casual Dining @ Jurong Point

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Located at B1 of the shopping centre, this is the area where everyone who goes up by the nearby escalator can peep down at you while you eat. The shop has two sections; the 'outer' section where the sun shines on your table in the afternoons or the 'inner' section where it is more enclosed but sometimes there are flies flying around.

interior
paper napkin with cute logo


Not wanting the sun, my bro and I chose the inner section. They have lunch sets of between $12.50++ to above $13++. The set comes with a pre-selected main dish (either rice or noodles), a side dish (choose from a limited selection) and a drink (milk bubble tea). My brother chose the braised pork rice (卤肉饭) set with red milk tea, and a side dish of braised pork knuckles (boneless). I had an ala-carte order of taiwanese rice vermicelli with pig intestines (面线with猪大肠).

our orders
braised pork rice served with braised egg, peanuts and and preserved vege

My brother seemed to enjoy his rice. He's the one that has been to Taiwan, so he said it was pretty authentic.

rice vermicelli with intestines

The mian xian (rice vermicelli) served here, was just alright. Not outstanding. The vinegar wasn't as tasty as another shop that I always patron at Lot 1 CCK. Thankfully, the intestines was as tender as it ought to be.

The star dish of the day? The braised boneless pork knuckles!

not much of a looker, but taste yummy~

Thin slivers of melt in your mouth fats and meat. It literally dissolves on your tongue. Ok, it was pretty oily and a little too salty as well. Hahaa!

red milk bubble tea


The bubble tea tasted pretty nostalgic. This was the taste that accompanied us during our university days and then some. By us... I really meant the oldies. Nowadays, I don't really care much about 'powdered' bubble milk tea. Give me the more natural tea taste with foamy slight saltish milk foam on top. Yums.

There was a 10% discount on ala-carte items if paying via DBS/POSB credit card. All in all, we paid $21 (incl. of taxes and after discount) for two pax.
 
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