Aoki Private Dining Room, Singapore

P Girl picked the perfect place for her hubby's 40th birthday bash - Aoki. The menu was great, it made me feel like Tatsuya was overpriced....

PS cafe, Palais Renaissance & Harding Road, Singapore

PS cafe keeps the menus at each outlet different by design. Thankfully the one important item they do have in common is the truffle fries. $15 per serving is not cheap but they sure are generous!

My favorite outlet is the Palais Renaissance one for Tai Tai lunches and long drinks in the afternoon.  I love their Parisian bistro feel and how they reclaimed the outside space.  The Dempsey Road location is great for evenings and dessert especially in the coffee lounge area.  The recycled wood flooring, retro furnishing and greenery provides a very unique atmosphere.

Tatsuya, Goodwood Park Hotel, Singapore

Nothing evokes the promise of the weekend like a well-planned Friday lunch.  With the right food and the right company, the rest of the weekend offers, at that moment, seemingly endless delight.  

On this day I had all three, a wonderful Aburi Sushi lunch, the company of my family and the promise of a weeklong Bali holiday starting with my day off this particular Friday.  I love Friday lunches!

Slow food for a slow day

We woke up this morning to very wet and cold weather in the city. Not the best of days to be out, but since this is Sunday after all, and we have our usual brunch ritual to maintain, we dragged our asses to the neighborhood cafe for some hot grub. Unfortunately, the line outside Mission Beach was massive as usual, and parking was non-existent for the next 3 blocks around the Mission area. So we decided to head farther afield to try our luck.

Soon, we found ourselves around the Potrero Ave and Mariposa St junction, and walked into Slow Club just as the rain started to fall again. While waiting for our table, I searched for restaurant reviews online and found out they were famous for the turkey sausage hash. And that would be my meal this morning.

Slow Club's famous turkey sausage hash uses fresh organic ingredients from local producers - butternut squash, garnet yams, apples, yukon gold potatoes, caramelized onions, baby arugula, two poached eggs with cheddar cheese, and served with a side of fresh artisan grilled bread from Acme bakery. I've always had a soft spot for butternut squash and caramelized onions so this dish certainly hit the spot for me. I loved the poached eggs that oozed onto the hash as I dug my fork into it. The sweetness of the yam and onions combined with the yolk and turkey sausage to make a very tasty mouthful of organic orgasm. Definitely worth coming back for seconds, but I also miss the scrambles over at Mission Beach Cafe terribly and couldn't help thinking of next Sunday's brunch venue already.

Slow Club is at 2501 Mariposa St, San Francisco, CA94110, 415-241-9390

Return to Maverick

I like this place a lot. And it's in the neighborhood. Matthew the co-owner and manager always seems to be in a funny mood to entertain us. Tonight we were talking about the art installation he had in the main dining area of the restaurant. It consisted of old wooden speaker boxes refurbished as light boxes with parts of the map of the USA embedded in it. It was certainly something unique and different, but that's what makes Maverick such a maverick. Anyway, I have digressed from my original intention for this entry, and that's about the food.

Tonight, I decided I needed comfort food, and nothing says comfort louder than Southern fried chicken, all dipped in buttermilk and deep fried with cornflour to perfection, with a side of kale, grits and gravy. My southern Florida roots are showing again. I also ordered the orange cauliflower soup for starters, and it was one of the best cauliflower soup I've ever had. Maybe that's the reason why I keep coming back to Maverick, they serve such simple dishes with ease and yet amazing in taste. And they always seem to be a regular mention in the local monthly San Francisco magazine (which is where I usually get my leads for the next big thing to eat in this city). We ended the meal with profiteroles and olive oil ice cream. It was a perfect meal for a wet weekend in San Francisco.

I didn't think crab porridge could taste this good

For Mom's birthday this year, we selected Matsugawa for a Japanese feast. My brother knew the chef well, and had already put in a request for his special king crab porridge. We arrived with hungry stomachs and excited about the meal being prepared. First up was grilled scallops with spicy cod roe. The scallops were gigantic and the spicy roe sauce complimented the sweetness of the scallops perfectly.

My brother thought the spicy roe was a tad too salty, but I felt it washed down well with an Asahi. Next up was a selection of fresh sashimi, followed by crispy fried baby river shrimp. Then there was the giant clam broth, very sweet and delicious. After another round of Asahi came the fried butterfish, so crispy that you could eat the entire fish, bones and all. The dishes were not particularly big, but for small eaters like us, it was the right proportion. And they all went down well with beer.

Finally, our last dish was the king crab porridge. It was served with a few pieces of fried tofu and chopped spring onion on top, while the slight yellow tinge of the broth hinting at the amount of crab roe that had gone into the dish. The crab flavor was very evident, this was a very hearty and satisfying dish, and best of all, there was enough for seconds. My Mom was very pleased, and that was the whole point.

Matsugawa is located at The Pines Club, 30 Stevens Road, Singapore. Tel: +65-6731-5776

The hippest Kitchen in town

Had lunch with a friend at The Kitchen in the W Hotel, Hong Kong. The buffet spread was in the "kitchen" of the restaurant, making the dining experience a little amusing. Add the LCD panels substituting as paintings that moved, and you get a very hip dining experience with top notch service complete with handsome waiters in smart suits. The food was excellent, very high quality and well prepared - loved the salad and cold dish spreads at one end of the kitchen.The customized-to-order tempura was a nice touch as well, but save room for the desserts. All the pastries look decadent and yummy.

I love the tongue firmly in cheek humor injected into the restaurant decor, from the books used as place mats, white poultry pieces and the stacked bowls in the display cabinets all lend a cool factor to The Kitchen, but then again, that's the signature W touch across all their hotels around the globe.

Hog crazy over Hog Island Oysters

A visit to Hog Island Oyster Co used to be my weekly Fri afternoon ritual when I was living in the bay area. I'd drag a friend over to the Ferry Building where the bistro is located and feast on freshly shucked oysters and clams and downing a glass of bubbly. Life used to be so simple, and tasty.

Now that I'm back in town for a week, I had to make the trip out here to resurrect the old habit. This is still one of the freshest spots for local oysters, delivered fresh daily from Tomales Bay just half an hour north of San Francisco. They also serve one mean manila clam chowder, probably the best I've had, and usually eaten with the accompanying rustic sourdough bread and steamer clams.

Room with a Vue

I recently came to the realization that the hotel where I usually stayed at when in Shanghai had an excellent bar and grill on the top floor of the building. Situated on the 30th floor of Hyatt On The Bund, Vue commands a stunning panoramic vista of the Bund and the Pudong financial district with the new IFC building taking centerstage. It was a company team dinner, so my dinner table companions weren't the exact type I'd want to be dining with when partaking in a new dining experience.

I love everything about Vue's decor, you can spot a good design when you see it, and this one says Super Potato all over. Their signature style was everywhere, from the porcelain in the foyer to the dining area murals and walled cabinets and the overall warmth of the furniture and lighting.

We were here for steak and we were presented with a list of various fine cuts for our selection. I changed my mind at the last minute and opted for pork chops instead, and we all ordered side dishes to share. The pork chops were very tasty and well marinated, and as side dishes go, the roasted forest mushrooms, creamed spinach and glazed carrots were some of the best I've had in steakhouses.

If it wasn't for the fact that my company uses this hotel extensively for our travels, I'd come back for steak more often. I like to escape when I come into Shanghai and get lost in this old world-new world charm, and I'd hate to ruin the experience by meeting a coworker dining in the same restaurant and inevitably get into a conversation about work yet again.

Vue is at 199 Huangpu Lu, Hyatt On The Bund, Shanghai, China.

FiftyThree on Armenian Street

To say that 53 Armenian St came with lofty expectations was a bit of an understatement. I've been hearing the stories from friends about this place for quite some time now, and they are usually surprised that I hadn't considered having a meal there. Well, I do admit all the traveling this year has allowed me to sample some very fine cuisines around the world, so that left very little time for trying new restaurants when I'm in town. And usually, I would invariably stick with comfort food when I'm home. Otherwise, I might as well be ordering room service at the Hyatt every night.

My overall experience with FiftyThree hasn't been all that mind-blowing, as had been described by some of my friends. First of all, they had trouble with their oven and didn't serve us our bread until 30 minutes after we were seated. The wait staff seemed rather inexperienced, or at least did not project that aura of confidence and pride in their service. But I did recognize a couple of familiar faces I'd seen at Les Amis a few months ago, so I'd say we were in good hands. (Writing food blogs can work up an appetite sometimes, I'm going to order a turkey provolone sandwich from the galley now while we're enroute into HKG.)

I opted for the 3-course set lunch and had seared scallops for starters, followed by baked chicken with cauliflower foam and radish and I finished off with a chilled consomme with cucumber sorbet, caramelized green apples. The ingredients were fresh and the execution was flawless, but I couldn't help compare this with my recent lunch at Les Amis and must admit FiftyThree came up a little short. Perhaps I'm biased, I've always held Les Amis in the highest regard and it would be difficult to top that. And then there's the French Laundry and Chez Panisse, but those are stories for another day.

I couldn't quite put a finger on what the missing ingredient was, but I'll call it a lack of soul for now. The packaging is wonderful, and meticulously cultured, but something seems lacking on the inside. Maybe that's the standard of avant garde in Singapore.

53 Armenian St is in Singapore. Tel: 6334 5535

Tenshin Tempura, The Regent Hotel, Singapore

I have only eaten at a specialist tempura restaurant once. This was a few years ago in Tokyo on a joint trip with D Guy. That little restaurant only catered for three rooms a night and was located close to Tsukiji where the chef handpicked the freshest seafood daily. It was this fact coupled with their secret flour mix and their special oil that made them so good.

I had heard of a local equivalent some years ago, told myself I had to go but was reminded only recently about it again. The place is Tenshin Tempura located at The Regent Singapore. It is known to be quite pricey but going there for lunch fit in nicely with my continuing quest for good-value set lunches.

Of course, I found a willing accomplice in D Guy.

The set lunches ranged from $30 to $85 with the choice of also ordering ala carte items from the daily vegetable and seafood boards.

There is a certain point at which my stomach hits a limit for oily food. On this day, that point took quite long to reach, meaning, the food was very finely prepared (not too much oil).

The first course of prawn tempura was a little tough, but I reserved my judgement and was rewarded with perfectly cooked pumpkin (not too raw and not too overcooked), wonderfully sweet corn which they take off the cob and formed into a round cake held together only by the batter, seasonal eel (sweet and still moist inside).

Overall, a very nice meal but probably 80% of the Tsukiji tempura place whose name escapes me now. Would I go again? Yes, their Tendon set lunch looked wonderful, served in a hot steaming bowl of rice with generous lashings of their own tempura sauce.

Nogawa Restaurant, Concorde Hotel, Singapore

Mr. Nogawa is known as the man that trained some of the most successful Japanese chefs in Singapore. Ronnie of Tatsuya fame, is one of them.

After many years of hearing of Nogawa, I finally, finally, made a reservation and had the omakase sushi menu. The meal had a promising start with fresh gingko nuts lightly salted and grilled. I was pleasantly surprised by how tender and succulent the octopus starte was. I am also a fan of well-prepared pickles and these were crisp and crunchy with a little sour kick. Just the thing to whet your appetite.

When I was served the first piece of sushi (we sat at the counter), I was looking forward to a burst of freshness and flavour but became completely distracted by the rice. Sushi rice is meant to be firm but soft enough to provide a nice base to the fish on top. However, either there was not enough vinegar and mirin or the rice was a tad undercooked but the rice started to crumble the minute I put it in my mouth. Unfortunately, this rice texture continued throughout the meal and detracted from the array of fish served. Very sad.

As you can see, we were treated to beautiful Toro, Otoro and Chu Toro (?) AND very nice uni. Perhaps my palate has gotten used to Tatsuya's but the seared sushi did not even come close to Ronnie's version. It could be a case of the student surpassing the master here or I could have become brainwashed by Tatsuya's. I had stopped going for a while as they had become incredibly expensive after winning the award from the World Gourmet Summit, but after paying about $200 per person at Nogawa, I may just be dining at Tatsuya's more often now.

Nogawa has another restaurant at the Sentosa Golf & Country Club. Perhaps I should go there for comparison. It's hard to believe that I was so disappointed with the master chef. One must note that Mr. Nogawa was not there and we were served by Chef Kevin. Unfortunately, Kevin did introduce each sushi as most chefs usually do when serving pieces individually but maybe he thought we were sushi connoisseurs or we were too deep in conversation.