Joone's Laksa - Enuff Said

Red Dot BrewHouse

Another friday creeps up on us. Not that it's a bad thing of course. But once again we are wondering where is a good place to hang out. Of course my sister only has 2 favourite places - Dempsey or Mezza9. So we ended up at RedDot Brewhouse.

Special note to budding aspiring Singaporean restaurant owners. Dinner by candlelight or NO LIGHT, is soooo yesterday!!!! I mean clearly the ambience and theme scream: "come hang out with your friends / buds/ /family / colleagues with a funky home-made concocted beer (look out for the one they claim can cure AIDS) or 2 at our cool alfresco bistro and grill!" And they lay out nice tables clearly meant to seat more then 2 romantic lovebirds. SO what is with the dinner by mini candlelight?! I can't see my dining partners, let alone what we are eating. It's soo irritating. Plus, its bad for the photos. So if the pictures look awful, it's not my fault.

The grubs your typically expected fare found in most pubs. Chicken wings, deep fried seafood platters and potato balls. The bbq and grill station also offered sausages, wagyu beef steaks and fresh seafood on the grill so that was a nice change. The chicken wings were quite yummy but the seafood platter was a little greasy and boring.

The grilled platter we ordered was also rather disappointing. My scallop tasted gritty and the steak was bad. Probably the only thing the boys finished was the bed of roasted greens and bell peppers... you know, they hardly get their vegetables with me and L anti-green.

The only thing worth trying other then the chicken wings, would be the potato cheese balls. They were crisp on the outside, warm and marsh potato on the inside. The slight cheesy filling was yummy. I would suggest coming here for bar snacks and drinks, but if you are intending to have dinner, and a good one at that, try Samy's next door - cheaper and mostly better. If you are planning to score for that big date - definitely start looking elsewhere.

RedDot BrewHouse
Blk 25A , #01-01
Dempsey Road
Tel – (65) 6475 0500
http://www.reddotbrewhouse.com.sg/

Our Family Morton's Experience - The last I believe

In my opinion, there is just way too much hype on Morton's. Must be Sis L's over-zealous for their 5pm cheap martinis and free steak sandwiches. Quite frankly, the best items of the night, were the enormous freshly baked onion bread and the chunky crab cakes. The steaks...supposedly what they are famous for, well, lets just leave it as this sure was not one night of fine-dining.

The private dining room did add a little touch of class for the evening.

Ah! My first star of the evening. The accompanying slabs - and I literally mean slabs - of butter were an appetising sight. Most are probably aware of my irresistible weakness for freshly baked bread. Never has the evil forbidden carb tasted so good and satisfying.

A visit to Mortons is most definitely not complete without hubby and my sister indulging in their much necessary evil for every meal - alcohol. She had her must-have chocolate martini while hubby had a chic appletini. B and I both had exotic choices - he, a passionfruit martini and me, lychee. Mum had her usual classic red and dad, a mocktail.

With our drinks in hand, the barrage of appetisers began. Considering we ordered most of the entire menu, its surprised they were actually supposed to be starters to dinner.

The Maine Lobster Cocktail was a nice sight, with inviting chunks of lobster atop a fresh bed of greens. But the invitation took a quick turn for disappointment. Though firm and juicy, the lobster meat was clearly those of the frozen and not freshly flown.

The tuna tartare with tomato and avocado was again an interesting sight when set in it's net of Thai sauces and alfalfa, but was only ok for me.

Thankfully there was a saving grace. The jumbo crab cakes - referred to unabrashly by Morton's themselves as "lumps", the humble definition does every justice to the home-made 'feel' to these crab-cakes. The second best crab cakes that comes close would be my mother's.

The last set of appetisers were the fresh Oysters and broiled scallops wrapped in bacon. Nothing much unusual.

Next came the standard presentation of the main offerings. A silver tray filled with various cuts of fine quality meats, a fat live lobster on show and huge vegetables that scare the life out of me complete the scripted presentation. I wonder how long it takes them to memorise the presentation and if the chef decided to try something new on a whim and fancy, will that throw all the wait-staff in a frenzy and a tongue-twisted mess! That would be an interested sight.

Among four of us, we ordered the porterhouse, avoided the prime rib like the plague and ventured towards the lamb chops for variety.

By the end of the evening, I had sadly come to realise... all red meat can actually taste the same. The Porterhouse was lovely, soft and tasty. Unfortunately the fillet Mignon and the other single cuts that we had, just failed to add depth and dimension to our red meat buffet. The lamb chops were also a tad over cooked - translate: dry and tough.

The sides we ordered also failed to impress. The salad was literally the entire iceberg lettuce heaped with bacon bits and egg. No-frills, just exactly what you ask for - vegetable, vegetable, vegetable. The Idaho potato, sadly, didn't impress me either, though sis had been drooling for them since the night before.

Probably the highlight of the evening was the desserts we ordered to share. The lemon souffle was heavenly. Incredible light and fluffy, they really hit the sweet but not overbearing spot required after every heavy meal. The light crispy sugary fluff with hints of citrus lemon is maybe the only thing other then the bread I will come back for.

The upside down apple pie was au contrarie, way too sweet. Without the crust, the apple filling just tasted wrong. Even the ice-cream couldn't help to sedate the sugar rush.

So after tallying the number of hits and misses, it was only natural that we concluded, the entire family didn't really like Morton's. Maybe for martinis and snacks, but ironically, famous for their steaks, this is clearly something I will never come back to Morton's for. And for the kind of premium they place heavily on their meats, I doubt this place will score anymore points with us.

Morton's Singapore
Mandarin Oriental, Singapore
5 Raffles Avenue, Marina Square, Singapore 039797
+ 65 6339 3740

Tatsuya

It's not new, They have appeared in reviews, in several food blogs, and uttered from reputable references dozens of times I am sure. Probably was a little later then expected, but I finally got myself to a small table, and subsequently, to a counter at Tatsuya.

The omakase menu ranges from $180 - $200, a brave higher than Tomo. But at the end of the dinner, I would say it was worth it. The all-smiles service treats you like royalty and that to me, is essential in the service industry and worth the every cent.

When we arrived at 8, I was disappointed that my earlier reservation for a counter seat at 8pm was ignored and we were seated at a table. "I want counter!" comes my bratty insistence. And the nice waiter obliges and says he will arrange for that as soon as 2 opens up. "Or we get chef to come here and make sushi for you." he jokes. I was seriously hoping that would come true of course!
I stressed to our jovial waiter when we got seated, "sashimi, sushi many many yah.." and to my gleeful happiness, that's what we got. We had a smattering of cooked items streaming from the kitchen to whet our appetite.

I wasn't too unhappy to see the familiar crustacean snack, after all, they tasted absolutely great when Tomas had them sent to our table at Tomo. The right amount of salt, with a touch of crispiness, it gets you all psyched and eager for dinner to start.

From the grilled and cooked selection, we had a river trout each. Not to bad, considering I am not a fan of grilled fish.

A leisurely hour later, we finally got our counter seats. And we were straight away put under loving care of the Chef.

Greeted with his cute smiles and Japanese interspersed with as much English as he can muster, the experience was endearing to the heart and not to mention the stomach!

We started with some sashimi. My highlight was of course the toro sashimi which I presume comes from the southern bluefin tuna. Next we had an individual assortment of sushi and Chef's blow-torch bore a very significant responsibility throughout our dinner. Chef's aburi toro was excellent, just the right "melt-in-your-mouth" textures.

I would say the sushi that torched, wrapped and moulded after came in all yummy kinds. Creative is probably an understatement. Interesting, will probably do no justice to the jovial and endearing experience Chef gave us that night.
To mention a few, we had fresh chopped squid served with a miso sauce and torched to provide that perfect warm, melted taste. The seaweed is so fresh, it doesn't stick to your teeth and provided that extra crunch.

Of course I had to have my hotate and I asked Chef to prepare that for us. But don't expect the no-frills traditional fat scallop smacked on rice. He pairs it again with a nice sauce, throw on some crunch fresh salmon skin and broils the combination to give it that char-grilled soft and yummy taste.

And they kept on coming. Unveiled in different shapes and combinations possible. It was like a mini fashion show, using rice and seaweed as models, Chef piled on the different ingredients, expertly combined, skillfully tweaked and grilled till each is a masterpiece. True evidence of a creative passionate mind.

Earlier gym session already clearly wasted, we had to stop Chef even though I was really keen to see what others he could pull out from his hat. But we have to be kind, they had to wash up, and keep some fish for the next day. So we surrendered and finished with dessert.

And fortunately so! The vanilla creamy pudding that followed dispelled any notion that this Sushi Chef cannot multi-task! The caramel was freshly made and the burnt sugar taste so rich and natural it added that little contrast to the smooth and fragrant creamy spoonfuls I just couldn't stop shoving into my mouth.

And to cleanse the palette and end the night on a high note, a nice refreshing slice of Musk melon and an ultra sweet big Japanese strawberry on ice. Normally I would frown at the thought of fruit to end any dinner, but tonight, I more then welcomed it. With a nice hot cup of tea, it was the perfect ending.

Tatsuya

270 Orchard Road

#01-05 Park Hotel Orchard

Tel: 6737-1160

An Affair to be ‘Truffle-ed’ With

It was an affair, decadent and totally bad for me from the very beginning. I had abstained many a times before, reminding myself that this was only for the best. And I should have headed the alarm bells at our love encounter, first at Buko Nero, and second, on New Year’s Eve. Must be all that Italian food, clouds my better judgement…

Then one casual dining moment, caught unawares, we met again. This time, my feelings are true and ascertained. I am positive, I am madly in love… with Truffles. And I am a badly craving addict.

Anderson had a timely seasonal menu going on with truffles donning various ‘outfits and accessories” at each encore. I selected 2, one hot and one cold appetizer from the selection. The hot had truffle paired richly with foie gras served on warm toast and the cold, served the star alongside seared scallop carpaccio with rocket.

Anderson always lives up to expectation. His ingenious pairing of flavours comes through with absolute flying colours. Of both appetizers, my favourite would have to the scallops. Together with the generous slices of truffles, they were fresh, sweet and creamy.

Another fine example of his creative palette is another appetizer we tried. New on the menu, and sounding rather funky, we thought we would give it a try. The frothy mango and orange espuma was refreshing and the crunchy and tangy mango and tomato salsa went well with the fresh mud-crab cradled in lettuce.
Being greedy people, we ordered the must-have favourite tagioli pasta with crustacean oil and carnivorous essentials of a roasted rack of lamb, Yorkshire Pork Rack and a Black Angus ribeye for the mains to share. To add on to the truffle obsession, we also ordered a crabmeat and truffle risotto.

The pasta was as usual, bringing on the smiles when we weren’t busy ravaging.

The steak was juicy, perfect in it's medium rare but nothing much to shout about. Then I suppose we would have screamed bloody injustice murder if it was even a heartbeat over-cooked. We should give credit when it is duly required. So... Bravo!

The lamb and pork were a little disappointing. A tad dry and nothing really fancy or amazing.

But then we come to the highlight of the mains, the new VIP (very-important-pasta). The risotto…oh, mere words do no justice. The rice was creamy and perfect and the generous slices of truffle was really a delight to upon.

So with one maintaining our cravings, another moderating the standard and the other surpassing all expectations burdened on Chef Ho’s shoulders, we passed the leisurely evening sedating ourselves and maxing out on the decadent but oh-so-worth-it calories.

And now, I can't get them truffles out of my head. And the season is so not upon us!!

Horrors...I think I need help.