Saturday, September 15, 2007

Long food post

It's been some time since I last food-blogged, so here it is... triple-review!

Ok, let's start from the most recent food-scursion: Hog's Breath Cafe at holland v.

*Phweeeeeet*

I really like this place, not only for its easy, laid-back ambience, but its food. Okay, it can be a little pricey (we spent about 70+ for two), but it's worth it. She had the char-grilled chicken, while I had the original prime rib - what they're famous for.

A little clarification: I always thought ribs were like the ones Cafe Cartel served, you know, bak kut teh that kind lah. Apparently there's enough meat in some ribs (cow?) to make entire steaks.

Anyway, pictures!

The photo doesn't do this dish justice.

Ok, the lighting wasn't good enough for my lousy camera-phone. Nonetheless, the chicken was juicy, tender and the skin was flavoursome. To top it off, the long-lost A&W curly fries were reincarnated into Hogtail fries. -.- I think they taste even better than the A&W ones leh.

My prime rib

Oh. My. Goodness. The meat was unbelievably tender, slightly fatty and seared to perfection. When taken together with the gravy it came with, orgasmic.

Close up of my steak

Mississippi mudpie

Wah lao, I can't believe I took like 4 tries to spell Mississippi right. Anyway, this mudpie is the champion of them all. On first glance, it doesn't look like much. Well, that's in comparison to, say, the Coffee Club mudpie, which towers over your plate and challenges your fork to a duel.

No, this one is unassuming, and even rather cheesy in its appearance. The single scoop of vanilla ice cream was unimpressive, roughly the size of a slightly expanded golfball. The whipped cream, coming straight out of those off-the-shelf spray cans, was equally wussy. Even the single half of a strawberry - a pretty lame attempt at offering colour to the plate - had the look of stale styrofoam.

Yet, there had to be something to the rumours I've heard about it. And the first bite proved it to be true.

Yes, there are marks for presentation, but they are far outweighed by those awarded to taste.

Dense and warm, the cake sends warning signs to your brain that you are walking a very thin line between sin and decadence. When drenched in chocolate sauce, you realise that you have crossed that line by a mile. And then some.

The chocolate sauce is thicker - much thicker - than that of the Coffee Club's. Despite other restaurant's claims of serving "death by chocolate" or "chocolate decadence", I think if I wanted to die by chocolate overdose, I'd choose this.

Oh, did I mention that it's about the size of my entire palm? (though only about one inch thick) Sigh, I think I won't be eating chocolate for some time (maybe one week) after this.

Hog's Breath Cafe
Holland Village

Taste: 4/5
Value: 4/5 (abit ex but you get what you pay for)
Ambience: 5/5

Next up, a new joint at Plaza Sing basement. I can't remember the full name of the restaurant, only that it served sandwiches and hotdogs.

Chicken rosemary sandwich - $5 something

Ok lah, not a bad alternative to subway, really. And the pricing is ok some more.

Next, next, the Prawn Noodles from Beach road! Ok, must qualify, they aren't really Beach rd prawn mee because that's just the stall name. It's really located near Marine Parade/Katong there.

Funny naming aside, this stall serves up pretty decent prawn mee. The only downside for me was the tiny portion I was served.

Yah, looks a lot but actually very little ($5!)

Hers came looking like got a lot of prawns, but actually only got two. They halved them. -.-

Beach Road Prawn Mee
Marine Parade (along still road, very near ECP exit)

Taste: 4/5
Value: 1.5/5
Ambience: 3.5/5

And finally, a pretty nice cafe/seafood place at a ulu driving range near the Eng Neo exit of the PIE. The range is called green fairways, and is frequented by many ang mohs/rich bmdrivers and their kids. It's right next to a stable of horses, so it really is rather rustic and slow-moving.

The food is actually pretty decent, nothing fantastic but better than average. Oh, but don't go if you're on a budget because even though it's not a/c, the food can be quite overpriced. One plate of vege cost $12-15, for instance.

Sorry no picture of food, paiseh lah went with her parents

Rainforest cafe/60's live seafood
Green Fairways Driving Range

Taste: 3/5
Value: -1/5
Ambience: 4/5

Oh yah, forgot to say, there got ESPN on big screen.

Thursday, September 06, 2007

Sibeh Suay

I'm never going out to eat on Wednesday nights again. Well, perhaps it was cos I hadn't had lunch today (imagine that!) and was positively famished. I don't know.

So when she asked if I wanted to eat Kallang Prawn Noodles, I kinda groaned inwardly (NTU to Kallang!!). But, nehmind.

30 minutes later, we're looking at the shutters of the prawn mee stall. I later find out from the bemused roti-prata guy next door, who must have been wondering why I was standing there like an idiot, that the stall opens in the morning until 3pm.

Ok, fine. So we decide to next head over to Still road for some crabs. I mean, we figured, hey, we're all the way in the east already, might as well enjoy ourselves while we're here.

Yep, you guessed it. Closed for the day. The ONE day of the week they're closed.

Nehmind. Kinda deflated by now, I decide to rely on dunman road food centre's Ah Eng Wanton Mee. It's a whole food centre, after all, they couldn't ALL be closed right?

And.... whaddya know, all the stalls are open except the wanton mee stall.

)(*&_)#*@$_@)(#$&*!!!

We ended up just eating sub-standard prawn mee (oh yes, the irony was both bitter and pungent) and above-standard rojak.

But you know the one thing that saved the night? A small slice of heaven from four leaves - Coco Exotica. Yeah, sounds like a strippername, but it's really a fantastic piece of chocolate cake. It's part mousse, part sponge, part biscuit, part fudge, all good.

In the words of xiaofen, who was commenting on the potency of this awesome creation:

"I've converted people with this, hor".

Monday, September 03, 2007

The parallel parking rule

If you want to eat good food in Singapore, you have to learn to parallel park. Geylang tau huay, Bukit Timah Roti Prata, Fei Fei Wan Ton Mee...

Dammit, I've gotta learn how to parrallel park!!

ok, to qualify this statement, I CAN parallel park, just not under pressure.

Was good meeting the BMers again last week. I think the office is somehow, peversely comforting. It never changes. While there are some obvious drawbacks to spending upwards of nine hours in a confined space, I think it works for me.

Strange story time. The other day I was at a petrol kiosk when I saw two Arabic-looking men ahead of me in the queue. Thinking nothing of it, I proceeded to pay for my purchases and walked back to the van.

I looked across and I saw them slowly driving off in a beat-up old van, which until then had been blocking... an oil tanker. I'm ashamed to say that my next thoughts were immediately that this was some elaborate plot to blow up gas stations (which are interconnected, I heard).

And you know what it was I saw that reassured me? One of them sipping a Pepsi. I mean, that's not the drink of choice for someone who wants to kill himself, is it?

Victim of the media/closet racist?

I pray I am the former.