Sometimes all you need for a good meal is a plain cabbage salad in a chilled bowl followed by an incredibly light, flaky and juicy tonkatsu donburi.
Saboten is a chain of tonkatsu restaurants from Tokyo. That’s pretty much all they serve here in Singapore, and they do it incredibly well at a reasonable price. I never thought much of breaded pork before. Consider me a convert.
————————-
Saboten
9 Raffles Boulevard, #P3-01, (Parco Marina Bay)
+65 6333-3432
This was an oddity of a restaurant that G and I both enjoyed in Ubud. While the food was a wonderful mix of local and French at a price perfect for the budget conscious, there were however a few quirks and not-so-good dishes that could be improved to make it the fine dining establishment that it strives to be. Then again, sometimes a restaurant is that much more memorable because of what the chef tries to accomplish in a bold but imperfect manner.
Tropical Bale is better suited for a lazy afternoon idling over tea while enjoying the view of the rice paddies in back. When we went at night however, the dim lighting coupled with the cavernous parlor created an almost spooky atmosphere made worse with a barely lit open kitchen bathed in harsh fluorescent. Once seated however, the friendly staff and surrounding decorations conveyed a much warmer greeting. The nostalgia pictures hanging on the wall implied a story of a local chef that may have once visited and possibly learned to cook in France, but we’ll never know since he was on vacation that week, leaving his very capable and young assistant in charge. Continue reading
It’s not everyday that I come back home to a new kitchen gadget to try out: a shiny pressure cooker. Silit is apparently a well-known brand in Germany for cookware that likes to combine fashion with practicality. This particular model comes with a glossy outer coating and non-stick interior. The lid and handle slide nicely into place but leave just enough wiggle room to allow sufficient venting of steam. This was my first time using a pressure cooker, and I was surprised by how other than the constant hiss of steam, the rest of the pot was remarkably still. It might also be due to the fact that it is incredibly heavy, like cast iron heavy.
To try out the Silit, I made an HK-style beef soup with 牛腩, a cut of beef that benefits from a long braise, at least a few hours. With the pressure cooker on the highest setting, the meat was tender in about 25 minutes. The Silit holds heat remarkably well. Once the desired pressure is achieved, it only takes the minimal of heat to maintain cooking conditions. Clean-up was a cinch, non-stick surface and lego-like lid components. Given our penchant for stews and soups, it’s a wonder that G and I ever got along back in SF without a pressure cooker. This fella is now on my must-have kitchenware shortlist.
I booked a table for Wild Rocket during Restaurant Week since I had never eaten there before and had always wondered about this dining mainstay started by a once hobbyist cook. So for $35 a person, I indulged my curiosity and dragged along G and our buddy T. Wild Rocket bills its cuisine as Modern Singaporean, or “Mod Sin”, and our meal could indeed be described up as Western fare with refined SE Asian flavors.
Restaurant Week is now over in Singapore, and for the budget-conscious it was a great opportunity to dine at new (and old) restaurants that might not have been on your must-eat lists. That said, a few of the participating restaurants are worth patronizing normally, and at $35/$55 per set menu during Restaurant Week they are an absolute steal. This explains why a number of places were fully booked a mere 8 hours after registration opened. Fortunately, I was still able to reserve a table at my top to-try for this year, BLU.
Modernist cuisine, or molecular gastronomy, is still a fairly novel field, so it’s always an adventure to try out a place daring enough to fuse laboratory experiments with cooking techniques. While most of us may never have the chance to eat at Fat Duck, Allinea, or El Bulli, at least there are a few restaurants in Singapore like Fifty-three, Novus, and BLU, that incorporate cutting edge techniques to add avant-garde twists to classic dishes. Continue reading
Between G’s pregnancy and related respiratory issues, the list of foods that she should avoid is quite long and includes basic staples like chicken and dairy products. As an alternative to cow milk, she’s been drinking more soy, which has comparable levels of protein but significantly less calcium. Manufacturers of soy drinks do add vitamins, calcium, to enrich their products but also include chemical additives with unknown effects on pregnancy . So instead of buying our soy milk at the store, we’ve been enjoying it homemade courtesy of our family friend H.
The home version is way better than any store bought variety and really only takes about an hour of actual labor.
Here’s what you’ll need (makes approx 4-5 litres of soy milk):
Our visit to Le Bistrot du Sommelier began as a mission to try tête de veau, a dish that we learned was rarely available as a special. Fortunately, this rustic French bistro offers a number of other dishes that were all enjoyable, making a second (or many more) visit a certainty. Since it was an impromptu family dinner with G’s brother M and mom A joining us, we were able to sample a variety of starters as well as take on the côte de boeuf, a signature dish.
True bistros are great finds in that they offer delicious and unpretentious food in a casual environment without breaking the bank. There is also the added benefit of being able to order and enjoy wine without the need to have Parker’s latest wine guide handy. Le Bistrot du Sommelier is a fine example of what I mean. Other than the prices (it’s Singapore after all), this really is a welcoming place to enjoy a good rustic French meal without worrying about which fork to use.
While the printed menu options are limited, if you look on the walls, you’ll see the giant blackboard of beef-related offerings as well as seasonal specialties. The Mont D’Or cheese high season had just ended in February, but they still had some in stock, so we ordered a 500 g serving along with an order each of the goat cheese salad, foie gras terrine, and escargot for our starters.
I should also mention that bistro food tends to be very rich and hearty. The foie gras for instance came in a generous block that even for four liver lovers was quite plenty. Similar with the salad as there was a bed of celeriac hidden beneath the greens. Only the escargot came in a measly half dozen serving, but I can forgive them because of the wonderful accompanying sauce. Our downfall though, was the Mont D’Or, baked with onions and ham. Think fondue, but a mild taste and velvety creamy texture with a hint of pine.
By the time we finished appetizers, the women were ready to call it a day, but the heaviest items had yet to arrive. Our mains were a shared 1 kg côte de boeuf that was beautifully cooked medium rare and smothered in onions and whole garlic cloves, and a classic steak tartare that was easily the best I’ve had in Singapore. My only quibble was that it had a bit too much mustard and rough cut parsley. The tartare beef was incredibly fresh with a great texture that would have been more apparent without the over-spicing.
We were all so stuffed that we passed on dessert. Along with the tete de veau, desserts are also on our list of to tries for our next visit. Le Bistrot du Sommelier is reminiscent of my favorite bistro that I always visit when I travel to Grenoble for work. I don’t know or care if it’s the best in town or just average, all I know is that the service is friendly, the food is tasty, and experience memorable.
—————————
Le Bistrot du Sommelier
46 Prinsep St #01-01,
Singapore
+65 6333 1982
G and I have added Torisho to “our must try for dinner” list due to our recent lunch experience there. While we both have a fondness of Kazu Sumiyaki for our grilled food needs, it’s always good to have more options. And Torisho is no stranger to quality; it’s the sibling restaurant of Aoki (which incidentally offers an amazing chirashi lunch). The lunch selection is not fancy – mostly a selection of donburi, but each dish is well prepared and the prices are quite reasonable. G went with the wagyu ($38), and I, the pork ($28). Continue reading
A quick search for “chawanmushi recipes” yields thousands of results that have one thing in common: vague cooking instructions. The actual recipes themselves are more or less the same: 3 parts dashi (with mirin/soy sauce) to 1 part beaten egg, plus additional ingredients. Steaming the mixture however, is an entirely different matter. Most of the recipes found on the first page have vague descriptions, like steam for 10-12 minutes on medium heat. One helpful recipe explains that low heat is important for creating silky smooth chawanmushi (doesn’t overcook, less bubbles). The problem is that terms like medium heat, or test with toothpick means plenty of trial and error. Continue reading
The two defining features of Sky on 57 are the panoramic views from atop the Marina Bay Sands, and its executive chef, regional celebrity, Justin Quek. While the rest of the Skypark is off limits to restaurant patrons, the views available from the restaurant are still quite magnificent. There is an outdoor patio where you can sip away at overpriced but well-mixed alcoholic drinks while impressing dates, guests, etc… As for the food, the upscale fusion cuisine is reasonably well-executed albeit uninspired. Given the prices, there are better dining options elsewhere, but then again you are paying a premium for the views.
The occasion was a birthday party for a group of 8, with a degustation menu that was left to the chef. The starter was a chicken liver pate with marmalade cherry tomatoes that while nicely composed, felt a bit “cheap” given the relative abundance of finer ingredients (ie duck or goose liver). The demitasse of shark broth that followed was well balanced, but no more unique than what one might find at a mid-range chinese restaurant. Similarly, the pepper lobster was also cooked just-right yet unremarkable. At this point we were all waiting in anticipation for the main course that would wow us. Continue reading
