Farewell Dinner

It was my last night in the UK on my visit to my parents, so we treated ourselves to a meal out. It being a Monday night, several of the local restaurants were closed, but we did manage to seek out Brooks Restaurant in nearby Brighouse.

This is one of those restaurants with a separate bar area, where you can relax over a drink while you look at the menu and then move through to the dining area once your first course is ready, which is always a nice touch. There were lots of interesting choices on their daily-changing menu – mostly using fresh local ingredients, with international influences.

Although none of us braved the Spam Fritters for which Brooks is famous, we did manage to choose some superb dishes. Starting off with:
Warm Filo Moneybags – these are another signature dish for the restaurant, and although tasty they were slightly too stodgy with the Garlic Cream Sauce soaking into the Filo Pastry, together with the Mushrooms and Brie.

Melon with Fruit Sorbet – not much you can say about melon, but the sorbet here was delicious, really fruity and light.

Seared Scallops with a Savoury Pannacotta, Bacon and Crispy Onions. Although I didn’t try this one myself, I was assured by my Dad that it really was fantastic – well cooked scallops, a fish-based pannacotta and the bacon and onions finishing it off perfectly.

For mains, I opted for Fish of the Day – this was two fillets of fish –one a Seabass, and I’m afraid I can’t remember the other, but they had been simply grilled with Balsamic Vinegar, Lemon and Herbs and served with Tomato and Capers. Perfectly cooked, perfectly seasoned, perfectly delicious.

The Grilled Pollock was an equally generous portion and was presented with a Spanish twist, with Chorizo, Paprika and Manchego Cheese.

Whilst the Roast Goose Breast was an enormous portion of beautifully roast goose with Spiced Apple Puree and Caraway Seeds. These main courses were also served with hugely generous portions of vegetables and Potato Dauphinoise.

None of us really had room for dessert, but my Mum can’t go out for dinner without one, so she ordered the Cherry Meringue, a light crisp meringue, served with Kirsch-soaked cherries (try saying that after a glass of wine!) and an awesome mousse (which I just couldn’t help from sticking my spoon into, despite it not being my dessert)…

It was a fantastic meal and a lovely end to a trip back in Blighty… unfortunately it was definitely UK eating-out prices, but if I just pretended the pound sign was a Singapore dollar, it didn’t hurt so much… and anyway, it was definitely worth every penny…

Brooks Restaurant, Brighouse, UK - http://www.brooks-restaurant.co.uk/

English Pub Lunch

While back in the UK visiting my parents, we made our way up the hill to the local pub, the Sportsman’s Inn… a typical English pub, with a fairly typical English pub menu (and I’m talking about the good ones), albeit slightly more adventurous and interesting than most.

Being in a Yorkshire pub, I couldn’t really see past the Fish & Chips… and once they arrived, I certainly couldn’t see past it – literally – it was the biggest helping of Fish & Chips I think I have seen in my life. Truly enormous. It was delicious too.

You could taste the beer in the crisp batter, the fish was fresh and well cooked, the chips were homemade and cooked just right, and even the mushy peas, not normally a friend of mine, were tasty. I’m afraid to say I only managed about a third of it, but that was due to its sheer size and in no way a reflection of the quality.

My parents were more adventurous – Dad opting for the Beef Carpaccio, which although supposedly a starter was plenty big enough, and my Mum went for my second choice, the Pork Belly which was equally acceptable – tasty and tender, and was served with mustard mash and an enormous helping of side vegetables:

I was very impressed with our lunch… although despite not finishing off our meals, we did rather waddle out of there… perhaps we should have asked them to save the leftovers our lunch for us for when we return next time… and I’m pretty sure there will be a next time….

The Sportsman’s Inn, Rochdale Rd, Greetland, W Yorkshire, United Kingdom

Sunday Roast

I don’t normally write about home cooked food, but I’m going to make an exception for my favourite meal of all time – My Dad’s Roast Beef. I was back in the UK visiting my parents and this is definitely one of the perks that makes up for the bad weather…

So here it is, beautifully cooked Roast Rib of Beef:

With genuine Yorkshire-made Yorkshire Puddings

And... Roast Potatoes…

Oh joy! I haven’t had roast potatoes in over 6 months, since we moved to Singapore in fact, as our oven is too small to make a roast with all the trimmings. And, as I have never quite got over the disappointment of not having any with our Christmas Lunch, these were very welcome indeed.

While we’re at it, I might as well blow my own trumpet as well – we finished off with some profiteroles made my fair hand… and very nice they were too….

As much as I love my Singaporean food adventures, and wouldn’t swap them for anything… sometimes, it has to be said… there’s no place like home…


My Mum & Dad’s, West Yorkshire, United Kingdom (no website!)

Dempsey Disappoinment

My friend has been waxing lyrical about Margarita’s at Dempsey Hill for a while, so we substituted our usual Little India mid-week feast for a trip to Dempsey to enjoy some Mexican magic… except when we got there, Margarita’s was closed for refurbishment.

Slightly disappointed, we took a short hop across the road and settled ourselves at a table outside La Forketta. The first thing that annoyed me with this restaurant that they refused to bring us iced water, despite the fact that we were ordering glasses of wine and beers all round – they would only serve us vastly overpriced bottled water (and yes, this really is a pet hate of mine).

Putting that annoyance behind us, we ordered up some food. After much deliberation, I settled on the Aubergine Cannelloni. You know La Forketta is really pretty expensive by Singapore standards and I was expecting a lot more from my main course here – all I got in the end was this:

It wasn’t even served with a side salad or anything, and it was unfortunately really pretty bland.

Those who ordered a pizza I think got the better half of the deal – Mr Greedy Glutton being one of them, ordering a Pepperoni and Pineapple Pizza.

The pizzas were really good – light, crisp base and generous toppings… but they come at a price, and I doubt very much if we will be back to enjoy them again… and definitely not for as long as they refuse to serve iced water along with your meal.

So unfortunately our mid-week cheap and cheerful get-together turned out to be rather less cheap… and rather less cheerful than usual… but at least the company was as good as ever…


La Forketta - #01-09 Dempsey Hill

Shooter Frenzy

After our fantastic feed at Ras, we all made our way on to China One, where someone (the birthday boy I presume) decided it would be a bright idea to start a Shooter Frenzy… this started off with a tray of B52s (Kahlua, Grand Marnier and Baileys floating on top).

I think we went on to sample most of the shooters on offer in China One… and I have a vague memory of this continuing later on in Zouk… well at least that’s our excuse for the display of dancing we all put on on the nightclub podiums anyway…

China One - http://www.baize.com.sg/index.htm

Birthday Curry

It was a friend’s birthday so 15 of us hit Clarke Quay for a curry at Ras. I’ve been here a few times and always hugely enjoyed it. It’s a whole lot more expensive than anywhere we normally go in Little India, but it’s great for a special occasion such as this, or if you just want a night out where the action is, and enjoy a really good Indian chow down at the same time.

We ordered up a whole selection of dishes, starting with Paneer Pakoras

Tandoori Vegetables

Lamb Koftas

Tandoori Fish (really fantastic, the winner of the starters)

And going on to enjoy Lamb Vindaloo (not as hot as you would think, but very tasty)

Butter Chicken

Lamb Rogan Josh

Palak Paneer (I know I perhaps say this a lot, but this has to be up there with the best Palak Paneer ever tasted)

and a selection of other vegetable dishes including Bhindi

Potatoes

and Eggplant (slightly bland and my least favourite of the vegetable dishes, which on the whole were fabulous)

Good food… good wine… good company… and a happy birthday boy… what more could you ask for?


Ras - http://www.ras.com.sg/

Veggie Dim Sum?

One of my favourite places to go for Dim Sum is Yum Cha in Chinatown. This time we went with some friends, one vegetarian, so it was an excuse to order extra dishes, and also some we wouldn’t normally try (ie. the vegetarian ones).

It transpired to be quite a challenge finding vegetarian dim sum, but we ordered up the following which all sounded veggie enough:

Crystal Chive Dumplings – turned out they had prawns in, Fried Carrot Cake – tasted very fishy so we decided it wasn’t vegetarian at all.

Vegetarian Spring Rolls – definitely veggie

Crystal Vegetarian Mushroom Dumplings – the veggie hit of the day, inspiring a double order

Coconut Flavoured Plain Bun

We also ordered up some non-veggie dishes:
Steamed Pork Buns

Xiao Long Bao

Steamed Pork Ribs with Bean Sauce

And also some old favourites which didn’t let us down – Yum Cha Shrimp Dumplings, Sesame Prawn and Mango Rolls, Fried Garlic Prawn Dumplings and Dumplings in Special Spicy Sauce.

So all in all a bit of a mixed bag really… some disappointing, some as good as ever… I think I’ve had better experiences here, but I still enjoyed it and will of course be back again soon… our veggie friend has been to a specifically vegetarian dim sum restaurant… so that’s always another option for next time…

Yum Cha – http://www.yumcha.com.sg/

Two Dinners

We so enjoyed our last foodie experience up at Arab Street, that we decided to head back there on Friday evening for some more Middle Eastern delights. Unfortunately though, this time’s experience couldn’t be more different from the fabulous Turkish food we enjoyed at Alaturka. We’d heard good things about Al-Tazzag, an Egyptian restaurant on Haji Lane, so that was our destination of choice, but as I said, not a particularly good one.

It started with the hummus. Now let me explain, Mr Greedy Glutton had a bit of a hummus ‘habit’ when we lived in the UK, which he has managed to kick since we moved to Singapore, except for rare occasions such as this. I therefore had to carefully prepare him for the disappointment before he tasted the Al-Tazzag hummus, which was, in a word, awful. I don’t know what else to say, it just didn’t taste like any other hummus I have ever tasted, and definitely not in a good way.



The Baba Ghanoush was equally as bland and disappointing, and even the pitta was stale… oh dear, not a good start.



Unfortunately it didn’t get any better after that. I ordered the Chicken Sheesh Kebab, which was, again, really pretty tasteless, but worst of all came served with frozen potato wedges!



At least mine turned up though, which is more than can be said for Mr Greedy Glutton’s Koftas… after 15 minutes and not being able to even locate any member of their waiting staff, we actually got up and left, deciding that if the rest of the food was anything to go by, it wasn’t worth waiting for anyway.

We were obviously still hungry by this stage, so we went in search of more food. Unfortunately Alaturka was already closed, so we took a seat outside at Amirah’s Grill next door, and ordered up a couple of Chicken Shwarmas. They weren’t great, I wouldn’t necessarily recommend them or return for another one, but they were a massive improvement on where we’d just come from.


To say we went home disappointed is an understatement… ah well, you win some, you lose some… I’m just glad that this wasn’t our first experience of eating in this neck of the woods, or we might not have returned in a hurry…

Al-Tazzag – Haji Lane
Amirah’s Grill – Bussorah St

Gourmet Burger

If you’re a regular reader, you will know that Mr Greedy Glutton and I love a good burger, and it is something we have struggled to find since moving to Singapore. So I was interested to read on Chubby Hubby’s website of a new joint in town, dedicated to the gourmet burger. So last Sunday we dragged ourselves out of bed and jumped in a cab headed for Bukit Timah road and to Relish.

We were both going to go for the Bacon & Cheese Burger, but were encouraged by our waiter to be a bit more adventurous (quite right, what were we thinking?!) so Mr Greedy Glutton ended up with the Mexican Burger (jalapenos, salsa, guacamole) and I opted for the Wild Rocket Burger, which was the original burger from the owners’ other restaurant, Wild Rocket, that inspired the whole idea for Relish. This came with sun dried tomato salsa and a pepper sauce.

There’s no mistaking it, these were good burgers, well seasoned, fresh, toasted buns, well cooked (if you don’t mind your mince rare), and interesting accompanying salsas and sauces. They are very thick and high though, and so not that easy to eat and I noticed most people were tackling theirs with a knife and fork (not me, half the fun is to have the juices running down your arms isn't it?!) It’s a great location to enjoy a burger too – a cool and laid-back atmosphere with friendly and attentive service.

What I was extremely impressed with though, was the onion rings. I often order onion rings, as I like the sound of them, but I rarely actually enjoy them (so why do I always order them? Because I’m greedy… and I live in hope of enjoying them). Well today was the day, these were the tastiest onion rings ever, tasty, soft onions in a light, crisp batter – perfect.

Had we not recently discovered the Wine Garage burger, we would have been very excited by Relish indeed. For us though, the Wine Garage burger is still the current favourite, and for us Clarke Quay is a whole lot easier to get to than Bukit Timah road.

Those Relish burgers don’t look that big when they arrive at your table, but let me tell you, they certainly fill you up… luckily the Botanical Gardens are a hop, skip and a jump away for walking off your lunch… not that you’ll be able to hop, skip or jump after eating here…

Relish – http://www.wildrocket.com.sg/relish.htm

Dim Sum Craving

Every few weeks I wake up with a Dim Sum craving, when nothing else will do, and last Saturday was one of those days. We had a spot of shopping to do on Orchard Road so chose Crystal Jade Nan Jiang Cuisine at Ngee Ann City. Last time we came here we had to wait for half an hour for a table, so today we booked ahead and what to you know? It was half empty… Well who cares, we had a table in a nice restaurant and a veritable feast to enjoy.

We started with a chicken and noodle salad with a spicy peanut sauce, which was quite strange – it basically tasted like cold noodles and chicken mixed in with some peanut butter and chilli – but hey, I like noodles, chicken, chilli and peanut butter, so it was ok by me…

We also pigged out on Crispy Beancurd Rolls with Shrimp, a true winner:

Ha Kau Shrimp Dumpling, as good as ever

Xiao Long Bao (and those damn dumplings stuck to the lettuce leaf so the soup disappeared into the steamer before it reached my mouth, but the remaining dumplings was still pretty good)

Siew Mai

And our favourite dish from our last visit: Pork Wanton in a Spicy Sauce – unfortunately they just didn’t live up to our memories though, today’s were decidedly tasteless and oily.

All in all though, a tasty lunch… and a craving satisfied… ah how I love living in Asia…


Crystal Jade Jiang Nan Cuisine - http://www.crystaljade.com/CrystalJadeJiangNanCuisine.htm