Halia’s Singapore-style chilli crab spaghettini in spicy, sweet & tangy sauce. The crab bits were big, firm and intact, as if they were extracted fully from the shell instead of being all minced and clumpy. The spaghettini was nicely thin and slurpsome, and the spiciness at play is subtle -…
Chicken karaage ramen burger. Essentially the love child of a female Singaporean-Japanese ramen and a male American hairy-legged burger who goes for spin classes at the gym. The ramen patties tasted like an interesting crossover between mee goreng and eggy carrot cake, while the chicken karaage was tender and juicy,…
Laksa Goreng – stir-fried laksa served with prawn, fish cake, bean sprout and tau pok. Tastes like a dreamy crossover between laksa and Hokkien Mee with its rich, thick laksa gravy and darn good wok hei. 3.8/5 Peranakan Flavours 11 Jalan Klapa The Ardennes Hotel Singapore 199323
Warm kimchi with tofu & spam – housemade kimchi, mangalitsa pork belly, tofu, onion, scallion. Essentially deconstructed Korean army stew. You can merge the disparate elements into a mini stew within your mouth in manner of Power Ranger-esque Megazord transformation. The tofu wore its strong tofu taste with gusto, and…
XO Duck Tagliatelle – tagliatelle, duck breast, XO chilli sauce, sugar snaps and corn kernels. Tastes and smells exactly like the XO carrot cake you get at Hong Kong cafés. The duck must have been a hardcore Fitness First (Market Street branch) gym rat as his breast was sure tough.…
Secret Thai Chilli Chicken and Goddess Chicken. At the soft launch of The Betterfield, a cafe-bistro concept that serves coffee and cafe fare. I preferred the Secret Thai Chilli Chicken – the sauce is thick, limey, spicy and sweet, and coats the chicken very nicely. 3.8/5 The Goddess Chicken is…
Bubor Cha Cha Panna Cotta. The equivalent of giving your tongue a luxurious staycation body massage using this cool, fragrant and really smooth cream. You’d be hard pressed to find more pleasant ways to end a meal than this. 4.1/5 Violet Oon’s Kitchen 881 Bukit Timah Road Singapore 279893
Black Pepper Prawn Pasta – spaghetti tossed in piquant black pepper with fresh prawns. The pasta was well-tossed, with the gritty and sweet pepper coating each strand very evenly. However, the prawns seemed to be awkward guests at their own party, all dry with annoyingly hard shells, and you would…
Spicy chicken nanban. A Singapore-exclusive item, and essentially the concept of “dish localization” executed to perfection. The spiciness doesn’t just dwell in the sauce – it looks all creamy and harmless but oh, boy – but also in the chicken’s marinate. Thus, it’s spicy inside out yet restrained enough that…