Royal smoked duck. I wouldn’t particularly refer to the duck as royal or any similar superlative adjective but the smoked duck, its wings spread wide in a graceful final flight before consumption, competently checks all the relevant boxes – crispy skin, nicely greased up and a good mix of fatty…
Stir-fried coral clam with asparagus in “Lao Gan Tie” sauce. Essentially the springiest, boingggggiest and chewiest sotong ever, with asparagus texturally countering the softness with its hard crunchiness, and the signature Royal Pavillion’s old grandfather lending its spicy, aromatic body fragance to the occasion. 4/5 This dish is part of…
Oreo bomb from Banana Tree. Essentially vanilla ice cream resting atop an Oreo cookie post-apocalyptic wasteland, with earthen heat still radiating from the heated frying pan. Have the cookies warm as they are served, smash them into crumbs and have warm cookie cereal, or mix the crumbs with the ice…
Cha-Yen bingsu from Chick and Ken – Thai tea glace, home-made red rubies, honeyed corn flakes and Thai tea gelee. Essentially surprisingly good Thai milk tea ice kachang, and somehow by magical diffusion or similar scientific mechanism the Thai milk tea flavour and scent is distinct and detected in every…
Customised mezzanine set at Museo ($44), consisting of any four of the eight mezzanines available. It was quite an interesting experience having share-sized portions of zi char-style fare in a classy, laid-back and cosy setting. Hits and misses, but maybe I didn’t order the best mezzanines? 4/5 (aggregate score) Picasso’s…
Korean shaved ice with three fruits and gelato from Insadong Korea Town. You get to choose the gelato and sauce to drizzle over the ice, and pictured is the green tea gelato with kuromitsu sauce. Essentially an idealistic Korean bingsu challenging itself not to be pigeonholed as “exotic”, “novelty” or “foreign…
Fish soup noodles from Ka Soh (Swee Kee Fishhead Noodle House). The fish stock boasts to have high levels of protein, calcium and collagen. It supposedly includes no milk, its whiteness stemming from all the boiled fish bone goodness. All I know is that the stock tastes wondrously comforting and rich,…
Stir-fried squid with chillies, green peppercorns and basil at Long Chim. The sauce was thick, salty, and sharply spicy – the kind of life partner every rice grain dreams of meeting, someday. The marquee name almost feels like a supporting actor here but is itself commendable for its crunchiness, although…
Chiang Mai chicken relish with cabbage, chilli and mint. Delectably fatty and salty, and wickedly spicy of the slow-burn, mouth-numbing variety. Remarkably humble a dish (and humbly-priced at $10), yet it spectacularly kickstarts a meal on a supernova explosive note. 4.3/5 P.S. One needs to be faithful to the concept…