Pan-fried loin of venison with celeriac puree, baby spinach, pine nuts and cranberry jus from The Lokal. The venison was delectably juicy and well-cooked whilst the sweet celeriac puree, which coats your inner lips jealously and only betrays its green origins at the end of your mouthful, would give a…
Prawn Kadaif from 999.99 Five Nines – tiger prawn wrapped in thin deep fried noodles with red pepper sauce. The sauce was like a writhing baby girl from tomato and chilli parents, whilst elsewhere the noodles shattered loudly and dramatically in your mouth like a chandelier would if a XXL-sized…
Buttermilk waffles with Milo crumble & rum caramelised bananas from Strangers’ Reunion. Tuesdays used to be rest days for the staff of Strangers’ Reunion and Curious Palette, but they have decided to forgo their weekly respite and serve customers on Tuesdays for a very special reason – all proceeds from…
Saffron paella with pan-fried red snapper, chorizo and snow peas from Esquina. The sweet paella was slickly oiled with a delectably sticky crunch, being a perfect foil for the chaste innocence of the well-cooked snapper, whilst elsewhere the chewy, juicy chorizo had intense pig dictatorship intentions. 4/5 Esquina 16 Jiak…
Norwegian Royale from The Reading Room – smoked salmon, French-style scrambled eggs (no milk added), French butter and arugula on two French toasts. While the soggy toast sagged under the pressure of its French parents’ eggy demands, the absolute smorgasbord of warm egg and salmon chunks atop the toasts (hidden…
Lychee prawn from Lin Rooftop Bar – chopped tiger prawns sautéed with garlic and stuffed in whole lychee, served on a bed of savoury tomato concasse sauce. The lychees wrap their angel wings around the happily garlicky prawns like a possessive crazy ex-girlfriend, positively smothering the prawns with sweet, sweet…
Wu Xiang Pop from Lin Rooftop Bar – deep-fried popcorn chicken tossed in five spice powder and crispy Thai basil leaves. The popcorn chicken had the vapid personality of a $0.50 URA/HDB parking coupon, but was reasonably redeemed by the assertive sassiness of the spicy, powdery dip. 3.6/5 Lin Rooftop…
“Ginger Beer” Pork Collar from Populus – charred ginger beer marinated pork collar, roasted butternut squash with spicy yogurt, honey coriander salsa verde, apple slaw. Essentially rugged, army Encik-esque meat coated in sour veggie camo. In manner of sin-cos-tan matters, quadratic equations and the like, the dish truly perplexes. 3.3/5…
Christmas Cake from Mad About Sucre – aged brandy, apricot, cranberries, currant, citrus peels, vanilla light rum sauce, and rum chantilly cream. Essentially the gustatory equivalent of seeing your familiar friend of many years in (ahem) naughty and slightly inappropriate Santa attire for the first time. The alcoholic fumes diffuse…