Pizza Giardino @ Chijmes

It has been quite some time since I had pizza, so my gf and I dropped by another restaurant on the Palate program, Pizza Giardino, located at Chijmes. 

Prior to ordering, I told the waiter that I was going to use my AMEX card (bundled with Palate) and asked if there were any ordering requirements. The waiter just told us to go ahead and order, and said that yes, we could enjoy a 50% discount with the AMEX card. So we ordered one main course and two starters.

Lasagna Bolognese, $18

This was quite poorly done. I couldn't taste the pasta at all - it seems like it was just layers of cheese. And the cheese was a bit too hard. 

Affettato Misto, $16

This was definitely more interesting, though I would have preferred if they had told us the name for each cheese and ham. In my opinion, this was the best dish of the night, even though it wasn't really outstanding. No wait... I think the Corona beer I ordered was the best.

Misto Carne Pizza, $25

Comes with toppings of tomato, cheese, salami, ham, bacon, and Italian sausage. This was still all right, except that it was a bit too salty - not surprisingly given the combination of ingredients! I discarded most of the bacon though; it was almost 100% fat with very little meat.

When the bill came, another waiter told us that they couldn't give us the 50% discount, because the requirement was that we had to order two main courses. I told them that we had asked beforehand and were not informed of this. The waiter went to speak to his manager, but when he came back, it was still the same stand. 

I stood my ground. I told him that this was extremely unfair to me, because of two reasons: I had asked beforehand and was not informed, and even if he did not hear my question fully (which perhaps he didn't, because he looked a bit distracted and lost), he definitely knew that I was going to use the AMEX card (he did tell us that we could enjoy the discount if I used my AMEX card). So when he took my order, he should have told me that I would need to order two main courses instead. 

In the end, they relented and gave me the discount. Then again, I wouldn't visit this place again. The food wasn't good, and the service was definitely not satisfactory either.

The Tastings Room @ Marina Square

Second visit to The Tastings Room. Unlike my first visit, today the restaurant was 90% full, no doubt due to their Groupon offer.

Norwegian Salmon Tartare with 'Sous Vide' Egg & Caviar, $18.90

This was really a delightful starter. For one thing, the egg yolk definitely helped to make the dish more aesthetically pleasant, but though it looked very runny, I still found it a little too cooked. But the salmon was really good, and it was heavily spiced and topped with lumpfish caviar. Definitely recommended!

Saffron Seafood Risotto, $24.90

Beneath the cheesy risotto lies some squid, prawns, and scallops, which were all good but not fantastic. The risotto was quite all right, but I didn't really like the fact that they added some lemon juice to it. Prego's organic risotto is currently still the best, in my opinion.

Past visit:
17th April 2012

Covelli @ Orchard Central

Second visit to Covelli.

Covelli Zuppa di Funghi, $14

Cream of wild mushroom soup, with white truffle oil. This is considered a 'light' version of mushroom soup, which contrasts with The Tasting Rooms' rich version. While this was still all right, it still lost to The Tasting Rooms'. Even if we compare it with other 'light' types of mushroom soups, I think Prego's is still better.

Classic Caesar Salad, $14

One look at the dish and I groaned inwardly. The egg - its supposed to be poached, not hard boiled! True enough, the egg yolk was 90% cooked, which was a let down. But at least the salad itself was still pretty okay.

Risotto al Funghi, $18

Arborio rice, with gourmet field mushrooms in porcini mushroom cream sauce. Some white truffle oil was also added. Nothing really special about this; I thought the mushroom flavour could be richer. And there was a very slight tinge of sourness inside which didn't really go well with my palate. 

Black Truffle Ravioli, $20

One of their 'must try' dishes. The ravioli was filled with black truffle and cheese, and cooked in brown butter cream sauce. The garnishing on top is actually grated hazelnuts. This dish gave me the opportunity to taste the difference between black and white truffle (compared to the soup and risotto). White truffle seemed to taste much stronger, for one thing. (Or maybe they added much more white than black truffle.) And black truffle does not have the kind of 'gassy' smell like white truffle.

Past visit:
2nd May 2012

Portfolio update

With markets in such a big mess due to Greece, I made some switches to my portfolio around two weeks ago. For one thing, I don't foresee that the Greece crisis will be resolved so soon, so this time I switched some of my equities to bonds and took profits on some funds as well. And it's a good thing I did; markets continued to fall over this period. 

CPFIS-OA

Fund	Sector/Region	Asset Class	% of portfolio
Aberdeen Global Emerging Markets	Global Emerging Markets	Equity	16.07%
Eastspring Inv UT Pan European	Europe	Equity	14.63%
Fidelity America USD	US	Equity	23.67%
First State Dividend Advantage	Asia Pacific ex Japan	Equity	13.83%
First State Regional China	Greater China	Equity	10.60%
Henderson Global Technology	Global Technology	Equity	7.70%
LionGlobal Japan Growth Fund	Japan	Equity	7.08%
Nikko AM Shenton Short Term Bond (S$)	Short Duration	Fixed income	6.43%

Asset allocation: 94% equities, 6% fixed income

Changes:

Sold First State Global Resources
Bought Nikko AM Shenton Short Term Bond (S$)

First State Global Resources has plummeted by 30%, and I have decided to switch it to a short duration fund and wait for an opportunity to enter the market again. Thinking of going into Europe because of its cheap valuations, but Europe already takes up quite a substantial portion of my CPF-OA portfolio. Hmm.

CPFIS-SA

Fund	Sector/Region	Asset Class	% of portfolio
DWS Premier Select Trust	Global	Balanced	27.17%
First State Bridge	Asia Pacific ex Japan	Balanced	72.83%

Asset allocation: 100% balanced

No changes. Still looking for a good chance to put the money back into my CPF-SA account. DWS Premier Select Trust is down by 3.06% while First State Bridge is down by 1.44%.

Cash

Fund	Sector/Region	Asset Class	% of portfolio
Aberdeen Pacific Equity	Asia Pacific ex Japan	Equity	19.56%
Aviva Inv Glb HY Bd Axh SGD	High Yield	Fixed income	12.50%
FTIF-Templeton Glb Total Ret A(mdis) SGD-H1	Global	Fixed income	7.91%
Fidelity America USD	US	Equity	4.63%
First State Regional China	Greater China	Equity	7.02%
LionGlobal Spore Fixed	Singapore	Fixed income	8.64%
Nikko AM Shenton Short Term Bond (S$)	Short Duration	Fixed income	25.75%
United Asian Bond Fund	Asia ex Japan	Fixed income	9.54%
United Emerging Markets Bond Fund	Emerging Markets	Fixed income	4.44%

Asset allocation: 31% equities, 69% fixed income

Changes:
Sold Aberdeen European Opportunities
Sold (partial) Aberdeen Pacific Equity
Sold BNPPL1 Eq Russia EUR
Sold DWS SGP small/midCap A SGD
Sold Fidelity Glb Fin Serv EUR
Topped up into Aviva Inv Glb HY Bd Axh SGD
Topped up into United Asian Bond Fund
Topped up into LionGlobal Spore Fixed Inc-A
Bought Nikko AM Shenton Short Term Bond (S$)


As shown, my cash portfolio's asset allocation (equities - bonds) has changed from 70-30 to 31-69. Aberdeen Pacific Equity was still making money, so I sold off some to take profits. BNPPL1 Eq Russia EUR, Aberdeen European Opportunities and Fidelity Glb Fin Svc EUR were also sold off as I think markets will still go down further. As for DWS SGP small/midCap A SGD, I have decided to invest directly in the Singapore stock market instead of going through a unit trust.

The high allocation to Nikko AM Shenton Short Term Bond (S$) signifies that I am just waiting for a good opportunity to enter the market again. Markets are unbelievably cheap now, but I think there is still room for it to fall further. Will probably enter it in staggered intervals and in small amounts.

Baker & Cook @ Hillcrest Road

Due to my mother being a huge fan of bread, I brought her here for breakfast this morning. Baker & Cook is located at 77 Hillcrest Road, along Bukit Timah Road (opposite Hwa Chong Institution). It was refreshing to find such a place that opens for breakfast as early as 7am.

The place is rather small; there is only one big table for indoor seating. The other seats are outdoors, so some customers would inevitably have to sit under the sun. But I liked the design of the interior, especially how they display their bread. However, the smell of freshly baked bread was noticeably missing, something I should have taken note of when I stepped in.

Baker & Cook Freshly Baked Bread & Croissant Selection (for two to share), $10

I am not a bread fan. Which made me wonder why I offered to order this to share with my mother. The bread was obviously not freshly baked. They were hard. They were dry. The crust of the bread was so tough that I discarded almost all of it. For the croissant, ignoring the fact that it was cold, also did not taste good, as the delicious buttery taste that is indicative of a good croissant was definitely missing. The butter cubes were also quite tasteless and did not help to make the bread easier to go down too.

For a place that specialises in bread, Baker & Cook disappoints big time. I suspect that the bread was left over from yesterday; there is no way freshly baked bread would taste this bad.

Keystone @ Stanley Street

While the Palate discount is definitely welcome for the restaurants that I have visited, for Keystone, it almost seems to be a necessity because of its prices. We usually order two main courses and at least one starter, but after we saw the prices, we decided to forego the starter. I was actually eyeing their foie gras, damn it... 

Blackmore Abstract, $55

From the title on the menu, I had no idea what it was and had to ask the waitress. It turned out to be beef brisket with gnocchi and ravioli. I love the presentation for this dish; it somehow reminded me of a garden with colourful plants and vegetables scattered all over. 

Some explanation is obviously needed here. The green ball-like thing is actually the ravioli, which took me by surprise. Isn't ravioli supposed to be... pasta with fillings? Their ravioli felt like a wobbly sweet pea bomb that practically exploded in your mouth once you chew on it. So this has to be eaten in one mouthful. Good luck if you tried to eat half of it or cut it. 

The bbq gnocchi slices looked like sausage slices, and to a certain extent, it almost tasted like sausage slices too. (That's a good thing, by the way.) But of course, the beef brisket was the highlight of the dish. Inconspicuously obscured under the layer of queso manchego cheese, the beef practically melted in my mouth. It was unbelievably delicious and is one of the best beef dishes I have ever had. 

Snake River Farms Pork Belly, $58

This is apparently one of their most popular dishes, and came with yukon chips and baby carrots. The yukon chips were fried so well that the outside was perfectly crisp but the inside was still tender and moist, while the baby carrots were refreshing but normal.

When I eat pork belly, I usually remove all the fat. But looking at this dish, I guess the fat already accounts for half the pork belly! So judging from its price, if I were to skip the fat, I would basically be forgoing more than $20 of my money. My gf and I thus finished every bit of the pork belly. It was wonderfully cooked and extremely good indeed, but I would still prefer the previous dish to this.

As can be seen, Keystone is obviously rather expensive, even after a 50% discount. We still felt a bit hungry after eating as the portions were quite small, but we refrained from ordering anything else, even the desserts. In the future, we should grab some bak kut teh nearby before coming here for dinner...

Baikohken @ North Canal Road

I have always stressed that to me, the soup is the most important when it comes to ramen. Baikohken's shoyu is currently the best I have ever tasted, but their char siew was even more outstanding. 

Shoyu char siew ramen with flavoured egg, $20.50

This is a huge bowl of ramen. Maybe it's not that obvious from the picture, but my gf and I shared one bowl and were quite full after that. While the price may raise some eyebrows, it was really worth it considering that it was enough for two, and it comes with an abundance of char siew. Don't be deceived from the picture again - there are still more pieces of char siew lurking under the soup!

The shoyu soup was not too salty and yet had the natural taste of the shoyu within. The huge chunks of menma (bamboo shoots) were also another differentiating factor from other ramen, but the char siew deserves much more attention.

Firstly, if you look carefully, you will notice that the char siew differs in colour and texture. The left pieces are whiter, while the pieces on top are darker. It is clear that the lighter pieces come from a thinner portion of the pig, while the darker pieces come with more fat. One can tell that Baikohken really focuses on making their char siew good - they use pork shoulder (五花肉), and the texture and taste of the meat differs as you move from one end of the pork shoulder to the other end. 

While the leaner portion was already quite tender, the fatter portion practically melts in your mouth. And no, it is not because of the fat. I removed most of the fat and can confirm that it is the meat's texture that is responsible for making it fall apart so easily. 

This is definitely the best char siew I have come across in ramen stores, though theirs was a bit too salty. The fatter corner was also significantly saltier than the thinner corner.

Having raved so much about the char siew, I must say that I have come here before and the char siew, though good, was never as good as today. I should pay them another visit for a more accurate evaluation.

Skyve Elementary Bistro & Bar @ Winstedt Road

Skyve Elementary Bistro & Bar is located on 10 Winstedt Road, along Bukit Timah Road. It is almost right beside Anglo-Chinese School. I dropped by this morning with my gf and two other friends. 

When we entered the restaurant, we were pleasantly surprised by the interior layout of the place - it was spacious, comfortable, and modern. We were the first customers of the day, and were enjoying the peace... until they switched on the music. It was way too loud and we had to ask the staff to turn it down. 

Then we got down to ordering. 

Classic Breakfast, $20

Their two eggs came with a choice of style - overeasy, sunny side up, scrambled, or poached. It is not that common to see restaurants offering overeasy (fry both sides), and having grown up eating overeasy eggs, I chose that and requested that the egg yolks must still be runny. This didn't turn out too well, as the egg yolks were probably already 80% cooked. Then again, I have never eaten an overeasy egg that is done as well as how my mother fries it.

Other than the eggs, the dish also comes with mushroom fricassee, pork sausage, grilled tomato, and a choice of brioche or sourdough bread. I picked the brioche bread. Everything else was average, but the pork sausage was quite good and juicy.

Skyve Sous Vide Eggs Benedict, $16

'Sous vide' actually stands for a method of cooking, where food is sealed in plastic bag in a water bath. This helps to cook the food more uniformly. Their version of eggs benedict comes with sourdough bread, grilled portobello mushroom, sweet corn, holladaise sauce, and some arugula salad. When the dish came, we knew that their poached eggs would definitely be good - it looked so perfect and was even wobbling when the waiter placed the plate down. True enough, when the egg was pierced with a fork, the egg yolk gushed out, indicating a perfect doneness. (The biggest sin when poaching eggs is to overcook it.) Along with its accompaniments, this was pretty good too, but because of their way of cooking, the texture felt quite different from your usual poached eggs.

While writing this entry, I paid their website a visit and realised that they have just increased their prices. The Classic Breakfast used to cost $18, which wasn't a big difference from $20. But the Eggs Benedict was originally only $12. Looks like they increased this by 33%, ouch...

The visit would have been more enjoyable if not for a couple who brought their kid along. The kid was probably around 3 years old, and after a while, started to wail loudly and throw tantrums, shattering the peace and quiet. Fortunately we had already finished our food, so we made a hasty (albeit grudging) retreat.

I really detest kids. 

Update as of 21st May 2012:

I just checked their website again, and the prices have been updated. They have also renamed their 'Classic Breakfast' to 'Skyver's Breakfast'.

Ramen Keisuke Dining @ Millenia Walk

Having tried their watarikani ramen (crab stock ramen), we decided to try something different - their shio and shoyu ramen. 

Shoyu ramen with flavoured egg, $13

I must say that I was really disappointed with this bowl of ramen. While the egg was still as good as before, the soup was a big let-down. I ordered 'strong' for my soup, which came out too salty. But even if it wasn't that salty, one could tell that the taste of the shoyu (soy sauce) was not prominent, and there was even a very slight tinge of sourness in the soup. Baikohken has the best shoyu ramen I have tried so far; will blog about it soon.

Shio ramen with flavoured egg, $13

Shio actually stands for salt, and the soup is obviously clearer, made with salt and chicken or vegetable stock. Among the four standard types of ramen soup - shio, shoyu, tonkotsu, and miso - shio is the lightest and healthiest of all. (Which is why I usually don't order it. I like my soup to be thick and rich.) But I must still say that this bowl is still much better than the shoyu ramen.

I definitely should stick to their watarikani ramen next time. For the tonkotsu version, I can just visit their other outlet Tonkotsu King at Tanjong Pagar.

Past visits:
4th January 2012

Wild Honey @ Mandarin Gallery

Wild Honey is another well known place for brunch, though recently they have been under the spotlight for the wrong reason.

http://temasektimes.wordpress.com/2012/04/23/wild-honey-restaurant-slammed-for-favoring-foreigners-over-singaporeans/

http://temasektimes.wordpress.com/2012/04/25/wild-honey-apologizes-to-gary-tan-for-the-misunderstanding-but-continues-to-delete-his-messages-on-facebook/

Undeterred, I decided to visit this place which I have heard so many extreme comments about. Some of my friends claim that their food is really fantastic, while others swear that it is overrated. The only way to confirm this is to pay a visit myself. 

The place does not accept reservations, so I arrived early this morning (I took leave from work). Just before they were open at 9am, there was already a short queue of around five people in front of me. If it was the weekend, I think there would be more than twenty.

'European', $18

This is Wild Honey's version of Eggs Benedict. It differs from your usual Eggs Benedict in mainly two areas - the bread and the ham. Brioche was used for the bread, and it tasted strongly and delightfully of butter. It was also quite light, and I liked the colour of the crust - it was a very nice dark brown which made it look very appetising. For the ham, Italian prosciutto was used, which was thinly sliced and wrapped around the poached egg. 'European' is a refreshing change of the normal Eggs Benedict and I would definitely recommend this to anyone else.

'Tunisian', $20

This was the dish which one of my colleagues condemned, saying that she could only finish half of it because it 'sucked so bad'. My gf ordered this, and after trying it, my first impression was that it had a very Mediterranean and Middle East taste. Which its name sort of hinted at already, by the way. This taste would definitely not go down well with some people, which explains why my colleague hated it. But my gf enjoyed it. As for me, I was quite neutral on this. The pan of shakshouka (tomato, onion, red pepper, chilli) was also littered with Chorizo sausage and topped with two eggs. 

The verdict? Wild Honey is indeed overrated, but just a tiny bit. From the queues and the ravings from many, perhaps my expectations were set a bit too high. Still, I found the food to be quite delicious, and the service was excellent. (Maybe this was the result of the latest incident?) The coffee was a bit too pricey though, at $5 a cup - so we didn't order any and went elsewhere for our coffee fix.

Anchovy pasta salad

Anchovy pasta salad (serves 3)

For this dish, as the name suggests, the anchovy paste plays a major role in the taste of the salad. I found it to be very appetising. 

Ingredients:

1.5 tablespoon of lemon juice
2 teaspoons of mustard
2 teaspoons of anchovy paste
1 teaspoon of minced garlic
4 teaspoons of olive oil
100g of penne rigate
140g of butterhead lettuce

140g of iceberg lettuce

Parmesan cheese

Instructions:

1) Boil a pot of well-salted water. When it boils, put the penne rigate in and let it boil according to the instructions on the pasta packet.

2) Rinse the pasta under cold water, then drain.

3) Tear the butterhead lettuce and iceberg lettuce into bite-sized pieces, and put in a large mixing bowl. Add the pasta in.

4) Mix the lemon juice, anchovy paste, mustard, minced garlic, and olive oil in a small bowl. 

5) Add the mixture into the mixing bowl and mix well. Grate some cheese in and mix well.

6) Season with a bit of salt and pepper,  then serve.

Many of the ingredients above can be substituted easily. The penne rigate can be changed to farfalle, and romaine lettuce can be used instead of butterhead and/or iceberg lettuce. The cheese can also be changed to any other kind of cheese, as long as it is freshly grated.

French onion soup

French onion soup (serves 3)

A rather troublesome dish to make, and the outcome could be improved. The recipe below has already included the tweaks I made.

French onion soup

Ingredients:

3 large white onions, thinly sliced length-wise (cut into half first)
2 sprigs of thyme
2 bay leaves
0.5 teaspoon of salt
Butter
1 teaspoon of all-purpose flour
0.75 cup of white wine
4 cups of beef broth
1.5 cups of water
Black pepper
3 diagonal slices of baguette, roughly 1cm thick
Gruyere cheese

Instructions:

1) Put the butter into the pan (make sure it's big enough to hold all the onions) under moderate heat. Once it sizzles, put the onion, thyme, bay leaves, and salt in. Stir frequently and cook until onions are soft and brown. This should take around 20 minutes.

2) Add the flour in and continue stirring for around 1 minute. 

3) Add the wine in and continue stirring for around 1 to 2 minutes, then add the broth, water, and pepper. Stir and let it simmer for roughly 15 more minutes. Make sure that the onions inside are very soft. If the soup starts to dry up, add more water and wine. 

4) Place the baguette slices into a toaster oven and toast for around 5 minutes on each side, until the baguette becomes brown and crispy.

5) Preheat the oven to around 160 degrees for around 10 minutes. Pour the soup into a big pot (or several small serving pots) that can withstand oven heat. Toss the baguette slices in, then slice some Gruyere cheese and spread it over the soup. 

6) Take the pot out after 5 minutes, or when the cheese has melted and browned. Serve with a dash of black pepper.

As shown in the picture, my soup came out a bit too dry, so I tweaked the recipe above to make it more liquid. The onions were soft, but not soft enough, so I also extended the stir-fry timing of the onions as well as let it simmer longer in the soup.

Fandango Tapas & Wine Bar @ Chijmes

Fandango Tapas & Wine Bar, at Chijmes. Again, another restaurant on the Palate program, so my gf and I enjoyed a 50% discount (prices below are before discount). As the name suggests, it serves tapas.

Chorizo sausage in piri piri sauce, $16

Piri piri is a kind of African chilli, but this dish wasn't spicy at all. Chorizo sausage is a rather strong-flavoured food, but this was quite mild. It wasn't obscured by the sauce, because the sauce wasn't strong either.

Patatas Bravas, $10

Potato wedges, with a supposedly hot salsa sauce. The least satisfactory among all the dishes we ordered. 

Truffle fries, $12

I am a sucker for truffle, so I ordered this without hesitation. One could see the generous serving of truffle salt on the fries, but the truffle salt just wasn't as good as what I have tasted elsewhere. I am assuming that it is of a lower grade, as the truffle scent and taste did not stand out. The texture of the fries was a bit off - it broke up too easily, so it was a hassle trying to eat it with a fork. 

Seared tuna loin, $18

Ah, the best dish of all. The tuna was fresh and done just nicely, and when eaten with the sauce, it really hits the spot. 

Beer braised beef, $14

Taste-wise, this was all right, although I couldn't taste the beer at all. The mushrooms were good, but the beef was a little tough. 

Calamari rings, $12

Calamari rings is a common dish everywhere, but they managed to differentiate theirs from the rest. And the reason lies in its spice - I have no idea what spice it was, but it gave the calamari a unique flavour that at least made an impression.

Being quite close to my office, Fandango Tapas & Wine Bar is another place I can consider adding to my list of dinner-places after work. Although there were some misses in what we ordered, there is still quite a variety of other dishes that one can order. Their menu can be found here. Service was also excellent, so dining here was quite an enjoyable experience.

Liking your own Facebook status

Occasionally, I see some of my friends liking their own statuses on Facebook. The worst cases are those that write some preachy quote, say - "When the going gets tough, the tough gets going" - and liking it after that. Come on. The sentence may be meaningful, but after you have liked it yourself, it just dropped several levels in terms of meaning and credibility while rising more than a few notches in lameness. 

If you translate it to real life, it's like making a sentence, say, "Couples need to spend time and effort to understand each other." Followed by "Yes, I really liked what I just said." How lame is that? 

Let's make something clear. When you post something on Facebook, it already implies that you like it. Liking your own status is just overkill, and gives others (at least, me) the impression that you desperately want others to like your quote too.

As one Facebook page puts it - "Liking your own status is like high-fiving yourself in public". How very apt.

Managing risk... or adding risk?

JPMorgan has hit the headlines recently for losing a shocking US$2 billion over derivatives. The derivatives involved were mainly credit default swaps, which were supposed to be used to offset other risks in the bank's investments.

Isn't it ironic that the bank's risk management unit became responsible for the bank losing US$2 billion? Isn't the risk management unit there to... manage risk instead of adding to it? Additionally, the CEO has admitted that another US$1 billion of losses was possible by the end of this quarter. Exacerbating this is the fact that other market participants, knowing that JPMorgan may have to cut their positions urgently for risk management purposes and to cut losses, may wait for the bank to unwind positions at even more attractive prices before stepping in.

The world economy is still on a very fragile note, and the least the world needs is another spanner throw into the recovery process. And such acts - losing US$2 billion simply due to "errors, sloppiness and bad judgment" coupled with the risk management unit being empowered by the CEO to make bigger and riskier speculative trades - are simply intolerable and downright irresponsible. When banks deemed "too big to fail" fail, what happens? Governments may have to come in and bail them out using taxpayers' money. 

And yet when their speculative bets succeed, they earn tons of money and pay themselves unbelievable bonuses. 

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-11/jpmorgan-loses-2-billion-as-mistakes-trounce-hedges.html

Seki Japanese Restaurant @ Rendezvous Hotel

Seki Japanese Restaurant is apparently a new addition to the Palate program, as I don't recall seeing it just one or two months ago. The Palate website erroneously stated its address as Chijmes, and we only realised it when we reached Chijmes and couldn't find it. Fortunately, Rendezvous Hotel was just 5 minutes walk away. 

In order to utilise the Palate discounts, the restaurant had certain criteria - each person must order something from their barbeque/grill section, and set meals are not included. They called the barbeque/grill section 'main courses', which was quite weird since dishes from this section do not come with rice, and noodles/rice are not considered as 'main courses'. Hmm.

Sapporo beer, $12

First, an icy cold beer to signal the end of a working day! They had a 1-for-1 promotion too, so effectively it's just $6 per bottle, which was pretty worth it. The beer was quite light and easy to drink too.

Assorted sashimi - uni ($28), mekajiki ($17), salmon ($12)

When this plate came, three thoughts came to my mind.

1) The amount of uni (sea urchin) given was pathetic,
2) The mekajiki's (sword fish) colour seemed a little off, and
3) The salmon sashimi didn't look very fresh, as it was a bit too dark in colour.

The salmon turned out to be better that it looked, though it was still not fantastic. The mekajiki was still quite all right, while the uni was a bit of a disappointment. Maybe it's because I was comparing it to when I ate it at Taiwan. One plate of it cost me just S$18 there, and the portion was around five to six times more. Additionally, it was so fresh, briny, and had the melt-in-your-mouth feeling - none of which were present in Seki. 

Foie gras chawanmushi, $9

Normal chawanmushi costs $6, while their foie gras version cost an extra $3. I thought they would steam the chawanmushi with the foie gras inside, so that the taste of the liver would permeate throughout the dish. But I was obviously wrong. They simply placed the foie gras on top of the chawanmushi. And the foie gras wasn't good, either.

Shishamo, $6

Finally, a satisfactory starter! This was quite good. Fried just nicely such that it wasn't too oily and yet not too dry.

Ika Shioyaki, $20

A piece of squid grilled simply with salt. I found this to be quite delicious, albeit a bit too salty.

Saba Shioyaki, $12

Just like the former dish, this was too salty. It was a little too dry as well.

Nabeyaki Udon, $12

Ordered this as the proper main course. It tasted quite all right.

Cha Soba, $8

My gf ordered this. I didn't like the texture of the noodles - I found it a bit too coarse.

To sum up, Seki failed to impress. Our total bill, after a 50% discount, came up to $87, which was still a bit expensive. Of course, the uni sashimi played a big part in bumping up the total bill. If I had to come here again, I would just order two (proper) main courses, two more from the barbeque/grill section, and at most one other starter. The total bill should be around $30 for two pax, which is much more reasonable. 

Update as of 12th May 2012:

Checked Palate's website, and they have apparently updated the correct address.

Covelli @ Orchard Central

Covelli is located at the 2nd basement of Orchard Central. It is one of three restaurants in OC on the Palate membership; the other two are Tung Lok Seafood and OChre. 

Antipasto Frutti di Mare, $18

This was a cold dish, and consisted of a combination of seared Tataki tuna, cured salmon, crab meat, and avocado. It was then topped with Avruga caviar, vegetables, and some balsamic vinegar. Tasted quite cool and refreshing, albeit a bit pricey.

Potato Veloute, $12

Usually I refrain from ordering creamy soup with potatoes, because its quite common for the soup to be too rich and filling. But after having so many cream of mushroom soups recently, we decided to try this out.

It turned out to be good! The soup was creamy but smooth, and went down easily. Some white truffle oil was drizzled on top, and the prosciutto and sage were also good additions. 

Barramundi e Astice, $28

This dish was supposed to be accompanied with charcoal lobster, but they ran out of it and replaced it with prawns. Not a very good trade-off, actually.

The barramundi was pan roasted and looked good at first glance, but I wasn't impressed with it after one bite. The fish wasn't too fresh, and the texture of the coating tasted a bit weird. I think the accompanying baby spinach was better.

Risotto Zaffron, $20

I have developed a liking for risotto recently, so I ordered this dish here. When it came, I felt slightly turned off by its appearance - their risotto looked a bit... plastic and fake. Buried in the rice was a generous serving of prawns - five big ones - which I almost couldn't finish. The prawns were still all right, but I didn't like the texture of the risotto. Prego's organic risotto beats this hands down.

It was our first visit here and so far, I found the starters mostly better than their main courses. But my parents, who coincidentally visited the same place an hour plus earlier, said their beef shortribs were fantastic. Covelli deserves a second visit, and this time maybe we should order three starters and one main course instead.