food; contribute

aussie tucker

a western food stall in a nondescript coffee shop along serangoon main road.

this is the beginning of a very sad post. 

recently, as my car drove past en-route home, I noticed a new western food stall had sprung up in this coffee shop that has been failing for years and months. i scantly saw hamburgers and all in shop sign so i made a mental note to walk out and have try it some day soon.

today, i decided to not be lazy and skip lunch. (plus I have been having intense chicken chop craving since i fell ill)

manning the stall and stove was burly, i-could-be-santa-if-i-wanted-to-dress-up dude in white socks, slippers, hawaiian-print board shorts, t-shirt and apron. he was talking to this old lady who looked like she was critiquing the food. 

anyhow, i had only chicken chop in mind and was disappointed when i realised the closest thing on the signboard was steak. and then i saw Mafia Burger (reminiscent of the IEAT burger from Aston’s) and i was sold…

..until i saw that it was $10 with ‘chips’ (not fries). so i looked through the A4 printed word doc of a laminated menu and saw chicken and chips ($7-ish).

two thoughts:

1) cutlet or chop

2) quite pricey, but since i’m here and psych says we have a tendency to be committed and consistent,

i ordered Chicken and Chips.

while burly dude was preparing in the kitchen, i noticed there were many features of him, his face and his cooking; the same bearded round face, the same long hair pulled to a slick ponytail. 

but with a glint in his eyes, and a professional chef garb.

i kept repeating “Mietta’s” to myself so i’d remember to google it, since that restaurant kept coming up in the features. 

after a while my food was ready, in a square clear plastic box, but haphazardly placed the red plastic bag 

definitely not used to doing to-goes since he can’t place packets into bags with skill (this not said in snarky way) + he used the red bags instead of the typical white-with-red-prints one kopitiam western food stalls use + didn’t include cutleries

in a discernibly aussie accent, he told me to eat quick lest the food gets soggy

now for the taste test. i opened and saw fish and chips instead

:( #1, because I don’t like fish and chips

there was a piece of fish that is probably 3/4 of the usual western food size, fries and coleslaw.

the fish was fried with a herbed bread crumb-type batter. it was surprisingly light enough to sit well with my cough (unlike manhattan fish market’s rubbish). the meat was thin but relatively fresh, and well, you could tell it was fish meat and not flour.

 the fries, or chips, weren’t the usual thin ones. more like the thicker mos burger kind. at first i felt they weren’t fried long enough since they weren’t crisp enough. later, i thought they tasted pretty good since i could taste the potato. i’m split on this one.

the coleslaw was surprisingly good. instead of an indiscernible mush, you could tell the shreds of garden salad vege (including purple cabbage) from the watered down mayo. it was fresh too, free from the annoying sourish taste that’s prevalent in many. 

overall, it wasn’t mind-blowingly awesome. it was atypical - it was not cheap or regularly priced (between $6.50 to $17), menu items deviated from the standard chicken chip, fish and chips and mixed grill (you see items like mafia burger, vodka penne, breakfast sets, tiramisu etc), it wasn’t the wholesome-below-average-unhealthy type

-it was fresh and perhaps even serious.

as if things couldn’t get any stranger, i did a google search and found out that burly dude is actually Chef Angelo Sanelli, who helmed the popular Mietta’s (which unfortunately is closed) and was from the legendary (?) Michelangelo’s.

which makes me super sad. and in need of an oversharing of his life story.

be back soon, hopefully with more info.   

are you there, twitter?

the line, shangri-la

lunch buffet: noon to 2:30pm (we learnt the hard way)

basically we were all super psyched about go to The Line for lunch buffet, since we striked a pretty good deal off original price. we even got there early, full of bubbly anticipation.

it looked the same since the last time I was there, all counters were functioning for lunch (I was there for dinner the last time), though a cursory (and mandatory) walk round the perimeter showed a significantly lesser selection of foods, particularly for the meats.

none the matter, I was endowed with a task list (courtesy of my sis) of must-eats, which included SASHIMI, and I think I really only remembered sashimi.

but since the north indian counter was close by, I opted for my Paneer (cheese) in some gravy (I’m not very good with foreign names, even Chinese names, forgive me), Methi (stew of potatoes and greens), Tandoori Chicken and a piece of papadum like pastry.

they’re like my favoritestest north indian dishes but sadly, only the methi was up to par. the paneer wasn’t as tasty as my chinese tongue remembers it to be, and the tandoori was just tragic. it was parched, and the spices failed to permeate the thick cut of meat (presumably breast, my tired jaw said).

we got a bowl of wanton soup as well. you’d expect at least the kind of broth akin to Crystal Jade’s, but no, it was rather blend and mono-layered (like the mindless ikan billis and bean stock which I hate). The wanton was alright, though one of them was raving (umm…)

(since we’re on canton food here, we also got a plate of char siew and roast pork, plus some chicken bakua coins. only the last one was worth my stomach’s space. the roast pork had the horrid pork stench; like seriously?)

at this time, one of the guys brought a plate of fresh oysters. i eat oysters enough to know there are two kinds: Cooked and Raw, hence I regret the variant is unbeknownst to me. But anyway, I’ve always been extremely apprehensive of oysters and I never get if I should chew at all, or just swallow (oblig: that’s what she said?). I’d pass, but since it was there and the lemons have been sacrificed,

one, two bite and three to maybe 10 more (I just couldn’t swallow). It was actually alright, quite sweet, didn’t have that gross blackish water taste, though there was sand, which puts me off a lot when eating shellfoods. I can’t decide if I liked it.

but y’know, whatever, because imma have my sashimi next. I think I cried when I realised they only had Salmon and Tuna (and squid, but who cares). WHERE WAS MY SWORDFISH? I even had to join a queue to get raw fish I don’t exactly like, but hmm ok, sashimi is sashimi is sashimi

wrong.

firstly, as an amateur raw fish enthusiast, the cuts weren’t very fresh. My friend says the salmon belly was ok, but it didn’t taste very fresh to me (i don’t know). the tuna was honestly quite horrid. the colour was dull and there was a weird taste, like as if it was already starting to spoil. we’ll know when I have to pop carbon pills tomorrow.

as if things couldn’t be worse, the wasabi was not in the least potent. we were slathering the green paste all over and still experienced no thrilling sensations. fail.

my stomach was too upset by that time (literally and figuratively) the remaining rounds were a blur.

I believe I went for salads next (I tend to skip proper order). normal greens with balsamic dressing, this melon dish, where instead of parma ham, a thin air-dried slice of beef was used - this was nice, I liked it a lot - and hummus (not good, B Bakery’s better); forgettable.

i got a bowl of tomato soup along the way, I think they forgot to add sugar for that.

then there was fried baby squids, where I felt like my teeth were about to fall as I sounded like I was chewing on pebbles. There was also a Duck Confit and Tortellini (in cream sauce) pairing I did which came out rather delightful.

we had something against the pasta dishes though, it didn’t make sense that their fresh pasta was hard (or maybe that’s just their definition of al dente, idk). My theory is that the pasta may have been left out a tad too long, I mean, we’ve made fresh pasta before and it’s suppose to be springy when cooked fresh.

other dishes were rather forgettable, until we went to get a cheese platter to try. we loved how happy the auntie was, cutting the cheeses for us and arranging the platter (the rest of the service staff were uppity, like erm ok). because we’re very safe cheese eaters, we had cheddar, gruyere and goat’s cheese. very delightful with crackers, grapes and apricots.

we didn’t have wine though (sad face; I could use a glass or two or three right now).

as we were making our nth trip, we decided to try to yorkshire pudding, which was placed next to the roast sirloin slab. i asked the chef how we were suppose to eat it and I only heard “like a burger”.

the slice of sirloin was extremely raw. and that makes me wretch. i tried to kiap the most cooked part of that slice in my yorkshire pudding but still felt like I was eating silvers of raw cow meat. never again, joyce.

shudders.

I’d go on to tell you my wonderful dessert experience, but by the time we wanted to get some treats after walking and cooling ourselves off (we sat at a place that didn’t seem to but within the central cooling system’s radius), THE BUFFET WAS OVER. we didn’t know that, no one told us; were we suppose to know? so we grabbed whatever was left of the dessert spread (which basically were crap) and tearfully said goodbye to the crushed-brownie stuffed crepe that never was.

overall, it was disappointing, especially for the line. we tried to find something we really liked about the food and that was as difficult as having to down 20 slices of stale tuna sashimi. if you like quantity over quality, in a contemporary ambience,

where you feel judged by the staff, and constantly within earshot of 4 other tables, you’d probably enjoy the lunch more than we did.

x

food for thought

foodforthought, 8 queen street, no point going after 5pm really

SO, Food for Thought recently expanded to somewhere bigger and even more artsy. I was of course quite excited since it’s gotten even closer to school and wanted to check out the new place.

The food duo and I went down after our various commitments (at around early 6-ish), and I was feeling pretty sure there’d be no problem procuring a table;

False.

To my horror, the girl at the door asked if we had reservations.

Sorry, what d’ya mean reservations? Since when? Aren’t indie restaurants suppose to be spontaneous?

I then asked if it’d be a problem if we had no reservations, seeing that the place was really just   M     T (gaping spaces for emphasis).

Apparently right, our FFT has been fully booked out and if we wanted to have normal seats we’d have to rush to finish our food in 45 mins. I really had a good mind to leave then since it was quite ridiculous imho but they said counter seats were available; we agreed to stretching ourselves and risked breaking our backs bending over high chairs.

The interior was contemporary, chic, interesting light feature draping for the ceiling,

artsy, contrived, pretentious, etc.

yes, I said it. gone are the days of bustling, aromatic, chaotic homely comfort. they replaced giant chalkboard menu with a proper menu. they replaced ad hoc art with planned ones.

there was even a corner of a cubby-hole thing. I was too mindfucked to pay attention to indie-esque (perceived) commercialism.

oh and the menu. the menu. it was a compelling one. in a literal, negative (by the) way. breakfast menu ends on 5pm daily, which I suppose is understandable, maybe the kitchen doesn’t want to have pancakes that have hints of pesto or charbroiled chicken (I hope you see I’m stretching it with the benefit of a doubt here).

but how is it that sandwiches aren’t sold after 5pm either? I journeyed with FFT and their pulled pork, chorizo and (some kind of) duck sandwiches through my I-should-have-known-better-than-to-date-you years back in North Bridge and they never had this constraint on their blackboard of a menu. I felt forced to order from their pastas and mains. Actually, you could only order from there if you wanted a proper meal.

Pastas range from $12-$18 and Mains from $15-$25-ish (my memory fails me, the prices put me off anyway: te;dr*). They are basically more expensive than the breakfast and sandwich options. I think they revised the prices upwards in general, but that’s just a feeling.

Being part of counter-generation, and mainly because I’m poor and stingy, I refused to be manipulated.

I ordered the (oriental) Chicken Caesar ($10), which I felt was already a rip off since it isonly a salad, no matter how fusion it is, and we were sitting on bar stools.

E ordered this main of Curry Chicken Cutlet something that was around $18 (I only remembered it to be relatively more expensive).

We waited, bitched, and the food came promptly. My salad looked comfortingly similar to the one I used to have back at North Bridge, it tasted almost similar too, with the smooth-textured chicken breast slices, tangy dressing, oozing semi-boiled egg quarters,

and a weird lingering taste from said chicken and awkward use of spicy ikan bilis (the ones you get in a container, with peanuts, sold at most markets).

there is a sort of love-hate going on here. i’m heartened they didn’t revise this dish, but saddened they never thought to work out its kinks. I’m not sure if it was worth my money, either. It filled me up, but it could be because I’ve become a smaller eater of late (praise Jesus). Also, calling the salad a Caesar is a misnomer: the greens weren’t all icebergs (though I’m not complaining) and good GODGA where are the croutons? or at least some oriental crouton equivalents?

I got to try some of the curried chicken cutlet as well, it didn’t stir such deep emotions since there is no basis of comparison, and taste-wise, didn’t leave any great impressions. it was okay. I mean, chicken cutlet is a dish you can seldom go wrong, and this wasn’t mind-blowing, orgasm in mouth or anything.

it was interesting though lah.

we saw a kindly lady make this peanut butter and jam thing and we were bent on getting it. so we did.

this Peanut Butter and Jelly Bread Pudding ($8, good for sharing) was pretty delish. Anything with PB&J seldom disappoints. And anything with PB&J could always do with more (more, more, more) PB

just sayin’.

it’s not really a traditional bread pudding with real stale bread though. more like a dense, pound cake of sorts. still pretty good.

overall, I may go back to FFT for desserts, but certainly not for food (though E says the risotto was goood, but I’m not a fan of mui fan -okok I know the difference-). I’m a big hater for pretentious settings and this is kinda up there for me. I also have a problem with all the (still friendly) staff wearing the black shirt that says:

‘Cause empathy is so last millenium (in bold, white print)

Sorry, but parading some cause like that is so Livestrong Wristband (to me lah).

Oh, and coincidentally, my exbf was dining there at the very same time as well. This post may be irrationally biased, for all you know. lolll.