Food Prints |Singapore Food Blog |Reviews of Singapore's Best Food: July 2010

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Rong Liang Restaurant

This place had to be amongst the favourite roast duck joint for us as undergraduates. Living on-campus has it's perks of having the chance to eat the good stuff on offer near the school. And what best to do just that with your mates who lives just a door away. And we are always on the hunt for good food.

One of these places got to be Rong Liang Restaurant at Clementi West St 2, located in the cluster of HDB flats opposite Ginza Plaza.

Salted Vegetable & Duck Soup

This place offers stoup steamed in metal bowls with a choice of up to 10 types of soups, at a affordable price of $2. Packing with flavours, the soups delivers the home-goodness that we hostelites crave for once in awhile. Most of the soups are decent and we usually share a bowl between the two of us. (3.75/5)

Steamed Rice

The rice is almost always slightly overcooked for my personal liking. I prefer the grains to be a little bit more dry and more bite. But then again, all those roasted stuff may had called for a serving of rice which is a little bit more moist. The gravy is just awwweeesooome. Thick, flavourful and not too overly salty, it is the perfect complement to the good old plain white rice. Sounds cliche, but you can eat a whole bowl (or more) of rice just with this gravy. (3.5/5) Noodles can be ordered instead of rice.

Roasted Duck

This had to be one of the better servings of roasted duck I ever had. Succulent, moist and very fragrant, it is served with a plum sauce that lifts the taste of the meat to beyond great-ness. Did I mention that the skin is roasted to the right crispiness too? I swear I got the crackling sound as I bit into some parts of the meat.We ordered a serving for two, combining with roasted porked and char siew, which cost us $7.60. Do state that you would not like drumstick to get a bigger cut of the roasted duck. (5/5)

Roasted Meat and Char Siew

The roasted meat is tasty but not the tops that I had tasted. Roasted to crispiness but the meat could had been better marinated. Slightly dry to taste but still above average. (3.75/5) The char siew on the other had is great! I love the slightly sweeter version of this chinese barbequed meat and Rong Liang do BBQ their char siew perfectly with some charred parts specked around. The meat is moist and more often that not, you will get a cut with the right level of fats. Simply wonderful. (4.5/5)

Vegetable with Oyster Sauce

Just to add fibre and greens to the meal. At $2 you get a good amount of vegetables with nice crispy fried scallions and a good dollop of scallion oil and oyster sauce. Simple yet good tasting, but a tad bit oily. But it did complete the meal. (3.75/5)

Rong Liang offers the usual wanton noodles, shredded chicken noodles and stuff and also serves the usual zi char at night too.

荣亮阁烧腊私人有限公司

Rong Liang Restaurant Pte Ltd

BLK 725 Clementi West St 2

#01-190/192

S(120725)

Tel: +65 6773 0693

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Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Hatched

I love breakfasts. Especially weekend breakfasts where you are in no rush to go to work and can just enjoy the morning sun as the world slowly wakes up. Magical. And what's better than to complement that feeling with a breakfast, with eggs.

Hatched at Evans Road had created the opportunity to re-live that feeling, all day. They serve all day breakfast and the main ingredient, as the name suggest is eggs!

Bacon Rap (Starter)

Bacon Rap, a creative twist to the name, (w)rap, geddit? Ha. It is simply a chunk of mozarella cheese wrapped in slightly saute bacon, served with fig jam. The cheese was slightly cold to my liking and the bacon could had been crispy-ier. The sweet fig jam though is a great complement to the saltiness of the bacon and cheese. A good start to a meal.

Philly (Scrambled Eggs)

Omelette filled with tender juicy strips of beef and topped with a chunk of cream cheese. I did not get to taste it but my friend gave it a thumbs up! You can just imagine the semi-liquid scrambled eggs with the juicy meat with the creamy cheese. Slurp!

Mini drumlets (not in menu)

Strangely, I cannot find this on the menu anymore. Could be one of the several items on the big blackboard. The drumlets, clearly from frozen parts, can be missed. Luckily we shared it as a group. Nobody wanted the last piece.

Hot Chocolate

We ordered the hot chocolate while waiting for the rest of the gang to arrive. It was normal with nothing to complain, or to shout about. It seems that cocoa powder was used instead of real melted chocolate, at least it tasted that way.

Sausage Platter

The sausage platter took a LOOOOONG time to arrive. Considering that this was the only warm dish that we ordered while waiting. Not sure if there was a mis-communication between the floor and the kitchen or the sausages were being de-frosted. Nevertheless, the sausages did arrive warm. A platter of chorizo, garlic and tomato & herb sausages, they don't count as gourmet, but tasty enough as a pre-dinner treat. The chorizo is a tad bit too spicy though.

Popeye's Salute

One of the three variants of Egg Benedict on offer. Poached egg served with wilted spinach (the reason for the name of this dish) on toasted English muffin. Home-made mash and grilled tomatoes complete the meal. The eggs are poached perfectly with runny yolk that combines superbly with the hollandaise sauce. The home-made mash, which is ever present for a lot of their dishes, is plain, even though I appreciate the absence of unhealthy gravy.

Pancake Party

They actually forgot our pancake order and we had to ask for it again. Served with a choice of caramelised apple, blueberry or rosewater strawberries, it makes a good dessert, if you still have space for it. Pancakes were fluffy and nicely toasted. The combination of maple syrup and fresh butter cream is simply heavenly.

Papillote (Scrambled eggs)

The star of the scrambled eggs section. The bright hued smoke salmon combined superbly with the scrambled eggs within and the sour cream on top. Think sandwich, and substitute the bread with smoked salmon.

Smoked Royale & Sir Benedict

The other two choices of Egg Benedict available at Hatched. Smoked Royale has smoked salmon instead of spinach and Sir Benedict has BLACK FOREST HAM. The black forest ham totally blown me away. A tad smoky and just enough salt in the ham goes superbly with the poached eggs, muffin and hollandaise sauce. One gripe for the benedicts for me is that the items served all felt very separated, although they taste great. The serving of mash and the rest just didn't come together for me. I would had preferred some rocket salad.

Overall a decent meal, although slightly pricier than other brunch places. But hey, it serves breakfast and eggs throughout the day and it is good enough reason to visit if you have the sudden breakfast craving.

One dish that I will order on the next visit is the Le Rossini. Enjoy the best of both worlds with classic scrambled eggs dressed in decadent foie gras, drizzled with truffle oil, atop Ciabatta bread, served with sautéed potatoes with caramelised onions. Or at least share this artery-clogging wonder with my friends.

And yes, I heard they have a hugh selection of imported beer too.

Hatched

26 Evans Road

#01-06 Evans Lodge

Tel: +65 6735 0012

Closed on Mondays

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Monday, July 19, 2010

Bread Society

Because of new commitment and scheduling, it had become a necessity for us to have a pre-dinner, or light snack before going home for late for the usual dinner. So we had been eating on the go with bread the most frequent choice for us.

I just loooooooove bread. The smell of bread baking in the oven refreshes my senses, it just allow me to forget about everything for a moment and just bask in the heavenly smell and homely feel. Most people have comfort food, and this is my comfort smell. :)

There had been a slew of bakeries mushrooming throughout our city state. One of which is Bread Society. It is another creative food outlet of the BreadTalk group. Even though this branch of the growing BreadTalk tree carries two creative chefs from Japan, they are mostly rustic European bakes.

Black Sesame Society

Think hotdog bun served with a generous feeling of black sesame cream. The roasted black sesame sprinkled on top of the bun adds the crunch and the aroma is totally out of the world. Bread is soft (Japanese fluffy kind of soft) and the cream is slighty sweet and carried the nuttiness and sweetness of the black sesame. $1.50 The result? Boomz. Totally rocked my socks. (4.5/5)

Coffee Almond

Again, the bread is soft, with the right amount of bite. The white stuff taste like white chocolate, flavoured with a good balance of coffee flavour. The sliced almonds, roasted, finished the taste by adding crunch and character. $1.50. Love it. This particular bread is available at BreadTalk outlets too. (4/5)

Strawberry Cream Cheese

The cube bread is just intriguing, visually. Makes you wonder how they make the perfect cube shapes. They have three flavours available and we opted to buy this version. The cream cheese strangely tasted closed to crumpled feta cheese and in my opinion, didn't really mix well with the strawberry jam. My idea of cream cheese had always been set by the Kraft version. Overall, it tasted ok. But at $1.60, I thought it would had packed more punch. Looking forward to tasting the chestnut and yam version. (3/5)

Another Creative Food Outlet from BreadTalk Group, with over 50 varieties, including traditional bread loaves available. It will be a long time before we go through all the breads available. And we are not complaining.

Bread Society

Orchard Ion

#B2-19

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Thursday, July 15, 2010

Ramen Play - 313@Somerset

This had been the talk for awhile with the BreadTalk group venturing into Japanese cuisine and Ramen Play is the latest addition to the growing food empire.

The menu offers a mini-version of their more popular ramen, very much the same concept as the Yokohama Ramen Museum, designed for those who wants to sample the different tastes on offer.

Mini Value Combo

The gyoza is part of the mini value combo ($12.80) that the wife ordered. The set includes a Mini Miso Ramen (5 other flavours to choose from), Mini Gyoza (3pcs) and a drink of your choice. A local bank have a promotion going on when we visited in June where you get a mini gyoza (3pcs) with every order of a normal size ramen.

The gyoza is decent, slightly too oily for our liking. The Japanese dipping sauce of soy and, I swear I tasted something citrus cuts through the grease and added a slightly uplifting taste to the appertiser. Thin skin with the right amount of filling. Good start to the meal. (3/5)

The size of the mini ramen as seen here. The serving is just right for a small eater, with the gyozas and drink. The egg is slightly overcooked in the center and it did not have the classic runny yolk which I think all good ramen joint should master. The miso was a tad too salty for us. Overall, the noodles tasted separated from the soup. (3/5)

The best seller is the Sanpou Ton Ramen (3 treasures pork ramen). The ramen ($14.80) comes with slow simmered tonkutsu broth with braised pork loin, pork belly and pork cheeks. The pork cheeks is the clear winner and is obviously the start of this dish (joint). In fact, I like it better than the one served at Santouka, Orchard Central, as the pork cheeks served at Ramen Play had the right amount of soy to it. The noodles were springy and resilient to bite, the way I like it. The broth though was a bit disappointing. It can be thicker and could have packed more punch into it. (3.5/5)

This place is crowded on normal meal times, mostly with families and the younger crowd but the service is swift and good. Although some reviews had branded as fast-food ramen, I personally think that it is a notch better.

A definite good dining experience with decent food quality.

Ramen Play

313@Somerset

#B3-04/05/06

S(238801)

Tel: +65 6634 0051

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Shin-Sapporo Ramen

One of the three ramen adventure in June. Was exploring the circle line with the wife when we chanced upon this small establishment tucked in the corner of Suntec City. This place is not easy to find, and it is located outside the main mall. It does help that it is just in front of one of the exits of Promenade Station.

Not too sure how authentic is the claim but it sure caught our eye. It did not help that we were on a ramen rampage, having had ramen for lunch just the day before. Probably our intense desire to visit North Japan played a part in the decision too.

Ton Ramen

The menu is very specialised. The mains consisted of, what else but ramen. They did had some side dishes, but having had a late and heavy breakfast, we decided to give it them a miss. The Ton Ramen ($15) came in a heavy, creamy soup, boiled extensively out of pork bones. The soup had this natural sweetness of fresh meat that easier goes down. This is akin to having a bowl of hot chicken soup when you are really hungry, or down with flu. The ramen was springy (QQ), the way I like it but may be a little undercooked for some. Pork slices (3!) were average and the egg, just like how you would expect it, well marinated in soy and a runny yolk, from a decent ramen joint. (3.5/5)

Miso (Spicy) Ramen

How can you come to the birthplace of miso-ramen without ordering one? We had the spicy miso ramen ($15). The soup base was decent, with nothing special to shout about. Although the addition of the spicy paste did kick it up one level and actually goes well as a overall meal.

Overall, it was a average dining experience. It was 2pm when we arrived and the restaurant is almost closed for their afternoon break (3pm). The place can sit around 20, with additional seats at the bar where you can watch the chefs dish up your orders. A decent place to have a quick lunch with reasonable price.