Marhaba

Sometimes I miss the Lebanese food I used to have in London. I used to have my daily lunch at Al-Dar on the King's Road, and their Moutabal and sandwiches are some of my favorites.
Today I decided to adventure myself in the Arab Street area to try to find a Lebanese cafe' where I can enjoy that sort of dishes. After scanning the place, I finally decided to try Marhaba, which is not specifically Lebanese, but serves Arab food. Next time I will try Beirut, which is a Lebanese restaurant located right in front.

Their Hummus ($5.90) was pretty good, served with 4 slices of bread. The bread was good, but didn't taste freshly made on the spot, as in some Arab restaurants.

I really liked their Baba Ganoush ($6.00), which had the right coarse texture and a light smoky flavor. I would go back for this dish alone.

The Shwarma sandwiches were quite thin and didn't have much meat in them. The sauce was right and the bread not bad, but they were mainly made of bread and vegetables.

Prices were very reasonable, but it did take quite a long time for the food to come. The total bill was $36.00 including drinks. The food was pretty good for the price, and I would recommend it for the Baba Ganoush and Hommos, although the sandwiches could be improved on.

Mahraba
11 Bussorah Street
Tel: 62988220

Lan Zhou La Mian

This has been one of my top 5 favorite eateries for over a year. I regularly come to eat here every week or so, as I love the simplicity of northern Chinese cuisine.
This place is cheap, authentic and as good as this food can be. It's open until late and you know you can reliably come here anytime for a healthy snack.
Just yesterday I tried for the first time "Qun Zhong", a similar eatery located in Neil Street (5 minutes walk from Smith Street) which has nicer xiaolongbao and zhajang mian very similar to the ones served here. I will blog about it after my next visit.

The highlight, as the name of this eatery suggests, is their lamian. I am crazy for authentic Zhajiang Mian, and theirs certainly is one of the best. Besides the rich sauce, generous with minced pork and thinly sliced cucumber, their hand stretched noodles are something special. They have a firm bite like no others, and according to the master, this is his own secret recipe.

The xiaolongbao is juicy, thin dough, just like it's supposed to be.

I particularly like their fried dumplings (Guo Tie), mild, crispy and juicy. Highly recommended.

Another good reason to try this place is their lime juice, which is the best I had to date. Clean and sharp, delicately sweet, with a subtle bitter flavor. If you like this drink don't forget to try it there, as their version is different from the standard Singapore lime juice.

LAN ZHOU LA MIAN
19 Smith Street
Tel: +65 63271286
Open: Noon to 10.30pm daily

Tippling Club - Desserts

I ended up at the Tippling Club with a group of friends for drinks and desserts. the drinks were phenomenal, although very pricey. On the other hand, we had an excellent deal with the desserts. The 4 of us paid for 1 dessert each, and we got a taster of each of the 4 desserts (4 of the plates pictured for each dessert!).

I was highly impressed with the desserts, in particular the snowball. I loved the contrast in texture and temperature between the outer and inner layer of the ball.

Overall very experimental, very successfully executed. A must-try. I will be back!

Caramelized Pineapple with three textures of yogurt. I liked the crumble and spongy texture.

Sorry, I had a drink too many... I can't recall the exact composition of this crumble... but I remember I enjoyed the foam on top.

Yuzu snowball. My favorite one. The contrast in textures and temperatures is unique.

Pear tart. I am not a big fan of tarts, but this version was certainly interesting.

Tippling Club
8D Dempsey Road
Tel: +65 6475 2217
URL: www.tipplingclub.com

Shibaken - Saturday Lunch

In reference to my previous post, this is one of those places that would deserve more attention.

A bright, spacious and relaxed ambiance brings the focus of this restaurant onto its kitchen, which is fully integrated into the dining experience. The square counter directs the attention of the diners onto the Chefs, who carefully prepare beautiful dishes right in front of their eyes.

I have been to this restaurant before (about 2 years ago) and I had a pleasant dinner. I decided to try this again for lunch. They have a few options (3 - 4 courses) priced at $38 and $45 respectively. I went for the 4 course option, and my partner ordered a la carte. Note that they only charge an additional 10%, instead of the ordinary 17% (only one +). We spent a total of $87 for a delicious, relaxed lunch. The mystery unsolved is: why were we the only ones? Well, I am not complaining for having two skilled chefs dedicated exclusively to satisfying my fussy palate!

The beauty of this place is observing the Chefs at work.

Wakame and beansprouts salad with fresh tofu and edamame.

A taster of 7 starters. The soba with bottarga (karasumi) is one of their signature dishes, and highly recommended. I also enjoyed the cream cheese tofu and hamachi with fennel. Overall, a well balanced selection of well prepared cold starters.

Burdock root soup, with a dash of truffle oil.

Salmon with mushrooms and beetroot puree'. Unfortunately the only fish dish on the lunch menu. I am not a big fan of salmon, but the dish is quite enjoyable.

This was a very good tenderloin with red wine sauce and parsnip puree'. I would say this is the most recommended dish out of the ones on the lunch menu.

I definitely liked this grapefruit jelly. Grapefruit and bitter taste lovers are going to like this dessert, as it's light and very low in sugar. The jelly is well textured, with chopped bits of grapefruit zest inside. A honey ice cream and fresh berries complement the decoration.

Shibaken
1 Nanson Road
#02-02A The Gallery Hotel
Tel: +65 6836 1613

Back Blogging again!

As some of you might have noticed, I have taken a long break from my food blogging activity. I had a busy period with moving to a new flat + renovation + work... and I had to take a break because of all that. Blogging is like going to the gym, you have to keep it going... you stop for a month, and it will take another few before you get the strength to start it all over again.

It has been about 7 months since my last post, and quite a bit has changed in the Singapore food scene since then. From my perspective, unfortunately, for the worse. I have seen quite a few good restaurants failing and shutting down. Some of the good lunch and brunch offers have either doubled in price or disappeared... In my view life for the restoration business has become tougher in Singapore, especially for those who want to deliver something special.

If you want to open a restaurant and you want to succeed, you are more likely to do so by selling burgers and fries or sausage, egg and beans Italian food that goes beyond your average carbonara or lasagne.

Clearly, we haven't yet reached the critical mass that can appreciate authentic or innovative food. It's extremely sad to see less than mediocre cooking succeeding, while genuine efforts to create something special don't seem to be rewarded. I would have plenty of examples for this, but I don't want to quote specifics. Just look around...

If mediocrity is all we are going to encourage, that's all we are going to get, it's going to grow around us...

Going forward, I will continue to post both restaurant reviews and recipes. I decided to slightly change the format of my reviews, which will be less verbose and focused on the details of every single dish, in favor of a more direct recommendation about the overall experience.

Happy reading!

Fumetto di gamberi

I decided to dedicate a post to what we call "fumetto". This can be done with fish or crustaceans, as in this case. It is essentially a stock which can be used to give a delicate and natural flavor to dishes such as pasta or risotto. You can prepare this "on the fly" in about 40 minutes if needed, but I prefer to make a large amount in advance, let it boil for longer, freeze it and have it readily available when required.

I made this fumetto with the following ingredients:
1 kg of crystal prawns (any other prawns will do) - I suggest you buy these from the wet market as they are much cheaper, about $12 per kg.

1 celery stalk

2 carrots

1 onion

1 whole garlic bulb
3 bay leaves

2 tsp of tomato concentrate

20 whole peppercorns

a bunch of parsley

fish bones (optional)

Peel and halve the onion, halve the whole garlic bulb, cut the celery into 4 pieces, peel the carrots and cut them lengthwise and then into 2. Peel the prawns and set aside the shells and heads. You can wash and freeze the meat.

Put the carrots, onions, celery, garlic on a large non-stick saucepan with a drip of olive oil, and fry them until golden on medium-high heat. Add the prawn shells and fish bones, continue to toss until the shells are nicely coloured. Add enough cold water to cover the content of the pan, then add the bay leaves, parsley and peppercorns and cover until almost boiling. Adjust the gas so that the liquid boils as slowly as possible, and let it boil stirring occasionally for a few hours (1-3) adding cold water when necessary. Finally add the tomato concentrate, continue to boil and reduce the liquid to about a third. Remove from the gas, let it rest and strain to obtain a clear liquid. The picture shows what is left after you separate the liquid from the ingredients, which you can then discard.

For convenience, you can freeze the stock by pouring it into little bags or small container of just the right size (about a cup for 2 people).

Alternatively, for a quick fumetto that you need on the day, follow the same procedure but only boil for about 30-40 minutes reducing it to a third.

Marutama Ramen

I had a crave for Ramen, and I spent quite some time researching where to go. In the end, I decided to try a little restaurant that I have been observing for quite some time and never had the opportunity to try. Marutama Ramen is located at the 3rd floor of Central, Clarke Quay. I have noticed long queues in front of this rather narrow little restaurant, and I was curious to find out what's behind its popularity.

Each bowl of ramen costs $12 without any extra toppings. The Char-Siew ramen was served with 3 slices of pork, as I added the extra 2 slices for $4. Initially, I was not impressed by the noodles as they are so thin. Although I prefer more body in the noodles, I enjoyed this ramen as I ate more and more of them. The generous spring onion, seaweed, tender charsiew, all well balanced onto a very tasty soup. Some might find it salty, but this is how it's supposed to be, so that the noodles can pickup the flavour.

My dining companion chose this kakuni ramen with extra Ajutsuke tamago. The egg is very tasty, slightly running inside. The kakuni is pork belly braised for a long time (buta kakuni), extremely tender and flavoursome. I think I am going to choose this, next time!

The chef serving the ramen was actually Japanese, and I liked the fact that we ate our ramen at the counter, just like in Japan. This place is not cheap (we spent $42.35 for 2 bowls of ramen), but given that good, cheap ramen just like in Japan don't exist in Singapore, unfortunately you have to pay for quality and authenticity. I have only one negative comment to make: I with they provided a choice of thicker ramen!

Marutama Ramen
177 River Valley road
#02-01 Liang court
Tel: 68372480