Review: Chicken Hotpot 鸡公煲

Today is my fourth time at Chicken Hotpot, so you know it's good! If you like steamboat and ma la xiang guo, this is the dish for you. They have a simple menu with 4 types of pot: chicken (their signature), beef, prawn and fish. I have tried both the chicken and prawn pots before, generally preferring the chicken, although the prawns they provided are easy to eat (partly de-shelled) and quite big.

Their signature chicken pot is heavy on the spices and you get to choose your level of spiciness. Bear in mind it can get quite spicy so if you are not good at spicy food, just go for mild. The chicken (bone-in) are chopped into chunky pieces and simmered in the thick spiced gravy. If your gravy runs low, the staff will pour in some chicken stock for you, which is more suitable to be drank rather than the thick gravy.

Recently they also have a promotion item which is my all-time favourite, the chicken and pork tripe pot. This is strongly recommended by me and I feel is more to Singaporeans palate. In fact, when I first tried Chicken Pot, I had their significant chicken version and prawn version and wasn't that impressed. This chicken and pork tripe version made me came back 2 more times!

If you like peppery bak kut teh, please choose this version and you won't regret. It can be a bit too peppery at first taste, but as you add in more ingredients, it gives the soup base more flavour and take away some of the peppery taste. Similar to the other version, you can get a refill when the stock runs low. The soup is really tasty and comforting especially on a rainy day. A chicken and pork tripe pot comes with chicken pieces and chunky pork tripe pieces.

The best way to enjoy Chicken Pot is not to over order the main pot, but select the additional ingredients. For 2 pax, I would just order a small pot then choose some of the ingredients from their fridge (self service). Their steamboat ingredients are all nicely displayed and wrapped up in the fridge and the pricing is differentiated by the colour of the plates.

I recommend ordering the prawn/cuttlefish paste which comes in an 'icing bag'. You will have to ask the staff to cut a hole at the tip when you are ready to it. Their cuttlefish balls also go well with the chicken and pork trip pot. Other ingredients available include vegetables, fish paste, pork belly with enoki, mushrooms, noodles, sliced fish, sliced meat etc.

Lastly, a shout out to the manager (short-haired lady) at the Bedok Point branch who always has a smile on her face and provided very attentive service. There was once we ordered a plate of enoki mushrooms and had already eaten more than half of it. The manager suddenly came over with another plate of enoki mushrooms and said she realised the staff had under-weighed the entire batch, so she gave us another plate. Honest shops like this are really hard to come by nowadays so it was a pleasant feeling even though she could have ignored it as we couldn't tell we were shortchanged. 

Singapore Restaurant Week, October 2016: Umi + Vino @ Emporium Shohukin

The last restaurant week, we went to another one of Emporium Shokuhin's establishment, Takujo Fine Dining. The experience back then was enjoyable and worthy of visiting during the restaurant week. This time round, we decided to try Umi + Vino, a modern seafood joint that is part of Emporium Shokuhin.

The 3-course dinner give diners a choice of asian prawn stew or french oysters as a starter, a la plancha sampling platter or braised wagyu beef as a main, and a chocolate cake for the dessert. We got around to try each dish on the restaurant week menu.

I had read good reviews of their asian prawn stew, and true to that, it turned out good. The grilled prawns were served in a lemongrass-infused broth and with toasted bread. The highlight of this dish was the broth, which was full of flavour without over-killing the taste of the prawns.

On the other hand, the oysters were well, decent oysters. It was most definitely fresh, but the accompanying raspberry shallot vinaigrette did nothing much to it.

I was looking forward to my main course, the a la plancha sampling platter, which is essentially a mix of grilled seafood. It came with half a lobster, squid, prawns and a piece of rice cake. The prawns were cooked the same way as in the asian prawn stew - grilled and lightly seasoned. The lobster was of a decent size and they even extracted the claw meat from it's shell for you! The squid and rice cake were my favourite. I have a soft spot for squid, especially when it's grilled and lightly seasoned. The rice cake was like a MOS burger rice burger patty but with even better seasoning. It might come across as oily for some, but I thought it was a pretty good twist to plain old rice. The accompanying ginger shoyu sauce was not necessary at all and savouring the seafood on its own is more than enough. 

The portion of  braised wagyu beef was quite big, suitable for guys. However, it was too oily and rich for my liking.

Last but not least, the chocolate cake was of a certain quality, and not just a filler to the set meal. I was surprised that the cake was comparable to those found in specialised bakery shops. It wasn't a rich chocolate cake. The layers of chocolate sponge, whipped cream, liquer, nuts and chocolate mousse made it a light and enjoyable end to the meal.

Review: Aura (Restaurant Week 2015)

Aura was my second restaurant week meal. After a disappointing first meal at Sabio by the Sea, I wasn't expecting much.

We went for the lunch, and being one of the first few to visit the National Gallery before it officially opens, it was a nice visit. The restaurant two floors, one for their main restaurant, and the other for their bar. Both have a nice view overlooking the padang.

Appetizer was scallop crudo with truffle. It was too delicious, with the scallops and truffle complementing each other very well. I truly enjoyed this dish found myself craving for more.

Next comes the whole wheat stracci with duck and foie gras. Another appetizer?! It was a heavy dish but enjoyable. Reminded me of the Chinese dish of noodles with duck in hoisin sauce.

For the main course we had a choice of the black cod or beef sirloin. I chose the sirloin which was a clear option for me before the meal. However, after the heavy stracci dish, I was feeling quite full and longed for the black cod instead. Thankfully the portion of the beef sirloin was just nice. Nicely seared on the outside and still pink and juicy on the inside. A respectable sirloin, just not entirely wow.

After the sirloin, I was certainly not looking forward to the profiteroles dessert because I was already 90% full. It came looking pretty with each colour representing one of the 3 flavours: strawberry, pistachio and chocolate. Surprisingly the little dots of berry sauce on the plates were very appetite-inducing and I managed to taste the profiteroles. My order of preference: pistachio > strawberry > chocolate. I really like the pistachio which was more distinctive.

All in all it was a good meal and I would certainly recommend checking out Aura.

Review: Sabio by the Sea (Restaurant Week 2015)

A group of us went for the restaurant week dinner menu at Sabio by the Sea. It was a big mistake. The staff who took our order was polite but couldn't quite comprehend our orders due to English not being her first language. She did not try to suggest other items instead of all of us ordering from the restaurant week menu.

As it was our first time at Sabio, we thought it will be the usual western food concept where each our tapas, main and dessert. Unfortunately for us, the food was too heavy and oily to our liking, we ended up struggling to finish. It will be more ideal if half of the group try the restaurant week menu while the rest choose from the standard menu.

This was the restaurant week menu taken from the restaurant week website. Besides the set dinner, we ordered an additional hot tapas (Pulpo a la gallega, octopus cooked in paprika, olive oil and lemon) to share.

Within the group, we tried the different options within the restaurant week menu. The eggplant caviar was the one of the rare item on the menu that is light on the palate. It's slightly vinegarish and was delightful on the toast.

The oysters were fresh but true to it's description, it's really deep-fried. Nothing particularly outstanding about this dish though they were generous in their servings, giving 4 oysters per person. This was the item that got me feeling sick and almost-full. If you are a small eater like me, I would suggest you go for the eggplant caviar instead of the oyster.

The octopus, which was an add-on item, was by far my favourite dish of the night. Seafood and butter always complement each other. The sliced tentacles were cooked to perfection, so tender yet flavourful from all the spices added in. There was also a potato-ish taste to the gravy.

By the time my paella arrived, I was 85% full. I didn't get to try the meat paella, but the seafood paella wasn't too bad given that I'm already not in the mood for my main anymore. The rice was nicely scented but the essence of the seafood wasn't integrated into the rice. No complaints about the seafood which was plenty though nothing to shout about.

I wasn't looking forward to the dessert, knowing that it will be another oily dish. Was so sick of it that I didn't bother taking any photos. The churros itself wasn't that bad but the combination of a fried dough stick with rich coconut and gula melaka taste just threw us all off. None in our group liked the combination.

Their standard item menu should be worth visiting, but my first restaurant week experience was kind of disappointing.

Review: Lolla

touted as one of the top 10 hottest restaurant in the world by zagat, i knew i had to make a trip down to try their signature sea urchin pudding. located near maxwell market but away from the noisy main street, lolla seems like a restaurant one would miss even if you walk past it everyday.

made a reservation for two  beforehand and were given a counter seat. surprisingly when we arrived slightly past 12noon, there were already a couple of customers in the restaurant. for those who do not want to reek of smokiness after your meal, my advice is not to take the counter seat.

ordered a full portion of sea urchin pudding (no surprise), tomato salad, grilled octopus and a roasted duck breast with date puree from the specials board. it didn't felt like we ordered a lot because we were under the impression that lolla's concept was of small plates, so four small plates to share seems reasonable. service staff were polite, attentive and helpful.

the main attraction, the sea urchin pudding, was the first to arrived. i watched as the chef gently placed the sea urchin on top of a bowl of prepared squid ink pudding. mmm... one can never go wrong with sea urchin, especially when theirs was very fresh and creamy. the squid ink pudding was rich and savory with no fishiness. the two, when eaten separately, was enjoyable, but i can't really feel any synergy from putting these two together, except for that additional umami-ness i guess.

next up was the grilled octopus. i love eating octopus and its hard to find them on menu in singapore. having cooked octopus myself, i know it is not an easy ingredient to play with. it arrived looking nicely grilled with lots of char bits which i like. however, the first bite was disappointing. because they used a large tentacles, so they had tried to tenderise the insides, which made it slightly fibrous. it felt like eating a piece of boiled dried cuttlefish. the seasoning was also not to my liking. the potatoes that came with it couldn't save the dish either. i would prefer my octopus to be juicy and less fibrous.

the grilled octopus filled me up, so it was good to see the tomato salad served next. looks just like it is, simply tomatoes with a balsamic dressing. the tomatoes were fresh though, but not a wow dish.

despite being very full by the time the roasted duck breast arrived, this dish was surprisingly good. i would say this was my favorite dish for this meal at lolla. the duck breast was cooked to a perfect medium-rare and served on top of date puree, together with some nuts and fruits. it has the aroma of foie gras with a good balance of meat and the fats. the nuts and fruits complemented the duck meat really well and i could have polished off the entire plate if not for being too full from the previous dishes.