The Satisfied Customers & The Disgruntled Chef

When my friend L first told me where she wanted to go for dinner to celebrate her birthday, I was amused by her choice and I thought it was a joke! She wanted to visit The Disgruntled Chef .. and I thought it was a strange name for a place and just the name of the place itself made me want to visit this restaurant.

The concept of this place is a little different from the rest... like the way tapas is served up, but this wasn't Spanish food. Here's what we tried:

1) Crispy Lamb Shortribs - these were fantastic! Spiced with some cumin(I think), these were some of the best lamb ribs I'd ever tasted. Crispy and fragrant on the outside, moist and tender on the inside, no strong muttony flavour that a lot of the lamb in Singapore has.
2) Baked Sea Scallops - Lovely, huge, fresh and if you drizzle anything with truffle oil, I'd gobble it up!
3) Tomato & Mozzarella Salad - this was rather disappointing. Nothing out of the ordinary about this salad, and I am not convinced of the combination of olives in this salad.
4) Baby Spinach Salad - again, not terribly exciting, and I didn't enjoy the bits of eggplant which tasted uncooked in this salad.
5) Scotched Quail Eggs - as with all things deep fried, this was a popular dish.
6) Crackling Suckling Pig - the bestest dish of the night...I am glad it didn't turn out to be as crackling as crackling pork (chinese style). I liked the tenderness and moistness of the meat, and the skin was very well done. Also liked how the peppers it came it complemented the flavours very well. We only ordered the small serving of pork this time because we were trying many dishes. The next time I go back there, I am going to insist on the big plate!
7) Sticky Toffee Pudding - we ordered this for L's birthday cake... this certainly was the grand finale to our dinner... the toffee was divine - it was not too sweet and full of flavour. The pudding was perfect (and I am not a fan of sticky toffee pudding myself), and whoever said that the vanilla ice cream was nothing interesting must have had a bad day... the ice cream was lovely! It tasted like it was homemade with real vanilla essence... yum!
8) Baked Ice Cream - now this was a nice and refreshing one after the rich sticky toffee pudding, but it didn't blow us away. Interesting enough though. It seemed like a little scoop of ice cream on a bed of sponge cake and wrapped in a baked meringue. Accompanied by raspberry/strawberry sauce.

We went to this place on a Thursday night and it was packed. The table next to us, with 2 different customers seemed to have some problems with their orders, but luckily for us, there were no hitches with ours. The surprise birthday cheer from the restaurant staff was also timed very well!

My verdict: Loved the food, love the decor, service was pretty good, but as with a lot of new establishments these days, the din from the diners echoed through the place. I found it a little noisy, but not unbearable. I think if it was a cool night, I'd have preferred to sit outside. This place is a must try for those who love roasted suckling pig!

The Disgruntled Chef
26B Dempsey Road

Peck and Grom

On a recent trip to the Italian part of Switzerland and Italy, I had a wonderful opportunity to taste authentic Italian food once again. The pastas and pizzas were amazing, although the portions were still something I struggled with; by the time I finished my primi piatti, I was just about full!

When I stopped over in Milan, I managed to drop into Peck (Milan's answer to Harrod's Foodhall, in my opinion) for lunch. It was packed, and an Italian waiter brushed past me as if I was invisible. I tried to get his attention, and finally after walking past me about the hundredth time, this grumpy waiter stops and talks to me in Italian. Thankfully the restaurant manager notices my predicament and takes over. Service was smooth and great thereafter. Upon reflection, I do not think my perseverance paid off at this restaurant. Food was ok, nothing to shout about as it was mostly bistro type of food. But it was nice to walk around and examine the racks at the foodhall later. I didn't buy anything there though. [Interestingly, I did a little more research on this place, Peck, after writing this paragraph and have found that this establishment was founded by a Czech delicatessen owner... .. and I thought Peck was more related to the English word peck!]

I also got the chance to try my favourite gelato flavour, Pistacchio too while I was in Milan. While searching around for dinner, I stumbled upon Grom, which was touted by my Lonely Planet guide as a must-try. I had a generous scoop of the stuff -it was lovely - all natural, no unnaturally green colour, it was not too sweet, and had a little bite with the little chopped bits of Pistacchio in it.... Mmmm!

Cugini Trattoria & Le Patissier

Amidst running our errands for our new home today, MrBoxes and I stopped at Cugini Trattoria Pizzeria for lunch at Club Street. The decor was inviting, with turqoise-blue chairs and tables. I tried the Burrata cheese from Puglia with rocket and tomato salad, which was a refreshing change from the caprese mozzarella that I love. The cheese was much creamier than a mozzarella, nice for a change, but I am still a big fan of the caprese. For the soup of the day, I tried their carrot soup, which was good - hearty, with what I thought had bits of mozzarella cheese in it for some bite.

MrBoxes had one of their pizzas, which by the way, looked so tempting. I wasn't sure if I could finish off one of their pizzas so I gave it a miss. MrBoxes had the Salsiccia, which had tomatoes, mozzarella and italian sausages. With such simple ingredients, it's pretty easy to overlook this one, but it tasted amazing. The pizza base was perfetto - not too thick, not too thin... and the flavour from the sausages was fantastic! The sausages weren't sliced, but removed from their casings, and broken into bite-sized pieces and spread all over the pizza. Delish!!

And later on after running more errands, we stopped by at The Patissier to pick up some cakes for teatime. Now I've heard so much about this place, but I have never tried their cakes before. We picked the Strawberry Cognac - a sponge cake soaked with Cognac, & strawberries and had layers of mascarpone mousse. This one was pretty nice, but nothing out of this world, I have to say. It tasted just like a strawberry sponge cake with alcohol. The next cake was the Chai. I am a sucker for earl grey and had to try this one... now this was something unique. Despite having chocolate on this cake, the earl grey flavour was still strong enough in this cake. The chocolate and earl grey combi was a surprisingly nice flavour. Was it worth the average $6.50 for a piece? I'd have to say probably not. I am still a much bigger fan of Canele....

Cugini Trattoria Pizzeria
87 Club Street
Tel: +65 6221 3791
Open for Lunch & Dinner daily
http://www.cugini.com.sg

Le Patissier
Mohd Sultan Road & Ann Siang Road
http://www.thepatissier.com

Pork Ball noodles at Shuang Yuan

I read so much about this place on HGW, and about it being a place for home-cooked Japanese Taiwanese food. Again, since it was a HGW rave review, I had my doubts. Since it is near to my office, I managed to persuade my friend D to join me there for lunch.

I thought it was a nicely decorated little joint... amidst the so many dessert shops on Liang Seah Street, it was definitely a fresh welcome.
I went for the lunch set menu which offered a fruit juice at a reasonable price, together with the Shuang Yuan pork ball noodles and the crispy agedashi tofu. A set lunch there costs about $13.90 or so, I can't really remember the price. I liked the tofu - perfectly done and crispy. The noodles were nice and springy, and the pork balls definitely homemade. The 3-layer pork slices were interesting, but again, I'm not fond of those. And the thing is, I'm not a fan of sweet sauces, which is probably more of a taiwanese thing. So I didn't really enjoy the overall flavour of the dry pork ball noodles. Perhaps I'll try them as soup the next time round.
Not too bad, but then again nothing much to rave about, in my opinion. It's alright for lunchtime...

Shuang Yuan
1 Liang Seah Street
Sun - Thu : 11.30 - 3pm; 6.30 - 11pm
Fri : 11.30 - 3pm; 6.30 - 1am
Sun : 5pm - 1am
Tel: +65 6336 9338

Beef Wellington

I’m finally catching up on all this blogging I have to do… since my last post, I have eaten and taken so many pictures and just haven’t had the chance to post all of my food adventures up.

My first food adventure for April was the class I attended at Shermay’s – roasted and braised meats. It was more of a demo and we were taught how to make slow roasted beef, braised kurobuta pork cheeks, roasted kurobuta pork neck and … Beef Wellington. I was most curious about how Beef Wellington was done and was pretty amazed at how many steps there were in doing the Beef Wellington. I didn’t know that even before you put the beef into the pastry, you have to wrap it in a crepe to keep the moisture in.

We had a tasting session after the class, and I was stuffed by the end of it and didn’t have any space left for dinner! The verdict? The meats turned out lovely... especially the beef wellington, which was done to perfection - not underdone, and still really juicy... yum!!

L'Angelus

MrBoxes and I just finished a meeting with our interior designer and decided to try one of the restaurants on Club Street. Since our designer was raving about the wonderful melted chocolate cake, we walked into L’Angelus. Stepping into this place reminded me of the cafes in Paris… all the way down to the attitude of the owner of this place – he refused to speak in English and had a certain attitude about him. Not that it really bothered us… to me it kind of brought a little more authenticity to this place, haha. MrBoxes went for the weekday set menu (at a very reasonable price of $49++), while I went for the Blue Cheese Salad. Very much like any other French establishment, bread came free flow and in generous portions. MrBoxes enjoyed his Chicken Liver Pate Starter and was probably more than half full by the end of it. The dish came with a generous portion of salad and all the gherkins MrBoxes could help himself to!

I had the blue cheese salad, which was a pretty generous serving with blue cheese of course. Nothing out of the ordinary to me, and it was just a regular salad.

Next, MrBoxes had his main course, which was the traditional beef stew served on a bed of fettucine, which we both thought was a little strange, given that it was a french restaurant. The beef stew was great anyway.... .. definitely a keeper... hearty, meaty portions and it had a strong taste of red wine.For dessert, the both of us went for the molten chocolate cake. Looked great, tasted pretty average. For me, it was a little too much molten chocolate for my liking - more chocolate sauce than chocolate cake. The vanilla ice cream that came with the cake was great though.
We'd definitely go to L'Angelus again ... probably not for its dessert but for its value for money menus and the nice and quiet ambience. It seems to be more common these days that restaurants end up having a really dinny and noisy ambience these days, almost to the extent that I can't hear my date.. pity. I wish they'd bring back those soundproof places.

L'Angelus
85 Club Street
Tel: +65 6225 6897
Mon - Fri : 12-2pm; 7-10.30pm
Sat : 7-10.30pm

MrBoxes Favourite Choc Chip Cookies

I've been in a baking mood this weekend... other than the Matcha Shortbread Cookies below, I also tried these Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies... Seems to have been a big hit with MrBoxes and his colleagues too... not my kind, as I prefer them crunchy like Famous Amos Cookies. Nonetheless these ones also taste pretty good; a strong vanilla flavour, and smells similar to maple syrup, which actually comes from the pecans in the cookies. I got this recipe off allrecipes.com, my favourite source for good recipes. Thing is, since it is more of an american website, I've had to tone down the sugar levels. One other thing I've learnt as well is that brown sugar increases the chewiness and white sugar makes cookies more crispy.

(makes about 40 cookies)
Ingredients
225g butter, softened
100g fine white sugar
220g brown sugar
2 eggs
10ml (2 teaspoons) vanilla extract
375g plain flour
5g (1 teaspoon) baking soda
10ml (2 teaspoons) hot water
1/4 teaspoon salt
340g semi-sweet chocolate chips (I prefer Ghiradelli brand)
65g chopped macadamia nuts
65g chopped pecans
Method
1. Cream together the butter, white sugar, and brown sugar until smooth.
2. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the vanilla.
3. Dissolve the baking soda and salt in hot water. Add to batter.
4. Stir in flour, chocolate chips, and nuts to the batter. I've used the dough hook that came along with my Kitchenaid mixer - makes it a little easier to mix than the normal flat beater.
5. Put the dough into the freezer to harden for approx 20-30 minutes. In our hot weather, it just makes it easier to scoop the dough out later.
6. Preheat the oven to 175 degrees celcius.
7. When the dough has hardened, use a teaspoon to scoop out the dough into the lined baking tray.
8. Bake cookies in the oven for about 10 minutes, or until the edges are nicely browned. Don't overbake them, or they'll end up crispy all round.
9. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 5 minutes.