In a nook and cranny

I remember getting angry at theboy for bringing me to Basil Alcove for my birthday dinner this year. A shoddy place, tiny and unkempt, plastic umbrellas with brands of local beer littering its al'fresco area. A place so small the stench of cooking oil would soon find itself into my hair, I thought haughtily.

When I first arrived, I sat and sulked into my iced water, glumly ordering whatever fish dish the restaurant was offering. I think this has everything to do with the notion of being uppity and turning my nose up on shabby eating establishments. Which was really an exacerbation of all the chi-chi places I had read about on other food blogs, and which I had expected to be brought to on my 21st birthday.

Thankfully I was given a well-deserved slap when the food arrived.

I learnt an important lesson that day: good food is good food, there are no two ways about it, regardless of the atmosphere.

We returned to Basil Alcove a second time today for our quintessential Sunday dinner. Sadly I left my camera in the car we had parked a good distance away and it was raining. (Although methinks theboy was relieved I wouldn't be camwhoring away at the dining table) But we were wowed once more so there is an absolute need to post pictures from our last sojourn there.

The Rack of Lamb kept us quiet for a long while. Served with rice topped with parmesan cheese, it was not just a burst of flavour, but a bloody explosion. I'm not kidding, it was that awesome. The grilling was definitely done by a pair of skilful hands because it got rid of any musty taste possible. Absolutely savoury, the juices just ran and ran and ran and ran and.. errr okay, you get my point.


Oh mama.

A little less overwhelming but by no means less yummy was the Grilled Salmon Rolls I had for my main course. The fish flaked easily and left a seductive smoky aftertaste, accentuated by the light butter rice accompanying it. Abso-dayum.


Today we settled for simpler fare. Pasta pasta pasta. While this place already offers a good-as-gold meal for a penniless undergraduate and his equally impoverished girlfriend, the pasta is seriously worth a hallelujah to my pocket.

Al'dente to a T, my Aglio Olio with Mushrooms and Bacon was amazing. The tiny peppers fanned it in happy colours and the olive oil was so light and yet so decadently tossed equally between bites that I could find no other way to fault it. And at a mere $5.50, I am saying an eternal goodbye to Cartel and Spaggedies. Adieu, you can find me at Basil Alcove.

Theboy had Bratwurst with Cream Pasta. The beauty of this creation is that you can taste every bit of the light cream sauce, but you cannot see it at all. To hell with pastas drenched in heavy cream, Basil Alcove knows the way to go. The bratwurst was wonderful, not overly salty, smoky but not burnt, plump but not lard-infused.

Oh Xander Ang, you own the world tonight. And every night we go to Basil's.

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Basil Alcove
190 Middle Road #01-07, Fortune Centre
Tel: 63361318

Yum Cha

Really, who doesn't love dimsum? I don't mean to offend the dieters, but these little steaming packages of joy really pack of mean punch if they're done well, and they're well worth the demise of your diet.

Theboy and I had a dimsum brunch today after lounging around in bed all morning. El'cheapos like us sniff out bargains like flies to rubbish, so we ended up at Turf City having half-price dimsum and saving our pockets from eternal damnation.

Century egg porridge! Excuse the lousy photo, I went too close to him while attempting to take in the wonderful scent of Cantonese-laboured congee. This version was thin and the smell of pork was not present, just the way I like it. More ingredients would have been good, though what do we have as a case since we're half-price eaters?



The carrot cake was awesome. It was crisp on the outside and softly shredded on the inside, studded with lapcheong and shrimps for extra oohmph. May I add here that I am a purist, and would have been extremely pleased with plain carrot cake, since this was done so well.



The chee cheong fun with shrimps was average. The texture of the flour was quite doughey (this word represents the biggest no-no in the art of dimsum) and would have been better executed if the cook had taken more time to stretch it a little more to produce a thinner skin. The shrimps were nice though, but well, it's hard to fault plump little crustaceans right?



The second time I will use 'doughey' to describe something here is a (dis)honour given to the har kau. And it was disappointing because I am the biggest har kau fan you will ever find and my happy little heart swells with great pleasure when I sink my teeth into orgasmic har kau. The prawns did not manage to salvage the dish this time.



The char siew pau I did not taste, given my natural distaste for porkey offerings. But theboy seemed quite content with it and finished all 3 on the steaming bamboo tray. There is not much point in quoting theboy's opinion on food-related issues because his standard answer is "Hmrmnphhrnmphrunmpphnmphh? N-nice" or whatever grunting noise he manages to make in between major chows.



The steamed beancurd skin rolls were nice (shrimp again!) and had quite a clean bite to them. I liked the contrast the chopped chestnuts and their crunch-crunch provided to the softness of the wrapper and its filling.



The siew mai was just alright, nothing to shout about. But yeah, porkey pork, so I just might be adversely biased.



I liked the deepfried seafood roll just as much as I liked the carrot cake. The soft shrimp (again!) filling was coated with sweet mayonnaise and the whole thing was encased by a basket of thin egg noodles. It wasn't cloying because there wasn't any oily lick-your-lips moment present, and I had to try my darndest to keep myself from ordering it another time.

So this is the life. Me and myboy, living it up like taitais with rubber bellies and beehives for hair. Cheers.

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Ah Yat Seafood Restaurant
200 Turf Club Road #03-01
TURF CITY SHOPPING MALL
Singapore 287994
Tel : 6883-2112, Fax : 6883-2022

A fishy debate

From many a glutton's (and a pescectarian's) mouth has come forth this debate: Fish & Co or Manhatten Fish Market?

I say, Manhatten. Hands down.
(I am easily bought over by fish battered to a crisp and most of all, prawns grilled to a faultless finish)
















Photocredits to Twin Stars

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The Manhatten Fish Market

68 Orchard Road

#06-07

Plaza Singapura

Tel: 68359300

M for Mmmmmmm

I was quite pleased with myself when I found out that I had correctly guessed that M Hotel was in the Shenton Way/Chinatown precinct before W consulted the street directory. Smug old me had wanted to gleefully correct the oft-maligned fact that women are bad at directions by throwing a See-you-should-trust-your-girlfriend curve ball at him, but I was getting quite restless and hungry so lucky for him, I didn't ;)

(I guess not everyone appreciates my little stories so maybe I should move on to talk about relevant things. Like food!)

You know how it is that some restaurants tease you with such reverent descriptions of their offerings? M Hotel's Cafe 2000 is one of them. I almost got psyched into ordering a triple-deck sandwich because of their verbal prowess. (On a sidenote, their love for letters and numbers is quite disturbing. Did I mention they have a J-bar too?)


W had the Roasted Rack of Lamb with Couscous and Grilled Tomatoes after some deliberation, and it proved to be a winning choice! I think he delights in the rare times his choice comes out tasting better than mine.




The lamb was grilled with a blue cheese crust on the top side, and it crumbled into the meat quite nicely. The thing about red meat is that the amount of blood you can taste should run hand in hand with the meat juices that collect on your tongue, and it should be obvious but not overpowering. And this was quite the stunner.

Did I mention I love meat with a lovely pink hue in the centre? And that I love meat that falls from the bone even more? Wouldchoolookatthat?

I had the Panfried Yellow Emperor with Long Beans and Sweet Pea Risotto in Black Bean Sauce. A mouthful that was.

A couple of hits and misses with the fish. One thing I do not appreciate is having bones in a fillet-of-something, and there were 7-8 thin bones in the fish. Otherwise it was quite well executed, probably also because I have an obvious preference for lean fish that do not have oily flesh in the likes of baked salmon. The skin was crisp and charred but I gave that to W because I happen to be one of those superficial girls with an aversion for the skin of cooked animals.

What I really liked was the sweet pea risotto. Risotto is one of the good things that nobody should be able to dislike, imho. Paired with the black bean sauce that tasted like a heavier version of good old teriyaki, the risotto was wonderful. I could picture little pods of sweet peas lining up to get squashed in my mouth. Arborio rice is love.

We shared Apple Crumble with Vanilla Bean Ice-cream for dessert. The crumble bits could have been more generously scattered, and true to its name, it could actually have been more crumbly. The apple filling was very nice, and it looks like while some other establishments have some trouble deciding the quantity of cinammon to add to stewed apples, the good people at M Hotel certainly didn't. And I really liked the fact that the ice-cream wasn't served on top of the crumble, because that would have made it even less crumbly

Crumble some more, leh.

All in all, I think I can say: The way to my boy's heart is a rack of lamb and me splitting the bill in half with him. Hurr hurr ;D

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Cafe 2000
M Hotel Singapore
81 Anson Road

Maiden Salut!

A maiden post is always memorable, and in my humble opinion there is no better way to say hello-world! than to talk about desserts.

Menotti's with my breast friends yesterday night (yes, no sic, I assure you). Whilst the main courses were note-worthy, the desserts were clearly the stars of the night. Which is probably why I only remembered to whip out my camera after we ushered in the first of these sweet confections.

First up, I tried the Apple Strudel with Vanilla Bean ice-cream because it was conveniently placed right in front of me. And it was an honest let-down because the crust was limp and I couldn't tell the difference between crust and filling. There was also too much cinammon and the bitter raisins cut out any redeeming purposes the stewed apples served. I'm not sure if this would be more redeemable if it were served hot, but I sure wouldn't order it again. The girlies shared my sentiments and the strudel was left neatly untouched except for five obligatory sample bites.




I had better luck with the second dessert I tried- the Molten Chocolate Cake with Stratciatella Ice-cream. Though it would have been good if there really was hot chocolate oozing out from the inside of the brown walls, the cake was crumbly on the outside and its innards were a warm mushy-soft burst of delight. It was light and airy, yet served all its purposes of heavy-duty girlish decadence. Delish!

The piece de resistance for me was the Key Lime Pie. The graham cracker bottom held a dome of fluffy goodness in the form of a spongey cake which burst with a tangy edge. The chocolate shell in the centre cracked open to reveal hot chocolate sauce that took some getting used to, but once we got that going, it was a dandy affair.

The Tiramisu was alright, nothing to shout about. Except that it was quite bitter (top-grade coffee I suppose, but that doesn't do anything for a non-coffee drinker like me). And most notable was that fact that we noticed it was shaped in a rather unsavoury fashion. It. looked. like. a. turd.

I liked the Apple Tart with Vanilla Cream. The gelatinous disc of apple flan was easy on the tongue and the cream went well with it.

Great night, great desserts and even greater company makes me a very happy girl! But my stomach continues its groan at the copious amount of food I take in. Methinks I will have to pay for my hedonistic gluttony one day when I finally burst even plus-size skirts.

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Menotti Pte. Ltd.
252 North Bridge Road
#01-17 Raffles City Shopping Centre
Tel: 6333-9366
Fax: 6339-4907