Monthly Archives: October 2014
Excellent Italian tapas @ Sons Bacaro on 4Oct2014
truffle pesto tagliatelle – S$12
daughter picked sons bacaro for 6pax family dinner on 4.10.2014. she is far more happening than her old folks. 🙂
it was an excellent choice! food was good. 🙂 dishes were served in small plates, kind of like italian tapas.
the restaurant was by beppe devito. somehow i didn’t really fancy il lido much even with 50% for 2pax palate discounts (never tried it under palate actually) & it was “far away” in sentosa. maybe ought to consider trying some time.
the place was chic as advertised on its website, which also showed menu items & prices. not really buzzy on a saturday evening (same for other chic restaurants on nankin street), a pity but no complaints from us…haha! sons was less than 50% full, and interestingly the other 5 tables looked mostly family like us. 🙂
tagliata di manzo wagyu – S$28
we had the wagyu tagliata. it was good, chargrilled flavourful, tender, medium rare. 🙂
baccala (salt cod) cake with uni sauce – S$15
baccala (salt cod) cake with uni sauce was the best dish of the night. thin crispy crust was excellent, minced salt cod was excellent, and great uni sauce combination.
i would put the light cream, flavourful truffle pesto tagliatelle (top photo) as my second favourite for the night. no feel of pesto though – not sure how a strong pesto flavour goes with subtle truffle scent.
roasted cod – S$19
the roasted cod was very good. my wife & i both made very good cod ourselves at home. this though had better grilled flavours.
grilled kurobuta pork neck, balsamic mushrooms – S$16
the grilled kurobuta pork neck was very good, like a good char siew or the charcoal broiled pork collar at imperial treasure teochew. maybe i should try & reinvent this dish at home again.
iberico pork truffle paccheri – S$16
i liked the iberico pork truffle paccheri too. very agreeable but i preferred the truffle pesto if asked to choose.
burrata, asparagus cream – S$16
burrata was fine, nothing like the supreme version in valentino, after all that cost 3x more.
spaghetti with uni sauce carbonara – S$16
surprising the same uni sauce did not come out good on this carbonara dish. i would not order this.
potato & cheese ravioli – S$9
looked like ah bor ling – mochi dumplings..cheese was very strong, not sure if blue cheese. anyway i liked blue cheese, but its not the most popular dish.
italian tapas
we had a S$55 bottle of wine, 2 beers & 1 mojito. dinner for 6pax came to S$260nett, about S$30nett pax excluding drinks, pretty ok. 🙂
service by the western servers were ok, not too friendly, kind of unsmiling. one server kept filling water to the glasses, a good thing. 🙂
lunch is cheaper. S$10 pasta etc. the street is quite interesting with mad poets gastrobar, platypus gourmet etc. will go back again. 🙂
c.h.e.f andy
Fun & Satisfying Homecooked 13-course Dinner for 15pax on 3Oct2014
had a very s satisfying homecooked dinner last evening on 3.10.2014. 🙂
while i really enjoy cooking for my family & friends even if there is considerable effort (& a close friend said exactly what it felt like – he really enjoyed it so he did not see it as effort), the point is how to plan the dishes & keep improving to manage the dinner smoothly & achieve best results with least effort. this is also part of the fun. 🙂
i decided to follow a friend’s lead to serve all dishes pre-cooked or served at the start buffet style instead of course by course (i enjoyed the delicious food at 4 of his makan sessions, most recently at a scrumptious homechef mooncake dinner on 8.9.2014).
it is quite important actually not to be disrupted from dinner conversation even though going into the kitchen to cook every course does have its own satisfaction. 🙂 i may even try that for my monterosso seafood risotto, lobster pasta. for king prawn ramen in golden sauce etc which are best served in individual portions, it seems best still to serve them course by course. so i do those for smaller sit down dinners. 🙂
#1 poached chicken
#1 poached chicken – i brined in sugar & salt for 48hrs which made it tasty & moist & then 10mins simmered & 20-25mins poached, then cold water. this a crowd favourite with many supporters. 🙂
#2 braised pig trotters & #3 braised belly pork – i did them together using the cold crockpot method & set meat thermometer to 82degC. this would take about 5hrs, gentle slow & low temperature braising. i did this 1 day before. both were tender, gelatinous but still firm. i prefer this firmer texture.
#4 盐水鸭
#4 盐水鸭 – i applied a dry brine seasoning rub & put in chiller for for 48hrs (main condiment is sichuan spicy chilli sauce). cooking method same as poached chicken, but 15mins simmered & 30mins poached. duck was tender & tasty but i felt the 风味 taste was not pronouced enough like last time.
＃5 蒜泥白肉
＃5 蒜泥白肉 – i got the pork a day before dinner so only brined 24hrs. used the same cold crockpot method to produce a very gentle braise using chicken stock from the poached chicken. this one again many supporters.
#6 6hr “sous vide” miso lamb shoulder
#6 6hr “sous vide” miso lamb shoulder – more or less perfected this dish. the miso tempered the strong gamey taste & 90degC was apparently the optimum temperature to break down collagen (tough connective tissues) to tasty gelatine, so a very tasty, tender dish. 🙂
1 friend said she especially liked the dish. another mentioned it was a bit sweet. i would probably reduce the sweetness in the miso marinade a bit.
#7 peanut carrots pig trotter soup
#7 peanut carrots pig trotter soup
#7 peanut carrots pig trotter soup – peanut porkrib soup is a common nice lie tong 例汤. i preferred to do my pig trotters w/o bones & the toe ends so i used those leftovers for the soup, which worked perfectly & added a gelatine texture to the soup. i added some carrots & also as the amount of soup was not enough for 15pax & i did not want to dilute the soup (better not enough soup than enough diluted soup), the chicken stock came to rescue. this i added & the soup tasted quite perfect for me. 🙂
so it was kind of a planned & orderly execution. braised pig trotters & belly pork i did 1 day before, and the leftover pig trotter bones & tips I made soup 1 day before. this freed up the crockpot for the 蒜泥白肉 on the day. chicken & duck were brined 48hrs before & an easy 10mins+20mins for chicken & 15mins+30mins for 1/2duck simmered + poached. miso lamb was marinated 3days before & just gone into oven for 6hrs on dinner day.
easy eh? 🙂
i only had to do the seafood fried rice & wok grilled prawns, nearer dinner time.
i cooked the rice in rice cooker in the morning (forgot to do day before), & i fried the rice with the sichuan spicy chilli early.
about 1 hr (530pm) before dinner at 630pm, i fried in butter the small prawns & squid. when 90% guests arrived, i heat the fried rice & seafood in the wok together, & i did the dry wok king prawns with ginger, garlic, chilli padi & fish sauce. so every dish was ready to serve together. 🙂
#10 sambal seabass
#11 poached hk kailan with shitake
aunty bes did the #10 sambal seabass & #11 poached hk kailan with shitake. everyone loved the fish. 1 friend commented the kailan was so vibrant in colour. kailan was poached & usually looked greener.
#13 tiramisu
#13 tiramisu
& everyone loved the tofu cheese cake & tiramisu. i did them 1 day before. 1 friend said the dessert topped everything. 🙂
1 friend would be celebrating her birthday few days later, so i asked another to bring a candle (i did not have one) & used the tofu cheese cake as the birthday cake. 🙂
c.h.e.f andy
Fabulous Omakase Lunch @ GOTO on 1Oct2014
sakizuke(先附) – a selection of small appetizers
GOTO is closing for renovations on 26.10.2014 & reopening on 11.11.2014.
i had wanted to go GOTO all these while but somehow did not get to do. a friend suggested recently & 5 of us decided to go for the S$68pax omakase lunch on 1.10.2014. there was no GST so it was just S$75nett! 🙂
GOTO at 14 ang siang road is currently a kaiseki only restaurant. lunch is 6-course at S$68pax & dinner S$180pax & S$280pax. the chef owner GOTO HISAO, was previously the personal chef to the japanese ambassador to singapore. after the renovation it will be remodelled to a casual restaurants. according to the server lunch sets would be like S$40 onwards.
we were wondering about the economics of a straight kaiseki restaurant where the dishes & ingredients were limited, vs a normal restaurant with an extensive menu, dishes & ingredients. we were of course out of our depths, no expert in f&b, but perhaps the main objective was to increase traffic & customers. kaiseki restaurant would have a limited number of patrons. a casual restaurant would attract a larger customer base & the sitting could be doubled from the current 20?
seems the restaurant name would be changed as well to G-One. couldn’t figure out G-One, but we were kidding the place change from GOTO to GONE? is that good? 🙂
who cares as long as food is good right? & it was, quite excellent! 🙂
sakizuke(先附) – a selection of small appetizers
ikura on enoki mushrooms
we had the first course sakizuke(先附) – a selection of small appetizers. it had a delicious pickled sanma (秋刀鱼), a equally delicious tofu, pickled ika (squid), some vege, and ikura on enoki in small bowl. really good! we were saying if every dish could be like this. they were, quite! maybe minus the rice. 🙂
sashimi moriawase = maguro, hirame, hamachi, hotate, anago
the sashimi moriawase = maguro, hirame, hamachi, hotate, anago was just incredible! they told us its maguro, but it was so sweet its like akamai (lean toro). hotate was just 1/2 a piece but very sweet. same for hirame (flat fish) & hamachi (yellow tail). the anago (conger eel) was an expensive item too but actually that was my least preferred among the quality sashimi.
tempura moriawase
the tempura moriawase was served differently w/o the dip & radish & wasabi. there was a lemon & a dish with what looked like green tea powder but actually salt. the server missed out explanation at our table for this dish, so we were guessing the lemon should go on the salt (lemon juice with salt is a very good dip for yakiniku), anyway a few of us including myself was too quick & just squeezed the lemon on the tempura. there was shisamo (pregnant fish), asparagus, 2 like fish cakes etc. very good dish. 🙂
a simmered kamo (duck) dish
we have a simmered duck dish. i liked it very much. 1 friend felt the duck had too gamey taste. the rest didn’t. a few thought the duck was tough. 1 said the sauce a bit sweet (japanese like to add sugar to their dishes).
for me though it was quite perfect – duck, yam etc. 🙂
chicken & mushroom gohan (rice) set
a friend said that the mushroom smell was really good. & indeed it was. however i & a few of us did not think this good was great. it did not really had the wok hae of a good chinese fried rice, nor the flavours of a good japanese unagi chahan (fried rice) like say in zen or its sister restaurant en japanese dining. nor is it flavourful c/w the very nice kamameshi at sun with moon.
of course we were just picking bones. haha! 🙂
dessert – mochi, fruits, black sesame ice cream
dessert was good too. kochi i liked, good quality fruits & a great black sesame ice cream.
i think this a very good lunch for S$75. i consider this perhaps more refine & better than the S$68 omakse lunch at hachi & about same as (or sometimes better than depending on menu) the S$68 monthly lunch special at kuriya dining. anyway i have booked to go back next week. 🙂
c.h.e.f andy
c.h.e.f 