my 2 close OPS primary school buddies came over for dinner on 2.12.2016.

it’s an impromptu dinner. i whatsapped them in the morning, & we decided to have 3pax home dinner.

i did not go out to do marketing, just used whatever i had in the fridge, so just 家常便饭.

i had some frozen pork prime ribs. sheng shiong about 500g, not quite enough, so i added some from qbfoods.

i washed them with salt & scalded them to remove scum & clean thoroughly. then just added them with a whole bulb of peeled garlic cloves with “ilc bakuteh spice packet” in 1.5 litre water & cooked for 50mins.

bakuteh is so very easy la…

& the simple dish was so delightful.

my friends were surprise how sweet & tasty the soup was, and quite natural meat sweetness. nothing else added, just ilc spice packet + garlic + pork ribs.

& the frozen prime ribs were very good too. granted cannot compare with fresh pork ribs, but for me the prime cut is more important, so a frozen prime ris with some fat better than fresh spare ribs for me…

recently i ate twice at tuan yuan bakuteh. it was very good.

one bowl = S$9. whereas i had nearly 1kg for S$9. of course not as good, but almost leh…

my fish head was so very good! ^^

the black bean paste was excellent. my friend said better than the chinatown shops. i quite agree actually. it was as good as most song fish head places out there.

again it was quite easy to do.

i had two frozen 1/2 song fish head in the freezer. so i took out one & washed with salt thoroughly.

then i made the black bean sauce paste-

• 3 tbsp flat lee kum kee spicy black bean sauce
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 2 tbsp olive oil (or vegetable oil)
• 2 tbsp mirin (optional)
• 2 tbsp light soy sauce
• 1 tbsp flat sugar
• 1 tbsp flat corn flour

heat a bit once paste starts to coagulate off fire.

i added cut spring onions & chilli padi, and steamed for 13mins. added some longer cut spring onions when almost done.

to balance the meat dishes, i fried a kang kong.

& i had some leftover celery, the more tender shoots inside.

i fried with salted fish, like my sis always do.

both vegetables were quite good la…celery was crunchy, tasty, nice salted fish flavours. kang kong was very good too.

a simple dinner for 3pax, no much preparation or effort required.

c.h.e.f andy

wife been buying dinners lately. i oso bought quite a few la…^^

there is this momor izakaya she & the children had been to which has this free lobster promotion. she was going away for 11days for a mission trip & wanted me to try before the promotion ended.

so we had a wonderful 5pax dinner at momor izakaya on 30.11.2016. ^^

a japanese izakaya with more modern european food. anyway japanese does all the french & italain food very well & french desserts too.

it was ladies night on wed. wife & 2 daughters had their free 1st drink cocktails. i tasted pretty good.

so we ordered the max 3 oysters ea for 3 ladies = total 9 oysters.

oysters were good. & came with yuzu jelly, nice citrus condiment.

very enjoyable, wouldn’t mind more but this S$2 special limited.

pork jowl was among the best dishes for me this evening!

really so good, so tender & smooth & flavourful, will order 2 next time. 🙂

wife liked the mussel pot a lot.

& it was very good.

mussels were the small french ones & very tender & sweet, not the large local ones. i asked & server said about 500g for the serving. i think about S$34.

the gravy or almost like a very tasty veloute (soup) was excellent.

it didn’t wow me as much though as i thought it was very competent but not special, certainly i have had this before equally good in other places.

the ika sugatayaki (definitely japanese) wowed me a lot though.

it was really very good. the excellent flavours with bbq, slight sweet & great texture.

wonder how i can do this.

i experimented on this dish a few years back, none too successful, and miles from this wonderful dish. lol!

grilled cauliflower always very good in many places including indian restaurants. a great complement to the savoury dishes.

my youngest daughter was greatly enamoured by the australian grass fed ribeye.

for me it was quite mediocre la! so on this dish our opinions vary widely.

the cooking, grilling, beef sauce condiments, salad all great, but the quality of beef was mediocre, so it was tough, has residue (connective issues) & way below any good beef.

any of my tagliata would be far better than this…

of course i used mostly 150day grain fed balck angus ribeye, sometimes 400day grain fed wagyu 3/4 or 6/7.

but even my grass fed black angus ribeye is better. black angus quality of meat quite different la…

so for me, this dish ranked second from bottom after the cauliflower, not including dessert. of course i am talking here about ranking among all great dishes!

crebmeat linguine for me a competent dish, no more…

i have had equally good if not better crab linguine or other good wine sauce or creamy pastas in other restaurants, even say a place like alfresco gusto.

so this was ok but not overly impressive for me.

wife liked it a lot, so manybe i should try it again. a lot of crabmeat & good canned crabmeat very ex.

the carbonara was very good. it’s not among our preferred pastas so we seldom order this.

so in a way this impressed though as a pasta dish it was not better than the crabmeat linguine which i still prefer.

& here it is the complimentary grilled mentaiko pasta.

it was very good! the grilling was very well done, lobster meat cooked just right, not overdone, bouncy, plump & tasty.

reminded me of ash & elm’s lobster.

ash & elm’s of course better, fine dining standard la…

wife & i not much into desserts, but this evening she fancied the creme caramel with ice cream. daughter said becos there was liquor in it. lol! ^^

for me the lobster, pork jowl & ika sugatayaki were the best dishes!

the oysters, mussels, crabmeat linguine were good too…

dinner still came to about S$350 i think for 5pax, including a sake wife ordered. the place not cheap la…but maybe ok if go for food only.

anyway, a very enjoyable family dinner. 🙂

c.h.e.f andy

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