FOC

FOC ( Hong Kong street) has been on our radar as we missed Food bar dada since it's demise. Visited 63 Celcius twice and I must say the black rice there was excellent. Great food and excellent service here, we would also be back to enjoy the buzz:)

Watermelon Gazpacho with charcoal smoked olive oil ice cream. This was the aftermath after the juice went it. Quite ingenious and mind blowing actually.

Baby squid - mix it all up with the egg. Delicious mess it was.

Black rice with garlic mayonnaise - excellent combination. Real thin layer of rice each grain soaking up the stock. Excellent. 

Scallops. Quite an awesome pairing with the caviar and miso. 

Grilled beef Steak- charred to perfection.

Best time to come here ? Waltz in after 930 pm for those drinks and tapas.

63 Celcius

The best way to deal with Monday blues... Well get on with it and look forward to a good dinner heh. After a spin at the bay we headed to 63 Celcius ( Asia Square 2) for tapas date night - prob the first this year! An alumnus of food bar dada we were looking forward to the surprises from the josper.

By the way we think we spied WAY here ! ! Food tonight will be of a great standard man. Haha!

Stuffed calamari in squid ink. It was stuffed with peppers and this was one of their proudest creations :p

Grilled cod. I was a fan of the crisp skin.

Josper grilled prime rib eye- it was smokey the initial taste was like that of a bak kwa. And it was juicy to boot !!

J's favorite green risotto with prawns. This was the 63delicia rice. Not creamy at all this had a uber awesome seafood depth to it , must have been a great stock cooking those grains.

Galician octopus on top a bed of mash potatoes. The octopus was so meaty it tasted like a sausage- it's like bangers and mash.

 

It was a quiet night and the host was vey kind to us offering us drinks on the house ( but we really didn't feel like :p) and was quite concerned about our critique. They are looking forward to roll out the previous dada's black rice with uni. Coming soon next month ;)

Moosehead

We finally tried out Moosehead( Telok Ayer street)! On a drizzly day, we were feeling very toasty sitting at the bar right in front of the infamous charcoal oven... Great entertainment watching the chefs in action and having them host us and ensuring we were well fed, checking on us from time to time... He being the toastiest of us all ;) service here is absolutely wonderful.

Charcoal grilled eggplant... Very smoky. They really throw everything into the oven including the bread ( which was really crisp)

J's favorite - grilled octopus... One long tentacle real meaty and smoky. Crinkly tomatoes and baked baby potatoes topped it off. And we found out they put olive oil as a finishing touch in almost every dish:p from a mysterious red bottle.

Smashed eggs with truffle and onions and melt in your mouth mushrooms. I love eggs served in a pan,and this is indeed one beautiful breakfast mess.

Seabass all grilled to perfection. Love the skin.

Wagyu shoulder -tender towards the centre but our soft spot is still the onglet from burnt ends :p

Grilled pineapple, crumble , coconut yoghurt and j's favorite meringue. And that mysterious apricot layer

Menu changes as and when the chef pleases though they keep the crowd favorites. This is prob one of our favorite for now ;)

Burnt ends

Snagged the last two bar seats at Burnt Ends (Teck Lim Road) - you can actually phone up between 6-630 pm after which they don't take phone reservations. We were lucky ;-) (even with parking). There is a separate bar seating for people to wait for the main bar seats- and just one private table that seats four further in.

We quite like the dynamic atmosphere here and watching the chefs at work- j had lots of fun with his kinotopic.

Salmon skin with ikura- interesting take on this Japanese appetiser. It's an all in one.

Smoked beef- dressed lightly and matched the sweet biscotti.

Lamb and goats cheese crostini(left the burnt ends of the bread behind lol). It's a great combination which I think I will try to do next time.

Smoked quail eggs- love the runny yolk. Also an option to add truffle.

Squid with corn and leek. Not as smokin as our smoked octopus at dada.

This kingfish is uber sweet über tender and went well with the Japanese seaweed. Prob second best dish of the night.

The honor goes to this onglet- which j told me its actually the skirt cut. Minimal fat and rare, yet charred on the outside- recommended!! Better than the skirt at Skirt IMHO;)

Went back to reassess and to await eot, before planning out our trip. Exciting with a plan in place ;-)

Culina

Post call post cycle we finally had our first dinner date post trips..... Steak craving plus a recommendation and we were here for the ord treat. For a start ( and a very good one at that ) we had the quinoa, goat cheese, roasted pumpkin and hazelnut salad - great idea for something at home next time ! J totally digged his Kobe rib eye while my steak tartare tasted like a cross between bibimbap and a bk burger patty( when eaten with onions). The mixed wild mushrooms rocked out boat too, truffle fries will be for the next time we are back for the prime rib!

Balzac

Sun brunch with the French trio- Pek picked me and we got lost finding the car park entrance to Rendezvous Hotel ( it's along Prinsep street ) and so did Xx so we ended up being much later but the icing on the cake was when Pek had to go back :( xx and i had the very awesome bread ( we ordered a second basket for another 5 bucks) and the truffled veal sausage salad whilst waiting.

Then the French onion soup ( sweet ! ) and the set came - croque, foie gras and the truffled mushroom omelette. The steak frites came soon after ( love the skinny fries). Desserts was of deconstructed apple crumble, chocolate creme brûlée and vanilla bean ice cream.

We loved the ambience of this place - the sexy French cafe music and the lighting of the high ceiling. Lovely place to catch up at. Thereafter we headed for nails at holland v before dinner at J's bro.

Hippopotamus

Celebrated Dad's bd at Hippopotamus (Marina Square) - a word I used to have most trouble trying to spell in my younger days. This place is actually a bona fide French chain, and for its price i thought I should give it a shot and try the steak here.

Escargoes- with lotsa oil and butter.

Mixed beef skewers- had different cuts of meat like sirloin, hump. I thought it was rather interesting cos of the different cuts and textures. But couldnt second guess the cuts at all. Sigh.

Sides of Ratatouille and potato gratin (below).

Might or might not return to this place given that there're more steak places to try. Not been getting much of a steak fix these days..