notable eats (3rd - 16th september)

1. cedele by bakery depot - with j

chocolate truffle cake - one of the best chocolate cakes i've eaten, this cake brought me back to my four months in beijing, where a group of us singaporeans found this really nice korean bakery called cafe bros, where they served a mean slice of chocolate cake. the chocolate truffle cake at cedele was very similar to that of cafe bros', with the cake comprising of a thick slab of firm yet creamy chocolate "mousse" sitting on one of the most delightful cake bases ever. not overly hard, the crumbly, saltish base was quite perfect with the cake itself.

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2. at home

焖冬菇 - mom made three batches, the first two being trial runs for the third, which she brought to her choir party. simply marvellous, especially the very first batch; the 烧肉 and 蚝干 were cooked until they literally dissolved into the thick broth; enhancing the flavour and texture. found myself sneaking into the kitchen and eating the mushrooms straight out of the pot on more than one occasion.



mooncakes - tis the season for the delightful baked morsels of 莲蓉! mom's version is not too sweet, which is perfect for me, since i find most commercial mooncakes too cloyingly sweet. and don't even get me started on 四黄月饼 - those idiots who buy them deserve to get their money cheated if they don't even realise how cheap salted eggs are compared to expensive 莲蓉.

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3. jaggi's - with sis

assorted chicken tikka - the cardamom pieces were a bit too dry today, and the cardamom taste not pronounced enough. the mint ones were more minty than usual; these were good. the garlic and masala ones were absolutely delicious too. in any case, spotted the exact same flavours in frozen packs at mustafa's. bought the cardamom one; will see if the taste is similar.

mutton curry - not spicy enough, and rather watery (though not as watery as the typical south-indian curry); seemed to remember this being thicker. the mutton pieces were a bit tough as well.

chicken moghal - very good; a nice balance between sweet, spicy and chot. usually i don't order any chicken curries at jaggi's so as to provide variery to the dishes (as chicken tikka is a must), but i'm glad i did. will try the normal chicken masala next time.

palak paneer - more bitter than usual, and not much paneer in the mix. quite disappointing.

butter naan - i really love the butter naans here (i find the garlic ones too dry in comparison). the naan came to the table all nicely tandoored, and glistening with melted butter. neither too doughy nor too crispy. sheer heaven.

vadai in yoghurt - the sour yoghurt was good; the mix of spices gave it just the right amount of kick. the vadai itself was okay, but not particularly memorable.

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4. 丝绸之路 - with j, d, yq

麻辣花生豆干 - quite good; quite sichuan-y (read: 麻辣), but not numbingly so. i'm not a fan of boiled peanuts usually, but this was not bad to me, as the peanuts weren't too mushy. the 豆干 was very nice with the sauce.

架子白肉 - this was not very good that night; the meat was quite tasteless, as compared to when we had it two weeks ago. somewhat saved by the armoatic, garlicky sweet chilli sauce. and folding foods is always fun, i guess =)

回锅肉 - very nice. the meat had just the right touch of wok hei, and was not too salty even without rice.

木耳炒丝瓜 - quite good; the crunchy jew's ears contrasting nicely with the slightly slimy luffa. the lightness of the dish was well-appreciated with all the other heavily-sauced dishes.

沈阳冰花煎饺 - one of the best 饺子 i've eaten. the dumplings are joined by a piece of light, crispy and extremely thin "waffle skin" that is laid on top, like how a floor slab connects columns; this provides an interesting texture to an already very good dumpling, with a most juicy filling. vinegar completes this dish absolutely.

四川担担拉面 - i think this 担担面 has slightly overtaken cj's version as my favourite chinese noodle dish in singapore. the 麻-ness is akin to "authentic" sichuan versions albeit much watered-down (not that that's a bad thing). and it doesn't swim in a bowl of scary red chilli oil (another feature of the real deal); instead, the oil just about nicely coats the strands of noodles, without much leftover in the bowl (like how a good pasta dish is).

桂圆羹 - longan-perfumed coconut milk (?) with watermelon. memory of this quite hazy. all i can remember is that it provided quite a refreshing end to the meal.

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5. 味之楼 - with j and wy

味之楼, or taste paradise in english, serves very good modern chinese food, sort of like club chinois without its hefty price tag (not that this was very cheap either =p )

unagi in a fruity sauce - amuse-bousche. okay; not very memorable; though the pineapple did somewhat serve its purpose to prime the palate for the dishes to come.

青芥末鱼子虾球 - prawns dressed in wasabi with fish roe. this was one of the best versions of wasabi prawns i've eaten. unlike many other chinese restaurants that completely got rid of the nose-numbing quality of wasabi when used in making the sauce for wasabi prawns, rendering the sauce to be nothing more than sweet neon-green gloop, tp's version retained a subtle yet noticable hint of that. in addition, the dish came with chilli macademias: the nuts coated with a dark, smoky blend of chilli powder and various other spices. of course, prawns were very fresh. excellent!

鱼子西京鳕鱼 - chef's recipe baked cod. my favourite dish of the night. a hair's breadth of unsitting ember's chilean sea-bass as my favourite cooked fish dish ever. topped with tobiko and ebiko, which provided an added layer of texture, the fish was nicely oily, covered with a delightful honey sauce which was nicely browned (i assumed it was pan-frying). absolutely heavenly.



蜜汁焗鳕鱼 - baked cod in honey sauce. kinda like the former, but less intense. still very good though, just that the former totally shadows it. chopped mango provided a sweet tartness to the dish.

蜜香排骨 - honey pepper pork ribs. melt-in-your mouth good, the texture of the ribs was in a league of its own. the redness of the fruity sauce was a bit scary at first, but you forget all that after one taste.



经典萝卜糕 - fried carrot-cake in xo sauce. marvellous! the texture of the carrot-cake was superb - very creamy, yet holding its shape well-enough to be easily picked up by chopsticks. apparently, lap cheong was used to flavour the oil that the carrot-cake was fried in, rendering an excellent taste.

四川担担面 - sichuan dan dan mian. the low note, not that it was bad. it's just that if i wanted 炸酱面, i would have ordered 炸酱面. the texture of the noodles was not bad; and it did come with cucumber strips. in a way, it was a pretty good bowl of 炸酱面, though not in the same league as 天津馆's, which is, in my opinion, probably the best 炸酱面 you can get in singapore.

生磨杏汁木瓜盅 - almond cream in stewed whole papaya. people who don't like normal almond creams and/or papaya should try this version. the combination reduces the sickly sweetness of the papaya, and the hard medicinal taste of almond cream; amalgating them into a bowl of pure ambriosa. the papaya bowl also helped keep the cream warm right down to the last drop. very good!