Too much “Winterspeck”.

We had a birthday dinner for a good friend and his little family and met all at Culina on Dempsey Hill, a nice bistro restaurant with a more kid friendly like setting.

We began our meal with a couple of starters like the Charcuterie Tasting Plate, which was pretty great. Especially the air dried meat and the rillete were perfect and even the weird looking cured duck breast tasted brilliant. We also had the Crab Cakes, that even though small were almost entirely made of crab meat without any starchy fillers and came with a delicious mustard tartar aside to be dipped in. Yum. Unfortunately the rest of the meal didn’t continue as convincing as the Burrata was miniature sized and the Fried Squid just had way too much oily batter on it and overall wasn’t really pleasant to eat.

As main I had the $42 Rhug Estate Organic Pork, which I was looking forward to a lot. Taste wise the meat itself was actually quite good, soft and hearty but with that fancy name and for that price it was just not up there and way too tiny. Since it was advertised as loin I had hoped for a nicely lean piece of meat but on top of the smallish cut of pork was a rather huge layer of pure uneatable fat. Pretty disappointing that one was and the gooey cream sauce additionally made me feel uncomfortably stuffy.

So this was a rather unfortunate ending to a promising start. Don’t get me wrong, Culina in general is a nice place with in- and outside seating and you can also fill up your shopping cart with some goodies from their deli on your way out but if you should decide to go for a meal at their bistro, maybe it’s not such a bad idea to follow our birthday boy’s choice and go for the steak cuts. They had in fact quite a hefty price tag but therefore looked pretty awesome and apparently also tasted accordingly.

Culina Dempsey
Block 8 Dempsey Road
#01-13 Dempsey Hill
Singapore 247696
Tel: +65 6474 7338
http://www.culina.com.sg/

Intrepid Gastro Bar @Far East Square (Singapore)

June 12, 2013

@CBD, @Singapore, Burger, Crab Cake, Hot Dogs, Western/International/American

The Roo Burgers are in Town

I had read about ‘Intrepid’ on other blogs and friend’s facebook posts and since then couldn’t get those ‘Kangaroo Sliders‘ out of my head. So when my friend asked me what my plans for dinner were I made this a suggestion and so we went. We had a bit of a hard time finding the place as it didn’t have a big sign yet but when you find the Water Gate of Far East Square and look very closely it’s exactly next to it.

Naturally we started with the famous ‘Kangaroo Sliders‘ and they looked pretty darn good coming out of the kitchen. As kangaroo meat gets tough and dry very fast they broiled it to a medium rare. I usually prefer my burgers medium to medium well but the meat was of such good quality that medium rare was perfect and kept the patty moist and juicy. It was lean and had this distinct venison like flavor lifted up a level by the saltiness of the prosciutto that was “melted” on top. The bun was lovely fluffy and the host told us that they are making them from scratch freshly every day just for this dish as well as the crispy chips which maybe could have used a pinch more salt.

As seconds I ordered the ‘Pork Sausage‘ which seemed to be some sort of special as it was off the usual menu. The “dog” came in a proper baguette bun, not that usual soft mushy stuff and the sausage had a great snappy casing, the meat was firm, well seasoned and tasted nice and porky. I found the sprinkled crackling on top was a great idea but maybe would have been even better if it was roasted instead of fried. The most delicate and special bits here though were the thinly sliced fennel slices that unfortunately were a bit overpowered by the sausage and the cubes of baked apple that had a fantastic sweet cinnamon flavor.

Recently we always seem to order beyond that hunger feeling and this time it was the ‘Crab Cakes‘. They were fully packed of sweet crab meat with a super crispy crust in which was a tad too much frying oil left. The cakes were accompanied by a salad of mixed leaves, tomato, creamy avocado as well as black and salty caviar that popped nicely in my mouth and tasted like little drops of sea.

I quite liked it here with the Aussi twist they took on the dishes and the very friendly and kind staff so I might be coming back to try their ‘Kangaroo Loin‘ and the brunch items. Thanks guys!

Intrepid Gastro Bar
40 Pekin Street
#01-01 Far East Square
Singapore 048770
Tel: +65 9068 8297

Coastes @Siloso Beach (Singapore)

May 1, 2013

#Seafood, @Sentosa, Crab Cake, Western/International/American

Busy for Brunch!

We had a very early morning cycling session through Singapore as some of my friends are prepping themselves for the Triathlon in a couple of weeks. Some weren’t exhausted enough after 40ks and decided to have a swim at Sentosa so after refreshing from the ride I made my way out there to join them for brunch at ‘Coasts’ on Siloso Beach.

A friend and I shared the ‘Greek Salad’ and as I found ‘Crab Cakes‘ on the menu, my main selection was fixed as well. The salad came first and I actually liked it a lot. It was fresh and the cucumber and tomatoes were cut in big chunks as they are supposed to be. Kalamata olives brought a rich Mediterranean flavor to it but there definitely too little onions involved. I don’t really like feta cheese but appreciated the areas that were touched by it and therefore tasted a bit saltier. My friend must have nearly overdosed on the feta as she had to finish it all by herself. The dressing was nice and simple as you expect it, just mixing a good quality olive oil with a dash of lemon and pepper. Just the salt could have been put forward a bit more.

When the ‘Crab Cakes‘ arrived I had a feeling that the amount of crab in there wasn’t really in my favor. Starting digging in I was proven right. Even though it tasted okay there wasn’t too much crab meat there or at least it was outplayed by it’s potato-y doughy opponent. Also it could have used much more of the advertised coriander, much more. One interesting thing was the red tomato based dipping sauce. It was cold and slightly spicy but what I couldn’t nail down was where the fishy, shell-like taste came from. The closest I did get to was a memory of small clams which tasted like this. I couldn’t find any in there and maybe my taste buds just played a prank on me but if I should come back here and it’s not that busy I will try to ask someone.

I tend to forget to mention the service but here I didn’t have any complaints. Yes, you had to order yourself at a counter but the staff was very friendly and the delivery of drinks and food was fast especially considering the amount of people here. I might come back but so far more due to the fact that it’s situated directly at the beach, the food has yet to convince me.

http://www.coastes.com/

Coastes Singapore 50 Siloso Beach Walk #01-05 Singapore 099000

—Get Your Grub On!

– Food Inception

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Culina @Dempsey Road (Singapore)