AOne Claypot House (Causeway Point)

This was a random discover that I ended up liking. The hubby and I were at Causeway Point to get something from Metro. Looking around for dinner places, we spotted a few vegetarian options in AOne Claypot House's menu. Partly because of a mistake on my part. I had assumed that they serve all claypot rice, and seeing the mushroom and tofu I had imagined a vegetarian version of our standard chicken claypot rice. It was only after we were seated that I realise its just mushroom and tofu, no rice. Hubby was fine with it though, so we stayed.

So yes, we ended up ordering the claypot mushoom and tofu. Plus a few more dishes that the hubby can eat. He went for rice, I spotted a congee option so I ordered that. The server seemed shocked that we want rice on top of congee. I was surprised by her shock, but I stuck to it, because the congee contained silverfish and scallop so the hubby can't eat. He's not a very congee person anyway. It was only upon serving that I understood her shock. When I saw the congee option, I had thought it was just one bowl. Turned out it was one pot. And its a pot comfortable to be shared by 2, thus explaining the server's shock. Because we ordered one pot of congee plus TWO bowls of rice (for him).

Silverfish and scallop congee

But anyway, I loved the congee. The consistency is perfect. It was a thick and silky congee, yet the rice are still visibly whole not disintegrated. The pot kept the congee hot the whole time, and despite the duanting thus of having to finish the entire pot alone, I did it. This congee alone makes this place go to my 'like' list. Especially when I'm sick, or having a bad stomach, or on a rainy day. I love congee during any of those scenarios. Oh wait. I love congee any time actually.

Claypot mushroom and tofu

The claypot mushroom and tofu that tricked us into going in the restaurant in the first place is very normal braised tofu and mushroom with some veggies. It wasn't amazing, but wasn't bad either. The Caipo egg was done nicely. A good brown to the outside, salty preserved radish mixed into the egg. What can possibly go wrong with caipo egg right?

Caipo egg

The three egg spinach ended up with a small unexpected topping that I had to clear before the hubby can eat. They sprinkled silverfish on top. So I picked off all of them before he tucked in. We always liked this rendition of spinach so it was finished off quite quickly.

Three egg spinach

I subsequently dragged my colleague to the Chinatown Point branch because I wanted to eat congee for lunch. We tried the ginger onion frog leg, which was overcooked and a little too tough. But the sauce was very nice to go along with congee. This time round we went for the congee with more stuff cooked into them. Very nice!!

Onion ginger frog leg

A wasn't into congee so he opted for hotplate noodles. The mushroom pork noodles actually looked not bad.

Mushroom pork noodle

I'm biased because of the congee consistency. But subsequently went to the Junction 8 branch with the hubby and found all the vegetarian options disappeared from the menu. Whether it was a branch specific menu, or was it a general reduction in menu across all branches, I haven't checked it out. Lynn rarely have congee craving, she's more a fried rice kind of gal. So I haven't been back to AOne despite me liking it so much. Moreover, there are more tempting things at Chinatown Point such as Laiyulai, haaa. That said, I will still love to go back there to enjoy their thick yummy congee. Maybe alone.

Platypus Lobster Shack

It was E's birthday celebration, well, much belated. She didn't have any craving in particular, and S's friend has a share in this lobster roll joint, so we decided, why not? It turned out to be restaurant/bar kind of joint, and E usually disliked noisy places. So with the loud music and all, she was getting a headache. But since we had already made reservations, we decided to just quickly eat and go elsewhere to chat.

So as the name suggests, this place specializes in.... Lobster! Mainly East-Coast style lobster rolls. But even their non lobster rolls items have a lobster theme. That said, they do have a few non seafood items if you have friends, like me, who are allergic to seafood but would love to just come here with others who love seafood. There are things worth coming for here, we'll see.

We ordered a urchin and lobster bisque to share. I tot the urchin was just going to be in the name, but no, you do get a faint taste of the urchin in the creamy soup. It lends a very Japanese touch to an otherwise very Western soup. Interesting fushion, I like!

Urchin and lobster bisque

We also ordered a starter size Crustacean Bowl to share. With Uni creme, poached lobster, some rice, and a ton of other seasonings that are again, very Japanese in nature. A little reminiscent of salmon roe cream (mentai) with cheese. Rich, seafoody, fresh, and yummy.

Crustacean bowl

Lobster roll! I ordered the Piquant Garlic lobster roll, which doesn't have mayo. Trying to make some efforts at cutting down on my calories. Anyway it is seasoned with lemon marinated garlic. All lobster rolls are served on a tray, with a fresh salad on one side, and truffled chips on the other. The chips are nice!! That's what I meant by the non-seafood people have something worth coming for. Although a tad oily, but that's only because it's home made chips. The truffle flavour is strong. The lobster rolls are yummy too. The lobster was sweet and juicy, nicely done. The bread was soft and fluffy, just the tiniest bit toasted to give it a nice soft crust. But I think, I will not try to act clever and go mayo-less again. Lobster roll without mayo tastes... lacking. Hahahaha!!

Piquant garlic lobster roll

Zoom in to the roll and chips

Actually the serving isn't huge. I mean, it's a lobster roll, so you can't be expecting huge portions. From their website they claim that each roll contains the meat of a 4-500g lobster. I just discovered that they have a Platypus Restaurant at Bugis Junction which serves pasta and such on top of lobster rolls. Maybe that's a better option for more variety, especially for the non-seafood people. But I spotted mac and cheese and a duck roll in Lobster Shack that looks friendly enough. May just bring FQ there yet. 

Platypus Lobster Shack

China Square

3 Pickering Street
Nankin Row #01-31

Singapore 048660
Tel: 6438 7961

Trattoria Capri

It's our 5 year anniversary, and lazy us... Neither of us planned anything for that day! It was only at somewhere around 5pm, that we started discussing where to go. I just got him a wooden wine rack for our Wood Anniversary, so I wanted to swing by ToTTs to get the wine glasses to go with the rack. So my solution for shortlisting locations was by going on to HungryGoWhere, and searching for "romantic" and "Bukit Timah" area. Then found this Italian place known as Trattoria Capri. Looked up their website to check out their menu, saw some vegetarian risotto and pizza options. Hubby say looks ok, and so there we went.

Parking was quite a nightmare, because it was actually in a corner of a landed property estate. They do provide valet service, though hubby refused to use it. In the end we managed to find a parking space a distant away and walked to the restaurant.

The service staff were friendly, although for some reason our table was slightly neglected. We had no spoon on the table setting (which, by the way, wasn't a table a staff brought us to... more of hubby just sat down upon walking into restaurant). Then we weren't served bread until I saw the table next to us being given bread then I asked for it. But the waitress was very nice and apologetic about all these, so I couldn't find it in my heart to fault them.

Very pretty oil and vinegar bottle

As you can see in the background, the bread only appeared after my starters have been served. Which wasn't exactly in the correct order of things but I only noticed the next table's bread a period of time after we ordered our food. But anyway, these are the crusty type bread. More of the soft, fluffy, herb-y bread, which soaks up the oil and vinegar very nicely.

Bread

The soup of the day was pumpkin soup. I seldom can resist pumpkin soup. Actually, I seldom can resist soup, full-stop. Warm, hearty, not overly creamy. I liked it, and was happily dipping my late bread into it. Late has it's benefits too!

Pumpkin soup

We both love caprese, so we ordered caprese salad. I know I said I have a new favourite cheese, but that doesn't mean I'll stop liking Buffalo mozzarella. They do have Burrata cheese, but unfornately, it's served with parma ham so a no-no for the hubby. The classic fresh cheese + juicy tomatoes + peppery rocket combination just CANNOT go wrong. I spotted the next table finish their starters leaving all the wild rocket behind. What a waste!!!! *facepalm*

Caprese salad

For main I ordered a Baccalá alla caprese, baked cod fish. Ooooohhh... It was SOOOOOOOO nice!!! In fact, the hubby summarized it when he saw the happiness on my face upon the first bite: "Is it skin crispy crispy, flesh soft soft, sauce nice nice?". Coming from a vegetarian, I think I trained my hubby well. But yes, that's essentially the gist of this dish. The skin WAS crispy, and the flesh WAS perfectly done, nice and flakey. More of fish juices than a sauce, the liquid WAS really very yummy, fragrant without overpowering the natural milky flavor of the cod fish, which was really the star of this dish. The baked veggies alongside were bathed in the same yummy juices. I especially loved the mushrooms, which absorbed the flavours of the juices. And yay! More wild rocket for me!

Baked cod fish

Look at how nice and flakey the fish is!

He ordered the Tartufata pizza, which has porcini mushrooms and truffle cream. It's nice! But cream based pizza tend to be more rich than the tomato based ones, so he got a bit sick towards the end. I helped him with 1 slice.

Tartufata pizza

And since it was a special occasion, how can we not order a dessert? I ordered a lava cake to share. Theirs was served with flaming Grand Marnier. So pretty! The result is a nicely crispy surface, which we broke through to find a soft cake encasing the oozy filling. YUM!

Lava cake

Maybe the cod fish skewed my bias, but I really want to return here, if not just for the fish. But that said, I saw on their menu a lobster pasta for two. And spotted some other table ordered it. They weren't joking about the lobster, it was one entire lobster on the plate! Now that's something try-worthy. So yeah, I wanna bring Lynn back. But I'll be sure to use their valet parking service, available on Fri to Sun evenings. Haha!


Trattoria Capri
3 Binjai Park Singapore 589819
Tel: +65 6468 4886
reservations@trattoriacapri.com

Crust (Upper Thomson)

The hubby and I were thinking of dinner place, and he said he wanna eat pizza. Since I couldn't think of any decent pizza place nearby, I suggested why not we go search the Upper Thomson stretch of eateries and see if we can find something there. So there we were cruising along Upper Thomson, and spotted Crust. And just nice, a car eased out of it's lot right in front of Crust, so we happily parked and got ourselves an outdoor table.

The trouble with outdoor table is, the staff didn't really notice us much. So service was pretty limited, which annoyed the hubby (even though he's the one who wanted to sit outside). So after a long time waiting with nobody attending to us, he went in to inform them we are outside, and grabbed some menus, and told them to get us ice water.

He said he was hungry enough for one whole pizza, plus I didn't really want to eat vegetarian pizza when there were so many yummy sounding options on the menu. So I greedily decided to go for one whole pizza by myself. Each pizza is roughly an A4 size paper. I thought it sounded manageable...

Turns out it was manageable by itself, if we didn't order anything else. I actually quite liked my pizza, though I had expected more avocado than the few slices it came with. Chicken and avocado has always been the perfect combination, so what can go wrong with throwing them on pizza and smothering the whole thing with cheese right?

Avocado Chicken

He ordered the Wild mushroom pizza. It had a variety of mushrooms buried in it, and was topped with asparagus. It looks like a combination I would have liked too, but I didn't try because I was worried about not being able to finish my own pizza. He finished it, without much comment.

Wild mushroom

The trouble with finishing the food came with our order of truffle wedges. It was a pretty huge bowl of wedges. Then as it is, my pizza is already carbo-laden. So add another carbo, I was stuffed! Hubby gave up on the wedges midway through. I slowly struggled through my pizza, then picked through the wedges, and finally gave up leaving maybe about 4-5 behind.

Truffle wedges

The hubby didn't like the place, more because of the lack of service than the food. I thought it was ok, so I wouldn't write it off completely. It can be a back-of-the-mind location the next time his pizza craving hits. But I will learn from my mistake and share one pizza with him instead of trying to be a greedy pig and order one all by myself.


Crust
215R Upper Thomson Road
Singapore 574349
Tel: 6456 1555

Laiyulai Three-Sauce Simmer Pot (来御来三汁焖锅)

I love it when a random find restaurant ends up being delicious. And this was one of those times. Lynn and I were going to have dinner at Chinatown Point because I wanted to get something from Daiso. She was having one of her monster bugs and had been sick for weeks, so heaty food such as Korean BBQ is out. I suggested a long list ranging from Din Tai Fung to Genki, all supposedly lighter food, and she rejected every single one of them. Then she said there's a new Chinese food shop that smells fabulous. I know which shop she was talking about since I've been attracted by that smell before. So in we went to try it out.

Their concept is very cute. Three sauces doesn't mean they dump three sauces into your dish one shot. It's a simmer pot concept, as opposed to a hotpot. You start with stew instead of a broth. That is the first sauce. Then after finishing the stew, you request the staff to add broth, transforming the pot into a hotpot. So here's where they 'cheat' a little in the name. The second sauce is the hotpot in which you cook more meats or veggies. The third sauce is the soup you drink. So sauce 2 and 3 are essentially the same thing. Haaaa. But never mind the cheating. The food is GOOD!!!

So let me walk you through the process the way we went through it. First, we start with an empty deep pan:

Then they came along an added a lump of fat. Lynn initially thought it was lard, but upon asking, we were told it was 药材油 (Herb oil). I don't know how that is made but it sounds good for me. Lol!!

Then came along the veggies. Every pot by default comes with this base of veggies, no matter what dishes you ordered. This mixture comprise of carrots, corns, LOTS of onions, LOTS of garlic, celery, capsicum, lotus root and sweet potato. Because it's our first time, we didn't realize how big the pot will be. This pot is best shared comfortably among 3 pax. 4 pax can order more things to add on. For 2, it's leaning heavily on 'too much'.

With the veggies as a base, the staff then layer your order on top. We went for the combination pot, and chose our own dishes. Minimum of 3, which explains why it's a little too much for 2 pax. The variety is pretty good, we were spoilt for choice. We took chicken wings, fish and pork chop in the end. The fish was a parallax error on my part. I meant to tick bullfrog but apparently missed. Oops! So at this point, they cover the pot and let the whole thing stew slowly.

They returned about 10 minutes later, and added the sauce of your choice. They have several options. Original, which is not spicy. Then they have 香辣 (fragrant spicy), in three different levels of spicy. Then they have 麻辣 (numb spicy), also in three different levels of spicy. I was leaning towards original, in light of Lynn's cough, but she insisted the 麻辣 probably will help clear her airways. So we took the lowest level spicy of the 麻辣 sauce. After adding the sauce, they stir up everything nice and thorough, and then cover the pot again. So we waited some more. Then it's finally time to eat!

By this time the veggies were nice and tender. The sweet potato!!! It's to-die-for!! All the other veggies were nice too. The onions were translucent and sweet. Much later we discovered that the garlic were awesome too. Our meat choices were nice, though subsequent visits I discovered others that are nicer. The wings are chopped so there are small bits of bones that are quite annoying. So I would recommend the thigh meat instead. The pork chop had cartilage in them that didn't quite soften in that short period of time, so pork belly is actually nicer. The fish had a lot of pin bones so it was quite troublesome to eat but that's my mistake so I can't complain.

The sauce went really well with rice. The 麻辣 is really quite spicy. We were sniffling in no time. I would recommend the 香辣 more. Now I usually order the medium 香辣, and it's more comfortable to eat than the 麻辣. Even the original is yummy, I've tried that before too.

After we finished the bulk of our stew, we asked for the soup. The broth mix up with the remaining sauce and the resultant soup is pretty yummy. And we ordered beef and lamb (because we didn't know how big everything is going to be that first time) to cook in the hotpot. Subsequent visits we found that the luncheon meat and pork belly slices for the hotpot are delish!

I've brought everyone back here already. Colleagues, hubby etc. Yes, their sauces and broth are vegetarian friendly. So we ordered the vegetarian pot with mushrooms and beancurd skins etc. The hubby liked it too! Oh and did I mention? Their pig ear starter is something worth trying too!

Layulai Three-Sauce Simmer Pot

Chinatown Point

133 New Bridge Road
#02-38
Singapore 059413
Tel: 6444 4115

Concetto by Saveur

We walked pass this restaurant several times from our commute to and fro gym and Plaza Singapura. Remembering how much we liked Saveur, Lynn and I made a note to come here for dinner one of the days post-gym. So here we are, finally, very hungry after our workout.

Concetto is a Italian version of Saveur, but remaining on the same principle of affordable, authentic food. Only instead of the French fare that Saveur focus on, Concetto is an Italian extension. I only found this out now, as I'm blogging it actually. I initially thought it was supposed to be an upmarket version of Saveur. Now that I found out it's an Italian counterpart, some stuff makes more sense. I will explain later.

Heads up: like Saveur, the portions at Concetto aren't huge. We learnt this only after the arrival of our initial two mains and we immediately placed order for a third one. But anyway, food taste-wise... here goes. Our appetiser was Buffalo mozzarella. Tomatoes and fresh mozzarella cheese atop a toasted rye bread. We weren't impressed. The mozzarella was a tad dry and doesn't quite have the freshness usually associated with buffalo mozzarella. 

Buffalo mozzarella

Our first main course was Wagyu tender, with foie gras and roasted portobello mushrooms. The foie gras was very blissful! Melt-in-the-mouth, livery, buttery, mmmmmmmmm. We loved the mushrooms too, they were very juicy and good vehicles at picking up leftover foie gras fats on the plate. The beef was done just nice, even though it didn't have the typical wagyu aroma. We were pretty happy with this dish.

Wagyu tender with foie gras and portobello

Next was the Duck confit, served on pasta pesto. This dish, according to the menu, is by Saveur. And Saveur's duck confit is good! That's why Lynn was tempted by this dish immediately and ignored all other tempting dishes on the menu. However, we were disappointed. It was actually pretty normal. Not at all blissful like Saveur's. Now looking back, I'm wondering why the heck we ordered duck confit in an Italian restaurant. Haaa

Duck confit with pesto

The additional main course we ordered upon seeing our mains sizes was Pollo Allo. Half boneless chicken, with mushroom stuffing. We top-up for truffled mashed potatoes. The chicken is nice! It was very tender and very flavourful. The mushroom stuffing was delicious. And the truffled mash potatoes... YUM! And it's boneless! How easy to eat is that??

Pollo allo with truffled mash add-on

There were hits and misses, we liked two out of four dishes. Pity the portion size is small, so I'm not sure how keen we are to return. But hmm... I do like the beef and the foie gras... Maybe we'll return and focus more on the Italian dishes.... But not the Buffalo mozzarella.

Concetto

The Cathay, #01-11/12, 2 Handy Road
Singapore 229233
Tel: 67351141

Online reservation available

Wang Dae Bak (China Square)

Yay... Finally reach a post which is categorized 'recent finds' in my mental drawers. It was a weekday dinner when hubby wasn't free. J was on leave so I asked the only dinner kaki left, FQ, whether he's free for dinner. He said he was having dinner with his BFF, D, whom I know. Asked me if I mind having dinner with them? I was like, if they don't mind the extra me, who am I to mind anything?

But anyway, we agreed to meet D at Chinatown point, but we hadn't decided on what to eat. I off hand said I haven't tried Wang Dae Bak, which the two of them had recommended me before. So they said, why not? And off we went to Wang Dae Bak.

So Wang Dae Bak is a Korean joint, it serves both cooked food, as well as table BBQ. We opted for table BBQ and in no time, red hot charcoals were set up at our table. Real charcoal BBQ! Cool! And after the grill is set in place, the waiter poured something that is pre-tty unique to this place. Beaten eggs. That's that yellow ring you see around the grill. Egg is FREE-FLOW! I think that's FQ's bias for this place. He loves eggs! The typical korean side dishes were quickly brought to the table, kimchi, cold mashed potatoes, seaweed... etc. We were happily munching while waiting for our orders to arrive, but that wait wasn't very long. Oh well, how long will they need to bring raw food to the table right?

Red hot coals

Ring of egg, and all the side dishes

Meats! The boys said the 'marinated chickens' is good (That's exactly what is written on the menu. It's not typo on my part.). So we ordered 2 portions of the chicken, and one portion of pork belly, and one portion of boneless prime rib. D found the pork too tough for his braces, and he doesn't take beef to begin with. So FQ and I polished off the whole plate of beef and pork between the two of us. I quite like the beef, and agree that the pork is a little on the tough side. The boys were right, the chicken is good. It was well marinated and tender. Despite me being a beef lover, I had to declare the chicken the winner. *Update: On a subsequent visit, I found that the pork shoulder loin is more tender than the pork belly.

Boneless prime rib (top) and pork belly (bottom)

Marinated chickens

Nice thing about Wang Dae Bak is their adjustable UFO-like smoke vent. U can shift it up to give yourself space to maneuverer the food. Then shift it down to maximise it's venting power and reduce heat and smoke on yourselves while the food cooks. Here u can see the half the egg ring gone, due to our continuous digging.

Meat cooking under the UFO smoke vent

The only cooked food we ordered on that occasion was the seafood pancake. I like it! It was crispy, very fragrant, and yet fluffy inside. There's alot of veggies and prawns and whatnot, and the light soy based sauce it was served with complemented it well. This is a "To-Order" dish I will highly recommend. On separate visits, I had tried their dukboki and japchae. Liked both of those dishes. I've also tried their Ginseng chicken soup. Warm and nice. Mmmmm

Seafood pancake

Spicy rice cake

Japchae - stir fried noodles with vegetables

I liked Wong Dae Bak enough to bring people back twice already. Do note that you'll still come out smelling like BBQ despite their UFO vents. Fear not, they provide Febreeze spray at the counter. Lol!! Lynn wasn't very impressed by their food though. Maybe that's because we ordered the platter on that occasion instead of focusing on the chicken. Really, their chicken is the best dish they have. Moreover she was on a super BBQ crave that day. For a BBQ focused meal, there are other places with buffet based BBQ which are much more value for money - IF you're not an egg addict like FQ. But I will be back. If anything, for their seafood pancake.


Wang Dae Bak
22 cross street (China Square Central)

#01-64

Singapore 048421
Tel: 6225 2646