Big D's Grill

It seems that quality Western food stalls seem to be drawn to the coffeeshop downstairs. The latest tenant thereis Big D's Grill, which is run by a former chef and owner of a restaurant along Purvis Strt.

It seems that every new stall outdoes the last one in terms of quality of food being offered. This one boasts wagyu and kobe beef and kurobuta pork. But I decided to go for the Beer Battered Snapper (fish&chips) and Crabmeat Linguini and Bonet for dessert.

The good thing about the beer battered snapper was that...it was snapper not dory. I know everyone claims to use pacific dory or something which isnt the same as the cheap ones in the supermarkets, but they still inevitably pack this fishy smell. Well this one doesnt, and instead packs lots of bite and freshness in every bite. The batter was similar to the kind used by Lim Kee (Orchard) fried banana fritters, ie very very crispy and light. My only complaint is that the batter could have been saltier. THe fries are self-cut and come in thick slices of (gasp) real potato!

Now for the crabmeat linguini, which I ordered for my mum. It reminded me of a similar dish served at Marmalade Pantry. The pasta was nicely al dente and packed full of flavour. The chef insists on keeping the sauce thick and doing everything slowly so that the pasta absorbs the flavour.

And lastly, the Bonet for dessert. It's this Italian chocolate pudding topped with a slice of solid caramel (?!) and sliced strawberries. The presentation is great and tastes even better..every spoonful melts in your mouth and goes nicely with the caramel and strawberry. For me it induced one of those Mud Ooze (the quality of which has decined DRASTICALLY since) moments of silence.

This stall is definitely intent on serving quality food -only problem is coffee shop fare tends to survive on volume and quality is almost always compomised when there is high demand. I'll be keeping an eye on how this one turns out! Will be back next week for the pork loin.

the road less travelled

Yesterday was really cool. Met Colin at noon, both armed with cameras so expect some pictures in this post. We'd intended to visit the Tuckshop at the Tanjong Pagar for some steak sandwich. Which Colin described with an assortment of exclamations and oohs and ahhs so I concluded it was really good. BUT it turned out to be closed on Sundays so we went for the alternative: a humble little pasta stall at Maxwell Rd Food Centre. We ordered an Aglio Olio, a Spaghetti Bolognese, a Beef Lasagne, a Chocolate Lava Cake and an Apple Crepe - ALL FOR ONLY...wait let's talk about the food first. must keep you in suspense.The dude at the stall seemed rather incredulous at our hefty order. In any case, we sat our butts down and waited to be surprised. First came the Aglio Olio (the taste of which is now flooding my tongue as I type) - and it was gorgeous. I reckon the garlic slices and olive oil were the stars of this show. I mean the pasta itself was nicely done with just the right amount of bite but it was the garlicky fragrance that bowled me over. The sausage slices were a really effective supporting cast, adding just the right amount of saltiness. Not to mention the chili padi, which as Colin pointed out was a really suitable replacement for the dried chili peppers that Italian restaurants normally use. Menotti's has got NOTHING on this stall. NOTHING. Thankfully, memories of that awful shrimp aglio olio will be soon be quashed and replaced by that of this masterpiece. Okay I promise I won't pratter on so much about the other dishes.

Next came the beef lasagne. Unlike most other lasagnes I've tried where each ingredient seems to be a separate entity, the beef and sauce and pasta all blend into each other. I'd have prefered mozarella instead of cream cheese though. The spaghetti bolognese was a tad disappointing, because the pasta was mushy. la pasta e scotta! The saving grace was the sauce. (This chef lacks the gene that codes for the ability to make bad sauces) Dessert - the apple crepe was wrapped in peking duck wrapping! I was suitably amused. I thought the crepe went very well with the vanilla lime ice cream. The chocolate cake reminded me of Miss Clarity's (legendary) Mud Ooze but was not quite on par in terms of the choc lava. Haha you can't beat Valrhona chocolate, srsly.

aha and you know how all that cost? $20.80! quick everyone go eat before the chef goes and opens his own eatery and charges a premium for..uh..al fresco dining! Here at Maxwell it's already al fresco!

We hopped over to the Red Dot Design Museum nearby to visit the MAAD Flea Market. Plenty of booths selling all sorts of miscellaneous knickknacks! We're eyeing a 123-page sketchbook that was going for $13. There was also this earhook thingy (for girls) that I REALLY adored. Lucky the price tag ($49) stopped me from buying it on a whim. We each managed to get a free 2005 Designers' Yearbook by pretending to be potential art/design students. Pretty nifty!

Haji Lane was the next stop so Colin could buy his military jacket. Only a few stores were open that Sunday, and they all sold pretty indie-looking apparel. In any case I appreciated the vibe of the whole place. Like some sleepy Mexican village, only it wasn't Mexican. On the way to Bugis Junction, we passed by a very odd store. It looked dark and dank and played heavy metal music (Mortician), with a dangerous-looking man behind the counter. I wandered in and very quickly glanced through the wares which comprised a selection of metal LDs and CDs and..colourful indie t-shirts! who would've guessed! Anyhoos, we didn't feel like hanging around for long there because there wasn't much to sustain our interest and the dangerous-looking man was looking more dangerous by the second.

From Bugis, we cabbed down to Dempsey Road. My plans to catch a quick snooze on the taxi were dashed by an anti-government taxi driver who spent the entire trip condemning the SAF. Okay we share your sentiments sir but I want to sleep.

The Dempsey Rd area was a veritable bohemia. A few minutes from town yet it couldn't be much more different. A few metres in I saw a pig being spit roasted outdoors. There was a row of interesting eateries and shops selling mostly furniture and household accessories. Okay doesn't sound very exciting that way but what was most charming about the place was the open spaces, the untrimmed grass, the funny architecture, the peacefulness. It didn't feel like Singapore at all.

After wandering about for a bit, we finally found House, Camp, Barracks. We spotted at least two lambos driving around and a few Lexuses. The Affordable Photo Fair was being held there, and was the very reason why Colin had dragged me there in the first place. On the way to the fair, we were stopped by the sight of this cute little room with a display of cute but somewhat twisted Alice in Wonderland-esque artwork in faded colours. In the middle of the room sat a girl in a t-shirt and a box of colour pencils, busy drawing, and another lady in pink. The pink lady, whom we later found out to be the promoter, warmly welcomed us and introduced the other girl as the artist. The artist was a fascinating person. She looked so frail and pale and looked every bit like a character in a story she might be illustrating. Maybe something Neil Gaiman might come up with. Most of the works we saw can be found on her blog: http://crimsonstate.blogspot.com

It was a rather surreal experience. In any case, we bade them farewell and proceeded on to the photo fair. It was really crowded, and there were a lot of photographs. Colin stopped at every booth and pretty much followed the template of: meet, introduce self as fellow photographer, feedback on photographs, no money to buy cos I'm an NSF! I learnt a bit about photography by the end of the whole thing I think. Just a bit. The last photographer we talked to was also a fashion designer who had this most remarkable approach to fashion design - skip the design sketches. Why? because you are likely to not be able to pull off what you draw with the given fabric. And this is a good philosophy to have in her case, because she really makes the fabric do all sorts of bunches and folds and other stunts. So apparently what she does is embark on a piece by actually making it, and improvise the design along the way. How cool is that.
And so that was it - our trek through a few of the arguably lesser known places on this island. When we cabbed back to Orchard Road it struck me as familiar, too familiar - kitsch even - despite its particularly wonderful embellishments this year. Will definitely be back.