Fordham and Grand

Blink and you WILL miss it.
Even if you are trying to find it, you will have trouble seeing it.
That is Fordham and Grand for you.

Nope, it's not the one with the yellow signboard. It's the wooden door closest to you. No large signboards, no indication that it's a restaurant, no windows, nothing.

That's it. Talk about no frills! The tiny sign you see on the left is the only indication that you are at the right place.

From the outside, you may be forgiven for thinking that they are closed. But step inside and you will feel like you are living in your own world.

A small establishment, no doubt. By my count, they can only seat about 30-40 pax? And that is including the bar!
I found this place by accident, while looking for places to eat on Chope.
Seeing as the 2 founders came from big names like Waku Ghin and Restaurant Andre, I figured that the quality here shouldn't be too bad. And I was right. Far from being bad, they impressed all 4 of us present!

Gotta love the cute coasters!
I was there for lunch during a weekday, and maybe because it was quiet (just 4 of us + another table of about 6?), the service was spot on. The 1 service staff on duty was attentive and had very quick reaction times.

The lunch set menu is not extensive, and from the 3-course set menu, you only have a choice of
- 3 starters
- 4 mains
- 2 desserts
You can choose from the alacarte menu though, they have a slightly greater variety there. But we all decided that the set menu was extremely value for money and so we all went with that.

There were no regrets. Their menu might have been slight, but EVERYONE was happy with EVERY dish. And that says A LOT.
Fordham and Grand is the epitome of 'Quality over Quantity'.

For starters, we were able to try 2 out of 3. Nobody wanted to order the asparagus and egg confit. Shame.

Daikon soup, extra virgin olive oil and espelette pepper. Creamy and tasty. Quite good, but I would still recommend the next choice...

Grilled tiger prawn, mesclun salad and semi dried tomato. The prawn is grilled to perfection! It retained the juices of the prawn, while adding the flavour of flame grilling. You know how some grilled prawns are full of the smoky taste, yet dry as hell? This ain't it. Haha!

Salad is salad...as long as it's fresh, it's ok. But I didn't have any of the tomato...not a big fan.
Sidetrack : I do like ketchup though!

Mushroom risotto, parmesan and roasted porcini. The sauce is very well done. Spread evenly over the grains of rice, each mouthful carries a distinctly mushroomy taste. I didn't get to taste the porcini as this wasn't my dish and I didn't want to deprive my friend of the mushroom...but she said it was nice and juicy! Verdict : A!

Roasted spring chicken, fries and mesclun salad. At first glance, it looks super ordinary. When it was served, I was all like 'WTF' in my head. Boy are looks deceiving. The skin is crispy, but the meat inside is surprisingly tender and juicy.
Quote my companion who had this : "I've never had nice roast chicken in Singapore. Until now."
Word.

 Minute steak, fries and mesclun salad.
While minute steaks might not always be associated with the best quality beef, this is the exception to the rule. Every bite oozed with juice, and the beef was extremely flavourful. A must-try for beef lovers.

Oh! Did I mention the fries? The fries here are excellent! If you are a fan of Macdonald's fries and you prefer the crunchy ones instead of the soggy ones, this is the place to come. EVERY fry is crunchy. And tasty to boot! 

Profiterole, caramelized hazelnuts and chocolate sauce.
Loved the mushroom looking profiterole. Loved the look...I didn't get to try it. I only tried the sauce. Bitter chocolate...not a fan but everyone else thought it was good. Out of the 3 who had this, all 3 gave thumbs up!

Almond and pistachio parfait, white chocolate and apricot bits.
When this was served, I was thinking "HELLO I ordered PARFAIT, not POTONG."
But seeing as the food up till now was good, I decided to keep my big mouth shut. Lucky for me!
I don't really like ice-cream, but this is good. The ice-cream itself isn't too sweet, and tastes nutty (duh. Almond and pistachio of course taste nutty lah). The white chocolate coating lends its sweetness to the mix, and the apricot bits on top make the entire package a winner. I would recommend this!

I like the fact that they serve food for everyone at the same time.
While it probably means slightly longer waiting times, at least you won't feel left out when 1 person is eating at the rest are just waiting for their food!

All in all, all 4 of us had a blast at this place.
I will definitely be bringing The Wife back sometime to try out their other selections of food.
And they stay open for supper as well!
Till 2am I think!

Price :$35++ for set menu, quite reasonable considering the quality
Address : 43 Craig Road
                Singapore 089681
Tel : 6221 3088
Website : fng.com.sg

Signing off,
The Lunatic

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The Magic of Chongqing

I was randomly commenting that I wanted to have steamboat for my birthday, and The Wife decided to surprise me by Googling for the best steamboat in Singapore. Was really touched by her effort, though she did bring me to the wrong place, on the pretext of trying out Brunetti.  See my review of that here. Hehe she's adorbs!

The Magic of Chongqing is based in Tanglin SHOPPING CENTER, not Tanglin MALL. Just in case any of you want to visit. It's the rundown cousin that is filled with Middle-Eastern shops selling carpets. And it's on the 4th floor, quite hard to find.

But trust me, it's worth the effort.
You are greeted by a banner that looks suspiciously like something Bruce Lee would break into 2 in his movies.

The place isn't very big, so you might want to make reservations before coming. I was too excited about the prospect of having steamboat so I didn't take any interior pictures. My bad!

What drew The Wife here was specifically the search for Mala steamboat. This place has got a perfect rendition of that. The soup is spicy, but it still retains flavour.

In some places, the spice level is so overwhelming that you cant taste anything else. At these places,  I will sometimes end up looking like Tony Leung from a very old period comedy. One that never fails to make me laugh. In case you still have no idea what I'm referring to, refer below.

Classic! Hahaha! But I digress.

As I was saying, the soup here is excellent. They also have some premium soup selections which you would have to pay extra for. Didn't try this time but maybe next time when I go back!

While the soup base is undoubtedly the star of any good steamboat, quality ingredients are what takes the broth to another level. Of these, The Magic of Chongqing has in abundance.

 Beef. My staple of choice no matter which steamboat place I go. The beef here is excellent. Some places slice it VERY thin, and you don't get much bite out of a single slice. Over here, the thickness is just right, and the meat has enough taste on it's own and does not get overshadowed when you cook it in the mala side. Still maintains the beefiness, and I think that is testament to the quality!

 Shiitake mushrooms stuffed with what I think is pork. Most of my friends would know I'm almost halal...but I like this thing! The pork isn't too porky (which I hate), and the mushroom and pork somehow blends well together. Try it!

 Shrimp wonton. The Wife likes it but I think it's too skinny. Skin-ny...hahahaha I kill myself! Yup, I feel that there's too much skin, and the pork in the dumpling overshadows the prawns inside. I could see why people would like this though.

 Quail eggs. No description needed!

 Lettuce. No description needed!

 Taupok. No description needed! At least I don't know what to say about it...I didn't eat it. Not much of a taupok fan.

Of course, we had much more than this.

MUCH MUCH more than this. Oh yeah, try cooking the tanghoon in the mala soup! Yummy!

When you are halfway through, they serve portions of cooked food.

Xiao long bao, guo tie (pan fried meat and chive dumpling) and spring roll. The picture above looks like my guo tie. I think so. It's cumbersome to whip out a DSLR when you are in the midst of eating.

The spring roll was decent, but I didn't like the other 2. Too porky. Like taking a bite out of Porky Pig himself.

And then there is a touch of sweetness when they see that you are almost done.

 Chestnut cake. Very refreshing after 1 hour of mala hotpot!

It's call egg coated glutinous square, but what it feels like is nian gao. But there is no sweetness or much taste to this. Just the gooey texture.

And then there was a deep-fried bun, which I wolfed down immediately paired with condensed milk. Possibly my favourite item at any restaurant that serves it!

To wash all these sins down, do try their homemade '8 Treasures Tea'. It comes either cold or hot, and I opted for the cold version. It tastes herbal, but still sweet, and I think I could drink it every day. It supposedly has some health properties as well, but I was too busy staring at my food to listen to what the waitress had to say.

No! This is not green tea! 8 treasures tea I said!

Do give this place a try if you are into hotpots. You won't regret it!

Price : About $35 per pax (buffet)
Address : #04-06/07, Tanglin Shopping Centre, 19 Tanglin Road
Tel :  67348135
 Website : http://www.chinesefeasts.com.sg/restaurants.html

Signing off,
The Lunatic

Brunetti Singapore

I remember going to Melbourne a couple of years back, and my aunt was telling me about a great place for desserts. She was referring to Brunetti, which has a few outlets across Melbourne. I went there and I was impressed by the array of cakes and desserts on show. I can't really remember the taste, but I think it shouldn't have been too bad.

Fast forward to the present. Brunetti has had a branch in Singapore for awhile now, but I've never taken the time to go visit. Tanglin Mall is a pretty out-of-the-way place...you know what I'm talking about! In town but on the fringe, with nothing else to do and nowhere else to shop!

So on the recent public holiday (hurray for PHs!), The Wife wanted to visit. So we went searching for the place. First impressions were outstanding!

Pardon the photobombs, I did not mean to take photos of these people! But I was in a rush so no choice :p
They recreated the feel of the place I visited in Melbourne perfectly. You will be wowed by the length of the display, as well as all the yummy looking cakes and pastry! They even have a range of gelato with funky flavours. Behold.

With all the mouth-watering items on display, we had a hard time deciding on what to eat. The good thing is, they have mini-sized items in addition to the larger counterparts!

So we ordered New York Cheesecake,

Opera Mignon,

Lemon Meringue,

and Baba Mignon,

and my go-to drink, Strawberry Milkshake.

So, in order.
New York Cheesecake - Bad. Don't waste your time. No cheese taste at all, and the entire thing is rock hard (cheesecake terms)
Opera Mignon - The Wife thought this was the best thing, but still not worth it. Personally I'm not a fan of dark chocolate so I will not comment.
Lemon Meringue - Hard tart. I would pass on this as well.
Baba Mignon - I liked the strong rum taste, but The Wife said it was too soggy. The sponge cake is soft enough, but when soaked with the rum it turns kinda gooey. I wouldn't mind eating another small piece, but not the large one.
Strawberry milkshake - Phail. More milk than strawberry taste. Almost non-existent strawberry taste actually.

So all in all, our experience here wasn't too good...safe to say that we probably would not be come back for a looooongggggg while. If you want to try it out though, here they are.

Price : Below $20 for 1 cake and drink
Address: 163 Tanglin Rd, Tanglin Mall #01-35, Singapore 247933

Phone:6733 9088

Website : brunetti.com.au/Singapore/

(The fact that they have absolutely nothing on their Singapore branch is appalling)

Signing off,
The Lunatic

Restoran See Hai (101) / Johor

With all the hoohaa going on about the toll rates, grocery and petrol taxes, me and The Wife have more or less sworn off our once weekly activity, driving across the Causeway.

But never say never! We still decided on going in to procure some *cough cough* Hong Kong drama serials one day. As usual, we were on the hunt for food, as are most Singaporeans who head across the Causeway. So if any of you ever decide to drive in, check this place out. It's called Restoran See Hai, or 101, located in the Sentosa part of town, just opposite the Sentosa Hotel. Actually most Singaporeans will know it. I believe if any of you have been to JB, you would have been in the area.

This is somewhat like our local zi-char style stall, and one dish specific to them that I don't think we can find back home is their 'Xiang Ye' (fragrant leaf) crab.

 

 

Similar to our butter crab, the difference is the addition of pandan leaves and fried garlic that add additional twists to the dish. Since the very first time we tried this dish, their crabs seem to have grown significantly...while they are meatier now, I would still recommend that you ask for the smaller crabs, because those are tastier! The creamy sauce has a tinge of spiciness in it, and makes for an interesting flavour. Yum!

Please pass on the veggies though, unless you REALLY need to have some greens.
The Kai Lan is like super old, very bitter. Neither the 'wok hei' nor the oyster sauce is strong enough to mask bitterness of the old veggie.

On a separate occasion, we also ordered brocolli, which I didn't have the presence of mind to photograph :(  The broccoli is also overcooked, not crunchy enough. My favourite veggie is probably broccoli, so it is my pet peeve when I do order it and it comes out all soft and turns mushy when bitten.

Some else NOT to order is the salted vegetable tofu soup. Do be fooled by my photos. While they might seem chock full of ingredients, the soup itself is horrid. Try at your own risk!

 

What we DO come here for is WITHOUT A DOUBT, the AWESOME CHICKEN WINGS.
Already de-boned with only 1 little wing bone left, a very safe estimate of my appetite for these at one sitting is no less than 10! Probably from the little kampong chickens, these wings are somewhat tiny, and I can finish 1 in 1 mouthful!

 

The BBQ stall (I think they operate differently from the main restaurant as they will collect cash upon the food being served) have a variety of items to  cater to everyone's liking. Another one of the items I like here is the squid, which actually doesn't carry much of it's own flavour after the marination. The reason I like it is because of the chewy texture and the way it is grilled. Just right!

Already marinated with chilli powder and probably some salt, most of these little buggers can be quite spicy to the uninitiated. Pair them with the green chilli sauce and you've got a kickass combo that will leave you needing some water!

Speaking of which, do try the apple juice with sour plum. It is a refreshing blend which gives a cool and light perspective to an otherwise heavy and sinful meal!

Price : RM 50 per pax is enough for happy bellies all around!
Location : 27/29 Jalan Sutera
                 Taman Sentosa
                 80150 Johor Bahru

Signing off,
The Lunatic