Catalunya - 22nd September 2012

It was touted by Dann to be the place that will bring the club to new gastronomic heights. To be the be all and end all, to be the alpha and the omega and everything in between. 

So whilst getting an unwanted sun tan walking towards the restaurant which was situated in a round protruding extension of collyer quay sitting nicely by the bay, we were all waiting intently to taste and see if Dann's BML  selection matched up to his rhetoric.

As we arrived, we were escorted by a spanish waitress to a round table at the corner in the lower level of the restaurant. The water level of the bayas we looked out of the windows was just below eye level from where we were seated. 

The interior decor was made up primarily of wood and the colour scheme was of dark earthy tones. We agreed that whilst this was a beautiful restaurant in the day, it would be truly magnificent at night.

Wasting no time, we proceeded to order the recommended olives as a pre-starter, then with the tapas, we ordered the jamon iberico croquette, the calamari andalusian (southern spain) style, the spanish omelete, escalibada and tomato tartar confit. For the mains, we ordered a portion of suckling pig (half a piglet), and the suquet, which was a catalan (north eastern spain) fisherman's soup. For sides, we ordered a portion of "piquillo" peppers and wood roasted pineapples. The waiter had actually encouraged Dann to order more (including the beef), but Dann protested his budgetary constraints and buddhist inhibitions.

We were first presented with the olives, which were I suppose what you may consider a reconstruction of a large green olive. The olives were delicately taken individually out of a clear glass jar which was filled with olive oil. 6 olives were each presented on a spoon for everyone of us, and we were directed to put the whole olive in our mouth in a go. The "olive", was actually contructed with a soft outer shell with a texture somewhat like hard egg whites, and the centre of the olive was infused with a liquid that was flavoured much like an olive. So in all, it was an olive that looked like an olive, tasted like an olive, but was not really an olive. Definitely Blumenthal inspired.

Next we were presented with the fried calamari andalusian style. There was nothing exotic or special in the way this was cooked or presented, but this was really a calamari dish that was done well. The batter was light and crispy, and the large calamari rings were tender and not overcooked. This is how all good calamari should be done.

We then had the tomato confit, which was to be eaten with cracker. This was a putty of seasoned and cooked finely chooped tomato, with accompanying tomato infused foam. This was an interesting dish, with the sweetness of the cooked tomato and foam paired quite nicely with the cracker.

We were then served the jamon iberico croquette. This was again a simple dish done excellently. The croquette was fried till it had a crisp outer layer whilst it still maintained a moist soft potato centre filled with bits of jamon iberico. This croquette was delicious.

Following the croquette was the spanish omelette "tortilla omelette deconstruccion". This was served to us in a martini cocktail glass. It was like an egg and potato mousse. Most of the glass was covered in a white mousse like foam, which was probably egg whites foamed up and when you dig deep into the glass there is a thick puree like potato mash, which was probably mixed with yolks. This was a very tasty mousse cum mash and definitely worth a try for anyone dining in this establishment.

The final tapas we were served was the "escalibada", which was a layering of aubergines, foie gras, peppers and smoked sea eel. This was a fantastic dish in my view. It was beautifully presented, was very tasty, and was a good combination overall. Somehow despite the multitude of flavours, there was still structure in the dish. You could still taste the individual components despite having it all in a go.

Then it was on to the mains, and we were presented with the "piece de resistance"! - the segovian style suckling pig! The handsome (or pretty, as I could not confirm the sex conclusively) looking fella was roasted to a nice deep amber and presented to us on a wooden board. The spanish waiter offered us the luxury of cutting the pig with the plate ourselves (which was used as a cutter), but we declined, deciding it best to leave it to the experts.

The pig was cooked perfectly, with the skin crispy throughout and the meat tender and juicy. The problem however was the flavour. There was all round complaints that the meat exhibited too strong a porcine flavour. Being chinese, everyone started to make a comparison with the chinese version of suckling pig and gave this dish a thumbs down. They argued that good chinese style suckling pig also had a very crispy (probably crispier) skin and that the 5 spice marinade probably was more suitable in cutting the excessive porcine flavour, which a majority of diners do not appreciate. I have to say however that whilst the flavour of this segovian style suckling pig could have been better masked by some herbs and spices, the texture of the meat itself is far superior to our own chinese style suckling pig which tends to be rather much drier and harder.

It was good that Dann had ordered a side dish of roasted pineapple, which was excellent when eaten with the pork, as the sweetness and acid from the fruit sort of cut through the excessive piggy flavour from the meat.

Finally, we were presented with the suquet, which came in a large black pot. There was 2 fillet's of what I suppose were scorpion fish (since that was what was stated in the menu), which sat on a bed of new potatoes and thick gravy. The fish itself was okay, and I would describe the flavour as a bit of a cross between sea bass and bream. The meat was white, and it went well with the very tasty gravy that sat at the bottom of the pot. The potatoes were also cooked to just the right softness. It would have been good if we had some nice toasted bread to scoop up the gravy, as it had fantastic flavour, from what I assume must have been concocted from fish parts and vegetables.

The final side dish was the "piquillo" peppers, for which we each had a small miserable piece. The peppers were cooked till soft throughout, and topped simply with some seasoning and oil. This was again a simple dish done excellently. The produce was good (and looked good with a magnificent red colour), the cooking was good, and all it needed was a little seasoning and wala! Collin mentioned that he had never known that peppers could taste so sweet! (What a darn philistine!!! This is standard fare in Spain.... you'll get a tapas of peppers for little over 2 euros in any half decent bar with your beer!!!)

After the meal, everyone complained to Dann that we were still hungry. We pointed out that there was no bread and so we hardly had any starch to fill in the holes in our stomach. We invoked our kaya toast rule, to which Dann readily agreed.

Whilst waiting for the bill, we reviewed our collective decision on the meal. We agreed that the tapas were good, but were disappointed with the mains, especially the pig. I suppose its a bit down to the style of cooking as well. Even though we did have many good dishes, we felt that there was something amiss which prevented our lunch from being placed as one of the "greats" in our club's storied dining history. There were suggestions that maybe it was because we were unsatiated from hunger as Dann did not order enough (that is the cost of half measures Dann!), which was plausible. Or as Collin rightfully pointed that had we ordered more tapas and left out the mains and had some fine wine to go with the tapas, this could have been one of the greats. I seconded that comment as Tapas really is bar food which should go with drink.

The final damage came to S$419.50. We then proceeded for kaya toast, coffee and eggs, and this added up to another S$23.80, for which Dann as usual did not have the cash to pay for and had to initiate an on demand credit from Jon as no one else wanted to lend him.

In conclusion, Catalunya whilst good (and expensive!), was not quite the BML dining event Dann had cracked it out to be. The rhetoric definitely did not meet reality. And just like the millions of Americans who voted Obama in 2008 on promises of change for the better (jobs, environment, peace, economy, guantanamo, social services, de-nuclearisation, civil rights etc etc), 4 years later with reality finally meeting rhetoric - reality unfortunately won (as it usually does!)!

By: Club Scribe

Novus Restaurant & Bar - 7th September 2012

It was CC’s turn to take us out, and he chose Novus! I had my doubts about the place, and Dann confirmed it saying that he has tried the place with a client before and was definitely not impressed. Nonetheless, we still proceeded as per club rules, as we agreed that if the venue failed sufficiently to satisfy the party, we will then have little choice but to evoke the club’s dreaded (but never been tested) nuclear option known as “samolah”.

To be fair, CC deserves praise for upholding one of the core tenets of our club, which is to try to always choose the “steady” option. (Yes yes, whilst that characteristic has not shone through particularly well in most of our posts, it is one of the values we seek to achieve as a club. Think of it like a fat man’s quest of yearning for the discipline to go to the gym regularly. It is a laudable but challenging quest).

CC had originally wanted to host the meal on a Wednesday in order to cater to Erap II as he had to go for reservist from Thursday on. However, businessman could not make the date and so CC tried to push to a Tuesday, which businessman also could not make. We then suggested for CC to further postpone the lunch date by another week to Friday the 14^th without penalty, but Businessman and Jon would not have it and demanded the additional EUR30 penalty (now we know who are the unsteady). Eventually, CC decided to host it on our usual Friday despite being on leave and to try to cater to businessman as he felt that businessman had already missed an earlier BML at Punjab Grill.

We arrived (with the exception of businessman) at the National Museum on time and were greeted by Collin and his special guest & eldest daughter Kai Ling (7 this year!) who were already seated.

We were given the order to order between 40 – 45 dollars per pax. I immediately objected on this instruction to the president Jon, complaining that there is something seriously wrong with this habit? It seemed like our BML’s now not only have a floor, but everyone seemed to also be setting a ceiling, which was clearly unsteady and not in line with our club’s philosophies.

In any case, we proceeded to order our dishes, whilst attempting to keep within our “budgetary limits”. For starters we ordered the burrata cheese and mushroom soup. For the mains, we had originally ordered 3 sets of Novus burgers, one duck leg confit and the crispy pork belly.

Upon taking our orders, we were served the bread basket, which came in a variety of mini baguette, soft rolls, white bread and what I believe is rye bread. The bread was deliciously fresh and my favourite in particular was the mini baguette.

We were then served our starters, and boy it was disappointing. The mushroom soup was so-so. It was thickened with cream, and you could feel the texture of the mushroom bits in your mouth, but somehow, the soup did not taste particularly flavourful. It could have been a lack of salt, seasoning, or possibly the quality of the mushrooms used.

The burrata cheese was worse (mind you, I actually wanted to order something else but the waiter recommended this instead). Let’s start with the tomatoes. They were of inferior quality and not at all sweet. I’m fine with such tomatoes if the price reflected the quality. Then coming to the cheese itself, the texture was more like a softer form of play doe. Somehow, it just did not feel like a proper burrata cheese with the mozzarella outer shell somehow totally fused into a giant dollop of thickened paste. I hate to say this, but I had trouble finishing it.

At this point, we were wondering where the hell was businessman as he had yet to arrive. CC texted him, and apparently the reply was that he did not know that the BML was reset from Wednesday to Friday. In fact he was apparently quite furious. We concluded somehow that the fella just forgot to check his mail or his mailbox had reached its storage limit and could not download anymore. What a fiasco. We should have just settled for Wednesday!

Next up were the mains. The duck leg confit was the best of the mains. The skin was crispy, the meat was still tender and moist, and most importantly, the leg was not overly salty which happens to be a key failing for many of the other credible duck confit’s we’ve tried.

The pork belly was not bad although a little small. The skin side was crispy and the fat was soft and tasty although the meat below was a little bit dry and stringy. Overall it was well cooked without any strong porcine flavour.

Then came the Novus burger. It was well presented, and looked good, but the moment I sank my teeth into the burger in a huge bite, all respect for this establishment sank as well. The meat was uncooked inside! The outer area of the patty was nice and brown, but the meat inside was a deep red and the beef was still in its raw marinated pasty form. Having made burgers myself I instantaneously recognised the patty in its raw form. The smell and texture clearly gave it away. Jon however continued to eat his way through the burger, and commented in front of everyone snidely that my claims towards eating almost anything were hogwash. Now now… I must say Jon, my concept of eating almost anything is predicated on those things being done well. I have no hang-ups or ideologies on soups having to be hot (rather than cold), or for dishes to be cooked in a certain way or for certain ingredients to be used. I however cannot eat a burger which I ordered medium done to be uncooked. If I wanted it uncooked, I’d ask for beef tartare. Obviously this dish was not done as it should have been done, and I am not sure the meat was fresh enough to be eaten raw. If Jon ended up with stomach issues over the weekend, let’s just say I wouldn’t be surprised.

So I (and Erap II as well), sent the burgers back to the kitchen and in place ordered a barramundi and a mushroom risotto.

The barramundi was clearly better than the burger (thankfully!), but nothing out of the ordinary. The fish was not exceptionally fresh but was acceptable. It was lightly salted and the skin was fairly crispy.

The risotto was quite average. The texture was ok, although the flavour was a tad bland. The rice was fully cooked through.

And on to the dessert course, which we were collectively expecting to share Erap’s single order of yuzu sorbet, but thanks (or maybe no thanks) to the no show by businessman, CC decided to throw in (or more like had to!) some additional desserts for the party, which were the banana split, the bread and butter pudding and a chocolate platter.

The yuzu sorbet was light and refreshing, and you could clearly taste the yuzu flavour. However, there was also a slight bitter after taste which Dann and myself suspect could be some of the rind from the yuzu which may have also gotten blended in.

Then came the bread and butter pudding. This was done pretty well, with the pudding served nice and warm. It was well presented with walnuts and raspberries on top. And with bread and butter pudding being quite stodgy, I felt the portion was just right. The taste of the pudding with the cream that accompanied the dessert was quite delicious. It was rich, soft, creamy and tasty. This was probably the best dessert of the day.

We were then served the banana split in a jar. I have no comments other than it was not good. It was neither sweet nor creamy enough. The banana was bland and semi ripe and whatever came along with it was bland too. It was the blandest banana split I have eaten in my life.

The chocolate platter (which you were supposed to eat from left to right) was another heavy disappointment. Other than the second item which was the “lava-cake in a cup”, the rest were clearly worse than forgettable.

Overall, Novus was a real let down, especially given the fact that it came to S$320 for 5 pax! Definitely a close candidate for samolah, if not for the few respectable / acceptable dishes that salvaged the day by the closest of margins. I blame CC for his poor and sloppy selection. So as a side note to businessman, who was clearly cheesed off by the whole miscommunication over when BML was to be held, and unfortunately missed it, you were probably the lucky one!

By Club Scribe.

Tower Club - 24th August 2012

Other than its great location, interesting design and fantastic price, Businessman’s purchase of One Shenton by CDL brought the added benefit of being a member of tower club.

So thanks to the venue’s nearby location, the drivers were given the day off. We arrived at the restaurant on time, and were given a table which had a breath taking view of the south side of the city giving us a clear view of MBS, our office and the southern waters.

Our table was set in elegant china, in which someone commented that this was probably one of the nicest sets of crockery we’ve experienced using in a BML setting. The décor of the restaurant was also interesting with lots of bevelled mirrors on the walls and pillars and a healthy amount of gold, onyx and polished wooden finishing around. The place was also fully carpeted. If not for the dining tables, I would say the place had the air of a high end KTV.

As the paymaster was late, we decided not to waste the opportunity to use the beautiful teacup and decided it best to start with Pu’er. It was an excellent choice on our part.

10 minutes later, businessman finally arrived, and we proceeded to order. I remember having a meal here once years back and was quite impressed by the seafood, but owing to budgetary constraints on businessman’s part, we were limited to land based dishes today.

We ordered their house specialty starters of beancurd cubes and crunchy corn, Peking duck (again!!!!, even though we knew it wouldn’t come close to our favourite version at Paradise Pavilion), roast pork, stewed pork with preserved cabbage, crispy roast chicken, sliced beef with enoki mushrooms, kurobuta pork in coffee sauce, poached spinach, and chee cheong fun.

The beancurd cubes were a decent treat, with the skin fried to a delicate golden brown crisp all round and covering the soft inner beancurd. Taste wise, it is what you would expect from lightly salted beancurd, but the texture was commendable and well worth ordering again for a starter.

The crunchy corn was coated with a salted egg yolk batter and also fried till golden brown. You could taste the salted egg yolk flavour through the batter, and in this instance, it was the crispy corn that provided the texture. Having not had any dish like it, I think that this is definitely an interesting starter worth ordering if you want something different.

Next up was the peking duck. It was so-so. Better than the one we had at The Majestic, but clearly inferior to the one at Paradise Pavilion. The duck itself was ok, but the wrap or pancake skin was really dry, thick and had a strong taste of flour.

We were then served the roast pork, which was more in the style of say peach garden than the ones you get at imperial treasure, crystal jade or lei garden. Overall the roast pork was well done and the skin was crispy throughout despite it looking a tad thick on first glance. One of our members however commented that the dish had a bit of a porky taste.

Our chee cheong fun was ok taste wise, nothing fantastic. Definitely not a chee cheong fun I would come back to. For comparison you can get better ones with more delicate skin at even a crystal jade kitchen for the same price or less.

We were then served our beef with enoki mushroom. This was the dish that really needed improvement. The beef was not well marinated, and the meat was slightly tough, despite it being in rather thin slices, somehow we felt the cut of the meat was probably inferior, which resulted in this. The real test of the failure of this dish was when Dann surrendered his portion (he does not eat beef for religious reasons), and no one took up the offer, leaving his portion eventually wasted, which is a definite no no in our club’s context considering our appetite.

Thankfully, the roast chicken was served after that, and you could say that this was one of the better roast chickens we’ve had. The skin was crispy yet not overly oily, and the meat was tender throughout, even at the breast. Dann however pointed out after heartily eating what I remember was either the wing or the drumstick, that this unfortunately was a frozen chicken. After polishing off the meat from the bone, he then (like Sherlock holmes, or a chicken seller 20 years in the business) raised the bone for all to see and pointed to the colour of the cooked bone exclaiming “you see guys, the bone is grey, which means this is a frozen chicken”, to which I asked what a cooked “fresh” chicken bone will look like, and he said “it should be white”. This is one interesting proclamation that requires further investigation.

Following this was the poached spinach. The vegetable was definitely fresh, and the broth in which it was poached in had enough of the savoury goodness. For a vegetable dish from such an establishment, this met our expectations.

We were also served our braised belly pork with preserved vegetables. This had mixed reviews with the crew. I felt it was done pretty well, with the pork belly soft and tender throughout, and the preserved vegetables not overly salty. The flavour of the star anise in the sauce was also just right. Someone however mentioned that it was still a little too salty to eat on its own and recommended that if there was white rice accompanying the dish, it would’ve been better.

Then came the kurobuta pork in coffee sauce. This was arguably the best dish of the day. CC commented (in his usual fashion when lost for words on a good dish), that it was pork that did not really taste like pork. Well folks, it was definitely an interesting dish. The pork was somewhat drier than what I was expecting, but this gave it a crispy outer edge. The coffee sauce accompanying the pork was very tasty with a not overly strong flavour of coffee and caramel and it was also somewhat oily, which went well with the texture of the fried pork. This is definitely a dish worth ordering if you are looking for something different.

We ended the meal with fried rice that was mixed with the remnants of the meat from the peking duck. Whilst the rice was tasty and grainy, it was also a tad on the dry side.

Overall, Tower Club is a place that definitely sells more on its views and ambience than on its food. The damage of almost S$375 after a club member’s discount would not be considered cheap by most standards, and for this price you can definitely get better quality chinese cuisine elsewhere. But for the views, few other chinese restaurants can beat this

Majestic Restaurant - 3rd August 2012

After hearing about the Fat Duck, and following our excellent beef yakiniku meal at Yakinikutei Ao Chan, Jon was inspired to consider bringing us to the Fat Cow! However, upon reading some reviews, he chickened out and decided on a fall back plan and re-packaged it as a “introducing our new member Erap II to all the past presidential lunches”. 

So he decided on Majestic Restaurant…. Wrong choice Jon!

We arrived rather punctually since Dann decided to sponsor the cab fare rather than bring out his E250. 

The overall ambience of the restaurant was unique I would say, and where we sat, there was a large glass hole above head which was actually the floor of a shallow pool which allowed light to stream in.

We quickly got down to ordering our food as Dann (usual standard pattern) pointed out to us that he needed to rush back for a 2 pm meeting. Jon perused the set menu and decided that it was probably better to go for ala carte. We ordered the majestic platter for starters, the peking duck, the white asparagus, the pan seared ribeye in sesame sauce, the soup of the day which was chicken soup, and a chicken rice in claypot which was the special for the day that was not included in the menu.

We were first served our soup, which for the daily soup was quite decent. It was clear and tasty with strong chicken flavour, and Dann pointed out that he could taste the conpoy as well. I was not so sure though. There was something else added, which added another dimension to the chicken flavour, and I think it was a dried herb rather than conpoy. In any case, this was a good soup of the day.

Next up was the peking duck. Whilst ordering, businessman already gave it the thumbs down claiming that the peking duck at this joint was below standard. For the rest of us (save Erap II), we were also not expecting much considering that we have already eaten peking duck in many other establishments including Lei Garden, Royal China, and not forgetting the BML gold standard Peking Duck at Paradise Pavilion for which I shall henceforth provide an acronym of PPPD for this fabulous dish. 

The peking duck we were served was consumable, but really meets peking duck standards by the barest of margins. The duck skin was just slightly crispy, and the wrap was cold by the time my plate was served. The flavour of the duck skin was ok. Overall it would be ok for someone eating peking duck for the first time. But unfortunately not so for the party, and we gave this a slight thumbs down.

We were then served the house specialty starter, the majestic platter. The platter included roast pork, wasabi prawn, softshell crab and their signature sautéed crabmeat, egg and sprouts. The roast pork was average, crispy but not as delicate as what you find in say Lei Garden or ImperialTreasure or even possibly crystal jade kitchen. The wasabi prawn was well cooked; the prawn was large and crunchy. Overall it had good texture and the wasabi sauce that coated the prawn stickily was tasty. The prawn itself however was bland, and I suppose the prawn in such a set-up is really to provide the texture and crunchiness to the dish as a good accompaniment to the sauce. The soft shell crab was really average. No need for further descriptions here, and finally the crabmeat, egg and sprouts served on a lettuce leaf. At least the taste of this concoction is better than its presentation. The egg was just cooked and was very soft. This was mixed with the crabmeat which gave the egg a rich smooth flavour. The sprouts added some crunchiness to the otherwise soft paste like egg. Overall, this dish is so-so.

We were then served the white asparagus cooked in an XO sauce. Jon did not like this dish (guess he expected it to be green!), but I found it quite good. The asparagus was very crunchy and yet was not at all fibrous. White asparagus also has a milder taste than the green variety, and so it was good that it was not stir fried with too much sauce which would have overpowered the flavour of the asparagus. Overall I thought this was one of the better dishes.

Following this was the pan seared ribeye. Boy were we disappointed with this one especially after having what was a fabulously wonderful beef heavy yakiniku lunch theprevious week.  The quality of the ribeye left a lot to be desired and the beef was cut too thinly that it was overcooked. It begs the question that was it possibly cut so thinly and fried because the meat quality was poor? My understanding when I see the word seared is that the meat is browned just enough on the outside, yet leaving the inside of the meat undercooked. In this case, it was really just fried sliced beef. They could’ve used rump for that since the seasoning was quite strong, which blocked out much of the flavour of the beef.

We were then served the residual duck meat from our peking duck that was cooked with bean sprouts. Standard fare - nothing special, no complaints.

Finally we were served the chicken rice in claypot. The dish was served in a magnificent large claypot, with the steamed chicken sitting on top in the centre and surrounded by a perimeter of chopped spring onions. The looks phase was however where the romance with this dish ended. Upon eating the chicken rice, there was a palpable sense of disappointment all round, and we all agreed that this was like chicken rice cooked sloppily and served in a claypot. The chicken meat was nothing to shout about, and the rice was also so-so. If I were blind, I wouldn’t have guessed that the dish came out of a claypot. Put in another way, if our BML chicken rice gold standard SKCR were given a score of 10, this would be a 3.75. Most of us had a bowl each and refused any additional helpings, which was a clear sign of real displeasure at the quality from the party. Only Jon had a second helping I think. As there was more than half the pot leftover, someone suggested to Jon to doggie bag the lot and feed it to his doggie.

Overall, the quality of this establishment has definitely gone down from the time we had our CNY lunch here with the club back in 2010. Back then, we still felt this was a possible contender with some of the more renowned chinese restaurants in Singapore. This however is not to be, and even the paymaster sheepishly agreed that this is a “Not to be returned to” establishment.

The damage for the meal came to S$366 after a 15% card discount. A real rip off for the quality that was delivered. Definitely a thumbs down.

Upon leaving the place, Dann as usual said he did not have his wallet and requested for us to pay for the cab ride back first as he had to leave for his appointment. As there were 5 of us, we split into 2 cabs, for which Collin and me paid S$5.40 and S$5 respectively. As usual, Dann conveniently forgot about paying us back, and only after we remembered and reminded him that he agreed to pay us back on Monday. But just like all debtors of poor creditworthiness, he did not turn up for work on Monday, and absconded to Thailand, returning to work only on Wednesday, hoping that we would’ve forgotten by then again.

Ha! No way Dann, we made sure that his bad debts were made clear to him and for all to see so as to encourage him to become a better man!

By Club Scribe