Palate Pleasers N Tummy Teasers

Jap’s take on pasta that works

I love Italian cuisine as much, or even more so than Japanese cuisine. However, the thought of marrying these 2 contrasting styles elicits some skepticism on my part. If it wasn’t for the fact that this fusion was helmed by the well-known Waraku branding and that we approach food with an adventurous nature, I’d probably have brushed it off as some new marketing gimmick to draw in today’s increasingly jaded consumers.

I’m quite a fan of Waraku for they serve up some of the best ramen and udon here, coupled with an enticing variety and the use of fresh, quality ingredients. Likewise, their subsidiary Pasta de Waraku keeps to this tradition and proves they made the right move in choosing to diversify from pure Japanese cuisine.

My previous visit to their first Pasta de Waraku outlet at Central mall in Clarke Quay left me with a pretty good impression and hence I decided to give their Square 2 outlet a try. Their menu has a mind-boggling variety of pastas and a smaller selection of pizzas, gratins and rice; add to that a seasonal menu and a special menu, and you’ve got yourself a situation of “I wanna try that…ooh, but this looks good too!”

I especially love their ingenious Pasta Sets ($16.80 each) which come with a soup and a mini salad, as well as your choice of one of the following: 1) 2 mini pastas, 2) a pasta and a mini gratin or 3) a pasta and a mini pizza. These sets allow one to sample a variety of their fare, and are great for sharing when you’re not feeling that hungry Some pictures of the Gratin Set I had:

Their Corn Soup was suitably creamy and rich in its taste of corn, though a handful of corn kernels would lend the soup added crunch to boost its overall texture; still way better than the watered down version you get at Mos Burger though. The Salad which comprised of iceberg, romaine, red coral lettuce, and some tomatoes all tossed in a shoyu dressing, was crunchy, light and refreshing on the palate. Living up to its mini title was the Prawn Gratin, which was small even by my standards (I’m considered to have quite a small appetite); understandable considering it’s supposed to be a side accompaniment to the pasta dish. Made up of penne (pasta) and 4 shrimps, it was pretty yummy with the penne done al dente and the shrimps tasting fresh and sweet. The cream sauce it was baked in had a strong milky taste which grew on me though it may not go down well with everyone.

Completing the Pasta Set Menu - Meat Bolognese Spaghetti. As you can probably tell from the picture, the spaghetti was a tad overcooked. What looks like a watered down sauce is thankfully, solely a result of them not draining their pasta fully before dishing it. I say thankful cos’ the meat bolognese sauce is the saving grace of this dish. Rich and flavourful, the blend of minced beef in a pulpy tomato sauce with a hint of herbs is exactly how a good bolognese sauce should be. Mix in the perfectly poached egg and you get a pasta sauce that is literally good till the last drop

My companion’s order of Bacon Curry Pilaf ($9.80) didn’t fare as well:

The sticky texture of Japanese rice and the spices used in Japanese curry are odd bedfellas. They simply do not go well together. This dish may have tasted a lot better if it was presented in the traditional style of simmering the main ingredients (in this case bacon and mushrooms) in Japanese curry and served with plain rice. Goes to show there are times when it’s best to stick to tried-and-tested formulas. There’s a reason why these formulas survived the ages y’know.

A sweet round-off to dinner came in the form of a Macha Azuki Parfait ($6.80):

Think icy, creamy green-tea ice-cream atop vanilla softserve, with a base of crunchy cornflakes and adorned with a wafer biscuit, 2 strawberry slices, 2 tiny scoops of mashed red bean and 2 Japanese mochi balls. The ice-cream was a bit too milky for me which I felt overpowered the green-tea flavour; but I’m an ice-cream snob remember? The mochi balls were chewy and as they are tasteless on their own, went well with the ice-cream and softserve. If you haven’t tried ice-cream/softserve with cornflakes, go try it sometime! The crunchiness of cornflakes coupled with the chilled sweetness of ice-cream make for an interesting melange of flavours and textures; highly recommended!

Pasta de Waraku

Central: 6 Eu Tong Sen Street #02-82/83 The Central

Square 2: 10 Sinaran Drive #01-07 Square 2

Marina: 6 Raffles Boulevard #03-257 Marina Square

Full menu here.

When smells don’t translate into taste…

If you’ve ever walked past the area where the Suntec Convention Centre is, chances are you’d have come across a wafting fragrant aroma of something cooking and be lured to locate its source. If you haven’t already found it, no, it’s not coming from that overpriced foodcourt masquerading as a library. Those smells which have triggered more than 1 rumbling tummy originate from Joaquim, a restaurant offering steamboat buffets.

My experience at Joaquim is reminiscent of eating a 茶叶蛋; it smells heavenly till you take a bite and plummet right back to Earth. I hate that feeling. It makes me feel cheated somehow, that my expectations of what is to come has been raised by the prelude of smells only for it to plunge from the bland/bad taste after.

$25.80 nett per pax for a steamboat buffet sounded pretty reasonable and I’ve always wanted to know what it was in their broth that produced such appetising smells, so there I was for dinner last Friday. Another feature that attracted me was each diner having their own individual mini-steamboat; no more squabbling over which broth to choose and wondering where that crabstick I dumped in earlier disappeared to. There were 3 broths to choose from namely Herbal Chicken Soup, Laksa and Fish Head with Salted Veg. As no one was interested in trying the Fish Head broth, we settled for the remaining 2.

Since steamboat is all about cooking raw ingredients in a steaming hot broth, naturally the flavour of the broth and the freshness of the ingredients are the key to a tasty and satisfying steamboat. Unfortunately, Joaquim fails to deliver in these 2 crucial areas. There was nary a hint of herbal flavour in the chicken broth (picture above), which came across as bland, whilst the laksa broth lacked spices and was a tad too salty (a customer at a table nearby actually complained about this and asked to have a change of broth) Despite offering a variety of raw ingredients such as meats, veg, prawns, crabs, tofu, fishcakes and the like, these didn’t look very fresh and it didn’t help that their meats weren’t marinated, turning into bland chunks when cooked. I never thought I’d say this, but Seoul Garden does a better job when it comes to flavouring meats

Thank goodness they offered a small selection of cooked food and desserts (pictured below) as part of their buffet or I might have starved. The former comprised stuff like yam rice, stir-fried cabbage, braised duck, lamb stew, herbal chicken, popiah, rojak - slightly more palatable but nothing to shout about. Their desserts were either too sweet or too dense, with their cakes lacking the fluffy, light texture of better quality counterparts.

Final verdict: Unsatisfying dinner that won’t have me coming back anytime soon I did not manage to find out what it was that produced the aroma, but strangely I stopped smelling it the moment I sat down and had my first taste of their fare. Must’ve been some stuff they sprayed into the area outside their restaurant to lure diners like me into blandland.

Delectable Peking Cuisine

It being Father’s Day over the weekend, my mom suggested dinner at Lao Beijing @ Tiong Bahru Plaza after seeing it featured on tv. It was the family’s first visit to this outlet and it left a favourable first impression on my part as I was pleased with our seating arrangement - window seats, a rectangular table that facilitated conversation and vertical columns that acted as partitions for each table. Granted, there wasn’t much of a view except for the compound of a condominium but I liked that it was in a corner of the restaurant, which distanced us from the buzz of the other diners.

Lao Beijing’s menu is pretty quirky with categories such as “Things that fly”, “The four-legged” and equally wacky names for individual dishes. Our order comprised of 2 appetizers, 3 mains and a side. First up, the appetizers:

                                         (Left to right: 听说 and SilverBait in 7 Spices)

听说 ($6) is actually slices of pig’s ear and tongue rolled together and braised, served atop a bed of shredded lettuce; now you know what I mean by a quirky menu I half-expected them to literally translate this dish as “Hearsay”! The english names of dishes tend to be little more than descriptions of the dish, unlike the mandarin version. Perhaps it’s cos’ they’re a chinese restaurant. Before you balk at the idea of eating such peculiar parts of the pig, know that the version served at Lao Beijing carries no odd taste whatsoever; in fact, the only distinct taste is the savoury gravy with a hint of spices. Although I probably wouldn’t have known what I was eating had I not looked at the description in the menu, I liked the flavours of this dish.

The other appetizer of 银鱼 or Deep-fried SilverBait in Seven Spices ($7) didn’t fare as well though. The batter was crispy and that was it. The fish was nowhere to be seen or tasted and it didn’t help that there was a strong taste of oil. Don’t bother trying it.

The Steamed Juicy Meat Buns ($8) aka 小籠包 arrived next:

The ones here come in a basket of 8 and as usual, I’ll break it down via papille’s 3S…

Skin: A little thin. Some of the skins had torn before we even got to them which meant leaking broth

Soup: The broth was clear with not a speck of oil. It tasted a bit too sweet though, like what you’d get after adding tons of additives to a stock.

Stuffing: The meat was tender though it too tasted artificially flavoured.

Overall verdict of their xiaolongbao: I prefer the ones from The Asian Kitchen or Din Tai Fung.

Lastly, the 3 mains…

  (Left to right: Beijing Roast Duck and Condiments)

That’s supposed to be half a duck Sure doesn’t look like it. Pretty pricey considering there’s so little flesh for $24. I quite liked their idea of leaving the flesh with the skin to be wrapped; most places serve Peking duck wraps with just the skin. The skin was suitably crispy though not as fragrant as I would have liked. I still think we were being conned for paying that amount for these few slices of duck, so I guess we wouldn’t be ordering it the next time.

                                               (Fried Coriander Balls - $14)

These deep fried balls filled with chopped bits of coriander were simply yummy! The outer coating wasn’t hard but crisp and the fragrance of coriander wafted out when you bit into it. There was a hint of sweetness from the fried batter which I belived was a mix of mashed yam and flour.

    (Soon Hock Fish steamed with pickled chillies - Seasonal Price; which equated to $40)

This fish, albeit pricey, was fresh and its flesh slivers of firm sweetness. I didn’t really fancy the accompanying pickled chillies though; they were tongue-numbingly spicy which overwhelmed the tastebuds and distracted from instead of complementing the fish.

Generally, I found the servings pretty small which when viewed with the accompanying prices translates into a rather expensive dining place (unless you stick to ordering their la mien and xiaolongbao). Food-wise, there were hits and misses though they did well with presentation. A place to consider going for celebratory family dinners Remember to call and ask to reserve those window seats!

Lao Beijing

#02-11/12 Novena Square. Tel: 6358-4466
#02-12 Tiong Bahru Plaza. Tel: 6376-4466
#03-01 Plaza Singapura. Tel: 6738-7207