Gills N Shells

I'm a little late on this week's post because I spent my weekend at a trading course. Looking forward to Monyay! to try out the new knowledge. I'm also grateful that Vain Pot was nice enough to accommodate my schedule and went food hunting with me over dinner.

Gills N Shells is located at Boss Hotel. Its location is not very prominent as it's a 5mins walk from Lavender MRT. Its operations started in 2016 and I think recently publicity picked up again which was how I discovered the place on my instagram (@bluntandfussyeater).

It's 1.49am in the morning, so if I suddenly don't make sense, you know why. We kicked off our meal with Clams & Mussels ($8). It's part of the starter menu and the dish introduced its arrival with a very strong appetizing aroma. The dish is generously filled with clams and mussels as the name suggest. What both of us like most about it is the broth that has a rich clams, mussels and wine taste. It went perfectly with the two slices of garlic bread offered. Highly recommended!

For mains, Vain Pot ordered the Hae Bee Hiam Pasta with Grilled Cod ($15). The dish was serve pipping hot and has a very strong Hae Bee Hiam taste. Pasta was al dente and the taste lingers in your mouth making you crave more. I felt the cod was ordinary but the Hae Bee Hiam Pasta totally agrees with both of us. Another must ty!

My own selection was the Salted Egg Pasta with Grilled Tiger Prawns ($15). Upon its arrival, it earned its first praise from Vain Pot for its rustic presentation. A bite into the dish confirmed the rich salted egg flavour that coated the al dente pasta. Another memorable dish! I felt the prawns went well with the pasta and the servings were very generous and inexpensive. I'll recommend trying this too!

I guess from the post its not difficult to guess that I'll definitely want to come back. I'll strongly ask everyone to patronise them because they were completely empty when I went on a Saturday night. At this rate, they have a very slim chance to last long, and I won't have value for money good food for long. I strongly believe that the food can speak for itself but perhaps due to its anonymity they aren't given a chance to showcase their food to more people. I highly recommend this place!!

Gills N Shells
500 Jalan Sultan #01-01 S199020

Kohaku

I spent my weekend taking fun shots at the Alive Museum! It's closing end of May and prices are going at 50% discount now, so if you are looking for something different to do over weekends, this might be the thing for you.

Prior to our 1 hour of vanity, we spent 1 hour queuing for this Tendon Bowl at Kohaku. I quite like the occasional impromptu dinners because I try places I otherwise might not have tried. Tendon bowls in Singapore has been quite a rising hype with people willing to spend over an hour waiting for food. Even at 5plus on a Saturday evening, the waiting time was close to 60mins. According to Fat Fat, 6 plus on a weekday only requires 15mins queue time. So please go on a weekday...

We tried the Kohaku Tendon Non Spicy and Spicy versions ($15 each). I give it to them that the servings were more generous than the other Tendon bowl I tried at Tanjong Pagar called Tendon. The spicy version carries with it more oomph that makes the whole meal more enjoyable. I felt that the level of crispiness in the Tempura was decent but not fantastic. Tendon at Tanjong Pagar felt more authentic.

Will I come back again? Well, there's hits and misses. For a start, after queuing an hour to go in, we had to wait another 45mins for our food because apparently they missed our order. I felt that the waitress taking our orders didn't have any passion in her work because she was near our table twice over the course of our waiting and didn't find it odd that we weren't served our food despite acknowledging our presence. On the other hand, the waitress who served us after we feedback that our orders were forgotten was polite, made an effort to check and follow through, ensuring we got our food. Says a lot about some people's working attitude and lack of initiative.

Kohaku is located at Suntec City mall has the advantage of convenience in terms of transportation and activities. At $15, it's pretty inexpensive. Even though I wasn't wowed by the food, its accessbility more than makes up for it. I wouldn't mind dining here again after the queue dies down.

Kohaku
3 Temasek Boulevard #03-310/311 Suntec City, 038983

Non Entree Desserts

These couple of weeks post Rome, I had the luxury to 'jiak ho liao' more often than usual. Been eating at a number of interesting places that I haven't had the opportunity to share them all. To avoid missing out on the food I eat, you might follow me on instagram @bluntandfussyeater. For this week itself, I feel a lot less guilty thanks to my 2 hour badminton session. Felt like I burnt all my calories away!

Vain Pot commented that I hardly feature desserts so this week, I picked Non Entree Desserts from my selection of bloggable food. The unique thing about this place is their instagrammable food which are all very artistic and taste remarkable as well. This entry is made up of 2 visits, one was last year and the other was yesterday. The food featured though are all part of their present menu.

 

This Chocolate Avalanche ($13.90) created quite a hype along with the Matcha Avalanche last year because of its popular videos on instagram showing the lava spilling into the bottom half of the dessert. The top is a valrhona chocolate lava cake and the bottom is a chocolate soil decorated with crunchy almond nougatine with orange infused vanilla ice cream. Not only is it aesthetically awesome, the taste was fantastic as well. For a chocolate lover like me, I found the chocolate rich and bitter enough with the fluffy cake providing a good balance. I also enjoyed how the biscuit went well with the chocolate cake and ice cream. Smashing indulgence for both our taste buds and camera.

Another dessert we tried last year was the Rubber Ducky ($12.90) which was surprisingly good. The ingredients are creme fraiche pudding, fresh mango puree, sago pearls, exotic ducky sorbet set atop a lemongrass cloud. Trust me, even if the ingredients sound weird enough, I enjoyed the exotic dance between the flavours of sour sorbet and sweetness of the mango puree eaten together with a very light lemongrass interlude. I'm also impressed with the dessert master for getting the flavours so right without compromising on the outlook.

And to prove that they aren't a one hit wonder, we went back yesterday and tried their seasonal menu. We picked the Ike ($17.90) from their theme menu. The theme right now is Urban Garden. Ike means pond in Japanese. It's another amazing winner for Non Entree Desserts because the art piece is definitely pleasing to the eyes and fascinating to watch (I uploaded a video of me pouring the hand roasted sencha with age sake into the bowl on instagram). It taste really good too! The Goma gelato coated in soya flour went extremely well with the sesame brittle and matcha mochi pebble. I liked it so much I wanted to order another mochi, sesame, gelato combo (they don't sell it separate)! It'll be nice if the leaves in the bowl are made of chocolate but nevertheless, it's worth the priciness and the calories.

Will I come back again? It's a resounding yes! I'll always think of Non Entree Desserts when I wish to impress a friend with sweet tooth. I don't recall ever praising a food establishment with such zest for eye-catching food that is also good to eat!

Non Entree Desserts
204 Rangoon Road, Hong Building, S218451

Food in Rome, Italy

I never expected my first long haul flight is to Italy, Rome. Thanks to my company for sponsoring my short little holiday, I get the luxury of sharing some of the food I tried over there. It's a tour so there's hits and misses but overall, it's a good experience and I enjoyed myself.

One of the key highlight dinner of the first night was the visit to 1 Star Michelin Restaurant, Antonella Colonna. The venue presented a romantic ambiance complete with a musician playing the Harp. Food wise, I believed that this menu is special to my company but we can assess the skill of the chef from the quality of food. It's definitely not catered to an Asian palette so those used to Asian food might find difficulty appreciating the fine dining offered. I found the food to be technically astute. It's however, nothing out of this world in terms of flavour, neither was it memorable. The foie gras was well prepared, flavoured and goes very well with the pan brioche with the appropriate textures. I found the seabass fresh and soft but the chips were a mixture of crispy and non crispy. The risotto which everyone has much to complain about had fat plump rice grains but it was a little too hard. So even if the the creamy balance was just right, it made it hard to finish... 1 michelin star for ambiance perhaps?

Antonella Colonna 
Via Milano, 9a, 00184 Roma Italy

My company arranged a pizza making session at iL Pomodorino with its in-house pizza master. The experience was kinda fun. Besides being able to eat the pizza we made, we were treated to a seafood feast of fried calamari & shrimp, seafood salad, sliced bruschetta with salmon and sliced pizza for starters. I like the appetizers, guess you can't go too wrong with fried food. Italian bread all seems hard like rocks but this is a consistent fixture so it's probably cultural. For mains, we had chicken escalope with lemon cream and spaghetti with clams. Both were lightly flavoured but they are generally well cooked. My favourite of the day was the Millefoglie with chantilly cream and hot chocolate sauce. The dessert was flaky, crispy and flavour was just right. I appreciated the cold dessert mixed with hot chocolate and I liked it that it didn't feel like eating a lump of sugar unlike some unskilled desserts I've tried in Rome. This is one of my more enjoyable tour food.

iL Pomodorino
Via Campania, 45E, 00187 Roma, Italy

Tre Scalini was my favourite restaurant organised by the tour. Apart from good food, it also has a strong history being the oldest restaurant in Piazza Navona, since the 1950s. The history stretches beyond its vintage but also its location. It overlooks Bernini's Fountain of Four Rivers, one of Europe's leading sculptors at that time. The risotto which I recalled as the mark of good Italian food was executed perfectly here. The rice  was just right, the broth wasn't too creamy, yet rich in flavour and made the entire meal easy to eat. This is the place to go if you want to know how the right texture of risotto should taste like. The spicy penne pasta in tomato sauce was great too with the pasta cooked till al dente and the spiciness coming out right after you bite into the food. I didn't enjoy the chicken breast served with asparagus cream too much because the chicken was a tad overcooked. It's worth noting that I enjoy how Italians prepare the vegetables with it being boiled till soft and easy to eat. We also tried the trademark Tartufo which is bascially chocolate ice cream truffle. It's rich in chocolate and gelato smoothness made entirely from 13 different types of Swiss chocolates. No regrets putting on the calories at all!

Tre Scalini
Piazza Navona, 30-35, 00186 Roma, Italy

Berzitello Ristorante is a restaurant I shortlisted on my own. This apparently is where the locals frequent and away from the tourist spots. The meal apparently brought out satisfaction from my companions as well as it's far more authentic Italian food and much better quality control. I enjoyed my Fettucini with Shrimp which was cooked till al dente. It also debunked the belief that Italians like to cook their pasta slightly harder than home... it's just those earlier restaurants besides Tre Scalini which have this weird habit. This one felt very much at home. The flavour was rich and the taste lingered in my mouth long after I finished which is a mark of good food. I also heard my colleague 'who eats to live' praise her fish dish which she felt was flavourful, tender and fresh. The pizza texture was just right, but generally, I don't think pizzas can go too wrong in Italy. This excellent meal cost only 55 Euros, who says you need to spend a bomb for good food?

Berzitello Ristorante
Via Delle Quattro Fontane, 32, 00184 Roma, Italy

One thing bad about a tour schedule is the rush. I was planning to go to more than 1 shortlisted restaurants but the lack of time prevented us from hunting for more quality food. I do agree that the occasional spontaneous hop in to random restaurants will yield their own interesting finds. Doveralu Cafe is one such place. The giant seabass you see in the photo was fresh and delicious that my boss ordered 1 more. The ravioli with spinach was very generously prepared and I appreciated that the cream sauce complemented the dish well. I found the pizza very interesting because half was meat and half was veggie. Just like the one at Berzitello Ristorante, I find it faultless. Pasta again debunked the theory that Italian pastas are cooked harder... I particularly enjoyed the mushroom infused flavour that came with the shrimp and tiger prawns. While the food isn't out of this world, it's a much better representation of Italian food.

My advice to tourists in Rome, to visit restaurants packed with people during meal times and off peak hours. Those are the safe bets and where locals eat. You save on your pocket and you pamper your stomach.

Doveralu
Via Nazionale, 215, 00184 Roma, Italy