Inle Myanmar Restaurant, a little something different

Inle Myanmar, a restaurant that located in Marina Square, specialises in Burmese cuisine. This outlet has opened in this location for some time and is their 2nd branch. Their original restaurant is located in Peninsula Plaza.

A little education here: Inle is actually a lake in Myanmar and it is nearly 100 km North to South but only 5 km wide. There are more than 200 villages on or around it, supporting a population of about 150,000. Inle’s most unusual feature is its extraordinary 'one-legged fishermen', who have developed an original, eccentric method of rowing with one leg. With the other, they balance precariously on the back of their sampans, leaving their hands free to drop their tall conical nets over passing fish, which they can spot in the shallow lake.

I was searching for something to eat and chanced upon this outlet. Burmese cuisine in Singapore is not really well trended but i decided to try it as it is something different.


Food
Gourd Fritters (S$8.90 comes as a set with Mohinga)

Presentation:
The portion of the gourd is just nice for a 1 person meal. This is a set that comes with the main course of a noodle called Mohinga. The gourd is golden brown. Inside the fried flour, is one quarter piece of the gourd, with the skin peeled off. It is presented just like a normal home cooked dish. The sauce that comes with this dish is made from tamarind.

Taste:
The gourd is covered with a huge portion of flour. The dish itself is quite tasteless and is only cripsy because of the deep fried flour surrounding the gourd. Once into the gourd, the gourd is soft while still retains a little crunch and does not have the 'green' taste since most of the skin were peeled off and it is quite sufficiently cooked. As with any gourd, there are seeds, which were not removed and although these seeds were edible, just like those from the cucumber, a few of them i find were quite hard.
When dipped with the sauce, it gives the fried gourd a mild sour and slight spicy taste. It is a definite must to eat with the sauce, else it is just a tasteless deep fried gourd.


Pork Sausage (S$6.90)

Presentation:
As with the fried gourd that was served, the dish is not really well presented. The pork sausage was cut into 7 pieces, showing the slight pinkish colour of the pork.

Taste:
The sausage meat is very dry. However the deep frying makes it very crispy and you can really hear the crispy sound of the outer crust being devastated as you crunch your way thru the piece of sliced sausage. The taste of pepper is very apparent in the pork meat although it has been marinated with other ingredients too, but they were just enough to almost nullify the porky taste. This dish is a little oily.


Mohinga (S$8.90 comes as a set with fried gourd)

Presentation:
This dish comes with quite a lot of ingredients. There were chickpeas fritters, hardboiled eggs, fish cake, radish and noodles served in fish broth. This is an all time favourite noodle dish of Myanmar and is eaten throughout the day and during festive occassions.
The ingredients were nicely laid out on the noodles, with the basil leaves giving it the extra vibrance.

Taste:
The noodles were very smooth, though some chinese would think that the noodle were too soft. The impression that i had when i was eating the noodles was that of Penang Laksa, but without the strong prawn paste smell and taste. Apart from that the fish broth also has a mixture of different spices. There were also generous portions of onions in the broth.
The chickpeas fritters when soaked in the broth makes it brittle and gives the soup an extra texture. This is a fine addition to the soup.
This noodle dish is a must try, given the sweet broth and the soft and smooth noodles.

Hsanwin Makin (S$3.00)

Presentation:
This is a sweet cake, Myanmar style, baked with semolina, sugar, butter and coconut.
It is a simple dish with only a few raisins on top of the cake. There were tiny little beans on top of the cake.

Taste:
Though this cake is baked with a mixture of coconut and butter, the typical taste and smell of the coconut is non-existent. In fact, there is a faint taste of banana mixed with coconut and this really attracts me. It is definitely a must try on this dessert, even though it is slightly oily.


Inle Service Attitude
The staff in this restaurant are Burmese and sometimes you may need to repeat your orders, especially if you speak too fast. However the staff are quite attentive and respond to you relatively quickly. Their service is overall still acceptable.

Inle Cleanliness
Overall cleanliness is acceptable. One of the staff even clean the table with disinfectant when one of the guest request their tables be cleaned up after their meal, but continue to be seated.

Ratings
Food Presentation: 2.5/5
Food Taste: 3/5 ( for the dessert and Mohinga Noodles)
Service Attitude: 3/5
Cleanliness: 3.5/5
Value for Money: 3/5

This is a good place to grab a fast bite, if you know what to order. Not all the food are nice. Even some of the recommendations didnt turn out too good. May have to try a few of the different dishes and know what is good before going in for the fast bite.

Fancy Having Dessert in a Bar Early in the Morning @2am

Anybody wants to have dessert early in the morning? 2am:DessertBar does just that. Tucked away in a little corner in Holland Village along Lor Liput is this DessertBar that serves dessert till 2am. I have been searching for a dessert place like this for sometime and a tip off led me to this place. It is really not easy searching for this place even though i know the address.

The bar is designed in comtemporary style and this is where dessert and wine takes centrestage. The only hot food are the side orders, which are finger food. The menu tells your what wine will goes well with the dessert, so there is no worry if you would like to have a glass of wine to go with your dessert. Its all recommended in the menu.


Dessert
Twix (S$13)

Presentation:
Twix is a dessert dish that consist of Caramel Mousse, Peanut crumble and Home-made Valrhona Chocolate Ice Cream. Typically the mention of mousse will be lead to the thought of being in a container or cup where you will scoop from. This caramel mousse is in the shape of a stick and is placed on a bed of peanut crumble with the scoop of ice cream on one side.

Taste:
The Valrhona Choc Ice Cream is a dark chocolate ice-cream of about 70% cocoa. Even though it is a dark choc ice cream, it does not have a heavy cocoa taste, however it is not your typical chocolate ice-cream. The ice cream is very very smooth and the texture is just like a mousse.
The Caramel mousse has a texture that is exactly like tofu and it goes down the throat very smoothly. When it enters the mouth, the mousse almost melts in the mouth and gives out the fragrant caramel taste, but the taste is not over powering the choc powder taste that is on top of it.
The bed of peanut crumble compliments the mousse very nicely giving it the extra sweetness and crispiness. This crumble also goes down well with the ice cream.
However one thing that must be noted is that this dessert is quite a sweet dish once the crumble is taken together with the ice cream or the mousse. This is definitely one that makes your tooth ache with sweetness.


Amedei Chilli Chocolate (S$15)

Presentation:
This dessert consist of Dark Chocolate Bricks, Fresh Honeycomb, Toasted Ice Cream, White Chocolate Peanut Butter ball on top of a bed of Chocolate Soil. This dish packs less of a punch than the other desserts served in this bar, but the chef's attention to details is not to be neglected. There are some herbs that were erected on the melted honeycomb.

Taste:
The main star of this dish is the Chocolate Ice Cream, which is infused with chilli padi. It is not spicy but only with a tinge of spiciness on the throat. However it is to be noted that this ice cream is not to be taken in big mouthful. One recommendation is to take the ice cream together with the peanut butter ball. This gives a tingling sensation to the crispy ball. The chocolate soil do not go well with the chilli ice cream as the soil will first cover your throat so that it becomes dry and when the ice cream goes down, the spicy flavour will appear and it can be easy to choke on that.
The toasted ice cream is a wheat ice cream and it has a malty sweet flavour. The texture is also quite rough. I am not a fan of wheat and so this scoop of ice cream do not gain my favour.
Do note that this dish is for the more adventurous.

2am:DessertBar Service Attitude
The staff are friendly but not imposing. All the staff are well trained and they know their ingredients to the dessert really well. When the dish is served, they explained the dish very patiently. If it is the chef that serve you the dish, you will also be told what to expect of the taste of the dish. One chef is very attentive and upon knowing that i had ordered another dessert, without me asking for the replacement of my fork, a waiter was asked to replace one for me.

2am:DessertBar Cleanliness
There is nothing negative to be said of the cleanliness. Even the chefs' workplace are sparkling clean and tidy when they are preparing the desserts. Thumbs up for their cleanliness.

Ratings
Food Presentation: 4.5/5
Food Taste: 4.5/5
Service Attitude: 4/5
Cleanliness: 4/5
Value for Money: 3.5/5
Definitely, I will be back for another visit to try out the other dessert dishes that I could not gobble up on my 1st visit. However a lot more exercises need to be done to strip off the calories that will be added. It is not a place for the calories lookout people.

Aerins Duck Leg Confit

Aerins, located at the basement of Raffles City next to the fountain, provides quite a good ambience for dinner and talk over some drinks.

Food
Duck Leg Confit:

Presentation:
The duck leg confit comes with mashed potatoes, preserved onions and fig. These are all encircled by thick blasmatic vinegar. The portion is on the small side. It would be more worth the value if the portion of is bigger.

Taste:
Considering that it is a preserved duck leg, the saltish meat is normal. The outer skin of the duck leg is pan fried till crispy while the inner meat still retains the juiciness of the duck meat. The blasmatic vinegar covers the saltish meat, adding a twist of sweet vinegary taste to the meat. The mash potatoes are cooked just right.

Aerins Service Attitude:
Their attitude is typical of those that you will encounter in Singapore restaurants. Once taken your order, and gotten your meal delivered to your table, there will not be anymore interactions between the diners and the staff till you request for something.

Aerins Cleanliness:
Nothing worth to mention about the cleanliness. Locating in one of singapores prime shopping center, their cleanliness is expected to be of a certain standard.

Ratings:
Presentation: 3.5/5
Taste: 3.5/5
Service Attitude: 3/5
Cleanliness: 3/5
Value for Money: 2.5/5
It is a good place to sit down, grab a dinner, have a talk while listening to the splashes of the fountain. The portions are on the whole small for the amount of money that is forked out. Taste of the food is generally acceptable but not fantastic.

Wonderful Cookies @ Cookie Museum

It was a meeting that was being called for by a wedding couple for discussion on the plans and they wanted to bring the rest of the wedding helpers to this place called Cookie Museum @ Esplanade. Congratulations to Calvin Neow and Michell Chong on getting married in less than 1 month.

When our party of 6 arrive at the place, we were told to wait forabout 30 minutes as they do not have enough tables to put the 6 of us together. A 30 minute wait turns out to be about 45 to an hour, but we still waited and it was a decision not regretted.

The place and decorations were victorian and they provide quite a lot of different types of tea, from the classic to new infusions. One thing though was that photography was not allowed but i still managed to steal a few shots.

Being known as cookie museum, their cookies were fantastic and they had a lot of flavours, ranging from the classic rose cookie, lavender cookie to the localised Nasi Lemak and Laksa flavour. Some of the cookies were soft and some crunchy, depending on which flavour. Overall their cookies were wonderful and great though not all flavours were liked by everyone. Each one of us had our own favourites.

Presentation:
The wedding couple had ordered a platter of cookies and fruits for us to share. The layout was very unique. Cream was used to afix the cookie in an upright position, what a creative way to present the cookies. The fruits were cut and laid out individually on a spread of passion fruit sauce. The platter was also decorated with rose petals and peppermint leaves.

Taste:
The cookies were itself already wonderful. The cream added an additional twist to the texture. The different cookies blend in differently when ate together with the cream. As for the fruits, there was nothing special to it.

Cookie Museum Service Attitude:
We were greeted the moment we walked up to the museum entrance and were asked if we would like to taste their cookies' different flavours. Once we gotten our seats, we were told that we can walk around to taste the sample cookies that were placed on trolleys located at different place in the museum. These cookies were placed generously for all customers to try. Upon hearing that we were 1st timers, the staff pushed their trolley of sample cookies and introduced each flavour to us, explaining what each flavour taste like and handed us samples to try. The staff were very well trained and knows their product well.
One thing though is I am not sure if we were the forgotten party of 6 or is it conincidence that when we went back after waiting for 45 mintues that the seat was suddenly available.

Cookie Museum Cleanliness:
Nothing much can be said about this. Everything looks clean.

Rating:
Presentation: 4/5
Taste: 4.5/5
Service Attitude: 4/5
Cleanliness: 4/5
Cost: 2/5
This is definitely a good place to watch the world go by with nice cookies and good tea or coffee. It would also be a wonderful place to be doing some reading while enjoying your tea/coffee and cookies. One fallback though is that the cost is quite steep.

Jap Food @ Ichiban Boshi

Wandering around the circle route in Suntec, i walked aimlessly looking for food. So many restaurants past me till this one: Ichiban Boshi Japanese Restaurant. It the typical sushi japanese restaurant.

Getting a seat is quick since i am just alone. Got a counter seat so i can see the sushi chef do their stuff. Here's what i ordered: Kajiki Sashimi, Hamachi Sashimi, Assorted Seafood Maki, Cha-Soba and Tempura Ice-cream.

Food
Assorted Seafood Maki:

Presentation:
The Maki contains chopped small pieces of salmon, tuna and tako. Wrapped around by seaweed, rice and vegetable leaves. Sesame seeds were sprinkled on top for the added fragrance. Due to the small individual pieces of seafood, each cut maki is relatively untidy.

Taste:
Surprisingly, the small pieces of seafood did not drop when the maki was picked up by the chopstick. However, the taste of all the salmon, tuna and tako, clashes with each other. There was not a very distinct taste with each type of meat doing its own magic. Sometimes mixing too many good things together works the other way.

Kajiki Sashimi:

Presentation:
The Kajiki Sashimi comes nicely presented on a plate of ice so that the Kajiki will retain its freshness.

Taste:
The Kajiki is served too cold and lacks the sweetness of a fresh sashimi. The meat texture is spongy and is typical that of a swordfish which has been stored for a few days in the fridge.

Hamachi Sashimi:

Presentation:
To preserve the freshness of the Hamachi, the slices are placed on a plate of ice. Though the slices are placed presentably, the thickness of the slices are not uniform. This is a big taboo for slicing sashimi. The difference in thickness are quite drastic.

Taste:
The Hamachi taste too cold and the sweetness of the hamachi is not found. One slice was even so thick that I had problems biting through it. This is one of my favourite sashimi but it just disappoints me.

Cha-Soba:

Presentation:
The soba served is typical of those served in most japanese restaurants, with the soba served on top of a small pile of ice. It also comes with a small cup of soy sauce. Spring onions are placed on the cover of the cup.

Taste:
Some of the soba strands sticks together and could only be separated after dipping into the soy sauce, which is normal. The soba texture is quite rough and is of a dull green colour. As for the taste, there is none and only saltiness after dipping into the soy sauce.

Tempura Ice-cream:

Presentation:
The ice-cream was served in a very simple manner with strawberry jam spreaded on the ice-cream. The ice-cream crust is fried till golden-brown, but the ice-cream itself still maintains its frozen state.

Taste:
The crust is oily as expected from the deep fry. Besides being oily, the crust is too thick and a lot of times, it feels like eating oily deep fried crust with a cold interior. The vanila ice-cream flavour is totally covered up by the crust. The strawberry jam goes quite well with the crust. Just imagine eating french toast with strawberry jam.

Ichiban Boshi Service Attitude:
The waitress and waiter were very friendly. Whenever i requested for service and they are not able to give their attention to me immediately, they always tell me in a very courteous manner to give her a minute. The waitress that served me also come and asked if I am ok with the meal. I also saw another waiter explaining about their voucher system and recommending what would be a better choice for their current order items.

It was also noted that the items on the belt had a "I'm Raw" tag for food items that are raw. This is quite a considerate effort on the restaurant's part to notify patrons of the raw contents.

Ichiban Boshi Cleanliness:
Nothing much can be said about the cleanliness as the tables, chairs and utensils are clean.

Ratings:
Food Presenstation: 3/5
Food Taste: 2.5/5
Service Attitude: 3.5/5
Cleanliness: 3.5/5
Ichiban Boshi is a good place to hang out with friends to talk, although it is not a place to go for the food. The ambience is nice and the service staff are very friendly.