Fifth Season, Race Course Road

After reading a positive review on City Nomads, we decided that Chinese-Tibetan-Indian fusion cuisine was something definitely worth checking out. And so we did!

Located a skip away from Little India station, this place isn't hard to find but can be easy to miss. We were the only diners in the restaurant at that time, but it quickly filled up as we were eating.

 Upon examining the menu we came to frightful realization - items here are not cheap. But was it worth the dough?

 I love to try new cuisines and while Indian and Chinese are definitely nothing new, Tangra / Tibetan did sound like it might be!

{ Steamed Vegetable Momos (5 for $9.80) }

Awarded best dish of the Year at Singapore Food Festival 2009 

 Hmm. So momos apparently were awarded the 'best dish of the year' in the SG Food Festival in '09. Honestly, if this was indeed the case, I have little faith in what that food festival was all about. Not to be mean but.. seriously? This are about $2 per pop and were simply steamed veg dumplings. The skin of the dumpling was a bit too thick / starchy for me. Was nice with the dipping chilli sauce but that's about it. For me this was waay too overrated and overpriced :( 

 While I would usually scoff at paying $1 for a regular dumpling, would this $2 per dumpling live up to its value and reputation? In its defense, flavour was not bad, a good mixture of what I assumed to be cabbage and ... stuff, and a good dollop of the spicy chilli gave it a nice kick. Filling-to-skin-ratio was also actually not too shabby. But I still felt it was overpriced, and definitely nowhere near any form of 'wow' factor I expected to receive in my mouth.

{ Tibetan Thukpa ($9.80) }

Tibetan hearty and spicy noodle soup with minced chicken

This dish came in a thimble-sized bowl. We looked at it incredulously as we fished out approximately two forkfuls of noodles and about a tablespoon of minced chicken. The situation was not helped by the fact that the flavours were nothing as what I'd expected. It was spicy and yet lacked flavour? I don't know, this was disappointing (also).

 Now the thukpa left me absolutely speechless. While contemplating about what  said about it tasting like what she used to cook as a student, I took a slurp and ... yep! Definitely plausible. The soup was a kind of ... drab, bland yet spicy concoction, that I would hardly associate with being hearty. My heart did palpitate faster as my disappointment grew, perhaps this was what it was referring to? Noodles were nice though, thin and ramen-y in texture. Chicken tasteless, and no other ingredients were found to be present besides the garnish. For $9.80 the portion and taste were underwhelming.

{ Coriander Chilli Chicken Dry ($15.30) }

Boneless chicken stir-fried in chilli coriander sauce

 Gah. I had so much hope for this, I really wanted this to be the wow factor. I have to admit this is the favourite dish for me. It was spicy. Yeah.

 [Takes keyboard] not that I have much to add - the chicken felt a little overfried, and were fried with the skin - I could barely detect the coriander's herbiness as well. It was spicey alright, but the dish itself arrived at room temperature which was odd. And again for the portion, $15.30 was overkill.

Maybe this is what tangra cuisine should taste like, unfortunately I can't comment on that. But as food being food, it was overpriced and underwhelming, and for a bill of $40 we were left unsatisfied and fending for ourselves in Komala Villas next door.

Fifth Season

28 Race Course Road

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Main website : http://fifthseason.com.sg/
HGW Link (79% recommended at time of posting) : http://www.hungrygowhere.com/singapore/fifth_season/
Rating (out of 4) : 

Let's Toss, Tiong Bahru Plaza

 While not your regular choice for dinner, this interesting spot for Szechaun "salad" - cold appetizers eaten with man tou is located at Tiong Bahru just near McDonald's. Honestly the only other time I've had something similar was in NTU Can B, which I thought tasted, well, I wouldn't say it tasted good.

If tripe, pig's ears, intestines, and chillied kelp is right up your alley (like me), then you'd love the selection here. If it's not - fear not,   also could not quite muster the appetite when greeted with 12 trays varying between black, orange and red.

They do sets of either 300g of vegies, or 200g of vegies and 50g of meat - both at $6.80 with a bottled drink and man tou if I was not mistaken! And they quite literally weigh it on a weighing scale. Woe to be, I totally missed a side area with the tripe and pig's ears (which I love), so I ended up getting a nice tossed-mix of glass noodles, tou fu skin, kelp, black fungus and nice serving of chopped intestines.

Bad thing however, was the lack of seating space. Most (if not all) people are actually mainland Chinese who pack them home - no surprise there. We convened at the food court upstairs where   can get some regular, normal looking food.

Everything tasted unsurprisingly similar regardless of what you order. Everything contains that distinct Szechuan peppercorn - a dry, stark piquance - which I do enjoy with the plain bun, which was really quite plain. Have to say, however, the taste overall was actually pretty enjoyable, the spicy salty mix really does just eat like a salad. So pack it home, or convene at the food court, and try some pig's ears today!

Let's Toss! 拌吧!

Tiong Bahru Plaza

#01-02 (just out the MRT)

HGW Link (100% at time of posting) : http://www.hungrygowhere.com/singapore/Let_s_Toss_____Tiong_Bahru_Plaza_/
Rating (out of 4) : 

Wheat Baumkuchen Pasta & Noodle Bar, OUB Centre

 If you are a Raffles Place office worker, you will know that this used to be Spinelli Coffee. This little area is just by the escalators at the basement of OUB Centre and few steps away from SwissBake, Salad Stop and the legendary Barcook Bakery.

I literally pass by this place every day and was very curious about their noodles. Having tried the baumkuchen before at Toa Payoh, I was more interested in the strangely-named noodle sets. So I did one lunchtime (had the Tuna Set) and was quite pleased - had to tell   about it!

 We made arrangements to meet for dinner here one Friday. It closes at 8pm, with last orders at 715pm. There aren't many seats but we were the only ones there that Friday evening.

{ Penguin Set ($7.80) }

Green soba noodles in roasted sesame sauce with shredded chicken, fried eggs, carrot, japanese cucumber, lettuce & quail egg. Comes with lemon tea.

 They ran out of green soba so they gave me buckwheat soba instead, and they ran out of penguin so it was chicken instead. The roasted sesame sauce stood out rather strongly, which basically gave the whole dish that standard japanese salad taste. Portion was decent and the egg and chicken went well with the soba to give it all-around level 10 healthiness. While I don't necessarily agree it's worth the $7.80, considering it's location and the long queues at lunch time, it's a typical Raffles Place food and price.

{ Dolphin Set ($7.80) }

Ramen noodles in miso sauce with prawns, carrots, lettuce & quail egg. Comes with lemon tea.

 Was half-expecting this to have a lot more garnish, but then I should have read the description properly I guess lol. I liked the miso sauce and the slight soft-chewiness of the cold noodles. Prawns were alright, and I suppose the quail eggs keeps it all 'dainty'. Loved the sesame and the generosity of lettuce at the bottom. Personally, I'd say go for the other sets because this one seems a tad spartan compared to the others for the standard $7.80 you pay (haha, so calculative).

While the noodle sets has NOTHING to do with baumkuchen (they do sell baumkuchen as well), they were pretty interesting and kind of healthy, but obviously would not make another special trip to Raffles Place to check it out (especially considering last order is that 715pm). If you do work nearby I guess it's another salad spot where you can order an arbitrarily named noodle set for lunch.

Wheat Baumkuchen Pasta & Noodle Bar

#B1-15, 1 Raffles Place, OUB Centre

just out of Raffles Place MRT

Main website : http://www.wheatbaumkuchen.com/
HGW Link (100% recommended at time of posting) : http://www.hungrygowhere.com/singapore/Wheat_Baumkuchen_Pastry___Noodle_Bar/
Rating (out of 4) : 

7 Kickstart Brewiches, Armenian Street

 Just opposite the Substation and Peranakan Museum is this kitschy cafe with an unconventional name. From outside the dark tinted glass doesn't look particularly inviting (and if not for the operating hours written on the door we would not have guessed this place was even open) - but step in and you find yourself in an unexpectedly cosy cafe.


 We came here for lunch and coffee at the recommendation of an SMU student (hi Jastine if you are reading this) and could imagine this place to be very popular amongst the uni student crowd for two reasons - (1) the proximity to campus and (2) the 'hipster-ness' of the cafe interior (as proven by a group of well-heeled students lounging around taking photos of themselves with their expensive cameras) - but who are we to judge? We're here for the food :)

 You place orders at the counter and food is delivered to you. There seems to be a random assortment of seating arrangements. We sat at a regular (?) table.

 Menus are sprawled in writing on various vertical surfaces (most prominent being the blackboard next to the counter) but there is also a printed menu (in a student's file) to look at.

In urgent need of caffeine we started with our fuel for the day. Personally I opted for a classic flat white because I wasn't really convinced of the stranger concoctions. This was smooth and strong, although would be nicer if more aromatic.

{ Flat white }

 If you ever wondered what orange + chocolate + espresso tastes like, look no further! Despite the supposed two shots of espresso, the orange chocolate overpowered the drink so much I had to laugh every time I took a sip (not necessarily in a bad way!). I didn't quite think orange pairs well with coffee, but it definitely pairs well with chocolate so you end up with something like a really prominent orange mocha. If you love orange chocolate, you will love this.

{ Jaffa Latte ($5.70) }

Zesty Orange + Wicked Chocolate + Sexy Expresso x 2

 I had the salad sandwich - expecting a sandwich but what I got was this!

{ Chicken, Turkey Bacon, Cheese and Salad Sandwich ($8.70) }

 What I got instead was a sandwich arranged like a salad + IKEA excalibur on a small pan. Honestly with the messy scattered arrangement and the small non-flat surface to work with, this was a real pain to consume. But setting aside my need for neatness, I diced and mixed everything and ate it like a salad, and it's actually pretty good flavour wise. The BBQ sauce and the pink mayo (more later) goes really well with the juicy chicken and turkey bacon, and in terms of portion it's surprisingly voluminous.

 I opted for the 'pizzette' (as in small - or female? - pizza) with spinach, mushrooms and tomatoes and itty bitty chunks of cheese. It's really just grilled pita bread with a whole slew of toppings thrown on it - toppings that look and tasted suspiciously like ingredients in the sandwich above.

{ Spinach, Shrooms, Tomatoes and Cheese Pizzettes ($8.70) }

 Here the pink mayo features quite prominently, shown below (we tried colour-correcting to the best of our ability!). The mayo is on the sweeter side and can get a bit cloying/overwhelming after the first few bites. Without saltiness to off set it my dish got a bit blah after a while. One other gripe for me is the "spinach" here - this is the Chinese variety (heng cai, lol). Also would have preferred melty cheese, rather than in minuscule chunks. I must say though the mushrooms were really yum: plump, juicy and earthy in flavour.



 I thought the pita bread was way too thick and doughy and it got hard to cut.

The pink mayo, sunflower seeds and cheese seem to be common toppings for both (maybe all) dishes and honestly the mayo overpowers most of the taste so they do all taste similar after a while. In the case of my sandwich there was just too MUCH mayo so while nice become a little too cloying. That said the food is actually decent and quirky, and the coffees are also great (and quirky). Definitely worth a shot.

7 Kickstart Brewiches
50 Armenian Street
#01-02 Wilmer Place (near SMU business school)


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HGW Link : http://www.hungrygowhere.com/singapore/7_KICKstart_BREWiches/
Rating (out of 4) :