senate coffee, five square.

having just come back from a vacation, i was (understandably) lazy to pack lunch. but i also wanted something clean, so salad it was! remembered seeing that populus has opened an offshoot selling grain bowls, so i headed over for lunch after the gym.

i spent a long time standing at the counter, deciding whether i wanted one of the senate bowls, or craft my own. there were a plethora of choices, and i'm not exactly the most decisive person. luckily i was the only one there- at two-thirty in the afternoon, i suppose most cbd people have already headed back to work. i decided to craft my own bowl ($15.50) in the end. interestingly enough, the ordering was via a kiosk near the counter. i had to key in my phone number, and they'd send me a text to inform me to collect my food when it was ready.

one base, one protein and five add-ons were included. what i didn't get, though, was why they had to restrict the five add-ons to one from each category. there were several i wanted in category A, but annoyingly enough, none i wanted from C.



i wanted super greens as the base, but they were out, so i (grudgingly) chose the 3 grain mix, which was a mix of quinoa, pearl barley and bulgur wheat. they were certainly generous with the base, though! there was so much that i ended up not finishing it. i got the tuscan lamb shoulder as the protein (though i was tempted by the 8 hour pulled pork) and it turned out to be a good choice.



the rest of my add-ons were a beetroot & herb salad, marinated mixed mushrooms, edamame, thai marinated fungi and spiced lime cashews. i liked all of the toppings, save for the thai marinated fungi. it was one-dimensionally sour (don't get how it's thai) and i struggled to finish it. mixing it with the grains made it slightly more palatable (and less acidic) so that was the strategy i stuck with. the rest of the add-ons were good, though, especially the beetroot and mushrooms.

it was a surprisingly filling bowl. didn't expect to be so full, actually. it's a place that warrants a return- they have a heirloom rendang bowl that looks promising.


senate coffee
five square
#01-03
https://www.facebook.com/SenateCoffee/

sacha & sons, mandarin gallery.

not my first time at sacha & sons- i went when they just opened with R. it has been a while (is it a couple of years now?). i remember over-ordering (as usual) and liking everything we got, but it was the grilled reuben that i remember being particularly enamoured with. having been to katz in new york, it did measure up, but of course, new york portions are still heartier. so of course, when i decided to revisit sacha & sons, it was with the grilled reuben in mind.

came by for a weekday lunch, so the place was comfortably quiet. i got a corner table, was given a menu, and was told to order at the counter. strangely enough, though, they do charge for service- i vaguely remember that they didn't use to.



there was a set lunch available- half sandwich with half salad or soup, so that was what i went for. of course i got the grilled reuben with pastrami ($20), adding on an extra $2 for the smoked trout salad. there was a choice of either rye or brioche with the grilled reuben, and having tried the rye i decided to get the brioche (even though i really liked it with rye the other time).



turned out to be wrong choice- rye really goes much better with the grilled reuben. not that the brioche was bad, though. personal preference, i suppose. i also remembered them to be more generous with the meat- the meat-to-bread ratio this time was much less (not sure whether it's because of the thickness of the brioche?). it was still an okay grilled reuben, though. my half sandwich came with coleslaw, pickles and the smoked trout salad, all of which i liked. it was surprisingly filling. i ended up being REALLY full after the sandwich... but i'd ordered the blintzes ($12) as dessert (because i have an obsession with blinis after having really good ones in berlin, of all places).



i was expecting empty blini wraps with sour cream and homemade jam on the side, and was expecting to assemble my own wraps. what came, though, were two pillowy parcels filled stuffed with ricotta. i was really full, but it was so good that i finished all of it (and nursed a food baby). i particularly liked that it wasn't sweet. the ricotta got to be a bit much in the end, though, so i left some of it. surprisingly enough i really liked the homemade jam. usually i leave jams untouched, but this one was different- more sour than sweet, adding acidity.



what i didn't like, though, was the service. i probably spent ten minutes waving and trying to get their attention so that i could get them to refill my water and serve dessert, before i gave up and went over to the counter. i managed to get a waitress's attention once (she looked in my direction and nodded) but she got distracted by a complaining customer, and never remembered to get back to me. it's ridiculous to be paying for service and yet be getting none- that's one of my pet peeves.

still, the blintzes were good enough to warrant a return. it's really hard to get blinis in singapore, i realise, so i'll take what i can get. it reminded me of what i had in a polish restaurant, but it was labelled as polish pancakes there. i'd probably share it next time, though- it's way too much for one person (even a glutton like me).


sacha & sons
mandarin gallery
#03-02
http://sacha-deli.com.sg

podi, raffles city.

i love cedele, and podi is by cedele. but... i've held off visiting podi, because of mostly negative reviews online. that, however, was a couple of years back, so i suppose it's time to give them a try, especially when their menu looks so tempting. they had quite a few items that caught my eye. i figured that it was also a place that X would want to try, so we met for dinner there on a weeknight. i'd made a reservation, but it wasn't necessary. still, we got an awesome table right by the fountain, so i guess it was worth the effort.

the first thing i noticed upon receiving the menu was that it was different from what i'd seen online. the new menu was a pared down version of the old one, with several items that had interested me taken out. meh. still, i was hoping that with a more focused menu means better execution. their menu has a lot of pulled meat items, which is right up X's alley. we spent quite a while poring over the menu and deciding. i wanted the pulled beef flat wrap ($19), but it came with sweet potato fries and salad. i didn't want sweet potato fries, but the kitchen was quite rigid about not letting me change it to anything else but more salad. the waitress was really helpful about it though- i'd already decided to just not have the pulled beef wrap, but she came back and asked what i wanted to change to, and then went back to the kitchen to ask!

in the end i got the ginger plum chicken ($20), while X went for the ginger plum pulled duck flat wrap ($19), topping up $2 for truffle fries. the food came fairly quickly, which was good because... i was starving.



so glad i got the chicken, because it was really good. the chicken was undeniably the star. two generous slabs of chicken thigh, complete with light, crackly chicken skin- yum! i could hardly taste the ginger plum on the chicken, though, but the chicken was so well-cooked i didn't mind.



the ginger plum sauce seemed to be more apparent on the wild rice. the wild rice wasn't quite what i expected- i was expecting brown grains, i suppose, but these were purplish. kind of like black glutinous rice, actually- in terms of texture as well. i did like its slight nutty flavour though, especially combined with the mushrooms, beans, broccoli and roasted cherry tomatoes. i cleaned up the entire plate easily. (X was convinced that portions would be tiny and i would be able to eat two mains easily, but no. it was actually a good sized portion.)



X's ginger plum pulled duck wrap looked impressive, but she was complaining about how it was lacking the ginger plum sauce (and even suspected that the chef'd left it out) and that there was very little pulled duck. still, she said that it was a light and refreshing eat.



X was craving waffles, so she got the waffle with a scoop of earl grey fig ice-cream ($8). i stole a bite and quite liked it. it was not the crisp, airy type (that i don't like)- instead it was more cakey.

i quite liked the food, and so did X. whatever negative reviews that they'd had previously, they seem to have taken into consideration and fixed. this place definitely warrants a return with X.


PODI
raffles city
#b1-45
https://www.facebook.com/podisg/