Comfort Thai Cuisine @ Nahkon Kitchen

Thai food has always been one of my favourite cuisine, they have very unique varieties of dishes that are made with seafood and their own recipe of adding the different herbs and spices.

Nakhon Kitchen (revisit) - 

I remembered my first time here was the time when a friend introduced to me good Thai food in Singapore. We both have a mind-set of good food at reasonable price, I think this is where effort and passion are added. Nahkon is always popular and therefore the queue is always long, however with their unique system of taking order and preparing food waiting time is shorten. When one starts to queue up, waitresses will bring along menu for you to select and order the food. Once you get your seat, food will be serve up shortly. Brilliant isn't it?

Clear Seafood Tom Yum soup -

At Nahkon, you are spoilt with not just three types of tom yum soup but also three types of ingredients to choose from. Well-balanced spiciness with a rich seafood broth.

Fish Cakes - 

I normally do not order Thai fish cakes afraid it might takes like otak-otak with weird taste. I like otak-otak but some Thai fish cakes just tasted weird. A friend suggested it and my initial thought varnished when I took a bite. Outer crust was fried to perfection, crispy and moist in the center.

Boneless Chicken Wing - 

Wonder where the name came from? The bones of the chicken wings were removed and stuffs with minced meat and prawns. No more hassle of taking bones out, just enjoy the nice succulent combination of chicken, pork and prawns. Yummy!

Minced pork sauteed with holy basil - 

A good dish to pair with a big bowl of steamed thai white rice.

Green curry (Chicken) -

Again, you get to choose the ingredients for this green curry.

What I like about the green curry is the sweet, savoury and layer of herbs and spice taste.

Another dish so good that can make one finished few bowls of white rice in no time.

Phad Thai -

A Thai version of fried Kway Teow (flat noodles made of rice) except with a switched of kway teow with the glass noodles. I like the texture because it is chewy. Another reason is I prefer foods with a hint of sweetness. [Some Malaysian friends of mine told me that Malaysians prefers salty version and hence they will order "Phat Si Io" intead of Phad Thai]

In summary, Nahkon Kitchen won many Singaporeans' tastebud and it is a place for many revisit.

Comfort food at reasonable price is the catch of Nahkon Kitchen, and also the friendly service staffs.

Nahkon Kitchen (Bedok)

Cuisine: Thai

Blk 136 Bedok North Ave 3 #01-166, Singapore 

Tel: (65) 6245 5548

Opening Hours: Daily 12-3pm, 5.30-10pm

Nahkon Kitchen (Hougang)

Cuisine: Thai

Blk 212 Hougang Street 21, #01-341, Singapore

Tel: (65) 6286 8785

Opening Hours: Daily 12-3pm, 5.30-10pm

Friday Blind-Tasting

Friday evening, a good time for some relax time and sometimes some serious blind-tasting.

Each friend will bring along a wine that they had either drank before or not and guessing game will start.

Drinking wines for some years, I have been exposed to many different type of cork removers. The good and bad experiences in opening of some wine bottles did bring back some funny and ugly moment. Today it was my first time to see such an interesting cork removal. It was introduced by a friends that it was the oldest method of opening a bottle of wine.

I did some research, this came out to be an 'Ah So Wine Opener' or Cork Puller. 

So why is it called an “Ah-So”? Supposedly, "Ah-so" come from the German name, "Ach so," meaning “I see.” Since it’s appearance and how to use it is somewhat confusing initially, but quickly becomes clear once demonstrated, people supposed remark “Ach so” as they see how it works.

Older bottles seems to have problem removing cork in a single piece as they are brittle and this tool really helps.

There were of a total of one sparkling white wines and four red wines.

Pepperton Estate - Brut Cuvee - Australia

I don't drink sparkling so often and most of the time if I drink it and like it, it will be a good one. (laughs) Of course, most people didn't get it correct.

Established in Australia, their sparkling takes on the fresher and greener side. Full of crisp acidity, apple and citrus notes, this wine definitely takes on a good appetiser. We had grilled dried squid, scallops and light cheese.

Vina Albali Gran Reserva 1995 - Spain

For the first thought, its an old world wine, I guess it was a 1995-1996 French Cabernet Sauvignon blend with the typical french oak note. It came out to be a Spanish, single variety Tempranillo. Good guess on the vintage.

Tempranillo - backbone grape for Spain and Portugal wines, gives a dark chocolate, prunes, blackcurrant and tobacco note. A medium to full-bodied wine, this wine displayed all the characters of tempranillo. Nose, palate and finishing is well-balanced.

Haut-Medoc de Lascombes 2007 -Bordeaux

First tasting note, I thought it has the note and palate of a Rhone-Style wine almost reminds me of Cote Rotie, full-bodied wine. I was right about the vintage but not the region right.

This firm-structured medoc wine definitely is a good wine to keep and drink over many years later but also great to be enjoy now. Pair it over some parma ham, blue-cheese crackers and red meats.

 

2005 Château de Roquefort Côtes de Provence Les Mures - France

A friend who brought this actually gave out a clue by bringing two pieces of Roquefort cheese, one of the world's best-known bluecheeses.

It was quite confusing and I thought it might be an Australian shiraz, there were a light note of a French wine but I cannot help but fell for the trick.

Indeed this is a rather interesting wine, produced in the region famous for their rose wine, this wine was blended with a Grenache base. Deep purple in colour, notes of blueberry and cherry with a light hint of spice and ripe plums.

Paired it with some Roquefort cheese and crackers.

Château Marquis de Calon 2005 - Saint-Estèphe

This wine is not put to blind-tasting but it did display a very straight-forward Bordeaux style of wine.

A second label of Chateau Calon-Segur, this 2005 vintage is firm, lush, approachable and elegant.

Perfect for a lip-smacking rack of lamb for pairing.

Howling Wolves 2003 Cabernet Sauvignon - Magaret River

Somehow, I got tricked again by an Aussie wine to answer it as a French. Is it because of technology or the wine style. Some guess the base of this wine seems like a new world wine and I agree it only when I taste it more carefully.

Black fruits, gummy, chewy, light-spiced oak, great tannin and medium finish with gentle tannin.

2003 is considered a good vintage for an Australian wines, great.

A quick time-check, 1 am. An evening filled with laughters and knowledge sharing from blind-tasting. I got knock over with so much mistakes. (Laughs)

Practice makes perfect so till then look forward to another round of blind-tasting again.

Groupon for a lunch @ The Tasting Room

The last time when I first used Groupon was a donation for the tsunami victims in Japan. Despite hearing colleagues complimenting that Groupon has quite some awesome deals, I did not really bother to have a look. Recently, I decided to have a look and check if there are any deals that I might want to try. Indeed a deal caught my attention: "$29 for 3 Course Wagyu Beef Set Meal at The Tastings Room in Marina Square." I bought two vouchers adding to $58 for a lunch at Vesak Day.

Located at Marina Square, it is easy to be spotted.

While doing some research before decided to visit this restaurant, I read on HGW that the concept here is to enjoy good food and wine pairing that goes easy on the pocket. With this in mind, I do have an impression that there would not be any fines wines in such restaurant, but when sitted across their wine cellar a greenish bottle of Champagne caught my attention. It was a bottle of "Champagne Salon", I stood up immediately and headed into the cellar. "Impressive" was the word I told the owner. There were actually some really fine wines from Rhone, Bordeaux and Australia.

However, when I checked the wine-by-glass list I found prices were a little too steep.

Starter: Creameaux potato and leek soup

Smooth and rich, easy-going comfort soup that warms your palate before the mains.

Main: Wagyu steak, white truffle salted fries and bordelaise sauce.

The steak is worth a lot of praise for the perfect searing to medium cooked, sealing in the juice and flavours. The classic bordelaise sauce gives a savoury glace to the meat. Unfortunately, the fries was not home made and the degree of crispiness varies, infusion of truffle was also not uniform.

Main: Wagyu beef slow braised in red wine sauce, served with celeriac puree.

Beef melts away and celeriac puree has a rich and savoury taste, both compliment each other in taste and texture. Well done.

Dessert: Gateau au Fromage

The first thought I had for this cake was that it was going to taste average almost like the commercial ones, everything just turn out opposite. My fork sank easily into it like cutting fresh cream, the cookies crumbled out loosely like fine sand of the Sahara desert. After putting the first serving into my mouth, a savoury cheesy nose engulf my palate and the cake just melt immediately. This cake was definitely hand-made. This Gateau de Fromage did made it into my list of favourite cheese cakes.

In summary, the food here is enough to make me visit again but definitely not ordering any wines.

Set up of the restaurant is more like a drinking bar then a bistro or steakhouse, but it was matching to my expectation. I would recommend people who like to have simple and good quality western food to visit this place and those who seldom drink wines to order a glass here and enjoy the pairing.

The Tasting Room

Cuisine: Western

6 Raffles Boulevard Marina Square #01-08 Singapore 039594
Make Reservation: +65 6338 1829

Opening Hours:

Mon – Thurs: Mon - Thurs:11am to 10pm
Fri & Sat: 11am to 12am
Sun: Closed

http://www.thetastingsroom.com

Groupon

http://www.groupon.sg