FYR Cycene Ond Drinc (Fire Kitchen and Drink) @ Boon Tat Street

FYR Cycene Ond Drinc

Address: 19 Boon Tat Street

Opening Hours: Mon to Fri 11.00am – 11.00pm Sat: 9.00am – 11.00pm Sun 9.00am – 4.00pm

Introduction

FYR Cycene Ond Drinc, pronounced as “fire, kitchen and drink”, is a new addition to the stretch of bars and restaurants at the Telok Ayer area. Thank you Amanda from Brand Cellar and the folks from FYR for hosting me and the event is absolutely wonderful, with more than ten dishes lined up for tasting.

FYR interior design is rather interesting, like an abandoned warehouse being brought back to life at night. Their design are very much focus on wood and earth. The plating of their grilled dishes are very well thought of. Perhaps the culinary concept of FYR is to bring us back to the stone age when grilling stuff on fire is the primative form of cooking and the way to enjoy food. Even their dishes are presented and served on stone slabs.

All of FYR dishes are whipped up in Charcoal oven and grilled over Lychee Wood that gives the dishes a pleasant smoky fragrance. Among the dishes that I tried, here is my top three – Ribeye Steak ($32), Lobster ($35) and the Pistachio Lava Cake ($10).

FYR Menu: Click to enlarge

Grain-fed US Holstein Cow Ribeye 365 days ($32.00++)

I always have a thing for flame grilled steak. When a piece of steak, especially the ribeye cut, is grilled properly over a flame, the usually chewy fatty tissue tends to soften and break down and the end result is a piece of melty tender steak. And this is the case for FYR. The steak is flavour with salt and pepper and it has a good grilling flavour on the outside and is tender and juicy on the inside.

i also got to try both of the sauce – the black truffle sauce and the foie gras sauce. I thought both are pretty good, but I can do without any too because just the steak is good enough. This steak got my favourite vote for the night. At $32.00, i think it’s rather worth the money. It would be perfect if FYR can just throw in a portion of carbo into the steak.

Whole Maine Lobster ($35.00++)

FYR is not using frozen, but live lobster for this dish. The lobster is too grilled and covered in a thick layer of black-peppery shallot lemongrass bechamel. This buttery milk sauce has a faint lemon grass flavour which doesn’t overpower the natural sweetness of the lobster.

Even after extracting the meat from the shell, i was scrapping the sauce just to enjoy it a little more. The texture of the lobster is excellent – bouncy and succulent, and I think the grilling plays a very big part in obtaining such a texture. For a guy like me, I think probably this dish can’t fill my tummy but I think it’s pretty good if it’s for sharing.

Baked Pistachio Melt and Pandan Ice Cream ($10.00++)

Many recommend this as the must-order dessert after trying it at FYR. It also comes with portion of handmade Pandan Ice-cream which i personally like it. It’s creamy and rich of pandan taste but it’s a tad little overly sweet. If only the sweetness can be reduced a little.

As for the lava cake, the sweet Pistachio fillings is lightly salted and taste like a mix of salted egg yolk custard crossed with molten white chocolate. The cake is excellent when they pair it with crushed Pistachio nuts that’s scattered all over the plate. The grilled mush mellow makes the appearance looks absolutely delectable when the melted mush mellow is mixed into the molten Pistachio sauce but to be honest, i think it doesn’t add on to the taste, except by making it unnecessarily sweeter.

Baked Bone Marrow and Five Spiced Half Chicken

There also another two worthy mention – Baked Bone Marrow ($15) and the Five Spiced Half Chicken ($55 and also comes with a striploin steak and grilled prawn).

Honestly this is the first time i tried bone marrow and it is actually great. This is like a less flavoured foie gras but with the same amount of grease and fragrance.

Scoop it up, mash it and spread it over the bread, and sprinkle just little bit of sea salt and you are good to go. Apart from the taste, little did we know that it’s actually very nutritious. Google it.

The five spiced grilled chicken, doesn’t go on its own but comes with a portion of striploin and grilled prawn and cost $55. I particularly like the chicken as I am impressed by how evenly the inside of the chicken was cooked using the grilling method and how soft and tender the meat is.

The appearance looks pretty ordinary but it’s actually one of the best grilled chicken that that i had. It’s a pity that i can’t order just the chicken alone.

This whole platter, including the five spiced chicken cost $55.00++

Conclusion

Among the dishes that I tried, those mentioned above are the five that I personally like. I had photos of the other dishes after the conclusion, if you are interested.

At a glance at the price of their main course, most of them are $30 and above, except for the seafood linguine $18, which i don’t exactly fancy. I wouldn’t use “cheap” to describe the price of main course but you can see that the ingredients used in each dishes are not cheap as well. For the same kind of quality showed in today’s food tasting, I actually don’t mind returning to FYR to pamper myself after a hard day’s work in the CBD area.

Other food photos of FYR

Seafood Saffron Risotto – $48.00. The tomato taste is so much stronger than the lobster broth. Gotta work on it.

Sample slices of their Iberico Pork Chop – $32.00++

Baked Freshly Shucked Oyster – $15.00++

Spiced Grilled Red Snapper – $25.00++

Beer Market at Clarke Quay – Buy Low Drink High!

Beer Market 

Address: 3B River Valley Road #01-17/02-02 (Just beside Liang Court that’s facing the main road)

Operating Hours: Sun – Thu 6:00pm to 1:ooam Fri, Sat and PH 6:00pm to 3:00am

Introduction

First of all, a very great thank you to TheSmartLocal for the invitation to the makan session and a great thanks to Beer Market (Chef Steven and Operation Manager Charlie) for hosting us. It was a crazy rush during lunch hour but it is a great session. It’s nice meeting up with Bryan from TheSmartLocal, Tony from JohorKaki, Melicacy and Bon Koh from sethlui.com.

Beer Market  had been around for a couple of years at Clarke Quay for and I remembered them most for their fluctuating beer price accordance to their  BMX (Beer Market Index). The price of their beer changes according to demand. If a certain brew is not ordered in the last 30 minutes, the price of this beer will drop, and on the other hand, if it’s really popular, the price will go up.

Keep observing their TV screen for the best-priced beer and general guide is – Buy Low, Drink High. And this is possibly the only place in Singapore where one prays for a market crash.

BM Rojak Platter ($ 39.90+). Good enough for 4-6.

Apart from their atypical manly beer, Beer Market also offers fruit beer like North Taiwan Lychee Beer, Fruli Strawberry Bee and Matso Mango Beer. They just launched a new menu in March 2014, which they have some interesting items that incorporate a local twist such as salted egg seafood pizza and chicken rice pizza and seafood in shooter glass dunked in beer.

Food Menu: Click to enlarge

Food Menu: Click to enlarge

BM No-Nonsense Steak ($22.90+)

Among the cuts for steaks, ribeye is the highly sought after cut. It is more marbled comparing to other cuts and the fat breaks down in the process of grilling which gives the steak a delightful texture and taste.a

The description of their no-nonsense steak ($22.90+) reads “Marinated. Grilled. Marbled Beef. We know what you want” . I wasn’t expecting much from a steak that did not mention the type and cut of the steak despite of how they described their steak on the menu.

But in fact, there are indeed traces of marbled texture in their No-Nonsense Steak and that comes as a delight for me. The exterior of the steak is grilled to moderately crisp and slightly charred for a delectable appearance while the steak remains moist and tender inside. The chef specifically mentioned that the steak is to go with their butter. Hopefully steak of similar quality can be served to every patrons in Beer Market and not a one-off thing.

Chicken Truffle ($15.90+)

I thought that the main lead of this dish is not the chicken chop but for it’s sauce and truffle oil sprinkled mash potatoes. Beer market is considerably generous with the amount of truffle oil used on this dish. The chop taste very proper, tender, nice, like how a chicken chop should be. The portion of mash potato is drenched in a good volume of mushroom gravy and ensures you have enough sauce to last you to the last mouthful of mash potatoe. The price is pretty reasonable at 15.90+.

I have no complain for their chicken chop, except the presentation can be better. I can’t even spot the chicken chop easily when it’s served. It’s all covered by sauce, mushroom, onions and it’s like all mashed up.

Seafood Shooter ($22.50+)

It cost $22.50 for a bottle of Tiger Radler with six glasses of Shooters (2 prawn, 2 salmon and 2 Crab meat). Tiger Radler (with only 2% alcohol) is then added into the glass to be consumed together. Tiger Radler taste more sweet with a tinge of lemon and I suppose that is why Beer Market decided to pair it with food instead of regular beer, which is evidently much more bitter.

The Seafood Shooter – Shredded Crab Meat

Generally the Tiger Radler adds a refreshing bitter lemon taste into the three kinds of seafood shooters.  It works very well with salmon sashimi, OK with the prawn with cucumber and not as good for the shredded crab meat and tomato.

Seafood Shooter – Fresh Tiger Prawn in Tiger Radler

The taste of beer and lemon overpowered the thinly shredded crab meat and I can’t taste too much of the crab. The cold tiger prawn is good. It’s really fresh and juicy.

The quality of Salmon is not bad. It’s rather fatty with a distinct fragrance of the salmon fat.  The salmon sashimi is lightly marinated in orange juice and whiskey and it goes well with the slightly sour lemon beer.

Seafood Shooter – My favourite, Salmon Sashimi (slightly spicy)

Other Dishes

BM Rojak Platter ($ 39.90+). Good size, can serve 4-6 people. Comes with fries, luncheon meat, Japanese sausage, fried fish skin, spring roll, stir-fry mushroom and thai fish stick with three kinds of dipping sauce – Honey Mustard, Tartar Sauce and BM Shiok Sauce. Love the Shiok Sauce. The platter is good to go with beer.

Grandma Fish and Chip $13.90+

Bacon Wrapped in Cherry Tomato and Baby Potato ($7.90+). 6 pcs of Wrapped Tomato and 6 pcs of Wrapped Potato. In the background are BM’s Four Heavenly King Dipping Sauce  (Tartar, Honey Mustard, Shiok. BTH) + Cheesy Salsa and Truffle Sauce

Conclusion

I had to rush off after their main course and didn’t get to savour their chicken rice pizza (i thought that will be pretty interesting though).

The first thing I noticed about Beer Market’s menu is for it’s price. It looks pretty reasonable comparing to food price of some other bars. The food quality is decent and I like their steak the best among all.

I also like how well-spaced the tables are and won’t really feel all cramped up. It’s a rather good place for colleagues to chill (i had my colleague’s farewell dinner there previously) and to de-stress after a hard day at work. And daily live band? Yeap, that should works for me too.

Quince Bangkok Eatery & Bar (Bangkok – Sukhumvit) and Healthland Asoke

Quince Bangkok Eatery & Bar

Address: Sukhumvit Soi 45, Bangkok 10110 Thailand

Operating hours: 11.30am to 1.00am daily

Click here for Google Map

Introduction

Quince Bangkok Eatery & Bar is situated at the Sukhumvit area that is a few minutes walk away from Phrom Phong BTS. Apart from street food, authentic Thai food and cafes, Bangkok also has some very romantic, posh and classy restaurants and Quince Bangkok Eatery & Bar is one of them.

Click here to view my full list of Bangkok Food Itinerary

This romantic fine-dining restaurant is relatively new which was opened in year 2012 and this place generally has some mixed reviews. I fell in love with this place almost immediately. No crowd (on a Sunday night), good food, relaxing setting, great interior and great (but slightly slow) service.

Reservation can be made through email and they can even send a copy of their seasonal menu to you before deciding to make a reservation. The pricing wise is a little to a higher side for Bangkok standard, for example a Grass-fed Striploin cost S$31.60++ and a crab meat pasta cost S$15.20++. But in fact the price is still cheaper than Singapore’s restaurant price.

The eatery is separated into the bar area as shown in my first photo, and the dining area is behind a wall and it’s a different world.

Grass-Fed Beef Striploin with Macaroni Gratin – 790 baht

I ordered this steak that comes with a their baked Macaroni Gratin and I think it’s very worth it at 790 baht.

Some of us may wonder – what does Grass-fed Beef means?

Apparently, the grass-fed cows lived out their entire life roaming freely on grassland instead of being cooped up in feed lot. The grain-fed cows  are rapidly fattened up with grain-based feeds, usually made with a base of soy or corn. while the grass-fed cows gain weight naturally and logically taking more time to reach the weight of a typical grain-fed cow.

Grass-fed cows also get more nutritious food from the nature and not just munching on monoculture lawn cuttings and studies show that grass-fed beef contains more nutrients and less toxins. Therefore, Grass-fed beef are naturally more costly than a regular grain-fed beef.

Ok, back to the review! The light Red Wine Olive Jus goes very well with the steak with a tinge of olive oil and a light aroma of red wine. Strip Loin steak, one of the fine cuts of beef with less fatty tissue, the steak itself is succulent, moist and juicy.  I am quite sure that i won’t be able to get such a steak at Singapore at S$31.00+

On the other hand, the macaroni gratin that comes with the steak actually fall short of my expectation. Apart from the top layer of cheese, the taste of the macaroni is rather plain, and lack of flavor. Such a waste.

Crab Pasta – 380 baht

Quince Bangkok Eatery & Bar hand cut pasta’s texture is a little similar to our 板面 (Chinese Hand-made noodle), but thinner and smoother and topped with Tomato Ragu sauce, chilli and basil. The Tomato Ragu is rather light which makes me feel like finishing the whole plate of pasta even though i am already rather full. And the best part? Big chunks of fresh and succulent crab meat! (Look at the right side of my Crab Pasta photo)

Crispy Quail Eggs

I also ordered their side dish – Crispy Quail Eggs at 120 baht. This dish is interesting and the taste is rather refreshing. This is my first time trying the potato foam, which has a sweet cream and lightly salted taste. Three crispy breaded quail eggs are added into the foam and topped with thinly-sliced Chorizo. Something that i never tried before and glad that i did.

Conclusion

Quince Bangkok Eatery & Bar is a place that offers you a fine-dining meal at a normal restaurant price. Typically, at Singapore, such a meal with a similar ambiance can easily cost me for more than S$100.00.

The complimentary starter

As for their service, the waiters are attentive and very responsive. When i walked around taking photos, on a camera tripod, nobody bats an eye and allowed me to roam freely around the restaurant without any weird look. I really appreciate this.

The only problem is, the food were served a bit slow, which i figured out that they needed some time to bake the potato gratin that comes with my steak. The location is also rather accessible, with a few minutes walk from Phrom Phong BTS. Overall, i am a very satisfied customer.

Some of you may had noticed that i didn’t order dessert? Yeap, that is because after this meal, i am transiting into a street food mode and will attack the so-call “Bangkok Best Mango Sticky Rice” at Sukhumvit Soi 38. Feel free to read more on this food street from this post.

For those who are looking for a place to celebrate any special occasion, apart from the sky bars in Bangkok, this may be a rather ideal place. If you still have time, then i will probably recommend a massage place – Healthland Asoke, that is only one stop from Phrom Phong BTS. Why not indulge yourself and complete the night with a relaxing couple massage. Their price is very reasonable for it’s class. This is their website: http://www.healthlandspa.com/asoke.html and remember to call for reservation. And no, i don’t earn any commission. LOL.