Food

In line with Mandarin Oriental Singapore’s closure throughout much of 2023 due to renovation work, the iconic steakhouse Morton’s which is at Level 3 & 4 of the hotel was also closed for a few months. It quietly reopened in September with a slew of new cocktails, grills and seafood.

Morton’s has now been in Singapore for 25 years and remains to be top-of-mind when it comes to steakhouses in the city. The venue’s happy hour was well known for a generation for providing sliders along with an order of a drink. 

Staying true to its all-American heritage, the revised menu still captures the essence of the USA, with classic dishes you’d expect to find in a steakhouse given a small update. 

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It has been some 7 months since Hanazen opened in Chijmes and it has since seen a change of chefs. Hanazen’s new chef is Taisei Iwao who is also Executive Chef in the Lumiere Group in Osaka and chef-owner of Karato. 

Chef Taisei Iwao was recently in town for a preview of the new omakase menu and I was invited over to Hanazen. I thought it was also a good opportunity to compare it with my maiden experience when they first opened.

Hanazen features an open-concept kitchen with counter seating surrounding the kitchen. Around 90% of the dishes in the omakase menu are cooked so diners get to see a lot of action. As this is my second time in Hanazen, I could see how quickly the staff cooks and prepares food for the 16 of us that night. With 10 dishes, the omakase was concluded in less than 2 hours. 

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Le Matin Patisserie, the popular e-bakery by ex-Noma chef Mohamed Al-Matin, has launched a new menu at their ION Orchard location. This comes roughly 8 months after their first physical store opened, with a menu that includes brunch mains, sides, and desserts.

For starters, customers can try the Bread & Butter (S$9), which consists of two whole-wheat milk buns with a side of fermented porcini butter. The buns are baked just right with a slightly crispy crust on the outside and a soft crumb within.

Another new starter to check out from the new menu is the Crab Waffles (S$20.90), which are crispy, nori-dusted heart-shaped waffles made with seafood butter. It comes with a side of umami crab tartare and taramasalata. We were advised to sink the waffles deep into the dip as the crab tartare chunks were quite substantial.

For mains,  there’s the more substantial Steak Frites (S$42.90), a 200g medium-rare hanger steak and slathered in a butter sauce. This dish also comes with a side of house-made fries and charred broccolini.

Le Matin Patisserie’s new lineup of desserts includes the Mangosteen & Lychee Granita (S$14.90), a bubbly cup with mangosteen sorbet, lychee granita and lemongrass bubbles. I found the lychee flavor much more prominent compared to the mangosteen.

The Soufflé Au Chocolat (S$18.90) is an indulgent dessert comprising dark chocolate souffle with a fragrant hazelnut praline. It is quite rich so it’s best to order this for sharing. 

The Lemon Thyme Madeleines (S$12.90) are a welcome treat, having been spiked with lemon and thyme. These were baked to order and was served warm and crispy. It also comes with fir syrup cream on the side.

The dine-in menu is available from Wednesday to Sunday, 11am to 2:30pm and 6pm to 9pm. 

Le Matin Patisserie

2 Orchard Turn
ION Orchard
#B2-49
Singapore 238801

6509 8801

La Bottega Enoteca, the Italian restaurant in Joo Chiat Road, recently celebrated its 2nd anniversary and secured the 19th spot on the prestigious 50 Top Pizza Asia Pacific 2023 ranking by 50 Top Pizza, making it the only pizzeria in Singapore to earn this recognition.

As a background to La Bottega Enoteca, it was founded by Antonio Miscellaneo who used to run the private dining “Casa Nostra” in his home in Tembeling Road. I had the fortune to have tried the private dining experience back in 2019 – and I loved it. While Antonio does not personally cook all the dishes at La Bottega Enoteca, he supervises closely and can be often found in the restaurant checking on the operations. The recipes of the dishes also come from him. 

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The mid-autumn or mooncake festival 2023 (中秋节) will fall on 29th September 2023. In the lunar calendar, the mid-autumn festival is celebrated every 15th of the eight month.

Mooncake Festival 2023

Despite runaway inflation, this looks to be another year filled with noteworthy and even some unusual flavors. This guide will be regularly updated with 2023’s catalog of the best mooncakes in Singapore as well as ongoing promotions and mooncake delivery options. The most common types of mooncakes include:

• Traditional baked mooncakes which come with lotus paste or occasionally with red bean paste. These baked mooncakes may also come with one or two salted egg yolks at the center. Sub-specialties include low-sugar baked mooncakes or those that replace the traditional lotus paste with something else, such as pandan.
• Snowskin mooncakes, which need to be chilled and have a shorter shelf life, usually come in fruit flavors with sub-specialties including durian mooncakes and even alcohol infused ones. Snowskin mooncakes are not baked and the crust is made with glutinous rice, enabling a texture similar to mochi. These mooncakes are usually considered less oily than the traditional baked ones.
• Teochew mooncakes are also baked but differ in the sense that the crust is made of filo pastry. Instead of lotus paste, the filling is made with yam, green bean or red bean.

I will also aim to show what the containers look like, so that you’ll know which hotels, Chinese restaurants and bakeries have the best and most beautiful mooncake boxes for 2023.

Is there mooncake fair in 2023?

Physical mooncake fairs are expected to persist in 2023. However, online mooncake fairs are likely to remain popular given the convenience it has provided the last few years. Brands are also more likely to give higher discounts for online sales due to lower expenses (i.e. rental) compared to the Takashimaya mooncake fair. The list below contains some exclusive mooncake promotions and deals not found elsewhere so check them out.

You can also join our newly-launched telegram channel here and receive updates on mooncake flash sales, exclusive promotions not found anywhere else as well as other F&B and travel flash deals.

Without further ado, check out these mooncakes for the 2023 season. All the brands listed below direct to their official online stores or their designated authorized e-commerce marketplaces. With the rise in mooncake scams in recent weeks, it is not advisable to purchase from Facebook or WhatsApp.

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Noa Lounge is a new Mediterranean concept that opened in the commercial lots of the Mondrian Singapore Duxton facing Neil Road. Part of the Barmuteary Group, the same group behind nearby Olivia Restaurant, Noa Lounge has a wider scope in terms of its culinary offerings in the sense that it has ambitiously taken on the whole Mediterranean region. 

With a menu spanning as far east as the Levant and as far west as Spain and Morocco, one can indulge in mezze for starters, fresh seafood for mains and French-inspired desserts to end the meal. The kitchen is helmed by Chef Alan Devahive who is also from Olivia and also had a 10-year tenure at Michelin-starred elBulli in Spain. Supporting him in the kitchen is Chef Victor Sia who is the head chef in Noa.

noa lounge interiors

Entering the restaurant, one gets smitten right away by the beautiful interiors. I was invited to dine at the restaurant during their 5th day of operations and was given a quick tour by the restaurant manager, Catalin Firanescu. Although essentially possessing one dining hall, each corner of the restaurant is a nod to different parts of the Mediterranean. At the far back is a small Moroccan room with small tables perfect for chilling and drinks, while the main bar area is a tribute to Spain’s bar culture. At the far corner, the wall alternates between mirrors and green grills as homage to French terraces.   

bar area of noa lounge in neil road

While the menu is not particularly wide, the carefully curated selection brings together some similarities from the region. One example is the use of pickled vegetables in salads. 

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Geylang East Market & Food Centre (Food Corner), also called Aljunied Avenue 2 Market & Food Centre, is a newly renovated hawker centre located within the Geylang East estate. Originally built in 1978 (around 2 years after nearby Sims Vista Market and Food Centre), it is located in 117 Aljunied Avenue 2 and is primarily a day time hawker centre with most stalls open for breakfast up til early afternoon only.

Notwithstanding the recent facelift, this is a very traditional hawker centre untouched by the modern fusion cuisine or rice bowl craze that one starts to see in other hawker centres. It is also primarily a neighborhood hawker centre, with most patrons coming from within the Aljunied and Macpherson area. 

The recent facelift has made Geylang East Market and Food Centre more visually appealing than other hawker centres. The floor is now anti-slip, while large ceiling fans have improved ventilation in the venue. 

Although very few stalls open at night, I have also noticed better lighting equipment after the renovation. Perhaps this may encourage more stalls to open at night.

Without further ado, here are some stalls to try at Geylang East Market and Food Corner. I will also update this article over the next few weeks and months as I try more stalls:

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Maxwell Food Centre is one of those rare hawker centers in Singapore that is highly popular with tourists and at the same time, is held in high esteem by locals for its authentic and traditional hawker dishes. The main reason for this is that Maxwell Food Centre is the current home of a myriad of age-old street stalls that originally plied the area around China Square (now part of the CBD). Many of these establishments have been around for 80 years or more and continue to be managed by the same family, albeit the 2nd or 3rd generation. Other than that, patrons can find quite a number of relatively rare hawker dishes here such as Fuzhou-style oyster cake, peanut pancake and more and at any given day, one can find Singaporeans from near and far descending upon this humble-looking hawker center queueing for various specialties.

Personally, Maxwell Food Centre is one of my most frequently-visited hawker centers in Singapore as I enjoy walking to this place during my lunch hour whenever I am looking to clock in more steps. My favorites here are a mix of some of the original China Square hawker stalls as well as newer ones started by enterprising youngsters. However, it remains to be one of the more challenging hawker centres for me to cover due to their relatively high turnover. This is one of Singapore’s OG hawker centres and a number of the original stalls have closed permanently due to the retirement of the owners. New concepts have sprouted to replace them, with varying degrees of success.

Without further ado, here are some of the food you should try the next time you find yourself at Maxwell Food Centre.

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