Saturday, April 28, 2007

The New Harbour Cafe & Bar, Tanjong Pagar, Singapore

The New Harbour Cafe & Bar (Tel : 6226 2657) is located at 114 Tanjong Pagar Rd. Not too far away from Cheng Li Yuan. During Singapore's colonial era (yes, apparently those days are over haha), a lot of Westerners had Hainanese domestic helpers including cooks as well. As such, the art for Western cuisine has been pretty well adapted and honed by the local Hainanese population. The New Harbour Cafe and Bar is an example of such an establishment which does Hainanese-Western food.

The servings here are substantial, which is a big plus for me when it comes to dining. The Hainanese pork chops were fried with a nice crispy coat without being too greasy. The tomato-based gravy also provided a decent alternative to catsup. Another option which was quite a nice gesture was the choice of either fries or mash as the sides. I asked for "chips" (as I'm used to calling fries, chips) and was quite amused that there were actually some potato crisps on the plate as well!

The pork chops with apple sauce was also delightfully tender and tasty with nice little bits of charred edges. Pork and apple, I can never reiterate how much I love that combo.

I don't normally order roast pork outside because I make my own but this was recommended so I gave it a shot. Not too shabby indeed. The crackling was evenly crisp and crunchy without being hard and each slice had just the right balance of fat and lean meat for a juicy and succulent chew.

Noticing that we had pretty much ordered pork for all the mains, we decided to share a grilled squid. This was pretty well grilled too, cooked without being rubbery, the local chili paste provided complemented it rather well.

This place isn't without some hangups. They don't serve plain water and parking can be a bit of a problem. Other than that, the reasonable prices (mains are less than 18sgd), decent taste and generous serves are enough for me to come back again.

D