Re-revisiting Casa Vostra

Back for more pizza and pasta from Casa Vostra.

For some reasons, the pasta was the first to be served. While we didn't expect any traditional sequencing in what arrived first, I thought antipasti was generally the fastest to be plated. Especially when what we ordered was salumi. Anyways, their agnolotti del plin was delicious. What they described as their pork stew stuffings was intensely savoury and well salted with fat from both the pork and butter in the sauce.

Next came the cold cuts. Wagyu bresaola was delicious. I'm not sure exactly how but it was different from most if not all of bresaola we've had so far. Maybe the word here could be 'sublime' from a particular brand of headiness in the melty fat and salt. But would I even understand this if I read it years later?

Wanted to try their house cured lardo and didn't expect them to be so thickly sliced. We were thinking see through kind of thinness. There're some slices I couldn't identify and it was generously salted. We ending up saving them to eat with the cornichione of the pizza.

We got the pizza acciughe today - saltiness from the anchovies and olives mellowed by the velvet creaminess from the fior di latte. Nice.

This was the way.

Sakunthala's Food Palace, Race Course Road

First time eating at this branch of Sakunthala's (66 Race Course Road, tel : +65 6293 6649). Place was much more pleasant compared to the poorly ventilated outpost at Safra Mount Faber and also less character rustic than the shop at Dunlop Street. Not that rustic was no good.

Pappa pa dum...pa dum...pa dum pa dum padum.

Tried a couple of their naans. The Kashmiri one was packed with dried candied fruit while the pudina/mint one was disappointingly tasteless. Why do people get them or even make them? What was the point that I was missing with these? 🤔

Pretty decent cumin scented yellow dhal.

Mutton kola urundai - fried spiced mutton balls. I was imagining them to be like meat balls made with ground lamb/mutton but they weren't. These were formed from very finely minced/pulled meat very much like bitterballen we've previously had.

I remember not thinking much of their masala milk when we had them previously but today's brew was deliciously spiced and milky sweet. Glad I gave them a second chance.

Steamed rice with Chinese sausage from Treasures Yi Dian Xin (一点心)

Tried this from Treasures Yi Dian Xin. The toppings were a mixture of Chinese sausage and waxed meat. There's preserved pork belly aside from the regular and liver lup cheong. The proportion of meat to rice was definitely imbalanced. Too much meat for too little rice. I know right? Not bad tasting this was but I recall the sausage rice from Ser Wong Fun with more fondness.

Chee cheong fun at Yip's again and Modern Old School (现代vs老派)

This was the third unsuccessful attempt at getting the glutinous rice for breakfast at Yip Economical Bee Hoon so I ended up with chee cheong fun. As with the previous two tries, there always seemed to be a portion left when I'm checking the stall out. By the time it's my turn, the last of it will be gone. 😓

Normally aren't into fried eggs with browned edges because most of them are chewy and taste of oil. These ones from Yip today were freshly fried and crispy. And I enjoyed it. Yeap, 'ones' because there's two of them and I've just realized that the picture doesn't capture both eggs. 😬

Note to self : the kopi di lo from this stall (#01-31 Bukit Merah View Hawker Centre, 115 Bukit Merah View) was pretty decent. Sweet, milky and sufficiently robust. Kinda Toast Box standards or thereabouts. I might have had it once previously and uncharacteristically forgotten about them. This will be the stall for coffee the next time we're here.

Ming Fa Fishball (明發鱼圓), Tekka Food Centre

I've noticed this stall (#01-304 Tekka Market & Food Centre, 665 Buffalo Road) in my visits to Tekka Market and have wondered. It was only today when I've finally gotten a bowl of their mushroom minced meat noodle when I realized that this was Ming Fa Fishball, as compared to Ming Fa at Thompson Road. Same same but different.

The bak chor mee was $4.50 here where prices at the Thompson shop ranges from $6.00-8.50 depending on the size of the bowl that is chosen.

Why the difference in pricing you might wonder? There were no fishballs (ironic innit?), no prawns and no pig's liver in this bowl. The one at Thompson has no fried dumpling (which I actually don't care for). This bowl was put together with decent quality ingredients but the texture of their mee pok wasn't what I preferred. Which is...intrinsically a sizeable piece of the holistic take on enjoying a bowl of bcm for me.

Pork Belly Rice (老祖宗卤肉饭), Ubi Road

This stall is located at the ground floor of a building call Zevrex (8 Ubi Road 2). Food's an unusual mix of lu rou fan and bánh mì and gỏi cuốn. Flavour of the braising sauce in the lu rou fan was kinda thin and their rice wasn't the short grained variety. Not impressive.