Recently at Suju Takashimaya

Buri daikon from Suju ( 一, 二, 三, 四, 五, 六, 七, 八, 九, 十, 十一, 十二, 十三, 十四, 十五, 十六, 十七, 十八, 十九, 二十, 二十一, 二十二, 二十三, 二十四). Yellow tail fish head. Pretty meaty with large chunks of daikon in a sweet-ish mirin soy broth. In retrospect, I liked the meat from the head more than the chunky body parts.

In other news, I realised that rice set that they do serves as a warm and comforting light dinner. Just rice, takuan (one time refillable) and a bowl of smoke-y good tasting miso soup (not refillable).

Forno di Fernando, Trio

Came across news recently that Fernando's Pizza at Trio, which I had previously thought closed down, has pulled a phoenix from the ashes and become Zazz Pizza 2.0. Well, it's Forno di Fernando (#01-09 Trio Mall, 1 Sam Leong Road, tel : +65 8228 8480) actually and it's the spiritual successor of Zazz Pizza which Fernando's New York Slices/Fernando's Pizza wasn't.

If any one was confused here, the chief pizza architect here's Hiran Fernando. We've been having his pizzas from back at Zazz Pizza when it was at Short Street until it moved to Cross Street Exchange before Fernando's Pizza came about. This new Forno di Fernando felt much like an incarnation of Zazz Pizza which we missed.

Menu's not exactly the same as Zazz though the Neapolitan styled pies are back. 

Tried a couple of their limited time specials (going for $25 each) which included this Cheese Platter Pizza made with 6 cheeses (Mozzarella, Taleggio, smoked Scamorza, Fontina, Gorgonzola according to the menu). That included shards of Parmesan crisps, drizzle of pistachio sauce and walnuts.

Pretty cheesy pie but I thought a balance here might have been lacking without an acid like baslamic vinegar. Also not getting much pistachio flavour from the sauce beyond some sweetness.

The other special was the Fernando's Curry Crab pizza featuring curried crab meat, curry leaves, stracciatella and some coriander cream amongst a few other things. Nice. For a moment I forgot this was pizza. Flavour from the coriander cream and curry leaves were familiar and paired unexpectedly well with the stracciatella. Liked this more than the Cheese Platter pie.

The hot honey and powdered cheese on the table helps with the cornicione. These didn't seem to be as easy to eat as those back in the days of Zazz. Something about the crust has changed. 🤔

Panna cotta needed more passionfruit sauce.

Not a fan of their pistachio affogato. This wasn't anything like the regular variety. There was a lot of ice cream and only 1 shot of espresso which I felt was inadequate.

Skylab Cooked Food, Tekka Food Centre

Chanced upon Skylab Cooked Food (#01-228 Tekka Market & Food Centre, 665 Buffalo Road) and their rustic looking uppuma and decided get an order of it with a masala vadai on the side. The stall occupies both unit 227 and 228 and this was from 228.

The uppuma here much less intensely flavoured compared to the ones from eateries like Saravanaa Bhavan or Komala Vilas. Enough spice to be discernible, not much ghee if any and lightly salted. What I didn't expect was the auntie asking if I wanted them with curry or sugar. Never had them with sugar so I picked that and it's actually kinda good. That fried masala vadai's pretty decent too.

JrPizzeria, Alkaff Crescent

Caught wind of JrPizzeria (115C Alkaff Crescent, tel : +65 8731 8840) and thought they sounded promising.

Had a bresaola pizza. Looked different from the menu. I thought it needed more bresaola because it was the one thing that I couldn't quite taste properly in the pizza. In short, inadequate. Every other ingredient had made itself known. 

That being said, their vaunted sourdough crust was also little more dense at the cornicione than I liked.

Tried their pineapple pizza which was basically a take on a Hawaiian. Got this with their cheese snow.

I'm really not getting much cheese flavour outta that cheese snow. Otherwise it's a pretty decent Hawaiian with thin sliced pineapples instead of the little chunks of canned variety that most other similar pizzas use.

Fu He Mutton Soup (福和羊肉湯), Redhill Food Centre

What caught my attention at Fu He Mutton Soup (#01-74, Redhill Food Centre, 85 Redhill Lane) was that they were a mutton soup stall which had pig's blood curd. Never seen anyone done that. But since the lift of the ban on blood was still new, it made sense that there will be eateries that'll capitalise on the availability. 

This order of mutton ribs and blood curd was without coriander and ginger. Broth was herbal but not excessive in my opinion and had a dry sweetness (甘甜) while still maintaining enough savouriness that I enjoyed it. One could even get lu rou fan (卤肉饭) to go with the bowl. Lime-y chilli's great with the lu rou fan.

The ribs - tender and slurped off the bone easily with some fat for that nice mutton-y flavour. Portions were pretty generous. Those pig's blood cubes were just a nice add on. Will come back for the brains.

Lobster Buldak Ramen from Liu Lang Mian Noodle Bar (流浪面)

This was a limited time bowl from Liu Lang Mian. Included half a mentaiko mayo lobster, seafood Buldak tare, ajitama, scallions, tobiko and seaweed.

I was initially a little bit concerned because I've had some experiences (mostly enjoyable though) with Buldak's hot sauces. Turned out that the noodles were manageably spicy (for me), but still packed substantial heat. I liked it. Pretty satisfying with those thick noodles. Loads of umami from the toppings. Lobster was decent.