Fernando's New York Slices, Margaret Market

Fernando's New York Slices (#01-09 Margaret Market, 38 Margaret Drive, tel : +65 8428 8846) is by a Hiran Fernando, former chief pie architect of the defunct Zazz Pizza - our go to place for Neopolitan styled pizza. When it was still around that is. 

It's New York pizza with this new shop according to them. Debatable whether or not it is truly NY styled and I'm sure there be many opinions on it. Will not be spending my two cents on that here. Their unit is just next door to The Homme Baker.

Ham and cheese fritters - not bad. Nice crunch on the outside with hot gooey cheese, some ham and basil.

Pretty decent lasagne. There's a nice beefiness to the tomato sauce in it. Wished there were more meat though.

That's a half Hawaiian and half four cheese. Seems like it's the same kind of pineapples that they used previously at Zazz. This looked to be a Sicilian styled pizza with a crust that was thinner. Like how it was a Zazz, the crust wasn't heavy and pretty good eating. 

Left's Carbo Duo which featured rosemary, cauliflower, potatoes and ham amongst a couple of other toppings. Not bad tasting as well. Right's their Prince Roni which I'm guessing is their paler shade of the Prince Street Pizza from NYC. There's hot honey on the table which pretty much worked with all their pies we've had so far.

Fernando's New York Slices personally wasn't as impressive as first impressions went compared to Zazz Pizza. But then again, I'm fond of the Neapolitan style and could be biased. I did like it enough to consider coming back though.

Assorted soup with 伊面 from Mr Batang Fish @96

This was the bowl with assorted ingredients with ee mian (伊面) from Mr Batang Fish @96 - featuring mince pork patties/balls, prawns and a chargeable top up of fish roe. Pork was nicely seasoned and tasty. Prawns were...unexciting. What the stall has been excelling at are their thick firm slices of Spanish mackerel/batang which is what I'll be sticking to in the future. Oiliness from the ee mian also appeared to be more apparent today. 

Two eggs and no luncheon meat at Good Pig Trotters Fried Bee Hoon (好猪脚米粉)

So I ditched the luncheon meat like I reminded myself the last time and got two eggs and fish cake. I kinda noticed the chilli sauce more today. I like the balance of it and how it paired with the bee hoon. This plate was so satisfying.

Ginger steamed egg from Mei Heung Yuen Dessert (味香园甜品)

This from Mei Heung Yuen Dessert at Funan (#B2-24 Funan, 107 North Bridge Road). Exactly that ginger steamed egg I was previously talking about without the ginger juice poured over. This one has the ginger flavour integrated into the steamed egg. I like this better than the one from Ah Chew.

Brisket and tendon kuey teow from Penang Home Made Beef Ball

I wanted to know if the brisket was good at Penang Home Made Beef Ball but they're the same as everywhere else. Cut from the flat section which meant mostly lean and boring. While it was relatively tender, there was only so far it could go with that tenderness without the intramuscular fat. The meat was stringy and that part bothered me most. Besides that, I liked pretty much everything else...tendon, beef balls, sauce and kuey teow.

Ginger steamed egg with durian from Ah Chew Desserts

So we noticed the steamed egg with ginger on menu thinking it would be similar to the one at Mei Heong Yuen. It's not the same. They poured ginger juice over the chilled steamed egg like how 姜汁撞奶 is served. The scoop of durian pulp they gave us today looked much sadder than the last time too. 

Kolo mee without char siew from Zhong Pin Noodle House (众品麵萬家)

I figured out that in most if not all instances, what I didn't like about kolo mee was the char siew so I asked for a bowl without them today at Zhong Pin Noodle House. So that's how it's gonna be moving forward. But there's a part two to this tale. The fried lard was borderline rancid. That made it borderline unforgivable because it also represented the attention they paid to their ingredients and serving stale food is just not good practice. No?

A pigeon had fallen today at the food centre. It was a short distance away from where I was sitting.

Heng Heng Fish Soup (興興鱼片湯), Telok Blangah Food Centre

Came across Heng Heng Fish Soup (#01-05 Telok Blangah Food Centre, 79 Telok Blangah Drive) in our recent visits to Telok Blangah Food Centre. I suppose I was also drawn by the rustic appearances of the stall and that there was a tray of fried fish roe beckoning to me as I inched closer for a look.

Didn't get fish soup. Ordered their specialty dry noodle which I topped up a couple of bucks for their fried fish roe. There's a half boiled egg, some fried egg floss and some meatballs with ee mian.

Meatballs were delicious...look at those textures. Fried fish roe and egg floss were serviceable quality. Noodles were flavoured by something that tasted like kecap manis and their chilli sauce. That was actually not bad tasting. Might try their fish stuff another time.

Back in Piedra Negra

Haven't eaten at Piedra Negra (241 Beach Road) for years. Did not realized that they own half the street these days. Menu's different from the last time and vibe's more touristy than I recall. Gotta admit that the food was unexpectedly enjoyable.

Pretty impressed by how much lamb flavour was in their mixiote. I Googled and the description of it was a pit barbecued/steamed dish cooked in a wrapper of agave leave. This one came across like a stew so I don't know if it's the same. But hell yeah the lamb flavour was outstanding. So nice with the tortilla. 

Their albondigas featured nice beefy meatballs in what appeared to be tomato sauce/stew. Much better tasting than I had imagined from the menu's description.

That's the alambre...which looked different from pictures I saw after also Googling what they were. This one was grilled/pan fried beef cubes with melted cheese and caramelized onions with bell peppers and bacon. Those beef cubes were tender and actually pretty good. 

A safe chicken enchilada. Also not bad tasting though I have little to no references to what could be regarded as a well done one. I liked it more than I thought I might have.

Sadly, they failed with the tres leches cake. The cream tasted odd. Odd like it raises the question on whether we should take another bite. As a lover of blue cheese, even I had reservations.

There were four of us and this was how much progress we made before giving up. We gave feedback and they said that's how it was supposed to taste. I don't know better but I'm pretty sure that it was not a correct response.

Curryless at Lau Di Fang Curry Rice

Kopitiam obviously does not curate the tenants of their food stalls or the quality of their cooking. Now that that's out of the way, I thought I'd get something without curry since it was that curry that I mostly did not like from Lau Di Fang Curry Rice. The selection was safe. Chap chye, meat patty (肉饼) and sambal kang kong. The $7.20 price raised my brows a little for a selection of 2 vegetables and one meat. 

That sambal kang kong was something I would describe as ulu industrial canteen quality - the kind that people eat because there is no other choice. Tasted nothing like sambal kang kong. Meat patty was floury - seriously. Chap chye passed muster. Disappointing is the appropriate word.

Jane Deer (简鹿糖水铺), North Bridge Road

Finally tried some stuff at Jane Deer (#01-01/#02-02, 496 North Bridge Road) after seeing them numerous times at Bugis.

Didn't think much of the durian shaved ice but I liked the ball of durian puree. It's pretty good quality. The shaved ice has the same flavour as durian ice cream from brands like Walls. The kind of quality from decades ago which I wouldn't waste money on even for nostalgia. Now we know.

I had imagined their durian egg puffs were filled with durian but that's not how they rolled that. Anyways, it's was enjoyable the same as those egglets were freshly made on order and the whipped cream layered velvety milkiness to the durian puree. That scoop of vanilla ice cream tasted retro and was totally unnecessary. 

Osmanthus peach gum dessert was not bad. Pleasantly sweet and coconut-y with plenty of squishy peach gum bits.

Thick cheese toast was also not bad. Nice toasty cheese on warm fluffy bread that was light like J.Co's sugar glazed donuts. 

The red bean paste was suppose to be their signature dessert. Pretty decent. Wouldn't mind having it again kind of decent.

Great Nanyang Heritage Cafe (大南洋), Craig Road

Finally dropped by Great Nanyang Heritage Cafe. We were on our way elsewhere in the vicinity and decided to swing by to see if there was an insane queue and they didn't. A decision was made quickly. Anyways, they're a local Hainanese food eatery with that "traditional" theme which extends from what they cook to the decor in the eatery; kinda like The Hainan Story.

Even though there wasn't a mad queue at that time, it was still packed to the brim. Tried a few items that looked like they might be good.

Nice kaya butter toast - think texture of thin crispy bread on chilled salty butter and sweet kaya texture that's uniquely that. Did not realize it's the coconut kaya and not the pandan one that I prefer. Not a deal breaker though. It's still enjoyable and I'm attributing the main reason to be the adequately thick slice of butter in there.

Their signature Hainanese chicken cutlet....I don't think it's traditional with that sauce but that sauce was delicious. I tasted mostly onion and butter. Piping hot fried chicken thigh was competently crispy on the outside and moist on the inside.

Didn't think much of their dry mee siam or the chicken berempah that came with it. The spice and salt for the latter didn't pack the requisite punch. Guys like Spicy Wife Nasi Lemak and Uptown Nasi Lemak have chicken berempah that would blow this out of the water. 

Their hor ka sai kicks butt though with thick Milo flavour infusion into their coffee. Sweet, flavourful and nicely chilled. This was at least a couple of leagues up from that shitty 3 in 1 powdered stuff from Peck Hoon Teng Eating House.

Sabeen Sara Prata & Briyani Stall, Telok Blangah Food Centre

The indicatory signs to something delicious were definitely around at Sabeen Sara Prata & Briyani Stall (#01-07 Telok Blangah Food Centre, 79 Telok Blangah Drive) when we were there in the weekend morning; from the telling queue of anticipating faces to the bustling of the crew behind the stall front working animatedly, whipping out plates of prata and nasi briyani.

The plates of briyani we got were served piping hot, rice aromatic and delicious even before the curry. Curry's good too if anyone was wondering. We got chicken and mutton. The former came with portions of breast meat which was reasonably moist and the latter, easily scraped off the bone with tenderness. Gotta come back again for more of it.

A few days later...

So we had the telur, telur bawang and a kosong. Prata's pretty good - light crisp with bite and the kosong was fluffed up. The telur bawang had very little onions though.