La Pizzaiola, Bukit Timah

Have heard of these guys for a while but for some reasons they've always fallen off the radar. This was the branch at Bukit Timah (881 Bukit Timah Road, tel : +65 9176 8180).

One of the current specials was their zucca prosciutto pizza. Pumpkin puree, Gorgonzola and prosciutto. Would have rated this higher if they were more generous with those prosciutto. Couldn't really taste the pumpkin so that's one out of three of the featured toppings that's non existent for me. Not a bad tasting pizza but I was really looking forward to tasting pumpkin.

Greenland fried prawns - another item from their specials. When we asked about them, we were told that their prawns were from Greenland. No shit Sherlock. I felt so enlightened. These were actually pretty good eating. Nice flavour and the shells weren't hard or chewy. The tartar sauce felt like a half hearted effort because it was just mayo with some diced dill pickles. Very sparse quantities of diced dill pickles.

Orecchiette with swordfish and white wine sauce. Flavour came from the capers, olives, basil and fish.

Tiramisu was pleasant and pretty safe tasting. The mascarpone cream tasted like there was more cream than mascarpone.

Decent affogato. Coffee's thick and bitter though not as aromatic as I would have preferred.

1030 Breakfast Shop (一零三零早餐店), Chinatown Food Centre

New-ish Taiwanese breakfast shop at Chinatown's food centre (Blue Zone, #02-215 Chinatown Complex Market and Food Centre, 335 Smith Street).

They're not dissimilar to shops like True Breakfast or Breakfast Hola. Menu consists of omelette rolls, toasts/sandwiches, millet porridge and braised pork rice/lu rou fan/卤肉饭.

We went all out and got a their signature toast which has a bunch of fillings inside - like cheese, pork chop, omelette, spam, cucumber and peanut butter. Not bad. Pork chop was unexpectedly tender.

Omelette rolls with bacon and hash brown. Reminded me a little of McD's breakfast wrap. Minus the sausage. Bacon was strangely not salty.

Light tasting and peppery millet porridge with minced pork. $1 with purchase of any toast or omelette rolls I think. I kinda like this.

Got the chocolate toast out of curiosity. I'm not sure if it's Nutella but it kinda tasted like that. They're not as generous with the spread as how I usually make them at home so it was forgettable.

Jing Shu Shi (京熟食), Margaret Drive Hawker Centre

Noticed Jing Shu Shi (#02-31, 38A Margaret Drive) and their snaking queue the past times we were here at Margaret Drive Hawker Centre so we decided to joined the queue this time to find out what it was all about. They're a curry rice stall, food's pretty homely and tastier looking than the run of the mill cai png chains. The crispy pork chop was savoury, much like the defunct Blk 38 Curry Rice rather than the Beo Crescent stall that was sweeter. Not a fan of the curry here but the food was not bad tasting. Will do curry-less the next time. Only open from 5.30pm.

Kimchi cheese bokkeumbap from Wonderful Bapsang

Tried the kimchi cheese bokkeumbap at the Thomson Plaza branch of Wonderful Bapsang. The hot plate that it was served in wasn't very hot but I guess that made sense because that would probably have caused all the cheese to burn. Anyways, the toasty cheese was the best tasting thing on it even though it was a pain scraping them off the hot plate. The toasty cheese was more of a highlight for me compared to the kimchi fried rice which was just passable. Portion was kinda small.

Keat Lim Vegetarian (吉林素食), Upper Thomson Road

Came across Keat Lim Vegetarian (222A Upper Thomson Road) by chance and got a plate of vegetarian noodle for breakfast. Pretty decent tasting. What was memorable was the ngoh hiong which was stuffed with yam and the fried tau kwa which was fresh tasting kind of bean-y and delicious.

Mango Pomelo from Oriental Kopi

Mango pomelo dessert (杨枝甘露) at Oriental Kopi. Pretty decent rendition here. Would have been great if there were more pomelo. Mango's sweet and fragrant. Couldn't tell what's that white stuff in there though I suspect it's milk.

Some dim sum stuff from Meng Meng Roasted Duck (阿明帝皇鸭)

While we were at Meng Meng for some of their roast meats......

Tried their meat stuffed tofu. This not bad. Dried fish flavour in the meat.

Har gow's passable. They don't do delicate skin here.

Siew mai's not great. Felt like it was stuffed with meat paste rather than minced pork and mushrooms.

Palates & Bagels by T.A.M., Jalan Dhoby, Johor Bahru

Came by Palates & Bagels (10 Jalan Dhoby, Bandar Johor Bahru, 80000 Johor Bahru, tel : +60 11-2101 0150) to try their pistachio kunafa croissant.

Looks like minced tuna but it's kadaifi/kadayıf.

The inside of the croissant was stuffed with the pistachio flavoured pastry. Not bad tasting - a little nutty with milky sweetness and the texture was very crunchy.

Grapefruit peach sparkling oolong. Less ice, less sweet.

Lynns Food & Beverage, Jalan Tan Hiok Nee, Johor Bahru

We noticed the chicken rice from Lynns Food & Beverage (31 Jalan Tan Hiok Nee, Bandar Johor Bahru, 80000 Johor Bahru, tel : +60 12-708 3048) the last time we were in the vicinity and told ourselves we'd come back and check them out. You may wonder what made us pay attention to chicken rice from such a nondescript looking location. Well, they were served in folded paper boats.

We got distracted also by some of the kueh kueh and had an order of their kuih dadar. These rolls had a nice pandan aroma. The coconut stuffings were kinda dry rather than "juicy" and soaked in gula melaka like we had imagined.

Chicken rice was competently done and the portion was pretty generous. Rice was sufficiently greasy and flavoured adequately. There was a good portion of poached chicken, some pickles to cut through the grease and a lime-y chilli. I don't mind coming back just for this.

Milo gao wasn't as gao as we imagined but it's pretty nice.

Roast & Coffee - Retro Garden 1968's, Jalan Tan Hiok Nee, Johor Bahru

Roast & Coffee (62 & 63 Jalan Tan Hiok Nee, Bandar Johor Bahru, 80000 Johor Bahru, tel : +60 11-1895 6100) came up on our radar sometime late last year. They're a Nanyang cafe that isn't dissimilar to Oriental Kopi.

Got a couple of drinks. Butter kopi's respectably robust and that ice cham was surprisingly good with a nice tea flavour.

Curry lava egg - a couple of soft boiled eggs on toast soaked in curry. Nothing unexpected here and pretty good eat.

These guys use pretty good tasting otah that's filled with bits of fish. Enjoyed their otah omelette sandwich.

This was called Madam J seafood mihun. Seafood consisted of prawns and couple of squid rings. The former was nice - sweet and fresh tasting, filled with tomalley that was spilling out as you detached the heads. The broth was savoury, not exactly seafood-y and filled with evaporated milk and hua diao (花雕)? Appreciated how the home made fried shallots added to the broth. Delicious as a whole but the portion was kinda small. 

Chef Hainanese Western Food, Margaret Drive Hawker Centre

I ate once at Chef Hainanese Western Food years ago back at Tanglin Halt food centre and haven't gotten any food from them since they've migrated to their current location (#01-32 Margaret Drive Hawker Centre, 38A Margaret Drive). I remember being not impressed by their mixed grill but it was a long time back. Here's a fresh start getting reacquainted.

Portions were huge. This was their Chef Set 4. Crinkle cut fries tasted potato-y and unexpectedly addictive. Cheap pink sausage was cheap pink sausage. Chicken chop's actually pretty good with nice charring and the meat wasn't overly thin or dried out. Not a fan of their breaded fish....think that's dory. Potato was surprisingly sweet and naturally flavoured. The coleslaw which didn't have any sauce/mayo was the weakest link. One actually has to pay a dollar for tartare sauce here.