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.

Pie & Mighty, Pakenham, Melbourne

Surprise pie breakfast from Pie & Mighty (24 Lakeside Blvd, Pakenham, Melbourne, tel : +61 3 5940 5588)

I have yet to master the runes emblazoned on these pies.

Perhaps someday I will.

Spicy Mexican - has some nice heat from the chili inside. There's beans, sour cream and cheese in it. I think the sour cream did it for me. Nice.

Chunky Beef's pretty decent. Meat's relatively tender. I think I like the plain beef one from Country Cob Bakery a little bit more though.

This one as goat's cheese, mushroom and beef. I liked it mostly for the flavour that goat's cheese brought to it.

Beef Vindaloo's not bad tasting with the tangy heat from their vindaloo gravy.

Couldn't tell the difference between this vanilla slice and the one from Country Cob Bakery.

Not bad apple and rhubarb crumble. The tart was stuffed. Wasn't as sweet as I thought might have been as well.

As a whole I had the impression that Pie & Mighty seemed to be of better quality than the other pie shops we've tried so far, keeping in mind that we're new to Aussie pies.

Operator Diner, Lonsdale Street, Melbourne CBD

Operator Diner (Shop 2/130 Lonsdale Street, Melbourne, tel : +61 3 8395 6341) is an American styled diner in the CBD.

Long black's sour. Flat white was......ok.

Got ourselves a breakfast muffin call Usual Suspect. Went big with the bacon and sausage combo which is topped with poached egg, cheese, their BBQ bacon chutney and a hash brown on the side.

Muffin was too wobbly to eat by hand. Not bad tasting. The sausage was pretty tasty.

Had an order of their Love Me Tender (chicken tenders) because they mentioned blue cheese sauce. Sauce was cheesy but we didn't get any blue cheese flavour and it was pre-mixed. How did we know it was pre-mixed? We asked if they could have it with more blue cheese and they told us so. Pretty disappointing. The tenders and fries were nicely done though.

Some drink called The Big Apple - single origin coffee (not that I could tell), apple juice, spiced chai, brown sugar foam and cinnamon. Not bad.

Pecan pie was too sweet. Didn't think much of it.

Apparently, Zac Efron was here. Filming. Pretty sure they marked the seat he was at just like what was done when Harry met Sally at Katz's Deli. I just never found out which one was it.

Tutto, Jewel

Dinner at Tutto (#02-246/247 Jewel, 78 Airport Boulevard, tel : +65 6035 7880) by Da Paolo.

Calamari's a little hard. Kinda disappointingly mundane considering that these guys (meaning the Da Paolo Group) have been in the business of restaurants for ages and a pedestrian rendition of a common starter was all they could manage. Lemon aioli's not bad though.

What we thought was memorable was their limone e stracciatella - spaghetti with stracciatella, Pecorino Romano and lemon zest. Pasta was creamy, cheesy, lemon-y and light at the same time. Only available at Jewel.

Quite impressed by their pizza cotto e funghi - the simplicity of it brought out the flavours from the ingredients which were the ham, mushrooms and tomato sauce. Like that their sauce wasn't tart.

Our pizza had a broken blister like a popped pimple. 😬

Burrata gelato with chilli - I liked the creamy spicy combination.

Ah Seng Durian, Alexandra

Stopped by Ah Seng Durian (#01-22 & 24, 119 Bukit Merah Lane 1) for....dessert.

Tried their MSW durian sago. Frozen puree on mousse with sago and shaven ice. There were cubes of nata de coco inside.

Pretty creamy. Wouldn't say it's not good but neither durian puree nor mousse were at the level of the ones from 99 Old Trees. Or Dessert Bowl. Or Yat Ka Yan. There's just something odd about that frozen puree that didn't taste exactly like MSW that I couldn't put a finger to.

Hail to the King

Some stuff from BK.

Buttermilk beef burger. I'm not even sure how to describe the buttermilk sauce in this one. Burger's kinda small. Will not be getting again.

Their long chicken sandwich which is the overpriced McChicken that I feel tastes better than McChicken.

Some smoky maple mayo fries which I'm guessing is not a permanent item. It's actually kinda addictive with that smoky maple flavour. Left my fingers smelling like the syrup from McD's hotcakes.

Was curious about their cempedak mochi bites.

Chewy mochi clad in light crunchy shell that's stuffed with....I'm not sure what to call them but it tasted like cempedak paste. A load of flavour from the fruit in it. Not a bad one.

Look at how thin their fried pies are.

Chrysanthemum cream cheese pie. Pretty noticeable chrysanthemum flavouring there.

Nitty Gritty, Teo Hong Road

Lunch at Nitty Gritty (21 Teo Hong Road, tel : +65 9637 5884). They're a restaurant which feels/looked like a cafe, serving American(Southern) inspired food with a dash of Asian/Singaporean elements/ingredients. It's like that. 

Love their sparkling apple cream cider. This tasted like it's made from real apple juice with bit of spice and fizz. 👍🏼

That's the apple butter grits with toffee apple crisp. Smokey and very nice. The flavour was apples, toffee and smoke with spices and delicious crusty pecans. 👍🏼

Fried okra - not feeling for this one. I thought it was a little too greasy and maybe I just didn't like the batter to okra ratio.

Eggs with sesame and corn bread pancakes. Not bad - I liked how the dill and feta added herbaceous saltiness to the egg and sesame. And also liked how that honey chilli thingy on the side added to those eggs which I thought was really good.

Cheese grits were salty and nice. 👍🏼

That's their fronana - banana frozen yoghurt that's topped with more of those crusty pecans, chocolate buttons and their sachima (沙琪玛). How was it "their sachima"? I'm pretty sure it wasn't just the usual stuff that one might be able to get at Chinatown. That thing tasted of nutmeg and even though I was never one for sachima, I found it addictive.

The menu mentioned allspice, nutmeg and vanilla for their spiced vanilla latte. I only remembered/registered cinnamon.