Daddy Cuisine by Daddy BBQ, Holland Village Food Centre

We noticed Daddy Cuisine by Daddy BBQ (#01-38, Holland Village Food Centre, 1 Lorong Mambong) in recent times so I looked it up and found out that I wanted to eat at their place back when they were located at Fortune Centre known as Atas Turkish Kebab. Never got to because by the time we made our way there, they were no longer in business and we ended up eating at Mr Doner Kebab that took over that spot.

As fate would have it......

I think this was called beef kebab salad. Protein's the doner/shawarma/gyro variety shaven off the vertical spit, layered over vegetables. I liked it. Kebab wasn't dry or tough. Portion was generous to boot. I also appreciated that they didn't attempt to smother it with excessive sauces.

One week later......

This was their mixed kebab with biryani rice. Briyani version of what we had last week that has chicken also. We added cheese which isn't visible because the cheese was melted over the rice before the meats were layered on top. No surprises here. This was as enjoyable with the bed of saffron scented basmati rice.

Another week later......

We got breaded out this time round, overestimating the amount that came with our orders.

Cheese naan. Not bad tasting.

The garlic on their garlic naan was pretty sharp. 

Moussaka came with even more bread which we did not expect. The eggplant dip was lightly chilled and smokey.

Artichoke, New Bahru

It's been some years since we last ate at Artichoke (#01-02 New Bahru, 46 Kim Yam Road, tel : +65 8092 4210) and that was back in the old premise at Middle Road.

They've shifted to New Bahru since and it's become a sort of pizza place with traces of their "least-Middle-Eastern Middle Eastern restaurant" still in the menu.

Got myself a craft cherry cola which was basically cherry flavoured tonic water with some spices that reminded me of the masala mix used in teas.

Love their green & gold kiwi starter which featured feta, pecorino, spearmint, black pepper and honey. A large part of it was the sweet fruitiness from the kiwis, milky saltiness from the cheese and a breath of freshness from the mint leaves. I like this a lot. 👍🏼

There's ox tongue in Marsala sauce with crinkle cut fries chips. Not a fan of the chicken salt in the fries. Tongue was nice but didn't think much of the Marsala sauce which came across as pretty generic tasting brown sauce.

The thing I was looking forward to most was their pizza - something I've heard described as Detroit styled with thick, airy, focaccia-like crust and crispy caramelized cheese edges. This was a platter featuring the 4 available toppings in the menu. Clockwise from top left

• Beef pepperoni - has hot honey and pickled peppers which had a bit of heat. Spicy, sweet and sour.
• Sunny slice - featured a refreshing mix of Halloumi, roasted fennel, kumquat, pistachio, arugula. Those kumquats tasted like sour plum. Not bad.
• Dirty margherita - just margherita.
• Bacon apple pie - with pancetta, brie, rosemary and hazelnut. Pretty relieved that the rosemary wasn't overpowering. This one reminded me of Christmas/apple pie. Nice aroma from the hazelnut.

Dabba Street, Tiong Bahru Plaza

Have been wanting to try Dabba Street (#B1-K06 Tiong Bahru Plaza, 302 Tiong Bahru Road) for some time and it finally happened.

Got the Butter Chicken Biryani and the Butter Chicken Dabba Bowl. They were kinda like Indian/mediterranean fast food. The chicken wasn't actually butter chicken per se but their baked chicken that's doused with their butter chicken sauce.

Briyani spices were kinda tame and low on the salt. The Dabba Bowl came with unflavoured blue pea rice. But I don't mind getting them again because it tasted kinda wholesome and didn't feel particularly heavy. Maybe with more of the yoghurt and aioli the next time.

Re-revisiting Merci Marcel @ Eng Hoon Street

Been some years since we were last at Merci Marcel at Tiong Bahru.

Got the sweet potatoes & lentils hummus thinking it might be sweet. They weren't. 😬 Tasted like regular hummus packed with cumin flavour and a different texture. There's supposed to be coconut milk in the hummus which I never detected.

Love the roasted feta with the pears, both poached and fresh.

Pleasantly surprised by their beef burger. Meat's nicely caramelised, still moist on the inside and not destroyed by marinates/herbs. Good saltiness coming from the Parmesan cheese and crispy Bayonne ham. Those toasted sesame on top of the buns were nice!

Cauliflower trilogy - had these at Club Street previously. Still so delicious.

Not bad orange confit & cardamom cake.

Piadini Italian Streats, 111 Somerset

From the story that's been told, the owner of this stall (01-K8, 111 Somerset, 111 Somerset Road) was impressed much by the piadina that she previously had in Rome that she set up shop here selling them.

Got the one with Gorgonzola. Did not expect lettuce in there because the menu only mentioned arugula. Sadly, I couldn't taste much of the Gorgonzola. The crushed nuts in the piadina didn't taste particularly fresh as well. Didn't even notice the olive oil or balsamic vinegar that's supposed to be in it. Kinda disappointing.

More Miznon

Back at Miznon. Tried the abu kebab pita which was stuffed with beef and lamb meatballs. Meatball's generously salted and I tasted pepper. Texture was coarse and the flavour's nice but I couldn't tell the beef and lamb in it. 

This red prawn pita's relatively new I think. Tasty spicing with a bit of smokiness on those firm meaty bugs. I like this better than the abu.

Revisiting Wild Child Pizzette

Yes we wiped the plates as a ritual of appreciation for the food. We enjoyed it that much at Wild Child Pizzette.

Spaghetti with almond pesto; there's also pine nuts and the cheese in there. Pesto was aromatic, savoury and nutty with a creamy texture that clung onto the noodles. Nicely done and those noodles had a nice bite to them. The white stuff on top was chilled stracciatella. 

Pizza asparagi which was a pizza bianca from the specials menu. This was topped with fior di latte, baby asparagus, caramelized onions and their salsa verde. Of the latter, I detected loads garlic, a good dose of anchovies and I'm almost sure there's coriander. Flavour's sharp, herbaceous and well salted. Now that I'm back at this, I've also noticed that their Neapolitan styled crust was different from the ones at Zazz or Casa Vostra. It's pretty good.

Another one of their specials was affogato with salted vanilla gelato. I appreciated the subtle variation with salted vanilla which didn't bring the original taste out too far. Where it didn't succeed becoming memorable was the coffee which lacked a rounded robustness.

Allora Ristorante & Bar, Crowne Plaza Changi Airport

 

This was our first time eating at Crowne Plaza at Changi Airport. The hotel and their food has never piqued our interest previously but Allora Ristorante & Bar (Crowne Plaza Changi Airport, Changi Airport Terminal 3, 75 Airport Boulevard) has caught our attention recently.

Rosemary and black olive flavoured tonic water was actually pleasant. Then again, YMMV.

Their peach tea was odd. Tasted of jasmine and apple and there was too much syrupy sweetness. Pretty sure there was no beverage on the menu that had jasmine and apple.

Bread's forgettable but the tomato dip was chilled and refreshing.

This was their pizza tartare - a pizza bianca topped with Mozzarella, Castelmagno, Australia Angus beef tenderloin tartare and baby sprouts.

The tartare's not bad. Tasted like a milder rendition of French tartare de boeuf. Could taste capers. As a whole, the pizza was delicious with the combination of savoury cheeses, especially so for the toasty bits. The sprouts I suppose, was a green vegetal foil to the rest of the flavours. We liked this pizza.

The bruschetta mantecato which featured cod whipped in olive oil and flavoured with whole grain mustard came after the pizza. Had expected this to come first since it was bruschetta. This one not bad tasting.

Their lobster squid ink tagliolini sounded good and wasn't expensive for a lobster pasta. The menu even mention that it has "bisque".

Flavour from the sauce was mostly tomato with a hint of seafood; definitely not bisque as we imagined. I wouldn't even use the word 'crustacean' or 'seafood-y' to describe the flavour. It didn't taste bad though and the texture of their handmade black ink noodles was nice. What wasn't was the lobster. Size of the meat was a third of the tail and was a little mushy. The claw also had little meat.

So in retrospect, this was kinda expensive.

Their rendition of tiramisu was named Alloramisu. Tacky if you asked me. Savoiardi is homemade apparently. The wait staff trolly-ed out the ingredients and assembled it table side, layering the coffee gel, mascarpone in cream canister and the biscuit that was drizzled with espresso before the topping of cocoa powder and flakes.

My thoughts? This was weak. Coffee gel's weak. Mascarpone's airy and weak. We could still get the crunch from the biscuit so it was obvious that the quantity of espresso was sorely lacking. It's a bit of flair and little substance.

Casa Vostra, Raffles City

We've been waiting for Casa Vostra (#01-49/50/51 Raffles City, 252 North Bridge Road) to open for a while. Have read about the accolades of Antonio Miscellaneo and being ranked 57th in the world for best pizza didn't sound like a mean feat. Sounded like it was worth taking a look into. Since we have never had the chance to try his food at La Bottega Enoteca, we were looking forward to this one.

First, espresso tonic. Nicely done with double shots of an aromatic brew they use and Fever Tree tonic.

Porchetta - more thinly sliced than I imagined. Each of those slices with a bit of chew along the edges with the rest of it mostly tender and infused with the liquorice accents from fennel; and I think sage. By my estimates, this was possibly 2 slices of Marutama's charshu worth of porchetta. For $18.

Not bad tasting tagliatelle with crab. Noodle texture's nice and portions were a little small. Could taste olive oil and butter in it but the pasta wasn't exactly buttery nor was the olive oil fruity. Crab meat had passable flavour. Nothing in the ingredients stood out in particular except for one; the sweetness of the tomato confit was nice.

Tagliatelle Bolognese was delicious. The ragù was meaty, beefy and not drowned in tomato flavouring. Would not mind coming back for this. 

We were looking for a place that might be the equal to Zazz for Neapolitan style pizzas and Casta Vostra's Newpolitan sounded like it could be that. Turned out that this was a different thing entirely. The airiness of the puffy cornicion surpassed what we've had at Zazz. Our pizza crust was the lightest we've ever had; that and on some pretty delicious tartufo and funghi toppings on a creamy rich Taleggio. Nice.

That panna cotta was small. Could have been just a two biter for me. The olive oil and basil was brilliant with the strawberry + sauce and creaminess of the panna cotta though. Yummy.