Noci Pasta Bar, Suntec City

Korean pasta place at Suntec (#01-386 Suntec City Mall, 8 Temasek Boulevard) that opened late last year. They're by a Gold Moon Restaurants Group which has brought in brands like Tonshou and Seoul Noodle Shop.

Complimentary sourdough with whipped butter. Butter's nice. Bread's okay-ish. I prefer them with a bit more tang and texture.

There's baccala. Not as lard infused as I was imagining. Flavour's mostly from the fish which wasn't a bad thing.

Had a couple of pastas. This one featured their in house squid ink tajarin with bottarga and anchovies - understandably umami that way. Not bad.

The other was their cacio e pepe which also used their house made tajarin. What's different from the usual cacio e pepe are the crush bits of pistachio. Would like for it to be a bit more cheesy and peppery but I think I enjoyed this as well.

Both pasta had great texture.

A coffee called cream di noci which had bits of walnut and walnut oil. There was a thick crema but I didn't detect walnut flavour from the mundane tasting coffee which had little worth mentioning.

Les Ducs, Ann Siang Hill

A few bouillon styled eateries have popped lately. Les Ducs (8 Ann Siang Hill) along with Bouillon Gavroche were a couple of them.

Sourdough was smoky. Nice with butter.

Foie gras terrine's...okay. A bit pricey methinks. The foie flavour seemed muted, not like what I remember of them from Brasserie Gavroche.

Pretty meaty steamed prawns. Love their cocktail sauce that we even saved them for fries.

Not a fan of their roast chicken leg with mushroom sauce. Skin's a bit chewy and the meat's pedestrian. Sauce felt a little thin didn't taste particularly mushroomy; definitely wasn't the creamy variety that I had in mind. Also not something that I'd associate with French and sauces. I'd rather the roast chicken leg from Cold Storage. Seriously.

Not bad tartare de boeuf.

Tartar was tangy, a little herby and creamy. Didn't seem to have capers though.

Their ham and Comte cheese coquillettes was basically a French mac & cheese. Nicely done.

Pretty nice chocolate mousse. Had the expected smooth creaminess with dark chocolate notes and importantly, not overly sweet.

I like their crème Mont Blanc. White pudding-y bottom reminded me of yoghurt. Top's chestnut cream and meringue.

Western Boy, Kopitiam @ Tiong Bahru Plaza

Here's a half spring chicken with aglio olio spaghetti from Western Boy at the food court  in Tiong Bahru Plaza (#03-101 Tiong Bahru Plaza, 302 Tiong Bahru Road). There's the same spicy garlicky local aglio olio like the one we had and liked previously at their branch in Malaysia Boleh at Bugis Junction. Decent fried chicken but it's not Arnold's. I'd go for a protein without the hassle of bones the next time.

Revisiting Cenzo

We finally made it back to Cenzo.

Sparkling water is a couple of bucks and bottomless.

Wagyu tartar cannoli wasn't memorable. Wouldn't have known it was wagyu if the menu hadn't mentioned.

The lardo tigelle with truffle honey which we liked from the last time has become garlic bread whipped lardo burnt honey. This one was nice...cheesy, savoury and tinged with sweetness. But I couldn't shake the feeling that the tigelle was nicer. 😅

There's a lot of pistachio stuff going around lately. Most of them are second rate. I'm also being kind by just labelling them second rate because the honest description would conceivably be 'con job'. Not this gramigna with pistachio pesto though. It's not just nuttiness in the pesto, it's pistachio specific nuttiness here. With actual crushed nuts. Enriched by burrata.

What I had been looking forward to was their lamb porchetta. You read that right.

This was awesome. Serious crackling cushioned by a layer of flavourful lamb-y fat over meat. That and its unique blend of bite, greasiness and crunch. Why so? It doesn't have the same mouthfeel as regular porchetta because of the size. Pretty rich and heart clogging. 👍🏼

Tiramisu to end.

Niigata Food Fair stuff and the old black truffle fried rice from Tampopo @ Ngee Ann City

Haven't eaten at this branch of Tampopo for a really long time. The last time we were here might have been that one where we had their gyukotsu ramen. We were reeled in today by a couple of items that were featured in their Niigata Food Fair menu.

One of which was their amaebi rice flour tagliatelle. Couldn't tell if the tagliatelle was made with rice flour through the gravy/broth which had an intense umami sweet crustacean flavour. Think prawn bisque. Those amaebi also had a gentle but discernible sweetness to them. Nicely done this one. 👍🏼

Presentation has kinda...changed for their black truffle fried rice compared to how they used to plate it. Thankfully, it's still pleasantly greasy and sufficiently salty to be moreish.

The other Niigata Food Fair thing we tried was their matcha parfait. Notice a sprig of thyme. No cornflakes in this one. Plenty of intense matcha sauce. Nice.

Revisiting Royal Host @ Takashimaya/Ngee Ann City

Have been meaning to come back to Royal Host.

Got their Royal Hamburg Curry Rice which came with some floral iced tea...

...and a soup. This was the clam chowder. Tasted better than what the Campbell-esque appearance might suggest. There's quite a few tender chewy clams in it.

Royal Hamburg Curry Rice featured their delicious hambagu with curry on the side. 

Not bad tasting curry which was spicy sweet but not annoyingly so.

Also nicely done mentaiko seafood pasta with small squids and scallops spiked with pretty potent shiso. 👍🏼

Revisiting Santi's

Mixed feelings about them like the last time. Didn't get what I wanted because the actual menu wasn't what they had on their website. They explained that the site wasn't updated but the current menu as been around for about a week now. Add four days more to that as I'm writing this because it's still the old menu online. 😬 Getting lackadaisical vibes from this place. 

Anyways, this was their smoked miso leek rigatoni. Both leek and miso were... subtle. Not getting any of the sharpness from the leek and I might not have known it was miso in the sauce if not for the menu.

This was the mortadella panuozzo - pizza sandwich thingy. Was looking forward to the one with Parma ham but that's from the old menu. This definitely could have been better. 

Too little slices of really thin mortadella inside which were overwhelmed by the other stuff. Stuff like some Lao Gan Ma-ish chilly thingy and stracciatella - which was a pretty good combo actually. I liked this as a sandwich. But I would love to taste mortadella when I order something with mortadella.

Revisiting Alice Boulangerie & Restaurant @ Raffles City

More food from Alice Boulangerie & Restaurant.

Their grilled beef tongue skewers were tender. The flavour of whatever it had been braised/stewed in had throughly infused the meat and it tasted kinda like Chinese dark soy sauce. Or lor bak. What I didn't like was the sauce on top which had ginger. Don't recall seeing ginger mentioned in the menu.

Lobster bisque orzo was not bad. I was expected more intensity to the bisque but maybe I was expecting a bit too much from them. There's minced crab meat in it.

Mac & cheese was bad. Menu mentioned mozzarella, parmesan and blue cheese. I'm not sure I tasted any blue cheese. I tried. It's mostly mozzarella and cream with little salt to fight the surfeit that came after a couple of mouthful.

I did what I had to in a bad situation and fell back to a reliable remedy.

Corn tart's not bad. The sweetness with the whole pastry was largely moderated except for something inside the tart which was noticeably more intense. Couldn't tell what it was.

Carrot cake's nice. Love the spices in the cake and that cream cheese frosting wasn't overly sweet.