Kucina, Food Republic @ 313

This was just bad. 👎🏼

This was their cheese wheel pasta - was pretty surprised that there was so much cream in it. That cheese wheel was just a gimmick because there wasn't much cheese flavour. It's obviously mostly cream. Tasted cheap. Couldn't even discern the black pepper in it.  

Meatball had a mushy texture and tasted floury. There were a lot of fillers in them and did not taste good.

We're generally against food wastage but it infuriated me thinking that I'd have to swallow these so as not to waste food. We didn't finish it. Will not be coming back. 👎🏼

Pazonia Italian Street Food, Amoy Street

Pazonia Italian Street Food (49 Amoy Street) has been mentioned a bit in the chatters lately. Mostly about their panuozzo. We walked past them on the way to Sodeng recently and I kinda decided that I wanted to check them out and made a mental note to come back.

I liked their burrata & Parma Ham panuozzo. Got this with extra balsamic glaze.

Burrata was chilled with creamy oozy innards of stracciatella like a luxuriant frosting over the salty Parma ham and peppery rockets. Not bad pizza bread. Gripes? Not tasting any of the pesto or olive oil they claim to be in there. That usually means it's either not enough or not good enough.

Their carbonara was "alla Romana". Just enough of the emulsified egg and cheese coating al dente rigatoni. Nicely done but could be improved with better quality black pepper. Love those chunks of salty/fatty/porky guanciale in there.

More food from rumeL

rumeL has updated their menu. There's a Parma ham and arugula pizza now. Would have been nice if they spread the ham rather than fold them up onto each slice.

Freshly cooked pasta's available too. Their aglio olio didn't taste like what I thought it would. Not getting any olive oil flavouring in there. Also quite unlike the Italian and local western food stall renditions. The noodles also appear suspiciously like a thicker mee kia. Not bad tasting though.

Mushroom soup's nice. It's the blended variety and it's pretty tasty.

Francobolli, Wisma Cosway, Kuala Lumpur

A hole-in-the-wall-ish fresh pasta shop sequestered in the 2nd floor of Wisma Cosway (Lot 1.25 Wisma Cosway, 88 Jalan Raja Chulan, Bukit Bintang, 50200 Kuala Lumpur). Open only on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 11am.

Menu and seating space are limited. The former has only a few pastas and the latter fills up pretty fast after they open.

The one with garlic, olive oil and anchovy butter was kickass. Great linguine texture that had a good bite slicked with a gritty garlicky umami. 👍🏼 

Nicely done rigatoni cacio e pepe. Great texture as well with adequate cheese and pepper. What's more impressive was that I could also taste fruitiness from the olive oil in it.

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.