Da Luca Italian Restaurant, Goldhill Plaza

The spores of Italian cuisine have again spread. Located not far away from Matsuo Sushi is a relatively new restaurant, Da Luca Italian Restaurant (1 Goldhill Plaza, #01-19/21 Goldhill Plaza, tel : +65 6258 4846), at Goldhill Plaza. Little frills but serves hearty food. The type that I would prefer. The chef Luca, as I have heard was previously from Garibaldi and Gunther's. As a matter of coincidence, as we walked into the restaurant, we recognized the wait staff whom we've seen back in both Garibaldi and Gattopardo. Small world it is then.

Their bread served came in the form of thick sticks of olive foccacia. Crusty, porous and pretty good for soaking up dips which we dutifully did from the stewed tripe.

The stewed tripe was done in a tomato cheese sauce and Parmesan. The sauce was both light and creamy while the tripe was tender and chewy. It was a little less tart than the one at La Braceria and less cheesy than those from Pietrasanta. We enjoyed the warm heartiness of it and will want to come back for this.

I probably shouldn't be making comparison of the stracci here with the one at Oso since they are of different sauces. As much as I would like to decide that the latter is the better, I enjoyed this flavourful rendition as much. And also as much as I think that I generally avoid tomato base stuff, I liked every bit of the sauce. Wouldn't mind eating this again for sure.

Da Luca's soft spinach gnocchi with Gorgonzola sauce was....dang, I'm out of adjectives for the day. Hearty it is then. No complains about the creamy Gorgonzola sauce which had the prerequisite pungent aroma of the cheese wafting from the moment the pasta was plated. Tempered by the sweet balsamic drizzle. Couldn't get enough of them.

Dessert was a tiramisu. We just wanted to try it for comparison's sake. Not with those served in other restaurants but with those that we've made ourselves at home.

The restaurant served a sugar dusted pastry, chiacchiere at the end that came with a zabaglione and chocolate dip. I have to be honest and say that it wasn't spectacular, but it was definitely a nice gesture. I think every table got one of these. Here's the part where I say that I'm definitely coming back again for re-visits.

Blanco Court Prawn Mee, Beach Road

We've walked by this place on several occasions, so this time round we stopped over to try the prawn noodles. Here's a look at both the soup and dry options for the 3 in 1 noodle from Blanco Court Prawn Mee (243 Beach Road, #01-01 tel : +65 6396 8464). 

What made the 3 in 1 option was basically the addition of boiled pork ribs and pig tails in the bowl of noodles. There were also some pig skin in there as well. The dry version was pretty decent and one could pack a lot of heat into the noodles by simply adding chilli powder and thinly sliced chilli padi. The noodles already come dressed in chilli sauce. However, I think I enjoyed the soup version more. The crustacean sweetness (along with lard and fried shallots too!) was robust in the broth and seemed much more so than another similar stall down at East Coast Road. I hate to think about how much MSG I might have ingested if there truly was any involved at all but damn the soup was good. And there was refilling available for that soup as well. The chor bee hoon was firm, pig skin springy and the porky tasting pig tails were pretty much like a tiny version of oxtail. Definitely good for returns.

Union Farm Eating House

I had recently seen this place (435A Clementi Road) on a local food television program and it got me all curious about them. In spite of various heads up from friends telling me that the place was way overrated and not worth the time, curiosity prevailed. The last time I had eaten here could have been two decades back and I certainly didn't have very much memories of the food here. Union Farm had once, decades ago, been an actual chicken farm that ventured into the business of selling their chicken cooked. Throughout the years, it had converted into an actual food establishment selling kampong styled food.

Here was an order of their 15 piece paper wrapped chicken. The seasoning on the meat was sweetish with a hint of ginger. If I had to put some figures into this, about a good 60% of the plate were skin, bones and paper. Chicken pieces were stuck to the paper wrappings. The above mentioned food program said that one way of eating these paper wrapped chicken was to open them over a plate of their noodle so that the juices from the meat trapped within the paper wrappings could just dribble in added flavour. 

The chicken was pretty dry apart from some grease. Nothing dripped. There was very little meat in there and for what it cost, wasn't cheap at all. We certainly didn't adopt the looks of bliss like they portrayed on tv.

Our obligatory greens came in the from of kailan with oyster sauce. The serving was literally a plate of boiled kailan with a dollop of oyster sauce on the side. It didn't taste bad, but it just wasn't how I had expected it.

Previously, I had been griping over $34 noodles. This time round, my gripes are over $3 noodles. Boiled, unseasoned and garnished with a few stalks of vegetables, it certainly didn't look to me like it should cost that much. The portions weren't even close to being substantial.

I cannot in good conscience recommend this place to anyone.

Gattopardo revisited

For a few moments, I was contemplating the abstinence of superfluous narratives because I was trying to decide on something and my thoughts are somewhat disjointed. One may question what's the link between the two. But I have just proven that I have failed right here at that. With honorable discredits. Oxymoron.

There I did it again.

Still I shall try.

There is no simple way that I can come to terms with this, but there were some things that I liked and definitely some that I didn't about the food at Gattopardo. Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of what I liked most about the food tonight. Their grilled calamari which I have three words for. Awesome, awesome and awesome. Really.

Sweet Red Onion from Calabria with Light Saffron Ragusano Cheese Fondue

I liked the sweet onion pudding. The texture was so souffle light and creamy at the same time. Taste was sweet and wasn't overwhelmed by the Ragusano cheese.

Homemade Squid Ink Spaghetti with King Crab and Cognac Sauce

Unimpressive portions. No bloody idea what the Cognac sauce was suppose to be or tasted like. Tasted light tomato and flavors of the crab. And a savory something else that didn't remind me the slightest of Cognac. Crab meat possessed natural sweetness, meat was a little difficult to remove from the shells for some segments. Noodles were ordinary.

Angel Hair Pasta with Grey Mullet “Bottarga” Roe and Sea Urchin

I think I know bottarga and I didn't think I tasted it much. Pasta was more than a little bland. Not the uni I was thinking of neither. In fact, it tasted rather fishy, was a little stiff and little like my good memories of sea urchin. Very disappointed with this $34 bowl of noodles.

White Garlic Focaccia with Smoked Mozzarella, Italian Sausage, Onion and Potatoes

Pretty good there, but couldn't help linking my thoughts of it with northern Chinese pancakes.

Toasted Almond Panna cotta with Bitter Chocolate Mousse and Pear Confit

This was an unusual panna cotta. If I had to describe it, it would probably be almond agar agar. Pear confit was lightly tart and sweet coupling nicely with the creamy caramel sauce daubed over them.

Crispy Espresso-infused Wafer Filled with Sweet Ricotta Cheese

Not too bad there, but I ate a little more than half this and still couldn't identify what in the world is that red sauce. Enjoyed the creamy ricotta fillings. Most outstanding item in there, were the toasted and chopped pistachios. Fragrant especially when masticated. Pistachio gelato was good too.

Signature Mascarpone & Espresso Tiramisu Cake with Sicilian Bitter Cocoa

Ordinary, not lousy.

So how did I do?

Joo Siah Bak Koot Teh, Jurong East

This ba kut teh here trumped the one at Founder . If not for the location, I can see myself becoming a semi regular at Joo Siah (Blk 347 Jurong East Ave 1, #01-220, Yuhua Market & Hawker Centre). 

Can't quite put a finger to what exactly about Joo Siah that made me decide with certainty that I preferred them. Perhaps it was a clearer and sharper broth that had bits of white peppercorn at the base and those morsels of tender rib meat that one could easily suck off the bone. That and a combination of those and the excellent braised pork trotters in dark soy sauce. And I really do mean excellent. The medley of textures from the soft meat, fat and skin were slurp inducing and I found a homely aspect to the taste of their dark soy sauce. Tasted very much like how my grandmother used to make them. 

The pickled vegetables were pretty pedestrian. They had unfortunately ran out of tau kee for the day and I hear that the prime ribs are usually sold out by the afternoon. I guess it's good enough reasons for an excuse to revisit.

De Yun Bak Kut Teh, Yishun

Even though this wasn't anything mind blowing, the stall had pretty good stuff going on there (Blk 417, Yishun Ave 11). For one, they were cooking a variety of stuff including boiled pig stomach and steamed fish. The bak kut teh was peppery and not shabby at all. I liked that the cai buay came with thinly sliced bits of chilli padi which added a bit of heat to the salty chopped bits of mustard greens. The meat from the rib was nice and fatty even though it wasn't quite of the "fall off the bone tender" standards.

Definitely more than good enough for a quick fix there with variety to boot at this remote corner of Yishun. Like braised pork trotters in dark soy sauce!

Paradise Dynasty, ION Orchard

Perhaps it had been that very recent trip down to the Ramen Champion stadium that I had felt that the la mian at Paradise Dynasty (2 Orchard Turn, #04-12A ION Orchard, tel : +65 6509 9118) lacked punch. While the flavors of the broth in the ramen had been salty and "in your face" impactful, this pork bone broth in the la mian appeared to be refined and subtle. Just like the difference between karate and taichi. If that means anything. Hiiieeeyaaah!

This was my first visit down to a restaurant by the Paradise Group. The food concept for Paradise Dynasty, is northern and southern Chinese. I know...it's vague. At least superficially it is.

The egg loaf above was made of century egg, salted egg and omelette. Apart from being egg-y, it was rather bland.

What this restaurant is well known for, are their xiao long bao. These black skinned ones above are black truffle flavour. To be honest, the black truffle was subtle and little. One would have to be consciously tasting the dumpling instead of gobbling them down to recognize that there was actually something else lurking inside them. On the other hand, these xiao long baos did taste a lot like the original versions, not detracting much from their original porky taste.

These are the foie gras flavoured versions of the xiao long bao. Like the black truffle variety, the flavour from the foie was subtle. But I have to admit that this place makes a pretty decent pork and fat dumpling.

These chilled Shaoxing marinated drunken chicken were great. Flavour from the wine was thoroughly seeped into the soft flesh of the bird. Will likely to order these again if I come back.

Regretted ordering the mala beef innards. I suppose I didn't really enjoy the spices and that it was filled with chopped coriander. With all the spiciness, I couldn't really taste much of the beef.

In spite of the earlier comparison, I had actually enjoyed the la mian here. Sure these silky noodles weren't the chewy or firm ones that I normally prefer. But these noodles were suppose to be another thing entirely. This place also did a much better job out of the molten yolked boiled egg. Fresh sweetness of the scallops and crab legs were also very apparent in the seafood here. Surprised and pleasantly so.

Ramen Champion at Iluma

Hey, the annual Ultimate Ramen Championship has made it to our local shores down at Iluma (201 Victoria Street, ILUMA @ BUGIS, #04 – 08/09/10). Seems that six stalls located in a "stadium" will be around until this time next year vying for our votes so that the winner is able to set up their ramen shop. 

The above was a bowl of Bario ramen from the stall of the same name. This stall from Tokyo featured semi squiggly noodles made from bread flour. What's visible from the above picture was but the proverbial tip of the iceberg for the amount of bean sprouts that went into the bowl of noodles. There's more of them sprouts in this bowl than a single serving in some chicken rice stalls!

I sampled more than a few spoonfuls of the garlicky broth before mixing in the grated garlic that one could help themselves to from the stall. The original broth tasted much like a hearty minced pork soup. 

What I liked about this particular bowl was the play of textures from both the thick chewy noodles and the crunchy bean sprouts. The former when put in a local context, was akin to lor mee noodles - albeit with more bite and none of that yellow noodle taste. I'm thinking this was very much like a Japanese lor mee. Guardian UK apparently put it as "50 best things to eat in the world" list. While I don't know if I would agree to that statement, I also do not think I would mind at all giving this a another go. With much less garlic the next time. On the side, Bario does have some crispy skinned and meaty gyozas which I found to be pretty good.

By a stroke of chance, Ikkousha that does my favourite Hakata styled tonkotsu ramen was just next door to Bario. Didn't have to navigate too far away through the lengthy queues/crowd. What stood out for me in their bowl of creamy broth was a depth of porcine smokiness that created a pretty unique flavour I've not encountered. Their thin noodles were sadly overcooked and weren't as firm and chewy as I liked.

I would like to give this stall my vote since I feel that they're definitely on a toe to toe with Nantsuttei, but I'm also keen on giving some of the others in the competition a go before I decide on it.

What was universal for both ramen stalls were the aromatic charshu that were so tender that they fell apart easily in the mouth. What's sad was that the ajitama from both stalls did not have the molten yolk and the shoyu flavour that I was expecting to be infused into the egg.

A seafood dinner at Greenwood

This seafood platter was a deviation from an old favorite we hadn't had for a while and it all came about from a sudden craving for seafood. It was also quite a long while back since I had last visited Greenwood (34 Greenwood Avenue, Hillcrest Park, tel : +65 6467 4950) and I did not even realize that they had an extended unit for seats in their restaurant.


As things would have it, we started off with a mekajiki toro. Also known as swordfish belly.


And then, there was a lobster bisque which was really not too bad if I had to make the call. The crustacean flavors were apparent and while I wasn't close to being blown away by it, I couldn't slam the soup neither.


There was honestly mixed feelings for me on this. While I did enjoy the sweet and spicy dressing of their octopus salad on the aside and the deep fried calamari wasn't as dreadfully boring a grease bomb I was thinking, I felt far from being impressed. The lobster was a little tough and the fish skewers were in need of a little salt. We left the place thinking to ourselves that it was all just okay. Is this one of the better seafood platter offerings to be had on this island?

Saizeriya Ristorante E Caffe, City Square Mall

I liked this Japanese place (180 Kitchener Road, #B2-55/56 City Square Mall, tel : +65 6834 4878) a lot better than I had expected. Perhaps it was the fact that I had came by expecting very little since I believe that one gets what one pays for. The prices at this place were very affordable for what they served and at their price point, I couldn't complain at all. There were no frills and presentation was..... well, perfunctory. But one doesn't come here for prettied up plates.

As you can see, squid ink pasta was generously inked, so to speak. I was really pleased that they did not scrimp on the squid ink and their flavour came through with every forkful of the al dente noodles. There wasn't much but pieces of squid in the pasta, but they were quite generously portioned and I'll probably want to order a plate of these again the next time I come.

The spinach with bacon was pretty much what it was. A bunch of soft wilted spinach flavoured with bits of bacon. I actually enjoyed how straightforward it all was in terms of how it was served and how it tasted.

This was probably the cheapest mushroom soup I've had for as long as I could remember and it was also a lot better than most that would cost twice of it. It's not close to the better ones I've had, but hey, those cost a lot more too.

I could imagine this order of smoked salmon to be something I took off the cold food section at Ikea. In fact, it arrived so quickly that it might have probably been prepared in a similar fashion. There was nothing fancy nor exciting about it. Just a mildly smoked salmon.

Their mushroom pasta was also satisfactory costing probably half of what Pasta Mania charges, but tasting more than twice as good. The flavours of the mushrooms were definitely not found wanting. These guys here didn't use excessive cream sauce and that was definitely a one up there.

Dessert was a panna cotta. It's probably a pre-packed dessert that was imported in bulk, but it was served chilled in a chilled glass bowl and it didn't taste half bad.