Modesto's, another take

I have mentioned previously that I have mixed feelings about Modesto's (1 Tanglin Road #01-09/10 Orchard Parade Hotel S247905, tel:62357808)? For one, the diverse crowd's pretty strong and has been that way for a long time. The service is something that I consider to be a notch up from the run of the mill restaurants in town. If one doesn't get too picky, the food here is actually pretty decent. They've brought wood fired pizza to the general public for the longest time before the rise of the other Italian places that are popping up like mushrooms these days. Still there's this element of them trying a bit to hard to stay relevant in the cuisine they do. Like claiming to serve pasta only al dente which I think is really out of point. If it's really Italian, there is no other way of doing it except by mistake. Also, the strange thing is the speed at which food is served. I had barely started on my first piece of bread before the starter of the Parma ham and melon arrived. Granted that I hadn't reached out for the ham as soon as the plate sat on the table, I was midway through my first piece and the pastas arrived. If you're still missing the point here, it feels pre-prepared.

gnocchi al gorgonzola e radicchio rosso

I've had this thought in my head for a while now regarding gnocchi. I've heard people on some basis to use the overly whored "melt in your mouth" expression to describe it. I've had ones that I thought were good and ones that were pretty bad. None of them actually qualified as something that actually come close to melting in the mouth. Am I missing something here? By the way, I thoroughly detest that phrase simply because of the countless times been abused by those that don't know any better or are trying in some odd sense to show off that they're actually eating something that really good.

Speaking of which, Modesto's actually has pretty decent gnocchi in Gorgonzola sauce. They're served hot, soft and slightly chewy which is the way I think they ought to taste in terms of texture for these dumplings. The portions are also rather generous. These definitely do not melt in your mouth.

tagliatelle nere con cappesante e gamberi in salsa di crostacei

The squid ink tagliatelle wasn't really anything impressive. The taste struck me as pretty flat and ordinary in spite of a "shrimp bisque" sauce. Like the gnocchi which just tasted mostly of the light creamy Gorgonzola zauce (at least they were satisfying to some extent), the tagliatelle tasted mostly of the bisque, came with very unremarkable shrimps and pan fried scallops that doesn't look nor taste pan fried to me. I had imagined this to be much better.

Roasted meats from Tampines Round Market food centre

3 days of chicken rice in a row. I can feel the DNA of the chickens melding into mine and I think wattles are growing. This one from Tampines Round Market food centre (Rong Sheng Roasted Chicken Rice Noodles, #01-43) was not bad. The rice had a nice flavour going on and the meat wasn't tough or dry. I requested for an addition roast pork which turned out pretty tasty too. Notice the clean cuts of the firm meat on the pork belly strips. The portions here are pretty good as well. This plate with an egg cost $4.00. Which makes it much better value for money in comparison with the previous chicken rice I had at Nan Xiang.

Nan Xiang, Square 2

I came by this chicken rice place at Novena (#01-156/159, Square 2, 10 Sinaran Drive S307506) by way of recommendation from a friend and it did look like there wasn't a need to queue or a wait since we were looking to grab a quick dinner. Usually when an eatery is mostly empty, it raises alarms, but I've been having some cravings for chicken rice of late and the food did look decent if unspectacular. From the menu, the chicken rice were sold in combo sets but it is actually possible to order them like how it is done in hawker stores with just the chicken and rice minus the extras. One of the rice option comes in the form of balls. I'm not sure how these are done, but each of these chicken rice ball came in wrappers when served and I don't know how they stack against the original ones from Malacca or even the Goodyear store at Toa Payoh. The rice balls fell apart when I put a fork into them. Taste of the rice itself was quite the norm.

Chicken options are the usual steamed or roasted (fried if you will) variety. Meat was rather ordinary if a little on the dry side. Came drizzled with some unidentifiable and forgettable brown gravy instead of the usual soy sauce and sesame oil sauce combination which did little to help with the dryness of the meat. Doesn't quite stand out.

Mud Ooze

Yep, that's the Mud Ooze from Miss Clarity (Talib Court, 5 Purvis Street, #01-04, S188584, tel : 6339 4803). Thought it was a good recommendation from the restaurant because it tasted pretty good and it wasn't expensive. There's no novelty or gimmick about it as it was basically a molten lava chocolate cake. Everyone's doing them. What made this a good recommendation was how much it cost ($4.50) and that it tasted almost as good as any others I've had. No Grand Marnier flourishes of course. No flames. And no vanilla bean in the ice cream too....hey! This was likely microwaved and hasn't much discernible differences. I believe that the molten chocolate here was more robust than another place which cost more.

Hainanese (De-Bone) Chicken Rice, Yishun 81 Food Court

This chicken rice store at Yishun 81 Food Court (Blk 925 Yishun Central 1, #01-249, S760925) is often crowded. If you come late, the stall is probably closed already. I've eaten here on several occasions but lately the rice seems to have changed. Previously they were the soft fluffy types which was pretty good. The rice now has become less fluffy, more oily and heavier. Hence the chilli sauce and dark soy sauce are actually put in to use since I don't like the rice as much. Also, I recall some vegetable dishs which do not seem to be available anymore. I wonder if any of the regulars noticed the change since business still looked as good. There was a waiting time of 10 minutes at lunch hour. The one that hasn't changed would be the portions. They are still as small as ever. The tender chickens (only steamed ones here) at least are still pretty decent for a saving grace.

La Braceria Pizza and Grill, Ban Guan Park

I've been hearing about La Braceria (70 Greenleaf Road, Ban Guan Park, S279356, tel:64655918) for some time now and it's been on my list of places to check out for while. Located in a very old shophouse at Ban Guan Park on Greenleaf which is just off 6th Avenue. It's rather secluded, if not also remote. Being around that area felt like stepping into a capsule of another era. But that's for another day. Maybe. The food here's fairly straight forward with minimal frills. The food definitely looked more appealing than the recent disappointment at Trattoria Lafiandra.

To start, I opted for the trippa alla Fiorentina which is essentially tripe in a light tomato broth with cheese. The tripe turned out to be pretty good. The taste of the meat was beefy, soft and slightly chewy. Having soaked up the tomato broth, each bite was also somewhat "juicy". This turned out to be a rather pleasant warm starter of meat and broth.


There was this salsicci de maiale al finocchietto which was their famous home made pork sausages which I had thought could be interesting. The sausages here were densely packed in their cases and served with a small side of salad and pan roasted potatoes. Hearty would definitely be the word for them and I thought they were not bad at all.  Except for the fennel seeds which were part of the seasoning. I don't usually like them because they remind me too much of liquorice.


Their molten chocolate cake turned out to be similar to the lava cake from Borgo. From the menu, I had expected the cake to come with a hot melting core. Served with Grand Marnier and flamed. This one was actually better than the one at Borgo which didn't have enough of the chocolate.