Ruby Poh Piah, Whampoa Food Centre

I had read that the poh piah from this stall (#01-53, Whampoa Drive Blk 90). That they were generous with the ingredients used for their stuffings. Tried it, I didn't think much of it at all. Found them pretty unexceptional. There wasn't any garlic. Beside the boiled turnip, the portions of the rest of the fillings were measly. I'm sure I can easily find elsewhere that makes better. Made one wonder if the reason for it being around for so long is only because it is the only poh piah stall in this food centre.

When Angels descend......online!

"It is said that a man should be wary of weeping angels, for wherever their teardrops fall, men drown."

Descent of Angels, Mitchel Scanlon

I await. Even though it's probably a very long wait.

Unagi bento lunch set from Matsuo

Because of the recent craving for unagi, I had made it a point to visit Matsuo Sushi for lunch at least once on a Tuesday, because their daily $15 lunch on that day features a unagi bento. I must have had excessive dreams of fatty oily eel in my head because the eel didn't quite turn out as fatty as I hoped it to be, but then again, I might have been rather unrealistic imagining them. It was however a better unagi than the deluxe hitsumabushi at Wakashachiya. I detect a slightly more fatty texture beneath the grilled skin of the eel. Does anyone know which place serves good unagi?

There was a little portion of sake (salmon) sashimi for the lunch set which turned out to be pretty good. The sliced salmon was oily that it left globules of their oil on the shoyu dip. And today's miso soup featured a prawn's head!

Porta Porta, Stanley Street

This sure took a long time. I've been caught up with wizards and snipers and centuries old alchemist being chased by the original 007 of Her Majesty's service that this entry was neglected. But I digress. Dinner at Porta Porta was a "sea catch" set ($40.50) and a couple of pasta and rice from the a la carte menu.


Porta Porta at Stanley Street (5 Stanley Street, tel : 6222 7461) turned out to be a slightly different experience than the one at Upper Changi. Mostly because I thought the food was a notch up at the Changi location. This was obvious especially for their still excellent prawn cream penne and their fish soup. But in spite of being lesser in flavour, the food was still enjoyable. Definitely room for improvement with the doneness of the pasta but I'm not complaining.

In spite of the differences, food here was generally good. Almost everything was bursting with flavour. From the fragrant aromas of garlic and tangy vinegar in the tomato bruchetta (this was really awesome by the way) to the richly flavoured fish bruchetta to the olive tapanade for the bread and the gravies that were used......every edible item with sauce sang.



The seafood risotto wasn't bad, but became one dimensional after a while.

The sea catch set I had mentioned earlier consisted of a fish (or baby squid) soup, bruchetta, squid ink ravioli with crab meat (or a vongole pasta), a calamari & prawn secondi followed by desserts. The ravioli was properly done and like everything else, flavoursome with the sauce. The tissue thin batter for the fried seafood wasn't as thin as the ones from the Changi outlet. Still, for anyone who's been to Tenshin and think that those tempura masters do the lightest and thinnest batter around - you haven't had the calamari here yet.


There was quite a lot of espresso flavour in their tiramisu. The rest wasn't much to write home about. We're pretty sure we'll be back again for their pasta.

Breakfast from Leo's Espresso Bar

There seems to be quite a few coffee places popping up lately. Leo's Espresso Bar was one (Leo's Espresso Bar, 1 Raffles Place. B1-03D, OUB Centre, tel : 6533 6853) of those. I heard that these guys did brisk business. Unfortunately, I like my coffee fragrant and strong and the ones here didn't quite make that cut. Even with an extra shot, their cappuccino didn't pack the oomph that I was looking for. But for a nice shop that places house/dance music early morning serving breakfast and coffee at $8, this wasn't too expensive. Still, I would have preferred the bacon to be more browned instead of limp. Their minuscular kitchen area didn't look like it could handle anything more complex than what I've had and waiting time looked to be a bitch if it got crowded. I happened to have wandered in the vicinity of Boon Tat Street and Amoy Street recently and saw another outlet there at Telok Ayer too.

Chocolate chilli anchovy pasta from Eden Cafe

Previously, this item used to be a lunch menu option. I see that it has now made the main menu and probably will be there until it gets swapped out for the next rotation (meaning no one likes this much) or stay there as a permanent repertoire of Eden Cafe's Menu. This wasn't bad at all considering the combination of flavours that was in this dish. There's saltiness from anchovies, sour from the olives, spicy from the chilli and of course, the chocolate which wasn't really sweet. The taste from the chocolate was pretty subtle. It could be detected but wasn't close to overwhelming anything.