Of hot vanilla, smoked egg and star anise...

In spite of having visited Lai Lai a few times, I've never noticed that they have rou cuo fan (minced meat with rice) because I've always been caught up with their beef noodles and lu rou fan. That and those delicious braised pig intestines which I haven't been able to find better elsewhere. Yet. Compariing with the lu rou fan, this one didn't work out as well for me because of the star anise flavour. Not saying that it wasn't good but I would preferred it if the spice didn't taste as strong. If I'm ever getting this rice bowl again, Peng Lai Ge would be the better option.

There're a couple of other things that we've picked which I've never tried before. One was a smoked egg which to my surprise, arrived chilled. I thought it was quite delicious despite it not being very smoky tasting at all. Pretty sure what contributed to my positive reaction to it was the runny yolk. The other item was a foamy warm vanilla milk which I thought was a little too sweet. Could have been pretty good if it was served hotter and a lot less sweet.

Sofra, Shaw Towers

Sofra (100 Beach Road, #02-42 Shaw Towers, tel: 6291 1433) turned out to be a little disappointing. The food portions were pretty small, didn't taste that good and their service was irritatingly slow. For a restaurant that has been around for years, I was expecting something that justified their existence.

One of the peeves I had with Sofra was that bread wasn't topped up and was separately chargeable. It also had to be ordered separately even if one had gotten their mezze.


There was a oddly named dish, sultan kebap which was some sort of grilled lamb with a potato and cheese gratin on the sides. The dish looked like it had been baked in an oven. The mashed potato underneath the melted mozzarella cheese tasted very earthy. It was otherwise pretty much like how it looked. The chef platter which was a mixed grill plate of meats that tasted pretty ordinary as well. The sad thing was, I thought that the bread from the platter was actually the best tasting item. Everything felt rather uninspired and I don't think I'm returning. There're better mixed kebabs elsewhere.

Komala Vilas, Serangoon Road

Wow to the food here! It's been a long time since I've eaten at Komala Vilas (76/78 Serangoon Road, S 217981, tel: 6293 6980). The last time was a vague recollection of dosai and tea in metal cups probably 13 years back. Since then, I've passed by this shop on numerous occasions on my way to Chellas haven't walked in until now.

This pretty famous Indian restaurant which has been around before 1950 whips up volumes of South Indian vegetarian food like rice based meals, snacks like dosai, chapati, battura, idlis and vadai for the consistently large crowd that come in daily. The thali (South Indian rice meal) which came with soft, fluffy and steaming rice was mouth watering good. I thought that the rice (which comes with an array of condiments) was so good, you could eat it on its own. But you don't because there's a bunch of other accompaniment like thairu (yoghurt), spicy pickles or the huge bucket of sambar which the servers walk around with. Rice meals here are all you can eat . One can always request for more rice and vegetables.

There was also a Bombay Thali (also known as the vegetarian briyani on the menu) which was served on a steel tray. That came with saffron infused rice and an additional piece of chapati. I'm not familiar with all the names of the vegetable sides here but they were all tasty.

El Sheikh Restaurant, Pahang Street

I've noticed this place (18 Pahang Street, tel: 6296 9116) from quite a long while back. We happened to be roaming around the vicinity, came upon the restaurant and decided to check them out. The place sold itself as Lebanese, but it was also a little bit of generic western as well? Like penne arrabiata or crinkle cut fries in the menu? But then again, I haven't been to Lebanon, so what do I know?

The food were a few hits and misses. But I guess there were more hits than misses. Service however, was very spotty with very disinterested looking waitresses who didn't even know what's in the menu.

We started off with a couple of warm appetizers which was a hummus with lamb and chicken liver with mollasses.


I was quite taken in by the lamb and hummus. The creamy chick pea puree was enjoyable despite the lack of lemon and garlic. There were some toasted cashews and pistachios scattered sparingly on it, but those didn't taste freshly toasted. Also, I found it a little strange that the flat bread came wrapped in plastic instead of being freshly made. The chicken livers were also pretty good. Good like I wouldn't mind eating them again. There was something in them that made them tangy.


That's the 1/2 kilogram mixed kebab platter which the waitress insisted, consists of only lamb. But the truth was that we got a couple of chicken and lamb shish kebabs, a couple of lamb chops, and chunks of grilled chicken and beef. They were okay. The accompanying spiced rice was pretty good though.

What caught my interest was, this place actually serves a whole lamb/goat for $400. Hmmmm....goat party!

I know a secret down in uncle Tom's Palette......

Some of you might recognize where the title of this entry comes from. If you didn't, nevermind. It's really not important. Lol.

I've been down to Tom's Palette (100 Beach Road, #01-25 Shaw Leisure Gallery, tel: 6296 5239) two evenings in a row to check out their ice cream which turned out to be pretty good. There's a bunch of interesting flavors like lavender and tangy basil which reminds me of shampoo and cheap tomato pasta sauce. Lol. But honestly, some of the flavors are pretty good. I managed to try a couple of their creations like horlicks and hazelnut (separate flavors) which turned out for both to be pretty awesome in terms of their respective flavors. What that means is that the taste is pretty robust. There was also a chocolate stout and apple pie on the second visit. The former was an average chocolate with a hint of stout. Duh! The latter was a creamy one with bits of soft apple bolstered with crumbles. I wouldn't go as far as to label them orgasmic. Not even close, but they were pretty good. In fact, these guys could be just a notch ahead of Island Creamery.

From Tetsuya, with compliments....

I bought this jar of truffle salsa ($28) some time back from Culina and had fiddled with making food with them a couple of times. The salsa turned out to be pretty versatile and a tasty condiment. For someone who doesn't know much about cooking that is. It simply just works. Lol.


The first attempt at using Tetsuya's Truffle Salsa was the flavouring for pasta. One of the weekend lunches I made at home with ham steak and Gordon Ramsay's scrambled egg recipe, sans the chives. You can check out the link to see how the eggs were done. Not going to talk about them here. The cooked pasta was simply tossed with a couple of generous tea spoonfuls of the truffle salsa along with butter. That was all. Because there was just butter to grease the noodles, most of the taste will come from the salsa itself. That meant, mostly truffle flavour. Safe and easy to make. Take it from a person who doesn't do real cooking. If I can, so can you.


Pizza is one of those stuff that I do at home especially when the sun is particularly discouraging at my attempts to go outdoors. As some of you might already know, I like using Dr Oetker's and have been experimenting with a bunch of add ons with their frozen pizza ranging from seven cheeses to strawberries and ham.

I've decided to add the truffle salsa and see what I could come up with. Since this was by me for me, I was much more generous with the truffle than any other pizza shop out there. I got one of Dr Oetker's mozzarella ones and scraped some of the salsa over the top. After that, some grated parmesan and more mozzarella and an egg. And then, into the oven it went. I kinda like how it turned out. This was definitely much more heady with truffle flavour than any other pizza that I've had outside.