Al Forno Trattoria revisited

Parma

Pappardelle al Quatro Formaggi

Frittura Mista

the slice before the rest

Medaglioni di Maiale Pancetta

Bummer! They ran out of gnocchi. It was the thing that I wanted to have from here. What I liked about their gnocchi was that they were pan fried. That got them crusty before their rich four cheese sauce came into play. So we ended up with their pappardelle which was not bad at all. Thick cut and not over cooked.

The Parma ham on their pizza were sliced thicker than I remembered them. Could hardly eat the pizza without pulling most of the ham off. It was nice (also a tad pricier than most places) but not as memorable as the previous time I had them. Those fried prawns that came with the calamari weren't anything to be excited about.

What was also good were the pork fillets. Thick hearty chunks of pig (tenderloin) wrapped in more pig (bacon) in a brown sauce. Couldn't tell what was that sauce but it was nice.

This place was old school and also no frills which I liked. Discounting one particular service staff that had a smile that I found a little disquietly disturbing.

Japanese sweet potato jelly cakes from Isetan

Got a box of them from one of the Japanese fairs over at Isetan during the weekends. I'm not sure why these things are called sweet potato jelly cakes since they don't resemble jellies in taste nor in appearances in any way. The textures of these things felt like reconstructed steamed sweet potatoes that are chilled. It was as if cooked sweet potatoes were mashed, mixed with something sweet (just sugar maybe) and then packed back into these bricks. Despite finding them a little too sweet for my usual liking, they were quite addictive. There was a nice flavour from the sweet potatoes as well. I guessing that there wasn't much other ingredients that were used to make them.

Cod-dling up at Wasabi Tei

Not doing any advertising for Wasabi Tei if that's a thought that's in your head but I needed to give myself a chance at their grilled cod which caught my attention the last time we were here. Due to probable inconsistency, it also turned out not as thick and large as I remember seeing them but there weren't any regrets. And yes, it did look quite charred, like their unagi and grilled chicken which were nice in that charred manner. I'm quite sure that many would have something to say about the quality of the cooking but it didn't taste as burnt as it looked. In fact it was fragrant on the outside while tender and moist on the insides. This was also an opportunity to try the cod in claypot which never fails to turn up on someone else's seat every time we visit. What we learnt was that at each seating, only 4 of these can be served up since it takes about a half hour for the cooking to be done. It was actually not bad. What you got from the hot bubbling pot beside from the fish was a whole lot of soft boiled cabbage, seaweed and golden mushrooms in a lightly sweet dashi broth. I'm not an expert on fishes nor do I order them very often, but I've eaten them enough in my life to recognize that these were pretty fresh as they go.

Angus House, Ngee Ann City

This was one place (391 Orchard Road, #04-25 Ngee Ann City, tel : 6735 6015) where I'll have little beef with their beef. Haha. Well, it's actually a second visit . The first first time was a treat from a friend a few years back and the food from the set seemed to be exactly as I remember it - from the fried fish starter to the tiramisu for dessert. I guess they're one of those dependable go to places where one can always rely on getting a decent steak with minimal frills.

Capricci, Tanjong Pagar

Relatively new restaurant that has moved into the place along Duxton where Oso used to be (27 Tanjong Pagar Road, tel : 6221 6761). The food was decent, with a savory starter of parmesan and wild mushroom souffle that stood out being both cheesy and comforting; and a ficattole which reminded me of deep fried dough fritters from Indian rojak stores. The latter would have gotten boring in a while, being a little heavy from the the grease, if not for the Parma ham that actually paired off pretty well with them.

Pasta was a little disappointing. What was meant by disappointing is that while it was really not terrible, it simply didn't hold enough of an appeal that I would look forward to coming back. The carbonara had a seafoody taste of clams and squids in the cream was a little interesting for a while. Gnocchi was just uninspiringly dull since one couldn't really taste the bits of chestnuts in them and the crushed pistachios are really doing nothing apart from providing texture to the dish since the flavors are a tad weak to content with a Gorgonzola based sauce which also didn't contain enough of the blue cheese to make me impressed in the first place. Maybe it could have been because of not having ordered their "signature" items. I definitely don't subscribe to depending on that.

"the bread wok"

soffiato di parmigiano in fonduta

ficattole with Parma ham

tagliatelle seafood carbonara

chestnut and potato gnocchi with gorgonzola sauce and crushed pistachio

Restoran Hen Hwa

Hey, this was really tasty food there and inexpensive to boot from a shop house eatery of the old world charm where one could still find themselves seated on plastic chairs and foldable tables on the road aside parked cars. I didn't really take note of the address unfortunately, but its somewhere in the vicinity of Taman Sentosa, Johor Bahru. I was told that the food that they serve are quite similar to what you can find in kuey chap. So what we had was essentially a sampler of just a few of the items that was suppose to be quite popular here as we already started off with a healthy dose of some street side grilled/steamboat skewers (lok-lok). It definitely helped some that their bowls of kuey teow kia (thin rice noodles) were actually light and clear tasting in that mildly herbal broth with crunchy bean sprouts and a helping of spring onions with fried shallots.

The deep fried pipa duck and fish stood out pretty well being greasy but not excessively so. The fish was fried in a manner that almost everything on the exterior was chew-ably crispy and the only remnant of it after one was through with them was the bone at the centre and nothing else. With a home made chilli sauce and squeezed lime on the side. They're definitely one of those things that could be grouped under beer food. I can definitely revisit this place.