Da Mario's Pizzeria 2013

Da Mario has changed, in manners subtle and sometimes not, in the past years since the time they opened up. The menu has changed, settled down and also become less exciting. They're no longer the new kid on the block that people talk about. I suppose it's a symbol of maturity that they're still around knowing what they can do well, calling on what experimental remains from their earlier days to purge and keeping what people like. Doesn't really work for me unless those are really good, but then again, I hardly have the chance to re-visit, much less re-order something during a re-visit.

Well, perhaps not so for deep fried calamari. Or fritto misto. Which is everywhere. Which also basically, almost exclusively constitutes just prawn and calamari here. In this country. I've had good ones and regrettable ones. Da Mario's are one of the better done. Especially those fresh tasting prawns which are really firm and lovely. I would have loved for them to come with something with a little heat. A spiked pomodoro dip perhaps, rather than tartare sauce.

This is pappardelle with Italian sausage, truffle paste and a cream sauce. I'm not sure how Italian it is, but it's definitely become a Singaporean thing. Like ba chor mee. It's appearing in menus everywhere. It might be disguised with another pasta, but it's really just that truffled cream and sausage pasta. I think it works with tagliatelle well, but really, I'm getting sick of them.

I rather liked Da Mario's pizza bianca the last time round, so I thought I'll try another. Like I said, subtle changes happened to them. It used to be green olives, now they're like Kalamata. Chilli flakes brought forth welcomed spikes of heat, there was the soft crunch of artichokes and well, frozen crab chunks. Ingredients were generous. That didn't change. I didn't dislike this, but it all sounded much more tasty on menu because I was probably imagining non-frozen crab. I would like to clarify that I'm unfortunately not so naive.

And I'm not so sure if any of the food here is representative to Abruzzo.

But you know what could bring me back again? It'll probably be the little memory etched in the little corner of my mind after seeing the chef Colombano Miucci Mario hunch over, kneading the dough for my pizza in the kitchen. I'm still impressed by chefs that do the cooking rather than just talk the talking. Someone in honest toil selling their food and still resisting the impulse to put prices over the roof like what almost everyone else is doing. 

A bacon cheeseburger from Triple-O's

This was my first visit at Triple-O's locally (#01-22, The Star Vista, 1 Vista Exchange Green) after having had them once before. We were looking for something that was relatively fuss free and ended up here, with little expectations. I'm not sure if this is a good or a bad thing, but their burger was actually pretty decent for fast food. At this juncture, I cannnot actually name any other fast food joint here that does better actually. Omakase Burger does not count in this case and believe me, the meat here is even better than the Burger Bar. On top of that, the burgers here were larger than I had imagined them to be.

Oh, their natural cut fries are also by the way, better than every other fast food chain here. These were thicker cut, generously salted and had some spicy mayo dip that was actually spicy. Hooray for low expectations!

Jollibee, Lucky Plaza

The entire of this country's fast food could certainly learn a thing or two about queue management from Jollibee (#06-048A, Lucky Plaza, 304 Orchard Road). That aside, I can see why these guys are so popular. Their fried chicken was pretty light, quite tender and tasted reasonably good. Even their burger steak in that onion-y gravy was quite the comfort food with the little packet of rice on the side.

I thought part of their draw was that they were a little different, subtly enough and not entirely a different beast. I wouldn't mind eating this but I'm not so sure it'll be worth the time if there was a long queue. Hey, there's actually pineapple juice instead of just the globally monopolized sodas and overly sweet lemon tea. 

Al Borgo, Bukit Timah Road

I've been wanting to come over to Al Borgo (383 Bukit Timah Road, #01-02 Alocassia Apartments, tel : +65 9772 1680) for a long time because the old Borgo held a special spot in my heart and I really wanted to go back. Well, they closed and this opened up. This here was one of those procrastinations upon procrastinations for some reasons.

The food here was pretty competent without going into any comparisons. The pastas were firm with a good bite and there's very little to fault since it was all supposed to be relatively straightforward food. Portions were generous, food was adequately tasty but it didn't wow so much. But I hear that the chef is more of a man of the grill rather than pasta.

The pleasant surprise from the lunch was a special off the board of their thinly sliced roasted beef with truffle sheep cheese that was packed robust with the flavour of truffles. There was a pungent flavour in the semi hard crumbly cheese that worked with the truffles. I'd order them again if they ever ended up in the regular menu. 

If I had to complain, I could gripe over the minced wild boar from their pappardelle which was a little lean. The light cream sauce from the tagliatelle was much more rich tasting than it looked. I believe a lighter hand with the cream would have worked better with those shaven black truffles.

A recent bowl of prawn noodles

Those may not so remotely resemble dismembered fingers, but are actually "slurp off the bone" tender pig tails from a tasty bowl of home made prawn and pork rib noodles. And yes, the picture below shows off the bits of freshly fried bits of crispy lard to go with them. Thanks for the delicious dinner Alice!

What happened to L'Entrecote Express and &Made?

L'Entrecote has an express outlet sharing the same premise with &Made down in Pacific Plaza. So you can pretty much order anything from both menus. Since I liked both of them, it sounded like a rather ideal setup right smack in the middle of town. What surprised me was that the quality of the food has gone noticeably downhill.

The beef tasted a little flat and the sauce, while creamy, lacked the liveliness that I remember. Some of the vinegar tart seemed to be lost. This was certainly not the steak I had at Duxton. Even the fries tasted a little grease logged and boring. The other shocker was how dry and lacking of flavor the B Burger from &Made has become. I'm not so sure it was that same aged beef patty that was used and I certainly didn't expect that obvious slide in quality coming from some place run by somebody who has had 3 Michelin stars. Even if that was in the past.