Cugini Trattoria Pizzeria, Club Street

I've been wanting to visit Cugini (87 Club Street, #01-01, tel : +65 6221 3791) for the longest time. So it's finally happened this weekend! If anyone is wondering, their food is southern Italian styled with influences Sardinia and Sicily, which I read, were where the owners were from.

Today's visit was a little whimsical. We didn't exactly order what the restaurant was known for. We just picked some of the stuff off the menu that sounded like they might be interesting and hence, totally skipped their southern styled pasta noodles that they are known for.

Cugini's calamari fritti was very good. I'd easily rate it amongst the top of fried calamari I've had. The meat was springy with bite, firmly enveloped in a crisp batter that was sufficiently salted and flavoured with something lightly smoky with some heat. Paprika or cayenne perhaps or something similar, but it was light and present, certainly made those calamari good enough to eat on their own. Dips on the side were very well done. 

This pizza was named golosa. Which translates as I understand, into something along the lines of 'glutton' or 'gourmand'. Perhaps the name of this Frankensteinian pizza was meant to be an innuendo sheathed within a double entendre. Just saying.

I actually liked this. For one, the fries are thicker cut. And slightly soggy which is the way I like fries. What it did was bulk up the pizza and the element that kept it from getting boring was the bits of Gorgonzola that was nicely spread through the pie. It's been a while since I've had a tomato based pizza where I didn't quite mind (even quietly to myself) that tomato base.

We had some Sicilian styled lamb ravioli in artichoke cream and butter. This was really good stuff. Didn't taste so much of the butter, but the artichoke cream was lovely and the finely minced lamb,  was lamb-y enough to retain characteristic flavour to the meat. I never understood people who ordered lamb and complained of gaminess. Pasta was well stuffed, properly cooked and firm to the bite.

Dessert was a white chocolate panna cotta with some crumbled Bronte pistachios and a raspberry sauce. The texture was smooth and creamy, a little heavier than a usual panna cotta because of the chocolate.

Lau Phua Chay Authentic Roasted Delicacies, Alexandra Village Food Centre

I have mixed feelings about this (#01-20, Alexandra Village Food Centre, Blk 120 Bukit Merah Lane 1).

Let's start with the duck. They claim that it's gotten off farms in Malaysia and not frozen. Which was a good thing but the drumsticks sure were small. The char siew was pretty good with plenty of caramelization. But most of the nice burnt bits were also lost in the sauce which they generously ladle over the meats. Too much going on there that really masked any quality there was to the meat or method of preparation. 

Their chilli on the other hand was brilliant. It's probably the best part to what they served. A three hit combo of heat, lime and garlic that gave a decent kick and worked the appetite. It made the gravy redundant for me since the flavours contended rather than complimented.

$9.50 for a drumstick and char siew was also pretty pricey for food that's not sufficient for a hungry person.

Wah Kee Big Prawn Noodles, Pek Kio Market & Food Centre

This should have been memorable on several accounts. For one, I hadn't imagined myself queuing up for prawn noodles (#01-15, Pek Kio Market and Food Centre, 41A Cambridge Road) on a Christmas Day. This would also be the first time that I'm visiting Pek Kio Food Centre and also the first time that I'm paying so much ($15) for a bowl of prawn noodles from a hawker centre. And I'm also as sure as hell that I've never stood in line for 70 minutes for food before.

If you're wondering what's the verdict for this stall pretty darned famous for their huge assed prawns... the noodles were decent. It all went down pretty easy flavoured with dried shrimp and bits of lard. Those prawns we had were large, satisfyingly meaty and fresh with a good bite. The broth, which is perhaps for some, the essence of good prawn noodles was not bad. There was a base note of chilli and garlic that worked with those crustacean flavours.

Memorable as I said. I'll certainly remember that I wouldn't be coming back to stand in that line. Not worth another 70 minutes of my life I'm never getting back.

Uncle Chicken, Alexandra Village Food Centre

This stall (#01-74, Alexandra Village Food Centre, 120 Bukit Merah Lane 1) riding on the name of Sin Kee is apparently run by the sibling of the current owner of the real deal down at Mei Ling Food Centre. I'm sure that both parties would share a similar claim of doing chicken rice the way their father had done, but there's definitely differences between the two. Interestingly, Uncle Chicken fared quite well. 

The chicken was tender but not as slurp off the bone tender as the ones from Sin Kee. Both rice were comparable but I'm giving Sin Kee a bit more points with their savoury edge since the both were sufficiently greased and properly flavoured without becoming excessively heavy. What Uncle Chicken did better in my opinion was their chilli sauce which packed more punch with the heat (just a little bit more) and lime. This was something I could use since I generally eat the rice naked at Sin Kee. 

The owners of these couple of stalls may be siblings from the same father that started the business, but both their chicken rice from these two stalls are different beasts. I liked this enough that I wouldn't mind eating again when I'm in the vicinity.

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!