The Prata Place, Thong Soon Ave

I've seen this place around (1 Thong Soon Ave., tel : +65 6459 5670) but the first time I've actually visited was sometime in the past year to try their thosai stuffed with mozzarella cheese and portobello mushroom. It didn't leave much of impression at that time and my attention was drawn to them again recently because these guys were participating in the Ultimate Hawker Fest 2014; a third year in participation for them. They were running with a dish that was essentially a prata based eggs Benedict with masala Hollandaise. No less.

The humble flatbread that originated from India, paratha, which was the predecessor of the local prata that we have today has evolved. It's survived a few decades as prata by the grace of the immigrants from India that had settled in this part of the world with little frills generally beyond eggs and onion until it further juiced up into the multi flavoured/stuffed pastry that we know from the past decade plus. Think Milo, cheeses, Nutella, bananas, condensed milk, chocolate sauce, canned fruit, ice cream and even more.

Today, I'm plunged my fork into an Ultimate Murtabak (their dish from the Hawker Fest two years back) with mozzarella cheese, portobello mushrooms, chopped onions, eggs and chunks of tandoori chicken. Check out the Frankenstein-ian patchwork we have done to that street eat. If anyone's wondering, it tasted pretty much as good as it sounded, but I'll have to remember to ask for no onions the next time. The large chunks of their onions didn't work for me because doneness was inconsistent due to the inconsistent sizes. But having the tandoori chicken in the murtabak rocked.

The other "contemporary flavour" we got was a red bean paste prata. Which resembled very closely the Chinese red bean pancake. Except that this one had a much thinner and crisp pastry skin and I think I liked it much better because of that. This was pretty unique as flavoured prata went since I don't think any of other shops do that. 

Will come by again another day but this would not a place I see myself coming to with frequency. There must be a ton of oil in the food, seeing that it also made me feel greasy after eating.

Revisiting Dong Bei Ren Jia (东北人家)

A revisit because we liked what we had the previous time we were here.

Previously we had tried their steamed cabbage and pork dumplings, so today, we hit the pan fried version. These were rather competent as guo tie went. The skin was nicely browned at the base and the stuffings were decent but my favourite are still those from Jing Hua Restaurant (京华小吃).

I don't remember what these were called, but they're strips of potatoes that are flavoured with vinegar, fresh green chilli and dried red chilli. In spite of the chillis, it wasn't as spicy as it might have sounded. The texture of the strips of potatoes were excellent. It was cooked sufficiently, yet retained a light crunch.

More big headed bean sprouts that we had from the last visit.

And then some stir fried omelette with tomatoes. These tasted better than they sounded. A blend of savoury and sweetness from the fruit.

Their stir fried bitter gourd and sliced beef was good. Well, I liked it. Because the meat tasted like what beef should taste like. The local cooks should learn from them and stop bicarbonating them to undeath. This was altogether a rather light savoury and bitter dish. In some ways, it was actually refreshingly clean on the palate. 

That's the salted vegetable and mutton soup which we had previously as well that's not on the menu. 

Tai Loke Hainan Chicken Rice, Queen Street

I've been trying to get a plate from this stall (269B Queen Street) for quite a while so this has finally happened. This stall doesn't even open until dinner time. While their chicken rice wasn't something that was so impressive that it'll blow your socks off, Tai Loke had some redeeming qualities. Their blend of drizzle sauce for the chicken was deliciously fragrant from the sesame and the meat was slurp off the bone tender. Their rice, of the light flavoured variety, was rather easy to inhale - especially with a drizzle of their chicken sauce concoction and/or even the aromatic dark soy. What didn't work out for me here was the their chilli which was both watery and garlicky.

I'd eat this again easily if I were in the vicinity but it's not exactly one of those stalls that I'd go out of the way for.

Snow cheese ramen from Buta God

If you're thinking that this looks like just a simple sprinkle of powdered Parmesan cheese on top of the regular bowl from Buta God, you're probably right. I'm not sure if much thought process had been gone through to create this supposedly seasonal bowl but we're looking at a clash blend of two strong flavours here. The rich, sweet & savoury broth and the powdered cheese. This turned out to be pretty tasty. If you like powdered cheese in your food that is. There was just enough of the cheese to tell without making a mess of the original broth. I wonder how does the grilled cheese bowl fare.

Da Paolo Bistro Bar, Rochester Park

This was the other Da Paolo (3 Rochester Drive, tel : +65 6774 5537) left today that's still a proper restaurant. The food is nothing much like their restaurants in the past. It's much easier to label what they do as generic European rather than specifically Italian. Of course, the lines blur these days.

Here's some pea soup with Gorgonzola cream and a tagliatelle with sweetbread ragu. That pea soup was surprisingly quite good. It was sweet, smooth and creamy; peppered and drizzled with light Gorgonzola cream and some chorizo. I enjoyed this. The real reason for me coming here was for their pasta with sweetbread ragu. Sweetbread is still a rarity here. I think there was mention of bone marrow in the sauce as well but I certainly didn't taste it. It wasn't bad. 

While I wouldn't say that I disliked the food here, I am pretty sure at this point and forward, Da Paolo will unlikely be a consideration for me if I'm feeling like Italian. Maybe it's the rental at Rochester. The portions were also a little small and prices a little high for those small portions. One can certainly venture guesses at their business goals from why those things are and the direction their food is taking.

Tian Shui Chicken Rice, Tanglin Halt Food Centre

Until recently, I've never noticed this chicken rice stall (Stall #22, Tanglin Halt Market, 48A Tanglin Halt Road). Since then, I've eaten at it twice so here's some thoughts.

Their chicken was slightly chilled and doused with a sticky sauce which was different from the majority of chicken rice. Can't say that I'm a big fan of that sauce but it's probably just me and gloopy sauces. The meat from the chicken was pleasantly tender. Rice was grainy and inconsistently flavoured across and when there was some flavour, it was lightweight. In a nutshell, it would look to be another faceless stall that delivered competent if an ordinary plate.

Until that chilli sauce with a respectable heat that peaked fast and sustained a consistent but gradually increasing burn, topped with a citrus-y note. If one were to take a step back and examine the triage that made chicken rice, it certainly made sense to not have that much flavour in the rice. The chilli, which rocked by the way, would have killed it. I'm still trying to figure out what's in their soup. Not the commonly available thin cabbage broth they're doing.