Pizza Fabbrica, Bussorah Street

Fior di latte, pancetta, portobello mushroom, onions, goat cheese

Fior di latte, Gorgonzola, Grana Padano, Provola

Fior di latte, porcini mushroom, scamorza cheese with truffle

Here's news. A fairly new Italian pizza place (70 Bussorah Street, tel : +65 6291 0434) in the Arab Street zone helmed by a chef that had previously stinted at the The Fat Duck. Hmmm...name dropping credentials. And doppio zero flour.

While nothing out-of-the-world outstanding, their pizzas were pretty good. The base was light, doughy and chewy without being too dense and the toppings were of good quality. I liked that I could actually have a brimful of Gorgonzola flavours from their quattro formaggi. Will check back again for sure.

Feedlot Steakhouse Bar & Grill, Tanglin Road

This place was not bad at all. If you didn't know, Feedlot Steakhouse (56 Tanglin Road #B1-01, tel : +65 6463 8080) is owned by Swiss Butchery located just above them; the butchery that also supplies/sources the meat for their menu.

Their scallop starter was pretty good. The shellfish was seared nicely brown along the edges which provided that char aroma and wasn't overcooked. While these didn't quite match the quality that one can find in places like The Naked Finn, it was definitely not shabby. Would have liked for them to be larger though. 

Tenderloin linguine was very nice too. Meat was properly done, though a tiny shade above medium rare towards medium. This was basically a properly treated piece of filet unmasked by unnecessary seasoning on aglio olio pasta spiked with sliced chilli.

Remember macaroni chicken soup. Well, this was macaroni lobster bisque. Even though it was called a lobster mac & cheese on menu, it didn't have so much cheese and whatever they had was scorched fragrant. Which was a good thing since that lobster bisque was really what made the dish. Along with the little, yet discernible chunks of lobster meat. I'm impressed. 

Nakhon Kitchen, Ang Mo Kio Ave. 10

Believe it or not, sitting down at a shop house along Ang Mo Kio and having some pretty delicious Thai food while being serenaded with Thai heavy metal blasting in the background can be somewhat surreal. And there I once was, thinking that Dream Theater was it. That was Nakhon Kitchen (#01-2371, 529 Ang Mo Kio Avenue 10, tel : +65 6451 1332) for me, two separate visits so far. Heavy metal on both visits.

We've had quite a number of dishes from the two visits, so I'm going to just keep it down to those that I thought were memorable or mention worthy.

That above was the pineapple curry with mussels. It was rather good in a lemon grass-y sort of way that was also creamy and somewhat spicy. The draw for this was the meaty mussels - shelled, and the chunks of pineapple in curry. I'd come back again just for this.

We were initially skeptical about the prawn cakes. While I might not have had a lot of these Thai styled prawn cakes before, I remember having had pretty disappointing ones. These were actually pretty good. I'm gonna be lazy with the description this time and just say that these are best tried to understand what brand of goodness they pack. Again, good for returns.

Yes, that's their som tam mamuang, or commonly referred to as the Thai green mango salad. Not bad a rendition, but didn't beat Pra Ram Thai Cuisine for me. I suppose this one felt a little more muted in comparison without those more noticeable spikes of heat and pronounced fragrance from the dried shrimps.

I liked their pad krapaw with squid. It was pretty straight forward stir fry that was served hot and spicy and satisfying. The sauce, wonderful condiment to the rice.

I've never been a big fan of tom yam locally. But this clear rendition from Nakhon Kitchen was enjoyable. 

Revisiting Baja Fresh

We were pretty sure that we weren't impressed at all the last time we visited; but for some reason, I was compelled to come back again and this time round, we had rather enjoyed it. Well, the food isn't mind blowing by any means, but it was certainly a lot better than we remembered of it. 

What possibly left the deepest impression were their smoky grilled shrimp which we had in both the tostada salad and their quesadilla. We had totally not expected the fact that we'd enjoy them as much as we did. The savoury tortilla soup was surprisingly tasty with bits of melted cheese, smoked chicken and avocados.

Dislikes? All the cilantro in the pico de gallo. It's just me and cilantro. And most of the sour cream in the food was probably unnecessary.

The churros were free, thanks to social media promotions. Go figure. It actually didn't taste too bad.

Burger-ed up!

At this point of time Burger Up is probably the top drawer for fast food burgers. Not counting Omakase Burger of course. This hefty double patty sandwich of theirs puts the sad excuses for quarter pounders and whoppers to shame. Sure there's room for improvement. For a start, they should drop those individually wrapped plasticky cheese and use something nicer. Even the American cheese from McD is a significant mile better.

More sarnies from Sarnies

Here's back at Sarnies, one of my favourite out of the way sandwich shop which unlike many cafes, does not rely on gimmicks to sell what they do while providing one of the best frills free "between sliced bread" option around town.

While I certainly had nothing against their smoked salmon sarnie, it's usually not my thing and I don't think I'd be too enthused about a next. The chicken schnitzel on the other hand was pretty satisfying. Soft chewy rye with mayo spread wrapped around a chunk of piping hot and freshly fried chicken on a bed of lettuce.