Usman Restaurant, Serangoon Road

I heard about this place (238 Serangoon Road, tel : +65 6296 8949) some time back but never got a chance to drop by until today. While the address just stated Serangoon Road, a more accurate description of the location would be corner of the junction of Serangoon Road and Desker Road. Food seems to be Pakistani/Indian.

Their palak paneer tasted freshly made. You could taste quite a bit of the spinach from the puree which I suppose also meant that there wasn't too much of any other things (whatever those may be) added as part of the flavouring. The paneer had a rather rustic texture.

The keema on the other hand tasted a little burnt. It was smoky like what keema should not normally be. Some of the peas were charred, so I guess it was really burnt at some point.

Those seekh kebab that they had were made upon order, so it's as fresh as it could get. What I liked about it was that it wasn't infused with excessive herbs so that we could taste the meat.

The naan was also a little burnt. One's garlic and the other sesame and both were pretty decent if one would look past the char. The bread reminded me of an overdone Neapolitan pizza crust.

The only drink we had was their lime juice. It's not bad

Sapporo Ramen Miharu, Millenia Walk

It's been quite a long while since I've had ramen at Sapporo Ramen Miharu (Millenia Walk #01-06, 9 Raffles Boulevard, tel: +65 6733 8464). I guess it's mostly because I've never really been so big on Sapporo styled ramen and about the only time I recall being quite impressed by those miso based bowls was Gantetsu - previously at Ramen Champion.

So here's a revisit with their Shiretoko tori dashi shio (top) and a Noukou gyokai dashi (bottom) bowl with a trusty sidekick of shisho gyoza. The former bowl had a lightweight chicken shio broth which tasted like it was good for someone with a cold. That came with quail eggs. Interesting to try but I probably will not order again. The latter was a seafood infused thick broth which was really delicious. Not unique in any sense, but a robust dependable smoky bonito flavour. Those gyoza on the side had bits of shisho leaves in  the stuffings - quite a dimension of flavour from the regular ones. We rather liked it.

I wouldn't say that I wouldn't revisit because I likely would. I remembered liking their tsukemen dip and their rice bowl. Their noodles had the springy chew that I like and I'm thinking also that shoyu broth agrees with me. I just don't know when again.

A nasi goreng ayam from Dahlia Cafe

We found Dahlia Cafe in Golden Landmark (#02-21/22 Golden Landmark Shopping Complex, 390 Victoria St) near the entrance/exit facing the Arab Street quarter teeming with people during lunch. So here's their nasi goreng ayam - fried rice with fried chicken. It was pretty decent, but I found flavour lacking in the nasi goreng. That aside, the tray was very recognisable comfort food and that ayam goreng tasted freshly fried and crispy. Enjoyed it. Don't pass on their belachan sauce which you can help yourself to. I think I should resist the impulse at this point to compare this fried chicken with the one from Mat Noh & Rose which I feel is better.

Fill-a-Pita, China Square

If you're wondering, this shop (3 Pickering Street, China Square Central, #01-29 Nankin Row) is the very same Fill-a-Pita that was previously located at Shenton Way. It seems that they've just relocated last week and if you get there early enough, one can actually get seats with air conditioning - which was certainly an improvement over the old location. But this current shop doesn't come equipped with a fryer/grill so their current falafels are baked and halloumi cheese is off the menu. #sad

The food's still pretty much the same though. Those baked falafel were equally as delicious as the old ones and today, we tried a recommendation from them which was their fava bean pita with labna. Delicious stuff - but our labna sunk to the bottom of the pita instead of being spread out evenly. Not a problem really. I certainly hope they find a way to get the halloumi back on the menu though.

A slightly improved sandwich experience at Sacha & Sons

Remember that I had a theory on how the pastrami at Sacha & Sons didn't quite work out for me. Well, thanks to an affirmation that went in line with that theory, we decided to get their regular deli sandwich instead of the Reuben. So the meat doesn't go into the oven. Indeed the pastrami was more moist then those in the Reuben, but it still dried out pretty quickly. I liked this option better even though I still couldn't say that I'm a fan.

The roast beef with chopped liver on the other hand was pretty enjoyable. The beef was tender, beefier tasting than the spiced up pastrami and had chopped liver to boot. I thought a little bit more salt would have been great. If I should ever return, perhaps I'll try getting sandwiches on rye that is not toasted. 

Vegetarian - that's an old Indian word meaning 'lousy hunter'

The title of this post which I found on the Internet was a quote made in a different context from the contents of this post, but I thought it was amusing. So here's us back at Komala Vilas for more delicious vegetarianism.  Those brightly coloured drinks above are badam (almond) milk and rose milk if anyone was wondering. The chilled milk was smooth, fairly rich and sweet in a non-cloying manner. Just what we needed from the sweltering humidity. But they don't seem to be so big on the actual flavours.

That's the vegetarian briyani, something which I remember mentioning previously as a Bombay thali. I'm pretty sure the old menu must have made that reference because I would not have made that up myself. These days, I'm much more acquainted with what are the items on the side. Anti-clockwise from the right - dhal, raita, vegetable kourma, some long beans stir fried with desiccated coconut and spices, a folded chapati and a payasam beside the rice for sweets. This could have easily fed two.

This was the chapati meal. Unleavened flat bread served with a mixture of vegetable sides and also a payasam. Never actually noticed of how people eat this but pretty much everything on the banana leaf can be shovelled with the chapati into the mouth and it would taste good. The flavours for the vegetarian items were as usual outstanding and these guys have been in business for a long time with a relentless crowd for a very good reason.

And of course, some hot masala chai to finish.