Lucca's Trattoria, Tiong Bahru

We ate at Lucca's Trattoria once years ago back when they were located at Robertson Quay. Wasn't impressed. They've shifted to Tiong Bahru (Lvl 1 Nostalgia Hotel, 77 Tiong Bahru Road, tel : +65 6223 2301) a while ago and we wanted to see if how the food has changed, or hopefully improved over those years we decided to forget about them.

We ordered their fritto misto because there were fried mussels. It was okay - not the most promising seafood quality there but it wasn't bad. Batter needed more salt so they weren't that good on their own. I suppose a lot more of that shaven cheese would have helped too. Most of what kept us going was the Calabrian chilli sauce.

Was looking towards their chicken liver crostinis. Not bad also. I shouldn't compare but I couldn't help but to reminisce.

Cacio e pepe was kinda disappointing. It was more creamy than cheesy and it didn't look or taste like it had that much pepper.

Fortunately the rabbit pappardelle fared better. Dried pasta and al dente with a bite like fresh ones cannot achieve. Not complaining here. Broth tasted nothing like the red wine sauce they mentioned on the menu at all but it did taste pretty good. Also very Asian. Specifically quite similar to lor bak so I'm guessing the spices used were similar. Even the borlotti bean reminded me of braised peanuts. Hmmm......

Tiramisu was nicely done and moist like I enjoy it. My only gripe - there was a lot more cream than mascarpone in it. While that made the dessert airier, it also tasted noticeably less mascarpone-y. I also gave them a few points for having Maraschino cherry.

3 course Christmas menu at Les Bouchons

This happened at the Ann Siang branch of Les Bouchons. Our first time trying their Christmas menu.

Their bread has been kinda the same over the years. Much better eating than the one that Ginett serves. At this point I'd like to point out that it would have been great if they used salted butter but since there's that salt mill on the side readily available...

Foie gras poêlé was nice - unctuous richness paired perfectly with salt crystals on toast. This was pretty much the same thing as the one we had at Rochester on a different plate.

Very happy with their house made chicken liver mousse. Aside from the livery flavoured velvet texture, I tasted cream, garlic and a sweetness in it - reminded me of the one we had previously at the defunct Lokal. So good with the fig jam on bread.

So one of the mains was a 300g MBS 6/7 wagyu oyster blade. It was nice and impressively tender  - the only thing that kinda marred it was the sliver skin lining in the meat which wasn't trimmed away.  

There's also a magret de canard with shallot butter which is normally not on their menu. This one was a little dry and needed much jaw work. I had imagined/hoped that it would be more tender.

Good thing we got their blue cheese sauce on the side. This made everything dipped in it so heart clogging-ly delicious.

Had a dessert call My Christmas Tree... if I remembered correctly. There's some mousse-y coconut with mint and lime gel thingy within the crimson tree with a chocolate cake base.

First time getting their truffled Brie for dessert. I think this would be good with a drizzle of honey.

Some drink which was basically Milo with Bailey's and marshmallow called Let It Snow. Yeah, we could have made this ourselves at home and made a better one that that. Now we know. Let it go.

LINO Pizza & Pasta Bar, Shaw Centre

The restaurant used to be just LINO Pasta Bar. They've expanded and taken over the unit next door and have also included pizzas on the menu so it's both an pizza and pasta bar now. Did Les Amis Group failed to identify that pizza need while cranking up the old pasta bar or was that evolution that came about after they've taken over the neighbour? That was rhetorical.

LPPB's Margherita which differs from the standard issue Margherita by having smoked burrata and pesto and cherry tomatoes. Personally, the smoked burrata and pesto worked and I enjoyed this on their Neapolitan styled crust. That being said, the crust from these guys aren't at the same level as Zazz or Luka.

Hmmm....creamed spinach tart topped with thin bacon petals, confit egg and parmigiano. Tasted as good as it sounded and I shall leave it as that.

King prawn risotto was a dish of the month. Didn't taste so much like risotto, more like just wet rice with a light dashi and nori flavour with prawn oil. Seafood quality was pretty good,

Nicely done aglio olio with squid and prawns. My only gripe was the menu mentioning bird's eye chilli and I didn't get them in the pasta. Just a small dried chilli and not enough heat to temper my expectations after reading bird's eye chilli. Otherwise it was delicious with a couple of twists of salt from the mill.

Tiramisu was cocoa heavy and pretty dry. To read that alternatively, there's either too little mascarpone or cream or both. To the point that the heavy dusting of cocoa overwhelmed the other parts of the dessert. Did not taste bad but nothing about it would elevate it beyond a passable rendition. Kinda surprised encountering the low pedestrian standards for this one.

IL Fiore Restaurant & Bar, Raffles Place

IL Fiore is at the basement of Singapore Land Tower (B1-01 Singapore Land Tower, 50 Raffles Place, tel : +65 6223 3551) accessible from a stairway. Don't let the innocuous name mislead you, I read that they're also known as the "Dungeon". 😂 While perusing their menu, I also kinda got the impression that they're the atas version of Han's with a bar in dim lighting. 😂

$13 a pint of Asahi Kuronama in town is pretty sweet.

That's beef tenderloin fried rice. This one was stir fried with dark soya sauce, hence the colour. A little moist, a little greasy and just the slightest sweetness from the dark soya sauce. Don't expect wok hei and it's pretty good eating. What I liked about it were the chunks of beef tenderloin. No need to do a double take, it's chunks and not slices. And it's not the "sodium bicarbonated to death" unidentifiable protein matter.

There's Hokkien mee too. Don't let the looks fool you. The lard was mostly flavourless - shocking! 😬 But true story. The amount of flavour it imparted has almost no bearing with the quantity they put in it. But otherwise, it was an okay Hokkien mee. Not one the better ones out there but it doesn't make you wanna rip your hair out either.

Sambal's pretty flavourful - definitely getting the dried shrimps but doesn't pack much heat. Works with the noodles, not as well for the fried rice. The sliced red chilli in light soya sauce on the other hand plays well with both.

We ordered their oyster & cockle omelette sans the cockles. Not bad. I like the toasty egg flavour on it. But know that you'll be paying prices at least double of what one can normally get in food centres. That being said, you also wouldn't be enjoying them in an air conditioned dungeon with good table service at Raffles Place.

Not open in the weekends.

Smoked Chicken Xmas'O from Old Chang Kee

If any confirmation was needed, it is blue in colour. Tasted like a generic chicken puff with their "signature" pastry skin. How OCK described it was 'tantalising smoked chicken cubes blended with black pepper & BBQ sauce, and mixed with green & red pepper, button mushroom, tomatoes & blue pea'.

Champorado

I've been wanting to try champorado for some years now ever since I've learnt about them. So I finally tried one made by a Filipino lady who brought in her daing from Palawan and fried it herself. I had the impression that the milk that it was accompanied with was condensed milk but this one was evaporated milk so it wasn't as sweet as I imagined.

It's not bad. I kinda dug it between the chocolate risotto-like rice and the bites of the crispy salted fish.