Extra Virgin Pizza, One Holland Village

The last time we ate at Extra Virgin Pizza was like a decade ago when they were at United Square. For some reasons, they had fallen off our radar for most of the past ten years until we saw their new restaurant at Holland Village (#01-03/04/05 One Holland Village, 7 Holland Village Way, tel : +65 6263 9170).

Calamari's not bad. Not excessively chewy and there appears to be dried seaweed in the batter. For some odd reasons that I haven't figured out, the taste reminded me of Hokkien mee. That lime mayo was delicious and I definitely liked the fruitiness from the red peppercorns they put there.

Prosciutta di Parma with fruits and olive oil. It's a nice and reliable combination and I think I can make this at home.

So their pizza called 3P - there's a deliciously salty Caciocavallo cheese base, something which tasted like guanciale or bacon and supposedly peaches but I thought it tasted like plums. Did not detect any of the potato or walnut or rosemary (thankfully!) which the menu described. Like that last time 10 years ago, the crust was so thin in the middle that it couldn't hold the weight of its relatively sparse toppings. Not bad but not great.

Tiramisu's nice. Would love a bit more coffee but we were happy with it.

Ga-Hock Roti Prata (佳福印度煎饼), Upper Bukit Timah Road

Meanwhile, behind the facade of the innocuous looking Ga-Hock Eating House (794 Upper Bukit Timah Road)......

......lies the bustle of Ga-Hock Roti Prata. We've heard about them a bit and were interested.

So we came over for prata breakfast one weekend.

There was one unique thing about their onion prata. Aside from regular onions, there's also spring onions in them. No one would be blamed for being reminded of 葱油饼.

The fragrance of the spring onions came through for my cheese and onion prata. There's a light crisp and some chewiness to their prata which I liked.

The butter egg prata was a little disappointing though. In spite of being more yellow hued from the grease, it didn't taste buttery at all. Didn't taste like margarine too.

One of the gravies for the prata was their dal - a non-spicy, bean-y and savoury rendition which I haven't encountered before. Nice one.

There's also fish curry - not as intensely fishy as I imagined but still made a pretty good dip.

Sin Hoi Sai on the day of 人日

The title of this post puts this on 16th of February if anyone was wondering. Came back to Sin Hoi Sai a bit sooner than we expected. I probably have mentioned previously, the fact that they're available in the late hours makes them a viable option at times.

Succumbed yet again to the sambal petai. 😬 We were getting white rice today and this was just the no brainer for us. A no brainer we've always enjoyed.

Some sweet smoky coffee ribs which we're ordering from them for the first time. The meat from the rib was deep fried before being tossed in that dark sauce (with coffee presumably) for a coat of sweet caramelization. Don't expect fall off the bone tenderness for these - there's a bit of crisp with lots of bite to the meat.

First time also with their kong bao frogs. The gravy was also a little smokey with a bit of heat from the dried chilli and a hint of ginger. But there wasn't any of the sweetness I was expecting. This rendition was mostly savoury. Was a little thrown off initially but as we ate, that gravy grew on us. Frogs were slurp off the bone tender.

With the sambal petai and kong bao frog, one bowl just felt like it wasn't enough.

Revisiting Al-Ameen

Haven't eaten at Al Ameen (4 Cheong Chin Nam Road, tel : +65 6465 1000) for ages even though we've been in the vicinity from time to time. 

Got suckered by their date milkshake. One could definitely see and feel the bits of the skin from the dates but I wouldn't say I could taste it. The milk tasted like evaporated milk and it was pretty watery. In the end, I felt like I was just drinking cold sweet milk with a little bit of flavour which I couldn't identify. No more milkshakes from them.

Heard good things about their cheese naan.

Hell yeah these were good. You could tell how much mozzarella was in there from the cheese pull. Not to mention as well that there was a glaze of butter on them. These were good enough to eat on their own. 👍🏼

Still we had a palak paneer to go with those naan. Decent tasting and garlicky.

What pleasantly surprised also was their mutton murtabak. It didn't look like much and we were initially a little bit disappointed by its appearance. But it was delicious. Great mutton-y flavour and finely diced onions that paired with it. Good enough to eat on its own without the curries as well. 👍🏼

Iced teh halia was nice and creamy with an enjoyable sweetness. I guess it's safer to stick to something more traditional than a date milkshake.

Sabar, 100AM

It has been a long while since we last ate at Sabar. That would have been the time when they were still located at the defunct Japan Food Town at Wisma Atria. Remember that place? This was our first time at their current location (#03-14, 100 AM, 100 Tras Street, tel : +65 6443 8827) which used to house the also defunct Nadai Fujisoba Ni-Hachi. 

Their grilled saba teishoku at lunch was a good value. $18.80 on weekends and $13.80 weekdays. Get a load of the size of the fish. 

There's a lot more meat than most if not all other grilled mackerel served in any teishoku out there. Skin was crisp, meat was moist and the belly fatty. The fish had been thoughtfully deboned. Most of the head was crispy and edible as well. The mouthfeel was satisfying because this was a fish you could eat large mouthfuls.

They have saba fish & chips. Batter's crunchy and nicely flavoured. Not bad.

Tried their shoyu marinated saba toro sashimi which was kinda how I expected it to taste. Smooth and infused with with the flavour of the soy sauce marinade. Wasabi's a blend of the grated root and paste.

Saba miso tartar. Has a much lighter flavour than the sashimi/grilled/simmered ones. 

Cheese egg prata from Ali Fatimah Food Stall

My first cheese egg prata from Ali Fatimah Food Stall. Prata's as it looked and has consistently been - a tender chewiness with a light crisp. I think it's sliced cheese in there which was nice because of the saltiness.