Pakistani Dum Biryani Sg, Maxwell Food Centre

The eponymous Pakistani Dum Biryani Sg (#01-69 Maxwell Food Centre, 1 Kadayanallur Street) is relatively new at Maxwell Food Centre. The chef's from Pakistan from what I read and their take on the popular spiced rice dish is apparently Pakistani styled - which has some differences from the spices that are used in comparison to the local Indian rendition. Don't know the details though. We've eaten there twice and hadn't any luck with their pulao. This was their mutton briyani which we've had on both occasions.

I wasn't able to discern the subtleties of the differences in spices. I could tell that there's more heat than what I'm used to for biryani. Bottom line was that it was delicious with great flavouring and had sufficient salt to bring forth all those spices infused into the rice. Bone in mutton was scratch off the fork tender and the dal on the side which was made with 4 types of lentils packed a nice bit of heat. Loving those. Also strangely reeled in by that chilled raita they have on the side even though I tasted coriander. 

L'antica Pizzeria Da Michele, Club Street

While I've been looking forward to L'antica Pizzeria Da Michele (#01-08, 8 Club Street), I also reminded myself not to be caught up by what's been written about it. There're two camps of writeups generally on this topic. The first are the hype train who're paid or given free food to do so. The second are the "frogs in the well" that are swept by the hype train attempting to convince the world that they've also had a gastronomical moment worth mentioning. We told ourselves that we'd be our own judges.

Okay tasting fritto di mare. Baby squids, a couple of prawns, white bait and zucchini. Not of fan of thick batter in general. While I cannot put a finger to from whence, I'm getting this feeling that we've had better. Not something I would get again.

Not bad tasting margherita. We topped up with extra cheese for $5. Noted the emphasis placed on the Agerola fior di latte which was pretty good tasting. Loved that the tomatoes weren't too tart. Leopard spots are no longer charming when they transcend beyond the thin boundary into too much burnt parts - which was what we got. It's not bad pizza. Just over priced. Not something I see myself waiting in line for.

Sri Aachi Aappakadai Pte Ltd, Tekka Food Centre

Sri Aachi Aappakadai Pte Ltd (#01-219 Tekka Market & Food Centre, 665 Buffalo Road) is located along the inner rows of stalls at Tekka where the Indian food stalls cluster - just a couple of units from where Zham Zham Muslim Food is. We were spoilt for choice from the variety of things they were offering. 

Ended up with a delicious 'crisp on the edges' egg appam that had a jiggly centre and an onion uttapam. Former's griddled on order and served with sweet coconut milk and orange sugar. Egg in the centre had molten yolk. Nicely done. 👍🏼 The latter was also moreish with the scorched sweet bits of onions on the sour pancake that paired with their array of savoury and spicy chutneys. Will definitely come back. Spied a bunch of colourful rice on their display which was intriguing.

Revisiting Nummun Thai Kitchen

Back at Nummun Thai Kitchen. We got a table as soon as they were open for dinner service. Shortly after that, a queue had formed outside. That queue had gotten even longer when we were leaving. 😅

Pretty creamy tom kha gai and delicious one as well filled with chunky chopped up pieces of chicken thigh meat. Broth was a rich concoction of sweet, savoury and tanginess. This was the second orange hued tom kha rendition we've encountered after E-Sarn Thai Corner.

Stir fried kailan minus pork belly. The original dish came with those and the order app allowed omission of the meat. Sweet. Kailan were stir fried in a light oyster sauce so it was the typical sweet and savoury taste.

This was the crab omelette which we did not successfully get the last time.

It was as good as it looked - I was half expecting those crab chunks to be relatively tasteless but they had real crab flavour in them. Loved it with or without their nam jim.

Salt baked sea bass required a 45 minute preparation time. Was nicely done. Underneath the leathery skin, the meat had all the moisture locked in.

Don't remember the last time I had a red ruby but I liked this rendition. I always had the idea that it wouldn't be something that I enjoyed but this one was pretty likeable. Did not expect jackfruit but I'm not complaining.

Yappari Steak, VivoCity

Yappari Steak (#02-110 VivoCity, 1 HarbourFront Walk) is a new-ish hot stone steak/beef place from Okinawa. We got ourselves a couple of their hot stone steaks and some other stuff.

Like their gyu suji nikomi; or beef tendon stew. Japanese beef tendon stew isn't a hundred percent tendon - there's also meat in it. This one was was beefy, savoury yet a little bit sweet and I thought I detect a tiny hint of ginger in it.

Paired pretty well with the free flow of rice that came with orders of their hot stone steaks. A bit of tendon, a bit of meat and a bit of fat makes good toppings.

Add some wasabi, mix and you get something awesomely beefy and nose piercing.

And then there were curly fries because it was mentioned that those were fried in beef tallow. Couldn't tell from the taste but those fries were nice. Even better with their punchy mentai mayo on the side. Yappari Steak has gotten us carb loading even before the meats were served. 😅

The 'Yappari Steak' is a top blade cut. Which is also known as flat iron. Lean but flavour packed and reminded me of hanger. This was 300g. Meat was rare in the middle but you could get it to the doneness you prefer on that hot stone.

Nakaochi karubi is rib finger - meat strips between the rib bones. 200g here. Less iron-y than the Yappari and more flavour from the fat. Also a bit more sinewy. Not bad tasting. Noticed that these were served with paper towels on top of them to minimize the grease splatters.

Soup and salad arrived much later. They overlooked. Both are bottomless as well. Soup's kinda nice with plenty of pepper. Both meats were good with the sauces, wasabi or just salt and pepper. Don't mind coming back. Would be great if they could improve on ventilation though. 

The La Nonna pizza, scallop saffron risotto, misinterpreted bruschetta and mullings....from La Nonna

I've sometimes wondered what kept La Nonna in business all these years. Maybe it's their loyal customers. The food is passable. They're not bad tasting per se mostly but it also mostly wasn't memorable. 'Mostly' because I remember their squid ink and cinq formaggi pizzas with some fondness. The rest of the stuff I've had from before were things I didn't even deem worthy of a picture. Not to mention that service from their more veteran staff sometimes feels like attitude coming from somebody's crabby la nonna - 🤔..., maybe that's the reason why the name of the restaurant.💡 

I didn't think it was incorrect to interpret that their bruschetta would have a combined topping of what was described in the menu. Tomatoes, sautéed porcini, goat cheese and truffle paste.

This was what they served. Not that any of them was bad tasting but it was way more bread-y than I was expecting. Would not have gotten this if we had known.

That's the La Nonna pizza - their signature pizza. Topped it up with Parma ham. Not bad but I think this was one of those times when I found the truffle paste tiring. It's that one element that didn't age well.

The saffron risotto with scallops was delicious. Nice stock umami with cheesiness in rice that had the saffron flavour I was looking forward to. Love the browning on the scallops and those fish eggs on top. This I don't mind coming back for.