Sardine murtabak from Prata Saga Sambal Berlada

Previously when I had their sardine prata, I was guessing that the difference between that and their sardine murtabak was just onions. I was correct. There were onions in this. And also......

• sardine prata $3.50
• egg onion prata $1.70
• this sardine murtabak $6.00

I'm happy doing this without the onions because it didn't add much for me.

Casa Vostra, Raffles City

We've been waiting for Casa Vostra (#01-49/50/51 Raffles City, 252 North Bridge Road) to open for a while. Have read about the accolades of Antonio Miscellaneo and being ranked 57th in the world for best pizza didn't sound like a mean feat. Sounded like it was worth taking a look into. Since we have never had the chance to try his food at La Bottega Enoteca, we were looking forward to this one.

First, espresso tonic. Nicely done with double shots of an aromatic brew they use and Fever Tree tonic.

Porchetta - more thinly sliced than I imagined. Each of those slices with a bit of chew along the edges with the rest of it mostly tender and infused with the liquorice accents from fennel; and I think sage. By my estimates, this was possibly 2 slices of Marutama's charshu worth of porchetta. For $18.

Not bad tasting tagliatelle with crab. Noodle texture's nice and portions were a little small. Could taste olive oil and butter in it but the pasta wasn't exactly buttery nor was the olive oil fruity. Crab meat had passable flavour. Nothing in the ingredients stood out in particular except for one; the sweetness of the tomato confit was nice.

Tagliatelle Bolognese was delicious. The ragù was meaty, beefy and not drowned in tomato flavouring. Would not mind coming back for this. 

We were looking for a place that might be the equal to Zazz for Neapolitan style pizzas and Casta Vostra's Newpolitan sounded like it could be that. Turned out that this was a different thing entirely. The airiness of the puffy cornicion surpassed what we've had at Zazz. Our pizza crust was the lightest we've ever had; that and on some pretty delicious tartufo and funghi toppings on a creamy rich Taleggio. Nice.

That panna cotta was small. Could have been just a two biter for me. The olive oil and basil was brilliant with the strawberry + sauce and creaminess of the panna cotta though. Yummy.

Pongal and idiyappam from S.P. Vilas

I've noticed idiyappam the previous times I've walked past S.P. Vilas. They're unlike the usual variety which are disc shaped. These from the stall look torn up, mixed with curry leaves, dried chilli and mustard seeds. The noodles were also extra fine. What deterred me from getting them was coriander. Yup, those were mixed in too. Until today. I noticed that the batch they had in the stall did not have coriander so I got a serving with some pongal on the side. I like how it was savoury and spiced up. Not bad tasting the both of them. 

Crafted by Peter Zwiener, South Beach

Crafted by Peter Zwiener is by...Peter Zweiner, a co-founder of Wolfgang's Steakhouse. Kinda stated the obvious with the name there. Casual-er than the Wolfgang's Steakhouse with burgers, beers and shakes on the menu. And also dry aged USDA Prime beef stuff.

Tried a milkshake called An Apple A Day. Apple butter, raisins and presumably the other ingredients that make apple pie. We asked for less cream. They use the same schlag that came with the desserts at Wolfgang's. Sweet and not bad tasting.

Candied bacon. Tasted like bak kwa. Supposed to be infused with Maker's Mark but I couldn't tell. I like this. It's awesome-er dipped into the shake above.

Dry aged beef cubes. Nice. Tasted like Wolfgang's steak. But the potions were puny for what they charged and they looked like trimmed off bits of meat rather than actual cubes. Notice the salt flakes? We saved some for their burger.

Because as things would turn out, their burger patty was in dire need of salt. I can't believe that it was severely under salted. Medium doneness was more like medium well to well done - I don't think that's forgivable here. Now I know the standards for their burgers. While it was edible, it's also puny and not memorable. I think my money would be more well spent at say Black Tap.

Huong Pho, Upper Boon Keng Road

Heard about Huong Pho lately. They're a relatively new Vietnamese stall located in Food Haven Coffeeshop (5 Upper Boon Keng Road) which is a short trot from Kallang MRT. What they offer looked like the run of the mill variety not unlike most Vietnamese stalls around. Phở, bánh mì, spring/summer rolls and a bit of this and that.

Phở was pretty good. Light and beefy broth with a savoury sweetness and deliciously smooth and slurpy rice noodles. Rice-y tasting rice noodles at that. They obliged my request for tendon only. The only herbs/aromatics they had for topping was a mixture of spring onions and coriander and since the spring onions were tainted, I ended up with a clean bowl. It wasn't very different from a local bowl of beef noodles like that.

What intrigued me was their sardine bánh mì. I heard that their sardines are market purchased and cooked in house. The fish was mashed and spread into the baguette with pickles and some respectably spicy sweet and sour chilli sauce. This one was sans coriander obviously.

The sandwich was unexpectedly hefty. Not bad. Very street styled because the fish wasn't distributed evenly.

I like their chả giò. We waited a while for this and it came out freshly fried and piping hot. Texture was meaty underneath that crispy wrapping and reminded me of Peranakan ngoh hiong. There's wood ear fungus and fine carrot bits inside. This was nice.

Yummy Bites (尚品小吃), Queenstown MRT Station

Eatery at a not so obvious corner at one end of Queenstown MRT (#02-02 Queenstown MRT Station, 301 Commonwealth Avenue). Business appears brisk.

Competent pork trotter rice. I enjoyed it. Stewing sauce passed muster. Meat from the trotter was tender enough that I was separating them with chopsticks.

Their Yummy Fried Rice needed more salt and that minced pork they used. While I inhaled this pretty quickly with that fiery sliced chilli padi, I don't think I'll wanna order it again. The pork trotter rice on the other hand......😏