Liu Lang Mian Noodle Bar (流浪面), Alexandra Central

Been wanting to try Liu Lang Mian (#01-03 Alexandra Central, 321 Alexandra Road) for a while. They do noodles that could conceivably be characterized with ramen-esque attributes. Their style has influences from Japanese and local Chinese food which is represented by their choices of ingredients/toppings. Yeah, it's another one of those. 

Here's their monthly special for October. Something they called squid ink yakisoba. Definitely not the yakisoba most of us know. This was more mazesoba.

Menu described the cephalopods as octopus tempura - which I find misleading. It's more like ika geso karaage. I'm pretty sure that's squid and not octopus. Stir fried prawns were meaty and kinda tasty. Most of the flavour in the bowl came from the chilli, accented by spring onions and maybe the tobiko. Not tasting any squid ink. Noodle texture reminded me of those squiggly chewy type in Hokkaido ramen.

Al Mubin Restaurant, Syed Alwi Road

Local Indian food is tagged with both 'a local signature' and 'indian'. This group union is for the category of food which I recognize/identify as local Indian food, which has transcended for the reasons I won't be deeper diving into, from the way it was prepared back when the Indian migrants brought them here. Recipes and ingredients evolved and hence localized because of accessiblity, creating the local renditions of such dishes. 

This was breakfast at Al Mubin (92 Syed Alwi Road, tel : +65 6970 4700) - local Indian food eatery. Or mamak stall as some people call it. We ate at their branch at Ang Mo Kio previously.

Masala tea was light on the spice, milky and and sweet. Perhaps a little sweeter than I like.

Was intrigued by their honey mushroom prata. I know right? As far as local flavours go, this combination was new to me. 

There were a lot more mushrooms than I thought. Which was nice. The sweetness from the "honey" was not commonplace with mushrooms but it turned out not as odd as one might think. Not conventional but they didn't cancel each other out in a blinding flash of light. 😂

The menu called these puri but what they had was actually poori. Just not ones that were properly puffy. 😅 I was initially confused with why puri would be served with keema as well. Anyways, the fried bread tasted better than their looks suggested. Keema had pretty fine mince lamb, was creamy with a rich coconut flavour and more mellow spice that I associate with korma than keema which is usually more...in your face. 

Small White Rabbit Fruit Bowl from Jane Deer

I like this more than the Claw Taro Bowl because there're more fruits and none of those chewy ball thingies. Both were otherwise pretty similar tasting.

Santapan Padang by Tina Indulgence, Ubi

Read about Santapan Padang (#01-03 Frontier, 50 Ubi Ave 3) which is run by a Tina Amin, a season 4 runner-up in MasterChef Singapore. They're just next door to Fook Kee Ipoh Famous Claypot Noodle. We were expecting nasi padang but there weren't much dishes to be had so I ended up with nasi lemak. Which was edible. Nothing was particularly outstanding or bad about it. I guess hearing about the stall being helmed by a late stage MasterChef participant raises expectations.

A recent bowl of Janggut laksa

Haven't had one of these in a while. They looked a little less curdled today. Which worried me a little.

Fortunately the taste stood up. Still delicious. Makes me want to get another bowl as I'm typing this.

Back at Ricciotti

I ate at Ricciotti an age ago. Yup, that's right. All the way back when this blog began. Never been back since and it's different from what I remember. The grocer section is gone and there's a bar at the front now. The seats indoors were nice and shady. The place was quiet on a weekend afternoon.

The menu described the Polpo to be octopus braised in red wine with confit tomatoes and pine nuts. This tasted like tomato and cream, not red wine. Didn't detect any pine nuts. Octopus was not bad tasting. Kinda overpriced for the tiny portions and ingredients but since it's in that part of town, I shouldn't expect otherwise.

Tagliatelle alla norcina was nice. This rendition was creamless compared to the creamy one from Etna. Sausage was chunky and the quality of the house made tagliatelle was great. One could just tell from those firm textures. Nice one.

Got ourselves pizza with Paleta Iberica de Bellota. The draw to this one was actually Gorgonzola and pear. The jamon tasted stale. Ironic since the process of making the ham required air drying and aging for at least 18 months. Just one step from turning bad. Which I thought was sad because I kinda liked the whole pizza with the Gorgonzola and pear.

The walnuts were definitely expired. We told them. The wait staff looked like she didn't know how to react to the feedback. 😔 This restaurant has obvious quality issues. Maybe that's why they're quiet on a weekend afternoon.