Komala Vilas, 291 Serangoon Road

Komala Vilas (一, 二, 三, 四, 五, 六, 七, 八, 九, 十) has another branch (291 Serangoon Road, tel : +65 6341 5022) closer to Farrer Park MRT/City Square Mall that opened some time back. Never been there until today.

Noticed a number of mini tiffins on the menus of restaurants in recent years. Those didn't seem to be as prominent or forefront previously. This was the mini tiffin at Komala Vilas. $10 with a filtered coffee. There's mini sambar idli, dosai, kesari and pongal with the assorted chutneys. Great if one is looking for variety.

Upma. Steaming hot from the kitchen. 👍🏿

A buttery ghee onion uttapam with a toasty sweet crunch in the pancake. I think I've gotten their chutneys figured out for myself. I like the coconut and the coriander (green one) more than the onion-y orange one.

Filter coffee's part of the mini tiffin. A bit too sweet, milky and with sufficient coffee flavour. Maybe I should siew dai this the next time.

Smoky Chilli Mayo McSpicy from McD

Yes the mayo was a little smoky. No I don't know where the 'chilli' in the name is derived from because...let's be real. It's a McSpicy. When you have one of this, you'd mostly taste only McSpicy and the chilli if any in the mayo sounds half assed. I'm adding on that for all these decades of making huge amounts of money selling burgers, they also suck at building one that didn't fall apart. Egg was slipping out from a couple of bites. I'd say I ate about 2/3 of the lettuce out of those sandwich because they were the first to slide off.

I like the idea of the egg but I could barely taste it.

Paik's Noodle without noodles

Back at Paik's Noodle. Their savoury and smoky shrimp fried rice was pretty good tasting. Didn't think it needed the chunjang at all. 

I've been curious about their mapo tofu and finally tried it. Not as salty/beany as the Chinese rendition. Loads of onions in this one and the meaty gravy was slightly starchy. Not bad tasting but also not as intense and moreish as I imagined.

Surprise banana pies from Dona Manis

Came across a pop up stall selling Dona Manis' banana pies. Did not resist getting half a pie. 😬 Half of that half was eliminated in short order after we reached home. In retrospect, a whole pie might have been a better idea. Love the crumbly squishy texture and the combination of bananas, nuts, coconut and butter together in the pastry. 👍🏼

Chicco Trattoria, Holland Village

Chicco Trattoria (27 Lorong Mambong, tel : +65 8189 7302) is by the folks behind Cenzo.

Sangria tasted diluted.

This was the spiced honey ricotta dip. I'm guessing the chilli oil looking thingy was the spiced honey. Not bad tasting paired with the sweet creamy ricotta. Those crackers on the side had an aniseed flavour that I had initially mistaken to be from the "honey".

Parma ham and duck toastie was nice. The fillings was savoury/salty/umami in between toast which was buttery. 👍🏼

Pretty good flatbread - this was the one with roasted cherry tomatoes, stracciatella or burrata and pesto. The bread was unexpectedly slightly sweet. Kinda like this.

Carbonara arancini. They squared the circle here. 😅

Didn't taste like carbonara. Fillings were more creamy than cheese-y and had barely discernible pepper. These arancini were made with pasta, not rice.

Sea bass fillet was nicely pan fried and not bad tasting. Would be nicer if there was more of that caper salsa to go around.

Pork and pesto lasagna also not bad. Pretty rich tasting béchamel bolstered with saltiness from Mortadella and minced pork ragu. There seemed to be a spice...maybe star anise or nutmeg from the béchamel that's teetering on the edge of discernibility. 

Pretty enjoyable pistachio tiramisu. Creamy and well soaked with a nice creamy coffee flavour.

Pecan pie was meh. Only after we had left that we realised that we remembered seeing cherry and strawberry gelato mentioned in the menu and there were none of those in it.

Nagercoil Arya Bhavan, Verdun Road

I noticed Nagercoil Arya Bhavan (#01-01 CRU Center, 18 Verdun Road, tel : +65 6293 6835) when they opened and assumed that they were one of numerous small eateries that have opened up in the area. Turns out that they're a chain with branches in London (with a fancier menu), France and India.

Vadai's competent. Light crusty crunch on the surface and fluffy insides flavoured with cumin and bits of onion. Note to self: sambar has coriander.

Serviceable ghee pongal. Portion was big. Was expecting more ghee in it. A2B still takes the cake for this item. The texture here was dryish like mashed potatoes. Almost as dry as the one at Royal Spicy Dosa.

Their cashew rava dosai was nice. Loads of cashew to impart nuttiness and there appeared to be something that tasted like toasted onions. To be noted though that other than the coconut chutney, the other chutney will mask the nuttiness from the cashews. I like this.

Masala spices lacks character not assertive for tea. Drinkable but nothing to look forward to.