Mutton soup from Umar Ali Cafe

Recently tried the sup kambing from Umar Ali Cafe. Won't be comparing this with the one with Bahrakath Mutton Soup King. 😏 I think it's not a bad one here. It's not as thick as some others but they've gotten in adequate spices, heat and flavouring that made it pretty drinkable. Lamb bits were flavourful and arguably tender. Also, this has got to be the first time we've gotten toasted bread to go with the soup. Lightly crisp on the exterior and pillowy with some toastiness. Nice.

Casa Vostra, Jem

Casa Vostra has opened an outpost at Jem (#01-03 Jem, 50 Jurong Gateway Road) and it appears to have inherited the queue which is equally crazy as the original spot at Raffles City. We got there 15 minutes before opening and ended up spending about an hour in that queue.

There were some things on the menu that were only available here though.

Like their polpette alla fonduta featuring fried meatballs in Taleggio fondue. Great stinky cheese which we enjoyed - couldn't tell what meat the meatballs were made of after that though.

Aglio e olio's nice. It looked a lot spicer than it tasted because of red came from sun dried tomatoes. The one thing that this rendition differed from other aglio olio was the lack of garlic.

Pizza only available in this outpost included the 5 formaggi e pear. Found this very easy to like. I thought it needed a bit more of that pear compote for a more pronounced counter sweetness but I'm not complaining.

Another pizza only available here was their Amalfitana that's basically the seafood pie. Prawns, squid and clams. There was an option to top up extra prawns which we did. Profile's light tomato tanginess with clean thalassic flavour. Nice. Wish there were more clams though.

Just needed to end this with the triple espresso tonic after all the food.

Even more food from Bangalore Cafe

Another compilation of eats from Bangalore Cafe.

Breakfasts......

That's an open butter masala dosa. It's kinda like a fermented rice flour hotcake with podi, a lump of the masala potato thingy on top and butter. This opened version looked little like the regular masala dosa. Not bad tasting.

Thatte/thattu idlis seem to be making their appearances here. First it was the ones at Murugan Idli (here and here), then MTR 1924 @ Brickfields and now at Bangalore Cafe. This rendition was similar to the thattu ghee podi idli from Murugan Idli - podi powdered and ghee greased for deliciousness.

The Diwali Thali......

Obviously this happened during Diwali. The other thalis were't available so we didn't have much of a choice. But I'm glad we experienced this. The jalebi's too sweet for starters. Am not entirely sure what the semi circular thing below the jalebi was but I think it's a dal holige - supposedly sweetened lentil stuffed flat breads. Tasted kinda like a chapati with jaggery inside. Nice.

Pleasant surprise came in the form of curried pineapples. That orange blob at 10 o'clock. Gravy was citrusy sweet and spicy with heat. 👍🏼

This was when the poori and the idiyappams have been added by the servers, along with scoops of vegetable korma and sagu. Left paper cup's payasam and the right is...some sweet mung bean soup flavoured with cardamom.

Then came white rice......

While it may not be visually obvious because of the mess, I was offered spiced ghee rice and I accepted.

Strangely, the papadums came at this point.

The carbs overflow continues with curd rice.

I was offered more ghee rice which I happily accepted. That came with a generous ladle of sagu.

We were given a banana at the end. Nice.

Even though we were stuffed from the Diwali thali glutton-y, I wanted to try the carrot halwa. Sweet and nicely done here.

The week after Diwali......

Venturing into newer territory here because we've started coming for lunch instead of just breakfast. I also think that the owner recognised me. Drats! I must maintain inconspicuity. I made up the last word.

Dahi puri - this tasted a little different. Probably because of what they filled up on the puri shells. Speaking of puri shells, these got soft pretty fast. Faster than usual.

These were hara bara tikka as the menu calls them. Peas and potato patties with cashew. Flavour's bland-ish but they were pretty darn good with the mint chutney. 

There's a vegetable Hyderabadi biryani which was flavoured/infused with mint & palak. Did not expect it to be green. First thought that came to mind was the palak rice we've previously had at Kailash Parbat. This one just wasn't as ghee rich.

As with most if not all cooked mint, the flavour diminishes greatly. Couldn't taste any of it at all but it was a savoury and pretty delicious green briyani. There's bits of paneer inside too.

The Old Stall Hokkien Street Famous Prawn Mee (老檔馳名福建街蝦面), Alexandra Village Food Centre

A queue formed at the stall (#01-58, Alexandra Village Food Centre, Blk 120 Bukit Merah Lane 1) even before it was opened. Anyways, there's a story to be told out there about these guys claiming to be the first prawn noodle here and how they've retained the original recipe all the way back from a couple of generations. I think the story has holes. But we're not going there.

Pretty good. Nice prawns, piquant chilli sauce and yellow noodles without the lye flavour. That broth on the side tasted like a solid crustacean bisque minus the brandy and cream. Will be back.

Shashlik Restaurant 10 years later

It's been about a decade since the last time we were here. Seems that time wasn't our last after all. Depending on how one interpreted that last post, it technically it still is because we didn't have any shashlik today. 😏 

The restaurant's ownership has been passed down to the sons of a previous co-owner. Things have changed a bit.

While the restaurant looked mostly the same, it also did look a little sharper.

Bread's as good as I remember. It's soft. And warm so that it melts the accompanying butter nicely.

The sweetness from the bread paired so well with the pat of salted SCS butter. Additional serving of bread and butter after the first complimentary one are 60 cents each. Because it was so good, we paid for it.

Borscht/borshch was not bad - with an extra scoop of sour cream. Beefy and tangy, smoothened by said cream.

Wanted to try some stuff that we've never had before. Like their stuffed portobello mushrooms, which were topped with minced chicken and I think bacon bits, slathered in a cheesy tasting milk sauce.

Finally tried the egg millionaire after seeing it on their menu for so long. It's chopped up hard boiled eggs with bacon and a bit of cheese that were baked in their shells. They taste exactly like how one would imagine them.

This was their baked fish in mushroom sauce. Menu states halibut. In a mushroom béchamel sauce. I'm not sure I can relate from the flavour of the sauce but it was creamy and not unpleasant as a whole. Did not taste bad.

What unexpectedly turned up as a pleasant surprise was their beef stroganoff. Tenderloin strips with a savoury brown sauce and soft melted onions. According to the menu, that's basmati chicken rice there but I couldn't quite tell. A little pricey methinks but it was delicious.

Happy breakfasting at Ya-Mahyuddin Al-Jailani

Back at Ya-Mahyuddin Al-Jailani, getting a couple of favourites for breakfast.

Today's bananas in their banana egg cheese prata were back to those old tangy sweet ones. 🥳 I was half worried that it'd be those that tasted like plantains that they had used previously. These were so good with the salted cheese.

More of the maggi goreng mutton with extra keema. I wouldn't be exaggerating much if I described this to be half noodles and half keema. This was so good.

Teh halia to finish.