Natural cut fries from Carls Jr

Wow, Carls Jr now has these natural cut fries with skin on and they're actually not too bad. If you are wondering, it does taste different from the regular fries that other fast food places offer and that's in a good way. There seems to be more flavor in the mealy strips of potatoes compared to the flatter tasting regular shoestrings. It seems like I've found my favourite fast food french fries for now.

Some dinner stuff from Din Tai Fung (鼎泰豐)

assorted vegetables and tau kwa strips

It's been quite a while. Possibly two years or more since I've last visited Din Tai Fung (290 Orchard Road, #B1-03 The Paragon, tel : 6836 8336) and the previous times were not at this particular outlet.

Most of the food were pretty much as I remembered them. I liked their vegetable and meat buns. More delicious when they're hot. I've discovered that the portions of meat to vegetables in those are 1 to 9. One of the things that I hadn't seen on menu before are the assorted vegetables with strips of those hard tau kwa which I liked. Their xiao long baos are still one of the better around.

the 90/10 vegetable and pork buns

xiao long bao

chilled drunken chicken

fried rice with pork chops

noodles....neat....kind of

braised beef noodles

Japanese sweet potato soup from Ah Chew

While down at Ah Chew for their papaya double boiled in milk we came across this dessert. It tasted just like most sweet potato soups with ginger. Except that it's Japanese sweet potatoes and they were less fibrous than the local variety. Unless I get a very specific craving for these, I don't think I'll be having them again.

Pho from Madam Saigon

That brimming bowl of pho at Madam Saigon was pretty good. I got the special pho which featured thin slices of beef, brisket and beef balls with additional tendons I spied on their menu. My bowl was loaded with ingredients. The lightly spiced beef balls tasted home made with grits. The broth also didn't match the beefiness from Pho24 and like Pho Lan was served lukewarm. Does anyone know if cooked bean sprouts are a preference or are they meant not to be thoroughly cooked?

We supplemented our pho with the Vietnamese pancake which we had previously. Couldn't resist it.

Song Fa Bak Kut Teh, New Bridge Road

Despite the appearance of Song Fa (11 New Bridge Road, #01-01, tel : 6533 6128) with all that crowd, I didn't feel like it was one of the better ba kut teh around town. The soup was less peppery and robust in comparison with Imperial and definitely wasn't on par with the Sin Min outlet down at Kelantan Lane. The lack of kick was a bit of a let down. Refills of the soup fared even worse. Must have been a separate batch of that broth there. I'm going to put this at the bottom of the list of options if I ever get a craving. What was good was the cloves of garlic that were so soft and you could just suck them out of their skins. Their bowls of clear soup mee sua with pig kidneys was always welcomed on a cool evening.


Despite the seeming popularity of the pork rib soup, I thought that their braised fallopian tubes in dark sauce was actually the better dish. They seem to taste better than the usual ones I've had in kuey chup stores.

Finalmente Gastronomia, Goldhill Plaza

All thing considered, I didn't find Finalmente Gastronomia (1 Goldhill Plaza, #01-47, tel : 6256 2149) impressive beyond the friendly service. While I couldn't fault the preparation of the food, they left me with little incentive to return. I wouldn't say that I'll be avoiding this place for good but for the prices that these guys were charging, I found the quality lacking.


The starter of their pork lion turned out to be just four slices of pork ham with spinach. Must have been a typo there. Also somewhat pricey for four slices of pork with dressing. We requested for additional toppings of ham and mushrooms for the 5 cheese pizza which only contained a slightest hint of the Gorgonzola cheese that was suppose to be in it. For a pizza with 5 cheeses, it really didn't taste that cheesy and was a letdown. The topping looked thin considering that it's suppose to be filled with cheeses and there was suppose to be more ham and mushrooms.

Adding on to the disappointment was the tricolore pizza which featureed porcini mushroom, rockets, truffle oil and an egg. Wasn't worth the $25 for something that didn't even had the slightest flavour of the truffle oil.


All the pizzas were made to order and took very little time to prepare. I'm wondering if that's a good thing. The speed of their service was commendable. Be prepared to pay restaurant prices for the food that's prepared - not by Italians chefs. Dessert was lacklustre as well for a ubiquitous flambé-d molten chocolate cake that costed more than what Borgo charged and didn't taste anywhere as good. I would not have minded paying a little more at Al Forno Trattoria just a short walk away. Those guys serve a very good quattro formaggi gnocchi that I discovered last month. The food there was definitely better.