The Mast' of Mozzarella & Co. Italian Restaurant, Singapore

When this mozzarella bar from Rome opened an outlet at Frasers Tower, I kept my distance (182 Cecil Street #01-05, 6513-8010). Why? It sounded upscale and expensive, especially since they made their cheese on-site. So I was pleasantly surprised upon arrival tonight to find that it was a very casual place without outrageous prices. We got a couple of their oval-shaped pizza-like pinses, but the main reason for coming back would be for their straight up cheese, as featured in that beautiful platter above. Now, I still prefer the food at Latteria by far, but that place is just way too expensive for me.

Pasta Supremo at Suntec City, Singapore

I've been on a small crusade to find affordable but quality pasta places in Singapore, and this new place (3 Temasek Boulevard #01-365, 6909-8138) seemed to fit the bill with its homemade pasta and configure-to-order approach. It looked playful too given its use of things like Sichuan peppers, burnt miso corn, chicken skin, and duck fat.

I really wanted to like it, but the taste just didn't come together for me, and that's after two attempts. The first time, my food was under-seasoned, and I figured that was because I chose the wrong things. So tonight I went for a pre-configured one, but it felt forced with its three different cuts of pork and sauce that didn't harmonize with it all. That's too bad; I was hoping that this would be like Ah Bong's, but it wasn't.

BBQ Generation (Chuanshao Qingnian) in Geylang, Singapore

A colleague recommended this place to me, saying that it was one of the best chuanr shops in town, conveniently located right next to Aljunied station (64 Lorong 25A Geylang, 6547-1567). And it was of good quality, with an impressively wide selection of organ meat available. But I won't make an effort to come back either, as it's easier to go to BBQ Box in town, or maybe Alati if all I want is chicken. These guys did, however, have some kind of pickled fish and mala xiangguo items that might be worth a go though.

China's Western Xibu Mahua at VivoCity, Singapore

Another beef noodle chain from China has opened up an outlet in Singapore, this time up on the third floor of VivoCity (1 Harbourfront Walk #03-11, 6253-5973). Just like Tongue Tip (Shejianjian), they pull the noodles by hand in front of you, and have some lovely chili oil and vinegar available on each table.

Their noodle selection is limited to just four types here, but they offer multiple broths, including a hong shao and tomato version, the former of which had an impressively deep soy sauce flavor. I didn't try the tomato version, but the spicy one was on point and arguably better than Shejianjian. The beef is more fatty and tender here too.

Plus, they serve chuanr and roujiamo here, as they are the more casual offshoot of Alijiang Silk Road Cuisine next door (which incidentally has some really interesting things on the menu like Kazakh baked potatoes and whole roasted lamb). Next time I want to try their pickled and dry bowls to see how they fare.

Daebak Ghost Pepper Spicy Chicken Noodles from Malaysia

The Mamee folks have released a ghost pepper-based instant noodle in Malaysia. It was pretty difficult to get. They're only available at 7-Elevens for a limited time, and three of the four outlets that I went to were sold out. And the only one that had them only had this last one in stock.

Yes, it was pretty darned spicy, but also smoky and sweet with overtones of sesame oil, if I tasted it correctly. I only ate a few bites, but interestingly, the label suggests that you video yourself eating the entire thing on social media in an attempt to win a mobile phone.

Trying Taiwan's Tiger Sugar...in Malaysia

Brown sugar milk sounded like exactly the thing my belly needed before heading back to the hotel tonight, so I'm glad to have come across an outlet of Tiger Sugar, which it seems is a famous shop from Taiwan. My expectations were thus quite high, and unfortunately, I didn't like it. There was hardly any brown sugar taste, and the boba pearls were too soggy. I recall liking Alati's version better, and that's not even a milk tea shop.

My First Taste of Hachis Parmentier

No, French food wasn't quite at the top of the list of places to eat here in Malaysia. But we needed food (and beer!) quickly, and an outlet of a local French chain called Yeast was right in front of us. So I grabbed this hachis parmentier, which was like a French version of a shepherd's pie. It was delicate and hit the spot.

A Bowl of Penang Pork Meat Noodle

I have no idea if this is really from Penang nor what they call it there, but this stall here in KL was selling it, and I gave it a try. Yeah, I liked it, especially since everything was perfumed with a roasted garlic aroma. Fortunately, the dark soy sauce underneath those yellow noodles wasn't too sweet nor thick either.

Restoran Lai Kong at Bandar Sunway Mentari, Malaysia

I wanted some street food tonight, so I went over to this collection of stalls (11 Jalan PJS 8/7) selling all sorts of stuff. One of them was doing oyster omelettes and carrot cake, but they also had a shrimp variant, which I landed on. Yes, I enjoyed it, and it interestingly included a lot of crunchy shrimp foreleg shells in there. But I really wish that the sweet red chili sauce were a stanky fish sauce instead.

B & Best Restaurant in Petaling Jaya, Malaysia

Some local colleagues today said that they wanted to take me to this seafood soup place (12 Jalan SS4c/5, +60-12-2060778). I had no idea what seafood soup was, but it certainly looked encouraging when we arrived, with lots of fresh seafood on display and an occasional whiff of stir-fried shellfish in the air too.

It turned out that it was Teochew noodles, but with a huuuuge selection of seafood, including at least ten different cuts of fish as well as a bunch of shellfish and other toppings that you could spike it with, like fried tofu skin, pork lard, and fried fish roe. The sambal was nice and stanky too.

If I come here again though, I need to remind myself not to get kway teow soup, as it made everything too flat; instead, I should try the rice soup or even dry noodle. The bright green calamansi juice with salted plum is pretty good too.

Chicken Mandi from Mandi Hadramot in Malaysia

Interestingly, the Sunway Pyramid outlet of Mandi Hadramot (LG 2.91, +60-3-5612-5266) does not serve chicken mazbi, as apparently they weren't allowed to install the correct grill inside the mall. So instead I went for their namesake chicken mandi, which still turned out fine, especially since they gave that killer salsa-like sauce, complete with a refill when I wanted more.

A Random Plate of Indomie in Malaysia

I needed a quick bite before going into a long meeting at noon, so I stepped out to one of the local hawker stalls to grab this plate of Indomie. Yep, it was just a plate of instant noodles with a fried egg, but hey, it was also only RM3.50 (US$0.90). In retrospect, I wonder if I could've asked him to make mine pedas.