Ristorante da Valentino

I have a confession to make. I've been really lazy and haven't written a blog entry in ages. Truth be told, I've hardly been to an eatery in recent times serving decent grub enough to warrant a blog entry. *what a brilliant excuse*

Anyhow, I must write about this Ristorante. So we got Salvatore & Paolo with their outlets littered throughout our little island. Mr Valentino opened up this place a little more than a year ago in the quiet neighbourhood of Rifle Range Road. It's a small cozy place, sitting pretty on the first level of a 2 storey shophouse with a few tables set in the porch area for alfresco dining.

At least half the restaurant was patronized by European expatriates, some with their SPGs in tow. The walls were painted red which certainly added some warmth to the cosiness of the place.

We were greeted by a lady waitstaff and she promptly recited the specials available for that evening. The menu featured a range of staple italian antipasta like cold cuts, grilled veggies in olive oil, zuppa, calamari, pastas, pizzas and meat.

I didn't feel like thinking too much that evening because I had endured a long, long day at work!! You know how it is... So yeah, we got the attention of an Italian waiter, who I presume is related to Valentino (I read someone else's review that he brought his sister, momma and papa to help out), to help us out. I wanted to try the rabbit stew but unfortunately for me, that was sold out. I gave up and asked him to recommend something else.

You're probably thinking, what the heck!!! First time in a restaurant, don't know what to order and you're asking the waiter to rip them pockets off your pants. Mate I tell you this fella knew exactly what we needed.

He suggested 2 starters, a custom pasta combo and a meat for the main course. We had a cold cut combo weighing in at around $17something and a roasted vegetable combo also around the same price. The cold cuts were nice and fresh but a little too
skint for the money. The veggies were excellent! The red pepper was slithery n sweet, zucchinis n eggplants were also beautifully roasted. Oh I almost forgot, they serve some warm bread with a nice basil/coriander/garlic/olive oil dip!

Shortly after, the custom pasta combo arrived. We had Pumpkin Ravioli on one side of the plate and Fettucini ala god knows what the name... let's call it Fettucini ala Gobsmacked because it was that good!! The freshly handmade al dente cooked fettucini was tossed in a light cream sauce, shrimp and rucola leaves. The cream sauce was so light you could have hardly told that you ate a cream based sauce in your tummy. The Pumpkin Ravioli kinda looked like undersized Gyoza at first and that did set my expectation slightly lower *yeah I'm so superficial.. well good presentation does enhance the taste sometimes* but man was I ever so wrong to doubt Valentino!! As the warm, almond scented pumpkin filling oozed in my mouth, I thought I'd tasted nirvana/valhalla *that is so Christian-speak wrong*. It was piquantly pumpkin, sweet and salty, gorgeous combi with the ravioli skin.

The main course BLEW me away. We ordered an 800gm Bistecca alla Fiorentina, chargrilled to PERFECTION off the bone. It came on a round wooden platter, neatly sliced into a few pieces on a heap of fresh rucola leaves and 2 lemon wedges. The meat was very well seasoned and cooked just so the meat was pink on the inside and very very moist. I squeezed some lemon on the meat and skewed it on my fork with a couple of rucola leaves. So you think Morton's was good ? This will RIVAL Morton's anyday.



You've gotta try it to believe it folks! I was chewing the rare bits off the bone for goodness sakes!!

Dessert was wheeled to us on a nice glass trolley. They had a blueberry tart, lemon tart, panna cotta and something else which I can't seem to recall. Also available from the menu was a selection of sorbets and tiramisu. We ordered a blueberry tart, a slice of panna cotta and a tiramisu to round off our most excellent meal. The blueberry tart didn't go down too well with me because I didn't really like the smell of the semolina flour used to cook the base of the tart. Panna cotta is cooked
cream for the uninitiated and this one was DAMNED good. It was light, fresh and creamy. Most of all it wasn't overly sweet, just enough to enhance the natural sweetness of cream. Numero uno man. The tiramisu was excellent. To some traditionalists, the tiramisu is not recognized as a staple of Italian desserts but this one sure tasted like it had been done in the tradtition of mamma for a long time. Surrounded in thick luscious mascarpone cream and sponge cake soaking in coffee liquer, this was a long time coming. I haven't tasted tiramisu anywhere this good since the good old days in Australia.

It ain't cheap but it's worth the experience. Call in advance because these guys are packed!! Bon appetit.

Jubilicious Nasi Biryani

Growing up with a dad that loves Indian and Malay food, I was introduced to the Nasi Biryani when my parents threw a birthday party for me when I was 7 and instead of having it at Macdonald's like all the other cool kids, my parents insisted on having a party in the house and invited none of my friends. Wow! What a party. But I guess thats how growing up stories sound like most of the time. My parents catered from my Dad's then favorite Islamic Resturant at Arab Street. It was pretty fantastic, that meal.

As I got older, I developed my own taste in Nasi Biryani and picked the restaurant right next to Islamic called Jubilee. Back then, Jubilee was this all Indian restaurant with metal framed room dividers, and the Indian uncles would serve us as much food as we ate. I remember ordering so much once that the guy asked us if we were sure. I think on that day, me and my dad ordered close to a total 6 plates of chicken and mutton Nasi Biryani - a record in the family by the way.

So my mum decided to start buying Biryani again from Jubilee. I must say, that it hasn't changed a single bit. Its still fantastic tasting. I always order the chicken Biryani and the chicken and rice is a fantastic combination. Rice is fragrant and not too soft. The chicken is well cooked and the marintate is excellent. Its a deadly combination. People should go try it.

Espirito Santo at Parkway

I had to buy some meats for a bbq this week and it was fun to walk into Espirito Santo at Parkway and be surprised by the meats they served and the service I got. The service wasn't great but it was more friendly than say a Cold Storage or a Shop and Save? The meats were great tasting and succulent and fresh. Honestly, even though their American meats looked some what questionable and I wouldn't recommend anybody to buy it but their Australian cut beef striploin and their pre-marinated were awesome. They tasted fresh, succulent and tender. Just the way, cows are supposed to taste.

I was about to go crazy because I couldn't find a good meat place in Singapore. I nearly went with tasty bites to JURONG to buy some meats! Thank goodness for a store like Espirito Santo.

The French are coming!!

Delifrance Parkway:

Spoiler Alert: Last Saturday, the wife and I went into Parkway Hungry. We couldn't decide what to eat and it was eastern or western day so we narrowed our bad choices to Delifrance and Sakae Sushi. We walked into Delifrance hoping for something good. We walked out after sitting down for 3 minutes and looking through the menu. I was hungry, but I never knew the Singaporean interpretation of "French," food was that bad. But it was.

Long Jiang and Toh Kee

I had the exciting privilege over the last week to eat roasted meats. Yes. I do love my char siew and roast duck. My mum being Cantonese is proud of her roasted meat taste standards, and I think besides my dad, the whole family, even my American wife can taste and know how good char siew is. She is "ahem," well trained.

Toh Kee (TK) at People's Park food center has been there forever. I ordered a plate of assorted roasted meats that came up to $16 for 2 people.

Long Jiang (LJ) at Jalan Pari Burong along Upper Changi Road is a new place I traveled to last week. We ordered also a plate of roasted meats that came up to $0 because I didn't pay for it.

Like all fair and balanced comparison, lets have an apple to apple comparison, or in this case, a meat to meat comparison:

Char Siew: I thought that the char siew at TK was much less in serving. In fact, I would say the quantity served at LJ was much more. But besides quantity, the flavor at TK was excellent. They made burnt ends of char siew taste like the best worst cooked meat in the world. You could still taste the sweetness and moistness of the char siew. The char siew at LJ was somewhat dry, not overly dry and still taste somewhat porkish.

Duck: This I say is a push. Both the ducks were succulent and smooth to taste. The bones had the rhiney and juicy flavor that you just want to suck the juice out of the bone. The skin was both crispy and and damp and the fat between the skin and the meat was right. It is well with my soul.

Roast Pork: I would say a slight edge to TK. The roast pork at TK was phat, sweet and crispy. You know its bad for you but you just want to eat more and more. There was no excess fat, the meat and fat was of the right amount. The coloring was right. Its a light brown skin and an almost beige white meat .... drool..... The roast pork at LJ was good also. It had the good amount of fat and meat mix. But the slight sweet salty after taste was missing. The skin was crispy and meat tender, but it didn't leave an impression in the mouth.

I highly recommend Toh Kee. I have been there for several years now whenever I can or am in the area, and I have rarely been disappointed. Long Jiang is worth a try. I might be wrong in my deductions but I stick by what I say. TK rocks.

Shortest Review Ever!

Carl's Jr is the BEST fast food Burger Joint in Singapore. Nuff Said. And so says Alby. (The dog in the picture)

New thing at StarBucks

Even though some people think that Starbucks is the evil empire of coffee just like Chelsea is to the EPL and the Yankees are to Baseball, their variety of new products never cease to amaze me. My new craze is the huge oatmeal raisin cookie. Its the best cookie I have tasted in Singapore. Its $4.50 (abit too much for a cookie me thinks) but it tastes great. Its soft and chewy. It warms my heart to eat it. I never understand why most other cookies are always so tough.

Have a try. Go ahead. You know you want it.

D Cup better than C Cup

Bigger is better. My colleague prefers a handful of it and I believe we should milk it for what its worth. C Cup is in. C Cup might be the new D Cup.

What exactly am I talking about? It's simple. CUPCAKES!!!!. Some of my over "sugar-fied" colleagues have recently been on a sugar binge and have caught the craze of cup cakes. As some of you might know, I'm not much of a sugar person and cup cakes isn't really my thing. When one of my female colleagues came over without saying anything and typed it onto my Internet browser the website, I was like, "What the heck?" But thank goodness, it was a website for cup cakes.

Apparently the orders have been coming in so much that we had to wait 2 weeks for our delivery. I have since found out that this is not a store front. This is business from a home! And I got this forwarded email from one of the other cupcake co-conspirators that they even told us which items they did not have enough to make one of the cupcakes and suggested to us that we should order something else. But of course, they were more polite than that. I respect this kind of service.

When the cupcakes came and the time for tasting arose, it did not fail. I thought the cupcakes were delicate and not too sweet. Will I order it again? No. But I think I might order it for people as gifts. The biggest cup cake in the website isn't really a cupcake. It was more of a mini-cake by my definitions but I digress. Just a note, you have to order up to $80 for them to deliver.

You should probably order cup cakes for your moms that are not on diet, your skinny girlfriend or just wanting to appease that irritating customer of yours. Its a creative gift. Hey, its sweet.

A syllogistic question: If cupcakes is to C Cup then what is to D Cup?

Cedele at Wheelock Place

I once said not so long ago that one should only go to Cedele for soup and bread. I would just like to say now that I stand corrected. After going to Cedele at Wheelock Place twice in 3 weeks for me and the missus' late Sunday breakfast after church, I have to say that its pretty good. In fact, I would highly recommend this Cedele in particular more than the others.

Maybe its not a franchise or maybe it is. But there is something different with this Cedele. No longer is it a transient restaurant where you sit, eat and leave. Here, you seem somewhat invited to stay longer and order more food because the food selection is wider and I personally think that the food is better.

For the past 2 ventures, I have ordered the same thing. The big big breakfast, filled with 3 pieces of bacon, 2 sausages, scrambled eggs, a little side salad with balsamic vinegar sprinkled on as a mix and saut'ed mushrooms. It also comes with a cup of tea. All for $16.80. Some would think that how can you go wrong with bacon, sausages, mushroom, eggs and toast? It can. Trust me. It's not like I hate Macdonald's breakfast but that is almost the bottom of the barrel in terms of how breakfast should taste. The hotels kill the "American Breakfast," genre because they make it into an overkill, just too much stuff on a plate. And my wife who ordered her blue berry pancakes loved her pancakes. I might not be a connoisseur in pan cakes but readers should trust a person who ate pan cakes nearly all her childhood. So she knows good pan cakes.

The only times I have seen Diana Ser is when I am at Wheelock Place and the unfortunate thing is that I have not seen her the last 2 times. And that's the only down side of Cedele. I should write an ode to Diana.

Garibaldi at Purvis Street

The Food-critics aka me and my wife had a very brief discussion about Garibaldi with Mr and Mrs. Tasty Bites and for the sake of summary and purpose lets call this couple "The Gohs." The reason for this conversation was because I have been reading quite abit about the restaurant stating that its the best Italian restaurant in Singapore. The Tasty Bites thought that the food was decent but the quality of the food was not in proportion to how much it was. On the other hand, "The Gohs," loved the place. It was the beginning of the month and I had to date the wife, so I decided to experiment to see how good was this place.

If you have read my earlier scripting about Menottis, please note that I just wasn't too impressed with the place. The pasta was closer to Pasta Mania than Babbo's but the desserts were decent. I made a reservation for 830 pm because I thought the place wouldn't be too crowded on a Friday night and boy was I wrong.

The restaurant is a dimly lit restaurant with an L shaped architecture. The walls looked dark green with the yellow light and there were a lot of foreigners. When I stood at the door of the place, the server had to slide the door open for me to allow my wife and I to enter the restaurant. Cool. Our wait for a table lasted only 30 seconds before a nice lady came out and called my name sounding like I have been there every other week. So far, the service has been fantastic. The impression is good.

As I sat in between more foreigners, the servers started coming around to tell us what the specials were and handed us the menu. I actually thought that the menu price was decent. I mean, if it is the best Italian restaurant that so many people claim it is, it has to be pretty expensive right? We sat down ordered the prosciutto Ham appetizer, my wife ordered the typical American Steak and potatoes which the place is famous for, I ordered the scallop and marsala risotto - I have just been in a marasla phase recently, and 2 types of desserts. The warm chocolate cake and some pistachio based chocolate dessert. 2 glasses of the cheapest wine and the free flow bread!

Is it wrong to state that the best dish of the day was the free bread? A very nice server came and constantly walked by our table and kept asking us if we wanted the sundried tomato and cheese bread. How could you say no? To a point that I had to stop the server from giving me bread because everytime she walked by and asked, I would always say yes. I told her to stop. And she smiled when I told her but somehow she refused to listen to me! Damn, the service is good.

When our dishes came, I have to admit that I was almost full, but I soldiered on. The risotto was decent. There was 3 pieces of scallop and I could tell that the risotto broth had some dried scallops as well. The blend was soothing and comforting. The marsala and scallop mix was good only after several bites. But I liked the flavor. It was something unusual and daring. My wife loved her steak and potatoes. It looked good. The beef was smooth and slippery in the mouth. One can taste the balsamic vinegar base of the steak. The appetizer was fantastic. I never understood how the saltiness and the toughness of ham goes so well with the sweetness and juiciness of melon. The ham was also paired with asparagus and fresh mozzarella cheese. Loved it.

My wife doesn't really drink wine. In fact, I have to say that she likes fancy places and this was one of it. Oh, and she likes to drink wine at fancy places. That's when I know I'm getting lucky that night also by the way.

The desserts were great. The warm chocolate cake with the liquid melted chocolate center was well received. My pistachio dessert was a hit and miss but the pistachio cream was pretty tasty.

I have to say that in the end, I guess I stand in the middle of both the Tasty Bites and the Gohs. I liked the place. In fact, I would say it is the best Italian restautrant in Singapore but it was not worth the amount paid I thought. The dinner bill was $200 some dollars and I was satisfied but not fully satisfied I guess. I highly recommend this restaurant if you are out to impress your wife or girlfriend. Just expect to pay quite abit for dinner!

Tubby Man

I have to admit that over the last few weeks, I have not been inspired to write anything. Some friends of mine, including Pampadam (we shall name her this because this is after all a food blog) suggested that I look at other bloggers to get inspired. Inspired I was not. A sense of insipid horror came upon me that writing for the sake of writing or writing to entertain some of my friends because blogging has become a professional sport. Some of the blogs that I have seen are walking advertisements with great pictures and boring writing or writing with so much inferred winks that it would seem as if the writer was paid by the restaurant to write what the blogger writes.

Some of you might be thinking that the food-critic is keeping his amateur status because he might want to compete in the Olympics someday but sadly, that is not the case. Blogging has to be fun and amateurish in nature. That is the essence of blogging. There are professional bloggers but at least its clearly stated. Don't be fooled by those who you think are actually amateur but are in fact professional.

Since I have opened myself up to much criticism, I have also, at least I think I have, turned on the comment option. Before, I turned off the comment option because I thought since people were just reading this for fun, there was really nothing much for people to say except to shut up and listen. In my ever disgusting need to contradict and be ironically objective, I have decided to turn the comment option on so as to participate in some kind of open forum or at least fun debate on food and food places.

To quote the hatred Bill O'Reilly, the comments have to be pithy.

So with this, I take a small step in my blog, but a giant step to the nearest bathroom because the critic needs a leak.

Crystal Jade at Holland V

Crystal Jade is a type of place that stands in the gap between hawker food and restaurant food. Its higher class than a food court because you are served by servers but lower class that restaurants because real estate around your table is about as much as how far your legs can go. So the food has to be where its deigned to be at. Mediocre.

We ordered the Wontan noodles, frog leg porridge, pepper beef and fried squid. It was mediocre. But I have to say the place was uber crowded and the servers were really helpful with the ordering. The value of the food was mediocre and it was all good for me because I sort of expected it.

I don't know why I always order the wontan mee, even though I don't really even like it? Weird. I should try to order something else when I'm there.

Dempsey Hut

I actually thought that in Singapore, its quite impossible to find an area filled with trees and old styled buildings with very niche restaurants. So you would think that the restaurants are pretty good right? Nope.

Dempsey Hut was a last minute resort. Something happened while waiting for a friend and we ended up there not really by choice. The place was outdoors-ish and there was absolutely no air conditioning, Whenever we drove pass that place, I always thought that it seemed like a pretty cool restaurant.

So the male server who looks like Jonathan from this season's Singapore Idol served us. He asked us our drink of choice and stood there. Wondering if we were going to order more and just stared at us. Being silly, I stared back and wandering why in the world was he standing there? And then it struck him. This couple who just came in who had barely 5 minutes to look through the menu did not know what they wanted to order.

After 5 mins in the dark, as the tables were lit by little candle type thing and tiki torches, we decided. My wife ordered the Fish and Chips and myself the sausage. They were ordinary. Nothing outstanding. What I think you pay for is the surrounding and you can tell people that you hang out there at Dempsey Hut. Its a beer place. I was surrounded by a diverse mix of families and middle aged women and what I think to be dating couples.

So if you happen to be in any of this group, you'll fit right in.

Wiener Kaffehaus

Sure. Go ahead. Make fun of the name. I did.

I was told that this place is the only place in Singapore that serves real Belgian coffee. I mean, they serve their coffee on a freaking silver tray! I was there twice with clients 2 days in a row and I have to say that I thoroughly like it. Not loved it. But liked it a lot.

You have tons of choice for coffee, and the apple strudel is pretty darn good. They have separate menus for food and drinks and its a really cozy atmosphere. The deco is a type that has old fashion chic and walls littered with art. The service is okay but the coup de tat of the whole place is the coffee. Someone should go and try it because it is great!

Lei Garden at Chijmes

A Chinese food connoisseur I am not. But do I actually enjoy fantastic Chinese food that is both expensive and ridiculously good? Yes!

I have had the opportunity to eat at Lei Garden this past week at Chijmes. I made a reservation the day before for a business lunch and 2 hours before my reservation, the restaurant called me and reconfirmed the booking and asked me if I wanted to pre-order some dishes like the roast park and their special double boiled soup. Since I was not paying for lunch. I said yes!

But much to my short sightedness, one of the guests was vegetarian. Fortunately, the servers were very sensitive. They saw that one of my guests was vegetarian and made some vegetarian dishes to replace the meat dishes without me asking. How cool was that?

We ordered doubled boiled pork rib soup, mixed summer vegetables, roasted pork, Peking duck, fried noodles with duck and specially sliced fried beef. The lunch was about $600 for 8 people. Sure. That's a lot of money but I haven't had such a good Chinese lunch in a long time.

Now, please understand that some of you might be thinking that this food-critic equates price with quality. I would politely have to disagree with you. A $600 lunch is a lot! Its really a lot! But it was really good.

Invite your potential future in laws to this place if you are going to announce your engagement.

My thoughts on food times

Post Script: Cafes shouldn't have different dinner times. I resent the fact that some outrageously pretentious restaurants what I might have somehow already referenced feel that people should eat at only 2 dinner times on any day? I personally think its ridiculous. When your dinner times is 630pm or 830 pm, and you show up at 7, they tell you that you only have 60 mins to eat. Now that is ludicrous.

First of all, the darn restaurant isn't even full. Second of all, the servers tell you that they only can let you eat for an hour and still not apologize, how arrogant is that? And thirdly and lastly, its just a darn cafe. Are you kidding me?

Word of warning, the next time you try to go to a cafe that tell you specifically what time to eat? Don't go.

Le Bristrot at Joo Chiat Place

So I went to eat some French food with Mr. and Mrs. Tasty Bites. I have a feeling that they wanted to test me just in case if ever we were to step into St Pierre, I might pay lots of money and then hate the food. So I would like to thank my friends for that.

French food at Joo Chiat Place? As sure as the French once occupied Vietnam, sure enough there would be a French restaurant in Joo Chiat Place in the middle of Little Vietnam. I have always thought that French food is pompous, outlandish and surprisingly small and pretentious. And how was I wrong. Le Bristrot is nothing but. The servers were outstandingly polite, food was delectable and dessert was outstanding.

The menu is broken up combinations of appetizer, desserts and main dishes. So the amount you pay is dependent on the different combinations of what you order. Of course, you'll save some money if you order all 3 types but I ordered only 2. Somehow it worked out that the ladies ordered the rack of lamb with couscous. The men ordered the rump steak. My appetizer was a duck pate, Tasty Bites had fried cheese, Mrs. Tasty Bites had French onion soup. The dessert ended up to be Lemon tart.

My duck pate was cold and it went fantastic with bread and a side of Dijon mustard. It was light but you can still taste the duck. It was a fantastically robust pate but that was the way I liked it. It was nothing like liver or something that I absolutely detest. What it did was that it set up the entire meal for me because it whet my appetite good and proper. The fried cheese was fantastic. I had a small slice of it and I had to admit it was was sweet and light, not cheese tasting at all. It made me want to eat more! I heard that Lady Bites loved the onion soup!

My perception of rump steak is something like its the worst part of the beef. Tough and totally unsucculent at all. And again I was wrong. The beef order had to be either medium or rare, so I ordered medium. The steak was delicate, and juicy. Fantastically delicious! The side salad that came on the plate complemented the beef. And with the garlic butter melting on top of the steak. All was good in this world.

The rack of lamb with couscous was pretty good too. The couscous was filled with raisins and sweet. It complemented with the lamb and I have to say that I love meat! There was still that slight lingering lamb taste, but I could live with it. The rack of lamb was really a rack. Bones and everything. That was something I really appreciated.

The Lemon tart was both tart and light at the same time. Completely contrasting taste but it went so well. It left me wanting more French food. Gulp! I said it. French food rocks! Even though Tasty Bites was trying to go through with me the different French cooking techniques used in other forms of cuisine, I have to say that Tasty Bites has pretty damn good taste in food.

Biggie ups.

Aiyoyo!

I just realized I haven't contributed in a looooooong time!!!! Gaaaaaaaawwwwwwwd........ will start trawling the island soon for good eats. Talk to you soon!

Boston, its whats for dinner!

On my final assault of Quincy Market, I decided, well my boss decided to bring some Singaporeans to Quincy Market. We actually had dinner at the Cheers restaurant! A place where everyone knows your name. Well, not really at this Cheers but they service was nice and friendly. The restaurant was uber loud because it was still the summer holidays and there were tons of kids. I ordered Sam Adams for all the men and I ordered a side of Clam Chowder for myself together with my blackened cajun fish sandwich.

First of all I have to say that this chowder wasn't very good. My blackened cajun fish sandwich wasn't very good either. Wow, I was actually quite disappointed with Ted Danson and Frasier Crane all of a sudden. Not that I always had high expectations of a bar/novelty restaurant, but I comforted myself by saying that it was just a tourist spot. Food isn't supposed to be good. Everybody else were happy with their food. There was an order of Fish and Chips, steak and potatoes, chicken salad, and some seafood dish. Everybody loved the Sam Adams, I liked it. Crisp and tender. Not too thick. Our mixed platter appetizer is the same type you can get any where.

On my way to New York from Boston, my flight was delayed for over 3 hours. I got hungry and decided to tell myself to go grab something to eat. I had to take a chance to eat bad airport food. I was left with a choice of Burger King and La Famligilia. The choice was clear. It was the latter. Its actually a renowned pizza joint. Its just that the pizza quality varies from place to place. I ordered a slice of the pizza pie filled with onions, ham, salami, and peppers with a side of spicy marinara sauce and Lipton ice tea. I have to say, after eating all of that crappy pizza in Singapore, this was one of the best decisions I made while waiting for that God forsaken airline called Continental. The pizza was warm and served with a smile. I gobbled the huge slice of pizza down within 5 minutes. It was that good. I highly recommend this store for airport food if you're stuck in an airport in the east coast of United States.

Another thing about traveling long distance. I took the direct flight from Singapore to Newark, and I have to say that the seats were freaking fantastic. The food even though I personally thought was one meal too little, was great compared to any other airline food I have tasted over long distances. For the direct flights, there is even a standing area behind the plane where you can hang out and eat all the food you want. The stewardess left vegetable and chicken wraps, hot char siew buns, instant noodles, chips and cheese and cookies for you to eat. It seemed as if every hour, there was somebody serving something and I have to say that's fantastic for an 18 and a half hour flight. Biggie ups to the SIA stewards and stewardess.

Bean Town Part 2a

For all those who share the irritation of freaking technology and the freaking popup blocker from freaking google which freaking make me lose my entire 3 paragraphs of articulate crap earlier, I hope you understand why I am irritated that I am writing this.

Anyways, much to my anticipation and surprise, my experience in Boston was finally aided by an unlikely of alliances, Bugsy! Bugsy: who was my wife's personal aide during our wedding and my wife was her lone bridesmaid for Bugsy's wedding, decided to come down to Boston and take me around with Mandy. Mandy is so named to aide in my specific story telling so that one can identify with her and also understand that I can stop referring her as Bugsy's friend because it will just make quick reading tedious.

"Bugsy parked her car and walked through the park," imagine saying this with a strong Bostonian accent and it would be hilarious but the above did really happen. I was soon to discover that my hotel being in the middle of the theatre district is in the middle of everything. Bugsy and Mandy couldn't find the hotel, so I walked down less than one Boston block and there she was! Finally, a local to bring me around!

We took a 15 minute walk together and we reached Quincy market. See pic above. Imagine right down the middle of the building is a walk way and as you enter the old one storied building, you were walking between stores that served food of all varieties. From local seafood to Japanese food and ice cream. Outside and around the building are local restaurants. For all the ladies out there reading this blog and wanting to go to Boston someday, if you see the picture carefully on the left, are buildings that contain stores that you would like from Coach, to Crate and Barrel, to Urban Outfitters. And behind Quincy Market is a GAP, Banana Republic, American Eagle Outfitters and a few Victoria Secrets. The ladies were hungry and we decided to go to some Irish pub for some quick bites. The bar was cool. It was a nice. We had to walk up some stairs and we were in this dome ceiling type restaurant. It was wicked cool. We ordered some sandwiches and the crab and artichoke dip was fantastic. The service was good and the company was wonderful. Again, I have to say at that point I really didn't care about the food because I was just happy to be with friends, yes, I do consider Mandy as a friend even though I just met her.

As we walked around the place, I was tempted to buy some Boston Shorts, those short shorts that I love my wife to wear at home that accentuates .....

Anyways, while walking back. I had to hit the Borders because I had to get my V for vendetta DVD. And all was good. We walked through the park and there was a open play of Taming of the Shrew aka 10 things I hate about you. Even though I didn't know when I would see Bugsy and Mandy again, I was just glad that I could share my experience in Boston with them.

The next day, the Boss and I decided to invade Harvard in the morning. We took the redline and alighted at Cambridge. It was as if we were transplanted into a part of London. The campus is beautiful and the the churches in and around the campus was exquisite. We had breakfast at a local bar restaurant where they serve breakfast foods. I ordered the 333. The 3 pancakes, 3 bacon and 3 eggs. I personally call it the triple threat. It was more of a self collect place. You order and when the order is done, they call you and you collect your stuff and pay. I am not really a breakfast person but I have to say it was freaking fantastic. The yellow walls littered with autographs from the Rolling Stones and some old autograph memobilias all over the wall. I have to say that the experience was nostalgic as it made me want to return to college again. I would recommend this place to anybody visiting Harvard. Now if only I can remember the name of the store!

BOSTON

Can I just say that I love Boston? Its lovely. The weather was hot but the place was beautiful. Its a good mix of New York with just a tad slower pace and the people are lovely as well. Friendly and polite. I would recommend Boston to anybody.

After an 18 and a half hours flight with my boss, we decided to eat something "proper," at Newark Airport. We met some other Singaporeans who were heading to Boston as well and we stopped in front of TGIF in Terminal C. Its weird traveling with Singaporeans in a foreign country because it feels like you are caught in a darn time warp. You know that you are in a foreign country but the sounds and sights are deeply tainted by the "Singaporean-est," of the people surrounding you. I try to follow Anthony Bourdain's thing about being a traveler and not a tourist. So TGIF wasn't exactly my idea of America that I know of. I had 3 glasses of Dr. Pepper within 15 minutes. Dr. Pepper is the drink of choice when I am back home and I drink it so much until my wife has to stop me because my tummy just isn't used to so much gas! I ordered a burger and the nice lady with us ordered a salad while the 2 older man ordered cheese steaks. Not the Philly cheesesteaks mind you, just 2 slices of Sirloin with some melted nacho cheese. Being Singaporean, obviously some comments had to come. Like this steak is not as good as Jack's place. Somebody take a gun and shoot me please. My burger was decent. Huge of course. But I have to say that the fries were left out for too long?

The next day, the boss and myself decided to take the lunch trolley. The convention had this trolley bus that brought you around to the nearby restaurants, and we decided to take one to try. Again, you can't run from Singapore. We decided to take BUS C, which brought us to the bay and the restaurant of choice was the NO NAME RESTAURANT. My boss thought the name was cool because apparently this restaurant copied the name from the NO SIGNBOARD SEAFOOD RESTAURANT. Shoot me now please. The restaurant was in the middle of the warehouses, it was cool. The restaurant served nothing but seafood because it was right by the bay. I ordered my blue fish and my boss ordered the Cale? We had to order the chowder because that's what Boston is famous for and the free garlic bread which was half a French loaf was freaking fantastic. The sounds of sea gulls was all around and we could see the fishing ships out the window. Beautiful. The food was pretty good and the service was excellent. The restaurant was crowded. So the ambiance was definitely there.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!!!

Our next attack was the nearby Italian restaurant called Mezzano's. My boss needed noodles. And we were walking around near the hotel wondering around what was good. Mezzano's. It sounds familiar because I bought their pasta sauce before! The ambiance was great. Like every great Italian restaurant, it has to be dimly litted, dark wood furniture, white table cloth, Italian servers. We sat right by the bar and we ordered the works. A salad, I ordered the chicken marsala of course, my boss requested for chilly in his pasta, kill me now please. And of course I ordered a Bruschetta. The meal was filling and the portions were huge! I have to say the people in Boston are crazy abour their Red Sox. I don't particularly like them but when a game is on. Everybody watches it, even in a sexy restaurant like Mezzano's. I would say that the Pasta we had were way above average but still below good. It was acceptable for a $16 USD per plate of pasta. And my boss paid for dinner too! So it was great!

More to come.....

Ai Pappi!

For all the 2 married ladies who read this blog, say the title of this post during some good "relationship making," with your hubby and you're in the right direction. I do have a thing for Latina women, my wife knows that. We both consider Salma Hayek hot and I do find Jennifer Lopez appalling. Thought about dating some Latina women during college because my room mate was a hot and sexy Latina Machismo who attracted the lovely Mamasitas, but thank goodness I ended up with a hot blonde instead.

Why the tangent about the Latino culture for a restaurant review? I don't know. Does this restaurant serve Latin food? No. The name of the restaurant that I decided to impress my wife when she came back to Singapore was Poppi at Fort Canning Hill, located within the compound of Legends. The website is impressive enough. I love the deco as seen from the website. So I was expecting some hot Australian cuisine.

That's the part that got me dumbfounded. It wasn't really Australian cuisine. Just more Nouveau European cuisine. Which means to most " I can't decide what to specialize in which in cooking school so I made up this term to make it sound like a new genre of food that I know nothing about," type cuisine.

Arriving at 6pm for dinner. I was pleasantly surprised that there was hardly anybody in the restaurant. The server and host was very friendly and polite. They told us what the specials were and as we looked through the menu, I only thought how bad could this be? So my wife feeling adventurous decided to try the Barraundi dish, and me the Foie Gras with steak and potatoes. 2 desserts worth of their hot chocolate cake with melted chocolate inside the cake and we even ordered the mushroom appetizer. The total meal cost was $170. I mean, that's fine for my wife and I but the food was okay. Wasn't $170 worth for sure.

The Barrundi tasted dare I say fishy? And my steak and potatoes were average at best. The Foie Gras didn't go with the beef and our mushroom appetizer looked amateurish at worst. The dessert was the saving grace but again, you can have the dessert nearly anywhere.

I wanted to try something different that night but was serverly disappointed. On the other had, good old Tasty Bites went to the Cliff that night at Beaufort and I bet he enjoyed the heck out of the experience.

Hope this helps.

Parkway Royal Thai

I can't really remember the name. Is it Parkway Royal Thai or Royal Parkway Thai? I don't know. I went for a lunch buffet which cost $22 per person including GST and the what have yous.

It was a reasonable lunch. It wasn't really great authentic Thai food mind you. But the selection was decent and something the restaurant can get away with. There was Pineapple Fried Rice, white rice, some Pad Thai, green curry, mixed vegetables, bad Tom Yum soup, bad quasi fishball soup, decent cold squid salad, okay papaya salad, some shrimp type curry, and a few other Thai chicken and beef dishes.

Vague description I know. But mind you, this is a buffet. The rules of engagement for a buffet is different. It just have to taste relatively good, and the restaurant doesn't stop you from going 10 rounds around the buffet. The buffet is very much like a marathon, you pace yourself and you eat in good portions, I laugh at Europeans and Americans who take and finish their buffet in 2 plates. That's just silly. For a buffet, you need quantity of decent tasting food. Its the repetition that counts. Not the quality of the food because no decent 5 star restaurant has a buffet. Trust me. I don't know.

This experience was relatively harmless. It was meant for a farewell lunch for a colleague, and he had his fill. Which was good. Would I go back to the restaurant again? No. Not really. Would I recommend it to my friends? No. Not really. The service was relatively good and prompt and $22 per person is QUITE value for money for lunch. I left the restaurant without having changed my mind about Thai food, because I love Thai food. So I guess this is a positive.

Just came back ...

Hi all, just came back from the 617. Will update the website with more reviews.

Laters

New Grading System

Just a small change in my grading system. From now onwards, there is no grading system! I think my writing should be suffice in fully describing what I liked and disliked about the restaurants. If I add the grades, it would seem like I am unnecessarily harsh! Or am contradicting myself. So just a foot note, I have changed my grading system.

P.s. If ever so there is a need to bring my old grading system which was both contradictory and harsh back, I would gladly do so.

Rang Mahal & Delhi

My love for Indian food knows no bounds except my tongue which might get scorched occasionally by the heat of the curry. When the misses is around, I hardly eat Indian food even though she doesn't discourage it, but she does make a face. So when she was not around, I decided to try some expensive Indian food at the Pan Pac and my experience can best summed up by a buddy of mine that said," Bro, whenever an Indian restaurant has the name RANG in it, its gonna be expensive."

As I walked out of the restaurant, I felt a tinge of disappointment. The place was nice, it was sexy. Very beautiful decor and relatively good service. For paying $40 over dollars per person on this Sunday buffet, I felt it needed more. It was not suffice that they had countless amount of naan bread or that they served interesting soup. For a buffet, there sure wasn't a lot of choices. It was more like a non-buffet with several choices of curry and some dishes and that was it. Maybe I can't count but there surely in my mind wasn't enough choices to be called a buffet. There isn't a word opposite of buffet, trust me, I checked. The Indian food was good. It was. But not worth $40 a person.

On the other hand, I went to Delhi on RaceCourse Road. I have to say, having already been to Muthus and Banana Leaf many other times, I was not very impressed with the restaurant. I mean the deco. Its a small dimly litted restaurant, and what catches your eye is all those awards they have won for excellence and best restaurant. That, I was impressed. When I sat down, I looked at the menu and went through it. I ordered my new favorite Gobi Aloo, my spinach in goat cheese, 4 different types of naan, chicken tikka masala, my mum wanted to try their mutton biryani, all you can eat pampadam, tandori chicken for 4 people and tomato soup for the misses, (like I said, she doesn't really like Indian food), topped up with some masala tea and home made mango ice cream for my parents, and mango lassi and lime juice for everyone else. Even the lady who was helping us was telling us to stop ordering so much!

Talking about the lady, she was very nice in explaining to us what was good and what we needed to order. She even advised us the combination of the food! Fantastic I thought! When I left Delhi, and I mean the restaurant and not the city, I was full and happy. The food was fantastic. I told my parents that sometimes after eating curry, everything tasted the same. But for Delhi, that wasn't the case. Each dish had its own distinct flavor and it was complementary on so many levels. And to top it all off, I only paid $22 bucks a person and I was full to the brim. Best of all, my wife probably just had the best Indian food experience in her life.

Sometimes, looks can be deceiving. And a good restaurant doesn't need to have "Rang," in it.

Hope this helps.

The Dichotomy of Fast Food

First thing's first, my wife is back! So more restaurant reviews to come!

Second thing is, not all fast food chains are created equally. Not even intra fast food restaurants. So I went to the airport Burger King and the Tampines KFC. And I have to say those are 2 of the worst food chain restaurants I have had in awhile. Why is it that the Kallang or Bedok KFC taste better than the Tampines KFC? Weird isn't it? Its still the colonel's 11 secret herb and spices right? And the BK at the airport, which their chicken fingers I swear bounce off the floor like a rubber ball. It was that bad.

Footnote to self: Only go to Kallang and Bedok KFC. Approach Burger King with caution.

I used to love the McDonalds at Far East Plaza. It was the best McDonald's ever. Now, I would actually say the one a the East Coast is pretty good. Now, if the iron chefs actually opened a fast food chain, I would so eat there.

British Chefs

Just a thought. I never have been to the UK and the idea of eating English food is just eating fish and chips or some kidney pies. So why in the world does the England in particular produce so many cooking shows cooking other country's dishes? There has been Floyd, Julia Child to the new chefs like Jaime Oliver and the lass of my life Nigella. What gives?

I think its the British accent. Its cool. I have to say Jaime Oliver is one of the best chefs on TV. On TV is the emphasis. He makes cooking an experience and he is genuine and fun to watch. I don't have some man crush on him but I do think that he is the only person that I have tried copying in terms of cooking style. Maybe he relates better to people my age? No matter what the case, I am just happy that I get to see Jaime Oliver on Singaporean TV.

Man I wish there was a food channel.

Superfluous Cacophony II

I like this term. I think I shall use it.

I like eating good food. And I like eating. And I like. Cooking. Truth is sometimes stranger than fiction. I can cook. And I think for a guy who has no previous training other than the food channel, I think I'm pretty damn good too. I want to take this time and talk about the people that have taught me the most about cooking.

Due to my love for Italian food. Lydia Bastianich is one of the biggest influences. I love watching her cook because if I was Italian, I wish she would be my grandma! She cooks simple Italian food and her food philosophy is simple. Love cooking and cook for the people you love. The show I believe is taped from her home and I wish that my kitchen was like hers! Her son is also partners in the restaurant business with Mario Batali (see Superfluous Cacophony). Someone should buy her book! What better way to learn Italian cooking than from an Italian!

Emeril Lagasse: Sure he had a failed TV show, who doesn't? But he makes cooking fun. He adds pizzazz to cooking. I was so influenced that I even bought his Emeril Spices which works wonders with meat as well as bought all his pasta sauces. They are all good. Sometimes he does go off on a far far away tangent on food, but I think most of the time he is sane. His cajun cooking is brilliant and it is because of him that I started trying cajun and creole food. And I love it.

Tyler Florence is the last guy on the right in the black sweater. Initially, I always thought the guy was a poser. A little bit like Rachel Ray. Looks cute, can't really cook. On the tele for some eye candy for the home makers. But after watching some of the "Tyler goes to ... " (this is the name that I remember the show by, not neccsarily the name of the show), I became a convert. I have always believed that the true essence of cooking is making something simple tasty. It sounds simple enough but I think when it comes to cooking, less is more. The flavor of the meat should be the center of the dish and not the garnish or the spices. We only add the marinate and spices to accentuate the taste of the meat or dishes. Watching him cook makes cooking interesting. And it makes me want to cook.

If ever someone from the Travel Channel or Art Central ever reads this blog, televise their shows. Their good and fun to watch. You learn so much more from them than many other chefs.

Superfluous Cacophony

I have always wanted to use those words in a sentence! Superfluous, for those whose vocabulary is as good as mine and a cunning linguists that I am. Superfluous in German means uber-fluous. Used in a sentence: That was superfluous!

Cacophony on the other hand is more of a literary term. Its a mixture of cocoa and some music. Hence, cacophony. Used in a sentence: You Cacophony! Or : That Cacophony was delicious!

The reason I am writing this is because I realized that I have not been writing for a week. As explained in my previous post, I have not been eating in restaurants recently because my wife has not been in town. So I have been eating nothing but the good old hawker food. But going beyond what is required to review the local restaurants and since my wife is in New York, I thought what better way to write on this blog but to tell people the few of the best restaurants I have been to in the world and I hope more Singaporean restaurants follow suit.

My favorite Italian restaurant in the world is Babbo. Located in the Village in New York, and a rumored waiting list of 3 months, this is I think one of the last bastions of truly authentic Italian cooking. Living in the United States for awhile, I realized that the Italian food scene there was much more "Americanize", than Singapore. I still remember eating at the first ever Pasta Fresca in Boat Quay even before there was a Boat Quay and Pregos when it was on the 3rd floor of Raffles City. They were fantastic and it left a great impression on me of what Italian food really is. Even though as time progressed, both their food standards went down the drain, I have personally thought that the Singaporean Italian food scene was much more dare I say authentic? But my trip to the United States last Christmas changed my mind. I was in New York for a week and after seeing so much of Mario Batali(pic above), the chef of Babbo(pic above) on the tele, I thought I had to try his food.

It was as if it was written in the stars. My wife called the restaurant and she was told that there was no space left. It was only a week before! Our choices were only the bar, which thank goodness we did not pick because it was just too darn packed! In the same phone call, the server told us to wait and someone on that very same minute cancelled their dinner appointment and we had a table! Yay!!!!!!

The restaurant is small. That's the way I like it. It was dimly litted and the tables were small but functional. The service was exquisite. Okay, there was this really annoying man that was bitching to the waiter (who would later serve us) about the food. Our table was right infront of the bathroom which could probably fit about one person, and I had a hard time turning 180 degrees in the toilet. It was that small. Our server was a bespectacled balding man with a very pleasant and sincere disposition. He was cool. He told us what to order and what was good. The restaurant even served quarter bottle of wines! Great! Why doesn't Singapore Italian restaurants do that? So we ordered our lobster pasta, a guinea fowl, some antipasto, a quarter bottle of red wine and the free flow of bread. It was heaven. The food was exquisite. The taste scrumptious and delightful. My mouth was bursting with flavor and awe of Italian cooking. I don't know what that annoying British man was bitching about his food but I thought it was fantastic! My wife who never liked wine loved the Italian wine and the food matching was superb. Great date! Drunk with Italian fervor and drowning from the rain that was pouring outside on that Winters day, I was consumed and renewed. I love Italian food again! Not that I stopped loving it before. But it was a renewal of love!

I think I should go buy the cook book. How cool is it for an Italian chef to have a pony tail and wears clogs.....

A Long Walk by the River

As I was saying, myself and tasty bites took a walk around town and we were wanting to eat some good food after picking Mrs. Tasty Bites up from Daimaru. I didn't want to go to Clarke Quay because I'm not a tourist. Instead, we headed out to one of most favorite noodle places in Singapore at the Gallery Hotel. Its a Japanese restaurant called Miharu Japanese Noodles.

Placed in an understated corner of the hotel. One would think that it would be hidden away from the public blocked by all the alcoholic bars around the place. But thank goodness for all of us, it is not. It has an understated and casual manner about the restaurant that I really like. It's small. Which means I like it even more! I remember the first time I came here with Tasty Bits (before he was Mr.Tasty Bites) the night before his wedding. It was a quick dinner and we enjoyed ourselves thoroughly. Fortunately this time, it was still pretty early in the evening and there wasn't a lot of people.

There aren't many choices like one would expect but that's a good thing. I have always been told that the noodles in this restaurant have to be eaten in 10 minutes because that's how the noodles were meant to be or it might get too soft after soaking in the soup for too long. Whoever told me this was correct. And especially for this store. It made even more sense. We ordered 3 different ramen noodles and they came back with the food in 8 - 10 minutes. Service was brisk and fast. Polite too actually. We were sitting down and contemplating life, but before we could get too far with finding out the meaning of life, the noodles came. Humans are so easily distracted! I tried my best to emulate the feat of 10 mins. Me and Tasty Bites finished in like 8 minutes flat. Mrs Tasty Bites was still having a go at it and trying to tame the noodles. It was good. It was delicious. The noodles were excellent and safe a few slurping noises, I actually thought that the noodles were from Japan! Which I think they are from Japan!

The total bill was $47. I thought it was reasonable. Mrs Tasty Bites wanted to eat her dessert now and she suggested that we go to Canele Patisserie. I have never been there. So I thought why not?

Walking between Gallery Hotel to Robertson Walk was a short 10 mins walk. We could digest the food in due time and we could catch the sights along the drain, I mean the river. While discussing the idea of buying the apartments along the river, we passed several other Japanese restaurants that looked Japanese, which made me want to go back and try the food, and bars that made me want to puke. Before long and without puking, we were at Canele.

The place was empty. So I thought this must be a pretty bad place. Tasty Bites reading my mind told me that it was still early, that was why it was still pretty empty. Earlier in the day, I already went to a pretty "she she," place in Menottis for a business lunch. The ladies outnumbered the men. I wasn't bemused as much as terrified at the amount of unattractive ladies in Singapore. The place was empty. We had the choice of any seating. Service was bad because there was only one person serving and there would be a lot of people walking into the place later. Mrs. Tasty Bites and myself were scanning through the layout of cakes and pastries and chocolates they had on the counter. As we investigated each item, they all looked sexy. The desserts called out to me, wanting to be eaten.

Dying from symbolism and praying for my lack of imaginative writing, I decided that we try a sample platter that contain 8 miniature pastries and desserts. We sat down, ran through the menu and ordered 3 more things. All with ice cream because allegedly, they only serve ice cream on Friday and Saturday. By the time all our desserts came. I could tell that Mrs. Tasty Bites was about to have a sugar high (lucky Mr. Tasty Bites!) and I have to say they were great! Borderline fantastic. I for one never really have a sweet tooth and I can live my life without eating too much sweets, but this was just a bombardment of flavor. It wasn't just the sweetness. It was a constant attack, in a good way of the complementing flavors that accompanied the sweetness of sugar. Be it the sourness of mango and the richness and texture of melted dark chocolate, or the frosted sugar shaped like a marsh mellow around a decadent rum and raisin ice cream with strawberry sauce. This place wreaks of nothing but a pre sex meal. The owners might as well would have named it Aphrodisiac restaurant. If you were to die there, you would die only after having an erection. A gastronomic erection that is. Don't let your mind wonder too far.

Just hanging out with Mr and Mrs. Tasty Bites was already great. The dessert made it better. And tasty bites was right, the restaurant did get very crowded. And it was filled with a lot of women. Something interesting to note, they now not only serve desserts and pastries and chocolates, they now are trying to bake bread. I think it makes sense. Its the post sex meal right? How can they have pre without the post? Anyways, I am definitely bringing my wife here for dessert sometime. DEFINITELY. I think you should bring your wife, girlfriend, date there also. They'll love you more after it.

Miharu Japanese Restaurant - a great place for a quickie lunch.

Food: 7/10
Service: 6/10
Value: 7/10

Canele Patisserie Chocolaterie

Food: 8/10
Service: 4/10
Value: 7/10

Hope this helps.

Excuse me ....

Excuse me, I know not many people read this blog (thank goodness!) but the reason why I haven't been writing is because I haven't been eating at restaurants the last week. The reason being since my dear wife is not in town, I will be saving lots of money and eating hawker food! My first love! And of course, I will be trying the Pan Pac Indian Buffet! More details to follow about that!

I always cotradict myself. Some of my friends consider me a big contradiction. But I consider myself a walking oxymoron, just without the oxy. I will be meeting tasty bites in the afternoon to convince him to contribute to this page!!! He needs to work!!!

Some food for thought: Nigella is hot!

Swiss Baeckerei at Frankel Ave

This review is about one week late. So forgive me.

I wanted to go somewhere new with my wife for breakfast. We thought of somewhere in the east and during my reservists, a guy told me that Frankel Ave had a few nice places to try. And so we did. The after my reservists ended, we went to Frankel Ave to have breakfast.

We walked in to the cafe, it maybe had 8 tables maximum, the smell of fresh bread permeated the place. I liked it. My wife ordered the eggs and sausage, I ordered the special veal sandwich with melted cheese on the top. Let me just say that I am not a cheese person but I thought that my sandwich was fairly good. My wife liked the eggs and sausage as well. They have this gargantuan $23 sandwich that my reservist mate told me about. I actually wanted to try and order that, but decided I didn't want to kill myself so early in the day.

Service was slightly disorganized but still okay for a small restaurant. We even ordered some sausages and ham which were excellent and bread to go. The total bill was about $45? But I thought it was alright considering all the food we bought for the next few days. It was a good experience. To our surprise, there was even a Cedele's there on the stretch and a seafood restaurant transplanted from Clarke Quay called Blue Lobster. I should be going back pretty soon.

Food: 6/10
Service: 5/10
Value: 6/10

Bring your wife there for a quiet breakfast or the after sex meal in the morning....

Hope this helps.

PS Cafe, somewhere in Singapore

PS Cafe is neither the post script cafe nor the poser synonymous cafe. (Thankfully at least). A long time friend of mine was finally having her birthday and she wanted to share this special day with her friends. Another friend of mine, who was also a friend of the birthday girl, and a good friend might I add, so good that their boyfriend's name sound almost too similar if you ask me in more ways than one, anyways, she decided that PS Cafe would be a great place to go to for her birthday dinner for 13!

So after leaving my wife at the airport with a broken heart, I rushed down and managed to catch a ride with my great and also long time friends at their home in the east, strategically placed near the airport, and together we left for the dinner in eager anticipation of where this place was. I have to say that when we got there, we were impressed. I was not so impressed by the fact that I had a SMS a day before being told that I had to abandon my berms and t-shirt; things I do for friends. I was impressed by the setting. It was like a restaurant in midst of a forest. The glassed exterior and the yellow lights made the restaurant shine in the darkest of places. Immediately, I thought this place was classy! And I should bring my wife here the next time.....

Only God knows why the long time friend who suggested this place wanted to sit outside, at the huge varendar of the restaurant. As you walk through the sexily lited wooden walkway of the restaurant, I was thinking and so did my buddy's wife, a free meal for mosquitoes! When we entered the restaurant, it wasn't as sexy as I thought. Sure they had low couch like sofas and short tables for those who want drinks and nice dark wooden tables with nice chairs, inside of the restaurant. One wall of the entire restaurant was filled with chalked writings to the day's menu, specials and wine list. I was impressed again. Chalked writings on the walls is a sign of a great restaurant is it not?

Fortunately, there was no Lord of Flies. There was no mosquitoes! We sat outside and it was nice. The ambiance was fantastic and company lovely. Once everybody got in. We ordered. I skimmed through the menu hoping that I wouldn't order the same thing as my buddy and his wife. True enough, we thought of the same thing. He wanted to order the steak sandwich, and his wife the flamed prawn pasta. I had no choice but to order one of the specials of the day, one chicken wrapped risotto with a shrimp scampi. Wait, my chicken wrapped risotto is also wrapped with bacon. So its double wrapped. People around me ordered similar things. The mousakka, or what I call the Greek lasagna, the steak sandwiches and beef ragout, which some members of the party pronounced it as rag-out. But I digress.

I ordered my drink of crushed mint and lime soda which tasted like soda water and some lime with lots of leaves inside. We even ordered dips to share. They offered the humus, some chilli padi thing, and some bean like humus thing. Imagine red beans, but mushed. Anyway, the pita bread that came along with it was lovely while it was warm, and no one touched the chilli thing.

So my special came. Okay, not that special. Sexy looking though. We tried a little bit of each others dishes. The steak sandwich was pretty good, the pasta was average, my special wasn't very special but okay, the ragout was somewhat dry, but that was just me. People started talking about this blog and I felt uncomfortable. I guess because some were wondering what I would write about the restaurant. Then all of a sudden, I was thinking, tonight isn't really a night for reviews. It was for friends.

We ordered desserts, the mango and apple crumble and orange cake to share. The birthday girl had a nice chocolate cake and ice cream. The service was pretty good even though it was hard to manage a 13 person table. They even made the birthday girl do a stunt, as vaguely as possible, imagine a bench with the husband at the end and his zipper down. Insert shot glass half filled with baileys in pants, where zipper is open. The bench is lined with whip cream from where the husband sits till the end, and the girl has to lick the whip cream from one end to the other and finishing this entire stunt by drinking the drink in the husband's pants without the use of her hands. My wife would so do this but not because she loves me. But because I think she might love whip cream more!

It was a fun night of catching up with old friends. It was a night that I realized that time was catching up with me. I do over senitmantalize things but I do think that as I get older, I love my friends more. And sometimes going to a restaurant is not really about what you eat, it is more often who you are with. And this night was one of those nights.

Value: worth the $50 bucks per person for this kind of friends.
Service: things I do for friends: not wear berms on their birthday
Food: nothing to crow about food does taste better around great company.

Bring your friends there.

Sunset Bar and Grill

Legend goes that there is a need for a place that not many Singaporeans know. And this is the place that we should sup. I believe this place is Sunset bar and grill.

Probably well known among pilot cadets or Seletar East Camp NS men, Sunset Bar and Grill is a rustic and quiet. My table seated at the platform facing the run way was way cool. I loved the ambiance. It was nothing fantastic but it was just something about the place that I liked, that casual be yourself type atmosphere is both endearing and engaging. My friends ordered the fried chicken wings which were pretty good, and the level 2 buffalo wings which were already very spicy. For those Jessica Simpsons out there, buffalo wings are not from buffalos. Its chicken wings , which is shaped liked a buffalo. Don't ask me why, but this is what I have heard. And by the way, chicken of the sea, isn't really chicken either, its tuna.

As I was saying, we ordered also the hamburger with bacon which was just okay, a BLT sandwich which my wife liked, Nachoes and cheese and fried Calamari. Yeah, we ordered quite abit of finger food. But it was all good. I would have preferred sitting inside to escape the mosquitoes but outside was fine. The boys downed some beers and the ladies adhered to the soft drinks.

I left the place reminiscing my flying days. The days when I was care free and dumb .... Even though I have never flown a plane before, or flown like Superman before, what struck me was that food goes well with flying .... Just a thought.

I wouldn't mind going back again. Even though we did pay $13o for finger food and drinks. I thought it was worth it. This is a place to DEFINITELY bring your girlfriend. Lots of makeout corners in the camp.

food: 6/10
service: 7/10
value: 5/10

Hope this helps.

Hanabi at Odeon Towers

It was Father's Day some time ago, and since I wanted to celebrate Father's day, I decided to bring myself, my wife, my mum, and last but not least my father for a meal. I decided on Hanabi because I read quite a few things about it, rather inexpensive, and the week after I decided on the restaurant, the Straits Times did a review about it.

One of the things that I have learnt since I have been back in Singapore is never trust their sports news and the other thing is their food review. Their reviewers either have dead taste buds on their tongues or they just think that if the food looks good and if they are served well, damn it. The food IS good. I have been to many Japanese Buffets before and this one was no different. I called earlier in the day and managed to make a reservation for the family.

When we got there. I liked what I saw. The place was pretty with darkwood furniture and pretty lanterns. My parents were as usual late and when they got there, we started the ordering. We ordered a lot. A lot of food. Sashimi, sushi, their grilled items, tempura and all that good stuff. The food was average at best.

Their service, the thing about Singapore ala carte buffets is the fact that the management tries to manage the customer TOO much. What I mean when I say this is that if I were to order the second round of Sashimi, there will be a marked decrease in the number of slice fish. In fact, it was a marked decrease and an incessant effort to "forget," what we ordered. That bothered me quite abit. And to a point, I felt that I was talking to the server's hand then to the server because when ever I would want to order something, they give the hand. I swear its the registered response in this restaurant. Not only did it bother me that the server that took our orders was sniffing away and using his hands to block the mucus from running down his nose, oh wait, the same hand that I believe served us the food, but the hand,that bothered me.

I mean the restaurant isn't very big and it was crowded, but the server to customer ratio was pretty good I thought. But the servers at some times were no where to be seen. hmmmm ...

Food: 5/10 same old same old Japanese buffet
Service: 3/10, the hand thing drove me nuts ...
value: 5/10, can't complain about average mediocre Japanese food not meant to offend

Maybe I shouldn't be bringing my parents out for meals after this 2 horrific mother's and father's day experience? ahahahahhahaha ....

Hope this helps.

Pizza Walker at Wisma

Pizza is something I enjoy every once in awhile. When I was in the United States, the every once in awhile meant every week. So when I say once in a while in Singapore, its about once every 2 - 3 weeks. Some days, I get so desperate that I even settle for the not so good Canadian Pizza and the plastic tasting Pizza Hut. We were out walking around shopping in Orchard when I felt like Pizza again. So we went out to Wisma, as we were at Taka to try this Pizza Walker.

I like the location. You can be seen. So advice for young couples if you want to look cool. You will be seen here. If you are like me, one who enjoys the quieter life, then I say don't even think about it. We ordered 2 small, I mean 6 inch pizzas. One was the all mushroom pizza and the other is the parma ham pizza. The service was pretty good. Being as annoying like I usually am, I wanted to test the service because they had this $6 continuous iced-tea refill when one glass was $3.50. I had like 3 glasses of that within the first 5 minutes. And each time, the server came and was nice about it and kept refilling my drink without complaints. I was fairly impressed. I had a total of like 7 glasses in the 30 minute dinner.

The pizza was average I thought. Nothing to write to mum about. But the great thing about this place was that you can people watch and comment about what they are wearing, this was something Kelly and I did to our fullest, which was fun. The total bill came up to only about $35 which I thought was reasonable.

service: 7/10
food: 5/10 - its pizza, you can't go THAT wrong.
value: 6/10 - quite okay for something in the middle of town.

Hope this helps.

Oscar's at Conrad International

The missus wanted to have some buffet breakfast on Sunday morning. I did a brief research on the internet and thought that maybe we should give Oscar's at Conrad a try. When I say brief I mean go through 2 web sites and look through for 10 mins.

When we got there, we were surprised. It wasn't EXACTLY a breakfast buffet. In fact, it was a Sunday brunch buffet. Which means they didn't have the bacon and eggs and waffles and the breakfast stuff. What they had was the lobster, the sashimi the works. My wife asked if we should go to another place for breakfast food but I was too lazy and the weather was getting dark. She knows that I get grumpy when we go to a buffet like this and she doesn't eat the expensive stuff, I get mad. Seriously, if I am paying $70 for her for a buffet, she better eat the money's worth! Sure, call me stingy but what about the kids in AFRICA?

So as per every other buffet, I hit the expensive stuff first. I went for the lobsters and oysters. Kelly went for the breakfast stuff first i.e. the egg station, Danish, and some juice. The oysters and lobsters were fresh. By the way, when we arrived at the hotel, we even got a brief introduction of where everything was; which was nice. Kelly loved the breakfasty stuff. She loves breakfast. Our usual Sunday breakfast is MacDonald but today was different. It was breakfast with an edge. It was highly entertaining personally that my breakfast on this day was lobster and sashimi. Unlike the many other buffets that I have been to, this place had quite abit of sashimi. Besides the regular salmon, tuna, squid, there was the 2 other meats whose names that briefly escape me, they were fresh, tender and scrumptious.

My wife then decided to make my day by taking half of a Boston lobster. I couldn't help but have a smile on my face. She was so sweet. Anyways, back to the assault! Even though this was a buffet, I was thoroughly surrounded by foreigners and I have to say that the service was excellent. They cleared our plates promptly, continuously refilled our water, and even advised on what was the best thing to eat at the buffet. I was actually impressed with their service!

I have learnt from my many buffet tour of duties that one should never take food from the section where nobody ever goes. The pre-cooked section. However, this time I was a little curious. They had some curry there and I felt like curry that morning. The chicken curry was average but somehow the pampadam was fantastic. I just didn't know why. Kelly took a slice of roasted ham which she thought tasted a tad bid dry, it looked dry, thats why I never took it, some tim sum which was pretty average. Later, she attacked the fresh unadulterated cheese, which she loved and bread, which a basket of these fine babies were placed on the table. Ahhh, how clever I thought. Trying to carbo load the customers so that they can't eat too much! I wasn't fooled! Actually, I was. Kelly and I finished all the bread because we loved the bread.

Anyways, to top off everything, I tried foie gras for the first time. Foie gras is something that I have always seen on cooking shows like Iron Chef but never thought about trying. Tasty Bites loves foie gras and lives each day to eat it. I am exaggerating here but I say this with love and compassion in my heart. The lady at the egg station was also responsible for the foie gras. I have to say. It was fantastic. How can something so bad like duck liver taste so good? I sms'ed Tasty Bites and he told me to remember the taste because I will be wanting more in the future. The foie gras was smooth, tender, sweet and dare I say melts in your mouth. I expected liver to be like those we eat at the coffee shop chicken rice store. Alas, how wrong I was!

The dessert was very good. Kelly and I hit the crepes, the ice cream, the brownies, the sherberts, the special conrad chocolates, and the waffles. Advice: don't try any other ice cream but the vanilla because it was heavenly, and save space for dessert at Oscar's.

Before I forget, I even had time to try a brief bowl of bak kut teh which I thought was very well done. The soup was eu naturel, no msg, it was herbal and delicious but not overly pungent but the pork ribs were slightly overcooked in my opinion. There was even some musical entertainment that I could barely make out. This is because the singer had a pretty bad enunciation problem singing hits from jobim. She wasn't bad. Its just that was she sang girl from Ipanema, all I could hear was wah wah wah, like those Charlie Brown cartoons. But I have to say that the guitarist was excellent.

This a place that I would recommend for people wanting to impress your clients or future in laws. Future because once you seal the deal, just bring them to the coffee shop for some local breakfast. Go there in the late morning and stay to 3. You'll have a good meal, great ambiance and you can impress the people you need to impress at the right time. The total damage was about $150. It is expensive for a brunch but I don't eat like that so often: having lobsters for breakfast.

Food: 7/10
Service:8/10
Value:6/10

I would say one of the best expensive hotel buffets around.

Billy Bomber's at Century Square

My wife wanted some burgers for the day so instead of sticking to Mickey D's, we went to Billy Bombers. What I have always liked about the place is that it is trying to be an American burger joint. That's cool. Their burgers are above average and reasonable and service is reasonable as well. I love their MALTs. One of the best Malts in Singapore. I can't deny that. But this time, I was bothered by something else.

2 annoying racists and vulgar young Singaporean Chinese men were sitting behind the wife and I. They were going on and on about America and how they were going to say the N word that ends with digger but without the d when they were in the south. I am not American. My wife is. But being educated there, I have to say that those 2 were an embarrassment to Singapore and I was thoroughly ashamed. My wife gave them a look and they knew it, and they still carried on talking about it. At this point in time, I wanted to ask the kind servers to change our seats but my wife didn't want to. She is kind of confrontational like that. But that's the way I like her.

When our food came, the cowards promptly left. And while I was eating my semi-delicious burger, those 2 annoying young men were walking in front of the restaurant peering in to look at me. They looked not even 21 and those idiots were acting like the biggest pricks in the world. Sorry, didn't mean pricks. I meant dick heads. Wait, didn't mean that too. So sorry. I mean mother f***********************************************sonof a************************. Well, you know what I mean.

Even the great tasting malts could not take away how irritated and ashamed I felt for those ugly Singaporean men. The portions were as usual huge and food was above average. I think that sometimes food can be affected by the ambiance around you. I think so even more after this.

food: 5/10
service: 6/10
value: 6/10

Chippy's at Raffles City Basement

Brief post: I was there yesterday with my wife. I thought I wanted some good British fish and chips after I walked by the store a couple of times. The server got my order wrong. That's okay. But they charged a small plastic container worth of ketchup and what I believe to be Mayo for $1. I think its ludicrous since the fish and chips cost $4.15? By the way, I also ordered the fried mars bars.

Bad service and it left a bad feeling in the tummy the whole night. The food didn't sit well. I think the owner of the store wanted to test the stranglehold those other little Taiwanese stores have around Singapore. But I do hope that their quality of food and service improves. I like the place and its in a great location but something just doesn't feel right. Oh wait, that's my stomach.

Food: 4/10
Service: 4/10
Value: 6/10

Hope this helps.

Menottis at Raffles City Inside Esprit

I was bored and I wanted to bring my wife some where new to eat some pseudo western food. I have always liked the deco for Menottis. I have been there once with Tasty Bites, but it wasn't memorable. So I wanted to see if things might have changed.

Service was average. I can't complain too much. My wife ordered the eggs benedict and I had the warm parma ham sandwich. I downed my food with some hot earl grey tea and and my wife ordered a latte and later the classic chocolate drink. I have to say it was average. The egg serving was huge and my sandwich was actually warm! Which I liked of course. It was an unfortunately ho hum meal. There was nothing wrong with the food, absolutely nothing. Maybe I was expecting abit more but I personally think I left Menottis the same way I went in. The place isn't memorable.

Sometimes in life I wonder if we already have pre concieved notions and we just do things to re-affirm those values or do we have no pre-concieved notions and we just live life finding out what they are .... just some thought. I personally think its abit of both but thats just me.

This is the place where you can bring your date. For sure. Great place to bring your date. If your date doesn't mind average food and just want to be seen, even better. But just keep in mind that your date is most probably a show off or just don't know much about food.

Service: 5/10
Food: 5/10
Value: 5/10

Hope this helps.

A Brief Thought About Starbucks Coffee

I have never been a real big coffee drinker. So one day, I decided to try the single shot espresso at my favorite Starbucks at City Hall. It was actually pretty good. Oh wait, I had my first expresso at Tampines Starbucks but now the espresso is my most favorite coffee drinkso. It helps cleans the palette and it leaves a good taste in the mouth. My wife thinks it stinks of coffee but I beg to differ. Its a thick cup of cuppa and I can't wait ....

I am an addict ....

Morton's at Oriental

I LOVE BEEF! So every year, I tell myself that I shall have beef once a year and it has to be good. So for this year, I thought I should go try Morton's at Oriental Hotel. This beautiful trip was suggested by Tasty Bites and Mrs. Tasty Bites. Before I continue, I lied. I already had steak when I was in Vegas but in my defense, it was free because somebody paid for it, so you can't count that. The attire for the restaurant is smart casual and I wanted to wear a hat with my shorts and t-shirt. Thank goodness Tasty Bites reminded me of the dress code!

The service is EXCELLENT. No wonder you are paying so much for the food. I think they are probably the most engaging and friendly servers I have met in Singapore. They are prompt. Water is always refilled. They are informative, and they give you good relevant advice for the food to order. I really wish that WDA go pay them a visit to ask them to conduct customer service courses. We ordered the double porter house, a bone in prime rib. Sides of mashed potatoes and friend spinach and mushrooms. The wives ordered their cocktail drinks, and all was good in the world.

The ambiance is fantastic. I didn't think I was in Singapore at all. Well, being surrounded by Ang Moh helps. I was thinking that the restaurant had probably the most ang moh per square foot in a restaurant that I have ever seen! Not that any restaurant should have this kind of a statistic, but I thought it was interesting. The lights were dim and yellow, the dark wood furniture made the surrounding comfortable for fine dining.

The warm bread was delicious. It was big enough to feed the 4 of us without even ordering starters which I was actually quite tempted to do. We chatted and laughed about everything under the sun, then the food came! Stunned Silence! The friggin thing was huge! The double porter house could have fed 3 lions. Instead, it was a lot for 4 people. All the meats we ordered were all medium done. My advice is that because the double porter house is so big and thick, order it medium well. It might take a little longer but because it is SO thick, it might actually come out medium. I didn't particularly like the double porter house. I guess because there wasn't much beefy flavor in the beef. It tasted great mind you. It just didn't feel that it was aged enough .... That's just my feel. The boned in prime rib on the other hand was flavorful and tender. The fat and juice was succulent, and I scoff at vegans when I was chewing that piece of steak because they sure don't know what they were missing. The prime rib was done very well. We even had the server cut the meat for us!

The desserts had to be pre ordered 40 mins before because they were freshly made. They weren't fantastic. But they were good. We got the hot chocolate cake as well as the apple pie, the pie was without the crust but it was good. Both came with a side serving of vanilla ice cream. I didn't really concentrate on the dessert because I think the wives were. I was already too full from the beef and Tasty Bites was gnawing everything off the bone. HE THE MAN!

The total bill came up to be about $433. I thought that the amount was just about right. It is worth it if you have steak once a year, or twice, wait, I think this is the third time I had steak this year! Anyways, my point is that if you love steak, and only try a once in your life in Singapore. Have it at Mortons. Its the BEST STEAK IN SINGAPORE. NO DOUBT ABOUT IT.

If you want to go to the United States to eat steak, then give me a call and I'll tell you where to go.

Service: 10/10
Value: 7/10
Food: 7/10

P.S. This review sounds like Hammy from Over the Hedge talking .... My mind is all over the place today.