Solar System Japanese Food at Wheelock Place

So last week was Pampadam's birthday. Well, just to clarify. It wasn't exactly Pamapadam's birthday, it was a week that we were all free, and her birthday was much earlier this month. We discussed on where to go for lunch after much pushing and shoving and we decided on Sun with Moon at Wheelock place. It sounded familiar but I didn't argue with the birthday girl. Its been raining all weekend and I thought some good Japanese soup would help.

Unlikely of Pampadam, she was actually early and sm'ed me to tell me that the menu looked brilliant. So I was expecting something better than Sakae Sushi. The wife and I slept in that day and we were hungry. We always walked by the Sun with Moon because it was right next to our favorite breakfast place, the Cedele at Wheelock Place.

Entering the restaurant, the ambiance was nice but not as hot as Sushi Tei at Raffles City. When I say hot, I don't mean the temperature, I actually mean the surroundings. It was hot. So anyways, after walking a round of the restaurant, we found the birthday girl hiding one corner looking through the menu. After 10 mins, we hit the menu, and we ordered our food. we ordered the 5 varieties of sushi and a rainbow roll which was excellent. There are no pictures of those appetizers because we were that hungry! We sat down and we devoured the sushi before I remembered to take a picture!

I ordered this:

I honestly can't remember what its called but this is one of the specials. Its like a whole bunch of sushi on top of the sushi rice. I have to say this though. The fish were all fresh, rice had the hint of vinegar and didn't break into pieces like other restaurants might. It was highly enjoyable. My set also came with some Udon noodles and this stewed chicken with mushroom that was brilliant.

The missus ordered this:

It was a mushroom nabe soup, served with grilled eel with rice. I have to say. The soup did not have an overwhelming mushroom taste as you might have expected, in fact, it was light and sweet. The carrots, 4 types of mushrooms, tofu, what I thought was daikon radish and potatoes made the soup great. The rice with eel was alright but the soup again took the points for me.

Pampadam ordered this:

This was a Japanese concoction of what I think is their version of Singapore's clay pot rice. Where the rice and ingredients are all cooked int he same heated pot. This is served with the udon noodles and fruits (which came with every set). Pampadam seem to like it. At least that was what I thought she was saying through her non verbal cues!

Our dessert was:

This was a sample platter. The middle was green tea ice cream with red beans which Pampadam thought was brilliant, I actually preferred the bottom dessert, the sesame custard type dessert that was peppered with what else, sesame! The top dessert, I didn't try because it looked milky and I actually don't like milk. That drink on the top is my wife's Japanese grape smoothie which I thought was sweet and lovely (like my wife) and it ended our meal in a good note.

Japanese cuisine can be a real hit or miss sometimes in Singapore. The restaurant was familiar to me because we went there for our wedding anniversary dinner, but at Chijmes. The deco there was WAY HOT. The bill turned out to be quite abit but I thought it was okay. I can't state the price because Pampadam might read it. As an alternate view, one half of the FANTASTIC Gohs, i.e. the MAN-GOH, didn't really like Sun with Moon, and I could see why. But the most important thing I feel is to go try it yourself.

Comments Posting

The idiot in my technology brain switched off the comment portion of the blog and I just managed to turn it on. I have to say, I thought some people I don't know were posting comments. So please! Carry on posting comments and tell me what you think. I am not an attention whore but some constructive comments and thoughts would be great! Sorry about the not allowing the comments to be posted. I didn't know how to do that till today!

My parents must be proud.

Penny Black at Boat Quay

As I tried to allude to in my last post, I am a very big Liverpool fan and last week, I was invited to watch the match at Penny Black which apparently is Liverpool central for game nights and I have to say the atmosphere was outstanding. There was singing of all the Liverpool songs and cheers for the players. Even my wife liked it.
The only complain that I do have is just the quality of my hotdog I ordered. It was bad. And it was $9. The beer was outstanding and the wife ordered a screwdriver.

I highly recommend this place for game nights if you are a true red. Its like you're there at the game only you're staring at the screen and the players can't hear your cheers.

Last note, don't order the hot dog.

Madam Butterfly

It was a strange day last Friday. I met the missus in town and we wondered along Duxton Hill. Living in Singapore for so many years, I have to say I have never been to Duxton Hill before and since my wife officially became the Mrs Food-critic, she now knows where are the "cool," places to go whereas me on the other hand have absolutely no idea where to go and what to eat.

So we wandered and darn that Broth looked cool but it was full for the night. The other restaurants just looked to either serve bad food, bar food, or just branded food. I thought of Ember and tried making a call, but alas, it was booked for the night as well. We were walking and finally found OSO that just looked also too sexy and it was full. I was down in the dumps and the wife was complaining about her feet being painful because of her heels. I was about to commit blog suicide when I saw the strange red building called The Red Dot Traffic Building. Honestly, I was looking for any place to just sit down and have a meal with the wife. ANYWHERE! And we stumbled into Le Papillon! And it was empty!

Straddled in the midst of bars and smoke, I was surprised to see an empty restaurant. We glanced at the menu and in 10 seconds I said lets go in. A very typical Singaporean like I am would not ordinarily walk into an empty restaurant but I was hungry. Okay, I didn't know it was empty until I walked in. But we were still surprised. We ordered some appetizers, my wife ordered the very sexily bowled mushroom soup which she thought had peanut butter, and I think I ordered and probably by coincidence discovered the best Cesar Salad I have had in Singapore. So good surprise so far.

A bigger surprise would be Mr. and Mrs. Tasty Bites was just next door! They were chillin out at Skin (like any cool advertising exec would I discovered), so in the midst of discovering Liverpool having to playing Barcelona in the Champions League (which Pool will win by the way), and waiting for my main course, in came the boss man himself TASTY BITES! My wife joked that we normally like to book the whole restaurant to have dinner by ourselves wasn't taken too kindly by the staff, which later explained to us that they were surprised that the restaurant was filled except that there were several last minute cancellations. So anyways, we were talking and admiring the cutlery when the main course came. My wife ordered a fish dish, I can't remember what it was and I ordered the seafood platter which contained 2 sexy looking huge asparagus lined up parallel to one another with shrimp, scallop,fish in the middle, and a side of what I thought to be mashed pumpkin. I have to say my dish was delish. It was good. It was clean, it was fresh and it was not enough (my gripe with most French cuisine). My wife loved her grilled fish and it actually looked good.

For dessert, we ordered the orange souffle which needed 30 mins to make, was good. A souffle is difficult to make but an orange souffle that had to be soft on the inside and gentle at the exterior was tough. But I thought the orange ice cream that accompanied the souffle was a slight overkill. My wife ordered her favorite melting chocolate chocolate cake. The type that has melted chocolate inside the small chocolate cake. It was decent. Not enough melted chocolate I thought.

The damage was $170 SGD and I thought it wasn't that bad. It was a great discovery by just walking around but I would probably not go back there again. If you see the hyperlink for Le Papillon, I agree with a certain Wong Ah Yoke that there's still some ways to go to improve the menu but it is still worth a try.

Samui Seafood Restaurant

My wife not being accustomed to spicy food but had a strange thing for Thai food. She actually liked it. On our previous trip to Bangkok in the days or yore, she actually could stomach the foodcourt at MBK. So this experience to Koh Samui helped me see how much she could take.

We entered Samui Seafood Restaurant full of hope and ambition. Like many other seafood stalls along the Chaweng stretch, the restaurants would parade their fresh seafood at the entrance of the restaurant so that they can entice customers to enter the restaurant and you can have the seafood cooked any way you want.

Honestly, I entered the restaurant because I thought it was pretty. Okay? I am the food-critic. I am shallow. Little did I know that the restaurant, if I believe my failing memory correctly, is actually opened by one of the maid servants that took care of the Thai King and actually cooked for him. In Thailand, its a big deal. To me, I was like, if the King liked her food, I would too! (See, shallow.)

I wanted my wife to feel like she knew what she was doing and so I asked her to order something she thought looked good, my wife ordered the cashew chicken. I would normally laugh at her because cashew chicken isn't exactly Thai, but you know for her first time in a pretty authentic (I am using pretty authentic because there is also a huge western menu in the restaurants for the FARANG) Thai restaurant and she was trying her best. I chipped in by ordering the tourist favorites, my tom yum soup, pineapple fried rice, pad thai and my fantastic lime juice.

The verdict: I loved the pineapple seafood fried rice. It was actually served in a pineapple, so it was a plus! There was a good blend of sweetness and the texturing was tangy and perfect. The pad thai was good. It wasn't outstanding like the pineapple fried rice but the key was to mix everything up. The nuts, the sprouts, the noodles and the shrimp, we didn't really do that and I think that's why it was quite disappointing. My tom yum soup was fantastic. Its not the clear broth that I prefer but the amount of seafood and bite in it, took all my other reservations away. Tom yum soup is the type of soup that is flavored by lemongrass and the spiciness only kicks in 30 seconds after you swallow the soup, that's the brilliance of it. The cashew chicken, well, was bad.

I would just like to add again how pretty the restaurant was. The restaurant is located at the end of the busy Chaweng stretch and it was fun to ride the local "bus," i.e. the back of a truck there.

In the end, not the most authentic Thai food but almost there!

Food notes from Koh Samui

I have not traveled to many places in the world. But I have to say that several ethnic foods have conquered the world. Chinese cuisine, Indian Cuisine and now Italian Cuisine. Every corner, there was an Italian restaurant and an Indian restaurant. I was shocked, but I didn't know why. Food is such an influential cultural epitome that it translates itself into corners of the world that even the cunning intellectual would blush. (I don't know what I just said) but in layman's terms, specific cultural foods are everywhere in the world. And in Koh Samui, the wife and I discovered PANCAKES!

Its definitely not the American Pancake but its the Indian style "Pratha," type pancake. I had mine with banana and my favorite condiment of all time NUTELLA and my wife had chocolate and banana but mine rocked! And all this goodness for less than $1.50 SGD? Come on! Steal of the holiday!
Imagine if you will a thin layer of flour based batter fried and you put in sliced bananas and Nutella and fold it up to what I can only think is mad goodness!

My trip to Koh Samui in Food Pictures

Recently the missus and I took a short holiday to the beautiful island of Samui to take a short break and do what every other European were doing in Koh Samui this time of the year. Have a tan. Unfortunately, being from a tropical island, a tan was quite easy to have besides waking up late everyday and gorging on the hotel buffet breakfast, we went about the stretch of Chaweng beach to discover gastronomic adventures that were in the end, more of an anti-climax.

Our first night, the restaurant that we wanted to try was RICE. RICE you would think is an Asian restaurant but it was nothing like it. It was an Italian restaurant. Yes. I was hit with the Italian bug AGAIN! The pictures in the magazine was nice and so was the restaurant. Now, if you could only ignore the telephone wires outside the restaurant!
The deco of the restaurant was nice. The servers were very polite and might I just add that the coke bottles are really glass coke bottles? How cool is that? Anyways, we ordered several dishes. And this was how they looked:

What is not seen in the pictures that I did not include was a bricked oven baked pizza Magherita with just cheese,tomato sauce and basil, which my wife thought was fantastic. I thought it was above average. We got served the breads as a free appetizer and I have to say the breads were tasty, fluffy and warm, they went great with the green olives, tomatoes and butter. I then ordered my squid ink pasta with crab meat cooked in olive oil and vegetables. I thought it was good. It wasn't great but at that price and at that ambiance, it was good. My wife ordered the crab stuffed pumpkin ravioli. I had a piece of it and thought that it was good as well. The taste for all the dishes were clean. It wasn't too heavy on the tummy and I felt it was the right amount.

Looking back, maybe I would not have chosen RICE but maybe Olivio's instead. But that's just me being picky. The damage was less than $50 SGD so I can't really complain. The food was clean and dare I say better than Pasta Fresca and El Forno but nowhere near Valentinos or Garibaldis. It was a good median that I wish Singapore restaurants could present to me. A good authentic Italian restaurant without the high price and the glitz.

If you're in Koh Samui for more than 4 days, this is one of the restaurants to go. If you are in Koh Samui for less than 2 days, don't bother. Try the Thai Food!

Another night of Italian

So last night, I thought of having dinner with me dad and wife outside. Since my mum was out of town attending to a certain new addition to the family in London, I thought I do my part before me dad leaves for the U.K. and I go for my holiday. I actually wanted Japanese but unfortunately, my expatriate wife and local dad could not find the restaurant. I think I should have gotten the hint when I tried to call the restaurant and the phone company tells me that the service is no longer in use. I was going for quantity vs quality as my dad is big eater. But I digress.

We were walking through Marina Square and my wife turned to me and told me that she doesn't want to eat that much. So okay. My initial buffet idea has gone out of the window. So while we were walking to Suntec because I thought we might have Kushin-bo, or fishing bowl like my dad calls it, we took a turn into Pan Pacific instead and lo and behold, up one level was Zambuca. Its a bar and restaurant and its owned by the MichaelAngelo chain, so how bad can it be right?

We walked in and my wife immediately liked the place while my dad went, "Wah, you like this kind of place?" It sounds funny but for those that do not know, it was the first time I was going out with my dad and wife. So its an unusual chemistry. Usually, there would be mum with dad, and us. So it was kind of uncomfortable for awhile.

The deco of the place was nice. The whole restaurant was dimly lit and the roman blinds were at half mass. The servers were polite but the restaurant wasn't exactly packed. Prices are reasonable. For a plate of pasta, it was about $34 average, main course was about $45, and appetizer are about $25. It wasn't that bad. I ordered the soup of the day which was mushroom for me and dad, and we all split some bruschetta. I ordered the pasta fruta de mare, my dad ordered the pasta tandoor (if I remember correctly) and my wife ordered a penne with spicy Italian sausages, with kalmata olives and some assorted vegetable. The total cost was about $165. It wasn't that bad.

The food wasn't that bad at all. Service wasn't bad. Restaurant wasn't bad. But on the flip side, it wasn't very good as well. Its, how you say, ho hum? It wasn't terrible, and it wasn't great. It was mediocre. I didn't complain about anything, but there wasn't anything worth giving too much praise for. Its standard fare. None of the dishes stood out. Well, nothing really stood out. We had a pleasant time chatting and talking about things but the food never was one of the topics that were discussed, which is unusual for me actually.

I wouldn't recommend this place to most people but I have before because I haven't gone to Zambuca until last night. But what do I know?

Not everything that is Italian is Italian!

By MARIA SANMINIATELLI
The Associated Press

ROME -- Imagine a delicious dinner of pasta with meat sauce and grated parmesan. Add a salad of fresh mozzarella and Roman tomatoes sprinkled with Tuscan olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Maybe you'll wash it down with some Amaretto liqueur.

But there's a catch: none of that food was made in Italy.

Foods that look or sound Italian but are produced elsewhere account for $66 billion in annual sales -- nearly half the $135.5 billion worth of real Italian food that is sold worldwide in a year, says Coldiretti, Italy's farmers association.

Italian producers have launched a campaign to set the record straight in hopes of boosting their own sales.
"They might not be illegal, but they are deceptive," Coldiretti's spokesman, Paolo Falcioni, said. "It's wrong for two reasons: You take the [market] of the real food, but most importantly, you're deceiving the consumer."
The fine print may identify food as not coming from Italy, but Italian flag colors or Italian references on labels can lead rushed consumers to think otherwise, Falcioni said.

For Italians, many of whom believe that they have the world's best cuisine, that's tough to swallow.
"I was in China four days ago, and in a supermarket in Shanghai I bought balsamic vinegar from Modena -- with the label written in Italian -- that was made in Germany!" Falcioni said.

Italians say the finest balsamic vinegar is produced in the small northern Italian city of Modena, which is also home to automaker Ferrari. It's expensive: a flask the size of a perfume bottle can cost $100.
The top buyers of fake Italian food are in Australia and the United States, where a mere 2 percent of "Italian" cheeses are made in Italy.

Gary Litman, vice president for European affairs for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said it's too late to rename imitation Italian products that are already firmly established. "You cannot change history that easily," he said. Litman noted that, unlike the European Union, U.S. law requires labels to state exactly where products are from.

In the Know

Falso

Some foods that look or sound Italian but are produced elsewhere:

Olive oil from Spain featuring a label with a picture of Rome's mythological founders, Romulus and Remus.

Roman-style tomatoes grown in California.

Imitations of Parmesan cheese produced worldwide.

Mozzarella cheese made with milk from American or Australian cows.

"Italian" ragu -- meat sauce with basil -- made in Estonia.

Pecorino cheese from Shanghai, China.

"Perfect Italiano" ricotta cheese made in Australia.

Provolone cheese made in Wisconsin.

"Amaretto Venezia" liqueur made in Germany and sold in bottles shaped like that of original Amaretto di Saronno.

SOURCE: Coldiretti

Italian Weekend

Over the weekend, my wife and I went on this Italian binge. However we were left somewhat disappointed. On Friday, we headed to Mama Lucia's at Robertson Walk. We didn't know what to eat that day and even though we were at Raffles City, the thought of eating at Prego's scared the "begeesus," out of me. We grabbed a cab and went straight to Roberston Walk. Its a small restaurant. I like the deco but I didn't understand why the chairs were plastic chairs. We were served promptly and abruptly. I thought I was experiencing some deja vu when I realized that I was seeing the same thing over and over again on pages of the menu. It took about 5 minutes before I figured out what it was. The restaurant served many types of pasta, but with the same sauces. For example, if they had tortolleni and fettuicine, they would have meat sauce on both. But they will be seen on 2 different pages of the menu because it was categorized by pasta types. The prices were decent and its the type of place to bring your kids there to enjoy some above average pasta and pizza. I won't go back there again simply because they don't serve cold water. Its THAT type of a restaurant where they insist you order a drink. The pasta was decent, the sauce was actually good by the way. The pizza we ordered was the quattro stagioni ( mushroom, ham, olives and artichokes.) It was average. Dare I say Pasta Fresca Pizza? But the quality of pasta is definitely above average.

On Sunday after a 5 hour "sabbathing," nap, my wife again said that she wanted some Italian food and so we headed to somewhere near. We headed to Al Forno along East Coast road. Before reading the pamphlet on the side, I never knew that it has been open for the last 11 years. WOW! I know that I have been there many times but 11 years. Man, I am old. We ordered a Calzone, and I have to say that they might have the best Calzone but that's about it. My wife ordered a dish that was Lagsana type dish and an Italian Antipasti. Average at best? I regretted not heading to Porta Porta at Changi Village. And the bill turned out to be $81! Oh my gosh, that's a lot to pay for a really average meal in which I only loved the Calzone!

Morale of the lesson, most Italian food in Singapore, very mediocre.

Thanksgiving Turkey

I celebrated Thanksgiving last week with a few of my friends, and I have to say the Turkey from Espirito Santo from Parkway is fantastic! Sure it was a tad bit pricey, but it was awesome! Highly recommended for Christmas parties too!


Just on an interesting note, every thanksgiving the President pardons a Turkey for Thanksgiving in the United States. I guess the rest just get eaten. That would be a great reality show!

Australia vs Switzerland (The sausage edition)

Before you think this is the title of the next porn movie that I am making. It is not. Before I carry on, let me just say to the millions and millions of fans out there for this site, I am sorry for not having to write for so long but I haven't been able to go to new places, I have been stuck going to my regular places! I have also been asked to write about places that are somewhat cheaper than Garibaldis. So here goes.

The missus and I were walking in Takashimaya on a weekend and we ventured deep into basement 2 when we spotted the Swiss German Sausage Bar. Okay, honestly it wasn't even our first choice because we wanted cheap Italian food right next to it because they were serving Illy coffee. (my wife's favorite) We hesitated for a second and I thought Swiss Sausages, how bad can it be? And the conclusion is that it is not bad at all. Mediocre at best but not bad at all. You can't go wrong with sausages! I love sausages. We ordered the same combo that I can't really remember the name of but it had 2 types of pretty big sausages plus a German meat loaf with a side of mashed potatoes and gravy. Not bad. The meats in the sausages are processed meat so its not the authentic types. But it was okay. I would recommend anyone who loves sausages and wants to sit down for a some what cheap meal. We paid about $25 for 2 and it even came with soft drinks.

On the other end, there is the Melbourne Bratwurst shop in the basement of Plaza Singapura. I have to say this is probably the best hot dog in Singapore. The bratwurst are thick and juicy. Sauerkraut is good. Service is decent and price is reasonable. For less than $5 a person, you get a great hot dog with ketchup and mustard on the side. Freaking fantastic. You have up to 5 types of bratwurst available and they have even expanded their sitting area! I have never been to Melbourne before but this is probably the best thing in Singapore for the hot dog scene, unless of course Gray's Papaya decides to open a chain here. But since this is not the case, this is the best place in Singapore for a good hot dog!

Mouthfuls of Weekend Gorging

My dear aunt rang today and wants to take us out to dinner!! Looks like we are headed to Au Petit Salut for some French on Saturday. The Cliff @ Sentosa Spa & Resort will be expecting us on Sunday for a quiet celebration to commemorate our 1st wedding anniversary. Tell you what, I'll be havin some of them fresh, divine oysters topped with a Martini Sorbet. To top it off, it's Arsenal vs Liverpool at midnight. I pick the Londoners to lose 2-1. WONDERFUL. I couldn't have planned it any better.

Wedding Dinner at The Regent, 28th October 2006

The ballroom is sufficiently large enough to comfortably hold about 40++ tables. I'm not sure if carpark space is adequate though! We came early and managed to get a nice spot near the exit.

The service throughout the event was pretty good. Distribution of waitstaff was optimal, one per table with prompt and courteous service. Beverages were constantly and politely topped up.

Food wise, I would have to say the menu for the evening ranks as one of the better places to throw your once in a lifetime party.

This was a traditional 10 course dinner with a twist right at the end. Instead of ending the meal with traditional Chinese desserts such tang yuan or orr nee, we had a nice slice of light pistachio cake dressed with a white chocolate stick and carefully spooned raspberry puree sauce.

There wasn't a crackingly good standout dish though I must give special mention to the steamed Canadian Sea Perch which tasted really fresh and cooked to perfection. It takes alot of experience to do a really good steamed fish dish for 500 hungry people.

Starting with the cold dish combination of roast pork, salad prawns and other tastybits *yeah yeah*, we progressed to a thick dried scallop flavoured soup. Roast chicken, shrooms and spinach??, broccolli..

The white & red wines were a good accompanyment to the food. Don't ask me if it's Australian. It's always a good thing the wines are nicely paired with the food. I think I had a beer, a glass and a half of wine and lots of chinese tea because I remember leaving the ballroom to take a pee which lasted a minute.

Good servce, good food. I'd say based on the menu, the cost per table was probably in the $1,200 - $1,400 region. Worth considering if you want to make a good impression. It certainly left us quite satisfied.

Birthday at Le Bristrot

First of all, let me say that I am a couple of weeks late for this post. I should have written this one earlier but I didn't! A good friend of mine had his birthday, one half of the "Fantastic Gohs," was reluctantly turning 30 and we had to celebrate it! I planned for the dinner to be at Le Bristrot, and even though they did not have seats inside for us, we still had a great time! The service was good and the food excellent! Like every happy occasion, here are some of the pictures.

By the way, people were there too!

Raffles Bar and Billiard Room

At the end of each tiring week, I usually like to kick back, and relax with the wife. We go out to town. Have a good and nice dinner and last week was no exception. The only problem was where to go and we didn't know where to go at all. After much thought and consideration and since it might be near somebody's (yes, that's you Tasty Bites, its your wedding anniversary coming up!), I decided to have the buffet dinner at the Raffles Hotel Bar and Billiard room.

Its Raffles Hotel, so you expect good service. And I got it. This is the type of service that you want to be intentionally bad so that you can see how good the service is? But fortunately for all, I behaved! We made some reservations earlier that day and it wasn't full. We got a small table by the far away from the buffet and I like it. It was quiet and we had our privacy. The place was dimly lit and a small tea light on the table. I was just happy to be there because there are lots of good memories at the place!

It was an "All you can eat buffet," and we tried our best. The breads were top notch. The soup of the day was New England Clam Chowder. It was surprisingly good! You'd expect something so creamy looking and without the clam smell taste so " Clam Chowderish?" The spread was typical. The seafood which I attacked with force were all fresh. Lobster, shrimp, oysters, clams, fresh sashimi all tasted good. I even had time to start out with some salad and a small miniature glass cup of smoked tomato reduction to cleanse the pallet. I thought the secret of the buffet was the grilled food which was outside the restaurant. I don't think many people saw that! Anyway, the grilled, beef, chicken and shrimp all tasted good.

The only complaint if I really want to nit pick is the pasta bar. For all the money you are paying, you would think that the choice of ingredients for the pasta bar would be more. But it wasn't so. The pasta was good mind you. But I just felt that I couldn't, how you say, carbo load enough with the pasta?

My wife had to order a Singapore Sling because we were at Raffles hotel and I have to say I don't really know what the obsession is with the drink, it tastes like cough mixture. I don't really blame the bar tenders, I blame the 2 people drinking it. My wife and I!

I usually end the night with more seafood. But somehow, all the small little finger sized desserts drove me crazy. I ate probably the entire variety of desserts available except the healthy fruits? They were all good. Every piece a bite of what a buffet is supposed to be. Quality and Quantity. Raffles hotel had both.

The bill turned out to be about $150 SGD. I have no complaints. The only complaining that night was from the both of us, but it was about our work. Our dinner took over 2 hours. We sat there. Took our time and we enjoyed ourselves thoroughly. The music played from the live band was fantastic and it added so much more to the ambiance than the sounds of people laughing and talking or utensils knocking on plates.

A thoroughly enjoyable experience to relax. If you and your long time wife or girlfriend like to sit and talk and eat, I say this might be the place to do it.

List of Restaurants to go to

This is the list of restaurants that I need to go to!

Enotria
Michelangelos
Portobelle
Esmirada
Da Paolo's Bristro
Valentinos

So I look forward to going to these restaurants pretty soon .... I hope.

Surf and Turf at Suntec Basement

I have to admit that after beginning to write in this blog, I have a problem in knowing where to eat. You ask me everyday, and I swear to you that I probably can't tell you what I want to eat. Strange. So since I can't decide what to eat. I have let the powers that be to decide. AKA, when out with friends, they will tell me where to eat. Last week was an interesting ordeal. The wife and I met with some friends at Suntec Basement and we let the coupons in our hands decide where to eat. You see, OCBC credit card as well as Citibank credit cards have this food specials where they give you coupons for some special deals. So on this special day, we went for the 25% discount at Surf and Turf.

Surf and Turf is allegedly an American restaurant. That serves well, meat and seafood. I don't normally will walk into such a restaurant but what the hay? We walked in. the service was pretty good. They were polite and told us what our coupons could and could not do. As usual, I felt like a pasta and I ordered the few non surf and turf stuff on the menu, a seafood marinara sauce penne pasta. My wife ordered fish and chips. Our friends ordered their roast chicken and pan fried salmon together with some mixed platter for appetizer. It was pretty good. In the line of Billy Bombers type better than Jack's place. I was impressed.

Some of you might think, man, you have some low expectations, and you are right. I will probably not go there again, if I could make my own choice, but just for that night, it felt right. I think this is a New York Deli type restaurant. Its for the kids.

Pasta Brava and Writing Skills

On the train the other day, I heard that a blog is a pretty narcissistic thing to do. It is about yourself, your thoughts, and your world view. The world according to you. That sounds about right doesn't it? So I have to give some "biggie ups," to some guy from Hwa Chong Junior College for saying that and letting me hear what he said so loudly on the phone.

How does this relate to food? In a way it does, this blog is designed to educate. Not to eradicate. This blog is to inform. Not to deform. You get the drift? As much as I love to slam restaurants and tell you they suck, I have to say that you have to go and try the food at the restaurant. Don't let me ruin you dining experience!

So last week, the missus and I went to a nice Italian Restaurant. Its called Pasta Brava at Craig Road in the Duxton Hill area. The website was nice. It looked classy and there were some pretty good reviews. We made our dinner reservations at 8pm but we showed up early. My wife had a tinkering for Lagsana and as expected, we never touched the Lasagne.

We got in and the deco was nice. There's this very rustic feel to the place. It feels somewhat Italian? The servers were decked in an all black uniform and were prompt and polite. We asked for suggestions after being in countless Italian restaurants. I ended up ordering the Puttanesca, tomato sauce with capers, olives and chili. My wife ordered her Lagsana? Nope. She ordered the Manicotti Ripieni di Zucca - Moon-shaped ravioli with pumpkin and red capsicum sauce and cream a pumpkin ravioli. Our appetizer was the melon and prosciutto ham. And our dessert was an apple pie with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

It sucked. The servers seemed like they were in a rush and when asked about a dish to recommend, I swear there was a sigh and he simply broke down what was on the menu. And talking about the menu, for a nice looking rustic Italian restaurant, the menu was a paper menu that you could fold up and it looks like a newspaper but A5 size. A restaurant has to decide what it is. If it is a rustic place, don't play techno music! And my puttanesca sauce, had tons of olives, very little capers and 0 flavor. The base tomato sauce was good, but the pasta as a whole, I could make it better at home. The ham in my appetizer felt like it was taken from the ones that can be bought at cold storage and the apple pie, my gosh, it was this soft small thing and beared some semblance to an apple pie.

On a brigther note, it did have some UOB bank discounts and the total cost of the meal turned out to be only $71 which was pretty reasonable.

You might think I'm mean. But that's just what I think. You should go to the restaurant and try it yourself. I might be wrong!

Eating Right : The Root Excuse of Failed Marriages

Tonight will mark the beginning of a series of wedding dinners in the coming months - which translates into hotel catered multi course dinners!! Expensive multi course dinners at that.

I believe formula for 2 seats for a table of 10 at a decent 4-5* hotel = 2 x 3 course dinner for 2 @ Saint Pierre inclusive of 15%+++ without wine.

This offshoot hopes to entertain and help couples make informed decisions.... if you trust our tongues.

First stop - The Regent