No Menu Bar

A happy discovery after NDP at the promenade.. Everywhere was crazy packed including lau pa sat so we made our way down and intended to check out dinner at Sarnies ( which was closed on a Saturday night ) and we were drawn to this place which looked like a corner coffee shop- we only realised it was the No Menu Bar - ironically, after we checked out the menu. It was a good mix of hot and cold tapas ( all priced at $14), pastas, cheese and pastas

On the house 

The bruschetta is the best we've had. Ever ! The sweetest tomatoes which they brought in from Sicilly. Smoked octopus at the corner left - awesome with a tiny wee bit of salad. Squid ink pasta's definitely got an intrinsic umami taste to it. Fried potatoes were kinda a waste of my carbs :p

Smoked mozzarella cheese which was breaded and fried and in the sweetest tomato purée. I think we certainly appreciate the importance of the  quality of tomatoes after this dinner

Petit fours on the house - apple cake and meringue 

Lovely hosts for the evening and home made food is indeed a great combination for a Saturday supper :)

Osteria Mozza

Post ndp preview made our way to Osteria Mozza (marina bay sands) and was lucky enough to snag a table !

Mini ricotta that's on the house 

Upsized that's on the parents

Grilled octopus perfect with the salad 

Smoked ocean trout in a spicy salad 

Lamb ragu

Linguine with clams that's spicy

Duck confit most amazing with the sweet corn and jam. Highly recommended !

Simple doughnuts with sorbet 

A trick to get a cozy corner here is to ask for the room with a surround wine cellar ;) 

Enjoyed these Italian dishes American sized served with a twist!

&sons

Vascular weekx1 mid week break at &sons( China Square). Too many eateries here ! The platypus lobster place looks awesome. &sons is surprisingly not too crowded ( a manageable work crowd) with a mix of bar seats and table seats. Of cos we were atop the bar seats.

Awesome smoked cheese and truffle pasta. The smoked cheese was grilled further and tasted like a sausage.

Beef is so so ( lukewarm ) but cod is lovely in a salsa sauce. Flakes off in a instant. 

Mushrooms - uber cheesy and creamy. Chunks of cornmeal inside this dish. 

Panna cotta flambeed. Base tasted like a light cheese ( when in fact it's panna cotta), another later of cream and the whole dessert torched and topped up with strawberries. Very interesting.

Would be back to try their array of cheeses.

Jamie's Italian

Met the French trio for dinner and thanks to xx for coming early we managed to snag a place here ( an hour later) at Jamie's Italian (Vivocity), and we even managed to buy  our tickets to the Taming of the shrew before that ! 

Calamari

Mushrooms baked with cheese- prob my favorite dish of the night.

Fish in da bag- my main. Dory filet baked in a tomato based sauce and I think I found out the grain inside this bag after a cook out with J- it's giant Cous Cous !! ( of cos the one we experimented with didn't taste as good as this ...)

Tiramisu which has lots of mascarpone which is prob my favorite part of the cake . We also had a creme brûlée with lots of berries, but I'm not a fan of brulees, so ate more of the tiramisu.

This place is full of buzz, and for the crowd it attracts, the service here is good enough for us to feel at home. Food here is quite wholesome and homely ( well , standards better than our home experiment :p) so the only thing preventing a return visit is probably the insane queues!

No Menu

Promised ML a treat for arranging all that leave for me;decided to go for the omakase Italian course at No Menu (Boon Tat Street) so that we dont really need to think and decide the dinner... Being adventurous in trusting the chef can be quite liberating.

Ate tons of this crusty bread. Thing about this no menu is that, you dont really know how much to expect - how many courses etc so I kinda ended up loading on the bread first. Well work makes me really hungry. Bread and butter (and olive oil and vinegar) is such comfort food.

Potato salad - somehow it reminds me of sec sch potluck days.

My was a substitute- roast beef (it'd have been parma ham) with honey melon, and more atop the same potato salad must have been a first, with tomato brushetta, buffalo cheese on tomato. Very refreshing I loved this combination.

Prawns and oyster. The cream sauce was super deliciouusss.

Pasta should come in a trio of tasting portions like these. Can try bits of everything and not having to struggle finishing up a pot of pasta and getting all carbo loaded.Risotto, gnocchi, ravioli. My favourite would be of cos the porcini risotto.

Seabass was not as nice as ML's lamb. Too small !

Again, desserts should come in trios! The hazelnut in the vanilla sauce was the most delicious. Meringue is not a fave though. Nice cuppa coffee to top it all.

Thanks ML for the lift up and lift back ;) Your perspective on r'ships is so very warped and so potentially influencing, real food for thought!

Soho Coffee, Food for thought

Post take, post post call = tired, lunch was assembled from the night before's spinach leaves, thousand island dressings. I had to finish the tub of Thick and creamy yoghurt (expired!) which he refused to help. haha. Only had 10 min left before zooming down to cello...

Post cello headed to lil india before pick up at PS..decided to head to Armenian St for Soho Coffee- crossing our toes that this place would be (!) open on a Sunday, and it was close to 6 at that time. Parked at the Fort Canning car park, tried to enter the Peranakan Musuem (no more free entry for Singaporeans....only NUS.. hiak hiak) Walked by an interesting casual eatery we hoped to catch open the next time we were here. Also Peek! a fantastic photography shop - loved the fish camera. Funky colour, funky views. Thinking of it loads.

Happily walked into Soho Coffee (Armenian St) - its off that street, belonging to a white building (cant remember the name) so its a tad difficult to find. It faces a furniture shop (which was open and we checked out!). Coffee here is overwhelmed by the milk though! Mighty wasted. Food ran out - J wanted the eggs benedict. I bought the culinary book by SMU for ideas around the idea. Love the read. Decided for Torte/Food for thought. Plenty of interesting sights on the way to Queen's/Waterloo. Old churches. Interesting Tel Co building with splashes of red.

Interesting advert though mighty ridiculously mocking the value of health. Attention grabbing it was.

Underhand means. Musuem looking so bare naked without the shadows (we loved the night musuem!)

Singaporean murals. Reminds us of the car blocking the titanic mural...sigh!

Along the way here browsed at an overtly overpriced camping store.

Almost settled for a Mexican place, couldnt find Torte, and we ended up in Food for Thought (Queen's Street). Cheese, and something like a squash. Favourite of his.

My salmon with tomato risotto. I liked the risotto muchos cos it was very smokey and tasty.

But he enjoyed his creamy Salmon risotto much, though saying much too bare. I prefer my vegeterian smokey one ;)

Love the items they were selling on the shelves; singa plastic/shopping bag, interesting kueh tutu eraser. And the decor of the 540/740 (?) pasta bottles overhanging, some of which had the hand written wishes of the children. Amazing. Love the thought put into the interiors of this lovely, warm place. Surprisingly not too crowded for a Sunday (minus the group of girls celebrating a bd)... Wanna try the gula melaka pancakes with K...come home soon!

Oso

It was a Monday and we were deliberating on loads of choices - gave up waiting for the boys. It was past CNY and we decided to meet up during short's leave. Called her x 1 in the AM for lim kr's teaching when i realised the girl is on leave. Then when work ended and i tried to call her she must have thought i was some insane sn trying to locate her at 7pm. Anw, after work ended around 7 ish we decided to head to Oso (Bukit Pasoh Road). Wanted to try Cocette too but it was full till next seating at 845pm and short couldnt wait! Picked her up at Outram MRT and we headed st to Chinatown and managed to secure a nice lot in the car park. One way street is a terror. (went agt the traffic x 1). We got slightly disorientated cos of the huge Oso sign, but the bar on level one was by another name. But we strolled right in and found our way...

Btw, I was totally not dressed for the occasion wearing a Pisa tshirt (supported by ducks, no less) and pants. When I was hobbling up the stairs I thought even the waitress was wearing more formal than myself... and everyone was dressed to the nines inside....oh well heck the faux pas.

The very delicious looking bread platter I've seen in all too many food blogs I finally got to try for myself. Best of all was the soft fluffy tomato relish bread. Lovely texture in between that of cake and bread.

Seafood soup with a minestrome base was a little thinned out, I thought.

Eggs with black truffle was the bomb. We had cute mini frying pans with an egg each. Very thoughtful.

Pasta with rabbit meat was a little too gamey for us!

Mushroom risotto is something short could eat forever, but of which I ended up eating mostly. Very grainy and full of bite and flavour. Love almost all types of risottoes from the gritty to the mushy. Creamy anything is ultimately delicious.

After dinner we went next door to Absinthe where we had some small talk with the chef and was amazed by his passion for his food (cooking it, not like us devouring it). Would love to try the French food there some time. Actually loads of opportunities for set lunches with the standard of restaurants here. But would we like our lovely lunches to be punctuated with calls... Spoiler.

Ma Maison

Baked Potatoes
Fried Cheese Fritters

Seafood Gratin

Seafood Paella

Cuttlefish ink spaghetti

First day back at work and I feel disorientated all over again and so not into the rhythm of the wards. Guess I got assimilated fast though it was still not fantastically optimal. The day ran by fast and was trying to reach Clare the entire time cos I saw the fb thread and nearly got rejected by Jo too at 6pm till I managed to reach clare's house/mom and finally her and manage to organise us together ;)

Met Clare at Bugis - left shaggh at 730pm impossible to reach bugis by 8 pm with jam and parking.and thank goodness so cos the car had no cashcard. took it out for the trip. and got chided by soo while walking him out, cos i decided to take the train in the end though i was quite enthralled by the tale of the free Last Supper saga he went thru in Italy. so took the friendly fast train and met clare at the station control - then jo at the stationary shop with her happy eye messager, that looked darn rude to jillian (she was xmas shopping). I was just gonna get pen refills at ANBC. We decided to have dinner at Ma Maison (Level 2, Bugis Junction), though I was planning on Casa Latina. It was drizzly though so lazy to walk.

Ma Maison is a really homely environment and its so fusion - japanese with western; italian/spanish with its pasta and paella. The appetisers sounded so good - the fried cheese and baked potatoes were such comfort food.

Lotsa carbos in line - paella that tasted much like chinese fried rice; cuttlefish black ink pasta that tasted saltishly satisfying; and a gratin that turned out to be macaroni based(always thought it was potato based must have been corrupted by delifrance). Loved each one of them cos it was so comforting, especially great on a rainy day.

Got a date with the girls to go party post dinner soon. Talking about the married lives of frens make us feel too free; and the luxury to plan your own dates is much to be relished ;)

Procacci

Day before this Saturday I was post call and went brunch with Irene at Prive so after that zonked out for 20 hours non stop (thanks wansze for postponing brunch to Sunday ;)) and just lazed the entire sat away reading my thurs-fri stacks of newspapers and my new found love for manga (actually, its re-ignited since those slam dunk/prince of tennis days). Reading both Oisinbo and Les Gouttes de Dieu (about Red Wine). Moving onto Bakuman about the life of a comic artist - got attracted to it cos its by the same manga artist who wrote Death Note. Mostly started on #1 of Bakuman on the train ride on the way to Procacci (Collyer Quay, Customs House). Prob get lost trying to find parking then get slaughtered by the parking fee so of cos took the train (but then again, regretted it after cos...read on). Was waayy early shoulda just picked up my reserved book too. After Chongs finally met me at Raffles Place, we too got lost on the other side of the road (no way to cross) and an uber uber ex taxi ride ($10 = ERP +CBD + peak hour + 5min ride) we finally got there. See shoulda driven. Anw. Its super pretty!! Lighted up so prettily next to the Fullerton Bay Hotel (which is really quaint too). Sigh such a quiet chill place to be at, away from the messy crowds else where (and nearby too....). Love love it. Thanks Chongs for booking (tho it was alfresco, heh). Shoulda seen my look when we didnt get an indoor seat. But must admit - view was dropdead gorgeous, and it was quiet, save for the bunch of noisy young hotties behind us - it was a night when a girl dined alone, another girl was alone till her bunch of babes bombed, but mostly, relished the quiet and the peace. It made up for the humid night. The night breeze was quite therapeutic, actually. LOVE the bread basket. I ate tons of the crisp thin chewy foccacia - of which there are two breeds - the above mentioned and the puffier cousin (looks whiter) of it. If you eat the foccacia straight from the oven it tastes exactly like the crispy Thasevi prata. Yummmms. Italian prata. Dipped into the olive oil and the mashed up olives- Chongs especially loved it. The bread was so tasty on its own and in olive I didnt have to ask for my usual butter.

Beef Carpaccio with truffle oil and arugula leaves - Chongs loved it to bits but I think the beef slices were way too thin for my liking. Would rather have the thickness of En Dining's Carpaccio!

This is what Chongs had her mind and heart and stomach on before she came here : Chilled Pasta with Truffle Oil and Caviar. Firm to bite and doused in plenty of truffle oil and salty bits of Caviar, we were happy troppers. Couldnt figure out what the other black specks were though. Just very very delicious. Chilled pasta tastes soooo good.

Porcini Risotto with truffle oil - couldnt taste much of the truffle oil here (actually, not at all). But no matter what im still a big fan of risotto - the mushrooms here I must say melt in your mouth. They have the most amazing smooth texture ever, in contrast with the firm grains of risotto. Good stuff too.

We strolled all the way round Marina to Marina Bay Sands where we enjoyed the breeze and the mist of the outdoor displays - many interesting ornaments and structures on the stroll on the way there. We browsed thru the shops (which closed at 12mn!! on fri and sat), gawked at people peering down (and still bucked the trend, lol), got excited about the crowded dessert/coffee shop which we realised was, bean, dohhh. And set our heart on our new hobby of booking hotel stays esp boutique ones when the moolah rolls in. Can't wait for that infinity pool date ;)

We then emerged full circle at Esplanade - wanted to Orgo but (as I thought) only standing space only, and a almost to Pump Room, but I gave up on nearing the cab stand and seeing my 77. It was a killjoy - but work on Sunday IS indeed a killjoy. While Chongs gets pampered at B, I shall get the other extreme. Lol at least a good Sunday brunch with Wans awaits !

District 10

Crunchy bread sticks. Fun to much on.
Duck Confit

Wagyu Meat Balls with Penne

Florentine Truffle Pizza MAD LOVE!

Yesterday met peck - had to go to her 76 to see a uro overflow (which, urti + no hd bed= eventual postpone.......for the second) - and a near scare about my steth. poor Pek had to wait since 5pm for me to end - tho everyone exited early these new cases just always pop up at exits. But in the end we managed to zoom down despite bad cte jam and losing each other (and the long way to the uturn at lavender!!) to have dinner at District 10 (10 Winstedt Road #01-17). belongs to the Bonta group so lookin forward to good italian stuff but turns out most food was fusion.

Tucked away at old Monk's Hill Secondary - i loved the vibe of this place. Has a huge al fresco area and an equally lovely indoor restaurant which had a woody interior and a blackboard on it scrawled the daily specials. Love the casual laid back vibe of the place. Their specials are a must try - all very old school on the blackboard within the restaurant.

Pecks did some reading up of the place (heh, now all my friends do......) and said the duck confit was supposedly good so we ordered that. The duck confit was done a little differently from what I had at La Petit Cuisine - duck confit stewed in its own fat. Here it seems like it was deep fried and was quite a salt bomb. Otherwise very tender and fell apart quite easily.

The wagyu beef penne was also quite satisfying comfort food.Typically I'm not quite a fan of tomato based pastas (cream ones are just too good to pass on for tomato ones) but I must say that this is going to change my mind cos the sauce was just so rich and full of herbs. The wagyu beef balls were also kickass. Packed with meaty goodness.

But the bomb was the FLORENTINE TRUFFLE PIZZA. Gosh a taste of this (actually, even a whiff of this) and we were in truffle heaven - slivers and ribbons of crisp pasta (yeah it was a super Carb indulgence) atop cheesy truffled chewy pizza base - this pizza was huge and we ate all but 2 slices left to tabao for breakfast. It was that good. 3 slices each. Possibly the best ever truffle in a dish I had (and I never thought truffle could taste THIS good in pizza). I was quite blown away.

We were two happy girls that night ;) trailed me back to Newton before we had to wake up early again cm. Sigh love my comfort Italian food so so much. Cant wait for Italy come December ;)