FOC

FOC ( Hong Kong street) has been on our radar as we missed Food bar dada since it's demise. Visited 63 Celcius twice and I must say the black rice there was excellent. Great food and excellent service here, we would also be back to enjoy the buzz:)

Watermelon Gazpacho with charcoal smoked olive oil ice cream. This was the aftermath after the juice went it. Quite ingenious and mind blowing actually.

Baby squid - mix it all up with the egg. Delicious mess it was.

Black rice with garlic mayonnaise - excellent combination. Real thin layer of rice each grain soaking up the stock. Excellent. 

Scallops. Quite an awesome pairing with the caviar and miso. 

Grilled beef Steak- charred to perfection.

Best time to come here ? Waltz in after 930 pm for those drinks and tapas.

Lucha Loco

Xue and I came by for drinks here ( past last order time ) and j and I tried to come by again one Friday night, but Lucha Loco at Duxton Hill as full to the brim - was almost banished to a corner with just one seat.

So we came by again at 6-ish on a weekday to find out what's the fuss about. It's indeed worth the fuss ;)

Grilled corn with parmesan cheese this was one amazing cob.

Prawn and octopus cerviche served in a glass jug, most succulent and citrusy.

Quinoa salad- simply love the sprout from the grain 

Fish tacos

Lamb tacos

Scallops tacos

At 9 bucks a pop, these Mexican wraps certainly weren't cheap for the size but oh boy they were super flavorful ! Js favorite was prob the lamb and mine , the scallop.

This place has amazing food, music and ambience- love the bar setting and the alfresco area too. No wonder it draws the crowds... Great atmosphere ! Go early to snag a seat - both the boisterous bar and the alfresco area fills up pretty quickly.

Bomba

Great treating ourselves two days in a row ! Finally landed ourselves at Bomba, Martin road, to try out the ever elusive paella. Booked bar seats by the window;)

Nothing that's grilled escapes us now! This grilled octopus is not as smokin as the one at foodbar dada but still was yums with the mash.

This tortilla is more like a potato pancake than an egg omelette layered with potato. And nah that ain't uni over there. Los primos still rocks my tortilla world.

Classic paella. Tasty and simple but we would like more seafood :p only half a crab here ! Makes us think of la cicalas though - tinge of regret not choosing the squid ink one tonight.

Boisterous atmosphere and hearty food - but prob spoilt by our previous experiences at other places. Lovely still ;)

Sabio

Red and white sangria

Thurs, met all my bosses - submitted irb so had to get signatures, res mid posting, team meeting when things had to be cleared with head. Awful awful. Post nasal drip and forms is trouble, so much so it necessitated stayaway on wed. Nonetheless was really happy to meet up with wans and with V to get the ASM going. brainstormed till 830 ish then while V went for team 1 and 2 drinks, wans and i went to get dinner at Sabio (Duxton Hill). Been a place i've been wanting to try for eons. Almost always packed till it trickles down to the brimish. Even today - we had to settle by the seats plastered to the walls - resulting in a smallish table which couldnt really fit all the food. But eventually we got cosied in, and didnt move to the bar. Plus it resulted in a very pyschedelic photo!
3 in 1 fish salad. For once, a salad with more meat than salad. Cod, Mackerel, anchovies. Even Wans who doesnt like anchovies lapped it up. Good stuff.
Octopus - very flavourful, and yet still crunchy despite absorbin the flavours from the broth.

Scallops in a lovely lobster-bisque like creamy soup. Prob the best dish of the night.

Garlic mushrooms, like tortillas is always a favourite to order. Love this. And its good quantity!

Totally recommend Sabio for the interesting tapas (lots more cold and hot to try) and the vibes, and the chic interior. As much as I love the bar food at 83 as well. It helps thatTapas and bar food is the way to go for me in 2012!

My Little Spanish Place

J and I intended to meet the previous week but he thought we were just Sogurting for supper (plus I was pre call) so in the end we met on a Wednesday. Called me when I was exiting but we managed to meet for dinner - esp since I had the car, previous week really boh kar. Kinda useless without wheels. (love lsy's Wheels of Life that he presented in his surg for elderly presentation). Drove to his place, and from there we walked over to try My Little Spanish Place (619 Bukit Timah Road) . Was supposed to try this place with Carol too but we ended up at Relish cos this place closes on Mondays!!

This is the best ever Tortilla I've ever tried - its an uber chunky omelette, and sublime with the garlic mayo dip. Extremely savoury and delicious.

James says the seafood paella here matches up to that in Spain - chokeful of ingredients like prawn and squid and chunks of fish, and extremely fragrant with the saffron.

Convos was revolving round his new found goals in life (lol) and mine mundane (not much has progressed since we last met). This time last year was submerged in panic and his calm self was so damn reassuring. The xmas decor has come up in town and for the first time since start of med sch I'm not in panic in books anymore ;)

Bodega Y Tapas

Mixed Cheese Platter - with the yummilious crunchy bread sticks
Sausages
Beef Meatballs
Garlic Prawns x2

Fried Potatoes x2- crisp and doused in BBQ sauce and sour cream

Garlic Mushrooms (supposed to be x 2 - laters)

Spanish Omelette - my favourite for the night, omelette stuffed with potatoes.

Beef

Codfish in a yummy creamy sauce

Knocking off early/on time is the life, I visited Kels at kk whoops disrupted some bloods, and had our old dessert of corn/peanut/redbean, and discovering so many breeds of mr bean now (4 months in shaggh is deprivation indeed), it was great catching up - sorry dear for cancelling today!

Zoomed down to Bodega Y Tapas (Level One, Orchard Hotel), been wanting to try this Spanish tapas place for a long time coming - the other place is Bon Quijte; love the joy of sharing the variety. Jo and Amanda were early and waiting at the shopping gallery listening to live music, Yvonne and Karen came later and last but not least, Pang.

We initially made a reservation for 5 so initially had a stool for the 6th person but luckily not. Tapas as follows; drinks were supposed to be one for one (not applicable to jugs) so we ordered glasses instead.

The spanish music and the atmosphere (doesnt help that there's so many expats!!- but they like the alfresco area better, we don't.) really transports you outta Singapore. And midway thru our meal we heard plates smashing at Esmiralda's next door;mayhem indeed.

My favourite for the night remains the Spanish Omelette - of all the breeds of eggs I still love the Japanese Tamago loads - had an amazing one at a Kyoto Izakaya just days back; followed closely by this spanish one. First time I tried it at Zsofi I was hooked!

Anyway the night was spoiled at the end of the night - we had a second round with some repeats when Pang came, and when our second round of mushrooms didnt arrive we asked and they audaciously said it came ! they said they clarified with both the chefs and listened to both sides of the story and INSISTED it came ! it really riled the are of us as of all the dishes would we choose to stinge on the cheapest dish of mushrooms???!! NEVER ARGUE with your customer please. It was enough to leave a bad enough impression despite the wonderful food. Thats the last of it for some of my friends who are never coming back. Some headed to Von's while I headed back for the next day of call;meet up next week again before Von flies!

Via Mar

a very expensive 42 bucks Seafood platter we greedily ordered because there was complimentary dessert that came with this order..this can easily be one person's appetiser (although i must say the fish was very nice) and indeed it was listed as an appetiser in the menu to be shared by 4...what, infants??? maybe its called appetiser for a reason cos we were so hungry after that (-but it worked against the restaurant cos we felt so ripped off we decided to have our mains at Shimbaishi soba )
the complimentary Spanish pancakes...these were quite small. The insides were of an egg-curd consistency and is covered by a fried crepe layer..very nice, if it was bigger (same principle applies to the seafood platter)

we should have ordered the paella! dunno why we were blinded by all that mussels and prawns and calamari. if only they didnt rip us off this time we'd be back to try their paella.

and the restaurant was so empty on a weekend (and after a performance)....so there for your puny portions!! go woe all the tourists you want but singaporean big eaters like us will have to adjourn to somewhere else!!

Via Mar Restaurant & Wine Bar

8 Raffles Avenue #01-10/12 Esplanade Mall