Viva Italia!

One of my buddies posted and commented on the Italian restaurant she visited on Instragam and I thought it will be great to add to my list.

I checked out the restaurant on the web and found that the owner is a local Chinese and somehow also known as a celebrity chef in Singapore. With this information given on the web and the good reviews from my buddy, we were all set to give it a shot. Pietro, here we come…

Upon on our arrival a Friday evening, I was actually quite turned off by the chef himself when he greeted us in Mandarin saying: ‘Lai Lai, Jin Lai Zuo’!! Wah lao eh… Immediately I thought I was entering a Zi Char Kopitam!!!

When we were led to our indoor seat, I thought the atmosphere was somehow different. It was really cozy and homely with pictures of him taken with many local celebrities. The restaurant also has a small stage where they hire a singer to entertain the guest. Interesting but I thought it was quite cheesy for an Italian restaurant.

Now the food, we ordered the Parma Ham with melon as our starter, their signature squid ink pasta which was super YUMMY! The presentation wasn’t great but it tasted heavenly! Following slowly was the duck meat risotto which was really good though I didn’t think Duck meat makes good pasta but it definitely changed my point of view after that.

Hubby decided to order the French Baby Chicken which was one of their specialities for tonight. The chicken smelt really good when it arrived on our table… it was covered with herbs and the meat was tasty too.

This is one good casual restaurant that we can drop by for friends’ gathering and perhaps for family dinner.

Carrot Cake

Carrot Cake… mmmh…. Do you mean Cai Dao Kway? That was the first thing that came to my mind when I heard that my cousin got that for my aunt’s birthday! She laughed and gently said that it was a cake that is called ‘Carrot Cake’.

At that moment, I was really puzzled why would anyone name a cake ‘Carrot Cake’… and realized that it was made with carrot, walnut and cinnamon. I tried and did not really like it though.

My buddy Rie is quite a fan of carrot cakes and since I have been into baking lately, she actually requested me to bake her carrot cake someday. So, after getting one of the easiest recipes from web, I finally got down to bake it. It wasn’t that difficult but pretty troublesome as I had to chop all the carrots which was the main ingredient for the cake.

The cake turned out pretty well and I iced it with cream cheese but I admitted that I totally failed for cake decoration… brought it to office and everyone enjoyed it pretty much… Yippy!

Brunch At Prive Cafe

We have been having this routine to have brunch lately since our last visit to The Canopy located at Bishan Park. I simply enjoyed brunch as I am never a breakfast person for many who knows me.

This week, our pick was Prive Café located at Keppel Bay. I have been there for tea with friends but never had a chance to taste their brunch. Well, we did it today! I was told that it was fully booked when I called them yesterday but we did not give up and was prepared to queue.

When we arrived, I was happy to see that the queue wasn’t as long as I expected. We did not even have to wait long for our indoor seats as I guessed we were pretty early. After browsing through the menu, we ordered the Eggs Royale along with my café latte while hubby had his pancakes with banana milk shake. We did not leave Faith out of course and we ordered her favourite spaghetti Aglio Olio without chili.  

I simply enjoyed my Eggs Royale where my muffins were topped with smoked salmon, gently poached eggs and the creamy hollandaise sauce. YUMS! I think this is by far the best Eggs Royale I tried. As for hubby, his pancakes looked ordinary… it was topped with banana and strawberries alongside with the maple syrup.

As for Faith’s spaghetti, I thought it was pretty tasty with crispy bacon bits, pine nuts (though I am not a fan) and it wasn’t that oily. She was enjoying the spaghetti and had finished almost half portion of it.

We like this place very much not only for its good view but for the good tasty food they served. We will definitely be back again!

Department Lunch At La Barca

After trying out at this restaurant last Friday, I told my boss about it and he was really keen to try. Here we are today!

He was taken by surprise when our driver drove into the school and he seemed to be in doubt when he realized that the restaurant is situated in the school compound. However, he was filled with awe the moment he entered the restaurant. He loves the decors and he commented that it’s very artistic.

I was given the green light to order the food and I took the chance to order some dishes which I did not try last Friday. We had cold seafood salad as our starter, the seafood pasta which I could not resist and the risotto for them to try and to give it a second chance. I thought the risotto tasted fantastic compared to the one we ordered last week.

As for our main, we decided to try their beef and placed an order of 1.1 kg of beef to share. When it was ready, the beef was served on the chef’s table where he sliced the beef for us. The moment it reached our table, we simply stopped talking and got down trying it. It was really tasty, juicy and man… so tender!!! YES, I couldn’t stop eating after my first slice. Yoyo had her slice of beef on the hot plate as she preferred it to be well done and to her surprise, it tasted just as tender and juicy!

I was really happy that my boss and Yoyo enjoyed the lunch very much and he mentioned that he will use this restaurant for his entertainment in the very near future. We also decided that we will be back to try other dishes soon…

Thank you Theresa for introducing this wonderful restaurant to me which allows me to share with my boss and friends who reads my blog!! This is one really super good Italian Restaurant and it’s definitely worth visiting more than ONCE!

Faith’s MRT Ride

On a rare Sunday afternoon while hubby was in church for some activities, I brought Faith to mum’s place via MRT. It wasn’t her first ride on the train and she seemed to enjoy the ride each time I bring her.

She was seated on the Reserved Seat and asking me about many things about the train… examples… why are there so many people on the train during this time, why isn’t there enough seats for everyone and how long more will we arrive at Por Por’s place etc…

During our ride, I had the opportunity to give up my seat to an elderly lady and I shared the seat with Faith. She went again…

Faith : “mummy, you gave your seat to Por Por?”
Me : “Yes sweetheart, Por Por needs to sit, so I share with you okie”.
Faith : “Sure, I will sit on your lap and as I want mummy to sit too”.

It was quite a good opportunity to teach her how to give up seats to those who need it more than us. I do hope she will put it to practice when she grows up.

When we were about to alight the train, she turned to the elderly lady bidding her goodbye and it was really nice to see the elderly’s lightened up with a warm smile.

Dinner At La Barca

I chanced upon this restaurant on my buddy’s post on Instagram and I checked with her if the restaurant is worth the visit. She told me that it’s definitely worth the visit and she is very confident that I will enjoy every bit of it.

I decided to try out the restaurant on a Friday night with hubby since both of us are big fan of Italian food. La Barca located at the corner in National Arts School around Mountbatten Road. When we arrived, the restaurant was pretty quiet with only a few tables filled. After settling down, we browsed through the menu and decided to order the dishes that Theresa recommended.

We ordered the baked eggplant as our appetizer; squid ink risotto, seafood pasta and the Kobe beef as our main. The eggplant was delicious…. It tasted soft on the side and little crispy on the sides as it was baked. Our favourite would be the seafood pasta as it was different and the pasta was al-dente. The squid ink risotto was pretty good too but somehow I thought the sauce was a little sweet… not sure why but guess they added slightly more sugar???

When our Kobe Beef was served, my appetite rose at the first sight. It looked extremely alluring and YES, it was truly tasty! It was juicy and the meat was so tender… simply brilliant! By the time, we finished our main, we hardly had any rooms for desserts but the waitress was so kind that she served us some cookies as our desserts with compliments.

This is a wonderful experience and I am sure I will be back with my boss soon. I am very sure he is gonna love this place as much as I do!!!

Dinner Gathering At Red House

Steven had requested to organise this dinner as a casual gathering for colleagues and ex-colleagues whom we treated as our close friends. He wanted seafood and I booked Red House Seafood at Robertson Quay for everyone’s convenience.

After browsing through the interesting menu, Steven finally decided to order their signature dishes like chili crabs, crispy duck, garlic bamboo clams, homemade tofu etc… the dishes were delicious except for the crab… we thought the crab meat which was served weren’t too tasty as the crab meat seemed to stick to the shell.

Apart from the crab, the rest of the dishes were great. It was indeed a great dinner for us to catch up as these are the people whom we used to work with and I do kind of miss them.

Thank you Kai Ye for the sumptuous dinner and also organising this gathering.

Brunch At The Canopy

I have always wanted to try the brunch at The Canopy located at Bishan Park but each time we visited, it was very crowded and had to prepare to wait for at least 30 minutes to be seated.

Today, it was almost the same situation but we decided to wait instead as it was raining and the queue wasn’t that long. It did not take long for us to be seated but we were given a seat at the Green Room instead.

After browsing through the menu, I decided to have their Eggs Royale which caught my eye while Hubby ordered the scrambled eggs. I got to say that my choice was perfect as the poached eggs were generously covered with hollandaise sauce and the combination of smoked salmon was a match made in heaven!

We simply love the environment as it was care free and casual; a place for people who prefer to dress down on a Sunday morning. This is one perfect place for all those joggers or pet owners who walk their pets. To us, we just love the greenery!

I believed we will visiting this place again and I guess will be pretty often too… THUMPS UP!

Zoe’s 4th Birthday

While we are enjoying our precious long weekend, we were invited to join Zoe’s 4th birthday party at KidzAmaze located at Safra Toa Payoh. It coincided with our National Day and we watched the parade at their entertainment room.

I was really surprised by how big the indoor playground for the kiddos. Faith was excited to play but somehow the playground isn’t suitable for adults. Finally when Nana arrived with sisters, Faith brightened up her eyes and went straight to Jie Jie Nana holding her hands while she led her to the rides.  

The adults and elderly were enjoying dinner in the function room while the kiddos enjoying themselves at the playground. I thought it was quite a good venue for children’s party as there is something for the kids to enjoy while the adults enjoy their dinner.

Florence prepared the birthday cake and we helped to gather the kids back to the function room to have the cake cutting ceremony. There was this special candle which my cousin prepared that goes off like a small fireworks. That was really cool!

Everyone enjoyed the party especially the kids as they get to play at the playground, receiving goody bags and of course the delicious birthday cake.

Happy birthday Zoe dearie…May the good Lord bless you with happiness and good health always. We love you!