Quick lunch at Menotti

Dear readers...

I am Sya.. Kat's friend.. i've been invited to guestblog about our lunch at Menotti..

the menu was 22 pages long!!! and were we spoilt for choice or were we spoilt for choice?

after much deliberation, we decided to try the set lunch.. which consisted of one pasta, one dessert and tea or coffee..

the downside to the menu was the lack of starter.. thus, we decided to order a snack.. for starter.. the frito misto as it is called, is made up of crab cake, prawn tail, sole fillets and calamari. served with 3 sauces/dressings.. the mayonaise, thousand island and tomato like sauce. it was too good to resist that even a selective seafood allergic person like me tucked in anyway!

the main course came soon after.. Linguine crabmeat in creamy tomato sauce. this is the second best. the sauce spreads well in your mouth and doesnt leave an after taste like most tomato base does.

next is tagliatelle with king scallops, mushrooms and pesto.. the healthiest of the 3. It is, however, a tad bland. the only thing that you'll enjoy about this dish is the scallop, which is extremely fresh and well cooked.

lastly. the bavette.. with seafood and spicy tomato sauce.. i was expecting something that explodes in your mouth but was disappointed as it wasn't even a tad spicy. however, it is the best of the lot. eating this is like being on 7th heaven.. the seafood serving was generous.

naturally.. girls being girls.. we went gaga over desserts.. we each picked a dessert and shared it among the 3 of us.. the first was tiramisu.. I dare say this is the best tiramisu i've eaten. it's even better than da paolo's.layers of euphoria!!

the next dessert we tried was morbida chocolate mousse. it's like. rochers. melty kiss all rolled into one. and wad a surprise we had. when we saw the choc oozing out!!

the last dessert we had was duomo mascarpone & spicy cream with olive oil sugar dough.. i was expecting this to be very sweet. given the sugar dough.. but it was surprisingly just nice. and upon hitting the center.. chocolate started to ooze out! yummy! and lastly.. we had our tea.. was rather comforting to have a nice warm cup with your girlfriends on a rainy weather. total cost for 3!

pretty decent aint it? go give it a try!

Menotti The Original Italian Café
252 North Bridge Road
#01-17 Raffles City Shopping Centre
Singapore 179103
Tel: (65) 6333 9366 Fax: (65) 6339 4907
Email: info@garibaldi.com.sg

Meaty Sandwich (muahahah)

Hooboy! Is this artery-clogging or what?? It's a sandwich I made for lunch containing: 3 rashers of bacon (fried/toasted to a crisp), a slice of fried turkey ham, half a slice of cheese (ran out of cheese..had to split a slice between 2 sandwiches), scrambled eggs with milk, and a pork bratwurst, sliced into quarters.

Quite a mouthful ain't it? Hehe..

Obviously it would have tasted better with perhaps a little mayo and lettuce and tomatoes in it, but we were out of it. So a side of cherry tomatoes it was. A slight concession to healthy eating (and because the sandwich was salty! :P - I think if some products weren't pork, Sya would have liked it, woman who needs her salt fixed hehe).

Verdict: Saltiness aside, it was rather filling, and I think it tasted rather good. I'll be tweaking it soon, hopefully with veggies this time, to make it better :D

Botak Jones @ Yue Hua Food Place, 608 Ang Mo Kio Ave 5

BB and I went to Botak Jones today as an after-a-lousy-first-exam-paper treat. After all, I'd been buggering him about going to try, after seeing several blogs talk about it, for quite some time already.

The Botak Burger set ($6.50, comes with large amounts of coleslaw and spiced fries). The burger came fat and juicy, coated with a slice of melted cheese, tomatoes, onions and lettuce on a buttered bun. The meat patty was thick and fat and juicy. Thumbs up for that. Points deducted for being a little bland - I don't think there was any salt added. While it's healthy, it doesn't make for a very tasty American junk food meal.


Cajun (pronounced "kay-jin", apparently) Chicken set ($6.50), which also comes with copious amounts of creamy coleslaw and the same spiced fries. It was good, tender and kind of moist, topped with melted mozzarella, fried onions and some sauce that I can't tell what it is. I'm not too partial to chicken breast, frankly. Gimme a nice thigh anyday. But as far as chicken breast goes, this ain't half bad :):)

And now on to the coleslaw and fries. I don't normally eat all my coleslaw - most of the time I don't touch it (early bad experience at KFC..blech!) - but this time I decided to try some, and was rewarded with cold (I hate tepid slaw! Makes me think it's been sitting out in the heat - and hence the mayo spoiling - for goodness knows how long!!), creamy mayo and cabbage. Mmm.. And it was good. I finished everything up! And the fries, although unsalted, were sprinkled with a mixture of spices that reminded me of Calbee Hot and Spicy chips which I love. Ergo, I love this one too :D

I'm a happy goober today. Check it out. In the words of Meathenge Labs, we were Clean Plate Rangers today!











Verdict: Be prepared to wait 15-20 minutes for your food. According to them, all food is prepared fresh and doesn't hit the grill till you order it (apart from the gumbo and the Whoopass Chili con Carne - how DO you pronounce that??) The portions are big, we were stuffed after clearing our plates and didn't have room for the Chili that we'd wanted to try :( Never mind, next time. A little disappointed that I didn't see them wearing the funky aprons I'd heard about, but that's just a side thing. the food's the main man! And we're satisfied.

P/s, there's a menu in Chinese too, so if you have Chinese-speaking friends who can't read English too well, they too can order with ease :) Come HUUUUNGRY.. :D

New Harbour Cafe @ 81 Tanjong Pagar Road

I met my friend Syahidah for lunch after not meeting for about half a year, and she took me to this place called New Harbour Cafe where, as girls do, we gossipped, chatted and generally caught up with each other in ways that MSN just cannot do justice to. But as good as the company was, the food was good too :) On with it!

We each took the set lunch menu, consisting iced tea, soup of the day and a bread roll, and a main course ($11.90). The minestrone soup was good: light, with a good tomato flavour, and a mouthful of little chopped up veggies with every spoonful. I love a good bread roll, so I was happy :) Crusty on the outside, warm, soft and white on the inside..And the butter was unsalted! Just the way I like it :D





This is mine! Grilled dory with mashed potatoes instead of fries, sans Brussels sprouts, 'cos Sya said they were bitter. The dory was good, with a wedge of lemon squeezed over it. Crisp on the outside and tender inside. The mashed potatoes were great too, with the gravy. I love potatoes, and I love gravy (and I didn't wanna eat fries haha..fried!). Didn't like the veggies though. The greens were bitter, and the baby carrots tasted a bit synthetically sweet. What happened to au naturel?



Sya's black pepper chicken, with fries. I think it was fried with black pepper on the skin, but I didn't taste very much pepper. It was still nice though. The fries were as fries should be - fried golden on the outside, fluffy on the inside :D








Verdict: Good food at very reasonable prices. Very filling to boot :) What's not to like? Lunch with the girlfriend was fun :) Great food, great company! It's a great place to go to, but during lunch hour, we happened to be sitting near a large table of very noisy working adults. Also it's a little small, but kind of cosy. She says next time she'll bring me to Da Paolo, which I've never been to before, yay!

Qun Zhong Eating House @ 21 Neil Road

This foodie post comes from my brother's birthday dinner at our favourite xiao long bao place at Neil Road (very near Chinatown). So far, nowhere else that we've eaten at compares. Not even Shanghai! That's a glowing recommendation OK! (OK but it must be noted that Shanghai xiao long bao are different from the Beijing ones that these are - the skins tend to be thicker than the nice thin ones we favour, because the Shanghainese eat them alone as a meal. It has to be filling)

What they call Chinese Pizza, in English($9). In Chinese it's called 三鲜合子 and is filled with chives, pork and shrimp. It's essentially pan-fried, but it was a little oily and the filling was a tad dry. Can't fault the taste of this dish though. Just not something I would want to eat a lot of.







三鲜锅贴, ($7 for 10 pieces) same ingredients as above. I hate the English name for this: potstickers. Literal translation, but yucks! Although the filling was the same, it tasted juicier and less oily, I suppose because it has been pan-fried only on one side, as opposed to the "pizza".







小笼汤包, or what we know as xiao long bao! I like this one! :D It is a must-order everytime we come here. Or should I say, we come here for this. The skin is thin, the stock inside is very flavourful, and the meat is steamed perfectly. Only drawback, I guess, is the need to learn how to transfer these successfully from steamer to spoon to mouth. Because the skins are thin and fragile, you've got to sandwich the meat between your chopsticks to lift up the dumpling or risk the skin breaking and the yummy soup spilling out.

We had 豆沙锅饼, a red bean paste pancake for dessert ($9). Not-too-sweet red bean paste wrapped with some sticky glutinous rice paste and pan-fried with sesame seeds sprinkled on top. Eaten fresh, it's lovely, crisp on the outside, sweet and soft on the inside.







Not pictured: 炸酱面 ($4). For non-Chinese friends, that's noodles topped with a fried pork and soya bean sauce. I loved it too, but forgot to take a picture of it until I'd eagerly mixed everything in and uglified the whole bowl :(

Verdict: The options on the menu of this place aren't exhaustive, but they make it quick and they make it well. It's a loud, cheerful environment, great for family or friends to gather for a quick meal and a chat.

Also, it has to be noted that all these items are to be SHARED! If you eat them alone, I can guarantee you'll end up feeling so ill! Anyway, because this place is not open at all hours from lunch, here's additional information..

Business hours: 11.30 am to 3pm, 5.30 pm to 9.30 pm, closed on Wednesdays.

They don't accept reservations, so if you want a table, you'd better make sure your entire group is there first. It's a small establishment, but the food is good :)

Birthday cake

Not truly an indulgence post, but food-related nonetheless. Kaiting, BB and I made and decorated a cake for Minyi jie's 21st birthday.

You can't go wrong with chocolate cake, topped with whipped cream, strawberries and sugar icing ^_^

The cake has chocolate cream inside too!









At the Biz canteen celebrating Minyi's 21st. The candles are lit, ready to be blown out :)












Happy 21st jie, from all of us. May all your wishes come true.

Uno (牛屋), Blk 51 Toa Payoh Lorong 5

I'm back with another foodie post (finally! Haha). This one ain't so much of a foodie indulgence (in terms of price), but someplace I saw in this programmes, "排排站,查查看", and wanted to try. Foodie programmes are great! I love this one, and HDB Taitais, because it's generally heartlander-ish, but has really great food.

Right, onward!

Black Pepper Chicken Chop ($5) that BB ordered. The chicken was cooked (fried I assume) with the black pepper and then had a reddish gravy poured over it. Actually the programme said it was a red wine sauce but it could have been anything as far as I was concerned. In a good way of course :)

Accompanying it are baked beans, coleslaw and a potato ball. I could go on and on about the potato ball I tell you! It's hand-mashed (you can taste the buttery gooiness inside!!), lightly breaded and quickly fried. So you get a thin crisp outer "shell" and then a soft gooey mouthful as you bite ^_^

Black Pepper Sirloin ($8). It uses the same sauce as the chicken so I won't go into that. I won't say I tasted ANY black pepper at all. But done medium, it's soooo tender and juicy that I didn't really care that I didn't taste any pepper. Various bits of veggie and onion were fried along with it I think (in lieu of coleslaw?). I honestly didn't mind eating those. Fry it that way, gimme some sauce and I'll gulp it down.

Did I mention that the potato ball goes well with the sauce? Yummy!

The chicken and beef came with an accompanying "appetiser" of a piece of bread each. Was it supposed to be garlic bread? I don't know. I only tasted the butter haha..

Also ordered a bowl of chicken soup to share ($2). Tasted like Campbell's Cream of Chicken. I could get so much more soup at home for that price. Not going to order that again.

Verdict: Yummy and overall pretty value for money I think :) Yummy food at kopitiam Western food prices. Unfortunately not halal, since I saw that they serve bacon, and pork chops. But if you do go, try to avoid the typical lunch and dinner hours unless you're prepared to wait. Apparently you can wait up to half an hour for your food. Frankly, I would think the wait is worth it :)

Grapevine @ 780 Upper Serangoon Rd

We had another foodie indulgence at the Grapevine cafe/restaurant/bar next to the crocodile farm around Upper Serangoon Road. I'd wanted to try that for quite some time and Dearie promised not to be stinky, so off we went :) On to the food!

(From left to right) Tropical Kiwi, and Mango Smoothie! I love the kiwi, just the right amount of sweetness and tartness for me. The mango one Dearie had was a tad too sweet for my taste, and a little thick as well. Extra points for the cute mug though. Looks like a glass jar with a handle attached. I want!! :D

Taiwanese-style Fried Chicken - part of the appetisers menu. Little bite-sized (sometimes bigger) pieces of chicken freshly fried in batter. It's great for making it last haha, because there is more of it. It was a little chewy instead of crisp, but still was yummy! Chilli sauce accompanies it.







BBQ Bacon Rolls! Ooh man we both loved this so much! Chewy bacon with some crunchy veggie rolled inside, basted with BBQ sauce! Yummy! We wanted to order it again after dinner instead of the Taiwanese chicken, but decided on the chicken instead because it wouldn't be gone in a few bites and would last longer as a result.






Dearie's Oriental Chicken Thigh, served with butter rice. To me, the chicken was pretty alright, nothing too fantastic, but yummy nonetheless. I can't discern the marinade, but it was nice nonetheless. The butter rice was nothing to shout about though. We expected it to be more flavourful but there was little more than a hint of buttery fragrance, not much taste.





Oxtail stew served with butter rice (choice of rice, spaghetti or mashed potatoes) Oxtail stew done just right is lovely. The meat is firm enough that it clings to the bone yet tender enough that it absorbs the surrounding gravy, and with the little bits of fat, almost melt in your mouth. Did I mention? The gravy was yummy too :)

Verdict: We both enjoyed dinner at the Grapevine (and managed to linger there for 3 hours!) The steaks look quite value for money the next time we come - as I'm pretty sure we will come again in future. P/s, I love the lighting, sofa seats and the big hanging snowflakes in the restaurant/cafe side of the establishment. The dessert menu seemed a bit sparse though, for a cafe. Only about 5 or 6 choices. But actual food-wise, and atmosphere (even on the bar side) is more than satisfactory.

TCC @ Millenia Walk

I'm back with another pig-out entry. It's been some time since the last one :) Dearie and I were having an indulgence day in addition to accumulating receipts to amount to $88 to apply for the TCC membership card. So here we are: pics galore! :D


The 3 main courses! Hot and freshly made!








Smoked Salmon Linguine Thermidor. I thought it was a little dry - I'm used to pastas with more sauce. But it certainly is fragrant, and the smoked salmon is plentiful. More than needed for the pasta really :) And the shaved Parmesan (shaved!! Not powdered!!) was a nice touch too.



Beef Mozza-Tofu. We were a little hesitant about ordering this at first, but no regrets! The beef and smooth tofu mixed really well with the sukiyaki sauce, and the thick layer of mozzarella cheese on top was perfect. It tasted great with the papadums (snitched from the sandwich platter)



tcc TMH Sandwich. Really thick, crusty toast..Normally I don't like the crust all that much, but this one is done just right - crisp, yet not to the point of a scrapped palate. The sandwich contains tomato slices, mango slices and ham (and some veggie, I forgot what) Sour, sweet and salty blended together well, I thought. Plus mango, almost always good :)

Peach Melba tea. Very fragrant. After all the rich food, we could hardly discern any taste, but the hot drink was very welcome since the air-conditioner was very cold. Towards the end, as it got more concentrated, a slight fruity taste (slightly sour and acidic) could be found. Refreshing :)


Devil's Chocolate Cake. Ooh! My new favourite there (it used to be Dark Devotion)! It's rich, it's decadent, and oh-so-yummy! The rich bitter chocolate mousse blends well with the cake-y bottom layer and is offset a little by the thin layer of berries in the middle. Simply sinful, but I'm in love with it already.


And the prettiest of them all: Light Strawberry Mousseline. It was great after all the richness of the food above. It was light, fluffy and definitely not cloyingly sweet. Indeed, there was even a touch of sourness to it that I liked. Little thin slivers of strawberries in the cup to go with the bottom few mouthfuls. And enough fruit and chocolate to go with every mouthful of the mousse.

And the presentation is so pretty! I'd love it even just for that. Luckily there was no need to - it tasted as good as it looked! :)

*Missing from the pictures: Mint-choc frappe, which was a little dilute, with hardly any mint taste. Not something I would order again*

Verdict: We enjoyed this meal a lot, truly. The pasta could have been better, as could have been the Mint-choc frappe we ordered but didn't take a photo of, but other than that, we were happy and satisfied lil' piggies :)

White Tangerine @ Hougang St 21 (Paya Lebar Kovan CC)

Went out with the parents and brother to try some place Mom had heard about before. Apparently there's quite some hype about this place, so since we were all free, why not? The place is open till 2am on weekends.

Their honey-glazed chicken wings. The brother and his girlfriend obviously like it - he recommended it to us, but the rest of us found they tasted a little odd. Far too tenderised, and very heavy on the dark soy sauce when they were marinating it. The taste of it is at odds with the honey used later on.







(From left to right: Cookies and Cream, and Ice Mocha)
The brother said the Cookies and Cream was a disappointment as it tasted as though they'd blended Oreos with ice. Personally I didn't taste it and so can't comment. The Ice Mocha tasted pretty good though. Rich and thick, with the right blend of coffee and chocolate.







The root beer float was yet another disappointment. The root beer felt like it had lost it's fizz, and wasn't even sweet enough. Bleagh.










I saved the best for last. The chocolate fondue tasted like a mix between dark and milk chocolate, but it was good nonetheless. Chunks of banana, strawberries, marshmallows and waffles to dip, with a little dish of crushed nuts. The fruits were good and fresh, and the waffles were toasted, so that it absorbed the chocolate but still remained crisp. A plus would be that the fondue is affordable too, at $10 for 2 people.




Verdict: In general the food and drink didn't seem too satisfactory this trip. And yet their dessert buffet (or so they call it) seems to offer a far more diverse (and worthwhile) offering for the same price that we paid. Maybe I'll get Dear to go with me and try it before reaching a definite conclusion. But I'm not too impressed with this trip.

Delifrance Bistro @ Toa Payoh Central

Only 2 pictures today, because Dear and I ordered the same thing ^_^ Went to the revamped Delifrance Bistro next to the Toa Payoh Library for lunch because I wanted to try the lasagne.


Traditional French onion soup! The soup was quite fragrant and flavourful. Lots of onions cooked till soft at the bottom of the soup-cup too. Only drawback is that it was suppose to have cheese gratin. I so didn't taste any cheese apart from the Parmesan I felt obliged to add into the soup after tasting it.








Beef bolognese! Dear likes this one, but I think I'm going into Munchie-Monkey-lasagne withdrawal because I feel this does not match up. In that respect, I think my opinion may be biased and skewed towards Munchie. Still, extra points awarded for the cheesiness of it all, and because the edges have been baked till it's slightly harder but a lot more flavourful.




Verdict: The food is pretty good, but the place doesn't have the appeal that Cafe Cartel or Sizzler's has. Sad to say, despite the similar price, I would rather go to the latter two in future.

Japanese lunch (made by kat hehe)

We made a whole array of Japanese food for lunch today!! So exciting!

Lunch from a birds' eye view (minus chawanmushi!)
From top to bottom, left to right: Soba dipping sauce, cold soba and cha soba mix, 2 bowls and 2 pairs of chopsticks, tempura dipping sauce, tempura and grilled unagi





Cold soba ( I think you still can see a few little cubes of ice nestled in the noodles if you look hard enough). A mix of zaru soba (normal soba??) and cha soba (green tea soba, much nicer in my opinion)





Grilled unagi bought from Cold Storage that I just heated up in the microwave. Don't knock it, k? It tastes great nonetheless!







Check out the little cups of chawanmushi steaming in the wok. Mix in egg and chicken stock, a dash of soy sauce and sugar, and then strain. Steam covered with clingwrap, and you have chawanmushi worthy of any Japanese restaurant. I should know. I made it :P




Assorted tempura: lotus root slices, okra, brinjal and prawns. Need to tweak the batter though. It tasted good but refused to fluff up like tempura was supposed to.






Verdict: A little points taken off for the refusal of the batter to fluff up, but all else tasted fantastic for a home effort. Next time, the toss up between going to a Japanese restaurant and slaving in the kitchen to create the same (but very very doable) results will have a close fight :P