Papi

I don't eat pasta very often, but every once in a while I do get a craving for it... and it was one of these times that I decided to check this place out.

The name "Papi" stands for PAsta and PIzza - which is exactly what this place serves.

Before I go any further, I have to rave about the water... yes, strange thing to rave about but the water that was served here was not just ordinary ice water - it was flavoured with orange, cinnamon and mint. Such a pleasant surprise for the taste-buds!

For a starter we had the Grilled Vegetables $12+++...


It was lovely! Never fails to amaze me how a simple dish like grilled vegetables can taste so good.

Also ordered the Squid Ink Pasta $17+++...


Definitely not the most photogenic dish... I was kinda disappointed for a few reasons -
(1) It was nowhere near as tasty as the Squid Ink Pasta I had in Barcelona last year and
(2) There was no seafood in it despite the waiter saying there would be. I just don't like having pasta with nothing else in it.


The Pappardelle with Chicken in Tomato Sauce was nothing fantastic either.

Ok, so we probably should have tried a pizza as well... but I had a pasta craving!

After a pretty uninspiring dinner, we turned our hopes to dessert. Everything on the dessert menu sounded really amazing but we went with the Pinenut Cake with Vanilla Ice-cream...


and the Chocolate, Cardamom and Coffee Cake...


The description of the desserts in the menu made it sound way better than it actually looks or tastes.

It wasn't bad or anything - it was the first time I've ever had pinenut cake and was quite intrigued with the taste, and we were a bit hesitant about the many flavours in the chocolate cardamom coffee cake but it all came together pretty well...

But we weren't quite blown away by the desserts as we thought we would be.

What I didn't like most about this place was the service. I've read a few blogs raving about the great service here, but I found that the waiter serving us crossed that very thin line between being friendly and being annoying.

While I'm quite happy to have an effusive, enthusiastic server, I felt the friendliness here seemed a bit fake and quite forced. Maybe it's just me...


Papi
5 Mohamed Sultan Road
S239014
Tel : 6235 0014

Cooking : Halloween 2006

Haven't had the chance to cook or bake in quite a while so I jumped at the chance to cook for the Halloween party that we had on Saturday. For last year's party, I baked a cupcake graveyard with tombstones, gummi worms and Oreo crumbs as sand. This year, I decided to go the savoury route... and I figured if I was going to cook, I might as well go all out :)

To fit the occasion, I prepared a few common dishes with an added Halloween twist.

Inspired by a cooking show I saw recently, I wanted to make "Pigs in a Blanket" - cocktail sausages wrapped in puff pastry... but gave it a gory twist...


It's supposed to look like severed fingers with a bandage wrapped around it :)

And for the Deviled Eggs, I added an olive and a drop of ketchup to make it look like eyes :)

Also prepared a Baked Pasta in case people were craving carbs...


And my usual Spicy Chicken Wings...


Yup, I prepared quite the spread :)

Beef Noodles at Scotts Food Court

This is another post on things that I've (strangely enough) never had before...

My friends and I used to hang out at Scotts Food Court a lot when we were in secondary school... afterall our school was just a few bus-stops away. And pretty much every time we were here, we would have Beef Noodles.

My friends would always have the dry version, with the brown gooey sauce... but there was just something about the sauce that looked very unappetizing to me so I've always had the soup version.

In the spirit of trying new things, I tried the dry version recently...


And loved it! Finished the whole bowl of noodles, which really doesn't happen very often with me anymore. The sauce was much tastier than I thought, and no lumps in it (for some reason I imagined there would be some).

But the best thing about this Beef Noodle stall is the chilli. My usual practice is to squeeze a lime in one dish of the chilli sauce, and dunk the beef into it. I love the chilli so much I normally have two saucers of it :)

This food court is such an instituition... unfortunately it will be closing pretty soon as the whole building is undergoing renovation. Go while you still can!

Aston's Specialities

I was in the mood for meat and it was the perfect opportunity to strike an item off my wishlist... read about this place in a few places - this post on ieatishootipost, a write-up in the New Paper the same day I came here, and a mention in that week's issue of IS-Magazine... So I was quite relieved that we only had a 10 minute wait for a table.

But it was definitely worth the wait!

Here is the Prime Ribeye Extra Cut with your choice of two sides for just $14.90.


Look at how thick and juicy the rib-eye steak is! And for just $14.90! It was done quite nicely... and the sides were really good - loved the mashed potato.

We also ordered the Special of the Day which was Black Pepper Chicken with Sausages with choice of two sides $8.90.


A good-sized piece of chicken smothered in black pepper sauce with four mini-sausages, fries sprinkled in cajun pepper and a serving of steamed fresh vegetables.

Another thing to love about this place is the fact that they don't try to rip you off on drinks. An order of green tea means you get a can of green tea and a cup of ice... for $1.10. That's even cheaper than some food courts!

The decor is simple and there's no air-conditioning but I'll gladly forgo some comfort for a good steak! Highly recommended!


Aston's Specialities
119 East Coast Road
S428810
Tel : 9147 4627
http://AstonsSpecialties.blogspot.com

Muddy Mudpie at Coffee Club

While hiking at MacRitchie Reservoir a few weekends ago, the topic of the Muddy Mudpie at Coffee Club came up... yes yes, I was thinking of ways to pile on the calories while simultaneously working them off :)

This was a favourite among my friends some time back - I still remember when C used to demolish one in 3 bites flat... by herself! While I couldn't quite accomplish the same feat, I did used to have this dessert pretty damned often.


What's in the Muddy Mudpie? The top layer is coffee ice-cream, middle layer chocolate ice-cream, a bottom layer of Oreo biscuits... sitting in a pool of hot fudge with lots and lots of Oreo crumbs. I can never say no to anything with Oreos in it :P

Absolutely yummy and mind-blowingly sweet. Keeps you on a happy sugar high for quite a while... especially if, besides the ice-cream, you also eat up all the hot fudge and Oreo crumbs, which I did - with a fork... an indulgence that's well worth the calories...

Go try it at one of the many Coffee Clubs outlets around the island.

Azhang

The main stretch of Mohamed Sultan Road has been slowly undergoing a transformation from a hedonistic party zone into a cluster of exotic sounding restaurants. There is now Le Tonkin (Vietnamese), Banoo (Persian), Papi (Italian) and Azhang - which is where we met for a friend's birthday dinner last month (yes, my backlog of posts is THAT bad). Despite the Chinese sounding name, the cuisine served here is definitely not Chinese... not too sure what genre of food that would fall into though...

The place has a cosy feel to it, much like having dinner at a friend's house. Despite having been forewarned of how slow everything here runs, I was still taken aback by how inept the service staff were.

With a vegetarian in our midst, and a menu heavily skewed towards the carnivorous, we asked the waitress if there was anything vegetarian on the menu and her reply was "only the salad". Seeing that this was a small place, and the chef is presumably also the owner, I asked the waitress to check with the chef if he could whip up something suitable for a vegetarian. The waitress never came back to us...

A further example of how inept she was, she came back to confirm our orders about 20 minutes after she took them down. Not that I have experience in waitressing, but aren't you supposed to repeat and confirm your customers' orders immediately after you finish taking down all of them??

Thankfully, the food was pretty good. For starters, we shared the Corn Salad...


There was an unexpected bite of chilli in the dressing that made this salad stand out from the norm.

We also shared Bread with Liver Pate - freshly baked bread with yummy liver pate!


For my main course I had the Salmon Belly - can't remember the exact price but I'm pretty sure it was less than $20. Reasonably priced and the salmon was cooked perfectly.


Here's why I can't be called a foodie - a real foodie would have done some research on this place and know that you have to try the grilled meats here! In any case, I think even if the grilled meats were to blow me off my feet, I still don't think I would come back anytime soon...

Look out for an upcoming review on Papi located just next door.


Azhang
6 Mohamed Sultan
Tel : 6836 3436

Ivins

I know some people have been coming here for yonks but I've only discovered this place the last few years. It's now one of my favourite places to go for good no-frills Peranakan food...

For me, the must-have dish here is the Beef Rendang $4.50. It looks a little empty because I took a piece of beef out before remembering to take a photo... I love love love the gravy here - the claypot is pretty much empty after I'm done with it :)




The Tempra Promfret was decent. A pretty small fish but then it only costs 8 bucks...




This is another one of those "Things that Esther has for some reason never tried" - Ayam Buah Keluak $5.90. The buah keluak just does not look or sound like the most appetizing thing so I've never had the urge to try it. For some reason, I expected it to be spicy. It wasn't bad or anything, but I'm in no hurry to try it again...


Also had the Honey Pork $4.50 - the pieces of pork were way too small and were too tough to be considered tasy. Definitely not ordering this next time... Don't understand why this is one of their signature dishes...




... and Tauhu Goreng $3.20. Lots of peanut sauce, not much tauhu - makes me want to go have the Tauhu Goreng at Rice Table.



Don't forget to ask for the sambal belachan - it's really good, I had two whole saucers of it. Definitely coming back again soon... I forgot how much I love the Beef Rendang here :)


Ivins
207 Upper Thomson Road
S574346
Tel : 6254 1877

The Dotted Line Shop

My friend, Dorothy, has recently launched her online clothing line "The Dotted Line Shop" and she's got some seriously gorgeous stuff! I am the proud owner of the Black Dotty Pencil Skirt and I cannot stop raving about how it fits me in the most amazing way...

She will also be at MAAD on Sunday, 15th October from 11am- 6pm at the Red Dot Design Museum (28 Maxwell Rd). Don't miss out on the 15% storewide opening discount!

Congratulations on a successful launch, woman!

BLooiE's Roadhouse Restaurant & Pub

Decided to venture into the East for dinner - I've been told by more than one person that there's a restaurant deep inside Jalan Tua Kong but the place just seemed too residential to me. So to satisfy my curiousity, I had to see if this place really existed...

After driving past a few roads of nothing but houses, lo and behold a row of shophouses appears and we see the restaurant tucked away next to a car repair workshop. What a bizarre location!

Very chill-out atmosphere decorated with tiki torches... as you can imagine, with just tiki torches, the lighting's pretty bad for photography so let me pre-empt the strain on your eyes by apologising first... Sorry! :)

A burger just seemed like the right thing to have here so I ordered a Sloppy Chilli Burger $15++.


It's so totally smothered in chilli that you can't see how thick the patty is... well, it was about an inch thick. And I love chilli - the kind they put on hot dogs? Meat, meat and more meat - Dr Atkins will be pleased! So was I :)

The Shredded Pork Sandwich $17.80++ had lots of meat in it too. It's supposed to be Jim Beam flavoured but I ain't tasting no alcohol here...


But still good... enough meat to make any meat lover happy. Yes, us carnivores ate up all the meat and abandoned most of the bread :)

Food is delicious and reasonably priced and it's a great place to chill out and have a few drinks.


BLooiE's Roadhouse Restaurant & Pub
49 Jalan Tua Kong
S457249
Tel : 6442 0030
www.blooies.com

Food Republic

Just in case anyone complains that I shouldn't be watching calories and having a 'healthy' Grilled Chicken Tofu Burger for lunch, take a look at what I had for dinner :

My favourite Hokkien Mee from Thye Hong (just look for the stall with the queue)

and Chicken Satay!


Can anyone really say I'm watching my weight??

Cedele

This is the first of upcoming posts on places / foods that strangely enough I've never tried... Cedele has been around for quite a while now, and there are quite a few branches but somehow I've never eaten here. This seemed like the perfect place for a light meal after an hour of (extremely strenuous!) yoga...

I had the Grilled Tofu Chicken Burger $7 (+ 5% GST) which was just what I was craving. More chicken than tofu, thank goodness... but still healthy enough to make me feel that I haven't just neutralised the exercise with a whole bunch of calories.

Many lovely choices for dessert but we settled on a slice of the Chocolate Pistachio Cake. Hey, I deserved a reward after all that hard work! Sharing dessert is always the best way to ensure that you don't pile on the calories... but I normally end up eating more than half :)

The cake was good! Bits of pistachio in the cake layers and very chocolate-y chocolate layers (tasted like Nutella!). There were like a million other desserts there that I wanted to try, but I'm definitely going back to try the Mini-Pavlova.

Why have I not come here before??


Cedele
Great World City
#01-02
Tel : 6836 1426
www.cedeledepot.com

Tau Huay at Chomp Chomp

On an earlier episode of Singapore Idol, Jasmine talked about her favourite chocolate tau huay (beancurd) from a stall in Chomp Chomp - chocolate-flavoured tau huay? Sounds like a brilliant idea! I've been dying to try it ever since I heard about it...

Since I was in the mood to drive, and we were in a particularly adventurous mood, we decided to go look for the tau huay stall. It wasn't hard to find the stall - there were pictures of Jasmine pasted on the front - Stall No. 7 House of Yummy Beancurd.



Chocolate Tau Huay $2.50







Mango Tau Huay $2.50


There was another stall nearby selling beancurd as well (Stall No. 15 Ding Hao Paradise Beancurd) so we ordered two more bowls just for the variety.


Beancurd with Dumpling (tang yuan) $1.80









Beancurd with Longan $1.80


It was all a bit disappointing really... I feel that tau huay should have the kind of consistency where it breaks apart easily when you touch it... and the tau huay here (from both stalls) were way too hard, more the consistency of pudding than tau huay.

The chocolate tau huay was decent, if you think of it as chocolate pudding rather than tau huay... I finished most of it despite being pretty stuffed from dinner - what can I say, I love anything chocolate :P The one with the tang yuan was horrible - the tang yuan was really hard and practically inedible.

All this did was make me crave good Tau Huay... sigh...