Archive for the ‘pasta’ Category
This new, three-month-old Italian restaurant took over what used to be a French restaurant at Berjaya Hotel. The food served is supposed to be southern Italian cuisine. Still relatively undiscovered, I think Saraceno deserves better because the menu was relatively interesting and had more character in comparison to mainstream Italian restaurants. The food actually tasted pretty good too. The focus was not on fancy presentation or complex range of ingredients. Each dish was kept simple and unassuming. I loved the texture of the homemade pastas, but could be slightly too ‘undercooked’ for those who do not like their pasta al dente. Therefore, if you are one of those folks, be sure to request for more well-cooked pasta. Don’t worry about the restaurant looking chi-chi and stifling. The decor is a total mismatch to the very friendly and down-to-earth personalities of the Chef and the floor staff.
Complimentary breads with olives and its oil. There were three different types of bread. The spinach bread (on the top corner) was interesting to the eye but did nothing to elevate the taste (which was otherwise just fine) . The olives were great! Not too salty and totally addictive.
(Not your traditional) Eggplant Parmagiana, which comprised of thin layers of aubergine wrapping an interior filled with hot, gooey mozzerella. The bed of rocket was not an afterthought as its slight bitterness cut across the richness of the dish.
Fresh pasta from Naples with eggplants, cherry tomatoes and smoked mozzarella ($19.80). The pasta was slight too al dente as I found out that gave me quite a work out chewing. I would have preferred a heavier hand on the salt but to each his own.
The other fresh pasta was pappardelle with grillled peppers and olives. Again, very simple flavours. Both pastas reminded me of fresh pizza toppings against fresh pasta.
Dessert was the apple tartin with vanilla ice cream. I loved the dessert despite not a big fan of the caramel sauce. The chunky apples were nicely stewed until it was soft. Against the puff pastry and cold ice cream, it was rich and heavenly. The icecream did not look homemade but at least it was of good quality with specks of vanilla against a rich creamy base.
Saraceno Ristorante Italiano
Italian. G/F, Berjaya Hotel
83 Duxton Rd
Tel: 6438-9638
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#1: Untold Secrets of the Message Room
When darkness falls, everything turns into a picture of dead silence.
I stepped on the narrow staircase leading to the underground.
‘Shhh…be quiet…you don’t want to wake them up…let me show you the way.’
I saw this young boy when I stumbled upon this place. In fact, I saw him everywhere. From the main door, the message room to the combat officer room… He was there, everywhere.
I lost him soon after.
‘Tub…tub…tub…’
The floor is so thin that I can feel the tremble. I heard that coming from the back.
‘Dooom…’
When darkness falls, everything turns into a picture of silence … a dead silence.
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I didn’t dwell myself too long in that B-grade horror flick as I walk through the underground tunnel of the Reunification Palace.
Oh by the way, I was at Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) for 3 days. Thanks to the free air tickets from the lucky dip.
The first, second, third and fourth floor didn’t excite me. There were numbers of meeting rooms, conference rooms and dining rooms of different themes, a place previously resided by the presidents.
We were just wandering around the Palace and stumbled upon one eery staircase that leads to the dark underground. That really intrigued my interest.
There were secret rooms (or message rooms) with bulky and dusty switchboards, the very 60s phones and the good old typing machines.
Hairy attempted this shot ala Wong Kar Wai mode that inspired the series of dark tales.
The young boy is definitely not from our hallucination but he was really everywhere. Everywhere that we went. He loves blocking our way, interrupting at the background when we were shooting photos and looking at Hairy with a creepy smile.
‘Sekali you see him in one of the black & white pictures hung on the wall’ said Hairy with a blank look.
How interesting.
Obviously we didn’t spot him in any of the pictures, in fact the pictures shown were depressing and disheartening. Nuclear bombs, massacre and concentration camps. I just want to get out of that place.
Back to reality, we were caught in the middle of the junction with motorbikes coming from all 4 directions and with 58 bikes honking at us at the same time, as if we were blocking their ways *sweat*
Funny mode of transport in Vietnam
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I was literally distressed, I think a bowl of piping hot noodles would be a good cure.
We dropped by Ben Thanh Market (we call it the ‘Beh Tahan Market’) and zoomed straight into the food section.
Tell me about pracitising food hygiene, there were a few dead cockroaches lying under my seat.
To eat or not to eat? Gulp…There goes my first bowl of pork knuckle noodles in Vietnam and L-S (diarrhea) on the very next day.
At night, we strolled along the night market street and the dai chow stalls came into sight. Born to be gluttons, we settled for another round of food.
The return of the alcoholic.
Can you believe that a bottle of Saigon beer costs only 90 cents (10,000 dong)?
But that 90 cents can only give you a taste of gassy plain water. I stopped at one bottle.
Oh well, the journey didn’t end here. In fact it only started the next day – a five hours helluva extreme journey that can only be found in Vietnam.
To be continued.
Photo credit to the legendary Hairy from .
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I caught up with one of my college friends over brunch at Maverick’s. This restaurant is located at a more suburban area of SF called Missions and honestly, I would not go a foot near that place unless it is broad daylight. It is really really dodgy.
The restaurant is tucked in one of the smaller streets and decked out in cherry oak wood that felt very welcoming and casual. The almost full-length windows open up to the sidewalk and on a Sunday, it felt very relaxed and chill. Recommended for brunch! The restaurant serves proper food for lunch and dinner but I didn’t get to try. Anyways, the brunch menu is not very complex but the staples of brunch are there.
I got a crab and creamy spinach benedict that was simple but soooo satisfying! A lot of fresh picked crab, perfectly poached eggs, thick toasts. Yums. Of course, I had to throw in a pomegranate bellini as well, to make the brunch just that bit extra special and indulgent.
Did I say yums?
Maverick
3316 17th Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
T:415.863.3061
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Different from what the title would imply, I’m not writing a hopelessly romantic getaway post. In fact, the trip was initiated by a not so amorous reason – to clear Fishy’s annual leave for the first quarter of 2009.
Hokkaido was in the list.
Koh Samui looks not too bad either.
Infomercial break: Visit , a newly established boutique resort by my company in Koh Samui 
Whatever it is, the plan was to fully utilise our passports and travel out of Singapore. Ding dong here and there, after all the cost and time factor consideration, we ended up here…
Bintan Island.
An Indonesian Island that is blardy near to Singapore and is the well-known beach holiday travelling spot for Singaporeans, something akin to Malaysian travelling to Port Dickson.
The island has become so popular among Singaporeans that all prices are denoted in Singapore dollars. And nothing is cheap here.
Lunch was in the resort beside a muddy pool.
Trying to be adventurous, I picked some funny looking fruits from the buffet spread counter, thought it would have tasted something like lychee. But yiaks…the flesh was so hard and it tasted like one semi-sweetened garlic. To date, I still have no idea what is the name of this fruit. Shit, or was it only a plastic display.
After all the funny food and fruits, our next plan was to show off our assets.
I mean the colourful bikinis that we brought.
For that 3 days we took the risk to ride on the ATV (All-Terrain Vehicle) or known as the quad-bike.
The ride was a rough and tough one, across the muddy pool, sandy pathway, up the hill, down the stream, and the whole vehicle was so hard to navigate that I almost crashed myself right into a tree. .
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15 minutes on the road and we regretted. Blardy hell, we even paid for one full hour of ride that cost us SGD 80. We suffered through the whole ride with aching fingers, dirty black face, dusty eyes and cuts – I think I hurt myself when I lost control and drove passed one thorny branch.
The evening was spent on the beach attempting beachy jumps.
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Piggy did the “pray-while-you-splash-water” jump.
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I attempted the “as-if-I-did-yoga-by-the-beach” pose.
Why am I always so determined to make myself look stupid.
Oh, and we saw an island swam us by…
The holiday was not too bad after all, albeit abit commercialised as the whole island is dedicated to earn monies out of Singaporeans.
I had fun.
We had fun.
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