L'Angolo Ristorante Italiano

I had not met P for a long time, thought it will be good to catch up over some good food.  I chose L'Angolo, which was the same location as Osvaldo Ristorante at Maxwell House.  I passed by there often but never got the chance to try Osvaldo.  It has now shut and was taken over by L'Angolo.

We did not make any reservation, and the place looked rather empty on a weekend dinner.  Perhaps it was still early at 715pm, and we saw crowd streaming in at about 8pm. 

We jumped straight into the mains as we wanted to save some space for desserts.

Squid Ink Pasta

Guess what this is?  It is rabbit meat wrapped with Parma Ham.  Rabbit meat taste like chicken, but i thought this dish was over powered by the parma ham, too salty.  I wonder if the cute rabbits would attack me if they know that I ate one of their friend.

Chocolate Souffle with ice cream.

Nice size, but i found it too sweet.  I like desserts that are not sweet.

What is a Italian dinner without Tiramisu.  Of course we had to order Tiramisu.   This is the soft type without the biscuits base.  Overall is good, but i think that they did not add enough liquor. 

Service was efficient and friendly, and we were pleasantly surprise when the manager gave us a bottle of preserved peaches!  One funny incident was that when I went to the Ladies, the chef stepped out and gave me a shock.  He said that he needed the toilet urgently and there was someone in the Gents.  Haha

Will i be back?  Maybe, to try the pasta. 

 L'Angolo Ristorante Italiano
32 Maxwell Road, #01-03 Maxwell Chambers, Singapore
+65 6224 0978



Dim Sum @ Lei Garden Chijmes Singapore

Dim Sum, one of my favourite food (among the long list of others).  Each time I asked someone where is the best Dim Sum in Singapore, I will get different respond.  To me, the top 2 are still Lei Garden & Royal China in Raffles Hotel.  Lei Garden wins in the authenticity of the Dim Sum, and Royal Garden wins in enhancing the traditional Dim Sum will new ideas.  

The Egg Tarts.  I had to make reservation for them, because there was once I went, and it was sold out.  Dim Sum lunch just did not feel completed without egg tarts.  So from then on, I make sure I reserved.  Typical Singaporean behaviour.

Roast meat.  This small little square cost $12! Actually i think those at the Crystal Jade Palace in Takashimaya was crisper.

Siew Mai.  One of the 3 Musketeers for Dim Sum- Har Kaw, Siew Mai & Char Siew Bao.

Fried Bean Curd Skin with prawns.  Crispy and can taste the freshness of the prawns, however, I think Royal China's version has chunky prawns.

Haw Kar.  This beats other places hands down.  Thin skin wrapped the big and juicy prawns. Haw Kar to the perfection.

Gou Bu Li Buns

I like this.  Stir fried Geo Duck!  Geo Duck taste a bit like abalone, but crunchier.  If you like it more tender, go for Geo Duck Sashimi!  

Xiao Long Bao. 

Stir Fried Beef.  Forget about the Geylang Lorong 9 beer Hor Fun.  The stir fried beef here is Cantonese Stir Fried Dishes cooked to perfection.  Beef is tender and fragnant.  Maybe a bit oily for those who like their dishes light.

Lastly, they are having a crab promotion. 

Lei Garden Restaurant Chijmes

30 Victoria Street, #01-24 Chijmes, Singapore

+65 6339 3822

Todai- Best Buffet in Singapore?

Another buffet!  I am not a big buffet fan, but many of my friends like it.  Since I am not the organiser, I will go with the flow.  I read about the review before heading, it seems like Todai is a heaven for seafood lover, the irony is that I cannot eat seafood!  Well, I am sure I can find something to eat.

Todai is huge, and divided into many sections.   I did not finish all the food, but I counted there were at least 8 sections:
1.  Sushi
2.  Fresh Seafood & Sashimi
3.  Hot Food Japanese
4.  Hot Food Western
5.  Italian
6.  Korean
7.  BBQ - Beef, chicken, Sweet potatoes (amazing good, though a bit dumb to eat sweet potatoes in a buffet)
8.  Japanese Live Station - Udon etc
9.  Chinese
10.  Dessert
11.  Free flow drinks

I started my dinner with the Sushi section.  Lots of selection, and they looked beautiful!

 I then made my way to the most popular section of the restaurant where Singaporeans were fighting for the seafood.  There were fresh oysters, crabs, octopus, prawns, mussels..I think half the ocean creatures were there.  I could not eat, so I could not judge, but they did look very fresh and tasty.

I could eat mussels, cooked in lime and wine.

Escargots!  Baked in cheese, yummy.

Korean Corner:

Selection of desserts was amazing.  I could not remember their names, but I did sample most of them.

Todai also has this practice of a free cake and a polaroid photo for your table.  Not as classic as Morton's but it was good gesture.  They also had a Chilli Eating Competition.  The contestants had to wolf down bowls of spicy noodles to win tickets to Rain concert.  Many of them were in tears and red eye as they ate the noodles. 

Complimentary cake

At $58+++ per person, may not be the cheapest dinner.  But if you are a big eater, and enjoy seafood, it is definitely worth the visit, especially in big groups where you can stay and eat as long as you want. 

But do not expect Michellin Chef standard.

Todai Marina Bay Sands

10 Bayfront Ave, #B2-01 http://www.hungrygowhere.com/search_results.php?f_name=The Shoppes @ Marina Bay Sands&searchby=Keyword&country=147&searchcat=building, Singapore

Disappointing Lunch @ Iggy's

I had the rare opportunity to try Iggy's, thanks to my generous boss who was promoted, and also because of another colleague who was leaving.  So he agreed to combine the promotion celebration and the farewell.

Booking was a bit of a hassle.  We had 7 people, and they insisted that we backed our booking with a credit card. 

May- June 2011 Lunch Menu at $85++

Starter:
A) Salmon- Savoy Cabbage, basil seeds
B) Foie Gras - Figs, tarragon, cassis
 
Free appertizer.  Fresh tomatoes with salt and ice and cheese bits!  Your usual tomatoes, though they were sweeter and juicier.  The ice shaving felt like you were eating ice kachang, though it was with cheese bits and no red beans.

Foie Gras.  Pan fried.   I think I am not a big fan of foie gras, could not finish it, found it too oily and I was reminded of the poor goose.  I think i will avoid foie gras next time, maybe i can save a few geese.

First Main:
A) Spaghettoni - Lamb ragout, fava beans, rhyme
B) Cappellini - Sakura Ebi, konbu, scampi oil

I had the cappellini.  The Sakura Ebi was salty and crunchy, gave the noodles the texture.  I think this was my favourite dish in the whole lunch.

Main:
A) Market Fish - Fennel, caper berries, pernod
B) Duck - Carrot, sesame, natural jus

My colleague did not like the duck, she thought was very tough, and the smell was too strong?!  Of course duck has duck smell!  Haha

I chose the fish as my main.  It was deboned so need not to worry about been choked on the bones.  It was fresh and tender, well seasoned but nothing special.

Dessert:
A) Rhubarb - Salted sable, vanilla beans, blood orange
B) Apricot - Moroccan spices, argan, almond, rose
C) Guinness- Salted peanuts, milo, potato, marshmallow

A weird dessert.  A combination of extreme, extremely sour and extremely sweet.  My taste buds were very confused after the dessert.  One disappointing thing was Iggy's does not include coffee/tea in their set lunch.  I thought that ay $85++, they would have easily cover the cost of a cup of coffee, so why so greedy for the extra few dollars?
My verdict?  Over rated.  Maybe they won the award for their dinner and not the lunch.

Penang Again! Best char kway tiao!

Penang!!  Since my last trip to Penang in May 2010, I had not have Char Kway Tiao back in Singapore.  None of the Char Kway Tiao in Singapore can match the standard of the CWT in Penang.  So, I am back again.  We took a half day of on Friday, and took the afternoon flight.  It was supposed to be a "secret" trip, so we had to take leave separately.

Once we arrived, we started to plan where would be our first eating stop.   We wanted to try the legendary "Goggle" Char Kway Tiao.  It got its name as the lady who fried it wore goggles.  I wonder if she wore Oakley, it would be called Oakley Char Kway Tiao?  However, when we reached there at 6pm, it was closed, so we had to find alternatives.  We landed up at the corner coffeeshop which looked good.

Oyster Noodle, a bit like your hokkien noodles, but fried with clams, and served with spicy sambal chilli.  If you like the "wet" style noodles, you will like this.

Oyster egg was different from the Singapore' style, though still yummy because of the chilli and the fresh osyters.

What we ordered for 1st stop:

For obvious reasons, these were not enough for us and we made our way back to the hawker near to our hotel for Round 2!  The chee cheong fun here was served with Prawn Paste, so either you liked it or you hated it.  For me, i still prefer it to be plain.

I had the Char Kway Tiao at the Sunway George Town Hawker in 2010, it was so good that I even packed one packet to eat it in the airport  However, this time it was disappointing.  It was not as fragnant.  It was still better compared to those in Singapore, but it was not as heavenly.  Nonetheless, we finished it.

We were so full and tired after round 2, and we went back to the hotel to rest, to prepare for Round 3!!!

Round 3 was at Gurney Drive Hawker.  It was surprisely not as crowded, maybe we were there past dinner time.

Ah Bom.  Don't know why it is called Ah Bom.  This was like mini pancake, with bananas as filling.  It was best to eat it while hot.

Our verdict was that the Char Kway Tiao here was average, though better than the one we had at Sunway.  Now really looking forward to the legendary "Goggle" Char Kway Tiao tomorrow

Day 2:  Saturday

Rise and shine.  We were all ready for another day of eating.  Before we embarked on our journey, we need to go to the airport to pick Dino.  Our initial plan was to pick up Dino, and to go to Gek Lok Si temple to try the famous Gek Lok Si Assam Laksa.  However, we had to change our plan as we found out that the Assam Laksa was not open in the morning.  We walked around the market and came across a coffeeshop, which look nice enough.  Nice means authentic looking and busy.

Iced Coffee for breakfast

I liked this better than the Char Kway Tiao yesterday.

Carrot cake was average.  It was nicely flavoured, but the carrot cake was too soft and starchy.  I liked the carrot cake in Malaysia because they added bean sprouts.  It gave the crunchy taste.  The WanTon Mee was also different from Singapore.  They used the black sauce instead of the tomato sauce which was commonly used in Singapore.

Right after breakfast, we proceeded to the next stop, the famous "Goggle" Char Kway Tiao.  It seems like that was the only attraction in the coffeeshop, at least 90% of the people there were patiently waiting for their Char Kway Tiao.  Strangely, the auntie frying the Kway Tiao was not wearing Goggle, and some of us wondered if she was an imposter.

The silky Kway Tiao

We were told that we had to wait at least 45 minutes for our Char Kway Tiao.  So while waiting, we kept our mouths and stomach busy by ordering some side dishes.  These side dishes were making equally good business as the CWT as we were not the only one who did that.

Finally, these were the CWT that we have waited for 45 minutes.  It had indeed lived up to its reputation.  The kway tiao was smooth, the chilli was spicy and the ingredients were fresh.  You can tasted the lard too.  Definitely wortth the RM9 and the wait.

We went for a massage break before heading out for our Assam Laksa.  T even went for his RM5 haircut, though it looked the same after the cut.

This was the legendary Kek Lok Si Laksa at Pasar Air Itam.  Not very nice environment and the floor was a bit wet too, but nothing could stop us!

Is this a 100 years old pot?  Perhaps that was why the soup was so tasty.

The next stop was for dinner.  (Note:  Laksa was afternoon tea.  Doubt many had laksa for tea, but we did) We decided to let M had the option to choose, and she suggested a Malay hawker. 

The new beer lady.  She was mistaken as a child, so the beer uncle did not bring any mug for her!  We ended the night with a nice drive to Batu Ferringhi beach and had coffee.

Day 3:

Last day in Penang, need to stuff as much as possible!  We wanted to have Nasi Briyani for breakfast, but alas, the shop was closed, so we went to the nearby Chinatown for breakfast.  We chose the busiest coffeeshop, going by the logic that if there is long queue, it must be good.

Delicious curry mee with internal parts.

Look at how T sucked his thumb after breakfast, it must be very good.

The famous chendol

Before we left for the airport, we made a stop at Gurney Drive, to give E a chance to check out the Mua Chi stall.  We told her that it was her destiny if she had the chance to try the kungfu Mua Chi.  And guess what, it was one of the few stalls opened at 2ish!  She was so happy, beaming from ear to ear.  And T drove to airport in disbelief! haha

Short trip, but totally enjoyable!  Will be back again :)