310. Wine-infused Macaroni

Some time ago, I bought this pasta sauce at NTUC. It's creamy tomato sauce with chardonnay. Wine-infused. I wondered how would it taste with the chardonnay, having been made into ready-to-cook sauce and not added when preferred. So, I decided to use it for my pan fried macaroni. It's easy and what's better than your home cooked food?

My Recipe

Ingredients

1 cup of Macaroni
1 egg
2 tbsps of pasta sauce
2 cloves of garlic
1 clove of shallot
half cup of water
2 crabsticks (cut into shorter lengths)
1 chicken frank(sliced diagonally)
chopped coriander(add as you wish)
some parmesan cheese powder and chili flakes for seasoning.

Directions

1. Cook the macaroni in boiling water. Add a pinch of salt. Drain them in a strainer when cooked.

2. In a pan, add some oil. Sauteed the diced garlic and shallot. Add in the chicken frank and crabsticks. Stir-fry for a while.

3. Add in the pasta sauce and add the water. Mix well. Allow the sauce to come to a boil. You may wish to add a pinch of salt if you find the sauce not flavored enough.

4. Add in the cooked macaroni. Stir well.

5. When the sauce is about to dry up, crack the egg over the macaroni. Allow it to be cooked for some time before tossing the macaroni.

6. Add in the chopped coriander.

7. Serve on a plate. Topped it with parmasan cheese powder and chili flakes. Done!

308. Le Pasta

Pesto @$4.80

Bukit Timah Market & Hawker Centre, my fingers and toes are not enough to count the number of times I have been there. It's a place I frequent since young. These days, the hawker centre has turned 'international', offering not just the usual hawker fare but also Japanese and Thai food and even pasta.

The greenish pasta, Pesto, caught my eye as the boyish looking boss served it to a man in formal attire 1 table away from me. I walked to his stall, there was no one and I saw the young boss hurriedly ran back with beads of perspiration trickling down his face. One man did it all.

With fresh basil, garlic, pine nuts, olive oil and grated cheese makes pesto. I specifically ordered my spaghetti to be cooked softer and not al-dente. I don't like my pasta made al-dente. The pesto was aromatic and the taste was nice. A light pasta. What's more, it's cheap. If you didn't want to spend a lot on your pasta and yet hoped that you won't get a yucky one, you may want to consider Le Pasta.

Bukit Timah Market & Hawker Centre
#02-158
116 Upper BT Timah Road

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300. Minds Cafe

What do people do on the weekends other than shopping? Minds Cafe? I think the games at Minds Cafe do not appeal to only the adolescents but even mummy(s)-to-be. I can't imagine what if they got too excited and their waterbag burst.

A few of us gathered at the branch at Prinsep street on Saturday for their WOW! promotion which comes with free-flow drink at $8.90 per pax. With every 4 pax comes a free bowl of premium munchies and snacker (we had potato chips). Add on a main course for just $6 which I felt was very worth. Well, a main course for $6, what more could you expect?

We played 3 games - Ticket to Ride, Citadels and XXX (a memory game, forgotten the name) and I felt "Ticket to Ride" was the better-to-play game among the 3.

Premium munchies-Calamari

Beef Lasagna

Fish & Chips

Black Pepper Pasta

Chicken Platter

261. Bakerzin II

Free-flow bread: Raisin Bread and Ciabatta bread

Like Cafe Cartel, get your free-flow bread at a small counter yourself. Besides olive oil and vinaigrette, there was a toaster which the temperature and timing were adjusted. All you have to do is just put the bread into the toaster. 4 kinds of bread to choose from. Italian bread is by nature hard and with a strong yeast taste. After toasted, it was harder so I would rather not have them toasted.

Soup-of-the-day: Corn soup

Corn soup is never my favourite. I find the taste weird - savoury and sweet combined. Bakerzin's version looked sincere to me. Grainy due to the ground/blended corn and the chef added corn bits whole to increase the texture.

Front: Grapefruit Soda

Back: Passion Fruit Soda

I asked myself if that was the soda I have ordered. Basically, both the two glasses of sodas were not very strong in flavour. Carbonated soda snatched the limelight. They were not sweet enough.

Arrabiatta Spaghetti

Arrabiatta Penne

Bakerzin's all day set menu 1 @$13.80++

The set menu 1 consists of free-flow bread, soup-of-the-day, main course and a beverage. The set menu set 2 was slightly pricier. It is $16.80++. The difference being the main courses. I thought set menu 1 was quite a good deal. After ordering, I looked around me, it seemed that none of the diners ordered the set menu 1. When my plate of pasta was served, I understood why. The portion was a big difference. A hill and a mountain. The portion wasn't big, fulfilling for a lady.

The Arrabiata was of tomato base and with chili padi added. Strong fragrance of garlic. The pasta was done al dente (by adding salt in the midst of cooking) and thus would have tasted floury. Pasta done al dente would mean the middle of the pasta stays hard. However, I felt it wasn't even al dente, it was undercooked. Because when I chewed on the pasta, it got stuck to my teeth and I was right, undercooked.

I recalled watching a reality show some time ago and the celebrity said something which left a deep impression in my mind. He said : "I can't finish the food but I'm eating because they are expensive." This was pretty much the scenario at Bakerzin a few hours ago.

Total bill worked out to be $32.50 after GST & taxes. Afterthoughts came as....it was not such a great deal afterall. I guess it wasn't a good idea to have others than cakes at Bakerzin.

See previous entry here.

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Bakerzin

Jurong Point

#03-58/59

www.Bakerzin.com

230. Ma Maison Restaurant

It was 6 plus when we went to Ma Maison. There were already a few tables full of people. The environment was very dim though the it was still bright outside. Ma Maison was towards the cottage feel. I felt the environment could have been better lit to create a cosy feel.

Omulette rice with ketchup @$14.80

I'm more of a visual person. The picture of this omu rice was imprinted on the first page and the wordings were printed on the last page, so I was a little confused if the picture had meant the omu rice. And the waitress confirmed by doubt. Ma Maison is renowned for their brown sauce. The omu rice which was usually served with curry sauce in other Jap restaurants was differently served at Ma Maison. They had served it with their brown sauce. Brown sauce specially made. It was their speciality sauce. Well, I felt it was rather unique but I didn't quite like the taste of it. It was a little salty and taste meaty. The rice was coated with ketchup which I thought was a little too much. It caused the rice to be a little damp and the ketchup was a little sourish.

Carbonara in Ma Maison style @$14.90

Why in Ma Maison style? It was stir-fried spaghetti carbonara. Usually, the carbonara that we had was with the creamy sauce. And many times due to the over content of Parmesan cheese and raw taste of the egg yolk, it does make one sick even before completing the whole plate. It wasn't like this for Ma Maison's. I felt it was rather nice. The cheese wasn't so heavy.

Scotch Egg @$16

My kaki had wanted to eat this. It was hard boiled egg coated with meat patty. Deep-fried on the outside. It was a bit like our yam ring. However, it was with their brown sauce which I didn't quite like it. I felt it would have tasted better if we could have some Thai style dressing, coupled with sliced onions and cucumber.

Check-out, please.....Room no. 5

Our bill worked out to be $54 for 2 pax. We had 3 mains. I thought it was a little expensive for 2 eggs to cost $16. Overall, the food was decent.

Ma Maison Restaurant

Bugis Junction

200 Victoria Street

#02-51

Singapore 188021

Tel: 6338 4819

229. New York New York

Ever since New York New York made its first debut in Singapore at the City Link, there has been throngs of people, especially young people patronising it. I wasn't. Not that I don't belong to the young people but rather because I was not in Singapore then. Even when I returned to Singapore, I did not patronise it. But now, NYNY made its way to the heartlands. Life at heartlands is different now as compared to it was 15 years ago. More and more shops and restaurants which we could only find in town are moving into the heartlands. This is one good news for people like me who dislikes having to be 'squirming' through the crowd in town or standing in long queues just to get my butt on the warm seat. Squirming....What a word to use! I ain't kidding, take a look at the crowd along Orchard belt and you will know that is quite an appropriate word to use.

Clam Chowder @$7.90

I had expected it to at least served with some bread or like Swensen's, in a bread bowl but it wasn't. I was shocked. Shocked by the price and the quantity. It was just the size of a normal soup bowl. The only difference was I could find clam meat in it. I find the clam chowder too thick. When it was still hot, it was quite nice but when it slowly turned chill, the chowder became gooey and I thought it was pretty gross. There was also a fishy seafood taste. Most probably due to mishandling of the clams.

Root Beer Float @$7.90

Another $7.90. The thought that came to my mind was "hmmm....everything seems a tad pricey here."

Hot Buffalo Wings @$7.90

It was oil-ladened. I felt the breaded crust was slightly thick which made the drumsticks felt skimpy. Not spicy enough. The pizza hut's version was a much better version, with the slick of chili oil and the after-spiciness.

Tagliatelle Alfredo & Fried Fish @$12.90

I was in for pasta so I went for tagliatelle. It was a boo. The alfredo sauce was too heavy in cheese and it was a tad too thick. The quantity of tagliatelle was quite small. The mushrooms were over sauteed. The only consolation was the fried fish which was fresher than I had expected.

Latino Chicken Chop @$13.90

Had the price of salt dipped? The crux laid in the brown sauce but I felt it was too salty. The amount of black pepper could have been more. The dressing for the salad was a little too sourish.

Buffalo Chicken Pizza @$13.90

Was it uncooked? My brother asked. Yes was my reply. The dough had not fully risen. Tasteless pizza. Buffalo chicken chunks should have been marinated and full of flavour but what I have tasted were bland chicken breast chunks.

A lot of food were left unfinished. It was a waste of food but the food was simply not appealing. The bill worked out to be about $75. I felt it was a tad expensive and considering the quality of food served, I doubt I will be making my way there again. Pasta mania, on the other hand served a better plate of pasta at the same price.

New York New York

Lot One Shoppers Mall

21 Choa Chu Kang Ave 4

#01-05/06/07

Singapore 689812

223. Oh Carol! Cafe Bistro

Set at a corner of the Centros building of Biopolis, the ground floor restaurant faces an open stretch of greenery which offers diners a meal with a view. A quiet café-cum-bistro, Oh Carol! offers dine-in patrons with a selection of western and Asian fare. A couple of us were attracted to the pasta that other diners were having when we walked past at lunch hours. I apologized for the poor resolution of my camera phone. I had only realised that I could press a key to adjust the focus. Hope that I could take better pictures with my camera phone the next time when I didn't have my compact digicam or DSLR with me.

Seafood Marinara @$14.90

I didn't want a creamy base pasta though I thought it looked very appetizing. The thought of feeling nauseous put the idea off. I needed concentration at work. I repeat, I'm a pasta person, if you have not been reading my entries. Naturally, I will go for pasta over other mains if I were to choose. It was pretty relaxing to have lunch over at Biopolis. It was windy, quiet and definitely the al-fresco environment which doesn't make my clothes stink of greasy smoke is another plus.

I felt the penne was not thoroughly cooked. Still hard. Seafood should have been fresh but I doubt they have gone to the expense to get fresh ingredients. Most were frozen goods. So, the overall taste wasn't good. Pretty much a letdown for this dish of pasta. With the addition of GST, I personally felt the pasta wasn't a very worthwhile dish.

20 Biopolis Way

#01-02 CENTROS BLOCK

Singapore 138668

Tel: 64789945

217. Mushrooms 3-in-1

The first day of 2009, The Strait Times had reported economy will continue to be bad for 2009. In times of recession, I thought it's better to save some money. Ya. Pretty bullshit for food bloggers who spent most of their 'assets' on food. Well, sometimes cooking a few simple dishes at home could have been much better than to squeeze with the others outside.

Linguine in tomato sauce. Very simple. All I had were the traditional tomato sauce for cooking pasta, some diced garlic and sun-dried tomatoes. You could have do it the aglio olio way too, that is, without the tomato sauce. Add some prawns and/or dried chili peppers to make your aglio olio more attractive and palatable. I think sun-dried tomatoes make a good ingredient in pasta for the taste it will complement and also the texture added.

I bought a premium mix of mushrooms. There were the oyster mushrooms, willow mushrooms and the shitake mushrooms. Mushrooms 3-in-1 at $3.55.
And I cooked this dish with a batch of enoki mushrooms and some red and green peppers. Added a dash of white pepper. No meat was added but it still tasted great. Many times, the mothers would say meat was important for their juice was sweet and complements the dish. I think otherwise. Greens alone was fabulous too. Treat yourself to "Meat Sabbatical Leave".

201. BonBon Tea

It was the green walls with the word "patisseries" that attracted me. BonBon Tea....it seemed to be a new outlet to me. Or am I wrong? I have not been to Vivocity for quite some time. Anyway, I was at PageOne searching for a book but couldn't remember the name so I gave up searching for it. I saw our local artiste, Joi Tsai. Singapore is so paparazzi-free. My friend and I were tired and there was so many people at Vivocity. We decided to seek a 'hide-out' at Bon Bon Tea.

I felt the decorations was so "Banyan Tree". And guess what? The second level leads to a SPA. Didn't bother to check out what are the available packages because all I wanted was to treat my stomach. Bon Bon Tea offers homemade ice-cream, macarons, pastries, all of which I did not taste.

I was presented with a piece of menu with illustrations. It was a bit like a page torn out of a storybook. From the look of it, the variety of food available was quite limited.

Yummy Tummy Tea @$7.50

What a name! On enquiry, it is a type of tea imported from South Africa which tasted a bit like vanilla. The vanilla wasn't too strong. Instead, it was more like black tea. If you ask me, I think this tea wouldn't go well with pastries. It's that kind of "drink-alone" tea.

Spaghetti with cream sauce @$14

My friend and I wanted something filling so we opt for the pasta. Bon Bon Tea only offers 3 types of pasta. The pasta was a tad too oily. Excessive olive oil you've added, chef. A pool of olive oil remained at the bottom of the plate. It's a rather turn-off sight. Just like eating a plate of oily char kway teow. The pasta was not flavoured enough. The chicken strips (breast meat) were a tad too hard and tasteless. The only flavoured ingredient that I could taste of was the peppers.

Spaghetti Bolognaise @$14

This was much better than the cream sauce but it wasn't expectionally good. A decent plate of paste, I supposed.

I came across a complaint against BonBon Tea and I quote:

"
BonBon Tea
Posted: 2008-08-26 by Xiong

Not to patronize this cafe

Complaint Rating:
This is a later cafe, previous named Red, White & Pure. but stills operate by the same management. The cafe was distasteful painted green and orange. From the look outside it look like a french cafe 'cos it stated "Patisserie". It sure sells pastry but not up to the French standard. The moccorons color is too artificial, putting too much coloring & preservative looks nice but harmful to health. If you eat the pastry, it tasted artificial too.When you look at the menu, you can't tell whether they are selling French or Italian? Pasta, pizza, spaghetti? If so they doesn't taste like French. It is such a rojak stall! The decor hanging an middle east style of lamp doesn't suits it name too. It took so long to get the staff to have the order taken. Managers don't take a demand too when the cafe is almost not busy. You look in the kitchen, pastry and cooking food is done together at the same place! With flour flying around and onto food served. Is that the hygiene? And customers consume that cause food poisoning. It is not advise to patronize.

"

I do agree with Xiong that Bon Bon Tea is not a so 'French' place. But when I was there, the service was prompt and the waitresses were all very friendly. I think it's a matter of opinion. I felt for the amount of pasta for $14 was a bit overpriced. I have gone to a wrong place for pasta. I should have go to Modesto's at level one for a better plate of pasta. Afterall, Bon Bon Tea is a more of a place for pastries and tea. It will be wise to know where and what you should be having at the right place.

BonBon Tea

Vivocity

#02-141

Tel: 6827 0118

121. Galbiati Gourmet III

I was at Galbiati Gourmet for lunch. Surprisingly there wasn't a single diner when it was already 12pm. Galbiati Gourmet is open from 10am. I like the food display they've got. Unsure of the taste of the chilled food they have in there but they do look scrumptious. Their desserts display is always full of cakes and desserts and I swear they taste better than they look.

Black tagliatelle with crabmeat and cream @$18

I finally laid my hands on the tagliatelle. I have been wanting to try out this so much raved pasta. It is definitely a Must-try! The pasta was cooked in a velvety tomato cream sauce with chunks of crabmeat and tomatoes.

Tagliatelle is a type of egg noodles, considered the family of fettucine, the former having long, flat strips and the later, narrow and flat strips. Don't ever think that blackish pasta is yucky. It was none of the least bit yucky. The blackish colour was attributed by squid ink. The tagliatelle was tangy. The pasta didn't have a weird taste but the squid ink added a nice taste to it.

I was surprised to find the garlic in cloves instead of finely minced which was the more usual cut for cooking pasta. The garlic didn't have the galicky taste. It was quite mild. I think they did something to the garlic. It was nice because it added texture to the pasta as a garlic whole.

Panna Cotta @$6

Panna Cotta is a traditional Italian dessert. The panna cotta costs $7 for dine-in, so I have it as takeaway, less $1. The egg custard was light and rich in milk, toppled with a generous amount of blueberry and raspberry jam-like syrup. I find the amount of topping too excessive as such it made the panna cotta a tad too sweet.

Galbiati Gourmet Deli
400 Upper Bukit Timah Road
Tel: 64620926

Opens: 10am - 10pm

111. Sweet Indulgence

Today's food hunt was over at Stanley Street, 2 streets away from Huat Kee and Beng Hiang. A turn at the 7-11, it is Sweet Indulgence. There were only 2 customers when me and my makan kakis arrived at the place. We were quickly approached by the friendly waitress. It is pretty small, approximately 30 seats. I like the bar counter. Though it occupied almost half of the area of the restaurant, I couldn't resist taking a few more glances at the mosaic floral designs. The chandelier wasn't lit and it did made the bar counter pretty dull.

Complimentary bread. Bread that contained herbs. I was attracted to the black sauce added to the olive oil because usually only olive oil was served. It was vinegar. It went well with the bread.

Chicken and mushroom pizza @$15.80

It had chunks of chicken marinated with herbs, mushrooms, onions and roasted peppers. The pizza base was home-made as stated in their menu. It was light. The ingredients weren't too strongly flavoured. A careful mastication of the pizza will your taste buds detect the taste of it. Compared it to the home brand, Pizza Hut, you will realise the former goes heavy in their marinating of the ingredients because their pizza is always so full-flavoured. Or maybe they added a lot of vestin aka MSG. If you are more of the original taste person, go for Sweet Indulgence. I like the roasted peppers. The thin pizza crust wasn't very much to my liking as I find it a bit hard.

Spaghetti with spicy prawns @$17.90

More than the aglio olio. Added asparagus and mushrooms. Aglio Olio is a dish that is easy to cook, difficult to perfect. Apart from the important ingredient garlic, I tasted a tinge of sourness. Vinegar or white wine added? I'm not too sure. I think it made the spaghetti more appetizing and not just the usual garlic + olive oil taste.

Spaghetti Carbonara @$14.90

Speaking in general, I will not order a carbonara unless I crave for a creamy plate of spaghetti. I personally felt that carbonara should not be eaten in big portions. A small portion to satisfy the crave will leave a good encounter. It is always good when you have your first mouth of it but as you continue, you will start to grow sick of it and in the end, you can't finish the plate of carbonara. This was my experience with carbonara.

The carbonara was creamy rich. And like what I have experienced, my makan kaki couldn't finish her plate of carbonara. It was not that the carbonara wasn't good but just you know....like the abovementioned.

Spaghetti Marinara @$19.90

The marinara was slightly better than mediocre. An assortment of seafood such as mussels, clams and prawns. No squids for Sweet Indulgence's rendition but it didn't make the spaghetti any less appealing. It was slightly spicy. A generous amount of clams were added but the clams were mostly baby clams and it was a bit of a hassle to just pick out a tiny piece of meat.

Tiramisu @$11.80

The tiramisu...many huhas about it. So I die die also must try it. It was like what the others raved about. It was good. Must-try! I have tried a lot of tiramisus so I'm a bit particular when it comes to trying out the tiramisu. I felt the base of the tiramisu (the ladyfingers) was slightly too moist. Other than this, there was nothing much to pick on.

The bill totalled up to $88.30 for 3 pax. Reasonably priced. They do offer other main courses which are slightly more expensive than pizza/pastas. I didn't really like the dining experience because the waitresses were always looking at us. Later on, the chefs stood near the bar counter and were like gawking at us when we were having our tiramisu. It made us uneasy and I think it was a bit rude. If I were to visit it again, it is definitely for the tiramisu.

Sweet Indulgence

2 Stanley Street

Singapore 068721

Tel: 6223 7707