My Little Spanish Place

Since its opening a while ago, The Little Spanish Place made it to my 'exotic' must-try list not only because it is located near my place but also because it looks like a place where I can get authentic spanish food!

When my family members said that they were game for some 'exotic' food, I was overjoyed! (: I know spanish food may not be all that special to some people but because my family seldom indulge in non-Chinese/ -Western/ -Japanese/ -Italian/ -Indian cuisine, Spanish food is somewhat a novelty for us. Anyhow, I seized the opportunity to make a reservation at My Little Spanish Place so that I could finally fulfil my desire to dine there!

Thankfully, one of my sisters made a reservation for us because all the tables were either taken/ reserved and people who walked in didn't manage to get a seat! =S I'd like to think that the owners of this restaurant have chosen a very apt name - my LITTLE spanish place - little because it's small (and hence the limited seating capacity) but little, as a word that is loaded with affection. We were comfortably seated and we perused the menu for quite a while before deciding what to order. At this point, I'd like to commend the staff for being very helpful about helping diners decide what to order. People (like my family members and myself) will be more than thankful to have someone point out signature spanish dishes/ more popular items.

Instead of ordering our usual soft drinks, we decided to share a jug of cava sangria ($45). It was surprisingly refreshing and there was only a slight hint of bitterness. For those who don't like the slight taste of alcohol, you'll be glad to know that the subtle alcoholic taste will more or less disappear after a while. I enjoyed my cup of sangria!

The person who took our order told us that we'd to wait half an hour for our paella to be done so we ordered three starters to sample while waiting for our main courses to arrive.

The first starter we had was tortilla de patata con alioli ($6), which is essentially layers of baked potato. This is touted one of Spain's national dishes and boy did it live up to its reputation! (: We loved this dish a lot and I wish I'd ordered two portions instead of one!

The next starter was gambas al ajillo ($12.90), which is prawns with some condiments. The prawns, though small, were very fresh and flavourful! Score!

Our final starter was champinones al ajillo ($14.90), which are 'skewered' mushrooms on toast. The mushrooms were juicy and the toast that they sat on was nicely soaked with mushroom sauce of sorts. I was glad we ordered this to try because I've never had such an interesting mushroom dish before.
After a long wait, our paella de la casa ($39) finally arrived! Since this is their house paella, it's pretty obvious that we had to try it! I think most people at the table preferred this paella to the seafood paella (next photo) because the rice for the house paella was harder and had a stronger taste. My mum especially loved the crispy rice grains at the sides of the wok! She says that they remind her of chinese claypot rice!

Our second main was the paella de marisco ($36) aka seafood paella. The main difference between this and the house paella is the presence of more seafood (note the mussels!). Also, there's definitely more moisture locked in the rice grains for seafood paella - it's not as wet as risotto but it's definitely not as dry as normal rice. It really depends on how cooked you wish your rice to taste!

Because we didn't want to wait ages for dessert, we decided to get two desserts to share. The grand plan was to pop by Sogurt, which is located a few doors down, to try their yoghurt after dinner but we couldn't resist ordering some sweet spanish delights!

Crema de Naranja ($7) aka Orange Creme was much appreciated by one of my sisters who likes orange. Don't be fooled by the 'pouffy' top! There's actually rich orange paste at the bottom and it gives a nice contrast to the light and creamy top!

Our final dish for the night was chocolate con churros ($9)! Believe it or not but that was the FIRST time I had chocolate churros in Singapore! The hot chocolate sauce was heavenly! I really liked dipping my mini churros into the creamy chocolate sauce! This is definitely a must-try! My advice is to place an order for this before you finish your main because it takes a while to heat the chocolate sauce up. That way, you won't have to wait too long for your dessert!

On the whole, my experience at My Little Spanish Place was pleasant (: I would have liked it more if the paella didn't take such a long time to arrive but I guess it can't be helped since it takes time to cook paella.

Alright I need to catch some shuteye. It's been quite a tiring week! Have a good long weekend everyone (: