My Little Spanish Place

Hello everyone!

It was scorching today and so to avoid the heat, I spent most of my afternoon indoors in bed, getting back my rest after a week of late days and now I'm feeling great! (:

Before I scoot off for dinner, I thought I'd do a quick post on My Little Spanish Place, which I'm thankful is still around today! (: I was afraid that it might close down because not many people frequent this lovely small restaurant but I guess my fears were unfounded.

Matty and I visited My Little Spanish Place just after Christmas, just before the start of 2013, and it was still beautifully decorated with Christmas lights (: The walls were coloured orange and I think that warm colour, along with the rest of the wooden furniture, helped to give the place a very cosy feel. 

Since we were at a Spanish place, we thought to try their White Wine Sangria ($12) and Red Wine Sangria ($12) [pardon the slight dip in volume for the red wine sangria - it came first and hence we tried it before this photo was taken!]. Both were refreshing and light and deceptively impotent because I broke out in rash after this =( I shall not attempt to fool my body in future because it reacts badly to alcohol =( But I think these two drinks were worth trying because they were sweet and did not contain strong alcoholic smell. 

We started off by having bread with spreads ($5). We chose to have garlic mayo and chopped olives and I think the chopped olives were slightly better tasting because I personally don't like mayo very much. The bread wasn't as warm as I thought it should be but the slices were chewy and gave a nice bite so I didn't mind a lot (:

 The tortilla de patata con alioli ($7) was one of my favourite dishes! I like how compacted the potatoes were and how there were little bits of vegetables included in the potato 'paste'. It was flavourful!

The other favourite dish would be the champinones al ajillo ($15), which are stacked grilled mushrooms with melted cheese on a small slice of bread and this was HEAVENLY! (: The mushrooms were succulent and juicy and there was just enough cheese to spread on all three mushrooms to give it added flavour. I loved this dish! Beware of the latent heat in the mushroom though! You might scald your tongue if you aren't careful.

This was perhaps the most disappointing and most not-worth-it dish of the day: Pimentos ($7), which are grilled cherry pepper slices on bread. The cherry peper slices were soft and cold and the bread was equally cold =( I felt disappointed because I was looking forward to warm toasts with nicely grilled veggies! I guess now I know better and I shall not order this dish again in future.

The calamares caramelised onions ($19), was splendid! (: It was cooked to perfection because every slice was nicely cooked and they weren't rubbery or hard. I think the marinate was the thing that gave it the 'kick'. Yummy!

We couldn't resist ordering one dessert to share though we were already quite stuffed from having the spread above so we had the crema catalana ($7), which tasted a bit like creme brulee with a tad more custard. It was an unexpectedly nice touch to end the meal and I totally recommend having this even though I'm not a big creme brulee fan (: You won't regret it!

Alright that's all for now (: Hope to update again soon! (: Have a good weekend! (: Bye bye!

Aqua Marine

Hello (:

As I prep for the week ahead, I can't help but think back on the first nice weekly meal I had this year. It was a treat from Matty (thank you!) and the meal indeed gave us much strength and energy to last the first hectic week of school! On the whole, the selection was pretty Asian and the food was quite good though I would think that if you want to have a wider spread of Asian food, you should go to Carousel instead. Nevertheless, the ambience at Aqua Marine is not too bad since it is less crowded and hence less noisy. Their staff are also very friendly and attentive so that's definitely a plus :) We won't be frequent visitors of this restaurant because we aren't big fans of Asian buffets and it is located at the tail-end of town but it was alright :) I shall spam photos and not leave captions since I am quite tired right now!

If I had to nominate a 'best dish', it would have to be the durian pengat (featured in the last photo)! It is thick, creamy, sweet and sinful and it is ravishingly good! I took a small sample to try then decided to get a HUGE serving! :) Felt so full and happy after that! Don't miss that if you head to Aqua Marine!

Alright that's all :) Back to the last bit of work so that I can call it a night! Have a great week ahead! (:

Michelangelo's

Good morning! (:

It's a cool and wet morning, great for staying indoors! (: I realised I need to find a way to blog twice a week like before because I've been terribly ill-disciplined of late. Lack of time is a valid reason of course but I guess I'll have to find a way around it so that I can keep this food journal alive (:

We went to Michelangelo's a while ago for lunch and was pleasantly surprised to see that they offer pretty affordable set lunches! (: We opted for 2 $35 set lunches and we shared most of what we ordered that day, which I am starting to realise is a good idea because we get some variety.

While waiting for food, we drank my favourite non-flavoured fizzy drink - S. Pellegrino ($12/ bottle)! (: It is definitely a good replacement for sprite which sometimes come at shocking prices.

What I was most amused by the SINGLE slice of bread the waiter served as pre-lunch starters! I had thought they would give a basket of bread like what most other restaurants do but I wasn't too bothered since we ordered starters anyway.

Our first starter - the Caprese, which was generally alright. I don't particularly fancy this dish because somehow, in my mind, it is too cheesy but I forget that its texture is like harden tofu and it didn't smell too bad. 

I opted for the soup of the day which was pea soup if I'm not wrong and it tasted quite nice (: I guess I like thick, warm soups for starters!

We decided to get 2 pasta/ spaghetti dishes for our mains because we were in a pasta/ spaghetti mood! The first was Carbonara Spaghetti, which was rich and creamy! The bacon smell was somehow quite strong but on the whole it was a filling dish.

The other was the frutti di mare penne pasta, which tasted distinctly different from the carbonara though they were both cream-based. The seafood was fresh and the dish was pretty well put-together. It was a good choice! (:
 

For dessert, we chose to have the tiramisu, which was so-so and
 

a slice of cheesecake, which turned out to be nicer than it looked because it wasn't too soft nor too sweet.

It was great visiting Michelangelo's again after a long hiatus. We will be back again in the future (: Happy weekend! (:

Tatsuya

Hello!

Sorry for the lack of updates! I've been extremely busy with Orientation and now that the bulk of my job is over (there is still Orientation for the seniors), I can take a short breather to do a short post before I go back to work!

Jo and Matty decided to treat me to lunch at Tatsuya and I was more than happy to go for a meal with them after a crazy week! Alas, we forgot to bring the camera hence I'd to use my trusty hp to take the photos that follow. Unfortunately, I do not have the receipt for keepsake cos Jo paid and hence these photos will have to suffice for memory keepsake (:

We ordered the Edamame: steamed beans with salt (love the salt!) to share while waiting for the rest of the food to come. I especially love salty steamed beans! These beans were warm, soft and fresh and I loved eating them!

Since it was our first time at Tatsuya, we didn't know how big the portions would be so we decided to order saba shio to share (: Frankly I never really liked saba because there are just way too many bones for my liking and I hate being overly cautious when I eat so I seldom go for this. However, I must say that this particular saba was fantastic because it was so well marinated! (: It's definitely worth a try! 

Bento set which I chose! (: I absolutely cannot remember what this set is called but I chose it because it has all the things that I felt like eating this afternoon. I wanted to order something noodly but their udon set didn't look too appetizing so I went for this instead (: I think it filled me up sufficiently and I felt happy after eating it! (: Having good food after a week of hard work is GREAT!


I would definitely like to go back to try other food - perhaps the kaiseiki set? - at Tatsuya in the near future! (:

Alright that's all for now. I will update again when I've more time! (: Happy weekend!