Salt Tapas and Bar

Hello (:

It's almost the end of a superbly long week, and I suspect this is the first of many weeks of its kind. January has spoilt us rotten partly cos of the festive break(s) so we've to adjust and get back into the rhythm of school all over again.

Thankfully, weekends are filled with both rest and exploration of some kind - be it visiting a new place or trying something new for the first time. Last weekend, we visited Salt Tapas and Bar and we were impressed with their interesting dishes (: It was also the first time that I've eaten barramundi since my previous food poisoning incident (caused by some barramundi I suspect) and I'm super grateful that I felt alright after that (:

Really can't wait for Friday evening to come because that's when the weekend arrives and we can get to catch up on rest again (:

Have a good rest of the week!

Levant

Hello (:

This has been a rather eventful week and it is evident that some things have irrevocably changed and I hope that this is for the better (:

So we decided to celebrate clarity and transcendence by visiting Levant at Greenwood, where service and food were excellent.

Banana yoghurt smoothie ($6) and Duk ($6) 

Frankly, my banana yoghurt smoothie was a tad too heavy for me at the start and it tasted like banana yoghurt mixed juice instead of a smoothie but it was yummy (: I appreciated it as I was starving and I was thankful to have something to quell the growls of my tummy. The Duk tasted very interesting.. but I doubt I'd order it on my own because I don't particularly like the taste. It's very exotic =P 

Mixed Appetizer Platter ($28)

I love Mediterranean platters cos I can eat everything and anything on the platter and they usually taste superb! (: The freshness of the food items on this platter deserves commendation, and we happily finished eating everything before our main course arrived. I think the staff could tell that we were famished because no one ever polishes off the platter that quickly! Heh. 

The Levant Specialty - Lamb Briyani ($32)

This is their highly recommended speciality - the lamb briyani. I think everyone who visits Levant should give this divine dish a try (: My dining companion tried it and he said that it is the best briyani that he has had in his life and he isn't even a briyani person to begin with! (: I tried the rice on its own and it's yummy enough for me to finish an entire plate on my own! Definitely should have saved some of the appetisers to go with my rice but it's alright (:


We were too stuffed at the end of the meal to try their desserts but then again I'm not a fan of Mediterranean desserts so I guess it's okay. I might try their saffron ice-cream in future though! We shall see (: A memorable meal at Levant which I will always associate with the recent turning point in my life (:

Medz

Hello everyone! (:

The weekend's zooming by again so I shall try my best to enjoy and cherish what's left of it! Last weekend was pretty fun because a group of us actually went to Medz at the basement of Orchard Central for dinner on Saturday night! (:

Medz works like Marche (you are given a card upon entry and you use it to order your dishes) except that it serves Mediterranean food! The seating capacity is quite big and the tables aren't packed too closely together so you won't feel claustrophobic!

Unlike Marche, most stations at Medz make use of this buzzer system, which is pretty useful because it allows you to go back to your table to sit down and chat with your friends while waiting for your food to be cooked! The buzzer goes off once your food is ready for collection and you can proceed promptly to the particular station that you ordered from to collect your dish!


I didn't manage to note the prices of all the dishes that we had because we paid separately but I will record what I did manage to get:

Skewered grilled squid, best eaten when warm!

Duck confit, which was pretty alright (:

My first time eating a calzone and I chose to have the Fish & Mushroom Calzone ($11)! It tastes like pita bread with cheese, fish and mushroom filling (: Not too bad for a meal though I think some wouldn't like being filled up with so much carbo/ dough. Very affordable!

Wagyu Rum ($24.90), which I am told is an oxymoron because it's supposed to (based on its name) be both tender and hard at the same time. However, it turned out to be more the latter than the former, which was quite a pity but it was still decent and edible.

Some fish stew dish which didn't meet expectations.  

Not too fantastic paella.

This bowl of golden truffle fries ($9.90) made our day! It was fried to perfection and there was just enough truffle and cheese in my humble opinion.

The churros and chocolate sauce would have tasted better if it were served warm instead of at room temperature! Nevertheless, it provided a nice sweet ending to our meal!


On top of the relatively good food, two of my friends enjoyed the 1-for-1 alcohol promotion! I think it's pretty worth it because you can get 2 bottles of Duvel (apparently it's good quality beer) at $20! Quite a steal considering a bottle usually costs $15? I'm not too familiar with prices of alcoholic drinks because I don't drink but that's what my friends told me.

Alright that's all for now. It's late and it's time to sleep! Goodnight! (:

Original Sin

Hello again everyone! (:

Time passes way too quickly! I haven't been very on the ball with regard to doing prep work for next year because I've been spending most of my time on activities that take up the opposite ends of the social-spectrum. I've been alternating between meeting friends (which to me is a very social activity and a luxury since I don't get to do this much during term time) and being very antisocial by staying at home and catching up on tv drama series (Greys!) and other DVDs! (: My life now is nothing short of FANTASTIC and I wish time would slow down just a little for me to do all these things that I need to do before I brace myself for 2012.

This holiday, Jeffrey and I have been spending a bit of time with our new good friend (okay fine not so new to me) called Matt! (: He's my faraway neighbour and friend and he's an absolutely wonderful holiday companion because not only does he goes out to eat and walk about with us/ me, he also plays games and watch the gogglebox with me! =)

One of our very first meals as a wandering trio is a satisfying lunch at one of my all time favourite restaurants in Singapore - Original Sin.

If you don't already know, Original Sin is vegetarian-friendly and hence I am able to eat anything & everything on the menu! (: Whoopee! Be sure to check out their full length floor-to-ceiling chalkboard for their daily specials!

No meal to Original Sin is complete without the Mezze Platter for starters ($22). If you really like this a lot, you can choose to have it as a main (I think the main costs a bit more). The combination of warm pita bread with the three different dips, potato balls, olives and salad vegetables with vinaigrette sauce is almost a sure-win and I think it's a great dish to kick start any meal!

 I chose to have the 'daily special' - risotto with pumpkin, asparagus, rosemary & sage ($26) - and I ate every single morsel of it! I would strongly recommend this dish to all pumpkin lovers because the taste of pumpkin is strong. The portion size is just right for me so I think it should fill you up pretty fine (:

 Jeffrey had his Sicilian Pizza ($22) as usual. It has a thin crust and thin base so I don't think there's too much carbo/ dough. A person with an average to big appetite can polish this off on his/ her own (:

Matty decided to have the Vegetarian Lasagna ($26), which he commented tasted a tad like moussaka! It was well-received and I think I may order this in future (:

We decided to skip desserts that day and have coffee instead!

 Their cappuccino ($6) was above average and their

Macchiato ($5) was average as well. I guess coffee isn't the restaurant's main draw but it nevertheless is decent.

Needless to say, the three of us left Original Sin full and contented! (: We will be back! Have a great weekend everyone!

Original Sin

Hello! (:

After hearing that a particular family with a healthy sense of humour considers chicken 'vegetable', I decided to blog about my favourite vegetarian restaurant in Singapore to date - Original Sin.

I first visited Original Sin early last year and I was completely blown away by the menu because I can eat every single dish that's stated on it! =) I'm what some people call a pescatarian, which means I'm somewhat of a vegetarian who eats fish (and seafood). As a result, I usually am not able to eat at least some dishes in most restaurants that I go to and that also explains why I've never been to 'meat-ier' restaurants!

Recently, Jeffrey and I popped by Original Sin again after watching his school's drama production for a very late dinner and we were, again, pleased with the food that was served!

The must-order dish whenever we visit Original Sin is the Mezze Plate Starter ($20) which consists of warm pita bread, fried vegetable 'nuggets' and different dips such as hummus (my favourite!) and pumpkin! I really like this platter and can probably polish the entire dish off as a main course! Even Jeffrey, who's not a very mediterranean-foodie, liked this so I guess it is pretty palatable!

That night, I chose to have the lagsana ($24), which filled me up very well! The portion may not look like much at first but the generous servings of cheese and mushrooms in the lagsana made the dish very filling! This dish is great for a hungry person like me but I would suggest sharing this with another person if you are not someone who can stomach a lot of cheese/ pasta!

Jeffrey ordered the sicilian pizza ($22), which was surprisingly flavourful even though there was no meat on it! We also thought that it was a good idea to sprinkle some vegetables on the pizza for more colour (and also to provide some fibre!).

We were very satisfied with our late dinner/ supper and we will definitely return for more vegetarian food! (: It's advisable to make a reservation if you are intending to visit Original Sin during dinner time, especially on weekends, because it can get slightly crowded. So far, we've always managed to get a table indoors, which is good because it's much cooler. I hope to continue visiting Original Sin from time to time to try new dishes! =)

Alright that's all for now (: Have a good rest-of-the-week!

Esmirada (Orchard)

Hello!

The air quality has been pretty bad of late! I hope that all of you are still doing well despite the bad weather! My schedule is packed with activities for these two weeks so I may not blog that often but I'll definitely try to post about two entries per week so as to keep this space alive!

Today, I'm going to share my experience at Esmirada (Orchard) with all of you! =) Some of you may know that I am quite a fan of Mediterranean/ Spanish food but Jeffrey's slightly more conservative when it comes to eating (though I must say he's become more adventurous and is usually game for most things that I suggest sans durians) so I was more than thrilled when he suggested having lunch at this place!

I'd often passed by Esmirada and wondered why it looks so dark inside. Fact is, the interior of Esmirada IS pretty dark since the place is illuminated with warm yellow light instead of white, bright light that I prefer. But the dimness of the lights gives the entire restaurant a kind of laid-back and chillax atmosphere.

This is what the interior of the restaurant looks like - very exotic in my opinion. Most diners present that day were seated at tables next to the windows hence there aren't any people in this photo.

We started off by ordering two mocktails. The first is a shirley temple ($8), which tasted pretty normal to me but Jeffrey didn't really like it because he said it tasted like medicine.

The other drink was crushed mint leaves with lime and soda ($8), which was refreshing and cooling (:

For starters, we decided to order the Mezza Platter ($25), which serves two. We settled on this after much pondering because we didn't want a normal salad and we wanted to try a range of mediterranean starters.

The mezza platter ($25): hummus (my personal favourite!), baba ghanouj, feta cheese, sundried tomatoes, marinated artichokes, tzatziki. The grilled vegetables were pretty nice but I THINK I would have liked them a tad more if they were warm.

The mezza platter came with a basket of warm, thick and doughy pita bread, which complemented the hummus extremely well!

We ordered a vegetable skewer ($21) to share becase we didn't want to have to eat a lot of the same type of meat. The individual vegetable pieces were very well grilled but I felt that they could have been slightly more marinated? Perhaps that's why they gave us some sauce to go along with it. Oh the baked potato with sour cream that came with this skewer that isn't featured in this photo was heavenly! Loved it so much that I ate almost the whole thing up!

Our main dish was Paella Espanola ($30), which is essentially seafood paella. If you like your rice to be soft and moist, then you will definitely love Esmirada's paella! I know Gumtoo prefers her rice to be slightly hard so I doubt she'll like this. The chef was extremely generous with the amount of seafood included in this paella dish! It was truly a treat =)

Last but not least, we shared a tiramisu ($10), which was served in a ceramic cup! This was one of the better tiramisus that I've tasted in my life! =) The alcohol-taste in the sponge cake layer was strong enough yet not too overpowering. I'd highly recommend this to all tiramisu-lovers! =)

In all, I thoroughly enjoyed my trip to Esmirada and I look forward to going back there to try new dishes!

Hang in there everyone! The weekend is almost here! =)