White dog cafe, Vivo City

The boys were nice enough to travel to my province for dinner and a pseudo despedida for Dubai. We combed through the mall but ended up in White Dog once again, because the Pinay waitress beckoned to us and said, "May crispy pata dito." (There is crispy pata here - famous and very oily Philippine dish).

True enough, we all dug into the pork knuckle as soon as it arrived. We definitely preferred it more than the baby chicken, because even as there was chunks of meat left at the chicken breast, we were still knifing the holes of the pork bone in case there was extra meat.

Pork knuckle for SGD 19.9.

It was every man and woman for themselves.

White Dog Cafe

1 Harbourfront Walk

#02-131/132 VivoCity

Singapore

Tel: 65 6376 9970

Sexy pasta with scallops

I borrowed term from Wen - Sexy is the apt description when you are too lazy to dress your pasta up with real sauce.

It turns out that my olive oil was hiding behind the sunflower oil so I went ahead with my planned pesto. The deviation I made this time was to cook the pasta on a water with cinnamon sticks and sesame oil. I love the smell of sesame oil and I put it in when I cook my brown rice, so I tried it with this one. I tossed in the cinnamon sticks to add a pungent hint of madness. >:)

I left it boiling and when I opened the bowl to check, the cinammon aroma pushed itself out. I stood there smelling my work and watching the bubbles dissipate, the cinnamon so enticingly fragrant I could have had a facial right there.

The sexy pasta of the lazy - pasta, chili, pepper, pre-ground basil, ready to cook scallops.

Pasta and scallops cooked in mushroom soup

I planned to have my usual pesto with some scallops but I discovered I don't have olive oil (I haven't cooked that long??). I did an interesting innovation (read: lazy) where I cooked the pasta and scallops directly in the mushroom soup to let the flavor seep into both ingredients. I added some pepper and basil, boiled it in the open so the liquid will evaporate thus making the sauce creamy and then -- voila! My housemates liked it.

I also ran out of parmesan (that long??) so I placed cheese slices and let it melt on the pasta. It helped jolt up the flavour. What I loved was the burnt chunky pasta parts from the bottom of the pan (see brown ones).

Our farewell Antipasto in Phuket

In many instances in Phuket, I saw more foreigners than I did locals. I suppose it's because of this that there are restaurants that cater to each (high paying) nationality. The Dubai and Indian strip was at the end of Beach Road, followed by Oz, Spanish and Starbucks. This was followed by the stretch of seafood establishments, then some ang moh cuisines like this Italian one that was in the middle of Beach Road.

We picked the Italian restaurant because it was alluringly empty which meant they may serve our food faster. It has a brick oven at the corner of their open air restaurant that flamed once in a while even if they was not baking any pizza. Soon after we finished ordering, an Italian baranggay passed through the gates and took over half the restaurant. We'd like to believe that we attract good business.

I wanted to share the lovely antipasto that we had (THB 180). It was composed of a selection of mortadella, salami, coppa, peperoni, olives and pickle vegetables. So much for going local, but it was quite satisfying for a light dinner.

Bye Phuket!

Savoey Seafood Restaurant, Phuket, Thailand

For last weekend's Saturday dinner after our near death experience in the Andaman, we headed to Savoey Seafood along Beach Road for some lobster.

Lobster, I saw, was a darker and harder shelled version of the shrimp.

It was difficult to choose which seafood to get because it felt surreal thinking we will eat them eventually.

We had the lobster baked in garlic. The first time I ate lobster in a longgg time.

We also had the fish cooked in garlic and spices (Fish is at THB 150 per 100 grams)

Pineapple shake =)

The ravages of war:

Savoey Seafood Restaurant

Along Beach Road,

Phuket, Thailand

Time Out Ice Cream, Phuket Island

I'm a sucker for ice cream so I jumped in the first ice cream store I saw. Time Out was located at the end of the Beach Road strip but it marked the beginning of our Saturday night adventure.

What drew us in was the bright lights (you can't miss it in the middle of shady lit Middle Eastern and Indian restaurants) and its artfully designed selection of gelatto.

I picked the Fererro flavor (THB 165 for cone, THB 145 in a cup - you can choose 3 flavors) in lieu of real chocolate.

What I meant to feature was the novel flavour of Ramon's Tim Tam ice cream.

Time Out Ice Cream

Beach Road, Phuket,

Thailand

Packed beach lunch in Ko Phi Phi, Thailand

I had some reservations about Lonely Planet's top pick for the snorkling activity, but all that fizzled out when the tour organizers prepared us our lunch by the beach. We were having lunch with the view of the serene Andaman sea and the limestone rock formations on Phi Phi. =)

Probably by virtue of the fact that us 3 were the only non-whites in a delegation of 16, we were served European food.

European food in one of Asia's most popular beaches. Who's complaining??

Some of my yummy picks:

Patong Food Park, Phuket, Thailand

For our first meal in our beach weekend in Phuket, Clark, Ramon and I only had to cross the street and hop into Patong Food Park (along Rat U Thit street) for some freshly cooked seafood. Basically you may pick your raw seafood and choose how it will be cooked. Much like Dampa, but I must say I love Dampa much more.

The colors of the crab and the delicate fish skin held a brief spell on me. I couldn't possibly destroy that. So we opted for the funny blue fish for our steamed fish with lemon and spice.

It was magical how its vibrant yellow and blue shifted to dull gray as the temperature of the cooking pan rose. Eventually it turned into the steamed fish with lemon and spice (~THB 150/100 grams)

It slightly spicy on the buds but it turned sour at one's juicy bite. We picked on the fish meat even at the side of the bones.

Plus it came with its own charcoal set to ensure the warmth of the dish

Down to the bones! It was that good.

Weekend in Phuket

After several months waiting for a random trip we booked 3 months back, Clark, Ramon and I finally flew in Phuket for a swiflty-plucked-out-of-work vacation.

Instructions as per the car window: you are allowed to do these things inside the van...

Random limestone monolith in Ko Phi Phi

Clark caused a small commotion on our last afternoon when he found a huge spike fish wash on the shore. It was alive and we kept on dragging it back to the sea, but the waves kept on pushing it back to land. Its fins were not strong enough to carry itself...

Spikes shooting out of its skin

Aside from this heart rendering moment and the adrenaline-rush-near-death experience that trapped us amidst the raging storm in the middle of the Andaman sea for 5 hours, it was a relaxing weekend.

Long Beach Seafood Restaurant in East Coast

Len and I took William and John to Long Beach Seafood Restaurant for their stopover in Singapore en route to Hong Kong.

Thanks to Len for this recommendation. We ate here last year for Kelda's dinner (the Dempsey franchise), and I had been craved for it since then.

Some of our notable choices:

Deep fried buns for SGD 0.80 each. This was a total MUST HAVE if you will have the crabs.

The famous Black Pepper Crab is SGD 40/kilo. The sauce was so good that I used my deep fried buns to wipe off the sauce from the shell.

The Chili crab for SGD 41/kilo. Too spicy for my taste but the rest loved it.

"Eating crabs is a social experience." - William

Cereal prawn (SGD 25). I loved this dish so much, sometimes ate the cereal by itself ("Do you want milk with that?" - William).

Long Beach Seafood Restaurant

1202 East Coast Parkway

#01-04 East Coast Seafood Centre

Singapore

Tel: 65 6448 3636

La Fondue in Dempsey Hill

I finally fulfilled Dempsey dreams with Anton during our dinner in La Fondue.

Fondue is a Swiss communal dish that received its first citation in Homer's Illiad. The industrialization of Switzerland in the 18th century encouraged wine and cheese producers to encourage eating fondue. The 1950s brought a slowdown in the cheese industry, so manufacturers widely promoted Fondue to drive up sales. American tourists brought it home from Switzerland around that period as well. (Source)

We indulged in (what Anton computed as best value for money) Fusion Set, the 3 Course Meal at SGD 50 per person.

first came the Caesar Salad ( other choice was soup)

The cheese fondue had a choice of either Swiss Cheese or Cheddar Beer. We chose the Swiss Cheese which was strong on the wine. This was where we dipped our plate of bread and vegetables

For the main dish, our meat choices were thyme and garlic chicken, sesame chicken, thai fish and tandoori fish, mexican chicken, honey mustard chicken, garlic and chili fish. The picture above was the Tandoori fish and Thai fish.

These ones were thyme and garlic chicken and sesame chicken

The meat may be cooked in broth, deep fried (aka bourguignonne) or grilled. We chose the broth style and it came in either veggie broth, meat broth, or lobster. Our adventure choice was the lobster broth! I imagined them placing in lobster claws for an added crustacean feel.

For an additional SGD 25, we had the dark chocolate fondue from the ala carte menu. We had the cookies and cream flavor - a good choice in combining dark and milk chocolate.

In our defense, Dark Chocolate is a great choice because it has 8 times the amount of antioxidants than strawberries! The flavonoids in dark chocs help relax blood pressure by producing nitric oxide. (Although that arguments falls flat with the presence of milk chocolate bits, because milk prevents the body from processing antioxidants. We've learned the lesson! (Source)

the remains of the warzone

We were stuffed by the middle of the chocolate fondue. Admittedly, the restaurant ambiance could be better (it was too dark), the food was average (altho the chocolate fondue was a winner) but it was worth a try! I would go back for the Brie based fondue before I completely ruled this out.

La Fondue

Block 25 Dempsey Road

#01-04 Tanglin Village (Dempsey Hill Green)

Singapore

Tel: 65 6474 0204