El Phantasmo and the Chicken Floss Blast-O-Rama

This must be the pinnacle of creativity. I'm not going to even wonder how it taste like.

Ricciotti Italian Deli and Pastry, Riverwalk Galleria

Ricciotti at Riverwalk is part of the Garibaldi Group of Restaurants. There is actually a tripartite of reasons for dinner here. Firstly, the Mediterranean salad dude wants to check out the closest thing to real panini. It's an opportunity to show Adrian another place which he can go for food if he wants something nice. Last but not least, I too wanted to give this place a go too.

As it is implied from the name of the restaurant, Ricciotti is also a delicatessen. Besides eating here, one can purchase a variety of wines, condiments, pickles, cheeses, cakes and preserves. Stuff. There's also a selection of sandwiches for something quick and easy. Dine in options which is available from breakfast to dinner include things like roasts, grills, pasta, paninis, salads, pastries, wines and whatever else in the works.

Onto the dinner proper, Ricciotti serves Italian cafe food. The proof was in the taste and these pictures don't really convey much of the actual experience. The menu had a variety of bites and a smaller selection of mains. There's a fair amount to choose from for the smaller items like appetizers/soups/ salads and sandwiches. There was a promotion of a free Margherita pizza with every bottle of wine for the day which we decided to take advantage of by getting ourselves a Pinot Grigio Friuli to share. Fulfilling one of the main agendas of todays visit, the Mediterranean Salad dude did make his call for Granchio panini which came neatly packed in wrapping as you can see in the picture. This panini was filled with what I thought to be a fair portion of real crab meat and sliced tomatoes. The bread that was nicely spread with pesto. I managed a bite and I thought that it was rather good. There was a good crunch on the exterior of the bread which was warm and soft inside. Nicely done sandwich. Nicely packaged. Not what I had exactly imagined as a larger slab of bread with fillings that are on the verge of spilling out. At $12.00, it wasn't cheap. Not very filling too.

The soup of the day was cream of mushroom. I'v
e always wondered how come is it that most of the time, soups of the day almost everyone was just that. The waiter explained that the soup had cheese cubes which were added into the soup just before it was served as opposed to adding them before which would have had them melted. Don't really have much comments about the soup except that it was pleasant and the cheese was a nice touch. There was a penne arrabbiata which was just penne in tomato, garlic and chilli. I didn't get to try it, but you can see here how the dish looks like.

Expectedly our esteemed pescatarian Adrian stuck his fork and knife into grilled vegetables. With it, some crab cakes to share. The plate of greens (and others) and mushrooms in shaved cheese flakes was the Grilled Vegetables. Simplistically named, but fabulously tasty. The Crochette which are the crab cakes reminded me of the risotto balls from Aerin's. However, these were possibly the best crab cakes I've had. Note that I haven't actually ordered crab cakes very often. The orange & basil mayo on the side was really refreshing. This dish got a thumbs up from me.

I generally like ravioli. It's not my number one pasta, but it's amongst my favourites. It's probably because they have stuffings. The ravioli di vitello seemed almost a no brainer even though I took a while to finally decide on it. Came stuffed with veal and mushrooms and some brown sauce. Was pretty good. Brown sauce was bursting with flavour. If you haven't guessed, the only grouse I had with it was the portions which I thought was a little small. I was hoping/expecting bigger portions.

Dooouhhhhhnutttss!!!

Dunkin Donuts has been gone for years (not that they were that great, but it was pretty much all we had) and there is no Krispy Kreme here. Apart from some small local bakeries there is Pop Doh. The above is their French Cream. A personal favourite. No idea why the name contains the word 'French' apart from it having a taste textured like croissant. It has a rough grooved surfaced that is coated with thinly by melted sugar. In the middle is light refreshing cream. Pretty good stuff there.

Mid-Autumn Festival @ Taka Square, Ngee Ann City

I wasn't prepared to take photos today but the shutterbug in me escaped again. Here's a series of more or less random images and words taken from the fair which mostly consisted of moon cake vendors which I have chosen not to photograph. What's so exciting about moon cakes anyway? They're almost the same everywhere.

offerings from a Korean roadside themed store, similar to Shih Lin

More food from the same store

Looks familiar?

Yes it does, doesn't it? It's the same store.

Not too long ago...

Looks like carrot cake

"He'll flip ya. I said, he'll flip ya."

The mysterious man behind the cast iron pan.

The clockwork behind the strange green engine of creation.

Machinist Uzumaki Psychedelica

Devilishly tasty condiments for rice.

A landscape view of the store above.

Oodles of noodles....yeah.....

I see crab meat!

Deboned chicken wings stuffed with prawns!

Okay, it's loot time. There wasn't much room left but we just had to leave with somethings. These vegetable seafood cakes (as in chai tao kuay cake) are of a different make from the variety that you see at the pasar malams. For one, the vegetables used are cheaper and it's generously filled with squid. The night market versions come with crab sticks and there's no sprinkle of seaweed. Considering that both varieties cost about the same, this one done by the Japanese guy is clearly the superior in taste and quality. It's good except for the ginger that I really didn't care for.

"What's that coming over the hill? Is it a monster? Is it a monster?"

No not a monster, it's a wasabi flavoured ice cream from Uzumaki and it did taste like it had real wasabi to some extent. If you keep it in your mouth and let it melt before swallowing, you can feel the tiny pinpricks of spiciness slide down the throat. Oooo....

The not so hot hotdog.

This hot dog on a stick came from the Korean store and it didn't taste as good as it looked. The surface was made of square bits of french fries. Rather chunky pieces. The hot dog beneath was also not as "girthful" as it looked. There was actually a layer of bread wrapping around the regular sized sausage. The yellow sauce was what the seller called spicy mayonnaise, but I think it's probably just a mixture of mustard and mayo. I should have known.

Delhi Restaurant, 60 Race Course Road

Little India is filled with a dizzying array of restaurants serving regional food of obviously Indian origins. Most of them look pretty similar a first glance and given the opportunity, I'll probably be hard pressed for choice. Edwin and Janrie by chance of some friends came across Delhi Restaurant (5 minutes stroll from Little India MRT) which they've eaten at on a couple of occasions (at least!) and they convinced me that it was really good. I do trust my friends more than I do commercial site reviews so that's pretty much how I ended up there.

This place claimed to serve authentic North Indian food. I think it's fair to that claim the benefit of a doubt since there is a sizeable Indian community locally. Most Indian food places are I suppose as good as it gets. At least for the most of us it is.

The lighting of the restaurant was dim. Slightly. The servers brought a glass of cool water before presenting their menu stating that it's probably warm for us to be walking all the way down to their restaurant and they felt that serving water first instead of shoving the menu would be a more sensible and hospitable. I don't disagree. From this point, it felt a little pushy as we were prompted to order while we were browsing the menu.

Fast forward, we picked prawn masala, chicken masala, some palek paneer, garlic naan and a plate of basmati rice. After taking orders, we were presented with a basket of papadams. If you don't know what they are, just look to the left. They're Indian spiced crackers which are commonly served before or alongside meals. These here tasted freshly fried and were crispy. It was accompanied with mint yoghurt (appetisingly delicious). There were free refills after we emptied the first basket.

As mentioned earlier, I've had local Indian food for years. Here I was wondering to myself why was it that I have seldom visited their restaurants. When the food arrived, I remembered why. The practice of garnishing their dishes with that vile herb coriander. That's a major gripe I have with Indian cuisine. Coriander - I can't express my distaste for that evil weed enough. It's the wet blanket of all the delicious meals that I've had, including this one. If it's one plant I'll eradicate from the face of this planet, coriander will have go. But enough of my diatribe against herbs. The food here was good. This place was definitely worth the visit despite being a little out of the way.

There were a couple of the dishes I wanted to take note of. One's the palek paneer (cottage cheese in spinach puree thing) which was something I've not had before and found quite good. It's cottage cheese cubes (tasted like a not salty feta) drowned in spinach puree drizzled with yoghurt. Also the garlic naan was pretty damn nice. There was real garlic instead of freeze dried bits. If you see the full sized picture, I think you just might be able to make out the irregularly shaped small chunks of the chopped up garlic on the naan.

"You see señor, the bull does not always lose..."

Desserts from Indian restaurants aren't usually my thing. It's usually far too sweet for my taste. Not to mention. Those small looking servings are also deceptively very filling. I think Janrie got intrigued by some description in the menu and ordered a portion of.....well, I can't remember what it's called. How it taste essentially is like wet doughnut balls. Fried round balls of flour which was soaked in a very sweet syrup. And it's really sweet. I ordered a glass of lassi which had the option of either sweet or salted version. I picked the sweet. Innocuous looking and popular yoghurt drink it seems among Indians. This one tastes like a cheesy yoghurt smoothie which I liked.

$5.50 and 10 minutes

If you've been reading and not just looking at the pictures, you may recall that I've mentioned fried rice at Han's. Here, for $5.50 you one delicious plate of steaming carbo comfort fix topped with an egg. At this price, I wouldn't say that it's cheap but it's pretty good stuff. Enjoyed every spoonful of it. Definitely stretches ahead of what awaits at HK Cafe. Maybe next time, I'll order one with beef. This was another one of the things that I look forward to at lunch, comparative to the earlier entry.