Quickie lunch at Ristorante Bologna

It's been a rather long, uneventful week and the constant rain did not help. Figured that a good meal was required to bring the weekend closer - so decided to meet up with Andrea for pasta at Ristorante Bologna. This place first caught my eye with its adverts featuring the "seductive" Chef Carlo. I am not sure if one can deem the ad sexy but hey, it got me there so I guess they did the job :). Andrea had a great credit card 1 for 1 offer so that sealed the deal on the choice of restaurant.

Bcos of the offer conditions, we had to stick to ordering only pastas. The menu featured about 15 choices. Based on the recommendation of the waiter , we ordered the home-made tortelloni filled with porcini mushrooms in Parmesan cheese and sage fondue and the Black tagliolini with crabmeat, lemon skin and light tomato sauce. The servers were kind enough to offer to split our pasta for us when we told them that we were sharing. Service was good and the food arrived quickly (for the hungry folks, a bread basket with generous portions of bread sticks and grain bread is served along with a simple tomato-based dip)

As baby Ixus is still in hospital, Andrea had to use her camera phone to snap pictures of our lunch. The nice thing about lunch with a fellow blogger is that while one snaps away, the other gets to start eating ;). I started with the mushroom pasta...which although looked quite ordinary, was surprisingly tasty. Every bite extracted the taste of mushrooms blended wonderfully with the cheese and sage....I gobbled down my 4 pieces pronto:)

I then took a bite at my 2nd pasta dish which strangely looked like the usual Beef bolognise to me. And guess what? IT was! The waiter wrote our order wrongly. He quickly made amends by removing the "salty" beef pasta dish and soon, the "correct" crabmeat dish arrived.

Although it came with generous servings of crab meat, I found the dish quite ordinary..there was a lack of infusion which I would expect from any good Italian restaurant. The thin slices of lemon skin in fact tasted odd against the tomato based sauce.

Nevertheless, I enjoyed the company and great service..will come back again to try the bacon pasta which Andrea had the last time and got her thumbs up.

Melaka - where rice become balls

I finally got to settle my craving of chicken rice balls at the famous Chung Wah a stone's throw from Jonker's street. After a short 2.5 hours drive, we reached Melaka slighty after 1pm and navigated ourselves through the useful signages to find this place in the heart of the tourist spot in Melaka. There was a short queue and after 15 minutes of waiting, we were sitted on a table with 2 other couples (strangers). With a simple menu of chicken rice, you only had to think of whether you wanted a whole chicken or half. We were each given 5 rice balls and I dipped mine constantly with the garlic laden chilli dip and was transported to rice ball heaven :). Liv keeps telling me that the rice balls are actually the same as eating the rice without the ball shape but somehow, the shape of the ball enhances its taste to me..I know..I am weird :p

Satisfied from rice balls (Jin had to finish like 2/3 of the chicken by himself - he loves the kampung chicken which he claims is much tastier than their spore town cousins - just not as smooth), we walked a good 10 minutes to Jalan Bunga Raya for cendol at Min Chong. The very nice smiley uncle served us 2 cendols and insisted we tried their vegetarian style rojak. Oddly, we found the cendol lacked gula melaka so we asked for extra to add on. The vegetarian rojak was quite standard - came with the usual beansprouts and tofu.

With stomachs full of rice and cendol (and in Jin's case - chicken too!), we staggered in the VERY HOT Melaka heat back to Jonker street where our car was parked. Came by the famous cendol shop at Jonker which serves its version with durian paste. Could not resist - so despite being stuffed, we walked in to order a bowl to share. There's another stall which serves all kinds of noodles under the same shop and we nearly ordered a bowl of assam laksa to share but am proud to say we resisted the temptation (now we have reason for a return trip to Melaka ;). The durian cendol was not as good as we remembered it to be..not enuff durian la! Jin commented that nothing beats his favourite Penang cendol ..sigh..this guy - so hard to please!!

Next morning, Liv took us to eat duck noodles at Bukit Beruang. The stall in the bullocks is actually mentioned in my Foodsters' Guide and that really surprised Liv as she grew up eating this noodle not knowing that it fell under the "famous to eat in Melaka" category :). The noodles were very smooth and the duck - lean and meaty. Simple comfort food at its best.

That ended our Melaka eating spree. On the drive home, Jin could still managed to eat his Ramli burger at the Gelang Patah rest stop on the north south expressway. This one stall on the far right of the food court area serves them fresh (only starts cooking when you order) and tastes pretty good (near KL standards :). Enuff of food for now..I need to hit the gym :p

Chloe Luthi - not 1, 2 but 3

Yay! Chloe turned 3 yesterday and celebrated it with lots of adults and her little friend Margo. Liv worked herself to a frenzy preparing a feast for her 20 guests. On the grill were kebabs (prawn, fish, beef), lamb chops, steak and chicken wings. On the sides were crabsticks, pineapple, salads (which I helped made ;) honeydew with prosciutto ham, sandwiches, bruschettas, mozerella cheese balls with baby cheery tomatoes and the staple - fried rice and bee hoon.

Then came the huge bday cake dressed with Mickey, Minnie and gigantic pink candles. Seems Chloe's at the stage where pink's her favourite new colour so the bday theme was pink including her dress and pressies. We got her 2 gifts - the main one was the musical pink jewellery box which had a ballerina in a cute pink tutu swirling in music each time the box was opened. The 2nd was a pink small pillow with Patrick the dog embossed on it. I think she likes the musical box more as she kept that by her side throughout breakfast this morning ;) (that and her pink barbie doll). Have promised to bring her to the spore zoo to see the penguins when she comes visit in Oct (hmm, wondering if there are such things as pink penguins?) :p.

Floggers din din - where blog becomes flog...

Stuffed - is the one and most appropriate word to best describe the Floggers dinner at Sage. It was supposed to be a 5 course meal but turned out to be a enormous 8 course meal - 2 appetizers, 2 mains and 4 desserts!!!

Here's the listing of the "official" menu :-

• Fricassee of Burgundy escargot with lentil du puy and field mushrooms, poached egg and Italian parsley foam (generous portion of escargot interestingly served with an egg..loved the lentil sauce!)
• Chesnut mousseline with oxtail consomme and truffle oil (this is ze best dish of the nite - definitely a must to return to Sage for this :)
• Baked fillet of sea bass topped with tiger prawn mousse, braised fennel and lemon-basil emulsion (after 2 great appetizers, I found this 1st main a dissapointment - the fish was rather bland tasting, dry and probably overcooked)
• US corn fed beef shortribs braised in red wine topped with slices of foie gras and bone marrow, glazed root vegetables and a mousseline of butternut pumpkin (with such a long name, you can surely expect this dish to be a winner and it was pretty good..despite not being a great fan of "fatty" meat, I finished this quickly..I just love butternut pumpkin!)
• Fromage Blanc panna cotta topped with candied strawberries, Champagne jelly and a strawberry sorbet (yum yum yum! I don't think I have ever tasted a non chocolate dessert this good..the sorbet was super berry delicious!)
  
  
  And the "unofficial" :-
• Colin's bday cake - made with heavenly chocolate (how to resist?!)
• Sponsored truffles from Julius Truffles (I only managed to eat one piece and boy, am I glad I did!! - The Volcano Premium - made with Remy Martin XO Cognac, this can only be described as a chocoholic cum alchoholic fantasy and makes it to my Chocolate Hall of Fame! )
• Turkish delights from hinata (sigh..if only I had 3 stomachs)

I won't go into full details of the event as most of the floggers have already written extensively well on it :). Daffy's flogblog links to the other attendees and she summed up the event pretty good in a flogshell. Just wished that there was more time to mingle around..Andrea and I were discussing this and next time, we should suggest a musical chair event where people have to move seats at every course ;).. Special thanks to Colin for organising, to the other floggers for bringing the extras and great company. Of course, not forgetting our generous sponsors : Razorsharp for the pow wow Kasumi knives and BATS for the Staub lucky prizes (wished I had won a fondue set!! ;P)

Am already looking forward to next year's meet..now I wonder who is the lucky person who got selected to plan that? ;)...hee

I hate it when I can't sleep :(

It's 4am! I went to bed at 1130 as I was feeling rather tired after an intense workout at the gym today..2 hours later, I was still awake..sigh..so dragged myself out of bed, had a quick snack and went back into bed. 1 hour later - still awake!!! gave up trying to sleep and am sure will regret my actions as I have a full day of meetings later today :p

Yesterday, attended a press event and "Friends" from Chomp Chomp, serangoon gardens were the caterers. Chef Peter prepared a spread of grilled prawns, fresh oysters, pan seared tuna and yummy cod. As baby Ixus is still in the hospital, I did not get to take any pix of the spread :(. They also set up a coffee bar serving Griffins coffee from Melbourne. I am still wondering if my sleeplessness tonight has anything to do with the 2 cups of coffee I had at the event :p Oh, finally got to taste VEUVE CLICQUOT champagne..people tell me this is supposed to be better than Moet..but honestly, I think I preferred the Moet taste more :)

Later tonight, will be attending the food bloggers dinner at The Sage. Can't wait to check out what's being served at $60 per head. Looking forward to a fun evening hanging out with Charmaine and Andrea and meeting the creme de la cream foodies of Spore! Hopefully I don't fall asleep in my soup :p

Guest Blogger - Made In China @ Haw Par Villa

Wow, Cin has invited me to be a guest-blogger on her food blog! Reviewing Made in China, a Chinese restaurant nestled in Haw Par Villa, within the Huasong (“in praise of the Chinese”) museum. Was really looking forward to dining there! Haw Par Villa, despite looking rather forlorn these days, holds great childhood memories for me. I remember it to be a lively, colorful theme park filled with tourists and local visitors. Was especially intrigued by the “18 Levels of Hell” exhibit. Anyway, I thought it was a clever idea to have a restaurant-cum-museum there. Otherwise, who would travel all the way out?

So on Tuesday, Cin and I went to Made in China for lunch with Serene, Neel and Abhi from work. It was my bday treat from them :) Bloody hot day, so was glad there’s parking close-by. The restaurant is quite a distance from the Haw Par Villa entrance, and Cin mentioned that we were supposed to park near the entrance and stroll up the slope as part of the “experience”! The rest felt we have enough Vitamin D, so parked where it required just a nice short walk to the museum. The restaurant is housed in its main hall. (Note: Bring along your parking coupon and redeem the $5 fee against your dining bill. OCBC credit card gets you a 15% discount!)

First impression – I was disappointed by the decor. Not as impressive as I had imagined! But since this is primarily a food blog, I’ll concentrate on, well, the food! Don’t miss the museum though – it’s very enjoyable. Especially when diners get a complimentary guided tour with Mr Lai; there’s a fee of about $8.40 (adult) $5 (child) for non-diners.

On to the food! Service was prompt and we quickly made our orders. Got the recommended Hakka specialty “Suanpanzi” or “abacus seeds”. Dough made from yam flour and shaped like beads on a traditional Chinese calculator (abacus) are stir-fried with minced pork, diced water chestnuts and shredded black fungus. This was my favourite dish as the “seeds” were much softer and smoother than versions I’ve sampled elsewhere, and the water chestnuts added a really lovely crunch to the dish.

We also ordered the Taiwanese/Southern Chinese specialty “Sanbei Claypot Chicken with Basil Leaves”. “Sanbei” means “three cups”. I was wondering why it’s named that way. Then coincidentally, while watching a food program last night, I found out that it’s because the chicken is cooked with one cup each of vinegar, Chinese wine and dark soya sauce! Actually, I ordered this dish forgetting that Cin doesn’t eat chicken (oops, sorry Cin!). It turned out mediocre. I had the same dish at a restaurant on Yangmingshan in Taipei. Now that was so amazing that I unglamorously slurped and scrapped up every last fragrant bit! This version has too much vinegar, and for some reason, you don’t get the usual lovely aroma from the basil.

Another item we ordered was the “Feicui Toufu” or “jade beancurd”. It’s spinach-topped braised beancurd with vegetables and Nameko mushrooms. This was Cin’s favourite; I say she’s biased because they were generous with the mushrooms! ;-P But it is good… I really liked the lychee peach tea that Cin ordered – cool and refreshing, but it costs a ridiculous $6.75, which we only found out after we got the bill. Wait, but we got two lychees!

We also had some dim sum. Worth mentioning is the Crispy Banana and Red Bean Roll. A tad oily, but the light sweetness of the moist filling and crispiness of the wrapping was totally satisfying – especially for Abhi with the sweet tooth! Another unique selection is the carrot cake. Unlike the flat squares at other dim sum places, we had cubes of it stir-fried with crabmeat, egg and bean sprouts. Quite tasty, but for $18 a plate, I’d rather have my $2 “black chai tau kweh” at Ghim Moh hawker centre… J

Based on Tuesday’s sampling, I’d come back and try other dishes on the menu – probably more of the provincial signature dishes, and perhaps for dinner. Compared to other provincial Chinese restaurants I’ve tried, Made In China’s cooking is great for diners who like a down-to-earth style of cooking, but with more “refined” tastes – definitely not as “robust” (i.e., heavy on lard and sodium!) as traditional fare. Raymond our waiter told us we should try the Fish Maw Bisque next time. He kept pushing us to try the mooncakes too! He should have given us some free samples – duh! Anyway, we were all stuffed by the time Abhi popped the last bit of char siu bao in his mouth. That’s when we decided to “walk it off” in the museum. Only after that did we troop back to the office… satisfied!

Celebrating Wee Hoon's bday @ New Asia Bar

WH invited Jin and me to join IZ and her 2 friends, Amy and Jeanne for complimentary Moet champagne and Prego cake at New Asia Bar. That lucky woman is member of Club 72 which entitles her to the above benefits. We sat at the special 'members only' area surrounded by great views of Spore.

Since we arrived during happy hour, I ordered the sour apple martini for $9 a glass..we also had a serving of calamaris (yummy!) and satay. The outing was a great way to start the work week. Had to leave early as Jin was as usual falling asleep on the cushiony couch :p. Below are some of the hazy photos taken with IZ's ipaq camera phone > sob, i miss my baby ixus :(

:p..(yet another) end of the weekend...

Was a rather hectic week - been given a new role at work and had to sit through two full days at the Oriental Hotel to digest information relating to new role :p. I always believe that it's important to maintain a good balance of work and play..so to keep sane and make myself believe that life's not all work, weekends are something I look forward to - both in terms of planning and enjoying :)

This weekend was rather fruitful..we managed to check out some new condo developments - balmoral hills, the stellar and murano. Still have not found the "perfect" condo both in terms of price range and "feel". The highlight of my Saturday was the test drive session of the Lexus RX350 :)..since cannot afford to buy one now, we thought it would be fun to test drive one and boy, we are now even more convinced that it's the car to aim for next ;).

Also found time this weekend to squeeze in 2 sessions of shoulder massage. My left shoulder decided to play bad and has been aching like crazy, causing me great discomfort and making me highly irritable. To save Jin from my crankiness, I quickly checked myself into a 40-minute massage (S$23 -package price) at My Foot Reflexolgy. They have chains all over spore. I went to the great world city one and came out feeling a lot better. Had a repeated session today but this time at the nearby Forum branch. I got a blind guy working on my shoulders..although he was a bit "clumsy", he did hit some of the right spots :).

Went over to YL and Ed's place for some home -cooked chinese meal. YL outdid herself with 5 dishes and we wiped clean the plates :). Watched Ali G for the 1st time and found him silly
funny.

Oh, bought Jin his bday pressie in advance. Booked us on a trip to Bkk in Oct to watch the Thai (tennis) open. Got Nom (jin's work acquiantance) to buy us tix for semi and finals. My first time attending real tennis tournament. Can't wait :)

Plans for the week ahead :
Mon - Lunch to celebrate WH's bday at Made IN China @ Haw Par Villa, Drinks at New Asia Bar with WH and IZ
Tues - Lunch with Abhi and Neel for them to buy WH her bday meal
Wed - Lunch with Karine at Gilman Village
Thurs - Using free pass to enjoy the kickboxing class at California Fitness Gym
Fri - Dinner with Floggers (spore food bloggers) @ The Sage
Sat/Sun - weekend trip to Melaka to celebrate Chloe's bday and eat chicky ball rice and of course, durian cendol

So there you go, life's really not all about work ;) Yay!

Ah Boy and Chin Yat - fruit loving dogs

Despite being just 2 minutes away from where Anne and VB live (HP offices are just up the road from where they live), we hardly get to meet up - so it was nice to finally catch up after not seeing them for more than 6 months. We picked them up for a quick tze char din din at Zi Yean (Redhill area).

It was my first time to Zi Yean since they moved from Stirling Road. There was a good crowd but the place was big - so no problems with getting a table. That coupled with easy parking made gave this place a plus for the convenience factor. Their menu was pretty intensive so we ended up getting recommendations from the waitress. Within 15 minutes, we were served our 4 dishes - red snapper steamed HK style, prawns in crispy bean curd skin, chinese braised spinach and grilled beef tenderloin. I won't go into details about each dish as I did not find any of them overly too exciting or memorable....it's a good place for a good quality tze char meal but for the same price, Por Kee at Tiong Bahru is still my top favourite :)

VB is a true durian fan and what's a meal with him without the usual hunt for good durians? He directed us to Bukit Purmei where we found an uncle who was selling D-24 durians a very reasonable price. We managed to pack back 2 full boxes comprising of 5 durians at just $10!

We headed back to their place at Gilman Heights (really nice place too if I may add - only $700 rent a month - VB's lucky to be on the NUS faculty) and met up with their 2 "permanent" house guests - Ah Boy and Chin Yat - 2 shi tzu bred doggies whom Anne has been doggysitting. I say permanent because they have been living with her for the past 6 months and she takes care of them like they are her own :)

The dogs are hilarious! Ah Boy is actually a female doggy who's blind so she bumps into everything and anything. Yet despite this "abnormality" of hers, she's has a wonderful spirit - happy , friendly and warm. On the other hand, her partner Chin Yat can see perfectly well but is so clumsy that one would have thought he was the blind dog :)). He is also quite the scaredy cat - being afraid of heights of any level. One thing they both have in common - they LOVE fruits of any kind. So imagine our delight to watch them patiently waiting for some of our durian morsels ;). Now to all our friends who still are not convinced durians are yummy - see here, even the dogs know a good thing when they "smell" one :). The durians were very tasty all with soft firm flesh - just wished that they were more bitter!!

Healthy chicken for a change...

When WH told me how good the korean ginseng chicken was at the Crystal Jade Korean outlet, I was a bit suspicious as we visited this chain at Ngee Ann previously and found that the food sucked :p. But then again, we had the bibimbap (which WH agreed with me tt it was not good). With visions of yummy chicken soup in my mind, I managed to convince Jin to meet me for a Friday night dinner at the Centrepoint branch.

We did not make reservations but found out that there was no need to as the place was only half filled. Waitresses dressed in traditional korean customes lead us to our seats. I was quite impressed with the decor and ambience..lots of dark wood and good choice of lighting - reminded me more of a spa than a restaurant..I immediately felt relaxed :D

Since it was only 2 of us, we stuck to 2 dishes, the Ginseng Chicken (S$25) and the seafood pancake (S$15). We were presented with 6 kimchi dishes as appetizers and they all tasted rather good. Very shortly after, our chicken arrived. It was served as a whole chicken and when we cut through the tender soft meat, we found bits of rice mixed with gingko nuts, 1 chestnut and 2 red dates. The soup tasted fabulous and when we dug further, we found a whole ginseng embedded in the soup. I requested for some soya sauce and white pepper , which I mixed as a dip for the chicken..this is one real comfort dish which warms the stomach and makes you feel good :)

The seafood pancake arrived cut up in 8 slices and was also pretty yummy! It came with a special dipping sweet/salty sauce and did not have an oily taste despite it being pan-fried. I could only manage 2 slices and we ended up packing half of it as a take-away :p

Quite happy I listened to WH and gave this place a 2nd chance. It's definitely on my "return visit" list and am looking forward to bringing Jin's parents here the next time they come a knocking.

1 + 1 Zhang equals Azhang

We celebrated Mad's bday wayyyy in advance as she's one popular chick :p. Having read some good stuff on Azhang at Mohd Sultan, the 5 of us decided to meet there for her bday meal. I was a bit surprised to find the restaurant empty despite it being dinner time..I am guessing that they get their crowd from lunch.

We ordered a variety of dishes (family style) - honey glazed lamb, beef curry, seafood platter and the corn salad. As Ava the hostess carefully warned us that the mains might take some time to arrive, it was therefore a nice treat to be served yummy focacia bread which we dipped in olive oil to hold back our hunger pangs.

The corn salad was refreshing with roasted corn bits and springy (ice?) lettuce. The seafood platter came with a generous portion of squid (which chef Patrick had done perfectly so that the insides were still moist, therefore, making each bite succulent and juicy), baked salmon and grilled tiger prawns on a platter of (butter?) cooked rice. I enjoyed both the squid (maybe bcos it was served with spicy belachan ;)) and the prawns.

The lamb had just the right amount of sauce (not overally sweet) and was tender to the bite. Was quite dissapointed with the beef curry as I was expecting something more spicy (i guess i was still missing the food at Bali!) - although the beef was super tender (totally melts in your mouth), the sauce/gravy was more bland and had a rather peppery taste.

Service was great - Ava's really warm and friendly and overall, Azhang's a nice place for a casual, relaxed outing with good company. Happee bday Ms Zhang Mei Li (coincidently, Mad's surname is also pronounced "Zhang" :p ) Pix below shows us all at Mamma Lucia after dinner enjoying their cheap drinks at the "bar". $1.50 for gourmet latte anyone? :)

Royal dim sum @ Royal China

Have not eaten dim sum for months so when Lin suggested that we do Sunday lunch at Royal China @ Raffles Hotel, I eagerly agreed. I tried the Royal China in London a couple of years back and could not wait to check out if this Sporean branch was up to the same standard.

There were 6 in our group which was ideal for dim sum...RY did most of the ordering - we had pan fried carrot cake, chee cheong fun (prawns and pork), shrimp dumpling (har kao), bo lo char siew pao, char siew soh, fried calamari, rice rolls in peanut sauce (pictured), some mango-fruity roll and one of their house specialities - the crispy aromatic duck. This was similar to peking duck except that here the whole duck (ie not just the skin) was baked till crispy. Our server shredded our half duck portion ($45) into small meat strands which we were then supposed to wrap in paper thin flour tortillas together with spring onions, cucumber slices and sweet sauce. Very very delicious..in fact, I think we all agreed that this version is much tastier than peking duck and seemed healthier too as it was less oily (ya ya, who are we trying to kid? :p)

Of the dim sum we had, the bo lo char siew pao (which btw, is only served on Sundays) and the char siew soh (pictured) stood out. In fact, as I am writing this, I am already trying to concoct another reason to go back there soon ;). The fried calamari and the peanut sauce rice rolls can be given a miss. The other dishes were decent and most of the items came in servings of 3 which meant we each got our own little portion of everything. We ended the meal by sharing a bowl of dessert with our better halfs. Had the yam and gingko in almond drink (orh nee) and the rest ordered the manggo dessert. Overall, would give this place 4/5 for the value and ambience and can safely say that this could be our new fav. dim sum restaurant :). Move over East Ocean :D

Good ol Marmalade...

Was starving by the time I got Jin out of his sleepy stupor this morning at 9.30am. We set off at 10 to Muddy Murphys to try their bangers and mash which a colleague had raved about. We were disappointed to find out that this place only opens at 11am :(. That left us with 2 nearby choices - Coffee Bean and Marmalade Pantry..guess which one was the obvious choice (especially since Jin was paying) ? :D

As it was only 10.15am , they had just opened for business and we were the 1st patrons. Jin said he was not going to have lunch by having a BIG brunch..and choose the beef burger while I went with the chicken pesto wrap. The burger came with a HUGE, fat patty, done perfectly medium well with pickles and sides of fries and baby tomatoes. At 1st bite, Jin was in burger heaven and was quiet throughout his meal except for the occassional grunts of satisfaction ;).

My grilled chicken wrap came in a thin tortilla wholemeal wrap with pesto sauce and butternut squash along with sides of salad and high quality chips. Meals at Marmalade never dissapoint and it was nice that we got managed to finish our lovely meal before the crowd trickled in...no wonder the place is always packed weekend mornings.

Emerald Hill chicken wings...

It's August! How the year is flying by :p...since all of us at work had not gone out for drinks for ages, Myra and I decided to round up everyone for sangrias at one of the bars on Emerald Hill - Myra has been promoting the chicken wings for over a year and I recalled that Jin had also commented that they were pretty good..so time for me to try them out myself. (nb. other memorable places for chicky wings are Ikea and Dempsey Hut..and of course not forgetting KFC's spicy chicky drumlets ;))

Even though it was a Friday evening, being the workaholics that we were, we only left work at 7pm...so by the time we weaved through Orchard Road's notorious Friday traffic, there were no more seats at Ice Cold Beer (ICB) and No 5, our top 2 choices. Only Que Pasa had seats right next to the WC - but hey, at least we did not have to stand on our feet at the bar the whole nite ;)

We started off with 2 dozen chicky wings, 2 pizzas, 2 jugs of red sangria and 1 serving of shrimp dumpling. The food took some time to arrive and we found out that it's centrally cooked in the Que Pasa kitchen and the same kitchen caters for both ICB and No 5 as well. The sangria tasted too much like fruity Ribena, what's up with the lack of wine? :p The pizza came in super thin crust style and was overall quite good. The fried shrimp wantons were a bit too floury but crispy enough and decent enough when eaten with the accompanying chilli crab sauce.

The wings arrived and all of us attacked! Boy, Myra was right..very very good..Perfectly deep fried on the outside while still maintaining the soft, juicy meat inside. And surprisingly not oily at all - unlike Ikea's where you can squeeze out like 2 tablespoons of oil from each wing :p

4 dozen wings later and 2 more jugs of sangria later (these were a lot punchier after we reprimanded the waiter not to skimp on the good stuff), we all left satisfied with bellies swimming of wings..Yay, think I've found a new place to chill!