Porta-Porta Italian Restaurant

Last night, my DH and I went out for dinner with a friend. Our friend had suggested an Italian place in Changi, and made a reservation for 7:30pm. Driving all the way to the other end of the island wasn't exactly pleasant. We set out - from the West side! - at 7pm, and traffic was stop-and-go most of the way. We had to call our friend to change the reservation to 8pm instead!

The restaurant is one of a row of old shophouses. It is a small place, with barely eight tables, but extremely cosy. We were brought bread (picture right) and olive oil with small pieces of vinegared eggplant which was really good. For starter, we also ordered smoked mozzarella - which we devoured before I remembered to take a picture of it!

My DH got a penne arrabiata in black olive sauce (picture left). It was excellent! The black olive sauce had crushed black olives in it, and the dish was nicely spicy. The penne was al dente, and nicely so (unlike some other places where it tastes hard).

I got the parpadelle in cream sauce with mushrooms. The parpadelle was excellent - it was extremely fresh tasted lovely. I have never tasted such great pasta in Singapore before! The cream sauce was light and the dish was served with a ton of mushrooms. The portions were hearty, and I was getting rather full towards the end.

After the main course, we decided to share dessert - a tiramisu, which was highly recommended (picture left). For good reason too, as it was one of the best I had tasted - the mascarpone was fantastic, and the biscuit layer at the bottom was soft and yummy "rummy".

Overall, we thoroughly enjoyed dinner, and the atmosphere - definitely worth the 1-hour drive through traffic. It may be on the expensive side, with each pasta dish costing $24 or more, but certainly worth it. It also has an interesting selection of pasta, with different sauce options other than the common boring red tomato sauce. Indeed this must be one of the best Italian restaurants I have been to in Singapore!

Porta-Porta Italian Restaurant
971 Upper Changi North Road
Changi Garden
Singapore 507668
Tel: 6545 3108

Food Tasting at Silk Road Restaurant (Amara Hotel)

A couple of days ago, we were at Silk Road at the Amara Hotel for a "food tasting". The 9-course vegetarian menu is as follows:
Vegetarian Cold Cut Combination
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Vegetarian Hot & Sour Szechuan Soup
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Braised Vegetarian Chicken with Broccoli
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Steamed Tofu with Mushroom
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Steamed Winter Melon with Vegetarian Goose
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Yam Ring with Seasonal Vegetables
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Braised Mushrooms with Spinach
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Braised Ee Fu Noodles
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Mango Pudding

The first dish was nicely decorated, and very interesting but the portion was disappointingly small. The soup was pretty good - nicely hot & sour - very appetising.

The third dish had more broccoli than "vegetarian chicken", but since I love broccoli, that was just great. However, the next dish seemed to have exactly the same gravy, but more of it! While the gravy was fine with the broccoli and "vegetarian chicken", it didn't go that well with steamed tofu and mushrooms. Or perhaps I wasn't expecting to have more of the similar-tasting stuff...

By now, I was already starting to get kinda full, but the winter melon in the next dish was a nice touch, with a cool and light taste. The yam ring was not exactly what I expected - I didn't see a ring, just two strips of what seems to be fried yam... Looks more like "yam fries"! Hmm... was it too much to expect them to make a ring for individual servings?

After this was a dish of mushrooms and spinach. The spinach was ok, BUT they dumped a ton of button mushrooms on top of the spinach - uh, I could have gotten that out of a can. In fact, I probably could have made this dish myself! DH hardly touched it...

The noodle dish was rather disappointing, as it was utterly dry, and lacked... everything - it was literally just fried ee fu noodles! Ok, with a sprinkle of mushrooms. What did I expect? Well, perhaps some veggies, say strips of carrot and a few strands of greens, and a little bit of gravy would be nice.
However, the mango pudding was a nice sweet ending, with real mango chunks at the bottom.

SIX of the courses had mushrooms, and given the my DH is not a great fan of mushrooms, I ate his as well. I had totally "overdosed" on mushrooms by the end of the evening!

Overall, while many of the dishes were quite tasty, a few were rather disappointing. Also, the presentation was not at all appealing, except for the first dish, which we didn't take a picture of. Practically all the were dishes served in just a plain white bowl. It almost seems like they put in the minimum thought necessary so that they can justify getting away with it on the actual day, if we didn't say anything! I felt kinda bad that my sis and her fiancé had to pay $90 per person for this.

Silk Road Restaurant
Amara Singapore, Level 2
165 Tanjong Pagar Road, Singapore 088539
Tel: 62273848
http://www.silkroadrestaurants.com/rest.html

Vegetarian Festival in Thailand

Thailand observes the Vegetarian Festival, starting on the first day of the 9th month of the Lunar calendar, and lasting for 10 days. This year, that would be 10-19 Oct. The Bangkok Post reports the Vegetarian festival in full swing, ahead of the actual date!

Here's an article about the festival: Festivals Southern Thailand

How interesting, it would be fun to go if I can go. Perhaps all countries should observe something like this every year!

Lemongrass Thai Restaurant

This evening we had a dinner date with another couple and their baby. We went to Lemongrass at Pasir Panjang, and it was pleasantly good.

The baby got her own chair and utensils, and she immediately busied herself playing with them. Overall the service was great. I also noticed that they now have a vegetarian section in the menu!

We got the mango salad and spring rolls for starters. The mango salad was really good - tangy and spicy! The spring rolls were tasty, but nothing too phenomenal. For mains, we got the tofu with basil, kailan with mushrooms and the green curry. We also got the thai style noodles (pad thai). I really liked the green curry. The tofu must have been made with tamarind, which gives it a slightly sourish-tangy taste!

Lemongrass Thai Restaurant
http://www.lemongrass.com.sg/