Letdown @ Domvs

Delicacies of Desire: White Truffle.

Chef Lino Sauro.

A reputation for fine dining. A recent make-over.

A re-launch of the restaurant with a new menu.

I was convinced. I had high expectations. I was sorely disappointed.

The new decor was boring, the lighting was so dim as to depress, the background music was dodgy enough to irritate.

Passable food in teeny portion is served up in fancy style at exorbitant price.

Not my idea of a good evening out.

No more ristorantes for me. I will stick to trattorias and pizzerias for Italian food henceforth.

DON'T Cook like a Chef

I cook a lot. For myself. For the man and me. For friends and family. I will not go so far as to say I LOVE cooking. I view it as a wonderful and necessary skill, and I just happen to be very good at it.

It follows therefore that I also enjoy watching cooking shows. There is always some clever tip to pick up from the experts. And of course, there is always the entertainment factor to these shows.

I particularly enjoy watching cooks who are also artists with their craft. The ones who create something extraordinary out of the ordinary so that their final presentation is a feast for the eyes as well as for the stomach.

Then, along comes Cook like a Chef - a series about how to cook, as opposed to what to cook.

I must admit the chefs (not lowly cooks, mind you) are, for the most part, brilliant in their take on any food. And I would most happily have accepted their generosity in showing us how those exquisite dishes are made in the world's best restaurants.

Except that they seem to be saying to the lay man (yes, the armchair-chef-wanna-be sitting next to you in front of the telly), that anyone, simply anyone, can do this magic at home.

Watch - the chef snaps his fingers and 3 of the 8 prep chefs on standby leap to do his bidding. The chef now goes on to make and then leave behind a horrific mess every where he turns.

By the end of the show, there is this exquisite dish. There are also all these tired prep chefs and messy work surface.

You know, this show should really make a distinction between what is feasible in a professional kitchen and what is do-able in a home kitchen.

I cook out of necessity. I also cook out of enjoyment on occasions for friends and family. I will work to the extent that I can still enjoy the company I have invited for dinner.

I-am-not-a-restaurant.

I will be doing everything from planning the menu, to grocery shopping, to preparation, to cooking, to serving dinner, and finally cleaning up.

So get real, Cook-like-a-Chef. Please do tell your audience to NOT attempt what you do in our homes unless we too have a team of elves to do our bidding and clean up after us.

A squall came through here

Pictures on left: see the white-out during the squall @0830hrs
Pictures on right: after the squall passed around 1000hrs

A "Sumatra" squall is an eastwards-moving line of thunderstorms. The line develops at night over Sumatra or the Malacca Straits and moves over the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore in the pre-dawn and early morning hours during the Southwest Monsoon season. The squall is characterised by the onset of strong gusty surface winds accompanied by heavy rain over Singapore, lasting 1 to 2 hours. Following their passage, cloudy conditions with light rain sometimes persist till the early afternoon.

Guide to Singapore's Weather
NEA Meteorological Services

Back to Basics @ Trattoria LaFiandra

Trattoria Lafiandra has been our choice for the quick fix of pasta and pizza since it opened in late 2003.

I have always loved the place because it is exactly what it purports to be - a trattoria - and does not try to be any more than that. The place is small (about a 40-seater) including the alfresco section. The menu is manageable for the husband chef and wife restaurant-manager team.

Then the trattoria decided it was time to grow. We went to their new venue at the Singapore Art Museum earlier in the month.

The bigger new venue does not have the warm cozy feel of the original trattoria. Food quality has become a casualty of an expanded menu. The awful acoustics of soaring aria as background music made me just want to flee from the place. The new branch has all the ingredients of a disastrous recipie.

I have been back to the original trattoria since. Everything was as it has always been.

Thank goodness for the good things that don't change.

Trattoria Lafiandra is located at
46 Prinsep Street
#01-01 Prinsep Place
Singapore 188675
Tel: 6238 8746

Trattoria LaFiandra al Museo is located at
Singapore Art Museum (formerly St. Joseph's Institution)
71 Bras Basah Road
Singapore 189555
Tel: 68844035

Ugly is ugly

Friends don't let friends go home with ugly people.

me in previous blog

"Ugly" can be subjective leh.

my lovely sensitive friend

the following beauty/ugly quotes come to mind because there's a ring of truth to them:

Beauty is only skin deep, but ugly goes clean to the bone.

Dorothy Parker

Beauty is but skin deep, but ugly lies the bone,
Beauty dies and fades away, but ugly holds its own.

Popular saying

It is better to be beautiful than to be good, and it is better to be good than to be ugly.

Oscar Wilde

If you tell me your blind date has a great personality, I know he/she is ugly

Overheard at a bar

so no, my sweet friend. "Ugly" is not subjective. Ugly is Ugly. Life is not fair like that.

Singing the blues @ Roomful of Blues

This place has the ambiance of a neighbourhood pub done just right.

Dim lighting that casts deep shadows creating a sense of nostalgic loneliness.

A lone guitarist who plays maudlin songs in a bluesy folksy kind of way. After knocking back a few, you would even begin to believe that the man is strumming your pain with his fingers, singing your life with his words. Just like they said in a song.

The attentive staff is easy to like. The crowd is friendly without being personal.

The pub food is standard greasy fried fare: chicken wings, onion rings, fries. As a concession to some notion of health consciousness, they can even fry up some greasy tofu for you.

To sum up, the place is casual and comfortable in a familiar way.

Bluff one. Friends don't let friends go home with ugly people :)

Roomful of Blues is located at
72 Prinsep Street
Singapore 188671
Tel: 6837 0882

p.s. Blues jamming session happens on Saturdays 9-11pm.

About the rich

Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me.

F. Scott Fitzgerald, Rich Boy, 1926

Yes, they have more money.

Ernst Hemmingway, Snows of Kilimanjaro, 1936

And they can choose their problems.

me, in a flash of brilliant clarity, just now

This too is love

Her husband died unexpectedly after a very short illness. She works at two low-paying jobs to make enough to raise two young children. She is 40.

He lost his wife to illness recently. There are no children, and he has no other relatives living here. Financially he is extremely comfortable. He is 60.

He looks to her for companionship. He sees her as providing the family environment he wants. In return, he will see to her financial needs and provide a secure environment for her and her children.

She is hesitant because she is not in love with him.

I say she must look at this as a workable and viable relationship that is mutually beneficial.

And in time, she will learn to love him. This, too, is love.

Harvest Thai by the pool

I do not look for Thai food outside of Bangkok because I believe that city serves up the absolute best of their cuisine. Certainly I do not crave Thai food in Singapore. There are simply too many other excellent and exciting culinary choices in this city.

But for the last several weeks, I keep running into mention of Harvest Thai in various places. Curiosity eventually won out because of several distinctive features that kept being highlighted.

Well, I think the different-ness (location, owners, mission statement) is a mixed blessing. The food is good but not inspiring.

I will recommend that first visit to anybody.

I think it will be a very long time before I want to make a return trip.

Harvest Thai is located at
ACS Barker Road, Sports Hall, Level 3
Tel: 6254 3520

Will you tell me?

I am not fond of this woman, to say the least. I have not seen her in over a year, and I do not miss having no news about her. But I finally met her again over the weekend.

In the intervening months, she broke up with the scum she called her boyfriend. It was not a pretty picture. He would not work (I told you he is scum); she supported him financially. He is wholly dedicated to living well (off her), looking good, and screwing around with all manner of other women.

I believe she knew about his philandering for a very long several months before she finally confronted him and then tossed him out on his ear. Anyway, this woman now proceeds to give excruciating details of who told her where the scum was seen with whom and when and what.

And then she puts the question directly to me: did I know about this?

Flashback to school days. First crushes, first dates, first loves. I remember good loyal girlfriends who will do everything to watch out for you. Protect you. Even lie to cover for you. And we have asked ourselves this: "If you knew my boyfriend/fiance/husband was cheating on me, would you tell me?"

There were two distinct opposing camps on this moral dilemma.

The first camp says no, they will not tell because there is a chance the dalliance will run its course and you will be none the wiser for it.

The second camp says yes, they will tell because you must be given the chance to make an informed decision whether you should devote any more of your time and life to the bastard.

I belong firmly, categorically, unflinchingly to the second camp (surely you can guess?)

Back to the present:

she: did you know?

me: yes. i saw them many times at many places. aren't they disgusting?

she: and you did not tell me?

It felt sooo deliciously good that, finally, I was able to say to her:

why would i? you are not my friend.

That trishaw uncle story

I have been following the trishaw uncle story for a whole week. I have read some of the comments that range from the sympathetic to the vitrolic. One question keeps popping up for me:

Pedalling the trishaw reduces the trishaw rider to little better than a beast of burden. Why do we still have trishaws in Singapore?

And the only answer I come up with is:

We have trishaws in Singapore for the crass amusement of tourists.

That puts the fracas in a whole new perspective for me. And it makes me mad.

I knew you were waiting for me

And the river was deep I didn't falter

When the mountain was high I still believed
When the valley was low it didn't stop me
I knew you were waiting

Knew you were waiting
for me

Aretha Franklin

Turkish Delights, Round 2

Pides and Gozlemes

We could not stop thinking of the decadent experience. Obsession gave way to compulsion. We went back a second time to Turkish Delights.

But this time we have a plan. We will make pigs of ourselves only over the food that really really matter.

We still ended up eating plenty. We ended up nicely stuffed. As opposed to over-stuffed.

No we will absolutely not go back a third time before the promotion ends on November 4. That will be overdoing a good thing.

Desserts to die for

I ended the evening with a little bellydance jamming with Jessica and Zahra. Thank you girls. It was a fun end to a perfect evening.