Anyeong Noona

Showing posts with label City Hall. Show all posts

"When you're happy like a fool, let it take you over."

The beauty of a Wednesday off is you only have to work for 2 days and then a holiday and then another 2 days and it's weekend, guys! Every Wednesday should be a holiday, no? Noona told this to her next-table colleague and this colleague announced it to the boss within split second. Noona kinda wonders if this colleague just loves to tease her or wants to put her career in jeopardy, really.

The last time Noona visited South Beach at Esplanade, she actually wanted to bring her friend to drink chocolate at Caffe Vergnano 1882 but the cafe was closed somehow. Weird since it was only 7PM-ish when we visited South Beach for the first time. Anyway, being a never-give-up kind of friend, Noona's friend now dragged Noona back to South Beach to re-visit Caffe Vergnano and this time, her perseverance paid off.

Oink Noona: Caffe Vergnano 1882, South Beach

It seems that the speciality for Caffe Vergnano is the drink. The cafe has a variety of coffee and brewed coffee to choose from but Noona did not feel like having some caffeine dose back then.

Coffee menu from Caffe Vergnano 1882 at South Beach

So she immediately flipped the menu right into Chocoholic section. There are so many good-looking chocolate drinks here at Caffe Vergnano, Noona and her friend were kinda having some difficulties to decide which one to order.

Chocolates Menu from Caffe Vergnano 1882 at South Beach

If you are into desserts, Caffe Vergnano also has some sweet items to offers on its display case from muffins, to slices of cakes.

Muffin and cakes from Caffe Vergnano 1882 at South Beach

And even pastries like croissants and bagels. However, Noona do notice that the price-tag for these desserts seem to be on the high-end.

Croissants from Caffe Vergnano 1882 at South Beach

Here comes our order of Nocciolino (SGD 6) and Delizioso (SGD 6). Nocciolino is described as chocolate hazelnut latte while Delizioso is described as nutella latte. Both drinks taste a bit similar although Delizioso is more on the sweeter side compared to Nocciolino. Caffe Vergnano is a nice place to chill and chat over life with a good mate and chocolate is definitely one of the best chatting companion when you are chilling out with friends.

Chocolate drinks from Caffe Vergnano 1882 at South Beach

Caffe Vergnano 1882 is located at:

26 Beach Road, South Beach Avenue

#B1-17

Nearest MRT: Esplanade MRT

Opening hours:

Monday to Friday - 7AM to 8PM

Saturday and Sunday - 10AM to 7PM

"Wanna take a spin? Wanna take a roll?

You know you're dealing with a wildcard."

Anyeong! Noona has just finished her midweek dinner date with her high school buddy, R5. Since R5 has gotten married, it's kinda challenging to find a common timing for us to date each other. Especially since both of us have gotten ourselves busy with work work work. Ugh. But today R5 has agreed to my date invitation. Yeay! So we went to the hipster office cum retail space at Esplanade, South Beach to have a lovely dinner.

R5 was so tired after dealing with her day-to-day task. Noona finds this quite ironic because she's not working in a profit-driven organization. In fact, she's working in those non-profit education organization which people presumes to be quite family-friendly and work-life balance supporter. Turns out there are so many things to do everyday up to the point that she simply feels so drained with her weekdays. Since R5 was feeling so tired, Noona let her choose what to eat for tonight.

And that's how we came to Atmastel. The name of the restaurant is kinda hard to pronounce but anyway, the most important is the venue and the food. From the menu, Atmastel seems to specialize in pasta and pizza. Oh wait, it also offers some mains to select from.

Atmastel at South Beach Esplanade Singapore

We were actually planning to eat pizza but the pizza chef was on sick leave that day. If all the chefs are having an epidemic, the restaurant will have to close for the day for sure. Apparently chefs are a very high-calling job. If you are working as a chef, please ensure to be healthy always. Anyway, back to the food, since there are only the two of us, we only ordered one appetizer and one pasta to share. For the appetizer, we ordered Calamari & Zucchini Fritters (SGD 18). While Noona personally thinks nothing can or shall go wrong with fried calamari, the zucchini fritters are so interesting. It's basically deep fried zucchini and the feeling is like you are eating fries and yet it's technically healthier because zucchini is after all a type of vegetable. Right?

Calamari and zucchini fritters from Atmastel at South Beach

The pasta that we ordered does not look pretty and in fact, it looks kinda ordinary. However, the Garganelli with Homemade Sausage (SGD 21) tastes yummy despite its so-so appearance. This was the first time Noona has ever heard of a pasta type named Garganelli. It is apparently an egg-based pasta which is formed by rolling a flat, square noodle into tubular shape.

Garganeli with homemade sausage from Atmastel at South Beach

The pasta is chewy and really suitable to Noona's liking. But what Noona loves the best about the pasta is definitely the tomato sauce since it's on the creamier side. Noona is a creamy pasta eater and she does not really love eating Aglio Olio kind of pasta so this Garganelli scores big in her book. Hahaha.

Atmastel is located at:

South Beach Avenue,

26 Beach Road #B1-22

Nearest MRT: Esplanade

Opening hours:

Monday to Thursday 11AM - 10PM

Friday and Saturday 11AM - 11PM

Closed on Sunday

"We'll run wild, we'll be glowing in the dark."

Anyeong! It has been a long time since the last time Noona wrote something on her blog. If you are wondering what's she been up to recently, well, nothing much to be honest. Except for the fact that she has become lazier and lazier and hence, turned into Oink Noona. The idea for Oink Noona is that since Noona has been eating so much lately, she will share with you what's nice and what's not and even her latest attempt to lose weight by eating out (no cooking allowed at Oink Noona's rented place). So let's start the premiere of Oink Noona blog series by something sweet, shall we?

Last Monday, Oink Noona and her chingu needed to recover badly from Monday blues and hence, they made their way to Milk & Honey Artisan Yoghurt & Dessert Bar at Marina Square to have a bite of yoghurt parfait.

You can create your own parfait but if you do not want to think so much about what goes well with what. We are more of the latter so we just spent our time looking at the choices listed under Signature Yogurt Parfaits board.

Signature yoghurt parfait from Milk & Honey at Marina Square

When you are confused about what to order, you can take a look at the various type of toppings provided first to give you certain degree of encouragement. Noona finds the toppings offered by Milk & Honey seem to be yummier than Llao Llao's.

Yoghurt toppings from Milk & Honey at Marina Square

After meditating and discussing for 5 minutes, we have decided to share Honey Velvet yogurt parfait (SGD 6.8). The parfait comes with red velvet bits, cereal flakes, chocolate pieces, vanilla macaron and a drizzle of honey.

Honey Yoghurt Parfait from Milk & Honey at Marina Square

While we were happily eating the parfait, the chingu suddenly gave Noona the snack loot from Japan. Aww, she's such a sweet friend and she knows what Noona loves. SNACKS.

Japanese snacks from Milk & Honey at Marina Square

For belated birthday gift, Noona also received Line Friends fur blanket. Brown and Cony feel so happy sleeping under the blanket now. =)

Milk & Honey Artisan Yoghurt & Dessert Bar is located at:

#03-128, Marina Square

6 Raffles Boulevard

Opening hours:

Daily 11AM - 10PM

Anyeong! Merry Christmas peeps. Noona just realised she has not really listened to Christmas songs apart from the songs blasted throughout the shopping malls in Singapore and in church earlier and last Sunday. So finally, she decided to turn on Michael Buble's classic Christmas album tonight, when it's practically Boxing Day already. #betterlatethannever

Noona and her two best friends from junior and senior high school decided to hold their annual Christmas celebration at Prego Ristorante at Fairmont Hotel, which is located in City Hall. The restaurant is fully decked in Christmas decoration as well to blend with the festive season.

K-in-Singapore: Prego Ristorante, Fairmont Hotel

Noona's friend managed to secure a set menu at the price of SGD 55 nett per person and as the restaurant seems to be pretty packed, a lot of people may have snatched the same deal which could be bought from SISTIC. She forgot to print out the voucher though and had a momentary panic attack but thankfully the staff is nice enough to help us print the voucher (although it takes him or her quite a long time to think about a solution, a 30 minutes of thinking to be exact).

Christmas dinner at Prego Ristorante City Hall

Just like any other Italian restaurant in town, Prego Ristorante gives you a complimentary basket of bread but after tasting the complimentary bread served at Bread Street Kitchen at Marina Bay Sands, this basket of bread pale in comparison. The chili bits are nice though, especially when mixed with olive oil and vinegar.

Complimentary bread from Prego Ristorante City Hall

The set menu allows diners to choose one antipasti (appetiser), one pasta dish, one meal-of-the-day (i.e. Beef Stew), and one dessert for each person. However, the dishes that you can order are fairly limited to certain items. Pizza is totally excluded from the selection too and Noona is somewhat disappointed because she heard the pizza is really good here. Anyway, we ordered a plate of fried calamari and two plates of parma ham for the antipasti. Noona thinks her Omma can fry better calamari, sorry Prego.

Fried calamari from Prego Ristorante at Fairmont Hotel

Noona is not really the pro when judging a dish involving parma ham but her friend does not really like this. Especially after she tried the better version of parma ham served at Basilico. Noona makes a mental note that she should probably visit Basilico one day in the year 2017 since she's not going to go there in the following week.

Parma Ham and Rock Melon from Prego Ristorante

The pasta comes in a super unglamorous plate ever amongst the Italian restaurants that Noona has visited so far in Singapore. Her friend immediately commented whether we are eating at Prego or Pastamania. (Hmm, another mental note to try out Pastamania one of this day).

Pasta from Prego Ristorante Fairmont Hotel

The first pasta is crabmeat fusili in cream sauce. Noona is a fan of fusili especially when it's cooked al dente so this dish is passable to her. Hahaha.

Crabmeat Fusili from Prego Ristorante Fairmont Hotel

For the next pasta, we decided to go with something Pescatore (i.e. Seafood). The seafood pasta is served in tomato sauce. The amount of seafood given is pretty generous Noona feels. Okay, another passable score then.

Spaghetti Pescatora from Prego Ristorante Fairmont Hotel

The ravioli though...okay, the supposedly spinach and ricotta ravioli fares the worst in Noona's book. M&S Cafe serves a better version of tomato based spinach and ricotta ravioli really.

Spinach and Ricota Ravioli from Prego Ristorante Fairmont Hotel

Okay, after the pasta dishes are served, here comes the next item on the menu, the beef stew. It looks like nothing much but the beef stew is really filling Noona up. The plating is not consistent though with a plate filled with more meats and a plate filled with more vegetables. Hahaha. So funny, we were already very critical at this stage and started scrutinizing every little details of the plate.

Beef Stew from Prego Ristorante Fairmont Hotel

Okay since everyone has the same main, the beef stew, nothing much can be said about our main-of-the-day. Let's move on to the next item on the list, dolci (re: desserts). Noona's friend straight away went into rage mode when she saw the caramel apple sponge cake. Actually Noona does not think that badly of this dish although it looks kinda uhm she dunno...Noona's friend become more forgiving after she tasted a bite though. Hahaha.

Caramel Apple Dessert from Prego Ristorante

The other dessert fares better and Noona personally thinks Prego should not even be able to mess up the classic Italian dessert, the tiramisu. By the way, do you guys often get choked on tiramisu powder when eating this baby? (Or does that only happen to Noona? LOL).