Anyeong Noona

When you are unemployed, you suddenly have a lot of time on your hands. Chances are you will start to think of what to achieve in life while at the same time, looking for a new source of cash flow. After all, the rental and daily expenses will not pay by themselves. Looking back at those busy times at the bank, I don’t really have the time to take care of both my weight and love life. I figure, a break may be a good time to pursue both goals. After all, both has always on the list of every new year’s resolution. 

TO-DO-LIST DURING BREAK:

1. Find new job

2. Lose weight

3. Revive dying love life

I am quite surprised with my own ability to create a to-do-list because after all, I am the type who does not really follow my own plan. Blame it on the “P” of my INFP personality, maybe? Looking at the above to-do-list again, I suppose 3 things on your to-do-list does not really make it an achievement or something. I wonder how am I gonna do the above three things on my list but I guess I’ll think about it while finishing the Lychee Rosewater Cake. 

On second thought, do I really need include task #3 in the to-do-list? Hmm. 

Where to get the Lychee Rosewater Cake: Suzette, 8 Raffles Avenue, #01-13E Esplanade Mall, Singapore

Opening times: Tue 12PM - 7PM, Wed - Thu 12PM - 10PM, Fri - Sat 12PM - 11PM, Sun 12PM - 9.30PM, Mon Closed

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. 

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. 

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

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. 

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. 

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

We were considering getting ourselves wasted by looking at the alcohol collection that Fynn's offers but decided not to go down to that route because we still have to wake up early the next day. And an impromptu sick leave due to hangover does not seem to help with our career progression. Not that we are ambitious or anything but we cannot afford being unemployed in this uncertain time. XD

E could not help not to order her caffeine fix though because she claims she has been slaving all day at work without breaks in between and hence, now she's about to doze to dreamland. Wait, caffeine does not really work on E so Noona thinks she just created an excuse to justify her late-caffeine-intake. Not that we will condemn her or anything, mind you. She commented the coffee is so so. 

When our order of Cavatelli (i.e. Homemade pasta with broken pork sausages, red wine braised octopus, parmesan, fennel seeds, and savory tomato sauce) arrived, we went into self-reflection mode immediately because to be honest with you, we thought the portion given by Fynn's for its homemade pasta is rather small. We started to wonder if Fynn's does not encourage sharing. 

Our guess has turned into confirmation because the Sirloin Steak arrived at minuscule size as well. We know that we're about to leave this place hungry just by looking at these two plates. Taste-wise, both the homemade pasta and sirloin steak are actually quite nice. If only they can be bigger. Hahaha. 

Despite the fact that we still have a lot of empty space in our tummy, we did not want to order another main dish or pasta and decided to go straight for the dessert. Among the three available choices for the dessert, we thought chocolate seems to be the best choice for everybody since none has allergic/ hatred for chocolate. The Chocolate Semifredo is actually a quirky kind of dessert with the chocolate being served together with olive oil, salt and pepper. The taste combination kinda makes Noona's tastebud confused because she's more traditional in terms of palette and she kinda expects her chocolate to be either sweet or bitter but not spicy. E & Y seemed to deal with this kind of "quirky-invention" better though. 

Fynn's is located at: 

26 Beach Road #B1-21

South Beach Avenue

Opening hours:

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.  

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?

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. 

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

The cafe looks cozy and nice and there were not many people at dinner time on a Saturday. Not sure if that's normal or bad for business though. Hahaha. 

Nigiro Cafe seems to be a Japanese Italian restaurant because the decoration of the cafe kinda remind you of Italian restaurant. The comfy home diner that kind. Not that Noona has ever been to Italy though. 

Talking about Italy, a friend of Noona has just shared on her FB that it's so freaking dangerous for anybody travelling alone in Italy. She boarded on a regional train from Verona to Venezia and then, there were 2-3 people dressed up neatly who chose to sit in front of her despite the fact that there were many empty seats in the train. One of them tried to engage Noona's friend in conversation in Italian language and tried to borrow her phone charger. Noona's friend replied in Italian that she's using it. The funny thing is after she said that, the man took out his own charger and Noona's friend started to get suspicious. Cause who on earth ask to borrow other people's charger when he has his own charger, really. After a while, these men moved along and left the train at the next station. Thankfully nothing has happened to Noona's friend and her belongings. So damn cunning and annoying these pests. Really. 

While travel stories are being shared, our food has finally came to our table. Nigiro Cafe offers pasta, pizza and main dishes in their menu. They have also embraced the high technology of using Ipad to show menu instead of paper menu. Since it is a Japanese Italian restaurant (kinda reminded Noona of Ma Maison at Bugis), you can see a lot of fusion dishes between Japanese and Italian cooking. For instance, this is Nigiro Cafe's rendition of Kinoko Pasta. Kinoko is a type of mushroom in Japan. Nigiro Cafe mix them and bacon with spaghetti and serve them up in cream sauce (carbonara). 

We were in the mood to eat pizza too so we ordered a plate of Mentaiko Potato Pizza. This pizza taste so cheesy and super filling for two people because of it is heavily loaded with carbo (pizza dough + potato = overkill). A superb food to destroy your diet but other than that, the pizza taste pretty good to be honest with you. Hahaha. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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