it's been quite a while since i've been curious with the resto that replaced our old crispy pata haunt. so i decided to invite some friends and give it a try over the weekend.
the resto's name is il padrino located at wo on lane in central.
upon entry, i immediately felt the place was pretentious. it was trying to have this italian al fresco feel but trying to be high-class as well.
i had a booking, so the lady front of house led me to our table. it's a pizzeria so i was wearing simple shirt and jeans, and i was tugging along my gym bag as i always do for saturday dinner.
i sat down and settled in, then instead of handing me a menu, a waitress approached me and asked "do you have a booking?" as if questioning why i am there. note that the place is practically empty and that there's only 5 of us in the booking list. i said yes and she went to get the menu.
i booked a table for 4, but since friends cancelled, dinner ended up to be a "date" with lou. unfortunately lou fell asleep and left the house late.
i waited for lou for about half an hour, but that was okay. what i didn't appreciate was the look i was getting at the resto. there were these two papa bears - one chinese and one caucasian - who kept on giving me a look that says "are you going to order or what?". we reckon they are either the owners or managers.
you see them look at your table then check the pos terminal then have a heated discussion with the wait staff. hey, all these in full view of all customers.
throughout the night, these negative vibe from these two papa bears - especially the caucasian - was a cloud over your head that prevented you from enjoying your meal. in tagalog, masyado silang maligalig. papa bears were wearing black t-shirts. they kept walking back and forth looking stressed and concerned and grump. you just end up feeling uncomfortable and unwelcomed.
it doesn't help that you notice these papa bears give personal treatment to caucasian customers, and do not attend to asian customers unless they're with caucasians. the chinese papa bear spoke to the chinese sitting behind us, but i guess that's because they were dressed-up to the nines.
as for lou and i, we weren't dressed like trash, but we were made to feel like we weren't supposed to be there. and when we left the resto, the chinese papa bear said goodbye without even facing us or making any eye contact. ang bastos!
some of the wait staff saved this place from becoming a total crap. the lady fronting the house was smiling and was always helpful. the pinay who served most of our dishes was very helpful too (except that she kept on calling me "kuya"!). the rest were indifferent.
i know, italian meals are supposed to be about fun and family, not snobbish. the food at il padrino was great. but the place was cold and unwelcoming.
so if you're looking for good pasta and pizza, and nice warm service at a place that's very welcoming then il padrino is definitely NOT the resto to go to.
il padrino
new toy
ladies and gentlemen, meet my brand new toy...
... a juicer.
yes, it works wonders (read, freshly squeezed juice with minimal effort). and the damage, only hk$9.50.
now i can enjoy freshly squeezed lemon juice that i kept on craving for ever since i came down with a flu and suffered a bad sore throat last week.
all about food
after 2 months of laziness, i finally managed to write about my first-ever trip to singapore (and update my blog after a year).
my first trip to singapore - it's all about food food and more food.
when i tell people all i did in singapore was eat, some say it's because there's nothing else to do. but since i LOVE to eat, it's all that mattered!
i had the luxury of having a singaporean as host. my partner chris graciously showed me around and let me sample (yes, i haven't tried everything) the flavors of singapore.
i only had one clear instruction to chris: no fancy meals, just the stuff singaporeans would normally eat day-to-day, plus food that are distinctly singapore.
this is quite long. just read (and salivate) at your own pleasure.
day 1: june 14
so within an hour from landing on june 14th, there i was trying out local food at the foodcourt ran by the airport staff.
chris made me try and order something. so i got a mix of fried mee hoon (bihon), ngo hiang rolls (kikiam) and sauteed eggplant.
well, let's just say i need more coaching on what's good to eat in singapore. good thing is chris came to the rescue and got something much much better.
so here's my first meal in singapore: fishball noodle soup, chinese rojak, and the mixed food i got.
about 3 hours after, i'm once again downing another meal. this time, ayam paggang (malaysian chicken barbeque) at plaza singapura. forgot to take a photo though.
later that night, chris took me on a tour of singapore's red light district - geylang. we walked the alleys in the midst of swarms of female prostitutes (damn!) and houses-cum-brothels. it was kinda freaked out that i was really walking fast the whole time.
and what's the best way to cap a trip to the red-light district? a midnight snack consisting of a hearty serving of braised frog legs and fried oyster cake.
day 2: june 15
on my second day, we headed along tanjong katong road (don't ask me where it exactly is - i couldn't remember) to sample a good shrimp laksa, otak-otak (fish cakes), nasi lemak (rice with egg and anchovies), and calamansi juice.
let's just say, i absolutely loved the laksa.
then, we headed down to marine parade for a walk, and ended up getting some fried wonton dry noodles. (note that this was less than 2 hours after lunch!)
from marine parade, we made our way to bugis where i had a photo of my aura taken. just wanted to try it out. findings were interesting.
to sum it up, at the point when the photo was taken, i was in a state of growth, healing and renewal. which means i'm entering a period of transformation and new beginnings.
we were planning to head for the zoo and the night safari that night. we took the mrt all the way to ang mo kio, then had to change plans, so we can meet up with my friend from college, tiffy.
so we headed back downtown. met tiffy. and had a big dinner at lau pa sat consisting of barbeque stingray, hokkien shrimp rolls, fried raddish cake, fried hokkien mee, chicken satay and ice kacang for dessert.
day 3: june 16
we headed down the cbd once again on the third day to do tourist-y stuff: the ducktour. but of course, before hoping onto the boat, we grabbed a quick bite at a nearby foodcourt.
lunch consisted of nasi goreng, with chris' order of squid and kangkong on the side.
we went on a ducktour after lunch. let me say the experience was fun - and a disappointment (it was raining the whole day that day).
anyhow, after the tour, of course, we had to grab something to eat (again).
this time, dropped by kenny rogers. we just wanted the corn muffin, but ended up getting a quarter chicken and 2 side dishes - for snacks.
walked around, fed some koi fish, walked around again, then grabbed a cup of ice cream (told you this trip is all about food).
we then decided to head down south to vivo city just to check out what's this new place all about.
from down south, we headed north (talk about a hectic day) to the night safari. the trip included an mrt and a bus ride, which took over an hour - enough time to rest our tired legs.
the safari was something. seeing nocturnal animals up close was great. unfortunately i didn't know how to operate my digicam, so no photos from here (didn't see the tarsier either).
we left the zoo past 10pm already and we were starving. we didn't know where to grab a late dinner then realized that there's a 24-hour hawker center behind the ang mo kio transport hub.
so for dinner we had some more popular "local" food: grilled chicken wings, and xiao wan mian (小碗麵), which included fish balls, braised mushrooms, dry noodles and a hotpot.
day 4: june 17
after quite a busy day, we decided to just take it easy on my last full day in singapore.
we started later than usual, heading for the lavender street hawker center past noon for lunch. this time, i sampled singapore's char siu noodles, fried kway teow, fried carrot cake, and popiah (lumpia).
after lunch we headed down to orchard road to meet up with another college friend, tina, who i didn't know moved to singapore recently to be with her other half.
orchard lives up to being singapore's main tourist and shopping area. it's like causeway bay on weekends - busy and crowded. and while walking along orchard, i realized that it's just like central on a sunday - it's full of pinoys.
after practically walking a good stretch of orchard, we grabbed a nonya rice dumpling then boarded a bus to bugis for an appointment with his chinese doctor.
got a (really painful) chinese massage and cupping from the chinese doctor. he explained the pain was due to tension blockage, plus rheumatism.
from the bugis area, we headed back down to the cbd for dinner. and while i told chris i didn't want fancy meals, he insisted on a good dinner for my last night with him in singapore.
we went for a nice shanghainese dinner at the mall/hotel across the "chopsticks" memorial. of course, and what would a shanghai meal be without xiao long bao and jade sprouts?
then we capped the night with some typical singapore desserts: ice jelly and ice soursop.
day 5: june 18
it's my last day in singapore. it was the day i dreaded - not because i'm heading back to work, but because i'm leaving my chris behind.
after packing my stuff, we headed down the beach for a leisurely walk before grabbing lunch. it was a nice day, a stark contrast from the dreary weather on day 3. damn!
we walked to the marine parade hawker center, where we had mee siam (similar to palabok) and fried shrimp kway teow. yummy.
after lunch we went back to tanjong katong road to buy some rice dumplings to bring back to hk, then took a cab back home - got a plane to catch in a little over a couple of hours.
and since chris knows me so well that he just had to bring me to a restaurant at the airport terminal to have an ice cream before i finally crossed the immigration checkpoint.
needless to say, i did put on a few pounds and centimeters after that holiday! more photos here.