pasta fresca da salvatore, boat quay

ah, the lure of pork fat and cheese – and wine and pasta. I have a soft spot for italian eating – it’s hearty and delicious, and comforting and fresh with its honest, clear flavours.

pasta fresca da salvatore has been around for quite a while (nearly three decades!), and it’s one of those places that feels spectacularly appropriate for a cozy dinner with friends and wine. I was gobsmacked by the sheer range of food on the menu – as so would you be, even ignoring the fact that they allow you to customize anything from the noodle to the sauce they sit in (very good for fussy eaters who insist on customising their food a particular way – hi mum!)

OCF singapore, boat quay

expensive french (or european fusion, more like) restaurant, with a fantastic location at boat quay and gorgeous both within (all dark, sleek modern) and with-out in its gorgeous colonial housing, but serving dinky-sized dishes and slightly pompous service.

we had come here buoyed on the man’s high expectations – read a lot, imagined a lot – only to be met with tiny dishes that barely kept us satisfied at the end of meal, exacerbated by slow serving.

sur | nuevo latino kitchen, clarke quay

decent south-american near boat quay – and I mean decent in that the food was rather pleasant and accessible for a virgin eater-of-that-region. this cuisine is going through a renaissance in the singapore food scene – it’s safe to say it’s never been nearly as popular as it is now, and so a good time to educate myself.

it was a meal of ceviche, arepita and grilled meats – and though the food didn’t wow us, the flavors were agreeable and uncommon enough to be interesting.