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summer's special.

For the carnivore in you.

Bian rou reminds me of dinner in Hualien, Taiwan.

Appetizer of black fungus and orange rind.

Munch munch.

Heng hwa fried beehoon.

Chock full of ingredients.

This wasn't my idea of five spiced prawn rolls.

There was nary a taste of five spice.

I'm not sure if there was prawn in there somewhere.

But it had a huge chunk of crunchy chestnut that was very refreshing amidst all that meat.

The batter was crisp and best eaten hot dipped in sweet sauce or their addictive spicy sour garlic chilli mix. 

We had the bian rou soup too.

It was wanton broth.

Probablyboiled with dried anchovies.

Small little of minced pork parcels were quite the treat to
eat.

Oops and I just drank one down unknowingly. :)

Notice anything amiss?

The lala clams were not there!

Not a single one.

And guess what they did after I told them?

I got a small saucer of 5 small cooked clams.

Hmm.

Hmmmm.

In any case,

this honestly pales in comparison to Old House @ 25 Neil Road.

It seems now my only reason for coming back to Pu Tien is gone.

And we finally made it for the salted caramel venti frappucino run. :)

ohmyyum.

See the whipped cream?

Drizzled with salted caramel and sugar crystals.

Love comes in the form of caramel, sugar, salt, milk and whipped cream FAT!

Roasted three layer pork and roast chicken.

$3 option.

Smelt good.

Eat up before the long ride.

Dive safe hey.

Sebastian Mix Fusion Cuisine

You've got to give credit to a chef who has a stall sign of his own namesake.

Psychedelic lines inspired by the colored parallels from paul smith,

flanked by a logo of his own caricature.

Wasabi prawns.

The sauce could be tweaked.

Taste of wasabi was not evident.

Perhaps wasabi powder/ paste instead of what's currently used?

And i even know what goes into the batter.

A tad salty but still a good choice while waiting for the mains to arrive. ;)

Now this, was a culinary genius in fusion cuisine.

Prawn and lala vongole.

Who needs mussels.

Honestly.

These clams were small yet plentiful.

A couple of prawns.

 But the best was yet to be.

-The broth-

It was simply lipsmackingly delicious.

Thick with clam juice.

The taste of the sea never was so satisfying.

Spiced with the addition of chilli flakes,

This was a dangerous appetite opener.

Tread with caution.

But heck,

It's a selfish dish.

Don't bother sharing.

Slurp it all up anyway.

Beef and mushroom stroganoff with japanese rice.

The addition of white and black roasted sesame seeds was subtle yet spoke volumes of a fusion menu.

The sauce was a good balance of savoury thickened with cream.

Additions of capsicums and mixed mushrooms

countered the heaviness of red meat with cream.

Ample strips of striploin were used for this dish.

(pun totally intended :))

And i could finish up the entire portion of rice.

Thanks or no thanks, really, to the sauce.

And just on a side note,

He had an experimental day of wagyu beef (marbling score of 4/5) with rice.

6 slabs of meat all sold out in a day.

That's an affirmative definitely to be tested on the repeat.

And I'm sure he'd oblige if you made an advanced request. :)

The steady stream of customers till closing was heartening.

And pretty impressive especially since there was a western stall just a couple of stores away.

Then again, if the food was good.

Competition is always welcome. :)

Don't mistake this for pride.

It's Confidence.

Tucked away in a coffeeshop on everton park.

Drop in on the boss.

He's quietly humble.

And loves his food.

If he says that the lala broth tastes like prawn soup, feel free to disagree.

Tell him it tastes like clam broth!

Or buy him prawn noodles.

I'm doing that next time round.

Try it for yourself.

And if I hadn't said so,

I'll definitely be back for more. :)

Coming home to this baby put a smile on my face.

I love playing with you.

but not after my bath please?

7 years old, 49 in dog years.

You're a ripe old age but still every bit of that energetic sweetheart i've grown accustomed to.

:)

Fondamenta della Misericordia Venice

After a day's worth of Murano and Burano, the outlying islands of Venice, Dad was the grumpiest man alive.

No, it wasn't the islands. We pretty much enjoyed our island hopping experience taking the boat from Fondamenta Nuove to Murano and taking our mini glass making tour, taking a switch of boats to get to Burano where we unfortunately missed seeing women doing lace handicrafts but we were rewarded by colorfully painted quaint houses and a special knit dress buy for me :)

Oh, so about Dad. It was lunch time and we had been walking about looking for Fondamenta something or other with bags of groceries (there aren't many stores around Venice so we thought it's best to grab what we wanted when we saw one) Nigel and his bags of pasta almost broke our arms and backs carrying those around.

Eventually we settled on Fondamenta della Misericordia. It would have honestly become pure misery for us had we gone on to search for the original place we wanted to get to for their recommended lunch sets.

Lunch sets in Venice are good value for money if you know where to find them.

Apparently according to so many reviews from tourists, prices rise exponentially for dinner. There's even a difference dining al fresco or indoors. In this kind of winter, I'll pay the difference to dine indoors.

The lunch set came with starter, main and sides selection. If I don't remember wrong, it was 13 Euros per set. The clams pasta was cooked just right, not al dente that made it too hard. There was just enough sauce to coat the pasta and clams that although had shrunk to the tiniest possible, tasted fresh and marinated well. :)

The beef lagsane was a pleasant surprise. Made with a white cream sauce, it was rich and had a fair amount of minced beef enveloped within the sheets of pasta. Small quantity but more than enough for sharing.

Then there were the mains. The grilled chicken was a little dry and this probably due to the fact that it's probably chicken breast and lacking in fat content to lock in some juices which being grilled. I distinctly remember ordering swordfish steak but after a few mouthfuls, I was pretty sure this was chicken.

Then there was squid that was served in a black mass.

I was bracing myself for horridly pungent taste of the sea (my previous experience of squid ink was at Saizeraiya at City Square Mall that was just the messiest ever with black stains all over my mouth and a very pungent fishy smell) but there was none of it.

The squid rings were fresh. Tender and chewy coated with a sauce to remember. There was no fishy taste. It was decadent and ohsogood to dip my chicken pieces and bread into. Now this was NOT meant for sharing.

For sides we had two servings of fries that were mediocre and no there were no drinks included. Dad was too used to having tea/ coffee as part of his sets and ordered two shots of espresso which were way too bitter to be drunk black and costing 1.50 Euros each.

Four people sharing two lunch sets. I was full from the fries and bread sticks amongst other nibbles but there's always space for dessert.

Guess what it could be? :)

Once upon a time...

Once upon a time...

Mr Herbivore :)

meats. i mean, meets Ms Carnivore.

Falls in love

And then there was. Lil' Seafood-ivore. 

With a couple of tablespoons of dashi miso paste...

And some other additions

They came, they swam, they cooked.

A one pot bubbling dish for the family of Omnivores.

And they ate happily ever after.