Marco Marco @ Novena Square

Noticed that they seemed to have more items in their menu. Plus, there are more choices for mains that could be redeemed with The Entertainer App. Yay! Except, that there was no signal in this area. Incredibile!

Anyway, we ordered the Melbourne Pizza and the Roma. The food arrived fairly quickly, with the pasta making its appearance known by the smell of the cheese.

The Roma looked and tasted like a dry carbonara. Has bacon, pecorino and parmesan cheese, an egg yolk and some chives. My preference for its pasta is still The Jaipur. Fusion yes, but scores in the stronger taste.

The Roma @$12++

Next up, was The Melbourne Pizza. This pizza ought to be shared amongst two pax. Though the pizza doesn't look like its picture in the menu, the toppings were actually adequate. But noticed that its pricing had went up since they haven't update their website menu.

The Melbourne @$16++

It has beef salami, bacon strips, turkey ham, red onion and capsicums with tomato based sauce and cheese ontop. Tasty when eaten hot.

Milagro Spanish Restaurant @ Orchard Central

If you have the opportunity to be at Orchard Central during lunch hour on a week-day, you might want to check out their lunch sets. There are two price range for the lunch set meals; $19.90+ or $26.90+ for two course-meal or three course-meal respectively.

There was at least five choices for entrees, mains and desserts. Pretty impressive, I must say. Being a small eater, was happy to do two-courses. Chose the pan-seared seabass as the main, and tiramisu for desserts.

The fish took the longest time to arrive. You can say, it was the last to be served. The Chicken Harissas and pasta all came way earlier...

pan-seared seabass served with sauteed mushrooms, salad, rice and salsa verde

The fish was kind of burning hot from the pan. Cooked quite nicely, but need a tad more seasoning.

Was very happy with my choice of dessert. Served in a jar, and it was just scoop after scoop of delightful yummy-ness.

Here's the tiramisu 3-shots:

tiramisu in a jar

looks good

taste good!

Dian Xiao Er 店小二 @ Lot One Choa Chu Kang

Haven't been here for a while. Dad wanted to have his birthday meal here, so that was where we brought him. The must-have dish? 东坡肉. Here's a link to last year's visit with the family. But this was the first time that we got to sit at the inner section though. Not many customers that night, or our dinner was rather late too. Around 8pm.

inner section

A set meal for 5 pax would be $108 (before GST). But we didn't get that. Went for ala-carte instead. 5 adults so we got ourselves 5 dishes. Two vegetables, two meats and one tofu.

Assorted Mushroom (三菇时蓅)  - Small @$13.60++

Dad's favourite Dong Po Pork (东坡肉) - Small @$14.30++

The broccoli was rather firm and crunchy. The three mushrooms were shitake, king oyster mushroom and abalone mushroom, served with tasty oyster sauce. The pork was as usual, could've spent more time in the braise. Not too fatty and the sauce wasn't overwhelming. Mild and pleasant. Doesn't feel greasy.

Nai Bai in Superior Broth 百花奶白 - Small @$9.90++

The Nai Bai certainly looks like a healthier choice. The broth has a milky white sheen to it and the goji berries lent some sweetness to the taste. Surprising find, was the strands of crab meat in the broth. Comparatively, this plate was of a good price. Unfortunately, mom can't eat this due to the crab meat in it.

Hotplate tofu 铁板菜香豆腐 - Small @$11.60++

The best dish to go with the steamed rice would be the hotplate tofu. Tasty tofu smothered in thickened minced meat sauce. There was a thin layer of egg at the bottom of the plate. So yums. Could finish a whole bowl of rice with this sauce alone.

Chicken in Chinese Wine 古早黄酒鸡 - Medium

One of the SG50 dish, we also ordered the Chicken in Chinese Wine (yellow wine?). Keke, confinement food! The wine taste was really mild. Wished it was stronger. Once upon a time, many many years ago (actually, aeons ago) when my mom had my sister, I can still remember the taste of the yellow wine ginger egg. Hahaha! Yup, I ate her confinement food. There was fried chicken wings too! It made sense now. My love for fried chicken wings started then...

Happy Birthday to 爸, you were the one that held my hand when I was younger, and fed me panadol when I had fever. 生日快乐。