Pasta Brava with the Czar

We had a "Casual Dinner" ( by the Czar's standard) at Pasta Brava recently to replace the normal Thirsty Thursday at the burrow. Even thou the banking industry is bleeding now but my banking executives friends are clearly not affect by the bloodshed! SPEND SPEND SPEND!

Picture above shows dishes of appetiser that we ordered. The parma ham and rockmelon was good. Mozzarella and tomatoes was quite a let down. However, the king of the appetisers were the sauteed mushroom.ULTRA excellent with smoky flavours and saltish bacon..They wiped the dishes clean before i managed to take my camera out.

Braised Lamb Rack with Green Peas in Redwine sauce: I'd ordered this and the meaty was very juicy and sweet. The red wine sauce wasn't very loud but rather pretty subtle and harmonios with the lamb meat. Good effort but costly at 38sgd.

Chicken in mushroom cream sauce: Ordered by Demona, i was surprised that she did not ordered anything ultra MEATY as she is our in house T-REX monster. NGARM NGARM NGARM. Only... MEAT.....willl make her happy. The chicken was normal and nothing to shout about but i wiped the baked potatoes clean from her plate.. Pretty yummy, tender and filled iwth charred aroma. I like!
Tiramisu: It was so so and slightly on the sweeter side. Not my cup of tea. I believe OSO made a better rendition of Tiramisu, thou without the addition of alcohol thou ( the true original version, according to the Corleone)
The Czar sponsored the wines for the night. Villero Barolo Riserva 1998.
Did not have much impression except this wine was very clean and lean on the palate, with raspberry/cherry note on the nose. Some oak appear on teh nose as well. Elegant but not too complex.Siro Pacenti Vendemmia 2001 Sangiovese:
This wine is highly rated by Robert Parker with the score above 94pt if i'm not wrong. Good complexity on the nose, of dark flowers, berrys, leather. Some evolution on the palate, with licorice, tar to black tea. Very enjoyable but still has alot of potential.

We shared the wines with the owner and he was impressed with it.
Overall, Pasta Brava has an excellent ambiance, but the price, a tad high for minnows like me.
:(

Another windfall treat@Aileen

Demona: There are many nights that I yearn... and Dogma yearns (whenever he comes down) for Aileen's amazing home made fruit smoothies. Filled with PURE goodness (and I mean pure, as in truly wikipedia meaning of pure) : Mixture of bananas, strawberries, mangoes, plain yogurt and ice, nicely blended into this heavenly natural sweetened smoothie.

Dogma was starry starry lucky this time around. Aileen was in her smoothie blending mood when he came down. Each of us had a full mug each of Aileen's awesome smoothie. Spoon by spoon, we smilingly slurped this fruity deliciousness down. After finishing the whole mugful of it, Dogma and I were left..... EUPHORIC.

He looked at me, smiled widely with blurry eyes.

I looked at him, smiled widely with blurry eyes.

We were happy high. Not with magic brownies, but with Aileen's EUPHORIC fruit smoothie.

Plan B Indian dinner@Gayathri's, Race Course Road

Demona: *groans* Our favourite Jaggi's was closed for the day. We strolled along the streets of Lil' India on a busy Sunday, the only day and place that gives you a taste of India and you forget that you are, in fact in Singapore. We browsed on a few menus left outside several restaurants and finally, we used our sharpened knife instincts and took a stab into Gayathri's. I've tried here once, but this place was new to Dogma.


Demona: We ordered a garlic naan. Nothing much to shout about. The garlic pang did not complete its job of wacking our colgate breath out.

Demona: Here's the chicken with yogurt curry. I wanted the varuval initially, but it seemed that this particular Sunday just was not out day. The gravy was quite spicy, and the meat was fairly tender, but the portion was a little small. Overall, the dish was slightly above average... ain't the best we've ate alright.

Demona: We ordered a mutton dom briyani. I've asked my fellow Indian colleagues who are big fans of this dish and this place, it seems that the briyani spiced rice and mutton pieces were cooked slowly, layer by layer into fragrant perfection. However, the impression that we had were otherwise. It somehow tasted as if the rice was cooked long ago and warmed up to us right before serving.

And oh yea.. hello? hello? hello? Where's the mutton? Yuuuuuu huuuuuuuuu? I can't see you!

Okay, I'm sorry. I exaggerated. There were several pieces of mutton inside, but honestly.. it was little.

Demona: Apart from its food, I guess the shop didn't do too bad on this aspect. Airconditioned, ample headcount of waiters, window period for food delivery's also quite short. The one thing that really put me off was that, after paying my bill of SGD 16.40 with SGD 17. the waiter forgot to come back with my change. I waited for a long while before going to the payment counter on my own to ask for it. The guy gave an annoyed look and dug back few receipts before to retrieve mine and mumbled quietly in Tamil before giving back my change.

Even threw in a cynical remark, " Your change.... 60cents only, right?"

Yes. 60 cents ONLY. What rubbish. However big or small an amount, a change is a change. If this thing was done at every table, everyday, how profitable it would be. Might as well call change it to a makan place-but-do-not-expect-any-change-given-back eatery.

I reckon that Dogma and I will not be visiting this place anytime soon.

Demona ponders....

Demona: As baking works well as a great therapeutic method for me, recently, my mind has been hit by all corners of ideas, on what's cool to bake, how do I improve on the few recipes I've done and enjoyed savouring every bit of 'em, and for the past few days.. I've been surfing the net, reading blogs, but have not come to a conclusion on what cake I want to bake, and blow the candles off on my coming quarter century birthday.

If you look at it another way, it may seem a little (haha maybe quite) pathetic that you bake your own birthday cake, rather than having people buying a cake with a rip-off price tag from some franchised bakery.... but I am actually quite excited over the idea of baking my own one for the first time this year.

I'll be 25 in a couple of days time. A quarter century years old. Sounds dramatic, haha. But yeah, time flies. I guess we probably say the same every 16th, 18th, 21st, 25th, and 30th, 40th, 50th birthday and so forth.

While driving back home today along the ECP expressway, my mind wandered off. Suddenly, everything surrounding me seemed disconnected from me. A wise man, with stedfast faith taught us today that people still dwell and harp on worldly things that they've forgotten to real meaning of living. We should live as if we only have a few more months to live. It got me thinking... had I been the same too?

I haven't been on my best lately, definitely jeapordised some tummy growling activities, hehehe. Many things had been changing so quickly at one go, I must admit that my level of perserverence sometimes fall down when uncertainties occur. I realise, however glamourous, simple, challenging, rich, poor, difficult life can be, people change, things change, the surroundings change, but all is good if you are happy, and leave the rest to God.

Work is temporary, money is temporary, worldly things are temporary, what is most important is family and people whom you love and care.

I need to find my life's happiness. For this coming quarter century mark, I think I can make do with a little sparks of happiness from:

1) I am still in good health.
2) my own made birthday cake!
3) celebrating it with my best-est girl friend who shares this special day with me.
4) knowing that my family and close friends are all in good health and I'll continue to pray for them everyday.
5) Dogma is adapting and having good progress at his work in KL. It is challenging for us, sumtimes frustration really kicks in... but if he needs to take this step, I will support him morally as I am away.

WAIT! Hmmmmmm... Demona's being emo here. Back to cakie wakies! What cake am I going to bake?

Suggestions!

Chateau Monbousquet Vertical Tasting

I had a superb Monbousquet vertical tasting recently.. First up was the 1994 Monbousquet. Nose was chalky, filled dark flowers, berries, and some sweet alluring perfume...Slight leather emerges after that. However, palate was pretty hollow and finish is short. However, it was very very classic nose and splended to dirnk on its own. The fruits has dropped much and probablyts its getting downhill from next 2 years on. Drink up! Beautiful!
Next up is the 1997 Monbousquet, Similar classic nose like the 1994 but carried more sweet bright fruit. Floral nose. MMMMM.... On the palate is has brighter acid and fruit is in balance. THe mid palate was very hollow and kinda angular. FInish is short with slight heat. However, pretty classic and nice to dirnk....
The 1996 Monbousquet should be great 5 years down the road, thou still rather tight at this point of time ( 12 years of bottle age). Very balanced fruit and acid, indicating long life ahead. nice perfume nose but with heavier dose of blackcurrant in it. Leathery... Ahh.. this is gooood, thou on the more modern style compared to the 94/97
Things started to get too modern for my liking 1998 onwards. Big fruits, heavy body, very very tight even after 2-3 hours of decanting. long finish with high alcohol... Need... To.... Keeepppp...15 more years before poppping another bottle.. The 1998 is huge but still bearable.1999 Monbousquet: Heavy, dark , almost ink like colour. Nose was big with significant fruits, alcohool Very tight body and heavy... Too modern............
2001 Monboesquet: This is ultra heavy and at its infancy. For the 1998/99/2001, keep it in your cellar for another 12 years before even trying to drink it. Too tight and big for my liking. Probably I'll enjoy it 20 years down the road.


Overall, I find the 94 and 97 very sexy and elegant, with classic Bordeaux nose. Good to dirnk it along...
The 1996 was at the verge of going in to the Parkerized league.... but a good balance of both world. It should be very beautiful if you give it a couple more years in the bottle.

However, the 98/99 and 2001 is extremely modern. Big Parkerized Fruit bomb that is not to my liking.. Too extracted.. Probably it will takes a long time to reveal the potential.