Dinner @ Casa Tartufo

Hope everyone is not feeling any Monday blues today :) I was away last week in BKK for a short trip. Back to work today & counting down till the next public holiday! Still in holiday mood, so here's another Xmas related post. Headed to Orchard a couple of times for shopping & an impromptu dinner date with EK & Pris over a Friday night. 

 

A different colour theme this year ... Red & Gold, the traditional Xmas colours. However, there were critics that it felt more like CNY than Xmas.

Xmas tree in front of Forum Shopping Mall. I used to look forward to seeing the Xmas display in Orchard road, but it has gotten quite boring over the years. My fave was the Tiffany & Co Xmas trees with the magical robin-blue boxes. And, I had the same thing underneath our Xmas tree this year ^^

Forum the Shopping Mall, where I'll always rem Toy'R'Us is located.

The decoration was kept to a minimal in this mall.
 
Outside Casa Tartufo, known as House of the Truffles, a cozy family-run restaurant located on the 1st floor. 

Taking inspiration from classic Italian chic, the restaurant was decorated with chandeliers, soft-style lamps and characteristic wooden chairs.

 

View from where we were seated. The restaurant was on full capacity that day & we had a chance to see Alex, the owner of the place.

 Truffle is the key ingredient in their dishes, which is why their menu changes 3 times a year, following the truffle seasons - winter black truffle (Jan-Mar), summer black truffle (Apr-Aug) and white truffle (Sep-Dec).

 Candle-light on a ducky stand.

 Quick, serve the food! *hungry*
 

Before that, a glass of Moscato... truly Italian. 

 Bread to kick-start the dinner. Served warm, this was definitely pleasing to the palate.

 Burrata (highly recommended) - burrata cheese with a truffle heart. Serves 2.

 

Porcini Mushroom creamy soup, with black truffles & Seafood soup 

 

Homemade Truffle Fries & we had 2 servings, for it was just irresistible. Priced @ $12 per serving, I would suggest PS Cafe's truffle fries as they were more value for money, haha! 

 

Master EK has to order red wine, for he can't stand drinking a ladies' drink, lol! 

 

So, the ladies took over Moscato & had our fill, lol! First time we dominate the wine glasses :) 

 

Risotto Casa - sea-urchin & truffle risotto! This was good for sharing for it gets jerlat after a while. Abit salty IMO, but Leecher thinks otherwise. 

 EK & I ordered Ravioli - goose-liver filled Ravioli, Parmigiano & Truffle Fondue. Whenever I ordered Ravioli, I will always recall the scene in Twilight, where Edward & Bella went to this restaurant and she ordered Ravioli. She had the mushroom ravioli in that scene *amazed at my memory* Pity my partner is not Edward.

 Tajarin - piedmont thin egg-noodles with fresh black truffles. This was on the recommended list as well & the truffles are sooooooooo appealing!

Highly recommended to share for mains, for most of the items are cream-based :) 

Casa Tartufo

Forum Shopping Mall #01-17

583 Orchard Road, Singapore 23884

Tel: 68364647

Xmas Presents

 

Gift exchanges has become part of Xmas celebrations, hence I was rushing to town to buy & wrap up all the presents. My fave place to shop was @ Taka & that pretty much explained the amount of Taka-wrapped presents I've prepared underneath the tree. Many people believe that the tradition of gift giving started from Christ's birth, as the 3 wise men/kings brought offerings to honour him. 

 

  I've been giving chocolates to my team members for a couple of years, since that was the one of the universal present that I got for almost every one. Who can resist chocolates?

 

Then in 2011, I've decided to pick out individual gifts for the guys ... yes, I'm the only girl in the team now. It was hard racking my brains over what to buy for guys, given that Leecher always tells me what he wants and I'll pay for it.

 

Last year, I've continued the trend of picking out gifts for the guys as well, with a homemade card this time round :)  

 

Us, with our lil Xmas tree behind ^^ We usually open our gifts during Boxing day, where I'll get to "box" Leecher if he doesn't give me the "right" Xmas gift. We didn't get each other Xmas present this time round (so, no chance of boxing), hence, we opened our gifts on Xmas night.

Someone got a lot of presents, can't decide which one to start first.

Interesting idea from one of his colleague!

 

My boss gave me my present in a special bag, interesting read :) 

Must take a few more pictures ^^

Thank you for all the Xmas gifts! Hope you'll like those that we've picked out for you as well :) Till the next Xmas season, xoxo

Lunch with BFF

Working in Raffles Place has its perks, apart from the slightly more exp lunches. As most of my friends are also working in the area, we'll try to arrange for lunches for a quick catch up. When BFF was still working in the area, we always meet up for impromptu lunches - to catch up and bitch away our work stress :)

 

Moomba is located @ a quaint corner of the CDB area, facing the river front. 

 

The place is relatively small, with 20-odd seats. Their sandwiches were featured in some of the popular magazines as must-try. 

 

I had a pasta craving that day, so I ordered half portions of 2 different types of pasta.

 

Chorizo-caponata pasta salad (my fave, must order!) with  Potato Penne salad (I think!) 

 

MQ ordered the thai chicken & Chorizo-caponata pasta salad. 

The Moomba Tuckshop

Bank of China Building #B1-01

4 Battery Road, Raffles Place

Tel: 65365235

BFF had a soup craving, so we headed over to Soup Spoon for our lunch fix. As much as I adore the hearty servings of ingredients in each bowl, it was always too much for me to stomach after a while. You can even ask to sample the soup first before your purchase. We went to the outlet at Chervon House. "Underneath the escalator" was the coded language for this place. It has since been taken over by Coasta Coffee, but fret not, there is another branch around the area, located at Raffles Xchange. They provide delivery too :) 

Soup Spoon
Raffles Xchange
#B1-62
Tel: 64387305

 

Another lunch date brought us to Da Paolo again, this time located @ Marina Bay, The Sail. The pictures' dimensions are slightly different for this was taken using the new camera, looked more rectangular. Took me a while to realize this too, before I re-adjusted the settings *slow coach*

The place was rather small with limited seating. We managed to grab a table, away from the crowd for our catching up session :)

Pasta for me, while MQ had a pie. Having been to 2 of their Gastronomia outlets, I can't wait to check out what will be in store @ their pizza & bistro bar.

 Ended the meal on a sweet note *yummy*

Da Paolo Gastronomia
6 Marina Boulevard
The Sail, #01-15 Tower 2
Singapore 018985
Tel: 62244148