Lunch in Bali

We were back in Bali, this time with our good friends the Greedy Guts, who featured in this blog early on when it first started. Our first meal of what turned out to be an excellent culinary holiday was lunch at Café Bali.

On first impressions, this was a great little find – a breezy café/restaurant with high ceilings, open windows, white-washed walls and furniture and cozy sofas in the corners, giving it all the comfort trappings of home. And most importantly for yours truly – free wifi!

Unfortunately the food didn’t quite live up to its promising surroundings. It’s not that it was particularly bad, it just wasn’t very exciting. The Greedy Guts opted for the Tuna Nicoise, which looked okay but certainly didn’t evoke food envy from me.

Mr Greedy Glutton went for the Special – Enchiladas, which were fairly tasty but a rather miserly portion.

I decided to go local and ordered the Mixed Satay, which was good, but nothing to write home about.

Still, all of the above were far more successful than the sides we ordered (well we have to live up to our names, don’t we?) The Har Kau was unlike any I have tasted before (and not in a good way) and the Vietnamese Spring Rolls were unfortunately a bland, greasy mess.

So a bit of a shame all in all – I definitely don’t think I’ll be returning for food here, although I might be persuaded to spend a lazy afternoon sipping wine on one of their sofas…. If I must!

Café Bali, Jl Laksmana, Seminyak, Bali

Japanese for a Hen Night

Yet another night out with the girls, but this time in honour of a friend’s hen night. So we donned our Little Black Dresses and some rather fetching feather boas and, after a day of pampering at Spa Botanica and quaffing champagne at the Marina at Keppel Bay, we made our way to Shochu-tastic Satsuma at the Gallery Hotel.

This funky little Japanese restaurant specializes in grilled meats and Shochu, a sake-like liquor made from sweet potato. Thankfully we had a few Japanese friends with us, so we left the ordering to them – kicking off, of course, with a bottle of Shochu from their 80+ strong list.

Once we were all comfortably seated on the floor around our sunken table, sipping our shochu, the dishes began to arrive – and what a selection we had!

From the ‘Drinking Food’ section:
Edamame (Green Soy Beans)

Hourensou Goma Ae (Spinach with Sesame Sauce)

Momotaro Mozarera Chiizu (Japanese Tomato with Mozzarella Cheese)

Kinoko Itame (Assorted Stir Fry Mushroom)

From the ‘Charcoal Grill’ section:
Hamachi Kama (Yellowtail Cheek)

Tsukune (Chicken Meat Balls)

Mochi Buta Maki (Rice Cake rolled with Pork)

Monohoshi Kare Nikuzume (Curried Minced Chicken)

Gyuu Tan (Ox Tongue)

Foie Gras

And from the Deep Fried Section:
Miso Katsu Chiizu (Pork Cutlet with Bean Paste and Cheese)

Phew! And I think I’ve only accounted for approximately half the dishes we actually ordered… All in all it was a fantastic spread of food and despite the vast quantities ordered, I seem to remember very little being left.

Satsuma is also famous for its after-dinner waitress-led raucous shochu drinking games, but unfortunately nobody offered us this opportunity.... hmmm... perhaps they thought we were being raucous enough already.... (they should've seen us later on in the privacy of our karaoke lounge!)...

Satsuma - http://www.satsuma.com.sg/english/index.html

A Girly Night Out

It was a very special evening for us girls – 22 of us had hired out one of the Gold Class cinemas at Vivocity for our very own viewing of the hotly anticipated Sex and the City movie. As you can probably imagine, there was much squealing and giggling, tears and laughter in that movie theater, but at the end of 145mins or oestrogen-filled fun, we felt that not quite enough wine had been consumed, so we all made our way to the nearest bar, Wood.

This sleek new restaurant with its trendy neon-glowing bar, subdued lighting and stylish furnishings seemed the perfect venue to host our post-movie tipples. The restaurant has also received glowing reviews in the press for its inventive wood-roasted/grilled/smoked dishes. Unfortunately our drinks experience has not left me inspired to be quite so glowing.

Wood prides itself on its wine list, evident in the impressive circular display of bottles you walk past to enter the restaurant. In fact, their website boasts: “With prices starting from an affordable $45 per bottle, the extensive wine list never fails to impress even the most picky wine connoisseur”. (I have corrected the spelling mistakes in my quote, but have left the grammatical errors for effect)

Shame then that they couldn’t offer us a simple Sauvignon Blanc, or anything remotely similar, or remotely affordable, when we were there. They blamed this on a function the night before which had left them high and dry – rather poor though given that this was a Friday evening, and we were 22 thirsty girls looking to celebrate our fabulous-ness, à la Carrie Bradshaw and crew. This unfortunately resulted in half the girls picking up their clutch bags and marching their stiletto-clad feet over to the Bellini Room at St James Powerstation. Those of us that remained reached for the cocktail list.

This was marginally more successful (in that they actually had in stock all that was required to make the cocktails), although we did have a wrangle with both the waiter and bartender about whether it was possible to make a Virgin Daiquiri (ie. without alcohol) – the waiter said he didn’t think it would be possible, the bartender said it was too difficult, we all shouted for a third time “It’s on your menu!”, and eventually the drink appeared.

Nobody was particularly complimentary about their choices – a mixture of Cosmopolitans (but of course), Lychee Martinis and a Strawberry Mojito failed to excite us, but perhaps by now we were just a little tired of how difficult it had become to get a decent drink.

So, you guessed it… we grabbed our handbags and tottered across the road to the Bellini Bar… where our friends and a chilled bottle of Sauvignon Blanc awaited us…

Wood - http://thecaffebar.com/wood/

A Favourite Lunch Spot

Din Tai Fung is one of my favourite lunch spots and I usually pop in here alone if I am out and about for a gut-filling, good-for-the-soul noodle soup. This time, I happened to be with some friends – which can only mean one thing…extra dishes!

I am terribly unadventurous whenever I come here, but I just cannot see past their Noodle Soup with Pork and Prawn Wanton, so predictably that is what I ordered today, and it was as satisfying as ever.

We also ordered a few side dishes – the Kang Kong with Garlic,

some Xiao Long Bao, for which Din Tai Fung is famous, although I am not entirely sure that this fame is justified – don’t get me wrong, they are good… just not that good…

And some new additions to my Din Tai Fung usuals: the delicious Crispy Prawn Pancakes

and the Vegetable Dumplings (which I didn’t actually get a chance to try so can’t comment).

I don’t think you can really go wrong with Din Tai Fung, it continually delivers the goods… although I’m not sure about their ‘no photograph’ policy… and no brownie points go to the waiter who rudely told me to put my camera away…

Din Tai Fung, Wisma Atria - http://www.dintaifung.com.tw/en/area_a_detail.asp?AreaNO=147&AreaCountryNO=5

Lunch with New Friends

I made some new friends in my yoga class and so suggested a Dim Sum get-together for us all. I had read a few complimentary reviews on the net about Imperial Treasure Nan Bei on the fifth floor of Takashimaya, so booked us a table there. Being first to arrive, I had a few minutes on my own to get excited about their extensive lunch menu, which is divided into three – a Hong Kong Dim Sum, Shanghai Dim Sum, and Soup/Noodles menu (these are in addition to their normal a la carte menus).

Once the girls arrived, however the challenge of choosing dishes became somewhat more complex as it turns out amongst five of us we had one vegetarian (who thankfully eats seafood), one vegan (who clearly doesn’t) and one diabetic (who luckily isn’t too restricted by Dim Sum).

Despite this, we still managed to order a generous spread, including many of the favourites:

Char Sui Bao

Har Kau

Teochew Dumplings

Char Sui Sou

Crispy Prawn WanTon

Vegetarian Spring Rolls

And one of my all-time favourites, Barbecued Pork in Honey Sauce:

I also tried Custard Buns for the first time… I know, I know, how could I be such a massive Dim Sum fiend and never had the custard buns? Well usually I am just too pigged out to be tempted, but today on the advice of my friend, I tried them and damn, were they good! My friend was somewhat less impressed, but having not had any previous experience with which to compare, I was suitably satisfied.

All in all it was an extremely pleasant afternoon, and the staff were happy to let us sit and natter over copious amounts of Chinese tea long after the Dim Sum had been cleared away. However… Given that the Crystal Jade Palace, where we recently had an extremely good lunch, is a mere escalator ride away… I’m afraid the quality of the food here just won’t have me returning for more…

Imperial Treasure Nan Bei - Ngee Ann City #05-12/13