Tequila Blue

I don't know what exactly about Mexican food excites me. Maybe its the flavour or the vibrant colours or many vegetarian options. Or maybe its a mix of all these things. So, its high time that I feature a Mexican restaurant in FoodieExpress. Presenting, ladies and gentlemen, the latest discovery by our resident consultant, Ms. Sayesha - Tequila Blue. Its situated at Changi Village, very close to the Changi ferry terminal and the Changi Bus terminal.

My all time favourite Mexican place in Singapore is Cafe Iguana. Well, Cafe Iguana now has a competitor. After my visit to Tequila Blue, its has definitely been added to my favourites list. Not only was the food great, but they had a wide variety of veggie options.

They had quite an interesting ambience. Check out this hilarious poster that we saw at the entrance.

They even had a foosball table, where we played a few games. Needless to say, I lost hopelessly. I still need to get hang of that game. Also noticed was a pedestal kind of thing, where had kept many bottles of tequila. It resembled the typical positioning of gods as depicted in a bollywood movie. Haha! Well, some people consider tequila as god. :P

We quickly placed an order for a jug of mango margherita, a plate of Nachos Grande, Quesadilla and Jalapeno Rellenos. While we were waiting for the food to arrive, I was experimenting with my friend's new DSLR camera, doing random photography and also taking pictures in the manual mode. It was nice fun. I liked this particular photo very much.

Ofcourse, I also loved the photo I took of all of us, but I cannot post that here, else we will be hounded by the paparazzi on Singapore streets. LOL!

Mango Margherita

Our food arrived shortly. First came the Nachos, followed by the Quesadilla and Jalapeno Rellenos. They dishes were lovely and I had to quickly take a few pictures before my friends attacked the food. My yelling at them to not touch the food before I can take pictures does not seem to have its desired effect anymore. Here are a couple of pictures that I managed to take before we devoured the food.

Nachos Grande

Jalapeno Rellenos

Quesadilla

For the main course, the vegetarian items ordered were a Veg Burrito, Veg Enchilada and a Veg burger. They quickly found their way to our table. I had more time to take pictures though as my friends were busy devouring the appetizers.

Enchillada

Burrito

Veg Burger

The food was quite good overall and I would definitely recommend this place to people. The dinner and drinks can be followed by a leisurely walk on Changi beach situated nearby. If you like to watch planes land and take off, Changi beach is one of the places to be. Great views of all sorts of flights landing and taking off at the ever busy Changi airport.

The bill came to about 150 bucks for 5 of us, which makes it about 30 bucks per head. Quite affordable by Singapore standards. This restaurant was good value for money. If you are in or around Changi and looking for a place to eat, do consider visiting this place. You won't go back disappointed.

Woods Bio Marché

Presenting the next installment in Foodie Express - Woods Bio Marché. This post is for all those people who tell that we visit restaurants in the east only. This particular restaurant is in the north. About 350 km north of Singapore to be precise. In Kuala Lumpur. I had clearly mentioned that Foodie Express will be sort of a vegetarian's guide to Singapore restaurants. But then, rules are meant to be broken :P And we sort of got carried away. Hehe!

We happened to come across this restaurant purely by chance. On our recent road trip to KL, we were walking around the Bukit Bintang area looking for a place to eat, when we chanced upon this place serving organic, vegetarian and vegan food. My curiosity was certainly piqued. A quick look at the menu and we found ourselves inside the restaurant, ready to order.


The place served mainly vegetarian/vegan versions of local dishes such as Nasi Lemak, Noodle soup apart from a couple of Western items. They had quite an interesting and colourful menu. Also mentioned on the menu, under each dish was its health value, like Anti-oxidant, Stamina, Relaxation etc.


It is such a relief to go to an all vegetarian restaurant. The knowledge that I can order anything from the menu is like a major high in itself. I will usually be found asking the waiter/waitress if a particular dish can be made vegetarian. But this, was something lovely.

As usual, I was confused on what to order. I am generally the last to decide. So, while my friends waited patiently, I zeroed in on Dumpling Soup. Orders were also placed for a Fusion Nasi Lemak set, Nonya curry somen (noodles) and a soyabean burger. While we were waiting for food to arrive, we indulged in some mindless chit-chat, people watching and random photography.


The items arrived one by one. First came the Nasi Lemak set.


followed by the Nonya curry somen,


dumpling soup


and finally the burger


I think the highlight of the entire meal was Nasi Lemak. It was very very tasty. It came along with a side of some chopped vegetables, roasted peanuts and some sambal paste. Yummy!

The dumpling soup was quite good too. The stuffing has coarsely powdered peanuts mixed along with it, which gave the dish a very interesting twist. Soft(the covering) and crunchy(due to the peanuts).

The noodles in Nonya curry was great, especially the veggies. Not overpowering like some curries generally are.

The burger was just about ok. Not particularly a big fan of the mock meat patty.

They even had vegan coffee (I am guessing made with soy milk), but I wasn't in an adventurous mood. So didn't try it. Somehow, I am not all that adventurous when it comes to coffee. There is just one or two ways in which I like my coffee and I don't prefer it having any other way.

I would definitely visit this place again. Now that I think of my visit to this place, I feel that I didn't spend enough time there to completely soak in the place or try out a few more dishes. Like my visit isn't complete or there are some loose ends which need to be tied.

I personally felt that the prices were quite cheap compared to Singapore standards. We paid about 56 Ringgits for the entire meal for 5 people, which comes to about 23 Singapore dollars. Holy Cow! That is incredibly inexpensive. We would have probably spent 60-70 dollars minimum at such a restaurant in Singapore.

You can read more about them here.

TWO

I am wondering what to write in this post. A post which marks my completion of 2 years in Singapore. 2 years of living by myself. Being at a loss of words made me take a look at the post I wrote 1 year ago.

Yes, I am still very happy about all the things that I have mentioned in that post. Each time I travel on the Benjamin Sheares Bridge, from where I can view the entire Marina Bay area, it fills me with a sense of pride that I live here. And every single time, I still gawk at the skyscrapers and the view like I haven't seen it before in my life.

It feels like the past one year has flown by so fast. Maybe because a lot has happened in my life in the past one year - Traveling, friends, shifting homes, the beach, hour long commutes to work, taking a big decision, surprise birthday parties, getting into a relationship, getting out of a relationship, etc. I am glad about every thing that has happened - the good ones and the not so good ones. It gives me the feeling and the high of living my life on my own terms and being responsible for it.

Cheesecakes on the house to all the readers. Its time for some celebration! And a biiiiiig and tiiiight hug to a big bunch of people. You know who you are.

Well....

Pizzadude decides to go for a swim in the evening.

Pizzadude feels very sleepy through the course of the day.

Pizzadude thinks of canceling the swimming plans and heading back home and going to bed early.

Pizzadude says "Yeah right! As if he will sleep early".

Pizzadude overcomes laziness and decides to stick to his swimming plans.

Pizzadude goes swimming at a pool near his office.

Pizzadude doesn't like the pool. He is used to the usual pool near his house.

Pizzadude swims for about 45 mins.

Pizzadude is tired and very thirsty.

Pizzadude is happy with the workout and all the extra-calories he burned (which he had accumulated by eating cookies and chocolate cake in the morning).

Pizzadude decides to treat himself to a nice and healthy dinner at Subway.

Pizzadude goes to the nearest mall.

Pizzadude gets distracted by all the restaurants.

Pizzadude almost walks into a Japanese restaurant, but then decides against it when he realizes that they don't have any vegetarian food.

Pizzadude decides to check out the Kopitiam (local food court).

Pizzadude is amazed at the variety and wonders why he never came here before.

Pizzadude spots a vegetarian stall and almost jumps up and down in joy. He then realizes that doing so does not go well with his sophisticated and dignified image and is not good on his knees. So, he just sports an angelic smile.

Pizzadude spots noodle soup on their menu. Its called Lor Mee.

Pizzadude is all excited and places an order for it.

Pizzadude waits eagerly for the dish to arrive. Filmfare magazine and some eye-candy nearby gives him company.

Pizzadude is not very impressed with the way it looks.

Pizzadude realizes to his horror that it is laden with oil and soy sauce.

Pizzadude does not like the taste so much.

Pizzadude manages to almost finish the dish as he does not like to waste food.

Pizzadude realizes that he just undid the effects of his evening swim.

Pizzadude feels bloated and fat.

Pizzadude thunks head against the table.

Pizzadude resolves to head to the nearest Subway outlet after his swim from next time.

Equality

Recently, I came across this video on youtube. I didn't realize what was happening in the video initially, but then when I reached the end and realized what it was about, I was at a loss of words. It is so well done and conveys the message extremely well.



Thanks Sumanth for the link.

It all started when I first heard this song and saw its trailer on youtube.



Pretty soon, I was addicted to it. The song just wouldn't get out of my head. It was driving me nuts and nothing seemed to be working. So, I tweeted about it asking for help. He promptly suggested that I listen to this song.



That was it! I was addicted again and how! It was driving me nuts even more. I was standing at the bus stop and going "Gee gee gee gee baby baby baby". I was doing some serious coding and the next thing I know, I am humming "Gee gee gee gee baby baby baby". It was worse then the previous one!

So, I had to get re-addicted to the first song to get over my addiction to the this song. Whew!

I am ok now :)

Naive

I just don't know how to start describing this restaurant - Naive. Oh! I was so taken in by it. You know, when one is looking forward to something for a long time and when that something actually happens and it turns out to be just as amazing as one had expected it, if not better - that is exactly how our visit to Naive unfolded. It was a long pending visit, which when we finally visited, matched up exactly to how I had expected it to be.

Situated on East coast road, opposite to Katong Mall, the restaurant cannot be missed. I particularly liked their name board done up in black and white.


And while we are on the topic of the location of the restaurant, most of the posts on FoodieExpress so far have concentrated on restaurants in the eastern part of Singapore. That is mainly because we stay in the east and there are many restaurants that are yet to be explored here. That is one of the main reasons I shifted to the east :P Although I would like to mention that we are willing the travel the entire country in search of restaurants which serve up good vegetarian fare. If you know restaurants in the north, north-east or the west which meets this need and is non-Indian(preferably), do leave a comment and we will try to visit place and blog about it!

Okay, back to Naive. I am feeling a bit lazy and at a loss of words to compose this post. So, I will let the pictures do most of the talking.

The owners have a nice vision for their restaurant as can be seen from this picture and I was quite impressed.


The cover page of the menu.


I generally like glancing though reading the menu. I usually take my own sweet time to do that, like I am studying for an exam. After studying the menu, I am invariably confused on what to order because there will be atleast four or five items which I would want to try but I cannot, since I have a small appetite (being a foodie is not exactly about the quantity. Its about quality and variety!). So I generally bully my friends into ordering what I want and yell at politely remind them, if they touch the dish before I can take a photo of it :P

The drinks menu had interesting names for the drinks on offer.


We ordered the Passion of Life


and the Sour Power


But, Passion of Life tasted more sour than Sour power. LOL! While both the drinks were quite good, I liked Sour Power better!

Before the start of every meal, they have a Japanese inspired "Bloss" ceremony during which the diners are provided with a mortar and a pestle, which they use to grind some toasted sesame seeds, which can be sprinkled over the meal later.


Sayesha partaking in the "bloss" ceremony.


For starters, we ordered Penang Rendang along with some steamed buns which were very soft.


You can either tear a piece of the buns and dip it in the gravy and eat it or you could stuff the bread with the gravy(like a pita bread) and eat it.

We also ordered a plate of Mega Mini Mushroom, which is the recommended dish. And boy! We were so enamoured by this dish that we promptly ordered another plate of it. The dish comprised of succellent Lingzhi mushrooms fried and then mixed with a spicy szechuan sauce. Oh! It was very tasty. This is definitely one of the must have items at Naive.


Moving on, we ordered Wolfberry soup, Tom yam soup and a Organic mushroom miso soup! The soups were very well done. I personally liked the Wolfberry soup and it has a very comforting feel to it. Like being wrapped in a warm blanket on a cold day!


For the main course, we ordered a few bowls of Olive rice (creatively named as Oliver Twist on the menu) and a bowl of brown rice along with "Spice of Life" and a plate of Sambal Broccoli respectively. Spice of Life comprised of vegetables which were sauteed in a spicy kongpo sauce. The sauce was quite similar in taste to the sauce in Mega mini mushroom dish. Nevertheless, it was quite good and went along very well with the Olive rice.



The Sambal Brocolli was quite good too!


One might notice (especially an Indian customer) that the vegetables in most dishes are quite raw. Infact, that is a very common complaint that I have heard from fellow Indian colleagues and friends. They feel that the vegetables are not cooked at all and that is one of the main reasons why they dont like eating the local food. As Indians, we are so used to eating dishes where the vegetable have been cooked tender along wth the spices in such a way that the flavour of the spices are more prominent than that flavour of the vegetable. This is not the case with many south east Asian dishes as is explained in this post.

Moving along to the dessert, we noticed that they don't have anything specifically mentioned on the menu. But, they do serve a dessert of the day. On the day we went, the desserts on offer were a pumpkin based item and a pear based item. We ordered the latter and this is what we got -


It was maily boiled pears along with some chinese almonds served in a mildly flavoured broth. We didn't like it so much. Maybe we should have ordered the pumpkin dessert.

Dinner costed us about 140 bucks for six of us, which boils down to about 22 buck per head. Not at all expensive considering and is definitely worth a visit. I am surely going to visit this place again!

Naive
99, East coast Road
Singapore - 428795
www.naivecompany.com

Check and mate!

A fire (of revenge) had been ignited within me ever since this happened a year ago. And now, I can say that I have taken my revenge. Details are here.

Badle ki jo jawalamukhi bhadak rahi thi, woh apne anjaam ko pahunch gayi. Haye! Dil ko thandak pahunch gayi.

:D :D :D

Xin Wang Hong Kong Cafe

Another restaurant which is very close to my heart is Xin Wang Hong Kong Cafe (XWHKC). It is no wonder that it had to figure in FoodieExpress. This place came into focus from the time Sash was raving about the Iced lychee tea and the glasses they were served in. Another dish which pushed this restaurant onto our foodie express list was '/\'. Patience my dear readers. You will find out what '/\' is soon. After all we have to save the best for the last ;)

XWHKC have a couple of branches around the country. We chose to visit the one in Siglap since its the one closest to our homes. Located at the junction of East coast road and Upper east coast road, it is quite easy to find. Siglap is full of restaurants and XWHKC is one among them.


The place is nicely done up and has a chic ambience. They even have booths. Although, it required some amount of squeezing oneself between other tables to reach them. But once reached, one can park one's ass comfortably and look forward to a nice meal.

As their name suggests they serve food local to Macau, Shanghai and Hong Kong(I can't wait to go there) and do have a few vegetarian options. But I guess one has to be able to eat non-vegetarian food (also known as food here in Singapore) to enjoy most of the dishes. Amongst the common veggie items, one item which stood out was the Papaya soup. I hadn't heard of it before and was quite eager to try it. It comes in a huge bowl with vegetables, a cob of corn and a few huge chunks of papaya in a white coloured broth with ramen noodles inside. I have a soft corner in my heart for noodle soups. So its no wonder that I enjoyed the dish. Although, I felt it was slightly bland for my taste. The other dishes ordered were a baked veggie lasagne, a curry maggi dish and a chicken dish. Good food. Very fast and efficient service.

Oh! I forgot to talk about the drinks. Two items which must not be missed are the iced lychee tea and a cold Ying Yang. Many would have had the iced lychee tea, so am not going to describe it. But, many may not have had a Ying Yang. Before telling you what it is, I think you must know that it tastes delicious and is very refreshing. It has to be had cold and in a special steel tumbler that they serve it in, which I guess may be characteristic of Hong Kong.

Ying Yang is actually a mixture of Coffee and Tea! Weird combination no? But, trust me, it doesn't taste weird at all. After you take a sip, it is the flavour of the tea which hits you first. The coffee flavour hits you later once you have almost swallowed it. Since it is served cold, it can very refreshing on a hot day and still keep you alert at the same time. Both the flavours are not very intense. Very pleasant. This is my favourite drink at the restaurant!

And now, let me present to you the highlight of of the meal - the '/\'


Yes, its a mountain of shaved ice on a bed of mango pieces with mango sauce/puree dripping from its sides and a scoop of mango ice-cream on top. Mango lovers, this is a treat for you. One word to describe it -YUMTASTIC!!

It cost us about 80 dollars and we were totally 5 people. But, let me tell you that a couple of us hardly ate anything. So on an average, it might cost you about 20-25 dollars per head. Worth it!

Bangalored!

It was just about three months since my last visit to India. But then on the night of 8th May, I found myself back at the swanky Bengaluru International Airport. After all, it was my yaar's wedding. And since both of them are close to me, it was inevitable that I had to attend the wedding. A bunch of other close friends also joined the dulha and me, and we flew down together from the hot and sweltering Singapore to the hot and happening Bangalore.

Now, when Viv is around, Dumbcharades are all the more fun. After some non-family friendly enactment in the plane, I was successfully able to decipher which hindi movie title Viv was trying to mime. It was Saajan Bin Suhaagan. Oh! How we laughed. I think Sash will put up an entire post on that. You will have to wait till then for the details. Ahem!

We had exactly 7 days in Bangalore and most plans were already made. The plans mainly comprised of food places that we must all eat at :P Sash had already mentioned that she would be quite happy if she got her daily dose of road side pani puri. Food street was one of the highlights of the trip. We ate so much there. Urv and Ved had joined us and all of us hogged as if we hadn't eaten in days. We started off with dose, followed by holige, jaljeera flavoured with kalakhatta, gobi manchurian, pani puri and ended the meal with some butter-gulkan. What a meal that was!

Then came the wedding and it was another eat session. Viv did proper justice to the food and even the cooks at the wedding seemed very pleased with him. I don't think he ever said no whenever he was asked for second helpings. Apart from eating, we also managed to enjoy and take part in the wedding festivities. It was quite sometime since I had been to a traditional tam-brahm wedding. What made it even more special was that it was two of our close friends getting married.

Post wedding, we went on a small trip along with newly married couple. Sumanth has promised us that he would show us around rural Mangalore and also take us to visit a few of his relatives. Morning coffee and tea was at relative-1's house. Breakfast was at relative-2's house and lunch was at relative-3's house. We ate and we ate and we ate. And just when we thought we couldn't eat anymore, we ate again. It was exhausting!! Sash even said that she wouldn't eat pani puri that day :O The amount we have eaten in that one week in India, we wouldn't have eaten the same in two weeks in Singapore. Now that we are back in Singapore, we have to exercise with a revenge.

It was one heck of a memorable trip and it all seems like it got over too soon. Trips to India are always special and close to heart. This was my second trip in this year and I don't know when I will be visiting next. Maybe in the end of this year. Or maybe not.

The Animal

We have all had instances where we hear the lyrics of a song or a dialogue in a movie incorrectly. Some of them sound silly, some are hilarious, some are ridiculous and then there are the ones that sound downright embarassing. Let me tell you about one such embarrassing goof-up by yours truly!

You may have watched the hindi movie Aitraaz. Its a Indianized version of the english movie Disclosure. Anyway, there is this scene in the movie where Priyanka Chopra is trying to seduce Akshay Kumar (and is almost succeeding). At this precise moment she utters a dialogue in a very husky voice.

What she says: Show me you are an animal Raj, show me you are an animal.

What I hear: Show me your animal Raj, show me your animal.

My reaction: WHAT??!!! :O Did she actually say that?? She calls 'it' an animal?? How how... corny, kiddish and ridiculous. How did PC even agree to mouth such a dialogue and who even wrote that dialogue??? Yikes!!!

Hey! In my defense, the audio wasn't very clear and her voice was all husky.

Looking for Flatmates

Remember this post? Go on, read it and come back.

Now that you are back, I am sure you would have noticed easily how much I have gushed about the apartment and my excitement to move into that house.

Well, my dear friends, I am renting out two rooms in the wonderful apartment described in the post above. If any of the readers are looking out for renting out a room, please email me at pizzadudeblogs at gmail dot com and I will get back to you.

Ek jaam, dosti ke naam

A close friend of mine emailed me recently saying -

Hellooo! When are u updating ur blog magga? I know u are too busy dating around and sleeping around, but there's life beyond that too :D

After recovering from the trauma of being referred to as 'magga' *GASP* (will save that for another post), I remembered that the proper reaction to such an email would be to say - Jeeeeeeeeeeez!

*GULP*

Yes, my dear friend, its been a while since I blogged. The lack of inclination/interest has made me neglect my blog for so long. But, now that you have emailed me and asking me why I haven't blogged, here I am, blogging. This one's for you.

Dear V,

I had never thought that you and I would end up as such good friends, considering the scenario we met in. But, now that we are, I couldn't be happier. Its been a great 3 years knowing you.

I cherish all the wonderful moments that we have spent together. Eating out, talking nonsense, gossiping, shameless leg pulling, exchanging gyaan, shopping, confiding in and speaking direct dil se. Thanks for being there when I needed your support and I will be there when you need mine.

Being the F.R.I.E.N.D.S fanatic that I am, I cannot help but recall this song at this moment -



Here's to a great friendship
*clink*

Cheers,
PizzaDude.

Gurkha Palace

This month's halt on FoodieExpress started off with "Gurkha Palace", a place serving authentic Nepalese and north Indian food. A friend of mine had been raving about the momo's served there and so we decided to check it out.


The restaurant is situated bang in the middle of Little India, along Chander road (its Chandler minus 'l', for people like me who struggle to remember the name). Take the second right while walking along Race course road (from Little India MRT) and then left. Walk down this road till you come across the restaurant to your left. Also note a ridiculous sign "Hurry! Hurry! Fish head curry" in front of one the restaurants along this road. Jeeeez!

The restaurant was a bit small and we had to squeeze a bit amongst the other tables to get to our table. The walls are adorned with pictures and Nepalese handicrafts. It had a very homely feel to it. Once I sat down at the table, I felt very comfortable in the surroundings although the restaurant was quite packed. We also happened to bump into two friends of ours, Sri and Appu at the restaurant. This came as a very pleasant surprise and they joined us for dinner. After all, the more the merrier.

The menu was very very similar to a north Indian menu and many of the items were quite familiar. When we quizzed the manager about the difference in the two cuisines, he opinioned that while the north Indian dishes were quite creamy and made use of more spices, the Nepali dishes were less creamier and made use of some different spice and were more subtle.




We started off with a some Mix pakoras, Veg momos and kukhara momos (chicken). While, I thoroughly enjoyed the pakoras (they were light and not oily), the momos were just about ok. Looks like it was an off day. These came with some green and red chutney, which went very well with the dishes.


Since, we wanted to taste some unique dishes, we ordered things whose names werent familiar. On second thought, we must have asked the waiter for recommendations. Vegetarian items on the main course comprised of Aloo Dum(marinated potatoes cooked in Nepali spices, onion and tomato), Mismas tarkari(Mix vegetables cooked in Nepali spices) and Simi Tama(Steamed kidney beans and bamboo shoots cooked in tomato and yoghurt) along with Naan. I liked the food. It was quite light and flavoured in a subtle manner. Like I said before, it had a very homely feel. The best part was that I didn't feel like I had eaten a godown of spices, unlike in some Indian restaurants. My only grouse was that the quantities served weren't very large. Could have easily finished a couple of side-dishes by myself if very hungry.

Aloo Dum and Mismas Tarkari

SimiTama along with a basket of Naan

I would definitely come back here. Like I said before, very light food and a homely feeling. And quite away from the maddening crowds of Little India on a weekend. We paid about S$15 per head for the meal, which comprised of starters, main course and tea. Very cost effective in my opinion. We didn't try the dessert section though, but will definitely do so on our next visit.

Speaking of tea, check out this funny description of Himalayan tea in the menu -

Hehehe!

Should you visit? I would say Yes! But my friends were a bit skeptical. Shub felt that the food was slightly bland and so-so. Sash did not find it all that great and was of the opinion that same food would be much better at other restaurants in the country. Sumanth felt the place was very cost effective. Only Viv echoed my opinion.

So, I would suggest that if you are around in the area, do visit the place.