Osteria Mozza

In a recent trip to SIngapore during Raya holiday break, we checked out this famous celebrity chef Mario Batali’s restaurant in Marina Bay Sands. 

 The restaurant is divided into 2 sections: a casual pizzeria on the right and a bistro style restaurant on the left

 

Our reservation was made at 9pm but it was still quite packed by the time we reached Osteria Mozza. The restaurant offers a warm yet exquisite ambience, equipped with friendly waiting staffs and we were spoilt for choices on the menu.

Let’s see what we have picked for the evening.

Complimentary Ricotta Cheese

Mozzarella Tasting as one of the starter : bufala mozzarella, burrata & ricotta. It's a mozzarella bar so we couldn't have missed this right, however it' didn’t turn out that memorable… I like their accompanying garlic bread though :)

Grilled Octopus with potatoes, celery & lemon

nutty and zesty in flavor while the spring onion celery blended in really well. loved this dish

linguine with clams, pancetta & spicy chiles

I wouldn’t have thought of pancetta and clams as a combination but this was awesome

Pappardelle Verde with lamb ragú, olive Taggiasche & mint

This was probably the best dish among all, even for a non lamb eater like me it was so good that for a moment I thought it was tuna meat!

Diners were still coming in past 10pm… here comes our main courses

duck confit – tender and juicy but i didn’t quite enjoy it

Grilled Quail wrapped in pancetta with sage & honey - totally tastebud assault...but in a good way

 

Grilled Leg of Lamb with fregola sarda, mint & yogurt – this dish was a a little disappointing

 

Their wine list is at cut-throat prices so we picked one of the cheapest in the range. Not too bad. We were stuffed to the brim and had to skip dessert or else, the waiter might have to roll us out of the establishment LOL. Overall a very good experience, I would rate it 7 out of 10.

Address: The Shoppes @ Marina Bay Sands, Singapore Tel: +65 6688 8522

http://www.osteriamozza.com/singapore/dining.cfm

Singapore Night Safari

I’ve heard about the SG Night Safari since ages ago and finally, I had a chance to see it myself earlier this month. Frankly, I’m not really a zoo person. I like animals but the ones I usually see in the zoo are pretty depressing, as they are either sedated to sleep most of the times or miserably locked in cages. tell me, when was the last time you visited a zoo and actually saw a cheerful animal? Anyway, point aside I was pretty excited about the Night Safari because conceptually the animals are supposed to be living in the wild!

A school of pretty flamingos dancing in the muddy pool

Half true, half not for the Singapore Night Safari. The animals are predictably located at specific spots shown in signages and some animals such as the leopards are still locked in cages. There’s only one big elephant in sight, I thought they are supposed to live in groups? So it wasn’t exactly the wild safari scene that I had imagined it to be, quite a far cry from what I usually see in national geographic. Despite all that, I’ve enjoyed my visit as a first timer.  

 

Asian Lion!

Zebras and Giraffes

The most interesting animal that I saw at the NS is the red flying squirrels. It really has wings! (but too bad no pics to follow as yours truly was too busy adoring the squirrel and waiting for it to “fly”)

 

Animal show is a must see at the Singapore night safari. It’s entertaining and you also get to see animals that’s not available in the “wild” such as the python below and the big white wolf. 

The python was probably trained to cheekily move its head to the guy’s private. Poor guy!

 

Cutest creature found at the animal show – Raccoon!

 

Overall a good visit for those who haven’t been to a proper safari, and probably an excellent choice to bring the kids for a family night out. Other than that, just don’t go with too high an expectation or you’ll be disappointed. Cost wise starts at SGD42 per ticket.

http://www.nightsafari.com.sg

Tit Bits of Singa-land

Some random pictures I took in Singapore recently.

 

Tonkatsu Ginza Bairin at Ion Orchard– I opted for chicken meat instead of their signature pork katsu but I have to say it’s delicious all the same. Be it the curry, batter, radish pickles or rice, all cooked to perfection.  yummy!

 

 

Muchos Mexican Grill at Clarke Quay. Good ambience but food was only mediocre… have definitely tasted better ones. I have a high expectation of salsa and guacamole you see :)

 

Hiking up Bukit Timah Natural Reserve. After all the eating and CNY pigging out, it’s time to burn some calories. I took the forest trail which took about 2 hours to complete, I could barely feel my limbs after that but a good workout nonetheless.

 

 

Indochine Empress Place by the waterfront. It has a good view overlooking the river and you can see Fullerton at the other side of the bank. Great ambience and good food too.

 

Chilling out at the hotel pool when I’m not working; swimming, jacuzzy-ing, reading a book and sipping cocktails… well, basically lazing around with no particular agenda in mind. A good way to recharge myself.

 

 

Up Next: The Night Safari

Siloso Beach

During a recent trip to Singapore I was craving for some suntan and beach goodies, so we went to Siloso at Sentosa to check out the beach on a beautiful Saturday. The weather was sublime.   

You can get there either by bus or taxi. But as a tourist, I did my part and took a cable car from Mount. Faber to Sentosa Island. It costs SGD 22 for a single ride.

 

At first I got a little jittery because of the height but after 10 seconds I calmed down and began to enjoy the ride and the beautiful scenery. Can’t remember the last time I took a cable car ride this high… probably when I was still a kid.

Behind me is Universal Studio Singapore. Pretty isn’t it?

Admittedly the sand quality at the beach has nothing great to shout about. The sea water was cooling though… It was a really hot day, a dip in the water plus a bottle of beer while you are on the land was a perfect day for me ;)

Overall a fun day out at the beach.

I would recommend anyone to go there and chill if you don’t have much on the agenda.

Singapore Food Galore

One thing I learnt about dining in SG, it’s absolutely essential to make table reservations in advance. Especially if you plan to dine out on a weekend, most of the popular restaurants in SG are usually already fully booked. On a Sat night, we took a cab to this family run Italian restaurant somewhere in Bukit Timah in an attempt to get some delicious Italiana, but only to find out they require 5 weeks booking in advance.

5 WEEKS!!! That’s crazy.

We waited for 30 mins hoping someone didn’t turn up for the table, but to no avail. The was no way they could squeeze us in but the waiter was very kind and recommended us an alternative restaurant nearby, it’s a French family style Bistro along Turf Club Road called PICOTIN.   

Beggars can’t be choosy but thankfully the food there was nice. Unpretentious ambience, super friendly restaurant owner Jackie who personally sat us down on a table and introduced the menu.

Starter of the day:  Smoked Salmon cubes Bruchetta (price unknown)

Baked escargots au beurre d'herbes SGD15

Roasted sea bass, boulangere potatoes, smoked fish brandade SGD28

All dishes were made with fresh ingredients, I loved the seabass and smoked salmon the most. Super generous servings. Verdict: Can’t call it exquisite French but food was good. 

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After dinner, Claire took me to this place called  San-sui Sumiyaki & Tsuki-bar for drinks.

The place has a nice scenic view by the river and overlooking Marina Bay Sand. I find their Japanese sake cocktails rather unique too. Worth a try.

Universal Studio Singapore

Visiting Universal Studio is like experiencing movies come to live. Imagine shaking hands with ogre Shrek and Fiona; or dance with the Madagascar’s animals (for real); or be awed by the magnificent Return of The Mummies. Oh not to mention learn how these million dollar production movies were made!

Visited Paris Universal Studio 6 years ago which i thought was totally awesome. I was so excited to check out the Singapore version and anticipated lots of cartoon characters greeting me at the entrance… 

Didn’t happen that way, unfortunately.

When in Rome, do the Romans do. Similarly, when in Singapore I was one of the early birds to avoid long queues. Kiasu is me. After breakfast at one of the Cafés there, we started our adventure with a map on hand. There are 7 theme parks attractions and we’ve spent 9 hours in total. Half the time were spent waiting for the rides though... and envied those express pass holders whizzing passed the queue :(

You might want to consider getting an express pass when visiting USS.

My favourite of the lot has to be Far Far Away.

 

Shrek4D show is a must watch. Spectacular.

Beware of long queues especially weekends can get crazy packed.

 

Saw my favourite Shrek and Fiona… but I was too lazy to queue up for a photo moment with them.

 

 

One word of advice when you enter WaterWorld. If you have no intention to get wet, please stay away from Blue and Green Zone. The stadium may look massive and you may be tempted to assume there’s no way water could splash far enough to reach the seats. Epic wrong!

Trust me on this. I was sitting at the last row of Green Zone and I got wet.

 

Many rides were not opened as they are either still under construction or testing phase, including this reverse roller coaster.

Tadaaa… a very happy me at the theme park. Guess where was this?

mmhmmm… I love the carousels… a ride always makes me happy.

It’s a form of childhood deprivation, you see ;)

Overall, it was a fun day out while I was in Singapore. USS is smaller than I expected but have to say, their staffs are very friendly and helpful. It’s strongly advisable to purchase tickets online and have it printed out before the trip to avoid long queues. And leave your pretty heels at home.

SGD72 per ticket for weekends, weekdays is slightly cheaper.