Breakfast at Da Paolo

I heave a sigh of relief whenever the weekend finally descends on us. To me, after 5 days of running on coffee and campus grub, the weekend seems like an excuse to slurge and overindulge.

Just yesterday, Mum, Jimmy and I lunched at Patara Fine Thai at Tanglin Mall, which in my opinion, is the best Thai restaurant in Singapore. Since it had been a while since we last visited Patara and (given how much we ate) could be a while before we patronized it, we literally thai-ed ourselves to our seats, savouring the buffet.. Mayday Mayday! B-U-F-F-E-T DIRTY WORD ALERT! I know I sound like I'm trying to redeem myself but it was REALLY an issue of scarcity.

The oustandings..

Whille the mango salad was a had-to-order, the backdoor to my heart was clearly Patara's papaya salad. The stuffed chicken wings proved that despite the lack of aviatory skills, chicken wings existed for a greater cause. Though the golden fried garoupa fillets would have been better with less batter, batter-wise, they were bless-the-batterly good. I'm still thinking about the stir-fried aubergine and despite more than one previous experience with the black olive fried rice, this time round it was uniquely sensational... and the honey and spice marinated tender pork spareribs were polished off before you were done with this paragraph...

Oddly enough, we didn't given order any of the four curries available... and OF COURSE, there was DESSERT- wide variety despite some inconsistencies in quality.

Last sunday morning, my mum and I decided to head onto Da Paolo Pizza Bar at Chip Bee Gardens, albeit being camera-less.

I had the 3 egg omelette and smoked salmon cream cheese spread with toast, which was pretty ordinary. Like the Travelling Hungryboy, I was surprised to see the omelette and salmon as separates but unlike him, I preferred it this way.

I have a habit of eating orderly because I don't like mish-mash of flavours. Give me a burger and I would go through it layer by layer, first the sesame bun, then the egg and melted cheese, followed by the patty and eventually the bun bottom. Maybe that's why I have a thing for bento boxes and tiffin cans- the flavours and tastes of each morsel are spacially contained, protected from the intrusion of uninvited flavours.

My mum had an Italian corn frittata, with avocado salsa and bacon. The sweetish avocado salsa complimented the fat salty bacon nicely but the both of us found the Italian omelette too rich.

The one thing that kinda bugged me was the solid state of butter and cream cheese. Anyone with an IQ level above room temperature would thaw their breads spreads before serving. Yet what we got was unspreadable, un-glide-able and unpardonable.

What a pity.

da paolo pizza bar
44, Jalan Merah Saga,
#01-46, Chip Bee Gardens, Holland Village.
Tel: 6479 6059