Cafe Italia Express at Dubai Mall (UAE, Dubai)

A visit to Dubai is not complete without a trip to the famous Dubai Mall which is the largest shopping mall in the world! Located in the heart of Downtown Dubai, it has a total internal floor area of 5.9 million square feet (50 football fields) with over 1200 shops of which 120 are restaurants and cafes, 95 elevators and 150 escalators! There's even Laduree and Galeries Lafayette. In addition, there's a five star hotel, Olympic-size Ice Rink, Oasis Fountain Waterfall, WaterFront Atrium, 22-screen Cinema, SEGA Republic (indoor theme park), Dubai Aquarium and Under Water Zoo in the mall! The locals have said that if you really want to explore and shop here, you would required 3 days to explore the mall. 

Clockwise from bottom left: Dubai Directory, Oasis Fountain Waterfall, different themes of the mall.

We got lost several times in the mall as it was huge and were so tired that we had to sit down to rest. The mall had many Concierge counters to help direct tourist and locals. 

Ok, back to the food. The prices at Dubai Mall seemed to be steeper compared to Deira City Centre mall. If only we had changed more Dirhams. We walked around and in the end settled our dinner in a food court as we all wanted to try different cuisines. The food court was huge with many different cuisines. There were fast food (e.g. Mc Donald's, Burger King, KFC), a restaurant and even a kids playground in the food court! 

I walked one round around the food court before deciding to settle for Italian food at Cafe Italia Express. Cafe Italia Express was the first to introduce traditional Neapolitan pizza in the gulf region. It first started making its presence felt in Bahrain in 2000. As the name suggests, Cafe Italia Express specialises in Italian cuisines such as pizza and pasta. The pizzas are baked in ovens that are fueled by wood. 

I ordered the Pizza Barbecue Combo 35 AED (S$11.97). After ordering, the chef went about his task of preparing a pizza. 

buzz

As the pizza had to be prepared and baked, issued a buzz that would activate (shake) to inform customers that their orders were ready. First time seeing a razor shaped buzzer. The more common ones I had seen in Singapore were round shaped like a land mine. 

Pizza Barbecue Combo 35 AED (S$11.97)

The Pizza Barbecue Combo 35 AED (S$11.97) consisted of a 10 Inch BBQ Chicken Pizza, choice of Soup or Salad and a Soft Drink. 

Minestrone

Minestrone

For soup, I chose Minestrone. Although there were lots of small chunks of vegetables in it, the soup was a tad too sour for me. 

BBQ Chicken Pizza

The BBQ Chicken Pizza was just average. Thin crisp crust with chicken, onion, BBQ sauce, cilantro and mozzarella. At 35 AED, this was relatively cheap. 

Dubai Fountain

A must do when visiting the Dubai Mall is to watch the Dubai Fountain performance. It is the world largest dancing fountain. The fountain is 275 metres long and can shoot water jets up as high as 150 metres (50 storey high). With Burj Khalifal at its background, the performance was captivating! You can watch the show at half hour intervals from 6pm to 11pm from Sun to Wed and 6pm to 1130pm from Thu to Sat. The fountain is located just outside the Dubai Mall on Lower Ground Waterfront Promenade. 

Cafe Italia Express (UAE, Dubai)  

D-5, Level 2, Food Court Area

Dubai Mall

Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Tel: 04 3253629

Opening Hours: 11am to 11pm
Location

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La Birreria, Piazza del Campo and Siena Cathedral (Italy, Siena)

Piazza del Campo

La Birreria is a restaurant located at the edge of Palio di Siena in Piazza del Campo. There are many different restaurants along the entire circumference of Palio di Siena as is a tourist attraction. In the past,  it was the site of public events and races such as bullfights, jousting and boxing. This was also the place where the James Bond Quantum of Solace's horse scene was filmed (do you remember?). Today, this site is used for many different events throughout the year. The most notable event is the prestige horse race which is held twice a year on 2 July and 16 August. As we visited during December, the event that was held at the centre of Palio di Siena was a Christmas market (yet again)!

The restaurant was unique, it had a big sitting capacity (indoors and alfresco dining). Inside the restaurant, we were surprised that it part of it was in the basement. As you can see from the photo, the inner part of the restaurant like a basement dungeon! The picture shows the 2nd 'basement room'. Each 'basement room' was  a few steps 'deeper'. We sat at the third 'basement room'. How cool is that! There was no windows and it was just brick walls and arches; real solid bricks, not fake wall or wallpaper. Moreover, there were several TV screens showing the sports (soccer) channel. I am sure it gets crowded when there is a soccer match! 

Part of the wall was decorated with photos of the prestige horse race that the locals look forward to. The quiet and unique environment of the restaurant made me felt as if I had taken a time machine back to the  ancient days. Now where's my sword and amour? It felt good to be away from our fast paced life in Singapore.

The menu was impressive; it came with five languages! There was German, French, Spanish and English! As for the fifth language, I could not even understand some of the characters as they looked like alien language to me! Its a norm in Europe to have their menu in different languages.

Vegetable soup with bread 7.50€ (S$11.75)

We ordered the "Ribollita alla sense" which in English was translated as "Vegetable Soup with Bread" on the the menu. It cost 7.50€ (S$11.75). Although the price was on the high end, we decided to order a bowl of soup to share to 'defrost' our cold bodies in the cold winter.

Imagine our shock when the Vegetable Soup with Bread (photo above) was served to us. We even told the waitress that we did not ordered this. She went back to the kitchen to check our order and insisted that this was what we ordered. Because of our language differences (she is fluent in Italian while us in English), we resorted to pointing to the menu to show what we ordered and she told us that Yes, this is the Vegetable Soup with Bread!

Well, we did not have any hot soup to go along with our meal. The Vegetable Soup with Bread was unique. It was moist and lots of 'mashed' bread was added to soak up all the soup. Chunks of carrots, onions, beans and potatoes were mixed among the bread. It was delish and rich in flavour.

When I came back home, I found out that Ribollita is a Tuscan soup made with boiled vegetable and bread (normally stale bread is used). Interesting! 

Pappardelle with Wild Boar 11€ (S$17.23)

For mains, we ordered Pappardelle with Wild Boar which cost 11€ (S$17.23). Pappardelle are large and broad flat pasta noodles. It was hard to compared the wild boar to other meat (e.g. chicken, pork) as it was minced. It tasted like minced pork meat. The pasta with wild boar was delicious though I would have preferred a pasta that was not so wide.

I remember when I was a kid, I ate braised chinese style wild boar meat at a hawker centre. However, now its rare to be able to find such meat at hawker centres (if you know of any, please let me know). You can still get wild boar at western (Italian) restaurants in Singapore.

We also ordered a Prosciutto e Funghi (Pizza with tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese, ham and mushrooms) which was priced at 8€ (S$12.54) . The Prosciutto e Funghi was freshly made upon order and took more than 20 minutes to prepare. It was fantastic; great Italian pizza! The freshness of the ingredient and execution was perfect! You can pop by into any Italian restaurant and be assured that the quality of their pizzas are top notch! It was a pity that we did not manage to take any photo of the pizza as we were in a rush.

Siena Cathedral (Duomo di Siena)

The Siena Cathedral (Duomo di Siena) located at Piazza del Duomo was a 10 minutes walk from Piazza del Campo. 

La Birreria and Siena Cathedral (Italy, Siena)

Piazza Il Campo 58 

53100 Siena, Italy

Tel: +39 0577 284424

Website

Location

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Caffè Mezzaparte and Attractions in Verona (Italy, Verona)

At Verona (Italy), we visited the Arena, Juliet's Balcony and Piazza delle Erbe (used to be a gathering point in the past during the Rome period). 

Arena

Arena

The Arena was a Roman Amphitheater, which is now being used for concerts and events. As you may notice from the photo, there was a Christmas Market (tents in white) next to the Arena. 

At the centre of Piazza delle Erbe, there was a Chrismas market too! There seemed to be a Christmas market everywhere in Europe. Having seen so many different Christmas markets and they all basically sells all kinds of products (including Christmas products) and local food. Its a good chance to savour their local food at relatively cheap prices.

Lamberti's Tower

The Lamberti's Tower, a 14th century tower is the tallest tower in verona built at the Piazza delle Erbe. 

There were many restaurants around the area and the price were on the high end. After looking around for sometime, we decided to patronise the restaurant called Caffè Mezzaparte which was located next to the Christmas market. 

Main entrance 

Caffè Mezzaparte had a cozy environment with a nice quiet ambience. There were lots of seating capacity  with indoors and alfresco area. There were no one at the alfresco area as it was freezing cold. In Caffè Mezzaparte, there was even a unisex toilet in the basement! 

Menu cover

Although the menu is in Italian, the good news is that there are English, German and French translations in the menu too!  

Minestrone di verdure 8 € (S$12.54)

Minestrone di verdure 8 € (S$12.54)

We ordered a bowl of Minestrone di verdure (Vegetable soup) which cost 8€ (S$12.54) to share. During winter, its always ideal to start off with a bowl of hot soup, especially since we are not used to the cold weather. 

The Vegetable Soup was heart warming. Although we were in an Italian restaurant, the soup reminded me of home - Chinese Soup. It tasted like a Chinese cuisine too (perfect cure if you are sick of european food)! Clear, tasty soup that was full of cubes of potatoe, carrot, cucumber, onion and leek. Simple yet delicious! 

Tortellini panna e prosciutto 8.50 € (S$13.32)

For our main course, we ordered a plate of Tortellini panna e prosciutto (Tortellini with ham and cream) for 8.50€ (S$13.32). Tortellini are navel shaped or ring shaped pasta filled with a mixture of meat and cheese in it. (you can imagine it as our local wantons, with meat in it.) Most freshly made tortellini without artificial preservatives have a shell life of a few weeks.

The Tortellini with ham and cream was served with shredded ham. The pasta was on the outside was firm and the inside was filled with meat.  It was cheesy and tasty. 

Risotto con funghi porcini 9 € (S$14.1)

We also ordered the Risotto con funghi porcini (Risotto with procini mushrooms) which cost 9€ (S$14.1). I thought that this was well executed. The al dente Risotto rice (firm but not hard) was evenly cooked and had the right creaminess - slightly creamy. It was slightly sticky (which is a norm) due to its ability to adsorb water and release starch. The Risotto was incredibly tasty and flavourful, with each mouthful, a rich, strong and distinct fragrance of mushroom would burst out. Mushroom lovers will definitely like this dish. The only issue I have is the lack of ingredients considering the price!

The food that we had was decent but pricey. Please note that the drinks here seemed to be even more expensive. We did not order any drinks and instead drank from our own bottled water. Oh yes, the pizzas are quite good too and can be shared among 2 persons.

We also visited the Juliet's Balcony (Museum).

As you walked into Juliet's House, you will notice this wall filled with love notes and graffiti. There were even chewing gums stuck on the wall. As a result, this wall has been proclaimed as the dirtiest wall in the world. Many visitors believed that writing love notes on the wall would make their love everlasting. 

Left to right: Bronze statue of Juliet, Juliet's Balcony

Juliet's House and Balcony, located in Verona just off Piazza delle Erbe is one of the most visited place in this town. It has been claimed that this is the property of the Dal Cappello family since the 1200s. From this, derives the name Capuleti, the house of Juliet. Hence, since the 1800s, this location has been a tourist attraction  Even Charles Dickens has recorded his impression the this residence in written word. 

Did you notice that certain parts of the bronze statue of Juliet seemed to shine? It was the most touched (worn out) part of the statue. This maybe because there is a legend that if a person strokes the right breast of the statue, that person will have good fortune. Now the question would be how come even the left side seems to shine?

Caffè Mezzaparte (Italy, Verona)

Piazza dell'Erbe, 8/a, 37121 

Verona, Italy

Tel:  +39 045 590590 ‎

Location

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Croque Saveur (France, Paris)

As mentioned in an earlier post, this is the start of a series of overseas posts covering meals consumed in Europe (France, Switzerland and Italy) and United Arab Emirates (Dubai). These posts are 5 months overdue as it took place in December 2012. In some of the posts, I might side track to mention some of the must visits. 

The Galeries Lafayette is a popular upmarket French department store located on the Boulevard Haussmann in the 9th arrondissement of Paris.

We were in Galeries Lafayette looking for a place for lunch. There were restaurants with serving, French, Western, Italian, Chinese and Japanese Cuisines), fast food (Mcdonalds) and a food court. We decided to venture out of Galeries Lafayette and see if we could get good local and maybe more authentic food.

After walking for some time, we saw this little restaurant called Croque Saveur. We decided to give this a try.

Croque Saveur is a local French restaurant located in the heart of the Opera District a stone throw away (5 mins walk) from Galeries Lafayette.

Croque Saveur was a small restaurant (can fit around 20 people), nicely decorated with no frills. A local restaurant indeed.

Menu

Part of the menu

Selection of food

Selection of food

We were spoilt for choice as there was a wide selection of food. We had a hard time deciding what to eat. In addition, we resorted to using hand signs and English to converse what we wanted to order as the owner were more comfortable with French. Come to think of it, we are quite fortunate. The owner was so friendly and patient trying his best explaining the set menus and also what is nice.

Ordered the Set Menu - Menu Lasagnes. Which comes with Choice of Salad, Lasagne and Choice of Dessert.

Bread

The bread was as hard as a rock! How come Europeans like their bread hard? Back home in Singapore, we are so used to softer bread.

Vegetable Soup

For one of the salads, we chose Vegetable Soup. Instead of a bowl, it was served in a cup. Brownish-green in colour, it did not look exactly appetising. But well, do not judge a book by its cover. This was a bowl of hearty Vegetable Soup, full of flavours with a ting of sweetness. Delectable!

Bulgar Wheat Salad

The Bulgar Wheat Salad was recommended by the owner. We decided to order this as we have not tried this before. The Bulgar Wheat is a type of cereal food made from different types of wheat with high protein and nutritional values. It had a chewy texture and a nutty flavour. Complemented well with the salad. A refreshing and healthy start to the meal

Meal Lagsagnes 

While there are several theories on the origins of Lagsagne, there is no doubt that Lagsagne is one of the most famous baked dishes in Italy. So much so that, it is also widely known as an Italian cuisine worldwide that is available in Europe (French), United States and even Asia (Singapore). 

Lagsagne

Do not underestimate this plate of Lagsagne. It was well-executed. Layer upon layer of soft wide flat pasta with grated cheese, spices, tomato, bolognese sauce and minced beef and pork. Covered with a thin layer of cheese crust, intense flavour burst out with each mouthful. So savoury and so perfect! Delish! A classic Italian Lagsagne. 

Creme Caramel

For dessert, we chose the Creme Caramel; a custard dessert with a layer of soft caramel on top. Unlike the Creme Brule we ate at Tao's restaurant which comes with a layer of hard caramel top (charred/burnt).

Creme Caramel

The Creme Caramel was light and soft with a smooth and silky texture. It did not taste overly sweet nor eggy.

Pommes Au Four  (Baked Apple)

Pommes Au Four (Baked Apple) is a typical dessert in Normandy, France. This was recommended by the owner too. It was a pity the sweetness of the apple was not brought out. Instead, it tasted sour. Is this how it should taste? Anyway, this did not suit our taste bud.

Overall, I would say Croque Saveur was a great experience. The food was cheap, great and fast! In addition, the owner was so friendly. With the ambience and environment, it gave us a warm homely feeling. If you are at Galeries Lafayette, Croque Saveur could be one of your options. After lunch, we headed back to Galeries Lafayette to continue exploring the department store.

Croque Saveur (Paris)
7 Rue Joubert
75009 Paris 9
Île-de-France, France
Tel: +33 1 42 82 15 21
Opening Hours: Daily 1130am to 4pm
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Location

The locations are as follows:

A - Pierre Herme in Galeries Lafayette

B - Croque Saveur & Galerie Kebab

Blue area shows Galeries Lafayette

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Pastamania (Plaza Singapura)

Pastamania is probably one of the biggest Italian restaurant chain in Singapore. Currently, they have 48 outlets in 8 countries, 29 of which are in Singapore. They specialise in serving quick casual Italian food (pasta and pizza). 

I believe most of us here, would have patronise Pastamania before. I have patronise Pastamania when I was younger quite frequently. This recent visit to Pastamania is my first since a long long time (over a year). In terms of the environment, it is the same at all its outlets; the chairs, tables, walls, counter, tiles and lights. The standardisation is a good thing as I found the setting familiar despite not having patronise Pastamania for sometime.

Add on one of the Combo to make it a complete meal which allows you add different permutations of soup/ drink/garlic bread.

When ordering a pasta dish, there are 5 types to choose, mainly Penne, Fusilli, Linguine, Spaghetti or Wholemeal Spaghetti.

Clockwise from left: Garlic Bread, Minestrone Soup, Cream of Mushroom

I ordered my meal with Combo A  (Drink, Garlic Bread and Minestrone Soup) which cost an addition of $4.90. And also ordered a Cream of Mushroom soup.

Garlic Bread

The standard of the Garlic Bread seemed to have dropped drastically. It was served cold. Moreover, there was no garlic flavour which the buttery flavour did not cater to my taste bud.

Minestrone Soup

The Minestrone Soup full of ingredients was too sour.

Cream of Mushroom $2.40

Fortunately, the Cream of Mushroom fared better in comparison to the Minestrone Soup. In terms of thickness it was just nice and there were pieces of mushrooms in it. The only issue I have is that the flavour of mushroom was not sufficient. It was akin to a bowl of Campbell soup with mushrooms added in separately. 

Marinara $11.10

The Marinara which I always order when I patronise Pastamania, consisted of pasta (spaghetti) cooked with prawns, squid and clams in tomato herb sauce. Still my favourite. The squid was cooked well and it was not rubbery while the clam was fresh. The down side was that the prawn was not too fresh. Overall, still one of the better dishes at Pastamania.

Turkey Bacon Cheesy Crumble $7.80

Turkey Bacon Cheesy Crumble consisted of pasta (fusilli) cooked with turkey bacon in homemade cheese sauce topped with parmesan crumble. Somehow the ingredients such as turkey bacon seems to be lacking. It was plain and akin to eating pasta with cheese.

The dishes were served very quickly within less than 10 minutes after ordering. Their kitchen must have a very efficient system in place. Pastamania is halal certified. In terms of price, it is one of the more affordable place to have Italian cuisine. Food wise, I won't say that it was fantastic.

Pastamania (Plaza Singapura)
68 Orchard Road
#B2-07 Plaza Singapura
Tel: 6341 9871
Opening Hours: Daily 11am to 10pm
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