Friday madness

Friday went by in a blur... Let's see... I went to the office, then to the optical shop to collect my new pair of prescription glasses, to the money changer for some RMB (for Shanghai) and then home to get some more work done on my computer.

As usual, Ting came running to my room. There she is, wearing that innocent look but I know she must be thinking, "The mouse looks really fun. I must try to get my hands on it when Koo Koo (that's me) is not looking..."

True enough, the moment I turned away, she was busy clicking my mouse, going "Up and down, up and down..."

I made a quick stop at best friend's place to give her the birthday present. It's a day late but better late than never. Voila, she's home early for the day! We sat down for coffee and exchanged pressies (my birthday's in mid-Sept. Oh well.. better to get a present late, than nothing right?). I knew she had been eyeing on that pair of Oakley sunglasses for the longest time (I mean long, like for years), so I bought her a pair and guess what? She had bought herself one 2 weeks ago when she was in the US! Gee, now she has 2 pairs, though of different designs. I had already suspected she may have bought one for herself but what a coincidence!

Another funny coincidence. She bought me a sports watch. Remember, C.H. bought me a sports watch for my birthday too? Now I have 2! That shows how much my friends understand what I need! Good thing the watches are different. But gee, how uncanny right?

Dinner last night was at Stiff Chilli Trattoria, the restaurant that was fully booked last Friday. Good Ol' C.H. called early and got us a table. The moment I walked in, I fell in love with the anti-posh decor.

Look at how creative they are? I was charmed by the colourful plastic food covers used as lamp shades.

The furniture is simple but industrial like. I like the innovative use of steel frames, wooden beams in an old shophouse setting.

The wall is full of sepia photos of Indonesian people of long ago. I'm not sure why the owner (Italian-Australian chef Rodney Holt) put up these pictures here, besides the fact that he has 4 similar restaurants in Bali. We sat next to the picture of half-naked women (below), so I told C.H. "You cannot look huh!" That's why, his head is turned away :-)

After some waiting, bread toasted with olive oil and garlic was served on a wooden plate.

Our seafood soup (zuppa) came next but we were famished and gobbled up everything and forgot to take photos.

Then more waiting.... Where is my food? I kept stealing glances at what the 4 ladies next to our table were eating. Wah, they ordered alot. The burrata (plump white balls of satiny mozzarella air-flown from Italy) with parma ham looked so good but the portion is too big for us. They had the crab linguine which came with a whole mud crab too. We gave that a miss too...not really in the mood to tackle with the messy crustacean last night.

Here's what we had. The pizza with parma ham and blue cheese. It's cooked in true Italian style, with a really thin crust. I liked it alot and it evoked memories of the simple pizzas that I ate in the traditional old restaurants in Tuscany.

C.H. is always the adventurous one when it comes to food. So, he picked the squid ink pasta cooked in a creamy sauce with pieces of seasoned marlin. The pasta was cooked to perfection (truly al-dente!) and totally yummy. I had always avoided this dish thinking that it would be somewhat fishy but it was not a single bit fishy at all.

Of course we ended the meal with gelato. The restaurant had a big variety of home-made Italian ice cream and sorbets, we had to try some. The tiramisu and hazelnut flavours that we tried were milky, smooth and so satisfying!

I can't imagine life without good food. Here I am, trying to lick the huge chilli outside the restaurant. As if I didn't eat enough!!