Dinner with the boys

When I heard YK moaning about how we don't go out for nice dinners anymore, I couldn't help but agree.

I remember how we used to indulge in fish & chips or ramen whenever we felt the need to escape from the bland but healthy food at my parent's home. Since we moved out last year, we had hardly eaten out together, just the three of us.

So I treated them to dinner at Porta Porta today. I felt excited and anxious about our dinner date all afternoon. I couldn't wait for them to try the delicious food on their menu, especially the squid ink pasta that I had been telling them about.

Maybe I had raved too much about it, the boys were not overwhelmed when they sank their teeth into the pasta. I must agree with YK that the pasta was cooked to perfection (al dente), but somehow it didn't have that same oomph as the last time I was there.

Why is that so? Perhaps we had raised our hopes too high. The pasta vongole didn't live up to expectation too. I was anticipating spaghetti swimming in a rich and flavourful clam broth like before but today's version was dry and so garlicky. The boys liked it but I know it could have been better.

Luckily the seafood pasta and fried calamari dishes saved the night. The squid pieces were tender and succulent, just the way we like it. The seafood pasta was chockful of clams, shrimp and squid which made the dish very flavourful. We were also given some free chicken fritters to sample. They were light and yummy, but a tad too salty.

For dessert, we order tiramisu to share. This is the real stuff where you can taste lots of rum but for some reason, it tasted a wee bit sour too. I think it shouldn't taste this way but we didn't make a fuss.

One thing for sure, it is a rather pricey place considering it is so far out of town. I actually expect more consistency in an establishment like this. We probably won't be returning again so soon but I think they'll see us again next year.