We arrived at 6.30pm (note: reservation is recommended) and was given a table inside the cosy restaurant. The timing was good because the place really filled up fast later.

The menu presented was impressive with quite a bit of variety to tempt your taste-buds. There’s antipasti, soups, breads, fish, meat, pastas, pizzas, etc…

We ordered Focaccia bread ($5), Pizza Etna,  a “white” pizza (named as such as it does not have a tomato base), and a Linguine al Granchio e Crema di Aragosta to share. The meal was finished with a Tiramisu Pistachio. We were so hungry that I forgot to take a picture of the Focaccia bread. It was warmed (seems that they warm the breads only in Singapore, we had cold bread through the Milan trip!), cut into cubes and served with Olive oil and Balsamic vinegar. One tip though. When they are served, wait a while before you grab those cutesy Foccacia cubes. They are surprisingly crisp on the outside, but moist inside. I prefer my Focaccia to be drier. So if you like it this way, you’ll just have to wait a while, the bread tastes actually better!

Pizza Etna ($25): Mozzarella cheese, porcini mushrooms, Parma ham, cream cheese, pistachio (from Bronte in Sicily)

The pizza came out fresh from wood fire oven. The chef did an excellent job of keeping the dough from drying up or burnt. I found this pizza on the salty side probably due to the combination of mozzarella cheese and Parma ham. But generally it still stands comparable with my favorite Spizza’s pizzas. What you can do is to mask the saltiness with lots of chilli flakes. Yuuuummmmy! Oh yes, you can request for the pizza to be topped (free) with organic extra virgin olive oil from Sicily. Only suggestion I have is, have more mushrooms please!

Linguine al Granchio e Crema di Aragosta ($24): Flat pasta with crab meat in pink lobster sauce

We enjoyed this dish tremendously. The pasta was Al Dente, and there is absolutely not “fishiness” in the sauce. It was not too wet (like the pastas you get in Food Courts), nor too dry. Every strand of pasta was dressed lovingly with the light creamy sauce.

Tiramisu al Pistaccio ($10) – Tiramisu with pistacio flavour (from Bronte in Sicily)

If you want some sugar rush, this is what you should get. Expect a generous coating of pistacio power on top of this cake. The center filling was a bit too sweet for me (its almost tastes like rich pistachio ice-cream). But overall this is a very refreshing change from the run-off-the-mill Tiramisu cake.

Is it worth coming here again? You bet! There’s much more stuff we wanna try, and if you come at the right timing, you can get good food right in the comfort of the heartlands.

Etna
110 Upper East Coast Road
Singapore 455298
Tel: 64449630
Email: info@sicilia-mia.com
Website: www.sicilia-mia.com

But look at them.. don’t they both make a very lovely day-to-day working bag? I get hot flushes and I can’t sleep! I can almost smell the rich leather smell just by looking at the pictures. Anyway, if you “feel” something when you see the pictures below. Drop me a sign in the poll below.

Above: Fossil Tava Convertible Satchel (US$218)

Above: Bottega Veneta Moro Nappa Roma Bag ((US$3080)

 Take Our Poll

We were apprehensive at first as we turned up before its opening hours (11am). Will the soup be too bland? Will the pork ribs be too chewy? Perhaps we should have turned up late afternoon so that the soup would have simmered long enough.

So what’s the verdict?

One of the best Bakut Teh we have tasted so far (“better than Sin Ming Drive’s”, snowy daddy scoffs). The soup has just the right herbal tones (not peppery, not too bitter from the herbs). Most importantly, it was served pipping hot! There were about 5 pieces of pork ribs, served with beancurd skin and lettuce. The ribs though small in servings, had meat that just slides off the bone effortlessly ($5.50). The Giam Chye ($1) was a bit spicy, but very appetizingly sweet-and-salty. You tiao ($1) was fresh, browned, crispy and sweetish. Tao Pok ($1) was cut to squares, served floating in a blander version of the soup.

For 2 persons (ordered small soup, 2 rice), the bill came up to $9.50.

It’s value for money and a must try!

Tip: Park in Geylang Lor 13, or along main street of Geylang Road.

Snowy Papa excitedly points out Mount Everest

The highest mountain in the world stands at 8,848m. See where the blue bubble is.

Guess what? I was the only one invited into the cockpit to see it from the point of view of the pilots. Pretty Awesome!!

The other most amazing thing we did was to watch sunrise in Pokhara in freezing 4 degrees Celsius. Although the mountains were barely in sight due to the mist, the hues were still breath-taking.

The sun rising from behind the faint silhouette of a mountain (misty!)

I’m probably one of the rare ones who uses 3 Mbps Mio broadband connection when everyone is at least on 6 Mbps (the most most basic plan from Mio).

But guess what? It works fine, especially IF you have Firefox!

Snowy Papa’s jaws dropped when I showed him the loading speed of his favorite websites: Redcafe.net, soccernet, insidehoops on Firefox ver 3.6.12 vs. on Internet Explorer 7. Now he doesn’t have go shower or take a dump while waiting for Youtube videos to stream and load. On Firefox,  it streams almost instantaneously!

So, I say… save some bucks.  Before you jump onto the bandwagon and get hopelessly lock-in to some expensive high-bandwidth broadband plans (or the latest fiber optic plans), why don’t give Fire Fox a try?

Besides, everytime someone downloads Firefox, the 2 (Awww… so cute) female red panda cubs (aka “Firefox”) at Knoxville Zoo are closer to getting their next treat.

Check out the 2 cuties via Web Cam at http://firefoxlive.mozilla.org/. Shh… remember there is a time zone difference, they might be taking their beauty nap!

I Heart Firefox.

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Want a second opinion? Read review on this shopping site here.

Nope. I’m not into that fairy tale or the latest Alice In Wonderland movie. But lately I have been preoccupied with ”Alice”. (www.alice.org) I stumbled upon a book on this animation software from Carnegie Mellon University in the library and downloaded it for fun. Well, it’s official description is that it is a ”Free scripting and prototyping environment program for 3D object behavior”. In other words, you can use it to teach OO concepts. Possibly first Alice then Eclipse. I’ve even done my own “little cow advertisement”…

Opening: Play music Kelis – Milkshake

Cow swishing tail walking from right to left to the sound of music
Cow stops, turns head 1/2 revolution to face the camera
Cow says “How does a farmer count his cows?”
Cow turns full body 1/2 revolution to face camera
Cow swish tail 3 times
Cow says, “With a COW-culator”

Close caption, “Drink Cows milk, Udderly smart choice”