Saturday, November 12, 2016

Pasta Carbonara, Properly Done


Normally another generic mall restaurant I wouldn't bother with, but the dear girlfriend sent a photo of Caffé B's menu that piqued my interest. Almost the same photo here. Do you see the outline in red? It offers a carbonara with egg yolk, promising absolutely NO CREAM. How rare is that?!

I don't hang out at Marina Bay Sands (MBS) or its restaurants. But on the usual work day when I'm zipping around offices, it isn't difficult to head over to the Central Business District and the Marina Bay Financial Center to meet friends for lunch or drinks. This dear girlfriend made a date and took me to Caffé B to satisfy my curiosity. We strolled over for lunch on a day when it decided not to rain.

There was a spicy fish aglio e olio. It was topped with a nicely-seared piece of seabass with skin. We appreciated that. Of course I ordered the spaghetti carbonara. It came out looking and tasting exactly what I had hoped for. Hurrah! The spaghetti was nicely al dente, and all that egg yolk. Mmmm. 😍 It was a tad salty, probably from the pieces of bacon. But I could happily live with that. I don't take the bacon, but don't mind them in the pasta for flavor. That's the whole point of carbonara. I love pasta and its accompanying carbohydrates. So I ate up all the spaghetti and left a pile of bacon at the side. Heeeheehee.

Caffé B offers limited choices of pasta at lunch, but they sufficed for a one-dish meal. At its current prices of S$18-S$20 per pasta, it's super comparable to many restaurants in town, way surpassing some other restaurants' and cafes' crap pasta that are priced at S$24 a dish. I HATE THAT. Good pasta isn't difficult to cook; good pasta also doesn't have to be priced at more than S$20 each when it's just plain aglio e olio or arrabbiata. MBS isn't inconvenient to get to. I'm definitely coming back to the restaurant for more of its food at lunch. Not dinner. Dinner prices aren't friendly.

7 comments:

D said...

carbonara with no cream! i've never heard of it! i've to start searching for no cream carbonara recipe to try at home!

D said...

Nasi Lemak Post:
Nasi Lemak Kukus is my fav place for nasi lemak. i went less often after they moved out of upp thomson as the new location was less convenient for us. i tried the one at selerarasa once before, and i also quite liked it. just out of curiosity, what is it about their nasi lemak that you didn't like?

jo said...

Just nice! I'll be in that area next week - I'm going to try the carbonara :D

coboypb said...

Spicy fish aglio olio sounds lovely. remember you like Nude Seafood at MBFC too. A good reason to venture to that area for a meal :)

imp said...

D: Hmmm... carbonara is generally with no cream. Except in this part of the world and US, it's always slathered with cream. The pasta carbonara the adults used to feed me as a child also contained no cream. Only egg yolk is necessary.

Selera rasa nasi lemak: not keen on the long queues, not hot about its coconut milk to rice ratio, and its sambal is overly sweet and not exactly spicy. so its entire nasi lemak satisfaction quotient doesn't work for me.

imp said...

jo: HA! Happy eating! It isn't that crowded at lunch. not too bad. But if you want to reserve a table, easily done so via Chope.

imp said...

coboypb: oh yes, NUDE is great. but for NUDE, go before 11:50 or after 1pm. It's crazy in between. Very crowded, and noisy.