A New Italian Place for Dinner

Rich, with his veal ravioli and a "Moretti Beer"

As has become our pattern, we spent Saturday morning in the pool.  Rich swam for a bit, and then read at poolside.  I did my water aerobics workout, trying not to take up too much room, as there were several families with small children.  I think I saw a younger couple laughing at me, but I didn't care, because I was getting a good workout, and not sweating all over the equipment!

In the afternoon, we watched the rain pour down, as we tried to find a new restaurant in which to have our date that evening.  As I mentioned previously, I have an affinity for Italian food.  During the week, I was happy to try all kinds of food, but on date night, I looked for Italian.  Singapore has many Italian restaurants.  Despite the fact that we've eaten at Italian restaurants every week that we've been here, I must point out that it's Singapore Italian, not Chicago Italian.  There's more seafood, less tomato sauce, and more spiciness.  This week, we went to a restaurant called, "Trattoria Gallo D'Oro" (The Golden Rooster).  Most of the starters are rather pricy, but we've finally come to the realization that they're meant to be shared.  Unfortunately, we didn't realize that until after we each ordered a starter salad.  Rich ordered a salad with slices of pork and a tuna mayonnaise dressing, and I had tomatoes and buffalo cheese with lettuce and thinly sliced prosciutto.  Both were very tasty.  We also were given warm herb bread with olive oil and balsamic vinegar.  For our main dishes, I had lasagna.  My lasagna had layers of pasta and cheese, and was topped with a layer of meat, and it was in a tomato bechamel sauce.  Rich had veal ravioli, which were like little pockets filled with minced pork and veal, and served in butter and topped with crumbled bacon.  They were good, but my lasagna was better.  The service at "Trattoria Gallo D'Oro" was excellent.  The maitre 'd was very helpful, except for the fact that he told us that salads were meant to be shared AFTER our salads arrived.  The waitress was attentive and charming.  We had no fear of getting our entrees right on top of our salads!  My only concern was that we were one of only 3 tables of customers in the restaurant.  I don't know if the restaurant usually gets more traffic during the week, or if the high level of construction in the area kept customers away.  But the food and service should make this restaurant as popular as "Wine Connection".

Rich's pork and tuna salad...

...and my tomato, buffalo mozzarella, and prosciutto salad.

My lasagna in bechamel sauce.

Rich, enjoying a "Carlsberg Beer" by the pool.

We walked back to our apartment complex, and grabbed some cocktails to enjoy down by the pool.  It was a very pleasant evening, and the pool area was delightful.  We noticed several parties happening in the complex.  One was even taking place in our elevator bank area, but we decided against crashing it.  You can always tell where the parties are, because everybody's shoes are outside the door.  This party had several prams outside the door as well.  Rich later had coffee with an attendant at the party, who explained that the party was held to say good-bye to the couple, who are taking a year off to travel around the world!  The mentality here is just different than the US...