Bene Spaghetti ベネ・スパゲッティ

Be warned: your ears will be assailed by the deafening chirps of the staff as you walk through the doors of Bene Spaghetti at 84 Circular Road.

And throughout your meal, you will continue to suffer rude shocks from the staff’s shouts of welcome or acknowledgement of a customer’s request for service. While the service is friendly and prompt, we felt that the jarring noise marred our experience. It doesn’t help that Bene is a small place, and the echoes of conversation and the staff’s loud voices got somewhat irritating after a while.

For an idea of how cosy Bene is: there are just two more rows of tables to the left of hte below picture, and my back was up against the wall:

The food was fusion Japanese-Italian, which meant that it was neither the best type of Japanese nor Italian cuisine. While there are many authentic Italian restaurants owned and run by Japanese this one attempted to mesh both styles together.

What resulted was a Clam and Mussels Risotto in Tomato Sauce presented Japanese style – like kamameshi (釜飯) -  that didn’t quite have the full bodied flavour that Italian risottos have from the slow-cooking of the rice. Bene also gave customers the choice of eating the risotto like ochazuke – by pouring into the pot some soup with herbs mixed in – but I felt that further diluted the flavour of the risotto.

The restaurant’s signature dish is mushi pasta (蒸しパスタ) – or steamed pasta – which is said to make the pasta soft without being wet. It’s also meant to be healthier and lighter as the pasta is cooked without oil. We ordered the Smoked Pork with Blue Cheese Cream Sauce Mushi Pasta, which scored points for its presentation:

After waiting for 5 minutes as the pasta continues to cook at your table, the dish itself was unearthed. It was indeed quite light, although the pasta was not al dente and was too soft. I felt that the pork ended up a bit too wet and lost its smoky flavour from the steaming. Boo.

A more satisfying dish was the Chicken Thigh and Bacon in Tomato Sauce Gnocchi Gratin. Though it looked a bit oily, the tangy tomato sauce was delicious and we enjoyed soaking it up with the bread given. The gnocchi was also soft and tasted great with the bacon and chicken flavours. The crunchy vegetables added a healthy touch to this dish.

My favourite dish, however, was the wonderful Bacon with Onsen Egg Pizza. I absolutely loved this as the flavourful bacon slices were fairly thick with a good bite, there was a generous amount of runny egg white and the yolk, though a tad overcooked, was still moist on the inside. I also loved that the thin crust was just the right thickness to taste substantial.

While the food wasn’t the most authentic or the best tasting around, Bene wins on its value for money. Their dinner sets cost $25 and are accompanied by a salad, a plate of assorted antipasto (olives, greens, parma ham) or homemade focaccia, a main and a choice of dessert or drink. The bread is replenishable and servings are big - our party of 6 were stuffed with four dinner sets, an assorted antipasto platter and a serving of garlic bread.

The salad is quite large:

And their Assorted Antipasto Platter ($26++) wasn’t too bad. (From left: mozzarella and tomatoes, thic omelette, grilled chicken thigh, smoked salmon, vegetables in tangy thin tomato sauce, parma ham, and olives and assorted vegetables.)

I really liked their Garlic Bread ($8++) too, as the thick slices of bread soaked up all the olive oil and garlic flavour. While Bene terms its bread accompanying the sets “homemade focaccia”, it’s the same bread that’s used for the garlic bread, which is anything but focaccia. No complaints though, as it was soft, fluffy and complemented the sauces.

All in all, I have mixed feelings about Bene. The food was okay, the service was good but had some really annoying aspects, and they have some nice quirks like presenting a frozen hand towel upon arrival and writing your name down at your table for reservations:

While this warmth of service extended to two members of staff standing outside the door to wave goodbye and hand you a complimentary slice of homemade bread each, we got slightly self conscious at the loud volume at which they said “Goodbye Simon! See you again! Thank you! Have a nice time!!”. It’s a bit too genki and over zealous, and I wonder if the staff go home with a sore throat from all that shouting.

That said, I’m not sure if I’ll return to Bene again, and if I do, I will need to be mentally prepared for the full assault on my ears.

For a look at their menu, check out Bene’s Facebook page.

Great, simple ideas to make life easier

More useful tips to make life easier. The original post had 99 tips but here are some of what I thought were more useful ones.

Brownie in a mug

Image from here.

Taiwanese Oyster Omelette

Looking through some recent food photos and wanted to post this – it was the best ever oyster omelette which we had at Liaoning Night Market (near Zhongxiao Fuxing Metro station):

The oysters were so plump and fresh, and the omelette was generous with egg and contained just the right amount of starch.

The night market also had the most delicious ever 臭豆腐 (smelly tofu). It was fragrant, just the right texture and not too dry. The sauce was great too – a mixture of chilli, sweet sauce and garlic. I think I loved it largely for the garlic, as it gave a wonderful flavour to the tofu – a colleague commented that it’s doubly smelly tofu. The tofu was so delicious that it occupied my thoughts for the rest of the night and much of the next morning.

Biotherm Eye Makeup Remover

I tried the sample of this Biotherm eye makeup remover other day and it has gotten my thumbs up:

I didn’t notice the price of it at the counter though, but I’ll consider it as good, together with my favourite Kanebo and Kate eye makeup removers (reviews here).

While the Kate remover is not available in Singapore, they’re readily available in just about any Watsons store in Taiwan for less than $20, which is cheap. The bottle looks like this:

Give them a try and you’ll be converted, particularly if you use layers of stubborn – and hence water and oil-proof – mascara like Majolica Majorca.

Mimosa

Two colleagues separately took it upon themselves to dig up notes of a meeting which they thought the boss was referring to in an attempt to be helpful.

I'm kinda amused, because they mistook silence for ignorance when it actually was an unwillingness (and an unnecessary action) to tell the boss that he was wrong (either that, or say that the notes did not accurately capture the discussion). 

It was also a little funny, as the notes they extracted were the wrong notes - the boss had referred to a dinner, not a meeting. Moreover, the meeting was of no direct relevance to us (which probably meant that they either hadn't read the notes or don't remember its contents).

It is also strange that they thought I wouldn't have relevant meeting minutes for an issue that I've been closely watching, to the extent that they separately spent time to dig up notes which I had actually already pulled out during the meeting itself.

Anyway. I'm sure they were trying to be helpful, and I know I have been overly sensitive today.

Here's to a burnt weekend after a relatively lull week. Definitely not the preferred way to spend my time.

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Grrrr

People should develop more cultural sensitivity. I’m quite sure if they had friends from those cultures they wouldn’t be posting such stuff online, especially when those topics are politically sensitive as well.

Also, really think that those people who like to take their friends’ mobile devices to post embarrassing Facebook status updates to their friends’ Facebook page should just grow up and get a life. And if those people whose super buay hiao bai (egotistical) updates are not the fault of a friend but themselves should do some figurative and literal self-reflection to consider how far from the truth their updates are.

Grrr.

On Ballet and Perfection

We had a farewell party for one of the bosses today, and the discussions reminded me of some thoughts which came to mind a while ago.

One of them is that although I'm more fascinated by Latin ballroom and salsa than I am by classical ballroom, the truth of the matter is that I'll probably be a better dancer of classical ballroom due to my ballet background.

While I'd long harboured the secret hope that I'll one day learn and get fairly good at the more sexy Latin dances and jazz, I think the summer masterclass in contemp/jazz had rid me of all delusions.

Things really are different when you're seeing a professional in action and trying to mimic the moves he does. Someone once said to me, using ballet as an example, that she doesn't know how to appreciate ballet as she has no background and doesn't know what it means or what it takes to execute the moves. And I totally agree. It seems like the more I learn the more I'm able to appreciate ballet greatness as well as identify what could be improved upon by the dancers on stage.

Also, it occurred to me that ballet leaves no room for anything that's not perfection. While Latin ballroom has competitions for dancers based on their standard (e.g. amateur competitions vs semi-pro ones), competitions in ballet are by age categories. That is of no consolation to learners of ballet though, as there are 13 year olds who can outdance those far older than them with their numerous fouettes en pointe.

While I may have reached major grade and only, on paper, have four grades left to pass, this means nothing when passing exams is just the tip of the iceberg. And really, without strong pointe technique, minimally 120 degree arabesques and at least 16 fouettes (and perfect triple pirouettes), you're nothing in the ballet world.

A long way to go in the strive towards inching closer to perfection.  

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Breakfasts

Just back from a trip.

Actually, the highlight of travelling for work is the hotel breakfasts. Love it when I can start the day with eggs, cheeses, coffee and cherry tomatoes. All three days of this trip started this way, with some of my favourite food for breakfast.