someone once said to me that the best part of a relationship is the part before the couple officially gets together. that’s when both individuals know that they have feelings for the other person, but are just slightly unsure about how the person feels. every little touch means a lot, every date is a bundle of nerves and there’s this happy, glowy feeling when you get a text from the other person out of the blue.
but the best part of a relationship, for me, are the moments when you learn new things about your partner. i’ve come to realize how much i love cuddling on the couch, and whispering to him all sorts of questions .. like, how did you get this scar? and how old were you when you first had sex? and what are you most afraid of? .. and it’s just so much fun to hear all the answers .. i got this scar while playing ice hockey, i was 19, i’m afraid of being alone.
quiet nights when you’re both just lying in bed and he’s unraveling stories about his life before you came into it, lazy afternoons when he’s showing you pictures from his childhood, long car rides when he’s telling you all about his exgirlfriends - these are the best moments in a relationship. so honest and open and unbarred. and when you’re in a relationship where for whatever weird reason you feel that you cant entirely let yourself go, it is times like this that are important - you can forget about all those consequences, and just immerse yourself in the moment and the knowledge.
when i’m in love with someone, i want to know all the little things about him .. the quirks, the history, the side of him that he shows to noone else. i want those honest, naked moments. and if i cant have such moments with him.. if he cant share his life with me, wont open up to me .. i wouldnt be able to accept it at all. i cant love you if i dont know you.
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hey, tell me something about you, anything that i dont know…
“i’m really jealous of my brother”
“i’ve always wanted to be a fighter pilot”
“i loved you from the moment i opened that door and saw you”
you know an Italian restaurant is good when it attracts customers who drive Lambourghinis with the license plate ‘DADI’ :P
Vincenzo is a nice Italian eatery that’s situated at the end of the One Bangsar strip of restaurants. i havn’t actually heard very much about Vincenzo prior to this, but the place looked so pretty that we just had to go check it out! arriving at 8pm, we found the place already full on both floors. there aren’t many tables in the place, plus they often hold private functions, so making prior reservations would be a wise move if you plan to eat at Vincenzo. dont be like azlan and i, okay - of the 375498756 times we go out to have dinner, we probably only make reservations like once. hehe. but we’ve learnt our lesson.
Vincenzo has quiet, understated and classy ambience with just the right amount of warmth. mellow jazz music is piped throughout the place, and there’s a little patio section for you to dine in if you want a bit of sun during lunch hours or some fresh air.
for my starter, i had … hehehe seafood soup! yes, again! cos i like lah. but the soup here wasnt very good though. it was so forgettable that i couldnt even remember whether or not i liked it, and had to ask azlan to jog my memory. he says that i didnt like it. then i remembered that i thought it was too tasteless and watered down despite having a lot of seafood stuff in it.
azlan had the caesar salad which he didnt like, cos the dressing wasnt creamy enough. i quite agree, but i guess salads arent meant to be sinful :P it was a pretty huge portion though, and the cheese was of great quality.
azlan’s venison main was up next, served on a bed of asparagus shoots and potatoes. he thought it wasnt up to standard, but i felt it was okay. the marinade could be better though. probably would not order again ..
once again, my expertise at picking the better main shines through! heehee. i had the sea bass which came with a lovely lemon butter sauce. this was soooo superbly good and quite possibly the best fish i’ve had in a while. every bite was flavourful and the fish was unbelievably fresh. very yum, i totally recommend it.
the waiter recommended the tiramisu, and despite being really sick of tiramisu, we had it anyway. we didnt think it was going to be good, since every place touts their tiramisu as their bestselling dessert even when it’s not very nice anyway … but Vincenzo’s tiramisu was actually pretty yummy! it’s served in a glass, and has very dense layers of mascarporne, which is exactly how tiramisu should be. none of that light and fluffy cheese crap!! the coffee liquer taste is strong and thick too. overall, pretty boring and nothing special, but still good. a 4/5 :)
okayyyyy this is their chocolate torte, and it is TO DIE FOR. the base is this nice crunchy biscuit pastry, the filling is the most amazing bittersweet dark chocolate, and finally, a thick blueberry confit lends the dessert a slight sweet tanginess. sooooooooooo gooooooooood. it’s like forkfuls of heaven!!! this dessert totally made up for the below par seafood soup, caesar salad and venison - and it’s the only reason i would go back to Vincenzo.
if you like creme brulee, i think theirs should be pretty good cos the table behind us were raving about it. plus it was the waiter’s first recommendation of dessert. we’re not creme brulee fans though, so we didnt get it.
i quite like the service here. very professional, very warm. well-informed, too! and the price is actually really reasonable - cheaper than most italian restaurants of this standard. it’s cheaper than Cipolla, that’s for sure.
overall, Vincenzo was just alright. it’s a very nice chillout place to just kick back and have wine with one or two friends - but i wouldnt come here for anniversary dinners or birthdays or any other special occasion. it’s just not that kinda place. it’s still a delightful place though, which is more than i can say for some of the restaurants on the One Bangsar strip. next time you go there, try Vincenzo. avoid NiNe and Montien Thai at all costs -_-
Vincenzo
One Bangsar, Jalan Ara,
Bangsar Baru,
59100 Kuala Lumpur.
Tel : 603-2287 1686
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hey i’m running out of italian eateries to go to. do you guys have any recommendations? i have extended my range to the Subang area since i study there now :D so if you know any good italian restaurants in Subang (or anywhere else), do tell ok! anyways here are my recommendations :
The Good
Ciao (Jln Tun Razak)
La Risata (Medan Damansara & Ampang)
Oggi (The Regent)
Opus (Bangsar)
Nero Vivo (Ceylon Hill)
Pizza Bella Italia (SS2 PJ)
Just Alright
Cipolla (Bangsar)
Prego (Westin KL)
Villa Danielli (Sheraton KL)
Vincenzo (Bangsar)
Allegro (SS15 Subang)
The Bad
Pizza Uno (Ampang & Subang)
Piccolo Mondo (Mid Valley & Lot 10)
Venezia (Tmn Segar)
oh by the way i’ve renounced my italian food strike. hehe. just couldnt stay away.
the earliest unfuzzy memory i have of you is when i texted you in Bali. you were still that light blue colour then - so detached, so far away, not really a part of my world. but Coffee Bean brought us together .. healthy fruit tea and decadent ice blended belgian chocolate and little plastic cups of water. you and your iPod, me in my denim skirt.
i cant remember anything that we talked about that day. how the hell we arrived at the topic of horror movies, i dont really know either. “have you watched The Eye? it’s pretty good,” you say, and i say “no i havent but i really gotta one day, one of my best friends loves that show” .. and before i know it we are at your place with the dvd of The Eye, but not before i giggle at your leopard-print mask. it’s cute, but serves no ultimate purpose. i mean, you smoke anyway.
watching The Eye was very awkward, did i ever tell you that? i think part of the fun of watching horror movies is having someone to grab, whose shoulder you can hide your face in. but i didnt want to invade your space.. or give you the wrong idea for that matter, especially since we barely knew each other. but i wanted to, though. sorta. it’s strange how far we’ve come from that. i know the smell of your bed now, i know the grooves of your shoulders and this time around i wouldnt be hesistant about pressing my face into them during horror movies.
there was this one afternoon, you were sitting on the bed and i was lying under the covers, and you were feeding me ice cream from the pint with a metal spoon. i looked up at you as the icecream touched my tongue, and i couldnt help but think how the simplicity of the whole situation was beautiful. it was like a scene out of a movie. and i wanted so badly to tell you how perfect it all was, but of course restraint was necessary at that point in time. i guess it’s still quite hard to break out of that self-imposed mindset.
icecream on metal spoons is a very common combination, but the context is important. i think that was the turning point - it was the day i liked ice cream more than chocolate. from then on, i always wanted someone to feed me ice cream the way you did, but everyone keeps fucking it up. they dont do it right. they dont do it the way you do.
i look forward to our conversations, in a wistful and sometimes sadistic way. there’s a lot i want to say to you, and a lot i want to hear from you. i dont know if i’ll ever get to say what i want to say .. but perhaps i’ll keep my promise about that time capsule thing 20 years from now :) i’ll trap 2006 in an envelope and i’ll mail it to you. maybe even DHL it, if i’ve gotten the hang of it by then, hehe.
i dont really know where we’re headed. but that’s fine. where we are right now is fine - for the moment, this is where we belong. this place in between two lines and two boxes.
If I lay here
If I just lay here
Would you lie with me and just forget the world?
i went for dinner yesterday at this place in Bangsar called Cipolla. quite by accident too - we were actually supposed to go to Flams (really good place too, just beware this one perverted waiter..) but coz we parked near Cipolla, and coz i think restaurants with those little chalkboard signs are soooo cute, we went to Cipolla instead!
it’s a new restaurant, been open for only 4 weeks. went in and found out from the manager that it was a sister restaurant of Ciao! Ciao is like one of my favouritest italian places ever. a full perusal of the menu (i love looking through menus!!! it’s so exciting. practically the best moment of the dining-out experience) revealed that the dishes were pretty much similiar to Ciao’s. but nvm lah. Ciao’s food good wat. zomg their cream marinara.
for starters, we had the wild mushroom soup and the seafood soup. mushroom soup was good but not great. tastes like what you’d expect from a place like this - creamy, rich and with lotsa mushroomy bits! the seafood soup is exactly like the one from Ciao and i ended up hijacking it from my date cos Ciao has the BEST seafood soup in the whole wide world! still have yet to find one that can beat it. it has the perfect texture and is just soooo full of flavour. and the shrimp in it is so GOOD!
they took ages with our mains cos they messed up one of the orders, and so they placated us with free bruschetta. haha how cute. and the bruschetta was actually pretty good for a tomato concasse topping! they put some leafy herby thingy on it, and garlic butter spread on the bread. and if their most basic bruschetta is good, i’m guessing the others that they have on their menu is going to be even better.
for mains - the Ravioli Zucca was simply amaaaaazing. it’s pumpkin-stuffed ravioli with slices of beef, in a light butter cream sauce. the pumpkin filling is so fantastic - it’s slighty sweet and soft and goes with the sauce and beef like you wont believe. there was supposed to be chopped almonds in the sauce, which were missing, which is a pity cos i think the almonds would have made this dish absolutely perfect.
when i asked the waiter which was better - the pumpkin ravioli or the porcini mushroom ravioli, he actually got really excited about the squid ink ravioli and insisted over and over again that i must try it. i was like, erks but it’s going to be black and so unappetizing! i mean i have trouble eating nasi kerabu (blue rice) already ok. but he was adamant that the taste would completely eclipse how weird it looks. actually he doesnt even think it looks weird, but whatever. anyways next time i go there i’m gonna try that. or if any of you go there before i do, and are willing to try it, tell me what it’s like okay!! i would so appreciate it.
their salmon main was actually not very good. the fillet itself, though very succulent, had next to no taste, and the pesto sauce was mediocre at best. the portion was very generous though! bigger than most places serve their fish. and it looked very nice and cute on the plate too. hehe. the superficial me likes.
for dessert, i made the wrong choice! i ordered this ice cream cake thing which sounded so nice on the menu, but was just alright. i’m so super fussy with my desserts so when i get one that i dont like i actually feel slightly upset, hahaha. anyways it’s this vanilla ice cream cake thing, with bits of sponge cake in the middle, with candied fruits (urk) and dark chocolate pieces as well. didnt really like. shoulda ordered the tiramisu but i have that all the time at Ciao. so next time i come back here i’m gonna try their chocolate mousse. ah, chocolate mousse! i’m still depressed that i never got to try Le Meridien’s during prom. it was supposedly super orgasmic :(
my date had gelati, the flavour of which i got to pick!!! hehehe. of course i picked bacio, which is the flavour everyone must love. it’s sorta like a ferrero rocher flavour - chocolate and hazelnut. very yummy. this one was lighter than the one i’m used to (Lecka Lecka!!!!! <3) but it was good all the same.
decor in Cipolla is nice. hock chuan, you will approve! or maybe not. (note to all : hock chuan is the worst person to go for dinner with, because everywhere we go, we cant eat without him criticizing at least 3 aspects of the decor. damn architects) the floor is polished concrete and there’s this funky brick wall on one side of the room. the bar looks nice too, and there’s this long basin that lines one wall - with very cool stone waterspouters in the shape of lion heads. the whole place is more casual than Ciao is, though. has a very laidback bistro feel. there’s even a little section at the back next to the winestore where the pizza chefs make pizza in the open!
service is great. the waiters really know their stuff. how knowledgable the staff of a restaurant is important, and if they cant tell which of their food is better than which, that says a lot. our waiter told us that he wouldnt really recommend the ice cream cake, but i went ahead and had it anyway. he turned out to be right! and he was also right about the gelati, and this other waiter about the ravioli :) they’re really warm and friendly too, though still maintaining waiter professionalism. oh and they gave us bruschetta on the house! that was really nice.
price-wise, it’s about rm20ish for their pizzas, rm30+ for mains, rm16 therabouts for dessert.
i like this place :) am definitely returning to try their squid ink ravioli. i guess it’s good after all to judge a restaurant based on whether they have cute chalkboard signs or not! :D
Cipolla
(same row as La Bodega)
4, Jalan Telawi 2
59100 Bangsar Baru
Tel : 03 2287 2628
Pinkpau is Su Ann. 19, Malaysia. Hostile when hungry. Sometimes a shapeshifter, always an optimist with a penchant for pessimism and shoe-shopping. More?
Contact at : pinkpau[at]gmail[dot]com
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