Hot Box Bistro - A real gem in the heartland

Had dinner at HOT BOX BISTRO - way out west at Jurong West tonight.

It was a WOW experience to say the least. It felt that the idea is to serve top notch italian food catered to the masses at very very affordable prices.

I paid $8.90 for a seafood pasta - ingredients were very very fresh, nothing frozen, portions were generous, and the sauce draped around the pasta strands just the way it was meant to be. Nothing made from instant sauces. I could see and taste the tomatoes that went into making the sauce. Wow!

I can't stop raving about it cos it was just so good! This definitely is better than some italian restaurants I've been to and at such affordable prices too. No GST no service charge and the server and chef are so obliging and polite too.

My only regret is in not taking my camera with me tonight. My dining partner had the aglio olio seafood pasta and boy it was good!! The perfect taste to aglio olio. Mama mia!

Standards like this leaves Botak Jones way far behind in competition, and the rest of the italian places at Bt Timah Market eating dust too.

They've just opened in April 2010, and I really hope that they are able to sustain their food quality and/or prices. So do support if you are in the vicinity. Local businesses need all the support they can get, otherwise we consumers just have to put up with sub-standard food quality/ portions or pay an arm and a leg for a decent meal.

503 Jurong West Ave 1
HOT BOX BISTRO
Inside Kopitiam

Old Summer Palace

We visited this huge park which was razed to the grounds by the Allied Troops in the 1800s. In it were loads of empty barren lands where ornate buildings once stood, except for the marble park where nothing could be looted , for obvious reasons.

I was impressed with how modern and forward looking the Chinese were in their times. The gardens can rival that of Versailles in France and the English at Windsor. In fact it would still make a very impressive garden in any European country in this day and age.

I cannot remember if these were imported or made locally in their time. But they were beautiful.

The park was HUGE and we were COLD! See the frozen lake behind.

And the beautiful sunset we witnessed while trying to find our way out of the park. If the weather had been tropical, I'm sure it would feel like Chinese Garden in Jurong, no matter how nice the place.

Celebration

I received a call in the middle of the day. It was my mum planning for her own birthday.
"Oh gosh! We all didn't do any planning!" Guilt trip.

She'd planned her own birthday dinner, and was checking to ensure we all could turn up on the day. That's just so her, so efficient, so pragmatic. Sigh, I wish I were more like her sometimes.

This being the long weekend ahead, she'd also planned a studio photo session - the old school photo taking sessions - where prints are enlarged onto canvas type.

"Your daddy wants to take another family portrait. The last one was taken without Tim and Esther." Yup the ever growing family portrait.

" And also take his own portrait, a nice one "

Sigh, planning for the "goodbye" photo, I know, they've been talking about it for a while. Heck they even planned their own funeral and are now gonna choose their photos.

Much as I want to spend more time with them, and let them know how much I love them, I know that nothing will ever prepare me for the time when it is time to say goodbye.

I think they know this, that's why they are planning it all now, so that we kids will have an easier time then.

After we hung up, I then realised that I'd clean forgotten to ask her about her new dentures, and whether she's been eating well with them.

Food for thought

‘One must work and dare if one really wants to live.’ Vincent Van Gogh

Driven. Drive. Desire.