Of all meals, the gang met up for tea at KK’s favourite coffee place, Oriole. I can’t remember why but DC had missed lunch and used that as an excuse to order up his usual storm. The chicken quesadillas were pretty decent: they were well-stuffed with a good proportion of cheesy chicken and tomato to onion, though the overall dish wasn’t super flavourful.
I liked its take on squid rings. Here they warned us that there was chilli and that it wasn’t crispy. I’m not sure how they did it but they somehow coated the fried calamari very evenly with some sort of chilli-tomato sambal. The squid was chewy and slightly tough, just the way I like it and the chilli had good kick. Excellent.
Shinta decided that he must have seafood risotto for tea. That, apparently, was also his dinner so he was justified. Justified or not, his choice was impeccable as usual. The risotto was as it should: creamy yet al dente with clean seafood flavours well-accented by tomato. The grilled fish on top gilded the lily. I’d definitely order it for myself next time.
I decided to go the slightly more sensible road and had an affogato for my mid-afternoon snack. The version here is more dessert than rich drink as it had chocolate-coated honeycomb and walnut (?) stirred into the ice cream. The ice cream was rich, the espresso bitter and strong, and the crumble toothachingly sweet. It’s one of the best versions of affogato I’ve had, almost eclipsing my all-time favourite hazelnut affogato.
Oriole Cafe and Bar
96 Somerset Road
#01-01 Pan Pacific Serviced Suites
Tel: 6238 8348
eat. drink. cook. travel. 
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