久しぶり, readers (yes, the two of you). since i’ve finally upgraded to ver2.3 (with a little help from the erstwhile dark lord due to a mishap on my smartFTP thingamabob), i’d better do an entry. why has it been a while? tiredness and tournesol ingredient hunting aside, i’ve been swamped with stuff at work as in two days time i’ll be boarding a plane in time to buy food at the bazaar ramadhan in good ol’ taman tun.

it won’t be long now before i make plans to visit australia (or any country south of the equator) during ramadhan.

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today i spent fifteen thousand smackers. ouch you say? you can say that again.

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ramadhan on 無秩序の胃 usually has food entries with pics to boot. i’ll do one now, for old times’ sake. when i was an eager-faced student oop noorth, my housemate introduced us to this neapolitan trattoria called santana’s in west jesmond where we actually had sunday lunch of the roast beef kind, kinda unusual for an italian eaterie (jesmond allegedly has a thriving italian community of sorts, or so people say). we’d go there on occasions like celebrating exam results and it’ll always be filled with people, the food gorgeous enough making a thirty-minute queue on a windy autumn’s night worth the wait. my poison would usually be steak diane and, more recently, their monkfish in provençal sauce. but their lobster soup (or bisque) is to die for, in my opinion.


last weekend was my first visit in a long time with some old friends and delirium kindly booked us a table. booking at santana’s is an experince, as it always appear like you’ve not made a booking at all as you’d find yourself waiting! nonetheless, it wasn’t that long a wait (it was only 15 minutes… haha) and we were shown to our table. it was still packed as it was the last time i ate here. one complaint i had was that they didn’t do the monkfish any more (it’s part of the specials on the blackboard, and not in their menu). i opted for the salmon fillet in oregano crust served with the most luscious herb-laced cream i’ve ever tasted. and they still had lobster soup, although i had a feeling the serving was a tad smaller in size!

great company in an italian eaterie where everyone seems to be squeezed together. good stuff, that.

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on another note, i was quite happy to be back, albeit for a very short time. bak kata madonna, “this used to be my playground…”