Pasta la Vista in Glasgow

I have mentioned the other day that my daughters are on Slimming World (http://www.slimmingworld.com) diet so I have also been preparing meals to support them, using low calorie oil sprays and trying to come up with healthy option for dinners.   But, you do need to enjoy your life and we can't resist temptation to eat out sometime, right!

Well, my husband, my younger daughter Maria and I have recently went to Coia's Cafe in Glasgow (http://www.coiascafe.co.uk) and we really had a fabulous dinner.

The highlight of the evening for me is their Linguine alla Pescatora (seafood linguine), our favourite pasta at this restaurant (see my earlier blogs, 'SEE'food in Glasgow, Cafe Coia for everyone and Great Seafood Soup in Glasgow). It's £15.45 but abundant with lots of seafood - langoustines, big scallops, calamari, mussels, king prawns - there are so much on the plate that I can only finish half of it, in fact it could feed for two. I ask for a doggy bag at the end of the evening and the next day I ate this for lunch, definitely there was more than enough for one left! It' definitely worthwhile to try this pasta!

Cafe Coia's Linguine alla Pescatora - mixed seafood with garlic, chilli and tomato sauce

Use these to tackle langoustine shells ...

Maria and I had not had mozzerella cheese for some time since Slimming World commenced in our household so we decide to have Insalata Caprese (tomato, fresh mozzarella and basil with extra virgin olive oil) for starter. That was nice and refreshing.

For main course, whilst I had seafood linguine, my husband had Tagliatelle Alfredo (creamy sauce with tomato, pesto and Parmiggiano Reggiano).  I confess. Earlier in the week, we had already been to Coia Cafe (so this was our 2nd trip to this restaurant in the week .. so much for Slimming World....) and he had seafood linguine then, he went all vegetarian for a change, well, almost except cheese and cream!

Tagliatelle Alfredo

Maria could not decide whether she would go for chicken dish or pasta, so decided to choose Pollo Milanese (chicken breast coated in breadcrums with spaghetti promodoro) and she could satisfy both of her wishes! You should see the size of the plate ...  I think she was really happy with her choice.

Maria's Pollo Milanese

No matter how full we are, we always have room for dessert ... Maria had Chocolate Chip Cheesecake - a baked New York style cheesecake with chocolate chips, decorated with chocolate chip pings on a sponge base! It came with vanilla ice-cream and whipped cream. I had tried a little and it was really yummy!

I had tried Gelato Affogato - vanilla ice cream topped with crushed Amaretti biscotti and served with a shot of hot espresso for pouring. Affogato means 'drowned' in Italian, so ice cream is drowned in espresso! This was really good.  Just thinking about this makes me want another one right now!  The combination of cold ice cream with hot espresso with crunchiness of amaretti is really addictive...

Well, we had fantastic meal at Coia's Cafe! Seafood linguine is excellent! It was definitely Pasta la vista, and I WILL BE BACK!!

That's all forks!

'SEE' Food in Glasgow

Once again I have been neglecting in updating my food blog, big time! I have been really busy with ... work, Angry Birds, work, Angry Birds, work, catch-up TVs (Can't wait for next series of Scandal and Revenge!), work, Angry Birds.....

I have been however eating, taking pictures here and there and I am now officially on holiday until after New Year, so I got some time now to come back to my blog.

The other day, we went back to Coia's Cafe (see my earlier blog) in Glasgow (www.coiascafe.co.uk), this time with my husband, Emily and Maria. We remembered to book the booth and when we arrived, we were seated near the kitchen. Well, this was a fantastic seat as we could see all the foods coming out of the kitchen.  Every dish looked so delectable, especially seafood dishes. Big plateful of mussels or langoustines, piled up high on plates and the smell was phenomenal. Every time chefs put plates on the counter for waiting staff to take away to serve, I kept saying "Wow, look at those!" or "Mmmmmm" with so much excitement that my family could not help laughing, saying "Look at mum's face looking at those foods!". 

Our seat near the kitchen - can see all the foods coming out from the kitchen!

So we first of all had garlic bread with mozzarella as starter to share.

Emily had main course portion of Cozze Marinara (fresh mussels with garlic, chilli and tomato).

Maria had Pizza Calabraese (spicy chicken and mixed peppers).

My husband had Tagliatelle Gamberoni e Cappeante (Garlic, chill, tiger prawns, scallops, cherry tomatoes and rocket).

and I had Linguine Pescatora (mixed seafood in a garlic, chilli and tomato sauce) and I was WOWed!
Just look at this - abundance of seafood and the plate was almost too small to hold everything!

My husband then had a hot apple crumble with ice cream and fresh cream for dessert and we all had cappuccino (... yes, I know Italians dare not to do drink this after noon but we don't care...)

There were so much food and we could only manage half, so we asked for doggy bags for Emily's mussels, my seafood linguine and Maria's pizza, which they were happy to oblige  - even boxes were huge to contain all our foods we could not manage. You can guess what we had for dinner the next day - nothing got wasted and we all had happy stomach!

In the meantime, more food kept coming out from the kitchen and I kept saying 'Wow' for everything.
We'd definitely go back again for SEEfood experience!

That's all forks!

Great seafood spaghetti!

I am updating this blog while cooking dinner. Menu for this evening is grilled salmon fillet glazed with light soy sauce and ginger, with mixed vegetable stir fry and savoury vegetable rice. Ever since I watched Gok Wan's Chinese Cookery programme on TV, I have been using Thai Fish Sauce when stir frying vegetables. It really does add extra dimension to the ordinary stir fry but be careful not to use too much, otherwise your stir fry vege  would end up too salty to eat.

Anyway, we went back to our favourite Italian restaurant, Sarti (http://sarti.co.uk), for dinner last Friday night.
As soon as I walked into the house, after long day at work and when all you wanted to do was to relax and sit in front of TV to catch up, perhaps with a glass of vino, my husband asked me if I wanted to go to Sarti.  Of course I want, why not, how can I refuse!!!  There was a slight catch though - I got to be the designated driver after the dinner.

We did not book the table but we were lucky enough to get a nice table, considering how busy the place was already for early evening.  I had their Tomato and Mascapone penne before and as it was so delicious, I was thinking about ordering this again. When my husband declared that he will have seafood spaghetti, I was easily influenced by his choice and decided to order one for myself too.

Well, it was an excellent choice! There were so many varieties of seafood - langoustine, king prawns, salmon, scallops, mussels, squids, octopus and small prawns, which were all cooked to the perfection with spaghetti in very delicious tomato sauce.

Well, the photo says all, it was absolutely delicious and we had a very fantastic meal. I wish you could taste it or even wish there is a smell-vision (instead of television) with this blog so that you could smell this!!!

Now, thinking of food makes me really hungry and just as well, the dinner is ready. Better go and eat before it gets cold. It's nowhere near restaurant food but I love salmon and I surely enjoy it!