Starting the new year with pizza, pasta and Lara

Dinner today was special for it was a (mini and on the spot) get together with some of my high school and college classmates. Afrique's restaurant in Smallville provided not only appetizing pizza and sumptuous pasta but also a great ambiance and setting for us to reminisce the past, discuss the present and delve into the future of ourselves (and others - lol).

Just a "light" dinner with three pizzas and three pastas (plus 2 pitchers of cucumber cooler) for the eight of us yet it was filling in some way for we punctuated every bite and every slice with stories of our student days and our present lives.

Afrique's Special pizza is among it's best sellers. It has a special sweet sauce complementing an assortment of toppings. Among the many times I had this pizza, tonight's Afrique's Special was the best. The crust was now thin and crisp, the toppings were plenty and was cooked & prepared perfectly - truly deserves to be called as such.

Pink salmon pizza is among their top of the line pizzas. With pink salmon flakes over cabbage leaves and an unlikely "pizza sauce" which I think made up of mayonnaise, mustard, honey?, etc or much likely a Caesar salad dressing. This gives the pizza a refreshing taste, look and aroma as opposed to expected "fishiness" of the pizza. This is now my favorite pizza from Afrique's.

Queen Isabelle? pizza is among their curiously named items that's why we ordered basing on it. It has anchovies, onions and olives as toppings over a buttery cheesy sauce. Compared to the other two pizzas, it never got to shine because of it's simplicity.

I have to search for the name of this pasta, something like "Atriciatta". Looks like a very simple combination of penne, tomato sauce and cheese but it was the fresh tomato halves that made me like this pasta though it was served in an unappetizing way.

Penne sausage pasta in cream sauce is another of their white sauce pasta. Very simple that it tasted bland for me. The sauce was watery and lacked "body" that I got to taste the pasta more than the sauce itself.

The last one to be served was their carbonara. The first thing I noticed is it's inconsistency. It always looked and was served very differently from the other branches I went to. I was surprised they used spagehetti instead of the usual linguine and the white sauce was again watery. But this one tasted much better than the penne above.

I was surprised that Afrique's also serve cucumber cooler - a mix of lemonade, cubed cucumber and mint leaves. I had my first taste of this drink at Esca's Garden Restaurant, sister restaurant of Afrique's and instantly loved it. They had singkamas that time at Esca's

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Despite some of my negativity - lol, everything was well worth it - from the food, the ambiance, the company. And I'm this won't be my last visit to Afrique's Smallville or any other branch. I have set my eyes on Osso Buco, Ox Tongue in Cream sauce and their Baby Backribs - lol.

Arrivederci!

P.S. Lara is not a new dish served at Afrique's but a classmate of mine since the 5th grade until college. She's on vacation right now and will be going back to Sweden in the next few days so we arranged a hurried meeting today. She was our guest of horror ... honour - lol.

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