Porta Porta - Stanley Street

You could miss this place if you turned into the wrong street.

Wanting to do an alfresco this time round seemed almost an impossible task as we were bombed by the loud drills coming from a construction site opposite, coercing us to retreat back in the restaurant. We saw another table do the same before deciding to follow suit. This was my second time returning this branch and I must say that my tummy and I were the most happy when the meal ended.

The bread and the olive tapenade (i guess) did just the thing that they were supposed to do. Fill our tummies and boosted our appetite for what's going to follow next.

Calamari Fritti (above) & Fish Soup (Right)

Calamari seemed like a good choice because we had a tasting of it the last time. It came with 2 additional prawns. This has got to be the thinnest battered calamari. No kidding. The batter is just a mere thin case of crispy batter and this batter has got to be the tastiest of all of those (calamari fritti) that I have tasted. Not that I tried a lot. The tentacles were just pure pleasure as I sinked in my teeth in one of those babies. This made me smiled a lot and I can't wait for more food to come. Fish soup was good but in a way, it didn't come across as full bodied as the one I had at the Changi branch. Savoury and not overwhelmed by the tomatoes, this was one heck of a fish soup.

Finally, the pasta! The prawn penne with cream tomato sauce did it for me. Although it was a tad al dente, the cream sauce and the fresh prawns were so good that I did not think about anything else (except the calamari).

Stuffed tortellini with beef sauce.

The assumption that it would be a tomato based pasta proved to be correct except that it was not how I had envisioned it to be. There were plenty of minced beef and a smidgen of tomato sauce. I think the tortellinis was stuffed with cheese. I would come back for this dish too.

Although their tiramisu was not the best, I like them because it is very simple and palatable. Not too fanciful and something sweet to end the wonderful dinner is always a plus.

I would come back again for 2 main reasons. One is for the food. The other is of course the ever charming Italian server/owner who speaks like a Singaporean. ;oP

Pasta Brava

Updating some overdue entries. I remembered wanting to return at the end of the meal so it meant that the meal was enjoyable. Not entirely so but I'll get back on that. I like this ambience of this place. Reminds me of Porta Porta. We got a starter to share, 2 pastas and a dessert.

I wanted the calamari because I have tried better ones and had a strong craving for this dish for some time. In this case, I would prefer Da Mario's version as the batter was tastier. This was also not too bad as the spicy arriabata sauce enhanced the taste of the squids. Luckily, this was not the rubbery chewy type so I enjoyed this quite a bit.

Innards

The ravioli stuffed pumpkin and coated with capsicum cream was brilliantly executed. I could taste the capsicum in the saltish cream and the ravioli was cooked just right. The pumpkin filling was like a delicacy to me because it tasted real (i.e no fillers) and it was sweetish. Making this more like a dessert pasta dish.

The pappardelle with the duckling and mushroom ragout was not too bad with its savoury mushroom sauce and shreds of duck meat. In fact, everything turned out not bad with a generous serving of parmesan cheese. :o)

Finally, on to the dessert which I find it not too good. Maybe because of the description that was stated in the menu. "Mascarpone and ricotta apple pie" have certainly caught my eye but when served, I could not taste or see any cheese element in this dish. The chunky apples were a bonus but they were not sweet at all. It just came very hot. The ice cream came very cold. This yin and yang dessert was not something that I would order again.

Healthy Pasta Lunch

I think I spent a total of 20mins cooking lunch. This is a simple and easy lunch that I came up with. The truth is, I just want to throw everything in the pot so that I do not have to wash extras. I can proudly say that this is one of my tastier creations. It is worth every effort shopping for the ingredients. Bon appetit!

Chicken Mushroom Avocado Angel Hair Pasta (serves 3)
Chicken Fillets (About 15 fillets in a pack)
1 pack of Swiss brown button mushroom
1 Pack of Thai asparagus
1 Avocado
1 Lemon
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 clove of garlic
4 heaped tablespoons of Greek yogurt (I used Farmer's Union)
3 tablespoons of soy sauce (or less)
1 teaspoon of raw sugar (or sugar)
Angel Hair Pasta enough for 3 servings

• Set a pot of water to boil.
• While waiting, marinate the chicken fillets with the yogurt. Set aside for later use.

You have to work at a slightly faster speed now.

• Chop up the garlic and mix it with the olive oil and soy sauce in a bowl.
  
• Squeeze half a lemon into the garlic mixture.
• Cut the asparagus into sections. Cut the mushrooms in quarters.
  
• When the water is boiling, place the pasta into the pot.
• Slice the avocado into half and remove the pit and skin.
  
• Cut avocado into cubes. Put aside for later use.
  
• Just before the pasta is cooked, put in the asparagus and when ready, drain them.

For the Sauce:

• In the same pot, make sure it is dry, then pour in the garlic mixture.
  
• Put in the mushrooms immediately.
• Place the chicken fillet on top together with all the yogurt and let it simmer.
  
• Stir it occasionally and simmer till the chicken is cooked.
• Pour the sauce on top of the pasta.
  
• Add in avocado and mix well.
  
• You could squeeze the other half of the lemon into the pasta before serving.

Notes:

You may panic a bit because I did. I nearly cut my thumb off while removing the avocado pit. So do not worry if u have to take a longer time to prepare and cook this. This recipe has a lot of ingredients so you can cut down on the ingredients if you want. It is also quite appetising so depending on your liking, you may wish to cut down on the lemon and soy sauce. I did not cut up the fillets because I like my meat chunky. So do the guys. Happy cooking! ;oP

Bella Pizza at Robertson Quay

What a pleasant discovery! I gave myself a pat on the back after having dinner here and I thought to myself that I will be back. I will not order the dessert here though.

The starter of mozzarella wrapped with parma ham was a decent put together dish although I hoped that the cheese could be more chilled. It tasted like how it looked. Salty, slightly creamy tasting with refreshing tomatoes.

The star of the dinner was the pasta. Fettucine with Italian sausage and truffles and a touch of cream. It definitely was not a touch of cream here but I do not mind the sauce at all. The sausage was awesome. The black truffles provided a slight nuttish texture and taste to the pasta. One can only hope for more sausages and truffles.

I could not remember which pizza did we order but I think it was suppose to have gorgonzola in it. Although the lack of it made me a little disappointed, the pizza was sufficiently well spread with the other cheese and ham. The crust itself was easy to the bite and I felt that a beer would be great now.

Dessert: Crepes with marscarpone, nutella and bananas did not impress me at all as the crepes had a greasy after taste.

Pannacotta from Pizza Pazza

This is a great recommendation by Gab who is a dear friend of mine and has similar tastebuds as me. This ultra smooth and palate pleasing dessert costs less than S$3 (i forgot how much) and can be found at Anchorpoint foodcourt.

This stall by the name of Pizza Pazza sells the usual Italian fare of localized pizzas and pastas to suit the general tastebuds. This pannacotta, however, was pretty impressive and just makes me wanna eat them 3 servings in a row.

Yummy!!!!

update on 25 Feb 2009
Went there again today. Pannacotta price is S$1.80.

Swirl Gelateria at Crown Centre

I wouldn't mind seconds. I mean, another set of six flavoured gelatos. It actually incurred in me that this could be just another gelateria in this neighbourhood. Gab recommended trying these gelatos in a sampler shot glass servings so that the 3 of us can try more. I really can't recall what flavours were there but I think the durian is absolutely flavourful. There was a chendol flavour which I liked a lot. These shot glasses pack quite a bit of gelato so do remember to share them.

Board games are available here so we gals just took a shot at Scrabble. Made the whole experience even more fun. :o)

Perla's Pastry Boutique

Or Pasticceria Da Valentino. Either way, I was not too impressed by their signature cakes here when I dined at the restaurant, Ristorante Da Valentino. I remembered having their Chantilly Al Cioccolato Bianco (White Chocolate Chantilly Cake) and could not recall the average tasting cake because I did not taste any white chocolate. Perhaps it was meant to be that way, light, fluffy and......i can't recall. My bad.

I popped over to next door to see if they have anything else that I might have missed. I find it rather out of the ordinary that they have a wine cellar within this pasticceria. The big bottles of wine had renewed my interest and fascination with this place and when inquired, the service staff pointed to a huge bottle of wine next to the cash register which she thought I might be interested.

Unbelievable.

27 freaking litres of wine in a bottle 3 times taller than my head. They had used a regular sized red wine bottle as a comparison. Woah... As my hands were shaking with excitement, hence the blurred photo.

This is the La Togata Brunello Di Montalcino, 2001 being produced in a 27-litre bottle. I do not have the full name of this particular full bodied wine so excuse the shortened name. There are only 5 bottles available in the whole world and one of them is in front of me as it was exclusively brought in by Valentino.

I believe that this is not a dream. I also believe that the price is beyond expensive too. Lol...

Butter cookies that don't look real to me.

da Mario Pizzeria : Calamari Fritti

Yummy calamari...

A strong craving for calamari brought me to da Mario Pizzeria. I was fantasizing about calamari for weeks and finally my wish came true!!! I love this version of calamari fritti from da Mario because the batter was thin, crisp and the squid was fresh.

Taste wise, it was definitely much better than a lot of places. Service wise, was pretty good as the waiter was always smiling, taking orders and trying to be attentive to every customers in the restaurant. This was a rare sight and discovery. Kudos to the waiter!