Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Otto

I'm blogging from my not so new comp - and just edited my photos using the photoshop (instead of paint shop, which is tonnes easier cos I'm really used to using it - been using it for >7 yrs!) The screen's really nice but I'm still learning how to use it cos it's really different from my old laptop. Pre Christmas lunch at Otto - and their totally delish bread tray - four different kinds of freshly baked restaurant bread. I think I ate waaaay too much bread cos it was so fragrant and soft. My fave is the onion bread ,which has some cheese and lots of sliced tasty onions. They also had walnut bread (too plain for my liking), raisin and the plain version of the onion bread (onion bread was much nicer). Pretty swirly butter, though I'm more partial to the extra virgin olive oil.
Salmon and Ricotta Mousse Amuse Bouche - delicate flakey pastry with creamy and salty salmon mousse.
Pumpkin soup with turkey dumplings - for the festive season. I didn't quite like the dumplings cos they had a very paste-y texture, and reminded me of pureed food.Pan Roasted Foie Gras with poached pear
The foie gras was excellent - crisped on the outside, but still wobbly and smooth on the inside. If anything was wrong with it, the portion was pretty small and it was gone before I knew it. 
I've never realized how they actually measure out white truffles, until I came to Otto. Up to now, I've never seen them serving white truffle shavings by the gram (very sua ku, I know). Above, is the bowl of white truffles sitting happily in a dish of (?) rice (? or is it salt?? maybe it's some desiccating thing in that case it will be rice?) and the electronic weighing scale.
First, the waiter would weigh the very expensive white truffle. He then shave what he thinks is 1 gram (or 2 or how ever many grams you so wish to have) over the dish - in this case, it's Uovo Strapazzato con Granchi, which is scrambled egg with blue swimmer crab. 
He then reweighs the truffle, and checks if he has given the full 1g. Yums.
The finished product, with freshly shaved truffles. The scrambled eggs are very creamy, and also very soft and tastes quite mushy and pureed. But the truffles and make the dish smell heavenly.
My main of Spaghetti with sea urchin and grey mullet bottarga. I found the grey mullet bottarga (which is some kind of roe, I think it's fried or something because it's crispy) very interesting, but I couldn't really taste much apart from the intense briny roe. It got a bit too much after a while, and I couldn't taste my sea urchin, which was the reason why I ordered this dish. Probably because I ate too much bread. Heh. Must stop eating so much restaurant bread, even though it's good...
The other main was absolutely delicious - homemade tagliolini with half Boston lobster in spicy light tomato gravy. It was served steaming hot, with the firey red crustacean curled up like a nautilus. The sauce was infused with the sweetness of the lobster. 
My dessert - the king of all creme brulees - creme brulee with white truffle oil ($16++). I never could imagine how white truffle oil would taste like with desserts, especially since I've always attributed truffle oil with savory dishes instead of sweets and desserts. The dessert completely blew me away - I think vanilla bean creme brulees will never taste as good as this one. 

For the more in depth review on Otto, go here.

Otto Ristorante
28 Maxwell Road
#01-02 Red Dot Traffic Building
Tel 62276819
Closed on Sundays

The carpark attendant here is really on the ball, just as I walked out after lunch, I saw her peering into the car parked next to mine.

Don't have any stars on my new comp, but it gets 4/5 stars. Delicious. Can't wait to try their very affordable and yummy looking set lunch at $35++.

4 comments:

red fir said...

I'm thinking of the pasta all over again.

Angeline said...

wow. I'll love to try out this place! Heard so much about the fabulous lobster pasta. how much did you spend at Otto in total?

m said...

ice: i must eat the lobster pasta next time. I want to eat valentino's lobster pasta too!
Angeline: hey! see the menu http://www.ottoristorante.com.sg/

Anonymous said...

hope to try this one out
mike
gourmandtales.wordpress.com