Saturday, January 4, 2014

Otto - The Annual Truffle Menu

Outdated post again - but I went back to Otto to have my annual truffle treat!
Last year, I went to Valentinos but I think Otto is still my favourite place (not that I have much to compare to, but I really like their truffle menu). Their restaurant bread is one of the best - it's a huge platter of freshly baked onion/walnut/olive bread - must restrain myself next time cos I'm always full by the time the mains come.
Some smoked salmon appetiser
The obligatory parma ham and burrata cheese which everyone likes to eat at Italian restaurants. I still think Valentino's burrata tastes best but I'm biased.
Eating the yearly truffle menu is exciting - I love seeing them shave the truffles over my food. (Btw the article about truffle hunting by Tan Hsueh Yun was such a good read - makes me feel like booking my next holiday).
As a general rule of thumb, and due to budget constraints, I generally get 1g of truffle for the appetiser, and 2g for the main. Otto's truffle costs $10++ per gram, so it very quickly adds up. I would also recommend that you tell them exactly how much truffle to shave, and not just wait for them to shave and tell them to stop (like what you would do for freshly grounded pepper) cos 1g may look much less than you expect, and you don't want to end up with 5g of truffle in one dish.
The obligatory swimmer crab and scrambled eggs. Sweet chunks of tender swimmer crab with luxuriously creamy scrambled egg. This is probably the equivalent of Joel Robuchon's mashed potato in egg terms - probably has equal volume of cream in it!
I suppose that one of the best ways to really enjoy the truffle smell is to have it with plain, freshly cooked and made pasta, with minimal distractions.
See how 2g of truffle looks the same as the 1g of truffle on the main, compared to the appetiser of scrambled eggs? Looks are deceiving!!
The olive crusted atlantic cod (which I had last time, but not as part of the truffle menu)
The non-truffle dish for the day - lobster spaghetti - I somehow thought it was better the last time I tried
Truffle creme brûlée - for those uninitiated and unadventurous people, do give this a try. I had a hard time convincing my friends to try this dish (cos everyone was so full) but I didn't have any regrets - what is a truffle dinner without a truffle dessert??
Tiramisu - pretty good but not mind blowing, I prefer L'opretta's (post coming up soon!)
I'm not sure if they still have the truffle menu - depends on their supply of truffles, so give them a ring before going down.

Otto
28 Maxwell Road
#01-02 Red Dot Traffic Bulidling
Tel 62776819

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