Basilico Lunch

Awesome end of posting lunch at Basilico. The last time I came here was for my eopd a few years back (and we sat in the same place too!)
It's a full buffet lunch and even though it was a few days after Christmas, they had a roasted turkey, along with chestnut stuffing. I didn't eat the turkey but the roast lamb was in a league of its own. Pink, tender and juicy. There was even feesh mint sauce to go with it.
The cold appetiser section was superb as usual - lots of fresh cheeses (including fresh mozzarella and smoked mozzarella, and an assortment of tomatoes), salad bar, and a very extensive cheese selection with a variety of honeys. And lots of parma ham and melon too.
There's also a variety of hot foods including lobster bisque, salmon and cod, a variety of pastas (which were pretty average, probably cos they were pre-cooked), and a pretty good four cheese pizza.
I was pretty stuffed by the time it came to desserts, and the counters were closing cos it was 230pm, so I only managed to get myself some gelato (not bad, not spectacular).

I was in post-food coma for the whole day after.
(I read online that there's a foie gras counter? But I didn't see it at all. I hope I didn't miss out on the foie gras cos that will be the best thing ever!)

Basilico
Regent Hotel
1 Cuscaden Road, Singaproe 249715
Tel 67253232

Latteria Mozzarella

Happy Easter everyone!

I've just gotten back from a short break to Thailand (where I at a disappointing meal at Zanotti) and I'm even sadder cos I'm closer to 7 months of posting that I'm not particularly crazy over and looking through the Board of Sadness (59 other sad souls and counting...) is not helping either...

Went to La Mozzarella about 2 months back (but didn't have time to blog so here's the post now...)

Major disappointment with the bread - it's so freaking hard that it can be used as a weapon.
Fresh burrata - my favourite cheese cos it's so soft and creamy. And the cherry tomatoes are insanely sweet feels like you're eating grapes...
Yummy crabmeat linguine with mascarpone cheese - can't beat Valentino's lobster linguine with pink sauce but it comes close! I am such a sucker for any seafood based linguine with pink sauce.
Mac and Cheese - done La Mozzarella style

It's baked inside a whole pumpkin and it does get quite tiring to eat the same dish after a while. I would suggest to share this amongst 2 people. Just as well that the bread was hard cos I have poor self control when it comes to restaurant bread especially it's soft and fluffy and comes with great olive oil.

The pumpkin was baked until it was soft and pulpy but the whole thing together was just too filling - it could easily feed 2. I would only recommend this dish if you can share.

Personally, I enjoyed the starter the most and there were at least 2 -3 other fresh cheese starters that I wanted to try. Perhaps next time I shall order 2-3 starters and less mains...
Lemon panna cotta with berries in balsamic sauce

I dislike anything with citrus but I suppose that it serves some purpose here cos it's supposed to make the panna cotta lighter. I don't see why anyone wants to disguise panna cotta as a light dessert when it's obviously made from lots of cream and delicious calorie laden things but I really liked the berries layer.
Cos I don't like lemon, I prophylactically got myself a gelato to top off my meal just in case I didn't like the panna cottta :D

Latteria Mozzarella

40 Duxton Hill

S68661988

Otto - My Annual White Truffle Affair

There are days where I eat to live (ie >90% of my time especially since I've started working) and there are the wonderful days I live to eat. I'm so superemely rested and satisfied after having good food for the past 3 days and I'm all prepared to go back to my eating to live days (until my next annual leave, that is...)The pockmarked lump on that weighing scale is the white truffle I had during lunch. Not the whole thing cos its costs >$1K ;)Had lunch at Otto (omg it felt >1 yr since my last meal but I've just checked it was just Jan this year!! Feels so long ago!!) I had the truffle creme brulee the last time and it was sooo good I had to go back this year.

Their delicious restaurant bread - the onion bread is my fave - they also have walnut, cranberry and olive but the onion's the tastiest.

Octopus - not my fave seafood unless it's raw...

Shaving the truffle. Truffle is weighed on the electronic weighing scale. The chef then shaves it over the dish of choice (in my case, it's scrambled eggs with crab meat) and reweighs the truffle after shaving. Had 2 grams of truffle with my dish. 1 gram just isn't enough, 2 is just right, since my budget isn't expandable. 3 would be such a luxury!

Chef reweighing truffle in the background - he's wearing those surgical latex gloves! :)

My scrambled egg with blue swimmer crab ($19++, excluding price of truffle) was creamy, piping hot and smelt so heavenly after the truffle was shaved over it :D Best ever way to eat scrambled eggs...

My Red Wine Pappardelle with Guinea foul ragout and crispy bacon ($28++)

Somehow both times I've been to Otto my dessert and starter was nicer than my mains. I was enticed by the Guinea Foul cos I had previously watched Iron Chef on TV and they had a cookout using Guinea Foul so I wanted to try it for myself. It tastes like chicken. The sauce was tasty, noodles done al dente, and the crispy bacon minced so finely but somehow it didn't taste particularly memorable. Maybe cos it was my only non-truffle dish??
Paccheri with Grouper ragout, Pachino tomatoesAtlantic Cod Tagliata with Porcini mushroom crust and creamed baby spinach with white truffles
If the scrambled eggs with crabmeat and truffle was good, the cod is sublime! It's seriously the best cod I've ever tasted. I'd have thought that the cod was so marvellous on it's own, but paired with the aromatic white truffle, it was even more sublime. If I had the cash, I'd rush down to Otto just to have this dish. The porcini mushroom crust is not crispy, and more like a finely minced layer of tasty mushrooms coating the fish. The fish is buttery and oily, and it's seriously melt in the mouth. Haven't tasted fish like this for uber long! And the sauce is simple, creamy and doesn't interfere with the delicious aroma of the truffles. Ah I think this will probably be the best fish I've tried the whole year...

Their signature creme brulee with berries marinaded in balsamic vinegar.

But for me, their truffle infused creme brulee is the dessert of choice. Otto's creme brulee tastes great already, but when paired with truffle oil, it takes the creme brulee to a whole new playing field. Their creme brulee is excellent - such a pleasure to have creme brulee like this.

I'm superbly satisfied after my annual white truffle meal. Such a joy to eat such great food. Even more so since I've maximised my leave eating my way thru lots of good food. I'm all prepared for suffering for the next 6 months rotting in the east and eating lousy canteen food :D

White truffle season doesn't last forever, and this year, Otto will be serving their white truffle special menu until about mid December. So do go down if you want to get a taste of Chef Michele's delectable cooking.

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

PS Hello to Kok's gf! Ask him to bring you to eat lots of truffles from Otto :P

Valentinos (The full update)

Valentino's my favourite Italian restaurant for pasta. Perhaps I'm biased, but I can't find better Lobster Pasta with Pink Sauce. It's a small family run establishment tucked away in the sleepy Jalan Bingka, along the row of charming shop houses. Making a weekend dinner reservation here is a pain - I once tried in vain for weeks to get a dinner reservation. According to them, if you want a guaranteed reservation, call 1 month in advance. You won't get one if you try to book the day itself. If all else fails, they do takeaways ;) The restaurant bread was crispy and warm, and came with this unusual and tasty dip. Unlike the usual plain extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar dip, Valentino's chef made a special dip with Italian parsley, grounded anchovies, white vinegar and olive oil. The end result was a greenish dip, which had ground parsley, the mild salty briney taste of anchovies and the acidic undertone of the vinegar. Our whole bread basket was polished off in no time.

Burrata ($32++)

This is a very interesting cheese, made from buffalo mozzarella. The outer part is shaped like a moneybag, and the top is twirled into a tight knot, and there is oozy, creamy cheese filling inside. Taste wise, both inside and outside have exact same taste, just that the texture is different. Outer part tastes like normal fresh mozzarella, but inside is more watery (think it's cos there's cream added?) and curdled (but in a nice way).

From Wiki: The name "burrata" means "buttered" in Italian. When making Burrata, the still-hot cheese is formed into a pouch, which is then filled with scraps of leftover mozzarella and topped off with fresh cream (panna) before closing. The finished Burrata is traditionally wrapped in the leaves of asphodel, tied to form a little brioche-like topknot, and moistened with a little whey. The asphodel leaves should still be green when the cheese is served, to indicate the cheese’s freshness. More recently the cheese is often sold in a plastic bag or container

Oozing out its creamy goodness after being divided by our waitress. The tomatoes which come with this dish are Sicilian baby tomatoes, and they were extremely red (unlike the orange ones we get locally!) and bursting with sweetness. There was not a hint of the usual tart tomato taste, and each tomato was full of flavour.

It's pretty costly, but I suppose it's hard to import these fresh cheeses, and sharing one portion of this amongst 4 people is quite filling.

Beef Cappaccio ($25.90++) - of course I didn't eat this dish but it's my sister's favourite dish. Semi-cooked fine slices of beef, covered with cherry tomatoes and cheese, drizzled with truffle oil. Smells great!

They didn't have my favourite starter, the tuna cappaccio with pork loin that day I went, but you can click the link to see how it looks like in my post from very very very long ago.

My favourite Lobster Linguine with Pink Sauce
Their sauce has a nice depth and taste, thanks to the delicious lobster, and has tomato blended with cream (more cream than tomato). The al dente linguine is coated with the robust sauce, and each bite has a fantastic sweetness, creaminess and slight tanginess from the tomato. This is so far, my favourite pasta dish, followed closely by Iggy's sakura ebi cappellini.

The lobster is live, and prices vary. The day I went, the split a large lobster into 2 pasta portions, and it was $42.50++ per portions. To avoid disappointment, please call up in advance for the lobster pasta - I was extremely fortunate that they had the lobster pasta the day I went because I didn't reserve.

Their meat special that day was Lamb Shank ($42++)

I didn't find it particularly spectacular, and $42 is really expensive for lamb shank. I thought the lamb would be like the braised lamb I had previously (very very long ago) but it wasn't. The tomato sauce was chunky and robust, but the lamb was a bit too tough.

Coniglio (Braised Rabbit) ($42++)
I've been wanting to try Gunther's Chocolate rabbit for a really long time, just that I haven't had the opportunity to go down. Since Valentinos had rabbit, we decided to try it. The meat a cross between chicken and pork, and doesn't have a gamey smell or taste. It was pretty dry and the sauce was pretty weird. I'll stick to my lobster linguine with pink sauce anytime!Being a family business, Valentino's sister, Perla, has her own pastry shop next to the restaurant. The desserts are all made by her and the signature dessert is the Chantilly Al Cioccolato Bianco (White Chocolate and Cream cake) ($8.80++)

Layers of Chantilly cream alternating with soft vanilla sponge, topped with a generous sprinkling of white milk chocolate shavings.

Personally I don't quite like cream, so this cake isn't really a must have for me, but it's my mum's favourite dessert here.

Torta Valentino ($8.80++)

Dark chocolate sponge covered with dark chocolate ganache and chocolate cream with rum soaked raisins. Since we shared the dessert, I didn't get any of the rum soaked raisins. It's a pretty heavy cake to have after a heavy dinner.

Amaretto Sbrisolona ($8.80++)

Chocolate with Almond Custard with crumbled almond cookies was pretty dry and sweet. Guess I'll appreciate desserts more if I wasn't so full!

Chocolate Salami

One of their 'must try' desserts, dark and milk chocolate and cookies rolled into a salami shape.

We took away their Eggless Caramel Mousse Cake ($10.90) and I must say that it really wow-ed me. There's a smooth glossy layer of caramel on top, and alternating layers of chocolate cream, sponge cake and caramel mousse. All on top of a crunchy chocolate base. It's incredibly delicious and I'll be sure to order this the next time I'm back.

Though it's not as atas as other Italian restaurants in town, and has more of a homely feel than an expensive restaurant feel to it (especially since the dishes are expensive), their pastas are fantastic and their food is on par with other Italian restaurants. Though I think I'll be sticking to my pasta instead of trying their meats. Their lumberjack pasta (comes with bacon, tomato and cream) is a leathal combination of crispy smokey bacon bits in their killer cromato sauce, and I'm wanting to try their squidink crabmeat linguine.

I'm still craving for more lobster linguine!

Ristorante Da Valentino
11 Jalan Bingka (off Rifle Range Road)
Tel: 6462 0555

Closed on Mondays

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++.

Trattoria L’Ancora

Trattoria L’Ancora is a newly opened restaurant, located where the former Borgo used to be. I think it's by the same management that ran Borgo.

As recommended by the manager, we ordered the antipasta dish for sharing. It's $20 per person, for 2 people, and has a mixture of the different appetisers available. I really liked the parma ham and bruschetta, as well as the burffalo mozzarella. There's also some seared tuna crusted with black pepper, grilled vegetables and calamari, served with arabiatta sauce for dipping.

Parma ham with sweet rock melon <3>Since my friend didn't want to eat the Rabbit pasta (which I was hankering for), we ordered a portion of braised wild boar pasta, which they so kindly split into 2 portions cos we were sharing. The sauce had a light tomato flavour, as well as the strong meaty stew smell of wild boar. The wild boar wasn't as gamey as I expected, and didn't quite taste like pork either.

I really liked the noodles, which had a nice eggy taste, was al dente, chewy and went deliciously well with the robust and flavourful sauce.

(Come to think of it, I ate it at Borgo really long ago, though I can't really remember the taste).

They're currently having an opening promotion for ala carte lunch, and it's 30% off the food bill. We ended up paying $25 nett per person for the meal, which is pretty alright, though I don't think I'll want to pay the full price for this. It's a nice place to have a quiet lunch if you're in the area.

Trattoria L’Ancora
789 Bukit Timah Road (At the junction of Sixth Avenue and the main road)
Tel : 6467 3778
Daily: 12pm-3pm, 6pm-10pm