Random Update

Hello everyone who still reads this blog of mine - I'm still alive after slightly 4 months of starting work, but with huger eyebags (my work hours are causing irreversible damage to my face). I'm currently extremely happy now (the last time I was this happy was 1 day to the end of my finals) and I am so happy that I just have to post a cheerful looking photo just to do an update! Sounds like I'm high on something but I assure you I am most definitely not. Can't wait can't wait!!!

The photo above is the happiest one I can find in my com and it's the thin crust pizzas from Pizza da Donato at 6th Avenue. Each slice is around $6-8 and there's quite alot of toppings available.

Pizza Da Donato
8 Sixth Avenue
Tel: +65 6219 7562
(There's another banch at Ghim Moh)

House - Skinny Pizza and Sweet Potato Fries

The last time I visited house, I had the rudest "welcome" (waiter wasn't sure if happy hour was still on - it was, until they took so dreadfully long to come with the drinks menu, the next waiter who came said 'too bad, it's already 9' and that happy hour was over D:<

A little hiccup (again!) about the service - we had 5 people for dinner, and the waiter insisted that it will look 'weird' if we added an extra chair to a table of four. ?!?!?!?!?!? Seriously! One more chair won't kill the layout of the WHOLE restaurant - especially since they only have tables with 2s and 4s, and a few benches. *End of gripe*
The lovely orange sweet potato fries ($7++), which came with a salty and sweet batter, topped with aromatic white sesame seeds. The fries were a bit too oily (perhaps they didn't let it drain?) but the sweet potato was tender without being mushy. We also had the white truffle oil fries ($9++), but it didn't look as monstrous as the heaping and impressive portion from PS cafe (though I have yet to try the latter's).

House's famous skinny pizzas - which are like chapatis with delicious toppings. My ultimate fave is still the Tuna Tataki ($24++) - meaty chunks of tuna marinated in a sweet and salty sauce, with sliced avocados, sweetened tomatoes, parmesan and heaped with arugula.

The Egg, Spinach, Cheese and Onion skinny pizza, which had thinly sliced raw onions, crumbled cheese (feta I think?).

The Squid Ink Skinny Pizza ($18++)- topped with the usual chewy edible sea critters - on a squid ink skinny pizza base. They're pretty generous on the toppings, with lots of squid, baby octopus and shrimp.

My Mango Marshmellow Melt ($9?), which came with a teeny weeney bit of pavalova and heaploads of whipped cream. The pavalova was deliciously crumbly, but the dessert could do with a much bigger portion of it. The cubed mango was syrupy sweet and slightly milky. I thought that it would have tasted much better with mango sorbet instead of the huge scoop of whipped cream. Though the marshmellows looked really nice and toasted, they weren't as perfectly done as Handburgers. They were only toasted on the topmost layer, and lacked that gooey stickiness of a real roasted marshmellow.

The Strawberry Shortcake ($9?), which is their no. 1 best seller - I was expecting lots more cream, but the only cream in sight was that in the shotglass. The cake was pretty heavy - and had the texture of scones. I did like the layers of strawberry jam (my favorite type of jam!) smeared in between the layers of cake.

Carrot Cake, which can't beat Cedele's, but nonetheless, was moist and packed with carrots, nuts and raisins. The icing was a bit wet, but the portion's pretty good, though not enough to justify the price.

We spent $26 each, for 5 people which is quite a bit, considering that we shared 3 mains, 2 different kinds of fries and 4 desserts.

House

8D Dempsey Road

#01-01 to 06 Tanglin Village (Dempsey Road)

Tel: +65 6475 7787

Casa Verde Pizzas

I haven't been able to run off and try new food - the sadness of being rostered for active on saturday and passive sunday, burnt off 2 weekends in a row! And when I finally get home, I want to vegetate and not move till the next day. Lucky for me that my brother got Takeaway pizza from Casa Verde in Botanic Gardens, or my blog will be sadly dying. Pizza Parma Ham and Rocket Salad ($24)
Lots of thinly shaved parma ham, parmesan cheese. They're rather sparing on the use of mozzarella cheese, which makes this pizza taste different. It's also infused with olive oil, and has a nice herb taste.
The Sfilatino Case Verde ($24++) with mozzarella, ham, mushrooms ala Springroll style. It comes with a refreshingly tasty tomato salsa dip. The rolls are exploding with cheese and mushrooms, and since I was being impatient and eating it from the box, the cheese and mushrooms fell out of my pizza roll. I think it tastes pretty nice even without the tomato salsa.

The best thing about it? Pizza takeaway is one for one from Mondays to Thursdays, 11am to 930pm. I think it'll be nice to sit around Botanic Gardens (haven't been there for >12 yrs!) eating pizza, but then again, there'll be swarms of houseflies, ants and mosquitoes sharing dinner with you, so I think it's better to eat in air con comfort at home!

Bella Pizza

After our nice dinner at da Mario's, we decided to try Bella Pizza, which is another Italian restaurant within the same vicinity. Between the 4 of us, we shared an appetiser, 2 pizzas and 1 pasta (my logic is that if you're going to a restaurant with the word PIZZA in it, you might as well eat more pizzas than pastas right?) Eggplant parmigiana ($16++)
Extremely cheesey, quite salty , the eggplant parmigiana is probably the same size as most lasagnas. The layers of eggplant were slightly mushy, but I'm fine with that (the other diners weren't) and went really well with the tomato sauce. The Pizza Mascarpone ($22++) which has mushrooms, mascarpone and black truffle slices. The mascarpone (which tastes like cream) went very well with the juicy mushrooms. This pizza is a pizza bianca, which means that it doesn't have any tomato sauce on the base. Just as well, since the tomato sauce will ruin the nice flavour of the truffles (not that I could taste much), mushrooms and mascarpone. This is like eating the pizza version of a meatless Burger King's mushroom swiss burger.

From the "red" pizza list (with tomato sauce), we had the Pizza Salmone ($19++) which has smoked salmon on top of mozzarella cheese and mushrooms. I quite liked the tomato sauce, but I preferred da Mario's pizza bases.

Fettuccine with Italian sausage, truffles and a touch of cream ($22++)

I liked the fettuccine lots cos I thought it tasted very fresh (not so sure if it's really fresh or comes from a packet, but I thought it tastes fresh). The sausage usually comes together with the pasta, just that we requested for it to be separated.

Desserts - Crepe with Nutella, mascarpone and bananas ($8++)

I personally though that the crepe was not wortn it cos it was dissappointingly tiny! Even for 1 person, it'll be incredibly small. The combination of Nutella and creamy mascarpone cheese is a winner - sticky nutella (everyone likes nutella!) with cream cheese, folded into a warm crepe, served with chocolate sauce and bananas. Yum! Somehow, I still prefer da Mario's (even though most people say it isn't as nice anymore, I'll go there for the foie gras pasta!). Ok, actually if da Mario's is full, I'll just go over to Bella.

Bella Pizza

30 Robertson Quay

#01-14 Riverside View

Tel: +65 6734 0139

da Mario Pizzeria

Da Mario's special calamari rings ($16++) which were very soft and chewy, with a golden and crispy breaded crust. The tartare sauce was very tasty - there's a hint of garlic in it so it's extremely yummy when eaten together with the piping hot breaded calamari rings.

Pizza bianca - It comes with a nice pungent cheese, salty green olives, flakes of crab, artichoke hearts and a sprinkle of chilli flakes. The pizza base was thin, crispy but with enough thickness to make it taste like a pizza and not like a chapati. I liked how the salty olives went with the sweet crab flakes, and the flavourful cheese. I'll definitely try their other Pizza Biancas again if I come back.
Foie gras pasta ($23) - this is artery clogging to the max. Fatty liver with buttery sauce is a lethal combination. It's definitely not the best foie gras I've tasted, but to give the chef credit, it's 2 fat pieces of foie gras, seared lightly. This was my favourite pasta for the night. I suppose that this would be really too rich to have all by yourself, but it's perfect for sharing.

Spaghetti al Cartoccio - sauted with squids, scallops, prawns, clams, mussels in tomato, garlic and white wine sauce, baked in foil ($23++)

Not very impressive - I found the tomato sauce tangy and refreshing, but it was too watery for my liking. Though the many pieces of seafood (about 3 prawns, lots of mussles and clams) makes it pretty worth it.

Squid ink pasta ($18++) - this wasn't very good. It wasn't very tasty, and the squid ink was just gritty. I have conculded that I don't quite like squid ink pasta.
The pasta that I wanted to order, but it wasn't available. I think their cheese wheel must have broken down.

Tiramisu - good sized portion, but it wasn't alcoholic enough, and I felt that the mascarpone cheese and cream layer wasn't as rich as I would have liked it to be.

Service here was a bit slow - 4 of us shared all the dishes, and there was an incredibly long break between the arrival of the pizza and the first pasta and the other 2 pastas. In fact, it was so long that we finished the first 2 dishes before they served the rest of the dishes. They serve iced water, but the staff seem very harrassed and don't seem to be able to cope with the customer load, and our glasses were perpetually unfilled.

If I come back, I'll go and try the other pizza biancas - pretty hard to find pizza biancas around, and the pizza base is the kind that I like - thin but thick enough to chew on.

da Mario Pizzeria

60 Robertson Quay

#01-05/06 The Quayside

Tel: 6235 7623

Madrina Pizzeria Vodka Pasta

I'm still on my pasta craze - the latest will be the pasta with vodka. This is the Penne with vodka in Rose sauce (or something like that, can't rem the name actually) from Madrina Pizzeria (Blk 3 Queen's Road #02-141 Tel: 6474 7342). I think the chef's was formerly from Michelangelo's (not sure - someone said but I nv go and ask myself ). But the vodka pasta sure tastes like the one that I ate at Michelangelos (when Fish treated me, and I was too lazy to blog, and my post eventually got lost in my comp.......oops).

I think alcohol (or at least whatever's left after deglazing) tastes really good with everything. There's lots of sliced shallots inside this one, and the sauce is slightly sweetish (but not so sweet that it doesn't taste savoury anymore), and the penne was al dente. It's not that cheap though - $22++.

Vodka with pasta makes me think of the fantastic crabmeat pasta from Da Paolo. Lucky I'm not hungry now or I'll probably be drooling all over my keyboard

Appetiser: Calamari Rings - not too bad pretty big portion (though I don't know how much it costs) which is served with tartare sauce and some tomato based sauce, the pizza on the left is the 5 spice smoked salmon with mascarpone cheese ($20++ ?), and the one on the right is the seafood pizza. I think the seafood pizza ($22++) was the nicest tasting one - lots of seafood on thin crust pizza.

Oh I just found out (after googling around) that it's a kid friendly place! Ok I think it's not so bad if you have kids in tow cos they'll be entertained making their own pizza (for free somemore!) - kids+making food= big mess, so might as well mess up somewhere else which you don't have to clean up lol! Plus the kids making pizza (without toppings) is free somemore!

My new aim in life is to try to save more money. However, from past experience, I think this will probably last for about 2 weeks? I'm feeling incredibly stingy right now no thanks to JANE FOO (who will probably be stressed cheonging her assignment tonight cos she procrastinated for 1 wk alr :P) and something purple.

Anyway, in my attempt to save money, I have googled the recipe for Penne a la Vodka :) From the ingredients, the recipe looks quite good. I wonder if you have to use good vodka for it? Or can I just use the cheapest one around? Hmmm.

I'm incredibly sleepy now - my sleep cycle has been screwed up for the past month - Ytd I slpt from 1130pm till 10am today! scary!!

I'm going to blog about tippling club next - I somehow can't gather up the energy to write a post about the shitty dining experience :O

da paolo Pizza Bar

Tried Da Paolo Pizza bar on a Friday - it's pretty crowded but you can't make a reservation(unless you're a huge group). It's much more relaxed and casual than the other very expensive da Paolos. I can't believe that I actually liked Pizza Hut pizzas last time.

The pizza that I came here for was the black truffle pizza which I have been dying to dry for the longest time, but never had the opportunity to.Pizza Mascarpone, mozzarella, funghi e tartuf ($24++)

This is pizza with mushrooms and black truffles. It doesn't have a tomato base, so it's quite different from the other pizzas we tried that night. There's lots of mozzarella cheese, and although black truffles don't taste of much, it's just the not-so-cheap thrill of eating a truffle. Im now imagining how this pizza will taste with a slosh of white truffle oil. One of their signature pizzas, Pizza Rucola, Proscuitto e Scaglie Di Parmigiano (Pizza with arugula, Parma ham and shaved Parmesan,$22++). Anything that tastes like rocket disagrees with me. So I didn't like this pizza. But if you love the weird taste of rocket, this is the pizza for you. Lots of bitter argurula, parma ham and parmesan cheese.
I didn't get the name of this pizza, but it's on the first pizza page, and it has spinach, mozzarella cheese, caramelized onions. I think it was $22. This is pretty good cos the caramelized onions are sweet and the fresh spinach balances the sweetness of the onions and saltiness of the mozzarella cheese. Pizza Mozzarella di Bufala e Crudo ($25++)
This was the most expensive pizza of the lot, cos instead of using normal mozzarella cheese, they use buffalo mozzarella, which is produced from domesticated water buffalos. Buffalo cheese is said to be richer and more buttery than normal cows cheese and is more expensive than normal mozzarella, and thus the slightly higher price. The ingredients on the pizza are the exact ingredients of Insalata Caprese, a salad which has buffalo mozzarella, basil leaves and fresh tomatoes. There's also parma ham, and the saltiness of the parma ham goes very well with the mozzarella.
More info about buffalo mozzarella can be found here.
The service was below average - the staff were very inefficient, and they kept clustering around the cashier counter, and it took eons for them to realize that we were trying to call them to top up water, to make another order etc. For example when we asked for a water refill, they filled up 6 out of 8 cups, and never came back to fill the other 2. The only thing that came quickly was the bill. Coming from Da Paoloa, I'd have expected better service, but since it's a pizza bar, I'll lower my standards a bit. So other than the spotty service, the pizzas are absolutely worth the price you're paying.

The Da Paolo empire in Chip Bee is great, and you'll have to walk past 3 other Da Paolos while crawling up the hill. The pizza bar is right on top. Great way to work off the calories from all that pizza.

da paolo pizza bar

44, Jalan Merah Saga

#01-46, Chip Bee Gardens, Holland Village

Tel: 6479 6059

Jessie Tan, hope you had a memorable 23rd birthday!;p I laughed till my cheeks were so tired!!

Pizza da Donato

For everyone who's taking osces tmr - all the best! Can't wait for tmr to be overr! and thanks em for the well wishes :D My brother discovered this previously hole-in-the-wall place in 6th Ave. It's been recently renovated, and now has al fresco seating, and a bright red interior, and a tantalising pizza counter displaying all those colourful pizzas.

This is the second time we ordered from the place - a Calzone Puff ($20, the little aluminium packet) and a Donato's Pizza ($20). No service charges or GST for takeaway :)We were really impressed by the Donato's Pizza ($20), which had fresh tasting tomato sauce (tangy, light and not so salty), fresh buffalo Mozzarella cheese, Basil and 2 huge pieces of parma ham draped over the top. The buffalo mozzarella cheese gave the pizza a unique taste - it's not as cheesy and salty as normal pizzas. The crust is thin, but not as thin as the paper thin kind that's overly crispy, and a nice bready smell.

They also serve Square Pizza by the Slice, for $7, and there's really interesting choices - the mushroom one looks really good, and so does the salad and feta cheese.

I'll definitely be back for more - parma ham and buffalo mozzarella cheese goes really well together, and best of all, it's near my house :P There's another branch at Ghim Moh (I've never been there, but it says so on their brochure). I usually call them to order, and go down in about half an hour to pick up the pizza.

Pizza da Donato
No. 8 6th Avenue

Singapore 276473

Tel 62197562

No 21 Ghim Moh Road #01-213

Singapore 2700021

Tel 64651338

Al Forno 2

Ok - it's Al Forno again! I'm making use of the DBS 1for1 Pastas and pizzas at Al Forno (Mondays to Thursdays only) while it lasts. We had a monsterous dinner, comprising of 3 pizzas and 3 pastas (and a dessert cos we were gluttony) for $93 nett. Sadly, they're renovating their old place, and thus there isn't a wood oven available for the next few months.

The giant curry-puff look alike - the Calzone lookes very intimidating when it firsts comes, with it's edges spilling over the plate. I didn't quite like this because there was alot of crust (which I hate and try not to eat as far as possible). It's a folded pizza stuffed with cheese, ham and mushrooms topped with tomato sauce. They are very generous with the ingredients. I must say that the pizza is not as fragrant as the ones that I ate previously, because they don't have a wood oven. Oh well, the four cheese pizza was still very good, but no woody smokey smell. Perhaps I would try the other pizzas next time, like the Pizza Primavera (tomato, mozzarella cheese, fresh rocket salad and parma ham, $23) which looks rather yummy.

Spaghetti Cicale Spaghetti with crayfish in garlic and tomato sauce ($23++), which were recommended by Mr Kompetitive and Cel really stole the show. The tomato sauce was tangy, with the strong aroma and taste of garlic. This was the hot favourite and we ended up eating 2 of these! Extremely yummy! I will highly recommend this to anyone who wants to visit al forno, along with the Quattro Formagi Pizza.
Tiramisu ($9)- we just wanted something to wash down the pizza and pasta taste - though tiramisu isn't the best choice when you're stuffed with more than 1.5X your meal requirements. Another interesting dish that I really want to try (but it's not included in the 1 for 1 offer) is the Spaghetti Cartoccio (which is the best seller on their menu). It's $59++ for 2 people, and is spaghetti with mix seafood, cappers, olives and a dash of chilli wrapped into a impressive bundle with aluminium foil. The 2 times I've come here, I've seen so many people eating it. And it looks extremely good. But we have concluded that the 1 for 1 offer is too good to give up - we shall save that for when the 1 for 1 offer ends.
Al Forno

400 East Coast Road
Singapore 428996

Tel: +65 6348 8781
Lunch: 12 pm - 2 pm
Dinner: 6.30 pm – 10.30 pm
Open daily
*Do note that Al Forno has moved to across the road temporarily.
http://www.alfornoeastcoast.com.sg/

Pietrasanta

Here's a long outdated post ( I seem to be starting every post like this :/ but really, short postings aren't as slack as I imagined them to be :S)

Portsdown Road has been rejuvenated, with lots of new restaurants in these old barracks(?). There's also Klee, a jazz bar that serves interesting drinks.

Actually, I'll be very scared if I lived so deep inside Portsdown! The road is really very scary especially at night. Dunno how people can sit and wait inside those 1-bench bus stops! It's like sitting and waiting for a bus at South Buona Vista road! So scary - at least hungry ghost festival is over...For those of you who are afraid of the dark, don't worry cos Pietrasanta is very well lit - a welcoming sight if you drive (there isn't really any other way to get to Portsdown) from the North Buona Vista side, alternatively, you can take the AYE and exit at portsdown Road, saving yourself the scariness of driving through the dark windy roads. Soft dinner rolls
Linguine Alle vongole - Linguini tossed with clams in white wine sauce and fresh tomatoes ($16.90)
I quite liked this vongole cos there were tomatoes in it, which gave the dish a nice colour. The tomatoes were sweet and juicy, and not tart at all. The linguini was well coated with the clam juices, and I really enjoyed the dish.
Quattro Stagioni - Tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese, Cooked ham, artichokes, black olives and mushroom ($18.90)
This kind of pizza is the slightly thicker (though not as thick as the usual pizza hut kind) and has a nice bready fragrance. The thickness also gives the pizza more bite - and it's much more filing too. The ingredients are generously scattered over the gooey mozzerella cheese, and the tomato base is tangy and not too salty. Since they're so generous with their ingredients, a pizza can probably feed 2 normal people, leaving you with space to try an appetiser and dessert, which is what I'll do the next time I come back here.
Tiramisu ($8.90) - I seem to be very uninspired and ordering this at Italian restuarants all the time. I really can't say that this blew me away, taste wise it was pretty average, can't really taste the alcohol but the texture probably requires some work cos it's pretty lumpy.

The service here was very good the evening I went, with the waitresses being very knowledgable and helpful when I asked for recommendations - there's only so much two people can eat in one sitting. They even brought out extra plates (without us asking) so that we could share the pasta and pizza.

Little chair for you to put your bag! (but not every table has it - mine didn't)

Pietrasanta

Blk 5B Portsdown Road

#01-03

Singapore 139311

Tel 64799521