inItaly, Craig Road

inItaly (38 Craig Road, tel : +65 6423 0918) has been around for a couple of years. I remember reading about them when they first opened but the place somehow didn't generate enough interest for me to check out. Then. At the helm is a Mario Caramella from Milan. A chef of some repute around these parts. I noted that the team section of their web page describes only the chef Mario. I thought there was no 'i' in the word 'team'?

The first starter was a simple boiled asparagus, pan fried egg and Raspadura cheese. The latter which I learnt is a light salty and crumbly cheese that goes through 6 months of ageing and is served usually, in shaven form. This method allows the cheese to be in..... well, shaven form which basically melts easily onto warm food. Or in the mouth. The flavours are akin to Manchego. This was quite nice.

The other items on menu didn't look very interesting to me so we ended up with prosciutto di Parma with compressed cantaloupe and Acacia honey. They were pretty generous with the shaven ham, which meant that there was not enough melon to go round in spite of us rationing each mouthful.

We asked for additional cantaloupe which they obliged. The flavours of the fruit was heady and sweet. I'm not sure if the honey added to the sweetness as we couldn't really taste it. The dominant flavours were the saltiness from the ham and the aroma of the melon. Actually, the melon was the star.

There was a risotto with beetroot and red berry. I'm not sure what red berry in particular though. I like this in a way which isn't so simply described. There was no grassy flavour from the beetroot which was a good sign. The berry portion was well balanced to be present and yet not overpowering. There was little to no sweetness that went along with a hit of citrus and the rice as a result, wasn't heavy in spite of appearances. The use of tarragon was also well moderated so there were only touches of that aniseed taste. Smoked eel on the risotto was quite nice. The eel was fatty and smoked to the point where one could get the flavour, but those flavours weren't overwhelming. Like I said, I like it some, but I don't think I'll come back just for this. I remain faithful to my favourite fruit based risotto.

Off the menu, they had some black truffle items. This was probably the best item from the off menu lot. Pappardelle with fried egg and butter and shaven black truffle. And it definitely reminded us of the tagliatelle we had back at San Miniato in Osteria L'upupa.

Here's some gratuitous molten egg porn.

Dessert was a Rosolio soufflé. Rosolio is liqueur made with rose petals. This particular liqueur was Venetian according to what the menu described. 

This was nice. The rose flavours were pretty distinct and the soufflé itself was competent enough. It sank a little while we were trying to get its picture taken. This, I could see myself come back for.