Dinner at 11 p.m.

I'm wondering if you're wondering what exactly these are and where they are from. If Starbucks think their puffs are ugly, they haven't seen these yet.

Prata prattler

Almost uniquely local, this ubiquitous and grease soaked fried pastry has filled the stomach of millions for breakfast. It's as easy to find good tasting ones as the poorly made ones. That above was the cheese egg prata which used sliced cheese instead of Mozzarella. There's the dry golden brown hue which spells crispy skin. What's great about these is that they are never pre-made to be heated up for serving. They're cooked to order. Served hot with gooey of melted cheese and sambal.

The conversation I had with my brother went into the cheese of the prata and perhaps, why not blue cheese prata? Lol. Might be interesting for a gourmet prata shop to start doing so. Perhaps served with some onion and tomato reduction infused with cayenne and ground peppercorn. Lol. And while we're at that, why not truffle in prata with quail eggs. And maybe goose liver pate or even caviar and there comes variety. Enough for now.

The Star of ugliness Bucks the trend of pretty presentation

What, Starbucks is slowly encroaching into the space of a deformity contest? Ugly now meets uglier.

Spizza, Harbour Front

I heard that this place is run by the same people that did Senso. I've actually been eyeing it for a while and today, I finally managed to get the opportunity to come by. This restaurant was packed to the brim at about 7.30pm. With a short queue forming at the door. But it was a holiday's eve after all. 

We started dinner with some antipasti call Nerone and the Suberbo salad.

Suberbo

The Suberbo was a very simple salad. Frankly, I was quite disappointed that it did not go beyond anything more exciting than a small mound of shredded lettuce. I counted three average sized mussels and a couple of shrimps. I think they could have done a lot better with the miserable seafood portions. When I read prawns on the menu, I expected real prawns and not just small shrimps things. On the bright side, this salad was appetising. The dressing consist of just some black pepper and lemons. Simple, refreshing and it really made me more hungry through the 20 minute wait for the pizza. I don't know if that's a good or bad thing.

Shrimp No.1 and No.2

Nerone

The Nerone was simply mixed grilled vegetables, mozzarella cheese and some Parma ham as described in the menu. The quality of the cooked vegetables here are sadder than that of Riciotti. I was honestly quite disappointed by this poor show. Those grilled vegetables lacked even the char aroma. I mean, it says grilled vegetables on the menu. If I had known that this was it, I'm pretty sure I would not have ordered it. The saving grace of this dish for me were actually the sun dried tomatoes and the mozzarella cheese. Imagine that. The dressing here was likewise simple with just olive oil and some pepper.

The highlight of dinner was the pizza. And this was Isabella.

Isabella

I was very relieved that Spizza actually did pizza nicely. From the crispy thin crust to the gooey cheese. What the menu described as rucola salad is actually just some leaves that were layered on top of the pizza. Sprinkled over the top were some black pepper. This one was actually the large sized pizza at $19.00. I'm pretty sure I could have finished it all by myself. It's that good. Unlike Pizza Hut that basically loads you up with their thick oily crust. I think I don't mind coming back for Spizza's other pies.

Dessert was tiramisu. I think I've mentioned a couple of times that they tend to have variable standards and is often disappointing for me. But occasionally, I take a leap of faith. For some reasons.


Comparing to the one from Menotti, this has a larger cream to cake ratio. The cake wasn't not as liquor soaked, but it was quite pleasant. Enjoyable, but nothing that really wowed.

Pontian Wanton Noodles, Yishun 81

One of the wanton noodles stall which had something to say about what's special about their brand of noodles. Pontian is located at the Yishun 81 coffeeshop at the Central, about 5 minutes walk from the bus interchange. Having not seen this particular stall before, I decided to give it a try.

I don't know if any of that 60 years of history had any real bearings on things. Or for that matter, if anyone in the past 60 years have been eating there and liking the food. The front of the stall is patched with signs with the usual claims of having noodles that are handmade and blah blah blah..... I ordered a bowl with a serving of 14 fried wantons.

The wanton noodles come in two sizes. A serving of the fried wanton goes for $2.50. So for 5 bucks I managed to get the following one of each.

The basic $2.50 bowl of noodles came with 2 fried and 2 soup wontons. The portions weren't very large. But decidedly, it was quite good. There was definitely something different about the noodles that gave it better texture. Didn't leave a residual after taste which I personally dislike about yellow noodles in general. The noodles also comes with the option of chilli sauce (which isn't really very spicy at all) and a bowl of soup containing the another 2 soup wontons. The mixed sauce gave the noodles a spicy tomato flavour which didn't quite taste like the usual ones. I don't know why's that. I had meant that positively.

Those were the fried wanton. These wantons though small, were very tasty. The fried skins are light and crispy. Not what I had expected. I had thought them to be hard shelled and oily. They were really easy to eat and a serving of 14 wantons can easily be finished by one. Despite appearances, it tasted freshly fried. I will be back for this again.

Dessert at Menotti

Menotti, aside from being the grandson of Garibaldi is also located at the first floor of Raffles City. This place, being part of the Garibaldi Group is sister to Riciotti just down at Riverwalk. Just for those of you that do not know, there is a 50% off cakes and pastries at this place after 10 p.m.. Which makes their offerings a very sweet deal (excuse the pun) if you're within the vicinity at that time and have a sweet tooth.

That above is the Riciotti. The menu describes it as a "luscious and creamy cheese cake made from the finest" ricotta cheese." This actually tastes like a dense pound cake with little other flavour. The only resemblance to cheese cake or ricotta is probably in the texture of the cake, but it is otherwise quite unremarkable. The top of the cake has some pine nuts which have become soft. The taste of the pine nuts is barely discernable, if existent and really doesn't accomplish much but serve as an afterthought.

Glossy is the dark dome of the Cassata Siciliana. Lol. It's another ricotta cheese based cake with bits of citrus fruits embedded on the inside and coated with a shell of dark chocolate. The top is overlaid by a strip of preserved orange skin and pistachio marzipan. I don't think much at all of marzipan. Apart from being overly sweet, I don't see why anyone would like to eat that thing. This pistachio marzipan tastes the same as the regular one. That means no pistachio flavour in it.

The Cassata Siciliana was however in my opinion a better cake then the Riciotti in terms of textures and flavor. The bits of embededed fruits do add a pleasant distraction to the ricotta and there's also small chocolate chips inside.

If your astute observations haven't yet activated, that is the Tiramisu. I've been trying to avoid them in most places because it mostly disappoints and since this place is Italian, I decided to give it a go. Just subtle variations and this is one of the liquor drenched ones with a creamy mascapone spiral top blanketed with cocoa powder. Oh, and it's pretty good surprisingly. This place is one to consider.

The total bill for desserts is $10.10. So there you go for the past 10 offer. Makes you feel less disappointed when you make bad choices from being more adventurous too.