Did I just eat the worst pizza in Rome?
I love love love pizza.
Its probably one of the things that I could eat (in moderation of course) on a regular basis without getting sick of it. In Italy, there are many variations of pizza but for now, I’ll share with you two types of pizza :
This is a Pizza Tonda.
A Tonda is a round, personal sized pizza. This particular pizza that I had at La Camiceria is a Roman styled pizza which is caracterised by their thin crispy crust. Its definitely my favourite style of pizza.
Check out the size of the fork with the size of the pizza
While this pizza at Dar Poeta is a Napolitana style pizza where the outer crust is thick, but gets thinner to the middle. Cart says that Napolitana style is the ultimate style of pizza, but I still much prefer my crust thin and crispy.
As you’ve noticed, the portions are pretty huge but this is the standard personal size. Many a times I’d just ask for a box to take away because its hard for me to finish it at one go.
What’s amazing is that I’ve seen tiny Italian kids who could eat the entire thing.
But if a round pizza could be too much, there is another type of pizza called the Pizza Al Taglio
Pizza Al Taglio is a range of pizza that you can choose. You ask the server the type of pizza you want and ask her to cut accordingly as to how much you want it to be and she’ll warm it up in the oven. You pay according to the weight of your pizza.
Eligio is my favourite place to have Pizza Al Taglio. Though the place is like a hole in the wall, taste wise, I think its fantastic. It was love at first bite – the crispy dough, the toppings. Just delicious.
To me Italy and Pizza goes very well together. Its impossible for an Italian to make bad pizza right? After all, its just in their birthright.
Its like eating Tom Yum in Thailand, and eating Soto Ayam in Indonesia, Sushi in Japan … food just tastes better in their country of origin.
Or so I thought.
Cart and I were at Warner Village the other day to watch Harry Potter. Feeling peckish after the movie, we decided to have a pizza at the Pizzeria near it.
And this was our pizza.
It might not look too bad, but it was cold! The sauce was cold. The toppings were cold. As you could see from the picture, the cheese didn’t even melt. It was like eating baked bread with sauce and toppings right out of the fridge.
The name of the Pizzeria was “Thats Amore” which means love in Italian. Suffice to say, I wasn’t in love.
This is such sacrilege to all pizza. Even Hizza Put does it better!
How to make ayam masak merah
Ayam masak merah is one of my favourite things to eat. Literally translated, it means Chicken cooked in red gravy. It is a robust, rich and filling food that can be eaten with practically anything – rice, bread, roti jala. This was a dish that we’d usually have every other week while back in Singapore.
Having missed my comfort food, I tried my best to find most of the ingredients and attempted to make it myself. One of the ingredients is this concentrated tomato paste. Refrain yourself from trying to brush your teeth with this
However, there are some key ingredients that I can’t get here in Rome. One of them being fresh lemon-grass and I don’t even see it for sale in the Asian kiosk that I patronise.
Nevertheless, I still have a few ingredients at hand and here is an easy way to make Ayam Masak Merah. You will need :
- Chicken (Cut into pieces)
- Turmeric powder
- Potatoes
- Tomato concentrate or Tomato sauce
- Fresh tomatoes (Diced)
- Ginger, Garlic, Onion, Soaked dried chilli, Lemongrass (Blended together)
- Coconut Milk
First, marinate the chicken with salt and tumeric powder and leave it to rest for at least 30 minutes.
While waiting for the chicken to be marinated, slice and fry some potato wedges.
Using the same oil, fry the chicken. In another pan, I fry the ground ginger, garlic, onion and chilli till they look ‘crispy’. Then add the tomatoes continue to fry till they look soft.
Now I add in the tomato concentrate and a bit of sugar. Then add in the chicken and the potato. Taste for salt.
The final step is to add in some coconut milk to give it the rich flavour. Stir and leave to cook for a few minutes and serve with white rice.
A delicious and hearty but relatively easy Malay dish that can be cooked in about an hour. For me, it brings back a piece of Singapore, no matter where I am 🙂
Celebrating Cart’s birthday in Garbatella
It was Cart’s birthday last Friday. It was also the first time that we spent his birthday together in 4 years. Hence it was a special day indeed for the both of us.
We decided to head to Potpourri in Garbatella which is a some minutes away from home.
On an unrelated note, I find it interesting that the road looked wet, but when we went closer, its gone!
We first went here with a group of friends some months ago, and though I thought the food wasn’t that extraordinary, I was looking forward to satisfying my meat cravings.
Garbatella is an interesting place for me. For one thing, the style of the buildings are a lot different from the ones you’d see in central Rome.
A house in Garbatella
The buildings are quite charming. The doors and windows were smaller and the floors were not as tall. It was as if, it was a large sized doll house. I would have liked to take more pictures of the houses, but it was dinner time and almost everyone was at home. I could see them peering at me through the windows wondering what the heck I was doing.
And after a short walk, we soon we entered Potpourri, the restaurant. As it was Friday evening, it was a lot livelier than when we first went here. Being summer, there were a number of people having dinner at the terrace.
For appetizers, Cart had the falafel while I had the Baccalà. A baccalà is salted codfish which is deep fried in batter.
I didn’t realise how freshly fried the food were that I burned the roof of my tongue when I bit in my appetizers. Ouch! But they were really really good.
And for our mains, Cart had the Vegetable Couscous
This was so flavourful to me. Though it looks like curry, it’s not. The taste is milder than curry but it was just as wonderful, the mix of potatoes, eggplants, carrots, chickpeas, the seasoning, the saffron. It was so tasty that Cart had a second helping.
I had the Kebab. The first time that I had this I was a little puzzled as usually we’d eat kebabs rolled up in a pita bread. Here, the bread was separate in a basket. While I was not too impressed with the kebab the first time that I was there, I absolutely loved the kebab that evening. It was not as oily, the meat was tender and juicy and had a generous amount of tomato and spices. Even by the time I was full, I stuffed myself to finish it. Didn’t want to waste it!
It was just wonderful! And I enjoyed my dinner tremendously. I cant wait to come here again!
Feeling completely stuffed, Cart and I decided to walk around Garbatella to ease the overeating feeling. Moreover, its an interesting place to see, you’d see murals such as these
I like the message at the end of this wall, it said, “you are not alone”
To what I know of, Garbatella is an area where many supported the left party. Hence, the political murals scattered all around. In fact, we stumbled upon an abandoned left party headquarters. It all seemed very Che Guevara to me.
Also, there is a TV drama in Italy called, I Cesaroni. I used to like the series as it showcased a plentiful of Rome’s sceneries. I had fun trying to spot out the different locations in the scenes.
The show was based in Garbatella. And here are Lynn, Xiangwen and I, posing at the school as shown in I Cesaroni back in March.
Cart and I walked up to the cafe as featured in the show and that’s where we noticed this interesting poster.
At first glance, it looks like a political poster. But upon closer examination, the man in the poster is actually an actor in the show. This is some sort of a viral poster!
What a really interesting place Garbatella is. I should come here again, maybe in daylight the next time 
Check out the streetview below!
Ps : Happy birthday Cartcart!
Delicious Indonesian food at Pagi Sore
Updated : Pagi Sore has relocated to Far East Square
I only knew about Pagi Sore when my ex colleague, Sumi recommended the place and brought me there for lunch. I love the food there and I think that its worth to travel all the way to Jurong for it.
The Place
Situated in Jurong Superbowl, Pagi Sore might be a bit cumbersome to travel to for those without their own transportation. On the other hand you could reach here easily by taking the SMRT and then taking the 240 bus.
Having said that, the surrounding area invokes a sense of retro 80s feel that is getting harder to find in Singapore. Apart from the occasional few shopper around probably heading to Sheng Siong, the area is mostly tranquil.
Jurong Superbowl brings memories to me during my school days – it was one of my stomping grounds. Countless of days I spent too much time in the arcade playing Golden Axe till my dad had to drag me back home.
Loads of things have changed since then. The arcade is no more, and instead is replaced by food kiosks and restaurants.
It was lunch time when Sumi and I arrived. Inside, there were already a number of people having their lunch.
The Service
We were greeted by the usher and soon after, we were seated.
Personally for me, being the first time there, I was not too sure about what to order. But the staff were very friendly and gave suggestions of to what to order. Sumi, already being a regular at the place, knew beforehand what to order.
We had a basket of keropok to munch on while waiting for the food, which arrived about 15 minutes later.
The Food
I like Indonesian food and love my food spicy! From Ayam Penyet to Gado gado, I enjoyed everything that I had that day.
This was the Cumi Goreng Istimewa.
Literally translated as Special Fried Cuttlefish. This was extremely tasty to me, the marinate was lovely, with a sweet smoky taste, while the cuttlefish was tender and juicy. Its just too bad that it was not stuffed.
This was the Tahu Telor
This is a very common dish for Indonesian restaurants. While this might not look spectacular in picture, but it was lovely. Tahu telor is a dish made by deep fried bean curd with egg and then showered with a savoury peanut sauce.
This was the Terong Tau Chio
This was brinjals in soya beans. I’m not too big with dishes with whole soya beans and this dish is pretty good to eat although personally for me, I didn’t think that its anything too special.
This was the Udang Mentega
These were the stir fried buttered Prawns. A tad oily, but still yummy!
Sumi was a little surprised to see this dish appearing on our table as we did not order it. We were pleased to find out later that we got it for free for ordering the number of dishes that we did.
This was the Ikan Goreng Balado
I love fish and whole fried fish is like a special treat to me. This dish uses whole sea-bass which is deep fried and then lathered with a special chilli sauce. The fish was wonderfully crispy and succulent with the sauce has sweet and hot mix to it.
And finally Ayam Panggang
Spicy grilled chicken with herbs, this dish, as the rest of the dishes was delightful. Smoky, rich sauce with tender and juicy chicken meat. I loved eating this.
The rice was served all wrapped in a coconut leaf to make it smell fragrant.
At the end of our meal, we were both very satisfied, full and happy women. I was blissfully happy and was looking forward to eating here again. Pagi Sore is a little bit on the expensive side with each dish ranging about $6 to $20 but to me, it was worth it.
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The day I cooked Asian food for my Italian guests
My mother is one of the most admirable women that I know.
She could single handedly cook for dozens of people and still look as fresh as a flower afterwards. On a regular basis. And she was happy and proud to do it! I still remember how she orchestrated Cart and my wedding solemnization, wedding lunch and dinner. Just looking at her burst of energy made me feel very tired.
So when Cart asked me to cook for his colleague and his family, I felt genuinely excited at playing host. I thought about the recipes and decided to share some of the foods that I loved eating in Singapore. Besides, Italians know and are better at Italian food than I would be 🙂
Getting the ingredients for the dinner however, posed a challenge to me. With the help of my in laws, while I was able to source out a couple of Halal butcheries, and Asian vendors. But there were a few ingredients which was shockingly absent and I had to make do with substitutes or go without it.
So far, I have yet to see :
- Fresh or canned baby peas
- Fresh or canned baby corn
- Curry leaves
- Mixed dried whole spices
- Kara coconut milk
- Pandan leaves
Now how would I make Nasi Lemak?
But coming back to the dinner, I started at about 4 pm with the preparation of the food – washing, cutting, frying, all before starting to cook. And Cart was busy with tidying the house. Together, we were so engrossed that we did not realise that time was flying by. All of a sudden, it was already 8 pm and the guests were already here.
And I still wasn’t ready! And I looked completely unglamorous in my t-shirt and track-pants. And the kitchen was like a war zone. 
But at length, all the food was ready and I was ready to serve.
And for dinner I made Chicken Curry!
Actually, its a fallacy that all Caucasians are not able to take hot food. Italians for example, enjoy eating Arrabbiata where one of the main ingredient is chilli. Cart’s colleague and his wife in fact, enjoyed the Chicken curry. Unfortunately, their daughter found it a tad bit too hot.
And I made Roti jala which was supposed to be eaten together with the curry. In Malay, Roti means bread while Jala means net. Roti jala is supposed to have a lacy pattern. Unfortunately, my batter came out too thick and I couldn’t make the pattern.
And then I served Sweet and Sour fish with some basmati rice where the family enjoyed a lot. My mum taught me to use tomato sauce and chilli sauce together but can you believe that I did not see even one bottle of chilli sauce in the supermarkets of Italy?
By the time I served Chap Chye, everyone was already too full to even touch it. I’m not too happy with how it turned out anyway since it was lacking in the baby peas and baby corn. It doesn’t look as colourful as it was supposed to be.
And since Cart was vegetarian, I made vegetarian versions of the Curry
I substituted the battered fish with battered eggplant instead for the sweet and sour fish. Turned out fine since Cart liked it 🙂
And for dessert, I made bananas in santan. Forgot to take a picture of it though. In any case, all of us were too stuffed to eat any-more. I think I was a little bit too ambitious in preparing the dinner.
Nevertheless, I was happy that the dinner went smoothly and we all had a lovely time.
After the guests left, I still had to clean up and do the dishes. And I went to be exhausted. It was tiring! How on earth does my mum do it on a regular basis?
But it does gives me the confidence of hosting more in the future. And I’m looking forward to host more. But the next time, I would definitely be better prepared.
Finally I feel more adult and actually married if that actually makes sense.
Tony Gelateria – Ever eaten Spaghetti Ice Cream before?
The first time that I went to Tony’s was with Cart and Jerrick last month during his visit here. He asked, where would be a good place for a gelato and Cart suggested that we head to Tony’s.
One taste and I think that I have probably found the best gelataria in Rome!
Tony’s Gelateria is located in the rather quiet and idyllic neighbourhood of Largo Missiroli Alberto.
Getting here would not be much of a problem on a scooter but like most part of Rome, it could be a little daunting for cars to find a parking place. Else you could use the public transportation via ATAC.
Nevertheless, it’s easy to spot the gelateria from the large signboard.
Though the exterior looked rather simple, the bustling of activity from people coming in and out the gelateria belies its popularity.
Upon entering the gelateria, the first thing that you would see is the blue signboard in front of you which lists the types of gelato along with the price. The prices here are reasonable, ranging from €1.30 to €3 for their cones or containers.
When you have decided on which kind to get, head to the cashier to make your order and payment, where you be given a slip of paper. You then pass the paper to the person behind the ice cream counter for them to start preparing.
One of the popular type of ice cream here is the coni (or cone) and you could have 2 – 3 gusti or flavours on your cone, according to the size of your cone.
There are a number of varieties to choose from ranging from traditional flavours like strawberries, frutti di bosco to the interesting creations like puffi.
But one thing to keep in mind is that, try to complement the ice cream in its own family. I made the mistake of having Banana (sweet), hazelnut (sweet) and lemon (sour) and the flavours didnt mesh at all!
Hard lesson to be learnt.
But for me personally, the pistacchio and nocciola there is a must try. Both of the flavour is robust without it being overwhelmingly sweet.
In gelateria in Italy, the server will usually ask you, “crema?”. And if you say yes, there will be a dollop of fresh cream on top of your ice cream.
Cart and I ordered the spaghetti some while back. It was a rather fascinating process. The person behind the counter will scoop some vanilla ice cream into a utensil that looks very similar to a potato masher and squeeze it in a bowl.
She then added cherry syrup on top. In other gelateria, they may serve it with strawberry sauce and white chocolate shavings on top. Either way, it’s still good.
Isn’t my spaghetti pretty? The next time we go to Tony, I’d like to try the Uova al Tegame (fried egg) next!
Tony Gelateria
Largo Missiroli Alberto, 13
00151 Roma
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Rinaz can cook!
Stuff in Italy isn’t exactly cheap.
This was what I saw in a window some while ago. 146 euro? Thats almost 300 singapore dollars.
And this is what a Big Mac costs in Italy.
Thats about $12 SGD. Yikes!
Now that I’m unemployed a domestic goddess at the moment, I dont really have the liberty of spending money like I did before. Its beneficial to be a little more frugal.
And one of the best way to save money is to buy and cook our own food.
Over in Italy, there is a wet market where you can get your fresh produce from. My mum in law took me to one near her home during my first few weeks here. Just like in Singapore, there is a bustling of activities here from the customers to the sellers.
You could buy all sort of things at the wet market – vegetables, meat, cheese, bread, even flowers, shoes and carpets! I was very excited to see such vibrancy here.
Cart and I went the wet market at Piazza San Giovanni di Dio a while ago. I loved seeing all the colours there. I just wished that I wasnt so self concious to take more pictures of the sellers.
Regardless, in the end, we could get two whole bagfuls of vegetables for about 10 euro. And with that, it completely stuffed the refrigerator and lasted us for a good two weeks.
And oh boy, have I been having fun!
Prior to this, I haven’t really been too interested in cooking since I’ve been happy to eat anything that my mum cooked. But now that I’ve been given the liberty to a kitchen for my own, I’ve actually been enjoying preparing food.
This is Vegetable Curry. I made this! I was worried that Cart wouldn’t like it as I’ve never made curry before. But in the end, he enjoyed it so much that he took seconds. I was surprised!
Geri loves Cream Pasta. Now I can make it for her when she comes to Rome 🙂
Nowadays I feel a little more confident of my cooking skills which is interesting as I wasn’t that inclined to be in the kitchen. Whoever knew that the girl who didn’t like to cook is actually cooking 😛
Moreover, I realise that cooking is actually very sexeh. Thanks to my new boyfriend, Gordon Ramsey.
But I suppose good things comes with its own problems.
I’m 64kg now. Ah crap.
Sidenote : Just for fun, take a peek at my old video on how to make arrabbiata. Looking back, I realise how very unfluent I am in Italian.
What is the strangest food that you’ve ever eaten?
When I was a very young girl, while the old Geylang Serai was around, my dad would always buy a packet of steamed turtle eggs. For me, it was something very interesting to see. The seller would open a case and I could peer in something that looked like ping pong balls with sliced pandan leaves scattered around it.
Turtle eggs for sale in Terenganu, Malaysia
But unlike ping pong balls, the shell was soft and it tore off easily. Inside was a perfectly round yolk surrounded by viscous transparent liquid. Unlike chicken egg, turtle eggs was a new experience for me. It was acidic and it smelled rather caustic.
I didn’t fancied it. But apparently, it was a delicacy as I noticed plentiful of sellers selling them.
However, some years later, I did not see them being sold anymore. I suppose that with turtles being a protected species, there would be a law being implemented to against the trading of eggs.
Not that I would be missing them though.
And as I watch television, youtube and in casual talks with friends, I discover that there are plentiful of food that makes me cringe.
But there is nothing like what Cart described to me.
Casu Marzu, a Sardinian delicacy. Pecorino cheese with maggots inside, eating and excreting the cheese to give it the soft texture.
What makes it more cringeworthy is that the maggots tend to jump when disturbed, potentially hitting the diner’s eyes.
What is the most wierdest, grossest food that you’ve ever had?
Sidenote : I’m really getting addicted to watching Hell’s Kitchen nowadays. Youtube is truly a time sucker 😛
Have you ever eaten food that made you feel full?
Did you know that certain foods make you feel satiated while some doesn’t make you feel full no matter how much you consume it?
I had a very informative session recently at the screening room, hosted by Soyjoy and Ogilvy. Their main event was to watching the famous documentary, Supersize me – in which a man attempts to consume only McDonald’s items for 30 days.
Having already watched this movie some while back, the show did not have the same effect as it did the first time that I watched it. Then I avoided fast food restaurants for some while but afterwards I think that eating in moderation and coupled with exercise is the key to a healthy body.
Its always easy to put the blame on fast food restaurants, but then again we have the freedom of choice of the things that we do to our body.
Like how the inspirational story of how Honeymeow whom I had the pleasure to meet for the first time. In about a year, she has lost her weight from 100kg to about 67kg at the present moment through her dietary intake and exercise.
Personally for me, losing weight hasn’t been the easiest thing to do.
Even after exercising regularly after about a year, I haven’t lost any weight at all! Although I do feel much fitter than I did a years ago.
The issue for me I suppose is that I love food so much. I’m not willing to give good food up! And as we all know, we can only lose weight when the calories that we exercise is more than the food that we eat.
I once had this conversation with my family doctor :
Me : I wish I could lose weight
Doc : Then you’d have to eat less.
Me : But I exercise!
Doc : Correct, but you still need to consume less food. What do you eat for breakfast?
Me : Usually Nasi Lemak, stuff like that.
Doc : You should eat only two pieces of wholewheat bread in the morning.
Me : What?! Only bread?! I’ll feel hungry!
Doc : Its all in your mind because its your habit
And in a way, I suppose that Doc had a point. During the fasting month, I find my food intake decrease as the weeks progress.
But I would like to have another opinion. Thus I was glad to have met Soo Lin, a chief dietitian for NUH who educated us about Glycemic Index.
In a nutshell, all foods are categorized into different levels of GI which affects the satiety level. There are some food that can make you feel full without eating much of it, such as a bowl of oats, whereas I can polish off a tray of sushi with no problem at all.
But I was surprised when I ate a bar of Soyjoy. There were a number of bars on the table. I don’t normally like soy but it looked like regular chocolate bars. Insouciantly, I took a bite. Although it wasn’t as sweet as a chocolate bar, it was still pleasant. I snacked on a banana afterwards.
That was when I realised that I felt rather full. How strange.
The feeling lasted till hours since I reached home even. It was an unfamiliar feeling for me as by this time, I would have munched on a burger or something substantial.
Wow. Imagine snacking on this on a more regular basis. It could probably aid in my food cravings 🙂
Have you ever eaten food that made you feel full before?
Sidenote : If you are a blogger, you might be interested in participating in the 2009 bloggers calendar!