Motorino (now in HK)

Good news! There is a new NY-imported pizza place in town – Motorino. Yay!

Motorino serves up neopolitan styled pizza or for some it is the “soggy” styled pizza. Whilst this leans towards being authentic, I’ll be the first to admit that it really isn’t my style of pizza. Eating with a knife and fork is more appropriate than getting all stuck in with your hands and somehow with pizza that just seems too proper for this causal food.



As compared to the pizza places around the city, Motorino offers interesting toppings - their signature brussels sprout with pancetta, and cherry stone clams - gives them a slight edge and to make it a complete meal, they recommend Gragnano perfect pizza to wash it all down. Whilst what tops the pizza does matter, the dough and the crust is something that I’m still trying to come to terms with. The crust is very puffy. Puffy, puffy, puffy that when we first ate it my dining mate described being naan-like (less the ghee and garlic that is usually slathered on) and someone else said to me that it was like pita bread and all they needed was hummus, so not really pizza crust-like descriptions. To me, it was just too puffy and too much dough that even though it did have marks of the wood fire oven char – although some just were outright burnt – it lacked character is flavour and mouth feel texture.

Not a big fan of the crust but happy to have this pizza option in town.
 
Motorino
14 Shelly Street
Central, HK

MmmMmmMozza.

Mozza-styled pizza, is currently my favourite type of pizza.



The crust is the signature of the Mozza pizzas – which you will either love or hate. I belong to the love camp. I don’t know what goes in it but I’m sure it is more than flour, water and salt – does anyone have the recipe? I sat at the bar and watched what they did – firstly they stretched the dough leaving a crust at the end and then pierced it to let some air out. After which it was a brushed with olive oil, top with ingredients and pushed into the fire oven where more magic happens. The fire oven puffs up the air bubbles trapped in the dough and produces a puffy and charred looking crust that is crisp on the first bite and deliciously chewy.



The other thing I like about Mozza is the feel that it has. The placemats are silly and I think it sets the tone of the place. It is pizza after all – what’s the fun in putting prim into pizza! So, have fun, order and eat with your hands and make a mess – I couldn’t care less.

Pizzeria Mozza
2 Bayfront Aveue
#B1-42/46 The Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands
Tel: 6688 8522

The Skinny on Skinny Pizza

The Skinny Pizza to me isn’t pizza.

It looks like a pizza but it sure doesn’t taste like one and thankfully is a fad that has not taken over all the pizzerias. I had the Ah Taki Tuna Skinny at Barracks that promised much but really it was more like tuna salad (tasted ok) served on an edible cracker plate. Sure it was skinny and yes it made a wonderful crack and snap but it was also too crispy and hollow to be a good honest pizza dough. I’ll vote for thin crust –crispy and tender- any day!

Buono!

27 Lichfield Road
Tel: 6733-5646
www.buonopizzabar.com



If you like Italian food for these reasons for the main reason of the family-comfort feel, Buono is perfect.

The first thing that you will probably notice is the leopard print slip covers that are on a random number of chairs among the eclectic selection of furniture. They are really cheesy, but (and I hate to admit this) I really like them. To me, it gives the whole place some character and a very unpretentious feel about it.

The second thing I liked about it is the personality, Chef Salvatore Buono. He has got a warm smile and is personable. And he makes good food!

The menu is rather large. On our first visit, to the amusement of Chef who took our orders, we ordered a hodgepodge of dishes from all sections of the menu: calamari, seafood soup, sausage platter, buono pizza, curry seafood pasta and lamb rack with gorgonzola sauce.If you want to go all out and have an antipasti, a first course, second, side and dessert or either just a serving of pasta or pizza, the menu is large and flexible to accommodate your preferences.

Take note that the kitchen includes a fire wood oven, produces lovely fresh bread and thin crusted pizzas, hence this place already has the right foundation to be a good pizzabar.





The menu has accents of Salvatore’s imagination. The signature buono pizza, topped with both mozzarella and cream, along with sausages and rocket is deluxe comfort food, but a little too heavy for me to stomach on my own, so have this but share this. Intriguing ‘fusion’ dishes such as the curry seafood pasta, spaghetti along with a generous portion of prawns and scallops is tossed in a mild creamy curry sauce, is again comforting and perhaps a potential differential dish for the restaurant.

Along side the more imaginative and distinctive menu items, Buono also present good versions of familiar and classic dishes. The fried calamari, simple but well fried to produce a good crisp with no odours of stale oil is good, and their seafood soup that they should hold up with pride is simple divine.

The food is good enough reason to go back, and another good reason is that the prices for a good meal here will not break the bank. What I like most about this place is that it has got a nature of a good friend. This place is not stocked with designer furniture or starched white table cloths for that matter, but its down-to-earth nature and the personality has got my attention, and I think this is one of those places that I’m going to make mine.

*See the whole set of pictures here.

Well-Loved by New Yorkers

It has been way too long and now that I’m finding more time to scribble down my thoughts, I’m trying to relive some of my New York eating moments. When in New York, do what the New Yorkers do--eat at their most popular places! Two of them were part of Danny Meyer’s food empire in the city: Union Square Café and Gramercy Tavern and the other two were no frills good old street food hot dogs and the American pizza.



Gramercy Tavern, has two dining options, the main dining hall, where reservations are required and the Tavern Bar area, where it is slightly less formal they take no reservations and where bar counter is a great option for solo diners. I liked the buzz in the air as we entered the room, there was almost a scent of happiness in the room, maybe just being in a warm room rather than in the cold streets and the comfort of good food and company. We dined in the Tavern Bar area, where the service was friendly and really helpful. All the dishes that we tried: grilled octopus salad, chicken liver crostini, stuffed quail, leg of lamb sandwich, stuffed quail, mahi-mahi (a today's special) were good, but what was really exceptionally excellent was the fresh bacon, grilled for its natural sugars to caramelise and for the fat to burn to its sweet state, it was delicious and a tasty reason for anyone to go there.



The Union Square Café, where Danny Meyer first begin his restaurant empire, is still doing what the same things that have brought them success, good American food with an Italian twist and warm hospitality that gives this restaurant a soul, and I can understand why people like it. The service is wonderful, very discrete and sensitive to your needs and the food was good. We were seated at right at the tip of the second level, which allowed us to peek over the people at the bar. My most memorable plate was their homemade spaghetti with lobster, basil and orange oil; the orange oil helped to push the pull together the flavours and to push it to another level, so simply but very good and I’ve tried to recreate this plate at home on numerous occasion. Other dishes that we tried were: yellowtail tuna tartare with horseradish mustard and avocado, fettucine with duck and wild mushroom ragu and parmesan, foie gras with dry red cherry duck jus on a roasted panotta, glazed Belgian endives and prunes, braised shortribs with horseradish mash potatoes and warm apple crumble cake with caramel ice cream.





Economic eating in NYC does not come any better than their institutional hotdog stands. At Gray’s Papayas, where they had recession offer of 2 hot dogs and a papaya drink would only set you back less than $3. Just squirt on some ketchup and mustard and finish with a long cold sip of the vitamin packed digestive papaya drink and your stomach will be happy. We made a pit stop at Papaya King, which offers pretty much the same thing, but between the two, I think my vote is with Gray’s Papayas.



Last but not least, another common NYC food that we tried was the New York-styled pizza slice that is something between a thin and a thick crust, where it is thickish and slightly fluffier on the outer crust, which is still crisp rather than soft and thin and crisp like a thin biscuit in the centre. To sample this, we headed over the Brooklyn bridge to look for Grimaldi’s, where one antipasto platter and a large pizza topped with stuffed us the greedy family of four. We wandered around the neighbourhood for a while trying to find this pizza place, and the irony of it is that we spotted a couple with a guidebook whom we guessed were looking around for Grimaldi’s as well, then tailed them and found our way there.

Gramercy Tavern
42 East 20th St, between Broadway and Park Ave
Tel: +1 (212) 477-0777
www.gramercytavern.com

Union Square Café
21 East 16th St, between 5th Ave and Union Square West,
Tel: +1 (212) 243-4020
www.unionsquarecafe.com

Grimaldi’s Pizzeria
19 Old Fulton St, under the Brooklyn Bridge
Tel: +1 (718) 858-4300
www.grimaldis.com

Gray’s Papayas
2090 Broadway Ste 1 New York

Papaya King
179 East 86th StreetCorner of Third Avenue, between 3rd and Lexington
or
Southwest Corner of 7th Avenue and 14th Street
www.papayaking.com

The new member of the Da Paolo-ians

Da Paolo Pizza Bar
44 Jalan Merah Saga #01-46
Singapore (278116)
Telephone: 64796059

Just for the record, I think my favourite pizza bar at the moment is Spizza. I haven’t been there in a while, but I remember going there when it first opened on Club Street, and I have a good memory of the place. However, coming back to Da Paolo which is the issue at hand, we had lunch there today and it set us back on average $20 per person.

I liked the feel of this place. It’s got a laid back lazy Sunday afternoon place feel. The ceiling is lined with these cowprint/skin and they have got some sort of organic wood thing going on. The long tables nearest to the kitchen are rather cool, they are long and slim and they are cut from one block of wood, the only this is that, its so slim that you would most probably end up knee-knocking with the person opposite you and if you sit at a decent distance to prevent the knee-knocking, you might be too far away from the table for the food.



Piandina con fettina -- Thin pizza bread with slices of beef.

The menu is simple and relatively comprehensive: salads, sides, pizzas and some hot dishes if you desire such. They also serve breakfast/brunch on Sundays. We ordered a salad, the chef’s special pizza – Italian sausage, chili flakes and porcini mushrooms on a choice of either squid ink, arugula or (something else that I can’t remember) pizza base, I chose arugula. In addition to that we had a beef sandwich on thin pizza dough and a gorgonzola cheese pizza topped off with parma ham. Pizza was good, although I wished I could taste more of the arugula in the pizza dough. The most interesting plate was the beef sandwich, maybe I’ll have that the next time I’m there.