Spizza

I hate surprises.

Pleasant ones are fine.. No wait! Scratch that. In fact, I would like to place multiple orders of

Pleasant Surprise Frappucino. Low-fat, make it a double, with extra whipped serendipity PLEASE.

Yes, do keep them coming..

Ok but generally, I do go out of my way to avoid the unknown, the unexpected so that I will never have to cross paths with the unbecoming and unimaginable.

Recently, I find myself googling about the restaurants that I will patronize before the act of doing so. I never used to do that (maybe that's why I even dared enter Lemongrass), although sometimes I am tempted to venture into dark side of chain restaurants and franchises just to see how bad things can get -Kenny Rogers anyone?

After going through numerous reviews (just google 'spizza singapore'), I was confident of the quality and what I was planning to order.

Caligola

Calamari with "Arrabbiata" sauce was better than Valentino's. Contributing factors include preferable calamari rings (to slices), fried-dried onion twigs and gorgeous crunchiness. Although the arrabiata sauce was hardly spicy, there wAs barely an angry face left by the time this plate was polished.



Tuna Salad with Egg, Black Olives, French Beans, Salad and Onions, named Praetoria, was surprisingly platable and easy to swallow. It was dewy and uncursed with droughtiness featured in many salads.

Nerone

Grilled vegetables was 'passable'. As in pass-OVER, not pass-fail-PASS. I picked up a zucchini that was cold, as in should taken out of the refrigerator COLD, which threw me off balance. Maybe it's just picky me but when an item is described as 'grilled', it should be served haute hot right? Preferably scald-your-tongue-hot, if I may add. Order this at your own risk.

Taking a stroll down the adventurous side, we ordered Quinta and Ursula pizzas.


The Quinta consisted of tomato, mozzarella, egg and black truffle sauce. The concept of egg on a pizza isn't new to me. I had it once in Copenhagen and it unexplainably reminded me of egg roti prata. But when the Quinta arrvied, I was agaped by the rawness of the egg. Bearing a strong disinclinition towards sunny side up eggs with their yolks poked and dribbling all over the place, this proved difficult to stomach initially. I was attempted to ask them to re-fry the egg but that would have risked either ugly looks or getting throw out of the restaurant.

Thankfully, I lucked out in the taste department as the black truffle oil was sufficiently fragrant. As I gingerly pryed the egg away, I also had the mozzarella cheese to thank for riding any raw eggy scent. Fine I admit, I had three frigging slices...

Ursula came with tomato, mascarpone, spinach, smoked salmon and capers. A feast for the eyes, Ursula was generously laden with thick slices of smoked salmon, which contrast well with sour undertones of the mascarpone cheese. Although I didn't know what capers were and how they tasted, that didn't bother me. In fact, I'm still clueless but I don't think its absence would have created much of a difference.

While this proved to be an interesting ride down Adventure Boulevard, I will be sticking to traditonals next time.

Maybe a Barbara or Sofia? OOO, I feel like a big time pimp. Haha..

Convoking Ms Wallis Simpson's famous quote on how you can never be too thin or too rich, the pizza crust was sorrowfully TOO THIN- I can't believe I am saying that.. Unlike Valentino's thin and soft base, Spizza's crust crackled with every bite, a sign of hard biscuit-y structure. For this very reason, Valentino's pizza wins hands-down in the heavyweights department.

Estate was baked cannelloni filled with chicken leg ragout. The taste of comfort food was earnest and boosted by charred borders bits. Although the shreds of chicken felt almost dry, even against the heavy-handed stewy sauce, this is a must-order if you aren't fond of pizza but was dragged to Spizza by Italianophiles.

Of course, Spizza is unbeatable for the convenience. With many outlets around the island (not too sure of consistency though), I will be turning to this pizzeria if there's a constraint on my travelling journey and time.

Note: I feel I need to be properly introduced to truffles. The ballyhoo-hoopla over how exquisite it tastes feels ungraspable. While I enjoy the sprucing up of any dish with it, the nirvana-esque feeling escapes me.

A little trivia: At Spizza, the pizzas are named after Italian women (yup, all 22 of them), desserts after famous female opera characters and starters were named after the emperors of Rome.