I Croxetti

I have been dreaming of making Croxetti pasta ever since I saw it illustrated on an Italian cooking book. I never heard about Croxetti (or Corzetti) before reading that recipe, since this is a regional dish of Liguria and cannot be found outside of it. This is why I couldn't get hold of the mold required to make them, despite my previous attempts, which also involved my mother looking for them in Italy.

My trip to Liguria was an unmissable opportunity to taste the dish and find the tool required to make it. I was under the impression that these molds could be commonly found anywhere in the region, but as I asked people, I discovered that actually this dish is rarer than I thought, and there is only one carpenter left, named Pietro Picetti, who is still dedicated to maintaining the tradition. I managed to find out his location and headed off looking for him in the small town of Varese Ligure. Without a specific address, I was given a description of the site of his workshop, and with my fingers crossed, hoping that the man would be there at the time of my visit, I drove to the town determined to find him.

With great relief, as I spotted the entrance to his workshop, the door was open, displaying a large Italian welcome sign. I opened the conversation informing him that I am based in Singapore and I went all the way to Varese Ligure to buy some of his croxetti molds. He wasn't surprised at all. He humbly explained that he has a constant flow of visitors from all over the world, in particular Japan, who travel from far away to this small town to get their hands on his work. He showed me the orders from American and Japanese culinary schools, and told me how once he was handed over a business card by one of his Japanese visitors, only to realise a few days later that he was actually the ambassador of Japan.

We then spent some time designing my personalised mold, and he showed me the original wooden molds from his great grandfather, who used to be in exactly the same trade (see picture below). Some of them are cracked, others have been slightly damaged by termites, and you can sense that these pieces are over a hundred years old. His designs are still based on the original designs from his great grandfather: wheatears, stars, crosses, olive leaves, and of course the initials of the owners, or the names of the restaurants.

Besides ordering a custom made mold, I also bought a couple of ready made ones. One in beech, and the other one in walnut. The first has two different star symbols on each side. This is a reproduction of the original mold passed to him by his great grandfather. The second one represents a sun surrounded by wheatears.

I was amazed by the beautiful designs, and the richness of detail. Just looking at them brought thoughts of the middle ages, the powerful families and their attachment to their own emblems, to the extent that they used to engrave them even into their food. Such intricate patterns, once printed into the dough, make its surface uneven, enhancing its ability to absorb pasta sauce. In Liguria, croxetti are traditionally eaten with a pine nuts sauce, pesto, or a tomato sauce. The recipes for the dough and the sauces are handed over by the man to all his customers, as he is keen to spread and maintain the tradition of the original sauces.

All molds are autographed by their creator on the cutting side - it states "Pietro Picetti made this in Varese Ligure". The experience of buying an utensil directly from the artisan made me reflect on the value of what we buy. Nowadays we are all so used to shop around, find what we like, on a shelf and buy it. I must admit that buying from the artisan evokes completely different emotions. You are not just given an utensil, but also the history of it, and the passion that went into it. The value of what you buy becomes priceless, since it is not just a commercial item - it has been uniquely crafted by an artisan.

These wooden molds serve the purpose of cutting and shaping the croxetti. The bottom of each mold is very sharp, and is used to cut out a circle of dough from a 2.5 mm sheet. The circle is then placed inbetween the two pieces of wood, and compressed so that the drawings remain engraved into both sides of it - just like a coin.

Pietro also recommended a place where I could stop for lunch and have the traditional Croxetti from Varese Ligure. The restaurant is within a hotel called "Albergo Amici", located a 5 minutes walk from Pietro's workshop. I had a portion of delicious Croxetti with pine nuts sauce. I loved the texture of this pasta, very firm and rustic, paired with a flavorful nutty and herby sauce. It goes without saying that every single medallion I ate was imprinted with a drawing made by Pietro specifically for that restaurant.

A video of Pietro Picetti on the topic can be found on YouTube.

Kitchen Tools from Italy

Finally I am back from my 2 weeks trip to Italy. The trip was an enriching experience through the lands of Toscana and Liguria, and it gave me the opportunity to discover even more of my native land: the colors, beauty, flavours and traditions of the countryside.
Sightseeing in tiny villages, I came back with a few tools that I purchased from their little shops.

Visiting Toscana and Liguria, the lands of olive oil, it felt natural to buy some olive wood utensils, such as this bread tray. This is ideal to let my focaccias and loaves rest just after baking, letting plenty of air circulate below the bread.
I found it rather unusual that while I was visiting two of these utensils shops in Pienza, in both shops I came across some foreigners who were looking for spatulas for cooking. Both were looking for metal spatulas. I have difficulties understanding why somebody would want to buy a metal spatula in Italy, in a town where the speciality is beautifully carved wooden tools... :)

I love the beautiful veins of the wood that show on these olive wood bowls. These are all one piece, carved out of a log. All these utensils have been treated with oil, so that they won't absorb any more liquid during their use.

I have been looking for terracotta pots for the longest time, but unfortunately they are hard to find in Singapore. I bought this set of pots that are originally from Siena (Vulcania brand) and can be used not only for serving food, but also for cooking. This is a very classic Italian design, which brings back memories from when I was a kid.

I love ravioli, but what discourages me from making them regularly is the amount of work required to assemble them one by one. Making the filling and the dough is not a big deal, but cutting the sheets and sticking them together with the filling does take some time, if you intend to make a few dozens of them. I didn't need to think twice when I bought this ravioli making mould to make that process a breeze. The good thing is that the mould is designed for large ravioli, just the way I like them. I am looking forward to try this out!

One of the things I will never forget is visiting my grandmother in Abruzzo and having her "pasta alla chitarra", very rich in egg yolks, and dressed with her tomato sauce, made of her own home grown tomatoes. I still remember her using this tool, which is rather hard to find outside of Italy. It wasn't the cheapest buy, but worthwhile having, as it felt like buying a piece of tradition. The tool can be used both sides, to make thin tagliolini, or wider fettuccine.

This tool is called chitarra, which in Italian means guitar. The reason is pretty straightforward, given that it's a set of strings mounted onto a wooden frame, just like the well known music instrument. Once you lay the thin sheet of dough, a gentle roll over it is sufficient to cut it into perfectly regular tagliolini, which will have that characteristic square section.
I am back, enriched with experiences and 3 extra kilos around my waist, so I will wait a little before making the most out of these tools. Nevertheless, it's all extremely tempting!

A private shoot-out affair

Private Affairs organised a photography event as part of their 1 year anniversary celebration. The participants submitted their favourite picture to take part in the contest, and 5 were selected out of 38. Those 5 participants gathered at the restaurant last Saturday to shoot pictures of about 15 dishes prepared by Paul, the head Chef at Private Affairs.

Out of all those shots, each of the 5 participants was asked to select one picture to submit to the competition. Mine was the one above. To see the others, you can take a look at the Facebook page of Private Affairs. Following below some other pictures I took on the day of the shooting.

A beautifully presented salad.

Toro.

Dessert.

On Friday night, Private Affairs invited all their most regular customers and partners to visit the restaurant in order to celebrate their first anniversary. The shoot-out award ceremony was part of the event. Some great food was served during the event, including roast chicken and lamb, barbecued scallops and steaks, tasty mini-burgers, oysters and sashimi. Wines and sake were also free-flow.


Finally, the food photography awards. There were some really good pictures taking part in the competition, and I was very pleased to be awarded the 1st price! :)

Above is the Chef (Paul) next to a large print of the winning picture. The print will be hang in the dining room of the restaurant.

Part of the price was this Private Affairs Christmas basket filled up with goodies, including wines, cookies and jams made by the Chef! Other baskets were also distributed to other customers as part of other fun competitions and lucky draws.

The news is that the restaurant will be moving to Raffles Place next April. They decided to cater to the business Crowd in the CBD and leave Joo Chiat. There were some contrasting opinions in the audience when this was announced by Sharon. Some still love the idea of a fine dining place hidden in a Joo Chiat shop house.


I must say that it was great fun to take part in this photo competition, which was very well organised. The anniversary celebration was packed with fun people and good food and it was great to be part of it. I wish Private affairs the best of luck with their second year of activity!

Chefs with Altitude 2010

This is my second year at "Chefs with Altitude", a yearly celebration sponsored by Swisshotel the Stamford, with Chefs cooking live, music, free flow cocktails, food and desserts!
'Last year I didn't take the camera with me as I didn't want to carry it around with me all night, but this year I decided to make that compromise in the name of blogging, and so here we are...

The location is unbeatable, on the rooftop of the hotel (well, how else would you be able to justify the name of the party!), with a stunning view over Singapore and plenty of space for the Chefs to show off their culinary skills. I must say the party itself was as good as last year if not better, although the absence of Andre Chiang was definitely felt.

In my opinion, this year's highlight were without a doubt the cocktails rather than the food. Richard Gillam (pictured below, on the left) did a fantastic job with three different stunning cocktails. That also resulted into a problem, since I just couldn't stop drinking and trying all three a few times, I very quickly crossed the line...

The crowd was lively and the place was buzzing with people socialising, food and drinks constantly being dished out.

Ebbe Vollmer, the new resident Chef at Jaan, served a sausage with beans. Although there was nothing wrong with the dish, I wasn't particularly impressed since I am not a huge fan of either sausages or beans.

On the other hand, Swiss Chef Irma Dütsch from Equinox restaurant served a pan fried foie gras on caramelised apple with brioche. Well, you can't really complain about free foie gras, although it's not one of those dishes that you can go back asking for more too many times...

Just like last year, it was nice to taste delicacies and watching master Chefs at work while sipping beautiful cocktails.

Overall the party was a success, and I will be looking forward to next year's event. This just reminded me that it's about time I go and try Jaan, now that Chef Ebbe is well settled in!

Tradition and Innovation

Staying on the theme of innovation, but onto a food specific topic. Last weekend I bought two new cooking toys:

• A Le Creuset cocotte
• A Polyscience Sous-Vide Professional

Looking at the two standing in the kitchen, the contrast between them became obvious. A cocotte, no actually, THE Creuset cocotte, the symbol of traditional cooking. Beautifully simple, stylish, in heavy, solid cast iron. What can you cook with it? Traditional French classics, of course: Coq au vin, beef Bourguignon, etc...


On the other end of the spectrum, the leading edge technology of modern gastronomy: a Polyscience Sous-vide immersion thermal circulator. It looks like a network storage solution more than a kitchen accessory. Digitally beautiful, it would disorient your grandmother, and perhaps even your mother. What can you cook with it? You can indeed revisit classics such as coq au vin or beef Bourguignon, but its strength is certainly fine dining and the ability to produce meats and vegetables with unprecedented textures and flavours. Is this going to take over everyone's kitchen within the next 20 years? Perhaps.

The natural question is - what will be the next generation cooking tool, after sous-vide circulators? What will make such a tool look like a thing of the past? Maybe this blog won't live long enough to answer that.

Unappreciated innovation

I would like to question the recurring theme of Orchard central being a Far East Organisation fiasco due to "bad design". It is no mystery that the shopping mall has not been doing well. It is deserted even at peak times, and its businesses are struggling. Fortunately, many of the restaurants are surviving well, although some have good potential and would deserve to do better.
Next door, 313 was completed shortly after, and yet it enjoys an incredible flow of shoppers buzzing at any time of the day. How can this be explained? What went so terribly wrong?

Here are a couple of references to articles and blog posts on the topic:
Orchard Central Tenants Struggle
Orchard Central - A failure
Orchard Central - Love it or Hate it


The most common complaints on the mall are:

• Bad design of access to the car park
• Unintuitive layout of the mall itself, which makes it hard to get to what you want
• The shops are "unconventional"

It is hard to counter-argue that the long winded car park is unfriendly and challenging to drive through, and they could have definitely done a better job at encouraging parking within the mall. However, the car park alone can't be the reason why Orchard Central is deserted, and I would question the other couple of points.


Singapore is considered a shoppers paradise. Shopping is not just about going to seek and buy a specific item, although sometimes that may well be why you do it. Shopping is supposed to be entertaining and fun. Shopping is about exploring, experiencing something new and stimulating. Most would agree with these statements, and yet when we hear people's opinions about Orchard Central, the complaint is that it is hard to navigate, it is "easy to get lost in the maze". Come on, how hard can it be?

Certainly, it is not as easy as 313, which is designed for hamsters. You don't need to think, you just go up or down the circular levels, pretty much like malls were designed back in the 80's. Yes, you can point and get there, buy and get out at record times and it could be an ideal venue for shopping olympics. That is practical indeed, but also old style and boring. Is this what we are looking for? Just another building with some new shops, out of which 70% exist elsewhere on the island or even Orchard itself? Or are we looking for a bit more stimulation?


I would have thought the latter. The shopping centre of this century should provide a space that goes beyond shopping and services. Those who have been to Japan and have visited Tokyo or Osaka, would be quite familiar with interesting layouts when it comes to shopping areas. The underground network of malls is even more intricate, with a web of arteries connecting different levels of shopping malls and subway stations, flooded by a rapid flow of shoppers. A quick look around is sufficient to conclude that shops do well, from the most common photo printer, to the most unusual gadget shop.

Another thing you might have noticed about Japanese shopping malls is that some of them do not just provide a shopping experience, they also include recreational space, with outdoor garden and terraced areas where the young can gather in a group or find a quiet corner for a bit of privacy.  Malls are not purely a place to "fetch consumer items", they are integral part of city navigation and social activities.
The question is why this can't work in Singapore. We are all so eager to shop, and so proud of Singapore as shoppers paradise to entertain visitors. We often complain about how boring, limited and repetitive Singapore is. Should we not be excited when we are gifted with a bit of innovation?

I included some pictures shot tonight at the higher floors of the mall. Art is well incorporated into the concept, and entertainment and social areas are provided top to bottom. The highest floor includes a unique roof garden with a stunning view over the CBD and Marina. Plants and interesting art pieces are scattered around the area, creating an intriguing space for exploration. The breathtaking escalator leading to the top is the longest I have ever seen, and its lighting is a work of art (see video at the end of this post).
If I ever had to show a mall to impress visitors from abroad, this is where I would take them.


So what went wrong? Are we really so rigid and conventional and not ready for a bit of innovation? Are we shutting down creativity? Far East Organisation tried to push the boundaries and they failed. And now we are the ones pointing fingers. Hopefully this won't discourage developers from being inventive and creating malls that go beyond what we already have everywhere else on this island.

What the French really eat

Patrick Heuberger conducted a cooking presentation at Shermay titled "What the French really eat". He cooked a selection of some of the dishes he serves in his restaurant, Le Bistrot du Sommelier.

The cooking demonstration was extremely smooth, enjoyable and easy to follow. He really made the cooking process look as simple as possible, although behind that simplicity there are years of practice.

I would strongly recommend attending some of Partick's presentations to anyone who is interested in classic French cooking, since watching a master at work can really save you a lot of failed attempts. He also conducts a lesson on basic French cooking techniques, which would be a better starting point for those with little cooking experience.

Out of the recipes presented, I am planning to try the rabbit, the frogs legs and the tongue.

The complete set of recipes was:

• Rabbit stew with mustard (Lapin a la Dijonaise)
• Oven-roasted lamb rack with olive oil mashed potatoes
• Braised ox tongue in horseradish sauce (Langue de boeuf au raifort)
• Sauteed frog's legs with garlic and parsley (Cuisses de grenouilles)
• Baked Burgundy snails with tomato and garlic butter

Presentation aside, the end result was superb, just like in his restaurant, and I ate a lot more than I intended.... It's my third French meal in a row this weekend. I think I will take a break for a week or two!

Pesto for friends

This morning I started the day by putting a large portion of my huge basil plants to good use. I filled up a very large bowl with pesto leaves, which was reduced into a small jar of pesto I made for my neighbour friends.
Lots of basil (you need to grow it, or else it's far too expensive), a tiny amount of garlic, pine nuts, freshly grated black pepper, grated pecorino cheese and Italian extra virgin olive oil.

Hopefully they finished it by now, since it doesn't keep its fragrance for very long.

Italian home gastronomy - a premature death

Some time ago, I wrote a post about Quattro Stagioni - an Italian deli that used to be located in the basement of Liang Court. Well, what to my knowledge used to be the only Italian deli in Singapore, is now closed. Although nobody in Liang Court seems to know the reason (according to them, the staff suddenly vanished), I suspect it's due to poor sales. I have been patronising the shop regularly for quite some time, mostly at weekends, and I have rarely seen it busy. In other words, a specialised Italian deli in Singapore doesn't seem to work.

Quattro stagioni used to have the most basic products, forget about an extensive range, but it was a good start. I was delighted that finally I could buy bottarga or good Italian tomatoes, or proper Italian cheeses to complement a meal, including real buffalo mozzarella and burrata. Of course, my expectation would have been that in a few years time there would be more of these shops around the island, carrying a more extensive range of products. Unfortunately, the initiative died prematurely, leaving little room for future development.

Why did the concept of an Italian deli not work? Is Singapore not ready for it yet? Is it too small a market? Is it because we don't have a cooking culture? I would like to leave this question open to the readers.

My favourite restaurants #1

Whenever I end up talking to people about food, the recurrent question is: "What Japanese restaurant do you recommend?" - "Where can I get good Italian?" - and so on...
Every time I reflect on where I ate and what I should recommend. I thought it would be a good foodie's practice to record his favourites periodically and publish them every 3 months or so. The following are my favourites as of today.

Japanese
- Wahiro - Good value for money sushi, and great traditional, seasonal dishes
- Goto - Best kaiseki
- Matsuo - Best top end sushi
- Shimbashi soba - Best soba

Ramen
- Keisuke - Great for seafood based broth
- Marutama - Great chicken stock

Chinese
- Silk Road - My favourite northern Chinese food. Shaved noodles, Dandan mien, French beans...
- Shin Yeh - Taiwanese bottarga, fish claypot with tofu and aubergines
- Lan Zhou La Mien - Zhajang mien, guo tie

Classic French
- Cocotte
- Le Bistrot du Sommelier - Frog legs, Cote de Boeuf

Italian
- Cugini - Linguine alle vongole, ravioli, pizza
- Gattopardo - Bucatini alle sarde, arrotolata, zuppa di pesce, crispy bread
- Forlino

Fine dining Lunch Menus
- Fiftythree - I love their bread and starters
- Private Affairs - Really great deal, great food
- Gunther's - Gunther's style is worth a try
- Tippling Club - Inventive molecular cuisine, great desserts and cocktails!

My Basil

I started growing basil about two years ago, and once I overcame the initial difficulties, it has been a smooth experience ever since. Basil is actually a very resistant plant, and to my surprise it lasts incredibly long and can withstand even the most powerful storms.

The little plant pictured here is the third generation from my very first basil plant, it's now about 20 cm high and has been growing for about 4 weeks. Its 'mother' is now about 10 months old, pretty huge (80cm diameter) and healthy, pictured at the end of this post. The first generation actually died eaten by caterpillars, after growing for about 4 months.

Once it's up, basil produces flowers and lots of seeds, and you will see dozens of little basil plants sprouting up. It's then just a matter of potting some of them, if you wish to extend your basil plantation. Some claim that you should always trim the flowers to prevent the plant from dying, but I found that my basil has been growing more healthily since I stopped chopping its flowers, and it hasn't died yet (it has been sprouting flowers for at least 6 months).

It's great to have such a plant in your terrace. You can just pluck a few leaves if you want to make some fresh pesto, and I guarantee it tastes better than the basil you buy at the supermarket. I am now planning to start growing other herbs such as rosemary and shiso. Hopefully I will soon be able to show how beautifully they have grown.