. In celebration of food and dining experiences .

Monday, September 03, 2007

Dad's birthday treat at La Strada, Shaw Lido

Happy birthday "mahjong" tiles!

J and I went on a baking adventure on Sunday afternoon. We attempted the lime mascarpone tart for my dad’s birthday. It’s the first time that I baked ever since we started working. It feels good to be in the kitchen and interacting with my baking accessories. I miss my sakura-shaped cookie mould, my orange kitchenaid mixer, and my measuring cup! (ok I know it sounds really strange)


Lime Mascarpone tart

Anyway, the proportions in the recipe are a little off. I ended up with an extra biscuit base. And there was not enough lime mascarpone to go around. So my tart has less filling than it should have. I don’t know what went wrong. But anyway, it taste good. Extremely sour because I added lime zest. But I like it. I love all (most) things sour. My sis and I bought these cute “mahjong” tile-like candles that reads “Happy birthday”. How cute!

***

Lime Mascarpone tarts

This tart has just a teeny bit of tartness to it to make it so delectable. With a sweet biscuit base, it is a non baked cheesecake masquerading as a tart.

Ingredients

Sweet biscuit tart shells 4, medium
8 egg yolks
100 ml of lime juice
Lime zest, to taste
240g castor sugar
250g butter, softened at room temp
150g Mascarpone

Method:

Prepare biscuit tart shells

Combine egg yolks, lime juice and sugar in a small bowl set over a pot of boiling water. Beat until the mixture is thick.

Continue beating while adding the butter, Beat until mixture is thick and glossy.
Leave mixture to cool, and then fold in mascarpone.

Spoon mixture into tart shells. Garnish as desired and serve.

Makes 4 medium tarts.

****

Sweet biscuit base:

750g Biscuit (grahams, digestives)
250g butter

Place biscuits in a plastic bag and crush well until biscuits are all broken up and crumbly. Pour into a mixing bowl and mix well with melted butter.

Spoon mixture into baking moulds. Press well into base and sides of moulds. Refrigerate for at least 1/2hr before using.

Makes 1 large tart, 4 medium tarts or 12-20 small tarts



***

We cut the cake before we headed to La Strada (at Shaw Lido) for our dinner. La strada is under the Les Amis group and they recently underwent a makeover. It now has a minimalist, Spartan layout. The round table they sat us at was a little too tiny and cramped up for me.

My parents were pretty amused when they noticed the bar counter that has several types of glasses (the Bordeaux glasses for red wines, champagne flutes, martini glasses etc.) We were served with two glasses of crunchy Italian breadsticks and olive oil while we poured over the menu to decide on what to have.



Between the six of us, we ordered a good variety. For the starters, I decided to try the fritto misto- 4 deep-fried pieces of seafood served with saffron infused mayonnaise and capers and herb salsa. This dish was an artful surprised; the 4 pieces of seafood was arranged neatly on the top of a white square plate while two streaks of pale yellow and deep green danced across the background. No doubt it was a delight to eat this beautiful piece, I felt a little disappointed because of the portion and the fact that the mayo did not have the touch of saffron as promised.


J's Quail egg and Foie Gras Ravioli

The starter that I ordered- Fritto Misto

J ordered the starter that I had wanted to try- the quail’s egg and foie gras ravioli served with mushrooms. My dad queerly called it a giant Italian dumpling. The foie gras was cooked till soft and it was an interesting dish really. I enjoyed it more than my starter that seemed to pale in comparison.

However, it ws the simple deep-fried scarmoza that took the cake. Drizzling lemon juice over the lightly battered pieces made the scarmoza a wonderful treat. We loved the way the cheese melts gleefully in our mouths.

It doesn't look too good here because we didn't manage to take a photo before the waiter tossed the spaghetti for my sis


After our starters, I was anticipating the main course because I hoped that it will be seriously good to blow my mind and palate. My sis ordered the homemade spaghetti carbonara with Spanish ham and confit egg, overflowing truffle butter sauce. Being my greedy self, I had to take a mouthful of her pasta. My, it was absolutely heavenly and mind-blowing at the same time. I just went “Wow”. Yes, it is really that good. I love the unique and rich flavour of the truffle. You can understand why it is termed “the diamond of the kitchen”. Though the truffle looks like a brown ugly lump, its taste cannot be replicated by any other ingredient. This pasta is the star of the evening.

Variazione di agnello

What I had was less fanciful. I ordered the variation of milk-fed lamb- slowly cooked then char-grilled, roasted shoulder, pan-roasted cutlet, rolled loin stuffed with olives etc. It sounds really good?That's what I thought. While it was alright, it wasn’t fantastic and there are definitely many other restaurants with much better lamb than La Strada. My biggest complaint is that the dish was slightly cold. I should have sent it back but I suppose I was so overwhelmed and carried away by my sis’s pasta that I forgot all about it.

My grandma had the char-grilled spring chicken served on a bed of salad leaves. It’s really good because the chicken is not overcooked, the meat is tender and succulent. And they proclaimed it to be French spring chicken. I wonder if its true. My mum ordered the char-grilled 200 day grain fed U.S rib eye served with a potato rosemary pizza and rocket salad. She really liked it a lot. I thought it was really good too (apart from being a tad too peppery).

Opera style chocolate and salty peanut caramel with chocolate feuillitine


Moving on to the desserts, I think it’s the best part of the menu. Surprisingly interesting and well-executed desserts. Since my parents and grandma were too full for desserts, J, my sis and I ordered two to share. The first was the famed opera style chocolate and salty peanut caramel with chocolate feuillitine dessert that came with milk sorbet. The second was the peach and almond tarte that was served with truffle honey ice-cream.

Peach and almond tarte with truffle honey ice-cream

The former is a noteworthy effort to marry a realm of flavours into a single dessert- the salty peanut caramel to the smooth ganache and hazelnut almond praline to the interestingly cold and light milk sorbet. Such a tantalizing experience. The latter was a warm dessert with puff pastry paired with peach. Really nice though the ice-cream was overpowering with the taste of truffle that I could hardly taste the honey. It was rather good but I feel that it’s an acquired taste.

Overall, we had a pleasant experience at La Strada. I’ll be back but I’ll definitely go for the heavenly truffle butter pasta. I’m still deciding where to head to for my birthday. Thinking of trying out Gunther’s and Sage. Any opinions?

link | posted by simin at 9:05 PM |

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