1 What stole my weekend

It was a whirlwind of a weekend that ended much to quickly. In the name of saving time, I'll let the photos tell the bulk of the story.

1. The Amazing Spiderman! Although it boasted a typical storyline, it was nevertheless an enjoyable film with bits of humour and lots of swinging action. Andrew Garfield (who I prefer to Tobey Maguire as Spidey) and Emma Stone freshens up the blockbuster series with their younger personalities. James Horner is now added to my favorite list of composers, with his grandiose take on the main theme, filled with the fanfare of trumpets doling out a soulful tune. Just listen!
2. Crab bee hoon soup from Hong Kong Street Chun Tat Kee at Balestier Road. This cze char place is known to dish out a mean bowl of XO slice fish bee hoon and san lo hor fun. Wanting to venture out of our usual orders, we had the crab bee hoon this time round. This is my first time handling crabs in their fully shelled form and it was certainly an experience with the shelling and extraction of the meat. A very tedious and painful (literally) process but the reward was sweet, succulent and robust fresh crab meat. The stock was superbly flavorful with the crabby taste, with notes of hua diao rice wine dancing on the palate. It bordered on being excessively salty towards the end though. Our other orders were sambal kangkong and cereal prawns. After the tasty meal the bill came as shock though: $59 for two people!
3. Pizzeria Mozza.My sis and I had lunch here before the Harry Potter exhibition (see below). It's her first visit and my second, 10 months after celebrating my birthday here.
   

   Rucola, funghi and piave salad came as a mound of fresh rocket leaves with (raw) white button shrooms and shaven piave (an Italian cow's milk cheese similar to Parmigiano-Reggiano) layered in-between. The vinegary dressing did well to highlight the peppery tones of rocket, although it somewhat overwhelmed the less ostentatious shroom profile.

   

   Long-cooked broccoli, caviocavallo and chiles pizza. Another first for having broccoli on pizza. The long-cooked broccoli was tender and tasty on its own but I felt it didn't pair too well as a pizza topping. Caviocavallo is another type of cheese but I'm not an avid fan of cheese and especially when melted on pizzas, all the cheeses taste the same to me. On the whole this pizza okay, if not a tad salty.

   

   Of the Tomato, Sicilian oregano and extra virgin olive oil pizza and Broccoli pizza today, and the Margherita pizza the previous visit, the former is my favorite of the lot. If you're a tomato lover, you'll be most delighted. Intense tomato sauce topped with oregano, this upheld the adage of beauty in simplicity. You'll get your lycopene dose filled with this one!

4. Harry Potter exhibition.
   

   We breezed through the exhibition in 45 mins. It mainly featured the actual costumes and props used in the film. It was quite surreal to actually see the exact items used in the film right before your very eyes. The Marauder's Map and Potions book were some of the cooler items on display, filled with scribbles of wizardry language. I also enjoyed the display of the Yule Ball costumes; Hermione's lilac dress was so pretty! The souvenir shop of a cash-milking machine though. $50 for a wand?

5. Hacking open a young coconut. Yet another first this weekend. Much skills and strength is called for!

6. Church talk on Biomedical Ethics. An interesting and informative insight on biomedical ethics from a theological perspetive

There goes my weekend. It's past the 6-month mark of 2012. Scary how June whizzed past in a flash.Time to start relooking at monthly resolutions again.

1 Pizza patrol

Pizza making session today! Specifically, a spelt crust pizza.

It didn't turn out too bad, considering this is my first attempt at homemade pizza. I was aiming for slightly crispy, thin-crust pizza but the base turned out to be more bread-like than pizza-like, or to put it crudely, soggy pizza. This was especially so in the areas where there were toppings, and I attribute it to uneven cooking/too much "wet" toppings. Nevertheless, the edges of the pizza were exactly what I was after - crisy and slightly chewy. Delish!

For all first-timers in pizza-making, a useful pizza guide can be found here.

2 Twenty plus one

Flowers may die
Rivers may dry
But our friendship
will never say bye bye

That was the kind of poems we used to write in each other's autograph books back in primary school. Cheesy as it may sound, this embodies the friendship with my college mates. Yesterday was a special day - they took time off their busy study schedules to throw me a birthday cum farewell celebration. I was left to decide on the location, and Marina Bay it was.

The mandatory Marina Bay Sands shot.

Twas cloudier than usual, almost bleak day. I pity those in the Singapore Flyer who could probably see nothing more than 10km away.

We wandered down the Helix Bridge with JJ, ever the enthusiastic photographer, snapping away like she was one of the tourists. Eventually (which means after 1000 shots later) we made it to the dinner venue, Pizzeria Mozza. How excited I was!

Helmed by the trio of star-studded celebrity chefs - Mario Batali, Nancy Silverton and Joe Bastianich - word has it that this restaurant dishes out the best pizza in town, accompanied by great service. Knowing that this hip hangout is hugely popular, I crossed my fingers and attempted to make a reservation. I managed to get seats at 5.30 pm, not the most convenient of times for dinner, but I suppose I should be thankful for getting seats in the first place. Surprisingly though, the place was only half-full when we arrived – for the time being.
Great things started right from when we were seated. First, an envelope bearing the Mozza stamp was set on the table. Curious, I peeked in to find the cutlery and a card containing quirky nuggets of information on “what you can thank Italians for.” After we placed our orders (what a hard time trying to decipher those Italian words!), another envelope was addressed to us. This time it contained complimentary crackers, which tasted strangely familiar until it finally struck me: it tasted just like those Ritz cheese crackers!

Ricotta cannelloni al forno.

Translated as baked ricotta cannelloni (a type of pasta sheet), this was the dish of the day. Basically it was just oozing with cheese: two crispy crepe-like roll-ups stuffed with ricotta sitting on a bed of ricotta, and layered with tomato sauce and more ricotta. Cheese heaven for cheese lovers but for me, the cheese-hater-trying-to-like-cheese, it was simply too rich. Nevertheless, I still delighted in the crispy/spongy texture of the cannelloni (how did they ever achieve it?) and the full-bodied tomato sauce.

Margherita.

I think the waitress was confused. I remembered dithering between the burrata, slow-roasted tomato and Sicilian oregano pizza and the Margherita, and finally opting for the former. However the Margherita was served instead, but we didn’t voice the mistake and accepted it. Do you know the ingredients for a Margherita pizza represent the colors of the Italian flag: tomato sauce = red, basil = green and mozzarella = white. How cool is that to have your country’s flag represented in its national dish? The tasty tomato sauce, which I think was the same as the cannelloni, made its appearance again. The mozzarella did not overwhelm and the basil leaves could not be any fresher than it was. I only wished they were more generous with the basil. With the basics done right, I think it's safe to say that their other pizzas can be expected to be just as good.

But of course, the best of all was the crusty dough/doughy crust. I can’t really describe what makes their dough so fantabulicious, Thick rimmed and slightly charred for extra flavor, your inner carb monster will be shrieking in joy. Skinny pizzas are so yesterday.

Cheesey and drippy.

Despite being located at the Sands, Pizzeria Mozza was very affordable. The bill came up to about $54, which meant $18 per person. Overall it offers causal dining in a relaxed atmosphere, with great food (especially for cheese aficionados) and fairly good service (at times it is hard to get the waiters attention though).

And then I was truly surprised by the birthday surprise. It was a golden bronze butterfly necklace with reddish gemstones, and a pair of cat earrings. <3

Water & Laser show.

It was a coincidence that when we walked out of Sands, it was 8pm and just in time for the daily laser show on the Singapore River. The illusion and technology is such a beauty!

I’ll be quite busy with all the last-minute packing the next few days On my next post, I hope to do a “21-things-to-do-before-my-22nd" list for that extra special 21st flavor.