Pietrasanta - The Italian Restaurant (28th Nov 2008)

A place near my work place... the only (at the moment) decent italian place... I am quite happy having my meal here... and this time I got the indoor sitting... could be due to the fact that went after the lunch hours.... But as that day was another "vegetarian" day for me... so I have to be selective on what I am going to have...

Their bread... seemed more like biscuits (american version of biscuit) are simply lovely... I can just munch on these and forget about the main course... haha but due to the greedy nature of me... I can munch thru the whole basket and continue with the meal :D

Selezione di Formaggi Italiani
Cheese platter with olives, sweet and sour onions and Artichokes
I only would go for the cheese... I hate olives... I might be too extreme in my dislike for them... but just can't take the taste of it... and I also realize that I don't actually like a HUGE piece of artichoke.... :P The tomatoes were VERY GOOD! :D and the cheese played their parts well too...

Quattro formaggi pizza
Mozzarella Cheese, Parmesan Cheese, emmenthal cheese and blue cheese pizza
I loooooooove cheese.... but I would not had ordered so much cheese in a row... but as I am on a vegetarian diet... this was the only one I felt like having... and it was GOOD!

Ravioli di Ricotta e Spinaci
Home made Ravioli filled with spinach and ricotta cheese served with butter and sage.
My friend complained that this was too much..... too rich... esp after so much cheese stuffs before this meal... overdose of richness... But I thought it was good. I love rich food, esp dairy products.

Fettuccine di Castagne ai Porcini
Home made chestnut gnocchi tossed with porcini mushroom
The last time I came... I had the chestnut gnocchi... and now they seemed not to have it anymore. I was told that it came with fettuccine with little bits of the chestnut gnocchi... the sauce was good... the noodles were okay... but the gnocchi was pathetic... I didn't taste it at all... or it was mistaken for bits of mushrooms... I still prefer to have bite-size gnocchi...

I think this could easily be one of my favorite italian place ... but I think they need to have more choices in terms of desserts... could be the dessert cafe which is besides it, which lessen the need to have a longer dessert list...

Pietrasanta - The Italian Restaurant (13th Oct 2008)

Feeling really under the weather... and have to have vegetarian meals for today.... so I decide to have italian and I thought I should give Pietrasanta another chance.... It's close to my work place... and I really want to get a meal and then head back into my nice and cosy office... where I had turned off the air condition. It was a bad week for me... I was so sick that week... I broke so many of my illness records... Everyone around me noticed that I was falling sick more often than usual... I think I had to go for a full body check up... BTW, I think there is a serious problem with the "manager" lookalike person there... Why? cause he QUICK paced back into the aircon part of the restaurant when he saw me walking towards the restaurant wearing a mask (which I always try to wear when i am sick!!! ) WTH!! I sat in the open air area... so i will be NOT sharing my virus with ppl when i take off my mask.

I was planning a week of GOOD food... but I ended up only having one or two meals... which I absolutely not care for... except for the mains at Pietrasanta.

okie... this bun lookalike were bread served to us COLD!

Melanzane al Forno - Baked layered eggplant with Mozzarella, Tomato sauce and Parmesan cheese.

Okie... I like eggplant, I like Mozzarella, I like Parmesan cheese... I can forgive tomato sauce. This is a normal dish... which is done in the usual okay way. Not "wow"ie.. but not "yuck"ie either.

Zuppa di Farro - Emmer Wheat soup with Beans, Potatoes, Carrots, Celeries and onions.

This is a SUPER healthy SUper vegetarian and super beans filled soup.... Personally, I thought it was a stew... The portion was huge... And every spoonful, there will be at least 3 beans in it... I like it... but I would prefer less beans and maybe a slightly less hearty portion. The service staff told me it's creamy!!! and i ended up with this ...

If u know me well.... I would and CANNOT resist ordering either Risotto or Gnocchi... but luckily I have good friends who are soooooooooooooo nice to order one or the other, just so I can try both.

Risotto Ai Porcini - Italian Risotto with Porcini Mushrooms

I was sick.... What can be better than cantonese congee... A nice good creamy italian Risotto.

I can take this almost anytime and anywhere... except for badly done ones... :P which this was definitely not! Lovely LOVELY LOVELY!

Fettuccine di Castagne ai Porcini - Home made chestnut Gnocchi tossed with Porcini Mushroom.

I don't know why.. but I kept thinking this would come out green.... so I was rather disappointed when i saw it was brown... just like my risotto... Well.... the taste was great though... :P the gnocchi was done well.... and if you don't tell me it's chestnut (which is not my favorite) I won't know. Very nice indeed.

This place gives me mixed feelings... I can't say I LOVE it... but I won't say I hate it. The service staff were great, other than the "manager" person who actually came out said hi to every other table, but turned and walked away from my table!!!! .....

The mains were good... but i think I would have to kiss many more toads... before I will get a good starters from this place...