IL Piccolo's Splendid Peri-Peri Chicken Spaghetti

Gosh... my second blog in 3 years... Well, better late then never. ;-)

I went to my favourite pasta place last Friday - IL Piccolo in the food centre at Toa Payoh North. Surprise! They've got a new pasta special - Peri-Peri Chicken pasta!

At S$7.50 for a nicely roasted chicken drumstick and pasta, it was a deal too good not to try. Double surprise! When they served it, it came on a hotplate. At first, I was a bit apprehensive coz I thought there was going to be very oily, but upon inspection, the bottom of the hotplate was just sizzling. Sure, there was some oil present, but generally, that was from the pasta sauce. I choose spaghetti (you could have opted for penne I'm sure) as it was my favourite.

Okay, first the taste of the chicken drumstick. I don't know what "peri-peri" sauce is. Always thought it was some Tex-Mex or American-style BBQ spicy sauce. When I cut into the meat, it was soft and succulent. The skin was nicely roasted (thin and crispy) and the meat below, was moist. Initially, there was a slight citrus tang - either lemon or lime - followed by the heat from the spices. It wasn't fiery chilli heat, but more like Chinese Szechuan type of residual heat lingering on the lips and tongue. It was robust but wasn't searing, and I like spicy food, so actually it was slightly mild for me.

Next, the spaghetti. Okay, I am those weird people who will bring around a small bottle of extra virgin olive oil. A little extreme, but hey, after my first trip to Milan / Italy where there is a nice bottle of extra virgin olive oil and balsamic on any decent cafe or pasta restaurant, I just couldn't go without that. Very much like once you had good sushi in Japan, local Japanese restaurants in Singapore, just don't cut it at that price.

Anyway, back to the pasta. It was a tomato-based sauce, with specks of small red chillies, onions and a dash of grated cheese. Okay, these little chilli babies can pack quite a bang despite their diminutive size - as I said, I love spicy food - but they were manageable for me. It was light, a very nice contrast from the roasted chicken drumstick. Actually, for me this pasta dish from IL Piccolo was one of the best I have from them, because I always felt the meat protein was missing. With the just nicely roasted chicken drumstick (which was above average sized), it was a complete meal. I actually asked if I could add olives to the dish, and they obliged (I am a regular customer after all!) Before I saw their new promotion, I almost wanted to order a pasta from them, and fish and chips from Botak Jones next door. A bit extravagant, but it was Friday evening after all. Never trust a skinny food critic, I say, so I need to upkeep my size. ;-P

Anyway, I am going back this Friday to try it again. Will be bring the extra virgin olive oil too.

My First Post!

Okay, I've been putting this off for more than a year now... Finally, decided to just do it and put up a simple post.

Had my first Morrocan meal in Dubai about 2 weeks ago, at a very very good restaurant at the Jumeirah Mardinat Resort, called "Shoo Fee Ma Fee". Interesting name, hope I remembered it correctly.

Here's a picture of a medley of appetizers we order - perfectly marinated olives (which are surprisingly refreshing and not too salty or sour), some chillis, and pickled sweet vegetables, and some Morrocan bread.

A light and healthy start!

We also ordered some very nice beef sausages which was not oily, good taste with an interesting mix of herbs.

Anyway, we HAD to have targines - the Morrocan signature dish. I had the targine with lamb, but we also ordered chicken and sea bass targines as well.

Do you see the dried prunes and olives? ;)

All I can say is that the all the meat was cooked just tender, and the targine (a clay inverted funnel) allows the meat and ingredients to steam inside, so that all the natural juices are retained. The result is flavours that are just nice and it goes so well with the basmalti rice or cous-cous.