Mar 3, 2010
Spilt by the saliva, Saizeriya is best known for the casual Italy meeting Japan, when it rests quietly in a basement of Singapore, City Square Mall. Big on food, large on the menu, small on prices and a light-lit atmosphere reminiscent of early Yaohan; it is an attractive beast- huge head with a tiny enviable body.
Sticking out like streamers are the great price tags, and the Squid Ink Series. In Saizeriya's posters, which one cannot resist.
Imploring the menu, one is enthralled that the Squid Ink lives on, on spaghetti and its less common cousin, the risotto.
Spaghetti and risotto; Saizeriya's spaghetti are made from healthy wheat, a robust and complex flavour. It is also excellent on the thin coating ink sauce (based on my previous visit to Saizeriya). All the more now I had to order the risotto, round medium-grain rice (high GI), lauded by Italians like sushi is to Japan.
Squid Ink Risotto (SGD 5.98)
It wasn't al dente, of course. Pleasantly, the meaty, inky exterior gave way to soft fluffy rice; the risotto more undulating than the spaghetti. (Probably due to the grains simmered heavily in sauce; rice a less dense-no backbone substance than pasta). A rude shock was however, upon prodding the bombshell, the rice was baby white inside. Now, what is black food?
So what's it like? Somewhat like soupy hokkien mee, the best referral I got from my forth-reaching mates. I'd better send packing, because I haven't tried a packet of those fried noodles.
P.S. Glancing over the decor, one also finds, in squirming delight that a pot of ebony black is being served on almost every table- comforting to know that many people do swear by the Squid Ink Creations. This should have been Tolkien's(Hokkien) mee.
