Little Italy

Today was a good day :) Jon and Gabe visited me at Carey in the afternoon and I got to show off my new room (which I finally finished unpacking, almost at least)!!! I now have a rug that serves as a cut-off point for visitors to take off their shoes. They however, just sauntered in, slippers very much on foot. I need to be more up to speed on this. Anyway, we headed to a little italian place, Perfetto Pizza, on West 10th Ave after. I've passed it many times on the 99B and always wanted to try it. Today was the lucky day.

While contemplating on our orders, we were served with complimentary brushetta. A very nice touch :) It wasn't fantastic but it was different from other places that serve just regular bread and butter. I wanted to get their oven-fired thin crusted pizzas, considering that I had eaten pasta over the last 2 days, but they were huge and I did not feel like taking home left-overs.

We started with a foccocia bread served with vinegar and olive oil (one of my favourite bread dips!). There were 2 kinds of spreads-- garlic and nother green one, maybe it was pesto...I could not really tell. Pretty ordinary and I would have preferred it if the foccocia was warmer and a little more toasted.

Verdict: 3.25/5

So I settled for a Stuffed Cheese Ravioli with ham and a white wine sauce. I was torn between that and the Spinach and Cheese Tortellini with a rose sauce but I have been craving a good ravioli for some time and thus settled for the former. The Ravioli did not disappoint. It overpowered me on the first bite, with the juicy richness of the cheese, pasta and creamy white sauce. It was very tastyyy. It also lived up to its name as the ravioli pieces were stuffed to the brim with chesse, slight of bursting. Their size was actually a little intimidating. Being a little too rich for my palate,I also doubted my ability to finish the dish without getting "jer-lak". Surprisingly, I did not-- definite signs of a good cream-based pasta.

Verdict: 3.5/5

(Gabe insisted on the spoon being in the picture, highly decreasing it's artistic element sighh)

Gabe had the Gnocchi with rose sauce. For those italian cuisine noobs (myself included), Gnocchi is essentially potato balls and rose is a mixture of cream and tomato sauce--perfect I guess for those fence-sitters who remain undecided between the cream and tomato. My first encounter with Gnocchi was at a Carey lunch. I was never a huge fan given that they were a tad too starchy for my liking. These little guys however, were much better and the sauce was delicious. I am now officially a rose sauce-convert. Thanks Gabe! I think he was pretty satisfied with his meal.

Verdict: 3.25/5

Jon went with the Chicken Penne in a cream based sauce. A little too safe in my opinion, but also the best dish of the night, which I also heard Jon mutter under his breath! He was impressed and wanted to come back for lunch. The sauce was very flavourful, yet not overly rich. I wish I got more of a taste of it :(

Verdict: 4.25/5

Perfetto Pizza definitely perfected their pastas, at $13.99 each. This little joint is definitely a good run for your money and service is commendable. I will be back to savour their oven-fired pizzas that look equally mouth-watering!!

Time for a Tokyo Banana... Yayness!-SARAAA

Perfetto Pizza

West Point Grey

4460 West 10th Ave

Vancouver, BC

604-222-8080

$10-$20 per dish

thankfully we didn't burn down the kitchen

A few days ago I went to visit my cousin Deborah and we decided to stay in to avoid the crowds of town. We embarked on our baking expedition after much persuasion by, moi :) Not wanting to be too ambitious, we settled on Nigella Lawson's Rocky Road Crunch Bars and Jamie Oliver's Baileys and Banana Bread and Butter Pudding. Such a mouthful, I know.

Rocky Road bars, made up simply of melted chocolate, marshmallows and crushed digestive biscuits, will definitely be a hit with kids. In fact, I liked the ones we made very much! They were very sinful, but oh, so good! Sometimes the simplest ingredients make the most delicious recipes. Making the bars are pretty idiot-proof but Deb and I still managed to mess up on the amount of melted chocolate to add. So, they ended up a little too chocolatey but a little chocolate over-dose never killed anyone right? Nevertheless, I received gleaming comments from Hui, Zhiyun and Eeling, who I met for dinner after, save for the bars being slightly too rich. Slightly, being an overstatement :)

Rocky Road recipe http://www.nigella.com/recipe/recipe_detail.aspx?rid=96

Next, we attempted the bread and butter pudding. Now, this required more skill as it actually involved baking! Aunite Ban Lee, a bread and butter pudding connoiseur herself, praised us so I think we did a pretty darn good job! It turned out looking really nice too with the icing sugar carmelizing over top. The only thing was that I found it not sweet enough. Paired with a scoop of creamy, rich vanilla ice-cream though, it would be heaven on earth hmmm :D

Baileys and Banana Bread and Butter Pudding recipe http://www.penguin.co.uk/static/cs/uk/0/minisites/jamieoliver/jamieskitchen_recipes_pudding.html

- SARAAAA!