Sunday, October 05, 2008 More pizza and pasta By Stella A. Estremera Goin' places
IT WAS a night that was intended to explore the unknown. But the unknown, despite two huge tarpaulin signs saying: "We're now open", turned out to still be closed to public. Never mind if the door was open. There was no one inside, and so, this food-tripper had to stand by the darkened roadside to wait for the three other friends I was to meet up with --- Deng, Imee and Beng.
The original plan was to check out this new place with Deng, but Imee and Beng popped up, very available as well, and that could only mean more people to eat with, ergo, more food to taste, in short... real food trip.
Stumped for what else is new, Imee volunteered this new Italian restaurant at the Damosa Gateway (IT) compound right beside Firenzo, and that was when I remembered someone else mentioning about a new pizza place. For those unfamiliar with the place, it's at Damosa in Lanang, in that huge parking lot behind MacDonald's.
Now back to pizza... that's how heaven is spelled in my brain, and the mere mention of pizza made me forget about a plan to drop by this one other new restaurant a friend mentioned.
The name is Spirale (which we spent a few minutes arguing on how to pronounce it -- spee-rah-leh, spai-ral [like morale except that it's spiral], spee-rayl. But we agreed, spee-rah-leh sounds better since it rhymes with Italian Ristorante, whatever... haven't I mentioned that we are very good conversationalists? Really good).
And yes, it serves pizza and pastas; the perfect dinner, for me...
Except that, we chose a night when a TV crew was shooting a feature of the place, and so we spent considerable time dodging cameras and squinting at the bright lights. Haaay!
On the bright side, no less than the owner, Raffy Garcia, was attending to our table. (I'm telling you, young kids out there, be good to all your classmates. They might end up owning a pizza restaurant when you're all grown up). Hehehe!
I went for the pizza (of course), although we agreed to order one different food each so we can taste from each other's plate. In this resto, the food printed in red is their specialty, and so I got the Tutto Spirale pizza described as having tomato, mozzarella, air dried beef, roasted eggplant, asparagus and capers. Not that I would have wanted a Quattro Formaggio as well (choices, choices).
Imee got the pasta in red print - Vongole Al Chorizo (stewed tomatoes and baby clams with Spanish chorizo in white wine sauce).
Deng opted to play it safe with baked lasagna (cooked and served in an oven-safe deep plate), while Beng who said she already ate at home opted for the shrimp appetizer (gambas).
I had a glass of wine to go with my meal (an interesting wine list, and reasonably priced too, yippiii!), while they just had softdrinks and juice.
And then I say... I love pizza, and this place just adds one more place where I can satisfy that constant craving. And yes, the pasta with the baby clams is also very good and so is the gambas and the baked lasagna too; but everything can add up to one more very full tummy. This work is darn hard... not that I wouldn't sneak back in to try the Quattro Formaggio...
