AsiaLIFE

Pop Café’s owner Giorgio stems from Naples, so it comes as no real surprise that most of the new items on the menu, with the exception of one Northern Italian appetiser, stem from his home city. “Every once in a while I like to give our customers something new,” he says. A recent visit from his mother, an excellent cook according to Giorgio, helped inspire the additions to the menu. Seafood features strongly in the new dishes in keeping with Naples’ maritime tradition.

Using fresh clams sourced from the Central Market, the spaghetti alle vongole (US$6) contains cherry tomatoes and parsley in a white wine sauce. The clams ‘’must be bought alive” says Giorgio. Then they are cleaned in a labour intensive process that involves soaking them in frequently changed water. Linguine alla mazzancolle (US$8) also uses fresh seafood from Central Market – large prawns that are cooked in a similar sauce to the vongole.

Not all the changes involve seafood. New on the Pizza menu is Pizza Pop (US$7.50), which comes topped with mozzarella, cherry tomatoes, rocket and shavings of parmigiano cheese. Vitello tonnato, thinly sliced beef with a white tuna sauce, is a traditional northern Italian appetiser. The restaurant’s northern Italian clientele have already given it their seal of approval, according to Giorgio.

He is already tweaking one new dish, the penne salcisse e pecorino (US$7), a pasta dish with pork sausages, pecorino cheese and parsley. He plans to change the pasta from penne to tortiglioni. Italians alternate various types of pasta for different dishes according to the way the sauce sticks to it, he explains. Tortiglioni goes perfectly with pecorino cheese, hence the alteration. The pork sausages, from DanMeats, used in the dish are already mildly spiced, so Giorgio has chosen not to include chilli, which might have overwhelmed the flavour of the sausage.

Fresh rather than frozen baby octopus is used in a new addition to the specials board, the linguine al polipetti (US$6.50). Giorgio’s personal favourite out of all the new additions, “we do it as well as in Napoli,” he claims. Containing a good helping of baby octopus, true to Giorgio’s word it is a delicious dish, with its medium serving size deceptively filling and the sauce perfect with the octopus.

The scalloppine al limone (US$8), consisting of Australian veal cooked in lemon butter sauce, is another new special. The tender meat is accompanied by a decadent and rich buttery sauce, however you have to order side dishes separately. Rounding off the changes, the dessert menu now includes a rich chocolate mousse (US$3), and the expresso, made with Bon Café coffee, now comes with divine chocolates from the The Shop’s new chocolate venture, rounding off the meal perfectly.

Pop Café, 371 Sisowath Quay