Ah Ling's Birthday

This was the second birthday celebration in our group of four this year. And somehow, starting from 2012, our birthday celebratory budget just got bigger!

On this very special day for Missy Ling, we invited her for lunch at the Jumbo Seafood Restaurant @ Riverside Point.

Besides the compulsory Sri Lanka chilli crab accompanied by buns (albeit steam buns this time as a healthier option), we also ordered scallop in yam rings, stir-fried broccoli in oyster sauce and chicken/salted fish fried rice.

The chilli crab was Fresh. Spicy. Big. The gravy, however, was a bit too thick and gluey. And since when did they changed their presentation to be in the form of a wok? I still prefer the simple plastic plate.

The scallop in yam ring was Nice. Normally, for this dish, I would expect to see a large deep-fried yam ring filled with a combination of stir-fried cube-diced vegetables, seafood and cashew nuts.

After the nice luncheon, we decided to resume the customary birthday cake cutting ceremony by presenting Ah Ling with a salted caramel chocolate panna cotta from Starbucks.

Happy Birthday Ah Ling!

Can I Eat This?

An interesting 'product' from Taiwan!

At first glance, you'll think you know what this is.

It sure looks like what it's supposed to be.

But isn't those cute little mashmallows?!?!?

Loola's by Awfully Chocolate

This was our ad-hoc, unplanned, last-minute attempt to have a post Valentine's Day lunch together, alone. My treat! :)

Ideal venue would be some place with a nice scenic view and not overly crowded with throngs of tourists. And not being the adventurous kind to roam the 'wilderness' of our little island city, we settled for the Esplanade.

We ventured to the restaurant on the second level (facing the escalator) as it offers a great view of the Singapore river and in my umpteen times there, there were already quite some changeover of restaurants in its place. SoI gathered it's either the price or the food. But whatever the case, we just wanted a nice, quiet lunch.

The restaurant is called "Loola's by Awfully Chocolate" and it has a very 'raw' touch to the decor with the exposed pipings on the ceiling and the concrete finished flooring. Even the waiters and cooks look like trainees from Shatec. However, one quick glance at the menu contradicts all that with it's pricing. But honestly, what am I expecting from a restaurant at the Esplanade?

We ordered a bread and salad entrée followed by a whole grilled chicken.

It turned out to be fruit salad which was not our original intention. But it was our fault anyway and it tasted alright so no damaged was done.

The bread entrée was unexpectedly awesome! It was made up of varying kinds of small bread, European style and toasted slightly prior to serving. There really was no need for all the fancy dips. A good bread just needs a spread of butter on it or even nothing at all!

The grilled chicken looked, well, like how it's supposed to look and smell. But I was slightly disappointed to have the waiter serve us both chicken breasts leaving behind the succulent thighs. However, unknown to us, there was a tiny surprise hidden just behind the golden brown skin - slices of ham! This was a bit too much meat for me but nevertheless, it added a slightly different twist to the othewise, predictable grilled chicken. The portion was big enough for four person. So we ended up bringing the remaining of the unfinished grilled chicken home.

Will I be back again? It will be a plain and simple "Yes" - just for the bread entrée! :)

Valentine’s Day 2012

A little something from THE husband:

And from me, a self-assembled ice-cream cake – inspired by a home-cooked Valentine’s Day menu from The Sunday Times.

Ingredients:
1 pound cake (I used Sara Lee chocolate swirl pound cake)
1 tub of ice-cream (whichever flavor you like – chocolate chip peppermint in this case)
Fruits (canned mandarin orange, diced strawberries and mangoes)

Method:
(1) Thaw the pound cake and ice-cream for about 15-30 minutes until they are soft enough for assembling
(2) Cut the pound cake into slices, apportioning some to cover the bottom, side and top of the container. If possible leave some as the inter-layers as well.
(3) Lay the pound cake slices on the bottom and side of the container
(4) Scoop some ice-cream to form a thin base
(5) Decorate the next layer with fruits
(6) Scoop some ice-cream to cover all the fruits
(7) Add some slices of pound cake
(8) Scoop some ice-cream to cover the pound cake
(9) Decorate the next layer with fruits
(10)Scoop some ice-cream to cover all the fruits
(11) You might want to repeat the layering process until the ingredients are used up or the top of the container reached
(12)Lay the remaining pound cake slices on top of the ice-cream as the final layer
(13)Wrap the ice-cream cake with plastic wrap and freeze it for 3-5 hours prior to serving

Verdict:
(-) I would recommend not to add the mandarin orange slices (opposed to the recommendation from The Straits Times) as it does not taste juicy when freeze.
(+) Quick and fun to assemble
(=) It’s assembled, so how bad can it taste? :)

Baker & Cook

This newly opened and incredibly successful bakery is located in one of the shophouses along Hillcrest Road, within the vicinity of the Raffles Girls' Primary School and nestled amongst the private residential houses of Bukit Timah.

I only got to know of this bakery from The Life! section of The Sunday Times newspaper and I was already excited from reading about it. The next instinct was to pull THE husband and baby out of the house and while they were making themselves comfortable in the car, I was already madly jabbing in the address of the bakery on the GPS.

Upon arrival, there was already a short queue forming at the counter. The aroma of the freshly baked goods was simply irresistible and the place was almost fully seated. While I made a beeline dash for the queue, THE huband and baby set upon themselves the mission of securing a table and chairs.

I ordered a couple of mini French baguettes for myself and THE baby while THE husband tried the blueberry tart.

The blueberry tart was OK I guess since THE husband never ordered it the second time we were there.

However, the mini-baguettes were fantastic! Fresh out of the oven, the crust was crispy and the bread soft and warm inside. I like mine with a thin spread of butter and a sprinkle of sugar. The chewy loaf also had THE baby occupied which is definitely a good thing!

Since the first visit, we were back almost on a weekly basis to get our regular supply of baguettes and walnut bread loaf.

However, it should be noted that the baguette might be a little too 'hard' for the local's preference, having been used to soft bread, the likes of Gardenia. And it is best consumed within the same day or at most the very next morning. Good news is, the walnut loaf has proven to be able to last a few days more.

Ellenborough Market Café @ Swissôtel Merchant Court

The Ellenborough market café has long been known for it’s durian pengat dessert.


It might not be an overstatement to say that the customers are booking their lunch buffets there simply for the sake of this Asian dessert.

Despite my numerous visits to the café, the durian pengat continues to maintain it’s standard with it’s thick and bittersweet durian paste. Two thumbs up!

Bark café

Bark café is a little restaurant located just next to the Changi Chapel Museum. The food is moderately priced, there is usually no queue and the food is good! The two minus factors would have to be:
(1) it is an outdoor restaurant which means that when it is sunny, it can be warm and when it pours, the rain simply attacks you from all sides
(2) unless you have a car or you don’t mind taking a taxi, it can be quite tedious to find your way there with the bus

The recommended and probably most ordered food is their fried chicken wings. It is crunchy in its “non KFC” way and each wing is huge! Although it is classified under “side order”, it is normally quite filling for me to just finish the smallest order of 3 wings.

On my last visit, we ordered a fried rice, beef stew and double chocolate brownie. Everything tasted wonderful and especially so is the dessert…or probably it’s the simply joy of sharing it with my family. :)

Novus @ the National Museum of Singapore

We had our company's year end lunch at Novus @ the National Museum of Singapore (NMS) this year. The cuisines seem to be a fusion of Italian and French.

We started with an appetizer of Buffalo Mozzarella with compressed Water Melon:


Followed by Carrot and Ginger Soup with Tiger Prawns, although I thought those prawns looked more like "Kitty" than "Tigers:


Here's a picture of the mushroom pasta which was served as the vegetarian main course option:


Here's main course option 1: Red Snapper with Risotto. The fish was seared to a nice crisp on the outside:


This is what I chose, Black Angus Cheek with Tripled Cooked French Fries, it was stewed to a perfection and was tender-licious inside out:


Finally dessert was French Chocolate Mousse with Vanilla Ice Cream:

Antoinette

I was pleasantly surprised when I received a Christmas gift box from DBS, it was a box-full of baked goodies from a local bakery and cafe, Antoinette.


Here's what they wrote on their website:

Antoinette invites you to share our joie de vivre in our beautiful surroundings reminiscent of
an elegant boudoir with an excess of meticulously crafted cakes, pastries and fine food as
the Queen descends on Singapore’s shores. Marie-Antoinette, the last Queen of France
who was so often revered for her extravagance and fine taste opens her humble abode and
presents a tantalizing treat for the senses both savoury and sweet.

This quintessential Parisian pâtisserie and salon de thé will set the benchmark for the pastry and dessert scene not only in Singapore, but also in the region with her takes on time-honoured French classic desserts. While our restaurant promises a savoury celebration of Chef Pang’s culinary prowess with an excellent selection of classical regional French fare.

Incontestably, L’élégance â la Française at it’s best!

The gift pack consisted of container of Meringues, a muffin, a loaf of fruit and nut bread, a Christmas fruit cake, 3 different varieties of cookies and a bottle of fruit jam. I'm not typically a fan of blatantly sweet stuff, especially Christmas cakes but the meringues with their soft chewy middles were kinda addictive and the fruit and nut loaf wasn't too bad either, but give me fresh bread anytime and it will still beat a sugar coated loaf that is meant to last for days.

I have not been to the cafe itself but I had heard of it's exorbitant price of selling a slice of cake for about $9! Anyone who is keen to check them out can find more information at: www.antoinette.com.sg.

Bon appetite!

Rainier Cherries

Here's an excerpt that I found: The Rainier cherry is the sweetest, prettiest and most pampered of cherries, as delicate as it is lucrative. Washington state requires Rainiers to reach a minimum of 17 brix -- a gauge of sweetness -- before they can be picked. To compare, a peach that registers at 13 brix is considered perfectly sweet. Olmstead doesn't pick until the cherries reach at least 20 brix."

So naturally when the rainiers are in season, there's no reason why we shouldn't just pamper ourselves a little bit especially since we have the comfort of getting this imported fruit readily available in our local supermarkets! If you had ate rainier cherries before, you will know that they are slightly bigger than the dark red variety, with a skin that is so thin that any slight mishandling will bruise it, the yellowish flesh is way sweeter and juicier than the red bing cherries! In fact I tried a little experiment where I savoured some rainier together with some bing cherries and without fail, if I were to eat a rainier first before a bing, the bing cherry would taste sour but never the vice versa. So what are you waiting for? Head out to the nearest Cold Storage or Marketplace and grab yourself a box of these simply wonderful little jewels!