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!