Sunday, February 15, 2009

Sweets for my Sweet



A Valentine's day dinner dedicated to my Mum & Dad.


Mum's a thrifty character. She is one person who would steer clear of festive menus at restaurants because those exorbitant 3-digit figures daunts her so badly.

That's mum we can't change,

But there was something i hoped i could do...


Warm Foccacia Bread
Extra virgin olive oil, sea salt & balsamic vinegar



♥


1st Entrée


Pan-Seared Scallops
With peppered tangerines, lemon cream, mesclun salad, French dressing

♥


2nd Entrée


Sea Scallops Fettuccine
Green spinach fettuccine in butter herb sauce, confit scallops, chilli flakes, diced strawberries, balsamic glaze



♥


Mains



Pan-Seared Red Snapper
Red Snapper fillet, wild garlic sauce, seasoned vegetable nibbles, roasted garlic baby potatoes







Mustard & Herb Pork Loin Chops
Oven-roasted marinated pork loins, deglazed pan gravy, mesclun salad, roasted garlic baby potatoes

♥


Dessert




Warm Chocolate Fondant
Molten dark chocolate centre, vanilla icecream, fresh berries






i'm praying, this devised meal would be a dinner to remember..

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Epicurious

"Just to let you know, our food isn't the most photogenic.."
Helena helmed in modesty as my camera made its appearance.




While restauranters today flaunt over their elaborate brain-childs, Helena'a frankess was to applaud. Well, i believe that greater satisfaction would assert if we all began with the lowest expectations. not the other deluding way round.



And brunch began with unique characteristics.



Undeniable were their crockery. Old-fashioned flowery-trimmed and nostalgic rooster imprints- a complete renounce from comtemporary intentions. Bonusing that, the sight of a caucasian enthusiastically dunking his tapas into rooster sauceplates became an oddly entertaining sight. Lol.



carrot & celery juice ($5 each)



Double-cupped fresh fruit juices, catered to our ice-it-when-you-feel-like-it whims. Carrot for bunnies, Celery for me. (the waiter showed disbelief when he heard me say celery. yes c-e-l-e-r-y)



grilled chicken tenderloin sandwich ($9)



Lunch swang in steadily with my grilled chicken tenderloin sandwich. tasty chicken fillets done old-school hawker western style, slabbed between sunflower seed-deficient bread and little mushroom inserts. Felt like Uncle ____'s chicken chop in angmoh roti. (fill in the blank as you please. i remember an uncle joe's!).



smoked salmon side ($3.40)

Sided by indian pappadums and my darling smoked salmon silvers.

I add smoked salmon to anything, and almost everything =D



Epicurious beef burger ($18, +$2 for extra bacon)


Moving on, the high profile Epicurious beef burger turned out to be Burger-in-Black. Now i can confidently second Helena's claim. BIB was, regrettably, colour gone wrong + patties gone charred + reputation-questioned. I didn't taste, but verdict's clear from the beef burger patron.



carrot cake ($5)


Thank goodness there was dessert to cheer about. Epicurious' carrot cake comes light and pleasant, halo-ed with just enough creamcheese frosting for sweetness input. i love seeing the clearly-defined carrot shreds and walnut blackies.
Neat (:



what an inventive recyclable!



it felt fortuitously like home- warm service, down-to-earth fare, and a lovely river view to digest. hmmm.. like breakfast in the garden similar. Ignoring the marring cockroach disturbance my neighbours (on the next table) faced, i think Epicurious is an appropriate non-haughty sunday brunch spot to go.







Epicurious
60 Robertson Quay
#01-02 The Quayside
6734 7720

Monday, February 2, 2009

Riders Cafe



For a quirky horses-in-breakfast-vicinity experience, saddle club is the place to go.


reserved appears on every table!



Looks like animal-watching have made it to the top 10 past-times chart amongst singaporeans and caucasians...
Riders' popularity only goes one-way.



They are still as occupied as ever.







On second visit, getting psyched by horsies again wasn't the most memorable to recall- the service management really has much to work on! They first get your assuring compliance to empty the table within 60 minutes (for the next reservation slot)...then daunt you with a crazy 30 minute food-waiting duration.



And how it irks to hurry through sunday breakfasts!


Camomile Tea ($3)



NO MORE TINY BISCOTTI THIS TIME ):
count on Dome for bestest biscotti nibbles.



Pancakes ($10)



Pancakes are clearly the morning bestsellers. Three griddled rounds puddled with blueberry sauce, fuss-free to easily load you up. Plus three extra points for piping the whipped butter~




pretty Smoked Salmon 'roses' ($4)



Omelette ($11)


I love headstarting my day with an ideal carbo+protein pairing. The omelette encasing my choice of mushrooms & bell peppers, thick brown toasts and chopped fruits would fit the bill if NOT blemished by the oil-overload. Even the 2 piped butters cant save that.





And i quickly vanished off after brekkie to snap the horses outside. at least they move slowly to accomodate to the lazy mornings creed. looks like i've got to find a new spot to laze my sundays away.

Farewell, horsies.




Riders Cafe
51 Fairways Drive
6466 9819
pls make your reservations!

Sunday, February 1, 2009

Tatsuya: of Finest Realms

It was a meal grazed through in almost complete silence.

blame it on the unusually hushed atmosphere at dinner time, the solemn expressions as the sushi chefs showcased dexterous professionalism...




mere centimetres distace away hence the do-not-comment-or-speak-aloud virtue holds, or simply the amazing nosh that yields speechless outputs...


No qualms about it.


everything above played a part in capturing my high esteems.







Personally perturbed by the steep prices involved (and a $400+ regrettable incident at Inagiku), I rarely touched on japanese fine-dining accounts. because the principle goes, you pay for what you get.

(delineate this: humans tend to crave for the best, but limitation comes in our financial capacities. we can only expect a either substandard; or just trivial portions of the supremes for the wealth-armed fortunates. sad fact is, tiny satisfactions are easily be vanquished by greed. and as we continue seeking for more or the better, we come to realise how we're strapped down by cruel reality.)

-please pardon me for my gp-inspired jabberish.-

ahh, all that monetary-demoralization. i'd rather not.

Miso Soup


Enough of digressions. i'll head in frankly.. Tatsuya takes your mind off the niggling matter. they make the dollars worth, at least for me.



Salmon Jyu ($35)


orders arrived in a jiffy.

dad's salmon jyu was beauty-in-a-ricebox: all that uniformly sliced sashimi bursting of healthy orange, and edible flowers to couple. devoured away in a jiffy too.


seafood salad ($12, for small)



how i loved my mini sashimi salad. a brilliant assemble of paper-thin greens, fresh wakame ribbons, excellent seafood raws & a deliciously light sesame dressing to finish. give me one more, regular.


Kaki Karatsuki ($12)



Kaki Karatsuki is found on the seasonal menu. another tiny-tot combining squid and salmon roe with fruity essences of papaya and orange peel preserves. gone in a(few) pops.



Yaki Tamago ($3)


Yaki Tamago- one of the few things i risk my yolk-abstinence for~

imprinted words on my favourite egg dish always amazes me. curiousity haunts me. how how how is it done? whatsoever, this can be declared one of the more outstanding versions found on our island (best so far from Hilton Otaru, Hokkaido. those magical omelette sponges~). dashi-locking is a crucial factor.



Gindara ($23)

sleek and polished, was how the grilled Gindara read. its hard not to crave for a larger slice of this tasty miso-rubbed beauty.

Milk Pudding ($8)

Like a gelatine-deficient Panna Cotta, parfaited between caramel sauce and dabbles of vanilla beans. Or creme caramel deconstructed, whichever.



Peach Icecream ($6)

followed by a refreshing scoop. the peach icecream's almost sorbet-ish character, perfumed with mild sprays of momoko made it a peppy way to conclude the meal.

like sweet and simple story endings, lovely.



a local, a japanese, a chinese. the three masters behind the top-notch food. plus a team of impressively efficient service staffs. to keep my lips sealed.


what a meal (:



Tatsuya Japanese Restaurant
22 Scotts Road
Goodwood Park Hotel
6887 4598

(PS. note to dad: thanks for the meal to help counter my pre-back-to-school blues. i know you've been working hard, trying your very best to finance/support my dining & blogging interests. just wanted to let you know that i really appreciate all the efforts. thankyou lots!)

Whisk Cafe: The Confused Kid


black cat. Whisk. food.
I'm clueless about their relation.
Anyhow, it was elation to hear of Whisk's sprouting just as the orchard dining scene needed an expansion. Right inside the fashionistic wisma atria.


Concept's hideous-mysterious, or whatever apt terms you would use to describe black & red Emily. Imagine sadist Emily crashing into Alice's door-copious wonderland- that's exactly how i could depict it. Closer to confusion than wonder.

Mikimo's Pasta ($13.90)


Take for instance the mikimo's pasta- intending to fuse spaghetti, japanese braised beef and a tricky poached egg into carbonara sauce. yes creativity holds, but acceptance was at risk. good thing, my friend gave her approval.


Oven-roasted Snapper ($17.90)

I pinned down on the oven-roasted snapper after a lasting menu-scrutinization. The lean snapper loin's mistily soaked up the juices of its bacon ribbons, hemmed by roasted root veggies and potatoes. Just the portion that made me sore about footing twenties after tax.

R's Carrot Cake ($5.90)

Desserts fall into the western categories.

R's carrot cake, despite being bare on presentation, was particularly actuating. Heavily crammed comfort and an affable frosting to polish off~


Apple Pie with Ice-cream ($7.90)

Then paling in comparison, the dry shrivelled apple fillings of apple pie with icecream lacked cohesion with its shortcrust conterpart.

boring.



At least, it was one of its own kind.



Whisk Cafe. Lounge

435 Orchard Road

#03-15 Wisma Atria

BerryLite: Heapful of Cultures

Froyo-lovers alert!
there is now a new reason for the east-siders to rejoice.



I couldn't contain my excitement when i first saw traces of a new store replacing the defunct Venezia Gelateria in Parkway Parade. BerryLite 100% Fat-Free Frozen Yogurt.. coming soon, it read. And i returned weekly just to track on its progress.
Alas!
Brothers Mark & Rey have put my impatience to an end.
The affable siblings (not to be mistaken as twins though i see a resemblence!) brought in a new kick to the realm of froyo-making on our sunny island. Mark explained that their US-imported, 100% fat-free swirls are certified highly probiotic-bacteria concentrated, and lined with plenty of fresh flavours to anticipate.

how does a 100% fat-free, almost-icecreamy chocolate froyo sound?




top it up with everything from berries, grapes, pomelo, pomegranate, aloe vera to nata de coco...


staffs, training in progress.

Well that's to accompany their official opening on
21st Feb 2009 (:



small original + strawberries, blueberries & pomelo

Currently serving, the mainstay Original is quite a refresher. Soft, light, and finished with a tang of citrusy lemon... its close to having a frozen natural yogurt. Comparing to yoguru, i'll say sorbet vs icecream.


small green tea + pomegranate, strawberries, blueberries

Or go zen with the Green Tea... thoughtfully infused with its caffeine bitterness. For the matcha-tolerants, plop on the complimentary green-tea powder generously. external intensification.


small strawberry + strawberries

I wouldn't miss out on this latest addition- Strawberry. Seeing it pink, tasting it smooth, feeling the subtly strawberry-jazzed aftertaste. crowned as my favourite flavour till date!



carrot cake ($5.90)

Not just frozen yogurts.

The American Carrot Cake (and a few others) are pure imports, densely crammed with carrots and pineapple bits. Seemed stale (must be the plane-ride over lol), far from the cedele ultimate, but passable in its way.

Go get your guiltless yogurt fix.

one's insufficient for my big froyo appetite.

Now i have a reason to visit Parkway Parade more often (:



BerryLite
80 Marine Parade Road
#B-83J Parkway Parade

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