Lunch @ Hong Lim Food Centre

I am so into kway chap right now, I have been eating it at every place, maybe cos it's been pretty cold and I want to eat something steamy and hot, but am tired of fish soup.

This is the best best kway chap I have tried. the soup is fragrant and sweet and doesn't taste too much of garlic or salt. The braised meats are tender and not salty and just right. Love it.



2nd floor of Hong Lim food centre, near the crayfish hor fun lady.

Then I always have dessert here. I walk over to this 2nd floor place, where they serve sesame paste peanut paste and all kinds of hong kong desserts, including mango sago. I always have this - almond paste with glutinous rice balls (SGD2).

lovely!

Tenshin @ Regent Hotel

Sorry, I've been really busy so I think you haven't seen many updates on this blog.

Well, DH brought me to this nice restaurant at Regent that I have been wanting to try. Tenshin @ Regent Hotel is widely acknowledged to be the best at tempura. It specialises in tempura, unlike many Japanese restaurants in Singapore which try to do everything.



DH took a lunch set that came with Japanese prawns, very crispy and sweet.

This was the appetiser of kailan stems in shoyu and topped with fish flakes I think. It was costly, at SGD3 per person, especially since we didn't order it.

DH's set also came with sashimi. Quite lovely.
We both had a salad starter, which was very very nice. It was a sesame dressing, very fragrant and very appetising. I loved it.

This was what I was looking forward to. On the a la carte menu at SGD25 each, this is uni tempura.

Sweet uni is wrapped in seaweed, lightly dusted in batter and then deep fried. It is crispy on the outside but still sweet and cool on the inside. A delicious treat.




Our friendly chef who was very good at timing our food. My set came with prawns, vegetables and I think, pumpkin. And he didn't serve everything at once. He made sure I always had one item on my plate, but not the same thing in a row, ie, prawn, veg, prawn, pumpkin, fish etc.

My set came with plain rice, miso soup and pickles. I asked for a 2nd serving of pickles and paid SGD8 for it.
DH's rice came with tempura prawns bits in it and was tossed in some dressing.

DH and I both liked this. 2 types of tempura japanese mushroom.
We ended our set with a refreshing sorbet.


It was a pretty expensive meal, I think DH's set was SGD80 and mine was SGD30.

Ma Maison @ Central Mall

This place (Ma Maison, Central Mall, Eu Tong Sen Street, #03-96) serves Japanese style western food... would it be nice? It is on the third floor, take the escalator in the corner from the santouka ramen joint.

The decor is like a little european house (the name means "my house" in French) so in keeping with the decor and the theme, they give you a metal key with a number corresponding to your table so that you can check out of the european B&B after paying the bill.

DH took the hamburg set with their signature sauce (SGD26). It comes with a small serving of salad, nothing interesting, just lettuce, tomato in thousand island dressing.

Then a bowl of cream soup. cream of what? cream of nothing. it was just cream soup.

DH wondering whether he would find clams or mushrooms in the cream of kosong soup.

I ordered the mentaiko pasta (SGD19), it's a signature dish but not available for lunch usually. The chef graciously agreed to make it for me because I wanted to try it.

This is my first time trying mentaiko pasta. My curiosity was aroused when Chubby Hubby blogged about making it. I was keen to try making it too because DH and I love mentaiko, especially when it is cooked with cheese on a hotplate. This version was disappointing however. It was salty and fishy, without any taste of little balls I was hoping for. I thought every bite would have a burst of fishy roe, creating an interesting contrast between al dente pasta and bouncy fish roe, but this was not to be.

Maybe this was just a version that I don't like. I hope to try more versions of this popular dish before I give my verdict.


DH's hamburger set was quite substantial, and quite nice too. I think there was an egg, and some sweetbreads with the hamburger, if I am not wrong. The sauce was tasty.

It was a late lunch for both of us, but the nice thing is that, whenever DH has a free moment, he would always call me first to ask if I would like to lunch together... so we ended up here to try this.

What I've been doing...

Oh I have been so busy, I haven't been able to update my blog much!

Sorry people!

I have been too busy to eat very well, since I am working on several projects at once... luckily there are always fruits in the pantry... This was my snack... juicy jambu and scrumptious strawberries... very enjoyable and healthy.

Weekend Activities

The good thing about my job is that weekends are sacrosanct and I never ever work on weekends. DH and I take Cutie out, to do fun stuff on weekends and I know Cutie looks forward to our time together.

Swimming



When the weather is nice and warm, we like to go swimming at Por Por's condo pool... doesn't he look adorable in his new scuba suit... He just outgrew the other one...

He's a bit grumpy here cos he doesn't want to pose for pictures, he wants to go swimming!

He looks so happy after his swim, with a glass of apple juice!

Driving Remember this? We used to be able to do this for 50 cents or 1 dollar at places like the open area outside Toa Payoh Library etc... Anyway, this is the Bedok South market, opposite temasek JC. We eat dinner, and Cutie drives around in a motorised car. Due to inflation and the rising costs of fuel... it now costs SGD2 for 10 minutes.

Cutie was pretty happy in his red convertible, then don't know how come, he ended up on a blue motorbike, and as he did a hairpin turn, he fell off, but didn't injure himself too badly. Sure, he cried... but only cos he didn't want to go home yet... He said he wanted to ride on the blue motorbike again... what a plucky little fella.

GYMBOREE

This is like, a darn expensive playgym / playground for kids, but it has its appeal since it's clean and padded and comfortable and airconditioned. We pay SGD8 for 1 hour of fun. But Cutie really likes the place... he asks to go there every weekend. He remembers all the songs he sings there and repeats them when we get home... And he really likes Gymbo the Clown too, picture above.

Me: What name shall we give Mei Mei?

Cutie: Gymbo!

Me: (Appalled) What? No no no!

Cutie: It's very nice you know!

Me: -_-"

I shall leave you with a video of Cutie having fun at gymboree.

Prive @ Keppel Bay Drive

DH was able to have brunch with me cos he was on leave... I was at work, but stepped out for an early lunch break...

Where should we go?

Vivocity is too boring... so I thought of Prive, that new restaurant on its own private island, near the Carribean. From my office, I can see it, and always wondered if it was nice. It was a lovely drive, down Keppel Bay Drive, which leads to the restaurant. There is Prive Bakery and and Cafe, Prive Restaurant and Prive Gastrobar (which serves drinks).

We went to the Bakery & Cafe, as the other 2 only opened after 12. They had cakes in the chiller (some very interesting ones, like Peanut Butter Brownie...), pastries, breads and muffins...

There were some salads, 2 soups, sandwiches and quiches.


DH ordered the smoked salmon and onion quiche (SGD12), above. The salad was dressed in balsamic vinegar and quite nice and refreshing. The quiche was toasty hot and fantastic. It was not too eggy and the crust was crisp and just nice (I dont like quiches to come in a thick hard crust!). The smoked salmon was not dry or salty and had a delicate bite. All in all, I really liked it.

Here is a close up of that delectable quiche.

A view of the harbour....

And the fountain in the driveway...

We'd like to come back for lunch (SGD32+++ for 2 courses, SGD38 for 3 courses, gourmet lunch at SGD65+++) sometime... it really looks quite nice.

:)

Thai Accent @ Vivocity

I quite like the food here - Thai Accent, #02-145. I had the tom yum last time and liked it.

It's quite affordable and it's usually not crowded or noisy so it's quite a nice respite.



I started with their spicy and tangy tom yum soup (SGD9.90). Very spicy, my tastebuds are still tingling!

I ordered green chicken curry (SGD12.90), and then decided to eat it with thin kway teow instead of rice.

See, I made my own Khanom Jin (which is type of traditional thai rice noodle dish eaten with one's choice of curry).

It was really quite a spicy meal, so although I was already quite stuffed, I decided to have a red rubies dessert (SGD4.90). It was creamy, sweet, and cold, just the thing to soothe my palate. The ingredients were very generous, with slices of jackfruit and lots of water chestnuts in green and red tapioca jelly.

Lunch at Culina, Dempsy and Dinner at Home

This weekend, we went to Dempsey Hill for lunch because we promised Cutie that we'd bring him to play balls at Go Go Bambini's (SGD6, unlimited play for kids aged under 2, SGD16, 2 hours for kids aged over 2). He had been looking forward to it all week. We went there just as they were closing up last week, and his disappointment was palpable!

Lunch at Culina Dempsey Hill

So we settled Cutie in the ballpark / playground and ended up at Culina, Grocers and Cafe which was just next door. They sell all sorts of very high-end stuff, which one doesn't normally get at Cold Storage of Jason's.

DH and I shared the antipasto platter (SGD15).

From left: marinated olives, sun-dried tomatoes, roasted artichokes and tomatoes, smoked eel.

In order of preference, go from right to left. I liked the smoked eel best. It had a nice smokey flavour and was not too salty. Very nice. It also had an interesting chewy, yet slightly yielding texture. The other appetisers were fine but not that interesting. The sun-dried tomatoes were sweet, while I was expecting sour / tart. The roasted artichokes and tomatoes were a good balance of mildly sour and sweet. The marinated olives were way too salty. We ordered a basket of ciabatta cos the olives was too salty to eat on its own.

DH ordered the grilled venison (SGD3o), a daily special. The daily specials are written an a blackboard next to the bar. It was quite substantial, but the venison tasted distinctly sour. Was it cos of the marinade or was it bad? We couldn't be sure if meat actually turned sour when it went bad so we didnt send it back. Anyway, by the time I tasted it and pronounced it sour, DH had only 2 slices left on the plate.

I ordered the duck confit (SGD24), on the usual menu. It was also a substantial portion. The meat was a tad salty, and could have been a little more moist. But the skin was very nice and crispy.

We then ordered a brownie to share (SGD12). Originally I didnt intend to put up a photo of it cos it turned out all blurry. I don't know why some of my photos turn out like that these days, with a swirly imprint. But, here it is anyway. Maybe some of you can tell me why this photo turned out like this.

DH ordered a decaf cappucinno (SGD7) that came with a cute little heart.

We had to wait quite a bit for our food to arrive, from starters to bread to mains and the coffee arrived at least 15 min after our dessert arrived (which DH doesn't like cos he enjoys his dessert with his coffee).

The fastest thing to arrive at our table that day was the bill (SGD121) -_-".

Cutie monkeying around at the ball park / playground. He is getting too adorable.

We did some shopping at Culina, it really did have lots of interesting things like foie gras, and parma ham and kobe beef (not wagyu mind you, marbling grade 8). Since they were all favourites of DH, we got some to cook for dinner that night.

Above, is the kobe beef (shrinkwrapped in portions of between 200 g to 300 g), at a whopping SGD230 per kg.

Dinner at Home

This was our dinner menu:

1. cold starter - parma ham with musk melon and wild arugula (rocket leaves)

2. warm starter - seared foie gras with caramelised apple

3. main - kobe ribeye, roasted baby potatoes, mesclun salad

4. no space for dessert - literally.

Preparations for Dinner

Foie Gras

I had to put flour on the foie gras so that it would fry better, and not disintegrate upon contact with the pan.

Kobe beef

This was the first time I was handling something so expensive, I was really worried. On this plate is SGD113. I marinated the beef in a red wine and garlic marinade. On hindsight, I should used salt and pepper so that we could taste the beefy flavour? Ribeye has a ball of fat in the centre. Making this kobe ribeye a double whammy in terms of being a contributing factor to coronary disease.

I scrubbed and boiled the baby potatoes, then seasoned with salt and pepper and put them in the oven to roast.

I sliced 1 green apple very thinly and added sugar and cooked over slow heat. I should have sliced them less thinly so that there was some bite. It was a little mushy.

The foie gras really oozes a lot of oil... just look at this!



I cooked the foie gras just before serving, so, DH who had just gobbled up his parma ham starter, had time to take this pic.
DINNER!


Cold Starter: Parma ham with musk melon and wild aragula

Really easy to assemble. I put this in the fridge to chill before dinner was served. The parma ham, shaved thinly, went really well with the musk melon which was very sweet. I am glad I decided to go for the expensive musk melon instead of rock melon or honeydew. It was well worth it because the sweetness of the melon complemented the parma ham perfectly. I tossed the aragula leaves in balsamic vinaigrette. Nice.

Cost: SGD14.50 for 2: parma ham - SGD8.50 (100 g), musk melon - SGD5.95 (1 fruit), aragula and vinaigrette (negligible).

Warm Starter - Seared Foie Gras with Caramelised Apple

I felt that there was no point in cooking the foie gras early and leaving it to cool, especially since it cooked very quickly so I only seared these just before serving. I did it in 3 batches.

I am glad I put flour on the foie gras, it made the foie gras crispy on the outside and oozingly melt in the mouth on the inside.

First batch was good, but not salty cos i forgot to sprinkle salt.

2nd batch was great, but could be a tad saltier.

Third batch - above - was fantastic. Just the right amount of salt, a crispy crust and a tender melting interior. Paired with sweet caramelised apple, this was fantastic!

Cost: SGD40.60 for 2: Foie Gras - SGD40 (actually, half a frozen goose liver, good for 8 servings), Green Apple - 60 cents.

Main - Kobe Ribeye with Roasted Baby Potatoes and Mesclun Salad

This is DH's ribeye - 260 g.

This is mine - a more manageable 221 g.

They were fantastic. Tender, melt in the mouth. Simply divine. The potatoes were crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside, with just the right amount of salt and pepper.

Cost: SGD113 for 2 - Kobe Ribeye (SGD59 and SGD52), potatoes and mesclun negligible.

I am so proud of myself!

So there you are, above is the most expensive home-cooked meal I have ever had!