Au petit salut

The last time I was here was prob the first luxe lunch I had with Brevis.. It must have been years ago and I'm pleasantly surprised to find the menu lunch options expanded for each course. A welcome change:) 3 course lunch for 38++

Snails which make me miss those in Spain.. The garlic butter was most moreish.

J had awesome steak and I had the fish which I felt needed a tad more flavour to it

Frozen cappuccino.. An atas affogato this is.

Quiet place to catch up over lunch in a quaint little bungalow. Perfect for a rainy day hangout!

Petit menu

Had a late lunch with mom at greenwood to satisfy her fish and chips craving before meeting my student and then J, for our dinner date night. Discovered a really lovely place called Petit Menu (Aqueen hotel, Lavender Street- beware there are two Aqueen hotels in the same area !) with pocket friendly prices and innovative dishes presented quite stunningly. Definitely worth the trouble of the travel and the horrific parking!

Lavender scented pumpkin soup- the lavender really added a new dimension to the pumpkin soup. Again comparing with the base line of J's home cooked soup, this is really of a different standard. The lavender balances out the pumpkin. With Wakame seaweed, puffed up pumpkin seeds and Granny Smith apple balls by the side.

Sea bass with ratoutoille and quinoa.. We liked the sides more than the main:p the crisp fish skin was probably what I enjoyed the most.

Salted egg soft shell crab fettuccine- this was quite mind blowing ! This ang moh mee pok is really the best noodle to soak up the salted egg yolk, firm and coated in its entirety. With sweet tomatoes and curry leaves to top it all. Ingenious !

If you have a posb or DBS card you get a complimentary dessert with every 2 mains- so we ended up ordering two desserts. The first was this deconstructed Black Forest. The cute plant pot contained a hazelnut crumble with a tiny leaf ( this chef really likes this tiny leaf which seems to star in many dishes). Our tiny wee at home has found a new friend and potentially a new home :p and even the sturdy bowl (which the waitress said it's so heavy she can pound sambal in :p)

Kaya toast deconstructed as a Mille feuille, with kaya cream, kopi tiam toast and atap chee purée, blueberries, warm kopi c sauce and mint espuma (which they poured out from a pot). Kaya toast usually marks the end of J's call so it's his happy food, but the eggs are usually in the bowl and the coffee in a cup:p

Really lovely place which obviously takes pride in the food and it's presentation we will want to check out the blow torched steak and chicken confit sometime :)

Violet oons kitchen

Celebrated jas birthday here on a Wednesday, two days after the actual, at Violet oons kitchen (Bukit Timah Road). Modern take on peranakan cuisine - think pasta and pizza with a twist. She still does serve the traditional dishes like the ayam buah keluak and curry chicken.

My favorite tahu goreng in a longitudinal presentation. I think I do miss eating teloh goreng!

Meatless meatballs- prob my favorite of the night 

Curry chicken with jala - the latter being a stringy potato pancake. Curry was über thick and lemak mmm.

Pita bread with chilli crab dip and ayam buah keluak dip. My favorite part was prob just the bread ( which I dipped in the curry)

Tapioca cake - über good with gula Melaka.

Bread and butter pudding with whiskey - not my cup of tea but the girls seemed to like it.

Nice drizzly night having dinner with loved ones, bliss ! Happy birthday jas!

Tanjong Beach Club

The power of being on leave (not me, Chongs)...Fri night at Scotts Square ramening, catching Man on a Ledge, fries at Blujazz, and still having energy to suntan at Tanjong Beach Club..

Partially deconstructed Eggs Benedict with a hashbrown instead of a muffin...love all the variations of eggs ben, cant wait to check out Late Plate's version.

We loved the yoghurt parfait loads...very refreshing..
Never thought I'll be part of the meat parade by the pool but..yeah... we were...before migrating to the sun deck chairs by the beach to snooze...

Eventually came back a week later after Southern Ridges and had the Mixed Berries Bowl..loved the stone cold stone bowl... I wish I could call this place home, really ;)

The Knolls, Capella

Love the variety in the bread basket

Love the froth in the seafood soup!

Seabass pasta...the tiny bits of pasta was really delicious in the tomato based sauce though im not usually a fan of the latter...

Creme brulee...and a very thin layer at that (such that the caramelised layer felt as thick as the creme layer)

Enjoying the art at Capella..

Hugx

Its just too dark everywhere in capella...

But drive in through the dark for this gem;) restaurant week 11

Rio Tapas Bar

Post call day, but still ended up oversleeping and had to ask Kels to leave my Wicked ticket by the counter...sorry dear!! Wicked's cast was as amazing, and surprising as the set. Gorgeous set it was. And it was hilarious too..blondes can be so...yes..self deprecatingly so too...

We bumped into Cheryl and Andrew, and even Jianping and his gf..how coincidental!!

We shopped abit - shops close at 1145 pm on weekends at MBS..and eventually walked downt all the waterfront bars - either too noisy or the bar food sucks so we ended up right at the other quiet end at Rio Tapas Bar .. last order at 12 and we were there at 1130 so we decided to settle down at that quiet place (the other couple moved after a while so we kinda owned the place and our little booth!!)
Green tea alcoholic milkshake (tasted no matcha!!) and yumms truffle fries...

Scallops (which Kels already OD on over cny)..I kinda misst the scallops from Sabio

More truffle in the Oxtail Soba...this is = to my dads oxtail soup, just need to coerce him to buying that $45 bottle of truffle oil from La Forketta...

Really crisp churros with dips - loved the chocolate one.. its really ang moh youtiao, but very airy very crisp!

Walked one round to Fullerton before heading back to leem kopi but decided to head out to Starbucks City hall which reminded Kels of the allgreen allnighter we had at Bugis. What would I do without my best friend!! I would definitely be a hungrier person...hehe...

2am dessert bar

Basil White Chocolate with sea grapes (the cute greenish weed like stringy thing), coconut mousse, Passionfruit. Think I enjoyed the coconut mousse most!

Chocolate mousse, Evian water, Raspberry sorbet. Core of caramel was quite a surprise! ;)

Man U vs Liverpool meant missing out on the massage/ramen/walas and I ended up at cel and fly's 4th stop at 2am dessert bar (Holland Village). Cel's intense tiramisu craving gave in to chocolate mousse instead, gladly so. And her new found grey c ipad cover...gorgeous indeed. Chose bar seats over sofa seats (perils of skirts), white and dark chocolate. Misst you, M. Should pass you your Coach soon!

Pique Nique, Lucky 13, Oriole

After fri's overnight, met Qian for tea at Pique Nique (Basement 1, Takashimaya) before she flies off to Taiwan next wed! - at first was almost at the Canele at Shaw where we parked but then decided to head further to Taka to check Picnique out. It started drizzling and we had to brave the crowds to get to Taka. Madness. Then I found out I left my phone behind. Sigh well done. Its not the distance back but the crowds!!

Latte - foamy and nice. Checked out the Nespresso's at Tangs and Illy (Fairprice finest at Scotts!) and loved the capsule machines - makes life easier when everything is neater in a capsule. Tempting tempting. Checked it out the day before when I thought it was the Tangs when actually it was the Isetan sale I wanted to check out with Qian -_-

Huge Whoopies fries - with lotsa curry and spice I'm sure Kels would have loved this- quality and quantity wise. Attracted the crowds too who peeped onto us..YQ felt over exposed man..

Sticky date pudding..my first of the day, non alcoholic.

Shopped for Toms, then nearing Far East to check out the gellish nails for her and popped (well my eyes popped) at the J salon for the perm. Amazing balls really !! haha. hope you get a better deal in Taiwan dear!

Walked over back to Shaw to get my phone, amazed for the warning slip that my car was in 2 lots..excuse me, the BM next to mine was not even in his lot and you dare give me a warning sign with nothing for him? horrors.

Headed over to Lucky 13 (Triple One Somerset) to meet the J and J. Jills was the earliest though she texted she was gonna be late and warned me about the tricky way there. Indeed it was lost-inducing but we found it. Opened by Michael Lu its his first venture out and omg love the vibe and the music of this isolated place. Not to mention the food too! Transforms to a clubbish atmosphere on weekends.

Beef burger with Onion Chipotle. Loved the generous sauteed onions, and the crisp fries simply reminds me of the standards of bar food in Bali. Beef was really tender. It was a good burger.

Baked egg with cheese and mushrooms- love anything drowned in cheese, really.

Quesidillas with chicken - I think quesidillas is best eaten with beef innards or mushrooms. This is a really chunky quesidillas cos of the chunks of chicken. Really healthy tasty chunks of grilled chicken.

Headed to Oriole (Pan Pacific Suites). My favouritest place in town for coffee and dessert. 2nd sticky date pudding of the day, alcoholic. Of cos it beats the first Hands and feet down.

Banoffee pie reminds me of Su, somehow. I just love the icecream which occupies much of the dessert (haha) and we gave up towards the end, pouring the flower pot innards onto the sticky date plate.

Jills gave me a lift back to Shaw...I was knocked out flat out dead to the world!! Gosh tiring weekend and I was on call on Sunday - normal call, but somehow the great calls have spoilt me! Extremes!

Hediard Cafe, Jewels Artisan

Sat brunch was planned for the 26th but the surg skills workshop kinda stole my free weekend. ssw and even jason popped by, and we were hanging out mainly in the suturing before we skewered some chickens. Haha. Rushed abit to collect d's info before then after, popped by cicu..then I hurried down to Hediard Cafe (Tudor Court) to join the girls for brunch. Red, black. Chongs and I wanted to check it out some time too.

The girls had their fill so it was just down to me - they recommended the Norwegian - its eggs benedict with salmon (see..on an eggs roll...) or the breakfast set with croissant (short was saying how good the croissant was...). This was lovely simply cos the toast at the bottom was very airy and crisp. Well, but there should be more hollandaise...
Only problem was that this place tends to be on the quiet side and boisterous us was actually told to quieten down...hoho... thats not a good prognostic sign..

Rainy rainy so headed with short to Jewels Artisan (Orchard central) not knowing she promised her tuition kid pm slot!! But anyways. It was quite worth the time - the passion fruit tea was really fragrant, and the cakes were quite good (esp the below). We had the tea set with the chocolate truffle you can choose (we chose white chocolate champagne), salted egg macaroon and the regular chocolate cake, and chocolate ice cream. Its like a tasting platter of desserts. Very good for people like us who wanna try everything (preferbly, in greater quantities!)

Chocolate lava cake was so so good. I think i'd prefer it PIPING hot though. Short loved the berry compote lots. Well, I liked the white chocolate icecream lots. The proportion of ice cream to cake should be much much more.

Sat opposite the LUSH 99.5 studio and we see X ho streamin in! hehe. Picked up my ray bans at queensway en route to dropping her. Yay air con for my eyes now ;)

Ah Chew's desserts

Post take Tues - only a thromb pile and then we were basically free- but with Mok and Jaime being my London consultant, too late too ex though! Exited at noon, then with the reg clinic running in the pm, our exits were still NOT happening despite others happening. Anyways it was early so J picked me in the end to initially head to Chinatown (long queue!!) then to City Hall then Funnan to get my coolbeans camera lens cover (auto! and star wars etc which I didnt understand)

Headed to Ah Chew's - almost wanted to bring him to Honeymoon desserts but I guess we were too lazy to cross the road.

A magically white combi - almond with rice balls, HK red bean ice with red bean and steamed milk egg white - never ate any of these before but real comfort food. Somehow I still miss ice cream! Almost thinking of going to Tom's even.

Soup Broth Asia

Hainanese Fish Maw Soup
Ginseng Chicken Soup
Appetisers - Fried Fish, Mango Salad, Cold Tofu, Eggplant Belachan (clockwise from top left)
Carol's Mango Sago

My Durian in Vanilla ice

Monday was supposed to meet S but i had to meet Carol pre-school; so left behind car and was half an hour early for our 730pm date at cityhall - considered brotzeit, Tokyo Deli, and we act sat down in the latter before we decided the portion was just too small and selection too small, and almost decided on the sharing platters in brotzeit but in the end wandered to basement of Raffles City cos I also wanted to try Soup Broth Asia (Basement 1, Raffles City). You can choose a soup, add an appetiser and either 1) meat or veg 2) meat and veg/veg and veg. We chose option 1 and shared everything (but the soup and rice, of cos). Carol had the Ginseng Chicken, and I had the Hainanese Fish Maw Soup.

And guess who we saw!! nevertrustascrawnyfoodie and jane!! finally gotta meet the jane oft so mentioned. We sat side by side and with Mich always peering over at our food. We had sides of Eggplant with sambal (very very VERY spicy), Mango salad (mango not unripe and tart enough), Fried fish slices (left out too long) , and cold tofu.

My fish Maw soup was so-so, fish slices was much in abundance, relative to the fish maw. Carol's Ginseng was hardly tasted in her chicken soup.

Eventually C and I went to draw money, and eventually joined M and J at Sun Kee Desserts - C had the Mango dessert while I had the durian pudding with vanilla sauce - loved mine. The durina pudding was essentially the durian pulp surrounded in a moat of vanilla sauce. Sweet to the max but I like.

Love the Chagggh tales and I was in fits, but im gonna suffer these fits soonish. UGH!!

The Queen and Mangosteen, Awfully Chocolate

Was going to sch to submit and picked chongs up from sch to head to Vivo. Our options were the tapas at Spruce (lunch weekdays only sigh), the sushi at Klee, or the very noisy Vivo which has the Cellar Door.
We went all the way to vivo to find that the Cellar Door (Vivocity) there has no lamb burger that i wanted to try!! Should have not been so lazy and checked that place out whilst it was still at Bt Timah.
So we ended at the bar seats at The Queen and Mangosteen (Vivocity Level one). And our strategic spot right in front of the tv was in vain cos it switched off 5 min into the game =/...
Still the breeze and sights were good, and of cos, we had another sighting we wanted to tag too =P okay shan't be evil haha.

What did us in ( I mean, led us into the restaurant) was the fries in curry crab dip. Oh well, nothing beats Yella Fellas!! as you can tell we had plenty of bar food. no drinks, just bar food.

Crabcakes doused in a very yummy fruit sauce. Chongs says the crab cakes don't beat those she had in the states. Oh i'd have loved to try those authentic meaty ones.

Bread with Shredded Duck dip - its dunked in plenty of mayo and our neurons got challenged cos it tasted so much like tuna somehow. Had to remind ourselves in between conversation it was duck not tuna.

A sighting before we left (not sure if we were heard!), we left for Toys R US to get cel's bd pressies. We had fun with the boing hammer, and rockhard jewel disney box, before we settle for those lovelies for cel. Really hope she likes it (tho our ultimate sofa will be her wedding gift!)

That bar food was nothing, so we went to have round 2 - desserts. Found Awfully Chocolate (L1, Vivocity) to be fully refurbished, with so much more to offer. We tried the Cold Poached Chocolate - basically it was truffle chocolate and cream shaped on a cold pan, topped with alot of cream and a flavour of your choice- here it is butterscotch. There were other alcoholic flavours but they were not available that night.

Had the Hei icecream which is as good as ever. Chongs had hyperglycemia halfway so i ate her scoop and most of the cold poached chocolate. I'm not complaining haha. She needs her dose of fries stat..

Anyway cos I left my cam here and i didnt realise till dinner at Keisuke the next day (when I was gonna use it to take of my ramen =P), had to rush here stat after Keisuke's dinner. No fun worrying about where it was esp being scared that it was lost in zouk where we went later on.

We walked to GV but no luck with shows (only nightmare on elm st no way), walked to St James but it was dead, hence we headed to Velvet which had a SATC event, and with our reds we were catching the match and were around Mambo/Phu for awhile when the sleepyness set in. Guess I deserved what I deserved towards the end of the week despite a great call on fri (3 admissions!!1 c/s only!!1 gxm!! no port c/s!!). Weekend was concuss time. Next week lagi concuss...such is the life!