FOC

FOC ( Hong Kong street) has been on our radar as we missed Food bar dada since it's demise. Visited 63 Celcius twice and I must say the black rice there was excellent. Great food and excellent service here, we would also be back to enjoy the buzz:)

Watermelon Gazpacho with charcoal smoked olive oil ice cream. This was the aftermath after the juice went it. Quite ingenious and mind blowing actually.

Baby squid - mix it all up with the egg. Delicious mess it was.

Black rice with garlic mayonnaise - excellent combination. Real thin layer of rice each grain soaking up the stock. Excellent. 

Scallops. Quite an awesome pairing with the caviar and miso. 

Grilled beef Steak- charred to perfection.

Best time to come here ? Waltz in after 930 pm for those drinks and tapas.

63 Celcius

Finally got to meet chongs - original destination was the neighbor of 63 Celcius but I'm glad we settled for 63 Celcius in the end (Asia Square). My second visit here - missed the black rice here ( not launched yet ) during my first visit. Now I got to try the black rice - sans the uni !

I would so come back for this. Charred and smokey, with bits of squid. Tomato foam atop.

Their signature squid ink croquettes. Breaded mush of ink.

Truffled burrata burger- can't discern much of the truffle.

Magnum pop up !

Edible garden.. Bits of sour berries and edible flower

Fans of the origins health food's apple rings would love this tart with the magnum. Lots of sautéed apple bits too.

Can't wait for tomorrowland ;)

Bam! Tapas and Sake bar

Our weekly mid week date night has resumed after the anniversary! I have hit a rut until I read about Bam! (38 Tras Street) lovely bar with an open kitchen concept but too bad we didn't manage to snag any and we got a cosy corner instead:p lots of channel 8 stars sighted ( c song, pll) must have been a company dinner.

Smoked octopus - very meaty and charred so much so that it tastes like a sausage! 

Scallop rice with cheese and mushrooms that was highly recommended by WaY. Deep flavour that's uncontaminated by truffle, we figure the rice must have been cooked in an awesome stock. Slippery and smooth mushrooms, something we hope to achieve in our home cooking.

Wagyu beef onglet... This is super awesome.. Smokey and tender. On par with our favorite Burnt ends. We figure the onglet has an optimal meat to fat ratio and would be best grilled/smoked. Oh man we need a grill at home!

Baileys sponge with mousse and dark chocolate. Airy mousse that was torched this was awesome with the super soaked sponge.

Lemon zest icecream with tamago sake. Interesting combination with the sprinkled almonds.

More date nights to come !!

63 Celcius

The best way to deal with Monday blues... Well get on with it and look forward to a good dinner heh. After a spin at the bay we headed to 63 Celcius ( Asia Square 2) for tapas date night - prob the first this year! An alumnus of food bar dada we were looking forward to the surprises from the josper.

By the way we think we spied WAY here ! ! Food tonight will be of a great standard man. Haha!

Stuffed calamari in squid ink. It was stuffed with peppers and this was one of their proudest creations :p

Grilled cod. I was a fan of the crisp skin.

Josper grilled prime rib eye- it was smokey the initial taste was like that of a bak kwa. And it was juicy to boot !!

J's favorite green risotto with prawns. This was the 63delicia rice. Not creamy at all this had a uber awesome seafood depth to it , must have been a great stock cooking those grains.

Galician octopus on top a bed of mash potatoes. The octopus was so meaty it tasted like a sausage- it's like bangers and mash.

 

It was a quiet night and the host was vey kind to us offering us drinks on the house ( but we really didn't feel like :p) and was quite concerned about our critique. They are looking forward to roll out the previous dada's black rice with uni. Coming soon next month ;)

Lucha Loco

Xue and I came by for drinks here ( past last order time ) and j and I tried to come by again one Friday night, but Lucha Loco at Duxton Hill as full to the brim - was almost banished to a corner with just one seat.

So we came by again at 6-ish on a weekday to find out what's the fuss about. It's indeed worth the fuss ;)

Grilled corn with parmesan cheese this was one amazing cob.

Prawn and octopus cerviche served in a glass jug, most succulent and citrusy.

Quinoa salad- simply love the sprout from the grain 

Fish tacos

Lamb tacos

Scallops tacos

At 9 bucks a pop, these Mexican wraps certainly weren't cheap for the size but oh boy they were super flavorful ! Js favorite was prob the lamb and mine , the scallop.

This place has amazing food, music and ambience- love the bar setting and the alfresco area too. No wonder it draws the crowds... Great atmosphere ! Go early to snag a seat - both the boisterous bar and the alfresco area fills up pretty quickly.

La cicala

Birthday dinner at La cicala at Club street . Great atmosphere and food to boot... This place eluded us the last time so we headed to Los primos (still, worth a detour for its great tortilla !!)

White bait

Grilled vegetables and tomatoes with goats cheese ( a great combination)

Miso cod - prob the best I've had in awhile 

Generous portion of this yums squid ink paella. Simply lip smacking.

Lovely company ;)

Foodbar Dada

Rabbit hole- one chooses to hoard memories and the other erases memories to cope with the grief of a lost loved one- will God be the answer to unite the couple in this process ?

Post rabbit hole, us four went to Foodbar Dada at Robertson Quay-made a reservation at 1015 pm and they very kindly kept the corner 4 seats for us. Just found out that the Prive group owns this very buzzing tapas bar.... Love the energy of the chefs and the patrons here- so reminiscent of Lolla's( J and I prefer the more sensual music at the latter though)

Started with the free crostinis, then we had the fried croquet balls. The best dish of the night has gotta be the grilled octopus and the black Mediterranean rice ... Now I'm a fan of octopus can't wait to try the sous vide version at Spathe ! The squid didn't quite match up to the smokey octopus.

The mushrooms with truffle and egg was also good , though not as earthy as Culina's. The duck burger was just wee too tiny for me to appreciate.

Had dessert at Laurents prior to the play with J where he had his first soufflé (it was after 8) - will prob try the rum and raisin one sometime !

Yay catalunya tonight !!

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...

Sabio

Red and white sangria

Thurs, met all my bosses - submitted irb so had to get signatures, res mid posting, team meeting when things had to be cleared with head. Awful awful. Post nasal drip and forms is trouble, so much so it necessitated stayaway on wed. Nonetheless was really happy to meet up with wans and with V to get the ASM going. brainstormed till 830 ish then while V went for team 1 and 2 drinks, wans and i went to get dinner at Sabio (Duxton Hill). Been a place i've been wanting to try for eons. Almost always packed till it trickles down to the brimish. Even today - we had to settle by the seats plastered to the walls - resulting in a smallish table which couldnt really fit all the food. But eventually we got cosied in, and didnt move to the bar. Plus it resulted in a very pyschedelic photo!
3 in 1 fish salad. For once, a salad with more meat than salad. Cod, Mackerel, anchovies. Even Wans who doesnt like anchovies lapped it up. Good stuff.
Octopus - very flavourful, and yet still crunchy despite absorbin the flavours from the broth.

Scallops in a lovely lobster-bisque like creamy soup. Prob the best dish of the night.

Garlic mushrooms, like tortillas is always a favourite to order. Love this. And its good quantity!

Totally recommend Sabio for the interesting tapas (lots more cold and hot to try) and the vibes, and the chic interior. As much as I love the bar food at 83 as well. It helps thatTapas and bar food is the way to go for me in 2012!

Jones the Grocer (Mandarin Gallery)

Started the day at 6am super early now i drive to and fro work in the dark so prob be as pale as a sheet when i finish this posting in......5 years?

It was a day when i discovered A SNT is the only thing you need to do in a PE, and how at the end of the day its all about collecting the changes and awaiting to round PRN (which can be quite disconcerting). 55 is only gonna be where i am, and fri's the firing day. omg! for a month.

gotta trouble fly on the first day and she orientated me on thurs - the list printing (only select the located ones) down to being split by two teams to just vitalising everyone. out of the ot they come and check one by one in the middle of the day. bumped into candice at the lobby so happily gathered all of us to lunch with mothi/nings and eventually (finally!) a very sniffly kels. a great respite to the rush of the morning. tho had a momentary shock re : the next mornings grand ward round and feeling super unprepared (and the shock never translated to action in the end too.....)

the exits then lasted forever (cos 730 was the magic no!!) and eventually when it all ended there was 2 washouts and 2 cs to be done and a listing for a persistent bld so womg it was mega lateness for this dinner.

So I arrive at this dinner at Jones the Grocer (Mandarin Gallery) totally apologetically to meet Joanne and Ms K - our long awaited date (cos Boeing Boeing was just impossible for tickets). Carol couldnt make it and Nat can only do supper (sigh) so it was just us. Ms K read the msg aloud in the teachers room to responses of the place being in Dempsey but of cos she checked it out and it opened in July 2010.

The entrees and tapas page looked too wonderful to miss out for the mains so we did just that :to order loads and loads of entrees and tapas. It was eclectic mix of ingredients and tastes we absolutely loved it.

Antipasti; I can't believe I only remembered I had this before AFTER I browsed through the pictures and saw it again. Loved the sundried tomatoes loads and the onions. We swooped for the onions plus sundried tomatoes, and for more feta instead of blue cheese. Absolutely delightful platter.

Is still a fan of the brown nutty bread x3.

Wanted to order the mains of lamb meatballs (but the 27 bucks for meatballs just puts me off) so had the Lamb and Rosemary sausages instead - absolutely loved the long long plate and how its laid out amidst all the nuts! You can see that its still not the end (s) that I managed to capture on my camera !

Seared scallop only as an afterthought (and I had an extra). I must say that even though salads make a big chunk of the dish that we ordered for the other things besides, it was still dressed very well and so we didn't mind all that much.

I bet this would appear to be a salad we ordered - but its a portabello mushroom with cheese! And an ang moh chai tao kway below (still can't figure out what it is). I still like the quirky layering of tastes in this.

Another tapas of salmon and avocado on baguette- i realise I don't like avocado all that much unless its mashed into a milkshake (or some other variant). Totally not a purist. Loved the preserved fruit (whatever it is) right atop.

Was gonna let the waitress take away the plate (we each took one and told her to clear ) till the waitress told us - hey you're missing the whole point ! the highlight is the dots on the plate ! the balsamic reduction !

Then you should be like 2am where chanting of every dot and scrape on the plate is described larh!

Anyway it was really good and we didnt let them clear it. Till they offered to give us a small serving of it ;P service is commendable.

Lasagna's the most unique version I've had - layers of crisp pasta (and i really mean, CRISP!) sheets with blue cheese stuffing and the most tart poached pears I've ever ever eaten. Easily of the most interesting dishes I've had.

Really enjoyed the evening dotted with updates of old classmates/old teachers(and their funny nicknames)/principals/pet peeves of english/40/40 feats/6 jades tradition, it was an evening filled with laughter and reminiscing.

Walked with Jo to the train station (cos I thought Borders'd still be open)and didnt mind cos i always enjoy my conversations with her. Tryin to have more dinners with mrs lee sj/Lim LL/mrs eng soon. Working just makes me miss the old times so so much!