The Sage Restaurant- Another Birthday Celebration

Another round of birthday celebration..heehee :-))
This time, GT and I checked out The Sage Restaurant, which was alwyas on my "to go" list.  Initially we were on waiting list because the restaurant had a tentative booking for a private event.  The event was cancelled, and we managed to secure a table.  And perhaps because of this, the whole place was empty, we were the only 2 diners, and it felt like we have booked the whole restaurant!  It was kind of strange feeling, because all the attention were on us!

Nice table setting:

Their Menu Degustation, but we did not go for that, 6 dishes are way too much!

Wine for the night

Escargot & Prawn Risotto

A risotto with Burgundy escargot and tiger prawn bits flambéed with pastis, parmesan crusted poached egg 

and parsley veloute.
The escargot were deshelled, not like what i have imagined it to be.  It was juciy, and the crusted poached egg reminded me of Egg Benedict when the yolked oozed out.

Hokkaido Scallop

Seared Hokkaido scallops on potato blinis with chilled capellini salad tossed with crème fraiche, smoked salmon and fresh dill, Avruga caviar.  Scallops were succulent and juicy, and the pork belly was crisy.

Main:  Beef Cheek

Caramelized 300 days grain fed Black Angus beef cheek topped with horseradish parfait, Layonnaise potatoes with bone marrow and sautéed field mushrooms

This was also not what we have imagined it to be.  We have imagined it to be a big piece of beef cheek, did not expected it to be in small pieces.  Nevertheless, it was tender & juicy.

Duck Confit

Deboned duck leg confit meat wrapped in cabbage with fricassee of field mushrooms and foie gras, crispy duck skin with potato puree and Pommery mustard jus.  Can you see how crispy the skin was?  The fats just melt in your mouth, and while you ate it, you can hear the crispness.

Complimentary birthday cake for me (:

At first we have decided o skip dessert and have coffee, so we were pleasantly surprise when they gave us the complimentary cake.  The candle happended to be GT's favourite colour, blue & white.  The raspberry sorbet was a perfect partner to the rich chocolate cake, and those crispy oats gave the cake the extra texture.

We adjorn to Robertson Quay for another round of drink, before i got home to get ready for the Semi Final between Netherland & Uruguay.  It was a great evening, thanks GT :-)

Overall is 8.5/10.  Service was friendly, though not exactly knowledgable, especially on the wine list.

Sage, The Restaurant

No. 7 Mohamed Sultan Road

Singapore 238957

Tel: (65) 6333 8726

Ikoi - Another birthday get together

Ikoi- Heard some much rave about it, and the difficulties of making reservation in this place..Finally it is my turn!!!  Assigned Mel to do the logistics, actually he was supposed to be the one buying me the dinner for the tips that I have been giving me to woo his girls (some other tips too :P), but he decided that he shall share out the cost. Hee heee...Actually nothing of that sort, it was just the usual suspects getting together :-)

Ikoi is located at first floor of Miramar Hotel, tucked nicely at a corner.  I was lazy to walk 2 bus stops distance, and decided to take a bus.  Guess what, I bumped into Harrison & WJ, no wonder we are friends.  We were sitted to a nice corner, typical Japanse sitting and we had to take off our shoes, luckily nobody wore a torn socks that day ;-)

Ikoi served Ala Carte Buffet, means you can order and eat as much as you want.  Before we ordered, they served us some appertisers, such as smoked salmon, chips and Edamame.  We left it to Mel for the ordering task, and we just randomly add the quantity, attempting to confuse the waitress.

Smoked Salmon

Tapioca Chips

Grilled Shishamo.  I always call it pregnant fish, and was chided by WJ.  They have a name, you know!

Assorted Sashimi.  Very fresh & sweet.  Excellent!

Can you see the Wasabi?  Precious.  I was told that they give you enough for the night, and would only refill upon special request!  So we guard it with our life.

Sword Fish Sashimi, ordered by WJ.

Yakitori.  Not the best Yakitori that I had, meat was a bit tough and the sauce not as sweet.

Curry Don for Harrison.  WJ & I decided not to have too much carbo, so that we can eat more of the rest of the food!

Another Don for Melvyn.

Potato Croquette.  There was 2, but before i could take a photo, Harrison ate the other.  Crispy on the outside, hot and soft in the inside.

Tapioca Tempura.  My favourite of all the tempura.  I have always love tapioca, regardless whether it was tempura or baked tapioca.

I finished the night with Macha Green Tea ice cream.  Desserts are not included in the buffet, and you have to pay extra for it.  But well, a meal is not complete without dessert! 

 Melvyn is the one that is sensitive to the camera

Me & WJ

The men.  Harrison did not look very happy to take photo.  Lunch with Harrison was always great, as he always delivered a fatal one liner.

Overall 9/10 for the value & the quantity.  Service is a bit slow, but friendly.  Will be back when I have a craving for Jap food.

Ikoi Japanese Restaurant

401 Havelock Road #01-01 Hotel Miramar Singapore

Tel: +65 6887 3788

Prive- Round 1 of Birthday Get Together

I went to check out Prive, both to catch up with P and also to celebrate my birthday (in advance).  I decided to go there earlier to check out the place to take some photo.  Prive is located in Keppel Bay, about 10-15 minutes walk from Harbour Front MRT.  It is a nice walk, quiet and you can see sunset, Sentosa and Cable cars in the background.  There are joggers along the bridge, definitely would be a nice place to jog, and admire the sunset and yachts at the same time.

Chris asked why are the buildings slanted!!?  Haha

There are 3 Prives along Keppel Bay, one is the bakery, one is the pub and the other is the restaurant.  We made a reservation at the restarant to have dinner, and we chose to sit outdoor to enjoy the ambience of the Keppel Bay.  It was nice and quiet, not very good for taking photo as it was too dark.  Price are not cheap for the quantity of the portion, but it was definitely good food. 

A half pint Guinness to start the night.   I was very tempted to take the mug for Lilian..but failed.

Bread Basket.  The breads are warm & soft, especially the raisins one.  And they allow refill

Portobello Mushrooms

French Duck Leg, with Barley!  Weird combination, but taste good.  Not exactly the crispy skin type of duck confitt, but it was nice.  Meat was tender and juicy.

Some pudding with ice cream.

Rich Royal Chocolate Cake from Prive Bakery.  The chocolate cake was very rich, and a tad too sweet for me, so much so that I do not need to add sugar to my coffee!

Me & P

Overall 8.5/10.  A recommended place to go to get away from the hustle & buzz of the city, chill out with your friends and admire the yachts :-)

I told Lilian that i will bring her here, for the half pint ;-)

Prive Restaurant

2 Keppel Bay Vista GF Marina at Keppel Bay Singapore

World Cup Fever (11 June to 11 July 2010)

World Cup is here again...Every 4 years, it would give me panda eyes, other than the one held in South Korea & Japan in 2002.  South Africa is 6 hours ahead of us, and therefore the matches in Singapore time are 1930Hr, 2200Hr, and 0230Hr.  And after the Round 16 stage, the matches are mostly 2200Hr and 0230Hr.

World Cup 2010 is quite a joke for Singapore.  In 1998, our PM then said that it is Singapore dream for Singapore's football team to qualify for the World Cup in 2010.  Now that we are in 2010, not only that we did not qualify, we almost did not get to watch the World Cup!!  Then we will be one of the rare few countries in the world, along with a few 3rd world countries in the world that cannot watch World Cup..

Having said that, still thankful that we got to watch it.  And i have a Vuvuzela to support the teams, flew all the way from South Africa.  Now i need to practice it!

Coming matches:  Brazil vs Netherlands; Argentina vs Germany.
Hope to see a Brazil vs Argentina, a mouth watering final :-)

What is Love?

I read an interesting article on papers few days ago, written by Lee Wei Ling, the daughter of Singapore's Senior Mentor, Mr Lee Kwan Yew (LKY).  She shared with us the love story of her parents.

She said that "Love at first sight is romantic but may not hold a candle to love that lasts a lifetime & is for better or for worse".  For better or for worse, something that we hear commonly in wedding woes, but how many really live up to it?  Heard & read so many cases whereby the man or the woman abandon their spouse during crisis.  There was also an interesting research done in US last year.  Results show that men are more likely to leave spouse who has cancer.  Researcher found that the rate was nearly 21 percent when women were the patients compared with about 3 percent when men got the life-threatening diagnosis.  This could be contributed to many factors, such as men are naturally not good care taker by nature etc..

So when I read the article of LKY, immediately i respect this man.  Other than he is a great man that has built the nation, his love for his wife is so touching.  His daughter described the love as unconditional love.
One of the example that she wrote:
"After my mother's second stroke in 2008, she became bed-bound and could no longer accompany my

father on his travels overseas or to social functions here. Every night after returning home from work, my father now spends about two hours telling my mother about his day and reading aloud her favourite poems to her.
The poetry books are rather thick and heavy, so he uses a heavy-duty music stand to place the books. One night, he was so sleepy, he fell asleep while reading to my mother, slumped forward and hit his face against the music stand. Since the music stand was made of metal, he suffered abrasions on his face. He cursed himself for his carelessness but still carries on reading aloud to my mother every night."

What made it more valuable is the status of LKY.  Given his busy schedule, he still devote a lot of time to take care of his wife, especialy when he is the first born son of a Peranakan family, whereby men are treated like kings, and of higher status compare to women.

One of my friend said that this is the true mark of a man, to love his wife and win the respect of the children.
To me, what LKY portrayed is True Love.  Not something that you feel good at that moment, not something like big bang or something spectular, but unconditional giving & loving.  What is love to you?

Relish Burger and Island Creamery

I always like burgers.  They are comfort food, among which, my all time comfort food is McDonald Hamburger.  I always thought that that is the best thing that S$1 can buy (Well, it is more than $1 now).

In recent years, there were many new burger joints in Singapore, from Aston selling burgers to Burger Shack to Bergs.  So we decided to check out one of them, Relish, located at Cluny Court, level 2. 

The place was pretty quiet on a weekday evening, only a few tables occupied, and we had the luxury of choosing a window seat (to get more lights for taking photo haha)  A piece of good news for the smokers, there was a littler balcony for you to take your fresh air :-P

We ordered 3 burgers so that we can share and try 3 different burgers from their big selection of burgers.  We had the classic Wild Rocket Burger recommended by the waiter, the Seafood burger and the Blue Cheese and Pear Burger.  One of them was a Happy Happy Meal, where it came with a burger (180g) and a Belgium Beer.  You can also choose either salad or fries to go with the burgers.

The burgers came a bit smaller than what i have anticipated.  Among which, the Wild Rocket burger was the best; The beef patty was grilled nicely, tender and juicy, a little pinkish in the center as we asked for medium, yet not too bloody.  The blue cheese & pear was similar in the patty, but I felt that the blue cheese was too overwhelming, covering the taste of the patty.

The Seafood burger was interesting with the lemon mayo, but not enough sauce.  I wonder if they would allow us to add sauce?!? 

Wild Rocket Burger with Fries. 

Blue cheese & pear with salad

Total damages was $81, and I picked up the bill as it was one of the Mich's birthday.  (Yes, I had dinner with 2 Michssssss) After dinner, we walked to Island Creamery to have ice cream to complete the meal :-) This time, the tab was on Mich..

Brownie with Nutella ice cream.  They ran out of waflfe.  The brownie was soft and warm, perfect complement to the Nutella icecream.  But my all time fav of Island Creamery was still their Teh Terik Ice cream.  Island Creamery's ice cream is much reasonable priced compared to Haagen Dazs, at $4.50 for 2 scoops of ice cream, you need not worry about burning a hole in your pocket after indulgence.

Teh Terik with chocolate Ice Cream (cannot remember the fanciful name that start with "R")

Relish

501 Bukit Timah Road

#02-01 Cluny Court

Tel: +65 6763 1547

Island Creamery
10 Jalan Serene

#01-03 Serene Centre
Tel: +65 6468 8859

Hong Kong 27 -30 May 2010 (Day 4)

Day 4

Our last day in HK.  Time is the esscence.

We went for our last Cha Can Ting breakfast right after check out, and the criteria was that the tea must not be in a plastic cup!  We finally found one near few blocks from our hotel, nearer to Sogo.   The tea was good, but the food was not as good as the other one that used plastic cups.

After brunch, the girls went to continue their shopping, and also to look for the Chris Patten egg tarts in Central.  Somehow YY & I still prefer the soft pastry type of egg tart, so the Chris Patten type of egg tart in Tai Cheong bakery is not our cup of tea.  We ended the trip with more food in the airport.  As usual, SH who said that she was very full to ate 2 portion, Wanton Noodles and Century Eggs porridge.

Some recap of the trip:

1.  Most satisfying meal:  Actually is a tie.  Both the Dong Bao Xiao Guan Dinner & Tim Ho wan Dim Sum Lunch are satisfying.

2.  Most disappointing meal:  Yung Kee.  The roast goose was fat & oily, the rest of the dishes such as vegetables were ordinary and expensive.

3.  Funniest moment:  YY answered a call in the room, and the conversation went "Yes" "Our luggage are here"" You want to speak to SH?"  Only after 1 minute then we realised that the call was from SH's HK colleague, who has offered to take us to dinner.

4.  Most tiring moment:  The first day after Lei Garden lunch, could not even open my eyes!

5.  Most touching moment:  The girls accompanied me to the Peak, at 2230Hr!  No one complained about going to the Peak at that hour.  Though they complained that I was taking too long to take photo.

6.  Most suffering moment:  No water served on the JetStar flight to HK, and i was so thirsty for 3Hrs+

7.  Happiest Moment:  To find Honolulu eggtarts!