Dinner @ Le Bistrot

Polo and I went to try out a french restaurant, recommended by a website.  Ibanker was supposed to join but something happened at her home, and she could not make it.

Le Bistrot was your rustic style of french restaurant, located near the Singapore Indoor Stadium, and was easily reached by the circle line MRT.  I also made use of this chance to test out my new Canon macro lens.

The pricing of Le Bistrot was based on the number of courses that you ordered.
Entree + Main course = $50
Main course + Dessert = $50
Entree, Main course & Dessert = $60

For entree, we tried the  Soupe à l'Oignon Gratinée (Because Polo said it was highly recommended by folks in HungryGoWhere).  We also tried the Poor Man's Caviar, which was verrine of eggplant and garlic purée, chicken liver mousse and Pernod crème fraîche, and it was served with chargrilled bread.

For mains, we had the duck leg confit with honey-mustard vinaigrette and creamy potato purée.  Duck confit was a bit too salty for my liking.  I had better confit before.  We also had the sautéed strips of beef tenderloin in a cep (porcini) mushroom and crème fraîche enriched sauce, served with pilaf and a tarragon pesto.  Not bad, but quite normal.  Portions were alright though, not the usual tiny french serving.

Close up of the confit:

Desserts are selection of cheeses, served with honey, fruit conserve and salad and the warm dark chocolate ganache and pistachios in feuilles de brick pastry, served with pistachio crème Anglaise and vanilla bean ice cream.  Cheeses were good, but the chocolate was too sweet for me.  I liked dessert, but at the same time, I do not like it too sweet.  So it was difficult to find desserts that I like.

Total damages were close to $300 including wine.  Hits and misses, I would rate it a 7/10, and I do not think that i would be back.

Le Bistrot

2 Stadium Walk #01-03

Singapore Indoor Stadium

6447 0018

UK Dec 2010 Part 1

My trip to UK started with a little glitch, and turned out to be a little adventure.  About 3 hours away from London Heathrow, there was an annoucement in the plane.  The captain of the flight informed that Heathrow airport was shut, and they had to divert to Frankfurt.  When they landed in Frankfurt, they would have to negotiate with the airport to see if they can go into Heathrow today, and if it passed the maximum working hours of the air crew, we would have to stay a night in Frankfurt! 

The passengers onboard were surprisely calm, and some even clapped.  I had the last meal on board, and the plane landed in Frankfurt.  Upon landing, priority was given to the first class, business class and those seated from row 32 to row 43 in the Economy class.  I used to choose the first cabin of the economy class when i fly, because I wanted to be the first few to get out of the plane.  However, after a few incidents of non stop crying babies, I decided to move to the middle cabin.  I was banging my head when those in the first cabin of the Economy class were been checked into Le Meridien Frankfurt.  Our hotel was not that bad, but it was near the airport, and it was 30 minutes from the city center, while Le Meridien was right smacked in the city center.  In addition to that, we had to wait for about 4 hours in the plane to wait for the hotel to prepare the room.  SIA ground crew has adviced that it was better for us to wait in the plane then to wait in Frankfurt airport, as it was chaotic there.  The air stewardess were trying to make our wait in the plane more comfortable by giving out snacks and drinks, and they also allowed the passengers to go into the Business Class cabins.  I was too lazy to move, and I just sat to watch my movie. 

Hours later, we finally disembarked the plane and boarded the bus to get to our hotel.  Upon arrival at the hotel, it was another round of waiting, this time waiting to check into the hotel.  I finally checked slightly before noon, and officially started the waiting game.

There was a counter assigned to the ground crew of SIA in Germany.  We saw a lady and a gentleman at the counter.  At the side of it, there was a flip chart, with a big SIA written on it, underlined.
On the chart was "Lunch at Universal" 12-2pm
Next update: 7pm

Many people were asking the crew when we could fly, which the crew had no idea.  The gentleman was the nicer one among the two, he was friendly, and though many people kept bugging him, he maintained a nice smile on his face.

I joined the people to ask question, though my question was quite lame.  I wanted to know how to get to the city centre, and to my delight, the lady told me that many people asked the same thing, so they were arranging transport for us!! Wow!

After my lunch, I saw new things on the chart "Bus to Xmas Far in City - Pick up 230pm; Return 530pm.  That's what I called service.  Well done, Singapore Airlines.

Christmas market was quite an experience.  It was snowing heavily on a Sunday afternoon, yet the Germans did not seem to be bother.  They were seen drinking their mull wine and having their sausages outside.  I walked around, looking for an ATM to withdraw EURO, and also trying to cope with the snow.  Lesson learnt:  Never open your mouth wide when it was snowing heavily. 
The snow got into my mouth, and it was like ice!
Lesson 2:  Hood did not help when it was snowing heavily.  You need an umbrella.

Struggling to take the photo with umbrella, gloves and snow!

After wandering around the market, I finally found an ATM.  I withdrew 50 EURO, and happily went back to look for a place for my German snacks.  I bought a sausage, and went to a stall that was selling mull wine.  I was told by a nice couple that when I returned my mug, I would get 2 EURO back.  By the way, all the signs at the stalls were in German.

The mull wine was hot!  The first sip almost burnt my tongue.  The second & third sips tasted awfully too.  However, miracously after the 3rd sip, it tasted good.  I could feel the warmth travelling down from my throat to my stomach, and whole body.  I was not cold anymore.  Ah, so this was the secret of the Germans!

I continued my Christmas market tour after the snack, though not long after, I had to make another coffee stop as it was getting wet and cold, and dark.  The sky darkened at 430pm!!

I was so tired that the first thing i did when i went back to the hotel was to take a nap, before my dinner.

The flipchart now said "Next update:  Tomorrow 7am"  Breakfast at Universal"

Okay, no point worrying, hit the sack and see what tomorrow will bring.  Maybe all the snow in Heatrow has melted when I woke up.

I had a good rest, and woke up around 0730Hr the next day.  I got changed and went down to the lobby, in anticipation of good news.  I was greeted with "Next update:  1pm"  So i had no choice but to have my breakfast and decided to go to town to walk around.  I bought an all day pass for 5.15EUR and took the shuttle to the airport, followed by the train.  I managed to find my favourite brand G star, and i made my way back to the hotel for the 1300Hr update.

The station manager told us that we had a choice.  We could either take the land transport, which was the 13 hours bus ride to London, or we could wait for the airport to reopen.  After some thoughts and discussion with a few Singaporeans, I have decided to take the bus.  At least I could be certain that I could reach London.  Once decided, I felt like a burden was off, and i asked Robin, a Hong Konger and Joel, a Malaysian studying in London if they wanted to go the town with me. 

We took the same route to the town, and walked around the market.  The weather was better today.  The snow had stopped, and because it was a Monday, it was not as crowded.   We had our sausages and mull wine, so that we could skip the dinner in the hotel, which would pretty much looked like lunch.

Snow in the market was gone!  In a day!

 Nutella crepe!  Yummy

After dinner and freshing up, I boarded the bus at 2030Hr.  SIA has also prepared some snacks and water for us.  There were a total of 5 buses, and we departed together as a convoy for safety.  In 2 days, I went through 4 countries - Frankfurt, Belgium, France and London!  I finally reached Heatrow at 1000Hr the next day.  Heathrow was indeed chaotic.  There were long queue and tents set up outside T3, and people were queueing to get into the terminal, amidst the bitterly cold weather.  I prayed that the airport would open soon, which it finally did on 26 Dec 2010.

Taste Paradise at ION Singapore

I used to walk pass the Taste Paradise at Mosque Street, but never had the chance to try it. I finally had the chance to try Taste Paradise, though not the one at Mosque Street, but the more upmarket one in ION.  Thanks to one of my department head, CK.

A group of us went there for dinner, mainly because CK liked the Peking Duck.  We started our dinner with smoked salmon as appertiser.  Kind of strange for Chinese restaurant.  Maybe I am still stucked in the era of peanuts for chinese dinner.

Peking Duck.  As in most places, they would push the duck to prepare it in front of you, and they also helped you to roll it up nicely once they were done with skinning the duck.  It was quite good.  Crispy and not too oily.  However, my heart still goes to the Best Peking Duck (to me at least) - The Da Dong Duck in Beijing.  Other than Da Dong's Duck waas crisper, you also got to do it youself.  You rolled the skin, and could selected how many pieces of skin you wanted (this is important!  You can make youself a jumbo roll), and you can choose how much sauce you wanted. 
Taste Paradise's Peking Duck was decent, but pretty normal.

Next dish was this greeny thing, the wasabi prawns.  Though I am not supposed to eat prawns, I ate one to try it.  Wasabi was liek sort of gravy, "wrapping" the prawns.  I thought while it was tasty, it lacked the powerful oomph of the wasabi that you normally have when you had wasabi.  The kind of oomph that went though your nose and hit you.

This was one of my favourite dish, spinach with 3 different kind of eggs- Salted eggs, Century eggs and eggs.  It was like a soup, yet thicker than soup! 

Beancurd with mushroom.  Pretty normal.  This was a tofu dish with mushrooms. Average, I think Crystal Jade and Jumbo did a better job in this comparement.

These were the remaining of the duck that was stirred fried.  Cabbage were provided to wrap the the meat to neutralize the taste and it was rather salty. 

Here comes the dessert.  This was mango sago, though i liked the way it was served.  There was dry ice at the side and gave it the effect.

Happy 2011

Time flies.  I started writing my blog early Jan 2010, and it has been one year! I remembered one of the lame jokes that I have heard "Why did John (name has been changed) throw the clock out of the window?"
"Because he wants to see time flies!"
Absolutely lame, but time do fly.  Before I realise it, it is the beginning of the new year.

How has 2010 treated you? 
Any resolutions for 2011?
It is the best time to take stock and count your blessings.

Whatever it is, I hope 2011 will be a better year for everyone, in every aspect of their life.  And don't forget to Thank God for 2010 and 2011, and more years to come. 

My first Standard Chartered Half Marathon, 21.1km

The day is finally here!  Last year i have signed up for the Standard Chartered Half Marathon, and had been diligently training for it.  In fact, the training was on target as I was running comfortably 13km in mid August.  However, I had an unexpected injury in early Sep, and the Yellow Ribbon Run was the last run that I did in 2009.  I had for no reason pulled a tendon at my right arch, only then I realised that I had high arch.  It was so painful that it hurts when I walked.  Since then, I had become friends with the Sports Dr in Changi Hospital (Read- Regular visit)

I signed up this year run, hoping that I could recover on time.  Training had not been good.  I felt the pain at the arch when i ran past 7km.  My monthly visit to the sports Dr and physio were not too helpful.  A typical Dr visit would be:

Dr:  "How's your leg?"

Me:  "Still painful"

Dr:  "Hmm..One important thing is to rest....!"  Come, take off your shoe and let me see your leg..Hmm ok, you would need to rest, plenty of rest...

Me:  But i have registered to run...

Dr:  Better to rest...............

Oh well, I just did all the stretch that I could, and hope to push beyond 7km.  The maximum during training was about 12km, and it was in Novemeber.  So the idea of running 21km on 5 Dec left me cold.  I have even devised a plan that I would hide in Universal Studio, and wait for the park to open should the pain act up again.  Universal Studio happened to be aroudn the 7km marker.  Nonethless, I thought I would give it a shot, and see how far my leg could bring me.  Of course, I prayed, that there would be no pain at the arch.

On the morning of race, I woke up at 0400Hr to get ready for the bus pickup at 0500Hr (I need about 10 minutes walking time).  I forced myself with 2 slices of wholemeal bread with peanut butter, 2 hardboiled eggs and a coffee.  I brought a banana to eat on the bus.

There were shuttle bus services provided by the organiser, at $8 per ride.  Not too bad a deal compared to taking taxi.  I reached Vivo City at 0535Hr, and made my way to the start point, looking for toilets.  There were a row of 10 mobile toilets, but there was also a very very long queue, at least 50 people!  Thank God that the queue moved rather quickly. 

Michelle, who was late, decided to skip the toilet and went straight to the start point.  The flag off was at 0630, and at the sound of the buzzer, 15,000 people started the race.  It took me quite a while to cross the start point after the buzzer went off.  We started with a slow jog, and Michelle was anxiously looking for toilets.

It was cooling but quite difficult to run as it was so crowded, and the last thing you wanted to see was a stampede.  We reached the 2km mark at 16mins, much slower than my usual time.  Nonetheless, I just hope to maintain pace and hope to pick up at the later stage of the race.

Mich & I splitted at the 3km mark because she wanted to go to the washroom, and she told me to go ahead and she would catch up later.  I went ahead as I thought it was too early to stop.

We ran round Sentosa beach, and the highlight was to run into Universal Studio Singapore.  (USS).  We ran into Never Never Land, and I was so delighted to see Pussy Cat.  I wanted to take photo with Pussy Cat, but there was a long queue!!  Seems like everyone was as excited as me!  Salute the staff of RWS for being such a good supporter.

Cool guy from Madagascar!!!!! I stopped to take its photo and hesistated a while if i should queue up for photo because the queue was not as long, there were about 6 people.  In my hesistation, i heard my name ..I thought it was Michelle, but it was Bernie.  Feeling a bit embarassed that I was fooling around with the characters than running, i decided to move on.

Running out of USS was tough, as it was through the underground carpark.  It was stuffy, and when I was finally near the end of the carpark, you could feel the air.  Now I have finally know what it meant to see light at the end of tunnel.  Not only I saw light, I felt the light too.

7km:  This was the start of the pain.  I could feel the old pain creeping up at the arch area, on top of that, I felt it at the calves too.  I prayed fervously, pls stop the pain Lord.  I saw soem first aid guys giving out muscle rub, so i quickly got some to ease the pain. 

12km:  This was the toughest of the entire race.  I grabbed my gel near the 10km mark, and slowly jog.  When i reached the AYE, i was greeted by a slope!  I simply had to drag myself up the slow.  I told myself not to stop, but it did not help when you were in pain, and hungry!   I looked around me, people were walking, and when I looked up, I saw a big billboard of McDonald advertisement, of its Fillet O Fish meal!  Urghhhhhhhh.  I could see the faces of the drivers who were stucked in a jam because 2 of the lanes were closed.  Their faces seem to say "These are the idiots that caused the jam!"

I walked, jogged, stretched, jogged, walked...finally struggled through...I started running again at the 14 km mark.  Somewhere near East Coast, a guy overtook me, and guessed what, he was Aw.  We chatted a while, complaining about the weather.  It was really hot...I lost him after a while as it was really difficult to run, some people were walking, some were strolling, only a few were running.  And to run fast, you need to overtake them smartly so as not to bump into them.  I had no more energy to do that, so i just followed behind to jog. 

17km:  I saw the water again.  I grabbed water and decided that this would be my last stop.  Only 4km to go, not that difficult.  When i reached the Flyer, i saw the sign that I was 2km away from the finishing line.  I looked at my watch, 2hrs 45 mins..i have missed my 2h30mins target, no where close, not even 2hr45mins.  So i told myself that I have to do it below 3hrs.

I mustered the remaining energy left in every part of my body, some to fight the pain at the arch, and now, more at the calves, who seems to be putting up a fight. 

When i was near the padang, I saw the banner to split the runners, and I saw the big FINISH within 100m.  This was the longest 100m in my life.  I crossed the line just barely below 3hrs, but according to my watch, it was 2h56mins, so i figured that it should be the chip time, since i have started the watched only after i crossed the line.

My mind went blank after crossing the line..I have done it! 

Was I happy?  Somewhat

I was happy to complete, but not happy with the time.  It was not even close to my normal run.  On my normal day, I could finish 10km in 70 mins or slow day, 1H20mins.  If I would to maintain the slow pace of 1hr20mins, i could have finish the half marathon in 2H45mins.  Having said that, I was happy that the arch pain only kicked in at the 12km mark, and I have managed to push through.  On hindsight, I had no idea how i coped with 9km with pain.

My medal for the pain.

My next target will be the Adidas Sundown, I will challenge 21km again! 

Lastly and most importantly, Thank God for the good weather and seeing me through.

That's all for now, I had a painful arch and sore calves to nurse.  I wonder how much time I would need to recover

My first encounter with the White Truffle at Oso

Truffle.  All I have heard about it was how expensive it was, how precious and yummy it was.  One story from a colleague about Truffle was funny.  He brought a client for dinner, and the waiter recommended them to try truffle.  He did not want to say No in front of the client, so he agreed even though it cost $10 a shave.  So his heart sunk as he counted $10, $20, $30...

When I went to Otto for dinner, the manager also brought out a giant fungus, he said it was a good quality black truffle from Italy.  It smelt really strong. 

A truffle, as defined by Wiki, is a fungi fruiting body that develops underground and relies on mycophagy for spore dispersal. Almost all truffles are ectomycorrhizal and are therefore usually found in close association with trees.  The 18th-century French gastronome Brillat-Savarin called these truffles "the diamond of the kitchen". Edible truffles are held in high esteem in French, Spanish, northern Italian and Greek cooking, as well as in international haute cuisine.


Truffle is expensive because you need to use hogs or dogs that are trained to look for them, as they are buried underground near trees.

Finally, I had a chance to try them at Oso, an Italian restaurant down at Bukit Pasoh Road.  They had a special white truffle menu which they have used white truffle as an ingredient, you could also add extra shaving, at $6.50+++ for 1 gram!

I had a pasta with the white truffle to share with my friend, T.
The taste of the truffle was very unique.  I could not find the exact description for it.  It had a very strong smell, somewhat pungent, somewhat frangant.  When you put it in your mouth, it just melted, and it taste earthly, yet releasing a fine cheesey taste.  Simply special and heavenly.

There were not plenty to try, so you just longed for more.  I think that's the special part of White Truffle, white magic.  Hope that there will be another chance to meet the magical white truffle.