A rustic and traditional European experience at the Tavern Restaurant

My godpa wanted to meet us for dinner and told us he will pick me and my siblings up from Suntec City and take us to his favourite place. 

That place turned out to be the Tavern Restaurant, famous for their Swiss and continental cuisine. 

It is located at 227 River Valley Road, just round the corner from UE Square. 

From the outside, it looks like a rustic Swiss cottage built into the ground floor of a shop house. Weird? But this is Singapore, where multinational things blend into something unique.. like this place's location. 

Once you enter the restaurant, you will be greeted by 'butlers' all suit up. You would expect to see such a presentation in Lawry's, not in a shophouse. Interesting. Inside, it looked very homely, and you will half expect to see a fireplace burning with a dog sleeping in front of it. 

We were ushered to the private room. 

Main courses and appetisers (located behind) are written on an old school chalkboard.

We left it to our godpa to order for us. Our lime juices came and they served us warm bread before our appetizers came. 

The foie gras came first. It came with a slice of toasted bread cut into half and two slabs of foie gras on a puddle of cranberry sauce. I place the foie gras onto the bread and let the oil oozing out naturally from the meat seep into the toasted bread first before taking a bite. The foie gras literally melted into the toasted bread, giving it a sweet (from the cranberry sauce) creamy texture. Delicious.

Foie Gras

The oysters came next. After squeezing the lemon and putting a touch of vinegar to the oyster, I downed it like a shot. The oyster was really fresh, not a hint of fishiness. It still had the salty taste of the sea but the lemon and vinegar toned it down a bit. 

Fresh Oysters 

The escargot came next. I waited for the dish to cool down a bit first as I always had a habit of eating the escargot immediately and singing my tongue. The escargot was baked with cream cheese and garlic, I took a bite. The escargot was juicy and not at all rubbery to chew, soaked up the left over cheese, garlic and oil with bread. This was another favourite dish.

Half a dozen Escargot

After which we were served with some seasonal asparagus and Alaskan Crab salad (both I didn't manage to take a photo). The seasonal asparagus was something new to me as I have never tried 'yellow' asparagus before? I took a bite and it gave me this interesting nutty earthly flavour. This is something new to me as I'm a carnivore who avoids eating vegetables to the best of my ability. Haha. I had three of that because it was something really curious to me. The Alaskan Crab salad was really, really fresh. The crab meat did not taste frozen at all unlike some buffet places with Alaskan Crab legs that I have tried. It was really fresh and sweet. Thumbs up to that. We were served the Berry Sorbet before our main course to cleanse our taste buds. 

Berry Sorbet to cleanse the palate before the main course.
Very refreshing!

I ordered the cod fish and it came in a slab. I was taken aback as I was expecting a thin slice or something like other restaurants. Wow. I loved the taste of the cod, it was seared to perfection. The marination they rubbed onto the codfish gave it a peppery taste. I love this dish. 

Codfish

My sister had the lobster with mushroom sauce. I stole a bit from her. Very fresh and succulent. 

Lobster

I also took some of my brother's wagyu steak, cooked medium rare. Oh, the flesh melted into my mouth. This dish was also another winner. 

Wagyu Steak

We were almost bloated at this stage, but as the saying goes, there's always room for dessert! 

My godpa ordered the Crepes Suzette with Vanilla Ice-cream. The butler came in and cooked it fresh for us. He meticulously prepared the sugar, took a bit of the orange peel into the pan and squeezed each orange individually just to prepare the sauce for this dish. Afterwards, he poured in what I assumed was the rum, put in the crepe, sealed the pan, reopened it and voila! There's fire. Very theatrical. 

Finally, we were served the dish with a scoop of ice cream. I took a bit of ice cream, a bit of the crepe and a bit of the sauce, placed it into my mouth. And there it was, an explosion of flavours, sweet from the ice cream, sour from the orange, blended with the 'blandness' of the crepe that married both flavours together. I really like this dish, it looks simple but a lot of work went into making the sauce that makes this dish a success. A must try. 

Crepes Suzette with Vanilla Ice-cream. 

With the dessert, our delightful dinner at The Tavern ended. The price was not cheap, but the experience and the food made it worth it. No wonder this place has a lot of regular customers. Definitely a place to try at least once in your life. 

Belated birthday lunch at Marina Mandarin's Aquamarine

Celebrated Easter and my belated birthday at Marina Mandarin's Aquamarine. The fiance and I also took this chance to take a look around the hotel as Marina Mandarin is one of my choices for our wedding banquet. 

But that's another story. For now, let us focus on Aquamarine. One thing awesome about Aquamarine is their huge variety of food and the best part is, it's HALAL. 

Well, I'm not a muslim but I thought that will be an awesome fact as the variety is really, really fabulous. Take a look at the photos. 

Boston Lobster

Alaskan Crab Legs and Sea Whelks

Seared Tuna

Smoked Salmon

Mussels

                                     

A whole wheel of Parmesan Cheese

As it is Easter, they had Easter Themed Desserts 

Peach Mousse Cake.. too pretty to cut but some sadist cut off the bunny's face when I came back to look at it. :( 

Look at all the kuehs

Macaroons? Check, Tarts? Check. Fruits? Check.

Seabass

Chocolate Bread and Butter Pudding

Yogurt Ice cream dispensing machine with a tree of ice cream cones. 

 The buffet also had fresh sashimi, sushi, local delights like chicken rice, indian food like curry, pasta, chicken kebab, steak, mashed pumpkin, lamb.. and the list goes on.. there were so much food that I gave up taking photos. Definitely worth a try.

As this is Easter, they also had a clown walking around making balloons for the restaurant patrons.

My mom told him it was my birthday, so he asked me what I wanted. I requested for a crown.

My aunt went "Why not a tiara?" I told her "A tiara means I'm still secondary to the king, hence I would rather ask for a crown." I'm such a realist. LOL.

Anyway he made me a crown, which I made my fiance wear.

Look at his unhappy face, he's worried that it will mess up his hair. *roll eyes*

The clown then asked me what else I wanted. I requested for a cat. And he made me.... a Hello Kitty. I'm sorry, but what is it with people assuming I might like Hello Kitty?! I know a lot of girls/women like Hello Kitty (god forbid, I can never understand the reason why) but I am one of the very rare few that can't stand it. In fact, I'm still smarting over the fact that my dad swapped my Zoukout EZ Link card for a My Melody one.. I was like "NOOOOO, WHY MY MELODY, I WANT MY ZOUKOUT CARD..." T____T I decided to just be grateful that he had the thoughtful intention to change my EZ card for me because he was worried my Zoukout one might be expiring.

Anyway I guess the clown meant well, so I'm grateful for the Hello Kitty balloon. Also took my nephew's balloons for the below photo... just for fun.

Me with my balloons

There was also an Easter egg hunt outside the restaurant. The clown dude went to change to an Easter Bunny costume and asked us to go out to hunt for the eggs. Well, it's mainly for kids but as my nephew and cousin are both below 1 year old... I was nominated to help them to 'hunt' for the egg. Felt pretty bad finding the eggs so quickly while the kids below 13 are searching desperately for the eggs. I found two and offered one to a boy hunting near me but he rejected me and said he wanna find one himself. Fine. So I gave one to my nephew and one to my cousin.

Overall, it was an awesome meal and an awesome Easter experience at Aquamarine. Felt like I was below 13 again in Primary School hunting for eggs during Easter. Miss the experience. Glad to have relived it again before I get married next year. Now that's one item off my imaginary bucket list.

Reflecting on my awesome Saturday.

I just had the best Saturday for 2014...for now.

Saturday my dad, siblings and I went for lunch at Sushi Goshin by Akashi at Suntec City (#02-389/390/91/92, Suntec City Mall, 3 Temasek Boulevard).

The interesting thing about this place was that you can order directly from an ipad.

Their Nigirizushi are priced at one piece. Yes, you've read it correctly. ONE PIECE. Not a pair or a plate like many places. The only exceptions are their maki.

I noticed a few interesting flavours on their menu. We ordered a pair consisting of foie gras, unagi, squid and I forgot the last flavour. The four of us proceeded to share it.

The foie gras sushi went first. Despite the fact that it costs $4 per piece, it is one of the most orgasmic thing I have ever eaten in my life. The foie gras was grilled so tenderly that the meat immediately melts into your tongue and seeps into the rice... giving it this rich and creamy flavour. If I ever become a millionaire, I'll probably order this piece by the truckloads.

The unagi and squid tasted fresh. Which is expected, nothing to shout about other than the fact that when I go into a japanese restaurant I must have unagi. The other flavour which I think it's swordfish has a nice chewy flavour to it, but it is not something I am in a hurry to order again.

Next came the unagi maki. As I've mentioned before, I must have unagi. Ingredients were fresh, otherwise, it's unagi maki. I'm biased towards unagi so I have no complaints about this dish either.

Finally, my main course came, cha soba with tempura. The set costs $16 and it consists of tempura, cha soba, watermelon and a salad.

The tempura consists of two prawns, eggplant, sweet potato and a ladyfinger. It was crispy, not too oily and the batter literally melts in your mouth when you put it in the sauce. The cha soba tasted really refreshing especially after soaking it into the sauce mixed with spring onions and raw quail's egg.

I didn't manage to take photos of my siblings and father's meals.

Total bill for four lunch sets and three side dishes including drinks costs about $120+.

After that I went to meet up with one group of friends for high tea before heading over to FT Island's 6th Anniversary concert. My bias is obviously Lee Hong Ki, whom I think have the most amazing vocals.

Look at all the Primadonnas (including myself) going nuts when they finished their encore. Didn't get to take photos at all with my camera which I smuggled in because the guards and ushers were really on the ball. When I try to snap a photo of the stage itself with my handphone camera, they already came to stop me. Sigh. This is the only shot I have managed to snap.

Overall, the concert was definitely worth it. No choreographed dancing nor extravagant costume changes, stage lightings or set design. Just the band members in tee shirts and jeans with their instruments, raw vocals and charisma... only pausing for a sip of water or to have small talk with us (despite being breathless from jumping about and singing).

If you have never heard of FT Island, do listen to their music. It's something quite unique, especially Lee Hong Ki's soulful vocals.

I had a really awesome Saturday and I'm grateful for it.

Burger Joint: Bear Bites.... no seriously that is the name of the place.

I love food. So when I'm free, I'll google for places to go and places to eat? This place popped up on some of the famous food blogs around Singapore. I dragged my boyfriend down with me to try out this place as it looks super kawaii (cute in Japanese) and innovative. 

See? I told you that's the name of the place. Bear Bites. It's located in between Scape and Cineleisure. It's not that hard to spot because it looks like some kind of hut.

For the reallllyyyy lazy bums who do not want to experience the thrill in searching for a new place, here's a photo of the store front. I'm a little disappointed that there's no mascot bear at the cashier, that will make this place epic.

Unlike other burger joints, Bear Bites served two types of meat. Chicken karaage (or Fried Chicken fillet) and Oishii Fish (or delicious Fish). That's it. No black pepper spicy chicken, grilled chicken.. nope, none of that marketing bull. In that case, it makes you wonder, so what is the selling point of this place? Definitely not the cheese fries (just add $1.00 to the burger combo meal). 

 It's the BURGER BUN! PAWS! Hold up! What do you mean by that? (See what I did there? Hehe.)
IT'S THE BURGER BUN! It's in the shape of a bear paw. Super cute. It's the size of my hand and it comes in different colors! From the squid ink infused black bun to the seasonal strawberry pink bun. Pick your bun, your meat, your sauce and whether you want it in a combo meal deal or not. Simple as that.

 I had the oatmeal bun... talk about trying to ease my diet plan guilt trip by ordering that with fried chicken fillet. Well, to be fair, at least the burger bun is STEAMED. So it's less fattening right? The burger was drenched in cheese sauce, the oily fillet was absorbed by the vegetables and the steam bun.. Quite nice and to be completely biased.. I LOVE THE PRESENTATION! So I'll give this joint 3.5/5.. mainly because of the unique burger bun concepts. If only they offer more variety of meat....

In total, I paid $8.80 for the meal. Definitely a good place for the budget conscious and for those who wants to try something out of the ordinary. 

Virgin Entry: Equarius Hotel Ocean Suites stay and Sam Leong's Forest lunch.

Hello, I've been intending to start a new blog again as my iPhone and Instagram have been flooded with photos of the places I have been dining at and I am more than happy to share where I have been to. I mean good things always have to be shared right? So.... I finally got my lazy bum to start writing something. 

This staycation took place around the 4th of August 2013. My boyfriend's family booked the Ocean Suite at Equarius Hotel at Resorts World Sentosa just for one night. If you are wondering, WHY one night? Well.. it may be because it costs a bomb? (Around SGD 1500 a night) So a night was good enough for me. 

So why is it called the Ocean Suite? Because it is located at the other end of the S.E.A Oceanarium. We had to go to Equarius Hotel where a hotel buggy drove us into the.......... underground carpark. Yes, you heard me right, the underground carpark of Equarius Hotel. Then the buggy stops right outside Cat Coral's Ocean Restuarant. Adjacent to it is the entrance to the Ocean Suites.

Not exactly glamorous here.... but ok given how Singapore is so small.. I guess I can empathize? Upon entering the place, we are greeted by a flight of stairs going up to our left and right in front of us is the bedroom with the ocean view. Before we get to that part, let's talk about what's upstairs first. 

Upstairs is the 'living room' area. Judging by the sounds beyond the wall, I can safely guess that we are located right behind the Adventure Cove. In the living room area, there's a sofa that can be transformed into a queen size bed. When we arrived, there's a plate of Equarius Hotel's sweets on the table for us consisting of two caramel macaroons, white chocolate and milk chocolate almonds. This was a PLUS point because I'm a self-confessed chocoholic. 

   

There's also a bowl of complimentary fruits. 

So my boyfriend, his brother and I went to use the jacuzzi outdoors. There was a iPod port for us to charge and blast our iPod in the living room but it was pretty pointless as we found out the jacuzzi drowns out the music. 

Photo of my boyfriend and I. HAHA So lovey dovey it's kind gross. Sorry for tainting your eyes. 

After that we cleaned up and went downstairs to enjoy the view of the ocean.  One big problem I noticed was that Ocean Suite view is too close to the S.E.A Oceanarium. We can actually see camera lights flashing across us and faintly see the outlines of the Ocean Restaurant to our left. So I guess the tourists across us can see us faintly? Kind of makes you paranoid since you can see their camera lights flashing.. But as mentioned before, Singapore is small, so what to do? The only thing that made this tolerable was that after 6pm, when the S.E.A Oceanarium closes it doors to the public, then it becomes really therapeutic and breathtaking.... we can see the little baby rays swimming close to us.

My boyfriend's brother and father enjoying the close encounters. Though Equarius Hotel is quite far from the main Resorts World cluster, we didn't find that depressing because we ended up staring at the fishes for hours and hours. I even managed to do my yoga routine in front of the window.

And to make things better, we had a tray of chocolates. MORE CHOCOLATES! YAY!

Close ups of the eagle rays and the little school of fishes swimming under them for free food and protection from predators. At 10.30pm, the lights in the oceanarium goes off. It's also a cue for us to go to sleep.

The next morning, my boyfriend and I woke up to this view. If only I can wake up like this EVERY SINGLE DAY! It will be fantabulous! 

And then a school of fishes swam close to the window before we got ready for lunch at Sam Leong's Forest.

I love how his menu have the Autumn/ Winter version. Very creative.

We got a complimentary starter which was really refreshing. It's some kind if cold tomato with iced fruit juice with a leaf of mint on top.. I'll give this 4/5 because it's quite unique but a little sour.. and because it's complimentary, it's serving size is tiny. I ordered the Autumn Set Lunch.

Above: Pan-seared Chicken Breast with herbs and apple salad. Minimal, healthy and delicious. I literally wiped the plate clean with my fork. Rating: 5/5

My main which is the Wok-Fried Japanese Pearl Rice with Squid Ink accompanied with Seared Hokkaido Scallop came next. I found the presentation really interesting. If I didn't know better, I'll think it's some kind of odd birthday cake. The 'candle' stuck above is actually leek. The fried rice.. I suspect the squid ink was infused into it because it didn't stain the fork or my teeth. It wasn't oily and the scallop was perfectly seared. This is definitely a dish I can get addicted to. 5/5 for this!

The last dish which is the Forest Delight.. well, let's just say I was a bit annoyed with the waiter when I was ordering this. I asked him what is the Forest Delight? The waiter told me it was dessert. It took every ounce of self control not to roll my eyes at him. Yes, I know it is DESSERT. I want to know WHAT exactly it is? Anyway, I found out for myself when the dessert was served to me. It's coconut pudding with aloe vera and orange popping candy. Yes, you did not read this wrong. The chef put popping candy into the dessert! I could hear the candy crackling in the coconut husk.

Close up of the dessert. It's good! The sweetness of the aloe vera cubes, combined with the crackling of the candy and the somewhat neutral taste of the coconut pudding makes a pretty good marriage of ingredients. A really interesting taste. Rating: 4/5

Alas, all good things must come to an end. Have to bid farewell to the Ocean Suite. It's definitely an experience worth spending over a thousand for.. after all.. like what teenagers say lately.. YOLO.