Whole Earth

Tried the Whole Earth Thai/Peranakan Resatuarnt at Tanjon Pagar for dinner. 

The dinner started off with a soup, which was pretty unimpressive and unmemorable. A bit too salty for my liking but then again, my salt tolerance is pretty low.

I really liked the olive fried rice (brown rice option), which had a really intense umami taste. Nearly all the other tables around us were having this dish. It was very oily, just like the normal tzechar restaurants. Not sure if they use the whole olives or just the olive vegetable (tastes more like the latter to me), but I really liked the texture of the chewy rice, reminds me of a dry risotto.

Whole Earth - Penang Curry

What was impressive about this was that the 'meat', which is made from mushrooms, actually has the texture of real meat. The curry was very robust - lots of spices and I think there was even banana flower inside? Slightly too spicy for my liking.

I was actually debating between the mushroom kong bak stew (which is one of the highly recommended dishes) or the penang curry, but the server said that the kong bak stew was very oily, so we decided to go for the Penang curry.

Monkey Head Mushroom

My all time favourite dish of the night was the braised monkey head mushrooms with kailan. Though the prices was also astronomical ($25 for a vege dish!). I first tried monkey head mushroom at Li Bai at Sheraton, and I really liked the meatiness and texture of the mushroom. At Whole Earth, the mushroom is braised in a sweet and sour sauce, and has this incredibly interesting texture - which is very similar to meat. I suppose if you're vegetarian and want to eat something that reminds you of meat, then this is the mushroom to eat.

We had the mango pomelo sago for dessert - very underwhelming and I somehow cannot find my photo of this very forgettable dessert. We also tried their enzyme drink (about $10), which actually tastes vaguely like an alcoholic drink (not sure what exactly is inside, but tastes a bit fermented?).

Overall, there were hits and misses - I would definitely come back just for the monkey head mushrooms and the olive fried rice. Generally the prices here are quite steep, and I suppose if you want heavier vegetarian food, this is the place to go  - I found the dishes here to be quite oily, full of spices and chillies. If you're looking for cleaner tasting vegetarian food, I would suggest Real Food or Sunny Choice, where there's lighter, less oiler options. The restaurant was really crowded on a weekday and fortunately, we were early enough to get a seat but it filled up super quickly after. Do make a booking to avoid disappointment.

Tsujiri - Green Tea Desserts that never fail me 

Needed a proper dessert fix after so we hopped over to Tsujiri  at 100am mall for the usual matcha dessert.

Whole Earth
6 Peck Seah Street
Singapore 079331
Tel 6323 3308

Ruth's Chris Steakhouse

A bit outdated post - went to Ruth's Chris Steakhouse before I flew off the Sri Lanka cos my sister was having carnivorous cravings. I brought my DSLR out but FML someone attached the kit lens instead of my prime lens so the photo taking gave me lots of grief especially since the place was so dark.

 Just so that you know, the mains here are really just mains, and there's absolutely no sides. Sides like fries, potatoes, asparagus, mushrooms etc come separately and costs about $20+ for each side.

Whipped butter

 Crab cakes were ok - for $35 for 2 pieces it's quite steep (just like the rest of their prices). Though it's really nice to eat crab without peeling off the shells. And it comes with this fragrant butter sauce.

 The steak (I can't remember what the rest of my family ate but I know one was some wagyu and the other one was prime ribeye?)

I don't know which was which but it's really a massive piece of beef. According to the website, they have a broiler which can reach up to 1000 degrees Celsius (just enough to incinerate prions!).

My lovely thick lamb cutlets - the only reason why it's so thick is because it's actually 2 lamb ribs but they just cut off one, so it looks really thick. Not that I'm complaining cos it's so thick and juicy, and very lightly seasoned so the taste really comes through. 

 Pink and succulent! Comes with mint sauce too.

I really liked how the food comes on extremely hot places (so hot that they should come with a label saying 'caution! Hot!') and they coat the plates with a thin layer of butter and seasoning.

Potato au gratin ($25) - frankly, I think that $25 for this is really overpriced. It's cheesy ++ and has lots of soft fluffy potatoes inside.

 The awesome cheesecake with sour cream ($25) it's quite a big portion, but then again, I don't think it's worth the $25 price tag. Even though it was really delicious - luscious cream cheese with a layer of sour cream and a graham cookie crust. The portion is really big and after our mains, we only managed to finish 3/4 of it (though the remnant 1/4 didn't last long in our fridge...)

Since I don't eat beef, I thought that this was not really worth it (for me, at least), but the rest of my family had a great time eating their massive beef steaks. Fortunately none of us have gout. Despite the high prices, it was pretty crowded when I went on Friday, so do make a booking to avoid disappointment. 

I'm definitely biased but I don't think I"ll come here by myself since I don't think the price tag is justifiable. Perhaps I'm more inclined to spend the same amount of money on Japanese food, but not lamb chops. Though the steak lovers might beg to differ.

Ruth's Chris Steakhouse

6 Raffles Boulevard

Level 4 Marina Mandarin Hotel

Tel 6336909

Aoki Lunch

I'm supposed to minimise my consumption of food from Japan cos of all the radiation but even though the spirit is willing, the body is weak. So to treat myself for my last 'p plate call', I had my postcall lunch at Aoki, which is my favouritest Japanese place in Singapore. I must say that after 1 year of torturing myself on calls, I can now at least stay awake long enough to eat a nice lunch before concussing for the next 12-14 hours.

I shall return to Japan about 10-15 years from now, my logic being that it's the half life of caesium), so from now to then, I shall just have to satisfy my Japanese food craving with little portions of good quality Japanese food instead of large quantities of mediocre ones.
Hijiki seaweed - reminds me of the one that Wasabi Tei used to serve but it's less sweet and has a bit more meat.

Aoki's signature salad wich a nice tangy wafu dressing

Radiation +++ but it's so delicious! Especially the tuna belly (look at all the nice marbling) which literally melted in my mouth and glided down my throat. I actually wanted to eat my usual 'cheapo' Maze chirashi but it was sold out already. I really wanted to eat that nice egg castella thing and have the delicious uni (sea urchin) and salmon roe...

The rice has anago (sea eel) as well as this sweetened pickle. And some other pickles like the eggplant thing on the right side (which I don't like but it's supposed to be v popular in Japan).

Of course, the meal ended with Aoki's signature trio of desserts - the only fixed one so far has been the plum wine jelly (top right). There's also a milk custard with mango sauce but I think and a sakura flavoured ice cream.

Maybe I should come up with a list of my fave post call foods especially my 'nourishing soup' from Pu Tien which I rate as my number one most essential post call foods... Then again, it will be luxury during my next posting, so maybe not! At least I'm going to the place with the best food (though I have doubts that I have enough time to enjoy it).

Aoki
1 Scotts Road

#02-17 Shaw Centre
Tel: +65 6333 8015

TWG Brunch

Previously, the only sad choice for tea in the heart of Orchard used to be Royal Copenhagen but their desserts leave much room for improvement. TWG's dining does come with a hefty price tag though - if you're willing to blow about $40++ on brunch, this is definitely the place to splurge your money on. Not to say that the food is fantastic, but just the ambience and the vibe makes it worth it. The interior is decorated like those opulent quaint hotels/restaurants with lots of gold embellishments.

Since we were feeling indulgent and thanks to work the weekend brunches are few and far between, we decided that it was well worth the splurge to try TWG since it looked so nice (lol I'm superficial when it comes to restaurants!)

Breakfast sets aren't available on weekends, so the only choices are the brunch and the lunch. Sadly, we were an hour away from lunch so we ended up having their brunch. (Not a bad thing but I'd rather come back for their tea time sets which look extremely yummy!)

I had the Gourmet Brunch set ($40++) which comes with a TWG tea ($11++ ala carte), Freshly squeezed apple/orange juice (I had the apple juice, which has a nice rosy hue), Scrambled eggs (Fresh Farmhouse eggs scrambled with a choice of Matcha green tea, pure saffron threads or white alba truffle oil). No prizes for guessing which one I chose.

I didn't quite like the eggs cos they were a bit too watery and clumpy for my liking. The eggs were served with smoked salmon (one thin piece) and a mixed salad of tender spinach shoots and marinated shrimp. Again, not very impressive.

My set also came with French Brioche toasts served with TWG tea jelly. I didn't particularly enjoy my toast as it was slightly too dry and a bit too crispy for my liking. I still like Wild Honey's Brioche best.

Each of the brunch sets came with a TWG tea patisserie from the tea trolley (urgh forgot to take a photo of it cos I was too busy deciding which one to eat!) It's really fun peering into their dessert trolley and choosing a pastry cos everything looks so nice...

The Midsummer Brunch ($40++) set comes with a TWG tea, juice, a Summer Quiche - warm rustic French style vegeterian quiche filled with seasonal vegetables an served with a light cream sauce, garden salad (don't you just like their descriptions? Makes you feel like eating everything!) and a 'Choice of 2 freshly baked muffins or scones' as well as a TWG tea patisserie.

I'm not a big fan of quiche so that quiche tasted rather passable to me. It's a generous serving and quite a thick size quiche.
My lousy angled shot of the 3-tiered tray which had our Brioche toast and the scones. The scones at TWG are lovely. In fact, for 2 weeks after that especially while on call (all my cravings hit when I am on call) I was longing for the lovely buttery scones which are dainty and small and studded with sweet raisins. They're served warm with butter, tea jelly and whipped cream.

The tea jelly is probably made with apple juice cos there was a pleasant apple flavour.

Paired together, the tea jelly and scone are spectacular and I would return just for them. The texture is moist and soft, and yet sturdy enough to pile on lots of tea jelly and whipped cream.

Their tea comes in a nice tea pot which has a layer of insulation so that your tea stays piping hot while you spend your time chatting. Do note that they don't do tea refills (the teapot doesn't have any tea leaves just the ready made tea).

When we were there, we must have stretched our server's memory cos we simply had such a difficult time deciding from the array of tea choices (one whole menu filled with numbers - and no descriptions so we had to ask our server to describe the nicer sounding ones). In fact, I've forgotten what kind of tea I drank (lol!) but I know it's a green tea... I really can't imagine the amount of time the servers spend memorising their tea menu! Worse than memorizing dictation...

Our tea pastry - this one is a cheesecake with a green tea base. I can't really remember what it's called but it was nice and creamy and the bitter green tea base offset the richness of the cream cheese layer.

Some chocolate dessert we chose (I actually cannot remember the name) but perhaps it was cos I was already full so there was diminishing returns and the dessert isn't outstanding enough for me to remember much about it.

If there's room for improvement, the dessert department needs some serious working on, especially on the presentation. Our second chocolate pastry was collapsing onto itself. I'm not too sure if it was too warm in the restaurant but it looked quite sorry by the time it reached our table. Other than that, the meal was realy pleasant and I'd definitely be back for some scones and to soak up the nice ambience :D

TWG Tea Salon and Boutique

Ion Shopping Mall

2 Orchard Turn

#02 - 21Singapore 238801

http://www.twgtea.com/

Andre

I'm lagging again! Hope all you readers had a merry christmas and happy boxing day.This year's Christmas eve and Christmas was spent working - was saying that I've never worked on Christmas, but then someone pointed out that I've never had a job prior to this:/Thankfully, I didn't end up with chicken rice for Christmas dinner or my Christmas would have been even more tragic.
Happier mealtimes from nearly a month ago, just that I didn't have time to upload everything onto my comp. Spectacular meal with even better company:)
And so begins the food journey at Andre...

Starters including some popcorn thing with vanilla sauce (in the middle) and a delicious aji tatare in a crispy shell (far right)

Crispy chicken skin, which reminds me of the one I had at 53
Extremely thin and translucent, crispy without the oily fatty taste of chicken skin

Fresh scallops with purple cauliflower consomme - I liked the light purple hue of the dish if anything... it's cold and has some interesting kind of oil (of which I've already forgotten what kind of oil it is)

Delicate and fresh oyster encased in a wobbly piece of seaweed with apple foam and finely diced green apple

The oyster is so fresh that it feels like the oyster was just alive and happily sitting in the sea just seconds ago...

I really cannot remember what this dish was, just that it has macadamia nut shavings and caviar... If I'm not wrong, it has eggplant?

My favourite dish of the night - maybe cos it tasted very Japanese. Raw fish (can't remember what but I think it was aji?) with the swetest tomatoes and a refreshing tomato sorbet The other part of the dish (served together) was a seafood risotto and raw prawns (which were so fresh my tongue and ears started itching, as they always do when I eat raw prawns lobsters and crabs).

Chef's cheeky play on ingredients and textures - When this dish is served, you'll be asked which one's the squid. It's a dish with squid and rice, and keropok-like crackers (I suppose they're blackened with squid ink?). This dish is made from luxurious ingredients including Iberico Ham, Black truffle and some special egg. So shoot me cos I don't eat beef (even though I really miss BK's mushrom swiss and Mac's double cheeseburger) - the beef was tender and pink and looked incredibly juicy.

Since I don't eat beef, it was substituted for chicken (most un-worth it, I can hear all the beef eater's screaming in horror at the waste...) Chicken breast it was, cooked in a salt water bath. Every morsel of this was so tender and juicy it didn't even feel like I was eating chicken breast. The skin was crisped like crackling pork. I was quite intrigued by the the little pile of worm-like starchy root vegetables (from France, if I remember correctly).

Chef Andre serves this dish under the 'Memory' section of the menu. It's a foie gras custard (looks like creme brulee) with a aromatic layer of truffle oil on the top. Every scoop is so creamy and rich, it feels like I'm going to get an instant heart attack, but it's so yummy that I had the dish scraped clean. According to our server, this dish is extremely close to Chef Andre's heart... I agree totally - I'm sure a new plaque is wedged in my coronary arteries now...

Lastly was dessert - spongy chocolate cake (which looked like those natural sea sponge bath sponges) chocolate soil and a chocolate capsule

Andre

41 Bukit Pasoh Road (Opposite Oso)

Singapore 089855

Tel: +65 6534 8880

reserve@restaurantandre.com

Btw, parking's a pain in the neck since the public carpark is being renovated, but they have valet parking.

Tatsuya Sushi Omakase

Sianz I am having major sushi craving especially for another lovely platter of sushi omakase from Tatsuya [which I cannot afford at this point cos I just spent ALOT of money changing my wheels and tyres! But looking at my new tyres (which have little 'hairs' on them cos they are very very new and smelling the fresh rubber makes me v happy every morning before I go to work!! I think it nearly makes me as happy as when I drink my gong cha on the way to work!)]

I think sushi omakase is best eaten at the sushi counter, but since it was a family dinner, we sat on a table for 4. Makes the sushi omakase half as exciting, but the sushi was awsome.

There's sushi with caviar, sushi with goose liver :D, otoro (fatty tuna belly - the best part of the tuna!), aburi (flame grilled) salmon belly, anago (sea eel), cockle (which is so freaking fresh not like those dirty little cockles we get in char kway teow, and nearly as fresh as the cockles I had in Hokkaido!). Gave away my prawn cos I will most definitely get an allergy reaction (mega saddenning raw prawns are so lovely but if I eat it I will most surely not be able to taste anything else!) and a lovely raw tako (octopus) which is fantastic compared to the horrendous rubber tasting cooked ones we usually get.

Sigh need to satisfy my sashimi/sushi/raw food craving soon!! I want to eat more raw octopus, cockles and tuna! And I wanna eat fresh oysters in ponzu sauce... I think I am just hungry and I should go and sleep before I get more wrinkles and turn into an old hag...

Btw, my dining experience at Tatsuya was somewhat marred by this irritating snobbish waitress when I have more time I shall blog about the Kaiseki and her annoying substandard service. But for now, before I sleep I shall think happy sushi thoughts...

Tatsuya

Goodwood Park Hotel

68874598

Iggys Lunch

First meal I had with my brother since he came back from overseas for summer break after being away for >9months, and we both happened to be free that afternoon. Of course, such rare occasion gives me even more excuse to indulge in good food. I initially wanted to try Osia, which I have been reading about on so many other blogs, and I've been wanting to try their famous bread, but the thought of trudging down to Sentosa and having to pay the incredibly expensive parking fee, or the thought of parking at Vivo and taking the monorail in proved too daunting, and we settled for Iggys lunch.
The lunch comes with either 2 starters, 1main course and 1 dessert ($65++) or 3starters, 1main course and 1 dessert ($80++).
For amuse bouche, there was essence of momotaro (a type of sweet Japanese tomato) and a wedge of tomato (not sure of it's momotaro, can't remember...). The essence of momotaro was like drinking a concentrate of tomato juice, but just that it's clear and slightly sweet. Hopefully it's packed with antioxidants so that it'll help with my wrinkling face and eyebags (btw I have been awake for the past 35hours, with 1 hour of sleep!) Starters - I didn't quite like my 2 starters so it was a rather dissapointing start to my meal.
Gratinated yellowtail (hamachi), radish, fine herd salad and sesame-lime dressing
My brother ordered this and he enjoyed it lots - probably cos he's been deprived of Japanese tasting food. Of course, the yellowtail was fresh, well marinated and the flavours from the herbs and dressing complemented each other without overpowering the fish.
Little neck clams: sauteed clams, tarragon, kaffir lime, burrata, rice and sago pearls
I ordered this starter because of the burrata, but the burrata didn't have the 2 different textures I was expecting, and it was was quite little. The translucent beads of sago was interesting to have in the dish, but it was rather forgettable.
Egg: Slow-cooked egg, bacon, mushrooms and pinot jus
The egg was somewhat lacking in character - just fatty bits of bacon (not sure if it's some fancy/special bacon), some brown mushrooms and the egg (perhaps it's some fancy organic egg? I couldn't tell, don't have such specialized taste buds), and the whole thing was a bit too greasy for my liking. The hard croutons didn't really impress me either.
Foie Gras (supplement $10): Pan-fried foie gras, poached peach, toasted brioche and almond flakes
This dish had a moderately sized piece of foie gras, sprinkled with crackling crystals (those that go popping when it's in contact with any liquid like saliva! I used to like this lollipop which came with the crackling powder when I was in Primary School). Perhaps it's cos the crackling powder reminded me of my more favourite childhood sweet, or perhaps it was the nicely crisped yet oozey interior of the foie gras, I like this starter the best of the lot. The pulpy caramalized peach was nice and sweet tho.

Charcoal Grilled Quail with brussel sprouts, lady's finger and tapenade (an olive based puree).

My brother's main which was a very small portion (I don't know if he was full after this but I was extremely full from my sakura ebi capellini). It's very well done with the quail being tender and juicy. But then again, nothing out of the ordinary...

I've been missing Iggy's signature Sakura ebi cappellini ever since my last visit (so long ago, see my post here) but either my expectations were too high or my memory has deceived me cos it failed to impress me during this visit. The little black bits of konbu, full of natural MSG and perfectly cooked cappellini infused with aromatic scampi oil makes a filling dish, and the tiny pieces of sakura ebi which gives way with a satisfying crunch when you bit down was good, but not spectacular.Perhaps it's cos the portion was too big (cos I had it as a starter previously) or perhaps I was full from my 2 pieces of restaurant bread and their peppery good quality olive oil, I didn't think it was supremely good like the last time I tried it.

Black forest

Salted chocolate caramel, petit beurre (butter biscuit), sour cherry, beatroot
My brother initially ordered this because of the salted chocolate caramel, but because it came with a beetroot sorbet, he swapped desserts with me. Beetroot is a vegetable/tuber/root that you either love or hate - it has a distinct earthy taste and smell, and has a natural sweetness. I enjoy beetroot in anything, and I usually juice it with a variety of other fruits/vegetables, though I haven't had the chance to do it recently due to my busy schedule. The beetroot sorbet The dessert also comes with a piece of jellied beetroot.

The other dessert we had is the Butternut Squash - which had the pumpkin in different textures, coconut sorbet, kaffir lime and orange. I requested for them to not put any lime or orange into my dish since I dislike citrus fruits, especially orange. The pumpkin came pureed as well as in crispy sheets. The coconut ice cream was deliciously creamy.

As they say, taste is subjective and this time, Iggys has failed to impress me this occasion. Maybe it's a case of too high expectations, or perhaps my tastebuds are growing old but I really hope I have better luck next time since my previous 2 dining experiences here were so memorable.

Iggy’s

1 Cuscaden Road

#03-00 The Regent

Tel: 6732 2234

I'm so happy that I'm having the luxury of posting this in the afternoon cos I'm on leave until 31st August! So happy that I've survived my posting and moving onto something that I really like! And just a shout out to my now ex-colleagues (lol stop blog surfing and do summaries!) I enjoyed working and learning with you all :D I'm off to sleep now to attempt to correct the damage done by not sleeping last night and hopefully erase my forming wrinkles and enlarging eyebags....