Iggy's Lunch

My lunch was so good, it deserves to jump que right ahead of all my backlogging posts! I'm very scared I'll get confused and forget what I ate so here's my unusually quick post :)

After Iggys palate pampering, I think that I'll take a hiatus from eating anything above kopitiam since I will keep comparing it to Iggys.
Complimentary starter - Sweet Corn Cappuccino and chocolate raviolo.
Bubbles aren't for champagne only - the corn cappuccino was light and frothy, and I could taste the Japanese corn clearly. The corn was sweet and extremely smooth, and the bitterness of the chocolate ball was a sharp contrast to to it corn. The warm soup was to be drank straight from the cup, and the chocolate ball tipped into your mouth right after finishing the soup. The chocolate raviolo had a soft gelatinous layer outisde, with warm, oozingly delicious chocolate oozing out after you bite it. Reminds me of the yeast alginate experiments during bio.
Complimentary starter - Sea Urchin with cauliflower mousse and shiso jelly.

My favourite dish of the day, not only because there was uni, but also because it was an interesting combination of flavours. It's a refreshing change from the usual way of eating uni sushi style. Of course, the Uni was extremely fresh, with the taste of the sea. It was served slightly chilled inside a martini glass, with a layer of salty jelly, on top of a layer of creamy caluliflower moussse.Every mouthful was heavenly - who would have thought that cauliflower mousse goes so well with uni? The little bits of green is some leaf which had a pretty intersting flavour, but I can't describe it very well.

Home-made potato gnocci with truffle salsa, soft boiled egg and Parma Ham.

Normally, I don't like gnocci, but I was very excited when I saw this dish because there was so much truffle salsa. However, the truffle salsa didn't have the usual distinct aroma. I've just found out that Summer truffle is supposed to be more subtle, but honestly speaking, I couldn't taste or smell any hint of truffle at all. The parma ham was really tasty and salty, and chopped into minute little bits.

Iggy's famous Sakura Ebi Cappellini infused with scampi oil.
It's not my starter, but since it's Iggy's signature dish, I pinched a bit from Julie. This was one of the dishes that I remembered clearly from my last visit over a year ago. It's as good as I remembered it. Al dente cappelini with tiny sakura ebi. The noodles were well infused with the tasty scampi oil, with lots of konbu. Extremely tasty and incredibly yummy!

Squid Ink Risotto with Charcoal-grilled calamari

This is the starter that the three of us shared. The calamari had the smoky taste of the grill, and was chewy and fresh. It was lightly salted, drawing out calamari flavours. The risotto was glossy black, and each morsel was well coated with the squid ink sauce.

Kurobuta Pork cheek with onion confit, fried egg, summer truffle

Every single bit of this dish was delicious, from the wafer thin truffle slices, to the runny sunnyside up egg with it's perfectly brown and crisped edges, the finely sliced onion confit and the pork cheek itself was perfectly done. The pork cheek was insanely soft and melt in the mouth, with lovely diamond shaped grill-lines. The onion confit was finely sliced, and the sweetness of the onion went deliciously well with the pork.
Complimentary - Rockmelon soup, earl grey chocolate, fresh dill and summer flowers

This dish looks very summer-y. I really liked how the dill tasted together with the rockmelon. (Somehow all these funny fruit combinations go really well - just like watermelon with feta cheese)

The rockmelon dish really helped to wash down the previous two extremely rich dishes. Actually, the server kindly pointed out that my choice of appetiser and main were very rich, as there was an egg in both, but I really wanted to try them. The rockmelon natural sweetness was refreshing, and the chocolate ball was warm(!). Thought I couldn't really taste the Earl Grey part of it, the chocolate ball was delicious in all its intense chocolately oozey goodness. Exactly the thing to prepare my stomach for dessert :)
Pina Colada Souffle and Iced Pinacolada, with coconut Ice cream
Of course, I started with the coconut ice cream, since I really hate melted ice cream. The coconut ice cream had an extremely smooth texture. Somehow, to me, commercial coconut ice creams taste too creamy. This coconut ice cream, however, was not cloyingly creamy, but not icy either. I think I detected a hint of gula melaka? But I'm not too sure about this - just that I thought that the sweetener that they used isn't regular white sugar.

The pina colada souffle was wobbly and a melting texture. It had a nice layer of browned skin on top, and a delicious creamy centre. I made the mistake of giving into the temptation of the pinacolada drink, and after that, I could hardly taste the subtle pina colada flavour of the souffle.

If I were to have this again, I would definitely exert more restrain and not touch the drink till I'm done with the souffle as the intesnse taste of the sweet pineapple and creamy coconut renders my tastebuds useless.

Chocolate cylinder, French toast with home-made maple ice-cream and iced mocca.

Though I pinched a bit of the French toast, I just remembered it being buttery. For a more in-depth description, go here.
Champagne jelly and sorbet with elderflower foam

I keep thinking of the Ricola Elderflower pastilles, cos that's the only elderflower I've tasted. It's an extremely refreshing end to a delicious meal, but for me, the size of my desserts matter :p

The service at Iggy's is friendly, completely not stressful like some of the snobbish high class restaurants. The waiters take the time to tell us a bit more about the dishes, after seeing that we were so interseted taking photos of our food.

The best part of the meal - the thoughtfulness giving us each a personalized menu - customized since each of us had different dishes. That was really impressive!


My lunch cost me $72 nett for a 6 1/3 course meal. The 3 course set lunch is $55++ and the 4 course set lunch is $75++. Between the 3 of us, we shared two 3 course set lunches and one 4 course set lunch, so we got to try an extra appetiser.

Ok.. this deserves 5 stars, but blogger's being annoying and not allowing me to upload photos now :/ I'll put it up tmr when it's being less cranky.



Iggy’s
1 Cuscaden Road
#03-00 The Regent
Tel: 6732 2234

Brown Sugar

Well well, I've finally made my pilgrimage to Brown Sugar, which I have been waiting eons for. I've been wanting to go since ieatishootipost did a review on it. Warm Bread served with olive oil and balsamic vinegar
Organic Mushroom Soup ($11) Oystar, Hiratake, Willow, Royal Abalone, Emperor Shitake mushrooms freshly harvested from Mycofarm organic mushroom farm.

The soup has a very strong mushroom-y taste, and is very thick and quite creamy.Salad of Deconstructed Apple, walnuts, Brie, Apple Balsamic Dressing ($13)
The salad was very light, but incredibly tasty. The apple gave the usually tart balsamic dressing a nice sweetish flavour, and the sauce went well with the crispy chilled apples, salad leaves and creamy brie cheese.
Capellini tossed with Seafood Roe and Lobster Oil ($23)
I actually was thinking about Iggy's Sakura Ebi Capellini - but I really shouldn't have ordered this cos I don't think anything can come close to Iggy's one (especially with the price differenct >.<) My artersclerotic meal included three different kinds of roe, and capellini drenched in lobster oil. Actually, I couldn't taste much flavour in the oil. It's a pretty unfair comparison, but Iggy's scampi oil has a much stronger aroma and flavour, whilst Brown Sugar's one is just plain oily. To give them credit, the pasta was prettily presented, and the capellini done perfectly, just that it was too oily and left me feeling in need of a bitter cup of Chinese tea. Slow baked Rack of Lamb (served pink) with Ratatouille, Soft Polenta and Rosemary ($33)

I pinched a bit of this and I must say that it's really delicious. The little morsel of lamb that I stole was pink and juicy, with the robust meaty flavour of the lamb juices tickeling my tastebuds. I would probably get this or the cod fish the next time I come here.Hand Chopped Wagyu Burger ($28), Truffled Mushroom sauce, salad and fries served with pan fried foie gras (add $7)


By now you would have probably realized that I don't eat beef. There are only 2 dishes that have ever tempted me to eat beef ever! The first one is Burger King's mushroom swiss cheese burger - which is really CMI (cannot make it) with the chicken patty (they used to have it with chicken patty for a period of time), but it sucked so it's off the menu. Dunno if its back now though.

The second dish is obviously Brown Sugar's signature beef burger. It looks really yummy, and comes with foie gras *drools* and truffled mushroom sauce *drools again*, which are probably my two favouritest foods.
I just realized that my friends went to take a picture of the non-foie-gras burger. Ohwells, they were amazed at the miniscule size of the foie gras. Purists would say that you shouldnt chop wagyu since it ruins the texture, but if it tastes good, then why not?

Sticky Date Pudding with Brown Sugar Butterscotch, walnuts, vanilla ice cream (only for the sweet toothed) ($12)

The people at Brown Sugar are so kind as to put a note of caution in the menu:P The sticky date pudding was doused in a rich, diabetes inducing caramel sauce Tart Tartin of Pears with Honey Fig Ice cream ($12)

I made the mistake of sampling the sticky date pudding first, and the intense sweetness rendered my tastebuds useless. So when I reached the Tart Tartin and honey fig ice cream (whicn I was eagerly looking forward to, just so that I could see whether it was better than Marmalade Pantry's), I was dissappointed to find that I couldn't taste any fig or honey. Tasting with my attenuated taste buds is like trying to navigate through the Great Singapore Sales with cataracts. From what I could taste, the pastry part was quite good, and the pears were soaked in whatever marinade they were put in, just that I couldn't quite taste anything much.

Brown Sugar has fallen slightly short of my expectations, maybe because of the extremeley good reviews it has gotton? my brother and I have come to the conclusion that Brown Sugar's pasta dishes are not on the same standard as their mains. Oh well, the next time I come here I'll definitely get something from the main section

277 River Valley Road,
Stardus Clubhouse
Tel: 63336612
Email:info@brownsugar.com.sg
Opening hours: Tue-Sat, lunch & dinner,
All Day Sunday Brunch 10am-4pm, Closed Monday (unless Public Holiday)
Public Holidays: Fri & Sat - open as usual,
other Public Holidays, even Monday -
All Day Brunch 10am-4pm
*Free Parking (yay I like free parking!!!)

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....

Gunther's Lunch

Went to Gunther's for lunch with ice after procrastinating for an extremely long time. Looks like I'll be having lots of time on my hands, just as long as Singapore DORS orange. My brain is already happily soggy from the lack of use since Thursday. Gunther's tray of daily specials - from front: Dover sole (for 2 people), some exotic mushroom, sea urchin, lobster, white asparagus, and some clam.

Uni (sea urchin) - my fave type of sushi.

Bread - I was being greedy so I had 2.5pieces of this! Especially useful for mopping up those delicious sauces.

Amuse bouche - egg cocotte
Sour cream, chives and a hint of sweetness from
Cold angel hair pasta with chives, kombu, truffle jus and oscietra caviar

I really can't appreciate good caviar. The last time I had some expensive caviar, it was quite disasterous, and I ended up wasting the dish. The caviar just tasted slightly salty to me. But if you did a blinded test, I probably won't be able to tell the difference between the real thing and some cheap stuff.

The angel hair pasta itself was really delicious - it also comes with truffle juice! And the bits of konbu made it incredibly tasty. I feel like coming here just to eat the angel hair pasta, minus the caviar of course. I think I've finally found something comparable to Iggy's sakura ebi cappellini...

Roasted foie gras, crushed candied almonds, caramelized date, petit salad

I got an uber huge slab of goose foie gras - it was slightly firmer than duck foie gras, and not as oozey. Its the hugest piece of foie gras I've ever eaten. And every bite was delicious! Especially whtn paired with the caramalized date and the crunchy bits of candied almonds.

The liver edge looks exactly like how it looks like in patho pots! Smooth, yellowish, and with rounded buldging corners.

White asparagus gratiné, carpaccio of champignon de Paris, beef jus
Ok I hope I didn't eat any of the beef jus. I probably did tho. Argh!! It's white asparagus season (May-June) now, so it's a great time to eat all these delicacies. They're supposed to be less bitter and have a more delicate flavour. To grow white asparagus, the plant is deprived of light, so that it can't produce any chlorophyll.

Gunther's white asparagus was served with finely sliced button mushrooms and hollandaise sauce.

Brittany langoustine “Armoricaine”
Langoustine is also known as Norway Lobster, and is sometimes known as scampi. The pan roasted langoustine was extremely juicy, tender and flavourful. And the accompanying sauce was an emulsion bursting with seafood flavour. Needless to say, my bread came into good use for mopping up the plate.

Grilled rack of pork, apple compote, crispy potato
My main - you can't get swine flu from eating pork! The pork was juicy and succulent, rosy pink, and didn't have any porcine smells, with a rind of fat surrounding the tender meat. The potato thing is like a huge rectangular potato chip, sprinkled with some spice powder (I think it's curry powder?).

bar de ligne, steamed sea bass à la Provençal, savoy cabbage, rice pilaf

Seabass was extremely fresh - I think I will order fish the next time I come. The rice pilaf was extremely aromatic, and was exactly like how great chicken rice - just without any oiliness. Each grain was fluffy, soft and completely infused in the delicious scents and flavours.

Fine apple tart a la dragées, Havana rum raisin ice-cream
My apple tart - makes me think about my foie gras cos they are both coated in candied almonds. The apple tart was delicious - the pastry was crispy, thin and not flakey, filled with thinly sliced apples. The combination of buttery pastry, crunchy almonds, cooked apples was delightful, and I was quite sorry when I finished my tart. Rum and raisin ice cream goes really well with apple tart - next time if I have apple tart, I'm going to get rum and raisin ice cream to accompany it, instead of the usual vanilla.

Sabayon of Champagne, chocolate, blood orange, vanilla
I've never had this dessert before, but since it had orange, I just stole a bit from ice. Julie will probably love this dessert - alcohol with lots of chocolate. Go to ice's blog for a more detailed description.

My decadant lunch ended on a sweet note with petit fors, with Valrhona Manjari chocolate, financiers and chocolate cookies. As well as fresh peppermint tea. Simply delicious.

Eating the lunch felt like like my gs elects - Halfway through, it was like uh-oh it's so enjoyable but it's going to end! And after it ended, it left really good memories.

Gunther’s

36 Purvis Street

#01-03 Talib Centre

Tel: 6338 8955

Mon-Sat: 12pm-3pm

Mon-Sun: 6.30pm-10.30pm

Tags Reply

Yikes I haven't been replying my tags! To the taggers: I really appreciate your tags just that I'm a procrastinator in replying them :/

<julie>: hellooo the next time u wanna rest ur legs in town call me out to the canteen at shaw cente or the very pretty ps cafe at palais okayyy!
<xq>: i agree tt royal coop is sucky. was v disgusted with the food the only time i went
Actually, I only go to royal copenhagen because it's near Taka, which I happen to be at the moment. I sometimes go to coffee club too. Tired legs can't walk all the way to shaw and palais!

<ice>: hellooo next time u wanna go iggy's call out loudly to me! :O
I will! But I want to go Gunther's first!;D

<emily>: i love the cappellini, i've been having cravings for it! anyway when are you going to gunther's?
I don't think I'll be going to Gunthers anytime soon, but hopefully I'll get there! Yum I like the capellini too! Which explains why I went to Brown Sugar and ate pasta (which really can't compare).

<anna>: i think u should format ur wish such that u can strike off the restaurants u visited... <anna>: argh i forgot the word 'list'.. =S
I can't do the html code for strikeback onto the blog list. Cos it's some widget thing then I can't do strike off. Haiz!
<
WRX-STi>: Nice food michelle! :) I'm so hungry now. :(
<WRX-STi>: haha. Portsdown road! I love that place - the roads are twisty and quiet so i can flex my 300hp & symmetrical AWD; and not to mention, Good Food and Nice Ambience oso! The pasta looks good! will go there one day! :)
Hello WRX STi, I also get very hungry at night blogging and looking at all the food that I've eaten:( The food's at Pietrasanta slightly cheaper than other places and it's v near school! Free carpark too! :P

<xq>: blog faster!
Faster than you! :P

<fish>: i think my com is v slow...it takes quite long to load the 2 sidebars. looks gd though.
It loads quite fast on my comp. Oh no is anyone else having problem loading the sidebars too? :/

<anonymous>: hey,when does the dbs 1-for-1 offer end at persimmon?is it only valid during wkdays?thanks (:
I think it's valid till 30th Sept. More info can be found on their website.

<veldaa>: heyys! my family went to brown sugar recently and thought that the lamb rack and pork belly was really good((: but you only gave it 3 stars overallllll..
Hello Velda! It's 3 stars cos I didn't like my pasta and I think desserts were only ok. The lamb was very nice though. Perhaps I had very high expectations. But I will def try the mains next time :)

Saveur

Another outdated post, but it's too good to not blog about. 

Savour has been opened for quite a while now and I never had the chance to try their outlet at Purvis street - cos it's very far away and I refuse to trudge all the way there and stand in a queue. I saw one of the local food shows featuring it - and their mission is to provide affordable good French food in Singapore. 

So when we were rejected by the Sushi bar (booked full, so full that they refused to take takeaway orders), we went to Savour, where they had a more reasonable queue (about 15 min). 

The mushroom cappuchino ($4.90) came with lots of froth. The portion is probably 2/3 a normal soup portion but I'm not complaining. Taste wise, it's pretty good not like the watered down thin kind.  

Garden salad ($4.90) - personally, I won't order this cos it sounds boring. There's some quail eggs, hazelnuts, olives, tomatoes and cheese on top so it's pretty worth the price, I suppose. But if you need to reach your daily quota of 4-5 servings of fruits and vegetables, go ahead.

Saveur's Pasta ($4.90) - signature pasta with chilli oil, konbu, sakura ebi and minced pork sauce.
My holy grail for similar dry pasta dishes has to be Gunther's truffle konbu angelhair pasta with caviar. Absolutely to die for. But I haven't tried it for a really long time! And the other one is Iggy's sakura ebi cappellini.
This one is pretty good, but I felt that the Konbu could be a bit stronger. Otherwise, for $4.90, I'm not complaining.

 I cannot not order this Foie Gras ($9.90) - for me, pan seared foie gras is one of my all time favourite French foods. Iit's pan seared withe apple-infused port wine and vanilla bean, served with crunchy apples. It's a small portion but worth the $9.90. And it's well done with a crispy exterior and wobbly smooth innards.

 Duck leg confit ($10.90) wtih mashed potato, sauteed shitake mushroom. Not bad, with the crispy duck skin and soft meat which falls away from the bone. But I was more impressed by the fish.

Pan seared sea bass, diced saute potato with crabmeat, French beans and caper vinaigrette ($14.90)
I was particularly impressed by the fish - the skin was crispy and lightly salted, and the flesh was flakey, moist and fresh.

They also have beef short ribs ($14.90), pork belly ($10.90) as other affordable alternatives.
They do have 'premium' items such as beef tenderloin ($24.90) and cod ($24.90) which we didn't try - cheapskate in me wants to get a bigger bang for my buck.

Service is good - enthusiastic young crew but then there were a few hiccups along the way. They forgot about our orders for quite a while - but gave us a complimentary bread bowl while we waited for the food. Saveur also serves complimentary water - for a restaurant with such value for money prices, I'm impressed that they offer water too.

My two cents worth - go for the cheaper dishes - I think with such value for money dishes, there's no use going to eat a fancy steak or expensive fish. I also like their motto - quality yet affordable French food for the masses.

Saveur
14 Scotts Road
Far east Plaza #01-07B Singapore 228213