It was quite a packed weekend, starting once again with an outing to Ikea on Friday night. Background - I had gone there just on Monday since it was Bank Holiday and we rented a trusty Zipcar to carry back all the stuff. Somehow we managed to spend the ENTIRE day in Ikea, like from 10am - 7.30pm, and we still didn't manage to get everything cos errr I was quite indecisive plus several pieces of the furniture were going to be too heavy and big to lug back by car. The VW Golf, however, did manage to fit in all the small barang barang which somehow added up to a mountain of stuff. And since I didn't have access to my house carpark with my key yet, we had to unload by the street and wheel 3 trolley loads across the street and parking lot.
And yes, we went there again on Friday as I couldn't get all the stuff online (what's the point of online shopping if you can't get stuff online??). Got my boss's car for the weekend so off we went. Once again, we came back with a whole load of stuff. This time, at least we got into the carpark and there was only one load. I spent a good part of Saturday evening building the furniture until my hands hurt. I had never wanted a power drill more. Then more hand torturing on Sunday evening as I set out to do laundry. I never liked doing laundry since college days, and my old fears came flooding back when I had to wring dry my handwashing. My hands were still smarting from the previous day's furniture building and it was not fun at all. I think I put too many things into the washer-dryer as well cos my things didn't really dry and I had to hang dry most of it still. While the laundry was drying, I proceeded to scrub the limescale and water marks off my bathroom glass divider and the bathtub. Again, not fun. I can't imagine having to do this on a regular basis - it'll eat up all my weekends! I haven't even stayed there for 2 weeks! The kitchen probably needs some wiping down as well, and I'm sure it'll get worse the more I cook. Gah.
Yeah, so lest people think I lead a glam glam life, I don't! It only seems that way cos I blog about the highlights. On regular days, I wake up, take the tube to work, spend the day at work in meetings or in front of computer, go home, unpack/clean/run errands/cook, sleep and then it starts again the next morning. Occasionally here and there I do go out for nice dinners and try to do some shopping (I think Saturday will be marketing/shopping day). I will also try to cook more. Can't wait for shipment and all my cooking equipment to come!
Oh, and we went to Datchett and Windsor on Sunday, the former for a work-related social event in this huge huge house with big grounds, where there was free flow drinks, food, ice-cream, entertainment, bbq, the full works for about 150-200 pple. We even took a steamboat up the Thames (yes the house is right on the Thames further out where Thames is a narrow river) to Windsor. Neighbours with the queen, now that's a prestigious postcode. The place was just amazing, and we even got to take back vegetables from the hostess's garden!
We left early cos we wanted to take a look at Windsor Castle, but unfortunately it was already closed :( We walked around and had tea (or rather I had coffee, yes travesty I know) & scones at this really cute place called The Crooked House of Windsor. It really is quite slanted and crooked. According to its history blurb it was built in 1592! Apparently it's the place to have tea in Windsor and is featured as one of Britain's must-go tearooms. Well the ambience was great, the scones were not too bad though we thought it would have been better warmed. The Americans at the next table had the full-fledged tea set, sandwiches, cakes, pastries the whole works. I do need to do tea at one of the institutions here in London one day.
After tea, we walked around and unexpected came across some cheap wall art that we bought. It was a nice way to spend the Sunday afternoon. I will be back to actually go to Windsor Castle next time.
September 7, 2009
August 30, 2009
August 29, 2009
End of Week 3
Time flies. It's been 3 weeks since I got here. The past 3 days I've been busy trying to move into my new place. What that means is lugging lots of luggage and things back and forth. I'm thankful that my friend helped me with quite a fair bit of the heavy carrying when he can. One can't imagine the number of things that you would need to make a house a home. Ok maybe it's just me since I seem to need more things than normal people.
Over the past few days, I've had to go to the department stores and supermarkets and lug back duvets, sheets, pillows, broom & pan, frying pan, kettle etc. Some of these things are pretty bulky and it's been quite a feat trying to bring it home, usually I bring my expandable sports bag and stuff the things in. I haven't even gotten my crockery and cutlery yet cos I'm going to Ikea only on Monday so I'm living off my tupperware and plastic cutlery I got from the supermarket.
Yesterday I went to a big Sainsbury to try to get some basic groceries like tea, coffee, sugar, cereal and cleaning stuff like detergent and cleaning liquids. I was a tad ambitious in the amount that I thought I could carry. After I paid and put everything into bags I knew I was in trouble. Nevertheless I carried what seemed like 20 kg (no I'm not kidding) and attempted to make my 15 min journey home. Mind you, I was in heels (after work) and the plastic bags were cutting into my fingers. After about 10 minutes, my fingers were numb and I looked around and it seemed as if I had gone the wrong way! By this time, my arms were about to give way and I thought there's no way I'm going to backtrack and potentially face an even longer journey. So I stopped and tried to flag a cab. Luckily one came by and I quickly got into it, relieved. It turns out that I was walking the correct way (luckily I didn't try to 'backtrack'!) just that I wasn't familiar with how the road turns. Finally I was home. I'm seriously contemplating buying one of those trolley things to carry my marketing. Very auntie I know.
Enough of the unglam stuff and onto more glam things. I was in Paris for a day trip for work yesterday (before the supermarket saga). It is amazing how one see Eiffel Tower, Champs-Elysees in the afternoon and then Westminster, Big Ben at night. It was really quite rushed, with 4 meetings back to back but I enjoyed the sunny Parisian weather (London was grey and rainy) and just soaking the French air. I do miss Paris and come to think of it, it's been exactly one year since I went last year. The trip where I learnt how to make macarons :) Hopefully I'll be able to take more leisure trips to Paris soon.
I'm hoping to get the kitchen and house stocked up asap cos I can't seem to concentrate on anything else. Though I know it's quite silly and I should be able to just do other things but somehow it's become an obsession. I need to tell myself I can slowly do it, and just need to get the essentials. There's this cabinet from Laura Ashley that I would really like to get, it's light aqua blue and it's really pretty. Except it's going to take 9 weeks for delivery. I shall go and contemplate tonight. I need instant gratification.
Over the past few days, I've had to go to the department stores and supermarkets and lug back duvets, sheets, pillows, broom & pan, frying pan, kettle etc. Some of these things are pretty bulky and it's been quite a feat trying to bring it home, usually I bring my expandable sports bag and stuff the things in. I haven't even gotten my crockery and cutlery yet cos I'm going to Ikea only on Monday so I'm living off my tupperware and plastic cutlery I got from the supermarket.
Yesterday I went to a big Sainsbury to try to get some basic groceries like tea, coffee, sugar, cereal and cleaning stuff like detergent and cleaning liquids. I was a tad ambitious in the amount that I thought I could carry. After I paid and put everything into bags I knew I was in trouble. Nevertheless I carried what seemed like 20 kg (no I'm not kidding) and attempted to make my 15 min journey home. Mind you, I was in heels (after work) and the plastic bags were cutting into my fingers. After about 10 minutes, my fingers were numb and I looked around and it seemed as if I had gone the wrong way! By this time, my arms were about to give way and I thought there's no way I'm going to backtrack and potentially face an even longer journey. So I stopped and tried to flag a cab. Luckily one came by and I quickly got into it, relieved. It turns out that I was walking the correct way (luckily I didn't try to 'backtrack'!) just that I wasn't familiar with how the road turns. Finally I was home. I'm seriously contemplating buying one of those trolley things to carry my marketing. Very auntie I know.
Enough of the unglam stuff and onto more glam things. I was in Paris for a day trip for work yesterday (before the supermarket saga). It is amazing how one see Eiffel Tower, Champs-Elysees in the afternoon and then Westminster, Big Ben at night. It was really quite rushed, with 4 meetings back to back but I enjoyed the sunny Parisian weather (London was grey and rainy) and just soaking the French air. I do miss Paris and come to think of it, it's been exactly one year since I went last year. The trip where I learnt how to make macarons :) Hopefully I'll be able to take more leisure trips to Paris soon.
I'm hoping to get the kitchen and house stocked up asap cos I can't seem to concentrate on anything else. Though I know it's quite silly and I should be able to just do other things but somehow it's become an obsession. I need to tell myself I can slowly do it, and just need to get the essentials. There's this cabinet from Laura Ashley that I would really like to get, it's light aqua blue and it's really pretty. Except it's going to take 9 weeks for delivery. I shall go and contemplate tonight. I need instant gratification.
August 24, 2009
Char Kuay Teow from Kiasu
A little burnt, too salty and not sweet enough. Prawns were fresh and big. Probably not fried with lard. Probably a 3 out of 5.
The curry puff I ordered was the flaky pastry sort, the curry wasn't terribly tasty, again more salty than fragrant. Not enough chicken or potatoes, no egg.
Ice kopi was passable, made from coffee bag and using condensed milk at least. A little diluted since I asked for it iced.
Jom Makan
Nasi Lemak came with Rendang, the requisite ikan bilis + peanut but not fried with chilli, sambal with squid and half a hardboiled egg. The rice tasted more like chicken rice than coconut rice, it had a lot more galangal, ginger and spices than coconut. The sambal was quite good, sweetish just like how I like my chilli but the squid was squishy. The rendang was a little dry.
We also ordered chicken satay whic was better than the nasi lemak. The meat was well marinated and tender. The peanut sauce wasn't that spicy. The curry mee was a tad oily.
August 23, 2009
A Foray to Bray & Fat Duck
So yesterday, 4 of us went trotting off to Bray in search of 3-star Michelin restaurant, The Fat Duck. After missing the first train, we caught the 1743h train towards Maidenhead. We passed through Slough and my companions informed me that it was one of the most unimpressive places in Greater London. Well, it was where The Office (remember Milton and the hole puncher?) was set. Yeah, it's quite depressing.
After a 45 min ride, we were finally in Maidenhead! We caught a cab to nearby Bray, the cabbie took one look at us and immediately said "Fat Duck or Waterside Inn?". Now, was it THAT obvious? Guess 3 chinese and a caucasian aren't that common sight there huh? We arrived plenty early for our 9 o'clock sitting and so we went traipsing the little village. The place is really very pretty and quaint, with small streets, cottages, flowering gardens and greenery all around as you can see from the pictures. There were also plenty of fancy cars, surely patrons of the fancy restaurants. We walked towards the Waterside Inn where we scored another reservation there for October. So we will be returning to Bray soon enough :)
To while away our time, we chilled at the Hind's Head pub next to Fat Duck. The bartenders and waiters there all somehow had the Heston Blumenthal look - bald with metal frame glasses. Maybe it's a cult of gastronomers? We were kinda hungry, so we ordered some of the bar snacks, they were actually not bad, my first time having Scotch Eggs, which is an egg (quail's in this case) wrapped with sausage meet, breaded and fried. Yum.
Finally, it was time for our meal at The Fat Duck. The place is tucked away by the streetside with no obvious sign except for its logo hanging outside. The restaurant was full, as expected, and we were shown to one of the only remaining tables. The decor is understated, well really not much decor at all. It was converted from an old pub so it has low ceilings and has exposed wooden beams. We were seated and were asked if we had any allergies or dietary restrictions. Since there was only the Tasting menu (they got rid of the a la carte menu in July) with 13 courses, the only choice was whether you wanted the budget wines, mid-priced or high-end wines. My companions all opted for budget wines and I went for an organic apple-pear juice.
Before long, our waiter came by with some contraptions and proceeded to prepare our amuse-bouche. He had some liquid nitrogen in a pot, and he squeezed a dollop of egg white meringue onto a spoon, which he proceeded to drop into the liquid nitrogen. He then turned the meringue around a few times in the liquid and took it out, and sprinkled green tea powder onto it with a big puff. We were served one by one and told to put it our mouth whole as soon as we got it. The meringue was icy cold, tasted of lime and green tea and kinda melted/dissolved in your mouth leaving a tangy cool aftertaste. A worthy palette cleanser and it set our expectations for more theatrics to follow. Oh by the way, this menu is known as the Alice in Wonderland variation and here's the entire menu for reference -
Next up was the Gazpacho with mustard ice cream. The Gazpacho was really cabbagey, for lack of a better description, which I quite liked. But there were also some pickled vegetables and the pommery grain which I didn't really like, so overall the dish kinda tasted like Chinese pickles.
This was followed by the next theatrical dish. You will notice this will be an over-riding theme for the restaurant, where the uniqueness and wonder is derived from the bells and whistles and the unusual ways of presentation, rather than the taste of the dish. Yes, so back to our next dish, which was a combination of crayfish cream, jelly quail and liver parfait with a piece of truffle toast. Before we got to eat though, our waiter brought out a bed of moss with these melt-in-your-mouth films, like the listerine mouthwash kind except that this tasted of erm... forest. He poured some liquid (nitro?) onto the moss which began to 'smoke' except I didn't smell anything though I definitely tasted forest. Only then were we allowed to eat our dish. The crayfish cream was really quite delicious, not unlike a lobster bisque except lighter, and there was some green cream at the bottom layer of my creme dish which I really liked. Oh, and the truffle toast was good.
Next up was the foie gras. This was one of my favourite dishes in terms of taste. The foie gras was just nicely done, not too livery nor fatty and the crab biscuits and konbu seaweed were a nice touch that was different from the usual sweet fruit compote that foie gras usually comes with. Our only lament was that they could have given us a FULL piece of foie gras instead of that small half! Especially considering how much we were paying for the whole meal!
The Mock Turtle Soup definitely wins for best presentation hands-down. Our waiter, in his thick French accent, told us the story of how in Alice in Wonderland the Rabbit dipped his golden watch into his tea. As you can see from the series of pictures below, we had a golden watch in our tea cup, and when hot water was poured into it, it began to dissolve and the gold flakes started to swirl around in the 'tea'! This was then poured into this beautifully plated dish, which I think consisted of steamed egg, some really cute tiny mushrooms, truffle and veg cubes and some pork slices, transforming our dish into the 'mock turtle' soup. I just can't get over how cute the small tiny mushrooms were! Don't let the pictures fool you, the eggy dome was only about 3cm in diameter. The 'tea' was in fact a savoury (chicken?) consomme and the pork slices with some fat in between was really quite yummy.
The signature "Sound of the Sea" was next. We were presented with these shells which had an ipod tucked into it. We were to listen to it while enjoying our next dish. The sound was of the sea (what else?), with waves crashing and seagulls calling. The dish itself was also made to look like a scene of the beach, with tapioca and eel somehow made to look like sand (on top of the plate, not the below one, that's real sand), and different types of raw fish and sea weed and small ikan bilis with some seaweed foam as waves. I really enjoyed the 'sand' as it was part crunchy and part melt-in-your-mouth. The fish was so-so but I really liked the ikan bilis (hahah I'm cheap).
The next 2 were main dishes, one was a semi-poached salmon in liquorice gel with a whole lot of other flavours on the dish, and a pigeon dish. I really didn't like either of these. The salmon texture was nice, like aburi salmon that you get in japanese restaurants but it was quite bland. Perhaps it was purposely made bland so that you can taste the ikura, vanilla mayonnaise and the artichokes (which were yum). It was kinda sweet, with a faint taste of liquorice and quite strong vanilla, which was strange for a savoury dish. And then the pigeon, which was my least favourite dish of the night. I'm not sure how they cooked it, while it was not bloody, the texture and taste was quite raw and gamey. Did not rock my boat. There was also some bloody pudding, which again, is something I'm not hot about. My favourite bit was the pigeon cracker. For a degustation menu with 2 main dishes, it was really quite disappointing that neither of them were substantial. We concluded that perhaps it was harder to do something special with main dishes than appetisers and desserts. I guess we all would have preferred a thick slab of wagyu.
The next 5 dishes were dessert. First up was the Taffety Tart, with lots of goodness like rose, apple, lemon, a berry sorbet and thin tuile sheets. It was a tad sweet after a while, though the tartness of the berry sorbet did cut the sweetness a little.
Then came the famous Bacon and Eggs. This was part of a trio of the Not So Full English Breakfast. Our entertainer waiter came by again with his favourite ingredient liquid nitrogen. This time, he took out a couple of eggs and cracked them into the pot, poured liquid nitrogen over it then 'stir-fried' it and out came scrambled eggs! Except that this was scrambled eggs ice cream! We found out that it wasn't really egg inside the egg shell, they probably emptied the egg and refilled it with some egg custard and sealed it somehow. Ingenious. And I wonder how they get the texture of the ice cream to look like scrambled eggs as well! Other than that, the bacon strip was like a bacon flavoured candy, and it was served on french toast. It was also topped with some sweet pepper confit, which I wasn't really a fan of. This dish also came with hot & iced tea, which was a tea that was hot and cold at the same time! There was a cold denser viscous liquid suspended in hot jasmine tea, and when you drink it together you get both hot and cold sensations. Amazing. Think this was the crowd favourite of the night!
The other part of the breakfast was our Parsnip cereal. Well just some dried parsnip chips in milk. Nothing very wow but the packaging was really quite cute.
We're almost at the end! The next two desserts were the chocolate wine slush, and the wine gums. The chocolate wine slush is exactly that - a slushy chocolate wine errr slush, served with a really good dark chocolate shortbread. I liked the shortbread better than the slush haha. The wine gums were literally that as well, gums made of liquer from various parts of the world. They were placed along the respective countries they came from and we were supposed to eat them in order - Mead, Cognac, Madiera, Sherry, and Rum. Somehow this dish made us giggle a lot, we were all very high and happy from the wine (me from the slush and wine gums) and some of us had trouble following the numbered route. It was very fun peeling the wine gummies from the picture frame *giggle*
And now, for the last dessert and dish of the evening - Like A Kid in A Sweet Shop! We were all presented with a pretty gift bag with a variety of sweets and a explanation card that smelled like a sweet shop! Actually it somehow evoked a memory of Paris for me instead of a sweet shop. We were discussing what a sweet shop smelt like and Connie said that it should smell of old ladies and lavender, which prompted our waiter to burst out laughing. Smells aside, the goodies in the bag included an aerated orange chocolate (not great, I prefer dense chocs), a coconut caramel baccy (which tasted like gula melaka + coconut i.e. onde onde), caramel apple toffee (yum!) and a white chocolate + fruit compote Queen of Hearts (it was very exquisite, even the envelope seal was chocolate!).
We finished the night off with 2 pots of Yellow Tea (supposedly the rarest tea in the world), which cost 20 quid each - yeah so that's like SGD100 for both. It was kinda like Longjing, not terribly impressive.
I was impressed with the overall experience of the meal, of the thought put into packaging and presenting the meal, though not so much the taste of the food and flavours. It's more of a restaurant to be entertained rather than good food. They definitely do appetisers and desserts better than they do mains, since the salmon and the pigeon failed to impress. It was a positive experience nonetheless and I think we enjoyed ourselves. The wines (which I think Connie will write about) were mostly quite good, and that was just the budget wines - think of what the high-end wines must have been like! It's worth a trip at least once just to be thrilled and wowed by the cool liquid nitrogen stuff. I'm looking forward to the Waterside Inn, where it's not so strange food.
Other than the entertainment from our food, we were highly amused (and annoyed) by the table next to us, where a twat of an Eton boy (16 yrs) was dining with his father. Throughout the night, we were regaled with stories of how he (the boy not the father) loves to dine at posh places (he's apparently trying to get an El Bulli reservation) and other things that sounded like he was trying to impress daddy. He even tried to pay for the meal, which was dumb since his dad obviously would be paying for the supp card. Gosh, if you're eating at the best restaurants in the world at 16, where do you go from there?
Gosh, this review took as long to write and put up as it did to eat - 4 hours. As I was mentioing, Connie writes a food blog as well and she will most probably be putting up a review real soon as well! Check out her blog here!
I'm intending to do a eat-off challenge for the various Singaporean / Malaysian restaurants here in London i.e. go to each of them and compare some of the signature Singaporean / Msian dishes and see how they compare with each other. Stay tuned!
After a 45 min ride, we were finally in Maidenhead! We caught a cab to nearby Bray, the cabbie took one look at us and immediately said "Fat Duck or Waterside Inn?". Now, was it THAT obvious? Guess 3 chinese and a caucasian aren't that common sight there huh? We arrived plenty early for our 9 o'clock sitting and so we went traipsing the little village. The place is really very pretty and quaint, with small streets, cottages, flowering gardens and greenery all around as you can see from the pictures. There were also plenty of fancy cars, surely patrons of the fancy restaurants. We walked towards the Waterside Inn where we scored another reservation there for October. So we will be returning to Bray soon enough :)
To while away our time, we chilled at the Hind's Head pub next to Fat Duck. The bartenders and waiters there all somehow had the Heston Blumenthal look - bald with metal frame glasses. Maybe it's a cult of gastronomers? We were kinda hungry, so we ordered some of the bar snacks, they were actually not bad, my first time having Scotch Eggs, which is an egg (quail's in this case) wrapped with sausage meet, breaded and fried. Yum.
Finally, it was time for our meal at The Fat Duck. The place is tucked away by the streetside with no obvious sign except for its logo hanging outside. The restaurant was full, as expected, and we were shown to one of the only remaining tables. The decor is understated, well really not much decor at all. It was converted from an old pub so it has low ceilings and has exposed wooden beams. We were seated and were asked if we had any allergies or dietary restrictions. Since there was only the Tasting menu (they got rid of the a la carte menu in July) with 13 courses, the only choice was whether you wanted the budget wines, mid-priced or high-end wines. My companions all opted for budget wines and I went for an organic apple-pear juice.
Before long, our waiter came by with some contraptions and proceeded to prepare our amuse-bouche. He had some liquid nitrogen in a pot, and he squeezed a dollop of egg white meringue onto a spoon, which he proceeded to drop into the liquid nitrogen. He then turned the meringue around a few times in the liquid and took it out, and sprinkled green tea powder onto it with a big puff. We were served one by one and told to put it our mouth whole as soon as we got it. The meringue was icy cold, tasted of lime and green tea and kinda melted/dissolved in your mouth leaving a tangy cool aftertaste. A worthy palette cleanser and it set our expectations for more theatrics to follow. Oh by the way, this menu is known as the Alice in Wonderland variation and here's the entire menu for reference -
LIME GROVE
Nitro Poached Green Tea and Lime Mousse
RED CABBAGE GAZPACHO
Pommery Grain Mustard Ice Cream
JELLY OF QUAIL, CREAM OF CRAYFISH
Chicken Liver Parfait, Oak Moss and Truffle Toast (Homage to Alain Chapel)
ROAST FOIE GRAS
Gooseberry, Braised Konbu and Crab Biscuit
MOCK TURTLE SOUP (c.1850)
"Mad Hatter Tea"
"SOUND OF THE SEA"
SALMON POACHED IN LIQUORICE
Artichokes, Vanilla Mayonnaise, Golden Trout Roe and Manni Olive Oil
POWDERED ANJOU PIGEON (c.1720)
Blood Pudding and Confit of Umbles
TAFFETY TART (c1660)
Caramelized Apple, Fennel, Rose and Candied Lemon
THE NOT-SO-FULL ENGLISH BREAKFAST
Parsnip Cereal
Nitro-Scrambled Egg and Bacon Ice Cream
Hot & Iced Tea
CHOCOLATE WINE "SLUSH" (c.1660)
Millionaire Shortbread
WINE GUMS
Historic Trade Routes of Britain
"LIKE A KID IN A SWEET SHOP"
Nitro Poached Green Tea and Lime Mousse
RED CABBAGE GAZPACHO
Pommery Grain Mustard Ice Cream
JELLY OF QUAIL, CREAM OF CRAYFISH
Chicken Liver Parfait, Oak Moss and Truffle Toast (Homage to Alain Chapel)
ROAST FOIE GRAS
Gooseberry, Braised Konbu and Crab Biscuit
MOCK TURTLE SOUP (c.1850)
"Mad Hatter Tea"
"SOUND OF THE SEA"
SALMON POACHED IN LIQUORICE
Artichokes, Vanilla Mayonnaise, Golden Trout Roe and Manni Olive Oil
POWDERED ANJOU PIGEON (c.1720)
Blood Pudding and Confit of Umbles
TAFFETY TART (c1660)
Caramelized Apple, Fennel, Rose and Candied Lemon
THE NOT-SO-FULL ENGLISH BREAKFAST
Parsnip Cereal
Nitro-Scrambled Egg and Bacon Ice Cream
Hot & Iced Tea
CHOCOLATE WINE "SLUSH" (c.1660)
Millionaire Shortbread
WINE GUMS
Historic Trade Routes of Britain
"LIKE A KID IN A SWEET SHOP"
Next up was the Gazpacho with mustard ice cream. The Gazpacho was really cabbagey, for lack of a better description, which I quite liked. But there were also some pickled vegetables and the pommery grain which I didn't really like, so overall the dish kinda tasted like Chinese pickles.
This was followed by the next theatrical dish. You will notice this will be an over-riding theme for the restaurant, where the uniqueness and wonder is derived from the bells and whistles and the unusual ways of presentation, rather than the taste of the dish. Yes, so back to our next dish, which was a combination of crayfish cream, jelly quail and liver parfait with a piece of truffle toast. Before we got to eat though, our waiter brought out a bed of moss with these melt-in-your-mouth films, like the listerine mouthwash kind except that this tasted of erm... forest. He poured some liquid (nitro?) onto the moss which began to 'smoke' except I didn't smell anything though I definitely tasted forest. Only then were we allowed to eat our dish. The crayfish cream was really quite delicious, not unlike a lobster bisque except lighter, and there was some green cream at the bottom layer of my creme dish which I really liked. Oh, and the truffle toast was good.
Next up was the foie gras. This was one of my favourite dishes in terms of taste. The foie gras was just nicely done, not too livery nor fatty and the crab biscuits and konbu seaweed were a nice touch that was different from the usual sweet fruit compote that foie gras usually comes with. Our only lament was that they could have given us a FULL piece of foie gras instead of that small half! Especially considering how much we were paying for the whole meal!
The Mock Turtle Soup definitely wins for best presentation hands-down. Our waiter, in his thick French accent, told us the story of how in Alice in Wonderland the Rabbit dipped his golden watch into his tea. As you can see from the series of pictures below, we had a golden watch in our tea cup, and when hot water was poured into it, it began to dissolve and the gold flakes started to swirl around in the 'tea'! This was then poured into this beautifully plated dish, which I think consisted of steamed egg, some really cute tiny mushrooms, truffle and veg cubes and some pork slices, transforming our dish into the 'mock turtle' soup. I just can't get over how cute the small tiny mushrooms were! Don't let the pictures fool you, the eggy dome was only about 3cm in diameter. The 'tea' was in fact a savoury (chicken?) consomme and the pork slices with some fat in between was really quite yummy.
The signature "Sound of the Sea" was next. We were presented with these shells which had an ipod tucked into it. We were to listen to it while enjoying our next dish. The sound was of the sea (what else?), with waves crashing and seagulls calling. The dish itself was also made to look like a scene of the beach, with tapioca and eel somehow made to look like sand (on top of the plate, not the below one, that's real sand), and different types of raw fish and sea weed and small ikan bilis with some seaweed foam as waves. I really enjoyed the 'sand' as it was part crunchy and part melt-in-your-mouth. The fish was so-so but I really liked the ikan bilis (hahah I'm cheap).
The next 2 were main dishes, one was a semi-poached salmon in liquorice gel with a whole lot of other flavours on the dish, and a pigeon dish. I really didn't like either of these. The salmon texture was nice, like aburi salmon that you get in japanese restaurants but it was quite bland. Perhaps it was purposely made bland so that you can taste the ikura, vanilla mayonnaise and the artichokes (which were yum). It was kinda sweet, with a faint taste of liquorice and quite strong vanilla, which was strange for a savoury dish. And then the pigeon, which was my least favourite dish of the night. I'm not sure how they cooked it, while it was not bloody, the texture and taste was quite raw and gamey. Did not rock my boat. There was also some bloody pudding, which again, is something I'm not hot about. My favourite bit was the pigeon cracker. For a degustation menu with 2 main dishes, it was really quite disappointing that neither of them were substantial. We concluded that perhaps it was harder to do something special with main dishes than appetisers and desserts. I guess we all would have preferred a thick slab of wagyu.
The next 5 dishes were dessert. First up was the Taffety Tart, with lots of goodness like rose, apple, lemon, a berry sorbet and thin tuile sheets. It was a tad sweet after a while, though the tartness of the berry sorbet did cut the sweetness a little.
Then came the famous Bacon and Eggs. This was part of a trio of the Not So Full English Breakfast. Our entertainer waiter came by again with his favourite ingredient liquid nitrogen. This time, he took out a couple of eggs and cracked them into the pot, poured liquid nitrogen over it then 'stir-fried' it and out came scrambled eggs! Except that this was scrambled eggs ice cream! We found out that it wasn't really egg inside the egg shell, they probably emptied the egg and refilled it with some egg custard and sealed it somehow. Ingenious. And I wonder how they get the texture of the ice cream to look like scrambled eggs as well! Other than that, the bacon strip was like a bacon flavoured candy, and it was served on french toast. It was also topped with some sweet pepper confit, which I wasn't really a fan of. This dish also came with hot & iced tea, which was a tea that was hot and cold at the same time! There was a cold denser viscous liquid suspended in hot jasmine tea, and when you drink it together you get both hot and cold sensations. Amazing. Think this was the crowd favourite of the night!
The other part of the breakfast was our Parsnip cereal. Well just some dried parsnip chips in milk. Nothing very wow but the packaging was really quite cute.
We're almost at the end! The next two desserts were the chocolate wine slush, and the wine gums. The chocolate wine slush is exactly that - a slushy chocolate wine errr slush, served with a really good dark chocolate shortbread. I liked the shortbread better than the slush haha. The wine gums were literally that as well, gums made of liquer from various parts of the world. They were placed along the respective countries they came from and we were supposed to eat them in order - Mead, Cognac, Madiera, Sherry, and Rum. Somehow this dish made us giggle a lot, we were all very high and happy from the wine (me from the slush and wine gums) and some of us had trouble following the numbered route. It was very fun peeling the wine gummies from the picture frame *giggle*
And now, for the last dessert and dish of the evening - Like A Kid in A Sweet Shop! We were all presented with a pretty gift bag with a variety of sweets and a explanation card that smelled like a sweet shop! Actually it somehow evoked a memory of Paris for me instead of a sweet shop. We were discussing what a sweet shop smelt like and Connie said that it should smell of old ladies and lavender, which prompted our waiter to burst out laughing. Smells aside, the goodies in the bag included an aerated orange chocolate (not great, I prefer dense chocs), a coconut caramel baccy (which tasted like gula melaka + coconut i.e. onde onde), caramel apple toffee (yum!) and a white chocolate + fruit compote Queen of Hearts (it was very exquisite, even the envelope seal was chocolate!).
We finished the night off with 2 pots of Yellow Tea (supposedly the rarest tea in the world), which cost 20 quid each - yeah so that's like SGD100 for both. It was kinda like Longjing, not terribly impressive.I was impressed with the overall experience of the meal, of the thought put into packaging and presenting the meal, though not so much the taste of the food and flavours. It's more of a restaurant to be entertained rather than good food. They definitely do appetisers and desserts better than they do mains, since the salmon and the pigeon failed to impress. It was a positive experience nonetheless and I think we enjoyed ourselves. The wines (which I think Connie will write about) were mostly quite good, and that was just the budget wines - think of what the high-end wines must have been like! It's worth a trip at least once just to be thrilled and wowed by the cool liquid nitrogen stuff. I'm looking forward to the Waterside Inn, where it's not so strange food.
Other than the entertainment from our food, we were highly amused (and annoyed) by the table next to us, where a twat of an Eton boy (16 yrs) was dining with his father. Throughout the night, we were regaled with stories of how he (the boy not the father) loves to dine at posh places (he's apparently trying to get an El Bulli reservation) and other things that sounded like he was trying to impress daddy. He even tried to pay for the meal, which was dumb since his dad obviously would be paying for the supp card. Gosh, if you're eating at the best restaurants in the world at 16, where do you go from there?
Gosh, this review took as long to write and put up as it did to eat - 4 hours. As I was mentioing, Connie writes a food blog as well and she will most probably be putting up a review real soon as well! Check out her blog here!
I'm intending to do a eat-off challenge for the various Singaporean / Malaysian restaurants here in London i.e. go to each of them and compare some of the signature Singaporean / Msian dishes and see how they compare with each other. Stay tuned!
August 21, 2009
Homesick
It's been about 2 weeks since I got here, how time flies. I'm beginning to freak out about how long I am going to be here and what that means. Getting increasingly frequent pangs of homesickness and mini panic attacks. Yes, I know life here sounds exciting (it's London after all) and the experience of setting up a new home and all is great but at the risk of sounding ungrateful, I sometimes ask myself wtf did I think I was doing deciding on this move. I miss the familiarities of home, of my close friends and loved ones, knowing where all the things and shops are, having the convenience of a car and knowing I can meet up with my dear friends whenever I want. Here, I find that I have to watch what I spend on, ask around before I know where to get certain things, I don't even know the areas when people talk about them, and generally I just feel lost and unresourceful. I hate hate hate feeling like that. Whilst it's definitely been easier having a couple of friends here who have been more than great in showing me around, it's just different.
Restless, unsettled, lost.
Restless, unsettled, lost.
Jude Law in Hamlet
Once again, I lucked out, thanks to Eugene the well-connected one! Someone couldn't go last minute to the Hamlet performance last Thursday and I jumped at the chance since this was a sold-out show. And of course, what wouldn't I give to see Jude Law up close and personal?
Sorry my pics turned out quite crap since I was using my iphone to sneakily take it. Yes, the figure next to the ghostly white lady is Jude Law. Yeah so his face looks like every other ghostly white person on stage haha.
The show itself was alright, though half the time I had no clue what they were saying cos it was all in Shakespearean and it's quite hard to concentrate after a long day. It was quite a minimalistic set, kinda modern/classic costumes. The performance by Jude Law was good, portraying Hamlet as a tortured and almost mad prince. The rest of the performers were so-so, I didn't really like the 'shouting' and way of acting by some of the actors. But overall, guess it was quite a good first London theatre experience. And did I mention Jude Law? Yum.
Sorry my pics turned out quite crap since I was using my iphone to sneakily take it. Yes, the figure next to the ghostly white lady is Jude Law. Yeah so his face looks like every other ghostly white person on stage haha.
The show itself was alright, though half the time I had no clue what they were saying cos it was all in Shakespearean and it's quite hard to concentrate after a long day. It was quite a minimalistic set, kinda modern/classic costumes. The performance by Jude Law was good, portraying Hamlet as a tortured and almost mad prince. The rest of the performers were so-so, I didn't really like the 'shouting' and way of acting by some of the actors. But overall, guess it was quite a good first London theatre experience. And did I mention Jude Law? Yum.
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