Wednesday, December 29

Au Petit Salut

Salut! =)

How's everyone's last week of 2010 going? I've been going back to school daily since the start of this week for CCA and I think I'm beginning to enjoy myself even more during CCA sessions. I'm quite proud to say that I've taken a step towards being more involved with my CCA by joining my very flexible students when they do warm up! =) It certainly beats sitting at the corner watching them do those challenging stretches and I feel like I'm having some kind of free 'yoga' or stretching session of sorts! Looking forward to our final session before we take a break for New Year celebration!

Today, I'll blog about one of my favourite restaurants in Singapore - Au Petit Salut at Harding Road. It's a popular French restaurant that I've been to quite a few times and I keep returning because of the well-cooked food and relatively affordable set-meal prices!
Recently, Jeffrey and I have taken a liking to sparkling water so we ordered a bottle of S. Benedetto ($7) to share! I like it when there's a slice of lemon in my sparkling water because it gives a slight tangy taste to the water.

A basket of complimentary warm bread buns which we absolutely love! These go perfectly with the cold butter that is served together with the bread basket.

Jeffrey and I usually visit Au Petit Salut in the afternoon so we'll go for their three-course set lunch. There're basically two kinds of set lunch: the normal one that costs $30++ per pax and the executive set lunch that costs slightly more. We opted for the normal set lunch so we paid $30++ per person!


For starters, I'd the mushroom quiche which came with a side salad. The quiche was warm and tasty and it was of just the right size - not too filling and not too small. The salad was exceptionally well-tossed because every leaf was drizzled with salad sauce. Yum =)

Jeffrey chose the normal garden salad and it was as tasty as my side salad! If you like your salad to come with a bit of zing, try Au Petit Salut's!
I think there are slight changes to the set lunch menus because I spotted a couple of items which I have never seen before but these changes obviously go unnoticed by Jeffrey because he always goes for the same thing - ONGLET WITH FRIES! =P I guess there's nothing wrong with eating and re-eating the same dish that one likes, especially if the dish is good! There were many other diners who ordered this too so I'm guessing that their onglet must be quite good!

I decided to go for the risotto which, at first glance, looked pretty pathetic in terms of portion size but turned out to be quite filling! It's one of the more flavourful risottos that I've eaten! On top of that, I thought that the chef did a good job in making sure that the rice grains are neither too hard nor too 'fat'! I liked it so much that I ate every single grain of it!

For dessert, both of us ordered a plate of profiteroles each. Profiteroles are actually scoops of vanilla icecream that sit in between two puff pastry 'bases', covered with chocolate sauce and generous sprinklings of almond flakes. It's a dessert that will fill up whatever empty space you've left in your tummy so if you're already very full from your mains, I would suggest you go for their creme brulee (which is not bad as well) or some other dessert that you fancy.

While eating your dessert, you'll also be served with complimentary coffee or tea. I like to think of these cups of coffee and tea as 'end of meal beverage' so seeing these cups of warm drinks on the table will mean that my meal has come to and end!

I honestly think that the set lunches are extremely worth it and that everyone who wants to have a taste of affordable French food should dine at Au Petit Salut. It helps that the ambience is relaxed and the staff are generally friendly! Will probably go back again next year!

Alright that's all for today! =) Enjoy the last few days of 2010!

Saturday, December 25

Cha Cha Cha

HOHOHO! Merry Christmas! (:

I'm back in Singapore! It's the first time being away for so long and it feels quite good to be back (apart from the fact that I'm painfully aware that the year is coming to an end!). My trip was pretty eye-opening and it gave me much to think about. I only wished that I'd more time to lounge about and do nothing but the tourist in me felt compelled to visit some of the 'must see' sights and the 'must visit' places. On the whole it was a fulfilling trip and I did manage to get some rest in between, so it's not too bad (: Will spend the rest of the year preparing myself physically and mentally for the new year!

Anyhow, I'll do a short post before continuing with my unpacking. I've decided to post about Cha Cha Cha partly because we had Mexican food on the first night at Bangkok. We've been visiting this city two years in a row so far! It's not that we particularly love the food or the shopping (though I must say that that both are pretty good) but because we happened to be visiting Thailand's less developed neighbouring countries and we always used Bangkok as our 'safety stop' - in case we dislike the other less developed neighbouring countries, then at least Bangkok will be some sort of reprieve. Okay I don't know why we're being so cautious but I guess since a holiday is meant to be enjoyable and this works out for us, it's good enough!

I've digressed! Okay back to Mexican food. Ever since I ate at Cafe Iguana a few years ago, I realised that Mexican cuisine goes well with my palate. So one fine day before we left Singapore, we decided to pop by Cha Cha Cha at Holland Village for some Mexican food since we've heard that it serves pretty decent food. We were there on a sunny Saturday and the restaurant wasn't full so I guess it's not necessary to make a reservation for lunches.


Our basket of complimentary nachos, which was served AFTER we ordered our dishes! This led to a slight problem because I had thought that they wouldn't be serving nachos so we ordered a platter of nachos with cheese and diced tomatoes!

This was our plate of nachos with melted cheese and diced tomatoes (sorry I forgot how much this cost). Needless to say, this plate of chips carried more taste and flavour than its plainer compatriot and it's definitely good for sharing if you're a nachos lover! Otherwise, the plain nachos are good enough as starters (:

Jeffrey ordered chicken burrito ($16) and he liked it despite its reddish appearance! I was slightly worried that it might be spicy but apparently it isn't so it was good for him!

I ordered this dish which consitst of a wrap with melted cheese and mushrooms, a ball of rice, two clumps of different mashed beans which is (if I'm not wrong) called the Flauta ($13.50) and I thoroughly enjoyed it! It's like a deconstructed burrito and you've to put the different ingredients together to get what you want =)

Finally, we decided to order a crepe ($6.50), which turned out to be crepe with banana slices inside topped with pineapple bits, three grapes and super sweet syrup! Honestly I don't think I've tasted such a sweet crepe before! I thought that the overly-sweet taste kind of spoilt the dish for me but I guess different people have different tastes so you may like it.

In short, the entire meal was satisfying apart from our little disappointment with the dessert. Service is prompt and prices are affordable so I think it's quite a decent place to have a relaxing meal. I'm not sure if the restaurant is/ will be airconditioned so people who dislike perspiring or are prone to perspiring a lot may want to avoid this place during sunny and hot days. Otherwise, it's a great place for Mexican food! (:

Alright that's all for now! Time to unpack, rest a bit and then have Christmas dinner with the rest of the limmies (: Merry Christmas everyone! =)

Saturday, December 4

The Cavern

Hello! (:

Sorry for not updating this space for a while. I was suddenly attacked by a mighty bout of flu on Tuesday and have since been on the relatively speedy road to recovery - thanks to tamiflu! =) I'm feeling perfectly fine now except for the occassional cough and the croaky/ husky voice! I'll definitely spend the next 1.5days resting and recovering because I'll be gone for the next three weeks! =) I doubt I'll be updating this space much when I'm gone but I'll update more when I'm back! (:

Anyway, a few of us dropped by The Cavern to try out its food a few weeks ago. The Cavern's currently having a 'soft launch' - which means that it's not officially launched yet (I think) and their current menu is relatively limited because they only serve certain dishes listed on their main menu.

The space that The Cavern occupies was previously taken by Brewerkz but the latter ended its lease a couple of months ago, and so The Cavern took over. Business is still slow at the moment - which is fine - since it's still going through the soft launch phase. Hopefully more people'll drop by for some pub grub when business is in full swing!

For starters, we decided to have the house garden salad ($12), which tasted slightly different from the usual vegetable salad because there were some apple quarters tossed in! I love salads with apple bits because the salad becomes slightly sweeter and crunchier.


We ordered a basket of calamari ($12) to share as well. The calamari was mediocre and isn't something to scream about so I guess we'll give this a miss in future.

If you feel like you're seeing double in this photo, let me assure you that your eyes aren't tricking you! We actually ordered two plates of prawn aglio olio spaghetti ($16 each) because the menu's very limited! This plate of prawn aglio olio has got to be one of the spiciest that I've ever tasted! My sister, who ate the other plate, also commented that it was much spicier than expected! If you aren't able to handle spice well, please refrain from ordering this though I must say that the dish was pretty well done! =)

We also ordered two servings of The Cavern's Famous Fish & Chips ($15 per serving). On the whole this dish was slightly above average - the fries weren't as nice as we expected them to be but the fish fillet was pretty tender and savoury. I guess it would help a little if we'd coleslaw/ lettuce as a side instead of the vegetable that we were served.

Our trip to The Cavern wasn't disappointing nor did it floor us with what it offered. The service was friendly and prompt and our dining experience was pretty pleasant. I hope that there'll be a wider variety of choices after The Cavern's official launch so that I'll be able to sample other Cavern-delights when I return in future! =)

Have a good weekend!