Le Bon Marche

Hello everyone (:

Life's been pretty busy of late and I suspect it's going to get even busier from now on! As such, I apologise if I don't update this space as often but I promise I'll make an effort to keep this blog alive!

As most of you know, Au Petit Salut is one of my favourite French restuarants (maybe it's because I haven't been to many French restaurants in the first place) and I highly recommend their value-for-money set meals! Not too long ago, I found a French restaurant that's situated not too far from where I live and decided to give it a go! (:

Le Bon Marche is located opposite Singapore Chinese Girls' School and is pretty accessible by public transport. I first noticed this restaurant when I was travelling home last year and since then, had very much wanted to visit this place.

The interior of Le Bon Marche is much larger than it looks from the outside. Compared to Au Petit Salut, Le Bon Marche exudes a much homelier feel and it is definitely a place you can go to for casual dining, which is exactly what Jeffrey and I did! (:

Complimentary warm mini-baughette with olive oil and butter (not in picture). The mini-baughettes were crispy on the outside and warm and soft on the inside - it was the perfect teaser for what was going to be a fantastically gastronomical meal!

We ordered a caesar salad ($15) for starters. I know it's not exactly the most French of starters to order but we didn't want to have anything too Frenchy and were in the mood for some veggie so that's why we went with this. The caesar dressing tasted very unique! It was not as creamy as the usual caesar sauces and it had a little twang to it.

Because we were feeling a tad greedy that day, we decided to order a huge bowl of truffle french fries ($10). I'm not too sure about you but I love salty fries! =) There was only a hint of truffle but the fries were crisp, warm, salty and YUMMY! I loved them so much that I ate 3/4 of the batch, leaving poor Jeffrey with only 1/4 to eat! If you like fries, please order this! You won't regret it!

For my mains, I ordered mushroom risotto with something which I forgot ($23), sorry! It was one of the heartiest risottos that I've eaten because not only is the risotto stock flavourful, the portion was big enough to fill my gigantic tummy! =P The best part is that the risotto grains didn't get too soggy near the end of my meal so there was hardly any pressure to eat it fast.
Jeffrey decided to go for the croque madame ($13), which is essentially toasted bread with ham and egg. When his croque madame first arrived, I immediately thought of Royal Copenhagen Tea Lounge's open-faced sandwiches! Perhaps the main difference between the two types of sandwiches is that this croque madame is warm and the bread was extremely well-baked! It makes a good light meal!

Even though we were near bursting point, we couldn't help but order one dessert to share! After asking the waitress for her opinion on what's good to have, we decided to go for hot souffle with grand marnier ($15). Frankly, I'm not a big fan of souffles because I feel that they're just air that's trapped with a thin layer of flavoured poofy fluff! This souffle was slightly more interesting than the usual because it had a little 'jug' of alcohol accompanying it. If you were to pour the contents of the jug into/ onto the souffle, you'll get bitter-sweet souffle! Personally, I think souffles are not for me and I should not order this again in future no matter how good they are because they just don't satisfy me! I'll stick to having desserts with more body. Heh.

Alright that's all for now (: Will get back to work! Hope all of you will have a good week ahead!

Picotin

Hello! (:


It's finally time to take a short little breather from work and rest for the night! The first week back at school was definitely not a walk in the park; in fact, it was everything that I expected it to be - rushed, packed & busy - and more. I didn't expect to stay till quite late every day of the week so the days felt longer than usual.

Earlier this evening, I joined a number of my colleagues for a rare (or at least it's rare to me at this point in time) dinner in school. It was pretty fun listening to them talk and eating with them =) I realise I prefer listening to people talk when I'm in large groups because I get to learn more things/ hear others' perspectives. Also, I was glad that we'd a feast made up of unhealthy local food that one kind colleague specially drove out to get for us instead of having the usual takeaway pizza.

Speaking of pizzas, I finally made a trip to the famous Picotin not too long ago! I went with some members of my family and we had quite a good meal there!
Picotin was relatively crowded on the night that we went but there were still empty seats, which from a patron's point of view is good because it means that we won't have to wait too long for our food to arrive!


We were served a basket of mixed bread slices while waiting for our food to arrive. I actually like that they served us black bread because we hardly see it around. The black bread tasted pretty normal despite its dubious appearance.

For starters, we ordered a plate of chicken caesar salad ($22) to share. For $22, I felt that the portion was a little too small but since we knew that there were more substantial dishes to be served, we weren't too upset about the portion size. The salad tasted pretty normal and there was nothing spectacular about it.

One of us ordered cabonara spaghetti ($20), which was average - the sauce was pretty thin and there wasn't much body in the dish. I guess they could have added slightly more cream to the sauce to give it a fuller flavour.

The vongole ($20) on the other hand was very well done. The sauce was kept light and the little clams were fresh - it was an excellent pre-pizza dish because it helped to whet the appetite but not keep one too full.

The highlight of our meal: a 21" 'hawaiian' and chicken pizza ($48). I'm terribly sorry I forgot the names of the flavours that we ordered but the pizza was pretty good! I realise that many pizzerias prefer serving thin-crust pizzas these days but some taste slightly better than others. Picotin's was slightly similar to Modestos in terms of thinness but I felt that Picotin's was slightly more biscuit-y. Surprisingly, we managed to finish most of it! I would highly recommend ordering this if you're dining with a group of four because the portion would be just right (: Alternatively, you can explore other options such as looking at their 'specials' board and order something from there.

Last but not least, we decided to order a chocolate fondant ($14) which was slightly below average. The lava wasn't flowy and the outer casing was slightly hard =S I guess it's safer to go with their icecream, which my brother had and enjoyed (:

I think all of us enjoyed our time there but I think I'll try to request for indoor seating in future if possible because it got slightly warm towards the end of the meal. If you ever feel like stuffing your face with pizza at a relatively affordable price, you can always drop by Picotin for a meal! You can go for a stroll at Turf City after the meal to help your food digest better (:

Okay that's all for today. Have a good and restful weekend!

Ootoya Japanese Restaurant

Hello!

I think the weather's a little cranky today because it has rained twice in the last 6hours or so! I'm feeling pretty okay because I managed to rest a little more this morning. Truth be told, I'm still feeling slightly unsettled about my decision to give up my usual Saturday morning lesson but I guess I need to let some things go if I want to keep afloat this year.

Since we'll be celebrating my brother's birthday in advance at a Japanese restaurant tonight, I thought it'll be apt to do an entry Ootoya because that's where we last had a Japanese meal together as a family!

We went to the Ootoya outlet at Suntec City on a Saturday night, which turned out to be a good choice because it wasn't fully packed and we could get a table almost instantly. The interior decor of Ootoya was simple and it had a light Japanese feel to it. There're low 'modern' tables with legroom for those who don't wish to sit/ kneel in the traditional Japanese position throughout the entire meal.

As we were feeling pretty experimental (and perhaps greedy) that day, we decided to order a spread of appetisers, main courses and desserts so that we can try different dishes that Ootoya serves.

Our first appetiser was the small potato salad ($4), which was pretty normal. It's definitely a safe appetiser to choose because most people I know are okay with potato salads.

The second and more interesting appetiser we shared that day was something called NebaNeba ($6), which is cold tofu salad! Truth be told, this dish tasted pretty strange to me at first because it was cold and gooey but I grew to like the taste so I ate quite a lot of it.

The first main course that one of us ordered was the tori salad ($16.50), which is salad with chicken strips. The chicken strips were pretty well-marinated and they helped to give the veggies some taste. It's definitely less filling than the sets that come with rice but it's sufficient for those with small appetites or those who want something a little lighter.

My brother ordered the mini maguro udon (cold) ($17) and it came in a really big and rectangular tray! I could tell that he was fascinated by the way the dish was presented and he ate every strand of udon with glee! I think we may have to order a larger portion in future because this wasn't sufficient to fill my growing brother's tummy! He thoroughly enjoyed playing with the pestel and insisted on grinding the semsame seeds even though he wasn't going to eat them!

The salmon set ($20) was pretty decent but I wish the salmon fillet didn't come with bones. The salmon was slightly dry and I felt that there could have been slightly more flavour but on the whole, it was above average. Each set comes with a vegetable side dish, a bowl of REFILLABLE rice and a bowl of miso soup. I think Ootoya's THE place to go for people who love eating rice/ eat a lot of rice!

This photograph shows the fried chicken fillet set ($16) (okay I'm sorry I forgot it's swanky name) which consists of a fried chicken fillet with a sunny-side up on it! This is an excellent alternative for those who want to have katsu don without having sauce or egg on your rice. My sister commented that this dish was good so you may want to order this if you're in the mood for chicken.

The Tori Sauce Don ($14), which is similar to chicken katsu don, was above average as well. Our in-house katsu don veteran commented that it's not fantastic but it's definitely better than expected! In my opinion, this is possibly the most value-for-money set that we had that evening (:
Finally, we also had the rosu katsu set ($16), which consists of strips of fried pork loin. My sister read that it's supposed to be good so she ordered it and thankfully, she wasn't disappointed. The only qualm we'd about this particular dish was that it took ages to arrive! I guess the kitchen may have forgotten her order so perhaps you'll not have to wait as long for this dish if you were to order it in future.

We had four different desserts that night as well:

the tamago pudding ($7), which my brother devoured after we ate the fruits and red bean at the side,
the anitsu maccha ($6), which is green tea icecream with redbean,

the banana pafe ($8) - green tea icecream with redbean, banana and some cornflakes,

and the bramanje ($6), which is milk pudding with fruits and redbean if I'm not wrong. All our desserts were nice but I would usually go for green tea icecream with fruits and cornflakes when I'm dining at a Japanese restaurant (:

I think Ootoya's a family-friendly restaurant and we had a great time dining there (: We'll not be revisiting this place tonight but I'm sure we'll make a trip down again some time in the near future!

Alright it's time for me to rest my eyes before going out for my brother's birthday dinner! Have a good weekend!

Royal Copenhagen Tea Lounge

Hello! (:

The fact that a brand new academic year has begun is quickly sinking in! Right now I feel slightly overwhelmed by the barrage of information that has been communicated to me over the past few days. It was great seeing everyone back in school again =) I won't deny that I'm feeling slightly apprehensive about how this year will turn out but I know that I'll be okay once I find my footing so all I've to do is to take a deep breath and plunge right into the heart of things.

One good thing about attending long meetings/ seminars/ courses/ training sessions in school is that our welfare is always well-taken care of: not only is lunch provided, there're often two tea breaks (one in the morning and one in the afternoon). While the quality of food varies from day to day (and sometimes within a day itself), it's pretty heartwarming to know that a certain wonderful group of people has taken steps to make sure that we'll not go hungry and that we can count on the next break to silence our growling tummies or to fulfil our desire to munch on a little something.

Since I'm on the topic of having tea breaks, I'd like to introduce Royal Copenhagen Tea Lounge to you! Not too long ago, Jeffrey and I went there for a late lunch cum high tea and we were pretty pleased with the food we tried as well as the service that we received. Despite the restaurant being pretty packed, the staff still served us with politeness and smiles and they did their best to serve customers their orders quickly.

As we were feeling ravenous, we placed an order for their signature beef open-face sandwich ($16.90), which was of average standard. The egg on top of the patty was, in Jeffrey's opinion, the best thing about the sandwich so if you aren't too hungry, please do not get this particular sandwich!

In contrast, we would highly recommend ordering the high tea set! We went for the more expensive high tea set ($38.90) because we/ I wanted TWO cakes instead of one! Each high tea set comes with 2 quiches, 2 mini open-face sandwiches, 2 scones and 2 slices of cake.

The quiche-of-the-day was turkey and spinach quiche which I didn't want to eat so the very kind waitress allowed me to trade one quiche for a slice of cake! =P I was over the moon when she told me that I could do this trade because I was having such a difficult time choosing two cakes out of the many delicious looking cakes that were on display! It was a gift to be able to choose one more! The quiche was pretty good according to Jeffrey so it's a pretty 'safe' option.

For once, I was thankful for the presence of these two open-face sandwiches: tuna sandwich and fresh shrimp sandwich because they provided an excellent complement to the overpowering sweetness from the three slices of cake (seen below). The sandwiches were fresh and they have a 'light' quality that makes them perfect for an afternoon snack.

Another delight which I enjoyed pretty much that day was the scones. There was a plain scone and a raison scone if I don't remember wrongly. Although they weren't as buttery or as well-baked as the scones that I'd at Rose Veranda, these scones were certainly not bad! I love having my scones with lots of jam and that's how I ate mine that day!

Last but not least, this a shot of our three cakes resting on a small, overcrowded plate. I ordered a slice of their famous chocolate cake, a slice of orange cake as well as a slice of cheesecake! I must say that the chocolate cake was extremely dense so unless you are prepared for a chocolatey finish, try not to order two chocolate cakes because this one is enough to satisfy your chocolate craving. The cheesecake was just okay but I liked the orange cake quite a bit! I realise that the cakes served at Royal Copenhagen are pretty dense so you'll probably feel quite full after indulging in your tea set!

Oh and just in case you were wondering where the drinks were, we kind of forgot to take a photograph of our tea cups and tea pot! We'd a pot of warm English Breakfast to share
and it certainly helped to wash down our food!

Unfortunately, we were told that Royal Copenhagen Tea Lounge is going to be closed really soon so I don't think we've the opportunity to go back for more high teas! Well at least I can console myself that I've been to this nice little restaurant ONCE before it closed! Will keep looking out for more (high) tea places to visit!

Okay it's time for bed. Have a good weekend everyone! =)

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!

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! =)

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!