Brunch at Hediard

Hediard had been popular since they launched in Singapore, they soon launched lunch and now dinner. During weekend, it attracts people from all parts of Singapore to brunch there. Let see what I have order on this particular Sunday.

Starter: Soup of the day from the Hédiard selection [Mushroom Soup]
I do not usually order a mushroom soup, because to me it is a common soup and might not even up to perfection. However, having tasted Hediard's, I must say it was exceptional. As you can see, this soup is finished with a drizzle of truffle oil and fresh chive. Not over salted, it brings out a thick rich texture and aroma of buttons, followed by a subtle hint of truffle. Spoons after spoons, i finished it so quickly and even feel like ordering another, this leaves me with answer that no cream was added. A good appetizer that warms and wakes my stomach for the mains.

Main: Croq’ Germaine
(Inspired by Germaine Kusel, grand-daughter of Ferdinand, grilled bread
with Parma Ham, gruyere cheese, mornay sauce topped with a fried egg)
Growing up in Singapore, we don't usually eat rustic bread and I don't even know how to even prepare one that will be tasty. Rye bread especially, one can get from Swiss bake and it tasted coarse and hard. This dish leaves me a good impression and impressed me on how tasty rye bread can taste. Rye bread cut in right thickness, toasted to perfection and coated with olive oil and butter, leaving it moist. The parma ham gives it a subtle salty and savory, the mornay sauce binds the taste together. The gruyere cheese topped and toasted gives a good aroma and talking about gruyere cheese, it is the king of cheese for baking and it didn't overpower the whole dishes. Simply lovely.

Dessert: Moelleux chocolate cake with vanilla crème Anglaise
Sad to say, this dish tasted like the ordinary lava cake. Chocolate lava was way too sweet.
One can leave this dessert out if they visit Hediard.

Overall, I really love this place and will definitely go back for another brunch. I have also decided what to have for the next visit. It will definitely be the Hédiard breakfast set. By judging the overall appearance of their bread and majority choice of people, this must be good.
Hediard is definitely be a good place for brunch and I would also want to try out their lunch and dinner someday.

Hediard Café-Restaurant & Boutique

Cuisine: French
Address: 123-125 Tanglin road, Tudor Court (next to Tanglin Mall), Singapore 247921
Phone Booking: +65 6333 6683
Opening Hour: 9.00am-9.00pm (Daily)

http://www.hediard.com.sg

Why spend so much for branded wines?

With more wine choices in the neighbourhood supermarkets nowadays, one can easily find a good wine at a very reasonable prices. Especially when Singapore is not like the wine region, it is sometimes good to find some reasonable price wines to substitute table wine.

I bought these Spanish wines from an introduction from a wine friend, and it was just $25 for a 1-for-1 deal at the NTUC fairprice. It was an easy drinking wine, fruity and sweet nose, slightly tobacco and acidic on the palate, round and spicy medium finishing. [so easy drinking that one can down the two bottles over some simple dishes]

A "Crianza" is wine aged for at least two years, at least one of which is in oak.

Micro-brewery with the Singapore spirit

Today, me and a colleague took a visit to meet a customer at FoodXchange Admiralty. It was my first time to be at FoodXchange and I was quite surprised that in Singapore, there are food facility space for lease. Many local food brands and food caterers were located there, some of them are Ya Kun Kaya, Petite Patisserie, 7-ELEVEn Quick-Bites and a few curry & spice millers.

Since we are there, we decided to pay our visit to the "Barefoot Brewing Company Pte Ltd". When we arrived, we found that the main office door was not open and the shutter door was half opened. We took a peep and found some stainless beer tanks, just as we were about to leave someone came out from the brewery and invited us to take a look inside. He was one of the owner of this microbrewery, Mr. Adi. Once stepping into the brewing area, a rich hop and malty beer fragrance engulfed our nose. [smells great] Adi gave us a brief introductory to his beers and it immediately spark our appetite to try his beer. We expected beer not being able to buy on spot as they are distributed for local restaurants but Adi offered us to get two bottles. [I felt lucky]
Beers are brewed fresh and hand-capped into one standard size (640ml) bottles to sustain the cost for packaging, mentioned by Adi.

Beer tasting:
Once uncapped the bottles, the aroma of the beer diffuses into the space.
American IPA: light hop and flora nose, fine bubbles, smooth finish with a bitter aftertaste
Kiasu Stout (*name sounds funny): malty and nutty nose, syrupy texture, super fine bubble, full-bodied malt and coconut palm sugar palate, sticky finishing with subtle sweetness of cane sugar

In summary, Jungle beer produces beer that can interest many beer drinkers out there because they produces beer with a unique local touch. Importantly, I tasted the passion and it is definitely counted in as good krafted beers. [Beer always taste best when fresh]

http://junglebeer.com
http://foodxchange.com.sg/

DROPSTOP

For those who drinks often, you may find pouring wine directly from a wine bottle a hassle because wine drips out no matter how careful you pour it. There will be no trouble wiping the blancs but the red ones can stain your precious carpet or flooring.
Having been to many wine event, I saw something called the drop-stop but did not bother to find out more until recently when I think getting one could be useful.

Besides not paying attention to the gadget, there were rumors that discouraged me to get one.
1) Expensive
2) Difficult to find
3) Not re-usable

Lets see the brief background of how DropStop was invented:

THE BACKGROUND

DropStop® was invented in Denmark by Brian Vang Jensen. Asked to pour the red wine at his aunt’s 80th birthday, Brian accidentally spilt several drops onto a beautiful, white embroidered tablecloth.

“I was embarrassed by the incident and couldn’t stop wondering whether there was anything that could be done to prevent spilling wine in this way” says Brian, adding:

“A few days after the party, I got an idea for an invention. To begin with I experimented with all sorts of discs cut from various materials, like beer cans and different plastic packaging. Finally, I found a material that had the right flexibility to fit tightly against the inside of the bottle as well as cut the flow so effectively that drops couldn’t form”.

Now anyone could pour wine without spilling a drop. Having come up with the idea, Brian decided to have his invention patented and readied for production.

Since its introduction to the Danish gift market, DropStop® has gone on to become a worldwide sales success.

Finally a special pair of DropStop caught my attention, and it was through the Riedel website.
Buy a pair of Riedel DropStop at ￥1,050, and Riedel donate 100% back to the Japan's Earthquake disaster. What a good reason to do purchasing. I bought two pairs, a pair for me and another pair for my wine buddy.

http://shop.riedel.co.jp/charity?___store=riedel
http://www.dropstop.com/us/

Relax Sunday Stroll to National Equestrian Park

I remembered going to Singapore Polo Club once for an afternoon tea and watching a game of polo, it was relaxing. This week, chanced upon the website of Singapore Polo Club that there will be an event of JUMPING - CSIY - B Individual Competition, therefore I went.

It was a cooling Sunday morning and the event started as early as 8am, and cooler temperature is much better of condition of horses. When reached, I was greeted by a small crowd of regular horse riders, participants and spectators. And for the first time, I feel the landscaping looks very much different from the Singapore view. As wave of horses gallop passed me to their warming-up stable, I felt excited. Riders from as young as 4 years old rode their horse well.

I reached the event tentage, got a nice space and I started watching and shooting photos of the whole events. What a unique and unusual Sunday morning watching my first LIVE Jumping Competition. I think I will try to keep myself more updated on such events.

http://www.singaporepoloclub.org
http://www.efs.org.sg/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Show_jumping

Gastronomic Experience @ Lei Garden (Singapore)

Dim Sum?

In Singapore, it is not uncommon having dim sum for breakfast.

One can find it anywhere, from hawker centre, food court to fine restaurants in 5-stars hotels.

Of course, prices varies, one can expect to pay more when good ingredients are use.

Dim Sum is an asian delight and ingredients are mainly fresh seafood, meats and poultry, many chefs now include western ingredients like foie gras, truffles and cheese.

When I go for dim sum, I like the traditional ones. I don't care if it is a neighbourhood hawker centre or a fine luxurious restaurant, importantly the taste. Dim sum takes a lot of a chef efforts to make and therefore one must slowly savour it, and mind you if you gobble it down in one mouth the chef will get upset.

That also explains why I do not really fancy dim sum buffet, some people just eat it like it is a mass produce fast-food.

Lei Garden is a Cantonese restaurant which I have heard a lot about but have not tried.

This restaurant is favoured by many tourists and also the locals here.

Today I decided to make a trip down for dim sum.

When I entered the restaurant, few saltwater tanks with many colourful fishes greeted me and I got excited.

Excited because it was like entering to Underwater World Sentosa. (laughs)

The tanks are well-maintained and there was great varieties of lively fishes, lobsters and shellfish. (the typical Cantonese restaurant)

mini egg tarts

it was like biting into a filo pastry filled with smooth silky custard, a subtle sweetness,

bursting with aroma of fresh egg yolks.

roasted pork with mustard sauce

this must be the signature dish, a well-marinated pork belly, roasted to give a crispy layer of skin that breaks apart like shattering glass in your mouth, giving you the earthy savoury aroma and a crunchy texture.

(it looks a little thin because the chef must have sliced away the lower bone for the ease to eat)

xiao long bao

well-executed but nothing out of extraordinary (can give it a miss)

'har gow' (Shrimp dumplings)

I have tried many 'har gow' in my foodie journey but none can compare to these.

the skin was thin, the prawns were fresh and big giving a good crunchy texture and taste of the sea, unlike those kind where they soaked them into the soda water to give crunchy texture and no presence of the taste of prawns.

(must have for all serious dim sum fans)

mushroom black moss roll

I could not remember the full name but this was a savoury dish, with crunchy texture (squid paste) and nice aroma of the greens and black moss, maybe also sea cucumber.

(thickened sauce is not just for display as it really holds the dish together and definitely not nice if it is watery)

crispy crab roll

i did not taste any crab in this dish but the interior has a nice moist ingredient with fibrous strands just like crab meat. the fried exterior which is some kind of noodles did not give any unpleasant oily taste.

siew mai (pork dumpling)

these can be close to what i mentioned as traditional dim sum, there aren't any weird abalone or fish roe on it. it may look simple but it is definitely one of the best siew mai I have had so far.

texture was bouncy, apparently, roughly hand grounded pork was used, presences of good graded dried shiitake mushrooms, finally a good dose of marinates were added. Divine!

"Ju Cheong Fan" (rice rolls with prawns)

looks like an ordinary rice rolls in any dim sum eateries? you are right.

how about the taste? Excellent and special.

I like the simplicity of this dish because it means need skills to make.

the star of this dish is definitely the rice roll, it gives the mochimochi texture so chewy and the smooth silky outer that it slips down your throat so quickly, then the rich aroma of the rice flour

(for the moment I want to ask if they ground their rice flour prior to making it)

For many people, they find Lei Garden a pricey dim sum house but what you pay is what you get. Such a fine dim sum house is hard to find in Singapore and it is a must-go place for all the dim sum fanatics.

Lei Garden (Orchard)

Cuisine: Chinese, Asian

Address: #03-00 Orchard Shopping Centre, 321 Orchard Road, Singapore

Telephone: +65 6734 3988

Opening Hours: Lunch 11.30am to 3pm, Dinner 6pm to 11pm

Lei Garden Restaurant (Chijmes)

Address: #01-24 Chijmes, 30 Victoria Street, Singapore

Telephone: +65 6339 3822

Opening Hours: Lunch 11.30am to 3pm, Dinner: 6pm to 11pm

http://www.leigarden.hk/eng/location/singapore.asp