denise tan blogs

I love visiting open houses with a buffet worth shouting about and this one is a new discovery I made at a family friend’s place during Chinese New Year. So for all foodies like me who enjoy Nasi Padang, try Mansor D’Cafe – luckily for us, not only do they cater for parties, they also have a restaurant conveniently located near Orchard! Here’s a little sampling of what tastebud-tickling deliciousness they do:

Ayam Goreng – BEEEST!!! Love the texture and the super crispy skin!

Also famous for their super-crispy, super sedap deep-fried tempeh – addictive!
Their potato bergedils were fluffy and generously portioned with great seasoning, and their fish cakes in a spicy-sweet sambal was also tip-top delish!

Extra Pedas Chicken thighs – look at the colour and you know it’s gonna be sweat-and-tear-inducing! But it’s balanced out with a sweetness that lingers after the heat disappears.

Creamy, mild curry ikan.

Balancing things out: Stir-fired sayur and spicy tau kwa cubes with long beans.

Ok, as I said, just a sampling… Can’t wait to go back and try all the other goodies on their extensive menu!

Mansor D’Cafe
Address: #04-34, Far East Plaza, 14 Scotts Road
Tel: 9421 7005
Open Mon–Sat: 11am – 5pm
(Closed on Sun & PH)

If you love the smokey flavour of barbequed food, but hate sweating (and stinking) over hot coals, this is a lovely family place to enjoy a buffet of grilled delights, already done for you!
The Grand Hyatt Singapore’s poolside restaurant, Oasis, is the lush, relaxed setting for a weekly alfresco BBQ buffet dinner with an open bar. It’s an all-you-can-eat extravaganza of salads, gourmet BBQ favourites and sweet treats, with the added bonus of it all being prepared for you. Plus, you get to stay cool and enjoy the free flow of beers, wines and margaritas. It’s a fuss-free, win-win situation!

Clockwise from top left:

Other tasty things to start off with include: Rocket salad with shaved, aged parmesan and Caesar salad with crispy bacon.

A beautifully plump, moist, coral-coloured smoked Atlantic salmon with dill & capers! I had 3 helpings, it was so delicious!



Freshly grilled selections, cooked a la minute on the open-charcoal grill:

Look at the gorgeous, tender yet crunchy grilled asparagus!

Clockwise from top: steak, burger patty, grilled asparagus, lamb chop. chicken wing, Greek salad.

Other yummy sides include baked potato with sour cream, bacon & chives, buttered corn-on-the-cob and coleslaw. Everything was appreciatively washed down with an unlimited supply of frozen margaritas and refreshing white wine, like their Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc.

The dessert buffet, including Fresh local sliced fruit

Mango pudding & Sago Pudding

Doughnut, chocolate sauce

A little bit of everything – fruit, mango pudding, sago pudding, kueh-kueh and those devilishly delicious deep-fried doughnuts drizzled with chocolate sauce.

OASIS
BBQ buffet dinner
5th Level, Terrace Wing, Grand Hyatt Singapore
$78++ per person, inclusive of free-flow, every Friday & Saturday.
For more info, check here.

Glass Noodle salad with seafood – packed with tons of flavour – salty, sour and spicy!

A rich, fragrant Tom Yum soup.

Chicken with basil – best with rice!

“Green” omelette, packed with veggies and served with an incredible, pungent chilli dipping sauce.

Sambal Kang Kong.

Olive Rice with a good, nutty flavour and cooked perfectly firm-to-the-bite. Lots of heat from the chillies and lots of texture from the cashews and crunchy cucumber.

First Thai
23 Purvis Street
Telephone 63393123
Open Daily noon-2.15pm, 6-9.15pm

Dine alfresco in the shopfront’s five-foot way!


This is a delightful art cafe in Tiong Bahru that boasts white walls adorned with art you can buy, teak floors and a relaxing, chilled-out atmosphere. It’s quite a sprawling space with little nooks and crannies in which to hide and savour a cuppa. There’s a  main front area facing the street, where you can order and sit, then there’s another inner area and corridor with tables chairs and sofa, leading to the shaded backyard.




The Orange Thimble serves nibbles like sandwiches, cakes and ice-creams, but really, you’d go there for the great coffee & the lovely vibe. It’s nice and quiet on a weekday afternoon, but gets hectic on weekends, when they serve all-day breakfasts, like the full English breakfast with eggs, sausages, bacon, sauteed mushroom & tomatoes with toast. Other menu items include Shepherd’s Pie, Portabello mushroom sandwiches, and English Breakfast Burger. Everything is served on cute and kitschy vintage crockery, which adds to the overall charm of the cafe.

Bacon Sarnie



However, I’d save my stomach for lots of their addictive, locally roasted coffees paired with darling pastries like buttered brioche or chocolate cake. I loved my Piccolo Latte so much I had to have it twice! Love that their hot bevs come with the retro iced-gem biscuits of my childhood! If you prefer, they do freshly squeezed juices too. This is one place that simply invites you to kick off your shoes, sink into a chair, pick up one of their many magazines or newspapers, and just while away a lazy afternoon.



The Orange Thimble
56 Eng Hoon Street #01-68
Tel: +65 6223 8068
Closed Mondays

You might recall my visit to a humble Peranakan hawker stall in Tiong Bahru, that’s run by my friend, actress & Dim Sum Dolly Selena Tan’s family? Well, the good news is, if you prefer not to sweat it out in a hawker centre but still want to enjoy Daisy’s Peranakan & local delights, they’ve opened an air-conditioned family restaurant in the West Coast. I went there last night with a group of friends to check it all out:

Peeking through the service window into the kitchen – that’s Selena’s Mother Daisy and her younger brother Ray in purple!

Delicious, deep-fried appetisers hot from the wok! Daisy’s wildly popular Ngoh Hiang (juicy little pork and prawn balls with lots of garlic and crunchy water chestnut). Sedap with her special bright orange chilli dipping sauce!


Crispy-fried, well-seasoned chicken wings – MORE please!


Otak-otak. Smooth, spicy and fragrant from the charcoal grill!

After washing down the goreng goodness with lime juice (look at that gorgeous green colour!), we moved on to soups…

Bakwan Kepiting (pork and crab balls soup with bamboo shoots) – this one is savoury and nourishing, while the other soup, Pork Rib and Lotus Root, was more sweet with a beautiful natural flavout coming from the peanuts.



Sambal kangkong – nice and crunchy, fresh, not limp or overcooked. Lots of the hae bee flavour!

Lagi best! Sambal Petai with ikan billis. Soooo tasty, with lots of texture.

This dish gets the thumbs up from almost every customer – Assam curry chicken.

Assam is also used very liberally in this unique squid dish. The tangy, earthy Black Ink Sotong!



Another big favourite – the deep-fried Ikan Selar stuffed with Sambal Belacan. OH MY GOODNESS GRACIOUS!!!! So addictive – big, bold flavours of the stuffing mingling with the crispy skin and firm meat of the fish, I was in heaven!


And look, a special treat for us – deep-fried fish roe! Rich, salty and sinful, these were little nuggets of ocean gold!



Instead of the usual Ayam Buah Keluak, Daisy’s serves Babi Buah Keluak – meat that is fall-off-the-bone tender, a thick rich gravy and the jewelled casings hugging a smooth, nutty, bitter-sweet-spicy, salty filling that we dug out gleefully and mixed with the killer lime sambal belachan and white rice!



With Selena’s lovely mummy and chef extraordinaire, Auntie Daisy!

DAISY’S DREAM KITCHEN
Peranakan & Local Delights

Family Restaurant: 
Blk 517 West Coast Road #01-571

Hawker Stall:
Tiong Bahru Market, Stall #02-36
30 Seng Poh Road
Opening Hours
Wednesday – Sunday, 10.30am – 2.30pm
See my review on the hawker stall HERE!

Bonjour! Today, a girlfriend and I pretended to be Tai-tais and had a luxurious late lunch/ tea at this charming tea salon, opened by the same guy who once helmed Canele. Look! Tres French, tres chic!

Antoinette was the perfect escape, at an off-the-beaten-track location (Kallang-Lavender), for an afternoon of noshing & nattering. An extensive savoury and sweet menu that includes sandwiches, burgers, salads & pastas as well as gorgeous, delicate pastries like macarons, little glazed cakes, crepes and ice-creams, teas and coffees, left us really spoilt for choice!



Soooo Pretty!



After much deliberation, we made our selection:

Hermitage Gourmand tea – a mix of Chinese black, blue & green teas with a hint of smokiness, which went well with my savoury course…

Blinis – Thick French Pancakes with grilled bacon, french butter and grilled tomato. The pancakes were huge! Fluffy, with a hint of sweetness to counter the saltiness of the thick-cut bacon.

Savoury Crepe – The Royale (Roast Beef, Mustard, Bernaise sauce, Emmental cheese and salad). Lovely thin crepe – just enough carb to hold the delicious, savoury filling of paper-thin tangy, biting, seasoned beef slices. Even the petit salad was perfectly seasoned with salt, balsamic and oil!




Like a giant, airy cream puff, but 100x better! Love the salty-sweet combi!


You gotta get the Tea Salon’s namesake pastry, no?

My favourite combination of fresh fruit, chocolate, citrusy earl grey & biscuit layers.

Going…

Going…

Gone! Look at the the raspberry coulis encased in the jelly-like casing!

Antoinette
30 Penhas Road (off Lavender Street)
Operating Hours:
Monday to Thursday – 11am to 10pm
(Last order 9.30pm)
Friday and eve of public holidays – 11am to 11pm
(Last order 10.30pm)
Saturday – 10am to 11pm
(Last order 10.30pm)
Sunday and public holidays – 10am to 10pm
(Last order 9.30pm)
www.antoinette.com.sg
Also does takeaways and has other locations @ * Mandarin Gallery * Scarlet Hotel * Palai Renaissance *

If you find yourself peckish in the middle of the night and somewhere in the east side of our island, this place will satisfy your rumbly tummy and then some! This place started off as a stall in a kopitiam and then got so popular that it grew and took over the entire place and the shop next door (if my East Coast friends are to be believed)! And no wonder, since their supper menu is exactly what hungry hoards craving for deep fried goodies want.

To die for!!! Fried sotong balls with salted egg inside and curls of crispy-crunchies on the outside. Don’t miss out on these little golden balls of layered treasures!

Dough fritters stuffed with seafood paste, with sweet mayo.

Prawn paste chicken – fresh-hot from the wok. Crispy winglets of indulgence!


Fried mixed meat noodles. Slick slivers of tastiness, redolent with wok hei.

If you’re watching your waistline, don’t worry it’s not all fat and carbs here, although ironically, don’t let their name fool you, their herbal chicken soup isn’t what people really flock here for.  Try their other Zi Char dishes (rice, noodles, meats and seafood, etc.), which are consistently good and their super-popular, comforting mee sua soup. Each bowl boasts silky (not sticky) noodles, mushrooms & your chosen pig parts floating in an aromatic herbal broth, not unlike bak kut teh. Choose from mee sua with sliced pork or sliced pork with liver or with everything. But if you’re not a “soupy” person, then you’ve gotta try their fried mee sua with crab, which comes wrapped in the fragrant opeh leaf.

Seng Kee Black Herbal Chicken Soup 成基黑鸡补品
467 Changi Road (near Kembagan MRT)
Open 5pm – 4am

I can’t possibly say bye-bye to 2011 without a look back at most memorable meals I’ve had this past year! Here’s my tribute to all things delicious:

Cook/ Eat a Pot of Curry
Netizens came together as one united people to cook, eat & share a pot of curry in what can be called THE Facebook food event of the year and a culinary protest of spicy proportions! I, too, jumped on the bandwagon and whilst I didn’t actually cook, I did indulge in A LOT of curries! Apollo Banana Leaf & Samy’s are old faves, but this year, I tried several Chinese-style fish head curries. Here are my top picks this year:

• Yip Cheong Kee Eating House People’s Park
• The Curry Wok
• Chin Chin Restaurant

Steamboat

• Crystal Jade La Mian Xiao Long Bao Holland Village (Spicy Szechuan pepper, Mala hotpot)
• Tin Heng (Teochew-style, yummy fresh fish & marbled beef)
• Whampoa Keng (Tasty Fish head steamboat and awesome zi char like hae cho. Speaking of which…)

Zi Char

• Keng Eng Kee Seafood (Ming zhu rolls and tofu, ooh!)
• Roland Restaurant (THE BESTEST Chilli & Pepper Crab in S’pore!)
• Yong Huat Fried Noodles @ Alibaba Kopitiam (Fried mee sua, Hokkien mee & Char Kway Teow. Secret weapon - CLUMPS of crispy, fatty LAAAARD!)

Mee Pok

• Bras Pasah
• Newton

Soups

• Loola’s (Incredible western-style Salted Veg & Duck Soup!)
• Bahrakath Mutton Soup King

Fancy-Schmancy

• Luke’s Oyster Bar & Chop House (Fresh raw oysters, really good steaks and fries – what’s not to love?)
• The Cathay (Modern Cantonese Cuisine with a Western sensibility)

Happy eating y’all and here’s to a 2012 of new food discoveries and full bellies!

Yeah, You Know Me!

This place is found in the so-hip-it-hurts Tiong Bahru area and had already created a bit of a buzz on the www (some of which was not terribly glowing), so while I was keen to try it, I was a little wary. Enter my mini-JC reunion – the perfect opportunity to try out Open Door Policy, which touts “modern bistro fare with a rustic twist”. In other words, from my personal experience, the food has touches of new-fangled molecular gastronomy, like nitro-frozen yogurt, but nothing too fancy or high-brow. It’s modern, accessible food that’s served in a very relaxed style and environment.

Here are some of the delicious things we got to eat:

The Starters
Generously portioned and ideal for sharing. The night we went, there was a seared tuna Nicoise salad on the evolving specials board. It was gorgeous – behold!

Look at the perfectly seared tuna – pink and plump in the middle, and that lovely egg with the creamy yolk!

Flamed tuna carpaccio with radish and yuzu salad
Zingy, refreshing and a perfect balance with the meatiness of the perfectly cooked fish.

Steak tartare with truffle mayo and potato chips
One of the meal’s winners. The truffle oil was headily aromatic and generously slicked over the chips. The raw beef finely chopped and seasoned, balancing between savoury and acidity. The earthy, fresh meat was mixed with finely minced onions, capers and yes, that is a deep-fried sage leaf. It was delicious, scooped up with a chip or slathered atop the grilled bread.

Puff pastry pizzetta, lamb confit and greek salad garnish
The lamb confit was sinfully rich and tender and went tell with the tangy greek-style cucumbers, olives, tomatoes and feta cheese. The rocket gave the dish a peppery, bitter balance and I would’ve loved this as a salad. The pizzetta crust, while crisp and buttery, seemed a tad superfluous. But still, yummers!

Crispy chicken wings with curry, yoghurt and cucumber salad

This was a really interesting dish, with the yoghurt coming in the form of frozen bits like Dippin’ Dots. Unfortunately, not my favourite. It veered too far into dessert territory for me. The curry gel tasted more like it belonged on a glazed donut, very sweet, with the merest hint of curry. Likewise for the shredded cucumber salad, it was very sweet and should have been paired with crispy wings that were more aggressively spiced and seasoned.

This boneless chicken wing tastes like dessert!

Mains & Meats (there are fish dishes, but we’re far too carnivorous!)

Confit of duck leg, puy lentils, sage and smoked bacon
This one rocks!!! Every ingredient went perfectly together to create an umami explosion in my mouth. The portion looked small, but a bite of the dish tells you why. It’s layer upon layer of rich texture, flavour and fat. You don’t need a huge serving to feel satisfied!

48 hour cooked braised beef cheek with mochi potatoes, carrot puree and snow pea tendrils
A must-try menu item. The beef is so tender, one touch from your fork and it comes apart!

Pork belly with parsnip puree, braised quinoa and celery
Sorry, not a pork fan, so didn’t really try it. My dining companions liked it though and the parsnip chips were crunchtastic!

Desserts

Chocolate and pistachio souffle with creme anglaise
The waitress first cuts a slit on the top of the souffle, then pours the beaker of creme anglaise in. Light and fluffy, this was like eating pistachio-scented air through a chocolate cloud!

The ice cream ‘why just sunday’
How can something as plain and simple as ice-cream be so complex and delicious? Served in a heavy granite bowl, the scoop of ice-cream was decorated with choclate and butterscotch, then dressed with melt-in-the-mouth honey comb pieces and a dark chocolate tuille.

Lime panna cotta with coconut sago, cashew nuts and mint
This Italian favourite was given the light touch and a delightful twist with its asian flavours. The sago was wonderful – bigger than normal and al dente, with a pleasant firmess that held up well in the sauce. Overall, delicate and unusual, lovely and light!

White chocolate mousse with a raspberry headache
Amusing name for a dessert, but no, whilst the raspberry flavour was intense, it did not leave us with aching heads! Maybe the chefs are the ones suffering, because I’d imagine this would be a tricky dessert to make. The mousse wasn’t a exactly a mousse, more like NASA-inspired freeze-dried bricks of milky sweetness, liberally dusted with a raspberry powder. It was fun to eat and declared the overall champion of the sweet treats!

The restaurant layout is open-planned with a show kitchen behind a glass wall – see?
They also boast a great bar beverage menu plus gourmet coffees from 40 Hands Café which is just across the street from the restaurant.

Happy, satisfied diners!

Do go for their 3-course tasting menu for under $150, you get what you see above, plus a bottle of sparkling wine. The 2 guys in our party went for the set and we ended up with enough bubbly for all 7 of us. Value for money? You betcha!

Open Door Policy
Open for lunch and dinner on select days, check their website for details.
19 Yong Siak Street (Tiong Bahru)
Singapore 168650

I’m currently obsessed with this place (conveniently located where Crazy Christmas is running) – Loola’s by the Awfully Chocolate group (so obviously their desserts are great!). It’s their first proper restaurant and besides their great desserts like lemon yogurt cake, hazelnut crumble, salted caramel brownie, and their chocolate mille feuille (22 delicate layers of chocolate and pastry), I was thrilled at the good quality of their signature menu items, like Lobster & Sheets (buttered lobster, sheets of baked pasta with layers of oozingly rich Bechamel sauce), Oxtail stew, Karubi Korean-style beef ribs, pork belly, roasted Spatchcock and hearty all-day breakfasts. However, my heart belongs to the star of their menu – their unusual, irresistable western-style salted veg & duck soup. But more on that later. First, check these out:

Their coffee and dessert bar.

Clean, simple decor that’s vaguely Scandinavian.

Tasty appetisers… Grilled Octopus with capers. O.M.G.!!!

Sinful, sinful, SINFUL, but so gorgeous! Grilled bone marrow with parmesan and toast.



Oxtail stew! Enormous serving, but gone in no time at all!

All-day full brekkie – scrambled eggs, toast, grilled cherry tomatoes & herbed mushrooms, 2 kinds of sausages.

The ridiculously huge, fluffy truffle-scented egg-white omelette!!!

To give you some perspective – compare it to the size of a human hand – that’s how huge it is!

Thick and fluffy, but super light – like eating a truffle cloud!

I think I went a little nuts snapping shots of my portabello mushroom, ham and poached egg!



Perfect poached egg parcel atop the grilled mushroom and hollandaise sauce.


Look at that perfect, oozy yolk! Sticky heaven!

I AM CRAZY FOR THIS DISH!!! Look how cute the presentation is – they made me a happy face!
Yes, kiam chye ark, itek tim, call it what you will, this is a local favourite that’s been elevated to another level. The soup looks and tastes cream-based, but gets it’s velvety unctiousness from egg. It comes with (of course) a generous slice of salted veg, tongue-numbing roasted chilli peppers, tartly sweet cherry tomatoes and a crispy-on-the-outside, luscious-on-the-inside fried “croquette” of duck confit rillettes. The combination of flavours is incredible!






They also make really strong brews on their snazzy machine. A double espresso is how I like to finish my meal.

More of their decor…


The view from their big windows…

For a delicious meal that won’t break the bank, get thee to…
Loola’s
#02-14 Esplanade Mall