[Tasting] Birds of a Feather - Contemporary Western Cuisine with Pronounced Sichuan Influence @ 115 Amoy Street

Back for more. Thank you Kris for the invite and Eugene for graciously hosting us. Dinner with Tiara and Kris at Birds for their newly launched Menu GSB (Golden Sun Bird). A 7-course meal that's specially curated for the single or couple diner. Was excited to see what Chef Eugene has up his sleeves for this menu.

interior

special menu

Liked that diners have the option to request for multiple courses to be served at once, or at a slower pace for maximum enjoyment. 

ready to dine

For starters, it was Home-made Pickled Vege Focaccia with Sichuan Compound Butter. Bread was nicely crisp on its outside and with just a slight hint of pickled vegetables. Slap on a generous amount of that delicious Sichuan Compound Butter onto the bread, chew on it and tell me if that didn't bring a smile to your face.

Would love to get my hands on a bottle of those butter~

Am impressed by this strong starter that's full of umami flavours.

Home-made Pickled Vege Focaccia with Sichuan Compound Butter

Next, was the Birds Snack, and meant as a surprise dish. Depending on Chef's inspiration for that day, this dish is anticipate to change as and when.

Birds Snack - Foie Gras Ravioli

Chef made us ravioli that day, and boy... I loved it! Textural contrast, harmony of many flavours that complemented each other, and thus made this dish such a joy to eat. Flavour profile was still on the stronger side, and that piqued my interest for more.

lovely foie gras ravioli

One thing about dining at Birds, is that you get to feast on the visuals too. Beautiful plates, one after another.

Octopus Carpaccio

The octopus was tender, but I found the flavours of the Sichuan Mustard Dressing was rather subdued. It was probably my first time eating saffron mung bean jelly!

The next course, was rather "Wow". Stunning visuals. Have a look.

'Yu Xiang' (鱼香) Carabinero Prawn

Lovely, plumpy carabinero that tasted of the sea, laid daintily ontop of a deep fried polenta. Best paired with wine. In fact, this menu has a pairing option. The first three dishes are likely served with white wine, while the next three would be paired with red and for dessert, it will be paired with a cocktail.

The fourth and fifth course, would be slightly heavier, but hey, am not complaining! The broth for the Sichuan Fish Stew was poured table-side and look at its colour! So vibrant in green.

Sichuan Fish Stew

Lovely barramundi, with bits of sea cucumber, and served with healthy pearl couscous. I think if you like boba, you'll like pearl couscous. The broth was mildly spicy, lightly tangy and tasted rich with cream. 

Next up, for the meat lovers, let's indulge in Wagyu Striploin,

finishing touches

Wagyu Striploin MBS4 (top up $25++ for MBS9 wagyu)

The spice butternut puree was a surprise. It was insanely sweet! Chef Eugene explained that it is its natural sweetness that had been intensified naturally. Liked that there was a dash of hot oil on the puree to balance out things. Lovely lightly charred brussel sprouts too. Dab the meat with a bit of the Sichuan Pepper Salt for that East meets West feels.

Last dish, dessert; named simply as Mandarin. We tried the cocktail that's paired with this dessert and it was a good match. Basil cocktail with gin based. Mildly alcoholic, refreshing and not too sweet.

Mandarin, paired with cocktail

The dessert was essentially Baba au Rhum without the rum. A focused flavour of citrus on this plate. The vanilla cream was lovely combined with the soaked baba.

Overall, GSB menu with its tasting portions, offers a good experience to diners who are curious to try a variety of the culinary delights from Birds without worrying about feeling too full after the meal.

Menu is priced at $89++ and Pairing at $60++.

Once again, thank you Eugene and Birds of a Feather team for your hospitality. 

Birds of a Feather

Address: 115 Amoy St, #01-01, Singapore 069935
Website: https://www.facebook.com/birdsofafeathersg
Contact: 6221 7449
Business Hours:
Daily:
Mon - Wed: 10.45am to 3pm, 5pm to 11pm
Thurs: 10.45am to 3pm, 5pm to 12am
Fri - Sun: 10.30am to 12am (10pm on Sun)

The Gong By Drinks & Co @ Duo Galleria

Revisited this place for one of our wine nights because there's tasty food and reasonably priced drinks. Another motive was partly because we were curious if the food still tasted good on a regular visit as opposed to a tasting session. 

drinks menu

Decided to get myself a glass of beer while waiting for the rest of the peeps. Hey, it's Happy Hour after all! An iced cold Sapporo would be nice.

かんぱい Sapporo Premium @$11

Soon, the rest of the gang arrived and we decided to munch on truffle fries and enjoy our pre-dinner drinks. Loved that the fries was served piping hot, but thought something was missing from the bowl. Ahhh....I think am accustomed to having truffle fries topped with shaved parmesan so when this version was served without it, it just felt lacking. Sorry, brain had been wired in this way!

three is not a crowd

Skinny Truffle Fries @$16

pretty bottle of soda water

beer and fries

"What's nice here?" Asked our friends who had never tried this place. The majority of us smiled and nodded. Most of the dishes were recommended based on our past experience during the tasting session and the rest was based on preference of individuals.

To start, we tried the foie gras. Served glistening, on a piece of crisp toast and adorned with sliced strawberries and grape. The liver was quiver-y, rich and decadent tasting. We had but the tiniest piece as the 6 of us was sharing for this item and as per the rest of the meal. Hahaa!

Pan Seared Foie Gras @$25

We also had the Gong Salt & Pepper Squid. Anything that has the namesake of the restaurant, better be good! The squid was battered and deep fried to a golden hue. There were some cut chilies, peppercorn and garlic crisp tossed into the mix, salted and the plate was finger licking good. I was actually scooping up the bits of garlic chips to munch. So tasty especially with that hint of peppercorn.

Gong Pepper & Squid @$17

For mains, we ordered carbs! Lots of carbs! Somehow carbohydrates and alcohol, goes well together. To accompany our meal, we picked a bottle of red off the shelf. 

Big Bunch Merlot (Hawke's Bay 2014) @$48

juicy and yummy

Let's dig into the mains, shall we? First up, and by popular demand, the Assorted Mushroom Pizza. We absolutely loved the flavours of the mushroom pizza the previous time but again, it looked the same yet there was a difference in taste. We figured out, it could be the mushroom paste was reduced this time round, and hence there was a reduction in the umami flavours of the mushrooms.

Assorted Mushroom Pizza @$26

up up and away, lingering cheese pull~

Pizza was still good and we enjoyed it through and through. We also revisited another favourite (although mine was the Hokkien Mee!) and that is the Crab Meat Claw Fried Rice with Tobiko. Colourful plate and best eaten while still hot.

Crab Meat Claw Fried Rice with Tobiko @$14

How can we not order any meat? Impossible! And, so we had meat. An expensive Bangers and Mash, the lovely Iberico Pork and our favourite New Zealand Lamb Rack.

Bangers and Mash @$27

Loved the crispy fried onion rings. Lovely big ring but alas, only that few pieces. It has the English Cumberland sausage, that prompted me to search wiki for it, and it's supposed to be long.  But ours was short lei, how? Haha! Enjoyably meaty, salty enough to reach for a sip of the wine and loved that caramelized onion gravy on that bed of soft mash.

We craved for meat and of course, ordered our favourites from previous visit. The Iberico Pork came looking sexy with its charred bits. The center piece (pun intended) was amazingly good. Juicy, flavourful and tender. Lovely texture of the pork, enjoyed the charred broccoli and lovely eggplant puree (but this was less smokey in comparison).

Iberico Pork @$24

amazingly flavourful, tender pork

Quite consistently, the New Zealand Lamb Rack (250gms) was the best performer. It was as good as we remembered it. Well, previously, we had it in the Mixed Grill Platter but this time round, the spotlight is on the lamb rack and lamb rack alone and it delivered!

New Zealand Lamb Rack @$34

side view

Well seasoned. and superbly grilled, the lamb rack was succulent to bite and loved those meat near the bone. Smokey, salty and flavourful, plus non-gamey. Served with roasted baby potatoes, grilled  broccoli (gotta love this!) and pickled shallots. Sneaky to have pickled shallots in there but it's refreshing to the taste bud with a sharp tangy sweet jolt.

Service was friendly, and efficient. Overall, a good place to dine with good food and reasonably priced bottled wines.

The Gong by Drinks & Co

Address: 7 Fraser St, #01-59/60 Duo Galleria, Singapore 189356

Website: http://thegong.com.sg/

Contact: 9619 4568

Business Hours:

Daily 11am to 12am

[Media Invite] Have a Merry Season @ FrapasBar By Saveur at The Cathay (Festive Sets available from 20th December – 25th December 2019)

Regardless if you're a 2-pax or 4-pax party, FrapasBar has got you covered for the festive season. We had a jolly good time at FrapasBar previewing their Christmas Feast menu. Party of 6? No problem, just order up the 2-pax and 4-pax sets and we're good to go!

Let's start slow with fried food. The Crab Croquette came looking good with the snow white toppings of coconut and mayo. Tasty but we were so ready for something more substantial.

Crab Croquette

Duck Breast

The next plate was duck breast. Pan seared french duck breast, served with roasted potato, a side of greens and glazed with bigarade sauce. The piece of meat that I had, had this annoying tendon and that made it tough to chew.

Burrata Tomato

To balance the meat, the festive set for 4 pax included Burrata Tomato in pesto sauce. The burrata was rather firm and the pesto sauce was mildly refreshing.

Garlic Prawns (4 pax set)

Garlic prawns could be one of my favourite dishes at FrapasBar! Look at those colours, so vibrant so eat-able! But wait till you break off a chunk of that bread (looked a bit chao tar but its flavours was yum!) and roll it around in the sauce before popping this flavoursome piece into your mouth. Love love the smokey flavours.

Foie Gras

Foie Gras has been a staple at Saveur since its beginning, along with duck confit and Saveur pasta. It delivers and pretty consistently too. Wobbly, rich and creamy.

foie gras up-close

The 2-pax set came with grilled scallops. It came looking like a pearl from the sea, sitting gracefully in its shell.

Scallops

sweet sweet scallops

The other croquette that we tried was the Truffle Potato croquette. Nothing beats a freshly fried croquette. Don't leave it out for too long!

Truffle Potato Croquette

good flavour and texture

For Christmas, let's enjoy some traditional turkey breast and ham. Slices of turkey breast (skin on) and ham, plated with brussel sprouts, heirloom carrots, stuffings and cranberry jam. This felt like a traditional festive plate. I actually enjoyed the turkey breast as it was not dry and had each small bites with the jam, stuffings and sprouts. Yummy.

Turkey Breast and Ham (2 pax portion)

For the meal, I had a glass of mojito. It is less sweet here and it was served in a nice big mug. Tiara and Rachelle had Sangria and it was a rather large glass! Impressive.

Mojito @$12++

Sangria @$14++

The next dish that we had, was stuffed squid with French Onion rice. I'm guessing that this dish as french onion soup inspired. Ikameshi! Mild seasoning on the squid. Squid itself was tender with a lovely smokiness.

Stuffed Squid

pretty looking

If you hanker after a little carbs, you'll be happy to see the Saveur Pasta, an all time favourite dish of capellini, sakura ebi, pork sauce, chive, shallots and truffle oil. Another of my favourite dish here.

Saveur Pasta

The most impressive looking item in the Christmas Feast menu has gotta be the Beef en Croute. If you are like me and wonders about the difference between Beef Welling and Boeuf en Croute, here is the wiki link to it.

Beef en Croute

ta-dah!

A whole piece of beef fillet wrapped up in some sort of vegetable leaves with morels/porcini minced/paste and then encased in pastry and baked, resulting in meat with a very pink center. Can't be help that the outer sides of the beef were more cooked than its center but overall, happy to report that the meat was tender and natural tasting!

beautiful

Thank you Kris for the invite and FrapasBar for hosting the tasting. It was a hearty meal! The place gets very busy during TGIF and weekends, hence do make your reservations prior.

Christmas Feast @ FrapasBar

Set for 2 pax @$85++ (5 dishes)

• Turkey Breast & Ham
• Duck Breast
• Beef en Croute
• Hokkaido Scallops
• Truffle Potato Croquette

Set for 4 pax @$190++ (8 dishes)

• Turkey Breast & Ham
• Duck Breast
• Stuffed Squid
• Beef en Croute
• Foie Gras
• Garlic Prawns
• Burrata Tomato
• Crab Croquette

FrapasBar @ The Cathay

Address: 2 Handy Road, #01-11/12 S229233
Website: https://www.frapasbar.sg
Contact: 6735 1141
Business Hours:
Sun-Thur 12pm - 1am
Fri & Sat 12pm - 2am
(Food last order 9.30pm)

[Media Invite] Sparkling Christmas @ Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel (Early Bird for Reservations Before 15 December 2019 )

Tis the season to sparkle! Executive Chef, Jackie Zhang and his dedicated culinary team has prepared a gastronomic feasts for guests. What's new this season at Food Capital? Be amazed by how tender and juicy the har jeong 虾酱 (prawn paste) turkey is, enjoy the tender smokey flavours of the barbecue beef short-ribs, dig into the classics of honey baked gammon ham, and slow down to savour dessert such as fruit hazelnut crunch yule log with yuzu cream, Christmas star cranberry banana log cake, fruit cake and festive stollen just to name a few.

Food Capital Festive Buffet

M Wine

Prawn Paste Turkey

barbecue beef short-ribs

honey baked gammon ham

Loved the Christmas roasts. The turkey was moist and tender with mild flavours of the savoury prawn paste. Chef Jackie revealed that the process of cooking the turkey took 48 hours. The meat was good without any sauce as it was well marinated. For those who wants to kick-up the flavours a few notches upwards, do remember to have the turkey with the handcrafted chili sauce. Chicken rice without the rice and without chicken (because we had turkey instead!).

carve me some salmon wellington

Oh, don't forget to have some of those roasted tomatoes on vines. So sweet and intense.

Prawn Paste Turkey

honey baked gammon ham and salmon

How can a meal be complete without the festive drinks? Tempo Bar has crafted two drinks for Christmas; Fairytale and Amaretto Sour. I enjoyed the Fairytale. Concocted with gin, elderflower,
cucumber and tonic. Refreshing and my kind of sweet drink. The Amaretto Sour is made of  amaretto, cognac, sours, gomme, egg white and bitters.

Fairytale and Amaretto Sour

Tried the log cakes and enjoyed every bit of it. My favourite trio would be the hazelnut crunch yule log, Christmas Star cranberry banana log cake and double chocolate pound cake.

Christmas Star Cranberry Banana Cake

Hazelnut Crunch Yuzu Log Cake

Double Chocolate Pound Cake

Festive Buffet 

2 to 30 December 2019 (excluding 24 & 25 December 2019)
Buffet Lunch: $68++
Buffet Dinner: $88++ 

Christmas Eve 24 December 2019 

Buffet Lunch: $68++
Buffet Dinner: $98++ (includes free flow of juices)

Christmas Day 25 December 2019 

Buffet Lunch & Dinner: $98++ (includes free flow of juices)

New Year’s Eve 31 December 2019 

Buffet Lunch: $68++
Buffet Dinner: $98++ (includes free flow of juices)

New Year’s Day 1 January 2020 

Buffet Lunch: $68++
Buffet Dinner: $78++ (includes free flow of juices)

Complete your buffet experience with free flow of house pour wine and beer at $35 and with
Prosecco at $40.

Make your reservations before 15 December 2019 to enjoy 20% early bird discount and a
complimentary bottle of wine.

OPENING HOURS 

Lunch: 12pm to 2.30pm (Mondays to Sundays) 
Dinner: 6.30pm to 10.30pm (Mondays to Sundays) 
*Buffet menus are on a rotational basis.

Grissini - Exquisite Italian Festive Set Menu 

Prepared by Chef Mirko and team, one could enjoy an authentic Italian meal for Christmas at Grissini.

Highlights from the festive menu include bresaola carpaccio, Sardinian fregola, sea bass milanese and panetone.

bresaola carpaccio

For the uninitiated like myself, bresaola is an Italian dry-cured lean meat (beef). It doesn't have a strong beefy taste and it was like a drier version of prosciuto. The plate has black truffle paste, arugula, mustard dressing and chestnut. The meat goes well with M Wine Red. Cheers to everytime that I say this. Haha!

Sardinian fregola

The Sardinian Fregola is definitely one for the cheese lovers. A good sized baked goat cheese, served with fregola in roasted pumpkin puree. The goat cheese had a tart flavour with a punch. The flavour spreads in the mouth. Fregola texture was like small boba and mild sweetness from the pumpkin puree.

Milanese Breaded Seabass Fillet

The green on the Milanese breaded seabass was striking. First time having Milanese breaded seabass instead of veal.

seabass fillet 

For dessert, we tried the Panetone Cup. This dessert is reminiscent of tiramisu. It was pretty heavy with the thick layer of pistachio crumble (top) and chocolate mousse (bottom) and interspersed with vanilla custard.

Panetone Cup

2 December 2019 to 1 January 2020 

3-Course Festive Set Menu: $72++ per person
4-Course Festive Set Menu: $88++ per person

OPENING HOURS 

Lunch: 12pm to 2.30pm (Mondays to Sundays) 
Dinner: 6.30pm to 10.30pm (Mondays to Sundays)

For  more information/reservations:

Contact: 6233 1100
Email: dining.gcw@millenniumhotels.com
Website: www.celebrateatgcw.com/xmas2019


Thank you Gilbert and Ji Cheng for the invite, Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel for hosting the dinner and special thanks to Chef Jackie and Chef Mirko and teams for the preparation of the festive eats.