Saturday, November 21, 2015

Festive Dining - Colourful Christmas @ Café 2000 M Hotel

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Come December, Café 2000 will be having a Colourful Christmas with highlights of Whole Roasted Char Siew Turkey with Chestnut Stuffing, Roasted Bone-In Baked Ham and Roasted Beef Prime Ribs at the Carving Station, Roast Cajun-spiced Whole Lamb at the Roasting Pit and a whole array of Christmas sweets, and some with a local twist such as the M' Special Chempedak Log Cake.

Was good to see Chef Danny again after two years. Here is a link to my first encounter with this affable man.
Café 2000 was bustling as usual, and we were invited there for a preview of the Colourful Christmas buffet menu.

Bone-in Honey Baked Ham and Char Siew Turkey with Chestnut Stuffings

To start, how about some sweet boiled tiger prawns and fresh oysters?

US Fresh Oysters and Boiled Tiger Prawns

As usual, the prawns were good and firm. Oysters had adequate meat and not too briny.

lovely seafood

If oyster is not your thing, then how about Alaskan Snow Crabs? Think it was my first time seeing Spanner Crab. 

Spanner Crab
Alaskan Snow Crab Legs

The Carving Station is also the place where most hot items are located. On top of that, one could not help but to be enticed by the beautifully roasted turkey, bone-in honey baked ham and beef prime ribs.

(left to right) Bone-In Honey Baked Ham, Chestnut Stuffings, Whole Roasted Char Siew Turkey, Roasted Beef Prime Ribs
Roasted Beef Prime Ribs

The Char Siew Turkey tasted good. Beautifully roasted with tender white flesh and finished with char siew glaze. Not often can I associate the word 'tender' with turkey. Enjoyed the ham too. So succulent and yummy! Great with a glass of wine. The sausage looking item was actually the chestnut stuffings. Took a slice and its texture was like firm fish cake. Something different and not what I thought it would initially taste like. Good but a tad salty.

The roast beef was slapped onto the hot grill upon carving. Resulting in that pleasant smokey charred taste that worked best at the fatty bits. Ate it simply with some mustard but you might want to try with other sauces. Nice.

Honey Baked Ham and Roast Beef Prime Ribs
Char Siew Turkey and Chestnut stuffing

Over at the cooked food or Hot Items, there's Christmas Seafood and Pumpkin Paella Rice which was rather unique and sweet. The Braised Duck with Sea Cucumber was enjoyable and the must-have would be the satay. I think they have the winning formula for the satay. Loved it and ate at least half a dozen of those.

Chef's Special Salted Egg Yolk Crab
Braised Seasonal Vegetables with Fish Maw and and Mushroom in Conpoy Sauce

Oven Slow Cooked Oxtail with Winter Root Vegetables
Buttered Festive Season Vegetables
Sze Chuan styled Wok-Fried Turkey
satay - must try

Alas, had missed out to try Chef's Specialty Salted Yolk Crabs but managed to get my hands on the steamed mud crabs. Firm texture and could taste its natural sweetness.

Steamed Mud Crabs

The Desserts counter was stacked high with Christmas goodies. Pretty and Christmasy.

sweets

Christmas Fruit Cake
Linzer Pie
Raspberry Chocolate Hazelnut Feuilletine Cake
Assorted Christmas Cookies
Signature Rum and Raisin Log Cake
M' Special Chempedak Log Cake

Chempedak is from the same family of fruits with jackfruit but they are not the same. The Chempedak Log Cake has a subtle fragrance that is unique to the fruit and light tasting.

fruit cake

See if you are able to spot the Spiced Mulled Wine with Pear, warmed in a a copper pot. Made of red wine and served warm. The usual mulling spices are cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and maybe cardamon or star anise. Dried fruits or orange rind may be included as well. Tasted nicely sweet and warm.

Christmas Spiced Mulled Wine

Not only is the buffet priced so reasonably for Christmas Eve, diners will also be treated to a glass of champagne to accompany the buffet plus a chance to get lucky to win a M Suite stay worth $850++ with every $100 spent at all three food and beverage outlets (Café 2000, The Buffet and J Bar).

Thank you Malcolm and M Hotel for the invite and for hosting the dinner, and also to Chef Danny for the sumptuous buffet menu.

Café 2000 @ M Hotel

Location: 81 Anson Road, Singapore 079908
Website: http://www.millenniumhotels.com.sg/mhotelsingapore/dining-specials/christmas-promotion-at-m-hotel.html
Christmas and New Year's Eve Buffet Price: $55++ per adult (usual price @$75++) with valid reservation and full payment before 15 December 2015.
Contact: (+65) 6500 6112
Opening Hours: Daily, 6.30am - 11.00pm

Thursday, November 19, 2015

Nara Japanese Restaurant 奈良 @ Goldhill Shopping Centre

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Dropped by this place for lunch on one of those weekdays. Heard about their lunch sets and price ranges from $16+ to $20+. There are two menu which lists their set lunches. One is a regular while the other was more of a special menu for lunch.

in the restaurant
regular set lunch

Decided to go for the Nara Set Lunch (regular menu) of Tori Teriyaki Set. Colleagues decided to try their tempura set and the value-for-money set from the special menu. Green tea was complimentary. Had mine cold.

complimentary cold green tea
cute

The salad from the set was served first. Refreshing and necessary dose of greens. Upon finishing the salad, then only the mains arrived.

small salad (part of the teriyaki chicken set lunch)
Tori Teriyaki Set Lunch @$18++

The set include steamed egg custard (chawan mushi), grilled chicken cutlet with teriyaki sauce, steamed rice, miso soup and pickles. The chawan mushi was very healthy tasting with smooth steamd egg. Loved the pickles to bits. Steamed rice goes so well with pickles...

The tori teriyaki itself was a tad burnt and slightly dry but still flavourful.

The bento of others seemed to fare better. 

(from special/monthly menu) the pork set @$18++
soba set
And watermelon for desserts. Sweet.

fruits

Simple and fuss free lunch.

Nara Japanese Restaurant 奈良 @ Goldhill Shopping Centre

Location: 167 Thompson Road Goldhill Centre
Contact: 65 62566568
Reservation: http://www.hungrygowhere.com/singapore/nara_japanese_restaurant_goldhill_centre/
Opening Hours:
Daily:
Lunch - 11:30 am - 2:30 pm (last order; 2.15 pm)
Dinner - 5:30 pm - 10:30 pm (last order; 10 pm )

Sunday, November 15, 2015

Benjamin Browns @ Forum The Shopping Mall

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This is one of those places where you will be able to find the over the top milkshakes. Wait. Is this still trending? Visited at about five in the evening on a weekend and there was a queue formed. Looks like it is still popular.

here for this

Likewise, we too would want to check out what the fuss was about. Ordered the Old School and the recommended Banana Nutella. Both cost $16++. Steep pricing for a milkshake, I feel.

Old School Over The Top Shakes

After seeing this, realization came that the stuffs that were piled onto this shake were those things from childhood era. That chocolate wafer, sugar gems, candy floss and that round wafer.. all nostalgic. Felt slightly strange to be scraping those chocolate fudge off the outerside of the jar. The heavy top tumbled off after a few minutes. Perhaps we had moved it around a tad too much?

Banana Nutella

The Banana Nutella had salty mini pretzels that contrasted with the sweet stuffs. Loaded with cream as well. Best part was the nuttella. In terms of the shake, liked the vanilla flavoured ones in Old School better than the banana flavoured ones in the latter.


Benjamin Browns @ Forum The Shopping Mall

Location: 583 Orchard Rd, Singapore 238884
Opening Hours:
Mon-Thu: 10am-9pm
Fri: 10am-10pm
Sat: 9am-10pm
Sun: 9am-9pm
 
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