Dazzling Festive Buffet @ Food Capital

Our pre-Christmas gathering this year was at Food Capital Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel. Visited on a weekday for dinner. Was seated in the insides of the place and just behind the roast meats counter.

all decked out

For the festivities, there's turkey and ham. Then, there are stollen, mince pies and log cakes too. Was disappointed as I discovered that there were no fresh oysters on that day. Bummer. But mood was lifted when I spied that there were baked oysters instead. Yay!

Made a beeline for that as soon as the freshly baked batch of oysters (looked like in trays of 30s or so) was brought out. Peak period are around 7 to 9pm where the yummy morsels were snapped up as soon as they were brought out. Some did not even have an opportunity to be plated onto its display on top of the salt bowl.

baked oysters with cheese

look at that!

Served piping hot, so be careful when biting into those creamy oysters cloaked with melted cheese. Lovely.

The Braised Bobby Veal Shank looked like a favourite since there were mainly bones left standing on its tray at about 7.30pm. I took some and it was pretty tender. Flavour was mild.

Braised Bobby Veal Shank (running out fast)

Typical of us, we will get some sashimi for some light bites before moving onto heavier meats. Food Capital just concluded their Japanese themed buffet recently but no worries, as everyone's favourite sashimi counter is still available.

Was informed that there isn't any salmon belly nor tuna left, so had to make do with just salmon and hamachi. Hmm, suggest to inform the staff that you'd like two servings (even if the portion is for 1 pax) as the staff that was manning the sashimi counter that day sliced it into pretty tiny pieces.

one portion each of salmon and hamachi (刺身)

Nevertheless, fish was fresh and firm so the sashimi was enjoyable. Next to the sashimi counter, is the tempura section. Oooh, how I liked the freshly fried ebi tempura (prawn tempura). So crunchy, still smoking hot and such firm and sweet prawns.

Ebi Tempura (海老天ぷら)

And, for something substantial and if you like soupy noodles, do try the Singapore Laksa. The version here is pretty good although it doesn't have any seahum (cockles). Quail egg is a good idea in a small bowl of laksa. My friends added the chicken meat or roast pork as additional toppings (加料).

Singapore Laksa live station

From the cold seafood counter, my favourite was the boiled prawns. So good. Firm, sweet meat.

enticing red

Lastly, I had a taste of turkey, roast beef and ham. As I was given the breast meat, and the outer sides of the ham, the meat were rather dry. The slice of beef was from a portion that was cooked to medium doneness.

traditional roast turkey

And then, finally, we moved on to dessert. First time trying the festive minced pies. Hmm, I will categorize it within the same category as fruit cake. Meaning, not my favourite. Hahaa!

minced pie

cakes

My friends liked the bread and butter pudding. For me, I like the traditional log cake for those crunchy crunchy things in it.

dessert platter for one 

For finale, finish off with affogato. One shot of espresso from the coffee machine and a scoop of vanilla ice-cream from the ice-cream conter.

affogato

Thankful for the friends who had gathered to spend time before the festivities.

Once again, thank you Gilbert for your help and JC who took time off to meet up with us.

Here's wishing everyone Happy Festivities and with many more good eats to come. Be healthy, be happy.

A short video of the Winter Wonderland display at the hotel lobby:

Arteastiq Bistro @ Plaza Singapura

The girls suggested to have high tea and Arteastiq was chosen as the venue. This time round, we visited the one at Plaza Singapura. It has been ages since I last dined at Plaza Singapura!

To start, we shared a salad that has quite a sizeable mound of burrata in it. Tasted sweet (probably from the honey mustard or sweet potato?). Quite nice.

Spinach and Sweet Potato Salad @$15++ (plushie not included)

creamy burrata

Got ourselves a "Signature Teasery" set that is meant for 2 pax to share. It comes with 2 specialty tea. We chose Pomelo Tea (hot) and Lychee Tea (iced).

Pomelo Tea (front) and Lychee Tea (back)

Signature Teasery for 2 (@$48++)

The best item from the savoury would be the Tortilla with Smoked Duck. Next was the Vol au Vent  with its delectable puff.n The foie gras terrine on toast with yuzu marmalade was overpowered by the sweetness. Hmm, for a moment, I thought I was having dessert already.

Smoked Salmon with cream cheese mousse, Tortilla with smoked duck breast, Vol au Vent with mushrooms capers pate, Foie Gras Terrine on Toast, Yuzu Marmalade, and Crushed Pistachio

Double Raspberry Choux Pastry, Chocolate Cone with Banana Custard, Chocolate Truffles with Nut, Macarons

The raspberry choux bursts out easily when it was pressed. Thick jam in it. Did not try the rest. 

Double Raspberry Choux

Thank you Tiara for making the reservations. An afternoon with Tiara, Shermaine and Kris.

Arteastiq Bistro

Address:  68 Orchard Road, #03-70/72, Plaza Singapura, Singapore 238839
Website: https://www.arteastiq.com/plaza-singapura-menu/#hightea
Contact: 6336 0951
Business Hours: Daily 11am to 10pm

JB101 @ Science Park 2

This has opened near my workplace. Tasty food, and with the lunch set, one could get free ice-cream. I heard it's the same for dinner patrons. Nice gesture from the staff. However, it could get rather busy during peak hours (lunch), so waiting time varies between 25 to 40 minutes, especially if you order ala-carte items (non-lunch set).

The lunch items would be the usual rice with different toppings like butter/mongolian/salted egg chicken/pork, hor fun, friend noodles, fried rice, pepper beef rice etc. Having eaten there a couple of times, I'd say the food is definitely flavourful. Only grouse was that the meat portion could get rather stingy, especially when there's a crowd.

menu

Decided to dine in as a group and ordered some dishes to share. When doing zhichar and if I'd to test the quality of that restaurant, prawn paste chicken is one way to start. But then, I'm biased towards fried chicken anyways! Hehe.

prawn paste chicken (medium)

The staff would inform about the sizing of small, medium and large. Since there were 6 of us, we decided to get a medium plate of prawn paste chicken. Piping hot when arrived, deep fried till deep golden. Batter was crispy and inside well seasoned and moist. So good! Oh, don't forget to take the sambal belachan chili from the self-service counter.

For vegetables, we had the 4-Heavenly Kings which was basically a mix of four different types of greens. Here we got long beans, brinjal, ladies fingers and petai. Fried with sambal, but level of spiciness was mild.

4-Heavenly Kings (medium)

Curry Pork (medium)

The curry pork was very good. The texture of the meat was superb. So tender! The spice in the curry was likeable. Goes well with white rice. We had another fried item and that was the salted egg squid. After having this, I think JB101 does very good deep fried items. The squid was tender with a amiable chew. The taste of the salted egg wasn't that strong.

Salted Egg Squid (medium)

And then, there was that runaway dish that came too late. When we are at the end of our meal, it arrived. Would have preferred if there were more egg in it. Sauce was nice but we had already finished our rice.

hotplate tofu

Price is reasonable and food was good. Service was friendly too. Yes, and free ice-cream after meal, for now.

Famous JB101

Address: 45 Science Park Road, Sparkle #01-03/04
Website: https://famousjb101.com/
Business Hours:
Mon – Fri: 8am-11pm
Sat, Sun, PH: 11am-11pm

[Closed] Habitat by Honestbee

There is a prerequisite before visiting the place. One must download their app. To enter, you will need to open the app and use the 'Bee Pass' which is to scan the QR code to enter and leave the place. Download from Google Play or App Store. Oh ya, bring your cable to charge the phone as well.

nice mural at the entrance

shuttle bus service

Habitat occupies a huge huge space. You could shop for groceries, order food through the app and to pay via the app as well. Recommend to setup the payment method prior to visiting. Another recommendation is to familiarize with the place especially the locations of each of the stall, more so, the stalls that you intend to order from. Primarily because some of the shops are rather 'hidden' and we wouldn't want our food/drink to turn cold by the time wasted in trying to locate the stalls. While orders are sent in automatically, and the app will notify once the order is ready to pick-up, you still need to physically move to that stall to get your order.

watch out for ongoing promos!

aisle be back

nice decor

self-collection

one of the stalls

promo price @$6.50

Expectantly, it gets busier on weekends. Most arrives in time for brunch and many stayed past 2pm. We visited on a weekend, and it coincided with Masterchef Australia 2018 winner, Sashi Cheliah's appearance at Habitat.

Masterchef Australia 2018 winner, Sashi Cheliah

Ms Anita Kapoor

We ordered quite a bit of stuffs from Habitat.

Lazy Loaf

For doughy, chewy mochi stuffs. We tried a few individual soft rolls and also their tasting platter of their loaves. My favourite from the soft rolls was the Pink Himalayan Salt Butter Roll. Simple and good.

charcoal bolo with cream cheese puree @$2.50, himalayan pink salt butter roll @$2, mochi matcha azuki bun @$3.50

Chocolate Orange Loaf with Echire Butter, Jam, Hokkaido Yotsuba Butter

mini baguette @$3

It was quite lovely to gnaw on the breads with generous spread of the butter. That and good coffee. Best pairing for a lazy weekend.

Hinoki: Kyoto-roasted selections

We were actually seated directly opposite this drinks shop, so I tried two things from Hinoki. Hmm, I liked the White better than the matcha latte. Predominantly because the coffee had a hint of sweetness while the matcha latte was unsweetened.

White @$5.50

Matcha Latte @$6.50

Char: Cantonese Roast

We had eaten at Char @Jalan Besar a few years back. Now at Habitat, we finally tried the soya chicken drumstick noodles and char siew rice.

Soya Chicken Drumstick Noodles @$9.80

Char Siew Rice @$8

While the pricing is not the most impressive, I quite liked the lava egg in this equation. The soy sauce chicken was lovely with the tender, moist meat. Noodles was rather plain and it was in dire need of the spicy chili which tasted of XO sauce. The plump bok choy was also worth mentioning for its burst of juice with each mouthful. Super fresh.

Fish: Tiger Beer battered fish & chips

It was a good idea to have the fish & chips presented in a pizza box. Very easy to take from one place to another.

Poke the batter and witness its crispiness! So crunchy. Loved the accompanying malt vinegar and tartar sauce. The chips were alright too. Haddock had quite the firm flesh.

peek-a-boo

Haddock @$15.50

Campfire: Josper-grilled sharing plates

We are all for sharing. Truth be told, we were disappointed with the steak. The doneness was a tad over and not much flavour on the meat. Thus far, our experience with Josper-cooked meats were all good.

Australian Rosedale Flap Steak @$22

Seasonal Wild Mushrooms with Pine Nuts @$8

The entree of chicken steak was really good. Would recommend it. Tender, flavourful chicken thigh with specks of char on its skin. Easy to cut, and lovely to taste.

Rosemary and Garlic Chicken Steak @$14

Fresh Seafood

We enjoyed the freshly shucked oysters too. Think it was Canadian oysters if not wrong. Less than $12 per half dozen.

oysters

Riz Labo

For dessert, do not miss the fluffy poofy pancakes from Riz Labo Japan. Light, fluffy and not so eggy when compared to Flippers. Served with a dollop of Chantilly, and maple syrup by the side. What amazes me was the super sweet strawberries that day. The only downside was that the bottom of the pancake would stick a little to the paper.

Poofy Pancakes @$14

All in all, it was a fun experience at Habitat. The persimmons were on promo that day and got a box for $8.90. Sweet!

Visited with the foodie gang; Ivan, Hence and Tracy, Kris, Tiara and Shermaine.

Habitat by Honestbee

Address: 34 Boon Leat Terrace, #01-01, Singapore 119866
Website: https://habitat.honestbee.sg/
Business Hours: Daily 8am to 10pm

[Media Invite] Festive Feasting @ Amara Singapore

Come on down to Amara Singapore at Tanjong Pagar to enjoy the festive feasting during Christmas eve, Christmas day, New Year's eve and New Year's day. Here is a preview of some of the festive highlights from Element.

My usual choice of starter from the buffet would be the cold seafood selection, and mainly oysters. Hence, the 'meatless' carpaccio was rather refreshing. Tomato, watermelon, arrugula, balsamic and cheese make such tasty combo.

Tomato Watermelon Carpaccio

For something to warm the tummy, the Celeriac Veloute Truffle Oil was rather comforting. Yummy much. At the buffet, diners are welcome to add as much or as little truffle oil as one desires.

Celeriac Veloute Truffle Oil

With up to 7 live stations at Element for the festivities, I'd be queuing up for foie gras, prepared ala minute. Lovely, wobbly piece of creamy liver.

pan-seared foie gras with raspberry sauce

If you could take a bit of alcohol in food, don't miss out on the Baby Lobster Miso Yaki. This is one of those fusion dish that I actually liked. Chef added a dash of Chinese Rose Wine (玫瑰露) before the lobster is torched to release the fragrance of the wine. Lovely.

Baby Lobster Miso Yaki (赤かび味噌焼)

with a touch of ikura

いただきます

The slow-roast turkey with Sze Chuan spicy sauce was interesting. A touch of spice with a sharp edge yet it grows on you, the more we eat. Our dish was  beautifully plated by Chef Jason and it looked like a garden. Am not a fan of turkey meat, hence the sauce was handy to provide a tad of moisture to the otherwise, dryer meat.

Slow Roast Turkey in Spicy Sze Chuan sauce

For dessert, we had a taste of Japanese Cheese Log Cake. Soft and light, with a touch of matcha inside.

Japanese Cheese Log Cake

Thank you Lindy for the invite, Amara Singapore for hosting and special thanks to Chef Charles Goh and his team for sharing with us the highlights of the festive buffet and their culinary journey.

For reservations, please visit: https://singapore.amarahotels.com/tis-the-season-to-be-jolly.html