Launch of the Kronenbourg Eiffel Beer Tower @ The Coastal Settlement

Was invited to witness the unveiling of the Kronenbourg 1664 Eiffel Beer Tower, an iconic innovation by Carlsberg Singapore. The launch party was held at The Coastal Settlement (TCS) a new establishment (casual dining restaurant, cafe and bar) located at 200 Netheravon Road. The date: 14th December 2011.

arrival at The Coastal Settlement

restaurant, cafe and bar amidst lush grenaries

the stage is set

 Had some time before the launch, so went around exploring the restaurant.

chandelliers lighting the bar area

ice-kachang maker at the bar?

knick knacks

retro looking stuffs

there's a bicycle in the shop

sturdy bench

Christmas is around the corner~

wine bottles

thirsty? How about a BLANC?

Got myself a bottle of Kronenbourg BLANC 1664 (yup, the blue bottle, so pretty!), a specialty white beer that has a clean refreshing taste. Carbonated, light, crisp and citrusy. Just don't forget that it still has an ABV of 5%. Kronenbourg 1664 beers are brewed from Strisselspalt hop (also known as 'caviar of hops') and water from Vosges Mountains., hence the clean smooth taste.

my BLANC

small cute cone savoury canapes, tasty morsels these ones

Soon, it was time to gather for the much awaited launch and all eyes were upon the stage.

Left to right: Mr Bart Lim (General Manager of Carlsberg Singapore), Mr Lee Choon Khim (Managing Director of The Coastal Settlement), and the lovely Ms Kelly Latimer (emcee for the night)

moment of the launch!

Upon the light up, confettis fell from the ceiling and dancers suddenly rushed in.  Can-Can dance performance! My first time seeing one too. Shrieks, twirls, colours and lots of skin and legs. Ahem.

a blur of colours from the energetic dancers

Can't show you too many pictures of the can-can dancers. This is a food blog after all! Hahaa! Let's play nice, shall we.

After the dance performance, the Kronenbourg 1664 Eiffel Beer Tower was finally revealed for the first time, in the world. This iconic innovation is a 1m tall replica of Eiffel Tower and holds 3L of beer, and has four taps instead of just 1! Woohoo!

ta-dah!

Let's take a closer look.

illuminated tower, with blinking lights at the top

ready, get set, pour!

four taps, four times the sharing fun!

cheers!

The Kronenbourg 1664 has a much stronger taste of bitter lager. Dense and smooth as well. Yums.

The night was filled with music, merry making, good food and lots of Kronenbourg beer!

talented Ms Joanna Dong and her accompanist

belting out Jazzy tunes

Went to explore abit the outer side of the restaurant. The area seems quite big. Alfresco and indoor dining are available.

restaurant facade

for moms and kids to take a breather?

Then, it was time to head back indoors for some more food and beer.

bottoms up!

bevy of pretty Kronenbourg girls

5 lucky draw winners went home with their own Kronenbourg 1664 Eiffel Beer Tower!

Almost too quickly, the night came to an end.

cheers to good beers and a new iconic beer tower

Thanks to the good people of Communications DNA, especially Denise, Deva and Shirlynn, for the invitation!

The King Louis Grill & Bar @ Vivocity

Located at Level 3 of Vivocity. They have weekdays lunch time express sets at good pricing, so thought of giving it a try.

weekday Four Course Lunch sets

utensils

Am not sure but found the decor to be somewhat kitsch.

there's a tiger in here....?!

castle on the wall?

Anyway, lunch sets comes with a soup, a drink and a dessert. My friend ordered the pork chop set while I had the sirloin steak set done medium rare. For drinks, we wanted root beer but it was sold out. Sold out?! At like what time, 12+pm? Anyway, no choice, settled for iced-lemon tea. For soups, we ordered mushroom and pumpkin soup.

mushroom soup

pumpkin soup

Frankly speaking, we were quite impressed with the soups. The pumpkin soup had natural sweetness and it tasted pretty mild and light. The mushroom soup is more packed with flavour but not too thick. The soups were enjoyable.

But was quite let down by the iced lemon tea. In fact, it tasted like a watered down lemon tea water with remnants sprite taste mixed in it?! Yuck.

regretted ordering this

Luckily, main course looked presentable enough and tasted alright.

sirloin steak

pork chop

Our mains came with coleslaw, vegetables, and a mix of potatoes and sweet potatoes. Thumbs up for the fresh salad and coleslaw. Tasty. Thumbs up for the baked potatoes and sweet potatoes. The mixture of tubers gives interesting texture and some sweetness to our carbo fix.

Was not impressed by the meat though. Think it can be further improved. The steak did not have much flavour to it.

sirloin steak, medium rare

Had a bite of the pork chop and it tasted quite lean. Probably a good deal because there were 3 pieces of meat in that set!

Anyway, we were by then, ready for desserts. Luckily, we were not disappointed.

ice-cream!

I had the mango flavour while my friend had the chocolate chip. The mango flavoured ice-cream was nice and not too sweet. The chocolate chip ice-cream tasted more like oreo's and my friend liked that one more. The ice cream was quite a big scoop too, unlike some other places that gives you a puny scoop for their lunch sets.

chocolate chip ice-cream

Trung Nguyen @ Le Loi Street, Ho Chi Minh

Trung Nguyen is like THE coffee brand in Vietnam. It's practically everywhere. In markets, departmental stores, its own cafe etc.

Visited one of the Trung Nguyen cafe that is quite near our hotel, somewhere along Le Loi Street. Exact location, if you ask me now, seriously, I have no idea!

First impression, the place was packed! Many tourists and locals enjoying their cuppa in the air-conditioned and small cosy cafe.

order here if you're taking away

Just find a seat and the service staff will give you the menu and take your order. They will also serve the drinks to you. Trung Nguyen coffee has beans that ranges from number 1 to 5. Probably its intensity level? Seems so. Ordered a number 3 iced-coffee without milk. One cuppa can set you back by VND45,000 thereabout. It's slightly more expensive if it's with milk.

After you've placed your order, the service staff brought us iced-tea (probably oolong or green tea unsweetened). So, instead of ice water, we got iced-tea in Ho Chi Minh. Cool, right?

iced-tea

still need to drip even if its iced coffee

The service staff was helpful. Knowing that we're tourists, he advised us to wait for 5 minutes for the coffee to drip finish. When the 5 minutes was about up, he came by to help us remove the coffee filter. So nice of him!

hot coffee with condensed milk

taking a peek!

done dripping, then add sugar

The sugar is added after the coffee had dripped finished and then its poured into the tall glass with ice.

ta dah, iced-coffee in front and iced-coffee with milk at the back

The taste is pretty intense. Very buttery and fragrant as well. Nice and smooth but can really feel the heatiness after drinking it.

Trung Nguyen Coffee

watch the world go by as you sip your coffee in comfort...

interior of the cafe

We also bought the coffee powder and the drip as well. The coffee powder and the drip costs about SGD6+.

makes a good souvenir, and its slightly cheaper than Ben Thanh market

Heard the staff guiding another tourist from Philippines with regards to the coffee milk ratio. He said 2 spoonfuls of coffee powder and 4 teaspoons of condensed milk. Coffee powder put it inside the drip, while the milk is onto the small cup. Hot water is poured into the drip and should be ready within 5 minutes.

Haven't tried it myself. Will experiment next time.