Arossa Wine & Grill @ Scotts Square

Since May 2013, this restaurant at Level 2 of Scotts Square is now known as Arossa Wine & Grill. Arossa is helmed by Chef Chiaki Watanabe, and I was pretty intrigued on the flavours that Chef Chiaki would be showcasing here in Singapore.

enter, to taste the creations of Chef Chiaki Watanabe

Actually, had wanted to visit earlier, during Restaurant Week but had to cancel at the very last minute due to work commitments. Hence, am glad that opportunity came again, in the form of an invited tasting to try Arossa's Christmas Dinner Course Menu preview. Here's a link to the Christmas dinner course menu.

how about a bottle of Veuve Clicquot?

the beginning of Christmas feels~

Its interior retained the same rustic, classy decor with quiet and dimly lit ambiance. The restaurant has square as well as round tables for smaller groups, and private rooms for larger ones.

cosy

homemade bread served with tapenade, while awaiting for dinner to start

Bread was served warm, with crispy crust and soft whites.The tapenade (chopped olive, capers and anchovies) was interesting but I still like the old-fashioned olive oil and good balsamic.

Went to peep at the open-kitchen and spotted Chef Chiaki. "Service please" She'd called out after placing the items onto the service counter. Better make myself scarce before I get in their way!

Chef Chiaki busy at work in the kitchen

First on the menu, the course before appetiser, an amuse bouche of Turnip Potage Soup. Served in a dainty cup. Just the right start on a damp, and cold rainy evening.

dainty looking, creamy, smooth and warms up the tummy

Appetiser came in the form of Smoked Salmon and Vegetable Terrine with sour cream & orange, dill flavour.

Smoked Salmon and Vegetable Terrine

The smoked salmon has a slightly oily texture, with very light saltiness and natural tasting juicy vegetables. The purple cabbage was surprisingly sweet and crunchy. Overall, a natural fresh taste.

Second course was quite decadent. Sauteed Foie Gras with Caramelized Apple, Balsamic Sauce.

Sauteed foie gras with caramelized apple, drizzled with balsamic sauce

The foie gras was very good. Slight crisp on its outerside, and buttery on its insides. Adequately salted. A good size, and it made one wish for a glass of bubbly with it. Well, the good news is...the Christmas Dinner Menu does come with a glass of Veuve Clicquot!

If you're worried about not getting enough carbs, don't be! For the third course, was Home-made Herb Tagliatelle with Cream Bisque Sauce.

home-made herb tagliatelle with cream bisque sauce

tasty and enjoyable

Pasta was well-cooked and generously coated with sauce. Savoury, slightly tangy and has that mild seafood umami taste. Hearty flavours in manageable portion. Enjoyable dish.

For main course, one could choose either meat (beef) or fish. Pour moi, boeuf. Toujours de boeuf.

Australian roasted tenderloin with celeriac puree, Périgueux sauce

tenderloin, done medium

The tenderloin was good, easy to slice through and gentle to taste. Uncomplicated, simple taste. Deep fried lotus root was nicely crunchy and made a nice snack. 

Have a confession to make, though. The menu states celeriac puree, but when enquired with one of the staff, he mentioned yukon. Hmm, am not sure whether it was served with truffle yukon or celeriac puree that night, but the sure thing was, am in love with it! Sweet, smooth and creamy. Could eat it forever. Satisfying.

Lastly, dessert of Fondant Chocolate with Panettone Gelato, Mixed Berry Sauce.

fondant chocolate with panettone gelato, mixed berry sauce

fondant chocolate with molten heart

The Panettone gelato was rather sweet with candied fruits in it. A contrast to the dark and bitter fondant chocolate. If it ever gets too heavy, there's always the tangy mixed berry sauce to balance things out. 

Arossa's Christmas Dinner Course Menu, ends with either coffee or tea. Or, if you'd like another glass of Veuve-Clicquot champagne, it's $22++ per glass or $118++ per bottle (Mon - Sat, 6pm-9pm).

Thank you to Haswani, Publicist PR for the invite. And to Chef Chiaki and Ms Yuki Kawagishi, Arossa for hosting us. ありがとうございました！

Arossa Wine & Grill

Location: 
Scotts Square (next to Hyatt Hotel),
6 Scotts Road, #02-01, Singapore 228209
Tel: 6636 2951
Fax: 6636 2953

Opening Hours
Lunch 11:30 – 15:00 (last order 14:00)
Dinner 18:00 – 22:30 (last order 21:30)

Website: http://arossa.com.sg

ToTT (Tools of The Trade's) @ Dunearn Road, Bukit Timah

Had always passed by ToTT everytime I'm in bus #67 on my way to somewhere else. Hence, was pretty excited to be invited there for their launch of a new cookbook, "Best Brunch Ever" and also their brand new e-commerce site ToTTstore.com.

If taking cab, then tell the taxi uncle that it's Sime Darby building at Dunearn Road. Had a bit of time before the event starts, so went nosying around inside ToTT. They have cookware, cook's tools, bakeware, appliances, tableware, bar, food, homekeeping, cooking studios etc. There's even a Jason's Supermarket to do groceries shopping.

purple themed

looking for cook, bake or hosting stuffs?

items for catering, party hosting, everything

While it's possible to wander around for hours looking at the various items, the event was scheduled to start at 1130am, so off to the cooking studio!

invited chefs to demo recipes from "Best Brunch Ever" cookbook

for media friends

The cookbook showcases brunch ideas from 8 chefs, covering cuisines like American, Australian, Japanese, Vietnamese, Singaporean, Spanish, Italian and French. For that morning, we were treated to recipes by Chef Antonio Facchinette (Prego Restaurant, Fairmont Singapore), Chef Nicolas Joanny (Nicolas Le Restaurant), Chef Dan Segall (The Big Idea) and Chef Chi Quang Trinh (Addictions Café and Remedy Bar).

The demo session started with Chef Antonio, who did Spaghetti Piccanti, an aglio olio kind of dish with a twist.

ready when you are

two screens to show the happenings

adding breadcrumbs

The smell of food was so appetizing and the hungries got even hungrier. Can't wait to try our first brunch dish.

Chef Antonio's Spaghetti Piccanti

spaghetti with calamari, anchovies, some chilies, garlic, breadcrumbs and fennel

It's a dry aglio olio and you won't find oil pooling at the bottom of the plate. Am confident that this can be easily replicated at home.

Chef Nicolas Joanny was up next. He showed us how to make eggs 'a la coque'. This recipe required the top of the egg shell to be sliced off. Then separate the egg whites out and put the yolk back into the 'topless' shell. Ok, sounds like it requires a certain amount of skill.

Chef Nicolas and his assistant

eggs with top shell  and most whites removed, ready to be steamed for 2 minutes

frying the 'popiah' (brick pastry)

prawn encased in feuille de brick and deep fried till golden brown

Steamed egg with abit of cream and drizzled with sherry vinegar plus one prawn in pastry skin deep fried? Nice! First time having eggs with sherry vinegar, and it was rather nice too. Yummy.

Chef Nicolas - eggs 'a la coque'

runny yolk, perfect~

Chef Dan Segall, is how shall I put it? Loud? He's humorous, expressive and basically has a louder voice!

Chef Dan, extolling the virtues of Hotmix Pro

He's making us cornbread wedges with bacon jam. The Hotmix Pro made the process of making bacon jam, seemed rather easy.

ingredients going into the Hotmix Pro

just a tiny pinch to keep it subtle

personally plating the cornbread wedges with bacon jam for the guests

The cornbread colour was bright and chirpy (just the right tone for brunch!) and the bacon jam, we'd definitely like some more of that sweet savoury bacon jam please!

loved the bacon jam to bits!

Chef Chi Quang Trinh, shared with us the food that he misses the most when he's back in Australia, bánh cuốn or steamed rice rolls. Chef Chi was a rather soft-spoken person.

sauteeing the fillings for the rice rolls

very very important to use a non-stick frying pan

eat the steamed rice rolls with dipping sauce and lots of herbs

Was gravely mistaken about the steamed rice rolls. Thought it would be rather bland but it was actually healthy tasting and quite yummy at that! The fillings of minced pork, onions, black fungus were well seasoned and the dipping sauce made of fish sauce, water, sugar, chilies, garlic and lime all worked wonderfully. The super crunchy shallots was a good contrast to the soft chewy skin of the rice rolls.

Chef Chi - steamed rice rolls (bánh cuốn)

like eating chee cheong fun with savoury fillings but minus all the thick black sauce

It was a memorable brunch event! Thank you ToTT and our friendly and charming chefs.

Chef Nicolas, Chef Dan, Chef Chi and Cheft Antonio - thank you!

ToTT is having their Christmas sale now till 25 Dec 2013, so this might be a good time to check out the items that you were planning to get! As my friend puts it this way, "Am sure I always have things to buy from TOTT!"

Thank you Nicholas and team from Foodnews for the invite, and ToTT for hosting us. Best wishes!

Foodpanda - Food Delivery in Singapore [Contest Available: Read on and Win Foodpanda Discounts!]

Feeling lazy on a weekend? Doesn't feel like going out? Sick of instant noodles?

How about calling for delivery? Can't remember which number belongs to which shop? Well, luckily the good folks at foodpanda.sg had done the job of consolidating participating restaurants that offers delivery so that we can just refer to Foodpanda site to do the ordering.

Sounds easy? It is. Because I've tried it.

Before that, you might want to create an account first and setup delivery address and such.

start here

Step 1: Location to deliver to

Key in your delivery postcode, ie. postcode for home or office etc. Then click on 'Find food now!' button. The site will only show all the restaurants that offer delivery to the abovementioned location.

filter to narrow down the choices

Step 2: Choose a restaurant

The rating tool was useful since there are alot of restaurants that I've not tried before. Picked one that has high rating and also high number of ratings received. Also chose one that offers free delivery. Do look out for deals from the various restaurants before deciding.

decided to order Indian Cuisine

Another useful information, is the estimated time it takes to deliver. If it takes 120 minutes and you're very hungry, then it might be better to just pick one that delivers within 60 minutes.


Step 3 and 4: Payment and delivery

Payment can be done via cash on delivery or via paypal. If one chooses cash on delivery, then the customer need to specify how much change is required.

Once the order is confirmed by the restaurant, there will be an acknowledgement via sms. This takes about 10 minutes. In the sms, the estimated delivery arrival time is made known. For mine, it was stated as 80 minutes but the delivery arrived within 60 minutes.

order submitted at  6.50pm, food delivered by 8pm

neatly packed, there's a free can of coke light too~

Ordered Butter Chicken and Omar Shariff Briyani from Omar Shariff Restaurant, located at Sixth Avenue, Bukit Timah.

Omar Shariff Briyani (@$17.80+)

briyani rice packed with boneless mutton, boneless chicken and cubed cheese, served with raita

The pappadum was somewhat smashed up but still crispy. The briyani could be shared amongst 2 pax of small eaters. The mutton cubes were tender and plenty of it to go around. The chicken pieces were rather tasteless though. Rice was fragrant but not overpowering. There's an hard boiled fried egg too. The raita gave this a sourish tang.

butter chicken (@$17.70+)

The butter chicken came in a small container. Felt rather pricey for such a portion. Taste wise, it was nicely sweet and just mildly spiced. Lots of gravy for the rice.

delivery dinner for 2 pax

Foodpanda has an app that one could download from Google Play or App store. Convenient to order for delivery while one is on the way home from the office!

foodpanda app for mobile

To all supporters of Purple Taste, good news! Foodpanda has kindly sponsored 4 discount codes worth $5* each to be given away. Interested readers, do email me asap! Contest closes on Friday 29 Nov 2013, or while stocks last.

Once again, thank you Marguerite and Foodpanda for the opportunity to try this service.


*Condition: min. order of $10, valid till 20 Nov 2014 and for one time use only