[Media Invite] Spring Comes Early - CNY Reunion Dinner 2018 @ Amara Singapore

It is that time of the year again! After Christmas, we look forward to Chinese New Year and that'll be in February this year. While our Public Holiday for Lunar New Year falls on the 16 February, the 立春 date is on 4 February. Nowadays, we all know 立春 is that auspicious date to deposit money in the bank for good fortune but in the olden days, it is the day where farmers welcome the beginning of spring. Nevertheless, it is everyone's wish for good things to come and thus, a celebration with good food with loved ones will be on the cards.

In Malaysia, we would usually eat at home for reunion dinner. Elaborate dishes will usually make its appearance on this special day. Hours and hours of preparation in the kitchen is almost certain. For families that would not go through the hassle of cooking on their own, there is the option of eating out. In Singapore, we are spoilt for choice.

Amara Singapore's team of dedicated Chinese chefs, led by Executive Chef Charles Goh will be preparing a sumptous culinary feast for their guests on 15 February 2018 celebrating this Lunar New Year’s 2018 Earth Dog.

Upon arriving at Amara Hotel lobby, guests shall proceed to take the lift up to the third floor and adjourn to the Grand Ballroom. Amara Singapore Executive Chef Charles Goh and his team has curated a sumptuous 8-course menu for the joyous occasion. Guests can choose from The Golden Prosperity at S$68++ or Joyous Abundance at S$88 per person with a minimum of six persons per table.

For guests who would want a more private and posh dining experience, there is the Imperial Fortune reunion package at S$1,888++ for a table of 10 persons. This special package has a room that even comes equipped with a family karaoke system. Guests for the Imperial Fortune package can enjoy dishes such as sea urchin, black chicken ginseng soup and cod fish.

Of course, all CNY Reunion Dinner packages would come with the special salmon yu sheng set, arranged in an exquisite shape of a dog. It was kind of cute, actually.

Ushering in the Year of the Dog Salmon Yu Sheng 

Lo Hei (捞起) in session - 金银满屋 symbolising household filled with gold and silver

发啊 (Huat Ah) for good luck and abundance of wealth!

Chefs has also prepared a special Pomelo Tangyuan (glutinous rice balls) for the occasion. For the Grand Ballroom Reunion Dinner, the tangyuan comes with edible gold flakes.

Reunion Dinner at Grand Ballroom (15 February 2018)

To make your reservations on the reunion dinner at Grand Ballroom, please call: +65 6879 2598 or
email to events@amarahotels.com.

psst: we have tried the karaoke and it was fun!

For more information, click here.

CNY Buffet Dinner at Element and EOTS (Element on Tras Street)

Had the good fortune to be invited by Amara Singapore to its CNY Reunion Dinner Buffet Tasting and let's see what they have prepared for the buffet line during Chinese New Year reunion feast.

For starters, my favourites were the Chilled Angel Hair Pasta with Truffle Oil and Kombu and the Homemade Beetroot Salmon. The chilled pasta was refreshingly appetising and noodles were well cooked with springy texture intact and evenly tossed in truffle oil.

Chilled Angel Hair Pasta with Truffle Oil and Kombu

The thought of beetroot reminds me of earthy flavours but it was surprisingly light in the salmon dish. For the Lunar New Year, Chef has also prepared another variant of the salmon appetiser with mandarin orange.

Homemade Beetroot Salmon

Homemade Mandarin Orange Salmon

I think the crowd liked the Mandarin Orange Salmon more than the beetroot ones because I didn't get a chance to taste any of the Mandarin Orange Salmon...all sold out!

Cucumber with Sesame Dressing

For the cucumber with sesame dressing, I liked that it had a slight spicy twist to this tasty treat. Since we are on the topic of non-meat, for a change, one can get Vegetarian Treasure Pot (Pen Cai) instead of the usual meaty or seafood ones. The photo below is one without the soup stock. It was tasty and enjoyable.

Vegetarian Treasure Pot (Pen Cai)

Not to worry, the meat-lovers will enjoy the Roasted Chicken, the Smoked Duck and Beef Bourguignon. I think Amara does the roasted chicken pretty good. So, it wasn't surprising that this was one of my favourite dish, together with the crayfish.

The duck was smoked with camphor and tea leaves and this strongly flavoured item would make a good pulled duck sandwich, that is if there is any left-overs.

Roasted Chicken with Spicy Sichuan Sauce

Smoked Duck with Camphor and Tea Leaves (Whole) 

I was wondering what was an 'ang-mo' dish doing in this setup. The Beef Bourguignon seemed out of the theme but nonetheless, it was a good eat. Don't forget to take the flavourful mash potato too.

Beef Bourguignon

Of course, for seafood lovers, the Black Pepper Crayfish is a must. Why stop at one? Get more! Another good dish that I can't get enough of was the Drunken Chicken. The greenish looking ginger mix was sooo goood! Put that entire piece with all those green stuff and it was pure bliss when you chewed on it. Yums!

Black Pepper Crayfish

Drunken Chicken

At Amara Singapore, dessert is a must. This season, we have chempedak everything. From jelly (agar agar) to pudding, cake and creme brulee. Yes, the whole range except for the tangyuan.

Chempedak Agar Agar

Chempedak Swiss Roll

Chempedak Cake

Start with the light tasting Chempedak Agar Agar and taste the fluffiness of the Chempedak Swiss Roll before embarking on the highly satisfying Chempedak Cake.

Chempedak Pudding

Chempedak Butter Cake

And, the perennial favourite for Amara buffet, the Chempedak Crème Brulee. Sweet.

Chempedak Crème Brulee

Thank you Amara Singapore and Lindy for the invite. Special thanks to Chef Charles for the fun interaction. Huat ah!

Amara Singapore

Location: 165 Tg Pagar Rd, Singapore 088539

Website: http://singapore.amarahotels.com/dining/

Contact: +65 6879 2610

Email: fnb.sg@amarahotels.com

CNY F&B Promotions (1 Feb – 2 Mar 2018)

Element and EOTS (Element on Tras Street)

Buffet	Time	Adult*	Child* (6 -12 years)
Reunion Dinner	15 Feb 2018, Thu  6pm – 10.30pm	$88	$43
Lunch	Mon – Fri 12pm – 2.30pm	$58	$29
Dinner	Mon – Sun  6pm – 10.30pm	$78	$39
Hi-tea	Sat – Sun 11.30 am – 2pm 2.30pm – 5pm	$42

*information correct at the time of published. Please enquire from Amara Singapore for more information

Oriole Coffee + Bar @ Capitol Piazza

Having been to Oriole at Somerset in the past, I had the impression that they served quite a good Jamaican jerk chicken and coffee. Had the chance to try Oriole in Capitol Piazza (didn't know they had an outpost there!) recently and here are some photos of what we ate.

Shermaine wanted to use The Entertainer App and we opted for similar value items to enjoy the 1-for-1 offer. For this, the staff informed us that we needed to get 2 items from the same section of Classic and All Day Breakfast. Not sure why there's such a restriction instead of just relying on the price of the dish, we complied nonetheless.

Fish Tacos @$20

Oriole Truffle Burger @$18

Fully Loaded @$20

2 Eggs + 2 Muffins @$21

The Fully Loaded has choice of 2 sausages (pork/cheesy chicken), eggs done your way (scrambled, poached, sunny or overeasy), maple glazed bacon, air dried tomatoes, baked beans and toast. For breakfast, am always in the mood for scrambled eggs. But the portion of the eggs here was rather disappointing.

As with any poached eggs situation, there's the customary flowy egg lava shot. The 2 eggs and 2 muffins were spiffed up with spinach and smoked salmon. However, the smoked salmon here was rather flaky. Not sure why. The poached egg had too much vinegar and thus, it was a tad sour.

profile view

The burger patty was overdone and the tacos shell were neither crispy nor soft. It was just in-between. From our experience, I'd say Oriole Somerset may be the better choice. But then again, the last I went to Oriole Somerset was a few years back. Things might have changed.

Humpback @ Bukit Pasoh

Drinking place and oysters! That's what I'd call Humpback. Operated by the young, the vibe was casual and the expected bar pricing. Tapas-sized, so order up. Drinks at Happy Hour (till 8pm) was around $15. Not exactly happy with that, but oh well.

White Negroni @$14 (HH)

bar counter

On Mondays, they have oysters whole-day Happy Hour. That means, $2 to $3 per shell. WoOohOoo! But first of all, do get their bread and dip. It was really yummy. The bread was thick and served warm. And a glorious spread of that spicy dip. Yasss! Bread without the dip is $7 and served with olive oil and some cut butter.

Bread & Dip @$12

If you're in a group of 5 or 6, you might be ordering most of the food on the menu, like what we did. Let's see which are the plates that we liked the most. The octopus was well-executed and everyone can have one or two slices each. Chewy yet tender, that was the texture that we were looking for. Well seasoned and charred just enough to have that smokey hint.

Octopus @$26

And of course, one must have their greens. There were 4 options listed under 'Garden' section of the menu, but I think we got one that's not exactly in the menu. They have ice-lettuce so we had that.

Salad @$16

Iberico Pork with cauliflower @$28

Of course, not forgetting the oysters. We had the Hama Hama, Blue Pool, Sea Cow and Eld Inlet. Cae was right. Kind of hard to tell which flavour was which. But it was all enjoyable. Some just had more of that briny juice in its shell but probably 'coz some shells had more depth while some was shallow.

oysters galore @$39 (HH)

For other shellfish, there's razor clams as well. These were served cold and rather small portions, in my opinion. Would trade these anytime for the oysters. On hindsight, the two servings of razor clams, could get us another round of 3 oysters per pax.

Razor Clams @$16

If you're hankering for some deep fried stuff, there's mac & cheese balls. One serving is 5 pieces. Could they do additional if you have a group of 6? The answer was a resounding no.

Mac & Cheese Balls @$15

close-up view

Best and most expensive dish of the night? The lobster roll! Served in a well-buttered soft bread roll, topped with firm sweet lobster meat and a side of fries. The seasoning on the fries were a bit erratic but the lobster roll itself was good. Yummy!

Lobster Roll @$45

Since it was a girls' night out, we couldn't leave without dessert! Hahaa! Actually, by now, one would be full from all the food. We had about 10 plates (excluding the oysters) shared amongst the 6 of us.

The salted caramel mousse that came with the churros was overly salty. Was that to compensate on the sweet churros? Gosh. If you had tried it, do let me know what you think of it. Maybe, it was a one-off thing?

Panna Cotta @$11

Churros @$10

Since there were some hits and misses, Purple Taste recommends the freshly shucked oysters (during happy hour for happier pricing), the bread & dip (so that you won't go home feeling hungry), the octopus, a plate of salad, the delicious lobster roll (when you feel like pampering your date and yourself) and a drink. For the teetotaller, there's hot tea or apple juice.

Expect to spend about $80 per pax (with one drink).

Thank you Cae, Mya, Bel, Tiara and Jen for the girls' night out!

Ps: The chairs are all pretty high and could be cumbersome for the vertically challenged like me

Paddy Hills @ South Buona Vista Road

Paddy Hills is a cafe located along South Buona Vista Road. It was a road of nothingness, and if you see a stretch of eateries, that's the stop. We didn't notice the awning signage with the shop's name and ended up having to turn back.

The place exudes a classy comfy vibe with industrial-chic cement floor. Paddy Hills was rather busy during the weekends. The place has some instagram-worthy items that attracts the young adults.

hand brew

board menu for drinks

chillax

The lotus roots chips with sumac powder was served in a porcelain basket-like container. Pretty looking but the seasoning was light and chips wasn't crispy.

lotus roots chips @$10

Since it was morning when we visited, naturally coffee would be in the order along with juice or something similar. The latte was pretty good. The Orange Sky was bottled juices but it was really pretty. A layered mix of blood orange and grapefruit juice.

latte

Orange Sky @$8

The cakes at the counter looked quite enticing but alas, we didn't try. For food, we managed to try a couple of items.

ciders, cakes and coffee

Who eats mussels for brunch? Us, I supposed. Hahaha! The mussels were too salty unfortunately.

NZ mussels @$20

The main courses fared slightly better than the appetisers. Pork belly, duck confit and a festive item. Of the dishes, there were more misses than hits. The crispy pork belly indeed had crackling crispy pork rind but the belly itself was rather dry.

crispy pork belly @$26

duck & waffles @$25

The duck & waffles looked promising but it was let down by the utterly bitter waffles. The thin 'forever-running' apple ribbon was a good choice and the duck was enjoyable.

Christmas Burger @$26

Usually, I'd steer clear of any festive items that had turkey in it and the advice is still the same.

photography in-progress

Also tried the Uni Truffle Pasta. A plate of black pasta with parma ham and uni. Interesting dish, and tossed dry.

Uni Truffle Pasta @$35

have a bite

The Uni Truffle Pasta was good but it didn't wow. For brunch/breakfast, would recommend the Pork Cassoulet. This would be the classic beans, sausages and egg combo. The bread on the side was good for mopping up the tomato sauce.

Pork Cassoulet @$24

Brunch with friends in a cosy ambiance. Let's have a cup of coffee and relax during the weekends! Happy Festivities everyone!

Berry Muffcake @$23

Paddy Hills

Location: 38 South Buona Vista Road, 118164
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/paddyhills.sg/
Contact: 6479 0800
Business Hours:
Weekends: 9am to 10pm
Weekdays: 1030am to 10pm