Tiong Bahru Bakery by Gontran Cherrier @ Raffles City

Was at Raffles City B1, so went over to Tiong Bahru Bakery after lunch to check-out their breads. Well, curiosity got the better of me, so bought home some of their much raved about pastries.

$15+ worth of baked goods

What's in the bag? Kouign Amann (since it is like one of the much raved item), chocolate croissant, a brioche ('coz been looking for one) and a pandan flan (now, this was what caught my eye!).

kouign amann (@$3.50)

round and round it goes, the layers

buttery and very sweet

Hmmm, kouign amann felt like a candy to me. Very sticky, sweet and buttery. Like a treat that one can have, once in a while.

Chocolate croissant was of a large size, and it probably should, since a piece of that, is the same price as a plate of chicken rice.

chocolate croissant (@$3.20)

can you find the chocolate?

The croissant was fragrant after toasting it, but could do with a few more bits of chocolate. It's like a plain croissant that once in a while (make it rare!), you'd stumble onto an accidental choco bit.

natural brioche (@$2.50)

Popped the brioche into a toaster oven for a few minutes prior to serving, and one gets a soft, fluffy buttery roll. Yums. Ate mine with some jam and emmental cheese. Nice.

brioche, the inside story

found this in my fridge!

add some sweetness

topped with emmental cheese

The very truth that attracted me to the bakery that day (besides curiosity about Monsieur Gontran Cherrier's recipe), was this bright yellow looking pie. Turned out to be a pandan flan. It looked huge amongst its neighbouring treats. And packed in a nice yellow box too!

cheery looking box

flaky pastries for crust

pandan flan

The flan smells like tofu and tasted like kaya. Hahaha, that'd how I'd think it was, for me. The pandan fragrance was very faint, and it doesn't have the strong pandan taste. It's texture was softer than it looked. Very likeable!

soft, with just the right sweetness

Cafe Rouge @ Baghdad Street

Located in the area known as Arab Street, this cafe is at #20 Baghdad Street. But the sign posts says Bussorah Street. Hmm. Anyway, just above the cafe, is the newly opened SushiAirways 寿司航空 Sushibar.

decor

The set dinner at $28 was attractive because one can have a soup of the day, feta cheese salad, any main course of your choice plus tea/coffee. The mains are priced between $18 to $32. Sounds good, right? My friends agreed and they all got the set dinner except me.

Can't eat that much, if you'd ask me. So I got myself an $18 main course: boeuf bourguignon. If not wrong, the menu stated that it was wagyu.

This place serves iced water.

mini glass and carafe

boeuf bourguignon

Although there were plenty of good sized beef, but unfortunately most of it were not as tender as anticipated. Not quite the wagyu-like texture!

served with potato slices, carrots and cucumbers

For desserts ($6.50 each), simply go up to the counter and choose. We ordered creme brulee and a slice of chocolate something pear something.

chocolate something pear something

creme brulee

The chocolate dessert with pear was recommended by the service staff when asked about which one is the bestseller.

Both desserts were pretty sweet but creme brulee took the icing as being the sweetest! Oh, and one interesting thing was, the cappucino that my friend received was all foamy and milky white. So we thought the espresso shot was missing and asked for it to be replaced. They did, and we were informed that the second cup was done with double-shot. Then, double-shot it must be, otherwise, you'd be drinking just milk foam!

Service was accommodating and friendly.

Out Of The Pan @ Raffles City

Located at B1 of Raffles City Shopping Centre. Had a late lunch at this place. Ordered a caramel latte and a red wine beef stew crêpes. One can choose the crêpes type: normal, wheat or sun-dried tomatoes. The young chap who served us recommended sun-dried tomatoes, so we went for that and it turned out good.

Red Wine Beef Stew (@$15.50++)

braised beef shank pieces inside

Liked the crêpes texture. Softer than expected though. The red wine beef stew was tasty and tender. For the meat, there were two rather large pieces while the rest were smaller cubes.

Also tried the Smoked Ham Crêpe. Nice too, although the other ingredients like portobello mushroom, tomato sauce were rather subtle.

Smoked Ham (@$14.50++)

Currently, for DBS Indulge promotion, one can get a 1-for-1 main course/dessert.

Othello's @ Greenwood Avenue (Part II)

A nice relaxing place to enjoy a cuppa coffee/tea or, to sip that one cold beer or two.Ordered a mug of fries, a plate of drumlets to nibble.

mug of fries (@$6+)

drumlets (@$12+)

tasty sticky drumlets

Much preferred if midwings were used instead of drumlets, 'coz drumlets weren't juicy! Nevertheless, it was still kind of tasty. But it was odd, 'coz I was having Earl Grey with this...

a pot of Earl Grey

Though this place doesn't have any Happy Hour, they do have promotion on selected drinks from time to time. For January 2013, they're having Pure Blonde, Big Apple and Apple Tini for $8+.

Guess what I had?

Apple Tini

Very likeable this Apple Tini. Yummy.

Fukuichi Japanese Dining @ TripleOne Somerset (Part II)

Second visit only, and for dinner this time round. Reservation is advisable if you're planning to dine there on a Friday evening.

It rained prior to our visit, and we had opted for alfresco seats. Fortunately, the rain stopped just in time.

otemoto (disposable chopsticks)

view from our table

For food, we left the choice in the safe hands of my friend, who has frequented this place more than us. Kani tofu, garlic fried rice, mekajiki sashimi, soft shell crab, cod fish saikyo, asari mentai (clams), white tuna roll and beef paper pot. Not forgetting, a jug of Kirin. How many of us? Just three. Hahaha!

kanpai~

pretty little things

It was pretty dark out there but I remembered that plate of swordfish sashimi (mekajiki) was rather tiny. The sashimi was juicy and likeable.

mekajiki sashimi

The white tuna roll was nicely presented on an elongated plate. For those who dislike too much sauce (mayo etc) on their rolls, then the version here at Fukuichi, would be suited for those palates. Nice way to load the carbs.

was that aburi white tuna, or was that unagi?

white tuna roll, topped with tobiko

The plate of asari mentai, probably had like six clams. So each of us had two. Eat for fun, kind of food. Not too salty.

in a clam-shell

The soft shell crab (containing many many small bite sized pieces), served in a small basket, was nicely fried and crunchy. Good to have it with beer!

a one-bite piece of soft shell crab

Then, we shared a small bowl of garlic fried rice. It's actually not too garlicky, and has a smokey charred taste to the rice.

garlic fried rice

Liked the cod fish. The seasoning here was very agreeable to us. Not too salty, just nice. The fish was fresh, firm and fatty. Yums.

cod fish

But the star of the evening, was the beef paper hot pot. Just the right kind of dish to have on a rainy evening. How comforting to have soup bubbling and warmly inviting? Ahhh.. the good life.

waiting for vege to soften

look at that marbling and tell me that ain't pretty

Am pretty amazed by that piece of paper. It never got burnt. We were talking the entire night, and left the pot for a long duration, and the vege was gently simmering away never bubbling over. However, the vege do need some assistance. Gently ensure that the vege goes into that little bit of soup so that it can soften properly.

ready to eat beef slice

The beef slices were not paper thin, nor was it too thick. Just right for a good mouth-feel. Soft but still have a bite kind of beef. Yummy yummy!

There was a promotion of 10% discount for most major credit cards, so do enquire prior to making payment.

Read about first visit here.