Saturday, December 22, 2018

Dazzling Festive Buffet @ Food Capital

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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:

Sunday, December 16, 2018

Arteastiq Bistro @ Plaza Singapura

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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
Websitehttps://www.arteastiq.com/plaza-singapura-menu/#hightea
Contact: 6336 0951
Business Hours: Daily 11am to 10pm


Saturday, December 8, 2018

JB101 @ Science Park 2

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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
Websitehttps://famousjb101.com/
Business Hours:
Mon – Fri: 8am-11pm
Sat, Sun, PH: 11am-11pm
 
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