Category: French

Small, but pretty, dish. Definitely not for the big eaters

Restaurant Nouri – Crossroads Cooking

When I was working in Singapore last week, I managed to have dinner at one of the Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants. Sitting at #39, Restaurant Nouri has only been opened for a couple of years. However, they have already had a Michelin star under their belt.

Chef Ivan Brehm and his team gave us this very interesting dining concept called ‘crossroads cooking’. The dining room is also where the chef prepared all of our meals.

They served four pre-dining dishes. They also advised that we could re-order sourdough bread as many times as we want. This is a very good idea as you would want to soak up all of those nice sauce!

The first two that came with the bread was their rendition of silken tofu and vegetable broth. The tofu was more like a dipping sauce for the bread!

The next two was cold kimchi made from abalone with daikon and nashi pear and Chinese bitter gourd salad. I can understand why the two had to be consumed side-by-side as the bitter gourd was really bitter. It accentuated the kimchi cold and sour taste.

The 7-course ‘Omakase’ from Restaurant Nouri

They had an option of 5- or 7- course menu as well as set or omakase. I could see some of the omakase menu was pretty similar to the set menu.

The first course was Hamachi sashimi with caviar and chilled onion consomme. It was a nice and fresh sashimi with very nice vinaigrette… the reason why you should keep asking for bread!

The second course was their rendition of prawn bouillabaisse with saffron jelly. They used the reduction from the prawn head to make the thick soup.

Their rendition of cheong fun (or rice noodles) was one of my favourites on the night. Not only they used black truffle, underneath that green cheong fun there was Alaskan snow crab! Even the foamy bit was very nice!

The second last main dish was kimedai fish with scales and black pepper sauce. Yes, they prepared the fish with its scaled. The scales were very crunchy and almost like crackers The fish was perfectly cooked and went really well with slightly hot black pepper sauce.

I wouldn’t blame you if you think this next dish as a chocolate cake with truffle. They did incorporate chocolate but only as the powder around the plate.

This dish was actually wagyu rib eye with Mexican’s mole sauce. However, they used the traditional ingredients called ‘keluwak’ to darken the colour.

Desserts at Restaurant Nouri

Before we started with the desserts, there was a bowl of Gooseberry granita with peach and champagne. It was very nice and refreshing!

The first dessert looked quite simple but it was actually pretty sophisticated. The dish was Japanese ichigo with azuki beans, sansho pepper and kinome leaf with strawberry sorbet.

The dish was sweet, sour, cold, crunchy… and hot! Every now and then there was this kick from the sansho pepper that made the dish very lively.

The last dish was 48-hour baked orange with assam tea ice cream, cream and some jelly that tasted quite bitter.

I have never tasted something quite like this before.

The final verdict for Restaurant Nouri

Restaurant Nouri clearly deserved its Michelin star and the #39 spot in the Asia’s Best 50 restaurants. They have a unique table arrangement and impeccable service.

Do you think I should go?

Definitely! Chef Ivan will surely treat you well!

Rating:

Nouri

9.5 / 10

Taste: 9.5 / 10

Price: $225 pp for 7-course Omakase

Place: 10.0 / 10

Details:

72 Amoy Street, Singapore 069891

+65 6221 4148

http://nouri.com.sg/

Aug 1, 2019
Ellenborough Market Cafe

Ellenborough Market Cafe Review:

When I went to Singapore last month, we went to a buffet restaurant called Ellenborough Market Cafe in Swissotel Merchant Court. The dining area was nicely decorated with a little pool of water in the middle. We also could see a couple of chefs hand-rolling our dumplings. It was a very nice first impression to the restaurant.

Before I start talking about the food, I just want to say that the review below did not include every available menu on offer at the restaurant. There were just too many of them!

Bain-Marie

The list was quite extensive in the bain-marie section as it tries to cater to almost every demographics in Singapore. The ones in the slide below are: lobster (however it looked more of a Balmain bug in Sydney), otak-otak ( a traditional dish from the region), and babi pongteh (slow braised pork).

Seafood

The seafood options were very extensive. It is probably even more than some Japanese restaurants in Sydney. You can find 2 different sashimi, 4 sushi, baby octopus, seaweed. There are also cold seafood dishes like prawn, crab, mussels and escargot. In addition to the fresh seafood area, they also provided hot and cooked versions.

Others

There is a dish that I’m not familiar about but sit at a very prominent location. The dish is called Kueh Pie Tee. It was more of a DIY station than a complete set. They also have the roast meat section, cheese and salad.

Desserts

One of the most amazing things about this restaurant is the availability of (not just one, but) two durian dishes! I always thought you could not bring durian into the hotel. But then again, the durian in the restaurant wasn’t exuding that lovely (or horrible, depending on whether you are team durian or not) smell.

One was more on a creamy side and the other, deep fried!

If durian is not your thing, they also have a whole display full of desserts.

The Final Verdict for Ellenborough Market Cafe:

All you can eat lobster and durian? and did you also see that sashimi and fresh snails? I’m sure you know what my verdict is.

Do you think I should go?

When you are ever in Singapore and are in needs of a buffet, Ellenborough Market Cafe will be a good fit for you!

Rating:

8.5 / 10

Taste: 8.5 / 10

Price: S$68 dinner buffet

Place: 8.5 / 10

Details:

20 Merchant Road, Level 1 Swissotel Merchant Court 058281

+65 6239 1847

Ellenborough Market Cafe at Swissotel

Jun 3, 2019
Restaurant Locavore
This week we will write about our experience in dining at one of the best in Australasia, Restaurant Locavore. This restaurant is sitting at number 21 in the list of Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants for 2018. They were a few spots off the world’s top 100 list. To give you a bit more context, out of all of the restaurants in Australia, only Attica and Brae ranked higher than this restaurant!

This will be a super long review because they served us 7 main courses, 2 desserts, 8 ‘snacks’, 8 chocolates and 1 closing dish for a whopping 26-course degustation lunch. The official menu only stated 9 dishes, priced at Rp 1.200.000,- or equal to AUD 150.

They call it ‘Snacks’

Upon arrival at the restaurant they gave us a couple of very pretty flower arrangement that they called ‘Cana’. What we didn’t know that the flowers were all edible! They gave us a hibiscus spray, and kecombrang puree with drops of cricket oil. Super fancy and we were just starting up!
To shorten this review considerably, I won’t go to too much details on the snacks. Each and every one of them were masterfully prepared. The mango and bengkoang dish was quite sweet with a hint of spicy. The pumpkin leaf was pretty filling despite it being crunchy. Then you got the sophisticated black rice blini that had a million taste.

It got better from there, the mushroom custard was very yummy with the distinct flavour of native kelor leaves. Then they had BBQ mango. It was sweet and super smoky. The mango kombucha was a sweet addition to the dish. The tomato sorbet and tomato consommé was quite an eye-opening. The dish was hot and cold at the same time. It was super refreshing!

The last snack was pretty interesting. There were three condiments for the brioche bun: chili jam, cashew nut puree, and freeze dried leftover vegetables… yes, you read that right: they even reused their leftover vegetables! Awesome!

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Main Dish at Locavore

After what seems to be an eternity of snacks, we come to the first dish of the day. Cut the crab was the official name. They transformed the mud crab into a cold salad with jellied crab consomme. They then put a layer of pickled young papaya and bengkoang (instead of mango as the menu suggested). Grated bonito katsuobushi was put as a finishing touch.

We then have Foie Gras Kambing, aka Goat Liver mousse. To complement the strong taste, they introduced pickled wild berries. On top of the foie gras, they had rice flour cracker and a sprinkle of green veggies. They had two garnishes to finish off: first they grated smoked goat heart then sprayed the dish with Rosella kombucha vinaigrette.
The third dish, jagung bakar, paid homage to a snack that most Indonesian loves, grilled corn. The twist here is they use coffee-miso emulsion and coffee kombucha reduction! They also used charred baby corn and added a little termite powder on top of it.

My son loved it so much that they actually gave him an extra plate (and that’s after having most of mine as well)!

The next dish was supposed to be Cabbage and Bacon. However, we had it changed to a vegetarian version. For this, they gave us Banana blossom noodles. The ‘noodles’ were doused with white curry turmeric leaves, that tasted traditionally Indonesian with deep fried green leaves as garnish.

The Signature Dish

Their signature dish is Into The Sawah. Dish dish is a story of everything that live around the Ubud’s rice field. They consisted of the following: Heritage galuh rice porridge, 64 degrees duck egg yolk, snails, frog leg abon, fern tips, wild flowers.

They boiled the duck egg yolk at exactly 64 degrees for 1 hour. That resulted in some kind of state between solid and runny.
Gurita Bakar is our penultimate main course. They twice-cooked the main ingredient, the octopus (or gurita): boiled and then grilled to perfection. They also introduced Mexican-inspired mole using a traditional ingredient, kluwak. Enhancing the taste, they used the sourness of belimbing wuluh and freshness of timun tikus with the pickled spring onions.

Quail, or Burung Puyuh, was the last main for the day. They used two parts of the quail: the quail breast, roasted to perfection, and the leg that was barbecued and glazed. They used smoked pumpkin and charred pineapple gel to complement the dish.

Desserts at Locavore

Looking at the menu, the desserts sounded pretty traditional. Bubur tape is a fermented rice porridge and boni is a traditional fruit from Bali.

Traditionally, bubur tape is warm. At Locavore, the dish was served at room temperature, except for the palm sugar ice cream. Interestingly, the ice cream wasn’t really that cold either!

In addition to the porridge and ice cream, they also have fermented black rice foam (that purple blob in the middle). Probably I would have liked this more if it was a tad sweeter.

If you are wondering about the yellow shavings at the top of the ice cream, that shaving was sugar cured egg yolk!

Boni or blood berry is a native fruit of Bali. They also have pomelo, or what the locals called Balinese orange. They also used pickled rose petals and hibiscus leaves as garnishes. The resulting dish was this complex dessert that was sweet, sour, crunchy, cold and quite heavy – especially being the 17th dish of the afternoon!

After Desserts at Locavore

We were almost packed up for the afternoon before the restaurant manager mentioned there were still a couple more dishes to go. Some members of my group almost gave up upon hearing the news.

The first ‘surprise’ was eight pieces of chocolate in different textures. They used a traditional game board called ‘congklak‘ to serve them. Some of the more notable ones were coffee rice cookie, kaffir lime krokant and dried pineapple dark chocolate.

We finally came to an end with the Mangosteen ice cream. Served on a coconut husk, the dish consisted of fresh longan, coconut flesh, nata de coco and coconut cream with lime skin shaving as garnish.

It was incredibly refreshing and tasty. Somehow we forgot that it was the 26th dish that we had that day.

Drinks at Locavore

They do have drink pairings for the lunch service, but we didn’t go for them. We opted for the normal drinks and cocktails on the menu. One of them was the ‘ashes’ that involved dipping burned cassia bark into your drink!
The final verdict for Restaurant Locavore

Restaurant Locavore is without a doubt the best restaurant in Indonesia. It is comparable to, or probably even better than, most high end dinings in Australia.

The staffs were super friendly and super attentive. The massive plus is that the restaurant welcomes children as well! – I must say it’s super rare for a fine dining restaurant.

Do you think I should go?

Definitely!

Rating for Restaurant Locavore:

9.5 / 10

Taste: 9.5 / 10

Price: Rp 1.200.000,00 + 21% tax ~ $150 degustation menu

Place: 9.5 / 10

Details:

10 Jalan Dewi Sita, Ubud, Bali, Indonesia

+62 3619 777 33

https://www.locavore.co.id
Feb 4, 2019
Vine Bar Double Bay

Vine Bar Double Bay Experience:

We went to Vine in Double Bay by invitation from the restaurant and I.AM.STRATEGIST. Vine has undergone a renovation for their Short Street restaurant in Double Bay. They had their grand reopening party one day before our visit.

Vine Bar have quite a simple menu. I like a simple menu because I don’t need to think hard on what I want.

Baguette | Salted butter – $3

Our kid really loved warm baguette with salted butter. I also couldn’t stop eating them.

½ roast chicken | sauce Provencal | eggplant – $26

This meal is still for the little one. However, being half a chicken, we managed to have a few bites. The semi-boneless chicken was wonderful. It was also the most complete main dish of the night (i.e. you can pretty much have this for dinner without anything else).

Oyster | Mignonette – $4.5 each

You need to order a minimum of three oysters. It’s always nice to start the night with a couple of oysters.

Terrine du jour | brioche | pear chutney | cornichons – $14

The terrine of the day was venison. We could not get enough of it!

Curiously, in this plate we received two slices of toast and not brioche.

Salmon carpaccio | yuzu & trout roe vinaigrette | marjoram | toast – $18

The idea of having salmon carpaccio with yuzu and trout roe vinaigrette was exciting to me. However, I still prefer the terrine over this.

Beef Tri-tip | caramelised fennel | pomegranate – $29

Beef tri-tip is the only red meat dish at Vine Bar that night. Personally, the portion was quite small(It must be noted that being a meat eater, I’m used to gigantic portion of meat). I love the caramelised fennel.

Goat cheese soufflé | peas | nuts | seeds (v) – $25

My wife ordered the goat cheese souffle and seemed to be enjoying it a lot. It reminded me of an Indonesian dish called macaroni schotel.

Crème Brulee | pistachio | Amarena cherry – $12

Pistachio and crème brulee… they are a match made in heaven!

Vine Bar Double Bay

We enjoyed our dinner at Vine Bar Double Bay. Most notably, it was reasonably priced – Nothing is over $30 (except for the shared desserts).

Did you know?

They have a big shared plate for dessert, called Assiette Mignardise. It looked quite tempting when searching in google. However, I had no one to share it with.

Details:

2 Short St, Double Bay NSW 2028

+61 2 9363 0010

http://vinebar.com.au/

Feb 23, 2017
The Little Snail

Review:

I have known The Little Snail for quite some time, but I’ve only managed to visit it the other day. The Little Snail restaurant is located in the iconic Darling Harbour, Sydney.

I was actually quite surprised when learning that for 3-course lunch menu, they ‘only’ charge $38. I think it’s quite a decent price given the location of the restaurant. They also have a 2-course kids menu for $18 that comes with a choice of soft drink or juice.

Escargots de Bourgogne – dozens snails marinated in herb-infused court bouillon, oven baked in garlic butter

For my first course, I chose Escargots (aka snails), my go-to dish when I visit a French restaurant. The 12 rather large escargots were not deshelled. It was quite a spectacle!

Pate Maison – Armagnac flavoured duck liver pate with marinated champignons, date chutney and port vinaigrette

The other ‘must have’ dish from a French restaurant was ordered as my wife’s first course. It was quite a generous serving of duck liver pate with curious spots of mushrooms around the plate. The date chutney complemented the pate beautifully.

We had to order extra slices of baguette because we wanted to eat the pate to the last piece! It was very nice!

Crispy Fried Calamari and Chips

This was the first dish for the little kid. The calamari was crunchy on the outside and not chewy! It was pretty good!

Kangaroo Fillet – (recommended rare) on garlic pommes puree with a seasonal greens

Cooking a kangaroo is notoriously hard. You overcook it and it would render the meat inedible. Since the recommendation was rare, that was what I ordered.

The kangaroo was already pre-sliced to a bite size (mind you my bite size might be different than yours). It was perfectly cooked with a nice accompanying sweet sauce!

Citrus marinated Tasmanian Salmon – served on sweet peas risotto and sauce vierge

Another well-balanced dish with perfectly cooked salmon. I had to ask google about sauce vierge, literally translated as ‘the virgin sauce’. It was made from olive oil, lemon juice, chopped tomato and chopped basil.

Vanilla Ice Cream with Strawberry topping

The kid’s menu ice cream (that was actually the same size as the grownups!) was very pleasant to look at – or in my son’s case to dip his hand into. They use sable Breton (aka shortcrust bread) to give that extra kick to the ice cream.

Classic Crème Caramel

It is a very simple and classic crème caramel… as expected.

Chef churned hazelnut and praline ice cream on sable breton and Grand Marnier caramel

It was actually quite similar to the kid’s ice cream in terms of quality. However the adult-version came with liquor content and the sugar ornament at the top.

The final verdict for The Little Snail

Darling Harbour is probably the next best thing in Sydney after Sydney Opera House and Harbour Bridge. Having a three-course lunch for $38 at The Little Snail in Darling Harbour is such a steal!

Did you know?

You can get a 25% discount when dining at The Little Snail restaurant if you have the Entertainment Book. Entertainment Book is a book used in fundraising campaigns for fundraising companies like Cancer Council and RSPCA. It contains a lot of discounts for a lot of restaurants!

Upon researching about The Little Snail, I came across an expired Groupon link. It would’ve been nice to get an even bigger discount for the restaurant!

Rating for The Little Snail:

7.5 / 10

Taste: 7.5 / 10

Price: $38 for 3-course lunch

Place: 8.0 / 10

Details:

50 Murray Street, Pyrmont

+61 2 9212 7512

http://www.thelittlesnail.com.au/

Feb 17, 2016
Sel Et Poivre

Review:

I have heard about this restaurant for quite a while and people seem to be singing praise of the cafe, but I just couldn’t bring myself to visit the area (not a big fan of trying to find street parking there!). So, when I finally went to the area, because I also wanted to try Gelato Messina, I couldn’t miss the chance to pay a visit.

The name is Sel Et Poivre (it is the French for salt and pepper) and it is located at the heart of Darlinghurst’s Victoria Street. From the moment we set foot in this restaurant, François (the boss there) showered us with great French hospitality.

Obviously when you are in a French restaurant there are a couple of dishes that you have to order. Escargots are one of them. To be exact, they were called Escargots gratinés au beurre d’ail or Gratinated snails with parsley and garlic butter. It is advised to order the dish with baguette. In addition to filling your tummy quite quickly, the baguette also enhanced the flavours of your escargots.

Escargots gratinés au beurre d’ail – $16.90

The second entree was more on the pretty side, called Galette de crabe au poireau braisé, à l’américaine (Crispy galette of fresh swimmer crab, leeks and sauce a l’americaine). It was beautifully presented and got quite a strong lobster sauce that complemented the crispy galette.

Galette de crabe au poireau braisé, à l’américaine – $17.50

Two of the mains that we ordered might not be your ‘usual’ types of dish. For the first main, it was steak tartare aller-retour avec sauce Béarnaise,frites et salade (Sel & Poivre steak tartare, seared or non seared with frites, salad and bearnaise sauce). Steak tartare is a raw minced beef that you enjoyed with tartare sauce and egg yolk. The sheer size of the steak might be quite intimidating to some and it was quite a heavy dish!

steak tartare aller-retour avec sauce Béarnaise,frites et salade – $26.90

Sel & Poivre steak tartare, seared or non seared with frites, salad and bearnaise sauce

The last dish of the day was foie de veau poêlé à l’échalotte et pommes-frites (Seared veal liver with a French shallot sauce and frites). It is suggested that you ordered the veal liver medium rare. This way you can actually taste the liver’s texture without being too rubbery. It’s perfectly fine if you love this part of the meat. However, it can be quite pungent for those not accustomed to it. Just like steak tartare, enjoying a liver dish also requires an acquired taste.

Foie de veau poêlé à l’échalotte et pommes-frites – $34.50

The two main dishes came with quite a large bowl of salad and fries.

If both mains are a bit too ‘adventurous’ for you, they also have quite a few range in their menu. Sel et poivre can also cook a special kids menu for your little one(s). We chose chicken with chips. They also gave a scoop of ice cream at the end. It was actually quite a big portion for a kid’s meal.

Special Kids Menu – $14.90

At the end of the day, we felt that we ordered a bit too much, but we just had to finish them all! The only regret was that we didn’t come to Sel Et Poivre a lot sooner!

The final verdict for Sel Et Poivre

Sel et Poivre has everything you could have asked for! They served great food and complimented that with great hospitality and service!

Did you know?

Victoria Street in Darlinghurst is the home of one of the best gelato joints in Australia, Gelato Messina.

Rating for Ester Restaurant and Bar:

8.5 / 10

Taste: 8.5 / 10

Price: $25 – $35 main dishes

Place: 7.5 / 10

Details:

263 Victoria Street, Darlinghurst

+61 2 9361 6530

http://www.seletpoivre.com.au/

Oct 29, 2014