La Strada

Cynthia's birthday treat @ La Strada.

the place was really quiet...



the complimentary bread and breadsticks....



one thing to note about this place, the service is pretty good. i made reservations via email and they replied very promptly. When we were there and asked for recommendations (you know, expensive places don't have pictures on their menu), the server really could go on and on.

Carpaccio di manzo ($26)....





thinly sliced waygu carpaccio, drizzled with truffle mayonnaise, extra virgin olive oil, shaved parmesan and rocket salad. i love it. the wagyu is very very tender and accompanied with a few of my favourite things (parmesan cheese and rockets). There's nothing for me not to like about this dish.

foie gras ($30)...









it was a nice good portion i'd say.... pan-seared foie gras, figs compote and toasted hazelnut on grilled ciabatta. taste wise, i felt the inside was a little too soft and watery.

for mains, we shared 2 pasta as recommended by the server as one of their signature dishes.

tagliolini al granchio ($35)...



fresh hand-cut pasta with mud crab, garlic, chilli, white wine and extra virgin olive oil sauce... cynthia said this is like mee pok. Overall it was ok.. i didnt find it fantastic... taste was not strong... definitely i won't revisit and pay $35 for this.

spaghetti carbonara ($34)...





the carbonara is pretty good. its like some.. more refined carbonara and according to the server, it is not the usual cream sauce. its hand-made spaghetti with Spanish ham, truffle butter,shaved parmesan and confit egg. generally i kinda liked this dish.

of coz we also got her a cake to celebrate ($15)...



its the warm chocolate cake type wif molten chocolate inside....



nothing special at all. in fact, the molten chocolate inside was not sweet but rather a little sour. we didnt like it.

The Patissier

Today is Cynthia's birthday. She requested for a very customised croquembouche from the patissier. She wanted it to be attentioned to Ms Gorgeous and she wanted each puff to have descriptive words of beauty on the puffs.. i further customised it to her favourite colour purple...





puffs were delivered to her office.

Marriot

Cynthia's birthday cake...



the chef obviously doesnt agree that cynthia is gorgeous. he finds cynthia gougeous... haha .. its the chocolately kinda cake wif a layer of crispy crust. its dark chocolate so i didnt really like it. i think the others liked it though

Ma Maison

Lunch with Jacie and Carol @ Ma Maison.

we ordered 3 set lunches each. each set lunch came wif soup and salad....



the soup was not any cheapo soup. its a good portion of nicely cooked clam chowder!

the salad was very good... or should i say the dressing was marvellous! its the japanese kinda salad dressing that is a little sour.. but we all loved it!

i ordered the cha soba salad to share as well...



the cha soba salad today didnt taste as well as usual. it was still nice but didnt feel as fresh. i think dat is quite important especially since this is a chilled dish.

for mains, carol had the pork curry katsu....



which is not consistent in standard but i personally find today's one pretty good.

Jacie and myself went for the beef stragonov rice...



the beef cubes today is slightly better den usual. its a bit more tender den usual.

the butter rice under the scrambled egg....



the butter rice today is also pretty good in my view. again, i find the standards inconsistent but generally good.

十全老母鸡

Dinner at Shi Quan Lao Mu Ji....






we over ordered....

Fried egg...



vege done 2 styles....



the leaves were like deep fried. quite special but i prefer eating it the normal way. haha

prawn paste chicken...



deep fried prawn fritters...



pai ku wang....



ginseng chicken soup....



tofu wif 3 types of eggs....



overall the dishes were not bad but nothing exceptional. they particularly liked the ginseng soup.

Crystal Jade Kitchen

Lunch with Rachie @ Jurong Point's crystal jade coz i still cant get enuff of the fried octopus...



and had shrimp dumpling soup...



rachie had fried rice...

Crystal Jade Kitchen

Lil bee came to pick us up and we headed to suntec city's crystal jade.

pepper and salt squid.....



very nice! the pepper and salt makes it very yummy!

crabby and i shared the shrimp dumpling noodles and a century egg porridge....





both good!

lil bee had the roast duck noodles...



their roast duck is also very good. pretty crispy skin.

East Ocean

mum said we should bring sa jim out for lunch so we went to East Ocean.

they first served us kung fu tea...



we had roast pork here coz squiddy raved abt their roast pork to me...





it was ok..... nice i guess but nowhere near Gourmet Corner's (Philip Street) one in my humble opinon. Maybe their standards today is not good but i seriously find philip street's one nicer. Gourmet Corner's one the skin is much more crispy.

i saw they had really interesting dim sum ($5 per basket)!



SO CUTE RIGHT???? How can don't order?!

Sparrow fly...






comes with shrimp and quail egg! Its not bad.. i'd think its more gimmicky den tasty though but its really cute.

Oinklets....



includes a mixture of fresh mushrooms.

little big foot....



consists of diced radish, shrimps and chicken..



sa jim finds this really good. this one is a bit like those sesame balls.. the exterior is slightly sweet while the fillings are quite savory.

chicky chic...



another view....



with a slight pock, the fillings would wet the skin. one thing i gotta say, the chefs who made these are really quite creative and must have got pretty good skills to prepare such delicate dim sum! haha

the har gao....



its big with big prawns inside! very good!

and den we had something very very very nice! fried octopus...



its very long and somewhat hard.. as in its not super soft and slightly salty. its so divine! so good! im still missing it now!

sa jim also ordeed the intestine....



its served chilled with no foul smell at all. marinated in sesame sauce like thingy. not bad.

half a special chicken...



a closer up view....



its man tou topped with foie gras and spring chicken. the server had already warned us before hand that because its lunch time and there are a lot of people, this dish may not be very nice but we still ordered. true enuff, it was nothing special. in fact the foie gras tasted like... luncheon meat.

sa jim ordered the 酸辣汤..



was not too bad.

we also ordered 2 porridge. one oyster porridge and one crab porridage.

the oyster porridge is teochew style...



was not bad.

i ordered the flower crab porridge because recently i've been chasing the HK drama serial 溏心风暴 and inside the show 常在心 and Alfred shared this special love for the flower crab porridge. haha... in fact we were talking about the show and one of the servers joined in the conversation. haha

anyway, they ran out of flower crabs and they replaced it wif normal crabs....



it tastes like normal average porridge because i think its the case where they cook the porridge in advance and just add in the crab. nothing special.