And getting mightily frustrated by the logistics of trying to figure out which are the days that we can make it; which restaurant is closed on which day; and which restaurant is more conveniently located. The perils of trying to book Michelin-starred restaurants in a city famed for food!
Where am I going? Secret will be revealed...
But not in this post though.
The starter of bacon and mushroom gratin, served with thick toast (my favourite!), arrived piping hot from the oven. This was very addictive - cheesy and creamy – and I ended up eating two pieces of toast and cleaning up the entire platter.
I was pretty egg-cited when I read about the imminent opening of this all-day breakfast cafe some weeks back in Business Times Weekend, and dashed down last week, just 3 days after it opened.
The menu comprises largely of egg dishes - fried, scrambled, boiled, mollet - any way you name it, and is priced very reasonably. My Burly Benedict (one poached egg with mornay sauce, a good-sized piece of corned wagyu and a side of sauteed potatoes and tomato) cost $12, while my companion's Le Rossini (scrambled eggs with truffle oil and a whopping slab of seared foie gras, with toast) cost $18. Some rough patches to be ironed out for both cooking and service standards: my food was cold when it arrived, the foie gras wasn't very tasty, and a couple of the service staff seemed a tad clueless at times. On the positive side, the eggs - both scrambled and poached versions - were cooked just right, soft and fluffy and oozing nice creamy yolk respectively. Hopefully, Hatched will have ironed out its teething problems, given a couple of months, for it is a nice place to hangout and a good alternative to The Wine Company.
Evans Lodge, 26 Evans Road
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Singapore-Singapore/HATCHED/143215963744
....at Hooha! cafe, which brands itself as having "the best beef in the region". This restaurant has a out in the boondocks feel to it, given its location, and is done up in the American diner style. We sat outside in the balmy night air for the very prosaic reason of keeping an eye on the car which was parked illegally by the roadside (there is a frustrating lack of parking spaces in the area), although there was not much ambience to talk of.
There was a hugely astonishing variety of food on the menu - ranging from local items like laksa, satay, fried rice, to western dishes like pizza, pasta, steaks ... etc ... which made me a little suspicious of the quality since I always feel that restaurants that specialise in a smaller number of dishes can focus better and do those well, rather than stretch themselves too thin.
We were there for the very good value set lunch ($32 for 3 courses, 4 choices for each course, and includes coffee / tea) - this started off on a good note with an assortment of warm delicious bread (sourdough, hard roll, and foccacia), followed by an amuse-bouche of tomato and capsicum gazpacho. Simple it might be, but with its slight tanginess this was a refreshing treat for the palate, sparking our appetites for what was to follow. 
I chose the ocean trout confit (with citrus emulsion, ponzu jelly, fennel salad) for my starter and WOW, this dish was beautiful to look at and even more beautiful to experience.... The smorgasbord of flavours melded wonderfully together, giving a beautiful Asian hint to this dish, and the texture of that fish, oh! so smooth and melting that it quivered and slithered right down my throat in one second. 
For my main, I went with the sous-vide chicken roulad (with celeriac puree, snow pea salad, brazil mushroom emulsion) since I adore anything cooked under a slow heat. As expected, the texture was very soft and smooth, and both W and Y had nothing but praise for it .... but the devil in my head couldn't help but compare it to my own brined chicken which I think is even more succulent and tasty. I also felt that there was also a bit too much stuff happening on my plate, for instance, the brazil mushroom emulsion didn't add anything to the overall taste and feel of this dish. The chef would have done better to put fewer distractions on the plate!
While Y decided upon her usual pasta dish of fettucine aglio olio (with prawn, onion, garlic, chilli, italian parsley), which was alright although the sakura ebi and scallop cappellini that I had the night before at One Rochester seemed to be better.
I whipped up this easy one-dish meal as a Sunday lunch treat, seeing that I was having cravings for the hawker centre favourite of Oyster Omelette, which is better known as Or Luak. I modified a recipe featured in the Mar 2007 copy of Simply Her magazine - this is the low oil and healthy version which only has 180 calories per serving but still tastes good!
Season oysters with a splash of Chinese wine. Mix sweet potato flour, water, light soya sauce, salt, Chinese wine and pepper. Heat oil in large non-stick pan over a very hot fire, and saute garlic. Pour in sweet potato flour mixture, and wait for about 20 seconds or longer, until flour mixture becomes crisp at edges. Crack eggs over. When eggs are set, add oysters and spring onions. After 10 seconds, stir and break up omelette. Serve garnished with coriander and squeeze the lime over.
N.B. Use a large pan and hot fire, to ensure that the sweet potato mixture is spread thinly and can crisp well.
Sharing this beautiful cover of the Sam Hui classic by my favourite singer Emil Chau: 浪子心聲
命里有时终须有 命里无时莫强求
For my mother's birthday celebration last Sunday, we got a durian cake from the famous Jane's Cake Station at Jalan Kayu, as I had no time to bake cakes this year (see the 08 cake and 07 cake). My mum loves the durian cake from Jane's as it has a strong fragrance and the sponge is moist and soft, although I think they use a bit too much buttercream in the filling and for decoration. At $38 for the small size cake, it's pricey so I am thinking of getting next year's cake from Goodwood Park Hotel, which judging from their durian puffs, should be even better :-) 
Later that evening, we went to Blue Ginger restaurant along Tanjong Pagar road for dinner - peranakan food served in 'semi fine-dining' style. We sampled a huge variety of 9 dishes in their special dinner set menu at $90 for 4 persons - including ayam buah keluak (my favourite candlenut stewed chicken dish), assam fish, and a super rich and fragrant durian chendol. While the quality of the fare was fairly good, I do think that Blue Ginger's standard has dropped somewhat in recent years - for instance, the ayam buah keluak was a bit more sourish than I would have liked and the assam fish could have benefited from a more concentrated and textured fish stock. While Chilli Padi (located at Joo Chiat Place) serves up great tasting peranakan food, however, since we go there so often, a change to Blue Ginger is nice once in a while!
Torisho Taka by Aoki is part of the venerable Les Amis group of restaurants, however not many people know about it. Tucked away discreetly on the second floor of Gallery Hotel, sliding the simple wooden door open will transport you to a quiet, tranquil, and definitely very posh looking interior. While Torisho Taka specializes in yakitori, however, for lunch, the grill is not fired up and only set lunches or the dishes on the ala carte menu are available. The three of us dithered for a while over whether to order the wagyu beef or kurobuta pork. Eventually the kurobuta won out and we all ordered different variations (kurobuta don, kurobuta with teriyaki sauce, kurobuta with ginger). All sets include a light wafu salad, chawanmushi, pickles, dessert (no question about it, just go straight for the cheesecake option), and premium tea. They were priced affordably too, starting from $22 from the ramen sets, while the Australian kurobuta and wagyu sets were about $30.
Service is absolutely beyond reproach, as expected from a Les Amis restaurant. As we were eating, the place slowly but steadily filled up with what looked like (very rich) regulars, much to our surprise, so it looks like it’s a well-kept secret among the tai-tai community.
