The Perfect Interfusion At Sushi Tei

From November till 09 January 2013, all the 15 Sushi Tei outlets (here) island-wide will be having a new promotional menu know as "The Perfect Interfusion" which centred around warm and hearty rustic far with a contemporary twist.

Furthermore, all Sashimi fans will be thrilled by their new selection of premium sashimi-based dons at irresistible prices such as the Otoro, Kanpachi, Ika and Salmon Don for S$22.00 each. Below are some of the dishes from we had tried from their The Perfect Interfusion menu.

For appetizer we have Mentai Potato Salad (S$6.80) which is the one of my favourite starter whenever we visit Japanese restaurant. The fluffy mashed potato balls (with lovely bits of carrot and cucumber) is topped with generous portion of cod roe to enhance the flavour when compared to the usual Japanese potato salad.

{Must Try} Spicy Ban Ban Ji Ramen (S$10.00) is a very refreshing cold noodle dishes created by Sushi Tei, 112 Katong which is listed in their top six "Supreme Chef Challenge Creations" in The Perfect Interfusion Menu beside from those cold soba varieties in their usual menu.

The springy ramen taste great with the accompany spicy sesame sauce which gives it a nutty flavour and it pairs well with the crunchy cucumber and tender poached chicken too.

Yakiniku Cheese Roll (S$12.00) is created by Sushi Tei, Holland Village which is a whimsical re-interpretation of the cheeseburger. The sushi roll is wrapped with a layer of beef and cheese together with some sweet sauce which makes it resemble hamburger rice patty.

{Must Try} Instead of Chicken Katsu, we tried the Tori Nanban (S$10.00) that is created by Sushi Tei, 112 Katong. The deep-fried chicken is served together with the homemade Taru Taru sauce which is made of mayonnaise, shallots and parsley. I am sure this pipping hot crispy chicken cutlet will be a great choice in your ordering list.

Mango Avocado Roll (S$12.00) created by Sushi Tei, Thomson Plaza make use of both Mango and Avocado for this dish together with wafu dressing. For me who always love their Dragon Roll and Golden Roll, this new Mango Avocado Roll is sure a good catch to satisfy my fruity sushi craving.

Ikameshi (S$12.00) is a char-grilled squid stuffed with flavoured squid rice. Although it might look like a simple dish but the savory rice add extra touch to Hokkaido squid which brings out it's natural sweetness. Alternatively you could also try their Ika Sugata Shio/Teriyaki (S$9.00) which is grilled squid with salt or teriyaki sauce.

Ikameshi (S$12.00), Grilled squid stuffed with flavoured squid rice

Ikasumi Pasta (S$13.00) is one of the reason for my visit because I was tempted to this dish from one of the photos that I spotted on instagram a few weeks back .

The al dente spaghetti is tossed in a luscious squid ink sauce and topped with tender slices of squid and crispy fried garlic which you must eat together with the spaghetti to bring out it's flavour. But overall only the paste itself  is lightly flavored with the squid ink which makes it a bit plain and flat on the taste.

Matsutake Sukiyaki (Beef - S$26.00; Chicken - S$22.00) featured the seasonal Matsutake pine mushrooms which comes with a choice of either Beef or Chicken. This pot consists of glass noodles, tofu, leeks, carrots and enoki mushrooms in sukiyaki soup which is Refillable.

U.S.D.A Beef Tenderloin for the Matsutake Sukiyaki

After the main dishes, we decided to go for some desserts and since there are four of us in the group we could actually order different varieties to share among ourselves. Above are  Yuzu Sherbet (S$3.40), Nama Chocolate Ice Cream (S$4.80) and Matcha Nama Ice Cream (S$4.80)

Shiratama Azuki with Matcha Ice Cream (S$6.00) served in a pretty clam shell waffle which filled with Glutinous rice dumplings, Azuki beans and Matcha ice cream. Love the combination texture of chewy rice dumplings with crispy waffle shell together with the matcha ice cream.

Out of the four desserts that we had, my most favourite is still the Matcha Nama Ice Cream. I just simply love the intends flavour of the matcha ice cream flooding in my mouth which makes it so irresistible to stop at one. But if you are a chocolate lover, go for the Nama Chocolate Ice Cream instead!

Thanks to Sushi Tei and Veronica from Sixth Sense Communications for the invite tasting.

Sushi Tei @ Ngee Ann City
391 Orchard Road #05-30/31
Podium Block Ngee Ann City
Singapore 238873
Reservation: (65) 6737 8878
Website: http://www.sushitei.com/index.php

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Antoinette at Palais Renaissance

I am sure the brand name "Antoinette" sound familiar to those who love cakes, pastries or French food. Following the success of Antoinette’s first three outlets (Penhas Road, Mandarin Galley and Scarlet Hotel), Owner-Chef Pang Kok Keong unveils Le Jardin d’Antoinette which is also one of their largest outlet at Palais Renaissance.

Last Saturday I was invited to a lunch tasting at their new outlet, located at Palais Renaissance together with Celes (Celestial Delish), Derrick (SG Food on Foot) and ShiTing (Lobsterpaints).

After some self introductions between Chef Pang and us, we started to look around at their cake and pastry counters while taking some photos. Below are some of the pastries and cakes which are available at Antoinette.

Array of Cakes available

Array of Assorted Macarons on display

Pastry Section: with Danish Puffs, Brownies, Muffins and etc

The Main Dining Area designed after Versaille’s expansive outdoor garden which is a unique round shaped dining space decorated with vintage furniture featuring floral accents such as flower print upholstered seats. The outskirt of the dining area is also surrounded with hanging vines as well as floral arrangements. Furthermore there is also a special elevated gazebo sits at the centre of the dining area too.

{Soup} We started with their new Classic French Onion Soup (S$16.50) which is prepared using caramelised onions in a rich chicken and veal broth accompanied by cheese toasts made from Antoinette’s signature 24-hour baguette. To perfect it, the soup is topped with a cheesy crust which resemble "cover" and it is made using parmesan and gruyère cheese.

On the 1st try, the soup taste a bit sour but when you dig in more, it actually release a hit of sweetness from the caramelised onions and it goes well with that crispy cheese crust.

{Entrées} Next we had the Tartine de Nicoise (S$26.00) which is an open face levain sandwich hide beneath some butter lettuce, French beans, tomatoes, olives, anchovy, a three-minute egg and some seared tuna.

According to Chef Pang, these Levain Bread (sourdough) are made from their own kitchen in Antonietta and the process for making this bread is quite tedious and it takes up to 16 days to cultivate the yeast from scratch plus another 2 more days to proof the bread before baking. So when having this dish, we must really appreciate each and every bits of its ingredients especially the Levain Bread which has a unique flavour and texture.

{Main Course} During the tasting, we tried 3 main courses and first to serve was Confit de Poitrine de Porc (S$36.00) is a traditional French confit of pork belly that is first cured in a mixture of sea salt, brown sugar and aromatics before it is cooked and covered in duck fat at 90 degrees Celsius for 12 hours.

The dish was plated with 5 pieces (about 2 cm each) of thick, tender and fragrant pork belly together with decent amount of garlic mash (which you might thought is mashed potato), seasonal vegetables and mustard sauce. Although I am a "pork belly" lover but I find this dish a bit on the salty side unless you are having it with some water or wine to balance the taste.

{Main Course} Next we had Bouchées aux fruits de mer (S$30.00) which is a luxurious seafood medley that consists of scallops, prawns, squid and mussels sautéed with white wine and cream. It is then served in a puff pastry case which resemble "vol au vents" but it is made with a unique reverse folding method which results in a flakier and crispier crust.

I love their fresh and seafood and taste of the sauce is is not overpowering to the whole dish but on the down side, me and ShiTing find that our scallop is kind of overcooked which makes it chewy and difficult to bite.

{Main Course} For the last main course Chef Pang brought in Prawn crumble pasta (S$26.00) which is an aglio olio-style pasta dish featuring spaghettini tossed with parsley pesto instead of basil and sprinkled with their homemade anchovy crumble.

During the introduction, Chef Pang mentioned to us that those crumble was made using Antoinette’s pain de mie loaf as well as a kalamata olives and Spanish anchovies tapenade. No wonder when all mixed together it has such a unique taste which you might mistook the breadcrumb with grated cheese.

{Dessert} For the dessert, Chef Pang shared with us 4 of his new 2012 collection which you could read more on the post below. Above we shows  Chloe (S$9.00 per slice) which is a combination of refreshing and fragrant yuzu cremeux with white chocolate vanilla mousse on a light sponge cake and almond sable.

This is one of the lighter taste cake which we concluded out of the 4 that we had tired so if you prefer something light and refreshing perhaps this would be great hit for you.

{Dessert} Forbidden Fruit (S$9.00 per slice) has a delicate layered creation that features granny smith apples in various incarnations including green apple mousse, vanilla caramel apple and green apple jelly, complemented with maple cremeux on a financier cake.

On 1st bite you will feel hint of sourish taste perhaps from the apple jelly but when you slowly savory it with a cup of tea, you will fell in love with it because of it sweet, fragrant and sour combination. I guess this is similar to feeling of "falling in love" taste.

{Dessert} Kyoto (S$9.00 per slice) is a Japanese matcha crowd-pleaser with green tea mascarpone mousse, chestnut cremeux, almond crumble and a green tea finger sponge. It has a very fragrant matcha aroma and after taste which we all loved. A "must try" for matcha lover.

{Dessert} I personally love this Tarte Exotique (S$8.50 per slice) which I think I can conquered two at one time. It has an almond base with a luscious gula melaka cremeux, finger sponge and light coconut mousse crowned with a delicate fruit coulis sphere. Because I love almond base tarts and as well as the unique aroma from the Gula Melaka, I highly recommend this dessert which I am sure you will love it as much as we do.  

Just to share there is a private dining room which is perfect for groups of 8 - 10 pax to hold function such as Formal Dining, Gathering, Birthday or etc.

Antoinette at Palais Renaissance

390 Orchard Road, Palais Renaissance,
B1-08/09/10C,
Reservations No.: +65 6735 6392

Operating Hours:
11.00am to 10.00pm daily (last order 9.30pm)


Lastly I would like to thank Hsian Ming (from Sixth Sense Communications and PR Consultancy Pte Ltd) and Chef Pang (Antoinette at Palais Renaissance) for this tasting invitation. For more photos of this tasting, you can click on Cuisine Paradise Facebook page HERE.

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Hearty Meal With The Family @ Swensen's

Swensen's, a household name in Singapore has bought many memories to me and my family over the years. I remember during my school days, I used to visit Swensen's with my classmates to enjoy their ice-creams and food during weekends gathering where we often share the "Huge" Earthquake ice-cream together.

Recently, Swensen's has just revamped their menu with new and exciting treats such as Spiced King Prawns and Chips, Laksa Aglio Olio with King Prawns, Crabmeat Fried Rice and etc. Here we have ordered the "Laksa Aglio Olio with King Prawns" shown above as I am curious with this East And West fusion taste. The al dente pasta is infused with Laksa flavored pesto, chilli padi and served with succulent king prawns which gives us a Wow!

{S$5.00 Top Up} With additional $5.00 top-up to any Main Course, we can enjoy additional soup of day which I always look forward to, a complimentary hot/cold beverage plus a scoop of ice-cream of our choice to end the meal.

For starter we order Ocean Crunch Salad with served with fresh greens topped with fish bites, calamari, breaded shrimps and refreshing pineapple BBQ dressing.

This Black Pepper Seafood Pasta is one of my mum's favourite pasta from Swensen's. She loves the taste and fragrant of their black pepper sauce which is not too spicy, salty or neither overpowering the overall taste of the dish. I would recommend this if you are a fan of black pepper sauce.

Although Chicken Baked Rice is always on my ordering list, but that day I have a craving of trying their Beef Stroganoff Baked Rice which served in chunky beef slices that saute in onion and brown sauce. Although the sauce is a bit too rich and salty towards my liking but overall it still quiet a good try. 

My boy's Fish Nuggets with Star Munchy And Sweetcorn kid's meal set which he often order serve with either cold Milo or Apple juice. A plus point for kid's meal is although it is deep-fried but for the few occasions that we ordered it is always nicely done without drip/trace of oil on the nuggets or munchy.

*Note:
All photos in this post is taken with my iphone as this is a leisure family meal.

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KOHII - A Japanese Style Café in CBD Area

Located in Central Business District(CBD) which is less than 10 minutes walk from Raffles Place MRT, KOHII is a newly open Japanese cafe which serve busy executives, families and passer-by who is out looking for fresh and healthy meals other than those usual eateries available around Shento Way area.

At KOHII it offers a modern style Tokyo cafe and sandwich bar concept that is specialising in high quality coffees from imported from Japan as well as handmade sandwiches and soup to start of a healthy meal for the day.

While flipping through the menu, KOHII has a wide selections of beverages ranging from hot to cold drinks such as premium coffee from Japan, Tea, Soda, Smoothie and etc. Above show two of it's signature smoothies which named after the cafe owner's daughters; Ichigo Nana(front, S$6.30 each) which is a mixture of fresh strawberries with banana whereas Mango Momo(back, S$6.30 each) is a refreshing combination of Mango and Peach blended.

Compared the two smoothies that we had that day, ShiTing(author of Lobsterpaints) and me preferred Mango Momo more than Ichigo Nana as it has a very light and refreshing after taste fragrant which makes you crave for more.

KOHII has two types of home-made soup such as Pumpkin (S$7.50 per bowl) and Mixed Mushrooms (S$9.80 per bowl). Each order of soup is served with some freshly toasted bread and ours for that day is their Premium Mixed Mushrooms Soup which is popular among the ladies.

Indeed I was caught off with the taste of their soup which is quite different from the usual mushroom soup that I used to have. Kohii's mushroom soup which used 5 different types of mushrooms has a unique homecook taste which is light and flavorsome compared to those thick and creamy western mushroom soup. No wonder we saw most of the customers ordered mushrooms soup during our visit to the cafe last week.

The salad and sandwich bar where the customers could see how the food are prepared before being served or take-away.

Out of the 10 different fillings used for their Sandwich, we tried the Teriyaki Chicken Breast and Marinated Mushrooms. We love the Marinated Mushrooms which is something special and definitely worth trying. Each bite into the sandwich you could taste the assorted mushrooms bursting into flavour in your mouth together with the accompany vegetables and wholesome bun. And according to the serving staffs at the bar counter all their mushrooms used are imported from Japan and customer can also choose either plain or oatmeal bread for the sandwich too.

Teriyaki Chicken on the hand was a bit on the tough side perhaps due to the used of chicken breast meat but overall the marinated sauce and flavour of the chicken blends well with the sandwich.

As for Salad, Kohii has 6 different types of choices such as Plain(S$5.80), Teriyaki Chicken(S$8.50), Japanese Curry Chicken(S$8.50), Pesto Chicken(S$8.50), Assorted Mixed Mushrooms(S$9.80) and Assorted Seafood(S$10.50). Each is served with Kohii's homemade dressings (Soy Vinegrette, Goma and Miso) which would complement the light and fresh mix of salad greens.

For S$10.50 you would be able to enjoy a bowl of Assorted Seafood Salad which has very Fresh seafood that is air-flown from Japan. As you could see from the photo above, it consists of Alaska Snow Crab Meat, Octopus, Scallop and Prawn mixture together with Goma(Roasted Sesame Dressing) dressing.

And for those who wants some quick bite, KOHII also offer daily High Tea Specials from 2.00pm - 6.00pm @ S$7.90 nett. You could choose between, 1 sliced of cake/pie/muffin plus either coffee/tea to perk up your afternoon break or light dinner before heading for movie or meetup.

KOHII

1 Shenton Way
#01-06
Singapore 068803
Telephone: (65) 6509 9639
Website: Facebook Page

Operating Hours:
Mon - Fri: 8:30am - 8:30 pm;
Sat: 9:00am - 3:00pm

Closed on Sunday and PH

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