Woohoo Chinese New Year! It's the year of the Snake and that's my zodiac! (Now you know my age...)It's the time for family reunions, letting bygones be bygones, and of course, time for good food. Had a great Chinese New Year at Grand Park City Hall with their lavish gourmet indulgences! Was invited by them to do a food tasting.
Loved the welcoming set-up :)
To kick things off, we were treated with a super awesome, luxurious Yellowtail lou hei!! Can't wait to lou-hei with my family and attempt 4 word phrases to boost health, happiness, wealth and success. I normally just follow what everyone else had already said hehe.
Golden Shunde Yu Sheng ($88++)
Check out the gold flakes omg. It was really fun lou-ing with other bloggers and everyone was into the festive mood :) There was one point when I noticed some gold flakes that had dropped onto the table, and after I pointed it out, someone asked me to quickly throw it back into the pot because we can't let money slip by hahah. We were pleasantly surprised that the yu sheng was not overly sweet, but actually savoury!
Suckling pig! Everyone was happily taking photos of the pig's front, but I took a picture of the pig's butt. There you have it.
Imperial Suckling Pig ($238++)
This was so good! The skin was crispy, the roast was perfectly done, it was great! Would highly recommend this as one of the best dishes we had that day.
Golden Happiness Crispy Garoupa!
Not a huge fan of fried fish but this was fresh, crispy and gets a ton of marks for presentation.
We were treated to a demonstration where the chef poured cognac and sorta 'transferred' the flames onto the pen cai. It was my first time witnessing this and I was so amazed! The chef had to repeat this several times as there was one pen cai per table (think there were 5 tables?) so I'm sure everyone managed to get a good picture.
It was suuuuper good. We didn't know that there were many more ingredients below the top layer, so we had a happy surprise when we were scooping around hehe.
Imperial Suckling Pig Oven-baked with Lemongrass
This was soooooooo good. The tinge of lemongrass, the tender meat, urghhh I would gladly have this again. It was part of the pig that you saw a picture of, earlier and everyone was raving about this.
Auspicious Glutinous Rice with Foie Gras and Preserved Meat!
Was surprised to see Foie Gras at a chinese lunch, but the glutinous rice (and the swan-like design) brought the oriental feel to the dish. By this time we were pretty stuffed.
Urgh we were also served Steamed Mini Pumpkin Dumplings with Green Bean Paste for dessert but I can't find a picture of it -_- Was really adorable though because it looked like tiny pumpkins but was indeed dumplings!
With Superadrianme and Dennis! I think I look too happy over oranges but my tummy was happy k.
Bumped into William!! Notice how each of us is holding one orange. Eh looks like a couple shot come to think of it. But no nothing's going on. hahah.
With pretty Nadia who had amazingly cute nail designs!! Tried to take a photo of them but my camera went a little wonky.
Thanks Alvin for the invitation!
QUOTE Claire's Flair during reservations via email/phone to get Complimentary bottle of house red wine per table of minimum 10 pax.
Thanks Alvin and Grand Park City Hall for the amazing lunch!
GRAND PARK CITY HALL
10 Coleman Street Singapore 179809
For reservations: 6432 5543 or email parkpalace.gpch@parkhotelgroup.com
I'm a frequent customer at Sushi Tei, so when I was invited to attend a blogger's Christmas (albeit belated post) dinner, I was so excited I had trouble sleeping the night before. Thanks OMY for the tie-up!
If you hadn't already known, Sushi Tei has a branch at Paragon, on the top floor near the gym section. It's super crowded and normally has a long queue, but it's one of the biggest Sushi Tei branches I know!
We kicked off the night with Sashimi Salad - raw fish and vegetables which was an affordable $9. Nom nom nom.
When you get the salad, you'll be presented with a choice of sauce. My favourite is Sushi Tei's special sauce. It's a little tangy but slightly sweet.
When you're at Sushi Tei, you'd expect the sashimi to be their specialty, and it is! Here's the Sashimi Moriwase - bluefin tuna, yellowtail and salmon.
If only we were presented with unlimited servings... The salmon, of course, was superb as usual, but it was my first time trying yellowtail at Sushi Tei and it was surprisingly good! All ingredients are fresh and sliced carefully for sashimi goodness.
This small dish, is pricier, at $30.
I am in loooove with mentai mayo. Unfortunately, it's really unhealthy (about 200 calories), but it's good to indulge once in a while, isn't it? This dish is a great appetizer and watch how your table of companions turn silent as they feel the oozing greatness exploding in their mouths. Here's their Kani Mentai Mayo Roll - crab meat sushi with mentai mayo worth $8.
Next up, the Hanasaki Ika Tempura - Squid with roe tempura. This would make awesome pub grub. Crispy, deep fried, goodness. $6
Our next dish was Asari Clams in butter and soya sauce. This was tasty and delicious! Nuff said. I didn't get any sandy bits so I was contented.
Instead of your usual crispy skin dumplings, Sushi Tei's Homemade Meat Gyoza (pork and chicken) was soft and juicy. It felt more chinese than Japanese though. Maybe it was tailored to suit chinese tastes? Haha.
Kaisen Chankonabe - hot pot with seafood and vegetables. Can't remember if we picked Shoyu or Miso base but it was so-so. There's a small portion of udon noodles! I prefer the sukiyaki, (also in Sushi Tei's menu) more though.
Golden Roll - mango king prawn sushi roll. You wouldn't think mango and prawns would go together but they do. It's a strange complimenting taste that should definitely be given a chance before judged! Haha I enjoyed this, and the roe was a great addition to enhance flavour!
Finally, the assortment of desserts. Mango sorbet ice cream balls, and I didn't try the other flavours so I don't know what they were. HOWEVER, this waffle + vanilla ice cream bread below is really good!!
Reminds me of my primary school days. The waffle isn't very crunchy but is a great end to the meal. LEFT ME HAPPY :D
Overall, I found the portions were pretty small for a table of 15, but if you've got a cosy group of 4, this should be great to keep you guys stuffed for the rest of the day/night!
We're so fortunate to live in a country where it's clean, safe, and has a iconic durian-shaped building dedicated to the arts. Know what I'm talking about already?
The Esplanade!
Usually when I'm there, I like to take a stroll along the rooftop, enjoy the view, feel the heat haha.
I once performed there during my time in Choir. They had free concerts on Sunday afternoons, not sure if that's still in the programme though.
The concert hall is amaaaazing and has great acoustics! Perfect for any choir, hyms and harmonies to carry through the air. Those were the days!
Was invited by Street Directory to attend a food tasting at Loola's, which is opened by Awfully Chocolate! Their outlet is just one floor up from the taxi stand.
The reception table, with goodies for us!
Bumped into Shanice! Last saw her at the Oasia Hotel launch party so was delighted I got to see her again. We hit it off effortlessly! My date for the night was Carmelita. A picture of her later. She's dressing more and more korean haha.
PS: I think my face is getting pretty round, from the looks of this picture =\ Bleh.
We weren't the only ones who were invited, here's a pic of the other bloggers at the other table!
Theme of the night was Street, which I completely forgot about otherwise I might've made an effort to dress accordingly. Here were the prizes for the best dressed! No idea what was inside haha.
Time for the food!
Starter (pictured above, from left to right)
Loola's salad
Serrano Ham (with date)
Grilled Fremantle Octopus
Spiced Pumpkin Soup
Loola's specially prepared the menu for us, comprising of smaller portions of some of their dishes. Loola's salad was quite bitter, and I felt they could've used more dressing to mask it or provided more side ingredients to eat together with the salad and complement its taste!
Fremantle Octopus was fairly fresh but in such a small portion, it ran out before the salad did.
Now, I'm a big fan of ham, but anyone could tell that there was something hidden inside it, so I was a little cautious. The Serrano Ham had a hidden date concealed beneath its folds! I took a huge bite before realizing it was a date. Oops. The sweetness of the date didn't bring out the flavour in the ham so I felt that the ham was better on its own.
The Spiced Pumpkin Soup looked and sounded interesting, so this was actually the first item I tried when I was presented with the platter! It tasted like chinese curry, with a hint of pumpkin. Not exactly to my tastes but if you're a fan of that, go ahead and try it!
The main course was much more appealing and satisfying to me. Onward!
Main- Miso with soft poached egg
My friend, Carmelita, ordered this, and her poached egg was adorable. It looks like a little onion here, doesn't it?
Pan Seared Pork Belly
This was Shanice and my choice for the main dish! The pork belly was perfect! Soft, tender, and the sauce was sweet. Only wish the portion was a little bigger, and that the potato mix was more fluid.
Presentation was great too!
This was my favourite dish for the night and definitely would recommend this!
Dessert
Hei Ice Cream
Mocha Poppers
Loola's brownie
This was, undoubtedly, sinful. The Ice cream was rich, thick, dark chocolate, the mocha poppers were oozing molten mocha and the brownie was so thick and sweet that we couldn't finish them all!!
Awfully Chocolate really lived up to their name of bring great desserts to their table. Awfully overloaded with chocolate! Haha.
Group table picture! Carmelita represented our table and was the best dancer, :P
Ending off with a picture of cupcakes I snapped while checking out their display!
If you want a chill dinner with friends or family, at a quiet spot at Esplanade, this is the place.
Thanks Street Directory and Loola's!
Loola's by Awfully Chocolate
The Esplanade, 1 Esplanade Drive, #02-14 City Hall.
I had the most splendid 23rd birthday party held at 2fifteen Kitchen last week. It's tucked in a little corner of Rochester Mall, a short walk from Buona Vista MRT. Only accessible from its own entrance, so you have to follow the signboards to find it.
It's a REAALLLY new mall, so some shops aren't even open yet! Want to be at a place before everyone else finds it? If you want a quiet, homely, place for a romantic dinner or lunch where you get 100% attention from your partner, this is it.
(PSST! Read on to find out how you can get 15% off when you dine at 2fifteen Kitchen!)
I lovedit.
Let me briefly talk about my past 2 birthday celebrations, shall I? If you don't want to read about this bit, just skip ahead until you see the pictures of the food, they were phenomenal!!
On my 21st birthday, I booked a room The Chevron's, which is all the way at Jurong East, but it had a great room!
A stage, a pool table, and enough capacity to fit 70 pax. On that day itself, I realised I could even afford to invite more people because there was so much food left over and there was so much space to even fit 120 people. I even sang on stage (albeit out of tune, but this wasn't a competition right), and my friend bought me a little adorable tiara! Went to Marina Barrage after that to release balloons into the sky, spent midnight there and then went to Zouk after.
My fabulous cake was from St Regis. It was a great 21st! Whoever travelled all the way to Jurong East just for my birthday got mega brownie points. Lol!
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Last year, on my 22nd bithday, I spent it... in Germany with my relatives and distant relatives. I got to experience a German birthday!!
All the relatives did a canon and sang happy birthday to me in German, while forming a semi circle in front of me. It was surreal... and surround sound. Haha! Pretty awesome.
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Which brings me to this year. I wanted a small dinner with my blogger pals to thank them for everything and a separate small one for my pals! I only started this blogging scene (events and such) about a year and a half ago, I've learnt so much and got to experience more than I ever thought I would. So when Walter recommended this place to me, (I hold a high esteem for Walter's taste), I just had to check it out.
This is what you see when you've found the right place. With a gorgeous chandelier on top!
I liked this place already.
Since it was my birthday, I decided to spice it up and decorated the place a little. Bought 12 balloons to hang on every chair, made some placards, and got some Smoulder lava cakes to place on the table in case my guests wanted to nibble on something before everyone else came.
The team at 2fifteen were so kind to prepare a menu for the night! A great touch, as you know, bloggers like to know what's in store for them, and know what they're eating. Haha! Here's some photos of the setting after some magic.
We even had a hashtag for the night on twitter and instagram! #clairesflair but I think most stopped using it after a while haha.
Printed these online, coloured them with colour pencils like a primary school kid, and cut them into little pieces! #effort
Me all smiles and writing the names on the placards. Peach lace dress from H&M in HK.
The staff, all smiles and ready for the night!
Pretty, right? I couldn't have done it without Christine and Jordan's help, and 2fifteen *hearts* Thank you! Okay let's go right to the food!
Smoulder 's bite sized lava cakes for everyone! Each box had different flavors.
What I love about Smoulder is that their cakes are prepared
daily in nine unique flavours with premium
ingredients and no preservatives!
I just HAVE to list all 9 flavours out for you. Here you go.
Signature Dark Chocolate, Intense Dark Chocolate, Dark Chocolate Black Forest, Milk Chocolate Mocha, Milk Chocolate Rum & Raisin, White Chocolate Matcha, White Chocolate Raspberry, White Chocolate Pistachio, White Chocolate Lemon
Address at the bottom of this post!
2fifteen Kitchen's menu creations are made lovingly by Kenny Yeo, who has helmed renowned
restaurants in Singapore and Taipei including a 3-star Michelin hotel in
France. Plus they only use quality ingredients to pamper their guests ;)
We were served some bread, and I was impressed by the presentation already! The bread was arranged nicely and even the butter, cut into little rectangles with a zigzag design.
The first out of the 5 for the night.
Hot seared Duo Watermelon with Foie Gras, Basil Oil and Feta Cheese.
Incredibly generous portion. Everyone was so impressed by the dish that no one talked until it was half devoured. Hahah. It was Sarah's and Christine's first time trying Foie Gras, and they agreed that it was really good!
You might think that the fruits and cheese might be a strange touch but it complimented the flavours wonderfully. The fruits were cut in a perfect cube, and the effort gone into this dish could be tasted as well as felt. *thumbs up*
Carrot Puree soup with Clam jam.
What IS clam jam anyway? The clam portion was cold while the carrot puree was hot. Blend them together and you get a hot/cold mix. This is definitely an acquired taste. I never had Clam jam before, so it was different for me. I preferred the carrot puree, blended but didn't lose its thickness and sweetness.
Prawn Capellini
The prawn was really fresh and juicy, and the chef Kenny asked us if it tasted like Hokkien Mee. Lol? I didn't think it was similar though, but this was really tasty! How Kenny made the noodles into a rectangular shape, I do not know.
Confit of salmon roulade with wild rice, hazelnut oil and poultry jus
This. was. h e a v e n l y.
I have NEVER tried anything like it. The salmon, though it looks raw, is actually cooked for hours under really lowwwww fire. It literally, MELTS in your mouth. A must try!!
Wow, the dessert platter. Bean curd cheesecake, granny smith green apples, vanilla ice cream and a cherry tart with pistachio nuts :D
My grin and smiles were wider after a bite of this. Soooo good.
My favourite dish of the night is the foie gras, but it was very hard
to decide between the foie gras or the salmon confit. In fact, I am
planning to go back just to have them again! :)
Just when I thought things couldn't get any better than this...
2fifteen surprised me with a birthday cake with hazelnut, biscuits and vanilla!! YUM!! One of the most ostentatious cakes I've ever eaten. And it was no ordinary candle...it was a SPARKLER. A really high one!!
In the middle of the courses, we played some games to pass the time and get the bloggers to know each other better!
Every one is assigned a celebrity, and has to put the card on their forehead for the rest to see. Then they have to ask a series of questions to try and figure out who their celebrity is.
So William was given Paris Hilton, but he couldn't guess it. So we changed the rules again and tried breaking the words into two to help him. "What is the capital of France?" "The place where Eiffel Tower is?" "That hotel in Orchard road that's next to Forum?"
After that, we chose Britney Spears for William and Hong Peng to guess. They had no idea, so Jessie and I incorporated the titles of her songs into our conversation.
"She's very Lucky! And Oop's she did it again and hit her baby one more time!"
Fun stuff hahah.
A slice of goodness for everyone :) The staff cut my cake into slices for me. Good idea because I probably would've messed it up hahah.
Continuation of the games: Sarah was so cute, she wrote me a celebrity to guess, and it was HER! Hahaha I guessed it really quickly *hearts* I picked Blake Lively for Sarah and she also guessed it! Awesome.
Jessie decided to come up with some games of her own (Yay!) and she told us to find a cat at the back of a $2 note. Can you find it? Hahaha take out a SGD $2 note and try to find it, if you think you've got it, leave a comment!
THANK YOU
Thank you my blogger friends for coming, for making this so memorable, the 2fifteen team (Kevin, Jolene and everyone!) and Walter for making this party a sweet success!
Thank you Nicolette for lending me the photo frames!
Also, thank you William for letting me use your food pictures!!
Thank you Kenny for the mind blowing, indulgent meal! I loved every single bit of it and there was nothing more I could ask for. It was perfect.
2fifteen will unveil a brunch menu in November in two sessions, 11am and 2pm on Saturdays, Sundays and Public Holidays! It's an ala-carte buffet with hors d'oeuvres before ordering your main course.
$38 per adult, and free for kids below 4 years.
Once the party was over, we went outside to play with sparklers and lightsticks that I had brought. When I came back from the toilet, everyone pointed at William for releasing two balloons by accident ahahah.
After playing with the sparklers, William came up with this super sweet idea of using the lightsticks to spell my name! That was completely unexpected.
An extremely happy birthday girl ^_^
Watch this video to see the lightstick presentation :')
Watch this to see snippets of the entire dinner! William made this for me!! Hi girls please snag him up already. *hearts*
I am so, so, happy, grateful, and thankful right now. It seems like there are rainbows and just happy thoughts everywhere.
Also a shoutout to Smoulder, thank you for the lava cakes! They were fabulous, just like I remembered them to be. The pistachio and intense dark chocolate flavours are my favourite! Everyone should just make a trip down to Raffles Place just to try them. If you're working near by, be sure to stop during lunch time!
Smoulder
Location: China Square Food Centre,
51 Telok Ayer Street #01-04,
S048441, Singapore
Phone: +65 6225 6422
Hours: mon-fri, 8am to 8pm
sat, 11am to 3pm
Once, I accidentally pre-heated it for too long and it came out as a cake instead. Still delicious though, but remember to keep the timing very carefully!
Just make a reservation via email to 2fifteen@epicurean.com.sg with the subject header "Claire's Flair" and you will be awarded with the discount accordingly. The discount is applicable till 20 December 2012.
Once again, thank you 2fifteen! This year's birthday was simple, superb.
Claire.
loves exploring what life has to offer.
A personal lifestyle blog of all things captivating, alluring, enchanting, indulging, sophisticated and pretty.
Contact me at
Eternamente[at]gmail.com
Auspicious Glutinous Rice with Foie Gras and Preserved Meat! 
