At the Borough with Paula

We finally got to meet up with Paula on Sat. This is one busy girl who's racing to do her lab research and get her thesis completed by September. Hence, we only met up after we've been in London for 2 weeks.

This lucky girl stays near the Tower Bridge, but that's not why she's lucky. She's lucky becos she stays within walking distance of the Borough Market. Paula's been telling me about it but it was only my first visit last Sat. And I wished I had gone there earlier.

Its like the open markets (or Marches) in France. Walking through it is like reliving the old memories of the open markets in Fonty. There were lots of vendors selling food like olives, cheese, French deli food (pates, cassoulet, wines), vegetables and fruits, artisan breads, dips and a whole lot more.

The entire place is so vibrant and alive with people and hunger-inducing wafts of food. We spent some time queuing for some Chorizo sandwich only to be told halfway that they were all sold out. Drats! I had wanted badly to taste the chorizo to see if they were as authentic as the ones that our Spanish friends have given us. Unfortunately, it wasn't to be for that day. Hopefully, we'll have time to go back another time so that we can make a queue for it again.

We spent some time walking the market and also tasting some of the food that were being put on display. I bought some organic strawberry ice-cream and shared that with Faith. She seemed to love it a lot :)

Lunch was at the Roast Restaurant, situation within the Borough Market itself. Louis had saw the advertorial for it on the mobile TV of a London Cab and it seemed to come highly recommended. The restaurant prides itself for using daily market produce from Borough and organic meats wherever possible.

We ordered the fish & chips and the roasted pork belly on the recommendation of the waitress. The roasted pork belly was absolutely delish! Not unlike the Chinese version of roast pork, the skin of the pork belly was crackling and crispy. There was a thin layer of fat, which I cut off but the rest of the meat was fork-tender and fragrant with a hint of herb that was rolled with it. All it, the pork belly made a lasting impression on both Louis and I. Enough that we would want to go back for another taste of it before we head back to Singapore.

After whiling away some time at the Borough Market, we headed towards the direction of the Tower Bridge, walking past the London Bridge too. Did the usual touristy thing and took some photos before we headed back home.

Saint Pierre Degustation - Winter Menu

The very first time Louis and I had a degustation was back in Dec 2003, during our honeymoon. We certainly pampered ourselves quite a bit. Amongst the places that we stayed in, Louis had the fortitude to reserve us in a great hotel while we were in the Loire Valley, at Chateau Belmont, a Relais & Chateau hotel that came with a 2-star Michelin restaurant. It was definitely an eye-opening trip and experience. And we were lucky and fortunate to be able to indulged ourselves such luxuries.

That being our very first time staying in such a grand place, we were certainly awed by a lot of things, or perhaps it was due to our inexperience :) Although we didn't expect that a degustation menu would take a total of 3 hours to serve nor the applomb and flamboyance the wait staff accord to presenting each and every item.

It was the very first and only time in our lives so far where every dish would be served in a dome-shaped cover and set in front of us. Instead of the usual where a waiter would set the 2 plates in front of you, one after another, there were 2 wait staff, eaching carrying a plate and placing it solemnly in front of us. Then, as if they had some silence cue to time it between them, they would uncover the dome-shaped cover at the precise same moment, with a bit of a flourish, explained the separate items composing of that dish before they left us to attack our plates.

That 3-hour dinner cost more than the our 2 night stay at the same chateau. But it was an experience that we never again encountered. Not even during our one year stay in France did we visit any Michelin-star restaurant, even though there were a few in Paris and another town quite near where we were staying. The irony of it was that we were too poor to afford the luxury of eaching in such restaurants. There's no regrets though. Even though we cooked at home to save money, we got to buy some of the freshest, tastiest produce from the open market and specialty stores in Fonty.

While I've got no regrets about staying at home to look after Faith, I do miss the splurges that you get to spend on special occasions while working. These days, I try to cook at home, eat leftovers or simply from the hawker centres and coffee shops near home. And so it was that I suddenly yearn to eat a degustation at a nice French restaurant. We asked the well-travelled gourmand, CP, whether Saint Pierre or Au Petit Salut was better and he said the former was more unique and value for money. So, we decided to heed the advice and reserve a table at Saint Pierre for Saturday.

It was one of those rare nights when we would leave Faith with the family while we had a little couple time. Saint Pierre's current degustation was a winter menu. As a further indulgence, we ordered a half bottle of red wine from the region of Haut Medoc to go along with our entire meal, instead of the wine accompaniment.

The first dish of Amuses Bouche was certainly very promising, setting the tone for the other dishes to come. It was a platter comprising an expresso cup size pumpkin soup, parma ham on a fluffy bed of nashi pear marshmellow, a thin slice of chorizo with salsa and smoked salmon with salmon roe. While pumpkin soup might seem ordinary, it tasted exactly like the hot turin of pumpkin soup that I first tasted on a cold winter afternoon in Brugge. It was what got me hooked onto the delicious and natural creaminess of pumpkin soup. Drinking it evoked old treasured memories of our honeymoon in Europe. The nashi pear marshmellow tasted what I think fluffy cloud would taste like, very light and foamy with a hint of the pear, going well with the saltiness of the parma ham.

The second dish of the lobster consomme flan with cappuccino bisque and scallop croque-monsieur was equally delightful, although I found the lobster consomme flan to be a little hard in texture. The cappucino bisque was thick with the strong flavor of lobster and the croque-monsieur was crunchy on the outside and delicate on the inside with a soft layer of scallop. Yummy!

I love the wasabi infused apple espuma in the next dish of trout confit. The trout tasted rather like salmon (I can't tell the difference between salmon and trout actually). But I love the apple espuma becos its like apple foam, with a very slight tart yet refreshing undertone. It paired very suitably with the trout.

I'm generally not one for game. However, the guinea fowl was well executed and tender without any gamey hint. In fact, it tasted rather like chicken :) The leek vinaigrette is another item that I like as the sweetness of the leek was brought out by the slightly sourish vinaigrette. Can't say that I enjoy the mushroom carpaccio as it was essentially raw button mushroom. Forgot to take a picture of this though.

Louis loved the veal jus that was drizzled with the escargot ravioli dish and he mopped his and my leftover jus with bread. My expectation of a chawanmushi is a soft egg custard. Unfortunately, the chawanmushi turned out a tad too firm for my taste, although I enjoyed the trio cubes of smoked ham, garlic jelly and comté cheese.


The next dish has got to be the absolute favorite of Louis and I and probably anyone else that has eaten foie gras. Saint Pierre is supposed to be well known for their foie gras dish and indeed, what’s not to like about the classic pan-fried liver with caramelized green apples and port reduction sauce. The more than generous slab of foie gras was slightly crispy on the outside, tender and ever so rich on the inside that every mouthful feels as delightful as molten chocolate. By the end of this dish, I was actually feeling quite full, probably from the bad move of stuffing ourselves silly with bread while we waited for our dishes to be served.

Indeed, the olive oil sorbet with celery coulis proved to be timely, as well a refreshing palate cleanser. The sorbet tasted lemony with a slight ting of olive aftertaste without being oily, and contrasted well with the celery coulis. It was so yummy that we cleaned off the entire glass of it and remembered only after that we forgot to take a picture of it. Oh well… just to show you how much we liked it, I’ve taken a picture of the empty glass :)

Now, even though this was supposed to be the highlight of the meal, I was so full at this stage that I couldn’t really bare the thought of the main entrée. I had the fish dish while predictably, Louis had the lamb.

Personally, I found the fish to be a little too well done and thus, hard. Surprisingly, I actually enjoyed the onion chutney best cos it was sweet with a very very slight tangy taste. Didn’t quite like the squid ink gnocchi either as it was a little rubbery tasting. Truth be told, my stomach was quite full by now that it would have to take something really really special to entice me to eat any further. As I’m not one for lamb, I can’t really tell you about the dish. I think it must have been good becos Louis polished off what’s on his plate, as well as to help me eat some of what’s mine.

Even though I said that I couldn’t eat anymore, the dessert finale most certainly was tempting enough for me to dip my spoon into the quartet of offerings that I felt I did sufficient justice to the spread. I passed on the white chocolate but attacked the tomato confit. The umami taste of tomato was certainly appetising for me to move onto the next item, which was raspberry mousse and celery sorbet (I think it was celery, I forgot). Again, the refreshing taste of the raspberry mousse and sorbet allowed me to lift my spoon to the next, although I must say that the very fact that it’s a crème brulee was by itself a draw. I thought the beetroot topping didn’t exactly pair well with the nashi pear scented crème brulee. I would be satisfied with just the nashi pear crème brulee with the usual caramelized sugar topping. However, Louis and I totally agreed that eating the coffee cremeux with lemon marshmallow last was the right move. The aromatic coffee expresso worked very well with the dollop of chocolate ice-cream. Like the nashi pear marshmallow in our earlier dish, the lemon marshmallow felt like we were eating another piece of fluffy cloud.

It was a good ending to the entire menu…

…Until the waiter came by again to lay the final set of cutlery for what was really the final end to the meal.

By then, I was ready to crawl out of the restaurant, clutching my bloated tummy. The real final dish was supposed to be grandma stroobant’s flourless chocolate cake. Nearly fell off my chair when the waiter finally presented the dish. It was served in glass jar, with lots of cream, crushed chocolate biscuits, orange jelly and get this… a more than generous side serving of melted chocolate sauce, to be drizzled over the entire dessert. In order not to disappoint the chef since it was his grandma’s recipe, I skipped the cream and crush biscuits and hit the chocolate cake and orange jelly. It was rich without being overwhelming, especially when you eat it along with the orange jelly. So, if Grandma Stroobant had peered into the glass jar by the time that I finished it, she would have given a nod of approval. I finished the small slice of chocolate cake and the orange jelly at the base. There was a lot of chocolate sauce left over but I’ve got to admit that if I wasn’t so full, I would have taken more of the sauce as it was the dark, bitter type of European chocolate that I like.

All the same, I was really glad that the meal was finally over and that we managed to finish it all in 2 hours. That was about the right time for us to head over to my MIL’s place to pick Faith up. Our little girl had dinner with the extended family and didn’t seem to miss us at all. We heard she was the loudest person in the restaurant that night, as usual, exercising her vocal chords :)

If its of any interest to anyone, here’s the actual description of our degustation menu, extracted from Saint Pierre’s website.

SAINT PIERRE’S DEGUSTATION (WINTER MENU – 2007/8)

AMUSES BOUCHE
assorted nibble platter to whet the appetite
*
LA MER

lobster consommé flan with cappuccino bisque and scallop croque-monsieur
*
TRUITE CONFIT SALADE DE PINTADE ET ORMEAUX
salad of poached guinea fowl with aromatic green leaves, carpaccio of wild mushrooms, grilled abalone with ginger scented tomato dressing, leek vinaigrette and hummus of coco beans
*
RAVIOLI D’ESCARGOT ET ROYALE DE CEPES
homemade escargot ravioli with porcini mushroom, chawanmushi, green tea smoked ham, vieux comté cheese, aoshiso emulsion and warm jelly of garlic confit with black truffle scented veal jus
*
FOIE GRAS CLASSIC
classic pan-fried foie gras with caramelised green apples and old port sauce
*
SORBET
olive oil sorbet with celery coulis
*
FILET D’AGNEAU EN CREPINETTE
crépinette wrapped lamb tenderloin and saffron confit celeriac served with char-grilled homemade bacon, edamame beans, oak-smoked ratte potatoes and white truffle essence braised white mushrooms
OR
SAINT PIERRE ET YUZU
roasted john dory fillet with yuzu sauce, ika scented with pine nut praline, sea urchin infused onion purée, pumpkin-foie gras mousse and squid ink gnocchi
*
GRANDE ASSIETTE DE DESSERT
tomato confit with white chocolate biscuit and raspberry mousse; nashi pear scented crème brulée; chocolate milk and coffee crêmeux with lemon scented marshmallow and grandma stroobant flourless chocolate cake

New Year, new start

Its New Year’s day and we thought the morning would be like any others on a weekend or a public holiday. One where we leisurely have our breakfast, bath Faith and get her ready to spend the afternoon with her Ye-ye and Nai-nai. Then, a phone call from my MIL came and they asked if they could bring Faith to the park for a walk.

Well… Faith usually has a short nap after her bath but since it was New Year and it seemed such a lovely morning, we thought why not. Besides, it doesn’t hurt to break the routine once in a while. Originally, it was supposed to be just Faith and the grandparents going, but when they appeared on our doorsteps and said that the ACEs were also in the park, Louis and I decided to go along as well and make it a family event.

I would never be caught dead going out without at least my usual shower. I guess the New Year mood has gotten to me. So, I merely brushed my teeth, draw my eyebrows and stepped out for the first time without having my morning shower ;) But I’m truly glad that Louis convinced me to go. We had a wonderful time and whoever would have thought that an impromptu trip to the park would yield such beautiful pictures of Faith with her cousins, grandparents and Dua Peh (term addressing Louis’ elder brother).

MIL brought Faith to sit on the rocking horse and the swing. Faith had a lot of fun watching the kids play at the park. She seemed to be watching and observing all the activities, trying to figure them out in her little mind. These days, she’s rather fascinated by her 2 cousins and would love to paw them or touch them when they get near enough. And usually, she would love to paw them when she has slather her entire hands with her saliva ;) I overheard Anders saying this as he scooted out of reach of Faith’s saliva-stained hands, “Eeee… Mei-mei’s hands wet wet!”. Hahaha…

Anthea and Anders were having such a blast themselves too. They were already playing at the playground of Bishan Park when we arrived. Took some pictures of the 2As pushing one another on the swing. Louis and I are looking forward to the day when Faith is able to run around and play with her cousins. I’m sure the 3 of them together would cause a lot of ruckus and headaches for everyone, but it would make for an even stronger family bond and much cherished memories as they grow older :)

We headed back home at noon to quickly prepare and feed Faith her lunch, shower and got her to my in-laws’ place as we hurried to catch the National Treasure show at AMK Cathay Cinema. With a baby in tow, its so much harder now to want to catch a show without worrying that I wouldn’t make it back in time to feed her or prepare her food. Now that Faith is getting older, things are getting a lot easier thanks to lots of help from our family.

As for Faith, this lucky little girl got to sleep in a new automated sarong that her grandparents had bought recently. It’s a terrible habit but Faith sleeps best in the afternoon when she is either cradled in someone’s arms or placed in the sarong after being rocked to a somewhat semi-sleepy state. Hence, for many months, my MIL had to carry her in her arms while she slept, at times for 1-2 hours stretch. This pretty much means that my MIL can’t do anything but watch the TV.

To resolve the issue and also for the use of future grandchildren, my in-laws have decided to invest on a sarong at their home too. Faith must certainly like her new sarong cos according to my MIL, she slept 2 hours in it. For Faith, any nap time more than ½ hour is an achievement cos she typically goes down for short power naps.

We had our dinner at the new Thai Village restaurant at Leisure Park, near the Indoor Stadium. I remembered Leisure Park (previously call Leisure Drome) to be this dinky and old shopping centre but its been renovated and now, there’s a lot more shops and restaurants. Food at Thai Village was excellent, although I’m not sure why its called Thai Village though. With the exception of the claypot sharksfin, which was Thai, the rest of the dishes there appeared to be more Chinese :)

We concluded the evening with dessert at Yoguru, an outlet that sells yoghurt that is similar to Yami Yoghurt. We sneaked Faith some of they yoghurt and she must be on a sugar high cos she lapped the yoghurt up without any of the funny expressions and shuddering shoulders she would display when we fed her organic, sugar free yoghurt.

I’m glad that everybody had a great time on New Year’s Day. Even though this year, we couldn’t do any of the partying and countdowns, its still a wondrous feeling to spend the start of the new year enjoying ourselves together as a family.

Le Weekend

This weekend was filled with lots of activity. On Fri, we checked into Sheraton Hotel for a 2-night stay FOC as part of the Starwood group promotion. In part, the stay serves to be a test trial of our upcoming Beijing trip in packing for Faith. Indeed... we packed a lot of stuff for baby and most of what we packed had extras for standby e.g. clothes, diapers, hankerchiefs, cotton wools/balls etc etc. Between the 3 of us, we had a 29-inch luggage and a slightly smaller one for all of Faith's stuff. Anyways, the long and short of it was that Faith enjoyed being in an air-conditioned room the whole day. In fact, we all slept in till nearly 11 am the next morning.


The 2 As were of course excited when they came to the hotel in the late afternoon. Apart from playing with Faith, they were also over the moon about swimming at the hotel pool. I think kids generally love staying in hotels. The same night, we went out to celebrate FIL's birthday with dinner at the Prima's Revolving restaurant near to Harbour Front.

The highlight of the weekend was Saturday's lunch. Louis and I had lunch at Li Bai's, the chinese restaurant at Sheraton. We ordered mainly dim sums with the usuals like prawn dumplings, chicken feet and pork ribs. What's unique was their turnip cake, stir-fried with XO sauce and bean sprouts. Louis loved the pork ribs as the meat was relatively lean and yet soft. The same could be said for the chicken feet, which has melt in your mouth texture and a nice gelatine feel to the skin. Personally, I loved their soup best. It was double-boiled soup of chicken, mushroom and white fungus. But it was simple and yet tasty, and you know that its been cooked with fresh and abundant ingredients to draw out the natural flavours. Overall, Louis and I thought that the food at Li Bai's was very tasty and refine. In fact, I would deem it a tad better than our favourite restaurant at Orchard Hotel, Hua Ting.

On Saturday night, Louis and I decided impromptu to check out of the hotel earlier since he would be heading for his weekly badminton in the morning. As Faith is still too young to take a dip in the pool, the both of us would only be sleeping the morning away in the room before checking out. We thought it might be better to check out earlier and sleep in the comforts of our own home.

Another stroller makes two

I used to wonder and felt that it was extravagant for a kid to have more than 1 stroller. When we bought our Mclaren stroller for Faith, we conceded that it was heavier and you need both hands to be able to open and close it. However, the plus point was that it was sturdy, easy to maneuver and came along with accessories for winter. All of these were considerations for us as we do not know which country Louis' assignments will bring us and in which season.

It had worked well for us so far. Except that I can't go out with Faith alone with a stroller. So now I understood why some parents have more than 1 stroller. With the consideration that this time, I need a stroller that I can open and close with one hand and that it has to be as light as possible, Louis and I and got ourselves our 2nd stroller. We settled on Combi as it was light and cheap (at S$188).

Faith seems to like her stroller for a few reasons. Firstly, the seat is more ventilated and comfortable for our tropical weather. Thus, Faith's back doesn't get too warm when she seats in there for long periods. Secondly, the stroller comes with a guardrail in the front. Hence, our little baby enjoys kicking her legs and occasionally, will prop her little feet on the guardrail.

So on Sunday, we rolled Faith in her new stroller as we went for dinner at the Metropole Herbal Restaurant at Clark Quay. It had some of the familiar dishes that we like from the old Imperial Herbal Restaurant at Metropole Hotel. However, we knew that the old Metropole Hotel restaurant had shifted to Vivo City, so, I'm uncertain if this Clark Quay outlet was spun off from old staff nor its relationship with the outlet at Vivo City. Nonetheless, I much prefer this restaurant at Clark Quay as the ambient was more soothing.

After dinner, we had a short stroll around and as usual, more photo-taking of our little babe. The ACES family were all fascinated with Faith and her weekly developments, especially the 2 little As. SIL was recounting to me about how Anthea and Anders would pretend to be parents to Faith, calling each other darlings and asking if they have changed her diapers on a daily basis :) Unfortunately, they also tend to squabble with each other, trying to get the best spot to play and talk to her at the dinner table too. I guess that's part of growing up. I only hope that when Faith grows older and can play with her cousins, she would not scream and yell when she doesn't get her way, which she's prone to at this stage :)