Lunch @ Tony Roma's ( Suntec Outlet)

Last weekend, my parents and I went for lunch at Tony Roma. It is a place which I have wanted to visit many times but never end up there. When we were there my dad told us the portion served here is large, and when the dishes started to come, can see what he meant.

The complimentary starter is a bread with garlic spread.

Next is our order of the Tony Roma appertizer platter. It consists of cheese roll, chicken wing and potato skin with bacon and cheese. The best of the lot is the potato skin with bacon and cheese.

First my dad order arrived which is the half roast chicken. The size of the roast chicken was huge. It looks more like a turkey then chicken. The chicken meat was tender and delicious as I took a sample to try.

My mum had the steak and fried prawn combo. According to her the beef was good but the breaded prawn was a bit disappointing.

I had thier famous ribs with breaded prawns. The ribs was superb. It is tasty and easy to cut. Really loved it a lot. The prawn was nothing to shout about.

It was a nice and filling lunch. I think I will go with their ribs and chicken combo the next time when I visit the place again.

Dinner at Rakuzen at Milennia Walk first floor

My dad and I had dinner at a Japanese Restaurant at Milennia Walk. The restaurant name is Rakuzen. The service experience was excellent right from the moment we were entering the restaurant. We were warmly welcome and service for the drinks and the refills of the drink was very prompt.

The menu had a wide selection of Japanese dishes ranging from sashimi, sushi, japanese style grilled, japanese orientated Chinese Food, various rice sets, appertizers and fried selection.

We ordered the following items shown below.

The first dish was a salmon, salmon belly and salmon roe sashimi. The salmon was very fresh and really the salmon belly was excellent. It has a richer taste and the meat had a better texture. The salmon roe was very nice though a bit salty :)

Next is the grilled squid. Unlike other places where the grilled squid will come with a sauce, this came without any sauce, which gave me some doubt about the dish. However when I tried the first slice of the squid, my pre-judgement was way of the mark. It was excellent. It was just grilled with salt. The meat was a bit crisp on the exterior but it just managed to maintain the water content in the squid. This gave the squid a very nice chewy texture. Favourite dish !!

Next was the spider roll. ( Actually it is soft shell crab maki covered with roe) The crispyness of the crab which is covered with the warm rice and generously coated with the roe gave this dish and extra dimension. The roe on the rice when u bite it will give a nice sensation which compliment the intial taste when you have the soft shell crab.

It was followed by the snow crab sushi on the left of the picture and the salmon belly sushi. As can be seen from the photo, the meat is bigger than the rice at the base. The sushi were yummy.

My dad had the grilled fish set. The fish was quite nice.

I had the Roast Pork Ramen with a pork based soup. The serving for the roast pork was generous. The meat had a very nice texture and flavour. The ramen was also delicious. The slight downside was I felt the soup was a bit too salty for me.

I really loved the sushi and the spider roll especially. It was an enjoyable dinner with good and efficient service and great food. Will plan another visit :)

Wine Dinner 2nd visit ( Burgundy wine theme) at Bistro Amigo

This is my second visit to Bistro Amigo at Funan Centre second floor to attend a Burgundy theme wine dinner. For this burgundy theme wine dinner, the wines that will be featured will be Pinot Noir which is a light bodied red wine. Hence the dishes that are designed for this dinner, will feature seafood and white meat. All the Pinot Noir featured were the 2006 vintage.

The first dish which I had was the prawns with orange. The prawns were very fresh and nicely prepared. It was paired with Sylvain Cathiard Vosne Romanee. Personally I liked this wine a lot as it is not tannic and as quite a light body. This is a wine that can go well on its own. 

The next dish was the Char Grilled Large Hokkaido Sea Scallop, Side Coated with Cauliflower, Light Garlic Mousseline topped with Basil Leaf, Romeso Sauce. It was paired with Perrot Minot Vosne Romanee. The scallop was excellent. It was full of flavour and it still maintains its water content which a lot of places are unable to do so. The sauce went perfectly with the flavour of the scallop and the crispy basil leaf gives the dish a nice touch. For the Perrot Minot, the wine is a bit more tannic than the first one and it went well with the dish that was presented.

The third dish was the grilled 'Live' Japanese Surf Clam, Cherry Tomato Confit, Sauteed Savory Cabbage, Caviers and Onion Foam. It was paired with Eugenie vosne Romanee Les Brulees. The gravy for this dish was out of this world. Super excellent ! It was full of the richness of the clam and the cabbage and Cavier further gave this dish additional dimension. The clam had a wonderful taste. However I did not really understand placing Onion Foam in this dish. Something unusual to see onion looking like foam :)

The wine that was paired with this dish was a bit more heavy on the palate compared to the first 2 wines.

The main course is the slow cooked Les Fermier Landais ( Yellow Chicken), Corn Mashed Potato, Sauteed Seasonal Vegetables, Chicken Red Wine Sauce, Truffles Oil Foam. It was paired with Robert Arnoux, Vosne Romanee Les Suchots. The chicken was superb. It was the first time that I have tried a chicken dish where the breast meat was even more tender the drumstick. The sauce was full of the flavour of the wine as well as the chicken.

For the wine, this one was the best among all of them. It has a nice body and it was not too tannic and you get to enjoy the grape flavour. Excellent wine.

The dessert was warm chocolate Moelleaux with vanilla ice cream and it was paired with a sherry. I found the sherry to be a bit strong but it actually goes well by pouring it over the ice cream and having it with the chocolate Moelleaux.

It was another wonderful experience with excellent food and wines. A very enjoyable experience :)

Lunch @ Majestic Restaurant

This afternoon, I went for lunch with my mum and aunt to the Majestic Restaurant at Cantonment Road. I had previously visited this restaurant for a company function and was very impressed with the food. Hence decided to visit again to try their a la carte menu.

We decided to try a few of their dim sum items as well as their mixed platter and a couple other dishes.

The below is the Char Siew Pau. It was quite good.

The next item was the scallop dumpling.

The har gaw was excellent as it was full of prawns and very flavourful.

The siew mai was also another excellent dish.

The next dish is the Peking Duck. The version that was prepared here was very good. The skin was very crispy and flavourful. The sauce that accompanied it was one of the best that I had. Highly recommended.

Majestic Platter. It consists of 4 of their popular items. There is the roast pork, deep fried soft shell crab, wasabi prawn and stirred fried crab meat with bean spouts served on the lettuce. All the dishes were excellent. Special mention for the soft shell crab and the wasabi prawns.

Pan Seared beef with sesame sauce. This is their signature dish. My mum and aunt loved it. It was so well prepared that the usual beef smell was completely removed and the texture had a melt in your mouth sensation.

The below is the Honey Glazed USA pork. This dish was the best. The meat was tender and juicy. It was so full of flavour and the two sauces that accompanied the dish gives the meat an additional dimension.

Brocoli stirred fried with garlic. It is a simple dish but the taste was very good. The service staff informed me that the brocoli was brough in from Mexico. Hence the unusual shape. The vege was crunchy and the combination of the fresh vege and the fried garlic was lovely.

This is the stirred fried duck meat from the Peking Duck with the Ee-fu mee. It was very well prepared and it had a bit of gravy unlike some places where it can be quite dry. 

The last item was the chempatek fried ice cream. The outer shell was a very thin crisp and inside of it was the ice cream. I feel the essential skill for this dish is that the ice cream inside must still be cold and not melting when you consumed it. They were able to accomplished it and the ice cream was also very rich. Super delicious.

The overall food experience was really superb and my mum and aunt were very impressed and will let their friends know about this place. The service was also very good.
This is one place where I highly recommend to visit if you really want to spend a bit for quality food.

Dinner at Soht & Baay at Orchard Ion 4th floor ( Thai food )

Last week I had dinner with my mum and aunt at a Thai restaurant at Orchard Ion level 4. It is a new place for us have not visited it previously. We went to the dining hall which was actually located at level 5 as level 4 is actually all the private dinning room. The stairs to the dinning hall does not look impressive. However the setting at the dinning area is very impressive. There is a pianist playing soothing songs.

We decided to try the following dishes: Mixed platter of appetizer, seafood tom yum soup, chicken stirred fried with basil leave, deep fried fish thai style, black pepper soft shell crab and oyster sauced kang kong.

Picture of the rice serving. Cute design :)

Seafood Tom Yum Soup: Soup was sufficient spicy with the lemon grass flavour. Seafood used was also fresh

Mixed platter of appetizer. It consists of 7 different appetizers. The stand out items were the Thai Style fish and the fried fish. The only disappointment is that the Thai style otak otak was not spicy enough.

Black Pepper soft shell crab. Fantastic. My personal favourite. The sauce is super tasty and go well with rice and the soft shell crab were deep fried to a crisp and the sauce makes the dish stand out even more.

Fried fish with Thai style sauce. The fish was fresh and tasty. However did not really liked the thai sauce. Hence this dish was a bit of a disappointment.

Chicken stirred fried with Basil leaves. This is a typical Thai dish. This was another excellent dish and complimented well with the rice.

Oyster sauce fried kang kong( morning glory) . Usually we always have it with chilli, however the version on offered there was with oyster sauce. The kang kong is very fine and surprising this style of prepartion goes well with the kang kong. Enjoyed this dish as well. 

We finished the meal by ordering two Thai dessert as shown below. Both were very good.

The dishes in general were excellent and the ambience of the place was also very good. The only downside is that it is quite expensive.

World Cup Quarter Final matches Update

As it is, we have witness 3 quarter final matches with two unexpected results. Both South American giant nations (Brazil and Argentina) have been eliminated at the quarter final stage. The other team that has made it through to the semi final is Uruguay.

For Brazil, they actually played well in the first half of the game and was dominating the game and Holland looks like they were out of it. Only after the mistake made by the Brazil defence that led to the own goal before Holland started to force themselves back into the game. In general, Brazil elimination was caused by two defensive errors on their part as well as the stupidity of the defender Melo to stamp on the dutch player.

For the elimination of Argentina, they were torn apart by the incisive passing of the youthful German midfield. It looks like Ballack injury which rule him out of the world cup is a blessing in disguise. Due to his injuries, they were able to use the outstanding Muller together with Mesut Ozil and Bastian Schweinsteiger which gave the midfield more energy and cutting edge. Germany has been outstanding in the elimination phase by trashing England ( old rival) by 4 goals to 1 and against Argentina the score was an emphatic 4 nil win. Looking at the age profile of the German team, this could be a team which will be a major force in World Football for the next decade.

For Uruguay, they were lucky to make it to the semi final. If it was not for the striker who intentionally blocked the goal bound shot, they would have been eliminated as the attempt came close to the end of extra time.

The last quarter final will be played later this evening between Spain and Paraguay. Based on form guide, Spain should have this match wrapped up without too much of a hassle. However based on the recent results throughout the world  cup, anything is possible.

  

World Cup 2010 End of Group stage

Now after the group stages are over, we are in the business end of the world cup. Elimination time !
Some of the big name countries which have not made it through the group stages are Italy, Serbia and France as well as some of the African teams such as Nigeria and Ivory Coast.

Out of all the teams which were eliminated, France is really a sorry sight. They had infighting within the team and the management as well as players who were not motivated to play their best. For Italy, the main reason they are not through to the next round is mainly because they could not beat New Zealand as well as their normally water tight defence did not come to fore. It could be due to the lost of influential keeper Buffon in the first match which hurt them quite a bit. Another problem that Italy suffered is due to in-sufficient creative midfielder who could break down tight defences.

For Serbia, they were not consistent throughout the group stage hence were eliminated.

Two of the second round games have been completed and both Uruguay and Ghana has made it to the quarter final at the expense of South Korea and USA respectively. South Korea were close to eliminating Uruguay as they had two excellent one to one chances with the keeper before Uruguay scored their winning goal. Uruguay seem to be contented to sit back after taking the lead and were lucky to win this game as a team with a better poacher in front of goal would have taken one of the 2 chances on offer. For Ghana, they managed to be the flag bearer for the African continent by beating the USA who unfortunately were not able to come back a second time after their equalizer at 1 -1.

For tonight game, it is a crunch match between two European rivals, England and Germany. There have been many memorable games in the past and should be a high intensity match. This is a match that is difficult to call as we do not know which England team will show up. Germany will play their attacking football against the English. This match should be a cracker. I think it will end up a draw.

Hopefully the games will get more exciting as there is no benefit playing for a draw now.