The Tipling club, Singapore.

This is a tricky one. I will not do the food justice by describing it. However, if we rely on pictures alone some of the creations from head Chef, Ryan Clift (Wilkshire, UK, born), will not make sense because of the creative presentation, innovative ways of delivering the food and the varying drinking vessels.  

So apologies for my attempt. I hope I have captured what a truly fantastic experience I had at the Tipling club.

Menu and interior

We had the 5 course tasting menu, plus the drinks pairing. The interior revolves around the kitchen, it's as if the kitchen is the stage and you have front row seats. All equipment is on display, the ingredients stacked high, the drinks bottles precariously dangling from the ceiling. 

Entrees and Course 1
Soups in test tubes and glass straws.
The yoghurt pot contained a curry like mousse, topped with finely chopped coriander and freeze dried yoghurt.
Course 2 is the Smoke Trout, with apples, both fresh and freeze dried, powdered horseradish and a sorbet.




Course 3
Rach and I order two different things.
One was a carrot Gnocchi another a salted cod, both served with different cocktails.

Course 3, Garden Vegetables, which was served with a beetroot liquor 

Course 4, Pigeon and a black truffle paste.

Desserts!
Depsey Hill Dessert is designed around the restaurants local surroundings. A mixture of different chocolates, creams, ice-cream, mousse and a green tea sponge.
Followed by Hand-made chocolates
And a very special treat for the birthday boy (ME!), Champagne and a extra special additional dessert!

Thank you to the Tipling Club and of course, Rachel for my birthday present!

The Boat House, Stanley, Hong Kong

A Beautiful setting. 30min from Hong Kong islands centre you can be sitting on the top floor of the boat house, at Stanley, enjoying views like this. 

We ordered a mixed shell fish bucket with Thai green curry sauce and Fish and Chips. I was fantastic, the muscles were huge and really soft, massive and meaty clams and prawns. The fish and chips was also huge, the fish was a really soft and succulent Sole, with home made chunky chips.

Crystal Jade, Hong Kong

My favourite was definitely the hand pulled noodles, in a chili and peanut sauce. You must also try their speciality too, the pork dumplings.

W Hotel, Hong Kong

Simply Amazing!

I can not recommend this hotel more!

This was our welcome to the best hotel I have ever stayed in.

Complimentary cocktails, plus a picture of the surprise welcome for Rachel's (my girlfriend) 30th!

The Hyatt Sunday Brunch

The Hyatt Sunday Brunch was recommended to me several times, so for Rachels 30th birthday celebration, we gave it a go.

They did not disappoint, we were spoilt with the normal selection of seafood, roast meats, cheese boards etc, but they had a few unique touches to their brunch. A satay station was a welcome introduction, there was actually quite a lot of open fires/bbq in the open kitchens, which gave the whole restaurant a great aroma. They also had a live fish station and a extensive sushi station.

We opted for the free flow option, (what else!) and the champagne on offer was Perrier-Jouet.

I have seen slightly better dessert stations at other brunches, however again the Hyatt put their own twist of things by offering something different, liquid nitrogen meringues!

Smokeys, Joo Chiat Place

I can not describe this place any better than their website.

"We prepare, smoke and slow roast the smoked selections using our secret blend of seasoning and wood chips, making the flavors unique to Smokey’s .  Using traditional American methods to smoke and roast the meats at very low temperatures, the cooking process can take several hours, 20+ hours in some cases! leaving the meat tender and bursting with flavor."

It's true the Beef rib I had was cooked for over 20 hours and it was so tender and very tasty.

We also, tried the soft shell crab, thats right, a whole crab deep fried. Soft shell crab is a crab that has recently shed it's hard shell for a their new one.  The new shell is soft and edible, perfect!

Bali Feast

On a recent trip to Bali, in-between site seeing, surfing and laying on the beach, I managed to squeeze in some of the local food. One night we had dinner at Made's Warung, which is a gorgeous Indonesian/Balinese food with an old charming and rustic feel. The speciality is the Nasi Campur, which is a mixture of about 10 different meats, rice and vegetables. I also tried the crispy fried duck and Satay is a must at every meal.

Muscles and Guinness @ The Fellow

Kings Cross, York way. Great Pub. The Muscles were in a White Wine, Leek and Bacon sauce.

L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon, London

Next door to the Ivy in London you will find one of my favourite London Restaurants. 

On my recent trip back to London we visited L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon for a 3 course pre-theatre dinner. I took a snap of other dishes that looked particularly interesting, however, my dishes were the Mushroom soup, with poached egg and the slow cooked beef stew, topped with creamy mash potato. Obviously Joel Robuchon would describe them with a lot more pizazz, but unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of the menu.

Meantime Microbrewery

At L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon

Particularly like the Champagne style bottle

Rick Steins St. Petroc's Bistro

Another one of Rick Steins Restaurants. Our second day in Padstow and lunch was a 3 course meal at St. Petroc's Bistro. Calamari, Mushroom risotto, and Sticky Toffee Pudding with Clotted Cream.  

Cornish Cream Tea

When in Rome, well Cornwall, eat cream teas. 

The scenery was a bit of a contrast from Cambodia the week before.

Rick Steins Seafood Restaurant

On the evening of the London leg of my Design Bridge Food and Wine trail we visited Rick Steins Seafood Restaurant. We had the sample menu and it was fantastic. Fish overload, but what do you expect. My favorite was the Fillet of Sea Bass ‘A La Plancha’. With roasted fennel seeds and sauce vierge. The best fish course I have ever tasted.

Padstow and Rick Stein's Seafood School

With reference from an earlier post:

http://singforyadinner.blogspot.com/2011/06/watch-this-space.html

I was one of 2 lucky winners to fly to the UK and join our London office on their part of Design Bridge's 25th Anniversary. The UK leg of the celebration was in Padstow, Cornwall. 

Part of the 2 day event was a half-day class at Rick Steins Seafood School.

4 dishes were demonstrated by one of his top Chefs. We then had the option to cook one of them. I chose, 'Salt and Pepper Squid'.

Hot Shell Fish Demo

After we polished off all the dishes we had cooked and a few glasses of white wine, the Head Chef demonstrated how to cook several types of shell fish. 1 live Crab, 1 live Lobster, Scallops, Clams, Razor Clams, Muscles and Oysters. All doused in a sauce made from all the shell fish juices and a generous helping of white wine.

Lamb Stew and Dumplings

Whilst in the UK I had a heart warming bowl of lamb stew at the 3 kings pub, Clerkenwell.

Khmer BBQ

5 different meats to cook on the coal fueled BBQ situated in the centre of the table. You will notice 5 little symbols sticking out of each of the pots of meat, each distinguishing what type of meat it is. We had, Beef, Ostrich, Kangaroo, Crocodile, and Snake.

Beef, Ostrich and Kangaroo were really tasty with a tender texture, whilst Snake was a bit tough and Crocodile was so tough you couldn't even bite through it. I think there is a reason why they are top of the food chain.  

Cambodia Pot Throwing

I made an attempt of making my own plates = unsuccessful.

As you can see you can't eat much off that plate.

Khmer cooking course, Part 1

Part of Design Bridge's Food and Drink Trail of Cambodia, was a Khmer (Cambodian) cooking course.

The first part of the day was gathering our ingredients from the local wet market.

Khmer cooking course, Part 2

The next task was to actually cook it!

We split in to teams and we had to cook 3 course.

1. A Chicken Curry

2. Steamed fish and banana leaf parcels

3. A dish of our choice using the left over ingredients, we chose to make Fish Satay of Lemon grass skewers. 

We even sculpted a DB 25 symbol!

Not enough as we didn't win the competition, but our team loved what we cooked and the whole day was a great adventure.