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.

Nest, Cambodia

With reference to a previous post:

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

As a designer at Design Bridge Asia, I was invited on their 25th Anniversary Holiday to Cambodia to take part in a Food Trail. Perfect blog material. 

Nest, was our first destination. A 3 course lunch, with a few accompanying local beverages, Angkor Beer.

Maison Ikkoku Cafe

Maison Ikkoku is a new Cafe/Boutique/Bar on Kandahar Street, Singapore. It is another welcome introduction to the hip Kampong Glam area.
The interior is really cool, designed by their in-house designer. Maison Ikkoku means 'house of the moment' so the design reflects pausing moments in time. The furniture suspended from the ceiling is the best example of this big idea, with the rest of the furniture appearing on the second floor mens boutique as if it is falling through the building.
The owners are well travelled and this is reflected in their exceptional food quality and the flat white Coffee was the best I have tasted in Singapore.

Battered Mars Bar at Smith's Fish and Chips, Singapore

A northern UK delicacy has made it 16,000km to the shores of Singapore.... the battered Mars Bar! Oh and Fish and Chips. Both are highly recommended.