White Choc Pearl Log Cake w/Berries @ Swissbake

24th Dec 09

Trying very hard to finish all my backlogs before the year end but it's seem like mission impossible... So this will be my very last post of the Year 2009. A very yummy and appetizing logcake from Swissbake that we had at L's place after a wonderful and sumptuous dinner at District 10. Actually wanted to bake one myself but didn't have time so the host decided to get one from Swissbake.

Swiss Bake is one of the European bakery and confectionery in Singapore that provide premium quality bakes. Well known for their wholegrain bread and pastries but some of their cakes are pretty good too.

White Chocolate Pearl Logcake w/Berries - S$48.00 (1kg)

A brilliant combination of white chocolate mousse, vanilla / chocolate biscuit and wildberries, decorated in red Christmas mood. This is not the usual logcake with swissroll, the inside of the cake feature a unique 2 tone color theme. Creamy and light white chocolate mousse with a thin layer of chocoalate biscuit at the base. The sourish berries balance up the sweetness of the mousse. Very nice and refreshing.

www.swiss-bake.com.sg

Goodbye 2009!

X'mas Eve Dinner @ District 10

24th Dec 09

This year we break our tradition, instead of going to L's house for X'mas dinner, we had it at District 10 then proceed to L's for part 2 of our celebration. A casual & nature dining concept decor's that spread over 6,000 sq ft consisting of indoor and outdoor dining options. The ambiance was superb and great for groups and family gathering. The cozy old school ambiance just made you felt so relaxed and at home. Some of us had the Christmas Eve Set dinner and some ordered from the ala carte menu. The food was generally above average and some of them will have me coming back eg the pizza & steak. Service was pretty fine too.

Christmas Eve & Day Set Dinner @ S$49.00++
Selection of Appetizer, Clod Cut & Pate':
Smoked Salmon w/Condiments, Rocket Lettuce w/avocado, pears in a lemon honey dressing

Oven roasted Lamb Shoulder served with roasted roots vegetables in a grain mustard sauce

The lamb was very tender and the sauce was nice.

Or
Sauteed turkey roulade filled with sun dried tomato, herbs & mozzarella cheese

The turkey breast was a bit tough for my liking but the creamy mashed potatoes was lovely.

X'mas Pudding served with brandy sauce and vanilla ice cream

A tad too sweet...

From the Ala Carte Menu:
Cesar Salad - S$16.00

Crispy romaine lettuce tossed with bacons, garlic croutons, 24 mths old Parmesan cheese in special dressing.

Deep Fried Calamari & Tiger Prawn - S$12.00

Portion was small but very nice, serve with garlic aioli dip.

Fried Buffalo Chicken Wings - S$14.00

Deep fried till crisp and toss in special spicy sauce served with blue cheese dip

Grilled Black Angus Sirloin - S$26.00

Serve with roasted garlic and wild mushroom sauces

Signature Country Style Roasted Baby Back Ribs w/Fries - S$27.00

Grilled Salmon Steak w/Olive Rice & Herbs - S$24.00

Pizza Parma - S$20.00

Linguine - S$19.00

Linguine with mixed seafood, fresh tomatoes sauce & basil.

An enjoyable evening of good food and lots of laughter, next we proceeded to part 2 of our "Spectacular" night!

District 10
10 Winstedt Road #01-17
Singapore 227977
Tel; 6738 4788
Fax: 6738 5378

(Photos taken by Canon EOS500D)

'09 X'mas Eve Lunch Party @ Work

24th Dec 2009

There's always a celebration in my workplace for Christmas! We will have a buffet lunch and a S$15.00 gift exchange session on the eve. This year the HR of my office asked me for recommendation on logcake. I suggested to order macarons from Aunty Yochana instead for a change. All of us was rather impressed by the awesome X'mas Macaron Tree nicely and delicately put up by Aunty Yochana.

(All photos in this post were taken with my uncle's Canon EOS 500D, still learning how to use it.)

X'mas Macaron Tree @ S$220.00 (80 to 90 pcs)

The macaron was very crispy and chewy with cream and chocolate fillings. It's was not too sweet, at least to my standard of sweetness . Very addictive and yummy!

The base of the tree was supported by a yummy chocolate shortcake. A little gift from Aunty Yochana to me - mini dragonfly agar agar from Yochana to me.

Yochana's Cake Delight


We ordered a ginger house from my boss's favourite Patisseries too. I didn't get to taste it as everyone think it was too pretty to eat. In the end, my boss brought it home.

The Patissier


Warmish Homey @ S$48.00

Aromatic and delicate tasting gingerbread house fragrant with warm ginger and sweet - smelling spices decorated with icing wintry cheer snowman and jingle friends.

The caterer for this year X'mas lunch - Eatz Catering Services. We are rather disappointed with their services. It's unbelievable that they were late by an hour. I'm not sure what compensation they are giving as our HR refuse to pay them. The food and set up was not impressive.

eatz Catering Services
S$13.80 per head min 50 paxes

1. X'mas Platter - Honey Baked Sliced Turkey Ham & Turkey Salami served with Cranberry Sauce & Pineapple Rings - Not bad!2. Oven-Baked Peppery Chicken with Peppercorn Mushrooms Sauce & Bell Peppers - Dry & lack flavors.
3. Japanese “Snapper” Fish Karaage with Thai Mayo - Just normal!
4. Fried Golden Prawns with Salad Cream - Not bad!5. Signature Madras-Style Tender Lamb Curry with Potatoes - Quite nice!6. Pumpkin & Potato Croquettes on a Lettuce Bed - replace by fish finger without informing us, it's almost similar to No. 37. Seasonal Vegetables topped with Mushrooms & Wolfberries - Very bland!
8. Mediterranean-Style Pilaf Rice with Black Olives, Nuts & Raisins - Rice texture was good!
9. Chinese-Style Seafood Fried Bee Hoon - A bit too soggy!
10. Christmas Cocktail Jelly with Sea Coconut & Aloe Vera - Nice!
11. Festive Refreshing Cranberry Punch - too sweet!
12. Complimentary - X'mas Log Cake - didn't try as it doesn't look appealling.

eatz Catering Services

20 Waringin Park

Singapore 416333
Tel: 6789 0328 Fax: 6442 0928

Waraku Japanese Causal Dining

23th Dec 09

Pre-X'mas Eve dinner with family. Instead of western food we decided to have Japanese instead. Mainly was to accomodate me as I kept craving for Japanese food recently. We went to Waraku at Marine Square. Though it was not my first time but the quality and standard of the food seem liked not as good as before. We ordered quite a few side dishes to share instead of having the main course.

1. Chawanmushi $3.80 - not very smooth and was only lukewarm when served
2. Hokkai Salad $9.80 - Would prefer a variety of lettuces instead of just iceberg lettuce.
3. Edamame $4.00 - bland and cold.
4. Kawaebi Kara $6.80 - Very nice, crispy and rather addictive.


5. Crab Spicy Maki $10.80 - Nice, one of my all time favourite.
6. Uni Gunkan $8.00 - For my aunt, she like uni.
7. Salmon Sushi $3.60 - Very cheap only $0.90 per pc.
8. Salmon Toro Sashimi $6.80 - Quite disappointed with this as the sashimi was a bit too icy cold like didn't thaw properly.


9. Kaminabe set $19.80 - for my Aunt Peggy who wanted rice and soup. We had the miso soup instead of clear soup but I think clear soup will taste better with the seafood.
10. Yaki Soba $8.80 - Noodle was too thick for our liking.
11. Yakitori Don $10.80 - Thumb up for this and the portion was very big.
12. Kama Yaki $6.80 - Our all times favourite, sweet and juicy.
13. Asparagus Itame $5.80 - Pretty yummy. Asparagus cooked on the hotplate with bacons and mayo.



Waraku
Marina Branch
6 Raffles Boulevard Marina Square
#01-213
Singapore 039594
Tel: 6883-1123
Fax: 6883-1127

Hot Tomato Express

I was at Plaza Singapura the other day before X'mas, to get some wrapping materials from Daiso. After shopping felt really hungry and settled myself at Hot Tomato Express. As it's already passed lunch hour, so the cafe was pretty quiet and only one table was occupied. I ordered a grilled Atlantic Salmon and upgrade my meal by $2.90++ for soup & drink, further top up another $2.50++ for a slice of cakes of the day. A complete 4 course set lunch with tax was S$19.20. The food was nothing to rave about with the kind of pricing. As I didn't bring my DC so all the photos for this meal were taken by my iPhone.

Mushroom Soup


It was served piping hot and not very creamy which I prefer.

Grilled Salmon w/Mango Salsa & Pasta


Very simply executed and a bit bland as I had to add salt & pepper myself. Glad that the salmon was grilled just right not overcooked. However the mango salsa was pretty nice.

Tiramisu


Very dense and a tad too sweet for my liking.

Coffee


Hot Tomato Express
68 Orchard Road
B2-40 Plaza Singapura
Singapore 238839
Tel: 63419162 Fax: 63419163

Ala Carte Buffet Lunch @ Putien

20th Dec 2009

Putien is having Ala Carte Buffet too! Exclusively at City Square Mall outlet. We were there for Sunday lunch. The menu comprises of 5 sections - Seafood, Meat, Local Delights, Local Entrees & Soup. We liked the seafood section the most and tried almost every items listed. There are buffet bar counters too where we can help ourselves with the cold appetisers, desserts and beverages. The cold appetisers varieties are pretty good and most of them are nice whereas desserts are simple cakes, fruits and jelly. Drinks include coffee, tea, milo and soft drinks.

Generally, the quality of the buffet is good, most of the food are very fresh and tasty. Serving portion was good too as they won't try to serve you big portion so in a way you can try many dishes at one go. The hits are more than the misses, out of the 20 dishes we had, there were only 3 of them we gave thumb down - Stir-Fried Mackerel w/Asparagus (the mackerel is actually fishcake!), Putein Stir Fry Pork (too sweet & heavy flavoured w/5 spice powder) and the Clam & Jelly Soup w/Cucumbers (too bland, like plain water). The rest of the dishes are well executed by the chefs especially "The Golden Flower Fish", "The Chilli Mussels", "Sliced Fish w/Fermented Red Wine", "Stir Fried Yam" and "Lor Mee".

This is a very long post with lots of photos, let my photos speak for themselves... Enjoy!

Ambiance is not too bad but service was only average as some of the staffs looked very impatient and unhappy to serve though it was just a minority. It's rather crowded in the weekends so preferably make prior reservation.

Putien
City Square Mall (Buffet)
180 Kitchener Road
#02-51/54
City Square Mall
Singapore 208539
Tel: (65) 6509 6015

Monday – Friday

Lunch (12-3pm)
Last Order 2.30pm
Adult: $19.80++
Child (below 1.2m): $11.80++

Dinner (6pm-10pm)
Last Order 9.30pm
Adult: $29.80++
Child (below 1.2m): $17.80++

Saturday/Sunday/Public Holiday

Lunch (11.30am – 3pm)
Last Order 2.30pm
Adult: $25.80++
Child (below 1.2m): $15.80++

Dinner (5.30pm – 10pm)
Last Order 9.30pm
Adult: $35.80++
Child (below 1.2m): $21.80++

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