Chinese New Year: TAO Seafood Asia's Yaorawat Creations

Tao Seafood Asia specializes in its unique Thai-Teochew Yaorawat seafood delicacies. If you are familiar with Bangkok, you might have heard about Yaorawat [ถนนเยาวราช] (a.k.a. Bangkok’s Chinatown) where tourists flock to for cheap birdnest. It is one of the better-known street food destination and the local favorite dining district.

And specially for this coming Lunar New Year, it serves some of the CNY classics with a Yaorawat spin to usher in the year of the goat.

TAO supreme Prosperity Yusheng (Lou Hei a.k.a raw fish salad) One could spot not only the greens, nuts, seafood, but also FRUITS. (mango, strawberry and blueberry) Additionally, peanuts and dried fish skins which are favorites of Thai is part of the beautiful plated yu-sheng. I like particularly, the addition of mango (where else but Thailand to find the best mango right?) to the Yu-Sheng as it packs a sweet-sour yet zesty punch that perks up my appetite for the remaining dishes.

The beautiful plated Yusheng

 

三羊开泰

This is priced at $128++ and serves good up to 10 guest.

Deep Fried Fish Skin with Salted egg sauce- $10++
There was nothing but praises from everyone upon first bite. Each fish skin fried to golden brown was coated uniformly with salted egg sauce. A simple dish executed perfectly. I guess this phrase is most apt than anything in describing this dish: The simplest things in life gives the greatest pleasures!

The crispy golden fish skin!

Yaorawat Pen Cai – What sets Tao’s Pen Cai to be different from others is the thick gravy soup and its spongy Thai fish maw all the way from Yaorawat. Personally, the premium sea cucumber is worth a mention as it was so soft and succulent, soaked of the noble gravy. Not to be forgotten is the housemade Tao’s special green chilli blend that seems to go so well with the Pen Cai and even all other dishes. This special Yaorawat-style green chilli unparalleled spiciness would probably bring out the spice girl in you but its oh-so-addictive that you would not stop dipping the fish maw or roasted pork in it despite the burning sensation you would feel on your tongue!

This is priced at $318++ for 6 guests and $488+ for 10 guests and 2 day advance reservation is required.

Golden Soon Hock with Mango Slices. – The Soon Hock fish, a staple for Teochews during CNY, was deep fried to a golden crisp before the showering of Tao’s specially concocted fruity sauce and mango slices. Very Thai touch to it! The mango work its magic in this dish as well and it was a wonderful marriage of the fish and the mango made possible by the skillful hands of TAO culinary chefs.

Soon Hock Fish

TAO Thai-Teochew Curry Crab – Definitely not to be missed. It was not spicy, more of leaning towards the sweeter side and the curry sauce was very fragrant, enhancing the freshness of the wok-fried crab. And, it goes super well with fried mantous. How could anyone resist this dish right! The crabs each at least weighing a heft kilogram was simmered over slow fire and doused in the curry potion which the chef concocted. Not to forget, the green chilli blend goes on well with the crab to escalate the spicy level for spicy lovers!
This is priced at $6++ per 100 grams.

TAo Thai Curry CRABB

 


Sauteed Sea Prawn with Macademia Nuts

 TAO Seafood Asia delivers a thai twist to your usual CNY menu with the infusion of thai sauces and Thailand-flown ingredients in their dishes. Their CNY creations are available from 3 February to 5 March 2015 and guests can call the restaurant at 68449969 to place pre-orders for take-aways or reservations for dine-in.

Pretty Interior of Tao (Picture from Tao Seafood Asia Facebook Page)

 

Address: 12 Marina View

Asia Square Tower 2 #02-10 Singapore 018961

Opening Hours: 1130 – 1430 and 1800 – 2200

Instagram: taoseafoodasia

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TAOSeafoodAsia

Website: http://www.taoseafoodasia.com

Chinese New Year: Eight Rhapsodies of Spring at Peony Jade

Peony Jade presents delectable offerings this CNY with their “eight Rhapsodies of Spring” delights, two new dessert creations, and eight other signatures, from 6 January to 5 March 2015.

Lunar New Year Treasures:

Peony Jade’s Instant Enormous Windfall, Good Health and Longevity” Bonsai-Shaped Monies Tree Yu Sheng was not only spectacular and full of goodiness. Its enriched with premium seafood such as lobster, Alaskan crab claws, salmon and urchin, infused with citrusy yuzu juice and  a sprinkled of truffle oil! Priced at $198.88, this yusheng serves up to 15 guests and is available for dine in at Keppel Club only. 

To welcome the year of the Sheep, Peony Jade’s festive creations showcase a dash of culinary flairs in their goat-shaped pastries. This Goat-Shaped Deep fried Hum-soi-kuok is definitely Instagram-worthy and might be too cute to be eaten. Each is filled with glutinous rice, diced savoury pork and shitake mushrooms. Outer layer is fried till crispy gold while retaining its chewy mochi-like texture.

If you are hankering for traditional flavour, the Hong Kong Roast USA Goose with “facai” broth might be the one dish to look forward to. The pre-marinated goose is infused with Angelica root and spices like star anise before roasting roasted for 2 hours to succulent perfection.

One of the most ordered dishes at CNY: Poon Choi is available as well and is escalated to culinary heights with 18 Premium ingredients when other restaurants only have 11 to 12. One can savour: 1. 10-head Australian abalones (原隻 10 頭澳洲发财鮑) 2. Whole Sakura Chicken (原隻樱花雞) 3. Whole pork knuckle (豬手 1隻 ) 4. Golden oysters (蚝 豉 ) 5. Roast pork (腩仔肉 ) 6.  South African spikes sea cucumber (海參) 7. Fresh whole scallops (鲜帶子) 8. Pork tendons (蹄根) 9. Fatt choy (發菜) 10. Fish maw (魚肚) 11. King prawns (大蝦) 12. Whole shiitake mushrooms (北菇) 13. Homemade sea-grouper mousse cake (大海班魚球) 14. Whole golden dried conpoy (柱甫) 15. Taro (芋頭) 16. Beancurd skin (枝竹) 17. Radish (蘿蔔) 18. Broccoli (西蘭花) steeped in a savoury superior stock.

This Poon Choi pot is priced at:

1.  $468.88 for Mini Premium (serves 6); . 2.  $598.88 for Premium (serves 8 to 10)

Peony Jade’s version of Slow-Fired Stew Lamb serves as an alternative to the classic Poon Choi and has a melt-in-your mouth velvety texture. Why not try this unusual creation in this Year of the Lamb?

Peony Jade continues to wow us with its skilful pastry chef rendition of snow skin goat – “Huat Ah!” Prosperity Goats Gift Set. Each goat comes with mixture of peanut, orange peel, salted egg custard fillings that will send your tastebuds to Nirvana.

Chinese New Year goodies are a must at every household during CNY. Apart from the usual pineapple tarts and love letters, why not go for Peony Jade’s homemade deep-fried thin lotus root chips and the roasted pine nuts which are equally addictive. You can’t stop once you start munching on them.

Take-away reunion lunch & dinner set menus are available as well, priced at $368 for 6 Persons and $568 for 10 persons and the “Bonding Bliss & Contentment” consists of ‘Lou hei’, Fa-Cai Soup, Dluxe Poon Choi, Deep Fried Soon Hock Fish, Reunion Steamed Jasmine Rice and Deep-fried Homemade Nian Gao. Enjoy early birds discount of additional 5% if orders are fully paid by 22 January 2015.

For a dim sum twist, opt for the “Unlimited” FA-CA ala carte buffet lunch & dinner from 19 January to 12 February and 19 February to 5 March 2015 priced at $70.88. Guests can call Peony Jade @ Keppel Club (6276 9138, 6375 5562), and Peony Jade @ Clark Quay (6338 0305) to place pre-orders for take-away orders and reservations for dine-in. Advance orders of 1 working day is required for take-away orders and the last order date is 5 March 2015.

Address:

Peony Jade @ Keppel Club (Open to Public)

Bukit Chermin Road (Off Telok Blangah)

Keppel Club, (Level M)

Singapore 109918

Peony Jade @ Clark Quay

Blk 3A Clark Quay

#02-02 (Walk in from Liang Court)

Opening Hours:(Open throughout CNY)

Monday to Friday (11am - 230pm; 6pm - 11pm)

Weekends (10am - 3pm; 6pm - 11pm)

Instagram: peonyjadesg

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PeonyJadeRestaurant?fref=nf

Website: http://www.peonyjade.com/

Bangkok: Cafes in Thonglor - Mr Jones Orphanage, A Magical Fairytale

The Thonglor region in Bangkok has began to transform into a more hipster and happening area over the years. If you are up for serious cafehopping, do not miss out this area since the cafes are located in close proximity which saves you lots of trouble to travel between places.
Simply take BTS to E6 Thonglor station was walked about 1km North towards Soi 13.

A look into Mr Jones Orphanage will reveal its pretty interior just like in a fairytale story. Marble flooring, huge wooden chairs and communal table that was often seen in our all-too-familiar story books.
A wide variety of cakes were displayed on the tables like a bakery and the service crew in the cafe were dressed like maids with their aprons on.

We were spoilt for choices because there were simply too many pastries for us to choose from. We could even smell the aroma of the bakes in progress since the kitchen was linked directly to the dining area without any partition walls.

We ordered the Mr. Frederick: tomato and ricotta quiche (THB 180) which was served warm to us. The crust was soft and moist and the pistachio pesto added above sensationalise our tongues.
The savoury brunch menu was all named after a particular person, which made the menu fun to read.

Mr Whymper: Blueberry French toast (THB 150) had a brioche topped with blueberry coulis. The brioche was soft, most and eggy and the blueberry coulis was freshly made right in front of our very eyes.
A pity they used honey instead of maple syrup in this case, which made it a tad too sweet.

The Red Velvet Cake (THB 120) was of a shade brighter than the ones we normally see. Cream cheese frosting was not overly thick and of the right sweetness.
There was a detectable beetroot taste within the moist cake and we knew that it was not just purely colouring.

The Oreo Pizza (THB 90) was not any ordinary pizza. It came in a huge slice with an extremely hard texture... Because it was made up of meringue! Interesting isn't it?

If you are looking for childhood memories where you can dine comfortably in a huge house setting with lots of pastries right in front of your eyes, do not miss out Mr. Jones Orphanage.

Mr Jones Orphanage

Address: Ground floor, Seen Space, Thonglor 13

Opening hours: 10am to 12mn

Facebook: www.facebook.com/mrjonesorphanage

Instagram: @mrjonesorphanage

Posted with Blogsy

Bell's Cottage Cafe

Yet another new café in the west? Well it is… , Bell’s Cottage Café have replaced the defunct Molly Coddle Café (Clementi) They still have another café in Jalan Besar if you heart MollyCoddle.  The entire interior and layout of the café was shaped into that of a cosy cottage. Quite fairytale-ish inside here!

Interior Wall - Hanging Polaroids

Counter Front : Enter as Strangers, Leave as Friends

Over here, they have the in-house cottage burgers/waffles/croissant (savoury : choices of egg mayo, tuna, ham and cheese) or sweet (gelato ice cream and CHURROS). To be honest, churros was the one thing that caught my eye prior to visiting the café and I know I had to have that as it looks really good. Having that said, looks are deceiving though, you never know if you never try.. so I headed down on a weekday evening.

Gelato selection

Since there’s an opening promotion of $8 for cottage burger (single scoop), I ended up ordering the charcoal burger with two scoops of premium gelato (pistachio and green tea latto) served with churros as sides. When the burger was served, the fresh aroma of the churros stole its limelights. Despite spending some time for foodphotography, the churros which are of the thick kind remained light and crispy with a gentle dust of sugar. Although it is pretty much enjoyable enough on its own, I was slightly disappointed as maple syrup/chocolate sauce was not served alongside with it but requires additional top up as add-on (only to learn about it later).

Top shot



Close-up



The gelato here are smooth, but lacking a little in the WOW factor (Fat Cat Ice Cream Bar pretty much sets the high standards for ice cream this year) Pistachio though evident in the form of its nutty flavour, could have been better had there been pistachio bits to give it a crunchy texture. Green tea latto had a good balance of bitter and sweet but the intensity of the green tea could have gone a step or two higher. I am a green tea maniac!

Given its close proximity to NUS, Singapore Poly and even SIM, Bell’s Cottage Café could be your choice (with seats-in) to settle for a quick churro craving fix. [p.s. Churrosity at Holland Village is the next closest place (take-away though) to go for churro fix]

Address: 354 Clementi Avenue 2 #01-233 S(120354)

Opening Hours: Daily (Call them at 67793138 to confirm)

Instagram: bellscottagecafe

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bellscottagecafe