A Late Dinner at Gunther's

He was quite surprised to secure a booking via SMS for the restaurant on the day itself. The last time he tried, he was told to make bookings earlier. They have heard quite a bit about Gunther's Restaurant (serving Modern French cuisine that he likes) and have also tried their famous Cold Angel hair pasta with Oscietra caviar at one of the Savour carnivals a few years back. That dish was perhaps one of the biggest reason we have for wanting to come to the restaurant to try out their other offerings.

He made the dinner reservation at 7.30pm and the other reason for coming here for dinner was for the other reason that she was having a meeting nearby. She wasn't quite that punctual despite him coming from much further away. So I think we started to eat only around 9...

The chef served up some complementary amuse bouche. It was a small finger portion of batter-coated fried shrimp with truffled mayo:

With compliments from the chef

For starters, we shared a Langoustine meunière with, garlic and lemon and a Carpaccio of Japanese Omi beef, Tartare style, crispy potato. It took quite a while to decide as we were seriously thinking of going for a full version of the cold angel hair pasta. But we thought we ought to give the other starters a chance too and we didn't regret the decision.

Langoustine meuniere

Carparccio of Omi beef

We both fancied the Langoustine better. The lemon and garlic that's on the plates are just for show. You do get to taste them infused in the Langoustine. The acidity of the lemon blended superbly with the garlic.  But neither one overpowered the Langoustine. We thought the beef tartare was not too bad either. The thinly sliced marbled beef seems to dissolved into on our tongues without leaving too much off a beefy aftertaste that we would normally associate poorer grade beef with.

For mains, she had the Coquille pasta with pork belly and light truffle cream sauce.. everything with truffle is a sure bet.

He ordered the Dry aged Entrecote with shallat confit and bordelaise sauce.

Her choice

His Choice

We both felt that the mains weren't that particularly impressive though. But for him who wasn't a fan of corn, the sliced piece of corn came along complementing the steak rather well. He felt the meat wasn't particularly tastier enough despite that the flavors ought to be more concentrated with the dry aging process.

As for her pasta, the presentation seemed somewhat sloppy. It was a sea of monotone orange. And it didn't taste exceptionally different from other places that serves pasta. Maybe the lesson here is not to order Italian stuff from French restaurants.. Something she always seems to like to do. But she was probably more tired from the long meeting to feel overly disappointed with this dish.

Chef Gunther came out to greet us before desserts. We asked if he was participating in the upcoming Savour festival. His reply was along the lines: "Nah.. no need. Too exp also. Plus I am doing OK already.. People now know me."

Complimentary desserts for those who did not order desserts

The service staff was pretty attentive throughout. Making sure he was OK in his 45min wait for her. Also for going through and recommending suitable pairings and explaining the dishes that were served.

 Ratings

1. Will we come back? Maybe.. for more exceptional occasions

2. Will we introduce friends? Yes if they want something good and french

3. Will we bring our family? Not likely

Her Birthday Celebration at Zafferano

In the first post, we did mention her preference for something more Asian. Once in a while, she is receptive to the idea of some fine Italian. Her preference for Italian stems from the fact that the ingredients in the cuisine demands that they are freshly sourced and that the Italian cuisine focuses less on technique (unlike the French) which masks the original flavors less.. He doesn't disagree but still maintains his preference for French, American and anything that pairs with beer and reds..

Zafferano is perched high up on Level 43 of Ocean Financial Tower in Raffles Place. Like most fine dining establishment that are perched up on commercial buildings or hotels, they have a concierge at the ground floor lobby to receive you and confirm your reservations before letting you pass through the security.

The restaurant has quite a nice ambiance but doesn't quite have this sense of welcome and arrival. Lighting was just about right.. not too bright not too dark. We were directed to a window seat. A pity that it doesn't quite bring you close to the edge of the building for you to enjoy the views of the CBD. Instead we got a view of their outdoor terrace lounge. Pity.

Since its a celebratory occasion, we started off with 2 glasses of their house prosecco. We were tempted to go for the degustation menu since it had been quite a while since we were "degusted"... But we stuck to their a-la-carte offerings instead. Opting to pick a few starters to share and a main for each of us before ending with a dessert.

For starters, we ordered scallops and a wagyu beef carpaccio:

Pan-seared Hokkaido scallops, Jerusalem artichoke cream veloute, sautéed chanterelle mushrooms

‘Carpaccio’ of Australian wagyu beef, rocket salad, Dijon mustard dressing

We both liked the scallops..It was done just right. And the cream veloute somehow brought quite a bit of excitement to the dish and brightened up the presentation as well as the flavor.. We should try to duplicate the sauce..

For mains, he had the Iberico pork belly while she ordered the pappardelle:

24 hours slow cooked Iberico pork belly, pumpkin puree, beetroot, aged balsamic

Homemade pappardelle, ragout of Rougie duck in Port wine sauce

We were told that the pork belly was cooked sous vide for 24 hours. Hence retaining a lot of the pork-ish flavor and remaining tender throughout. The beetroot's acidity also complemented the heaviness of the pork well.. The alternative would have perhaps been some form of apple jam? The specks of pumpkin puree dotted on the sides of the plate is again something that one would wish for more.. but we know that perhaps it was meant more as a teaser.. having too much would perhaps overwhelm your palette and overtaken the main star of the dish.. 

The pappardelle with Rougie duck ragout started off interestingly.. but we felt that the wowness fizzled out and soon she felt that it was time for us to swop mains.. 

So if the best dish of the night went to the pork, he thought the second prize ought to go scallop while the third prize would belong to the dessert.. 

Marsala wine sabayon prepared ‘a la minute’ with fresh seasonal berries

We selected this dessert for the simple fact that it was something we've not seen and tried before.. They have the usual tiramisu, molten chocolate cake, panna cotta.. but this is something else. Wikipedia describes this dish as a light custard (egg yolks and sugar) whipped to incorporate a large amount of air. The texture is smooth and the browned top seems to be an effect of the a flambe of the Marsala sweet wine... Nice... We wished it was served as a complimentary dessert for the special celebratory reservation. Would have been perfect. 

Overall, we thought we were pretty satisfied. 

Ratings

1. Will we come back? YES
2. Will we recommend to friends? YES (here's the link). Go make your reservations.
3. Will we bring our family? YES (maybe his brother and sister for they are fans of the western cuisine too)

High Tea at The Courtyard at Fullerton Hotel

This is our first post.. and we are posting about a place we have not been to yet and something that we also not tried yet .. i.e. High Tea... So many firsts here.

It was quite a spur of the moment that we decided, on a fine Sunday afternoon on the eve of her birthday, to take the plunge into high tea.. After some calls to other places, we were glad to have our very last minute reservations accepted by the Courtyard at the Fullerton Hotel.

The Courtyard at Fullerton

The Courtyard is situated "in the sunlit atrium lobby of the hotel". Not quite as crowded as we thought it would be for a Sunday where we were expecting quite a crowd to be sipping tea away with an erected pinky... you know what I mean:

A gentleman always sips his tea while holding his tea cup with an erected pinky

So, we were quite disappointed that we didn't get to see more of the above.. But anyway, we came for the food.. cos we skipped lunch..

The Menu

The teas were from TWG, the selection was good enough but nothing to boast about (compared to an actual TWG outlet). He thinks he ordered either a Sencha-Meicha (a green tea from Japan) or a Pu-Erh Camellia (a mature tea from China)... She had a usual favourite Chamomile... He recalls yawning for the lack of bolder choices on her part...

But before long, the teas were served and the tiers of finger sized snacks came along.

3 tiers of savoury and sweet accompaniments

We recall overdosing on the items with dough and reminded ourselves (with great failure) to not overindulge. We were more impressed by their savoury selection which we had quite a fair bit of refills.

Overall, we think we won't be back for the food. The ambiance wasn't too bad but it felt too roomy to be cosy enough for an intimate conversational afternoon. It so roomy that we thought we heard echoes of our tea sips...

Ratings

1. Will we come back? NO
2. Will we recommend to friends? NO
3. Will we bring our family? NO

Introduction

Hi,

We are the double eyelid couple. We go around trying different food places and thought that we should find a place to document our food adventures. This may sound like another food blog.. and so it is..

Truth be told, we live to eat. Eating and eating well gives us something to look forward to at the end of a normal day or at the end of a hectic week. Food is at every occasion where there is a cause for celebration.. birthdays, Christmas, New Year.. anniversaries... Its such an intricate part of living.. So, to miss out the memories would be to lose quite a big part of your living experience.. And so, we are creating this effort to remember an important part of our journeys..

We are based in Singapore. And so we are in food heaven...

He has a preference for western cuisine.. American, French, Italian... and anything else that pairs well with a a beer or a good bottle of red.

She has a palette for something more Asian...

We aren't overly enthusiastic about insects.. yet.

So, welcome aboard and hope you'll enjoy the ride like us while we eat, snap, post and give our own little critic... [we secretly hope someone at Michelin will spot this and invite us to be their secret critic to hand out stars...=)]

The Double Eyelid Couple