Canelé's macarons

Recently my mum brought back a magazine from Japan, Madame Figaro. It is a Japanese lifestyle magazine and their April / May issue showcased the Parisian culture. Needless to say, it left me terminally depressed.



Don't believe me? Check it out for yourself...



It hurts, doesn't it?





Are you feeling short of breath?



I can feel an irregular heartbeat.





OMFG.





I love my life. I love my life. Can someone please dial 'P' for Prozac?



Or get me a box of macarons?



Thanks to PS Cafe, it's been a while since I last patronized Canele. Fortunately one serendipitous Sunday afternoon, we had tea with a family friend and I brought over a box of macarons from Pierre Herme-approved Canelé.

I was contemplating between Canele, Carousel at Royal Park Plaza and TWG but in the end, Canele won me over with its plump preciousness. The dozen I bought included café, rose, citron, green tea, cheesecake and milk chocolate feuillitine.



I've always shared macarons, preferring to split them with friends. It's not because I'm generous by nature but rather, I have a phobia of icing-bitingly sweetness. Furthermore, macaro=ons were usually overshawdowed by tarts and pastries - next to those, it's like tonight I celebrate my love for you...



Determined to discover the hoopla over macarons, I picked up a milk chocolate feuillitine, bit into its centre and concentrated hard.



The undeterred luciousness milk chocolate ganache and hazelnut praline clouded my thoughts, while the conflakes-like feuillitine teased texturally. Whoa. Was it an epiphany? It was kinda close.

Maybe I was in the mood for macarons ... maybe tomorrow I would eat the same thing and feel nothing. But this midsection shot will always remind of the day I loved macarons with reckless abandonement.

Canelé Pâtisserie Chocolaterie
Shaw Centre
1 Scotts Road
#01-01A, Shaw Centre
Singapore 228208
and other various outlets
Tel: 6738 9020

Les Bouchons, Ann Siang Road

Vanessa and I celebrated Gerald's impending admission to NYU (read: free accomodation!) at shophouse steakhouse Les Bouchons on Ann Siang Road. I was told by Gerald himself that early reservations were crucial and I didn't quite understand the urgency until I stepped into the shoebox bistro.



There is something endearing about French bistros, no? Vintage posters. Dim lighting. Single-sided menu. Somewhere closet Francophiles can come together with their glow sticks and sway along to Kumbaya.

Les Bouchons is unpretentious alright. So unpretentious I wish they had been a little more pretentious. Compared to Le Bistrot, service here is best exemplified by their cold hard rolls. Oh wait, that's pretty French huh?



Entrees featured your usual suspect (escargots, terraine etc) and we had the Burgundy escargots. Perpetually drowning in olive oil and garlic butter, the dark squishy nubbins were delicious. I wounded up with garlic breath but happily so. Not too sure how Van and Gerald felt about this though.

On Fridays and Saturdays, they have the Couscous Royal. I heart couscous. Though it was obviously Wednesday, I asked anyway if they had the cousous special, knowing very well that the answer would be, 'Er no.'

Sorry you didn't get the memo but the weekend has arrived for some of us!



Within a quick scan, I knew immediately what I was going for - the Rib Eye medium rare.

I gave my rib eye a deserving butter rub before digging in with the gusto of someone who had been waiting all day for the clock to strike 6 so that she could run out of the office to meet her friends for steak.



Tan lines are a no-no but chargrilled marks are dandy dandy. The steaks were served with frites / fries that I barely touched.

I lie.



By the time I was done with my steak, my plate of fries had gone cold so I headed straight for the (refillable) basket of fries. Minutes later, the basket was empty and I found myself short of breath. Not funny.

If Rider's café and PS Café's fries were the ivory keys of the piano keyboard, Les Bouchons' stubby black keys completed the ensemble. Apparently Bouchons's fries are twice-cooked, I don't kniow if that's the reason why they look "aged" but they were utterly demolishable.



Oh, I almost forgot! We were also given 5 condiments, consisting of wholegrain mustard, horseradish, mayonnaise, Dijon mustard and Maille's Bearnaise Sauce - one for every day of the week.

What am I suppose to use on the other 2 remaining days?

Hey if you are eating steak 5 days a week, you should be drinking wheatgrass juice over the weekend. That said, Maille's Bearnaise Sauce - I like, I smear!



As if to make us pause and think about what we were doing to our arteries, we were served bowls of salad, containing salad greens, tomatoes and walnuts, tossed and drizzled with a tangy mustardy dressing. It was pretty good so it couldn't have been that healthy.

The dessert menu was disapprovingly small (well, at least to me) and worse, unremarkable. Creme Brulee, Ile Flottante, sorbets, sherbets... Van and I trooped off to 7-11 for ice cream instead.

Les Bouchons is a hidden but not-so-secret gem. I like the steaks enough to return but the unfriendly business-first service and lack of dessert variety make this a steak-frites-only place. Wait, wasn't this what I was looking for to begin with?

Les Bouchons
7 Ann Siang Road
Tel: 6423 0737

WGS 2009: La Dolce Vita with David Rocco

Pre Dinner Canapé Selection

Seafood ceviche
Crocchette di patate
Zuppa di porcini
NV Delicato Prosecco

Dinner



Involtini di Bresaola
Insalata Del mercato Ballaro
Peperoni di Zia Franca
Insalata Caprese
2008 Cantina Zaccagnini, II Bianco di Ciccio IGT



Poached sole with scallop mousseline and porcini sauce
Risotto alla puttanesca
2008 Cantina Zaccagnini, Chronicon Trebbiano d’Abruzzo DOC



Spaghetti Ubriachi
Drunken spaghetti
2006 Cantina Zaccagnini, Montepulciano d’Abruzzo Tralcetto DOC



Suppa di crostacei with parsley rouille
2005 Cantina Zaccagnini, Chronicon Montepulciano d’Abruzzo DOC



Braised oxtail with roasted aubergines, tomato and olive emulsion
Caramelized fennel and potato dauphinoise
2005 Cantina Zaccagnini, San Clemente Montepulciano d’Abruzzo DOC



Strawberries with balsamic vinegar
2007 Cantina Zaccagnini, Plasir Passito Bianco IGT

Les Artistes Bistrot, Keong Saik Road

It was a last minute lunch catch-up and I was keen to check out the Keong Saik area. Luckily this spontaneous arrangement earned me a surprisingly pleasant lunch.

Surprising for 2 reasons:
1. I wasn't expecting anything fanciful but unfanciful grub does have a way of stealing my heart
2. Pork snagged the starring role which doesn’t happen very often. Not at all.



The basket of (unwarmed) rustic airy bread wasn’t the finest I’ve had but I was starving so it was delicious.



The amuse bouche of goose rilette, ham (name unknown) and crostini were great. The goose rillette had been reduced to a smooth mash and was heavily flavoured.



For starters, I had my first pork dish – roasted kurobuta pork shoulder and strozzapreti pasta. The tenderness of the lean roasted kurobuta shoulder was marked by an inner blush; it arrived on a raft of strozzapreti pasta, spear-like spiral pasta that aimed straight for my heart.



Going by my meat hierarchy, I should have gone for Five Hours Braised Cheek since I have never been one to proclaim, "Pork for President". On any given day, my subconscious would have whispered, "Beef cheek ooo braised ooo five friggin hours..."

What goes inside my mind isn't a pretty picture… well neither is the petit sale aux lentilles pork but it was so good.

Ditching the predictability of beef cheeks, I went for the slow cooked belly stew. Beef cheeks who?

The pork belly stew seemed like the epitome of rustic French cooking, with flavours that evoked images of the French countryside and villages. I know it sounds too much like an out of body experience.. Haha. I really liked how the lentils below were slightly softened without loosing their bite.



Desserts-wise, the chocolate millefeuille was the only dish I found a little ‘meh’. It was missing something. The chocolate definitely didn't register as Varlhona quality and the puff pastry looked like it was leaking chocolate. Leaking, not tearing – tearing would have been beautiful and poetic, leaking is just unseemly.



Luckily the caramelized banana with vanilla ice cream whispered, ‘Everything’s going to be alright’. The caramel made good its promise to delight and the tossful of raisins and almond slivers lifted its potential heaviness. You just can’t go wrong with good ol’ fashioned vanilla ice cream and bananas. Yay.

Les Artistes Bistrot by Nicolas
35 Keong Saik Road
Singapore 089142
Tel: +65 62241501
Fax: +65 62229123
Email: contact@artistesbistrot.com

More Moos

I was really getting sick of the whole food blogging scene... and I think Sakamoto Ryuichi's Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence made me even more emotional. But a cursory click on The Hungry Cow made me smile. Not because it was a shameless plug for me but people like him really remind me of what it was like to blog simply for the fun of enjoying food and good company.

You made me sound ancient but Happy Belated Birthday, Leroy.

il Lido, Sentosa

Diana made it back to our red dot for the long Easter weekend and we hopped onto an even tinier island for our catch-up diner.

The words “swanky,” “Beppe de Vito” and even “sunset view” did nothing for me. They did pique some interest but not to the extend where I would rush over to Sentosa. As irony would have it, it was the lack of words - “1-For-1” - that drew me over the bridge.

Thanks to the extremely-rare-credit-card-promotion-that-I-pay-attention-to, both of us had the 4-course Gourmet Set Menu. Shortly after our orders were placed, a coral bowl of crostinis appeared in front of us bona fide bread whores.



“Ooo these are great… they are like bread chips! Great they won’t fill us up like bread rolls… ”

DAH! WRONG!

without warning, these deceivably-thin crostinis settled down uneasily in our tummies and our waiter brought us another bowl as soon as he noticed the empty one.


Scaloppa di Fegato Grasso con Sedano Rapa, Mele Renette e Porto Caramellato

Apart from passing time, the crostinis were great with our started, panroasted goose liver, served with a slice of poached “Renette” apple and celeriac cream.

Buttery foie gras is a great way to start the LONG Easter weekend... or any meal or holiday for that matter.


Fettuccine al Nero con Granchio, Peperoncino e Olio alla Menta

I liked the squidink fettuccine tossed with crab chunks and sinewy bits. The squid and crab won the 18-legged race with its subtle but well-noted aroma. The peppermint oil hardly registered but on second thoughts, that might be a good thing as it would have just tasted sprightly odd.


Merluzzo Arrostito con Pure’ di Patate al Timo Limonato e Salsa al Prezzemolo

The Atlantic cod with mashed thyme potatoes skimmed the surface for average. Admittedly it had a tough act to follow after the foie gras and crab squidink fettucine, and a just-decent noticeably-unoily white fish just didn’t cut it.

Perhaps I should have gone for the Prime Beef Striploin instead.


Fondente di Cioccolato con Gelato al Cocco

Behold one of the worst food pictures of all times!

Although the molten chocolate cake is a done-to-death dessert, a rich decadent version never fails to delight me. Evidently it was a light cake as the chocolate burst out of its seams before it reached Final Destination – and into the dark abyss of my tummy.

The bittersweet treat came with a not-done-to-death and delicious coconut ice cream that made of think of coconuts and hula skirts. Go figure.

il Lido
Sentosa Island, Sentosa Golf Club
27 Bukit Manis Road
Tel: 6866 1977

Riders Cafe, Bukit Timah Saddle Club

Hello folks over at Riders Cafe,

What a charming place you have! Much of the smallish menu sounded delicious but it was such a pity you only served breakfast till 2pm. Luckily we scored ourselves some leftover Morning Pancakes from the table next to us.

Leftovers!? What wouldn’t this girl do for free (albeit delicous) food?

Relax dear reader, our neighbours didn't throw us scraps. They weren’t strangers to begin with - a few friends of mine were wrapping up brunch just as Zee and I arrived.



It might have been hand-me- downs sideways but they were delicious hand-me-sideways. Pancakes in their finest form, served with tangy berries compote, lucious whipped cream and dunkable maple syrup.

It occurred to me that it doesn't matter which side of the bed one woke up on because Morning Pancakes are an indelible source of happiness.

But who you wake up next to is another story altogether…

I snuck a bite out of the eggs florentine too. Delicious. The next time I see you, I'm not going to let you out of my sight.



I couldn't decide between the Death by Chocolate Cake with Vanilla ice cream and Riders Cafe Burger. Eventually I went for the burger because I needed something more nutritional.

Nutritional? Burger?

Don't laugh, folks. I'm serious. I've substituting proper meals with cakes, pastries and dessert; it's not like I'm bouncing off the walls but I think my system needs proper food. My train of thought went like this:

protein (meat) + calcium (cheddar cheese) + 2 x refined carbs (sesame bun & steak fries) + 3 x fats (steak fries, bacon and cheddar cheese)

is better than

sugar + butter + fat

Algebra. Logic.

Sigh ... sometimes I swear I take the romance out of life.



The ground beef was a wee bit dry but retained enough juice to moisten the bottom bun. The earthy button mushrooms, fatty bacon and melted cheddar plus buttered bun made for quite a satisfying burger.



I love them steak fries. They remind me of piano keys and the melodious tune they play when they have been deep-fried sun-kissed brown. And occasionally I find those crackling critters that I so adore but meets the disapproval of my throat.





Late lunch / early tea with Zee was lovely. We even turned up in matching outfits and ballet flats – perhaps both of us decided on electric blue to brighten up the weather.



As if our morning wasn't awesome, presenting The Whipped Cream on Our Sundae, Ice Cream on Our Pudding: HORSIE!

Thanks and best regards,
Yixiao

Riders Cafe
51 Fairways Drive
Bukit Timah Saddle Club
Tel: 6466 9819

Gourmet Seafood Buffet. at Fullerton

Last time round I dropped by, I was too shy to take photos so here are the glory of pictures to make up for the previous trip.





Away from the other sections, the Japanese counter stood fear of being ignored. It was well-stocked with sashimi, sushi, soba and appetizers.

There were the usual suspects - salmon, tuna, tai, unagi, tamago, futomaki, inari etc. It may not have the roving eye selection of nigiris and makis but they were well-prepared.



Keen to recharge my omerga-3 levels, I helped myself to plates of sashimi, especially the salmon belly slices. Oh, when I didn't see any mekajiki sashimi, the chef behind the Japanese counter readily sliced up a few upon request.





You could easily get bang for your buck at the cold seafood section that spotted an array of oysters, clams, mussels prawns and crayfish.

I wasn't in a prawn peeling mood though I just compensated with more clams, mussels prawns and crayfish.



There was a holy assembly of loaves and rolls that paid homage to the Bread God. I walked past the pain-ed counter many many times, each time casting apologetic glances, "Sorry loves. I can't load up on you". Eventually I did have a soft white roll that had fluffy innards and a crusty bottom.



Nobody moved the cheese as it was still hidden behind the desserts.







I wish I had greater penchant for salads and anti pasti as that section was incredibly well-stocked with a motley of grilled vegetables, dips, olives, bruschettas, cold cuts etc.



I thought this was too pretty to pass up. Smoked salmon wrapped in bready casing could have easily passed off as a cute amuse bouche in Forlino.



There were a couple of Made on the Spot items - pasta and minute steak. I'm not a pasta person so this was ok to me. Yang, on the other hand, chugged it down quickly.



I requested for my minute steak to be done medium-rare so kudos to the guy for getting it right.

I thought "minute" stood for 1 minute steak because it was small so it took only about a minute to get it done but Yang insisted it was "minute" as in tiny, petite minute.

Though I think she's right, I didn't want to admit it then.



Sigh, the hot food was disappointing. Maybe I'm just fussy. They had crab ravioli, sweet and sour fish, drunken prawn, cod fish with miso sauce, mahi mahi, seasonal vegatables, grilled squid with thai chili sauce and chili crab.

Maybe they just switched items and somehow assembled those that didn't call out to me like last time round.



Maybe I should have just gone for a dessert buffet because I made countless trips to the dessert section - even before Yang and Joyce made it to the hot food section.











Apricot tart. Chocolate mint cake, raspberry green tea cake. Marble cheesecake. White chocolate pastry. Fruit cake. Carrot cake. Berry mouse with crunchy chocolate pearls. Tiramisu. Crème brulee. Bread and butter pudding. Strawberry mousse. Nonya kuehs.

Countless countless trips...



Awash with TWG Alexandria - Mediterranean mint and vanilla.

Sidenote: I really like TWG's macaroons though they didn't serve them at Fullerton.