Photo (bottom) courtesy of Halia

Set amidst the Ginger (Halia, in Malay) Garden of the lush Botanic Garden, The Halia Restaurant celebrates its 10th year with an exclusive “Celebratory Sparkling Wine Dinner” priced at $100+ per person. With a new facelift, menu and culinary team, the dinner showcases a few of the Chef’s signature creations together with canapés and champagne.

These dishes will be paired with six different types of sparkling wines and champagnes sourced by leading wine importers Top Wines and Culina. Uh huh, this noob alcohol drinker was again being introduced to the world of great wines and champagnes! Wheeeee! :P

Fr left : Vine cherry tomato with watermelon & cucumber granite, oyster bar : freshly shucked, tempura & ponzu, baby spinach with Pernod, nutmeg & parmesan gratin, ginger infused foie gras, balsamic, green apple and fresh fig and last but not least, pan seared Hokkaido scallop, micro cress, garlic and gelee of apple extract.

Ahem.

These were just the canapés!

I love love the oysters. In all honesty, i really would just go back for these, especially the baby spinach with Pernod, nutmeg and parmesan gratin version, yummehh. I don’t mind a dozen!

Oh.. by the way, the oyster bar will be free flow from 7-8pm during the dinner. Can you say, YAY?

Fr left : Tian of vine ripened tomato, pine nut, guacomole, mango salsa, shiso and braised courgette, Sauteed risotto soja with mascarpone and parmesan($42++), 300 days grain-fed Rangers Valley Black Angus tenderloin, truffle celeriac mash, panache of baby vegetables and red wine jus, and, Black and white sesame seed crusted blue fin tuna tataki marinated in soy.

Unfortunately, my sauteed risotto soja with mascarpone and parmesan ($42++) will not be in the menu during this anniversary dinner. The oh so kind Chef Reynaldo Arriola surprised me with this mind blowing carb-free risotto when i informed them that i’d not be having the beef and tuna — yup, no mains for me due to personal reason.

Carb free risotto?

Yup, i hear you. ;)

The rice grain that you see here is actually bean sprout bits. Can you believe that? Quite something isn’t it? Great for ladies and gentlemen who wants something light for their meal.

So did i have the tuna?

In the end, i did –  but, only after they assured me that the blue fin tuna used here is farmed in Australia. Nothing to do with the endangered species out there in the ocean right now. Phew!

After every dish, the sweet looking sommelier in training would appear next to the table and took pain in explaining every single wine served that night. Altogether, 6 wines mind you.

My favourite wine that night?
(from a noob’s palate)

Astoria Casa Vittorino Valdobbiandene Prosecco Superiore DOCG, Veneta Italy.

Varietal : Prosecco DOCG. Fine, elegant and persistent perlage. Pale straw yellow colour with greenish reflections. The bouquet is intense, clean cut and fruity. Dry, full, savoury and harmonious.

Fresh baked fig tart, bacon pear ice cream, almond date, brie cheese, sour cream sabayon, wild mountain honey.

Last but not least, my favourite course of all time!

To be honest, it was this dessert that got me sit up and paid more attention to the email when i received the invite. :P

Bacon pear ice cream?!?!

I was asked if i wanted to substitute this with ermm, meat-free ice cream? Tempted as i was, i shook my head. Seriously. Bacon pear ice cream! Who would in the right mind to substitute this? This is die die must try lorrr. I mean, how often do you come across bacon ice cream?!

So how did it taste like? Do i like it?

Mmmm.. honestly, you cannot ask me this question since i merely tried it out of curiosity. I just took one small spoon and pushed it to one side. Salty, but sweet at the same time, together with bacon bits in every spoonful (the kitchen is sure generous! ;)), it’s a love or hate affair. It’s either you hate it or you love it. Very personal methinks.

What i really loved about this dessert was the fresh figs and the brie cheese which i took my own sweet time to savour bit by bit when others’ plates were already been cleared. Grin. OH! And the wild mountain honey cream was LOVE.

Seeing how stuffed we were, we were promptly served Hot Halia Infusion (House specialty of sun-dried ginger & wild mountain honey) $10 to aid digestion.

Man, i sure don’t mind having this particular cuppa every day in between meals. ;)

10th Anniversary Celebrations Sparkling Dinner Menu

RSVP deadline is on Tuesday, 25th October 2011 – 4pm. To book, or if you’ve got any queries, kindly contact Alice Tang at 65-62870711, or email : alicetang@halia.com.sg

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Thank you Karen and Halia for the fun girls’ night out! (Calvin not counted :P)

Barracks at  House, a casual cozy cafe nestled amidst lush greenery of Dempsey Hill, is now serving Vintage Tea Party every Thursday and Friday afternoons, 3pm-5pm.

Charming and very English, one can choose to sit indoors in vintage chairs or dine out at the adventurous outdoors, alfresco style. Both options are equally lovely, if you ask me. As odd as it may sound, with the cutlery’s mismatched and plates slightly chipped, you know you are in for a lovely afternoon once you are stepped inside. :)

Now, i’ll let the photos do the talking.

Seriously.

If this is not pretty and charming, i don’t know what is.

See that yellow cake above?

That’s my favourite!

Lemon Pistachio Cake ~ i just took one look at it and i knew it would be real good. True to its appearance, the cake didn’t disappoint after my first bite. :)

Apart from the Lemon Pistachio Cake, there are Jaffa Swirl Cake (ooh la la!), Peanut Butter Cookies, Strawberry White Chocolate Cupcake, Parsnip Cupcake, German Chocolate Cupcake, Matcha Cupcake, Banana Caramel Cake (YUMS!), Chocolate Toffee Cake.. just to name a few.

Hmm.. are you drooling already? Heee!

For those who don’t have sweet tooth, fear not. There’s always something for you. :)

Savoury items includes mini skinny pizzas, Vietnamese Rice rolls and special of the day. Then, there’s also (artisan) bread and cheese corner, with condiments such as bolognese, wild truffled mushroom etc that would put most buffet spread in hotels to shame.

Ginger Tea is there to stay, but for the blended teas, the selection will rotate regularly.

Ahem.

Ladies, this may not be the section you’ll wanna wander off if you are pressing for time. However, if you’ve got say, 15 to 20 minutes to spare, you are in for treat!

Express manicure by Strip at just $10 for all diners (yup, males included!). Strip’s DPB-free nail polishes from New York’s StrangeBeautiful series are irresistible. Eccentric, loud and definitely one of its kind, the nail polishes’ colours were inspired by Ettore Sottass‘s red valentine typewriter.

Though i was already running a little late for my next appointment, i couldn’t say no to this session of the express manicure when offered. I was pretty taken by the colours to reject. Trust me, you would too, if you were me.

Go on, check out the colours and you’ll know what i mean. ;)

i love my nail colours!

Thank you Angela and House, for the invite. What an amazing afternoon!

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House at Dempsey
8D, Dempsey Road,
#01-01 to 06,
Tangling Village

Tel: +65 6475 7787

Price : $22+

When i received Tim’s email, i was a little excited to be honest.

Wine…

Such a familiar and common word yet so unfamiliar and alien to me.

I then bravely replied yes, after Tim told me to bring along a +1 just in case i get all woozy and tipsy and start acting funny. :)

The Tastings Room is a new wine bistro in Marina Square that opens barely a month ago with an innovative concept of letting customer pair the right wine with their food through providing them with 50 different wines by the glass selections. Meeting Tim, the Director of The Tastings Room was fun. Tim was nothing like how i’d imagined him to be but hey, that’s great — young, driven, friendly, down to earth and super nice…

Prawn Cocktail Salad $12.90
Sous vide prawns in cocktail dressing with poached pears, fresh tomatoes, avocado slices and potatoes.

The prawns were beautifully done – succulent and crunchy but dressing was a little heavy though but my partner enjoyed it quite a bit.

Poached Eggs in Red Wine Sauce $14.90
Egg poached in a flavourful concoction of red wine, veal broth and herbs. Served buttery red wine reduction alongside crispy bacon and toast.

Buttery red wine reduction… I’ll never look at plain old hollandaise sauce the same way again! Had the toast been brioche, this dish would be purrrrfect!

Bolognaise Meatball Pizza $13.90
Juicy meatball with tasty beef bolognaise, mozzarella cheese and rocket salad finished with EVOO.

Crisp thin pizza with meat balls overload. This one is probably haven to the carnivores out there but for us, it was a little overwhelming. Too generous with the meat, The Tastings Room! Grin.

Paolo Saracco Moscato d’Asti 2010.

Let’s just say, for a non-wine drinker like me, this glass here got me dreaming for glasses of this soon after. I need to quench that thirst of mine stat!

Pssstt : i even emailed Tim a couple of days later because i’m so gonna buy a bottle or 2 from him. ;)

The wine menu is pretty informative.

Apart from listing the price in glasses and bottles, Tim made an effort to include each and every wine scores by Robert Parker. What is wine scores? For the uninitiated, check this out.

Sun-kissed Tomato Crayfish Pasta
Garlic marinated crayfish on sauteed sun kissed tomato pesto linguine topped with spring onion and black sesame seed.

Easily my favourite for this dinner of ours. The tomato pesto was really quite delicious. I could easily finish the whole plate myself except that i was too stuffed to stuff myself silly because i needed to keep some room for desserts! I didn’t try the crayfish though.

Seared Sous Vide Salmon $22.90
Crispy salmon skin, lemon foam, horseradish cream sauce and braised fennel.

Again, sous vide! Love the salmon of course.. and probably the lemon foam. Methinks the braised fennel might feel a little out of place here? My mountain tortoise partner thought it was kiam chye initially! HAHA!

Vanilla Creme Brulee $8.90
Served with mixed berries and Chantilly cream

Tiramisu$6.90
Served with selection of berries and light mascarpone cheese

Kapiti Ice Cream from New Zealand $3.50
Served with berries’ coulis

This, my friends, is love love love!

The flavour that we tried was Lemongrass & Ginger and Fig & Honey. Honestly, i couldn’t decide which i like better because i enjoyed both all the same!

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The Tastings Room seeks to make food and beverage pairing a painless experience and they are trying to make wine and dine accessible to the masses through reasonably priced meals and wines which is great for us who have shallow pockets aye? ;)

Importantly, friendly Tim is always around and he will be more than glad to assist you should you need any help.

Currently, The Tastings Room has got some irresistible specials that you need to check out!

I’m so bringing the friends down for a visit.
(ETA : reservation made for this Sunday!)

Thank you Tim, for the wonderful experience and hospitality. :)

The Tastings Room
6 Raffles Boulevard, Marina Square, #01-08,
Singapore 039594

Tel : 63381829