Showing posts with label Foodnotes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Foodnotes. Show all posts
Olivia Cassivelaun Fancourt
Alternatively, you can call it OCF. That's the name of the new French restaurant down at The Arts House. It's a collaboration between Timbre Group and A Thousand Tales (the same folks behind Table Manners and Bar Stories).
OCF is actually the name of Sir Stamford's (lesser known) first wife. For the folks who don't live in Singapore or have no idea about history of this city-state, read more about Sir Stamford Raffles here. :)
If the weather is nice, do opt for a nice short stroll before dinner. I guarantee you pretty good night views hurhur.
OCF is actually the name of Sir Stamford's (lesser known) first wife. For the folks who don't live in Singapore or have no idea about history of this city-state, read more about Sir Stamford Raffles here. :)
If the weather is nice, do opt for a nice short stroll before dinner. I guarantee you pretty good night views hurhur.
In all honesty, I don't think it's an easy place to find.. One of the key factors was probably a lack of proper signage besides the one in the photo above that directs you before a turn towards The Arts House. The restaurant actually sits on the second floor of the Annex Building so do continue walking until you see Barbershop by Timbre Group. And tada, you got the right building :)
Go into the building and black carpet leads the way up to the restaurant. You will know it's a pretty exclusive place once you reach the end of the staircase - a lady in black flowing cheongsum will ask for your reservation (if any) and lead you to your table.
The OCF is pretty small so it feels very intimate. It will probably sit around 50 people. My table was the ONLY occupied table that night (minus a couple who joined us at around 9 plus pm) so it really felt like we booked the entire restaurant. I'm not sure is it because of lesser patrons to take care of that night, but the service staff were really attentive and patient in explaining the menu. They change their menu every 3 months to cater to seasonal changes so don't expect to see the same things all the time.
I'm clearly not a frequent patron of fine dining because the first thing I asked was which main course had the most carbohydrates. Hahaha. And so Paella it was ;)
This was the pre-starter dish courtesy of the chef. I cannot remember the name but I remembered it tasted a little like flower petals (in a good way).
Starter: Scallops that was grilled to perfection. I love how the exterior was a little crisp but yet so tender and fresh on the inside. The sauce was good, except that it was a little salty.
My carbo loaded main dish. The seafood servings were generous (better be given it's price) but similarly it was a little on the salty side.
Midway through our food, the jazz singer appeared :) She was really good!
Then came the dessert: Sweet corn souffle and popcorn ice cream. I gotta say I was very surprised how good it is. Especially for the souffle. This is the only dessert the requires 30 min of preparation so do order in advance.
We ended the session with a hot cup of coffee and additional desserts courtesy of the Chef. The white/yellow rectangular slices were mango mousse (so smooth!). There was also dark chocolate crunch which was coated in white chocolate. I have no idea what's the red jelly like thing but it tasted really sweet with a slight chilli aftertaste. We were supposed to guess it but we didn't get them right. If anyone knows the answer, do tell me! Hahaha.
Overall, I think OCF gives a good dining experience. I guess mainly because there were few diners when we were there and it felt really private. The dishes were done well (besides being slightly salty) and thoroughly explained. The only gripe I have is the price tag. The total bill was around $150 per head and we didn't even order any alcohol! Madness.
Btw, the receipt came in a little envelope and I honestly thought it was so cute (yes that's why I took it home)
Will I go back again? Maybe. But it will definitely only be for very special occasions :)
Olivia Cassivelaun Fancourt
The Arts House
1 Old Parliament Lane
#02-02
Singapore 179429
Tel: +65 6333 9312
Website: http://ocf-singapore.com/
Lunch: 12 to 2.30pm
Dinner: 6 to 10.30pm
Restaurant is opened Mondays to Saturdays, closed for Saturday lunch and Sundays.
YY Kafei Dian
Has anyone been to this coffeeshop? I'm not sure why the online reviews for it are so bad. I haven't had any bad experiences so far, especially so for service.
YY Kafei Dian is this old school Hainanese coffeeshop that's located at the corner of Purvis Street and Beach Road. It's a less than 5 minute walk from my Bahasa Indonesia class so it's the perfect place Danson and I catch a late dinner (pretty much) every Monday.
YY Kafei Dian
37 Beach Road
YY Kafei Dian is this old school Hainanese coffeeshop that's located at the corner of Purvis Street and Beach Road. It's a less than 5 minute walk from my Bahasa Indonesia class so it's the perfect place Danson and I catch a late dinner (pretty much) every Monday.
There usually isn't a huge crowd during the hours we are there. And most of the time, we are the youngest duo in that outlet.
While writing this post, I realized I haven't even ate beyond that one page of the menu so I really can't say much about their food. Maybe I should heed Danson's advice and stop eating the same old fried rice nonsense every Monday night. Haha.
P.S: I think they have pretty good fried rice. Hehe.
YY Kafei Dian
37 Beach Road
Littered with books & Group Therapy
Found some old photos in my phone and recalled I have yet to blog about the places at Duxton Hill that I visited many moons back.
World class procrastinator with terrible memory I say.
Popped by this little charming place called Littered with Books, a few months back. It's pretty much your regular bookstore, but a lot more personable. It gives off a very homely vibe and I guess that's the charm. The owners of the store were always ready to recommend you something if you ask, and are thoughtful enough to leave you alone to browse if you want to. That, to me is an utter joy.
I'm not exactly someone who buy books (I usually borrow or download because I'm cheapo like that. PLus I'm running out of space too!) so the second floor was an absolute delight to hang around. They have chairs/little couches around where you could have your little reading moment. Best of all, the whole place smells like books.
Ask any booklovers, they will tell you that's one of the best smells to live around with ;)
Littered with Books
20 Duxton Road
Singapore 089586
Tel: +65 6220 6824
After Littered with Books, the boys and I headed off to Group Therapy:
From the outside, it looks like a potential hole in the wall kind of brunch place. If you don't look out for it, you may actually miss it. The outlet sits on 2nd floor of this old shophouse so if you missed the steps that leads up to it, you will most probably not find the restaurant. Hurhur.
Meet sunny side up. When the food came, my first thought what this is not enough to feed me. AT ALL. I was wrong! It was strangely filling, I'm attributing it to the thick toast, and most probably the coke for making me full. Other than that, I love how it comes with avocado spread so it doesn't feel so sinful ;)
Group Therapy
49 Duxton Road
#02-01
Tel: +65 6222 2554
I would definitely go back again lahhhh. :)
The Big Sheila
Clearly, I haven't been exploring my neighborhood too much. How could I have missed such an amazing brunch place that's like 10 minutes from my house!
Time to change my jogging route just so I can discover more things man..
The Big Sheila
15 Swan Lake Avenue
For more information, click here
Popped by The Big Sheila on Saturday with my foodie mate. It's a nice cozy restaurant that sits about maximum 25 people indoors and maybe 5-8 outdoors.
The owner is an Australian lady who quit her job in 2011 and started this place. So the food served are predominantly Australian.
The interiors are simple, with a large table (that takes up most of the sitting space) that seats about maybe 12-14 people (usually shared by 2-3 groups of people) and 2 corner seats that sits about 3-5 people each.
My friend ordered a salad and the Brunch Omelette:
I had the Grilled Bacon and Creamy Mashed Potato:
The creamy mashed potato was the highlight of my meal man. It was so so so smooth and good. It's so smooth (that you know a good amount of butter went into it) but you can still taste the potato. Man I could eat that all day.
They also have a generous serving of desserts and you can go have a look at them before you order them:
We ordered the orange cake (can't remember the name) and it did no disappoint. It was rich and definitely flavourful with the velvety orange cream that coated its soft spongy core. If only we weren't so full by the end of the meal, I think we would have enjoyed it more.
Oh and they don't do delivery anymore because their business have gotten too busy for them to do that. They will also be expanding into the second floor! Hope food quality don't get compromised :) Mainly because it's a nice cozy place, it seemed that the owner knew most of the patrons and it was like one big family/friends brunch party. Pop by once or twice, I think one would be in the inner circle soon ;)
Good Saturday
Had an amazing Saturday hanging out with the JC friends and celebrating Shiyuan's birthday over at Zeffir with some seriously good and authentic Russian/Uzbekistan food. Who would have expected such good food in this little hole in the wall in Little India? I sure didn't. Haha. The Borsch soup was rich and is one of the must-trys. I like how cozy and homely the setting is, perfect for small gatherings (the whole place takes about less than 30 people I think). Do try the Kompot (home-made drink made from apple, plums and grapes) and Shashliks too!
I would recommend going with a group of friends so you can order a variety of food to share! :)
Zeffir Russian and Uzbekistan Restaurant
70 Dunlop Street
Headed off to Tom's Palette for some home-made ice cream thereafter and we managed to embarrass Shiyuan (and ourselves of course) by singing him a birthday song. If you haven't tried their ice cream, you should. It's creamy and extremely flavorful. Not forgetting they have a variety of flavors that you can't find in most cookie-cutter ice cream outlets, like salted egg yolk and and chocolate stout. There's also a workshop you can sign up to make your own ice cream! Students from all local universities get 10% off ;)
Tom's Palette
100 Beach Road
#01-25 Shaw Leisure Gallery
This is already the 11th year we are celebrating each other's birthdays. I feel old just thinking about it. Hahaha. It's been an incredible journey for all of us, slogging through A levels, University, overseas stints, work life, love and marriages together. We have been with each other through all the major milestones in each other's lives. It's not an easy feat and I'm glad we are still going strong :)
Cedric will be heading off to Ohio really soon (for his PhD) after his wedding in 2 weeks time. Christmas visiting plans are in the works already! Hahaha. Wendy's plans to study/further her career in Australia is also starting to take shape as well (after her house arrive in September). Jiahui got rid of his crazy boss and is moving on to greener pastures in a month's time. Jonathan's prepping for his wedding too. My new manager is coming in next week and hopefully things will progress for the better in office as well ;) I love how well everything is going for all of us :)))
I ended the night at The Coastal Settlement (gotta go back and try their brunch one of these days). Kenneth came back from Hong Kong for the weekend and we had a hell of a time discussing about his new cafe idea and Kelvin's upcoming stag night in Bangkok (again!). Miss these folks so much lahhh.
Life has been good so far. A lot to give thanks for :) Have a great Sunday everyone :)
I would recommend going with a group of friends so you can order a variety of food to share! :)
Zeffir Russian and Uzbekistan Restaurant
70 Dunlop Street
Headed off to Tom's Palette for some home-made ice cream thereafter and we managed to embarrass Shiyuan (and ourselves of course) by singing him a birthday song. If you haven't tried their ice cream, you should. It's creamy and extremely flavorful. Not forgetting they have a variety of flavors that you can't find in most cookie-cutter ice cream outlets, like salted egg yolk and and chocolate stout. There's also a workshop you can sign up to make your own ice cream! Students from all local universities get 10% off ;)
Tom's Palette
100 Beach Road
#01-25 Shaw Leisure Gallery
This is already the 11th year we are celebrating each other's birthdays. I feel old just thinking about it. Hahaha. It's been an incredible journey for all of us, slogging through A levels, University, overseas stints, work life, love and marriages together. We have been with each other through all the major milestones in each other's lives. It's not an easy feat and I'm glad we are still going strong :)
Cedric will be heading off to Ohio really soon (for his PhD) after his wedding in 2 weeks time. Christmas visiting plans are in the works already! Hahaha. Wendy's plans to study/further her career in Australia is also starting to take shape as well (after her house arrive in September). Jiahui got rid of his crazy boss and is moving on to greener pastures in a month's time. Jonathan's prepping for his wedding too. My new manager is coming in next week and hopefully things will progress for the better in office as well ;) I love how well everything is going for all of us :)))
I ended the night at The Coastal Settlement (gotta go back and try their brunch one of these days). Kenneth came back from Hong Kong for the weekend and we had a hell of a time discussing about his new cafe idea and Kelvin's upcoming stag night in Bangkok (again!). Miss these folks so much lahhh.
Life has been good so far. A lot to give thanks for :) Have a great Sunday everyone :)
Peperoni Pizzeria @ Frankel Ave
Met up with the girls at Peperoni Pizzeria @ Frankel Avenue! It's still standing at a headcount of 8 so far. When are we ever reaching 10! Hahaha.
We gorged ourselves silly with a 21-inch pizza, loads of risotto and very very sinful (but oh so good) desserts while updating each other what is happening in our lives. Julia's road biking training, my half-marathon training, Clara's photography stories, WenLing and Clara's baking tales, Yunwen's cooking adventures, amazing progresses at work, Alicia's hilarious take on Singapore's media industry.
It was definitely an evening well spent :)
We gorged ourselves silly with a 21-inch pizza, loads of risotto and very very sinful (but oh so good) desserts while updating each other what is happening in our lives. Julia's road biking training, my half-marathon training, Clara's photography stories, WenLing and Clara's baking tales, Yunwen's cooking adventures, amazing progresses at work, Alicia's hilarious take on Singapore's media industry.
It was definitely an evening well spent :)
Thank you lovelies for the wonderful evening! Can't believe how frequent the meetups have been since last year :)
And yes may the sporty outing materialize soon! :)
A month in summary
The last few weeks have been a whirlwind of dinners, meetups, more dinners and well you get the idea. It's after all MY birthday season! Hahaha. Well everyday is supposed to a celebration anyway, isn't it ;)
It's already (gasp) December 16! 9 days to Christmas and 15 days till a brand new year. Time is jetting me by at crazy speed and I'm pretty sure it's the same for the rest of you :)
The view at Level 33 is amazing. The skies were clear that night and the view of Singapore's skyline was breathtaking. That being said, the microbrewery's beer (so much for being a brewhouse!) is not quite up to mark. Well I guess with a view like that, it doesn't really matter! Hahaha.
It's already (gasp) December 16! 9 days to Christmas and 15 days till a brand new year. Time is jetting me by at crazy speed and I'm pretty sure it's the same for the rest of you :)
I actually have yet to do a proper update for a month! Well minus the filler posts inbetween. Hahaha. People who knows me well have full knowledge that I'm terrible at remembering anything. So I can only look through my iPhone photos and try to remember what happened to me in the last few weeks.
Dinner at Fika (Swedish restaurant) @ Arab Street with the girls! (Oh remember the day I met my Angel who appeared right when I needed her to shelter me with an umbrella).
Absolutely love this bunch of girls - we have been through 10 years and its amazing we are still the same bunch of crazy people. Love you girlies! :) And yes, I cannot wait for Hidayah and Joyce to get married :)
There was the ultimate KFC/Pizza gathering with the JC folks at Evelyn's house. One year on and so much have changed! Bro has proposed to his long time girlfriend and Evelyn and Jeremy are now parents! :)
Don't mind the candles - it was a very feeble attempt to get all romantic and stuff. We ended the night with Argo and major plans to hike Mt Kinabalu next year (together with Fireflies forest and river rafting). Cannot.wait.man!
Don't mind the candles - it was a very feeble attempt to get all romantic and stuff. We ended the night with Argo and major plans to hike Mt Kinabalu next year (together with Fireflies forest and river rafting). Cannot.wait.man!
There was the dinner at RedDot Dempsey and drinks at Level 33 with an excellent view of Singapore.Food at RedDot was good. Or maybe the crowd was great and hence overall everything was great. Haha.
I actually can't remember in details what I ate there, except for pizza, a really delicious salmon avocado salad (you know how I hate salads but this is really nice) and too much spicy wings. And you should be able to tell by now I would fail terribly as a food critic or blogger or whatever. Eating is one of my core skills, writing about them is not. Hurhur.
The view at Level 33 is amazing. The skies were clear that night and the view of Singapore's skyline was breathtaking. That being said, the microbrewery's beer (so much for being a brewhouse!) is not quite up to mark. Well I guess with a view like that, it doesn't really matter! Hahaha.
And then there was the dinner at Keong Saik Snacks:
It's a nice quaint little dining place off Keong Saik road and serves.. well really good food but in super small portions. I don't deny the food tasted good, but it's so overpriced for its serving size! That cup of fries (to be honest tasted OKAYYYY) cost $6! Pretty sure I could have polished that off in like under a minute. My Jason's Very Hotdog is probably the most filling thing on the menu and costed around $19. I probably won't visit again unless I feel like I have a lot of spare cash to spend.
We moved over to the bar, which is just next door. It's called The Library and you would need to get password of the day from Keong Saik Snacks. I presume they share the same owner since they share the same menu for bar snacks. The password for the day was Candy Cane but I first heard it as Tender Gay. I repeated it (loudly may I add...) like 4 times before the server realized I got it wrong. It was really awkward. Hahaha.
After verifying you and your group of friends have the right password, the lady will point to the bookshelf and you are supposed to pull the shelf open. Alas! Behind the bookshelf is a tucked away bar (sits around maybe 20-30 people?). It's really dark so be careful when you first enter and give your eyes some time to adjust. They have really some really cute drinks (which are quite overpriced as well). I had a non-alcoholic one called Daddy's Pink Shirt - taste like pink lemonade.
Juju came home last weekend and threw a party at Grandma's. It's been some time since we had a celebration at Grandma's. Ever since Grandpa passed away 5 years ago, she didn't want any form of celebrations at home, not even her birthday.
Thanks Juju for making the effort and it was a really good get-together with everyone in the family and extended family :)
I'm pretty sure there were a few more dinners like the one at the Ramen place in Raffles City (I can't even remember the name..), La Cantine (their baby quich and truffle fries are to die for), L'opretta (will write about that soon!), copious servings of desserts at Canele, drinks at Harry's (mini fish and chips are awesome), lunches at Wee Nam Kee (god I can never get tired of eating chicken rice) and many more.
It's a miracle I can still fit into my clothes.
Inbetween all these meals, I caught Argo twice, had a free ticket to SPH's preview of The Hobbit, had too many office parties and put my hand up to be Wendy's helper on the ROM day. Now I just hope my new gown gets delivered on time. If not, I will wear my second choice(s) - the purple Geek goddess dress or the pink short toga one. HMMM. Choices choices! No harm storing that many gowns in the wardrobe since I have tons of weddings coming up. Hurhur.
Now I have to go work on my year end post (so many things to reflect on and so many resolutions for the coming year!) and many more stuff to clear off my table for work.
Life has been really really good to me and there are so many things to be thankful for every single day. Thank you all the lovelies in my life and a huge thank you to the higher powers above! :)
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