Binge - Take Home Christmas

Let’s cut to the chase, girls. Here are more suggestions on what to bring home for your Christmas party so you don’t have to get your hands dirty with the cooking. The only thing we’d add is, buy items you can’t make at home easily so you stretch your money’s worth!

Grand Hyatt Singapore

Here’s one place you can always really trust to fork out quality food and great presentation, no matter what you pick from the menu, whether it is a main or dessert - that’s been my experience with this hotel for the last 20 years of my food writing and personal eating. I bought a fig tart for a Christmas party from here almost 10 years ago and people are still talking about it. So what’s available here this year? Whole Christmas Tom Turkey with Giblet Gravy and Cranberry Chutney ($145/ 5kg), whole spit-roasted duckling ($68), roasted goose ($212), salmon fillet baked in brioche with dill and sour cream sauce ($126/1.5 kg). For sweets, take the macaroon log cake with crispy lindt chocolate mousse ($64), and panettone with rum-marinated fruit ($32). Or how about a super indulgent box of 99 chocolate pralines ($198)?

Tel: 6734 6731

Mandarin Orchard

Did you know the original Christmas bird was actually the goose? So don’t let the turkeys get you down if you’re no fan of the gobbler. How about Roasted Kurobuta Pork Rack ($158/1.5 kg) for your festive meat instead? Or Rosemary Roasted Sakura Chicken (1.5kg, $88 nett) with chestnut and green apple stuffing, Lamb Leg with Dried Fruits and Nuts ($168/2.5 kg), or a light Salmon and Scallop Mille-feuille (1.5kg, $150 nett), an impressive dish of salmon layered with scallop mousse and topped with a puff pastry crust? And for dessert, try the Green Tea and Hokkaido Azuki Yule Log or Chocolate Hazelnut Raspberry Yule Log ($65/1 kg).

From now til 1 January 2011

Tel: 6831 6272

Royal Plaza on Scotts

Go a little French with Galette des Rois, or Twelfth Night Cake, which follows a popular French tradition. Served only on the day of Epiphany (or 12 days after Christmas), it’s a confection of almond frangipane paste, sandwiched between layers of puff pastry. Hidden inside is a little token, and whoever gets the slice with this little prize gets to be the King or Queen. He or she wears the gold paper crown that comes with the cake and will host the Galette des Rois the following year. How cool is that? It’s not often seen here in Singapore, but you can get it at Gourmet Carousel from 1 to 6 January 2011 at $52. Meanwhile, check out Carousel’s Christmas sweets like their macaroons, and fantastical cakes in the form of mushrooms and caterpillars. They’re bound to please the kids.

Tel: 6589 7788 or gourmet@royalplaza.com.sg

Coriander Leaf

Get a different spin on Christmas with Coriander Leaf’s goodies. We especially like their desserts –high on uniqueness and value too: Valrhona Chocolate Tartlets (3 dozen @ $84+), Mini Fig Tartlets (3 dozen @ $84+), Fruit Cake with liquor (450gms @ $28+) and Cranberry and Ginger Pudding 450gms @ $32+. While we’re at it, their customized hampers are also perfect for gifting. Give them a budget starting from $35 and Samia will sort it out for you with goodies like homemade chutneys & condiments, cookies, confection and spice mixes. Of these, make sure you get her fabulous Coriander Pesto. There’s also kebsa spice and sumac spice mixes, cumin crisps, almond pralines and flavoured helvas.

3A River Valley Road

#02-03 Clarke Quay

Tel: 6732-3354

De Ste

Here’s the shop the go to when you are superbly artistic confections. Their chocolate Christmas tree (left) is just to die for, so gorgeous you don’t need a real Christmas tree. See the pretty picture? Enough said.

Saint Pierre

So stylish it hurts hostesses must be different, so pick up your party pack from Saint Pierre – foie gras terrine, lobster bisque, 200-day aged angus beef, 72-hour braised beef short rib and Scottish salmon. For sweets, how about a date and raisin pudding or their signature flourless chocolate cake? Available until 20 Dec only.

#01-01 Central Mall

3 Magazine Road

Tel: 64380887

Truffs

For chocolate lovers, check out Truffs’ Christmas Log Cake. A glossy, shiny presentation of moist chocolate sponge cake rolled with chocolate ganache, finished with a shiny dark chocolate glaze and bedecked with fresh fruits and chocolate thins. ($85 / 1.4 kg).

179A Telok Ayer Street

Singapore 068627

Tel: 90882736

- Ee Waun

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Simply Fabulicious People - Pastry Chef Christophe's Baubles, Trees and Other Delights

We’ve known about Hilton Singapore’s best kept secret for some time now, and we figured Christmas and the year-end holidays is the best time to throw the limelight on the hotel’s super creative Executive Pastry Chef, Christophe Grilo. So we caught up him just earlier this week with a candid, never-before-seen exclusive interview right here with SimplyFab. 

A master of whimsical confections who clearly spins sweet treats with a lively sense of humour, Chef Grilo’s Christmas confections are quirky and cute. They have a childish fun about them which makes them such winners. We recently had a preview of his lemon tart disguised as a Christmas tree – tangy, smooth and comforting yet not too sweet – and a golden chocolate Christmas bauble filled with tiramisu, all gloriously 3D in form, and as delicious as they are gorgeous. If you want to throw a peerlessly tasteful party for the yuletide season, SimplyFab ladies just have serve up these lighthearted confections, one for each guest. And because SimplyFab had a chance to, we squeezed in some probing, sugar-coated questions for Chef Christophe, just for you ladies….

SimplyFab: Your pastries are very creative and distinctive. How do you get these wonderful ideas and what do you want your customers to get out of it?

Chef Christophe: I feel inspired after two beers…! :) I am always curious and I like to try new things. It is not easy to create a new pastry, so I like to reflect on what has been done before and experiment with new ingredients and sometimes prepare a pastry in a different manner and get wonderful surprises. The pastries that evolved should be elegant and easy to eat. I hope you will feel good seeing it and enjoy it.

Lemon Tart disguised as a Christmas tree

SimplyFab: SimplyFab readers are sophisticated ladies who have been there, done that and bought the diamonds. What sort of confection would you recommend we serve as a suitable dinner party dessert that reflects our luscious spirit and lifestyle?

Chef Christophe: Fresh berries and raspberry sorbet in a shallow crispy meringue spherical eggshell, served with a light vanilla cream will be perfect for the ladies.

Christmas Panettone

(Not the Supremo though, but also yummy)

SimplyFab: What should we buy back from Hilton's Checkers Deli and serve for a Christmas party that will knock the socks off our guests?

Chef Christophe: The Supremo Panettone with High Quality Fruits made with one-year-old yeast and imported fruits from the south of France. To enjoy this bread, you should first lightly toast the slices and have it with a good vanilla ice cream.

Golden bauble tiramisu

SimplyFab: How should we eat the 3D lemon tart and golden bauble in a way befitting our elegance? Break it up from top down? Pull it apart piece by piece?

Chef Christophe: To eat the golden bauble: First, gently remove the top half of the golden sphere with your fingers, thereafter you can scoop up the tiramisu with a dessert spoon. To enjoy the 3D lemon tart, work your way up the Christmas Tree with a fork from its base.

Chef Christophe makes 3D cakes too, like this luxe handbag orange choc cake

SimplyFab: Oooo! We love to work our way from the bottom up all sorts of our just desserts! So what confection do you suggest we seduce someone with? How can you help us?

Chef Christophe: I will prepare an elegant crispy dark chocolate cake shaped in a perfect cube. Ensconced in a thin dark chocolate (66%) is soft hazelnut sponge with layers of chocolate and coffee cream and V.S.O.P. caramel.

SimplyFab: Lovely! And can you share with us a simple recipe we can whip up in our kitchens for post-dinner playtime?

Chef Christophe: Here’s the recipe for the One-Minute Espresso Tiramisu with a Vodka Shot. You should be able to prepare this in 1 minute.

One-Minute Espresso Tiramisu with a Vodka Shot

By Executive Pastry Chef, Christophe Grilo

Hilton Singapore

(Serves 6)

100g Digestive biscuit crumbs

250g Mascarpone cheese

25g Sugar

1/2 tsp Brown sugar

6 pcs Ladies fingers (biscotti)

20g Liquid Cream

2 shots Espresso

Vodka shots, as many as you like

Method:

1. Hand-whisk mascarpone cheese, liquid cream and sugar for half-minute.
2. Lay out 6 espresso cups and apportion some biscuit crumbs (don’t use all) into the cups.

3. Fill the cups ¾ full with the cream mix (from Step #1).

4. Add more biscuit crumbs into the cup

5. Add ½ tsp brown sugar into the double-shot espresso.

6. Break the ladies fingers into two and soak the lady fingers into the double-shot espresso.

7. Stick the soaked ladies fingers into the cup of tiramisu and serve with vodka shots.

8. To enjoy, down a shot of vodka and have your tiramisu. Repeat the process with vodka shots as many times as you like!

PS. You can get hold of his baubles and tree at Checkers Deli at the Hilton Singapore from now until 24 Dec.
- Ee Waun

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Binge - Afternoon Tea at The Ritz Carlton and Chef Pang's Stupendous Sweets

While tete-a-tete’s are taking the form of cocktails and tapas among the girls these days, it looks like the Afternoon Tea is still alive and kicking….But if there’s no boozy tipples on the menu, then the nibbles have got to a be really good too, to be picked up on our radar of Simply Fab stops.

One that more than meets our muster is the afternoon tea at the Ritz Carlton Millenia Singapore’s Chihuly Lounge. I have been here a few times, and even though it is pricier than many other spreads in town among the luxury hotels, this stands out for Chef Terence Pang’s creativity. The last one I tasted had a summer, beachy theme with pastries and cakes made out as sailboats and surfers. This November (until 28 Nov), his theme is ‘Indian Autumn’.

Tuck into chocolate almond sponge flavoured with spices, praline lemon tarts, and a super unusual pea mousse with wasabi cherry jelly. For a little action, pain perdu with maple is done a la minute. There are savouries of autumn produce too - scallop confit with green leek vichyssoise, Indian cheese tikki with grilled Portobello mushrooms, grilled beef rolls with bamboo shoots and chives as well as seafood gyoza with korma dressing. All this you eat off Bernardaud’s ‘Feuille d'or’ tableware, and accompnay with a mind boggling choice of 30 teas. How to choose?!

Spot the teensy little droppers next to each chocolate slice? Add your own syrup. Cute huh?

As for the good chef, let it be known that Chef Pang is one exceptional talent who has so far been underrated. Cheerful and unassuming, he doesn't seem to be given enough recognition and air time for his superbly artistic morsels. They taste as good as they look, and transport even adults to an idealised childhood candy moment. And pardon my gushing, they are some of the most creative and unique I have seen here in all my 20 years of being a food scribe. (The other guy is Exec Pastry Chef Christophe Grilo of the Hilton Singapore - but more on him on another post.) Here  eye candy of Chef Pang's edible 'artwork' (above and left) from an earlier Brunch on '78 at the Ritz Carlton (their super glitzy brunch that happened only once a quarter which I believe is now over).....see the pretty pictures and salivate! Let's see what we churns out for December!

Price: $42 per adult and $21 per child (6-12 years old) on Saturdays and Sundays from 2:30 to 5 pm.

Tel : 6434 5288 for reservations
- Ee Waun

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Binge – Sweet Sinfulness! Cakes, Ice Cream and Desserts!

Such sinfulness! Like sugar isn’t enough of the devil for us svelte darlings, they’re now combining it with alcohol, too. What is a modern girl to do to hold on to her raging infernal desires? What’s this frenzy all about?

Häagen-Dazs Singapore is the FIRST country in Asia to launch a Cocktail Menu. Available only at its Clarke Quay café (3A River Valley Road, #01-07), the menu offers ice cream cocktails, sorbet-blended cocktails and liqueur coffee! According to Mr. Yiannis Karaolides, Managing Director for General Mills Singapore, Vietnam, Indonesia & Malaysia, this is part of the brand’s ‘Slow Melting in Progress’ campaign. For a sampling for sin, consider Roman Romance ($18) a fusion of raspberry sorbet, sparkling lemonade, lime juice, fresh strawberry and a shot of tequila, or Santorini Sunset ($16), a combination of Mango Sorbet, vodka, lime juice and pineapple juice. Ooh – and what’s this? Luscious Venetian Velvet ($16), a concoction of Belgian Chocolate ice cream, fresh milk and Bailey’s Irish Cream! If you’ve got the cone, I’ve got the cream!

Clark Quay

3A River Valley Road #01-07

Speaking of sins, 1-Twenty Six, the ‘copacobana’ bar at East Coast Park has rolled out a new cocktail menu that draws from the seven deadly sins – sloth, lust, wrath, despair and the lot. Under each ‘sin’ is a selection of dangerous and bold cocktails made from fruits and ingredients often found in the pastry kitchen. Sip on cocktails like Dragon’s Breath, a fiery-red concoction of spiced rum, dragon fruit, Frangelico hazelnut, vanilla and coconut cream (Ooo! Cholesterol!); Antoinette’s Vanity (named after Marie-Antoinette) which contains passion fruit vodka, pear, grapefruit, green tea, vanilla and comes with a freshly made cupcake (Cute!) and a titillating tipple called The Younger Man with brandy, lychee, blue curacao, passionfruit, cranberries, and soursop. Included in the heady line-up is a category of drinks called ‘Punch Bowl’ ($80) which serves 3-4 people. There are four choices here, of which White Rosemount Sangri and Pimm's Lemonade, comprising Pimm's No. 1, cucumbers, lemonade, ginger and apple sounds best. So go for your healthy evening run with a bit of cash in your pocket, end at the bar and hydrate with these sexy sins. We like!

902 East Coast Parkway

Playground@Big Splash #01-26

If you're into a spot of clean-living, over at Handy Road, 1-Caramel recently served forth its new cake menu. So lovely, charming and prim, you feel you’re a blue-rinsed, floral frocked lady sitting on those tight little tables and nibbling on fine confections. What did Auntie enjoy here since she didn’t taste The Younger Man (see above)?

I liked Midori ($7.90) the best – a slice of green decadence flavoured with matcha and adzuki beans (aka ‘ang tow’) with yuzu-infused bavarois. So oriental chic, I could keel over. I also tried the Lychee Rose ($7.90) with lychee and rose mousse with juicy lychee jelly and valrhona ivoire chocolate glaze. Nice for lychee martini lovers, prim nuns and preschool teachers. It’s all very sweet and yummy. Most tantalizing was the Chocolate Slut ($8.90) - love the name! - with multiple layers of chocolate sponge, caramel peanut butter mousse, marshmallow chunks, with dark rich glaze. So decadent, no wonder it comes with such an ‘in-your-face’ name. As you can see, they are geniuses in naming their cakes.

Other slices that caught my eye - Red Velvet ($7.90) with moist sponge and layers of rich 75% Sao Tome dark chocolate and juicy dark sweet cherries; Hazelnut Orange ($6.90) – my favourite pastry kitchen ingredients!– which includes hazelnuts, rosemary, navel orange and grand marnier, and a dense, unforgiving Maltesers cheesecake ($8.90) with a coffee crumb base, horlicks marbling and maltesers chocolate balls topped with luscious manjari ganache. Indeed they specialize overwhelmingly in cakes and sweets, but just a quick note, they serve light brunches here too, lunch items and a lovely range of souffles. Must go! Do note though that there is absolutely no salvation here, ladies!

The Luxe

Handy Road

- Ee Waun

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Binge - Cocktails & Light Bites with the Girls

When girls get together for a catch up session or a good ‘bitch’, the venue is (almost) everything. It has to be conducive enough for conversation, comfy enough for lingering, stylish enough for association.

One of my favourite places is Bodega y Tapas, a regular haunt for my girlfriend and I. It’s a pretty casual, almost rustic set up adjacent to Orchard Hotel, and what we like about it is that it’s a little more quiet than most places. Best of all, the food and wine are great value.

Wines, cava, cocktails and sangria – for which they have a few variations beyond the norm - all go one-for-one literally all day (until 9.30pm!). Their Spanish chef rolls out a menu of 35 tapas too, and I always like the Spanish cheese platter ($17) and trio of croquettes. Enough of these small dishes, plus a hearty stream of libation makes a particularly good lunch, especially if you don’t have to totter back to the office after.

The new menu offers things like pork cheeks ($15) with pumpkin sauce and Madrid-style beef tripe stew ($12) slow-cooked with chickpeas and Pimenton. For $20, you can pick three tapas from a menu of seven for a weekday set lunch, or if you have a group of girls with you, there’s Paella Española with chicken, vegetables & seafood ($80 for 4 to 5 pax), and the squid ink paella with squid and prawns ($70 for 4 to 5 pax). Only thing is, you have to order the latter two dishes one day in advance. And for upmarket foodies, this is one place that serves premium Spanish ham – the famous Jamón Ibérico de Bellota (40g at $24) and the Jamón Ibérico Reserva (40g at $20). The sangria here is generous with fruits, there’s even a bubbly cava sangria, and their Bellinis are very nice too. Chin chin!

442 Orchard Road, #01-29 Orchard Hotel

(65) 6735 3476

12pm – 11.45pm

I honestly prefer my wines ‘cos I always imagine chocolate has more calories….but if you and your gals like what the Aztecs imbibed, get your artisanal cacao fix at the chi chi Chocolate DeSténation at 313@Somerset. Cakes here are unique and super cute, like the Potato, Italian Garden Cake and the Chocolate Strawberry shortcake wrap. Drinks to have are the hot chocolate, Nippon Hot chocolate with a dash of wasabi, and look at this! …cocktails from $7.50 and on Wednesdays, 1-for-1 chocolate cocktails & wines from 5pm! Nice! And there’s more fun fun fun.

This place serves a daily breakfast set at $7.80 (inclusive of pastry of your choice and coffee/tea), 40% off pastries from 9am-12pm; all-day 1-for-1 hot chocolate on Tuesdays; and if you’re mending a broken heart by busting your girth, there’s the sinful dessert degustation set at $14.80 (inclusive of pastry, chocolate bon bon, a scoop of gelato and coffee/tea) daily from 12pm-6pm. And finally for a cake with a statement (good to know if you’re bringing dessert to a dinner party), Chef Stefano (the Italian guy who runs this place) offers quirky originals in limited quantities – check out Han’ei, an Asian inspired cake with white chocolate and wasabi, black sesame sponge and yolk custard scented with yuzu ($65) and its signature Candle, made with Tahitensis vanilla cream, caramel mousse, crunchy praline with rock chocolate base ( $80). Not original enough? Have your cake customized and eat it too, with an advanced phone call. I like!

313 Orchard Rd #01-25/25A

Tel: 68365344

Then for the top of the world feeling, I just discovered Wangz Hotel, a new barrel-shaped boutique hotel in Tiong Bahru (Yes! Don’t get too excited, Aunties – it IS just a skip from Tiong Bahru market!) Right at the rooftop, its lounge/bar Halo does one for one cocktails ($14++ per order) every Wednesday from 4pm. The range of cocktails offered on this deal changes monthly so go over and be surprised. What’s nice here is the more-than-180-degree view of the city and the surrounds, the relatively quieter ambience (jazz and bossa nova), you’re surrounded by reflecting pools of water, and best thing is, we can make reservations for the few tables so Aunties don’t have to stand on their heels all night!

231 Outram Road

Tel: 6595 1388

- by Ee Waun

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