D6 life happenings | THE STRAITS TIMES | FRIDAY, JULY 20, 2018 |

FOOD enjoy the fireworks. Besides the five-course National Day Exclusive Tan Hsueh Yun Life Editor recommends PROMOTIONS Menu ($138++ a person), there is a Pre-book Table Package ($200++ BAKED GOODS A HIT Positano Risto’s New Menu minimum spend for four people) After classes at New York’s Launch where diners can book their table International Culinary Center, for a selection of drinks and food. Italian restaurant Positano Risto has Naadhira Ismail would walk past the The Walk-In Package ($52++ a launched a fresh menu with more school’s bakery, inhaling the scent of than 10 new creations. For starters, person) includes two complimentary Food Picks sourdough loaves that students try the Arancini Balls ($11.95), made house pours. turned out. They could help with fragrant Italian rice and stuffed WHERE: 05-03/06-02 National themselves to the goods too, with mozzarella. The thin crust Gallery, 1 St Andrew’s Road MRT: City and the pastry student became Roma-style pizza ($16.95 to $28.95) is Hall WHEN: Aug 9, 6.30 - 10.30pm enchanted with bread. crafted by an Italian pizza chef and PRICE: $52++ - $138++ a person the calzone, topped with turkey ham TEL: 6866-1977 INFO: E-mail After completing her course at the and pepperoni strips, is worth [email protected] centre, formerly known as the French mentioning. The signature Boston Culinary Institute, she worked for lobster fettuccine ($58.95, serves Hawker Favourites At French bakery chain Maison Kayser two) comes with creamy lobster Feast@East and, later, Runner & Stone, a bakery in bisque and a whole Boston lobster. Grand Mercure Roxy is Brooklyn, before coming home. WHERE: 66 Bussorah Street serving popular hawker dishes at Two months ago, she opened MRT: Bugis WHEN: Lunch: 11.30am - its Feast@East Buffet Restaurant, Mother Dough Bakery in North Bridge 3pm (Mon - Sat); dinner: 6 - 10pm such as chilli crab, char kway teow and Road, naming it after the sourdough (Mon - Thu), 6 - 11pm (Fri), 6pm - fried carrot cake. On Aug 9, there will starter used to make good bread. midnight (Sat); 11.30am - 10pm (Sun) be a live screening of the National Day Her loaves, including a Baby PRICE: Selected items: $9.95 - $58.95 Parade and diners get 50 per cent off Baguette ($2), are crusty and craggy, TEL: 6292-1866 adult and child prices. and have the tang of good sourdough. INFO: positanoristo.com WHERE: Level 3 Grand Mercure Toasted and spread lavishly with Singapore Roxy, 50 East Coast Road salted butter and drizzled with honey, Hida Wagyu At Keyaki MRT: Eunos/Dakota WHEN/ the baguettes make for compulsive The wagyu beef promotion is making PRICE: July 28 - Sept 2; lunch eating. its return to Keyaki, with prime cuts of (noon - 2.30pm): $46++ an But the 32-year-old started as a Hida beef prepared and served in five adult/$23++ a child pastry student after all and her menus showcasing the robust flavour (pioneers/seniors: $31/$35 nett); almond croissant ($4, right) is dinner (6 - 9.30pm): $51++ - of the premium meat. The beef comes smashing. Many bakeries make them $53++/$25++ - $26++ from black-haired Japanese cows with unsold croissants, but at Mother (pioneers/seniors: $32/$38 nett) raised in Gifu Prefecture for at least Dough, they disappear so quickly that 14 months. Highlights include the TEL: 6340-5665 INFO: E-mail [email protected] she makes croissants just for this teppanyaki Hida wagyu beef steak, treat. pan-fried Hida wagyu beef on rice and Deliveroo’s National Day deals Bite into one of these beauties, Hida wagyu beef sashimi. studded with sliced almonds, and WHERE: Level 4 Pan Pacific Singapore, For a limited period, orders of selected items from a number of there is crisp lightness and then 7 Raffles Boulevard MRT: Promenade not-too-sweet cream flecked with WHEN: Aug 6 - Sept 30, 11.30am - restaurants via food delivery service Deliveroo will be priced at or carry a brown from almond skin. Cue waves of 2.30pm, 6.30 - 10.30pm PRICE: Lunch pleasure. set menus: $68++ - $210++; dinner discount of $5.30. The discount applies to A-One Claypot House’s The croissants are more compelling set menus: $190++ - $210++ Claypot Chicken & Mushroom Rice, than the plain ones ($3) or those TEL: 6826-8240 INFO: E-mail Sushi Tei’s Sushi Roll with Grilled stuffed with chocolate and almonds [email protected] Spicy Fish Cake (otar) and Soup ($4.40); turkey ham and cheese ($4); Kimme & Hey Handsome Restaurant’s Samsui Ginger Chicken cheese ($3.40); and beef pepperoni Four-Hands Collaboration (half). The $5.30 items are Sushi Teh’s and cheese ($3.80). Nasi Lemak Roll and Qi Ji’s Prawn Louis Han and Nicco Santos, the Her wares sell out fast, but if Lemon Baby Baguette (or three) for when Roll (two pieces). Customers respective head chefs of Kimme in Cake ($4 a slice, right) is available, I need a bread fix. can also take part in Food Battles – Singapore and Hey Handsome in pounce. The pound cake has a velvety And to think, before culinary school, vote on Deliveroo’s Facebook page for Manila, will come together to present crumb and is not too dense. It has a Ms Naadhira “baked for fun”. After a your chosen Ming Kitchen (by Sunday) a seven-course tasting menu. bright lemon flavour and I don’t even decade organising fashion events in and Boon Tong Kee (Aug 3 - 5) dishes Kimme’s speciality is modern Korean mind the drizzle of icing on top. It Singapore, she took the plunge and to be available at a discount. dishes, while Hey Handsome focuses looks lethally sweet, but is not. went to New York. WHERE: deliveroo.com.sg The Banana Walnut and Chocolate “I had a good feeling about it,” on the flavours and textures found in WHEN: $5.30 offers: July 23 - Aug 12 Malaysian and Singaporean cuisine. Espresso cakes ($4 a slice) have she says. (check with Deliveroo for other perfect texture, but the bananas WHERE: Mother Dough Bakery, 01-01, WHERE: Kimme Restaurant, 47 Amoy relevant dates) TEL: 3163-7074 need to be more ripe and I would like a 749 North Bridge Road MRT: Bugis Street MRT: Telok Ayer WHEN: Aug 1 & INFO: E-mail support@ stronger coffee flavour. OPEN: Noon to 7pm (Tuesdays to 2, 7pm PRICE: $135++ a person deliveroo.com.sg or go to Mostly, I am happy with my almond Saturdays), 11am to 5pm (Sundays), TEL: 6514-1588 INFO: E-mail facebook.com/DeliverooSG [email protected] croissant or lemon cake and a cold closed on Mondays TEL: 6909-6604 brew tea ($6) and I always leave with a INFO: www.motherdough.com.sg Oishii So Japan! At Carousel MID-AUTUMN FESTIVAL Guest chefs Tomoki Kogure and Kenko Kimura of Royal Park Hotels New Ice-Cream Mooncakes From Japan will be dishing out their Hello Kitty Orchid Garden UGLY DELICIOUS PRODIGAL GETS NEW HOME Hello Kitty Orchid Garden is signature creations at Carousel’s It takes courage For a few blissful weeks, I haunted introducing two ice-cream Oishii So Japan! promotion. On to serve unpretty Prodigal Roasters in Ang Mo Kio, glad mooncakes. The Pink Passionfruit opening night, diners can expect a food these days, to have excellent coffee near work cutting ceremony of an 80kg Punch, made with passionfruit ice cream, and Butter Me Up – salted when style so often and home. blue-fin tuna, a taiko drum trumps substance One Sunday, I popped in for a performance and cosplayers. butterscotch ice cream with cookie crumble bits – are wrapped in delicate and looks trump cappuccino and found that it was The menu features dishes such as ika taste. the last day of operations. meshi (boiled squid stuffed with rice), pastry skin embossed with the iconic feline. Also available is the cafe’s The Salted Plum Fortunately, I can still get my fix – I umaki (roasted eel in omelette), in Circular Road has just have to go to MacPherson. tai no marine (marinated sea bream), traditional baked mooncake, Over The Moon, salted egg yolk in lotus seed that courage. The There, in a maze of Housing Board and 13 flavours of ice cream such as paste with lotus seeds and wrapped restaurant, which blocks, Prodigal has a larger, brighter wasabi cheese. in a traditional baked pastry skin. grew out of a cafe which opened in February. On WHERE: Level 1 Royal Plaza on Scotts, WHERE: Arrival Hall Central, 01-22 pop-up in South the menu are its excellent cookies, 25 Scotts Road MRT: Orchard Singapore Changi Airport Terminal 3, Bridge Road called Five Ten, serves Taiwanese-inspired cakes and other bakes, and more WHEN: Aug 10 - 19, 6.30 - 9.30pm 65 Airport Boulevard MRT: Changi small plates, which cost $5 or $10 for the most part. substantial food offerings. PRICE: $83++ an adult, $49++ a child Airport WHEN/PRICE: Open 24 hours; At lunch, the restaurant serves $10 lunch bowls for the Coffee, however, is a must. If beans need food. If it is available, the Bak TEL: 6589-7799 INFO: E-mail Aug 15 - Sept 7: $29.80++/nett [email protected] office crowd, but the dinner menu is far more interesting. from and Myanmar are Kwa & Cranberry Scone ($3.50) is a dine-in/takeaway; Sept 8 - 24: Bamboo Shoots ($5) braised in broth tastes clean available, even better. must. Warm, buttery and tender, $33.80++/nett for box of and I cannot get enough of the juicy shoots. Also good are The Thai beans, from Chiang Rai, need I say more? NATIONAL DAY two pieces TEL: 6241-6127 the crackly-skinned Smashed Baby Potatoes ($5) are full of power, waking me up The Miso Cheese Tart ($6), drizzled INFO: HelloKittyOrchidGarden.com sprinkled with plum powder, a decidedly weird immediately. The brew reminds me with miso caramel, has a Local Dim Sum Delights At Yan combination which works. of local kopi, which powers so many phenomenal crust and I would like Perennial Favourites And Three From the $10 part of the menu, I order two pork dishes, of our mornings. more of that caramel. Mr Ho should Yan’s a la carte National Day dim sum New Flavours At Cherry Garden menu of local delights presents six which do not stand up to scrutiny. Pork Chop is described The Myanmar beans make a bottle it. Ground coffee goes into the Cherry Garden at Mandarin Oriental, items. Among the highlights are on the menu as “juicy af”. It is not. The pork is sliced too thin smooth, slightly herby and sweet Brownie ($5), deepening its Singapore presents perennial steamed Hainanese chicken with so the meat dries out. Haus Bacon is similarly lacklustre. It cappuccino ($5). Both are satisfying chocolate flavour. favourites and three new mooncakes. sticky rice wrapped in lotus leaf comes without the promised raw garlic, but I doubt even in their own way. For something more substantial, Two new traditional baked ($4++ a piece), deep-fried satay that would have made it better. The cafe also sells cold coffee in order Mushroom Egg Toast ($15, mooncakes highlight pairings often chicken wonton ($6.80++ for three There are, however, dishes to like. Oyster Steamed Egg bottles. I love the Magic ($6.50 for above). Thick-cut sandwich bread, found in . The classic pieces) and spicy steamed xiao long taro and coconut dessert is ($10) is delicate and wobbly, the flavour of the homespun 250ml), two ristretto shots with milk. lightly toasted, comes from a bao in laksa stock ($5.80++ for four reinterpreted as a mooncake with sea dish amped up with dashi and fat little oysters. Braised Pig I’m working up the courage to go for heritage bakery in Whampoa. The pieces). Others include soon kueh salt caramel ($42+ for two pieces/ Intestines ($10, above), soft from long cooking in a rich soy the three-shot Tragic ($7 for 330ml) softly scrambled eggs and grilled transformed into steamed pork and $82+ for four pieces), while the braising sauce, has no trace of funk. Spoon the gravy over and hope I will never need the portobello topped with cheddar go mushroom dumpling with chives pandan mooncake ($38+ for two Shiny Rice (50 cents), slicked with lard and garlic oil. The four-shot Logic ($7.50 for 340ml). down easily, but what I love most on ($6.80++ for three pieces), pan-fried pieces/$72+ for four pieces) has a kicky chilli sauce is perfect with the offal too. Owner Glen Ho, 31, got into coffee that plate is the smear of red bell buns filled with sweet and spicy chilli red-bean core with melon seeds. Brussels Sprouts ($10), sweet from severe charring and after a friend pulled him a shot at pepper hummus. crab meat ($9++ for three pieces) and The snowskin collection ($75 for eight piled unceremoniously on a plate with shiitake mushroom home. He started making his own I don’t even mind going out of my steamed yam cake with mushroom pieces) includes the mango puree slices and salted pork, is supremely ugly, but infinitely using a 10-year-old coffee machine way for it. and dried shrimp ($5.80++ a piece). with macadamia nuts and the delicious. and then bought a popcorn popper WHERE: Prodigal Cafe, 01-55, WHERE: 05-02 National Gallery signature lychee martini with WHERE: The Salted Plum, 10 Circular Road MRT: Raffles to roast his own green coffee beans. Block 81 MacPherson Lane Singapore, 1 St Andrew’s Road chocolate truffle. Place OPEN: 11.30am to 2.30pm, 6 to 9.30pm (Mondays to It broke down and that led to his MRT: Tai Seng OPEN: 10am to 6pm MRT: City Hall WHEN: Aug 1 - 31, noon - WHERE: Level 5 Mandarin Oriental Fridays), 11pm to 2.30am (Fridays), 6 to 9.30pm, 11pm to getting a proper roaster, and (Thursdays to Tuesdays), closed on 2.30pm PRICE: $4++ - $9++ Singapore, 5 Raffles Avenue 2.30am (Saturdays), closed on Sundays TEL: 6260-0155 eventually opening a cafe. Wednesdays TEL: 9450-0484 TEL: 6384-5585 INFO: E-mail MRT: Promenade WHEN: Aug 16 - INFO: www.facebook.com/TheSaltedPlumSG As much as I need coffee, I also INFO: www.prodigalroasters.com [email protected] Sept 24 PRICE: Snowskin: $75+ (eight pieces); baked mooncakes: Heritage Buffet At Azur $38+ - $42+ for two pieces, $72+ - Celebrate the nation’s birthday at $82+ for four pieces ROBUST BAK KUT TEH love those juicy, fatty pork ribs. Crowne Plaza Changi Airport’s Azur TEL: 6885-3081 INFO: E-mail Back when The Straits Times and Customers can opt for lean ribs too. with a special heritage buffet [email protected] featuring local culinary flavours. Lianhe Zaobao ran the annual Hawker ($2), or deep-fried crullers, Besides seafood on ice such as Masters programme, we were are perfectly crisp and not oil-logged Boston lobsters, French oysters WINE EVENT stunned one year when we could not and they soak up the broth very well. and flower crabs, there are local find a worthy master for bak kut teh. I find the Salted Vegetable ($3), favourites like bak kut teh, Katong Damilano Wine Dinner At The finalists for that category were Braised Peanuts ($3) and Pork laksa, Hainanese chicken rice, Zafferano underwhelming; turning out thin Stomach Soup ($8) quite forgettable, kueh pie tee and Asian roasts. Zafferano Italian Restaurant & broth with no meat flavour, broth that and the Pork Cartilage Soup ($8) was End the meal on a sweet note with Lounge is offering a five-course tasted overwhelmingly of pepper and too salty when I last had it. ice kacang, waffles and dinner curated by head chef pork ribs that were too dry. But I would make room for Pork Ball rainbow-coloured bread with local Emanuele Faggi, with wine pairings If Tuan Yuan Pork Ribs Soup had Soup ($6), full of umami from dried flavours such as gula melaka. from Damilano Wine Company. been open then, it would have won. It sole fish worked into the meat. WHERE: Crowne Plaza Changi Airport, Highlights of the menu include the serves bak kut teh Singapore can be The best part of the meal, however, 75 Airport Boulevard MRT: Changi veal tongue ravioli served with proud of. is lifting the lid on a bowl of bak kut Airport WHEN: Aug 9, noon - 2.30pm, 6 tobacco and laurel sauce (paired with The broth is simmered three times in teh and inhaling the aroma of the - 10pm PRICE: Lunch: $53++ an Barolo Lecinquevigne 2013) and the different vats, each time becoming broth. Then I turn the lid over, to adult/$26.50++ a child; dinner: pan-roasted venison served with heartier yet remaining clear. You can use as a plate for bones, and $68++/$34++ TEL: 6823-5354 oven-baked quince apple and get it without pepper, with pepper or demolish the bowl. INFO: E-mail [email protected] broccoli (Barolo Cannubi 2012). with extra pepper. The regular amount WHERE: Tuan Yuan Pork Ribs Soup, WHERE: Level 43 Ocean Financial of pepper is just right – it won’t blow 01-01, Block 127 Kim Tian Road Three Ways To Celebrate Centre, 10 Collyer Quay MRT: Raffles your head off, but the broth is still MRT: Tiong Bahru OPEN: 11am to 1am At Aura Place WHEN: July 26, 7pm plenty aromatic and robust. (Tuesdays to Sundays), closed on Aura will be having three separate PRICE: $98++ a person A regular bowl costs $8, but I pay $1 Mondays TEL: 6684-0123 promotions in both the restaurant TEL: 6509-1488 more for Spare Ribs Soup because I INFO: www.tuanyuan.sg ST PHOTOS: TAN HSUEH YUN and the Sky Lounge, where guests can INFO: E-mail [email protected]