A taste of middle eastern

Admittedly I don't know Middle Eastern cuisine well but X is a big fan. So when we found ourselves wondering around RWS looking for a place to eat, he was immediately drawn to Anar. The belly dancing, I'm sure helped pique his interest too but unfortunately we were too early. I believe it starts from 8pm.

Once inside, you feel immediately transported into the movie set of the Arabian Nights.

A complimentary starter of feta cheese

with a complimentary serving of pita bread

(they charge $2.50 for additional serving which I thought was unnecessary considering the restaurant but that was my only complaint of the evening, everything else - the food & service is excellent)

Moutabbal

X wanted to order this favorite Baba Ghanosh but the server highly recommended this instead. Also an eggplant dip. Excellent. We were happily dunking our bread in this

Hummus with minced beef

My favorite. Hummus is a chickpea puree perfectly complemented with bits of beef

Chicken livers - this was delicious.

All the starters appealed to us so we ordered 3.

Word of warning tho : the dips are rich & can fill you up especially if you eat with a lot of bread

Grilled Lamb Chops & Beef Medallions

Tasty & cooked just right but we still preferred the starters

A shot of their beautiful restroom

Will we return ? Absolutely !

Our favorite Japanese restaurant

In a city where Japanese restaurants abound, everybody will have their own favorite.

Ours is Akashi. We have been going to them at Tanglin Shopping Centre for years. Even though they now have several branches, the original outlet is still our favorite.

Since moving back, we actually haven't been there at all. So imagine our surprise when we found the original branch closed & that they are now in swanky new location at Orchard Parade Hotel (does anyone still call it the old Ming Court Hotel ?)

The chefs & the servers are still the same. The food is still good.
What are our favorites ? Sushi/sashimi, Spider maki, salmon skin hand roll, grilled eggplant, chazuke, cha soba, tonkatsu...in fact there is nothing on the menu that we don't like.

Akashi
1 Tanglin Road
#01-01A Orchard Parade Hotel

La Villa Tartary Revistied

For reason I can only attribute to fluke, when you do a search on La Villa Tartary on google, my blog entry in Feb 09 is the first entry just above the restaurant's official website.

With all that good food churned out by X's mum & family, we don't need to eat out. In fact this meal was only one of 2 that we did.

I managed to get more pictures of the outdoor area since we went there for lunch. The ambience is still as before, modern & friendly. Sylvie is full of smiles & ever the accommodating hostess. The food is even better than what I remembered it to be. No wonder the restaurant was packed for a Thursday lunch. Not bad for a 26 Euro menu.

Pieds et Jarrets de Porc Panés, Crème aux Herbes, Salades Mêlées.

This was my favorite item on the menu the last time & was glad to see that they have brought it back again. Breaded pork feet & shoulder (well here's the proof when I said it looks better than it sounds)

Flan de Fenouil, Pomme de Terre, Chair de Crabes, Emulsion aux Olives
Flan of fennel with sliced potatoes & crab meat

This was the favorite of the table
Entre Terre et Mer, embeurée de Choux vert au lard.
"Between Land & Sea"
It's a delicious combination of mushrooms & seafood
Well seasoned, well paired ingredients
Absolutely delicious

X had this as his main course
Cabillaud, Bouillon Crémeux, Encornets et Morilles
Cod in a cream sauce with mushroom

Sablé, Poires, Sauce Caramel aux Noix, Sorbet Citron

The Girl had her ice cream

Pots de Crème à la Châtaigne, Badiane, Sésame

If you do make it to Ardeche one day, please drop by & say hi to Sylvie & Francke and taste their delicious food.

Upscale Bread Talk

So here I am thinking that hey there's a new kid in town to rival Bread Talk, only to find that Bread Society is owned by them as well. Don't get me wrong I love Bread Talk. In fact we all have our favorites. I am a huge fan of their otah buns until they were discontinued. X, the Floss buns & The Girl, their bread with sunflower seeds. It's such a staple for us.

When I first came across Bread Society in the basement of Ion Orchard, I fell in love immediately. You gotta love a chandelier at a boulangerie & wow, reasonable prices for the bread. Finally a competitor to Bread Talk. Well apparently not. They had hired a Japanese consultant chef & created a different concept.

Bread Society offers artisanal European pastries but apart from the occasional croissant that The Girl picked up, I'd rather go for the likes of thai green curry, smoked chicken cheese & tom yam seafood. How to resist.

Not that we are giving up Bread Talk anytime soon. It's nice to have another option.