The Best Restaurant in Asia again

Iggy's, 24th February 2012

Iggy's, the restaurant famous for its European and Japanese fusion, has once again reached Asia fine dining mountain top. Out of the top three restaurants in Asia, I have not been to Andre to experience Chef Andre Chiang's octaphilosophy french cuisine with a modern interpretation. If I need to understand french cuisine, I would need to make a trip to France to taste the authentic French cuisine in the local French restaurants and from home cooks. Then I will go to Andre to taste Chef Chiang's finest and artistic creation.

This is my second time in Iggy's my fine dining lunch. I am excited to taste the finest and artistic creation from the outstanding kitchen brigade  in Asia.

First is the Amouz-bouche, Peach Sorbet with Caviar and Gold. My pre-appetizer is tasty and refreshing. I just love the idea to combine the sourness of the peach and the saltiness of the caviar. It is absolutely brilliant. This is a good way to start a sumptuous lunch. I am not too sure how's the gold foil add to the taste of my "amuse the mouth". But it is bland and I dislike the idea of using gold foil.

My appetizer is Foie Gras with pear, balsamic and natural jus. Foie gras and pear are perfect for each other. The pear has the strong fruity flavors to cut through the richness of my pan seared foie gras. Together with the reduced balsamic vinegar, it is more sweeten and less sour and all ingredients of this dish strike the perfect balance. It is absolutely delicious and I absolutely love the presentation of this dish.

My pasta is Linguine with Alba black truffle and poultry jus. This pasta dish is simple yet luxurious. This dish is perfect and absolutely delicious.

My entree dish is Wagyu with brussels sprouts, garlic and Kalamanta Olive. My steak is tender, well seasoned, juicy and delicious. There is nothing I can complain with my entree.

My dessert will be Chocolate with coconut, hazelnut and milk chocolate biscuit. This sexy and sweet chocolate concludes my sumptuous lunch in the Asia Best Restaurant perfectly.

I recommend my readers to go Iggy's for lunch or dinner. The service is great and attentive. The atmosphere is quiet, definitely a good place for dining. The price is still at the higher side. 

Iggy's is at the 3rd floor of Hilton Hotel, which is located in Orchard Road.

Chawanmushi and Warm Salad

Home, 22 February 2012

These two recipes came from Japan Food Addict (japanfoodaddict.com). The author of the website is Mai-chan from Kyoto. Please show support for the website. In my opinion it is a great website for simple yet delicious traditional Japanese recipes. I think Mai is a great cook. The recipes are straight forward, the presentation of the dishes look great and most importantly the taste is absolutely delicious. I will learn as much from Mai-chan.

The first dish is the warm salad. I replace avocado with carrots. I do not add in ham because I want this dish to be vegetarian. This will be my first vegetarian dish for my vegetarian friends. Mine dish is a bit dark because my light soy sauce is darker then usual. I guess I need to change a new brand for my light soy sauce. My asparagus dish is crunchy, beautiful, and absolutely delicious. The only problem I have with this dish is it is so delicious and the serving is not enough for my "hippopotamus" stomach size. The receipt can be found here http://www.japanfoodaddict.com/salad/warm-salad/

The next dish I learn from Mai-chan is Chawanmushi. I use dried anchovies as my stock (instead of Japanese traditional Dashi), my ingredients for my chawanmushi are eggs (of course), carrots, shitake mushroom, crab sticks, chinese wine, prawns and caviars. My seasoning is one teaspoon of salt, one dash of white pepper and half teaspoon of light soy sauce and half teaspoon of sugar. I follow Mai-chan's recipe very closely and again I am trying to divert this dish to my own. So the outcome is just like the picture from the right hand side. The dish looks beautiful, and absolutely delicious. I just love the silky texture of the eggs. The recipe can be found here http://www.japanfoodaddict.com/chicken/chawanmushi/

I am trying to make time for Gordon Ramsay's recipes. Stay tune folks.

Serenidad

Serenity Spanish Bar and Restaurant, 30 December 2011

Honestly I tried to avoid outside dining since the start of 2012. After Christmas, I have too much gatherings on Christmas, New Year and Chinese New Year. And I almost forget I have a "diary" to write my eat-venture. I need to take the opportunity to find more eateries in Singapore which deserve my praise and a place "in my stomach". I need to get back to my kitchen and start cooking again.

My friends introduce me Serenity Spanish Bar ad Restaurant in Vivo City. This is my first Spanish dining experience. I like to sit outside of the restaurant to enjoy my sunset scenery. Service is mediocre. price is a let down because of my lamb shank is not "butchered". I will talk about my lamb shank in details later.

Crema de Mariscos

I recommend this soup to my readers. My soup is Crema de Mariscos, seafood cream soup with mussel, prawn, dory and squid rings. This soup is awesome, Every ingredient is fresh. I like the savory and a bit of sour taste. I just like a bit of sourness in my starter. It will "seduce" my taste buds and "command" me to keep eating. No wonder I have grow "horizontally" since last year. 

Costillas de Cordero

My entree is Costillas de Cordero, marinated lamb rack with tomato salad and mash potato. I must admit this lamb is perfectly marinated. The taste is delicious. But I find the inside a bit raw for my liking. Last but not least it is not easy to eat with this big chunk of meat. I think this lamb shank has to be butchered first before serving. I am not recommending this dish to my reader.

Churros

Last but not least my dessert is Churros with hot Chocolates. In my opinion a good dinner shall be finished off by having hot and sexy chocolate, with a beautiful sunset in front of me. The feeling of this dish is just like I returned to Delphi Automotive Systems and I met her, my first love of my life, the feeling is awesome. I recommend this dessert to my readers, and those who like chocolate very much as I do.

Address: Serenity Spanish Bar & Restaurant #01-98/99 VivoCity, Singapore 098585
Tel: 6376 8185

Meizhou Delicacies

Meizhou Xiao Chi (湄洲小吃), 20 November 2011

It is always nice to have a decent meal after my Great Wall of China "expitition". There is a Chinese saying: If you do not climb up the Great Wall of China, you are not a hero. So now I am a "Hero". However this hero glutton needs food after climbing the Great Wall of China. My host in Beijing recommends me 湄洲小吃, Meizhou Eatery. This is a restaurant cuisine serves Meizhou cuisine and there are a few dishes in this restaurants I like and specially recommended. The Meizhou Sausage is tasty and spicy.

Pig intestine Rice Noodles is awesome. It is actually a Sichuan cuisine, but it is awesomely tasty and spicy. I like the contrast of the texture between the intestine and rice noodles.

The Melons Soup is awesome. The main ingredients of this soups are winter melons and pumpkins and pork meatballs. This soup is delicious.

This version of Dongpo Meat is exciting. This pork belly is not only melt-in-mouth tender, moist and has a spicy flavour. This is absolutely tasty.

It is always perfect to end a meal with the desserts. First dessert is Icy Green Bean Soup. The sweetness of the soup is just nice for me and it is tasty. The next dessert I have is Crispy Yam. The outer layer of Crispy yam is crispy and the yam filling is creamy. I like both desserts.

It is even perfect to go for a short nap right after the sumptuous dinner and to meet my princess in my dreamland! :P

Address: 北京市朝阳区慧忠北里413号楼中国科技馆新馆东侧

413 Beijing City Chaoyang Huizhong Beili ( near China Techological Center)

Mr Duck-Number-148000174465

Quan Ju De, 19 Nov 2011

Almost every country in the world, I can find McDonald and Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC). Those are western fast food. It is quite sad there is no PRD (Peking Roasted Duck) fast food restaurant in any country (my crazy idea). It is so cool to eat sandwich with crispy roasted duck skin with sweet and sour sauce, and vegetables everyday after work.

Quan Ju De restaurant is located in Beijing. It is one of the earliest restaurants in Beijing that prepare Peking Roasted Duck. This restaurant is 147 years old. Quan Ju De is famous for preparing Peking Roasted Duck using open oven and fruit as hardwood fuel to add fruity flavour on the crispy duck skin. That is why Quan Ju de is famous all around the world.

The roasted duck skin is crispy and delicious. However Quan Ju De uses the traditional sauce and add savory to the crispy skin. I think they have to update the sauce to 21st modern century. They should serve the plum sauce. The sour and sweet taste goes very well with the duck skin. The duck meat is juicy and absolutely delicious. Quan Ju De also served wok fried duck kidney and it is delicious as well. The head, feet, wings and bones are used to make delicious duck broth. Almost all parts of the ducks are used.

The most important is Quan Ju De comes out with their own Er Guo Tou, Chinese white wine that goes very well with Peking Roasted Duck. This white wine is 58% alcohol. I even bought one for my superior and one for my buddy for his Christmas party. I wonder how well my favourite Chinese white wine goes with Roasted Turkey.

My Peking duck also comes with Commemoration Card. It is basically the identity card of my Peking Duck. So I had Mr Duck-Number-148000174465 swimming in my stomach.

Address: No. 14, Qianmen West Street, Beijing, P.R.China

Tel: 400-700-1864

Westerners' Best Chinese Restaurant in Shanghai

1221 The Dining Room, 16 November 2011

It has been quite a while I did not post anything in Allez Cuisine. I was busy with work and traveling. I has been some restaurants and new establishments. Some of them I return and they still my favorite restaurants. One of them is The Cheesecake Factory in Los Angelos. There are quite a number of them and I did not really like them and I do not wish the recommend to anyone. 1221 is a restaurant in Shanghai I must recommended to my readers. It is really good.

The ambient is really good and this is one of the reason why I believe the  Westerners love this restaurant. The staffs are well trained and well mannered. I ask them what kind of dishes our western friends like, they could pin point most of the dishes they like in the menu. They have good attention to details. They give me an extra seat just for my "girlfriend", that is my dSLR camera. This will prevent me from knocking down my camera when I want to grab my food.

There are some dishes I need to mention. The lotus roots are a speciality dish in Suzhou. It is crunchy but I think it is a bit too sweet for me. This is personal preference.

The second dish is Crab Meat and Roe Tofu. This has to be one of my favourite dishes in 1221. This dish has a strong flavour of crab and with the balance of the bean curb, it was absolutely delicious.

The Dongpo Pork Belly is delicious. It is well braised, tender and melt in mouth. Although pork belly has too much fat and is considered as unhealthy food, I still love it. I always find that a lot of time delicious food can be unhealthy food, don't you agree with me?

This yellowstripe or Kuning (in Malay) is juicy and crispy when deep fried. This is the only way to do justice to the fish. The fish is so crispy and I can eat the bones of the fish. The fish is so crispy, tender and well seasoned. It is delicious. The only thing i can complain is I hope they can sprinkle lime juices on the fish to bring the fish "alive". This will add in flavour to the fish.

The last dish is quite unusual. It is Beef Fillets with You Tiao. You Tiao is a chinese donut or oil sticks. It is not common to have the beef fillets fry together with the crispy oil sticks with seasonings and some vegetables. This dish is absolutely delicious and my western friends love this dish very much.

It is always a perfect way to end my dinner with a cup of Chinese tea. I will return to this restaurant for more dishes.

1221 Yan An Road West (Fan Yu Lu) Shanghai 200050, PRC

Tel: 6213 6585

One of the Finest Italian Restaurants in Singapore

Gattopardo - 4th September 2011

I met Chef Lino Sauro at Asian Food Channel Studio two years ago. That was the time when Gattopardo was established at Fort Canning Hotel. Chef Sauro is the chef that specialized in Sicilian cuisine and if my memory is not wrong, he is the only chef in Singapore specialized in this cuisine. It was pity that I did not meet him when I went to his restaurant for Sunday brunch. I was told that he was overseas searching for new ingredients for his new culinary inspiration. I will definitely return to his restaurant for lunch or dinner one day.

I had my three course meal for my brunch. My starter was II Crudo Italiano, a great selection of the best raw seafood of the day. I had the most amazing La Gillardeau, Prawns with Caviar and Raw Sea Bream slices. My starter was fresh and delicious. It was a great way to start my entree.

My entree was Ravioli con Burrata e Crescinoe, Burrata Cheese Homemade Ravioli with Watercress and Asparagus. Honestly I am not a fan of vegetarian. But the ravioli was cooked perfectly and absolutely delicious. I really recommend my vegetarian friends to come to Gattopardo to order this dish.

Last but not least I had the Sicilian dessert, I Cannoli Siciliani, That was actually crispy espresso-infused wafer filled with ricotta cream and Amedei mousse. This dessert, in my opinion, was a strong finish of my first dining experience in Gattopardo. It was delicious as I could image from the description of the dessert.

The overall decor is good, service is great, despite the price of my bunch is slightly at my budget. The staffs was quite professional and polite. I will definitely arrange my time and return to Gattopardo for dinner to show support to Chef Sauro.

Address: 11 Canning Walk, Fort Canning Hotel, Singapore 178881

Tel: 6338 5498

E-mail: reservations@gattopardo.com.sg