Tung Lok Signatures: Perfect For Chinese Birthday Celebrations With The Family

Granddad turned another year older last month. 

It must be something, turning another year older at that age. You're past all the milestones - 16, 18, 21, 30, 40, 50 and then 60. You're done looking forwards to what they say life is going to be at each stage. It must be pretty sweet, turning another year older at that age. You've seen it all, you've lived it all, and you get to sit back and take it all in at your own pace, in your own time. 

To celebrate, we had dinner at Tung Lok Signatures in Changi City Point. Dad picked out the usuals. The food was good. The private room, tucked at the end of the restaurant, was quiet and cosy, and the staff were attentive. It was, overall, a very comfortable and enjoyable affair.

The star of the show that night was the Poon Choi. For a while, my family tried out a different Poon Choi from all around each Chinese New Year, but we have now settled on Tung Lok's. We love the generous variety of ingredients in this one, and how it is drenched in a very flavourful gravy that is not too starchy, not too watery, just perfect with a bowl of white rice.  

Dad also had something special lined up for Granddad that night. 

After we were finished with dinner, the waiter served up chocolate cake on a cake stand placed on a large, almost-flat white plate. Atop the plate, the chef had written a poem formed of birthday greetings and well-wishes. 

While we ooh-ed and ahh-ed at the pretty calligraphy, the staff had ushered themselves into the room, and stood by readily, waiting to join in the birthday song. We must have looked at the poem a little helplessly, because one of the waiters volunteered to recite it, and proceeded gallantly to do so to a beat while everyone else clapped along. It was all very good fun.

The best surprise was left to the last. After Granddad had made his wish, blown out the candles, and dealt the virgin slice through the cake, we sat down to enjoy the cake and the longevity buns. We were very happy to find, when we bit through the longevity buns, that rather than the usual lotus paste, it was filled with runny, creamy custard - they were really our favourite steamed custard buns in disguise!

I must hand it to Dad. He really picked right with Tung Lok Signatures. The food was good. And the restaurant churned out surprise after surprise for the birthday celebrations. I can't wait to see him try and top this next year!  

Gordon's Grill: Good And Affordable Set Lunches All Week Long

For us, a nice long lunch usually means a trip to Gordon's Grill for their very affordable and generously portioned set lunches. 

I took my parents to Gordon's Grill last month. My father, upon reading the menu, reeled in wonder at the number of choices he could make and got very excited. Gordon's Grill is great for the indecisive or, like us, the very greedy, with a choice of 3 appetisers, 3 soup samplers and 2 desserts.  

My favourite of the appetisers has to be the cold angel hair pasta. Topped with marinated king crab and black caviar and tossed in white truffle oil, this appetiser is a delicious way to start a meal and is a very exciting precursor of more good things to come. 

The wagyu beef carpaccio and foie gras are melt-in-your-mouth winners too.

The soups were also very tasty and very interesting. We like how Gordon's Grill tries to inject something exciting about each sampler. The french onion soup comes topped with an onion cake frosted in melted cheese. The mushroom soup hints of capuccino and is crowned in parmesan foam. The lobster bisque, though, is fuss-free but also so wickedly tasty that it is easily the best lobster bisque we have ever sampled.

The team at Gordon's Grill love their foie gras. And we love that they love it too. We love that they seem to know we can never get enough of foie gras. We had it as an appetiser and again atop the roasted jumbo quail and kurobuta burger patty. 

But the star of our main dishes has to be the truffle mayo that came with the kurobota burger. Thickly cut chips in insuperably fragrant truffle-flavoured mayo. It was no wonder I finished the chips first before I started on the burger.

The desserts were definitely not the stars of the meal but they did bring a sweet note to the close of our meal.  Like with their soups, Gordon's Grill serves up the usual dessert offerings with a twist. I really enjoyed the mango-flavoured creme brulee paired with armagnac ice cream. But I may have been biased. Mango is one of my favourite tropical fruits.

At the end, we were served our choice of coffee. I really like that the coffees came with brown sugar lollis. I have always been fascinated by these brown sugar lollis and recently found them for sale in packets of 5 in TWG. 

Gordon's Grill never fails to deliver a delicious and very enjoyable set lunch. The restaurant is also relatively uncrowded and makes a great place for a languid and quiet lunch with family. It has easily made it as our go-to place for hearty, lazy, artery-clogging and all that comes with a very good Sunday lunch.

Battle of the Creme Brulee Tarts: The Muffinry X Bourke Street Bakery

Ask me what my best food memory from Sydney is, and I'd say the ginger creme brulee tart from Bourke Street Bakery in a heartbeat. 

Spicy creme brulee with the perfect consistency sitting in a crunchy and tasty tart shell and crowned with pistachio bits. Mm mmmm... I can't believe we got it as an afterthought, but I am sure glad we did. 

Creme brulee in a tart was something new to me at that time. And so when I heard from a friend that The Muffinry on Telok Ayer Road does creme brulee tarts, I headed there for lunch the next day, excited about reliving my best food memory from Sydney.

We had sandwiches, coffee and the creme brulee tart. With Sarnies' just down the road, I don't think I would be back for The Muffinry's sandwiches and coffee any time soon. But their creme brulee tart, of almost runny custard sitting atop a cumbly tart base, is worth a try. It definitely wouldn't surmount its counterpart from Sydney, and I wished they cooked their tart bases and torched the custard surface for longer, and maybe threw in some vanilla beans and more heavy cream, but I would go back just to get close to that ginger creme brulee tart from Bourke Street Bakery again.  

Halloweekend at USS

This Halloweekend, I spent some time with Chinese ghosts, zombified helicopter crash victims, Egyptian mummy pirates and an in-sanatorium.

My girlfriends and I clutched fingers and screamed ourselves hoarse. Hell, I think we deafened, scared even, some of these Halloween Horrors. We joined tweenies on roller coaster rides and 4D simulator adventures. It was all good fun. Really good fun. And, if I dare say, I felt young-er... until we met some young 'uns who destroyed our chances of viewing our picture by exposing their upper bodies to the camera on the Mummy Adventure.

It was well-earned fun. After years of teetering between my own anxiety and watching people have fun at rollercoasters and haunted houses, I finally stepped up to the Halloween Horrors 2 at Universal Studios. I had my heart in my mouth at first, but after a while it melted down my throat and gave way to chortles of screaming laughter.

Happy Halloween folks! Stay spooky.

Turning One With Tiffany's

I know, the world doesn't really need to know what Matt got me for our first anniversary. But for the 3 people who actually read this blog, he got me a snowflake pendant from Tiffany's.

And a bouquet centered around a 'glittering' rose. And a nice dinner at one of my favourite restaurants.

Looking back, it somehow amuses me... how things change when you get older. Until Matt, I never received anything in that blue box. I never bought myself anything from Tiffany's. I always thought it was something that was special as a gift. Somehow I had formed the impression that the feeling that goes through any girl as she opens the blue box to find out whats gifted within, is incomparable to anything else in the world and is an end in itself. That, and flowers and wine, make the perfect romantic night out. (What is romance anyway?) 

But when I removed the necklace after our night out, and photographed this picture, I realised I like looking at the pendant not because it came in a blue box, or is from Tiffany's. Rather, I like how it will always bring to mind how we expended our chance to relive our first night as a couple - a good dinner, good talks and a night out at the Night Festival. I like how it signposts that special night to us, and how it gets me looking forward to our next year to come.

Valentino's: Tried and Tested Italian Goodness

Valentino's has long held a special place in my tummy.

Matt and I don't go fancy very often. We don't go Italian very often either. But when the occasion calls for it, Valentino's is always calling out at the back of my mind. 

They have recently moved from their cosy little corner in Rifle Range to this new roomy space further up Bukit Timah Road at Turf City. And I really like how they have used this space to create private dining spaces - from cozy little enclaves tucked in its sides for couples or small groups to large dining rooms behind closed wooden doors for larger groups of eight and above. This definitely makes Valentino's an easy choice for a romantic dinner date or a quiet family function of sorts.  

Its easy to taste why this family-run establishment has chalked up its celebrity following. Everything, including the bread dip, always manages to leave me smacking my lips for more. 

We have tried guessing what goes into this unassuming yet absolutely sublime bread drip. We've come up with pesto, olive oil and, what we believe to be the secret game-changer, anchovies. We could very well try asking the waiter but we don't really want to know. We like the suspense. It keeps our tastebuds on full alert.

They had burrata that day. 

They had other daily specials. But my mind kind of shut out the rest and just went burrata, burrata, burrata...!!! Until the waiter stopped reciting the list of daily specials, and I jumped in to order. 

I am so glad this milk's cow cheese is taking its place on menus more and more in Italian restaurants here. Valentino's version is so soft it oozes through the sac once you knife through. The rich creamy melt-in-your-mouth burrata and sweet cherry tomatoes together made the perfect pairing. It was quite simply heaven in every forkful.  

I always try to order something new for my pasta dish, but also always surrender to the Fettucine al Granchio. There's nothing quite like this squid ink fettucine dish. The fettucine is tossed with juicy chunks of crab meat and in a very flavourful, perfectly creamy tomato sauce. It still stands as the champion of pasta dishes for me. 

We ended the meal with creme brulee and pistachio ice-cream. Valentino's serves up decent, very traditional Italian desserts. They are good enough to end your meal on a sweet note, but don't expect dessert to be the star of your meal here. 

Night at the Museum: A Yearly Ritual

The annual Night Festival has turned into a yearly post-dinner ritual during our anniversary date. I think its easy to see why. The usual dinner under the stars and walk in the park is taken so much further with the light installations, overhead water acrobatic performances and hands-on exhibitions. We just turn up at the Bras Brasah precinct, and ta-dah! we step into a world of art in so many forms - light and shadow, sound, paint, sculpture, film, etc, that its hard not to get excited and even a little overwhelmed. 

I also like how the whole Bras Brasah precinct seems to take on a different persona each Night Festival. Its as if our museums have a whole other vivacious, party-animal persona that it only lets us in on each Night Festival. It always feels as if I am sharing in on a secret personlity of the museums, down the back of SAM to SAM at 8Q, along Armenian Street... and all these loud, colourful things are spilling out of their corners and into the streets. 

This year, my best takeaway was in Yeo Shih Yun's Conversations with Trees, which is shown in the last two pictures here. To create Conversations with Trees, Yeo tied hair brushes dipped in black ink to tree branches, and allowed these hair brushes to create marks on silkscreen. From afar, Conversations with Trees looked just like another Chinese ink painting. But after learning of the method Yeo employed in this painting, and as I looked closer, I was transported to another place where there was just a tree and the breeze, blowing at me in the direction of each stroke my eyes picked up on the silkscreen painting.