Zero.Zero @ The Central

[This was a HungryGoWhere food tasting / review session with the HungryGoWhere folks.]

Zero.Zero, the moment you walk in has a warm cosy feel to it. If you are a woody/brown person the deco here would please you from the start. I like the deco that makes you very comfortable. Probably because I like the earthy tones.



Zero.Zero is by the same people behind Tao's Restaurant. They serve fusion food that's quite reasonably priced and of quite good quality too.



There are a few sections in the restaurant. There are a few private rooms, an open place where you can hold private corporate events and also the above, two long parallel tables where I was told, people hold intimate wedding banquet for close family and friends.



This was the Zero Signature Set that we tried that night.  It's a picked 1 dish from each section style of ordering. 

When you are ordering food, there's a guy who comes with a iPad to take your orders. Take a peep into his iPad like we did. It's quite a cool app that you can view photos of the dishes that you want to order!

Here's the amuse bouche and the 5 courses that I had. 

Amuse Bouche

We started with a shot glass of icy plum juice. It was served on a wooden container that's filled with ice. The slightly sourish taste activates your saliva glands and you can't wait to have your meal!


We had 3 little creations for the Amuse Bouche. What was served to us that night was a potato croquet, mini or shall I say micro toast with foie gras on it and seared scallop on watermelon. The potato was nice, but I could not appreciate the foie gras.


While I did not really like the toast and foie gras because of a personal bias, I really like the seared scallops on watermelon. It has a refreshing feel to it.

Cold Dish

There were 5 choice for the cold dish and I chose the Smoked Duck Breast with Apple Slices. The slightly salty smoked duck goes well with the apple slices that was crunchy and sweet.

I like how the crunchy and sweet apple slices went with the salty tender yet a little chewy duck meat. If you like you could also pour the shot glass of apple puree over it. The slightly acidic puree will cut through the sweetness and saltiness of the dish, but I prefer it just the apple slices and duck.



I borrowed my neighbour's dish to take a photo too. If you don't like duck, try the Maguro Tataki Carpaccio. Looks quite good doesn't it?

Side Dish

For my side dish, I chose the Stewed Beef Tendon. Most of us ordered this because we all heard it's once of the best dishes around.

It is really very good. The tendon had been braised till they just dissolves in your mouth. The braise is very nice too and the 2 bread sticks can be used to soak up the sauce. I would love to have 2 portions of this!


This was also a 'neighbour's dish' that I borrow to photograph.
It's the Grilled Escargot with Cheese.


Someone thought of trying Sake and was introduced this Sakura Sake.

Oooo. This very different indeed. It's fragrant and very sweet!
You might forget this is sake and down the whole bottle!

Soup

For the soup, I had the Japanese Clear Fish Soup. I chose this because I saw on the menu that the rest of the soup were cream based and did not feel like having a heavy soup. The soup was all right. Light and tasty, but a little forgettable. ;-)


The neighbour's Cream of Mushroom Soup with Truffle Oil. He seemed to enjoy it, so I guess it was good.

Main Course

Everyone heard that this was the best, and almost everyone who liked beef ordered it. It's 'Beef Loin on Houba Leaf'.  The beef was placed on the houba leaf and it's on top of a very heated stone. Very hot stone!

Houba or some spell it as Hoba Leaf is a species of Magnolia that's grown in the higher altitude forest in Japan.


The beef is only lightly sprinkled with salt and pepper. One of the reasons why the place is called Zero.zero is that they want you to try dishes as it is, with minimal flavouring.

The beef loin was good! The leaf was slightly crackling all the time, and it also gave a slight burnt aroma while you cook it.  The leaf acted like a 'non stick' layer that prevented the beef from sticking on the stone. Cook the beef according to the done-ness you like.

I would highly recommend you to try this!


If beef is not your thing, maybe you can try what another neighbour tried, this was the Pan Roasted Duck Confit with Mustard Cream.

Dessert

I heard everyone said the Zeromisu was excellent, but I wanted to try their Vanilla Mille Feuille, Zero Style. It was I guess all right.


OK, I confess. I ordered this because it comes with a scoop of ice cream!

It was a good meal and also to meet up with some HungryGoWhere reviewers. The neighbour that I was talking about, he looked so familiar, but both of us can't figure out where and when we met!

I think a 5 course meal for $89.80++ was a good deal. The food's of a certain quality too. It's a nice place to bring your date for a meal with a view (depending on where you are seated). I read of a review by a lone diner (on HungryGoWhere) too that says it's a nice place to eat alone.

Hint: There are a few credit cards that either give you a 1-for-1 or 50% off this set meal. Read other reviews on the HungryGoWhere site for the offer updates. ;-)

Read more reviews of this place at the HungryGoWhere site:
http://www.hungrygowhere.com/singapore/Zero_Zero/


Zero.Zero
6 Eu Tong Sen Street
#04-86 The Central,
Singapore 059817

Tel: 6224 4139
Hours: Daily 11:30 am - 10:00 pm

Maifest @ Clarke Quay (4 and 5 May 2012)

Heard of Maifest?

It's the German Spring Festival and it's the first time it's being celebrated in Singapore on 4th and 5th May 2012 at Clarke Quay Central Fountain Area.

Admission is free too!
You just pay for the beer and food.



The daily event starts at 7pm, and I guess it's only tomorrow left if you want to visit.
I was there a bit early as my office hour's a little shorter than other days :-)




The world's most popular wheat beer, Erdinger Weißbier and Erdinger Dunkel are sold here.
You can get them at $15.

The organisers have also specially brought in the Pikantus if you want to try it!



One of the highlight: One of the best bands in Germany, Ois Easy is here to entertain!

They have been specially flown in to Singapore to perform a repertoire of contemporary chart hits and popular German songs!



KopiKosongGirl and I think they are really really good.
Good voices and the band's superb too. Their energy level is so high despite the Singapore heat!


They also engage the audience very well!
The crowd were on their feet very quickly. You see people standing on the benches and then on the tables too!



One short clip I took with my iPhone. Everyone was up on their feet!



We spotted Elvis too!



One of the dance that they did that looked so tiring and difficult. They are good, aren't they?


Oh yes, how can the Maifest be without German Sausages?
We had a few and some other nibbling food and they were good. There were Spicy Chicken, Chicken Cheese and Beef Special. I love the one with cheese.

If you have nothing to do on Saturday night, head down to Clarke Quay Central Fountain Area for some beer and entertainment. This is the first Maifest and hopefully the organisers will organise it again next year.


Maifest is being organised by Erdinger and Asia Pacific Breweries Singapore.
KopiKosongGirl and I were invited to the event by Word of Mouth Communications.

Brewerkz @ Riverside Point

Oh how we love celebrating birthdays!

It was one of our friend's birthday and we presented him a few options of where to go for his birthday dinner. He picked a place that sells meat and beer - a good combination according to him.

We decided that we would each order our own mains and order some sides to share around.  I did not take photos of all the food we had. The table was long to move around.  Took photos only of the food within reach.




Buffalo Chicken Wings.
Somehow when there's a buffalo wings in any menu, there's a high chance of people ordering it! I think we had the mild version. The sauce was nice, but the chicken was about OK only.





Chicken Cobb Salad.
It's a combination of Greens, grilled chicken breast, bacon, blue cheese, tomatoes, grilled onions, hardboiled egg and sliced avocado. Yup, stinking blue cheese!

Those of us who liked veggies enjoyed it, but we made sure we did not mixed the potent blue cheese when it was served. The moment it was served, the smell.... enough said.




King Brew!
This burger's called the King Brew. The largest burger on the menu. On the menu it says: "Don’t tell your cardiologist—two patties of beef with cheese, bacon, sautéed mushrooms and beer chili".

It is not very very big. The photo above can tells you so. It's big enough and very filling though.
It was tasty too.



Two patties with the mushroom in the middle. The texture of the patty is nice. Not too much other stuff in it. Very beefy. This burger gets the approval from the wife.

The pickles were served the side. I would have preferred it in the burger. I like pickles and I think they should be inside. I know many people don't like pickles, probably why it's on the side.

It's a messy job eating this, but in a good way.




Barbeque Pork Ribs
These tender baby back ribs were quite delicious. The sauce, they call it the brewerkz bbq sauce, was a nice mix. Very flavourful, it's tangy and sweetish. Goes well with the soft ribs.

Just wondering if they had some of the brew in their bbq sauce. Hmm...




A slice of corn bread came with the Ribs. Momo the corn lover and a few others think that this corn bread taste rather good. I am not a huge corn fan, so I think it was OK only.




Crab Linguine.
I think it was all right, it's not that spectacular. Remember it's a beer place. ;-)





The nicest beer that I think we had was this Brothers Strawberry Cider!
It's strawberry infused pear cider.



I can't remember what they were. Everyone had different beer.
I did remember the dark one was not finish because one of the lady friends who ordered it think it was not her style of beer.



It was a great nite out with a few friends to celebrate a birthday.
Happy Birthday Matthew!

Oh ya, to get discounts here, guess what card did we have to present? Not a credit card or usually the Safra card, but the Passion Card! It gave us 15% off the food and beverages. 

Brewerkz
30 Merchant Road
#01-05/06 Riverside Point
Singapore 058282

Tel:  +65 6438 7438
Hours: Mon - Thurs & Sun: 12pm - 12am /  Fri, Sat & Eve of PH: 12pm - 1am

Singapore Food Festival 2010 Launch : Clarke Quay Food Street

If you have not already known, the Singapore Food Festival has started in Singapore.
I guess of all the different Festivals that is held in Singapore, the Singapore Food Festival would probably be the most loved by all.

I was there at the Clarke Quay Food Street last Friday to 'check it out'.
Checking out both the food and people there!

***

Oh look who I spotted first.  Mr KF Seetoh, Singapore's renowned food personality and founder of Makansutra. (Oh yes, he was even on Martha Stewart's show last year!)

***

More people spotting, I spotted the Minister of Trade and Industry, Mr Lim Hng Kiang there too.

***

If you are wondering where exactly is the Clarke Quay Food Street, it's on Read Bridge. They have covered Read Bridge and brought in more than 30 stalls from various famous restaurants and hawkers all literally under one white roof!

***

How do we eat everything here? Not possible right?  Momo and I met up with Aromacookery and we decided of 'join forces' to conquer the food there. Armed with two pieces of $20 prepaid food card we bought the following:

I queued for the Lim Hai Sheng Carrot Cake. This stall's the famous Carrot Cake stall from Ang Mo Kio Ave 6.



I think so. The carrot cake was quite good. I liked it because there was lots of crunchy 'chai po' that you can taste when you eat it. It was also very very fragrant. This was the $4 version.

***

Next Momo queued for the Rojak. Apa Rojak. What an interesting name. Rojak is a Malay word. If you read it all in Malay, it would translate to What Rojak?

But I realise that their Apa is a translation from Chinese, which means Dad's Rojak. This stall's from Lau Pa Sat Festival Market.



The rojak was not too bad. We had the fruit rojak and there was enough 'hae kor' (prawn paste) in it to hold everything together.

What do you like in rojak? I like the fried dough fritters (you tiao) in it.
This was the $4 version.



Hey, more people spotting. Guess who else I saw?

- Luke Nyugen, a celebrity chef that's on Food Network Asia and owns the Red Lantern restaurant in Sydney.
- Sylvia Tan, a popular Singapore Food Writer who has published a few books.

Luke was seen carrying a plate of the same rojak! They were filming something.

***

Next, I went to queue for some duck. I think why I stopped there was because of the poster at the side. "Duck Fat Unhealthy? Think Again..." Hmmm

I am not sure where De Tai Roast is from though.



Their duck did looked tempting hanging there.



I bought two duck drumsticks. A little expensive at $5.80 each.
The taste was OK only to me.



If you want me to say which is nicer, I think the roast duck above was nicer than the braised duck below.

***

Aromacookery queued for the Ngoh Hiong.
Xin Sheng is from the west of Singapore. Taman Jurong residents would probably know it.



The Ngoh Hiong did really made a great entrance with a huge leaf that was used to hold the food. It looks really 'photogenic'. The Ngoh Hiong taste not too bad either.

***

Using credit from Aromacookery's card, Momo got the Yeh Lai Siang Hainanese Chicken Rice.



Aromacookery, Momo, Camemberu (who we met there with) HungryCow like the chicken rice.
I think my taste is a bit different. I think it's because I can't appreciate rice balls!

***

There we nearly finished up the $40 credit on the prepaid food card we had.


Head down to Clarke Quay with your colleauges or family or friends from now till 24 July, 4:00 pm to 6:00 pm.

Look even the kids are glad to be there.
(More people spotting, these two little cute ones would be the future King and Queen of Caldecott Hill.)



Thanks for reading this long post!

Clarke Quay Food Street
Read Bridge (next to Merchant Court Hotel)
4:00 PM to 11:00 PM
16 - 24 July 2010

Remember to bring your Kopitiam card or purchase a limited edition Food Festival prepaid card.
They do not accept cash.