A for Arbite, A for Amex's #30liciousAmex deals

If you have not read about the American Express #30liciousAmex deals, you probably have been having a nap for too long. Well, it's not too late to find out.

American Express and HungryGoWhere jointly present 30licious - S$30++ culinary treats for 30 days from 3 November to 2 December 2014. It's their little treat for Amex card holders. I have tried the  #30liciousAmex meal at A for Arbite and it's pretty good!

(If you don't  have an Amex, you top it up to S$35++)

I recently went to A for Arbite with the Amex and HungryGoWhere folks to try out their $30 dinner deals. This is my report of the place and I think I will be back for more of their other food. I see things in the regular menu that the different family members at home will love.

Back to their #30liciousAmex deal here, the set dinner consists of a Starter, Main, Dessert and a drink as well. Quite a good value if you have been eating out. The set meal is for at least 2 persons, so you can get to taste everything you see here!


1) Starter (Soup of the day or Duck Roll)



The Soup of the Day we had was the seafood soup. I personally love tomato based soup and this was nice. It had a nice viscosity and it was quite rich and hearty. It reminded me of a French bouillabaisse. A version without all the loads of fish and seafood required in a bouillabaisse, but excellent enough for such a deal.


If you are not a soup person, try the Duck Rolls. They have done this version rather well. It's like a Ngor Hiang that is made from duck. Rather interesting I would say. Duck rilettes with dried mushrooms, water chestnuts and grapes!

Nicely crisped on the outside and they have pickles to counter balance the rich taste of the duck. The chilli gastrique is where the crispy duck rolls are resting.

2) Main (Salted Egg Crab Pasta or Beef Stew)



Salted Egg Crab pasta sounds like what you like? It that sounds utterly sinful, it's not that 'strong' in the saltiness scale. I will say it's the healthier version. The pasta they use is Zita pasta and it has salted egg, crab meat, chilli and hints of curry leaf flavour all mixed in. It's also served with a  piece of deep fried soft shell crab.
 
This is the lighter of the two mains.



If you like a bowl of hearty stew. Try this. The Beef Daube. I personally love this dish more as I love the flavour of it. Beef Shin with celery, carrots and red wine. Braised till it is just tender and not too soft and mushy. It's so pretty how they plated the dish with fried onion rings stacking on top of each other.

(I took a peep at the usual menu and this dish already cost $25 and the crab pasta $24.)


3) Dessert (Edith's Mess or Honey and Date Crème Brûlée)



Edith's Mess is a very interesting and beautiful mess indeed. It has the slight tartness from the passsionfruit jelly, the sweetness from rock melon ice cream. If you want some crunch, the honey comb brittle gives you time to chew while your dinner companion talks! I love the honey comb brittle and the rock melon ice cream!



Honey and Date Crème Brûlée is for those who likes a twist to the usual Crème Brûlée. This version enhanced with dates and honey. Quite a good combination.

The meal also comes with a non alcoholic drink that you can order from the menu. Quite a good deal, if you have tried this place, I think I will be back for the other regular food on the menu. It's looking very tempting and the chef is pretty good.

So if you think it sounds like a good deal and you want to know what other restaurants and where you can book this meal, head on to http://book.hungrygowhere.com/30licious There are over 30 places where you can book.


30licious is the newest culinary celebration by American Express Selects® - American Express’ way of bringing exceptional deals to its Card Members.
 

A for Arbite
28 Aliwal Street
#01-01
Singapore 199918

Tue - Fri: 11:30 am - 3:00 pm, 6:00 pm - 10:30 pm
Sat - Sun: 11:00 am - 10:30 pm
Closed on Mondays.

Tel: +65 8321 2252

Guest Masterchefs Karl and Rudolf Obauer @ Dolce Vita, Mandarin Oriental Singapore

Are you a 'fan' of the Mandarin Oriental?

Once you have stayed in one of their properties, you somehow get addicted to their impeccable service and quality of their rooms and restaurants. My wife and I were converts when we had our wedding at Mandarin Oriental Singapore and saw what they could provide to our guests during the dinner. We were also impressed with the rooms and restaurants we dined during our stay. Since then, we have stayed in a few other MO properties. We wished we could stay in more, but it really is beyond our budget at this junction of life, we need to save up.

Are you a fan of great chefs? Are you are a fan of Austrian food? Are you are a fan of the Obauer brothers? If you are, you are in for a treat.



From 30 October to 2 November 2014, there will be Special Lunch and Dinner Menu featuring the works of the Chefs Karl and Rudolf Obauer here at the Mandarin Oriental. I was privileged to have tasted the lunch menu yesterday.

There are 2 lunch menus and 2 dinner menus, and you can view them here.



Lunch started with a baskets of different rolls and crisps and it was served with this interesting saucer of green dip. After we tasted it, we wanted to know what is in it! The chef was happy to tell us the ingredients: Crème fraîche, Quark, Wasabi and Steinklee. Steinklee are Alpine mountain herbs and they brought in the dried powdered version to make this.


Amuse Bouche:



It was an interesting start of 5 little tidbits. We had chickpea purée in the spoon, veal tartare, and a shot glass of zucchini yoghurt. My favourite of it all is the shot glass of zucchini yoghurt made from zucchini cream and yoghurt with pumpkin seed oil in it.



There's also this little cube of Parmesan „QimiQ“ jelly. To put in names that we in Singapore would understand, it has the texture of marshmallows. I just searched about QimiQ to find out what it is! There is also the lamb sausage.


Course 1: Cauliflower Jelly



Cauliflower jelly is something we don't usually see in menus here. I have seen it in some restaurants and this is the first time I tasted it. I think I will eat more cauliflower if it's served to me this way! It's light tasting, there were small pieces of soft cauliflower in a firm jelly. It rested on bell pepper purée which gave it a nice slightly sweet and piquant flavours.

There's also the aged smoked beef from Salzburg and eggplant chutney. A very nice texture and taste to complement the cauliflower jelly. I was hesitant to finish all the goose liver though. The reason being, it raw goose liver. If you don't tell me what it is, I will have finished it up because it was delicious when I had some of it with the grains of green tea salt and alpine herbs. Blame it on the service staff for explaining what it was. Haha! My head said don't finish it, when the mouth wanted to eat it up.


Course 2: Lake Char Lasagna



This very interesting dish is made up layers of pasta sheets, Arctic Char and reduced tomato slices. It's covered with big basil leaves. The sauce is made from reduced seafood stock with Grüner Veltliner (a variety of white white grape grown in the Alpine region).

Not the usual soft mushy lasagna, but al dante pasta sheets layered between the ingredients. The sauce is something I enjoyed too.



Since we were talking about Grüner Veltliner, we were treated to some Grüner Veltliner that MO Singapore carries in their collection. The sommelier said only 2 MOs around the world carry this.


Course 3: Celery-Saffron Soup



Something to warm up our tummies mid meal. Steamed Pike in a simple celery saffron soup. It's always nice to elegantly punctuate the meal with a bowl of warm light soup.


Course 4: Saddle of Lamb



Mary would have cried because it's lamb they are serving. I would cry too for a different reason. It's so delicious. I wasn't listen to what the service staff was talking when he was explaining the dish because I was mesmerized by the looks and the aroma of the lamb.

It was two medium rare piece, so tender and not much of a gamey smell I thought I was having beef. Oh yes, I am a parsley lover, so this dish just resonated with me. You know I am normally not a lamb person, but this was good.



The lamb was served with a mix of horse radish, sour cream and a dash of balsamic v. It goes very well with the lamb. In fact, it was nice just to nibble bits of this by itself.


Course 5: Apple Strudel and Cottage Cheese.



The last course, the desserts. This apple strudel deserves a photo of it by itself because of the work that has gone into it. Apple that has been reduced with coconut and also with rum and raisin. Let your imagination brings out the flavour for you.



Many of us loved the ice cream. It's chamomile ice cream that's so refreshing. Another flavour that I should try to make with my ice cream machine one of these days. I don't know how to appreciate the cottage cheese curd though. I am not a very cheese nor curd person. It just tasted good to me that's all and a nice clean end to the meal.

We also had some petit fours from Dolce Vita's pastry chefs with coffee and tea.

If you are thinking of bringing that someone special to a special Austrian meal, get a reservation here. Chefs Karl and Rudolf Obauer have a long list of awards under the belt. They are been Chefs of the Year in Austria, named Chefs of the Decade by Gault Millau Austria, and also they have rave reviews by acclaimed food critics. You just need to search their names to read about them. They will be here in Singapore from 30 October to 2 November 2014.


The pricing:
Four-course lunch at SGD 88 per person.
Five-course lunch at SGD 128 per person.
Five-course dinner at SGD 128 per person.
Seven-course dinner at SGD 188 per person.
View the menu here.


I have been a fan of Mandarin Oriental and this lunch was on invitation by Mandarin Oriental Singapore. Thanks!


Guest Masterchefs Karl and Rudolf Obauer
Dolce Vita
Mandarin Oriental Singapore
5 Raffles Avenue
Marina Square
Singapore 039797

Tel: +65 6885 3500.
Email: mosin-dining@mohg.com

Fishball Story @ Golden Mile Food Centre

Not too long ago, the wife and I were invited to 'take over' HungryGoWhere's Instagram account for a day. Did you catch us that day? We were on a 'things handmade' trail. It was a fun day, taking a day off work to 'pretend' to be hungry tourists going around Singapore in search of food that's made fresh in Singapore.

Are there really a long list of places that made food from scratch and not machine produced in some factories? Yes, there are many places and we had a whole long list. We could not try it all because it's all over the island and it's tiring to go around.

We started by having breakfast at Bukit Timah Food Centre. We had Fried Carrot Cake that's been made from scratch at the stall. If you frequently buy from them, you can see the giant steamer with trays and trays of steamed carrot cake, ready to be fried.

We also had curry puffs at Toa Payoh that's made freshly by the aunties and then fried and sold immediately. Very good ones with fillings inside that's worth your money. We had hand made paus that makes you wanna cry. It's so different from the ones that are resting in steamers in kopitiams and kiosks all around the island. Pan mee that people are willing to wait hours just to taste it. Ice cream that people are willing to pay for. The dish that the wife enjoyed the most was the fishball noodles from this stall.



The stall, Fishball Story is managed by the 'young' hawkers, young folks who decided that they want to cook real food and food that is fast losing their authentic taste in Singapore. Mr Douglas Ng decided to set up shop at Golden Mile Food Centre using his grandma's recipe.

Their fishballs and fishcakes are really satisfying when you eat them. The texture and taste when you eat it will make you want to order more. It's something that you have to taste and see to understand. That's what happened to us. We decided to order more and eat.



The fishballs and fishcakes are made from scratch early in the morning and its made with yellowtail fish and they don't use any flour in the process. Their chilli blend in the noodles also has the correct balance that makes you slurp up your noodles and break sweat a little with the spiciness.

This was what I had. I like meepok, so I ordered the meepok version. This costs $3.50.



The wife prefers 'lao shu fen' and she always orders 'lao shu fen' when it's available. It might look simple, but you need to just bite into one fishball to fall in love with it. This was also $3.50.



Yup, we ordered another bowl without the noodles. So satisfying we wanted the 3rd bowl. A bowl of fishball soup without noodles also costs $3.50. They give you more fishballs and fishcakes.

If you want to find out more about the places we went and see photos of them, you can continue to read them at the HungryGoWhere website: http://www.hungrygowhere.com/gallery/6-hawkers-who-use-handmade-ingredients-*gid-08493101/photos/


Fishball Story
Golden Mile Food Centre
Stall #01-85
505 Beach Rd
Singapore 199583