Delectable Duck

It was Mr and Mrs Greedyguts last day with us before they set off for their new life in Sydney so we thought we should send them off in style, with a slap-up Chinese banquet. We hadn’t had a chance to check out the establishments of Rochester Park yet, so this seemed like the perfect occasion.

We started our evening at the enchanting One Rochester (see ‘Mmmm… Martinis’ below), sipping cocktails in the beautiful outdoor tropical gardens and then wandered up the road to Min Jiang at One North for dinner. This is the sister restaurant of the Min Jiang at the Goodwood Park Hotel, but here, set amongst lush greenery in a colonial-style black and white bungalow, you’re guaranteed a very different night out.

The restaurant prides itself on the ‘Legendary Wood Fired Crispy and Juicy Beijing Duck’ and you are even asked if you would like this when you phone to make a reservation, so that it can be prepared and ready for your arrival. The ducks are apparently delivered daily and prepared in an authentic Beijing fashion – marinated in a blend of Chinese herbs and roasted in a custom-made wood-fired oven for at least 45 minutes.

I have to say, however they prepare it, it is absolutely delicious. To add to the fanfare of the preparation, the chef then comes to your table and slices the duck in your presence, before it is taken away to assemble it for serving. It is then served in three stages. The first stage sees a plate of paper-thin crispy skin presented for dipping in sugar. Secondly the duck is combined with various accompaniments and wrapped in paper-thin pancakes for dipping in the traditional thick sweet sauce – and yes, they even do the wrapping for you – now that’s what I call service!



But this being their signature dish and obvious pride and joy, they don’t stop at the usual leek and cucumber with hoi-sin. Oh no – they take it one step further, offering an additional option for your bundles of delicious duck, serving it with garlic sauce, and vegetables. I was dubious to begin with, but it kicked-butt on the usual serving style... I still dream of that duck.

The third stage of serving the duck is a choice of stir-fry dishes to accompany your main course.

Ok, enough of the duck, they do serve other dishes here also, and all of them are worth coming back for. We followed up with Chicken in a Lemon Sauce (gorgeously zesty and sticky sauce), Black Pepper Beef (amazingly tender chunks of fillet steak in a just-right black pepper sauce – proclaimed to be Mr Greedyguts’ favourite dish of his 6-week holiday in Asia),

Individual Servings of Pork Belly (again melt-in-your-mouth),

Baby Pak Choi in Garlic,

Seafood Fried Rice and Fried Noodles with Chicken and Prawn.

My only complaint would be that they all were served individually so that we were left with a big bowl of rice then noodles at the end, with nothing to accompany it – however, I am quickly discovering that this is the case with Chinese Fine Dining.

We really didn’t need a dessert, but apart from the Beijing Duck, the other dish Min Jiang is famed for is its Durian Dessert. Well, it looked amazing, and tasted… just as bad as it smelt… in a word, foul!

We all braved a mouthful and left well clear… ah well, it was probably a good thing or we may not have all fitted in the taxi home.

Min Jiang at One North - http://www.goodwoodparkhotel.com/dining-minjiangone.htm

Mmmm... Martinis

I am a lover of Martinis. I am a particular lover of Martinis that contain fresh fruit in them somewhere. So this week has been a bit of a bonus.

After Sunday Brunch at the Town restaurant at the Fullerton, we were a little too full to wander very far, so we waddled through to their Post Bar, where we flopped in their garden lounge seats and perused their cocktail menu (because 3 hours of free-flow Taittinger obviously hadn't quenched our thirst).

Well, imagine my surprise and delight when we discovered that they serve French Martinis, my all-time favourite, and a drink I have been unable to find on any other menu so far in Singapore. For the un-initiated, a French Martini is made from Vodka, Chambord and Pineapple Juice... and the secret to a good French Martini? You have to give that cocktail shaker a good, long, hard shake so that the pineapple juice forms a lovely frothy head, as demonstrated perfectly by the Fullerton Post Bar:




The following evening I was lucky enough to sample my first ever Dragonfruit Martini at One Rochester:



In all honesty, it wasn't great, and Mrs Greedyguts' Watermelon Martini was a whole lot greater.... but I'm not going to blame the barstaff, I'm going to blame the deceptively flavourless Dragonfruit (how can something that looks so vibrant taste so bland?)... and besides, One Rochester is such the perfect setting to sit and sip martinis that I would forgive them anything....

The Fullerton Hotel - http://www.fullertonhotel.com/

One Rochester - http://www.onerochester.com/

Sunday Brunch Heaven

The last time the Mr and Mrs Greedyguts were visiting, we gorged ourselves at the Sentosa Resort Sunday Brunch. This time, we took our gluttony skills into town and to the Fullerton Hotel to see if their Town restaurant's Sunday Brunch could compare.

To be honest, we were a little overwhelmed during our first Sunday brunch at the Sentosa Resort. This time our expectations had been established, and their was even talk of 'strategy' and 'benchmarks' of what makes a successful brunch, during our taxi-ride there.

A recce on arrival showed an awesome array of desserts, a huge selection of cheeses, pates, sushi, curries, roasts, salads, made-to-order noodle dishes, and of course an enormous display of chilled seafood, seen below:

including three different types of oyster - from New Zealand, France and USA - and I can happily inform you that the New Zealand oysters unanimously triumphed in our table's taste test.

Each of us had our own strategy on how to approach the buffet and although I really made mine up as we went along, this was the outcome:

Course 1:

A seafood starter, including Lobster, Scallop, Green-lipped Mussell, Prawn and each of the three types of oyster.

Course 2:

A second seafood selection (couldn't help myself!), including the two winners of the first-round taste test of oysters (New Zealand and USA), a Seared Tuna Sashimi Appetiser, some Tuna Sushi, a Salmon Roll (seen on the spoon), mixed in with some Parma Ham and Parmesan and a spoonful of Duck Salad.

Course 3:

A Tuna Sushi mid-course appetiser

Course 4:

Curry course including Butter Chicken, Vegetable Curry and Naan.

Course 5:

A salad course including some more of the fabulous Parma Ham (carved off the leg) and Parmesan (scooped out of a massive round cheese).

Course 6:

Desserts - a to-die-for Cheesecake, Chocolate Mousse, and Chocolate Espresso Cake.

Course 7: (this one was between the four of us at the table, I'm not that much of a Greedy Glutton)

A selection of some particularly smelly cheeses.

So was it a successful brunch? Well, our champagne glasses were never empty, and rarely below the third-way point (one of the aforementioned benchmarks we set before arrival), and more importantly, we were offered a final top-up just as the free-flow was finishing. The setting was pleasant, with a river view, subtle live entertainment, and I feel a special mention should go to our waiter, who was not only attentive but also extremely charismatic. The selection of seafood was certainly impressive, and the Oyster taste-test will join the Sunday Brunch list of traditions, I feel. In fact the overall selection was extrememly impressive and it only lacked the barbecue section that the Sentosa Resort excelled in.

So once again we spent Sunday evening a little merrier and probably a little fatter than usual... although the yoga in the living room at 11pm may have gone some way to sorting that out...

The Fullerton Hotel – http://www.fullertonhotel.com/

A Seafood Extravaganza

Having our friends, the Greedyguts, in town gave us the perfect reason to head East to the East Coast Seafood Centre, something we've been promising ourselves we would do for the last couple of times we've been in Singapore on holiday, and since we moved here to live. Everyone you ask has their own personal favourite from the bustling outdoor restaurants that line the seafront, with their views of the mass of off-shore ships, but this time we settled on Long Beach, having had three separate recommendations.

I have to say we had a great evening - the atmosphere was fun and relaxed, the service friendly and efficient and the food really did not disappoint (except, ironically, for the Black Pepper Crab, but more on that later).

We ordered up a feast (as we always do when the Greedy Gluttons and the Greedyguts get together!) Despite being in a seafood restaurant, we actually started our meal with BBQ pork ribs in a Honey Glaze, which were just awesome – you just need to look at the picture to see how sticky and sweet they were, although you obviously can’t taste the melt-in-the-mouth goodness we got from them.

From there on in, it was a seafood extravaganza – Fresh Live Prawns with Ginger and Spring Onion, Fresh Live Seabass in Hong Kong Style (not on the menu, but they were happy to oblige), and of course, Crabs.

We had not yet tried Chilli Crab (a travesty, I know!) so that was the first crab dish and it really was fantastic – the thick chilli sauce was just delicious, particularly when smothered over the accompanying dumplings once all the crab had been devoured.

The second crab dish was the Black Pepper Crab. We have had this a couple of times before now and always hugely enjoyed it, and as it’s the Signature dish of Long Beach, it would have been rude not to sample their version. I’m obviously no Black Pepper Crab expert and I’m sure everyone has their own ideas as to what makes the perfect dish, but I really found the black pepper here overwhelming (and this was unanimously agreed on our table) so that you couldn’t taste the crab flesh – or anything else after you’d eaten it for that matter.

I would certainly be up for a return to Long Beach, we enjoyed everything about it except for the Black Pepper Crab… which unfortunately was mostly left uneaten… a tragic waste of a Sri Lankan crab’s life…

Long Beach Seafood Restaurant – http://www.longbeachseafood.com.sg/

Pizza and Pasta in a Funky Setting

Thursday was a public holiday in Singapore for Deepavali, so we used our day off to finally finish furnishing our apartment, as we seem to have given up shopping for furniture in favour of hunting down new restaurants. ‘Nothing wrong with that!’ I hear you cry, and you would of course be right. But there are times when needs must, so we jumped in a cab and headed up to Gillman Village to the fabulous Shophouse to find a bookcase.

And wouldn’t you just know it, we arrived just in time for lunch!

Right underneath another fantastic furniture shop, Originals, we found The Turquoise Room, a funky bistro/bar with whitewashed walls and furniture, interspersed with the odd turquoise finishing touch and swirly wall design. The menu was mainly pizzas and pastas which suited us fine and I ordered a Linguine with Prawns and Arugula and Mr Greedy Glutton opted for the Pizza with Pepperoni and Italian Sausage, and we both started with the soup of the day, the Lobster Bisque.

The food was great, the atmosphere serene and relaxing and my only regret was that I didn’t wash it down with a cold glass of white wine… but I was due to play tennis in the evening, and somehow tennis and white wine never mix very well…

The Turquoise Room, 7 Lock Road, Gillman Village

Macho Margharitas

Our friends were back in town following their travels around Asia and en-route to their new life in Sydney. We'll call them Mr and Mrs Greedyguts as they are the only other couple we know as obsessed with good food and drink as we are. We were a little excited to be together again and so it was inevitable that the evening was going to progress into a rather boozy one. However, nobody could have been prepared for sheer scale of debauchery...

The location? Cafe Iguana at Riverside Point. The culprit? The Macho Margharita. I'm not really sure how many normal margharitas make a macho one, but we calculated it must be about five.



If you're a lover of margharitas and/or tequila, then Cafe Iguana is a great choice, serving over 150 different kinds of 100% Webber blue agave tequila and handcrafted mezcal.

We had our margharitas frozen and strawberry.... they taste so good... but the next morning you certainly don't feel so good.... and we didn't even make it on anywhere else that evening....




Cafe Iguana - www.cafeiguana.com

A Glutton in Gluttons Bay

The perfect joint for a greedy glutton like me... Gluttons Bay down by the Esplanade Mall. This has fast become my favourite hawker centre – I know some people think it’s touristy (although I’ve never really seen many tourists there) and expensive, but compared to eating back home it’s cheap, and the food is so damn good, I for one will keep coming back for more.

This time, we started off with sticky, smoky Barbecue Chicken Wings from Huat Huat Chicken Wings/Carrot Cake at Stall F, which really are finger-licking-good (sorry, Colonel) and some mixed Satays from Alhambra Padang Satay at Stall C . We swiftly followed this up with a selection of delectable dishes from Sew An Seafood Cze Cha at Stall H – Pork Ribs in Imperial Sauce, Sliced Fish in Ginger, Kang Kong with Garlic, Rice and washed it all down with a can of Tiger beer.

I also tried my first Carrot Cake – you know that thing that isn’t cake and isn’t made from carrots… it was pretty good, though I still don’t get the whole ‘carrot cake’ name for it…

Makansutra Gluttons Bay - http://www.makansutra.com/eateries.html

60s Live Seafood

Saturday night and we headed out for dinner to meet some friends. I have to say, we wondered where they were taking us as our taxi slowly made its way down an unlit winding road to what seemed like deeper and deeper into the rainforest. Once we reached the end, however, we were rewarded with a little oasis – 60s Live Seafood restaurant, bizarrely named and bizarrely located next door to a driving range.

A far cry from our usual Saturday night haunts in the city centre, the location on the edge of Bukit Timah Nature Reserve provided a tranquil and almost magical setting for a feast with friends. The outdoor restaurant, with its wooden furniture, water features and stone walkways, blends in sympathetically to the beautiful surroundings.

In fitting with the name of the restaurant, seafood dishes were the first on order – Spicy Salted Prawns, Black Pepper Crab and Sliced Fish with Dried Chilli.

We mixed it up with some Black Pepper Beef, Chicken with Spring Onion and Ginger and some Kai-lan with Garlic – all deliciously finished, and quickly served with a smile.

Drinks are provided by the next-door Rainforest Bar which we retired to, to watch the football, kicking back in their comfy sofas.

Sensational seafood, good company, cold beer and Premiership football… what more could a girl want from a Saturday night?

60s Live Seafood, Green Fairways Golf Course & Driving Range, Fairways Drive

A Night on the Weissbrau

Saturday night and we were back in Singapore after our break in Bintan and headed along to the Erdinger Oktoberfest at Merchant's Loop next to Clarke Quay, with a group of friends. A meal was included in the ticket price (a choice of Pork Knuckle, Bratwurst or Roast Chicken with accompanying mashed potato, sauerkraut, and salads) but that wasn't the reason we were here... oh no, we were here for the beer - and lots of it...

Check out that bad boy - that's 3 litres of Weisbrau... Just imagine how greedy a greedy glutton would be, if a greedy glutton glugged all that beer!

Lunch with a View

There was just time for lunch before we had to head back to the ferry and back to Singapore, so we decided to retrace our steps to Treetops, so that we could enjoy the view that we hadn’t been able to experience during dinner. I’m so pleased we did. As lovely as the restaurant was at night with all the candles and the breeze, it really comes into its own during the day when you have an endless view out to sea and can really appreciate being up in the treetops.

As we were about to leave Indonesia, we favoured the local options, ordering up a Chicken Curry and a Beef Rendang and the chef kindly complemented our theme with an amuse bouche of a mini beef sate in a peanut sauce, served in a shooter glass.

The curries were beautifully presented on serving trays with accompanying pickles and chillies and the curries inside were just delicious - one of those meals when you know you are full and should just. stop. eating. but you keep going back for just one more mouthful. Although they could have done with a bit more heat... we can handle it!

A great end to a great culinary holiday…

Treetops, Banyan Tree, Bintan – http://www.banyantree.com/