Being on diet really sucks. Yes I admit, as a girl I am always concerned with my body image, I’m not aiming to be stick thin because I know that my body shape doesn’t cater for toothpick-like limbs, but I just want to maintain a decent enough shape to cater for my slightly hourglass figure. Yes the type of figure where if I just gain a little weight it will noticeably show around the hips and thighs.
So I have been trying to go low carb recently, actually more like no bread. I have to admit that bread is one of my big loves. I love bread, artisanal breads, hk style bo lao bao, steamed vegetable buns, Indian Naan, Greek pita bread oh I could go on and on.. but it seems that bread does not return the love. It actually makes me feel more bloated than other kinds of carbs, hence I’m trying to cut it out (or lower my intake) of my diet.
So when I met with my friend for dinner that night, my request for something low carb, resulted in us going to The Peninsula Lobby for salads haha… It wouldn’t be the first place I would think of if I was craving salad, but I have heard good things about their caesar salad.
The Lobby of The Peninsula is always so impressive, it gives off the grand demeanor of an elegant old building that whispers of money and class. I rarely have the chance to dine at The Lobby, as I can not picture myself waiting for hours in line for their high tea, so it was pleasant to be able to absorb my surroundings while waiting for our meal to be served.
I ordered the chicken caesar, while my dining companion kindly accompanied me in having greens for dinner by asking the waiters to recreate The Lobby salad that used to be on the menu. A bread basket was served prior to our meal, in which we kindly asked them to take it away (to avoid temptations you see). The Lobby salad was served first and it was highly appetising to look at. In the middle was a small mountain of mixed greens as fresh as you can get, decorated with slices of turkey, ham, baby tomatoes, half of a perfectly ripe avocado and a soft poached egg. This was accompanied by a creamy blue cheese dressing.
My casear salad came next, the lettuce was sliced into manageable pieces and was pre-tossed with caesar dressing, diced hard boiled egg and parmesean cheese. The accompaniment of chicken came as a whole breast fillet that was cut into thick slices. I was expecting the chicken to be quite tough and dry, but I was amazed at how tender it actually was. The lettuce was also crisp and fresh, and the dressing had a sour tang which made it all the more appetising.
For dessert we ordered two ice-cream sundaes to share. One was ‘I love Paris’ and the other was ‘Exotic’.
‘I love Paris’ was a combination of champagne sabayon ice-cream with strawberry sherbet, topped with meringue, pistachios and fresh strawberries. To be honest it looked a little childish in presentation, but the scoops of ice-cream was quite generous. The champagne flavour was too strong for me, since I don’t really like alcohol, but coupled with the strawberry sherbet, it made it more palatable. Those that appreciate champagne would enjoy the ice-cream. The strawberry sherbet was more refreshing, but it was too icy in texture.
The ‘Exotic’ was banana-passionfruit sherbet with fresh mango and crunchy crumble topped with coconut ice-cream. The combination was very summery, and reminded me of a pina colada. I didn’t like the crumble as it was too hard and stuck to the teeth, but the coconut ice-cream was quite creamy and smooth.
We ended with coffees, their decaf latte was very good. I always enjoy the coffee from The Peninsula and we had some macarons as petite fours. They didn’t taste as good as they looked. The lemon one was stale, the shell was already hard, but the pistachio one fared better, but only had a very faint pistachio flavour. Not much to write home about.
I would definitely come back for their salads and coffee, but desserts, I would suggest going elsewhere.
Just Something About Me 