Early Birthday dinner~ @ Cafe Causette

I can’t believe nearly another year has passed (birthday clock-wise), another year older, another year wiser(?) or so the saying goes haha…

As is our tradition now since completing our course three years ago, a group of us always come together to gather once a month to celebrate each other’s birthdays and September happens to my birthday month~

This year, wanting something simple, yet casual with a lot of choices and not wanting to go down the buffet route, I decided Cafe Causette was the ideal location.

Connected with the Mandarin Cake shop, be entranced by the artistic displays of chocolate sculptures which change on a regular basis and enticed by their sweet delights of cake, chocolates or bakery selection, before going to the hostess desk and asking for a table.

Lighting is quite dim making for more of an intimate setting, but not to worry as it is still suitable for groups larger than two. I was the first to arrive, but happily kept myself entertained with their warm crusty roll, smearing aromatic tomato paste and cream cheese all over it 🙂

When everyone finally arrived, then came the daunting task of choosing what to order. As I mentioned before their menu contains a large variety of choices making everyone encounter a moment of indecisiveness, but luckily that soon passed.

A couple of light appetisers to share, traditional Caesar and Caprese salad. The Caesar salad is always a crowd pleaser, pre-tossed so that the crisp lettuce leaves are lightly covered with dressing accompanied by two rounds of bacon fried to a crisp and a hard-boiled egg where the yolks are still slightly runny. The Caprese salad arrives as two balls of tomatoes balanced by a snowy white sphere of Mozzarella cheese. Such a refreshing starter, bites of juicy tomato paired with a creamy yet slightly grainy cheese and of course it is necessary to drizzle the sweetly tart balsamico vinegar all over it~ 🙂

To share with Miss K, we ordered a serving of lobster bisque which was stomach-warming and creamy with diced pieces of lobster adding some texture to the soup.

For mains the Hainanese chicken rice was quite popular with three of us ordering it. Having had it before, it is a more than generous serving of chicken where you can choose to have breast or thigh fillet, served to you deboned over a bed of bak choy vegetables. Of course, Hainanese chicken would not be complete without an accompanying bowl of fragrant rice and the one served here has all the flavours of chicken stock and warming notes of ginger in every bite.

Mr. K and Miss I decided to have steak. I did not ask which cut they chose, but it looked tender enough and cooked to a lovely medium rare.

I wanted lamb that evening and Miss. K chose to have the same. Three cutlets of Australian lamb seared to the recommended medium state. I found the lamb to be a little fatty in places, but it was still enjoyable, especially with generous smears of mint jelly~

Like with most Western places, Cafe Causette tries to serve the whole table at the same time. This of course, is an agreeable action, but only if the kitchen staff can manage it well and keep everything warm until it is served. Maybe they were a little understaffed that evening or their timing was off, but the cabonara ordered by T and Miss R came out cold. Even when they requested them to re-heat it, the pasta still came back barely lukewarm. Disappointing as the spaghetti strands were al dente and the cream sauce quite well prepared.

No desserts (but if you do happen to stop by for dessert I highly recommend their bread and butter pudding with vanilla ice-cream) because there was cake~ Opera cake~! Delicate layers of alternating coffee and alcohol soaked sponge cake spread with cream, finished with a glossy chocolate glaze. Just one bite fills the palate with a lovely coffee aroma, perfect for coffee lovers.

I will always have a soft spot for Cafe Causette, especially knowing that if at any time I am unsure of what I want to eat, they will have something that I like. A lovely birthday dinner and even better company. Thank you~ 🙂

Dinner @ Pierre~

I think many people would agree that Mondays are very hard to get through as many of us are still experiencing weekend withdrawal symptoms, but luckily Mr. C organised dinner for us that night so at least I had something to look forward to~

Dinner was to be at Pierre inside the Mandarin Oriental hotel~ This one star establishment is one of Pierre Gagnaire’s restaurants offering diners a taste of modern French cuisine. Upon entering the restaurant, it is very dimly lit, with each table being illuminated by a single spotlight hanging overhead. Although I could not really determine the colour scheme of the restaurant, I could sense the overall design was chic with a touch of contemporary elegance. As it was on the 25th floor, one side of the restaurant had full-length windows which offered pleasant night views of Victoria Harbour.

After being seated at one of the tables with a window view, we were warmly welcomed by the manager (yes because of Mr. C as usual :p) and were offered a glass of champagne to start our evening. While the sommelier brought over the champagne (only for Mr. C, not me as I am not hugely partial to alcohol) we were then served an assortment of canapes to start off the evening.

A spoonful of fresh salmon roe that popped delightfully in the mouth paired with a dab of sour cream, foie gras and a cube of quince jelly with raspberry vinegar. It also came with crumbed ball of black pudding which tasted very similar to sausage rolls. Another plate of canapes consisted of a soft cake of tomato, a stick of celery with olive paste and thin beetroot crisps immersed in thyme olive oil.

As soon as we had finished with the canapes, our menus were given to us to peruse. Although they do not have a huge variety of selection for both appetiser and main course, we were still able to settle on dishes that appealed to our tastes. For Mr. C he chose the Scallop-Crab and Lamb AAA, while I picked Duck and Goose Foie Gras, and Sole-Oyster-Black Truffle.

Once our choices had been noted by the manager, our selection of bread was served. Thin baguette, cheese roll and an olive twist, accompanied by unsalted and chilli butter. I really liked their bread, the crusts were nicely crunchy with soft insides that soaked up the butter easily and surprisingly even Mr. C complimented their baguettes too.

Our amuse bouche was then served. Quail’s egg on a bed of cauliflower cream with a side of 49 month aged jambon. I found the cauliflower cream to have a slightly bitter taste, but the jambon was lovely, soft and not overly salty.

When the appetisers were served, I came to realise Pierre likes to serve their courses as a number of components with a focus on visual presentation, almost like artwork. Mr. C’s Scallop-Crab featured the main item of crab meat coated in Muscat wine jelly, enoki mushrooms and celery, a side of scallop carpaccio mixed with smoked eel and another small dish of roasted scallop with braised pears and turnip. I actually really enjoyed his choice, the crab meat was the epitome of freshness judging by its natural sweetness, the scallops cooked perfectly to a buttery softness and the smoked eel gave a wonderful flavour to the carpaccio.

My Duck and Goose Foie Gras was gorgeous in presentation, a generous serving of goose liver with yellow wine jelly encased in a cut-out brioche decorated with shavings of pickled red and black radish, a rectangular prism of duck liver terrine coated with gingerbread with a side of condiments and a ball of crumbed duck liver croquette. This could have easily been shared by two people as the goose liver although utterly sinful became a little heavy after a while despite the pickled radish helping to refresh the palate. The duck liver terrine was just as smooth with a slightly less gamy taste, but I did like the pairing of condiments, in particular the one made with 15 ingredients which was a little sweet reminding me of hoisin sauce.

Before the mains arrived we were served something from their black truffle menu, compliments of the chef~
Sauteed mushrooms and onion with black truffles on a souffleed biscuit topped with a quenelle of truffled chantilly cream. This was amazing. The souffleed biscuit was pillowy soft and spongy and it just soaked up the essence of chantilly cream which slowly melted over the whole creation leading to the most heavenly truffle fragrance. Something that really needs to be tried~

Our mains took a while to arrive, but it did give us some time to digest the previous dishes. Mr. C’s lamb was perfectly seared to a blushing pink with tamarind juice, socca pancake and tomato marmalade as accompaniments. Two other side dishes was marinated lamb shoulder with eggplant and a crunchy stick of polenta while the other was a little salad of lamb’s lettuce and a slice of roasted ricotta. From the piece of lamb I had, it was tender with a slight bite to it and had a favourable gamy flavour which sometimes I prefer in my lamb.

My sole fish was very generous in size, a whole fillet deboned and seared with hazelnut butter accompanied  with sauteed spinach and champagne sauce. On the side was a duo of oysters in a truffle sauce and a Manchego cheese croquette on artichokes. The oysters were small, but juicily plump and I adored my fish, meaty with a slight bouncy texture it was a pleasure to eat with a smear of creamy sauce. I really enjoyed this, even more so than the lamb.

To be honest, after our mains I was ready to skip dessert due to limited tummy capacity, but Mr. C still wanted to try at least one, so he picked L’Ardechois knowing that the combination would be something I would enjoy too.

Before dessert, we were served our petit fours along with our coffees. A play on sweet and sour, there was a spoon of lemon foam, shortbread with apricot jam, lemon curd wrapped with marzipan, a meringue cup with blackberry coulis, pineapple and blackberry jelly and a dark chocolate ganache with citrus peel.

And then it was time for dessert~
A layered creation of crunchy biscuit base, chestnut ganache and whisky bavarois it was paired with a bitter chocolate and pistachio ice-cream. Despite my previous unwillingness to order dessert, I could not resist a few forkfuls as the richness of the chocolate paired with chestnut and subtle whisky flavour was dangerously addictive. The chocolate ice-cream was definitely more to my preference as the bitter tones was sinfully rich, and although the pistachio flavour was very natural, I found the texture to be too airy for my liking.

Overall, quite a pleasant experience 🙂

Birthday dinner at Mandarin Grill + Bar~

For my birthday this year I chose to have dinner at the Mandarin Grill + Bar. I must admit that I had quite a difficult time deciding where to celebrate since there are so many fine dining options out there, but I have always been intrigued by the artful presentation of the dishes served at the Grill + Bar hence it ended as my place of choice.

I was originally celebrating with my dad, but due to some pressing issues he was unable to attend, so I had the pleasure of being accompanied by Mr. C as that night’s dining companion.

Upon entering the restaurant, I was quite surprised by the decor as I was expecting it to portray more of a steakhouse vibe, rather than a proper dining room with modern finishes. The atmosphere was also not as stiff as I was expecting it to be, and the ambience was actually quite pleasant and comfortable.

We chose to go a la carte rather than picking from the set menus so we could share and try more things, but before that we were served my beloved bread basket and a couple of amuse bouches. The bread basket was served warm which I expected no less from a one Michelin starred restaurant and from the few that I tried, I was most impressed with their quality. I especially liked their olive bread as well as the black sesame roll which was quite unusual, with a slightly firm yet chewy crust where the flavour of the sesame filled the senses in a pleasant way. We were also able to choose an olive oil to accompany our bread, I picked an Italian one (with the gold ribbon) which was so smooth on the tongue, and since Mr. C let me pick his, I chose a peppery one which was made from baby olives. Out of the two I actually preferred the peppery one as the olive taste was much sharper on the tongue.

Continuing with the olive trend, our first amuse bouche was a small green liquid sphere of oliveness. No doubt there was gastronomy involved in making this, where a semi-hard gelatin casing enveloped a centre of liquid olive essence. I did not really like this, as I was not very fond of the texture of the exterior and the taste was only so so for me. Accompanying this were a pair of herbed savoury biscuits topped with finely shaved parmesean. I would have never thought I would enjoy biscuits that were salty, but they were surprisingly good, quite buttery with the herb flavour coming through strongly.

We were also presented with a pair of cheese gourgeres. So delicate looking, with the choux pastry hiding a warm gooey cheese centre. I loved it~

We started with some French oysters. I am not especially partial to oysters, but I do enjoy them once in a while. The ones we had were Fines de Claire and these were very creamy and quite sweet from their natural juices.

For entree, we started with ‘Garden’. A plate of beautifully arranged organic vegetables which were held together by a mixture of blended argula and coconut milk. The waiter then proceeded to ‘water’ our arrangement with the dressing inside a small watering can. Very cute~ Presentation wise it get full marks, but in terms of taste, the vegetables were of course very fresh, but the dressing was too bland for me. Also I did not like the flavor of the argula ‘soil’, as it was quite strong.

For soup we had the lobster bisque. This was heart warmingly good. The flavour of the lobster was very intense, and the addition of cream gave a wonderful smoothness and thickness to the texture.

We picked two hot appetisers, the scallop and fois gras. Three very plump scallops were served in a small ceramic pot atop a combintation of sea grass and kelp. The scallops were perfectly cooked so they were very tender and retained the natural sweetness of its juices. What was interesting was the addition of a few roundish green leaves, which was described by the waiter as oyster leaves. The special thing about these leaves were that they were supposed to give off a slight oyster flavour since these plants are grown in the same area where oysters are bred. And surprisngly they did, a subtle oyster ‘fishiness’, which went very well with the rest of the dish.

The fois gras was beautifully plated, but was a very disappointing dish. The quality of the fois gras was not very good, as it was quite ‘rough’ in texture and not very smooth. It was also very gamey in flavour. Disappointing.

For mains, we were served the sea bass first. This was salt baked, and came to the table on a big slab of pink himalyan salt prior to being plated. The presentation was quite cute, where the starkness of the white of the fish contrasted sharply with the colourful pureed dots of artichoke, lemon, pepper and saffron. The sea bass was perfectly cooked, very tender, and the dots of sauces helped to enhace the natural flavour of the fish. My favourite combination was pairing it with the lemon.

The Beef  ‘Calotte’ was our pick from the meat course. I was quite anticipating this dish, as there have been some very positive reviews about it. The beef itself comes from the US snake river farm and the ‘calotte’ is the ribeye cap where the meat is supposed to be the most tender and flavourful. This was presented inside the signature Mandarin Grill book, but when we opened it I was surprised to find everything to be black. The waiter then explained they had just changed the presentation of this dish that day and the theme was charcoal, so essentially everything was coated in charcoal, even the vegetables which unfortuately looked like lumps of coal. However to me, this dish was just about the beef. And yes it did deliver. Cooked to a perfect blushing medium rare, I knew it was going to be very tender from the way my knife slid through it quite easily. The beef was so flavourful, and there was a pleasant gaminess to the taste which melded well with the slight fattiness of the beef. Definitely recommended~

And finally to my favourite part of any meal. Desserts! We chose three to share between us, fruit, banana split and oreo. Since we asked for them to all come at the same time, we picked the lightest one to eat first. Fruit was a mix of seasonal fresh and freeze dried fruit with two types of sorbet, mandarin and pear. Although it was very pretty to look at, it was not very special. The fruit was fresh, but the freeze dried fruit was a little odd in texture and it kept sticking to my teeth. The sorbets were good though, refreshing with a clean and crisp flavour.

The banana split was presented very differently to what one would commonly associate with the name sake of three scoops of strawberry, vanilla and chocolate ice-cream with two halves of a banana and topped with fake whipped cream with maraschino cherries. Instead, three baby bananas were presented on a dish and then lashed with chocolate sauce. Mr. C was curious enough to ask how they remember which one was what flavour to which the waiter replied that the angle at which the bananas were placed represented each flavour. Each banana turned out to be a coating of white chocolate with a different filling of strawberry mousse, banana mousse and vanilla ice-cream. As cute as it looked, it was quite sweet overall and the texutre of the mousse was quite firm and not very smooth.

Our last dessert was oreo, which was a vanilla ice-cream with a crumble of chocolate biscuit crumbs and topped with chocolate espuma which is foam. The texture of the dessert was airy and light due to the main element being foam, but it was very chocolatey in flavour. However I did find that it became cloyingy sweet after a couple of mouthfuls and in the end I seemed to enjoy the honest flavour of the vanilla ice-cream most.

As a little surprise, since it was my birthday I also had my very own chocolate candle. Quite cute really, a dark chocolate coating with chocolate ganache inside where the red flame was made from firm icing.

And to end we were served our own his and hers petite fours. Mine was a sherbet powder compact with lemon and raspberry sherbet which came with my own white fairy floss puff, while Mr. C had a chocolate cigar in it’s own cigar dish. I only had a slight taste of mine, because again it was just way too sweet for my liking, and I soon monopolized the chocolate cigars since the dark chocolate was just what I was seeking to end my meal. It was no surprise that the chocolate was so good since the Mandarin Oriental does excel in it. Smooth and rich, with the intense flavour of good quality dark chocolate. I wonder if they would serve it to the ladies upon request.

Although there were hits and misses where the dishes were concerned (dessert was unfortunately quite disappointing for me), I did have a fabulous evening. Thank you for celebrating with me, it was much appreciated 🙂