La Petite Cuisine, Serene Centre

Le Petit Cuisine (#01-05 Serene Centre, 10 Jalan Serene) has been on and off my radar for a while now. The place is known to do bistro styled French cuisine with no frills and at an affordable price. The place is not fancy at all at the slightest. The food's rather simple with no frills. If you're expecting ambience that accompanies the romantic imagery of dining in a French restaurant, you can burst that bubble. There is none of that there. Think plastic table sheets and laminated card menus. This was about affordable French food which could probably make a good introduction to anyone who is curious about what one can expect of bistro styled food.

foie gras panfried with orange confit and salad ($15)

For a $15 foie gras, I cannot complain much. But if I had to say it, I would have liked a more crispy surface. The ones here aren't well caramelised. The insides of the liver do melt in your mouth and for what they charged, was definitely a better deal than a pseudo fancy rendition that featured a bigger price tag and noticeably smaller portions. The one gripe that I had with the foie gras was that the supposed orange confit tasted a lot like a Worcester sauce reduction.

ravioli of prawn and foie gras in lemon creme ($12)

This ravioli would have scored better if the skin was better made. In each one of them was a single shrimp and a small but identifiable piece of foie gras. The accompanying lemon creme sauce was actually pretty decent. Instead of stuffed squares of pasta, these were shaped much like wanton or other Chinese styled dumplings. There were only three pieces.

confit de canard with gratin ($14)

Not much complains about the confit de canard apart from really small portions. It's might not be the best out there but it's a decent rendition served with a tasty gratinated potatoes on the side.

Of fast food, chilli fries and Carl's Jr

Just wondering out loud if there is another place that does and equivalent or better chilli fries than Carl's Jr. The ones from KFC aren't really to my liking. I understand that Botak Jones does something similar, but I'm pretty much against the over fried crinkle cut fries which really makes them no fun to eat and it makes me feel that I'm killing myself with something that doesn't taste as good. Though I'm essentially not big at all on fast food, these usually chained outlets are definitely ubiquitous enough to the point that they are probably on most people's consideration list when one does not have time to spare and really need a quick meal. And apart from this place that still serves the best (and most expensive) fast food burgers since they've opened up here, there doesn't seem to be any better player in the horizon. The portabello burger definitely beats the mushroom swiss at BK. Speaking of burgers in this place, the chilli cheese burger could definitely do with more sauces. The mix is pretty decent, it's the quantity that could improve. That being said, it'll probably make eating them a messier affair.

So, good chilli fries anywhere anyone?

Teh Tarik ice cream from Island Creamery and tigers

I dropped by Island Creamery (Serene Centre, 10 Jln Serene #01-05) recently and tried a couple of their flavours. That teh tarik ice cream was pretty good that I bought 2 tubs home. I thought it wasn't excessively sweet and had enough of the tea flavour to be enjoyable.

If you happen to be the owner and reading this, the Tiger Sorbet was mildly interesting too. However, the tigeresses that you employ behave as if they peaked with PMS and badly need a dosage of discipline. Since when has selling nice ice cream become an excuse for bad attitude and obvious display of lackadasical behaviour. One of them informed me that the dry ice packing that could keep the ice cream cold for an hour and a half while another that did the actual packing said 45 minutes and insisted that she was correct about the duration. I had to ask the first other lady again to confirm and both of them looked like they weren't in agreement. Seriously, I needed the ice and what's with not wanting to ask and not providing ice and still arguing with the customer about the duration of the cold packing?

Marché, VivoCity

It's been quite some time since I've walked into Marché. I had the idea that they had departed the local food scene with Vila'ge being more visible in town but apparently, they still are around. In Vivocity (VivoCity, 1 Harbourfront Walk, #03-14). Things have changed a little on the menu. The old favourites like the rosti and the savoury crepes are apparently still around. Food didn't seem to be as tasty as I remembered them except for the greasy rosti with thee greasy sausages. The banana crepe had rubbery skin thicker than prata. For something that was made on order, the bananas were cold. Wtf?! The pasta drenched in some weak cream sauce was not to my liking. Hence it's smothered in cheese flakes and chilli powder.

The pleasant surprise was that Marché actually has König Ludwig at pretty inexpensive pint; which I thought was a good substitute for Hoegaarden during the shortage period some months back where everywhere was serving them with extra thick foam and some other places charging more for them while at that. But that's for another day.

rosti with garlic sausage

pan fried mushrooms and potatoes

creamy mushroom soup

some curly carrot pasta

banana crepe with maple walnut ice cream

Festive lunch from Il Lido

Il Lido (Sentosa Golf Club, Bukit Manis Road) is up again this year end with a festive menu for Christmas. Apparently, this festive menu has been ongoing since the 5th of November and will continue until the 28th December before the switch into the New Year Menu. I haven't had the opportunity to visit before so we decided to try the 4 course festive lunch ($58 before tax) just to go with that festive mood. The restaurant is located at the not so accessible spot in the golf club at Sentosa. Which can be a hassle if one is not driving. On the other hand, it was a pleasant place with a rather scenic view of the sea looking past the blistering sun or the sweltering humidity or both. I wisely requested for an indoor seat near the al fresco area to get both the air conditioning and most of the view which was far from the stunning portrait that it is often imagined to be.

complimentary bread crisps

These dry bread crisps are surprisingly quite enjoyable to munch. They were served in a coral patterned metal bowl which I've noticed have turned up in photos everywhere. The crisps were lightly flavoured with a hint of olive oil and bits of garlic. A fresh bowl was brought out just as we were a third done with the first. I'm not complaining though.

insalata di granseola con avocado e salsa di agrumi siciliani
blue swimmer crab salad with avocado and sicilian citrus sauce

These crab salads felt overdone, but there wasn't anything else I could choose. Does the minced crab salad with avocado and orange slices look familiar to anyone? I didn't think that these things would be the "caesar's salad" of starters in restaurants everywhere. I thought this felt quite uninspiring. Light flaky crab meat over creamy avocado that was abruptly interrupted by a boring diced local tomatos. I don't know what went into the sicilian citrus sauce, but I was glad it did contain enough of the citrus.

tagliolini con fegato d'oca e pere al marsala
homemade tagliolini pasta with goose liver, pears and marsala wine sauce

This was the most enjoyable course for me. It wasn't a very fanciful plate of pasta. What was like-able about it included the poached pears which was not overdone. The diced pears had both a light residual crunch and the soft texture of cooked fruit. The complement flavours between the goose liver and the pears was enjoyable. Pasta was al dente. I haven't figured out the marsala wine sauce which was well flavoured without being overbearing. Now if only the portions were bigger...

involtino di tacchino farcito al tartufo con puree di mele e castagne
roasted turkey stuffed with pancetta and truffle, apple and chestnut puree

Tiny pieces of turkey breasts that Il Lido serves. The mixed stuffings tasted mostly of the pancetta. The rest flavours were mashed up and lost. Credit though goes to the meat for retaining a measure of succulence and a rather delectable flavour on the surface. All in all, quite enjoyable.

merluzzo nero con porcini, crema di patate e salsa al vino rosso
chilean seabass with porcini mushroom, potato cream and red wine sauce

What was remarkable about this chilean seabass were actually the char grilled mushrooms on the side. Nothing so much about fish here. This was certainly one of the more delicious enjoyable grilled mushrooms that I've had. I thought the creamy potato bed was rather good as well, light in flavour and texture. As for the chilean seabass, it's just a chilean seabass. Fresh enough, firm and soft but otherwise a very regular small piece of fish. The red wine sauce was mostly aesthetics since it didn't contribute much in the way of flavour for that small drizzle.

sorpresa natalizia
traditional italian festive pudding

I'm not sure how far this tradition goes back for the making of festive pudding or if tradition has changed for puddings over the years for the Italians. It certainly did look quite contemporary for a traditional pudding. This was a heavy layered mousse clad in a super thin chocolate shell and dusted with a very fine chocolate powder topped with a meringue. According to the server, the three different layers of the insides were chocolate, coffee and vanilla. I thought I had tasted mascarpone in there. There were some bits of candied chestnuts on the side with a golden brown drizzle which was distinctively bitter-ish sweet which that the server insisted was just honey. Hmmm......

Chew on this!

I took a plunge and decided to check out a couple of the gimmicky sounding desserts from Ah Chew in this re-revisit. As I had suspected, they were no big deals. The green bean soup with seaweed tasted nothing of seaweed. I was actually disappointed since I was actually hoping to taste it in the soup.

There was a sign on the counter that mentioned their steamed milk egg with cookies which was not on the menu. The adventurous soul in me decided to order it and it turned out to be nothing more than a regular steamed egg dessert with a thin layer of cookie crumbs blanketed over the top. The crumbs didn't really enhance the steamed egg much IMNSHO. Seriously, I thought very little of it. To reiterate, gimmick!