For more photos, please visit Rubbish Eat Rubbish Grow: http://rubbisheatrubbishgrow.wordpress.com/2012/01/02/au-jardin-les-amis-botanic-gardens-orchard-tanglin/

Ever since a mediacorp gay actor said that his date brought him here and impressed the pants out of him a few years ago–ok he didn’t say pants–Au Jardin (translation: “at garden”) has been on my wish list. Recently, instead of just serving on weeknights and weekends, Au Jardin opens up weekday afternoon lunches for only $45++.

Directions: If you enter by the Visitor Center, Au Jardin, on a small hill, is just directly in front the Vistor Center but it is obscured by trees. So if you’re heading north, you’re on the right track, baby, you are born this way.

Decor/ Ambience: The setup is a dream. Nestled in lushness, the unassuming and secluded colonial bungalow stands quietly. The full-panaled windows allow natural sunlight to stream into the balcony of the second storey where the patrons dine. The surrounding verdure gives a sense of tranquillity and peace. Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong were singing softly. The temperature was set to a comfortable degree. The menu came as a greeting card with a replica of watercolor painting of the colonial mansion. Side stools are available for bags. But the tables aren’t padded, and padded tables are essential for good restaurants. Another point: there were forest ants crawling all over the table–can’t be helped, I guess. But still, this place is pure class and sophistication.Even before the amuse bouche, we always believe that good gratis bread is one of signs of a good restaurant. It was crispy outside, soft and warm inside. Au Jardin started off with the right foot. The amuse bouche was tuna tartare with caviar. The tuna was sliced into almost rice-like bits. An elegant dish but nothing overly exciting.

Starters

Chiobu had smoked duck breast salad, duck rillette mousse, gherkins, confit of tomato, oats and walnut dressing. She remarked that the smoked duck breast, usually tough, was particularly well-done, tender and not overly salty. The oats gave an extra, almost biscuity crunch. The balance of the salad–a mark of judging a salad–was spot-on, sweet, vinegary, salty and earthy. But to Wise Guy (me), there are bad salads and then there are salads. Salads are just salads. Very difficult to wow the eater.

Wise Guy always picks the foie gras dish: fricassee of wild mushrooms, foie gras ravioli and mushroom broth. The mushroom broth itself tasted very Chinese, you know, Chinese mushroom soup. But wow, the ravioli–more like wanton–gave me a surprise. The translucent skin was as thin as gossamer. Bite into it and a sudden burst of foie gras oil and intense vinegar. I wasn’t prepared for the vinegar at all. This was a very smart move byChef Ng Wei Han who has worked for the Les Amis group for about 6 years. I suspect the foie gras wasn’t top quality–remember the lunch isn’t expensive–and so you can taste the iron-ness of it and to cover the iron-ness, Chef Ng used a strong condiment. When the vinegar and foie gras oil dripped into the mushroom soup, the favors interacted, changed and gave the soup a punchline. An intelligent and startling dish. Quite appetizing too.

Mains

Prawn a’la plancha with shell pasta, egg confit, seasonable vegetables with shellfish glaze. Note the trend here I think Chiobu is secretly on a diet! She was picking the low-calorie count food. The plating was gorgeous but when I asked how it was, she replied, “Pasta lor.” There was an overpowering shellfish taste, almost like the SIngaporean hae bee hiam (spicy dried shrimp paste) without the spiciness mixed with some shellfish, making the dish one-dimensional.

I, however, like in life choices, always make the right decisions: roasted striploin & braised beef cheek with roasted potato, sweet corn puree and red wine sauce. I hate potato in general but this potato was amazing, roasted in such a way that brought out the natural sweetness. The braised beef cheek was so tender, and the red-wine sauce that stuck on it was so aromatic and sweet. The striploin was savory and complex, giving each bite a different taste, sometimes sweet, sometimes salty and sometimes peppery.

However, a kvetch–which is the same complaint I have of the entree–is that the meat wasn’t of a better quality. That being said, the set menu only costs $45 and given the top-notch service and ambience and way of cooking, I really don’t think it’s fair for me to complain about the quality.

Dessert

Chocolate Ice Kacang consists of gula melaka ice cream, milk shavings, valrhona dark chocolate mousse, rose petal (bundong) foam, corn and grass jelly. We tried two ways of eating: the first way was to NOT to mix the ingredients up, but dig some of each onto the spoon and eat it. I preferred this way because you can taste each ingredient separately and distinctly and yet they are in a way combining to give new flavors. The second way is to mix everything up, like ice kacang. I didn’t like this way so much because I didn’t know what I was eating and it just became a big mess. Chiobu didn’t like this dessert but I loved it for its innovation and playfulness. The taste could be more refined–I don’t think bundong goes with chocolate–but with some fine-tuning, this could be a hit.

Popcorn parfait. You’d think the yellow parts are popcorn but they are actually passionfruit. The passionfruit gave the dessert a face-scrunching sourness, which Chiobu didn’t like–man, she’s more difficult to please than I am. But I absolutely loved it. The “popcorn” appeared to be two pieces of chalk beneath the passionfruit mousse; they were ice cream and tasted exactly like sweet popcorn you eat at the movies. The foam was corn. Some mint leaves. The contrast of the sour passionfruit and sweet popcorn was palate-cleansing and invigorating. An awesome and brilliant finish to a great meal…

Or were we finished We witnessed someone who had a souffle ($22) and so we ordered it too.

It came with two scoops of almond-vanilla ice cream. I liked everything I ordered so far, but this was a mistake. It looked amazing but the texture was more like a sponge cake, without the airiness of souffle, and the orange liquor was an overkill, making it extremely and unbearably bitter.

Luckily, the end of the meal was sweet to us. The petit four were incredible! The madeleine was hot from the oven, so eggy and delicious, while the chocolate was so rich, going so well with tea.

Service: There were more servers than customers! Water was promptly refilled; bread was offered continuously. Thoughtful, considerate, friendly without being sycophantic. They might have station a server permanently at the balcony because sometimes when we wanted something, we had to wait for a server to come out to the balcony. But still, one of the best service.

Another thing we love about the place is that some time lapsed between courses, so that we knew the kitchen was actually carefully preparing our food. Lunches are meant to be 3 hours long anyway.

We spent $132 for two in total.

At the end of the meal, we were very satisfied with the service, ambience and the value of the meal. Except for the souffle, the food was reasonably well executed and intelligent. My suggestion is pick the right food. Communicate with the servers what you like and ask for recommendations. Be prepared to read another review of Au Jardin; I think I’ll celebrate my birthday here and try the Sunday Brunch. We’d like to thank the director, Philippe Pau, for his hospitality and humor.

For photos, please visit Rubbish Eat Rubbish Grow: http://rubbisheatrubbishgrow.wordpress.com/2011/12/26/3-inch-sin-millenia-walk/

When I was there, waiting for Jasper Aston Lim and Melissa Koh, the aroma from the oven, the freshly baked scent, was killing me. I MUST EAT NOW. The thought of robbing the cakes crossed my mind.

Decor: The place has a L-shaped sitting area with a bar table at the back. While the focus here is on the food, the decor could be improved, maybe have a theme

The shop specializes in molten chocolate cakes ($6.50 for non-alcoholic, $7.50 for alcoholic). Celine, 1/2 of the owners, left her cushy job to pursue her passion. Very courageous and admirable. She was trained at Cordon Bleu and interpreted the cakes with molten middles in souffle cups. She uses 70% valrhona dark chocolate.

There are 11 flavors and we tried Original, Peanut Butter, White Chocolate, Bitter Orange, Raspberry, Lemon, Cherries Jubilee and Hazelnut. We all had our favorites but strangely no one picked the Original as his or her favorites.

Jasper’s favorite is raspberry and Melissa’s is white chocolate. However, raspberry,white chocolate, bitter orange and hazelnut didn’t work for me because the favors didn’t come through. This is partly because the flavors are concentrated in the center and I ate from the side (my bad). When I feedback-ed that the favors could be stronger, Celine explained that it may affect the overall taste. She knows her stuff. Don’t play play.I strongly recommend Peanut Butter, Lemon and Cherries Jubilee. Peanut butter is ALWAYS awesome, especially with chocolate; this was thick and chunky–like how I like my men to be. The Lemon was a huge surprise. Lemon and chocolate Who would have thought But the cake wasn’t sour, it was mildly sweet. There was a strong citrus fragrance, very refreshing. Perks you up from your afternoon lethargy. The alcoholicCherries Jubilee came with whole cherries. There was a subtle cherry-sweetness that pervaded the entire cake and the bitterness from the alcohol added another dimension to the cake.

In general, the cakes are (1) the texture was crispy on the top, but soft inside. And in the mouth, the cake felt very smooth. (2) they are not overly sweet. In fact, they are only mildly sweet, so the focus is on the quality of the chocolate.

The cakes are available for take-away. Just warm it up in the microwave for 15-20 seconds.

New to the menu are cakes, tarts and ice creams.

The ice creams ($3.50) are customized to be less sweet so that they could go well with the cakes. There are seasonal favors so ask for them. In general, vanilla ice cream goes well with chocolate molten cakes.

Mogador ($7) is a chocolate cake with dark chocolate mousse and chocolate sponge, glazed with–not chocolate!–raspberry. Most SIngaporeans, including me, have a predilection for airy Japanese cakes. The cakes from Celine–trained at Cordon Bleu–are more European. It was light but chocolate cakes in general couldn’t be as light as Japanese cakes. It tasted a bit like seaweed to me! Another friend tasted it too. I thought it was quite unique, surprising and fun.

Perhaps there was an overdose of chocolate, so I cannot really taste the chocolateness in the Dark Side ($6), a chocolate tart.

Overall, I’d still stick to the molten chocolate cakes, one of the best I’ve tasted, a scoop of ice cream, a cup of hot tea and a book on a lazy afternoon. Hey, if my hero Brad LadyIronChef Lau declares it’s the best molten chocolate cake in Singapore, it is the best in Singapore ok!

For photos, please visit Rubbish Eat Rubbish Grow: http://rubbisheatrubbishgrow.wordpress.com/2011/12/23/crust-pizza-upper-thomson/While Chef Peter Augoustis was studying to be an aviation engineer, he was making pizza as a part-time job. In 2001, in Australia, his cousin asked him to help in a pizza joint. In 2007, Chef Augoustis entered a nationwide pizza competition and came in tops! The competition organization sponsored him to Vegas for the World’s Best Pizza – he won and then spent the winnings at Vegas! Hey, it’s only world’s best pizza right No big deal. Don’t need to rush down here. In ten years or so, Crust Pizza has 100 over outlets in Australia and two in Singapore, Holland Village and Upper Thomson. The success is insane!

The decor of the place is – well – fuss-free, neighborhood eatery lor. The open concept makes it friendly but I wish there were aircon.

Some pizzerias claim to be fusion food by, say, just adding jalapenos and calling it Mexican pizza. But the idea behind of Crust Pizza is that it truly reinvents the notion of a pizza; it cooperates the food from a certain culture. For instance, the Roast Duck Pizza($22, duck breast, bak choy, sesame seed on hoisin base) and Five Spice Pork Belly($23, pear slices, wild rocket, crushed walnuts & balsamic glaze) are invented in Singapore and brought back to Australia.

The bad thing about having an event and a food tasting at the same time is we couldn’t take proper notes, so we are not commenting much about the food.

There are four types of pizzas: meat ($23, including pork, lamb & beef), poultry ($22),seafood ($25) and vegetarian ($21). Mr NGFL and Wise Guy tried one from each category.

Wild Mushroom ($21, wild marinated mushroom mix, asparagus, pine nuts, topped with parmesan & truffle oil on Bechamel cream sauce base). There are a few vegetarian options. The wild mushroom pizza has a distinctive, powerful taste of wild mushrooms. You really can taste the wildness or wilderness in the mushroom.

Moroccan Lamb ($23, Moroccan lamb, spanish onions & baby spinach, with mint yoghurt & lemon). This is the pizza that won the Best Pizza in the World. It was very delicious, and certainly reminded Mr NGFL and Wise Guy of lamb kebab, very Arabian. The flavors worked very well together and there wasn’t the stench of lamb. We can’t say in all honesty that it is the best pizza we have ever tasted but it was very excellent. This is a must order if you’re a kebab fan.

Spicy Pesto Scallops ($25, spicy sundried tomato pesto, scallops, spring onions, roasted red peppers & goat cheese with pine nuts). This was not memorable for us probably because pizzas (as dough) tend to dilute the taste and you need a strong seafood (like salmon) to make the pizza stand out.

Peri-Peri Chicken ($22, Marinated chicken breast, spring onions, roasted red peppers, caramelised onions & bocconcini (Italian white cheese) with Peri-peri sauce.) Now Joanne Peh doesn’t need to stomp out of Nando’s. She can do it at Crust Pizza. This is another favorite of ours. It was moist and the flavors came on strongly, sweet and spicy with a creaminess. If you have a second pizza, order this.

Kungpow Chicken ($22). Spicy-hot, decent and easy on the eyes. My one minor gripe is it markets itself as kungpow chicken. It’s hoisin-sauce with fresh red chili and cashews but it’s not dried-chili, sweet-sauce, stir-fried amalgam. It’s good by itself but it just isn’t kungpow-derful.

One of the important criteria for judging a pizza is the crust. Here, the crust is dusted with semolina, a coarse flour-like wheat substance, giving it that oomph and texture. The chef also revealed to us a secret: poke the crust with a fork: this enables the air to go through, fluffing it up, and giving it an airiness.

Overall, all the 5 pizzas ranged from good to excellent.

For photos, please visit Rubbish Eat Rubbish Grow: http://rubbisheatrubbishgrow.wordpress.com/2011/12/21/tatsu-teppanyaki-chijmes/

I’m super cheapskate. If you eat teppanyaki at food court, it can cost up to $20. Seriously Food court The set lunch here only cost $19 (including GST)! It includes salad , fried rice, miso, choice of salmon or prawns or chicken, bean sprouts, and fruits.

The Japanese-styled decor is a long bar-table with the teppanyaki chef, instead of bartender. It’s a little cramp but we were here for the food.The salad, miso soup and fruits were ok. But everything was AWESOME. Look at the fried rice. Every grain was coated by egg. It was not too dry, not too wet, not at all oily. A little peppery for me, but what the heck. It was tasty.

I picked salmon and Saliva picked prawns. The chef asked if we wanted to share, we said ok. And the chef automatically split the portions up, so we don’t eat from the same bowl. Plus points of being considerate!

The salmon was simmered in an aluminum “boat” on the teppan (or hot iron griddle) in an egg sauce and with a bit of sake, I think. It looked very gooey and ugly but tasted awesome. The prawns came with mayonnaise, which suited Saliva’s taste.

Most dishes came with a huge topping of fried garlic. Not so good for first dates, but, as Saliva said, “Who doesn’t like garlic” I know who, Edward from Twilight Vampires, avoid this place.

The dishes were cooked right in front of you, with the chef doing some kungfu stance. Very entertaining.

Good service, topped up the green tea often.

All in all, an intimate atmosphere with great food, value-for-money and good service.

For more photos, please visit Rubbish Eat Rubbish Grow: http://rubbisheatrubbishgrow.wordpress.com/2011/10/21/hui-wei-chinese-thai-cuisine-回味中泰小廚-lavender-little-india/

This new stall at a usual coffeeshop is going to be featured on 煮炒来啰 (Sizzling Wok)–the TV show Pornsak is hosting–so we, kiasu Singaporeans and one PRC, just had had had to be the first to go there before it gets super crowded! I read a food blogger’s entry on the stall and she didn’t seem to be very enthusiastic about the food. But wow! the food was good! and quickly cheered me up! So warm for the tummy tum tum on a cool day!

The stall, situated in an old kopitiam, with lots of old uncles around–old neighbourhood mah, me ah beng like the atmosphere! so comfortable, can chew with mouth open—is near Lavender MRT and Jalan Besar Stadium, which kinda reminded me of 14K because he works nearby. :~( My emo tear.

The first dish was “美人鱼” eggplant or mermaid eggplant ($7). I know it doesn’t look 美 (pretty) right? BUT you’ll be blown away by the taste! Hookerlily’s favorite dish – so addictive! It reminded me a bit of honey lemon fried fish, but it was more sweet with just a very small tinge of sourish. It retained its crispiness throughout our meal and as crispy as potato chips. There was an aftertaste of dried chili in the mouth so you just feel like putting another piece in..and another piece…and another. It would go so well with beer! If only I drink. Ah Beng who don’t drink beer=#fail.

Boss told us that this is one of the three dishes he and the chef created themselves for the tv show 创意料理 (Creative Cooking). He didn’t say if they won, but if they didn’t win, then the winning team can be Michelin restaurant already.The second dish the chef and he created is Signature Fish Head ($15). Look at the humongous size of the fish head! For $15 only! I felt like we were robbing the stall. This was Chiobu’s favorite. She said the flesh was very tender and the sauce! OMG. It was so unique, this is the only place you can eat such a sauce. We asked the boss what sauce it was–so delicious and appetizing–he said it was blended vegetables with celery as the main ingredient. Chiobu said, “DON’T BLUFF ME! I’m chio, not stupid! Where got celery inside??”

I know some people dislike the taste of celery but do you know it takes more energy to disgest celery than the celery contains itself? and it fights cancer, high blood pressure AND bad breath! If all these reasons don’t convince you to eat celery, then this sauce will. It didn’t taste like celery at all. It had ZERO vegetable taste and was slightly limey, very slightly spicy, slightly sweet with just a very, very mild bitterness that most people won’t notice. It’s 酸甜苦辣 all in it! It’s like life! A very good way for difficult children to eat their vegetables. My whole collar of my t-shirt is wet as I am writing this entry because my saliva is dripping. Yummilicious!

Thai Styled fried cuttlefish ($7) on the menu… or calamari! After the two awesome dishes, Chiobu and Hookerlily were, “eh… so-so nia.” I kept quiet. Then they turned to look at me and I looked down at the table. They said, “Don’t tell me you like this dish!!!” Peer pressure leh! How to respond?

I’ll give you reasons why I like it. Thick flesh, little flour, not oily at all. And the accompanying sauce–which tasted like Indian rojak chili sauce–was hot. Come on! Which stall will actually cook a fresh batch of sauce for you??? How considerate was that! I agree that the squid by itself was a little bland, but it was a good contrast to the very flavorful first two dishes. It was really not bad, and in fact, it’s better than most mid-range restaurants, and Hookerlily agreed that it was better than Merry Men, a place she loves.

Chiobu suggested they should serve it with mayonnaise. Actually, it would be awesome if they can create a tom yum mayonnaise.

Fujian mian, or Hokkien noodles ($3). This was our least favorite–but then again, I never like Hokkien noodles. To us, it lacked salt (but 8 out of 10 Singaporeans eat too much salt so it’s good for us it’s not salty). But Mao Mao absolutely loved it. He said, “Mao Mao xi huan!!! (likes) Veri smell lice (fragrant) andz got many zhu you zha (lard).”

we voted and decided to give this stall a high rating. The food was fantastic. Even now 6 hours after eating, my tummy feels so cozy and warm, like snuggling under the blanket on a cold day.