Mum's Day Weekend at 漁 Yú Cuisine

漁 Yú Cuisine has somewhat become our family's de facto dinner venue for occasions dining since we brought our friends from France to this restaurant one year ago.  We were especially impressed with the Roast Pork  烧肉 and have been back twice since that first visit. 

Nestled in Marina Bays Sands Shopping Mall, the restaurant feels like huge aquatic tank, and stands out with it's full length glass exteriors, blue lighting and fish-shaped glass chandeliers.  The plush silver and black furnishings exude luxe and elegance.   Marketing themselves as a "modern and hip Chinese seafood, dim sum, grill and champagne bar concept restaurant", we liked that serve Hong Kong styled dishes, since my family's accustomed to the canto-way of food preparation. 

At every visit, I wouldn't dream of turning away their starters of deep fried fish skins and caramelized walnuts with sesame seeds as I normally would do for other Chinese restaurants serving cheap peanuts and ar-char combi.  These starters are wiped out even before the dinner orders are taken.   

This time, after the run-in with the aromatic Aberdeen Chili Crabs at the next table at the last visit, we were determined to order the signature dish.  The other dishes of the evening included regular favourites such as Roast Pork, Soft Shell Crabs and Salted Egg Crab.

We figured the Roast Pork here appeals to us because it is a tad saltier than regular versions, has a good combination of fat within lean meat and topped with a crusty skin that 'crackles' as you bite into it.   

Roast Pork

The crispy Soft Shell Crabs are Granddad's personal favourite; the crustaceans are stir-fried and tossed over high flames together with dried Szechun chili peppers.  

The Aberdeen Chili Crabs were a disappointment for me, the crab meat was too dry for my liking and the dish was more spicy than I had imagined.  It was just as well, since I was keeping space for the STAR dish of the evening - the Salted Egg Crab.  

Aberdeen Chilli Crabs

When the dish was served, I was giddy with joy - the beautiful golden yellow mushy salted egg coated the crabs beautifully and it was pipping hot.  The mild saltiness from the salted egg complemented the sweet, succulent crab meat and each bite throws me to a momentary state of euphoria!!  It feels good taking sips of fragrant Bo-Lei tea (a mix of Pu'er and Chrysanthemum tea leaves) to ground myself back to reality in between those moments.  For the record, I scrapped the shell clean of the super tasty crab roe and licked off every bit of the salted egg off the shell afterwards.   

I am awarding this dish 5 gold stars and a double thumbs up!!!  Yes, I do think it is a better version from Melben's.

Salted Egg Crabs

By the way, I must recommend the Golden Lava Custard Buns, they are A.M.A.Z.I.N.G, on par with those from Taste Paradise (Ion) and Bosses 黑 (Vivocity) and in my opinion.  We did not order them this time as we wanted to try other desserts.  I've read good stuff on their dim sum dishes and will save it for the next visit. 

Prices here are above average, but it IS Marina Bay Sands so it shouldn't be any surprise.  The service staff were polite and very attentive generally the few times I've been there, however, they were neither warm nor welcoming.  None of the staff ever smile, except after you've paid and on the way out.  Pity, it is this lack of smiley staff  that stands in its way of becoming a great dining experience. 

Marina Bay Sands is currently running a promotion with UOB cards with discounts and a promise to 'Win a Culinary Trip of a Lifetime', check it out details, terms & conditions here :
http://www.marinabaysands.com/Singapore-Restaurants/Asia-Dining-Destination/

漁 Yú Cuisine
10 Bayfront Avenue
#B1-07/08/09 & #L1-82 Marina Bay Sands
Call 65 66887318 for reservations.

Chill-Out Friday : Happy Hour @ Tanuki

When I was told a new Japanese bar in town offered one-dollar oysters, my first response was "What is the catch there..?" (pun unintentionally intended).  I am a practical glutton, anything that sounds too good to be true probably is.

So I sent my source of information to confirm .. well, the source.  The feedback came swiftly, it was a real deal - "Go to Tanuki, Orchard Central, Level 2".   The rules to enjoy the deal were simple - Oysters (from Hiroshima) are at a dollar with every order of a cocktail during their daily Happy Hour from 5 - 8pm, limited to a dozen per cocktail order.  No reservations during Happy Hour.

The date was set for a chill-out Friday with a long time pal.  

A last minute meeting cut short my supposed 2-hour happiness, but I made it in time to Orchard at 7pm, leaving us only an hour for the order.

What greeted us at the entrance of Tanuki was a large standalone bar counter in an open, airy, industrial-minimalist-chic space.  Very chi-chi with a slightly laid back New Yorkish feel.   There was alfresco seating.  We LIKE.

And the LIKE took a tumble in the first 3 minutes we stood at the door.  The rest is newbie history, the staff's service were as RAW as the food that was served.

Read my complete review of our experience here :
http://www.hungrygowhere.com/singapore/tanuki-orchard-central-orchard-road/review/id-ec1b0200/

While I am not crazy over the service, I decided to still give my visit 3-star thumbs-up simply because the combination of fresh oysters and reasonably-priced heady cocktails is a winning combo.  I've mentioned I'll not be rushing to recommend Tanuki* to anyone just yet ..  but I do believe in second chances.  Till then.

Happy Mid-week, two more days to the weekend!!

*I read afterwards that Tanuki is owned by Howard L of Standing Sushi Bar, which I visited once, thought it mediocre and decided it wasn't worth a second visit.  There are really better sushi places in town.

Hello Again!

It's been a (long) while since the last update. During this time of absence, I've travelled loads, ate lots, baked some more macarons, and procrastinated about blogging.

I've been meaning to update, really, but somehow never got round to doing it.  Truth is, I've been lazy.

Here is a collection of the festive macarons that I've done over the last few months.  Not much and still constantly experimenting.

In celebration of my country's independence.
These were baked in advance of Singapore's 47th
birthday, which is also National Day.

Credits idea to www.epicureanmum.com.
Spent a ridiculous amount of time piping out the snowflakes. 

Chanced upon this milk bottle idea from

 www.raspberricupcakes.com when researching for ideas 

for friend's baby shower. Fun to create but really a chore to 

pipe out the rectangular shapes. 

Have a great week ahead!

Black Sesame (Koala & Panda) Macarons

Last week, I was reeled into the deep, dark realms of Batman - The Dark Knight Rises on opening night. It was the conclusive installment of the trilogy, and the stellar performances from the cast easily made this movie MY favourite of the year (and probably a long time to come).  Christian Bale is irreplaceable as Bruce Wayne, to me, he IS Batman. 

So along with the dark theme of last week, it was kinda fitting to try black sesame macarons.  Black sesame brings me back to my childhood days, where I was often denied of the thick paste 芝麻糊 as it was considered 'heaty' and ''bad for kids to have too much of them'.  Growing up, I found new joys in black sesame glutinous rice balls and ice-cream. 

The shells were burnt during baking, and looked brown instead of the intended grey... bummer... 

Weekend came, went bake shopping at ToTT, resisted the urge to buy down the whole store but got myself some pretty glass jars. Envisioned filling them up with cheery colourful macarons as giveaways :)

There were two kinds of fillings that I read would work - black sesame buttercream and adzuki beans.  Felt lazy and went with the latter - got a can from the supermarket, heated and mashed it.  The combination is superb; the not-so-subtle, distinctive toasted, nutty black sesame finds great companion in the sweet adzuki bean paste, tipping over the sensory glands of smell and taste with an infusion of chinese and japansese flavours.

Theme of the week - bears!  Kinda tire myself out icing the eyes and noses on the macarons, so I'll leave you with the pics ... and hope they bring a smile to your face.  Happy week ahead!

Koala!

I look like this Panda after all the late-night blogging!

Dim Sum Galore? Nope, they are Koala & Panda Macarons!!

Dedicating this post to my dear friend E, who has been extremely forward with ideas and generous with his support and encouragement!!

Dark Chocolate Hazelnut Hello Kitty Macarons

Back on the trails of the macaron craze!

This time I decided to try, after much trepidation (gulp!) the IM - Italian Meringue method.  I've been apprehensive about using this method, as I do not have a candy thermometer and the thought of klutzy me messing up the sugar syrup for the egg whites just ain't such a bright picture.  The method is supposed to yield macarons with smoother tops, give prettier (but lower) feet and provide the answer to the woes of hollow shells.

Since I was experimenting, might as well go all the way, having a mix of of almond and hazelnut meal to reduce the strong almond taste I had when using the FM - French Meringue method.  Still candy-thermometer-less, I weighed out the sugar and water, waited out 3 mins after the sugar syrup boils before pouring it into the whipped egg whites.   Instead of adding the tant- pour-tant (french atas reference to the layman almond meal, icing sugar mixture) into the egg whites, this method calls for the reverse!  This part is way scary, as it seemed that the egg whites would make the macaronage very runny.  I was keeping count on the nnumber of  times of folding, wary about the overfolding scenario. 

After pipping, and trying to create the kitty shells ala iheartbaking comes the dreaded moment of waiting for the shield/skin to form.  This was 35 mins of pure agony. So instead of obessively looking over my shoulder at those shells every 3 mins, I went for a shower to kill the mounting anxiety.  When I returned, the shells looked no different, BUT when I gently pressed them, they had formed the SHIELD.  My little heart was yelping (like a little excited pups, yes) ... praise to whoever invented this method!!!! 

A good 15 mins later, I was a proud convert of the IM method.  The batch still had cracked tops (still think oven temperature is the culprit) but the ones that turned out well, looked really pretty with the smooth tops, delicate frilly feet and most worthy mention of all - they were not hollow!! 

I am in MACARON HEAVEN!

Fast forward to the next day - made the dark chocolate and hazelnuts filling and slowly drawing on the Hello Kitty faces with edible colour marker pens ...geez, this was more difficult and took longer than I expected.  The result - awesome-cuteness!  

Next comes the foodtography. Here is a pic of the normal macs before the cam-whoring Hello Kitty ones...

I laid the cutey Hello Kitty macs on an aluminium reflective cake base as I was running out of a decent table top to take pics with; it created a nice reflection, giving the macs a somewhat 3D effect.  You can see the Hello Kitty ears in the reflection and it looks like I've stackd two Hello Kitties together!



Freckled Hello Kitty Macarons.. LOL!



What a wonderful weekend!  And I wouldn't claim all these credit for my own, I had the Hello Kitty inspiration from a fellow blogger, whom I give special thanks to  - iheartbaking.

Cheerz to a new week!