Wildlife Reserves Singapore (WRS) Food Trail 2012 - Singapore Jurong Bird Park

Continue from my previous WRS (Wildlife Reserves Singapore) Food Trail 2012 post, here is the second part of the food trail journey where we headed over to the east side, Jurong Bird Park to have an interesting Lunch with Parrots.

The concept is quiet similar to the one we had for "Jungle Breakfast with Wildlife" at Ah Meng Restaurant mentioned in the previous post here.

"Lunch With Parrot" is an Asian-style  Buffet which starts from 12 noon to 2.00pm whereby the showtime is allocated at 1.00pm in order to let the guest enjoy their lunch before the show. Reservation or enquiry can be made by telephone call at (65) 6360 8560.

Although the lunch buffet does not have more varieties like breakfast we had over at Ah Meng Restaurant, but you still can find some local delight such as fried rice, fried noodles, fried chicken, prawns, curry, fresh fruits and etc along the buffet line.

Surprisingly their Laksa taste quiet good with a fragrant broth that is not too over powder with the coconut taste.

Yummy Cereal Prawns which is fried and coated with crispy aromatic cereal that makes you crave for 2nd or 3rd helping.

Fried Chicken (original) and Spicy Mexican Chicken

These are our lunch spread while enjoying the interesting Parrots performance. Overall the buffet items were quiet good based on the price and it do served with coffee/tea and dessert such as ice-cream too.

While enjoying our buffet lunch, we were also able to watch the 1.00pm Parrot Show which was  very entertaining especially for little kids. And for those who are keen, you could also be a volunteer and have fun performing together with the parrots.

Pikasso is the one and only Sulphur-Crested Cockatoo that paint and guests can also purchase one of Pikasso’s works while the proceeds of the sale will go to the conservation and upkeep of the birds in the Park.

Ippy is the Scarlet Macaw that loves to teach the audience how to keep fit by doing back flips and sit-ups

After lunch we walked over to the "Southeast Asian Birds Aviary" opposite Songbird Terrace where it has the largest collection consisting of 260 Southeast Asian species and showcasing 100 of the region’s most exotic and endangered birds.

The Birds N Buddies Show (11.00am and 3.00pm; daily) at the Pools Amphitheatre is one of highlight programme among visitors. In order to grab a good seat for a better view of the show, remember to be there at least 15 minutes earlier to avoid the crowds.

Little Audience enjoying her participation of the show.

After the 3.00pm show we went over to "Kings of the Skies Shows" (10.00am and 4.00pm) at Hawk Walk. Here we were able to see the most of the majestic birds such as eagles, hawks, falcons, vultures and owls in one arena.

One of the brave audience who had a close-up encounter with the magnificent falconry.

On that day, my boy also had a chance to have such a close encounter with the Owl.

After the Kings of the Skies Show, we walked over to the Breeding and Research Centre which was just next to it.

The Breeding and Research Centre (BRC) is where the incredible journey of life begins for some of the Park’s resident birds. And here we are able to go behind-the-scenes and get a first hand glimpse into the growth process of these birds.

In the Incubation Rooms, eggs are kept snug and warm in their special incubators which equipped with automatic egg turners to keep the temperature and humidity of each egg constant. At maximum capacity, each incubation room can hold up to 180 eggs of various species.

Next at the Nursery is the place where the hatched chicks are to be fed and looked after. The hatchlings are housed in brooders, a temperature and humidity-controlled environment in order to keep them safe and warm. And from the clear glass panel, you can also see how these adorable juveniles are fed by their “bird nannies”.

From the brooders, chicks move on to the Weaning Room when they are fully grown to help them acclimatise to the environment as well as get ready to join the rest of their family in the respective exhibits.

Photo credit:- Celes

Our WRS Food Trail 2012 day programme ended with a happy "nest and egg" photo taken outside the Breeding And Research Centre before we headed back to Night Safari (upcoming post) for the evening programme at Ulu Ulu Restaurant.

Till then have a great weekend ahead. Stay tune for the last post of our WRS Food Tail 2012 at Ulu Ulu Restaurant, Night Safari (updated on 21 Aug 2012).

Wildlife Reserves Singapore (WRS) Food Trail 2012 - Singapore Zoo

Two weeks ago, I was delighted to be invited by the Wildlife Reserves Singapore to join their Food Trail 2012 which is organised in conjunction with the Singapore Food Festival. It is a full day event from 9am - 8pm where invited media, bloggers and lucky members of the public are being hosted in the various wild dining experiences at their parks, including popular programmes such as Jungle Breakfast with Wildlife and Lunch with Parrots (upcoming post).

Furthermore in the evening we were also being brought behind-the-scenes for an exclusive kitchen tour at Night Safari’s Ulu Ulu Safari Restaurant (upcoming post) together with the company of Chef Kelvin Low.

Antoinette at Palais Renaissance

I am sure the brand name "Antoinette" sound familiar to those who love cakes, pastries or French food. Following the success of Antoinette’s first three outlets (Penhas Road, Mandarin Galley and Scarlet Hotel), Owner-Chef Pang Kok Keong unveils Le Jardin d’Antoinette which is also one of their largest outlet at Palais Renaissance.

Last Saturday I was invited to a lunch tasting at their new outlet, located at Palais Renaissance together with Celes (Celestial Delish), Derrick (SG Food on Foot) and ShiTing (Lobsterpaints).

After some self introductions between Chef Pang and us, we started to look around at their cake and pastry counters while taking some photos. Below are some of the pastries and cakes which are available at Antoinette.

Array of Cakes available

Array of Assorted Macarons on display

Pastry Section: with Danish Puffs, Brownies, Muffins and etc

The Main Dining Area designed after Versaille’s expansive outdoor garden which is a unique round shaped dining space decorated with vintage furniture featuring floral accents such as flower print upholstered seats. The outskirt of the dining area is also surrounded with hanging vines as well as floral arrangements. Furthermore there is also a special elevated gazebo sits at the centre of the dining area too.

{Soup} We started with their new Classic French Onion Soup (S$16.50) which is prepared using caramelised onions in a rich chicken and veal broth accompanied by cheese toasts made from Antoinette’s signature 24-hour baguette. To perfect it, the soup is topped with a cheesy crust which resemble "cover" and it is made using parmesan and gruyère cheese.

On the 1st try, the soup taste a bit sour but when you dig in more, it actually release a hit of sweetness from the caramelised onions and it goes well with that crispy cheese crust.

{Entrées} Next we had the Tartine de Nicoise (S$26.00) which is an open face levain sandwich hide beneath some butter lettuce, French beans, tomatoes, olives, anchovy, a three-minute egg and some seared tuna.

According to Chef Pang, these Levain Bread (sourdough) are made from their own kitchen in Antonietta and the process for making this bread is quite tedious and it takes up to 16 days to cultivate the yeast from scratch plus another 2 more days to proof the bread before baking. So when having this dish, we must really appreciate each and every bits of its ingredients especially the Levain Bread which has a unique flavour and texture.

{Main Course} During the tasting, we tried 3 main courses and first to serve was Confit de Poitrine de Porc (S$36.00) is a traditional French confit of pork belly that is first cured in a mixture of sea salt, brown sugar and aromatics before it is cooked and covered in duck fat at 90 degrees Celsius for 12 hours.

The dish was plated with 5 pieces (about 2 cm each) of thick, tender and fragrant pork belly together with decent amount of garlic mash (which you might thought is mashed potato), seasonal vegetables and mustard sauce. Although I am a "pork belly" lover but I find this dish a bit on the salty side unless you are having it with some water or wine to balance the taste.

{Main Course} Next we had Bouchées aux fruits de mer (S$30.00) which is a luxurious seafood medley that consists of scallops, prawns, squid and mussels sautéed with white wine and cream. It is then served in a puff pastry case which resemble "vol au vents" but it is made with a unique reverse folding method which results in a flakier and crispier crust.

I love their fresh and seafood and taste of the sauce is is not overpowering to the whole dish but on the down side, me and ShiTing find that our scallop is kind of overcooked which makes it chewy and difficult to bite.

{Main Course} For the last main course Chef Pang brought in Prawn crumble pasta (S$26.00) which is an aglio olio-style pasta dish featuring spaghettini tossed with parsley pesto instead of basil and sprinkled with their homemade anchovy crumble.

During the introduction, Chef Pang mentioned to us that those crumble was made using Antoinette’s pain de mie loaf as well as a kalamata olives and Spanish anchovies tapenade. No wonder when all mixed together it has such a unique taste which you might mistook the breadcrumb with grated cheese.

{Dessert} For the dessert, Chef Pang shared with us 4 of his new 2012 collection which you could read more on the post below. Above we shows  Chloe (S$9.00 per slice) which is a combination of refreshing and fragrant yuzu cremeux with white chocolate vanilla mousse on a light sponge cake and almond sable.

This is one of the lighter taste cake which we concluded out of the 4 that we had tired so if you prefer something light and refreshing perhaps this would be great hit for you.

{Dessert} Forbidden Fruit (S$9.00 per slice) has a delicate layered creation that features granny smith apples in various incarnations including green apple mousse, vanilla caramel apple and green apple jelly, complemented with maple cremeux on a financier cake.

On 1st bite you will feel hint of sourish taste perhaps from the apple jelly but when you slowly savory it with a cup of tea, you will fell in love with it because of it sweet, fragrant and sour combination. I guess this is similar to feeling of "falling in love" taste.

{Dessert} Kyoto (S$9.00 per slice) is a Japanese matcha crowd-pleaser with green tea mascarpone mousse, chestnut cremeux, almond crumble and a green tea finger sponge. It has a very fragrant matcha aroma and after taste which we all loved. A "must try" for matcha lover.

{Dessert} I personally love this Tarte Exotique (S$8.50 per slice) which I think I can conquered two at one time. It has an almond base with a luscious gula melaka cremeux, finger sponge and light coconut mousse crowned with a delicate fruit coulis sphere. Because I love almond base tarts and as well as the unique aroma from the Gula Melaka, I highly recommend this dessert which I am sure you will love it as much as we do.  

Just to share there is a private dining room which is perfect for groups of 8 - 10 pax to hold function such as Formal Dining, Gathering, Birthday or etc.

Antoinette at Palais Renaissance

390 Orchard Road, Palais Renaissance,
B1-08/09/10C,
Reservations No.: +65 6735 6392

Operating Hours:
11.00am to 10.00pm daily (last order 9.30pm)


Lastly I would like to thank Hsian Ming (from Sixth Sense Communications and PR Consultancy Pte Ltd) and Chef Pang (Antoinette at Palais Renaissance) for this tasting invitation. For more photos of this tasting, you can click on Cuisine Paradise Facebook page HERE.

Tastes Of Penang At Sentosa

Tastes of Penang is the first of Sentosa's 40th anniversary food events to be held by the sea. And for the ongoing 11 days event, patrons can enjoy buffet spread and live cooking stations of Penang hawker favourites and scrumptious home-style dishes such as Char Mui(fried porridge), Char Hum(fried cockles), Nasi Kander and etc by a team of expert Penang chefs, who cook these authentic dishes that are not commonly found in Singapore.

TASTES OF PENANG AT SENTOSA

For appetizer, we start off with "Fruit Rojak" which consists chunks of fresh fruits such as pineapple and rose apple together with cucumber, stuffed beancurd puff and etc mixed with their special spicy sauce and generous amount of crashed peanuts. Just a note, this Penang style fruit rojak does not contain the usually "shrimp paste" like we we had in Singapore.

At the buffet spread you can find two different flavour of Char Hum(fried cockles) such as the Penang sweet version vs the Singapore spicy choice.

First we have Char Hum (fried cockles) with sweet sauce from Penang which is something new to me as I have never eaten cockles prepared in such manner before. The sauce is quiet tasty and it blends well with the fresh cockles to brings out it's flavour. Moreover these cockles are all opened so as to make it more convenience for everyone to consume.

Although the "sweet" version taste good with the extra nutty flavour from the crashed peanuts but we still preferred the "spicy" version where deep-fried pork lard and curry leaves are added to enhance the flavour.

Lok Bak or also known as "Ngo Hiang" (which we are more familiar) is made with mixture of minced and chunk of meat together with five-spice powder instead of minced meat, prawn, water chestnut, yam or etc that we used to eat in Singapore.

Char Mui (fried porridge) is one of the "unique" dish which is hard to find in Penang nowadays. This dish is made with some prawns, meats, dried cuttlefish, black soy sauce together with porridge and etc. The mixture is then "stir-fry" until thicken and fully absorbed the flavour from the cuttlefish and the rest of the ingredients before loading it with lots of chives (ku chai) and serve hot. Emmm perhaps I can try to replicate this at home.

Penang Bak Kut Teh  has a fragrant Chinese herbal broth that goes together with some Pork ribs, Pork Belly and black mushrooms . Each mouthful of the soup leaves your mouth lingering with the aroma from the nourishing herbs like dang gui and yuzhu. Personally I enjoyed the taste of this soup which is not very peppery as compared to some that I have tried.

Penang Hokkien Mee (Prawn Noodle Soup) has a flavorsome broth which simmer with pork ribs, prawn shells, prawn heads and etc. The bowl of noodle soup usually consists of prawn, sliced pork, kang kong(Chinese spinach), hard-boiled egg and yellow noodle served with generous amount of broth and topped with some crispy deep-fried pork lard.

Penang Char Kway Teow is a "must try" because it is individually fried upon order to maintain the taste and quality of each serving. We simply love this especially it's fragrant "wok hei" plus the thin rice smooth noodles which infused the flavour of the cockles, prawn and egg, definitely this has won our votes for second helping.

Nasi Kandar is a popular northern Malaysian dish which originates from Penang. It consists of steamed rice which served with a variety of curries and side dishes. Although I prefer to have individual dishes separated from the rice but the idea of eating this in a new way indeed surprised me with his unique combination of flavours when everything is mixed up before consuming. Somehow or rather it gives me a thought like eating "bibimbap" using different ingredients.

Above are some of the side dishes for the Nasi Kandar where you can see:- Sambal Fish, Udang Sambal, Spicy Cabbage, Curry Brinjal and etc.

Penang Assam Laksa has a bit different taste which is a little more spicy and sourish than those sold in Singapore. No wonder the Chef suggest that I should only eat this as the last dish so that it would not affect the taste apart from the rest of the dishes.

DESSERT AND BEVERAGE

Chendol is a very delicate and fragrant dessert which served with shaved ice and drizzled of Gula Melaka(coconut sweet) syrup and coconut milk. According to the chef, the Chendol strips used are imported from Penang instead of the usual darker colour chendol strips used in Singapore. Over the taste is quite but I would prefer less coconut milk so that I could enjoy the unique taste of the gula melaka syrup.

So excited to spot "Durian Pengat" at their dessert counter and I find this year's pengat is much better and stronger in taste compared to what I had last year during "The Ultimate Crab & Durian Buffet @ Sentosa Boardwalk".

Nothing fancy about these Assorted Nonya Kueh so you can left this out if you are too full for any dessert.

This is my favourite cooling drinks which I often grab from my market fruits' stall. To me, nothing beats some cold fresh coconut juice to quench your thirst during warm weather. And also this works well for the body while we gets to enjoy the spicy and strong flavour from the Penang food. Other than the refreshing juice, there are also some wobble jelly in it which makes you go "crazy" to scoop more and more, perhaps you might even go for a second order as this is definitely a refreshing drink.

For more photos related to the "Tastes of Penang At Sentosa" you can click on the facebook link HERE. Lastly I would like to thank Lisa from Sentosa Leisure Group for the tasting invites.

TASTES OF PENANG

Date: 10 - 20 May 2012
Time: 6pm - 11pm (Mon- Thu), 4pm to 11pm (Fri - Sun)
Venue: Tastes of Asia, Level 2 (near Beach Station)

Price: S$42.90++ per adult; S$19.90++ per child (5 to 11 years old)
(Includes admission to Images of Singapore and complimentary parking at Beach Station. Sentosa Island Admission charges apply.)

For reservations, call 6279 1767 or email carla_cardona@sentosa.com.sg.