Saturday Lunch @ Gunther's

time really flies, before i knew it a new Saturday dawns. last Saturday, i spent morning and night working till the wee hours of Sunday. hectic as the week was, i managed to find time to attend an annual foodie lunch sesh organised by Brad and Yixiao @ Gunther's.

i've passed by the Purvis area many times and only head for Shinryoku. the angmo restaurants around the area intimidate me and i never thought i'd visit any one of them until Sat.


i was just on time that day. when i opened the door to Gunther's, i saw several men in grey at the counter. a thought fleeted to my mind reminding me the reason why i'd feel intimidated. anyway, i got over the initial 'eye opener' and went in.

it's interesting that the chosen colour for the interior was a dark shade of charcoal grey. i can imagine having a nice romantic dinner at night with mild candle tealights flickering. As for day, with the natural light coming in plus the bright spot lights, there was a warm (literally) feel to it.

table set for 25 food bloggers!

what attracted me was the vases on display, they were very pretty and some extremely intricately designed. they were made of glass and i have a particularly liking for glass art. each piece was unique and have their own interesting characteristics. i noticed the lighting had their very own pretty designs too!

i love this vase a lot.

this too!

i love this pair of lights. Definitely not easy to mould them to something like this.

i finally met LIC and got to know Jiaxin who was really friendly and i thoroughly enjoyed chit chatting with her. I also met Philip and Serene, Maureen and Yixiao. Everyone was friendly and of course we spoke of the food we have eaten, are going to eat and would be eating for the day. it was quite exciting for me and it was the first time i've ever attended such an event. i'm actually a green horn to this.


the menu was a 4 course Carte Blanche where we get to savour chef Gunther's creation of 2 starters, a main course, a dessert and coffee or tea at a very special price only for this session.


frankly speaking, i have never done fine dining before and don't exactly know what to expect coz it was up to Chef Gunther's creation for the day and that moment. i like surprises and this i believe is my 3rd 'surprise me' meal i have had thus far.


with this, i was surprised all the way and in fact, wowed almost entirely!


the huge crab was alive and moving, bamboo clams, white asparagus, lobster, fava beans and short neck mussels.. i was eagerly anticipating what kind of meal i'd be happy. don't think for a moment that the simple tomato is no fancy stuff. you'd take back your words once you have a taste of what it became.

japanese tomato

this is one of my favourite dish. it is one sweet tomato wedge and sourish enough, very much to my liking. the fava bean was good too. smooth and soft with a tinge of light edamame taste. yums!

cold angel-hair pasta, caviar

when this was served, i thought i smelt leaked gas coming out from the kitchen and asked JaiXin if she smelt the same. i had no idea it was the truffle oil which was emitting such a smell. i felt so ignorant :p. in short, it was something new to me. caviar, truffle oil, nicely cooked angel hair pasta, i liked the taste of this a lot. it's very tasty but the truffle oil kinda steal the taste of the whole dish and thus the caviar didn't exactly blend in. could only taste the caviar when eaten by itself.

Poached white asparagus, Bouchot mussels

this was our next dish. it was supposed to have sakura prawns but mine had none. nevertheless, i thought the asparagus tasted like radish and the crab meat was uber sweet and firm, it was good and i wish i could have more! the short neck mussels were small, but i can taste and smell the sea that very short moment!

Grilled Cote de Boeuf, Japanese sweet-corn, sauce Bordelaise

then came the black angus beef seared on the sides, with that little bit of fat and done medium rare, it was yums except that i felt the seared part was a tad too dry. i love the japanese corn though! it was sweet and some of the parts were nicely caramelised. very flavourful, crunchy and juicy! that super thin slice behind the beef was actually super thinly sliced potato, fried. it was very light! so light that i couldn't really believe it was potato. one of the staff mentioned that they have a machine to slice the potato to paper thin sheets!!

Fine apple tart a la dragees, rum & raisin ice-cream

after so many surprises, i was expecting more for dessert. i like the ice cream. it's light, smooth and have sugar coated nutty bits. as for the apple tart, to me it was only average.

i totally enjoyed myself, but was tired towards the end. i didn't take a pic of the restaurant name unfortunately, but i took pics of the loo coz i was quite impressed!

can't wait to meet these new found friends soon and have another wonderful meal and i thank LIC for giving me the opportunity to join this event even though my blog's not entirely devoted to food :p!

lunch unlimited

i think this is not good. i seem to be on an obsessive food tracking mission. must be due to reading too many foodie blogs. this must really stop else no matter how many times i go up and down the slope of bukit timah NR, i'd not get any healthier. i foresee another at least 5 days (though not consecutive) of food eating craze during the festive period so i better keep myself healthy and not use that funny reason that since i'm going to eat the next few days might as well eat away. hmm.. so not good if my thoughts go that way.

interior of the restaurant

anyway, had lunch @ 7atenine in the esplanade. hmm.. read about it at this person's blog and she liked it lots. so i thought we could order anything in the menu which consists of many dishes. when we reached there, we were wrong. lunch starts at 12pm and i suggest if you really want to eat as many dishes to make your $37++ worth it, go at 12pm. lunch lasts till 2.30pm though stated on the website it's till 3pm. don't go during weekdays if you do not have the luxury of having long lunches. coz your $$$ will so not be worth it.


so the 'rule' of the lunch was that the chef will dish out whatever dishes he feels like from the menu, so you wont know. when i heard that i was like worried (think supperclub) that i have made a wrong choice. in any case, we decided to stay on. there's also unlimited serving of soft drinks, juices (lime/orange/cranberry) as well as coffeee and tea. you can order any beverage according to your mood. ie, if you drank cranberry, you can switch to lime and get coffee too so it's quite cool! the coffee is fragrant and smells fantastic! tastes wonderful and i drank two cups. hee.

my cranberry juice

ok, on to the food. we reached at 12ish close to 1pm and had 1.5hrs to try as many dishes as possible.

melon with parmaham

first dish we had was the melon with parmaham. the melon was served thinly shaved slices and the parmaham was mush up in a clump. i think i still prefer the usual way of serving, one thick slice of melon with parmaham wrapped around. eating it the way it was presented, the parmaham was salty. the melon was too thin to blend with the saltiness of the ham. it was unfortunate and i was kinda disappointed.

tomato salad

japanese cherry tomatoes with wild herbs and spanish extra virgin olive oil dressing

that's what's described in the menu. so i dunno issit kio tio that there were pine nuts inside. the nuts are nicely roasted, the cherry tomatoes were plump, juicy and sweet. blends well with the pine nuts and the balsamic vinegar sauce was good too.

raw salmon with shallots and dunno what sauce

this was so so. salmon wasn't chilled enough so it was rather room temperature feel when i put it into my mouth. would have preferred yellow fin tataki instead.

rice corquette

looks sushi-ish, just that the outside is covered with bread crumbs and the seaweed is inside and there's an little bit of egg and you eat it with the wild herb salsa sauce on the side. not bad, just not that into hot sushi rice fried.

grilled corn and wasabi salad

i like this dish. the grilled corn has a nice and slightly burnt taste which sits nicely in my mouth. the bbq potato was so so, we thought it was something else. the wasabi taste was mild. when i told there was wasabi, i was a bit surprised. when i think back, i remember that almost hidden taste. this is good.


anchovy with some tomato puree sauce with some honey on toasted bread? hmm.. didnt like the anchovy coz it was too fishy. not in the menu, so it was quite unfortunate.

wasabi cod

garlic scented black cod brandade corquette with wasabi dressing.

this is nice, i love it that when they served this dish it was hot. the cod was entirely flaky in fact, i can't even say it's flaky, it's already 'finely shredded' into fine fine lines of flesh pulp and made into what looked like chupa chups lollipops. the wasabi dressing is nice, not overwhelming and light. goes extremely well with the ballies!

tuna salsa tartlette with some salad leaves which had some similar to tao jiuy paste on the leave. the paste is damn salty but would be better if you put the tuna mix into the salad leave and eat it together.

caramelised garlic soup

almond scented cold garlic soup with shallots and black pepper

when i drank this, the taste was familar. it's not a hot soup, and yet not too cold. the cream is heavy coz it tasted oily and i couldnt identify what was the ingredient until we asked the waiter. i didn't finish the soup coz it became too jelat. quite interesting but i'd not want to have it again.

vegetable tempura with ponzu sauce

i think the presentation is interesting. as for the tempura, nothing impressive. this is not in the menu as well. the sauce would be just nice without adding rock salt inside or perhaps my tongue is conditioned to the normal tempura sauce?

seared kobe beef with shitake mushroom and ponzu sauce

the beef was tender, nicely done. love the shitake mushroom. the ponzu sauce in the dripper is nicer here. love this dish.

sizzling wings

jalapeno chilli powder dusted crispy chicken wings with soy-chilli dressing

i like the unique presentation of using the clothes peg for holding the hot wings. but it didnt work for me coz my food keep dropping. slightly salty here for my taste but the meat was damn tender and it's good. there's a side sauce of mayo with some roe if i am not wrong which tasted damn good too. add the lime and it enhances the smell as well as my appetite, if only it's less salty!!

panfried salmon

i commend the chef for cooking the food just right. i love the salmon. it was moist, flakes easily, detaches from the skin perfectly so that i can taste the meat and the skin separately. no dryness until towards the end. the meat was also slighly fatter. with minimal sauce and only sprinkling of rock salt on the skin, i could taste the naturalness of the salmon. i love the creativity of the chef drawing the fish as a presentation for this dish. visual and taste scores!!

lamb shank with mash potato

this one is awesome!! the meat of the lamb is uber tender!!! so tender that it broke easily when we 'tore' it apart. and it was so soft when you bite and juicy and yummy though not melt in the mouth. the mash potato was good, there's something added to it that made it quite fragrant. and i loved it that roasted almond bits were added. glad we asked the waiter to bring out the last savoury dish for us before the dessert.

chocolate brownie

chilli pepper scented cuban chocolate brownie with macadamia nuts and vanilla ice cream

the brownie is different from the usual brownie which is usually thick and filled with chocolate. this one is moist and not chocolate thick. it's good fluffy cake with big macadamia nuts. i love it. the ice cream is not bad too. goes well together.

tequila cake with rum chocolate ice cream

the cake was light and mousse ish but there's no sponge and the bottom if i am not wrong is laid on a bed of bits of nuts and thin think cake. i can't taste the tequila though. not that strong. the rum in the chocolate ice cream was pretty strong though. to me, the ice cream and the cake is separate and don't seem to mix. but not bad. everything's pretty light.


hmmm.. overall, i'm not sure if this whole thing is worth it. quite a few of the dishes served are not in the menu, as such it's difficult to put a dollar value to those dishes. since there were only the two of us, each dish served, we shared. or that's how the whole thing works. though there are some dishes which were given individual portions, most of them were sharing portions. i think it pays to 1) know the chef, he will then give the signature dishes, 2) go at 12pm and you will have more time to try more dishes, 3) drink as much as the free flow drinks as you can, 4) eat fast if you are short of time. we also had the beef sashimi. hmm.. it was a mini portion and i kinda didn't think it was fantastic as i imagined it to be, but the manchego cheese was delish!


i will only go back after a long long time if they still have this and will go early so as to try everything. but we were quite full after the meal. i didn't have dinner thereafter. guess some way or another it was worth it? Hmm... :D

Dad's bday - Feast@East

was kinda last minute thingy. searched/surfed the foodies' blogs towards the later part of the night and thereafter confirmed with bro who came home about 1-ish am.


went for my morning bukit timah hill walk with mum and headed home to catch dad just in time for brunch. we didnt make reservations, reached at 11.30am and was told that the buffet brunch cost $42++ though the foodies said that their dinner costs $38 on a weekend. hmm... rise in price for year 2009?

it's at Grand Mercure hotel near Roxy Square

nice decor but furniture a bit old

food selection aplenty. depending on how high your standard is and how much you can eat.

just one corner of the food selection

they have the usual cold dishes of scallops, crabs (as in not flower crabs, but those zi char crabs with thick pincers), mussels, prawns, salmon sashimi and maguro. maybe my standard is high, but hmm.. i think i am average and am reasonable in my taste for food. all the cold dishes failed by my standard.

scallops - bland even though they came with roe
crabs - bland even though they looked pretty big and juicy
prawns - so so, not consistent. some sweet, some bland
mussels - uber bland and slightly stinko. i spit it out. it pretty much sucks.
salmon sashimi - normal, fatty and reasonable
maguro - yucky, powdery taste, slight fishy stench even when with soy sauce and wasabi

the cold stuff which failed miserably

chefs' cooked dishes

laksa

i still prefer the one at parkway basement food court. it's got the oomph of dried pounded shrimp with every scoop. the one served during the buffet wasn't oomph enough. slightly diluted and pretty much forgettable. though my dad and bro liked it.

the average laksa

prawn mee soup

i didnt try but the soup looked darn wicked.

the steak, fish and a very nice soft bun

rack of steak

average and a little tough. sauce is nice though but not mind blowing. youngest bro commented that he preferred the meat on the outer part with the marinate and spices. tastier i gather.

steamed fish

they have this huge steamed fish on display and looked tantalising. unfortunately, all steamed fish comes with a limited display span in that, they can only be steamed and cooked for that long. any further steaming or cooking results in tough meat which doesn't melt in the mouth. Well, that's what happened to the fish. kudos for F@E to come out with a huge steamed fish, but they should prolly think of another method to make the fish last longer.

omelette with sharks fin

this dish is good. stir fried in front of your eyes, it's got a good mix of shredded carrot, spring onions, bean sprouts, sliced ham, mushroom and a good amount of sharks fin. it's very tasty and a good texture of crunch, crisp and softness. but no matter, it tasted like zi char foo yong dan.


warm dishes

the variety of warm dishes..

roast chicken

not bad. like the taste and the the chicken's pretty tender. i tasted only 1 coz i wanted room for other stuff.

fish stir fried with straw mushroom

good. soft but not melt in your mouth and without fishy smell. savory.

pork with fruit salad

unique, but the pork's a tad too tough

lamb steak

the texture of the lamb was good. soft and almost melt in your mouth. unfortunately, it's too bland. the flavours of the marinate did not penetrate the meat. it was quite a waste.

stir fry spicy prawns

err.. forgetable.

stewed beef

soft and melt in your mouth. good to a certain extend

lasagne

erm worst i have ever eaten. it has a strong overpowering beefy smell and when eaten, it has a stoney taste. yucky!!


salad

my fave. their presentation of the leafy greens were quite cute. they used those pots which were used during olden days to contain the leaves, beans, cherry tomatoes and alfafa sprouts. it was wonderful! though the leaves didnt look to be uber fresh, the cherry tomatoes were super sweet.

they had pine nuts, walnuts, raisins, pistachios, bacon, croutons, dried prunes and apricots to add on to your salad. it was really good! we loaded on the expensive pine nuts. hehe.

i must say the kidney beans were good!!

see how much pine nuts i took!

dessert

they had quite a bit of selection. there's fondue for all sorts of imaginable fruits like grapes, watermelon, strawberries, melon, papaya and two types of marshmellow. they also have longan almond tofu, the wicked and heavenly tasty durian paste, bread pudding, the brown rice dessert (issit buloh hitam or something?) durian cake, tiramisu, coffee cake, mini fruit tarts, 4 types of chocolate balls, mini muffins, brownie, ice kachang, ice cream (4 flavours) and also retro snacks like lemon sweets, xian char, kah nar, sugar coated chewy sweets, ginger sweet and some preserved fruit in red colour can't remember which fruit it was.

bread pudding (blah..), grapes and marshmellow coated with yummy chocolate from the 'fountain'

coffee cake, durian paste, nutty chocs and 'gold rush'

i call it 'gold rush' because it's a thin layer of choc covering potent liquor!! once you bite the 'crust' the shot of liquor oozes out! can get high on it man, we smuggled it out from the buffet! haha :p

the retro 'desserts' i was talking about.. brings back those childhood memories don't they??

in short, i prolly wont go back again if the price remains as what i have paid. service was excellent in that they cleared our plates promptly and brought us the utensils when we didnt have for certain dishes. i don't know if it's bec there werent many people as such the service was so prompt or that it's their usual standard. they even gave us Sunday Times to read when we asked for it. i must say the experience was pretty good. what's best is to have the whole family spending time together and hearing what each other has to say. that is priceless :D