Sapphire

When to the Sapphire on Saturday for dinner. Surprisingly, the open air restaurant was quite empty even at 6.30pm. Were we too early?

We started with their French Onion Soup - $10.80. Very rich in flavour, but wished there were more cheese on the toast. And why were there spring onion on French onion soup, I would never know.



I ordered their Chicken Pasta - $24.80, which they indicated was their specialty. It was basically chicken meat aglio oli pasta with olives, sun-dried tomato and some herbs I think. But they put SO MUCH olives into the pasta, it turned out a little too salty. All the black stuff you see in the photo, yah, it's olives. But overall, it tasted quite ok, just a little too salty.



Hubby ordered this Moroccan spiced chicken - $32.80. It's quite delicious really! It tasted like those smoky Indonesian BBQ chicken. A little charred on the outside, but juicy on the inside. Interestingly, their vegetables included xiao bai cai. Fusion cooking? Haha...



Dessert was what they called Jewel Peak - $15.80. It's actually ice cream, but it was quite disappointing to me because I find the ice cream not rich enough. The chocolate ice cream is just not chocolate-ty enough! Obviously they used cheapo brand of ice cream to make this "peak". Sigh~



Overall, it was an average tasting meal. If you want something better, I can easily name a few. So why do we still go there? For the ambiance of course. Located at the highest point in Singapore, there's no sound of the busy traffic or shopping crowds. Just birds chirping, insects humming and the soft music playing in the background. Of course, everything taste better with a fantastic view of the city and it's sunset.



Sapphire @ The Jewel Box
Mount Faber

Hog's Breath Cafe

Natural Prime Rib ($34.00) My Favourite...

Other than the steak from West End, our 2nd favourite steak house has to be Hog's Breath Cafe at CHIJMES. Well, it used to be 2nd best, but now, Cobby and I are seriously considering to promote them to become our top favourite steak! Why??

Hog's Breath's Prime Rib main boast was it's juicy and tender meat, but it always lack that wonderful aromatic smoky char-grilled flavour that West End's Tenderlion Steak have.

But in the recent months, we noticed a change in Hog's Breath's steak. Not only is the meat as juicy and tender as ever, but now the steak has an enhanced char-grill flavour to it. (we suspect a change in chefs? :D) Also, even the sauce tasted different, better - so good, you don't need any ketchup or chilli sauce!

Of course, the side dishes are just as important. We always order our steak with their famous Hog's tail fries and salad. The fries are irresistably crispy and the salad is not your average boring iceberg lettuce. Perfect complements to the steak!

So you see lah, with the enhanced version of the steak and it's sauce, the unbeatable crispy curly fries and the refreshing salad, how can we not promote Hog's Breath Natural Prime Rib to be our favourite steak!?



HOG’S BREATH CAFE CHIJMES
Chijmes,
30 Victoria Street,
Block A, #01-26/27,
Singapore 187996
Tel: (65) 6338 1387
Fax: (65) 6338 6216
Email: hbchijmes@hogsbreath.com.sg
Open Daily 11.30am - Midnight (last order 10.30pm)
Bar Snacks and appetisers available till closing time

Botak Jones

There was alot of hype about this food outlet, all just because an Ang Moh opens a food store at a coffee shop. Many of my friends have tried it before, and their reponse to the food? "it's OK lah..." they all say. What does that mean? So to put my curiousity to rest, I suggested a burger meal at Botak Jones (Ang Mo Kio Branch) one Sunday evening.

First impression? Crowded! There's a long queue at the store and most of the customers belong to Botak Jones. With so many customers, the food couldn't be that bad I guess...



So we ordered their Botak Burger and waited for about 20 minutes before the food came. Oops, they forgot to put the cheese, so we had to wait another 15 minutes before finally getting to meet our dinner.

The burger did looked quite good honestly...



The portion is very big, so it's good for hungry people. But taste wise?



It's OK lah Now I know what that means. It's not bad tasting, but it's not fantastic either. Just a few more dollars and you can get a much much better tasting burger at Earl Swensen's. Plus air-conditioning seating too. Haha...

I ordered a little dessert too, which... was quite sad looking...

my little apple pie...

Well, I did see other people order giant sausages, which looked good too. So was I just unlucky and ordered the wrong dish? Or is Botak Jones just all gimmick? I'm leaning more to the latter really :)

Block 529 Ang Mo Kio Ave 10
Singapore 560529
Phone / Fax: 67551225
Everyday 11:30 am till 10:00 pm (last orders)
http://www.botakjones.com/

CoCo's Roast Beef

I have never tried to make roast beef before even though I am a big fan of beef. It just looks so difficult! But on Good Friday I was suddenly inspired. So I dug out some of my cook books and surfed the web for some recipes. Turns out that roast beef is actually quite easy to make! So if you want to have a hearty meal but hate to spend hours in the kitchen, try this out.



Ingredients:
A nice piece of beef
•You can find this at most Cold Storage supermarket. The meat is already pre-bundled up in strings so you can save on buying the string and tying yourself.
•With a roast, like a butterflied leg of lamb or filet of beef, it is important to secure it with string before cooking. This makes a compact shape that cooks more evenly.
•I bought a piece that was about 500g. This is just nice for two hungry people.

Salt and crushed black pepper

Oil

That’s all! Easy right?!

Of course, you should always have a balanced meal, so you can grab some vegetables of your choice while at the supermarket. I like potatoes, so I got some spring potatoes (aka baby potatoes) and asparagus.

Step 1:
Leave the meat in room temperature 30mins before cooking. This allows the meat to have a more even temperature, thus cooking more evenly. While your meat is resting, scrub your potatoes till its nice and clean. The skin of the potatoes is a rich source of vitamins and fiber. So I scrubbed them nice and clean because I would be roasting them whole later.

Step 2:
Pre-heat your oven at 180 degrees for 10mins. Boil you potatoes to remove any excess soil and also soften them a little.

Step 3:
Ready to cook?
Sprinkle a generous amount of salt and pepper onto the baking tray and roll your meat onto it. Drain your potatoes and put them into the tray with the meat.
Drizzle oil over your meat and potatoes
For extra flavour – add a few knobs of butter into the tray before popping the tray into the oven. Roast for about 35mins.

Step 4:
While waiting, you can fry up some vegetables. No time is wasted!

Step 5:
When the meat is done, take it out and wrap the whole meat in an aluminum foil. While roasting, it releases a lot of meat juice, so wrapping it up gives it opportunity to absorb the juices back, making it oh so juicy and tender. *drool~*

Step 6:
Once again, while waiting for your meat to relax, you can dish out your potatoes and make the gravy. By now, the roasting tray would have bits of meat, some dried up meat juice, butter, salt and pepper inside. You just have to put the tray over the stove top, add some soup stock (or water) and start scrapping away.

Hey, not only will this make great gravy, it makes the tray much easier to clean too!

To thicken the sauce, mix a little corn starch with water and add little by little till you achieve the desired thickness. Always taste your food! If it’s too bland, add some salt and pepper.

Step 7:
Remove the meat from the foil and slice it to serve. Remember to remove the strings!
The foil would have collected some yummy meat juice, so just add them into the prepared sauce for some extra flavour!

Step 8:
Serve...

***Applause***

The WestEnd Boutique Restaurant

Located at the corner of Pasir Panjang village, this little restaurant is one of our favourite places for a good steak or western food. The relaxing ambience also makes it a great place to just relax after work with good food and drinks under the starry sky (there's in-door seating of course).

Two of our utmost favourite dish would be their Tenderloin Steak (S$34.90+++), and their Rack of Lamb (S$29.90+++). Which was also their specialty.

The tenderloin steak dish is very simple, no fuss. Just the steak, your choice of potatoes and ratatouille.

Cobby's favourite

Seldom do you see restaurants serve ratatouille with steak, so it's delicious and interesting. The steak is simply grilled and served with your choice of sauce in a separate bowl. Their black pepper sauce is the recommended sauce, but the others are just as good.

The meat is very tender and flavourful, so it does live up to its bold motto of having "the best steak in the region" Honestly I think it taste way way better then what I had in Morton's The SteakHouse, which for your info, cost about S$98+ per plate. -_- Go figure...

Another one of my favourite is their rack of lamb.



Lamb is not a favourite of many due to its "lamb-y"smell, but I like lamb. But it's hard to find a well made rack of lamb as many don't know how to cook it, resulting in dry, over cooked meat. But you should really try their rack of lamb. The meat is super tender and moist, and every piece is lined with oh-so-sinful-yet-delicious fat. You can choose between the brown sauce and mint sauce. Personally, I think the brown sauce is the perfect match. You slice out some meat, some fat, some brown sauce and pop it all into your mouth....

OOOoooooooo....

The combination is a burst of flavours and textures that would make you faint with pleasure and hungry for more!

Miss CoCo's favourite..

Interestingly, this restaurant has another dish that is worth mentioning. The local specialty, satay. Yes, it may be a western restaurant, but their local delights are just as good. The satay is simply delicious! The meat is moist, tender and very well barbequed. Served with a warm, super nutty satay sauce, onions and cucumber, this dish is a great appetiser.

Always check what is their soup of the day. Sometimes they get a little too creative and you get something like "cream of pineapple". Errr... no thanks.

But the more normal ones taste pretty darn good.

One of their more "normal" soup - Cream of corn - Super yummy!

Oh, all main dishes come with warm bread rolls with butter, which taste great by itself or with soup. So now you should have enough reasons to love this place. So next time you are around the area, do drop by. You won't regret it!

To find out more about their location, menu, etc, check out their website.