Wimbly Lu, Jalan Riang

Following an ok brunch we decided to get dessert before the movie. Wimbly Lu was located smack dab in the middle of a private housing estate - very odd location I assure you (and hellish parking) but as you would know it it was packed when we got there.

 It was a bizzare layout with a glass roof, and tables and couches at odd placements. But the waft of chocolate and the stunning display of desserts at the entrance was remarkable.

 We weren't quite hungry but there was always room for dessert. We asked for recommendations and was suggested to try their hallmark root beer cake with vanilla ice cream.

{ Root beer cake w/vanilla ice cream ($6) }

 At $6 it was inexpensive but the serving size wasn't big - which suited us for the moment as couldn't eat more than that. Unlike some places that serve cakes the size of your face for $15 with no option to order half a slice!

On first bite - yum! The root beer taste was rather distinct, and the warm cake itself moist, fudgey and yet not too sweet. Perfect pair with a cold sweet vanilla ice cream. The root beer taste did wane after 2-3 bites but hey as a regular chocolate fudge cake it was still good.

{ Classic Hot Chocolate ($5) }

 We couldn't have left without a cup of classic hot chocolate. Was nice sipping this as it was a cold wet day - the chocolate was rich and just a teeny bit sweet.

Had we had more stomache that day we would've tried a lot more, as the shelf offered quite a stock of cakes, pies, tarts and other chocolate goodies. My only complain was of course, the location. If you don't drive (and it's good fun finding parking) it's a fair bit of walk inside the no-bus estate, or roughly 15 minutes from Serangoon MRT.

Wimbly Lu

Jalan Riang

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Main website : http://www.wimblylu.com/
HGW Link  (85% recommended at time of posting) : http://www.hungrygowhere.com/singapore/Wimbly_lu/
Rating (out of 4) : 

Nectar, Outram Road (Wangz Hotel)

 As part of our staycation at Wangz Hotel, we decided to have dinner at the in-house restaurant, Nectar. It is quite a small place, with probably 20 tables at most. We were the only patrons for that Sunday night.

 The hotel exterior just so happens to look like a beehive!

 There was a UOB card promotion for a 5 course festive dinner set, but we were more enticed by the ala carte menu (which we had 20% off for being staying guests).

{ Spiny Lobster and Ink Pasta ($24) }

Sautéed lobster, prime asparagus and flambé of Cognac squid ink spaghetti in tomato cream sauce

 After much deliberation, I settled for the lobster pasta. I was a bit hesitant about tomato cream sauce as I'm not a fan of heavy bases. This was unexpectedly good! The creaminess was not overwhelming, and you still do get the freshness of the tomato flavour. It goes really well with the lovely hints of seafood both in the squid ink spaghetti itself and from the very generous chunks of lobster (crayfish). The bits of asparagus lends texture (and fibre) to this wonderful dish. I really enjoyed this and would order it again - for $24 this is actually pretty value for money.

 I had a bite out of this and it was REALLY GOOD. Really flavourful but not till jelat, the nice smoothy al dente squid ink pasta and the sauce go in hand and hand. And the crayfish - I like how they left it in nice crunchy portions!

{ Grilled Succulent Baby Lamb ($40) }

Marinated prime lamb rack grilled to your liking served with wilted spinach and pine nuts, spinach dumplings, roasted tubers and Tawny port wine reduction

 Holy crap. While feeling absolutely terrible for feasting on baby lamb (which by definition are milk-fed lamb between six and eight weeks old), the medium rare racks were soooooo completely tender, juicy and just enough gaminess to my liking. No kidding, the lamb quite literally melted in my mouth, and full of natural flavour. Definitely one of the best lamb dishes I've ever had.

{ "Bubble" Grand Cru Chocolate Sphere ($15) }

With banana poelée, chocolate ice cream and fresh berries

 Hands down the most interesting dessert I've had! I was very amazed by the liberal sprinkling of gold dust (a pertinent question was posed to   : "Are we going to poop gold?"). [ Update : we did not poop gold.] Next I was intrigued by the chocolate globe perched in the middle of the plate. It is actually a kind of shell, hollow in the middle. How we were meant to consume this was beyond us, but then a waiter arrived with a pot of melted chocolate ...

 ... and proceeded to pour it all over the chocolate sphere (!) The warm chocolate sauce was meant to melt the chocolate sphere thing but apparently this didn't quite happen. ( followed swiftly by an apologetic "the chocolate not hot enough ah") We still had to use a tiny bit of force to break the shell open. Still, what was interesting to watch was the gold dust separating as a layer by itself.

 While the dessert was quite a sight to behold, the chocolate parts didn't taste that spectacular - but it was still quite something to be eating gold, I suppose!

 Within the shell held banana poelee (fried banana), ice cream and berries. Taste wise nothing too spectacular besides being sweet and refreshing, but plus points for presentation!

 It would be nice to see more people (non hotel guests) coming to this place. The location isn't too off, and the menu offers quite good selections. It was a good dinner for us - and we also had good post-dinner drinks at the rooftop bar, so it was a nice Sunday evening overall.

HGW Link (50% recommended at time of writing) : http://www.hungrygowhere.com/singapore/nectar_wangz_hotel/
Main website : http://www.wangzhotel.com/fnb.html#s01
Rating (out of 4) : 

Herb Crusted Salmon with Beurre Blanc (and kisses fondant)

After being inspired by Junior Masterchef, we took it upon ourselves to recreate a dish some ridiculous 4 year old cooked on the show.

Herb Crusted Salmon with Beurre Blanc for 3

- Salmon steak : 3 slabs

- Italian herb seasoning

- Bread crumbs : enough

- Oyster mushrooms : 1 bag

- Red pepper : 1, chopped

- Russet Potatoes : 3, dunked in hot water for ~5mins and squared

- Olive oil : copious amounts

- White wine : 1 cup

- Shallots : 2, diced

- Garlic : 1, diced

- Butter : 200g

- S&P

As the fish doesn't take long to cook, the vegetables were prepared first. We call them vegetables but there was no green at all in sight - we decided to go with roasted oyster mushrooms, red peppers and potatoes. Everything was chopped into bite size and tossed in liberal amounts of olive oil, Italian herb seasoning and S&P. Place in oven-friendly dish, roast on high for about 30 minutes. Do check on it from time to time, turning it so that the top bits doesn't burn, and also everything is cooked through just fine.

While the vegies are roasting away, prepare the breadcrumb coating for the fish. A shallow wide pan is useful for this. Mix copious amounts of breadcrumbs with the Italian herb seasoning (so that you can see enough green bits of the herb amongst the crumbs - we really don't have exact scientific measurements here). Sprinkle some S&P, and then mix in some olive oil.

Here's the fun part. Put the salmon steaks in and start coating them. Here we left the skin of the salmon on, but I suppose you could remove them. Try to ensure the entire surface area of the salmon has sufficient breadcrumb mix. With the excess breadcrumbs, pile them on the fish - we found out this will not burn into an unsightly burnt goop in the oven, if there is enough olive oil in the mixture and if the tray goes in at the bottom of the oven. Fish goes in for 10 minutes.

Rubbidy rub rub.

Welcome to Four Awesome's lesson in french cooking. We made beurre blanc (failed but more on that later), which in french means white butter. This sauce is essentially an emulsion of white wine and butter, and you may know emulsion is the chemical process by which many great sauces like Mayonnaise and Hollandaise is made.

The basic concept of emulsion is combining two liquids that do not combine naturally, in this case alcohol and butter (and in the case of Mayonnaise, egg yolk with oil and vinegar). So to make beurre blanc, we had to first reduce the white wine with shallots and garlic in a saucepan, till the white wine is 70% reduced (which we didn't). After which, cube 200g of butter (in case you didn't realize, was one freakin' block) into 5 parts. Vigorously whisk in the butter cube by cube and you should get a homogenous pale yellow sauce.

As we realized our emulsion wasn't working, we decided not to use all the butter and instead ending up with a oily winey buttery sauce. Which was still awesome anyway.

And the finished product - herb crusted salmon with failed beurre blanc and roasted vegies. YUMMEH.

Salmon does not take long to cook - after 10 minutes the salmon flakes easily and surprisingly absorbed the herbiness well. The natural juiciness of the salmon coupled with the soft crumb crust just goes so well with the decadently buttery sauce. Not to mention the dry roasted vegies in butter = win.

Kisses fondant

- Giant hershey's kisses : 1

- Plain flour : 1 tbsp

- Eggs : 2

For dessert we decided to make use of the massive Hershey's kisses bunny got for christmas. So we melted the whole damn thing in the microwave.

To the chocolate goop we added 1 tbsp of flour and 2 slightly beaten eggs which will thicken the mixture further.

We wanted to bake the mixture in 2 ramekins for 20 minutes. Alas we were alarmed with warnings that it had burnt (because it looked brown ...) and we took it out after 10. Still looks good!

The sides and the top had a nice and firm crust layer but the inside was overly lava-ey because it hasn't been cooked enough. Anyways the Hershey's trademark artificial taste was pretty strong in this one, but it was still a sinful way to end a nice home-cooked dinner :)

What's better than a chocolate fondue?

Chocolate fondue in bed (while watching Scott Pilgrim)!!

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There are just no words to describe our perfect Sunday evening, so here are pictures instead.

:))