Wente wines of California make some of the best New World wines…

Wente in Livermore California are acclaimed for many award winning wines like…

Pinot Noir & Laksa

Singapore style Laksa home cooked went hand in glove with an Australian Estate Wines 2008 Pinot Noir from the Mornington Peninsula of Victoria. The first nose had cinnamon oak and red cherries on the 3rd nose. On the palate not very complex but pleasing flavours of cherry fruit and berries. The spicy Laksa sauce and noodles were more tasty with the wine.

Mum dines free on Mother’s Day at…

MARVELLOUS SPICES Cafe in the Concorde Hotel on 12 and 13 May 2012! As long as there are 3 paying adults, Mum’s dinner is on the house!

Story & photos by Dr. Michael Lim The Travelling GourmetTM

I am here now on Sat 12 May 2012 at 20:27 in this ‘art deco’ cafe and the spread is fabulous! I just tried the Kurobota POrk crusted with Gingko and Ginger and it was very nice with a gravy made with onions. Nice too was the beef roll Japanese style with cute Enoki mushrooms in the middle sprinkled with Spring Onions and white sesame seeds. ‘Fruits de mer’ featured Coquille St. Jacques with tasty orange roe on the shell, Oysters, Mussels, Sashimi of Tuna, Squid and Salmon! I see lots of Mums happily enjoying dinner with their loved ones and tucking into the buffet spread! Now I am going to try…

 

Fruits de mer!

 

Braised Duck with Cordyceps & Sea Cucumber braised so long until it is so silky, slinky and very yielding to the bite. Yum Yum!

Soupy Treasure

The Four Treasures Soup with Scallop, Crabmeat, Fish Maw and Abalone & Shitake was very tasty too. As was the creamy Lobster Bisque. Prawns in a clear broth with Shao Xing wine and crimson wolfberries was most delectable. I also made a Caesar Salad for myself with a twist…I added juicy Beetroot julienne.

A glass of Merlot J. Moreau et fils 2010 with flavours of red fruits and berries from the south of France went exceptionally well with the spicy Chilli Crab done to Singaporean tastes with a fried Man Tou bun to dip into the sauce..

 

21:55  I have had Dessert, the scrumptious Sweet Finale to every meal. Chocolate Fountain with pineapple, strawberries, watermelon, papaya and honeydew to dip in, as well as 2 types of Marshmallows, Black Forest Cake, Mango Pudding, Or Nee Yam dessert with Santan, mini Fruit Tartlets and much more! I like very much also the old style Potong ice cream in Durian and Red Bean flavours. 

 

Delightful Dessert

 

Sipping my hot black coffee in a Concorde Hotel mug, I am content and pleased with the lovely dinner. In addition, Mum gets a goodie bag to take home.

There is no love more true than that of a Mother for her flesh and blood. Enjoy!

SPICES Cafe

The photos are of REAL food styled and shot by Dr. Michael Lim The Travelling GourmetTM

Concorde Hotel

100 Orchard Road

Singapore 238840

Tel: 67338855

International Buffet Dinner S$68++ for Adult and S$30++for Child

DURIAN the King of Fruits and the…

Dr. Michael Lim The intrepid Travelling Gourmet tells you where to get the…

Fruit of KINGS can be found in abundance at Blk 538 Bedok North Street 3 next to Shing Song Supermarket. Really good super yummy durians freshly opened and packed in styrofoam boxes are there for your tasting pleasure at $2, $5 and $10 per box. Really good quality and very delicious. I know because I bought some.

I was the first gourmet in the world to match Durians with wine in 2004 at the Singapore Marriott. I selected Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin Rose 1997. It was perfect. Alfred Russell Wallace the famous British Naturalist and Botanist was a big fan of the thorny Durian.

 

                  

The Travelling Gourmet says, ”He who delves beneath the thorns may discover unspeakable pleasures…” Selamat menjamu selara!

{:-)

The Travelling Gourmet cooks with…

Warrigal Greens from Outback Pride of South Australia. I brought back the “Australian Spinach” air flown on an A380 jet from Tasting Australia 2012.
Today on Monday 7 May 2012, I created a new dish called “Scallops with Warrigal Greens and Onions in a Creamy Sauce with Deutz NV Champagne. Champagne is simply ‘superbe’ when it comes to cooking with seafood. I like to cook with wine, sometimes I even pot it in the food, Ha! Ha! I believe that creating and serving a dish for yourself and others to enjoy can lift up your spirits in a way nothing else can. After all, FOOD is LIFE!

I also used the Scallops in the Champagne Sauce au Gratin in a giant Portobello Mushroom at 175C for 10 minutes and garnished it with Julienne of crisp Warrigal Greens! Very yummy in my tummy!
Eaten raw, Warrigal Greens have a nice bite to it and a velvety texture. On the palate, a slight flavour of fresh cut lime. No wonder the Aborigines used to eat tons of Warrigal Greens in the bush!
Buen provecho! {:-)

SUNRISE over SYDney and the Shangri-La!

Sat 5 May 2012

07:32

I am in the plush HOrizon Club of the Shangri-La Sydney, one of the world’s great hotels. The energising rays of the sun shoot over the Sydney Opera House from the East as I dip my butter croissant into the hot cappuccino prepared by svelte Kimberley. The perfectly poached egg that looks like a white football sits on top of a slice of toasted caraway bread. I cut into it gently…the rich golden yolk oozes out…mmmmm. Yummy in the tummy.

 

                           Cocktails & Canapes at Horizon Club

 

Sydney is John Szangolies ”Loewenbraeu” in the Rocks, a slice of Bayern in Sydney that has been there since 1967, Altitude on level 36 in the Shangri-La Sydney, a premier haute cuisine restaurant with beautiful wines matched to the food…and spectacular views of Sydney Harbour, the yachts and square rigged ships sailing in the Harbour, Bridgeclimb on the “Coathanger”, Luke Mangan’s Glass Restaurant on George Street with modoz cuisine done just right with a good balance and no “con-FUSION”, wines from the Hunter Valley, Seafood from the Eyre Peninsula- Australia’s Seafood Frontier and more…

{:-)

09:51 Sydney Kingsford Smith

Very extensive Duty Free selection here with a special Penfold’s wine tasting.

Bright and sunny in SYD today at 14C.

Emporio Armani, Bally, Ralph Lauren are all here for the PRC travellers.

Guess, Raymond Weil, Swarovski, Oroton and Longines too.

A tribute to materialism. Cry your eyes out mao, Ha! Ha! Komunistische Schwein!

Avarice & Venezuelan Chocolates…

 

Avarice and Venezuelan Chocolates……

MY experience has always emphasized to me how alike people, whatever their race, colour or religion. When I was on special assignment in Thailand, I once saw a horizontally challenged German gentleman rush to the lunch buffet in a 5 star establishment in Bangkok, pile his plate with a mountain of food, and in just a little while he was back for round 2. The other people including myself were still only starting to select the food to put on our plates for our first helping!

On my travels round the world on business, I have met and worked with many people from New York. Sadly, they have always impressed me negatively with their impatience, aggressiveness, sneakiness and insensitivity. There was a New York lady called A, who married and divorced 4 times and now lives with No. 5 but is unmarried. She is the most obnoxious and bananas person I have ever met, manipulative, aggressive and prone to fits of rage and very bad language.

Let me tell you this true story. I was on a Press Trip in a remote part of Italy up in the mountains near the Austrian border. I was in the beautiful town of Bassano del Grappa which means “the foot of Grappa mountain”. There was a very horizontally challenged gentleman journalist from New York in our group of journalists and writers. A stuck up and pretentious person.  After the huge dinner with a different wine for every course, the Chef brought out his special chocolates to enjoy with Grappa and coffee. They were made with Venezuelan Criollo chocolate filled with the most exquisite Grappas of different flavours. Most of us were too full to savour more than one or two. The New Yorker gorged himself on about 8 chocolates! We all went out to wait for our transport back to the hotel. Through the glass windows of the restaurant, we all saw the New Yorker shovelling a whole tray of the chocolates into his carrier bag to doggy bag and take away. It was really disgraceful behavior, greedy and most unbecoming. My friend, Antonio, the owner of the restaurant who also owns the famous Nardini Grappa distillery, was standing beside me. Antonio observed everything the New Yorker did. I will never forget the singular bemused smile on his face. The ‘business lunch’ really went wrong for the journalist from the Big Apple. Perhaps, that is why greed and avarice is one of the seven deadly sins……

Dr. Michael Lim The Travelling Gourmet is a renowned travel, Food & Wine Writer/Editor in Asia