Thursday, January 31, 2013

NYE Dinner @ Serenity

Feb is just round the corner and counting down to CNY & Vday. Before ushering in 2013, we met up for NYE dinner with EK, Pris, Yaozu & Kenneth. Work ended at 3.30pm, so we went home, had a change of clothes before adjourning to Vivocity for the meetup.
 
Drove to Vivocity and was caught in a slight jam, as the party-goers were out in full force to attend the various countdown party. We were lucky to find a parking lot as well. 
 
Leecher chose the place & I called in 2 weeks before to reserve a table. We were given the later seating @ 8.30pm, which was perfect for us. Serenity offers a wide variety of 42 selections of tapas for your eating pleasure.  
Awards decorating the front door. 
 
We had a quiet corner to ourselves, which was great for catching up.
*waves hi*
 
The rest arrived earlier before us and placed the orders. We arrived just in time for the 1st dish. Talk about perfect timing :)
 A popular Spanish tapas dish, champinones al ajillo is mushrooms sauteed with garlic, olive oil, lemon juice and typically seasoned with flat-leaf parsley, salt, ground black pepper and chilli. This is a must-have for all the mushroom lovers!
 
"Patatas Bravas" or Bravas Potato is served in bars all over Spain. The sauce has a slight bite from the Tabasco, hence the name "Bravas" which means fierce.  
 
Pan Con Alioli - Homemade herb bread with sun-dried tomato served with their homemade aioli sauce. This became Pris's staple for the night for she wasn't feeling well.  
  
Serenity has more than 120 labels of Spanish wines, covering famous wine regions such as Rioja, Rueda, Torro etc. More than 60 labels are exclusive and rare Spanish wines. Having tasted mostly Australian, French & Italian wines, I must say Spanish wines need a lil bit of getting-used to, in terms of the texture and acidity level.
 
So, we ordered a jug of Sangria, lol, which I can relate more to. Sangria is wine fruit punch that started off as a summer drink in Spain. 
 
Boss EK looking through the wine list for yet another bottle of wine.  
 
Butifarra, most well-known as the name of a Spanish sausage, but it is also the name of a popular Peruvian sandwich. 
 
Pincho Moruno de Lomo (Grilled marinated pork on skewers). Pinocho Moruno is another tapas that can be found in tapas bars all over Spain (it can be enjoyed as a main course too). Basically, a pincho moruno is a lomo adobado (pork loin with parika) that has been cut into bite-sized pieces, stuck on a skewer and grilled. Another of the must-try dish :)
 Spanish garlic prawns, which goes well with a glass of white wine!
 Homemade flat bread with Spanish anchovies, paprika & cheese. Chewy texture, just the way I like it.
 
Can never pair these 2 together, lol! They kept blocking each other from pic-taking. 
 
Pausing for round 1. Take pictures first before gorging ourselves silly for round 2. 
 
Paella is the traditional dish of Spain, originating from the City of Valencia. Like the Chinese, Spanish also like to eat the slightly burnt rice at the base of the pan. We ordered the Black Squid Ink Paella - which consisted of squid ink, squid, tiger prawns, capsicum and rice. 
 Signature Suckling Pig, also known as Cochinillo Asado. The dish came on an enormous wooden platter and swiftly portioned into smaller pieces with the use of a small plate. The piglet is so tender and can be cut with a plate instead of a knife. This is now available for both dine-in and takeaway.
Must rem to take group picture with food on the table! haha :) 
 
 
Kenneth bought us desserts from Home's Favourite. I'm not a fan of durian but these were too yummy to pass :) 
 
  Till the next CNY meeting, bring along all the cash, lol!
Serenity Spanish Bar & Restaurant
No.1 Harbourfront Walk
#01-98/99 Vivocity
Singapore 098585
Tel: 63768185

Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Swirl: Orient Allure I

 
New Collection coming up tonight @ 8.30pm!
Start your shopping for CNY :)  


 Rem to like & share on FB to win $28 e-vouchers! 
 

Monday, January 28, 2013

Taiwan: 冷水坑, 绢丝瀑布 & 川府麻辣火鍋

Been completely distracted on various stuff that the plan to complete Taiwan's posts went haywire. A couple of friends are heading to Taiwan in a couple of months, so back to TW entries on this blog again *clutch fists to finish this time round* hopefully these posts will be useful in your planning :) drop me a liner (caihong.lim@gmail.com) if you need more information on the various places that we had visited.
From our last visit to 夢幻湖, we ventured to 冷水坑, also known as "Cold-Water-Pit"
 
冷水坑 was formed by volcanic lava flowing down from the mountain, forming a barrier lake. The lake was eventually drained, leaving behind a bed of precipitated sulphur. 冷水坑 is actually a hot spring area, with a temperature of around 40 degrees. Although it is substantially lower than other hot springs, as long as it's about 6 degrees above human temperature, it can be classified as hot spring.
 Spotted - Hydrangeas outside the visitor center! One of my fave flowers, in pretty hues of purple, pink and blue :)
 
Must take picture, but I think I looked extremely exhausted from all the walking, climbing and whats-not. 
Even the guys wanted a pic with the flowers as well :) 
 
Simple lunch of noodles, meatballs & bamboo shoots soup. We needed all the energy, to continue for the next stop of the journey. 
 
Crossing the bridge to our next destination.
Leecher getting all excited - his moment of defying gravity.  
The fog came & visibility was reduced greatly. We couldn't really make out what was lying in front of us. 
 
 Try spotting us, lol!
 
Road signs leading to all the various destination. 
 
Choose to head down to 绢丝瀑布, 800m away. 
 
up, down, up, down. I've never climb so many stairs all my life, surely exceeded my quota for the rest of the year. 
 
Another beautifully created spider-web. Do you know that "spider web" is typically used to refer to a web that is apparently still in use (clean), whereas "cob web" refers to abandoned (dusty) webs? I certainly can't tell if this is a spider or cob web, but this looked clean to me.
 
 绢丝瀑布 is pretty much like a normal water-fall. The water is supposed to fall like threads of silk, hence the name. The water-fall was surrounded by too much greenery and it was difficult to capture a nice picture. Slightly disappointed, given that it was almost a 30min hike.

 
Pics to capture the "miserable" water-fall behind, to show that we came here, lol! After this, we left Yangmingshan & headed for dinner.
  
Chuan Fu Hot Pot Buffet, 川府麻辣火鍋
 
Corner table for us, enjoy the food + people watch.  
  
 The place was crowded with patrons & I supposed it must be a popular steamboat place for people of all walks of life to gather & have a meal together. 
 Induction cooker, which is faster & more energy-efficient than a traditional electric cooking surface. Because the surface of the cooker top is only heated from contact with the vessel, the possibility of burn injury is significantly lesser too. During our reno, we contemplated b/w induction cooker and traditional hood. In the end, traditional hood won us over.
 
麻辣 & chicken soup-base.
 
A wide variety of food to choose. 王子面, the most popular instant noodles in Taiwan, which  always reminds me of the song that Stefanie Sun & Mayday sang together.
 
Dig in! 
 
Ice cream & cakes to end the meal :) 
川府麻辣火鍋
No. 547之1號, Section 5, ZhōngShān North Road, 
Shihlin District, Taipei City, Taiwan 111
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