Platters, once again

 

We headed back to Platters, courtesy of BFF :) She was invited for a tasting session and very kindly extended her invitations to us (thank you so much!!!). Our last visit was in 2012, where Chef Tan did his stint as a guest chef for the restaurant. He was the 2nd chef to be featured and now, we had the privilege of tasting the creations of Chef Karl Dobler and Chef Eugenia Ong of Table at 7. Since I have yet to visit Table at 7, I was excited to try out the creations that they have put together at Platters. 

  

Leecher was on course that day at the other side of the island. He drove all the way back into the city to meet up with us. Platters is conveniently located near my office, so I took an evening stroll. In case you're driving, there are parking lots outside the stretch of shop-houses. Alternatively, there is a parking within 5 min walk from the restaurant.

 Perhaps the night was still young & the tables were not filled up, apart from a long table next to ours.   

 

 First up, we had the full platter of Chefs at the Market ($48). The half platter is also available at $26. It was recommended that half platter is meant for 2-3 pax while full platter is to be shared b/w 4-6 pax.

I can't wait to dig in! 

 

Crispy fluffy tahu telur paired with beansprouts & sweet-spicy peanut dressing. My only complaint - the fried beancurds were too small! I could hardly taste them :( I'm not a fan of bean sprouts, yet I gamely polished off my portion! 

 

Tomato bocconcini tartlets. The tomato looked so much like smoked salmon that I had to taste it to confirm.

 Mushroom croquettes, my fave of the lot! Crispy on the outside and creamy on the inside :)

 

The next platter that came along brought joy to us, for the tiny burgers looked so cute! All the ladies were busy snapping away as soon as this platter was placed. Asia's Ultimate Star Burgers - full platter at $60, half platter at $32.

 

This consisted of beef rendang & chicken satay mini burgers, served alongside with shoestring fries mixed with curry-kaffir lime spice.
 

Each dish was created by drawing inspirations from the chef's background, past dishes as well as personal signatures. The burgers were created initially for Chef Eugenia's daughter & they even had a one time pop-out stall at PasarBella.

 

Too cute to resist! I could easily manage a couple of these mini burgers - great idea for hosting kids' party at home :) I actually prefer the beef rendang over chicken satay. 

We had 1/3 serving of My Taste of Home platter. This platter consisted of chef dobler's home-smoked ocean trout (above), homemade chicken liver pale smoked duck breast slices, cornichons and crostini (full platter at $60, half platter at $32). The greens that came along were too bitter for my liking, but ocean trout was pleasing to me :) 

With the dearest :) I'm spotting a new hair cut now, heehee! I wanted a new hair style for Hong Kong, so a day before we flew off, I booked an appt with my stylist and viola - bangs.

 

BFF & Jonah, love hanging out with them :)   

 

White wine appeared in time before they serve the next platter. 

 

My only grouch - I can't take a nice complete picture of all the food served on the long platter due to space constraint, haha! The Oceanic Ensemble (full platter at $72, half platter at $38) was the last main platter of the night. From its name, you can tell that this must be a seafood dish.

 

Starting with crispy soft shell crab - this was a tad oily for my liking. 

 

Mussels hot pot in white wine - clearly the favourite of the lot. The gravy was too watery, but the mussels were well-soaked in it. 

 

Grilled tiger prawns with shrimp sambal glaze was not bad either.

We ended the night on a sweet note with a dessert platter. Named "Life is Sweet, Truly", this platter consisted of 3 different types of desserts, which I have highlighted below. The full platter costs $44 while the half platter is going for $24.

 

Citrus panna cotta with fresh berries. The taste was just ordinary, but I like the smooth texture. 

 

Valrhona chocolate tart - this was actually my fave of the lot, given that I love all things chocolatey :) 

Jackfruit beignet with coconut custard. Being ultra-sensitive to the smell of jackfruit, Leecher could smell it before the waiter placed the platter on the table. Wa, someone's sense of smell is uber good - coincidentally he was born in the year of the dog,lol! He still gave it a try and surprisingly concluded that this was his fave out of the 3 selections *gasp* 

Thanks BFF (once again) for inviting us along :) We truly enjoyed ourselves. 
 
A lovely bridesmaid box for the coming wedding :) I'll do my best to tekan the groom, lol!  

*Thanks BFF for her kind pics to this entry (w/o watermarks)

 Note: Chef Karl Dobler and Chef Eugenia Ong creations are available from now till Oct 2013.

Platters

42 Club Street

Singapore 069420

Tel: 6223 8048

The Straits Wine Company

On Boss Khim's request, we headed to The Straits Wine Company on a Friday night for a chillax session. There are a lot of branches all over Singapore and we settled for the one @ Serangoon Gardens, since it was the nearest for all of us. Parking woes around the area and we had to park near the private estate a couple of blocks away :( 

 

Boss Khim in paradise, lol! His only passion in life: drink, drink and be merry. That aside, I have to say I'm impressed by his wine knowledge! He's more of a red wine person (just like Leecher) and there are some hits & misses whenever he orders white wine for the ladies. 

 Being a wine importer, retailer & distributor, The Straits Wine Company has an extensive collection of wine that caters for everyone. From Australia, France, Italy, New Zealand and many more, there has to be a bottle of wine that is suitable for your taste buds.

The camp is divided into guys vs girls, red vs white.

 

难得 Khim Khim is the early bird for the night, for he is ALWAYS late, haha. 

  

I was famished when we arrived since we didn't have dinner. I wanted to pack food from outside, so I went to check with them if they allow customers to bring outside food into their compound. To my surprise, they handed me several food menus. They actually have collaborations with some of the eateries nearby (like BBQ and HK-cafe style). You just have to call the number to order and your food will arrive shortly. We settled for BBQ and ordered for everyone to share. 

 

Now that we have food in our stomach, it's time to start! We started off with a bottle of riesling (my fave!) and it had a fruity taste to it with the right amount of sweetness.

 

A toast is the must-have for every drinking session.   

  

with the dearest :) 

 

Kenneth & Meiqin rushed down after closing their shop. 

 

Group pic taken by self-timer. Before this, we asked someone at the next table to help us with a picture, but the 2 pics that she took came out blurred :( We also paiseh to trouble her again, so we decided to use self-timer after she left with her group of friends. 

My fave squabbling mate :) Can't believe we knew each other for almost 10 years!

 Spot the similarity? Both Leecher & me are the shortest in the group, lol! No wonder we are together.

The Straits Wine Company 

80 Serangoon Garden Way 

Singapore 555964

Tel: 6285 1075

Opening Hours: 1pm till 11pm (Mon-Wed), 12pm till 12am (Thurs), 12pm till 1am (Fri-Sat) and 12pm till 11pm (Sun)

Junior Chefs @ Work II - June edition

Junior Chefs are back with the June edition (read May's edition here). Besides visiting our parents or hanging out with friends over meals, we have home-cooked food most of the days. When the dishes are fresh out from the stove, I'll snap a picture and send it to mummy dearest for her viewing. She's my no. 1 loyal fan :) 

Our dinner courtesy of all my aunties. The sisters will have a gathering @ granny's place once every few months & I'll always have food to ta-dao home for our dinner. My 4th auntie makes the best mee siam ever :)

 

We decided to try out chicken baked rice, after Leecher found an online recipe that was relatively fuss-free. So, before the weekend, I actually went to get small trays for his baked rice attempt, lol! See, I'm such a supportive wife, haha! Our parents-in-law & Roger came for a surprise visit & got to taste Leecher's creation. 

It was a 3-part cooking process - mixing everything on the pan and cooked  for a few minutes before transferring to the rice cooker. Once the rice is cooked, transfer into the oven to bake. It took 30 min to prepare this dish & another 30 min in the oven to bake :) 

 

Simple ingredients for dinner - minced pork, broccoli & mushrooms. 

Stir-fried minced pork with chili padi & broccoli with mushrooms. Leecher put in too much chili padi & we had to drink lots of water!

 

Baked Lemon Salmon fish with herbs.

 

Chicken, lettuce and fungus mushroom, what will chef Leecher comes up with?

He took our 1/4 bottle of salsa sauce and came up with his own version of salsa-chicken. Needless to say, it was yummy :)

 

Lettuce with garlic & fungus mushroom. Notice how we always have mushrooms in our dishes? I'm a fan of mushrooms, so Leecher will always try to incorporate in his cooking.

 

With the limited space in our kitchen, we'll always keep the oven in the cupboard unless we had to bake/heat up something. Since we had our oven out on the dining table (after our baked rice attempt), we decided to make full use of it before it goes back into the cupboard.

 

Pour the mixture into the container.

We ran out of shredded cheese, so I had to cut our cheese block into smaller pieces. Leecher also prepared another fish-dish, with his own lemon-herb juice. Sometimes, Leecher don't really follow the recipe & I always wonder (with his 256MB brain storage) if he will be able to re-create the dish after a long time?

 
Into the oven for baking :) I love the cheesey smell that perfumed the air! 

 
Opened a bottle of my fave moscato :)

  
Once, we had Raymond coming over for dinner. For the 1st time ever, Leecher had to whip out 4 dishes and we got extremely busy in the kitchen - cooking, slicing, chopping etc. 

  

I conveniently forgot that Mummy dearest gave us mini nonya dumplings & went to cook our usual portion of rice. I almost died of rice overdosage, even though I always have 2nd helpings at mum-in-law's place. Thankfully, Leecher's fish was good enough to whet my appetite!

 

As much as I love Leecher's cooking (hey, I can't complain when there's food to eat!), I dislike the above veg dish that he put together, lol! It contained garlic, white fungus, ikan bilis and looked somewhat dry. Not my cup of tea.  

Our mini ice cream treats after the meal :)