The Pelican Seafood Bar & Grill

 

Yeah, another Public Holiday tomorrow, cheers to a long weekend! Wanted to do a short trip initially, but lazy bum bum Leecher (what a mouthful!) was too lazy to plan for anything. Hence, we are staying in Singapore to enjoy the long weekend .... clearing the house! The woes of staying away from the parents :( Already made plans to check out a couple of cafes, but hopefully we can wake up in time, lol!

The usual gossip catchup session with the BFF. This time, we headed over to The Pelican, located at One Fullerton. Perfect for me, as it was just located opposite my office :P 

 

Outdoor & indoor seatings are available, but we tend to pick indoors to avoid the heat. Recommended to sit outdoors to enjoy the night view. 

Love the round tables - the girls headed straight for the comfy cushions while the guys got delegated to sitting at the hard chairs.

 

Sitting by the bar made a totally new experience, only recommended for 2 pax. 

 

The Pelican has long been a symbol that holds great affinity to sea travellers who would find their way back to land after a long voyage to celebrate their homecoming. Since this is a seafood bar & grill, most of the items are from the sea. They do have some items that cater to the vegetarian crowd.

Leecher heading straight for the wine promotion menu, lol! One-for-one on selected house pour wines, beers and spirits on weekdays, 5pm till 8pm.

 

The guys had red wine, while the girls decided to stay with warm water. 

Seaweed bread to kick off the evening. We got really excited once this was placed on the table. Interesting rendition, but it was as hard as rock. Disappointment. 

 

Old Bays Fries ($12). We ordered this for sharing, only to realize that all our mains came with this fries. Nothing fantastic to shout about, though it taste better with a dab of chilli/tomato sauce. 

Old Fashioned Crab Cakes served with quick pickle slaw ($22). This was a tad too pricey for 2 small crab-cakes to be shared amongst 4 pax. Decent enough, though I wished the size could be slightly bigger.

 

Our +1 for the evening. 

Cornflake Crusted Scallops, with sweet & sour shallots ($48). This was placed under the section "Others" on the menu, along with Baked Snapper Pie. Before the dish was served, Minqian jokingly said that maybe it will come with 4 scallops @ $12 bucks each. True enough, it came in 4 puny scallops, enough just for 2 bites, lol! A pricey $6 bucks for each bite. The cornflake was just a crust covering the scallop, though it would be better if they put in cornflakes to go with the dish as well.

 

"Koped" some pictures from BFF's facebook (those w/o watermarks) for this entry :) She has a new toy now, which I'm really tempted to get one too *bad influence*

Baked Snapper Pie, contains fish stew, vegetables served in puff pastry ($36). This required a 20 min preparation time, so advisable to order this early.

Totally worth the waiting time. Always trust the foodie in food recommendations!

 

A fluffy pie filled with goodies inside! The pie was baked to perfection. When sliced open, be greeted with a fish stew served with generous chunks of snapper. This was certainly the highlight of the meal. A must-order! Like fireworks, you only get the climax once. The remaining dishes were lackluster, in terms of presentation & taste.

Skate Wing Chop with burnt lemon butter ($32). I ordered this, thinking that it must be chicken-related (pardon me for my ignorance about fish parts)! We nearly die of fish overdose that night. This was just like grilled stingray without belachan and once again, a pricey tag to boost. The flesh was overcooked, seasoning was mild. Lemon was just for garnish instead of adding to the flavour. Skip this dish.

 

 Line-caught swordfish steak, with fresh herb vinaigrette ($36). I was first introduced to the phrase "line-caught" from a friend whose sister deals with purchasing of seafood for a supermaket. Basically, line-caught denotes that a fish that has been caught with a rod & fishing line instead of trawling with a net. This act of fishing is more environmentally friendly too. My first experience with swordfish! The flesh was rubbery and firm. Not my cup of tea, as I prefer it to be tender. 

Red Bream Fillet with anchovy jam ($42). Ordinary at its best.

 

Star dish of the night :) 

 

Say "cheese" :)  

 

Desserts time! 

 

Double Chocolate Whoopie Pie ($16). Once again, as recommended by Minqian. She was willing to face a breakout to taste this. Whoopie pie is also commonly known as "BFO" (Big-Fat Oreo). Unlike the normal way of eating oreo (eating it layer by layer or slam-dunking it into milk), this can be consumed the way you would eat a cake. 

Lemon Meringue "Mess" with fresh graham cracker ($14). Leecher ordered this to balance out the sweetness from Whoopie Pie. An interesting presentation of the dessert that steal a couple more shots as compared to the rest, lol! While Whoopie Pie wowed us in taste, this scored more points in presentation.

The lovely skyline of One Fullerton.

Such enticing skyline, must take pictures right?

Shortie couple VS Tallie couple, lol!

with the dearest BFF :) Thank you for accommodating to my height, lol! 

The Pelican Seafood Bar & Grill

1 Fullerton Road, #01-01

One Fullerton 

Singapore 049213

Tel: 65368229

Email: enquiry@thepelican.com.sg

Opening Hours: 12pm till 3pm (Lunch), 5pm till 11pm (Dinner)

Closed on Sundays

London 2012 Part Six

 

The final entry on London.As I'm typing this, I've received the delegates invitation for the conference this year. We'll be having the conference at Leeds Castle, located in Kent. The highlight - we'll be staying in the castle! Due to rooms/budget constraints, there were fewer delegates this year, I'm thankful to be on the invitee list. Now, I can't wait for July to come :)

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Previous entries can be found here:P1, P2, P3, P4 & P5.

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After a tour of Cambridge in the morning, we had a tour around London City in the evening. 2 tours in one day, that really made me feel like a tourist! Headed off to Hoxton to drop off our luggages & freshen up for the evening. 

 

 Situated in the heart of Shoreditch, one of London's trendy & vibrant districts. The location is a mere 5 min walk to Old Street Station, so it's extremely convenient for travelers. 

 

A nice fireplace at the side of the lobby, where you can chill out with a glass of wine/beer and perhaps, a book in your hands. They have a wide range of cocktails on their menu as well.

Preparing to head out & assemble at the lobby. We were told beforehand that there will be a KTV session. Hence, when we were told to assemble at 5pm, I just assume that we'll be having dinner before heading for the session. Little did I realise that we were going on a guided tour. 

 

 "There is melancholy in the wind and sorrow in the grass" ~ Charles Kuralt.

Our tour guide for the evening. Memory must be failing me, for I can't recall her name. Nevertheless, she's a lovely lady & is fond of neon colours - check out her striking green watch. She provides customized tour packages, catering to your requirements. Drinking is the company's middle name, hence we did a bar-hopping tour, lol!

Tour guide brought us on a walking trip around London city, and stopping at several bars in b/w for the guys to quench their thirst. Felt like a school excursion as we walked through buildings and standing in open areas, while she explained the history of London. 

 

We stood in front of the Guildhall (administrative center of the city) & got to know an interesting bit of history. The City of London constituted most of London from its settlement by the Romans centuries ago. The Latin motto of the city is "Domine Dirige Nos" which translates as "Lord, direct (guide) us", which you can see clearly engraved in the building here. During the Roman period, it was the site of an amphitheatre. Partial remains are displayed in the basement of the Art Gallery (which we didn't have the chance to go) & the outline of whose arena is marked with a black circle on the paving of the courtyard in front of the hall. So, the exact spot where we stood was the middle of the amphitheatre. 

 

The Mansion House, where Lord Mayor of London stays. The place is not open to the public except for guided group tours, limited to 40 per group. 

 

Headed off to a bar, where I just had to drink London Pride. I actually ordered half a pint, but they auto-upgraded my drink to a pint. This is Fuller's award-winning beer, and in recent years, its popularity has grown so much that it is now Britain's leading premium ale.

The massive drink ~ how to finish?
 

with Cindy, who is now based in Hong Kong. She moved from Japan to HK recently. 
 

with Steve. He speaks in a fatherly tone & extremely fond of his kids :)
 

And of cuz with Eric, lol! Been working together for the past 6 years. This year, he's back to AM team. 

A quick drink later, we headed off to visit other places. Smithfield market is the oldest & largest EU approved wholesale meat market in the country. The market is open Mon to Fri from 3am onwards. To see the market at its best, you should arrive by 7am.

 

Outside City of London Police. If not for the police-marked lamps protruding out, I won't have guessed that this is a police station. An interesting fact: Tug of war used to be a part of the Olympics Games. It was first featured in 1900 (Paris Games). In 1908, the London City Police Force won the game & took the gold medal. This event was removed from the Olympics program after the 1920 Games.

This tower is the remaining piece of St Alban's church, located in Wood Street. The building was burnt out and partially destroyed during the Blitz (strategic bombing during the 2nd World War) . Today, the tower is left standing and remains as a private residential home. We were told that there is only one toilet in this tower, on the highest level. 

 

Break time @ Fox and Anchor. This is actually a B&B, pub and restaurant combined into 1. Wow, totally can't tell from the outside as the place looked rather small.  

The remnants of the London Wall. This defensive wall was first built by the Romans. No one knew the exact reason behind the construction of the wall, but it was highly speculated that it could be linked to the invasion of northern Britain by Picts. The wall was destroyed during the Blitz and Great Fire of London. Today, all that remains of the wall are a few fragments across the city. 

Headed for bar-food + KTV thereafter, hence no pictures of our "after-party". KTV in London is an entirely different experience. In SG, we are used to singing Mandarin + Canto songs. MVs usually come with a storyline with elaborated outfits and nice scenery. We sang a lot of English songs (of course) with old MVs that mirrored settings from 1980s. We get to see the different generations as well. The older generations sang songs from Beatles, Elton John while the younger generations blasted songs from Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber :) It wasn't till 12 midnight when I had to call it a day and headed back to the hotel with a fellow colleague. 
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The initial plan was to extend my trip, so I'll have 2 days to explore the city. My last trip was way back in 2007, where I was there for a week of training (read all about it here & here). Leecher joined me for a week of holiday & we visited the usual tourist attractions around the city (entries are here, after Taiwan posting if you fancy a read ^^). I changed my plans thereafter & headed back to Singapore on Friday night.

 

Checking out first thing in the morning. Spot the huge luggage behind me, lol! Elliott joked that I can fit into the luggage easily and we can save on airfares, haha!

 Express cut-out box, cute!

Spent the morning in London new office, doing evaluations with the boss, catching up on the details of the various global deals that we have in place.

 

I still remembered that ex-colleague Sarah ordered this when I first came to London for the training session. I stole a bite and my god, it was so yummy! I just had to eat this before heading back to Singapore, so we had lunch @ Canteen. The pie fillings change daily, but there will always be a vegetable and meat option. A must-order :) 

Canteen

2 Crispin Place

Spitalfields, London, E1 6DW

Tel: +44 0845 686 1122

 

One of the many meals on-board. Kinda miss having in-flight meals now. I need to travel further instead of KL!
 

15 hours later, I landed in Singapore with my shopping from London DFS + SG DFS. Lugged all the stuff back home, facing an empty house. Leecher still got the cheek to ask for his present when he's not home to welcome me back.

Junior Chefs @ Work I

 

After almost 2 years of eating outside, we've decided that it was time we step into the kitchen (occassionally) and prepare some quick fix meals to curb our hunger pangs! Mummy dearest is the world's greatest cook but I nv manage to inherit any of her superb cooking genes, haha! Well well, it's never too late to start learning :) 

 

We made a trip to the nearest supermarket to get all the necessary ingredients. Boy, I really love filling up the trolley with goodies & we ended up with more junk food (snacks) than proper food :P Reached home and immediately start to marinate the chicken fillet with sugar, pepper, oyster sauce and sesame oil. With my amateur skills, I don't think I'm qualified to prepare a step-by-step tutorial yet :) Left it overnight in the fridge before cooking it the day after.

So, over the weekend, we prepared burrito wraps for lunch. The original recipe was for beef, but we traded it for chicken and modified some of the steps for a fuss-free cooking experience! I certainly don't wish to create a tornado in the kitchen just for cooking a simple dish :P  

 

I took over the chopping board while Leecher watched the stove. Sliced & diced capsicum, lettuce and cheddar cheese for the fillings. 

 

Frying the marinated chicken together with capsicum. Of cuz, I had to sneak a few bites here and there, lol! 

 

Place the wrap over the pan and put in all the ingredients on top.  You can add in as much ingredients as you want, but leave enough space to fold the wrap.

 

Secure it with a toothpick and leave it over small fire for the cheese to melt :)

 

Finally, served with a glass of wine of your own preference!