Happy Burbday: Les Bouchons

Bryan decided to surprise me on my birthday. he led me on a merry goose chase around Maxwell, first bringing me to Maxwell hawker centre to fry hum jing pang (“huh? we’re eating hum jing pang for my birthday? you’re frying fresh for me? uhm okay?”), then we had sugar cane juice (mine with sour plum) before he presented to me Les Bouchons (Ann Siang Hill) with a flourish. Of course it wasn’t ready yet as we were early so we popped by to a bar next door for a drink, where I promptly drank a glass of white wine too fast and almost fell asleep at the dinner table for the rest of the night.

Les Bouchons is an understated french restaurant tucked along Ann Siang Hill (lots of parallel parking, to avoid, please park next to Maxwell hawker centre). it’s small (sits about 25) and cosy and I like it a lot. there’s no snobby waiter and it doesn’t matter what you wear coz you’re there for the food, nothing else.

Escargots, the recommended dish of Les Bouchons
The last time I had escargots was at a french cafe along little india road that used too much garlic. This one came piping hot in a skillet pan with a strong aroma of garlic but the flavour wasn’t overpowering at all. the meat was tender and chewy, although I kept psyching myself that I was eating abalone and not slugs.

All this while I was struggling to keep my eyes open as the wine bubbled inside my empty tummy. I did everything to keep myself awake, from babbling nonsense to closing my eyes for a “rest” as I tried to hide my closed eyes behind my overgrown fringe. Nothing worked, not even a shot of espresso.

 

I ordered the ribeye with some fanciful named butter. the butter gave it an extra kick to a steak that was lightly salted and grilled. it was one of the tastiest steaks i’ve ever eaten, cooked to perfection (medium) and I couldn’t help rolling the meat around my tongue before swallowing it. The steak was larger than usual so be prepared to be really really stuffed after your meal, or share with a friend. The meat was a little fattier than expected which while making it very tasty, was a little hard to chew and swallow in the end. Each steak comes with free flow of home made fries.

Bryan ordered the extra large. his eyes are bigger than his stomach. and his stomach is REALLY LARGE nowadays.

The wait for your meal is a little longer than normal but well worth the wait. you know your food is coming when they bring a tray of mustards to your table. I love my steak naked so no yellow stuff for me.

The look of bliss with perfectly baked creme brulee rolling around your mouth. again, a larger than normal serving so bring a big appetite or starve yourself for a week before visiting Les Bouchons. we love it so much we plan to come back again.

Reservations recommended.

Happy Burbday: Aburiya

Michelle asked why is it that whenever we meet to celebrate birthdays, it’s always held at Aburiya. Seems like it’s now an unspoken rule that birthdays among the girls are spent here.

Moo Moo Cow

Michelle baked red velvet cupcakes for us! my favourite! i miss baking!

Osia, Resorts World Sentosa

A group of ex-colleagues decided that it’s time to meet up again to celebrate belated birthdays and renew friendships. We used to be a tightly knit lunch team but like all things that change, people do move on to better, or worse, jobs. Since one of them was working at Resorts World Sentosa, he recommended this Australian restaurant called Osia for a get-together. Almost everyone turned up, which was a rare occasion. usually due to family or work commitments, the group was usually half strength.

the restaurant was pleasantly decorated in white with an open kitchen, where you can see chefs busily working at their stations. Upon arrival, they served us a great variety of bread covered with different spices; garlic, red spice, and an assortment I can’t remember. but the best bread in the basket was a plain foccacia bread that was so light and fluffy, it was the first to go.

Oysters served on some Seafood Ice Platter. disgusting colourless things. I don’t understand how people eat these things. It smells and tastes horrible. While Bryan was slurping them down in Melbourne, I said it had the smell of unwashed vaginas. You should have seen the look on his face. That begets the question; how did I know what did unwashed vaginas smell like eh? well I could ask the same of those who say “tastes like shit”.

A pleasant compliment to the oysters were these seafood shooters mixed with fruit concoctions. We didn’t know what we were eating. I guessed mine was shrimp with guava icey. the rest were a mix of salmon, tuna, squid and oyster with pineapple, orange, wheatgrass and apple I think.

They had 2 kinds of mains; the regular choice of fish, beef, lamb and so on, and the other was from the grill. I of course chose the grill, although the only difference I could tell from the grilled beef and the regular beef was that the regular beef came with sauce on it, while the grilled beef came with sauce on the side. The beef was not too bad, but after having had beef in Australia, my standards have been raised.

Grilled lamb. now this was fantastically good. the meat was very tender and tasty and at medium, it wasn’t too cooked nor undercooked. I’d go back to have this again.

Apparently we were supposed to try their insanely yummy chocolate dessert but we had a birthday cake instead. In Australia, when someone was celebrating their birthday, everyone in the restaurant sang along. Here, it was only our table and the one or two waiters who deigned to leave their workstations to partake in a little merrymaking with a table of strangers. Sadness.