Platters

Platters is one of the newest kids on the Club Street block, and is opened by a couple who are friends of mine. A bunch of colleagues got invited to the soft launch, and the food was so good that I went back again the following week to taste it proper as a paying customer. Their concept is to have a celebrity chef every few months, and the current chef is Jimmy Chok. This was a name that I had heard mentioned frequently but I had never tasted his food until now.

Their name Platters explains what they serve - platters of a mixture of different sorts of food.

Not sure if this is where they store the platters, or whether these are just for decoration.
There were a lot of dishes for sampling that evening - I didn't get to try all of them

I didn't try the samosas but the mushrooms with rucola were pretty good

This looked like a focaccia with chorizo slices. Didn't try it though.

I also steered clear of these anchovies

But this rilette+gherkin thing was really quite interesting. Very nice with a mellow red wine.

They have a really good wine list, with quite a large variety of wines from all over.

The roast meats were fabulous, especially the beef ribs with a soft texture and a charred smoky taste.

The raw scallops came topped with caviar and a sweetish soy seasoning.

The tuna wrapped in seaweed was nice as well

I didn't touch any oysters since I'm now - BOO HOO!! SOB!! - allergic to raw oysters.

We were seated deep inside the restaurant. Very cosy.

What ended up on my plate - a nice huge beef rib which I demolished rapidly. Plus some bread that the husband took.

More stuff - parma ham which I didn't try, and watermelon with ricotta cheese which I also didn't try

What the entire spread looked like

It was so nice, that as mentioned earlier, I went back the following week with 2 other friends to see what it was like on a regular night. We ordered 3 platters to share.

This was the barenakedladies - basically different types of seafood including the raw scallops, tuna, and smoked salmon. The scallops were the best dish.

We also had a cold cuts and cheese platter with sausiccion, parma ham and I can't remember what cheeses. But the sausiccion was lovely, and so were the hard cheeses.

Another look at the platter.
We also had the Carnivore platter, with the pork ribs, beef ribs and grilled belly pork. The beef and pork ribs were as amazing as I remembered.

Dinner wasn't cheap at $50 per head, but that's to be expected from the location and from the chef ratings. I'm planning to go back again soon before Jimmy Chok disappears.

Platters is at 42 Club Street, and the info below is from their website http://www.platters.com.sg/index.php
Opening Hours: Monday to Saturday 12noon - 3pm; 5pm - 12 midnight
Sunday & Public Holidays Closed
Tel: 62238048

Little Creatures Bright Ale + Steak

Our favourite beer for the past few years has been Little Creatures, which unfortunately is relatively more expensive in Singapore. We had dinner last year at Little Creatures in Melbourne, and bought a few bottles back for safekeeping.

Their Bright Ale isn't very Bright, but it isn't as Pale as their Pale Ale (ok, sorry). It has a mellow flavour, that's easy on the lips and has an amazingly refreshing aftertaste.

The main reason for opening this last bottle was because we were having a home-cooked meal for the first time in a long time, on a quiet Saturday night. Steaks courtesy of the husband, done to medium-well perfection.

Topped with garlic and rosemary mustard lovingly handcarried back by the husband from Hunter Valley.

Beer in Belgium

We met up with a friend who was also in Brussels for a conference for an evening of drinking, drinking and more drinking. First we started off at Moeder Lambic at Place to try their lambics, which unlike normal beers, ferment spontaneously.

We also had a cheese and cured meat platter to go with the beers.

Second round at Moeder Lambic - I really loved the fruit beer (Grisette fruits de Bois).

We then headed to A La Mort Subite just at the end of the St Huberts Gallery for Round 2. The husband was dying to try the Peach Lambic and I wanted the Cherry Beer. It did not disappoint : )

Mort Subite was absolutely packed to the rafters.

2 Peach Lambics and another beer that I can't quite recall. The Peach Lambic was the best beer of the evening - light, fruity, sweet and yet with a richness and depth of flavour.

We also had dinner there - Croque Monsieurs (without eggs)

And Croque Madame, with the egg.

Websites: www.moederlambic.eu and http://alamortsubite.com/

Champagne vs Port

After not having been able to holiday together for a couple of years, the husband and I were very fortunate to have been able to make trips in the past 6 months to France, Portugal and Japan. While in France, we visited Reims - the Champagne capital, and in Portugal, we were in Porto - the Port capital, and did tours of both champagne and port houses. A disclaimer here - this post isn't meant to give an entirely accurate description of how champagne and port are made (please check up wikipedia for that), but it's more a narrative of how I enjoyed both tours.

We booked a champagne tour over the internet at Mumm, which is the main sponsor for the Formula One races - what a waste of all that bubbly whenever someone wins! Mumm was located within walking distance of the main train station, which was why we chose Mumm over all the other champagne houses, and all the internet forums advised booking a tour in advance particularly for non-French speakers.
The tour came with assorted tastings, and the price depended on the type of champagne we wanted to taste. The husband and I, being kiam kanna-maximise value Singaporeans, decided to get different vintages so that we could try 2 different types of champagnes.

Reception area at Mumm. It's all about Mumm. They only use 3 grapes to make champagne - pinot noir, chardonnay and pinot meunier.

Modern champagne vats where the grapes ferment. The champagne caves were all underground.

Bottles according to vintage and region. The champagne houses buy grapes from all over the Champagne area, and if the vintage from a certain year is no good, they just use the harvest from previous years. Apparently a master blender with an amazing nose has the responsibility of blending all the different grapes from different years together. He probably has insured his nose and tongue for millions and billions of dollars.

How to turn bottles by hand to make sure it ferments and eventually bubbles properly - apparently there is a proper job called Bottle Turner, and these guys work for like 14 hours a day turning 2 bottles every 1.5 seconds at an exact precise angle. Go figure how many bottles they turn in a day.

All of Mumms historic vintages, some dating from the 1800s. We didn't get to verify if the bottles were full or empty.

Miles and miles of storage area - all underground.
Explaining the different types of champagne produced by Mumm and the difference between the different vintages.

Finally getting to the point of the whole tour - the tasting! I really enjoyed the Rosé, which was slightly sweetish and made with the addition of a bit of red wine. The husband had the Prestige Cuvee, which his cultured tastebuds told him were better than the el cheapo Rosé.

While we enjoyed the tour, as well as the tasting, we were rather sad at having to spend on average 10 Euros each for a tour. So imagine our delight when we went to Porto and got a free tasting and tour. All the port houses are located near the waterfront in downtown Porto along the River Duoro, while the grapes are mostly grown upstream about 2 to 3 hours drive away. They used to be floated down the river by boat to the houses, and fermented there since the climate in Porto is better for that. Now they use trucks, with the boats just for show.

The Zorro-like shadow of Sandeman is the first symbol you see when landing at Porto airport. We thought it was really commercialised, so walked into another Port house (can't recall the name now) but they charged 10 Euros per person for a tour and tasting, and the person on standby wasn't too keen for business. So we walked on and walked past.

And went to Taylors! It's a privately owned family-run business, named after the original British founder.
Getting there was slightly challenging, but doable. Walk past Sandeman on the waterfront, and turn left. And walk up this slope.

Walk past Offley, another port house.

And walk some more...clearly, we had a map!
Taylors is set back from the waterfront but has great views of the city.

Tour and 2 tastings of a normal and a more special vintage are free. Yay! Best for the kiam kanna Singaporeans. For the rest, they charge on a per glass basis.

They had a French tour going, and an English tour an hour later. So we hung around the drinking area and had a look at the museum.

Together with the other tourists.

Finally it was time for our tour. One of these barrels had like 500 litres of port. Port is fortified by adding a spirit to the wine to stop the fermentation, leaving residual sugar in the wine giving it its sweetness.

There were so many of these barrels - making barrel-aged port, as opposed to bottle-aged port. There are many different types of port - Tawny, Reserve, Vintage - but the best has to be the Late Bottled Vintage, which can be opened and left for a long time.
Grapes growing on the premises...just for show.