Cantanose Cuisine @ Hua Ting

Eating is always my favourite past time while eating good food is hubby's forte. Hence, I am always lucky to have him in searching for delectable delicacies. He is always my foodie buddy, we love each other's company as we enjoy eating so much.

Thank you, hubby, for feeding me all this while. I just pray that my weight won't soar up, when my body metabolism dips as I aged. :)

On a normal weekend, after I do some shopping and browsing in Orchard, hubby met up for dinner. Little did I know that today we were going to fine dine in Hua Ting. Hua Ting is an exquisite Cantanose restaurant, famous for its extraordinary dining experience which ones would not forget.

It is often awarded as one of the best restaurants under the Chinese Cuisine category by prestigious restaurant guides.

Hua Ting Restaurant is located in Orchard Hotel. This is the lobby area of the hotel.

Hua Ting Restaurant was also one of the top five Chinese restaurants in the Business Times/Citibank Gourmet Choice 2009.

And many more awards were given to Hua Ting. Below were only some which I snapped. Too lazy to move around the restaurant with my I-phone, as I came unprepared.

The menu....

While we glanced through the menu, a waitress introduced us to Masterchefs' set menu creation in conjuction with the double celebration of their winning World Gourmet Series Awards of Excellence 2012. We were told that this set menu will only be served for a short period of time for the celebration.

The individual set menu comprises of 5 dishes and a dessert. So we had 2 sets whereas children had ala carte dishes.

Tofu dish with shiitake mushroom.

Steamed cod fish, Teo Chew style.

Our first set dish, the appetizer: Deep fried yam with sea perch, coated with mayonaise, alongside with chilled lobster marinated in sake.

Our second dish, very impressive: Braised superior bird's nest with egg white and cream of spinach. Among all the dishes served from Masterchefs' creation, personally I love this the best. This was the first time I ever tasted savoury bird nest delicacy. Now I understand why Hua Ting is famous for extraordinary impressive delectable cuisine. And I tell you, it was fantastic.

Scoop a mouthful of collagen packed bird nest, together with some steamed egg white and fish roe....the taste, SUPERB! With fish roe bursting out its saltiness from within...YUM, YUM....

The blended spinach, with greenish looking concoction might not look very inviting to some, but honestly, it tasted very nice....

Next, braised Hokkaido scallop with winter melon.

Stewed boneless chicken drumstick with chinese wine in claypot.

Baked rice with seafood in whole capsicum topped with Portugese sauce....very creative, the sauce actually tasted hint of curry spices.

Lastly, the dessert: Double boiled watercress soup with honey date, served with pan fried soft pan cake with custard, and chilled glutinous rice ball stuffed with fresh fruit and whipped cream.

My daughter had some glutinous rice balls coated with crushed peanut, with black sesame filling.

To have unforgettable fine dining experience, in Hua Ting, head down to:

Orchard Hotel Singapore

442 Orchard Road
Singapore 238879
Tel: 6734 7766

Birthday celebration....

There are a bundle of birthday joys happening in March and April. Early March, my dad celebrated his 64th birthday. He had a cheesecake from Bengawan Solo with humongous juicy strawbies, decorated on top. The size of the cake was just perfect for us and the cheese was not too heavy. It was quite light, and fluffy as compared to normal cheesecake.

The picture below looks tempting, right? Do you feel the urge to get a slice of cheesecake now?

It feels a bit poignant, when I see how the candles fighting for that little space on the cake, as one's age catching up. @__@""

Dad blew his candles, together with my kids..of course after a birthday song and wishing was made.

My son follows, after my dad's birthday...his own 6th birthday celebration in his school.

A birthday wouldn't be complete with a bowl of long life noodle (mee sua), served with drumstick and egg, to symbolize good fortune and luck ahead the year.

We had a simple dinner to commemorate son's birthday at Hai Tien Lo, in Pan Pacific Hotel.

Here, we dined in an exquisite award-winning Cantonese cuisine while immerse ourselves with breathtaking views of Singapore city and harbour.

The extensive menu..

The table setting surrounds the full glass panel, allows better view of city skyline. I swear you can see the Singapore flyer from a corner too.

Yes, it's certainly true...

Braised sharkfin with special broth and chunky crab meat.

Love my sharkfin soup...

The award-winning Hai Tien Lo....recommended. For those who have not been here, can try both their dim sum selection or Cantonese cuisine. Both are worth the try.

Around Pan Pacific ground floor area...walking towards the lift, which will lift you up to 37th floor, where Hai Tien Lo is located at.

Yesterday, my kids and I had a secret plan, which was to present a DIY birthday cake to hubby for his coming birthday. We celebrated hubby's 36th birthday, a week in advance, as I will be off to Bangkok for some shopping spree with my friends. :)

We had a simple yet satisfying teppanyaki lunch at YakiYakiBo, at Jurong Point, before the important task.

Some of the dishes that we had, salmon, beef which comes with scallops and prawns, sauteed mushroom and bean sprouts.

After the meal, we headed to Icing Room, to have our DIY cake ready for tonight's dinner with hubby. All this was planned without hubby's knowledge. :)

There are 3 sizes with 2 types of sponge cake to choose from. We chosed a medium size with chocolate blueberry sponge cake, instead of vanilla. Their cake range is splendid, especially the chocolate blueberry, as you can really bite on lots of chunky berries stuffed within the chocolate sponge cake, and most importantly, it's not overly sweet. We bought some of their sugar decor thingy for our DIY cake. FYI, our DIY cake package came with 5 different colours of icing and a packet of some decoration item. If you want to have a more impressive DIY cake, be prepared to fork out more. But it's really worth every cents spent.

The first step was to decorate the cake with some colourful icing....

And this was our end product, with 3 little bearies which represented my kids and me, wishing hubby a very Happy Birthday...as you can see the word Birthday was deliberately left out due to space constrain. :(

I was so thrilled over our very first DIY cake...

Placed a cutie bearie as a final touch to the cake...

We brought along the cake to The Prive, located at 2 Keppel Bay Vista Marina, at Keppel Bay. We had a wonderful al fresco waterfront dining experience. Our dinner was completed with some starters of oysters trio (cucumber& dill, lemongrass & chilli, and 1 more which I have forgotten), roasted jumbo squid served with rosemary, tomato cancassee and pesto, Blue Swimmer crab cake with sauteed sweet onion and rouille; main servings of Ribeye Cap (hubby's), Eye of the Ribeye (mine), seafood tagliatelle in tomato base (for both kids).
 
Pardon for no foodie snaps attached, as I was kind of bewitched, that I accidentally pressed on a button, which deleted all the data in my DSLR. S**T!!!!! F**K!!! What a luck! I did this when I was on my home, while checking on all the lovely photos. Man!!! Do you know that I almost soaked in tears!! AARGHHHHH!!! Damn IT! Anyway I still have some photos kept in my I-phone and digital camera, just some not many...but it still better than nothing, right? Right? That's what my hubby said, in order to make myself feel BETTER. Lesson learnt....always bring along whatever shooting device that you have with you, catch all the memorable moments every bit here and there....who know this thing might happen to you too.....That's why my friends once teased me that I was one of a very busy photographer....LOL....can't help laughing at myself!
 
At The Prive, al fresco dining before the dusk set in...
 

Mine: Eye of the Ribeye, snapped using I-phone...:(

The below photos were taken using my digital camera......

All the below photos were shot by son.....I felt most grateful that he was holding my camera at that point of time, because during the critical moment when the cake was served, I was busy capturing the pictures with DSLR. Looking back, I have these memory remained all because of my son...:). Thanks Darling....so sweet of you...

After the meal, our DIY cake was served by a friendly waiter with 3 and 6 candles on top to denote hubby's 36th birthday celebration. Hubby was amused with the cake, when the cake was brought out from the kitchen.

Because of my stupidity, I lost all the photos captured using my DSLR...It's gone within seconds, before I could even blink my eyes...sob sob!

Cake cutting session...

Our family portrait.....at The Prive, Keppel Bay. Luckily, this was taken using digital camera, a BIG relief!

Next Friday....which is also Good Friday..I am off to Bangkok. Before my flight, I contemplate to return to The Prive cafe for its brunch menu. That's a promise from hubby...heheheeee.......as he knows that I feel so remorseful and regretful of loosing pictures taken at The Prive and also the whole process of DIY-ing the birthday cake!

BTW, my daughter and my birthday are around the corner too...after my Tokyo trip. Wondering if hubby will throw a surprise birthday celebration or a mysterious gift after my return....:)

Stay tuned.....