Raffles Hotel Champagne Truffle & Ganache Snow-skin Mooncake

Mid-Autumn Festival is also known as “Harvest Festival”, which is one of the most well known Chinese Festivals. In Singapore, it’s celebrated with mooncakes and kids carrying lanterns. This is one of the money-spinners for merchants, who continue to charge exorbitant prices for lanterns, which come in the form of Hello Kitty, Aeroplanes and Dragons, just to name a few. My favourite part of the festival are the mooncakes.

Mooncakes typically come in 3 forms; Baked, Pastry and Snow-skin.

Snow-skin mooncakes are those where the skin is uncooked. It is left in the fridge and served cold. They are also to be consumed asap. Of the different snow-skin mooncakes available in Singapore, one of the most popular and famous would have to be the snow -skin mooncakes from Raffles Hotel.

This year, I am fortunate enough to get a 25% discount off them. I decided to grab a box of the famous Champagne Truffle mooncakes.

Each box contains 8 mini moon-cakes. The design for the box differs each year. Something for the staunch Raffles mooncake supporters to collect. 

The first thing that struck me when I opened the tin box is the sweet fragrance. The smell itself is sufficient to tempt you to bite into the mooncake! The mooncake is best taken in quarters, where you can savour the sweetness of the truffles and the fragrance of the champagne.

Above is a picture of the cross-section of the mooncake. The star of the mooncake is undoubtedly the sweet truffle right at the middle. A warning though, it’s really quite sweet, so do prepare a nice fragrant cup of hot Chinese tea to compliment. 

Retail price is S$48. Unfortunately, the snow-skins are not available for order via the internet. You can make your orders online at Raffles Hotel Mooncakes. Enjoy.

Imperial Herbal Restaurant & Tcafe

7 September 2008 :: Sunday :: Dinner
Vivocity is home to numerous restaurants, many of which provide a scenic view of the sea. A wide variety of restaurants are available, from the economical Chicken Rice Shop to the higher end Tung Lok Signature for those with refined taste-buds.

Of all the restaurants, Imperial Herbal Restaurant stands out for providing healthy and exotic cuisine. Scorpions, crocodile meat and ‘Hai Tang Lang’ (loosely translated as Sea Praying Mantis), Imperial Herbal is definitely not for the weak-hearted.

I’ve been here once. Funny thing is, I don’t have much recollection of the food. I do remember the scallops being wonderful and the Sea Praying Mantis (whatever this is) looking all cockcroachy and disgusting (at least to me).  

Brief Description:

Imperial Herbal prides itself in providing a unique dining experience where a resident herbalist is on hand to provide the best recommendations for adding the ideal herbs to the meal. Dishes are infused with chinese herbs to improve health and excite taste-buds. What’s interesting is also the cushion seats which are shaped as a palm.

Review

Enough of the weird food, we (4 of us) stuck to the normal food. 

1) Beggar’s Chicken. This seems to be one of the more popular dishes. First impression is that the chicken is well cooked in a herb infused gravy, which is good, considering the amount of nourishment I need to cope with my hectic work life.  As like most herbal chickens, the meat is well-cooked and easy to tear. Though a fair amount of herbs have been added, there isn’t a strong herbal smell. The meat is average but the gravy is wonderful. Point to note, the gravy goes well with plain rice. Nothing to shout about though.

2) Glazed Scallops. The scallops are served in a potato (I think) basket, with seaweed and savory sauce. This is the second time I’m enjoying this and it’s still as good as I remembered. The scallops and tangy and the seaweed is crisp and tasty. Definately a must try.

3) Fried Fish with ‘Rose’ Petals. When the dish was served, we realised….. that there are no rose petals?! After clarification, we are told that they have replaced rose petals with lily bulbs as rose leaves a bitter taste. Other ingredients include kiwi and celery. In all, the dish leaves a refreshing taste, with the kiwi providing the fresh sweet-sourish taste with the lily providing the fragrance. Definitely worth a try.

4) Yam Mooncake. The pastry mooncake comes with/without york. The price difference is a mere S$0.50.  The flaky exterior complements the smooth fragrant yam. While not exquisite, the mooncake is worth a try. Do note that purchase of mooncakes is solely by cash terms only.

5) Lycee Black Tea. No Chinese dinner should go without Chinese tea. We had the lycee black tea, which is fragrant yet provides a relatively strong after-taste. 

In all, after a 15% discount with Amex, the bill comes to about S$25/pax. Price-wise, it’s quite worth it. However, the service was quite bad. We had to constantly wave our hands to catch the attention of the service staff. To be fair, we were seated quite near to the entrance, but I firmly believe that no decent restaurant should allow their guests to be flapping their hands like a headless chicken just to ask for a refill of the tea. While the food was definitely above average, the same cannot be said about the service. Disappointing.

Ratings

Food : 3.5/5
Ambiance : 3.0/5
Service : 2.5/5
Value: 3.0/5
RTE (Return to eat) : Not anytime soon

Details

1 Harbourfront Walk
#03-08 VivoCity
Mon-Fri: 11.30am – 2.30pm, 6pm – 10.30pm
Sat & Sun: 11.30am – 11pm 

Turadot 图兰朵

1st September :: Monday :: Evening

Turandot

Synopsis:
The story of Turandot was taken from the Persian collection of stories called The Book of One Thousand and One Days. Set in ancient Peking, Turandot is about a beautiful but cold Chinese princess who has a grudge against men, especially princes, after traumatised by the fate of her ancestor who was raped and murdered by conquerors. To woo her, potential suitors have to correctly answer three riddles. Failure to answer correctly will lead to a public execution. The story revolves around one Prince Calaf, who falls in love at first sight with the princess and stakes his life in his pursuit for the princess’ love.

Review:
Composed by the famed Italian composer Giacomo Puccini, Turandot is his second opera which follows an oriental theme. With elaborate costumes and well-design set, Turandot opened with much anticipation from the audience.

However, the opening was weak, with the singing barely audible. However, with the appearance of Timur, Liu and Calaf, things started looking better.

Lee Jae Wook was majestic as Calaf while the role of the loyal and virtuous Liu was well played out by Nancy Yuen. Jae Wook’s stage presence commands attention and his voice strong and unwavering.

The surprise, at least to me, for the evening was the joyful performance by Brent Allcock, Melvin Tan and Lamuel dela Cruz as the ministers Ping, Pang and Pong. Their well-choreographed antics was simply a delight to watch, bringing comedy relief to the otherwise serious opera.

The climax of the show is definately when Calaf broke out in Nessun dorma (None shall sleep tonight ), at the start of ACT III. As one of the best known tenor arias in all operas, Nessun dorma has been performed by all of the three tenors.

Conclusion:
While the performance is definately a woot, the storyline towards the end wasn’t quite to my taste. What left me feeling frustrated and perplexed is the behaviour of Calaf after Liu has died to keep his secret. While I can understand that Calaf holds an insane obsession for Turandot, his seemingly nonchalance to Liu’s death made me wonder if Turandot is the only one who is cold-hearted in the story. Likewise, how Turandot had a 180 degree change in personality after a kiss from Calaf was equally incomprehensible to me.

Cast:
Jessica Chen, Turandot
Lee Jae Wook, Calaf
Nancy Yuen, Liu
Brent Allcock, Ping
Melvin Tan, Pang
Lamuel dela Cruz, Pong

Savings via Credit Cards

Without doubt, I like to eat. What I like even more is to be able to eat for less.

I’ve met people who have something against credit cards. They feel that a credit card is a catalyst for spending, a black hole which will suck away their money. Well, I don’t have such a problem. In fact, I see credit cards as a way to save money.

First and foremost, it’s poor discipline which leads to increased spending. Granted, credit cards make it easier to spend, but end of the day, you’ll need to sign on the payment slip. Swipping of the card alone doesn’t work. Don’t blame it all on a piece of plastic.

Secondly, you can call the credit card companies/banks for a fee waiver. In fact, you should! But do note that terms and conditions apply.

Thirdly, signing up for credit cards do yield goodies. A recent promotion by HSBC gives you a $20 voucher simply by signing up and using the card at least 5 times with a period of 1 month. Hey, using the credit card to pay for a $3 item from Cold Storage counts as once. Using the card 5 times really isn’t that hard.

Fourthly, I got discounts at Man Fu Yuan and Greenhouse. For those who prefer to pay with cold hard cash, well, I don’t understand.

What a lot of people don’t see or ignore, are the reward points which come along with it. I have cards from OCBC, UOB, Citibank, HSBC, Standard Chartered and American Express, with UOB Visa Signature being the main card I use.

For foodies in Singapore, it’s quite important to arm yourself with Citibank & UOB cards as most restaurants offer promotions for these 2 cards. DBS is also another card you may want to get, as it’s getting more pervasive.

The objective of this post is not to garner more business for UOB (I’ve nothing to gain from this) but to highlight the benefits of having the right card.

For UOB Visa Signature card, I get to have twice the UNI$ for every S$5 spent (2 UNI$ for every S$5). Requirements is to have an annual income of > $50K. The only UOB card better than this is the UOB Infinity Card, where you get to have (5UNI$ for every S$10). Problem is, the annual income required is S$350k, probably not that easy for the average person.

I also get to enjoy 5% rebates at Shell petrol stations and a complimentary one-for-one Starbucks caffé latte. I drink (coffe) and drive, so this is great!

For the past year, I exchanged my points for vouchers which I’ve used to buy all sorts of things, etc. umbrellas, socks, clothes etc.

End of the day, you make your own credit card choices, based on lifestyle, spending habits & design of the cards. It all boils down to identifying which card/ cards suit you best. Point to note, you’ll need to spend a minimal sum before banks are willing to waive off that renewal fees. It makes more sense to consolidate your spending to as few cards as possible to get those reward points and waivers.