1 Year Already!!!

Yippie!! I'm officially married for a year and 1 day now. My initial plan was to book a hotel room (preferably in Sentosa) so that we can re-live our dating days by spending the day at the beach but I was faced with 2 obstacles:

1) Could not get more than 1/2 day leave.
2) It's 5 days to pay day, so I'm pretty broke.

Thank goodness hunny was very understanding and she decided that we should just spend our money on what we enjoy most... EAT! Since it's our special day, we decided to pamper ourselves a little by finally visiting the critically acclaimed Les Amis Au Jardin at the Singapore Botanic Garden. You can find out more about the place here. We were there a little early, so we had the opportunity to take a nice stroll in the park. Incidently, this was the same place that hunny first fed me ice-cream ha ha...

For those who don't know, I used to work at Au Jardin, so this was quite a home-coming for me. Nothing much has changed, except maybe most of the staff, but the service and atmosphere is still the same- old school fine dining in the midst of nature (with air-conditioning of course). What added to the experience was the personalised service from my old friends and the thought of finally getting served by the people you used to work under ha ha...!

We were very hungry by the time we got to the restaurant, thus we opted for the Degustation Menu, which is an 8-course tasting menu. Typical french cuisine - BIG PLATES, small portions. But surprisingly, we were pretty full by the end of the dinner. Must be the bread, ha ha.



Traditionally, before the start of the dinner proper, they will serve a pre-appetizer appetizer. This dish usually changes everyday so it is really up to the chef to decide what he wants to tease your palate with. For tonight, we were greeted with an crabmeat concasse served IN a half boiled egg. It is kind of like an half boiled egg with crabmeat at the bottom and foamed egg and cream on the top...all in the shell.



We planned to take pictures of every course but the food looked so good when it came out we just started eating. We only realised that we forgot to take a picture first after we gobbled up the food... Anyway, the first course was really nice, it was marinated langoustine with caviar and baby mache. Because the langoustine was prepared raw, the chef was kind enough to prepare a special portion of scallops for hunny instead since she is expecting and not supposed to take raw stuff.

The second course was the famous pan fried foie gras, this time served with confit chicken wing and pickled raisin puree. I still stand by my opinion that the Les Amis group still serves the best foie gras ever - crispy on the outside and creamy on the inside... yummy... This was hunny's favourite dish, she almost wanted to order another portion of this after the main course.



The Pan Fried John Dory with black olive couscous was next (it's a fish for those who don't know... I used to think it was a name of some guy). We didn't get any pictures of this although we should have. The presentation was beautiful and the taste was even better. The mouth-watering foie gras made us so hungry that we totally forgot about the camera when the fish came.

Luckily, we managed to get a shot of the Maine Lobster with vine tomato fondue. This dish was just heavenly, probably my favourite dish of the night. The lobster was not too cooked thus the flesh still tasted sweet and crunchy.



The next dish was absolutely sinful... confit grilled Bigorre Pork Belly with braised lettuce. It was all fat and no meat. Every bite made me feel more and more guilty and conscious about my protruding tummy. Hunny has an excuse for hers, I don't. I think after this dish I looked more pregnant than her.



Finally the main course came... the pan roasted Venison tenderloin with chestnuts. Very nicely done without the typical over powering taste of the venison. My only complaint is that the portion was too small.



By this time, we were feeling quite satisfied with our meal. The Jackfruit sorbet which came next was a refreshing complement to the heavy meat courses we had before.



We ended the dinner with caramelized Figs on puff pastry, a simple dessert that was not too sweet. We forgot to take a shot of this one which was quite a shame cos' the presentation was really nice too. The restaurant gave us a nice surprise since it was our anniversary - a nice little chocolate layered cake. Not too sweet and the portion was just enough to fill our tummies to the brim.



You can tell from the look of our faces that we were very satisfied with our dinner.




Mmmmm.... cannot wait to do this again. Gonna start saving up for next year ha ha!