Singapore House

Hi everyone,

I hope you've all had a great weekend like I have! This past weekend, I celebrated 2 very important milestones in the lives of a few people in my life.

My Friday night was spent celebrating the joint 21st birthdays of a sister of one of my closest friends in the world, and her friend who actually went to the same primary school as me. It was so much fun, though I must say being underaged at a 21st birthday truly sucks!

I spent Saturday night celebrating my godfather's 60th birthday. He chose to celebrate it at Singapore House. I'd actually never heard of this restaurant before, mainly because it's on the side of Adelaide which I rarely ever venture to. I looked it up and saw lots of comments on the gorgeous decor so I was very excited to visit! The menu also looked interesting, particularly the 'Street Food' section.

I'd just like to point out that this won't be a proper review - I just wanted to share my experience with you. The lighting was SO dimmed that I struggled taking nice photos of all the dishes and I really didn't want to be the only person on the two tables of 60 people taking photos of the food with a larger-than-usual camera, complete with flash! I did manage to snap a few, though I gave up because there were so many dishes. I tried my best to make what's in the photos more visible but my photo editing skills are rather abysmal. Be warned, photography enthusiasts!

You can probably tell what I mean about the lighting!

There was a set menu for the night: 

Pappadums, Raita, Mango Chutney

ENTREE

BBQ PORK Hoi Sin sauce and mixed herbs

SATAY CHICKEN and cucumber

BAKED MUSHROOMS with cumin, cheese and chilli jam

CRISPY DUCK BREAST in plum sauce chilli sauce

PRAWN AND RICE NOODLE SALAD with Asian dressing and paw paw

MAINS

BUTTER CHICKEN in a creamy tomato sauce

SALT AND PEPPER SQUID fresh chilli, spring onions and oyster sauce

KING PRAWNS in red curry and pineapple pieces

OVEN ROASTED OCEAN TROUT wrapped in banana leaf with coconut red curry, lime and galangal

BEEF RENDANG coconut rice and fresh lime

Rice and Naan to accompany mains

As you can see, there were so many dishes! Everyone at the table originally thought we would be ordering individual dishes but we were actually sharing all the dishes. There was SO much to taste and I had to really pace myself :P

These pappadums are way better than the ones at Beyond India. They're very thin, crisp and definitely less salty, making them a lot more enjoyable. I really enjoyed it with the raita which was lovely, fresh and light, but the mango chutney was a lot richer than I expected and not as sweet as the one from Beyond India. 

Now for some nicer photos of some entrees...

All the kids had a separate menu, and this was my little brother's Singapore Noodles. I had a taste and it wasn't bad! I did enjoy the flavours as well as all the different vegetables and textures in the dish. My only complaint would be that it was a little oily, but that could just be my personal preference.

Crispy Duck Breast 

The skin was definitely crunchy and the meat was very tender, which all tasted great with the very rich glaze-like plum sauce.

Baked Mushrooms 

This is what I had my eye on when I thought we were ordering separate meals. I'd say the stand out element was the chilli jam - it had a good amount of punch (I think a little more wouldn't have hurt!) and complemented the mushrooms really well.

Orange Blossom Sherbert 

and Sir Raffells Iced Tea

I'm not too sure of the exact name of this but it is a pomegranate cocktail. It was delicious! The sweet pomegranate juice disguised the flavour of the alcohol in it (tequila, if I remember correctly) making it a very refreshing drink.

That's it for the photos of the food. I really wish I'd been able to snap a few more but it became too difficult. A few other [positive and negative] stand out dishes were:

Satay Chicken

The meat was very tender and I loved the satay! It was filled with chopped peanuts so it was rather chunky, but that's how I like it.

King Prawns

I loved the flavour of the curry - it wasn't too rich and the prawns were very nicely cooked. I'm not usually a fan of pineapple in curries, though.

Beef Rendang

I absolutely loved the rich flavour of the dish, but it was a real pity that the meat was dry. Also, the coconut rice was served as a hidden mound under all the meat and sauce, but it was extremely mushy and stuck together in globs. Not very nice!

After dinner, I took two of my family friends over to visit the famous Butterfly Room. 

 The magnifying glass on the sign allowed people to see the intricacies of the butterflies. I've never seen anything like this before in Adelaide!

 The entrance to the room is via the big red arch, which has lots of facts and images painted over it in white.

 How beautiful is it? Every single one of those butterflies was real, I'm pretty sure. They were all beautifully preserved in their labeled frames. I think this would be a pretty cool setting to dine in.

 There were so many butterflies of different sizes and colour. 

So gorgeous! The two family friends I took with me were 5 and 7 year old girls, so they were basically in a dream world. 

And of course, we finished off the night with some Muratti's. Yum!

Overall, I'd say I had a great experience at Singapore House. The service was a little slow but I don't blame them at all for it since we had such a huge number of guests and there was so much going on! However, the staff were very friendly and attentive which of course contributed to everyone having such a great night. A few of the guests actually commented on the food being a little too salty, which I'm not sure is true, or due to their own personal preferences or just a one-off occurrence. Who knows! If I'm ever given the opportunity, I do think I will come back for a visit in a smaller group of people, just to get the full experience. I would recommend giving this a go if you're up for something different for lunch or dinner!

Enjoy your week and I'll see you again on my blog in a few days :)

Vy

xo

Grace the Establishment

Hi everyone!

I'm terribly sorry about the lack of posts recently. Quite frankly, I've had nothing to post about and I didn't think it was worth boring you over my everyday life! Term 2 has finished and I am lucky enough to have a 3 week break. There is SO much school work to be done, however all my teachers have stressed that it's important to go out and have a good time to balance out all the hard work, so my friends and I have a whole list of places we hope to visit before the end of the three weeks!

Today, three of my friends and I visited Grace the Establishment for lunch before catching a movie. I've heard so much about this place so I was pretty excited to try it out!

 It was divided into 3 sections; the restaurant (above), the beer garden and the bar (below).

 We chose to sit in the bar area today.

Condiments and bar food menu

 The food!

We had a pretty hard time deciding what to get so we narrowed it down to a couple of items to share.

 Fried Chicken

Cajun Spice, Bourbon Whiskey Jam  $12

"That's really not much for $12" was my first thought when this first came out. I didn't love this but I still enjoyed it. I liked the combination of the chicken with the jam, and I usually enjoy anything with cajun spice!

 Smoked Coca Cola Pork Ribs

Apple Slaw $18

SO GOOD! The meat was so tender and the sauce-y glaze was so rich and delicious. I didn't detect much of a Coca Cola flavour, though. They weren't overly smokey, which I liked, and were complimented very nicely by the apple slaw. I'm not usually a fan of coleslaw but I actually really enjoyed this one. I definitely recommend giving this a go!

 Korean Pork Bun

Kim Chi, Chilli, Mayonnaise $9

Mini New York Style Hot Dog

Schultz Bacon, Pickles & Cheese $9

(Top left) Chilli Fries with Aerated Cheese $7.50

(Bottom right) French Fries with Tomato Ketchup $6.50

With their 'Sliders & Buns' deal, 2 sliders and/or buns with fries cost $18. We ordered two so that we'd all be able to try a bit of everything. I think these might have been my favourite item out of the whole bunch. The buns were so delicious, soft and not too dense - just the way I like it! The pork was so tender and juicy and tasted amazing with the kimchi and mayo. The hot dog was great but I think it was the pork that definitely won me over. I definitely recommend trying both!
The fries weren't overly special but thoroughly enjoyed by all of us.

Mac & Cheese $8

This photo is SO deceiving. It looks quite large but the portion was so tiny! If you scroll back up to the photo of all the food, you'll notice how small it is compared to everything else. We all still enjoyed it - very warm, creamy and cheesy! Worth $8 though? I don't know...

Dessert! 

Grace Salted Caramel Chocolate Bar

Nougat, Peanuts, Milk & Dark Chocolate $7.50

Too be completely honest, this tasted like a slightly fancier version of a Snickers bar with salt sprinkled on top. However, the salt did add a nice touch to it and we all enjoyed it! Splitting into 4 was so difficult because the nougat was almost rock hard, making it an absolute pain to cut through! I thought $7.50 was a bit too expensive for this, though. 

D.I.Y Donuts

Cinnamon, Aerated Chocolate Sauce $10

I love this idea! It was lots of fun (and very messy!) playing with the syringes and injecting their contents into the donuts. However, I personally didn't love how it tasted. The donuts were really dense and that made it hard to inject more of the chocolate or raspberry. The donuts also had a strange taste - almost bitter. My sister also had the same experience the last time she dined here. So basically, I think this is a really fun idea and it would be even better if the actual elements of it tasted better. 

Though I didn't adore the food as much as I thought I would, I still think it's a great restaurant. I love the atmosphere and how the decor really adds to it. The bar area is very relaxed and I liked how the large tables made sharing lots of food very easy. The restaurant looked so gorgeous and I liked the use of natural lighting. Also, the staff were super friendly which made our visit much more pleasant. I found it a little annoying how the advertised opening time is 11am, yet the kitchen only opened at 12pm. We were left waiting for an extremely long time (~ 40 minutes) with only a jug of orange juice. That would probably be my biggest complaint. 

One day, I'll have to come back and try the restaurant food, as well as take advantage of some of their specials deals like 'Taco Tuesday', 'Rib Night' and their Happy Hours (when I'm legal, of course :P). 

Overall, 8.5/10

Vy 

xo

 

Weekend snaps

Hi everyone,

Hope you've had a slightly more interesting weekend than I have! Now that the exam madness is over (for me, at least), I've had so much more time to sit around and do.... well, nothing. Which isn't necessarily a good thing, because there is always something new that could be learnt, especially in year 12!

This week, I haven't been out to eat so unfortunately, there won't be a review in this post. I did plan to visit E for Ethel, a cute little cafe on Melbourne Street which I've heard a lot about, but my plans fell through so I guess I'll just have to wait for another opportunity to come up for me to pay them a visit.

Rather than not putting up a post this weekend, I thought I'd leave you a few snaps of what I got up to this weekend :)

On Friday night, mum and I went out and bought a stand mixer. I think I'm now pretty well equipped for my quest to perfect macarons!

Also, on Friday night, I prepared roast pork for dinner on Saturday night. When I saw Maggie Beer make her Berkshire pork loin on Masterchef, I knew I had to give it a go! I just followed all the instructions for the roast pork here. On Saturday night, I also prepared some roast veggies before throwing it all in the oven. Give the pork a go if you're interested - it's so worth it.

On Sunday, mum, my sister and I visited Burnside for a very brief shopping trip! My sister and I were excited to see what Zara had in stock for this season and to be honest, it was a bit a disappointing. Nonetheless, we were still able to walk away with some goodies.

 The sight of this tree just makes me sad...

 A stop at Cibo for some Gelati :)

Fruits of the Forest and Mint

 The stores I ended up purchasing from

 Dymocks was having a 3 for 2 sale, so my sister and I got a little excited and walked away with 6 Classics! My inner physics geek is VERY keen to start on The Fabric of the Cosmos. 

If you follow fashion blogs like I do, then you would no doubt recognise this. 

Ah, the famous Zara skort. This was also available in yellow, blue and white (which had unfortunately sold out) but I went with black as it would definitely be the most versatile. Bit too chilly in Adelaide to wear this out right now, though! I think I might have them tailor made in a few other colours for spring. 

I didn't exactly buy this today but I thought I'd show it anyway. I call it my 'grab and go' wallet. It's slightly larger than my iPhone and fits all my essentials: ID, cash, coins and phone. Perfect for quick trips which don't require an entire bag. I picked it up from Collette for only $12.95. It is surprisingly good quality for something so inexpensive, and I like how it's nude and gold because it matches everything!

So, that's about it for my weekend. I'm going out for dinner to celebrate my godfather's birthday next weekend so hopefully I'll be able to do a proper review! Anyway, time to get stuck into my new books :)

Enjoy your week, everyone.

Vy 

xo