Early Valentine's @ Gunther's Modern French Cuisine, Purvis St, Singapore

The weekend before Valentine's, Hubby took me to Singapore for a weekend of shopping and dining :) Since we were only there for 2 days, we had to plan our time (or rather meals) properly. Since Hubby wants to treat me to some nice food, we looked in The Miele Guide for some guidance. We picked Gunther's Modern French Cuisine (listed No.14 on Asia's Top 20 2011/2012) as our venue for lunch. This restaurant is part of the Garibaldi Group. They are also listed as no.84 restaurant in the San Pellegrino World's 50 Best Restaurants 2010.

Reservation was a breeze, the restaurant accepts SMS reservations and we got a response pretty quickly. The restaurant was also easy to locate, if you're taking the MRT, alight at City Hall station, walk towards Raffles Hotel, and the restaurant is located two streets behind Raffles. It is located in the Talib Centre, in one of those nice colonial-looking buildings.




The decor is minimalist, dark grey walls, designer lamps and leather chairs from Frag. When we arrived, we were seated down, given the menu and the waiter brought out a tray of fresh produce and placed it on a stand next to us. One of them came to describe al! l the di fferent produce, some just arrived on the day and how it can be prepared if you choose to select them. It's definitely a first for us to have ingredients brought out to us at the table - quite interesting! There was kinmedai, scallops, sea urchin, oysters, pear, pigeon and lobster. After they have finished explaining each ingredient to us, it would be taken away and brought back into the kitchen. We actually got to talk to Chef Gunther after the meal and he tells us he is very proud of showcasing his fresh produce to the customer.

Decor


Fresh produce

While waiting, we were served some bread. The menu consists of a la carte, 5-course degustation menu (S$128) or 3-course lunch menu (S$38). We decided to order the lunch menu and also add on a dish each from the a la carte menu. For the set lunch, it changes weekly, so what you see here may not be on the current menu but you can go to their website to check the current set lunch menu. There are 3 choices each for the starters and main.

From the a la carte menu, I ordered the Carpaccio of Wagyu Beef (Grade 9), tartare style, crispy potato (S$30). The wagyu beef was sliced very thinly, carpaccio style and placed on to! p of a c rispy potato sheet and then topped with chives, tartare sauce and other garnishes. It has clean, fresh flavours.


Look at the marbling on the beef!

Since Hubby's order from the a la carte was a soup, we asked if he could be served his starter from the set lunch first and they obliged. He had the green asparagus, ravioli foie gras which was very good. We both loved the texture and taste of the ravioli which was served with two giant asparagus spears and hollandaise sauce. Aesthetically, Chef Gunther's dishes were all very beautiful to look at and we took time to admire them too.



Hubby's next course is the Floating island of champignons de Paris on consomme of poultry (S$18). This was definitely a very pretty soup to look at, see h! ow the c hef has carefully arranged the thinly sliced mushrooms to resemble a flower. The waiter told us that there is an egg yolk served with this (at the bottom of the bowl) which Hubby carefully lifted - it looks even more like a flower now! Pretty, right? Anyway the mushrooms are lightly cooked by the hot consomme broth and we were told that we could mix the yolk with consomme before consuming (it tastes richer when mixed together). Hubby gave me some to try, and the soup tastes very much like a comforting chinese chicken soup.


I had the grilled scallop, mushroom cappuccino from the set lunch. Despite it looking quite ordinary, it tastes really lovely.. full of flavour and rich. The grilled scallops were hidden treasures inside this soup.. I found two :)


For mains, Hubby had the tagliatelle pasta with tiger prawn, again another simple looking dish but it tasted so good. The pasta which is homemade had a lovely texture and each strand is coated with the wonderful essence from the prawns. The prawns! itself were so fresh, Hubby was most impressed with this pasta.


I had the Gunther's creation, which is lamb stew served with mash potatoes. The lamb stew was flavorful and the mash was creamy and rich. By now, I was stuffed since all the dishes I ordered were really rich in flavour.


Dessert of the day was roasted bananas with chocolate and vanilla ice-cream. For S$38, I would say the set lunch is very good value for money, very well executed food with great service. I definitely wouldn't mind coming back here again on our next visit to Singapore.

Petit fours. I loved the canele and mini madeira cake here. So yummy.




Chef Gunther came out to speak to us after we finished our petit fours, he's such a nice and friendly guy. He chatted to us about his food and he even showed us around the restaurant (private room/kitchen/wine cellar) - it was so nice of him to do that! And we were delighted when he offered to prepare us his signature dish - the cold angel hair pasta served with white truffle oil and oscietra caviar (S$60). I was actually very full by now, but he said I have to try, just a mouthful. So glad he insisted because it was really amazing - the smell and flavour of the truffle oil was just heavenly.


The flavours are just amazing

Chef Gunther Hubrechsen with moi

Private room

Nice light fixture in private room


This painting is by Chef Gunther himself

After a great lunch, we took some photos of the famous Raffles Hotel. Our original plan was to have a Singapore Sling here, but just too full to fit anything else in our stomachs. A very nice, classy hotel.







Thanks to Hubby for the first of many Valentine's treats :) Stay tuned for more of our Singapore adventures.

Verdict: Great tasting food, very well-presented and good service.

Full set of photo available to view here.All photos taken with iPhone4S since I did not want to travel with a heavy DSLR.

Opening times: Mon to Sat 12.00-2.30pm; 6.30-10.30pm.

Service: Excellent.

Price: S$38++ for 3-course set lunch, including petit fours and coffee/tea.

Location: Gunther's Modern French Cuisine, 36 Purvis Street, #01-03, Singapore, 188613

! Tel: +(6 5) 6338 8955, or +(65) 8655 0208 for SMS reservation.


Hassans Mee Goreng (Mee Bodoh) @ Jalan Tengkera, Melaka

One of my memorable eats in Melaka is Hassans Mee Goreng at Jalan Tengkera. Even though this is a Malay eatery, you can see many Chinese and Indian customers enjoying their breakfast here as well, which makes this a true Malaysian favourite.

frying-noodles

The mee goreng is as basic as it could get as it is only prepared with only a handful of ingredients yellow noodles, bean sprouts and their homemade specialty sambal. Then, a dollop of extra sambal is added on top of the noodles. Because of that the locals also referred this mee goreng as Mee Bodoh (translated to Stupid Noodle) and that name really stuck with me. Anyway, a few years ago the mee goreng here was really cheap and cost only RM1 for a plate. But with the inflation, the price has increased steadily over the years until the RM1.50 now.

mee-goreng

Even though the sambal looks red hot, it doesnt taste as spicy as it seems. Well, at least for me. I actually mixed another extra spoonful of sambal into the noodles later and felt the spiciness was still tolerable.. in fact just right. There are also bottles of vinegar and kicap manis on each table which you can mix into your noodles according to your own liking. I noticed that Malaccans were quite liberal with the vinegar especially, they were literally pouring it over their noodles. Hmm, I guess thats their way of eating it. As for me, I just dripped a few drops of kicap manis and it was good to go.


fried-eggs

Fried eggs are very common in any fried noodle or rice dishes. But there is something special about the fried eggs here they are fried using chili oil (mixed with sambal I think?) hence the reddish look.

fried-egg-station

As soon as you secured yourself a table, make a beeline for the fried eggs. Reason being thats the fastest way to have your noodles delivered to you. Over here, the waiters do not take orders but simply deliver the noodles to whoever has a fried egg in front of them. So dont be upset or confused if the waiters appear to be ignoring your calls because it is just like that here. If you are wondering, each fried egg is RM0.70 inclusive of the sambal and cucumbers which are pretty much free for your taking.

morning-crowd

The normal morning crowd at Hassans. As long as you are willing to share a table you wont need to wait long before you get a seat. Nasi lemak is also available here but you need to be here extra early before they are sold out.

mee-goreng-tengkera

Hassans Mee Goreng
Jalan Tengkera (near Methodist Girl School)
GPS Coordinates: N2 12.183 E102 14.097
Business hours: 8am till finish (Closed on Friday)

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Interesting Eateries Along Jalan Landak, Pudu Kuala Lumpur

There are many similarities with Medan Imbi withMyanmarinfestation adults and children seen at the five foot way of the shop houses.Either for breakfast or lunch there are plenty to choose along Jalan Landak (it's just opposite Pudu Plaza), the place is vibrant and lively.
What a good morning in Pudu.

Here I am seated at this Duck stall Fatt Kee Duck House but not eating anything from Fatt Kee because they are not ready yet in the morning but I was having Ipoh Hor Fun f! rom the stall next to it. But I intend to come back to Fatt Kee Duck for their food.
A bowl of delicious Hor Fun with steamed chicken meat and a chicken foot for RM5.00.
Outside Celebrated Coffee House
Jalan Landak (Opposite Pudu Plaza)
Pudu
Kuala Lumpur
GPS : 3.137115,101.713038