In life we have dreams; they are our goals to work towards to, one step by one step, and approached it. I’ve always wanted to visit Spain; the country, with its rich culture and vibrant cities appeal to me, and of course, Spanish food.

I simply love the idea of Tapas; the option of having more variety of food in smaller bite sizes, seduces me. Why have two dishes when we can have four? And so our Spanish adventure started with the Plamuk tod ($12), tempura style calamari rings. Limon did a thinner version using less batter which allowed the taste of the squid. But the amazing thing was the strawberry yoghurt dip which came along with the calamari!

Tartar sauce? That’s so last season. Mayonnaise? That’s so passe. Try strawberry yoghurt dip!

Tapas has many similarities with our Chinese Dim sum; it’s the communal way of sharing food. Both encouraged people to try out more varieties, and at the same time shared the food with others. The Patatas bravas ($10) was essentially Spanish fried potatoes.

A little bit of this, plus a little bit of that

No I’m not talking about our saliva! We get to share food and try a bit of everything without getting full, isn’t that a brillient idea? There’s no beef in the Moo curry ($12), instead there was pork & potato cubes pan-fried, with the red curry sauce being a tad strong.

How come the sausage tasted like brinjar?

It was hilarious when we mistook the eggplant for sausages at first bite, I’m never a fan of the purple plant. The fusion aspect was on display by preparing the Spanish Bibao (sausages) with Thai green curry sauce. Chorizo con curry verde ($14)

Honey, they shrunk the prawns!

I was sceptical when the “king prawns” that they’d mentioned was so tiny, but for what was lacking in size, the prawns more than made up in taste. The “tiny” creature was so prawny and crunchy! With ingredients like olive oil, lemongrass, black pepper, garlic, nameko mushroom; it was a mixture of flavours.

The Gazpacho con vino blanco ($12) was a traditional Spanish cold soup, with the novelty level upped by serving it in a baby coconut husk. The white wine flavour was subtle, but the experience of drinking soup was redefined into drinking coconut!

Tom-kha Guy ($10)

Besides the “coconut soup”, Limon has a few other soup available for selection, and you know I never like such soups, so use your own imagination how it would taste like.

Pumpkin fusion soup with strips of Serrano ham ($13)

Tomato, Orange and lemon soup ($10)

Paella. This was THE dish besides churros that I was looking forward to. And I had problem pronouncing it the whole night, so I came up with a simple way of remembering it, paella (my own pronunciation: Pie-ya). It was done with a Thai twist; incorporating tom-yum with the Spanish paella, there was plentiful of mixed seafood. It was delicious, every grain of rice tasted so good. Since I did not have paella before, there was no way I could make comparison, but it was good enough for me. And the tom-yum flavour wasn’t even strong (at least to me). Paella de tom yum ($20 for main size)

You like fish?

You will definitely love the Bacalao ($36)! The blue cod fillet was so fresh that it seemed alive on my plate, but I would prefer it to be slightly more pan-fried on the surface. Every piece of flesh was so delicate when our utensils touch it, oh baby, I’m gonna eat you up!

The lomo de cordero ($35) was a perfect sight to behold. There’s something about the Rack of lamb, which always make it so sexy! But somehow the ingredients like rosemary, oregano, mint, white wine, lemongrass sauce did not manage to cover the gamey taste.

Lobster, I love lobster! And I’m not going to share with you. No, get your hands off, it’s mine, it’s all mine! I was freaking excited when the Live lobster krapow ($38) arrived on our table. Every bite of the oven-baked lobster was so good, but there wasn’t enough meat for me! Taking a fork, I tilted the lobster head upside down, and dug at the shell beneath it, and yes, there was more lobster meat there!

On first look, I thought it was panna cotta, the Italian dessert. But it wasn’t. The dessert in picture was a Lemon caramel egg custard flan ($10). The texture was very similar to panna cotta, but I couldn’t quite figure out what was the difference.

And yes, I know chocolate cake has nothing to do with Spanish or Thai, but apparently the pastry chef at Limon does such a good chocolate cake that they decided to put it in the menu. And boy, it was true. The Homemade Chocolate cake ($9) paired with vanilla ice cream was a delight! If you could look at the plain chocolate cake up there, there’s the lava-flowing chocolate on top of the moist chocolate cake. Even though it was a pity there wasn’t any vanilla bean ice cream, but a scoop of cold icy one was enough to bring out the best of the chocolate cake.

I love to share food. But somehow the evil twin in me took over when we had the Crema Catalana con frescas ($10). There are times where you eat something that was so good, yet you couldn’t tell what it was, so you just ate, and ate, and ate. This was what I did, I took a spoonful of the egg based cream, put it in my mouth, and I couldn’t taste what it was. And the second bite became even better. So I simply took up the whole glass, dug, and dug further into, until the whole dessert was finished.

* * *

It was a medley of flavours when the Spaniards and the Thais come and play together. This was my first time trying Paella, and I’m glad I tried it! My appreciation to Towie, the owner of Limon, and Nicole for hosting us for the food tasting session.

And now for the good/great/terrific/fantastic news, I’ll be doing a food outing event (yes finally), at Limon on the 10th August for dinner. It would be a public holiday so I hope to see all of you there. The details of the outing will be in my next post.

Limon restaurant
7 Purvis street #01-01
Tel: 6333 9004

It was supposed to be January, but it is almost April soon! Well, like they say, better late than never! Forty-four was the magical number this time, and I’m glad to see many of my regulars, and of course our new friends.

Salt & Pepper Calamari

We started with the simple appetiser, but I was too busy running from table to table that the calamari turned cold by the time I returned!

Chicken & Cheese Quesadillas

Dallas signature Quesadillas was one of the dish which I remembered from my previous visit. Tasting almost like a Mexican taco, there was chicken bits soaked with tomato in chicken broth.

Shredded Pork Tacos

Baby Back Pork ribs

There was some confusion when the ribs were served. The three different flavours of Fiery, Alabama & Smoked Hickory BBQ were too alike! Because we did everything in tasting portions, the pork ribs had to be cut and served this way, otherwise we were be there until four.

Dallas Wings

There was some feedback that the wings were too dry and lacked marination.

Tempura Barramundi

Corn & crab fritters

Beef Fajitas with Guacamole & sour cream

Breaded mushrooms

The “twin” brother which looked almost identical to the Corn & Crab Fritters.

***

A total number of 44 people turned up for this LIC food outing, thank you everyone! Like I’ve mentioned, there will be no date announced yet for the next lic food outing, I will try to organise it soon, so see you next time! I’ll also like to thank Jason, the owner for Dallas for hosting us.

I will be adding the group photos to my Facebook page later. Do add me there to see the photos!

Read about my previous visit to Dallas here.
And Catherine @ Camemberu
Julia @ AromaCookery
Fen @ Sgdessert
Keropok man @ Singapuradailymakanphoto

Dallas Restaurant & Bar
31 Boat Quay
Boat Quay Conservation area
Tel: 6532 2131
Website: http://www.dallas.sg/

One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Seven. Ate. Nine. Ten.

Esplanade we were at, yet it certainly didn’t feel anything like Esplanade. The al fresco area was within the ground floor, yet while sitting there and people-grazing, the mood was out away from this world.

Service was almost impeccable. Since most of the tapas were off-the-menu, we wanted to know what we were eating and started asking the staff a lot of questions. Initially when they served us the first few appetisers, they were not sure of the names, and the ingredients in it. But they got used to us asking questions, and when they served the rest of the tapas, they made sure they checked the names and ingredients. Well we did make them stress that day, akin like taking a spelling test. Nonetheless, the staffs were always cheerful and friendly.

In the time of recession where people cut down on their expedition, it takes a brave soul to come out with interesting dining concept. The idea that the chef serves whatever he wants, is actually not new. But there just isn’t much places doing it, most people after all, aren’t adventurous enough and want to have a say in what they are eating. 7atenine. Catchy name, check. Unique concept, check. Ambience, check.

There’s something about Salmon which makes them irresistible to ladies. For some unknown reasons which continue to elude me, most ladies seem to love them. The salmon tartare. For the ladies! Fresh crunchy salmon in lemon cream sauce, with walnuts & some leafy greens providing the crunch. What impressed me was the effort entailed in preparing the cucumber. Instead of short slices, the cucumber was peel off vertically, in a long string. This, surely warrant our praise.

What I liked about the Taco cerbice was the simplicity of the dish. The crunchy sour dough plus the smooth octopus meat. Topped with greens, it further beautify and added balance to the appetiser.

Like couples who are always together, ham always comes with cheese. The dish is a basically an appetiser of ham & cheese. Cubes of green apple, cheese, and ham. While there’s nothing intriguing about the combination, it’s a simple dish to kick-start the meal.

I always remember the significant and special food that I’ve before. Like the best mushroom soup, the best dim sum, all those are deeply engraved in my memory. And the Beef roll on hot stone, would definitely be the latest addition to my memorable list. Putting the thinly-sliced beef rolls on the heated up stone, a brilliant idea! The usage of salt to bring out the natural taste of the beef, with the hot stone keeping the beef warm at optimum temperature. Divine.

Tangy, was the best way to describe the lobster gaspach. Shredded lobster fried was good on its own. But having left it too long in the slightly sourish sauce, it was soggy when we tried it. And did I mention I loved the way 7atenine decorated the bowls with a brush of the sauce. A stroke of genius.

With the pairing of cheese and anchovies, the Mozzarella cheese with anchovies certainly let our imagination ran wild. Just exactly what does the humble small salt-water fish and cheese have in common. Well nothing, but that’s what makes the pairing unique. The presence of bell pepper and tomato brighten up the aesthetic aspect. Much as I’m for creative cooking, this dish didn’t exactly impress.

The best. Mushroom Risotto. 7atenine rendition was done close to the porridge form, quite unlike the harder glutinous-rice like version I had before. Boiling several types of mushrooms to get the stock, the end result was a strong mushroom infused flavour in the risotto. The presence of strong cheese taste was a plus. I do not think words alone can describe the goodness of the risotto. Comfort food.

Again, we see the use of raw salt to bring out the natural flavour of food. Poached lightly, the Salmon with potato wrapped bacon was another worth mentioning dish. Even when eaten on its own, the salmon was fresh, but when you dip it with the sauce, it brought it to a brand new level. The bacon bits, by the side, was salty and flavourful. My date enjoyed her roast mini potatoes, although I didn’t quite fancy that.

When ocean meets farm, the Seabass in celery cream. Sprinkled with bits of salt, the seabass reminded me of my mom’s home-cook fish. The fish was better eaten alone, rather than together with the brown sauce. The mesh celery represented the farm.

At first look, we were guessing the ingredient used to “dye” the calamari black. Guess guess, squid ink! An interesting twist to the otherwise boring calamari. The tomato salsa was refreshing, but other than that, there wasn’t much wow factor. The crusted calamari.

A cheesy pasta. The spaghetti with ham symbolised every aspect of the cheese pasta. A simple dish done right. We were wondering what ham was used though.

If 7atenine is all about interesting new dining concept, then the sizzling wings would definitely be the best representative. Using the pegs (for hanging clothes) to hold the chicken wings so that diners were not dirty their hands. Bravo! While the effectiveness of the peg remained to be questioned, we should applause the innovation. On the other hand, the chicken wings were nothing to shout about. I was pretty astonish when they served the wings, since nothing in my dictionary told me that wings were classified under tapas.

The beef flank was the last main course that we had before serving desserts. The meat was tough and inelastic actually. I didn’t touch much of it. Well, a disappointing anti-climax for the main course.

Caffe latte trifle was the first of the three desserts we started with. Everything coffee. From the ice cream, meringue, to the thin layer of sponge, all of them are coffee flavoured. There’s rice krispies on top too.

With a base of berries, there’s the strawberry ice cream and vanilla bean on top. The execution of the simple strawberry gazpacho was enough, for us to end the meal on a sweet note.

We were surprised by the inclusion of vanilla bean ice cream since the sight of the normal walls ice cream was so common everywhere else. I liked the fact that they spreaded some Oreo crust by the side. I can taste vanilla bean, and with some help from the crust, it turned into Oreo ice cream. And oh yes, warm chocolate brownies must always be eaten together with chilled, cold ice cream.

Total bill was $86.58 for 2, lunch unlimited buffet. In my humble opinion, my date and I agreed that 7atenine is the best new restaurant in 2009, that is until i try a better one. Although not all the tapas impressed me, but the food taste is more on the extreme ends, it’s a case of whether you love it or hate it. Personally, I felt food lovers will generally accept this concept better than the rest, especially so if you are the type that are adventurous and love to try new creations.

It is definitely fun to be keep in the suspense, and wondering what is coming next. Of course, with expectations there will be disappointment. I’m sorry if you do not agree with me. But I love this type of dining concept,  the playful presentation of food, the friendly services, bold creations, the ambience and the amazing value. Of course, the company of my date plays a vital part as well. This year, the best meal I had so far, 7atenine!

7atenine
8 Raffles Avenue
#01-10/12 Esplanade Mall
Tel: 6338 0789

7atenine is listed as one of ladyironchef’s favorite restaurants in Singapore