Christmas Gift

My very first Christmas gift for myself,
which is also the only gift I bought for myself this year..

(it's been an eventful year, but God has made it through for me! AMEN!)

Now, fruit of the season:


She's a beauty isn't she ;)

Anniversary Degustation: The NEW Sage

As usual, we celebrate this memorable date at our favourite fine-dining restaurant, The Sage. It has moved to the new place at Mohamed Sultan, just the opposite where they used to be. The new Sage has modern and stylish feel, yet the ol’ personal warmth service standard remains –which is why it gets our highest vote for best fine dining place in Singapore.

To Manfred and I, The Sage is more than excellent food quality, romantic ambience and warmth personalized service. It is where our first love momento begins, from our first date to our first anniversary, and to marriage proposal. The Sage is a special place for both of us.

This anniversary, Manfred treats me to the new Degustation Menu, which is fairly reasonable priced for six-course dinner of four appetizers, one main and dessert. Kimberly had too arranged for every course to be crustaceans-free and shells-free as I’m still under diet restrictions. Nevertheless, it was a very thoughtful gesture of her.

Let's proceed to the menu for the evening :)

Complimentary hors d'oeuvre

This interesting dish is made of squashed tomatoes combined with onion and lime juice, topped with caviar. It gives off refreshing taste with subtle hint of spice and lime.. Perfect as hors d'oeuvre..

Gravlax of ocean trout with citrus marinade on vine ripe tomato foam,

fennel marmalade and tapioca pearls scented with orange essence

The fresh raw trout tastes sweet with no sign of fishy smell. The yellow jelly on top of the trout is the tapioca pearls blends with orange essence, and the white foam on the left is the tomato foam, which tastes quite bland.. Mix these three together and you get sweet smooth orange scented taste lingering in your mouth.. *mmmm... a fluffy french-sashimi appetizer..

Carpaccio of US naturally raised, grain fed and hormone free beef tenderloin

with jellied horseradish consomme and air dried Wagyu,

Arugula leaves and shaved Parmigianno Reggiano

Imagine Wagyu beef carpaccio with marble score of 10, then you know how this dish would taste! The jellied horseradish consomme was surprisingly tasty and blends well with the smooth texture of Wagyu beef.. Two words for this dish: IT MELTS!!

Seared scallop on Belgium endive au gratin with avruga caviar,
Normandy sauce and Parmigianno Reggiano lace

I purposely took a closeup of this dish so that you can look for yourself the amount of caviar that they put on that huge scallop!! Definitely not stingy for an appetizer! This dish was SUPERB.. It had fragrant smell when it arrived on our table, and oh boy how glad we were that the taste matched the smell! Manfred liked it so much that he wanted a main course version of this for our next visit! Memorable dish indeed!

Pan-seared duck foie gras on pear and walnut chuney,
Muscat poached fig with spiced port wine glaze

I always love foie gras here -it's pan-seared until crisp on the outer, yet it's soft on the bite.. Needless to say, they are very generous with the portion as well. The port-sweetened fig compliments the foie gras very well, leaving taste of sweetness lingering in your mouth.. Definitely an interesting experience..

Charcoal grilled Kurobuta pork loin with orange marmalade on slow cooked terrine of

pork cheek topped with tomato fondue and aioli, white bean mousseline and basil pesto

I am more of a beef person, so I seldom order pork loin for my main. Didn't really expect much of the dish initially, yet this dish gave me a new revolution of pork loin dish, or to be exact Kurobuta pork loin.. :p

It is the finer version of chinese roasted pork, with elegant dish presentation.. The pork cheek was soft and tender as it is slow cooked, but I still prefer the charcoal grilled pork loin.. The white bean mousse was smooth and neutralized the porky taste. So you can enjoy the dish with porky-free feeling! Overall, this is a wonderful dish to order for a change!

Chocolate souffle with Amaretto ice cream and vanilla bean custard

Hot choco liquid + vanilla custard + icy cold amaretto ice cream = SUPERB DESSERT!!
Do I still have to explain more?

This time round, Kimberly had prepared an anniversary gift from The Sage for us!! Blessed with favor and abundance from God indeed!! (We were already full to the max during the Kurobuta course!)

Mascarpone and cream cheese cake with compote of
strawberries and nougat, caramel sauce and chocolate sorbet

Best cheescake I have tried so far! The cheescake was smooth and soft, with no cheesy taste. Basically you can eat a lot and still don't feel sick of it! Very wonderfully made cheesecake.. Good job Chef Jusman! :)

End the whole meal with beautiful tea set of English milk tea.. *satiated

Two happy loving customers :)

Happy anniversary my dear.. *muackz!

Wang Lee Hom -Music Man

The concert theme Music Man was adopted from superheroes anime -Superman, Spiderman, Batman, Ironman, etc. Reason being, Lee Hom himself likes these superheroes; but what he sees in them is not the super power that they possess, rather the 'human' side of them. He imagined himself as one of the superhero, and that how Music Man was born.

Overall, it was an awesome concert by Lee Hom.. What can I say, fantastic stage design, marvellous talent performance, and clean singing voice! The gorgeous look with muscly build is definitely a PLUS point! Gosh, he's close to perfections -result of continuous hardwork coupled with passion..





Lee Hom's pictures slideshow





Music Man special attack items

Happy Mother's Day

This year, Manfred and I bring his family out for Mother's Day celebration at Korean BBQ restaurant at Jushinjung East Coast. We both are so much into Korean BBQ now -galbisal (short rib boneless), woosul (ox-tounge), moksal (pork collar), kimchi, chicken ginseng soup etc.

*yummy..

Happy Dad and Mom :)

Dear and Mom

Me and Mom
*blurp.. (ops!)

Satisfied faces :)

End of First Evening of 24

After our wonderful fine dining birthday celebration, we returned home happy and satiated. As I entered the house, Manfred's parents greeted me with birthday cake! I was like.. shocked and surprised!















My birthday cake :)




















Loving hubby and lovely moi..




















Loving uncle and lovely auntie :)















Make ANOTHER wish...




















YAY! Our wish coming true!!

Later on, I found out that this celebration is another of dear arrangement with his parents to surprise me. Oh dear.... Enough of surprises! I do not wish to claim on my $300K coverage so soon :p

I love you.. thank you for making my birthday such memorable event..

The First Evening of 24

Dear invited me to a simple yet elegant dinner celebration at our fave restaurant, The Sage. Walking in to the restaurant made me realized why this place is special for us -this is where we hold most of our memorable events, such as first Christmas date, first anniversary, proposal, and now my birthday dinner.

It's difficult to get bored of The Sage. First of all, the menu changes periodically. Even for the same menu, the food art is always new. Bravo to the creativity and dynamism. Secondly, I can't help but to applaud on the professionalism of the server yet the warmth personal touch they give to each customers. Last, the food is non-questionable -flavorsome, sophisticated, artistic and best of all -affordable. This place gets my no.1 vote for French fine dining.

Down to our evening experience..















Complimentary green pea mousse with lemon zest and caviar.

Strong flavor of green pea with subtle hint of lemon. The caviar neutralizes the flavor of green pea and makes this dish totally refreshing! Perfect as starter.
















First dish on the list is pan-seared duck foie gras with roasted Granny Smith apple mille-feuille crusted with walnuts, fig compote and spiced glaze of port wine and balsamico.

The foie gras itself is crusty yet soft with its own flavor. The sourness of apple sauce and sweetness of port wine make this dish interesting to experience on its own. Every bite produces different taste depending on the amount of sauce that you put in!















My soup dish was veloute of butternut pumpkin topped with pistachio froth, confit of foie gras and Navel orange marmalade.

Pumpkin soup is one of my favorite soup dishes. Coupled with confit of foie gras? BEST! The soup itself is creamy and thick with strong hint of sweetness of orange marmalade, while the confit of foie gras is too creamy on its own. Take them together and you find the best combination of pumpkin soup with foie gras! The sweetness of the hot soup blends perfectly with the confit of foie gras causing it to melt in your mouth!















Dear's soup dish is chestnut mousseline topped with double boiled consommé of oxtail, parmentier of oxtail meat with shavings of black truffle.

I didn't know that chestnut goes well with oxtail until I tried this! The first layer at the bottom is the chestnut mousse, the second layer is the oxtail soup while the top layer is milk froth. Mix them together and....... *speechless*! I would say it's complicatedly interesting. Imagine sweetness of chestnut mix with oxtail soup. Funny? Yes, but apparently the chef was able to pull it, not only well, but perfectly well! The oxtail meat is hard and tasty on its own, but taking it with the soup apparently neutralizes the strong favor of the soup and makes it easier and more enjoyable to savor.

Oh by the way, did I mention that I love the visual display of the soup?















Finally my main: charcoal grilled U.S. Black Angus beef sirloin resting on pommes gratin topped with horseradish cream, glazed vegetables with smoked bacon and jus gras

We ordered this dish in our previous visit, however; this time it comes differently! I mentioned that the chef is creative didn't I? The meat, cooked rare as per my preference, is juicy sweet tender and succulent on its own. The sauce smoothen the succulent taste of the meat. On top of the change in the visual display, it has additional Brussels sprouts with smoked bacon which has completely opposite taste to the meat. Its strong saltness acts like ginger to clear the palette and... VOILA!! You're ready for the next piece of the meat!















Dear's main: Australian grain fed lamb short loin with a cassoulet of summer beans scented with garlic, thyme and lardons, crispy Parmigiano Reggiano and carrot puree

The lamb, cooked rare as to dear preference, is interestingly tender and succulent! The flavor of thyme has overridden the strong scent of lamb. Bland carrot puree helps to ease the meaty taste and sweetness of the summer beans helps to neutralize the flavor. So far, this is the best lamb dish I have ever tried -with no strong scent of lamb at all!

Our satisfied look says it all!















*mmmm... I'm in Heaven... :p















YUMMY! *hehhehe...

We are both too filled after the whole course to eat desserts. This is the first time we skip desserts. Even Misa, the captain, was surprised! So I requested for the bill.

She then returned with ....















A chocolate cake with happy birthday stand!

Apparently, dear has made arrangement with Kimberly on this. It's a piece of thick dark chocolate cake, complimentary from The Sage for my birthday. Lucky we didn't order desserts!















Praying and thanking God for His wonderful blessings on me, and requesting for special wish..




















*fooh.. blowing candle..

Dear asked if I like this small surprise.. in fact, I love this simple sweet surprise from dear. This is one of the reasons why I love him dearly. His thoughts and actions on these small little things touch me.. Dear's doing massage for me when I'm tired, fetching me after whole day work, sending my blazers for laundry, cooking good meal for me when I'm in lousy mood, especially arrange a shopping day for me on weekends and other countless small little things..

All these little things he does add on to great love he has for me. I love you hubby..

and I wish to myself: HAPPY BIRTHDAY :)

The First Day of 24

Today is my first of being 24. Nothing change. I am still as young, pretty, healthy, good, successful as ever -yet my age somehow increased by 1.

It's rather funny how I used to be excited and in fact look forward to my growing age. Now I find myself rather disturbed of the fact that I am getting older. I guess this is what they call 'wisdom'

Well I took a day off and headed to Sentosa. We took the new tram Sentosa Express from VivoCity. It costs only $3 and it's really fast. We reached our destination in 3mins.















Beginning of our journey

In reality, I am not so much of beach person and I do not welcome sun at all. It has put enough freckles on my skin than it should. God heard my wish and He turned the weather to cloudy. Just the right weather for me. It was a bit drizzling when we got there, but it stopped when we decided to jump in. Nothing can ruin my day because God is with me all day long :)















Cloudy beach in Sentosa















We had good swim..




















coupled with good drinks ;)

I was in the mood for a bit of thrill and thus decided to go for skyride and the luge. The ride made me realize that I am still afraid of heights -and skyride wasn't really that high! I am now RE-considering my options to go for Singapore Flyer..















On the skyride.. *badump badump















Excited for the luge ride

I had a relaxing and fun day dear.. Thank you :) *muackz