St Marc Cafe Chococro

Saint Marc Cafe opened it's first doors at 1998 at Tokyo Ginza and has gained popularity from it's signature product, Chococro - a short form for Chocolate Croissant. 

The secret in the croissant lies in 3 points:
Chocolate - using the best Ghana and Ecuador beans which has a slight bitter taste
Pastry - Butter and Margarine are mixed and the pastry has more than 20 layers
Kiln - the pastries are carefully baked in a Kiln at 230 degrees 

All pastries are displayed at the self service counter and you can just pick any up and pay at the cashier. 

I ordered the Fresh chou cream croissant set which includes a cup of coffee at JPY390 (SGD 6)

They also carry seasonal items, such as the white chococro - a white chocolate croissant symbolizing the white snow of Christmas. You can also get a box of white and chocolate croissant at JPY790 for 5. 

Besides the seasonal white choco croissant, some of the other seasonal croissant includes: banana, strawberry choco, match and milk tea. All sounds so delicious!

When in Japan, just look out for this orange circle logo for the nearest St Marc chococro cafe!

p.s. you can also get your fix of chococro at Vivocity Unit 01-108/10

http://www.saint-marc-hd.com/cafe (Japanese only)

Au Jardin, Botanic Gardens

Au Jardin, part of the Les Amis Group occupies an elegantly restored colonial residence inside Botanic Gardens. In French, Au Jardin means - in the Garden, hence a appropriate name for this restaurant. 

Ms C had invited us for an opulent afternoon of French food at Au Jardin.

Look out for the signage at the entrance of Botanic Gardens. The restaurant is only a 5 minute walk from the entrance (Cluny road entrance)

Reservations are highly recommended. We got the best seat in the house! A corner seat with great view of the forest. 

Elegant table setting with fine China. 

A choice of 2 set menus are offered for lunch and the set menu changes every month. 

The Amuse-bouche - Watermelon juice with grapefruit foam and prawn roll. Something refreshing to cleanse our palette before the start of the meal. Amuse-bouche are not something in the menu, but served complementary in accordance to the chef's selection. 


The starters we had: 

pan fried foie gras with seasonal mushroom, figs chutney and puff pastry, truffle vinaigrette

salmon graviax with radish salad and grapefruits, garnished with trout roe, whisky cream, honey mustard dressing

pan seared crispy goat cheese & heirloom tomatoes, Mediterranean anchovy & pesto sauce 

The foie gras was simply melt in your mouth! To put it bluntly, it was like having a piece of fat which is so soft it melts immediately in first bite, leaving only the taste of fragrant foie gras. No wonder Ms C ordered the $65 set menu - just for the foie gras! And a big piece of foie gras it was. Totally worth the price! 

Salmon graviax was pretty normal, but I liked their salad which was very refreshing with a nice touch of roe and grapefruits. 

Ms H had the pan seared goat cheese as smoked salmon wasn't something she fancied. however I ended up having quite a lot of the goat cheese as well, as goat cheese had quite a strong aroma, not suitable for the faint hearted. 


The mains:

I had the braised beef cheek with wilted spinach, carrot puree, potato, red wine sauce. The beef cheek is another melt in your mouth dish - braised until so tender that there is no more toughness to the beef. 

Sea bass, the catch of the day, together with peas and bacon, baby potato. 

The grilled black cod with vegetable ratatouille, olive puree & tomato concasse

Ms K had the roasted Angus striploin with butternut puree, baby potato and zucchini ring. It was also a big piece of meat, and indicated specially in the menu at they are 200 day grain fed beef. 


Our desserts: 

Being a coffee lover, I love my dessert which is coffee parfait, creme de cacao jelly, earl grey ganache and milk tea ice. The items listed are mostly prepared in liquid form, such as coffee, earl grey, milk tea, but the chef manages to create it all in solid form, some good cooking technique and creativity here. 

Ms H had the poached rhubarb with strawberry confit, aloe vera yoghurt parfait and cranberry jelly. Seems like she loves her dessert choice as well, as she finished every single item on her plate as well. 

Ms C's dessert of mixed berries with balsamic yoghurt, lemon sorbet. Hers is the only dessert which was served in a glass plate. It's like an piece of fruit art on a plate.

Ms K's dessert of dark chocolate variation with spicy chocolate ice cream. Too bad the ice cream melted quite quickly after it was served, otherwise it would have been another great dessert. 

And what best to end a meal with a cup of piping hot coffee. 

We almost forgot about the petits fours which came with the coffee. Well not exactly four but two each. The madeleine and chocolate coated almond. 


We were also presented with a voucher each at the end of the meal. Enjoy 4 set lunches for the price of 3. A good way to attract customers back, as the set menu changes every month. 


Although the set lunch prices are a bit on the high side at $45 and $65, but the quality of the food is definitely worth paying for it. Anyone wants to join me for a great lunch at Au Jardin again? I have a voucher! 


Au Jardin
EJH corner house, Singapore Botanic Gardens Visitor Centre, Cluny Road
Opening hours:
Lunch - Tuesdays to Fridays 12 - 2pm (last seating)
Dinner - Tuesdays to Sundays 7 - 10.15pm (last seating)
Sunday Brunch - Sundays only 11am - 1pm (1st seating)

Reservations recommended: 6466 8812

Tiong Bahru Bakery

Tiong Bahru is actually one of the oldest housing estates in Singapore, built in the 1930s. Due to their unique building structures and central location, it has seen many quaint cafes opening at the area in the recent years. 

The latest one is Tiong Bahru Bakery, a joint collaboration between the Spa Esprit Group (who also has other restaurants such as House@Dempsey, Skinny Pizza, Fourty Hands) together with famous French celebrity baker Gontran Cherrier as the consultant chef. 

Gontran has 2 boulangerie in Paris, hosts baking shows on TV and has also written 8 baking books. A man who can cook and has the looks! absolument magnifique!

During lunch time, the cafe is packed with people, all here to try out the widely talked about croissants and artisan breads, so highly rated by many bloggers and mass media. 

The breads are not cheap! with average ranging from $2 and above! but I must say they all do look oh so tempting. 

Besides breads, they also carry sandwiches topped with fresh greens which look like they have just been plucked from the fields. so crisp and fresh. And each different kind of sandwich has a different type of bun to go with it. 

And this is the famous croissant, which was rated by Sunday Times writer Tan Hsueh Yun as the "Best Croissant in Town" (6 May'12). If you get there late, the croissants would be all sold out. 

And what best to end your meal with a dessert treat! Choose from a wide selection of tarts, cakes and crumbles. 

Just as I was  searching for their drinks menu, they are actually printed on the 2 tote bags! I would not have noticed that they were the drink menu actually. Look carefully at the pictures for each drink item. There is actually a meaning to why the pictures are drawn like that. Cool!

And what do you expect - a handsome Eurasian barista behind the coffee bar to serve you some good quality coffee. 

We ordered the croissant, chocolate croissant, lemon tart and brownie. You can actually see the individual layers on the croissant. It's not too buttery unlike those conventional ones, but crispy on the outside, and chewy inside. Goes best with butter when it's piping hot. 

The lemon tart - it has to be the most sour lemon tart I have eaten before. But Ms C loves the lemony taste. When taken in small bites, together with a cup of tea, it actually tastes quite nice! 

Macchiato, Latte and Gryphon teas. I think I had the Pearl of the Orient ( Jasmine Dragon Green Tea with Rose)

If you do walk towards the back of the shop, there is actually a counter which has servings of butter and jam to go with your breads. So meticulous of them to think of this. 

I guess I am a bread fanatic. My family and I can have bread for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Come to think of it, I must get some croissants and breads for mum the next time I visit! 

Tiong Bahru Bakery

56 Eng Hoon Street

#01-70

Open: 8am - 8pm (closed on Tuesdays)

High Tea at Intercontinental Hong Kong Lobby Lounge

Afternoon high tea is becoming popular nowadays and we definately couldn't miss the highly recommended one at the Intercontinental Hong Kong Lobby Lounge. 

InterContinental Hong Kong is located at the edge of Victoria Harbour in Tsim Sha Tsui, with spectacular panoramic views of the Harbour and Hong Kong Island. 

I just simply love their roses decor at the hotel lobby. 

 The lobby lounge has a high ceiling with fantastic views of the Victoria Harbour.  

Weather was misty so we couldn't see the wonderful views of Hong Kong Island clearly.

The afternoon tea menu consists of 3 different selection of tea sets or you can just order ala-carte tea or coffee.

We ordered the Intercontinental Tea Set for 2, which consists of selection of sandwiches, parisian style pastries, warm scones, devonshire clotted cream and earl grey tea jelly. The set also included 2 drinks from their selection of Mariage Frères tea or coffee.

As we had 3 people and only 2 teas, I ordered the Calendula Beauty (茉莉金盞花) under the Chinese tea selection. Calendula is actually Pot Marigold flower, and the tea is wrapped within shoots of jasmine tea leaves, which gives the tea a pleasing fragrance and flavour of light jasmine tea. 

The hot scones came, wrapped in napkin in a metal flower design container. Nice! 

There was a total of 4 scones - 1 plain, 2 raisins and 1 with some dried fruits. As the scones were served piping hot, we decided to finish the scones before starting on the rest of the stuff. We were actually quite full after finishing the scones.  

There were 3 types of jams served for the scones - earl grey tea jelly, devonshire clotted cream and raspberry jam. 

Next we tried the savoury items - assorted sandwiches. 

There were 4 mini sandwich items served - smoked salmon and prawn bagel, raspberry cream sandwich, egg mayonnaise focaccia and ham & cheese sandwich. 

I liked the smoked salmon & prawn bagel most. The sandwiches were all prepared very meticulously, like the ham & cheese sandwich - the top layer was served as sliced ham, while the middle layer of ham was diced to give a different texture to the bite. 

Finally it was time for the parisian style pastries - the sweet stuff !

There was a variety of 5 sweets altogether - Chocolate raspberry mousse cake, Macaroon sandwich, Coconut mousse cake with raspberry, Pear tart and Lemon cheese cake. 

We were already full to the brim when waitress brought another item to the table - Lychee & rose panecotta. 

There was even a live band playing when we were about to leave, at around 6pm.

Overall, the English high tea was a wonderful experience, the food was very intricate, the waitresses provided excellent service and the lobby lounge had a great ambience with a wonderful view. The portions served was actually quite a lot, even for the 3 of us who didn't have lunch before coming, maybe just right for 4 persons instead. 

Total price came out to be HKD545.60, which is equivalent to approx SGD90 or SGD30 per person, which is totally worth for our afternoon of 3 hours. 

Intercontinental Hong Kong High Tea

 

18 Salisbury Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong

High tea: Daily 3-6pm

Location: Lobby Lounge, Lobby level

Attire: Casual, no sleeveless shirt for gentlemen

Intercontinental Tea Set for 2: 

Weekdays except P.H. - HKD428

Weekends & P.H. - HKD488

plus 10% service charge 

Sidetrack: 

On the way to the toilet, I came across this elegant  calligraphy folding screen.  

Guess where this sofa is located - the toilet! 5 star hotel is really different.