Seasons Greetings!
Dec. 26th, 2015 12:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
coolohohBeen a very busy week. With loads of happenings.
Maybe I'll split this into a couple of posts just for organisations' sake. We'll see.
Anyway. About that last entry... Cheap French food...
Well. Not cheap at all. At least for my budget. Dinner for the four of us came up to over $260. That's enough to have 2 or 3 very good Japanese meals...
It's The French Stall (or just TFS) at little India...
But well. Dad finally fulfilled his wish of having a good French meal. Unfortunately, I'd say that French food doesn't really fit our palettes.
We ordered quite a lot...
Well, the cooking was good. The thing though. Is that when my family eats, we like tasting the ingredients. Like, the original taste of the ingredients. Especially the meat. So when the beef/lamb is prepared in a way to specially get rid of the original taste... (well, it's not just French cooking that it happens... *looks at all the Western lamb stews*) It's a waste.
The beef too... it's not very juicy. I think the ones we got from the wholesaler and cooked on our own is better. This one is probably due to the beef cuts the restaurant got. Taste like frozen beef.
The duck too... it doesn't taste like duck anymore. It's just like... another meat. With not much taste. Sure, the texture is good, and it seems more like beef than duck... but hey, that's the reason why beef exists right? Why make duck taste like something else. Not that I have anything against the texture... but the unique flavors of the duck! It's all gone... :(
I did enjoy the meal though. The rissotto (?) - rice with cream and truffle bits was good. I love truffle hahaha. Though dad doesn't really like that taste. I like it though. Love the ham. Well but that's not really prepared by the chef so...
Realised that I don't care much for French onion soup... but the Foie gras. Oh that was lovely. Soft, velvety, silky, pink in the middle and oh so good. I think that totally made the meal worth it. Hahaha.
Other little surprises. At least, they are suprises to me.
Mash brinjal (well, they'll probably say eggplant) under the duck. First time I've seen mash brinjal. Doesn't taste very nice though. I prefer mash potatoes. Brinjals are pretty mushy as they are already... making it into a mash... feels like there's not much point in it. Maybe if it's mixed with some other ingredients, it'll be nicer.Thin, fried onion strips as beef garnish. Tastes good. Like onion rings. But in strips.
Desserts. The souffle was normal... but that spiked Baked Alaska was pretty good. Meringue on top, ice cream and mango sauce inside, and baked.
The one on the bottom right was my favourite though. Liquor (I think it's rum) on the plate, some kinda cake (with pretty course grains) in middle, and sour cream on top. When eaten with each of the ingredients in just the right proportions, it tastes like brie cheese. A nice combination. I guess this is what people mean when they say French cuisine is sophisticated. Still nowhere near Chinese food in terms of sophistication, complexity and variety though. Ok ok... China is so big, it's not a fair comparison... *shrugs*
Overall...
Would I go back there again? No... too pricey. (Ok, dad paid. But still...)
If you were to treat me there, and only in that resturant? Sure, I have no objections as long as I'm not paying. I'll get the foie gras. It was excellent. That brie cheese like dessert too.
Service wise...
It depends on which waitress you got. One was really friendly, while the other was down right rude.
The rude one led us to our table, pissed us off before we even sat down, and we would have walked out if the friendier one wasn't the one who took our orders. Bad start to the dinner indeed.
Next time I'm gonna bring my parents to Saveur. A much more affordable French resturant. And they do good duck confits too. And mum's gonna love their desserts. And they have good mushroom soup. Most importantly... it's much cheaper. Less than 20 for a main course. The duck confit is $14.90 if I remember correctly. TFS prices are like high 20s to 40+ for a main course. They have a very misleading menu... it'll take XXX from $20 onwards... and on that same page that's only 1 dish that's at the price listed on top. The rest just says +$15 or some amount at the side. Meaning the top listed price PLUS XX amount. So you have to do the calculation yourself... and it fools you into thinking that a dish is very cheap... when it's not. Honestly. If I was there alone, I would have walked out after seeing the menu.
Alright. So that's all for this post... Till another post!
Maybe I'll split this into a couple of posts just for organisations' sake. We'll see.
Anyway. About that last entry... Cheap French food...
Well. Not cheap at all. At least for my budget. Dinner for the four of us came up to over $260. That's enough to have 2 or 3 very good Japanese meals...
It's The French Stall (or just TFS) at little India...
But well. Dad finally fulfilled his wish of having a good French meal. Unfortunately, I'd say that French food doesn't really fit our palettes.
We ordered quite a lot...
Well, the cooking was good. The thing though. Is that when my family eats, we like tasting the ingredients. Like, the original taste of the ingredients. Especially the meat. So when the beef/lamb is prepared in a way to specially get rid of the original taste... (well, it's not just French cooking that it happens... *looks at all the Western lamb stews*) It's a waste.
The beef too... it's not very juicy. I think the ones we got from the wholesaler and cooked on our own is better. This one is probably due to the beef cuts the restaurant got. Taste like frozen beef.
The duck too... it doesn't taste like duck anymore. It's just like... another meat. With not much taste. Sure, the texture is good, and it seems more like beef than duck... but hey, that's the reason why beef exists right? Why make duck taste like something else. Not that I have anything against the texture... but the unique flavors of the duck! It's all gone... :(
I did enjoy the meal though. The rissotto (?) - rice with cream and truffle bits was good. I love truffle hahaha. Though dad doesn't really like that taste. I like it though. Love the ham. Well but that's not really prepared by the chef so...
Realised that I don't care much for French onion soup... but the Foie gras. Oh that was lovely. Soft, velvety, silky, pink in the middle and oh so good. I think that totally made the meal worth it. Hahaha.
Other little surprises. At least, they are suprises to me.
Mash brinjal (well, they'll probably say eggplant) under the duck. First time I've seen mash brinjal. Doesn't taste very nice though. I prefer mash potatoes. Brinjals are pretty mushy as they are already... making it into a mash... feels like there's not much point in it. Maybe if it's mixed with some other ingredients, it'll be nicer.
Desserts. The souffle was normal... but that spiked Baked Alaska was pretty good. Meringue on top, ice cream and mango sauce inside, and baked.
The one on the bottom right was my favourite though. Liquor (I think it's rum) on the plate, some kinda cake (with pretty course grains) in middle, and sour cream on top. When eaten with each of the ingredients in just the right proportions, it tastes like brie cheese. A nice combination. I guess this is what people mean when they say French cuisine is sophisticated. Still nowhere near Chinese food in terms of sophistication, complexity and variety though. Ok ok... China is so big, it's not a fair comparison... *shrugs*
Overall...
Would I go back there again? No... too pricey. (Ok, dad paid. But still...)
If you were to treat me there, and only in that resturant? Sure, I have no objections as long as I'm not paying. I'll get the foie gras. It was excellent. That brie cheese like dessert too.
Service wise...
It depends on which waitress you got. One was really friendly, while the other was down right rude.
The rude one led us to our table, pissed us off before we even sat down, and we would have walked out if the friendier one wasn't the one who took our orders. Bad start to the dinner indeed.
Next time I'm gonna bring my parents to Saveur. A much more affordable French resturant. And they do good duck confits too. And mum's gonna love their desserts. And they have good mushroom soup. Most importantly... it's much cheaper. Less than 20 for a main course. The duck confit is $14.90 if I remember correctly. TFS prices are like high 20s to 40+ for a main course. They have a very misleading menu... it'll take XXX from $20 onwards... and on that same page that's only 1 dish that's at the price listed on top. The rest just says +$15 or some amount at the side. Meaning the top listed price PLUS XX amount. So you have to do the calculation yourself... and it fools you into thinking that a dish is very cheap... when it's not. Honestly. If I was there alone, I would have walked out after seeing the menu.
Alright. So that's all for this post... Till another post!
