Sunday Brunch @ LIME, PARKROYAL on Pickering

Lime Restaurant is situated on the street level of the iconic PARKROYAL on Pickering Hotel which launched earlier this year. And with their long-awaited Sunday Buffet Brunch launching last month (June 2013), it's International buffet has a range of appealing dishes and desserts for guests to indulge with.

Dining Setup at Lime, Park Royal on Pickering

Every Sunday from 12.00pm to 3.00pm, Lime will be lining up array of international delights including Seafood on Ice, Wok Station, Mushroom Risotto and tempting treats such as a Foie Gras Terrine, European Cheeses (12 different varieties) Cakes and Pastries. 

Furthermore with a choice of Champagne Brunch Buffet (SG$128++), guest(s) would be able to enjoy free flow Piper Heidsieck Champagne and House Wine too.

[Salad/Appraiser] Seared Tuna with Apple and Avocado

[Salad/Appraiser] Vine Tomatoes with Crab Rillette

[Salad/Appraiser] Thai-style Salad

[Salad/Appraiser] Coppa Ham

[Salad/Appraiser] Homemade Graviax

[Salad/Appraiser] Lobster Bisque Vs Mushroom Soup

To begin we start with the Salad Station which featured both Western and Asian delights such as Cold Cut Ham, Seared Tuna, Thai-style Salad and etc. We also tried both soup of the day and we preferred the Mushroom Soup more than Lobster Bisque because of it smoothing broth which is not too thick, salty nor creamy and it leaves the palate with a fragrant mushroom aftertaste.

[Highlight] Cook Station for Foie Gras and Risotto

[Highlight] Pan-Seared Foie Gras with Passion Fruit Sauce

If you are a fans of foie gras remember to head towards the Western Cook Station where the chef will take your order and prepare it right on the spot. We love the fruity taste of the passion fruit sauce and soft pear which blends well with the quick seared foie gras that has a crispy outer layer and yet moist and almost melt in your mouth texture combination.  

[Highlight] Cook station for Mushroom Risotto with Jamon Iberico Ham

[Highlight] Mushroom Risotto with Jamon Iberico Ham

I love risotto especially those cooked with seafood or mushroom. Overall the risotto from Lime taste quite decent with it's smooth and creamy texture that pairs with a slice of the Jamon Iberico Ham. But we felt the grains were a bit hard which affect the overall texture of the dish so if the grains would slightly softer, it would have definitely perfect this dish.

[Highlight] Norwegian Benedict

Quite disappointed with their Noreweigan Benedict as the poached egg yolk was way too overcooked rather than runny and I would preferred more Rosti at the base too.

Another highlight at Lime is from time to time, friendly waiters will move from table to table offering freshly baked pizza with assortment of toppings such as Hawaiian, Seafood and etc.

[Carving Station] Grilled US Asparagus and Assorted Vegetables

[Carving Station] Herbal Crusted Lamb Rack vs Cajun Roasted Chicken

[Carving Station] Whole Red Snapper with Shallot Sauce

Lime’s carving station has a wide selection of roasted meats including US Prime Rib, Guinea Fowl and Rack of Lamb. Other than the mentioned we tried the Grilled Vegetables, Potato Gratin and Red Snapper with Shallot Sauce during our visit last Sunday. And I love their Grilled Asparagus which is a great side dish for my Herbal Crusted Lamb Rack.

Seafood On Ice Station

Seafood On Ice Station (Top right: Marine Lobster, Pacific Oysters and Assorted Sushi)

There is a Seafood On Ice Station for seafood lovers featuring Tiger Prawns, Marine Lobster, Clams, Mussels, Pacific Oysters, Assorted Sushi and Sashimi. Since I am not in mood with sushi nor seafood except some Oysters, I did not venture much into the seafood station.

Asian Cooked Food Station

[Asian Cooked Food Station] Array of Asian Dishes (Top left: Lo Han Chai, Seabass Curry with Okra and Egg Plants, Stir-fried Chicken with Curry Leaves and Beef Rendang)

[Asian Cooked Food Station] Singapore Laska

Lime's Aisan Cooked Food Station has captured the heart of both my mum and I with their Singapore Laska which has a fragrant gravy that is not too spicy or over power in taste. Their Stir-fried Chicken with Curry Leaves is also another delicious Asian dish as each chunk of the fried chicken is coated with a layer of their special sweet and sticky sauce, making it a great dish to go with rice .

[Asian Cooked Food Station] Chef Wok Creation - Wok Fried Fresh Seafood

Another highlight for the Asian Cooked Food Station is their mixed and matched Chef Wok Creation where you could pick up your choices of ingredients and the station chef will cook the dish base on your selection of sauce from Sambel Chilli, Kung Po Sauce or Ginger and Spring Onion. We simply love their spicy Sambel Chilli Sauce. It's Shiok! (meaning delicious)

[Dessert Station] Green Tea Chocolate Fountain with Fresh Fruits and Marshmallow

It's our first time seeing Green Tea Chocolate Fountain as compared to the usual Dark/Milk Chocolate Fountain.

[Cheese Station] Jam and Spread, 12 Different varieties of Cheese, Dried Fruits and Nuts

Cheese loves would be able to savor 12 different types of cheese such as Brie, Comte and etc together with a choice of some dried fruits like apricot and assorted nuts. These go well with a glass of sparkling champagne for a relaxing Sunday afternoon.

[Dessert Station] Colourful Assorted Macarons

Champagne and Macarons

Instead of having champagne with cheese or nuts, I choose to pair it with my beloved macarons.

[Dessert Station] Strawberry Tartlets, Passion Mango Mousse and Green Tea Tiramisu

[Dessert Station] Opera and  Fruit Flan

[Bread Station] Featuring Array of Freshly Baked Bread

After all the savory dishes, it's time to indulge in some sweet treats. The dessert station at Lime has quite a wide range of cakes, tartlets, tarts and pastries to satisfy ones craving. Moreover you could also get a cup of coffee (latte, cappuccino and etc) or premium tea to go with the dessert.

Personally from their dessert range, we preferred the Fig Tart, Cream Brulee, Passion Mango Mousse, Opera and Macarons. On top of these, they also have Pandan Kueh Lips, Raspberry and Mango pate de fruit, Triple Chocolate Ice Cream and Assorted Fruit Sorbets which we did not try (too full for those).

[Sunday Brunch] Piper Heidsieck Champagne

[Sunday Brunch] Selected Red/White House Wine

LIME @ PARKROYAL on Pickering
3 Upper Pickering Street
Singapore 058289
Telephone: 6809 8899
Website: LIME, Sunday Brunch

Sunday Brunch Buffet is available form 12.00pm - 3.00pm
- S$88++ per person (including free flow juices, soft drinks, specialty coffee and tea)

- S$128++ per person (including free flow Piper Heidsieck Champagne, Red/White House Wine, juices, soft drinks, specialty coffee and tea)

- S$44++ for Children (6 to 12 years old) and it includes free flow juices, soft drinks, specialty coffee and tea.

UOB Credit Cards Promotion:
~ Exclusively for UOB Cardmembers, from now until 30 September 2013, enjoy complimentary dining for every fourth guest with three paying adults for buffet lunch, dinner and Sunday Brunch using UOB credit card at Lime.

Lastly I would like to thank Lime and Mango PR for the invited tasting. For more photos related to Sunday Brunch @ Lime, please refer to our Facebook page, here or you could view a short clip rom my instavideo (here) taken from my Instagram (@cuisineparadise).

*All opinions expressed in this post are based on our own dining experience and the taste of the dishes might vary from individual. But I do hope you have a great experience trying this Brunch Buffet if you are planning to visit Lime soon.

[Day 2] Exploring Chatuchak Weekend Market

One will never miss the wholesales weekend market at Chatuchak whenever they visit Bangkok. This weekend market has became a landmark as well as a "must-visit" place for tourists. With more than 8,000 market stalls that occupied the 35-acre area, Chatuchak attracts more than 200,000 visitors on just a typical weekend to sift through the goods that their offer.

For your information, the weekend market is open on both Saturdays and Sundays from 09:00 - 18:00, and Fridays 18:00 - 24:00.

Cuisine Unplugged and Executive Lounge @ Pullman Bangkok King Power Hotel

During our stay at Pullman Bangkok last year, we have enjoyable breakfast at their Cuisine Unplugged which is an all-day dining concept restaurant featuring an open kitchen with pizza, pasta, rotisserie, soup and noodle hot-pot, sushi counter, wide selection of salad and fresh fruits. On top of it, there is also a unique bakery situated within the dining area that producing home-made fresh breads and croissants.

[Day 1] Exploring Asiatique, The Riverfront

[Continue from previous post] Upon arrived, check-in into our hotel and etc, we decided to head out to Siam Paragon for our dinner. Traveling there by BTS was pretty fast as it was only 3 stops away from Victory Monument station which is near our hotel.

After the meal, we deiced to visit Asiatique The Riverfront which is Bangkok's first large scale riverside night bazaar that filled with boutiques, eateries and etc.

[Day 1] Our Family Trip to Bangkok (BKK), Thailand

Sorry for this super "late" Bangkok (BKK) trip writeup which I have drag more than 6 months since December 2012 till now. And for friends and readers who have follow me on my Instagram or Facebook Page, you would probably know that we just had just returned from our awesome Taiwan trip last week. So in order to pen down as many memories as possible on our travel experiences for future reference, I need to first clear our BKK backlogs before I could start sharing something on our recent trip on Taiwan.

Visiting Singapore Mail Processing Centre (MPC) @ Eunos Branch

A few weeks back we were being invited to visit Singapore Mail Processing Centre at Eunos Branch by SingPost. It's was a fun and educating trip where we learn how mails are being process after we drop them into the post box. I am sure most of us are not aware of how our mails are being sort through the different process before it reached the receivers. And it was only after tour that we realised there are so many steps and work involved in order to deliver our daily mails despite of the minimum postage of 26 cents stamps that we paid.

Everyday SingPost deal with an average of 3 millions over postal items and although most of the sorting process are being operated by machines with minimum human help but still about 20% or less of the mails with undetectable addresses (not written in English) or bulky items are being manually sorted by human.

In order to provide better services to their customers, SingPost will be going through some major upgrade on their Mailing Process systems in July 2013 to prepared future demands on a better postal services.

Bar Code Sorter reads the ID tag on stamped mail and prints destinations bar code on envelopes at 35,000 per hours.

Corporate Mails takes up about 80% of the daily postal items.

Manual stamping for large and bulky mails with hand written address that could not be fixed and detected by the Bar Code Sorter.

Operators trying to captured the image of the printed address on the mails and sent them out for sorting.

My boy was excited to be able to try out the mail processing system.

Different types of "stamping" such as pre-paid postage, stamps and franking found on the envelopes. 

Just for your information, more than 90% of the basic mails are being delivered on the next day delivery which can be considered as the best service record in the world.

Other than handling basic and corporate mails, each day on an average SingPost has about 14,000 undeliverable mails/items due to wrong or unrecognizable address as well as no trace of return address. These mails/parcels are then held for at least 3 months for the owners to claim. But after the dateline those items which could not be donated to the Red Cross will be automatically disposed without being opened.

For kids who sent their letters to Santa Claus during the month of  November and December, SingPost will still help to send them to the home of Santa Claus in Finland out of goodwill.

Beside those undelivered mails/parcels, we were also amazed on those loose items that being put into the post box each day. On and off SingPost will received loose items like toys, books, wallets, identification cards cards and etc in the post box island wide together with the rest of the mails. SingPost will then consolidated those items and sent them in bulks to the related banks or government departments. 

Photo Credit: SingPost

For your reference SingPost do offers a wide range of options to help customers to deliver their documents and parcels including fast delivery and standard delivery services within Singapore and overseas (over 200 countries). Depending on your items, you could select the type of deliver services accordingly to your preference by referring to the chart above.

A.M. Mail is a postage-paid local delivery service that offers an earlier delivery time for urgent mail. Customers may choose from either Letterbox Delivery (SG$2.60) or Doorsteps Delivery (SG$3.90)to deliver their mail (maximum weight is 300g) in a postage-paid A.M. Drop the envelopes at any of SingPost's posting boxes during the regular mail collection hours and the mail will be delivered to the recipients not later than 11.00am the next working day.

SmartPac is a postage-paid postal service for delivery anywhere in Singapore within the next working day at a fixed price of SG$4.70 which comes with free packaging box for delivery up to 3kg. On top of it, SmartPac also provide an easy online Track And Trace access which allows customer to check the whereabouts of their package 24hrs a week too.

For those who stays around 5 mentioned area stated below, POPStation or "Pick Own Parcel Station" is a new pilot phase system which allows selected customers (vPOST members or customers with SingPost/Speedpost Deliver Advice) to collect their parcels 24hrs a week at the designated  5 POPStation such as:-

- Bishan Community Club
- NUS Stephen Riady Centre
- Sengkang Community Club
- Singapore Post Centre
- Tanglin Post Office

Other than postal services, SingPost also handles Basic Banking Services, Financial Services, Remittance and many other services.On the go, you could also download SingPost Mobile App on Apple iOS and Google Android which will help you to track parcels, locate a post office, find a postal code or calculate postage and etc in just with a few clicks.

[Wordless Wednesday] Cuisine Paradise Breakfast Ideas #1

Parents World Junior Chef Workshop And Competition

Photo Credit:- Parents World Magazine

Time flies, about two years back in 2011 I was engaged by Parents World Magazine for their Great Kids Cookout event to in-charge the Pizza and Bento workshop which you could read about it here. And this year, we are back with them at ARC (Alexandra) with more exciting workshop for your kids from 22 - 30 June 2013.

There are two work stations each handle by Chef Catherina Hosoi and Ellena Guan (me) for this Junior Chef Workshop such as:- Soup and Dessert (by Chef Catherina Hosoi), Bento and Pizza Toast (by Ellena Guan). To register for the workshop, simple just spent a minimum of S$30.00 at ARC or VivoCity from 31 May to 30 June. Below are some samples of the pizza toast and bento which will be taught during the workshop.

Creative Pizza Toast that will brighten up your kid's day as well as boost up their appetite for fussy eater with bits and pieces of the colourful ingredients in it.

Simple recipe on how to make Pizza Toast

Instead of the usual "rice" Onigiri, in this workshop we replace rice with another daily staple food like bread for a change and it's also easier for kids to handle too. I am sure the kids will be thrilled to receive a colourful breakfast/lunch bento set like this.

So do drop by ARC this school holiday from 22 - 30th June and pick up your kid's desire workshop to hands-on as well as bring back some yummy food to feast on. See you there!

Photo Credit: Parents World Magazine

On top of the Junior Chef Workshop mentioned above, VivoCity will be collaborating with Parents World Magazine to organise the ‘Junior Chef’ Competition 2013' for children aged 5 to 12 years old. This competition is categorised into two age-groups such as:-

5 -  8 Years Old
Cake Decoration Competition where younger kids get to demonstrate their budding creativity through designing their own Cake.

9 - 12 Years Old
Whereas for the older kids, they will need to whip up a mouth-watering sweet delight for the Dessert Making category.

Winners for both categories will walk away with a range of attractive prizes! So do sign up your kid of this Junior Chef Competition to showcase their interest in cake designing and cooking.

Braised Seafood Noodles

Hi, it's a brand new week again and I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend and not having any Monday blues today. By the time you read on this "scheduled" post, we were away for June school holidays vacation. And since it's Monday, I prepared this "one-pot dish" recipe which could be done in 10 minutes with some pre-preparation of the ingredients.

Braised Seafood Noodles is always one of my favourite noodles dish which sometime I would also cook a similar version using different type of noodles such as rice vermicelli, thick yellow noodles or Macaroni.

BRAISED SEAFOOD NOODLES

(Serves: 2-3 | Preparation: 10 minutes | Cooking: 10 minutes)

Ingredients:
500g Flat Yellow Noodles
8-10 Medium Prawn, trimmed
150g Lean Meat, sliced
2 Fishcake, sliced
2 Eggs, beaten
1 Red Onion, sliced
4 Cloves Garlic, minced
1 Small Carrot, sliced
1/4 Portion of Chinese Cabbage, sliced
250ml Swanson Chicken Broth
1 Teaspoon Of Oyster Sauce, optional

Method:-
1. Heat up frying pan with 1 teaspoon of oil (swirling around the pan). Slowly pour in beaten egg, swirl the pan and evenly spread out the egg mixture to fry the omelette.

2. When done, remove and set aside to cool before slicing it into thin strips. Using the pan and 1 teaspoon of oil, lightly fry both side of the fishcake till slightly brown. Remove and set aside.

3. Place flat yellow noodles in a big mixing bowl, pour boiling water to cover the noodles and at the same time use the chopstick to loosen up the noodles. (this is to get ride of the oil and yeast smell of the noodles)

4. Stand the noodles in hot water for about 2 minutes. Pour away the water and rinse it 2 - 3 times. Drain well and set aside.

5. Add 1 tablespoon of oil in the frying pan, saute onion, garlic, spring onion and carrot till fragrance. Add in marinated lean pork and give it a quick toss till almost cooked through.

6. Stir in Chinese Cabbage and continue to fry for another minute, pour in chicken broth and 1 teaspoon of oyster sauce.

7. Next add in prawns and cook till it changed colour, stir in the blanched flat yellow noodles, fish cake and let it braised for another minute or two.

8. Remove from heat, garnish noodles with fried shallot, cut chilli and some spring onion and coriander. Serve immediately.

Hope you like this quick and easy "one-pot dish" which would help to cut down some cooking time on busy weekdays dinner. And just a quick tip, prepare necessary ingredients the night before so that you would have ample time preparing this dish when you reached home. This dish is quite dry like those sold at Cze Char Stall, so if you prefer something soupy increase the chicken broth to 1 Litre plus another 500ml of hot water.