PUBLISHED February 10th, 2015 04:00 pm | UPDATED May 18th, 2020 04:31 pm
Happy Wednesday, Nomads! We hoped you enjoyed last week‘s edition of The Weekly Grub – this week we have more Chinese New Year specials (this is the last week we’re going to talk about it, we promise), a cool café initiative, new cocktails on the menu at one of Ann Siang’s cool bars, and a new a la carte menu at one of the oldest Italian restaurants in Singapore.
Pete’s Place New Menu
Ravioli Astice
Chef Andrea Bontempi’s new a la carte menu at Pete’s Place is a culinary journey through Northern Italy. We love our pasta so we’re quite excited about the Ravioli Astice ($36, pictured), lobster ravioli with burrata cheese and saffron zucchini sauce, and the Gamberi e Nero di Seppia ($29), squid ink linguine with sustainable prawns and calamari.
Diners can also expect hearty mains such as Cacciucco alla Livornese ($34), a tomato-based seafood stew from Tuscan coastal city Livorno that’s enjoyed widely by Italian fishermen and desserts like the Bonnet Astigiana ($10), an Amaretti chocolate pudding with orange blossom and basil cress.
Reunion Imperial High Tea at Tian Fu Tea Room
Can’t stand the thought of another full-fledged CNY meal? Then your best alternative is Si Chuan Dou Hua’s Reunion Imperial High Tea, where you get your customary salmon yusheng for that prosperity toss before digging into 9 handcrafted dim sum delicacies. The highlights for us were the moneybag-looking Deep-fried Crispy Puff with Minced Prawn, the unique Salted Egg wrapped with Sliced Duck, and the tongue tingling Grilled Spicy Eel with Sichuan Pepper Sauce.
Priced at $32++ per person, the tea is available from 18 February to 5 March 2015, 2.30pm – 6pm, at all Si Chuan Dou Hua restaurants so book your seats ASAP!
Reuniting the East and West of Singapore
Jimmy Monkey
The Broll Face – a movement championing positive online behavior – has struck up a deal with cafes on both ends of Singapore after the whole East vs. West of Singapore debacle on social media.
Easties, you’ll receive a 20% discount if you head to Jimmy Monkey and a 10% discount you head to Buck Tile Street and Dutch Colony Coffee Co. at The Grandstand. Café-hoppers living in the West, hotfoot over to Holqa, Dutch Colony Coffee Co. at Frankel Avenue, and Carvers & Co for a 10% discount at all three cafes. All you need to do is to show the staff your postal code!
Ding Dong’s New Cocktails
We were glad to see that Tippling Club’s Head Bartender Kamil Foltan’s revamp of Ding Dong‘s cocktail menu retained the same fun and quirkiness in a bid to include more local flavours. For us, the stars of the new additions are definitely the Roti Kaya ($18), a combination of Johnnie Walker black label, pandan syrup, and coconut cream with toast crumbs for texture, and the gin-based Stamford’s Tea Party ($65, serves 4), which also features citrus, orange curacao, mint tea, and lillet blanc.
Honourable mentions go to their menu stalwarts Fujiyama ($18) – the perfect girly drink – as well as the comforting and nostalgic Pi Pa Gao ($22), ’cause they really put this Chinese off-the-shelf remedy for scratchy throats in it.
Tim Ho Wan’s Lunar New Year
Michelin-starred Chef Mak and the Singaporean Tim Ho Wan team have come up with three Lunar New Year items. Garnished with pork floss and chestnut powder, the Auspicious Cheese Cake boasts three types of cheese, including blue cheese. A departure from the usual sweet treat, their Prosperity Sesame Ball encases a mix of succulent diced chicken and pillowy mushroom. Also try the Lucky Purple Tapioca, which sees Japanese purple tapioca cocooned within a nian gao (glutinous skin) shell.
All dishes are priced at $3.80 and are available till 4 March 2015. Do note that all five outlets will be closed from 18-20 February 2015.
Top Image: Si Chuan Dou Hua’s Salted Egg wrapped with Sliced Duck (L) and Ding Dong’s Stamford Tea Party (R)