wife was invited to a credit suisse wine dinner so i tagged along.^^

the menu looked fabulous, that’s why…i not really a wine person though i drink some red for health reasons… haha! 🙂

restaurant was filled up.  there were 45 diners including quite many bank staff.

food was excellent. & we had great company, seated with the wine distributor & the CS banker. a most enjoyable evening dining & chatting! ^^

we were served a toasted bread. it was good. i finished all of it. 🙂

& we had a prosecco. 🙂

#1 first course was chef luca’s signature chilled capellini in wild truffle emulsion. chef luca hailed from garibaldi & gunther.

this was really good! it was so very flavourful, wonderful truffle aroma, with a japanese laver (seaweed) & ceviche of hokkaido scallops.

you can get decent even good chilled capellini at saveur & also just as good ones at concetto for S$7 but this here is the “real thing”.

we had the maculan bididi 2011, not that i know what it was. a pretty good, sweet white wine. wife liked it. ok for me too.

#2 the slow cooked spanish octopus was done very nicely too, very tender. ^^

the grilled flavours (server said it was braised then grilled) kind of masked by the tomato sauce. 🙂

the best octopus i had was at alle darsene at bellaggio lake como.

the roasted octopus tentacles at miky monterosso cinque terre was good too.

the preparation at da cula was perhaps more fine i guess, but taste & overall experience wise, alle darsene was just heavenly, and i think i prefer miky monterosso too.

in singapore the best i had was the sous vide octopus tempura we had almost everytime at mikuni.

#3 & the porcini funghi risotto with black truffles was good, great texture, al dente, good taste.

i did not find it as intense & flavourful as the funghi risotto (sans the black truffles) which i had recently at tess bar & kitchen though.

not sure why. maybe the more expensive black truffles overwhelmed the mushrooms?

anyway it was a good risotto.

the red wine braised wagyu cheeks was very good too. very tender, a very good braise.

it was beefy but not very beefy so easier on the palate. portion was fairly generous, not totally satiated but almost there. 🙂

chatting with a CS banker, who i found out is a fellow cooking enthusiast. he asked me where to get wagyu beef cheeks. i have not tried cooking wagyu cheeks so have not looked into this. anyway, beef cheeks  & braises not really my favourite.

for a good braise, i think my own spanish slow-braised beef ribs with a vegetable ratatouille gives a more balanced flavour. and i also prefer beef ribs to the beef cheek.

there was good wine pairing for each course, & i do enjoy just a little of the wine, though they were basically lost on me. 🙂

chef luca came to say a few words.

we all enjoyed his food very much, so chef luca was very popular man for the evening.

#5 & yes, the crispy apple tart was excellent!^^

maybe i will give this a try if i can find a good online recipe.

it was really a fabulous dinner & company.

one gentleman on our table mentioned that the S$20pax lunch here was very good so i asked for the menu, and indeed definitely worthwhile coming to try the set lunch.

the ala carte menu prices looked pretty ok too, so likely i would come here for dinner too some time.

P.S. i went with wife to an amarone wine dinner at american club last november. looking at the food picture again, that dinner would be a bit better by comparison. still, this one was very good, and we enjoyed every bit of it. 🙂

c.h.e.f andy