Tag Archives: Thai

S$12 Thai Lunch Set by Students @ Toptable CIA (Culinary Institute of America) at Temasek Poly on 17Jul2013

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S$12 thai basil squid lunch set

S$12 thai basil squid lunch set

a friend organised a lunch at Temasek Poly where another former RI friend was teaching. 🙂

we took the self-service S$12 Thai lunch set prepared by students of a Bachelor in Professional Studies in Culinary Arts Management at CIA (Culinary Institute of America) at Temasek Poly campus, a degree course by CIA & SIT (Singapore Institute of Technology). they also had the full restaurant service at Top Table but we didn’t make reservations.

this is, i guess, still a best kept secret – though i was pleasantly surprised to find Toptable already featured in hungrygowhere 🙂 i tried Toptable before & it was a rather good 3-course western set for the price. this time we had the S$12 self-service lunch set. they served lunch on alternate days with different menus and for today we had Thai. 🙂

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they served a coconut prawn fritter in thai chilli sauce before the set.  The tomyam kung was quite ok – prawn was good tomyam not flavourful enough…the satay was ok not the best, pickles ok the crab cake or fish cake quite good. 🙂

basil squid + fried rice

basil squid + fried rice

the basil squid was good…rice too with nice egg netting decoration. 🙂

S$12 green curry pork set

S$12 green curry pork set

S$12 chicken rice lunch set

S$12 chicken rice lunch set

the other friends took the chicken rice set & green curry pork set..each set came with the same tomyam soup, and satay etc side dish.

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for the dessert, the sticky rice was bad – overcooked & marshy not fragrant. the other was not worth mentioning. they might want to consider practising a proper red ruby or thai chendol dessert..

overall it was of course an excellent value lunch for S$12nett. quite enjoyable for us and a very good learning experience for the students.

c.h.e.f andy

Marvellous Thai @ Patara Fine Cuisine on 19Jun2013

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curry NZ sirloin

curry NZ sirloin

see also 29.7.2013 Patara update. 🙂

my wife bought some Creative Eatery vouchers. our favourite in the group is Patara Fine Cuisine @ Tanglin Mall. they serve 1 of the best tomyam talay (seafood) and olive rice.

when Patara was part of palate benefits with 1 person dining free, we went there often. for Thai food though, it is harder to order for 2pax to get the 50% discount, so we sometimes went in 3pax & had 33% discounts. The vouchers we used this time were purchased at 50% of the voucher value so it’s a better deal even. 🙂

tom yam talay

tom yam talay S$23 for 1 pot serving 2-3pax

we loved the tom yam talay here. 🙂 an earthen pot serving 2-3pax costing S$23 came with 2 plump scallops, 2 large prawns and many pieces of sliced squid, and the flavour was wonderful. 🙂

Thai betel nut skewers

Thai betel nut skewers – S$18

my wife liked the betel but skewers, like a Thai satay. it’s not my favourite but it was a nice dish nonetheless.

olive rice

olive rice – S$19

my other favourite dish here was olive rice, another superb flavourful dish, 1 of the few rice (carbo) dishes I would clean up the plate..haha. 🙂 the other place I would do that is (the fried rice at) Imperial Treasure. 🙂

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Thai stuffed chicken wings also not my favourite. however this one here was 1 of the best I had, the chicken was very crispy but NOT dry & the minced chicken stuffing was tasty.

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another look at my 2 favourite dishes. 🙂

curry NZ sirloin

curry NZ sirloin – S$27

& the best dish par excellence we had this time had to be the curry NZ sirloin (above & top photos). the beef itself was great, tender & done slightly medium rare, and the curry added such a wonderful combination of flavours. 🙂

we also had their delightful durian sticky rice dessert. the one here was a touch of class. it came in 2 aperitif glasses, 1 containing the durian sticky rice with coconut milk, the other with a coconut ice cream (regrettably I forgot to take a photo). they were heavenly taken together. 🙂 it cost S$15 & we shared among the 3 of us.

the lunch, 5 dishes + 1 dessert cost S$150, so it’s S$75 using the vouchers. I do find Patara a bit steep in terms of normal pricing (but I guess no more so than Thanying etc), but with the discounts it was a great deal! 🙂

c.h.e.f andy