Monthly Archives: June 2012

My first Lovebites Party :-))))))

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I’m very excited about my first event with a  LoveBites logo, I’ve had many a dinner party at home before, but this one feels different. Whether it’s because it’s the first time I’ve booked out an entire restaurant, or because I’m choosing an exclusive provider for the wines, or just because it’s not just any dinner party…it has a name. I’m nervous, excited, and hungry. I really hope that for the sake all of my friends who are coming, that it will be a fabulous night!

In Pictures – Robuchon au Dôme, Macau

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We visited Macau earlier this year for a weekend treat with a couple of friends, SO MUCH FUN! I was going through my photos during a rainy, lazy Sunday at home, and apart from being alarmed at how many more photos of food I have than of people (!!!), I loved the memories conjured up by these photos from our weekend, and our Sunday lunch at Robuchon au Dôme.

The rather odd looking Grand Lisboa Hotel in Macau, where Robuchon is located at the very top

I go to so many restaurants, take so many photos, and can’t share them all because the idea of writing a blog post every day of the week is a bit too daunting. So, instead of writing about every dish we had, I invite you to look at the photos that I took of the experience, so you can create your own impression of the restaurant (I hope it’s an amazing one!), then call them to make the first available booking you can. Invite some friends, go to Macau, and go HUNGRY.

Make a meal of it, so to speak! 🙂


Downstairs, the walls of the lift entrance are lined with fabulous wines and champagnes..

The lift opens up to an opulent mirrored foyer, with a pianist playing on a beautifully hand-carved and inlaid piano...

The lift opens up to an opulent mirrored foyer, with a pianist playing on a beautifully hand-carved and inlaid piano…

The epic tome of a wine list, the largest I have ever seen. There are also some really nice options by the glass

The epic tome of a wine list, the largest I have ever seen. There are also some really nice options by the glass

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The Butter Trolley – salted or unsalted

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The bread basket – ask for extra bacon sticks!

A perfect wheel of butter

A perfect wheel of butter

 ♥ THE AMUSE BOUCHES ♥
The Amuse bouche: Cauliflower panna cotta with uni

The Amuse bouche: Cauliflower panna cotta with uni

The vegetarian amuse bouche: Cauliflower panna cotta with a sweet corn velouté

The vegetarian amuse bouche: Cauliflower panna cotta with a sweet corn velouté

My friend AB is a vegetarian, and we had no doubt that such an establishment would be able to cater to her tastes very well. We were excited to see what they came up with, and the amuse bouche was a good start!
Crispbread with truffle butter and sea salt - yum

Crispbread with truffle butter and sea salt – yum

♥ THE STARTERS ♥
Duo of crab and mozzarella with heart of palm in romaine leaves seasoned with sweet and sour dressing. All the plates are hand decorated as well! See the red to the top left of the plate

Duo of crab and mozzarella with heart of palm in romaine leaves seasoned with sweet and sour dressing. All the plates are hand decorated as well! See the red to the top left of the plate

Gratinated Roseval potatoes with medley of pork and black truffle served with preserved mushroom

Gratinated Roseval potatoes with medley of pork and black truffle served with preserved mushroom

The vegetarian starter - mixed salad with black truffle

The vegetarian starter – mixed salad with black truffle

Although the colours were beautiful, it was completely lacking flair and ingenuity if you ask me! Surely the chef is faced with the challenge of a vegetarian meal quite regularly, and this was very boring.

The wine pairing for the starters, a nice crisp riesling, which everyone loved

The wine pairing for the starters, a nice crisp riesling, which everyone loved

♥ SOUP ♥
Hot Jelly of Shellfish Bouillon with Scallop Royale and Spiced Shredded Lobster

Hot Jelly of Shellfish Bouillon with Scallop Royale and Spiced Shredded Lobster

 What an amazing, amazing dish! Quite simply, the best soup dish that I’ve ever tasted!
Jerusalem artichoke veloute served with foie gras emulsion and black truffle

Jerusalem artichoke veloute served with foie gras emulsion and black truffle

♥ POISSON / FISH COURSE ♥
Pan-fried skate wing "Grenobloise" style with lemon caviar

Pan-fried skate wing “Grenobloise” style with lemon caviar

Gratinated Roseval potatoes with medley of pork and black truffle served with preserved mushroom

Gratinated Roseval potatoes with medley of pork and black truffle served with preserved mushroom

Slow cooked Black Cod in virgin oil topped with salmon roes served in a watercress broth and shiso flower

Slow cooked Black Cod in virgin oil topped with salmon roes served in a watercress broth and shiso flower

The wine pairing for the fish course

The wine pairing for the fish course

We visited Robuchon au Dôme for lunch, and ordering wine by the bottle would have been too much. We wanted to savour the meal as well as have some variety with the wines. The Somelier’s selection is surprisingly great value, at MOP 220 for two glasses or MOP 320 for 3 glasses. This way, we were able to taste some very nice wines, and each complemented the cuisine well.

♥ VIANDE / MEAT COURSE ♥

Caramelised quail stuffed with foie gras and mashed potatoes

Caramelised quail stuffed with foie gras and mashed potatoes

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Decadence is – quail stuffed with foie gras, with extra mash

Pan fried Iberian Pork fillet, fricassee of artichoke and capers with peanuts and verjuiced jus (jus verjuté?)

Pan fried Iberian Pork fillet, fricassee of artichoke and capers with peanuts and verjuiced jus (jus verjuté?)

The Vegetarian Main - truffle everywhere

The Vegetarian Main – truffle everywhere

Oxtail with pearl pasta, asparagus and wild mushroom emulsion

Oxtail with pearl pasta, asparagus and wild mushroom emulsion

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Served piping hot and with flair!

 The service at Robuchon is of course, outstanding! They were particularly kind and generous when it came to the cheese and dessert selections. Our waiter was AMAZING, but it has been so long and I’m quite upset that I’ve now forgotten his name 😦

♥ DESSERT & CANDY TROLLEY ♥

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It was fantastical, and beautifully presented, like Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory on wheels!

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My dessert selection

The Confectionery Trolley

The Confectionery Trolley

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Heart-shaped macaroons – need to learn how to make those

♥ CHEESE TROLLEY♥

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A nice and varied selection of French cow, sheep and goat cheeses

Robuchon is the only 3 Michelin Starred restaurant in Macau, and where else in the world can you have a 5 course Michelin lunch at such a wonderfully delicious price (MOP 688, or HK$ 670)! Why, if there was no food to waist size ratio, I’d be on that jet foil to Macau every weekend! In fact, I plan on  going again soon before they wake up, smell the truffles, and raise the prices.
Whilst admittedly we didn’t give them any warning about a vegetarian being in our group, but you would expect a 3 star restaurant to be prepared for anything. AB was happy with her meal, but I felt like they could have been a bit more creative with the dishes, especially the starter and the ‘fish’ course.
The level of service was superb, and although we were almost the last table there, and it got a bit quiet towards the end of the meal (we were there from 1-4.30pm, after all!), we benefited from having a free choice of what we wanted from the cheese and dessert trolleys! 🙂 Or at least we thought we benefited – let’s just say that these restaurants know what they’re doing when they limit you to 3 choices. While it may be disappointing at first, they are really saving you from a stomach ache! As tempting and delectable as they all look, these desserts are not made for generous consumption!

The food, the whole experience, is not one to be missed. It is an insight into the wonderful world of haute cuisine, and it is open to most! Even though the view is somewhat obscured by the grey clouds of pollution, you still feel like you’re on top of the world.

Dinner, of course, is considerably more expensive, but if I’ve had a good day at the tables, I would be there in a blink of an eyelid. Otherwise, lunch works just as well for me!

Easy peasy meals @ home – ONIONS

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Summer is well and truly here, we’re junking, we’re beaching, and those annual summer holidays are approaching! I’ve just shelled out for tickets to Paris, and after a week of degustation menus, day trips to vineyards in Champagne, and a romantic getaway to Mont St. Michel, followed by a week in Corsica with best friends (yay!), I know I’m going to be feeling very poor!

So after a gorgeous meal at Yardbird last Friday with my lovely gal pal SN, I have decided that I am going to try and conserve my funds (and my waistline) as much as possible until France – which certainly means no shopping, and much less eating out.

Consequently I’ll be cooking more at home, which I’m quite excited about! I’ll be opting for recipes that are simple and tasty, which allow me to use all of the ingredients I purchase, rather than scooping out that one tablespoon of creme fraiche and then letting the rest of the $60 container go bad. And let’s face it, the last think we want to do when we get home after a long day is channel our inner chef!

Similarly, I have lots of random ingredients in my pantry that I bought for some elaborate recipe in the past (a huge bag of pine nuts and hazelnuts, coriander seeds, Japanese cake flour, coconut oil,  to name a few), which I am going to try and use.

To start off, yesterday I made my French Onion Soup, and all I needed to buy was onions and thyme! 🙂 If you have a 1/4 bottle of white wine in the fridge which you are never going to drink, this is the perfect way to use it.

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