Cinnamon French Toast from The Halia (Singapore Botanic Gardens) – fresh seasonal berries, white chocolate sauce, Iranian pistachio. The moisture-challenged bread was a non-starter, thankfully made more pleasant by the thick white chocolate sauce which when tasted on its own revealed its happily sweet nature but when applied to the…
“Orh Nee” from The Halia at Singapore Botanic Gardens – frozen home-made yam parfait, pumpkin purée, candied gingko nuts & lotus seeds. Essentially a rich, fragrant yam cake-mousse which is likely to evoke memories of coconut-based neighbourhood confectionery cakes you had as a TAF club child. The pumpkin purée was…
Snow White in the Blackforest from Halia (Singapore Botanic Gardens) – fresh red apple sorbet in a white chocolate casing, kirsch marinated cherries, dark choux branch, chocolate crumble, whipped cream and castor sugar soil. So jawdroppingly, show-stoppingly gorgeous a concept that the food could have been shit and all would…
The Ginger Garden from Halia (Singapore Botanic Gardens) – ginger flower sherbet, banana fritter goreng pisang, young root ginger crumble, edible flowers. The sherbet tasted like a floral Sprite soda, while both the chewy biscuit and candy had the sharp, distinct taste of ginger. The goreng pisang had a most…
Halia’s Singapore-style chilli crab spaghettini in spicy, sweet & tangy sauce. The crab bits were big, firm and intact, as if they were extracted fully from the shell instead of being all minced and clumpy. The spaghettini was nicely thin and slurpsome, and the spiciness at play is subtle -…
Affogato amaretto from Halia (Singapore Botanic Gardens) – vanilla ice cream, amaretto liqueur, hot espresso. The hot espresso is poured at your table, with some leftover if you wish to (further) feed your caffeine addiction. They certainly do not hold back on the liqueur – the distinct taste of amaretto…