Though the husband never did anything for me, but i still carried out my 'tiny' plan on surprising the husband with the place that i was gonna bring him that night for our Anniversary celebration.
A few emails exchanged with Kimberly and voila! Out came a 4 course menu for the husband...
Something for us to bring home...Sage managed to live up to my expectation after all. Not only was the food excellent, the service was impeccable too. Kimberly, the restaurant manager who also happened to be the wife of Jusman So, the chef who owns Sage was very pleasant and friendly both online and in person.
Perhaps because Kimberly knows that the dinner was my treat (using hb's money though :P) for our anniversary, she threw in a complimentary starter for both of us. It was probably some puree - can't make out what and what but there was definitely tomato in it - topped with lovely caviar and a pretty small tree. It was just too bad that i didn't think of taking a photo of it at that time.
Then, there was some bread and butter, which was okay, nothing fabulous. I very much preferred Ember's and Garibaldi's which in my opinion were excellent!
For
A risotto of Burgundy escargot and tiger prawns flambéed with pastis, Parmesan crusted poached egg and Italian parsley foam
and i had :
Pickled North Brittany Fines De Claires oysters topped with avruga caviar and cave aged Kaltbach Le Gruyère on a bed of leek & potato vichyssoise
No pics for both too unfortunately. A real pity because the presentation was beautiful!
I love both appetizers. They were so so good. I normally get sick of risotto pretty fast but not hb's! It was so full of flavour. Very delicious.
For mine, it was abit out of what i had expected. Mainly because it was served cold. The oysters were fresh, not smoked or grilled, minus shell, served on a bed of creamy soup made from leek and potato. One would be quite sceptical initially but trust me, one bite and that's it. You will be sold. I totally finished off everything, not a single drop of vichyssoise was visible on my plate. Heh.
For the soup, we only had 1, which was "Cappuccino of wild mushrooms". When they mentioned cappuccino in the description, i never thought much of it until i saw the soup.
Now we know why it is Cappuccino aye? It does look like Cappuccino, and we drank it as though it was one too! :P
Hb's main :
Charcoal grilled U.S. beef tenderloin resting on potato aligo scented with white truffle oil, glazed asparagus and white pearl onions with smoked bacon and natural jus
Usually, people say a picture says a thousand words but but.. not for this case though. All the photos on this entry were taken with hb's N95. I didn't bring my camera that day. But come to think of it, even if i did bring my camera, i doubt the photos that are taken with it will be any better anyway...
The beef was purrrfeect. There isn't any other word to describe it.
I really dig the potato. The truffle oil was the winner of the day. It was my first time tasting it - the truffle oil - and i'm totally blown away [yes, i'm very outdated!]. I cannot imagine eating the real stuff! Heh.
I can just envision the husband ordering the same beef dish again and again when we do go back to Sage in the future and honestly, so will i!
My main :
Australian grain fed lamb short loin with a cassoulet of summer beans scented with garlic, rosemary and lardons, crispy Parmigiano Reggiano and Roma tomato coulis
Guess what's the honeycomb lookalike biscuit?
It's crispy Parmigiano Reggiano. Simply brilliant!
I like the loin quite a bit. It was smoked and grilled i was told. The combination of the lamb and beans were abit fancy which is something that i have yet comprehend. When it comes to food, i am still a conservative idiot. This, has a lot to do with the husband for being a purist and not experimental enough. Hehe.
Perhaps if we do eat out more often at such places, my appreciation will soon come very naturally *hint*hint*. Lol.
So yeah, i am still not that used to eating Azuki bean with lamb in a savoury dish. I'm more used to it in dessert. But all in all, it was worth trying it out. Something different and it was rather nicely put together :)
By now, i was filled up to the throat hence, it was dessert sharing with the husband.
Mascarpone, ricotta, cream cheese and Meyer lemon Bavarian with peanut butter ice-cream and baked honeyed-lemon filo
Even though we didn't comment much, both of us know that the dessert was nothing spectacular. The only thing we liked was the peanut butter ice cream which rocks! I am so gonna experiment this myself, making peanut butter ice cream using my brand new ice cream maker machine. Yay!
The Mascarpone, ricotta, cream cheese and Meyer lemon Bavarian with biscuit base.The food was so good that i requested to be put on their list for the coming Christmas eve dinner!
Now i truly understand why it was Sage Sage Sage here there and everywhere. They are worth mentioning. I simply cannot wait for Christmas to come.. *greedy eyes* ;)
