Although I started making Christmas cards later Than usual this year, I finished making them early and posted them, I thought, quite early. However, they seem to be taking longer to reach the destinations this year in many cases. I just had a message from a friend in Australia that a card arrived yesterday, I’m sure I posted it before the 7th so that’s at least 2 weeks. I know some arrived in England and Japan within a week but some cards still hadn’t arrived to Japan. I did post cards to my friends in Singapore later than international destinations but I posted all of them a week ago latest but I had a message from a friend that it got to her yesterday. Very strange…. Of course, not everyone would let me know and I’m sort of assuming they arrived but maybe there are many that hadn’t…
My handmade cards are usually thick and I think some postmen think there is some money inside, some cards go missing. I hope they will all reach their destinations.
For dinner today, we went to SKAI at Swissotel. I was there for lunch with some friends last week and had a good impression and my husband wanted to try it. When we got there we were told there was no reservation made under my name but then they found it under reservations for their Bar. It is very puzzling because I checked it after coming home and found that it doesn’t mention their Bar at all when I go to the site I made the booking through. Complete mystery. Tables n the restaurant were fully booked but fortunately they had seats available at the bar inside of the restaurant (different from the SKAI Bar where my reservation was made) so we sat at the bar.
I chose “Crispy Rye Noodles (with Truffle, Wild Mushrooms, Onsen Egg) for my starter. There is a small nest of crispy noodle in the middle with Onsen egg in the middle and slices of truffles, then they pour some soup (I’m guessing some dashi made with seaweed). Personally I would prefer some thick sauce rather than soup but it was enjoyable enough.
My husband chose “Seared Foie Gras, Fuji Apple, Green Tea Granola, Choya”. I didn’t know what “Choya” was so I searched after getting home online and it seems to be a well known Japanese brand of plum liquor popular in Japan. I didn’t know it had become a word to describe plum liquor … or is it something else??
Since they have so many kinds of steak on their menu we guessed that was their speciality so we decided to go for a steak. My husband chose “Aspen Ridge, Angus, America U.S.D.A Prime Naturally raised in a family-owned U.S. ranch – 225g Tenderloin”. I had just a small slice to try and it was OK, I might’ve been able to eat it. However, I still prefered my choice, Saga beef, a lot more (of course!). He chose Green Pepper Sauce to go with his steak.
I chose “Saga, Wagyu, Japan, From Saga prefecture with calm climate, clean air and water Tenderloin, 160g”. My husband chose American beef saying this one is much too expensive for a small portion. I don’t like American tenderloin, I would eat American Ribeye but it was very large so the price was almost the same as Saga beef so I decided to go for this but give some to my husband. I ended up giving him about 1/3 because I it was quite rich and a small portion was enough. It was not fatty but it just tasted very rich – but delicious! I chose the Red Wine Sauce.
You are to choose 1 side dish each from 4 or 5 choices and we chose their House Salad (Baby Gem, Endive, Honey Ginger Dressing) and Chips and shared them. The photo of chips was out of focus so I’m not going to blog it.
With a bottle of sparkling water and a carafe of red wine (S$70), the total bill was S$537. The lunch set menu is reasonable but dinner is on the expensive side but I did choose an expensive Japanese steak. It was very busy so the service was rather slow but the meals were very good.
SKAI Level 70 Swissotel The Stamford 2 Stamford Road, 178882