On Tuesday evening, we were invited to the #JFTweetup at Joe Fortes. Although the forecast called for rain all day, as you can tell by the sunny photos, the sun couldn't help but shine on us on the patio! We sampled on some of their new menu items, some from brunch, lunch and dinner.This is a picture of the highlights of the food, as well as shot of Fred about Town with the general manger, Scott Garrett and the executive chef, Wayne Sych.For a refreshing bite, we started off with Grape <Tomatoes and Mini Bocconcini. Drizzled with just a touch of balsamic, these skewers are as tasty as they are pretty.This is anything but your average sandwich, these Lobster Rolls are stuffed chockfull of sweet and juicy lobster and shrimp. A touch of green and red onions gives a nice contrast to the mixture. And no complaints about the seafood to bun ratio here either. The house baked bread is soft but hearty enough to hold everything in. And this is their amazing Seafood Tower, complete with crab legs, steamed clams & mussels, scallop ceviche, smoked sockeye salmon and poached jumbo prawns. This normally comes with oysters as well, but with their own shucking station set up, they were left off from the platter. We were very spoiled as these towers were refreshed frequently.And if you think that Joe Fortes is just for seafood-lovers, you'd be wrong. Take this Beef Tenderloin on a Potato Rosti as an example. The beef is a perfect medium rare, with a nice crust and a red tender centre. The potato rosti is also amazing. The crunch on these were almost audible. It was a good addition to the mostly seafood menu. Another non-seafood item is on the brunch menu. I haven't tried this before so I am so glad they served it as a sample today. This is the iconic Chicken & Waffles, a classic blend of savoury and sweet. The waffles had a nice crunch but were moist on the inside. The crispy coating served well to hold up against the breaded chicken breast. The topping isn't all sweet, with a touch of maple brown butter blended with a slightly spicy chili glaze. If you loved contrasting flavours and textures, this is a must-try.And no tweetup is complete without dessert and the highlight for me was their Mini-Strawberry Shortcake. Little baked biscuits with a bit of creme anglaise and strawberry halves. Having these in little bites can be dangerous, after all, three bites of dessert isn't too much, is it?
Take Note:
Joe Fortes has an amazing patio, and it's a perfect spot to soak up the sun in the summertime.
They have an amazing Happy Hour menu, 4-6pm everyday, yes, even weekends.
Looking to expand my ramen horizon, I invited @Maurice and @bennettchin to join me at Sanpachi for lunch back in December. Maurice had been there once, but was willing to join us to give it a second whirl.
Those familiar with this blog know that I like my food spicy. So of course, I ordered their Spicy Ramen. Maurice suggested I add an egg...so there it is. The ramen wasn't as bright red as it was shown in the menu (thank goodness) and it was spicy, but not overly so.
B ordered the mini combo of Nori Mayo and the Shio Ramen. His soup was quite tasty and probably better than mine overall. The chasu pieces of both noodles were really thin...papery slices. I'm not saying I want chunks like the kind you would get at Kintaro, but something I can't see through would be nice.
The Nori Mayo was interesting...reminded of me of Onigiri. Just a chunk of rice with some minced pork marinating with mayo, and wrapped with crispy nori. I really liked it, something about eating with your hands and the tiny bite-sizedness of the dish.
As part of the combo, you can actually order a half-sized portion of the ramen to go along with this. Or, if there are three of you...just share, which is exactly what we did!
Here is a closeup of my noodles...the chasu looks a little thicker here than B's Shio, but what I want to draw your attention to is the egg. It's an $1 add-on, and they call it the "tasty egg", as opposed to a bland egg, I suppose. What struck M is weird is that they serve you the egg whole, as in unsliced (is that a word?). It makes it a little weird to eat...as good as I am with chopsticks, I was having problems picking it up and slicing it open. But alas, success!
The yolk perfect...soft-boiled and as you can see, the marinade does permeate throughout the egg white, right through to the yolk. I would order this again, but perhaps would ask them to slice it in half for me...better presentation, wouldn't you say?
And you have to love the Japanese for their innovative way of saying 1am. I had no idea time 25 o'clock was...
In early August, there was a tweetup hosted by Charm Modern Thai. Lots of foodies, social media gurus and fun tweeters showed up. There was tons of bevvies being drunk...and at some point, food was sorely needed.
No being able to decide on just ONE thing...we got the APpy platter and tried a little bit of everything! There were the infamous Duck Sticks, in the upper left hand corner...beef short ribs next to that, coming down to the Thai spring rolls...all balanced out with a Thai style Beef salad... Just the thing to order when you can't decide what to order, and perfect for sharing with a loved one.
This is a picture of the highlights of the food, as well as shot of Fred about Town with the general manger, Scott Garrett and the executive chef, Wayne Sych.
For a refreshing bite, we started off with Grape <Tomatoes and Mini Bocconcini. Drizzled with just a touch of balsamic, these skewers are as tasty as they are pretty.
This is anything but your average sandwich, these Lobster Rolls are stuffed chockfull of sweet and juicy lobster and shrimp. A touch of green and red onions gives a nice contrast to the mixture. And no complaints about the seafood to bun ratio here either. The house baked bread is soft but hearty enough to hold everything in.
And this is their amazing Seafood Tower, complete with crab legs, steamed clams & mussels, scallop ceviche, smoked sockeye salmon and poached jumbo prawns. This normally comes with oysters as well, but with their own shucking station set up, they were left off from the platter. We were very spoiled as these towers were refreshed frequently.
And if you think that Joe Fortes is just for seafood-lovers, you'd be wrong. Take this Beef Tenderloin on a Potato Rosti as an example. The beef is a perfect medium rare, with a nice crust and a red tender centre. The potato rosti is also amazing. The crunch on these were almost audible. It was a good addition to the mostly seafood menu.
Another non-seafood item is on the brunch menu. I haven't tried this before so I am so glad they served it as a sample today. This is the iconic Chicken & Waffles, a classic blend of savoury and sweet. The waffles had a nice crunch but were moist on the inside. The crispy coating served well to hold up against the breaded chicken breast. The topping isn't all sweet, with a touch of maple brown butter blended with a slightly spicy chili glaze. If you loved contrasting flavours and textures, this is a must-try.
And no tweetup is complete without dessert and the highlight for me was their Mini-Strawberry Shortcake. Little baked biscuits with a bit of creme anglaise and strawberry halves. Having these in little bites can be dangerous, after all, three bites of dessert isn't too much, is it?
