Black Swan

   

The latest addition under Lo & Behold Group (the group that brings you White Rabbit, Overeasy etc), The Black Swan was recently crowned as the new kid on the block in CBD area as the latest water hole & eatery. Instead of being the usual mountain-tortoise me, I'm proud to say that I have been to this place already, lol! What an achievement :)

Set in a historic art deco building in the heart of CBD area, this place is easy to find. In fact, it was just within walking distance from our workplaces. I arranged to meet up with Leecher after work & walk to the venue, almost missing the entrance as we were too engrossed in talking.

When I first stepped into the restaurant, I was blown away by the classy European bistro deco. Wow - I'm certainly impressed.

      

 Reservation was easy ~ either book through Chope or call the restaurant directly. I love that they have customised plates too :)

 

Sipping a glass of champagne & eating oysters on Mondays just feels sooooooooo right! No traces of monday blues left after this, I promise.

At $18 bucks, these were extremely affordable. If we weren't here for an agenda, I would have easily ordered a couple & drown myself silly. 
 
Cheers *loves*

Fries are always a must, they made great nibbles while waiting for the rest of the company. You get to choose b/w cajun or truffles fries ($9) and needless to say, it was truffles fries for the table. 

 

The New Caesar ($18) consisted of baby romaine hearts, one-hour poached egg, parmasea-anchovycrisps and caramelised bacon.

We ordered a couple of mains for sharing too. The main course menu was limited, hence we settled for seafood linguini ($32), duck leg confit ($36), stockyard australian wagyu ribeye steak (for 2 pax, $96). In fact, we ordered 3 out of the 7 dishes that they offer under "large plates". Overall, I felt kinda ribbed off by the ribeye steak for 2 pax. It wasn't huge and yet it was pricey. My fave goes to duck leg confit, for the skin was crispy and meat, tender.

   

We ordered date & toffee pudding, together with dark chocolate dome as desserts. Dark chocolate was extremely rich, since it was made of 70% valrhona chocolate. However, it got slightly jelat after a couple of mouthfuls. As for date & toffee pudding, hmm ... I still prefer the one that I had @ Halia.

 

with bff! 

 
Leecher & Jonah ... looking like insurance agent, lol!  




 Paparazzi at work, haha!
 
    2 pairs of love birds, heh!

The Black Swan

19 Cecil Street

Singapore 049704

Tel: 8181 3305

Honeymoon: L'Angle Cafe/Restaurant

Romantic Morning Walk in Paris 

Picnic in Tuileries Garden

Exploring Tuileries Garden

Vacation Rental in Paris 

Grocery Shopping

******

Back to work on a Monday & the start of the new month, yet again. Been feeling a lil under-the-weather recently but still enduring a visit to the doc for I don't really like to take medication. I used to have a phobia on swallowing pills when I was younger thinking that the pills will be stuck in my throat ~ I will dissolve the pills in the water and drink that instead, haha! What a way to torture myself, as the after-taste will stay in my mouth. As I grew up, I've learn how to swallow pills and suddenly, my life became a lot easier. Even so, I still don't like seeing the doc unless absolutely necessary. I guess I'll just need to rest more & let my body recover by itself :)

We were famished after a long day and walked into the first cafe that appeared within our sights for lunch. L'Angle Cafe/Restaurant is situated along the corner of the apartment.

If you're stuck on Champs Elysees and don't want to get "carrot-headed" with crappy tourist restaurant fare, you can head to this cafe for a simple (inexpensive) meal away from the crowd.

Waiting for food to be served :)

We always start with a glass of wine. This time round, we ordered rose wine from Cotes de Provence AOC (€5.20 for 25cl glass). Cotes de Provence AOC is the largest appellation in Provence, accounting for almost 73% of all wine produced, with 88% of the production being rose.

Cheers!

Cotes de Provence roses are typified by a bright pale pink colour. Fresh, exotics fruits dominate, accompanied by floral and spicy notes. They are best served chilled - the one we had wasn't served chilled. Nevertheless, it was well-balanced and smooth.

Soupe à l'oignon also known as french onion soup (€7). OMG, this was absolutely tasty! They placed a bowl of cheese by the side that we can add in. Instead of drinking it directly from the bowl, I prefer to dip the bread into the soup and eat it.

Our mains consisted of Confit de Canard (duck confit, €11.50) and Poulet Roti (roast chicken, €11.50). Duck confit was extremely delicious - the skin was crispy and slightly salty much to the delight of Leecher's tastebud. Chicken was tender and juicy too. Besides the above, you also get to choose from a range of mains like salmon tartar, cod loin, grilled beef steak, hamburgers etc.

Ended the meal with Creme Brulee Vanille (€6). The serving was bigger than I thought, but good enough for sharing :) 

L'Angle Cafe/Restaurant

28 Rue De Ponthieu

75008, Paris, France

Tel: +33 1 4225 6141

Lil Bro's NS journey: 1st Overseas Deployment

Enlistment into BMTC

Passing Out Parade

OCS Family Day

*******

Lil Bro is back to being a student for months, but I have yet to finish documenting his NS Journey, oops. He had his 1st overseas deployment during his OCS journey. This refers to the Midshipman Sea Training Deployment, where it is the practical phrase of the Midshipmen's training during the Sea Training Term. This phrase of training consists of a 7-week sailing schedule with stopovers at various foreign ports. For this deployment, lil bro was more of a tag-along to have first hand experience on how his actual deployment will be like in a few months time. 

Before his actual deployment, we were invited to a mini party hosted within Changi Naval Base. Families & friends were all invited by the delegates, but somehow, I seemed to spot more GFs than family members, tsk tsk. 

It was my first time @ Changi Naval Base, with many more to come later as Lil Bro embarked his navy journey. The event was held at the central mass, so not much security clearance was needed.

Drink for the night - we each had a coupon that we can redeem for drink, lol! I prefer my drink for the lovely shade of blue :) Leecher had a fake mojito since there wasn't any alcohol in the premises, if I recall correctly. 

I certainly feel like a parent in this youngster environment, haha!
 

The guys put up a wonderful performance which deserved a round of applause :) 

We also had a game of bingo! Sadly we didn't win any prizes :(

Old people must sit down on the sofa while the youngsters stand, lol! 

The amazing view while we had our dinner! 

This became the photo booth for the night. Families and friends crowd around this to take polarids. We took a couple and gave to lil bro, so he can look at it if he misses us during his sailing days, lol! I just hope he didn't pick up a pen and start drawing on my face!

 The day finally came when lil bro set sail for his 1st overseas deployment. Before that, I even had to change $$ for him in various currencies as he'll be visiting 3 ports during this deployment. 

Lil bro with his course mates. 

We got to tour the ship & lil bro was our guide - we visited the navigation room and it was an eye opener for me! Thankfully I was wearing flats and jeans, for the steps leading down/up to the various areas were pretty steep.

Hello World, lol!

Well, a proper post for lil bro since he can't be fooling around in his uniform. 

Last pictures before we need to leave the ship.

A group pic for the batch mates ~ honestly, they all looked similar apart from having no specs vs wearing black-rimmed specs.

It was time for the midshipmen to board RSS Resolution. Prefix RSS meaning Republic of Singapore Ship. RSS Resolution are the biggest class of ships in the Navy. The ships are also actively involved in humanitarian and disaster relief operations, notably in East Timor, the Persian Gulf and Indonesian province of Aceh.

Waving byes as they embarked on their journey to become better sea navigators :)