Celebrate Mother’s Day at The Halia Restaurant

Together with a few other bloggers, I was recently invited for a food tasting at The Halia Restaurant, located in Botanic Gardens. I’ve passed by this restaurant a few times, and always loved its cosy look. So when I received the invite to try out Halia’s new Mother’s Day offering, I was ecstatic!

When I reached there, a nice cool glass of Ginger Jive was served – the restaurant’s long-running signature drink.

Made of freshly squeezed ginger juice, juice and wild honey, it was a cool refreshing relief from the balmy evening heat – and boded well for the rest of the evening.

The Halia has prepared a special four-course set dinner, exclusively available from 11–13 May 2012, with 2 choices of mains and desserts.

The first dish was capsicum veloute with pan-seared lobster & truffle oil – and I loved the sweetness of the soup, and the crispy lotus root slice.

Next up was the Tian of Crab in garlic aioli, egg white, beetroot petal and chive with mille feuille of buttered brioche and passionfruit puree. What a mouthful! But a mouthful of this dish… was heavenly! The sweetness of the crab made for a yummy experience!

For mains, we had a choice between Pan-fried line-caught sea bass fillet with yuzu orange reduction, siphon of truffle mash potato and lait de soja and Char-grilled Rangers Valley beef tenderloin with puree of butternut squash, cranberry beef jus, soft herb salad in green lime vinaigrette and edible flowers, and I went with the beef!

I loved my choice! The beef was tender and conversation which flowed freely came to a stop as the entire table was busy decimating our dishes! Haha…

A good dessert is literally the icing on the cake (and the straw that breaks the back – or that weighing scale). There are also two choices: Strawberry gazpacho, cocoa streusel, basil sorbet and black peppercorn snap or the milk chocolate bar with orange caramel ice-cream and blood orange gelee. Oh… that chocolate bar. This made the entire meal worthwhile!

The chef also prepared a selection from their brunch menu over the Mother’s Day weekend for us to sample.

There is something about eating brunch that just hits a spot. And while we ooh-ed and aah-ed and thought we’d won’t be able to eat it all, the array of empty plates lie testament to the absolute yummy-ness of the brunch!

Poached eggs on brioche, dill hollandaise, roasted brown mushroom, spinach & tomato with crisp back bacon ($25). One word: HEAVENLY! This was my favourite dish of the night, as the runny eggs and salty bacon and toasty bread paired with the hollandaise sauce was divine.

If you prefer something lighter, this Granny Smith apple salad, grape, yuzu walnut, raisin, parmesan & candied orange twist in honey mustard dressing ($20) may be right up your alley.

Or half a dozen oysters done in two ways (with a spicy sweet pepper, onion, baby radish, parmesan gratin or sautéed baby spinach & garlic, Pernod deglaze, nutmeg, parmesan gratin)?

Or you can try The Halia’s special Mother’s Day creation - Parmesan and basil fregola, tempura of green asparagus and baby nasu, vine-ripened tomato and morel emulsion ($34).

 

We’d reached the end of our delicious meal, and enjoyed a refreshing cup of Halia Infusion (made of sun-dried ginger and wild honey).

My dinner companions for the night – including the Dominique’s adorable daughter R who entertained us with her antics all night… and see how she has KO-ed for the night? Haha!

All in all, it was one good experience at Halia! All my late nights watching (and salivating) over Masterchef and Junior Masterchef has seemingly come to life, and while I may not cook like them (yet), at least I can TASTE how it should be! Haha!

Thanks once again to FoodNews & The Halia for a wonderful evening!

If you are looking for a nice restaurant to treat your mom or your wife, check out The Halia’s Mother’s Day weekend offerings.

THE HALIA RESTAURANT
1 Cluny Road, Ginger Garden
(enter via Tyersall Avenue)
Singapore Botanic Gardens
Singapore 259569

The Mother’s Day set dinner is only available on 11-13 May, and you can enjoy the brunch on 12-13 May from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

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