Wednesday, November 30, 2016

One of the hottest place in Clarke Quay has gotta be VLV now!  It sets a new standard in dining and entertainment by combining a stylish modern Chinese restaurant, a glamorous Club Lounge, an al fresco courtyard bar and a riverfront dining area.

And the best part is that VLV is housed in a historic building along the riverfront, built in the 1880s.  This is such a brilliant concept and immediately puts VLV as the latest crown jewel in the heart of bustling Clarke Quay.

The restaurant’s private dining rooms and al fresco area provides the most desirable venues perfect for the grandest parties to the cosiest engagements. 








The 20,000 square feet lifestyle venue promises a seamless entertainment programme with VLV Club lounge which is fitted with state-of-the-art visual and Pioneer Pro audio technology to provide the best sounds and stage for a coveted party. Set in a stylish space filled with luxe leather VIP booths, VLV Club Lounge will play host to phenomenal parties for an international crowd. Helmed by Creative Director Mass Ramli, formerly from Armani / Prive Dubai, VLV Club Lounge is headlined by rising DJs and the dance floors are pumped with an open format range of music that is adaptable to the mood of the crowd. 


Wine and dine in style as VLV Restaurant presents over 60 fine Chinese delicacies with a focus on traditional Cantonese flavours styled for a modern day dining experience. 

The global kitchens are helmed by Executive Chef Martin Foo who has earned more than 25 years of culinary and management experience across Asia. With the restaurant’s signature dishes like live seafood and Poached Abalone with Homemade Tofu served in its exquisite modern Asian setting, VLV Restaurant refines modern Chinese dining with a harmony of tradition and style. 

This was the extensive menu we had that evening.  Ms Jessica Loo, Senior Manager, Strategic Brand and Marketing Communications, handpicked the top best seller dishes for me and a group of influencers to try.


All of us have a glass of Charles Heidsieck Champagne to kickstart our dinner.  How awesome is that!


 The champagne was smooth and creamy, easy to go down the throat as well.


 Below are the dishes we had that evening.

The Golden Dragon Skin was crispy and fragrant with the salted egg yolk.  The best part was it went very well with the light tangy avocado salad which helped to balance out the oiliness.


Next up was the Kagoshima Kurobuta 'Char Siew'.  It was soft with a nicely caramelised top.  Chef Martin mentioned that we should eat the meat together with the beans at the side and true enough, it impacted a sweet salty taste to the char siew meat when I chewed on them together.


The Calamari Ring is a great dish to go with the pre dinner drinks.  It was crunchy to chew on and not tough at all.


 One of my favorite dishes of all times... the VLV Peking Duck!  Just look at how shiny the skin was! By one look, you could tell it was extremely crispy!


 The skin was skilfully sliced off from the duck right in front of us.


The condiments to go with the Peking Duck skin was very different from what other restaurants offer.
I enjoyed wrapping up my own concortion with a mixture of sweetness, saltiness, crunch and softness.


 The poached Ocean Fish with Black Fungus, Pickled Chilli, Garlic, Ginger, Fish Broth was to me the best comfort food for a cold evening.  It was soup with loads of goodness to build up good health.



Another personal favorite dish was the Steamed Sri Lanka Crab with Bonito Egg White. Besides enjoying the sweet crab meat, the sauce itself was to die for.  I saved some of the sauce to go with the Kimchi Seafood Fried Rice cos it was just so good that I didn't want to waste any single drop of it.


 The restaurant was extremely thoughtful to include a sorbet to clear our palates before serving the next few dishes.


Look... what was burning?!


Actually this was the VLV Beggar Chicken.  I loved the fact that we get to see the 'fire' show and one of my influencer friends, HP, had the opportunity to break the clay so that we can get to eat the fragrant chicken.


The Sizzling Romania Lettuce was a light dish and I was surprised that it was still crunchy after frying it.


If you are wondering what happened to the duck meat, it was made into the Spicy Duck Cone!  I like this idea rather than frying the meat again as the duck meat retained its softness in the cone, providing a great foil to the crispiness of the cone skin.


What is dinner without rice?  We were served the Kimchi Seafood Fried Rice with a nice soft egg on top where we got to mix all the ingredient up.


 With so much food in my tummy, I decided to take a break and got my influencer friend, HP to help me take an ootd.  VLV is extremely great for this as well... hahaha!


Yes, desserts are up next and we got 3 of them... woohoo!

To start the ball rolling, we had the Oriental Cheese Cake & Mascarpone Ice Cream and the texture was such that it melted in the mouth.


My favourite was this 'Luo Han' Jelly served in a coconut shell.  It was so good that I scrapped the meat of the coconut to eat after I finished the jelly.


 Lastly, we had the 'Or Nee' with comprised of Gingko, Pumpkin and Coconut Ice Cream.  This is a twist to the usual 'Or Nee' and I love it as I am a support of anything coconut!


If you want to enjoy the same good food and ambience like we did, check out VLV located at 3A Merchant's Court, River Valley Road, #01-02, Singapore 179020.

OPENING HOURS
Restaurant
Lunch 12.00pm – 3.00pm Dinner 6.00pm – 11.00pm

Club Lounge 6.00pm – 3.00am
Courtyard 12.00 – 3.00am

Riverside
Dinner 5.30pm – 11pm Supper 11pm – 3.00am


FOR RESERVATIONS
T: +65 6661 0197
E: reservation@vlv.life 

Thanks VLV and Ms Jessica Loo for the kind arrangement!
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Great thing comes in small package and this time round, they came in cute packaging as well.  I was so excited to receive the boxes of Thinkasaur a few weeks back on behalf of my two boys, Kaiser Quain and Rayes Luke.


Look at how cute the boxes are designed.  Gosh... I was so jealous of my boys... lol.


Just look at how happy the boys were!  They were very curious what were inside the boxes and kept asking mummy to stop taking photos and quickly open up the boxes.


Ok, one last family photo before we explored what were inside these boxes.


The boys looked on in anticipation with what could be found inside the boxes.


ok, readers... make a guess.  What exactly is Thinkasaur?


Designed chiefly for children between the ages of 5 to 10 years old, Thinkasaur comes in the form of a science kit that provides the full spectrum of materials, equipment, instruction manuals and learning points for up to four experiments per box. Delivered direct-to-door, each box covers a specific scientific theme, such as chemistry, physics and Earth science!


See how engrossed the two boys were as they looked into the box.


When I told them that there were a total of 4 different activities in each Thinkasaur box, they were super happy!


The programme, which is founded primarily on encouraging hands-on learning and Do-It-Yourself fun for children, delivers a different set of science experiments each month for both parents and children to work on together. 


To teach them on the virtue of sharing, I got them to take turns to do a task each with the items provided in order to complete the activity.

Just take a look at the photos below... these two boys could hardly play together without fighting but for this activity from Thinkasaur, both of them listened attentively on the instructions which I gave them...hahaha!













The good thing about Thinkasaur is that the activities are separated into individual packaging hence I can choose to do some activities on another day, which I did.  Hence we had family fun again, the next evening!




Thinkasaur subscription programmes are offered either on a 6-month period at $43/month or a 12-month period at $40/month and are available for purchase online at www.thinkasaur.com

Alternatively, single boxes are available for purchase at $48/box. 

The two boys love the hands-on activities to bits as they get to do something interesting while mummy learns that they are learning something instead of just playing with toys.   

Science has never been so fun till Thinkasaur exists!


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