Are you one of these people who say “I never win any competitions”? I was too, but that all changed one October Monday morning. An email popped into my Inbox from Silver Travel Advisor saying, “Congratulations you are the winner of Singapore Tourism Board competition”. I had won a meal for two at The Bluebird Café in Chelsea – part of their 3-night Singapore Supper event.
The Bluebird restaurant is a superb venue, it is light and elegant, and had a total refurbishment 2 years ago. The restaurant is centred around a marble top cocktail bar. It is beautifully decorated in azure blue with British textiles by Celia Birtwell.
The Singapore Supper Nights at the Bluebird was sponsored by the Singapore Tourism Board (STB), and they had kindly donated the prize to Silver Travel Advisor. We arrived around 6.30pm and had a very warm welcome from Debbie Hindle from Four Communications, the STB’s PR Agency. My guest and I were then treated to a 5-course tasting menu, paired with cocktails for each course. The menu had been created by Jason Tan and his team from the Corner House, Singapore, and the cocktails by one of Asia’s top mixologists, Sasha Wijidessa from Operation Dagger who are No. 24 on the World Best Bars.
The Gastro-Botanica tasting menu created by Jason and his team was superb, we started with an amuse bouche of small snacks Carabinero prawns, Kristal de Chine caviar which tickled our palettes followed by Orkney scallop Iberico pork jowl with red cabbage, endive, soy, caramel and garlic. My favourite part of the meal was the dessert: Kaya toast with pandan, coconut, gula melka, Muscovado sugar and pineapple with petit fours to finish. Just thinking about the dessert now makes me want to eat it all over again. The cocktails were equally superb, complementing each course with cocktails made various flavours of sake, plus other unusual ingredients such tomberry, sea buckthorn, kelp, honey vinegar, and laksa leaf to name but a few. All the flavours were very subtle.
It was a real gastronomic experience, a fusion of flavours and colours, tasting foods and cocktails that you would never normally find in your average restaurant. I have had a few taster menus at local Surrey restaurants, however this menu took the whole concept to a much higher standard. I count myself very privileged indeed to have had such a wonderful evening, there was nothing I could fault, and I would not want to either. The staff at the Bluebird were superb: fast, attentive, smartly attired and friendly. It was an evening that I don’t think I will forget for a very long time. Thank you, Silver Travel Advisor, and thanks to Singapore Tourism Board too. My next competition entry is to win a holiday to Singapore!
I am a great fan of the Silver Travel Advisor newsletter and website, it is a really good source for travel news, ideas etc. I love reading about other traveller’s experiences and advice.
