A small celebration in The French Kitchen

I had cooked a "ferocious" lobster bisque for HY the Friday before for our wedding anniversary. So as a backup, in anticipation for a poorly implemented lobster bisque, I decided on dinner at the French Kitchen the following Saturday as their lobster bisque was featured in a local wine and dine magazine. (My "ferocious" lobster bisque recipe turned out alright, just a bit too much tomato paste and no truffle oil for the added touch)

HY's a Cantonese and yet her taste buds are quite un-Cantonese (pardon my stereo-typing, there are exceptionals, of course). She has no strong affinity to heavy flavors where her palate's concerned. This was yet another reason that I've chosen this French restaurant as the cuisine done by head chef Jean-Charles Dubois is known to be creative yet light. The French Kitchen is another concept by Chef Emmanuel Stroobant of Saint Pierre. However, the kitchen is headed by Chef Jean-Charles Dubois, formerly the chef de cuisine of Raffle Grill.

The restaurant is actually located very near to Saint Pierre, Emmanual's other French restaurant, just a block away within Central Mall. It seems that Emmanual is trying to inject a more casual gourmet experience inside The French Kitchen as compare to the classier Saint Pierre. The color for the place is a predominating white with a couple of modernistic chanderlier at the main section. Otherwise, any other decor seems to be missing. Even so, do make a reservation if you'll like to dine there as the place was packed during the Saturday night I was there.

Here's some of the items that we had ordered off the Summer Menu and enjoyed .......

As a start, we were served some of the home made bread with salmon rillette. I liked the soft bread with raisins although it does taste like something we get off the supermarket shelf, only softer.

Home made bread with Salmon Rillette

An amuse bouche with parmesan cheese, tomato and quail's egg was served before our starters. This was our first taste of Dubois light cuisine. Apart from the tinge of saltiness from the parmesan, the rest of the ingredients were as natural as they can be.

AMUSE BOUCHE

Parmesan, tomato and quail's egg

The lobster bisque was the highlight of HY's meal. Well, we did come here for this soup dish. The soup was marvelously well balanced, unlike the overpowering lobster flavors in the lobster bisque we have tasted elsewhere. Maybe the use of tiger prawn instead of lobster meat played to that perception. We did enjoy the soup though, even if the leek custard was not something that we were accustomed to.

BISQUE DE HOMARD (S$24)
traditional lobster bisque with tiger prawn beignet and leek custard

The trout was smoked real well and lightly salted to taste. I prefered the smoked trout over the kurobuta pork sausages which was why I had initially chose this starter for.

TRUITE DE MER ET COCHON (S$28)
warm smoked sea trout with kurobuta pork sausage, summer truffle

vinaigrette, salad of cucumber, garden herbs and crème fraîche

We were served this simple apricot sorbet with fresh cream and was told by the waiter that this dish was for refreshing our taste buds. Somehow, I learn to appreciate the "in between dishes", little sweet or sour niceties in a French course that helps breaks the mostly savory monotony.

IN BETWEEN STARTERS AND MAINS .......

apricot sorbet with fresh cream

HY ordered a slow cooked veal rump that was good but not a real teaser though. I wonder when will she taste her best beef dish of 2009. I doubt that this was the one.

VEAU ET ASPERGES (S$38)
slow cooked veal rump with white asparagus, pommes

maxims, courgette purée and caper infused veal jus

The Pigeon a la Francaise was quite an intriguing experience for me. The waiter did gave a fore warning that the pigeon was served medium rare. I was game for the game. Its flavor, musky, like the elk meat that I had eaten in United States, and the texture, much denser than chicken. Indeed an exquisite taste for me.

PIGEON À LA FRANÇAISE (S$45)
roasted Anjou pigeon royale with garniture à la Française

green pea puree, glazed baby onion and air dried Bayonne ham

We were quite stuffed after the mains but that did not stopped us from stuffing in our desserts. HY liked her peachy dessert topped with vanilla ice cream. The sweetness from the poached peach was refreshing after the heavy savory dish we had before this.

PÊCHE MELBA (S$16)
poached peach with homemade vanilla ice-cream and raspberry coulis

I had a creme brulee from the dessert menu but did not add it in here as I thought I had much better ones elsewhere.

Overall, the food experience at the French Kitchen was enjoyable. The service was good but the only flaw was that they had served the couple at our next table their food before us although we did order before them. That made the little blotch to the almost perfect service that we received, inclusive of the complimentary wedding anniversary cake dessert that we received.

Cost : S$100 per person (without wine)

Address : 7 Magazine Road, #01-03 Central Mall

Tel : +65 6438 1823

Opening Hours : Lunch (Mondays to Fridays) Dinner (Mondays to Saturdays) Closed on Sundays

The French Kitchen Website

Country : Singapore