Sage and Magic

Among my group of food-crazy girlfriends, we like to go somewhere fancy for dinner to celebrate our birthdays and though usually the birthday girl gets to choose where, sometimes her right gets usurped which was the case in Hui Ling's birthday celebration on Saturday. I'd been really wanting to try Sage at Robertson Walk for aeons and the last time we planned to go, they were closed for renovation so now that I've waited 3 months for another dinner excuse, we simply had to go!

It's such a nice cosy spot on the 2nd level (it was football night so the decibel level went up a bit and we had some intermittent heartstopping cheers) and we liked that they provided free corkage with the dinner set menus since the sets were worthwhile anyway so Val brought her 3 euro (sigh) sparkly rose fr norway which surprisingly lasted quite a while! I'm not much of a food blogger, cos usually I'm so hungry by the time the girls arrive I don't like to wait to start eating but I think it's a good idea for me to remember the food places I've been to so that the next time the hubster wants a night out, I actually have some places in mind!

The food at Sage is good. Really good.

Starters:

Escargot & Prawns
A risotto of Burgundy escargot and tiger prawns flambéed with pastis,
Parmesan crusted poached egg and Italian parsley foam

Tuna
Tartare of lightly cured yellow fin tuna loin with oven dried Roma tomatoes and olive tapanade, avocado coulis and crispy Parmigiano Reggiano

Valerie and her Mushrooms

Cappuccino of wild mushrooms

*I loved this one!

Mains:

Yorkshire Pork

Charcoal grilled Yorkshire pork rack with William pear and seeded mustard compote,
braised purple cabbage and tarragon veloute

Beef Cheek
Terrine of slow cooked beef cheek and roasted celery root gratinated with a truffle sabayon, fricassee of wild mushrooms and natural jus

* This was my main, and it was so so so rich this tiny portion was just the right size.

Threadfin
Fillet of threadfin coated in almond crumbs with pomme pont neuf and almond foam,
a tian of tomato confit and sweet basil – lemon emulsion

Lamb Loin
Australian grain fed lamb short loin with vanilla infused yellow corn polenta, a salsa of Provencal vegetables, pine nuts and olives on a bed of vine ripe tomato coulis

Pudding time!

Baked Apple

Oven baked Granny Smith apple wrapped in filo pastry with
apple cider caramel sauce and peanut butter ice-cream

Crème Brûlée
White chocolate crème brûlée with blood orange sorbet on
redcurrant jelly and Navel orange meringue

Chocolate Fondant
Manjari chocolate fondant topped with fresh raspberries and vanilla bean ice-cream

Blueberry Pudding
Blueberries, rum and dark chocolate pudding with
brandied mascarpone ice-cream and gingerbread biscuit

Kimberly the restaurant manager and lady owner was really nice and helped arrange a cake fr Canelé the Les Amis group-owned Pâtisserie Chocolaterie nearby so we could surprise H after dinner.

Yes that's me looking on in B-grade horror as the cake nearly slid off the board

Being the ever thoughful friend, I got her this pair of furry birthday bunny ears as courtesy after she got me the super small and ultra tight fairy wings for my hen party. I only found out on Sat that she had gotten them from Kiddyland!!!

That's her holding the journal i had custom-made for her with the front page that I doodled, scribbled and basically vandalised so that she had no choice but to remember me everytime she used the journal. Ha!

Ann Marie wanted to check out Bar 84 at Gallery Hotel where they supposedly had an inhouse magician and after popping our heads in the wrong bars a couple of times we finally managed to get to our destination. Where's the signboard people??!! At first we thought the place was closed, cos 1) they had white napkin towels hanging out to dry on the railing outside the entrance 2) boxes of mineral water stacked at the door 3) the waitress stood bouncer-like at the narrow entrance making us think no-entry. We were a little put off by now, esp. when she only moved after we asked if they were open and she said, yeah but there's a cover charge of $10 (which we already knew). The lounge redeemed itself when it turned out to be really small but super cosy with fluffy seats and jazzy lighting reminiscent of the old Somerset bar.

The magician performed his tricks at the bar counter there were only 2 other people in the bar before us and they were being entertained so we had to wait our turn. Half an hour later, we were told we could move over to the counter so we sat the birthday girl in the middle, and the japanese guy aka magician did a whole load of usual card tricks, sometimes we could see his sleight of hand sometimes we were AMAZED. Must admit we had problems understanding his english at times which resulted in a whole load of jokes but it was still pretty good fun!

In his finale, he told H to write down her name and the date on a playing card before placing the card down on the mat in front of us. He then asked where we thought the card was, and to our horror he opened the cabinet door behind him and said the card was in the bar fridge. We were still disbelieving as he pulled out this bag of 3 lemons. He told H to eliminate 1 lemon, then another, until there was only 1 left. He then passed a knife and told her to cut it open, lo and behold, the card was rolled up tuck into the flesh! It was such a mondo magic moment i tell you. Though I've seen this trick on TV before, it was still quite incredible when you were part of it. That's H up there with her soggy card heh.

We'd been stuffed and sufficiently entertained, so it was time to go and then that's when the REAL surprise showed up. That teeny weeny little lemon cost us a whopping $15!! Before taxes too. We were really unhappy about it and made a hooha but in the end we didn't want to ruin the wonderful night and H's birthday so we paid up and just so very nearly grabbed the other 2 lemons with us. Still it was fun and though we aren't sure we'll be back, at least H had a memorable bunny magic birthday so yay! Mission accomplished :)