Whitebait & Kale

Date: 16 August 2007 21:00 (Thursday)

A very late dinner... sacrifices a husband have to make when the wife decides to get her nails perfectly pedicured at Pauline's. Some days you wonder why men need to put up with all these crap about women spending time looking pretty and us men having to wait around for them. What happened to those good o' times when the universe revolved around us men? As the wait extends, the hunger expands and the impatience augments but then the wife appears and you see her and her perfectly pedicured nails and the love rushes back and all is forgiven. Yeah, i am one of those fickle chauvinistic types... :)

When you have Kevin and Pauline as dinner company, you can expect nothing but a good time. Pauline is the artist responsible for making the harder parts (errr... nails that is) of my wife look good and Kevin is the artist responsible for making sure that Pauline is in good shape to make my wife look good. I love having meals with them cos they are really the most unpretentious, unassuming sort of people. I've got quite a few best friends that i have meals and drinks with quite often but for some reason while it is really fun being with them, there is always an underlying hint of everyone making comparisons about each others' successes, a nonchalant attempt to show off achievements, intelligence and wealth which makes these gatherings a tad unpleasant. This isn't a jibe at my friends, it's human to behave like that and i must have been responsible for such behavior at some point in my life but it's because of this that makes dining with Kevin and Pauline so much more enjoyable. They are a very lovely couple and we can talk about anything under the sun with them and everything spoken between us only serves to delight and never offend.

And so after a long and hard day's work for everyone, we finally gather at Whitebait and Kale at 9pm for a very sumptuous dinner. We start off with the freshly baked Onion bread which was soft and warm when served. Bread was really flavorful :)

Next up was the wine..... I can't help but stereotype here.... the men ordered the red, the women ordered the white. A bottle of Cloudy Bay's 2006 Sauvignon Blanc and a bottle of Cesari Mara 2002 Vino Di Ripasso.

Now, let me spend some time to tell everyone how both Wendy and I think that Cloudy Bay's 2006 Sauvignon Blanc is a wine made in heaven and the grapes that were used to create this wine, possibly cultivated by the very hands of Bacchus himself. Upon the first whiff, you are engulfed with the mouth-watering aromas of passion fruit and lemon grass led with perhaps the spiciness of just-picked tomatoes tossed with fresh basil. Once the wine hits the palate, you cannot help but be amazed at the fruitiness of the taste and it provides a very long, powerful, crisp finish. It really is our favourite bottle of white!

As for the Vino Di Ripasso, this is a red wine from Veneto Italy and it is one wine which demonstrates rich, ripe fruit flavors and i personally thought it complemented quite well with the Angus Prime Rib i had. 2002 isn't exactly a prized vintage for wines from North Eastern Italy so dun expect it to be heavy or heady on the palettes. I liked the wine and i guess that's all that really matters :)

For the Appetizers, we had the Crab Cake and this blogger has no picture to show for cos he was too hungry and when the dish was placed on the table, this blogger went straight for the food, stuffed his whole mouth with crab cakes and then attempted to say "Shit! forgot to take pictures" Obviously, that all came out rather inaudibly.... If you have not tried Whitebait and Kale's Crab Cakes, you haven't eaten real Crab Cakes.... Awesome!

For the Mains, Wen had the Crabmeat Capellini.... as a matter of fact, for the last 3,657 visits to Whitebait's, she has been ordering this for her mains. I'm going to be very factual here.... Wendy makes the best pasta in Singapore. I am not bold enough to claim that she is the best pasta chef in the world cos i think there must be at least one 5 star Michelin Chef that can do pasta better than her.... But in Singapore, if you take Wendy away from the pasta equation, then i would say this pasta is right on par with Ember's Ebi Sakura Angel Hair Pasta. That good? You Bet!!!

As for Pauline, she went with the Catch of the Day which is Errrr.... a Rock Cod i believe.... (This is what happens when you try to write a blog on a meal that happened half a month ago) She was kind enough to feed all of us with generous pieces of her fish and the fish was really very good. Fresh, tender, juicy, tasty.... Mmmmmm!



Kevin and I had the US Angus Rib Eye. He had it Medium with Truffle sauce and i had mine Medium-rare in Pepper sauce. I think the Rib Eye would have been perfect if it was done Medium-rare in Truffle Sauce! Ladies and Gentlemen, friend, fans and staff of Morton's ..... THIS IS WHAT I CALL A REAL STEAK!!! Sorry about being bitter but i still can't quite comprehend how a steakhouse specialising in steaks can get it so wrong.......

Dinner was concluded with a bottle of Moscato for Pauline, a serving of Profiteroles for Kevin, a Warm Chocolate Cake for Wen and myself and a single shot of espresso for Wendy, Kevin and myself... all of which i have no picture to show for cos i'm a crap food blogger....

Bah.... who needs pictures of food when you have company like Pauline and Kevin's!

Whitebait and Kale
1 Orchard Boulevard
#01-01 Camden Medical Centre
Singapore 248649
Tel: 63338697