Brunch & Co gets FESTIVE!!

Today, Brunch & Co held its 4th official Brunch event (YAY!), and with the silly season fast approaching, we went with a festive season inspired menu of home cooked goodies for our guests to indulge in - including these gingerbread people "name cards".

Apart from the exciting menu of new recipes to try out, we were also very excited about today's brunch event as we had a special guest, Zina Alam, from Khana Commune (http://khanacommune.wordpress.com/) coming to sample our version of the "private kitchen" experience!  Zina's Khana Commune is Singapore's first underground "home" restaurant and serves up wonderful home cooked dinners.

It was lovely to finally welcome her and her friends to Brunch & Co along with our other guests.  In total we were catering for 14 hungry Brunchers - our biggest party yet.  It definitely put our tiny condo kitchen to the test!

To kick off the event, we had a choice of chilled mulled wine - a big hit, and homemade iced tea.  There's nothing like the smell of cinnamon & cloves gently simmering in a pot filled with red wine & oranges to get us all excited about Christmas.  Our chilled version was a lovely tropical climate twist that seemed to work pretty well.

For starters we served a double baked goats cheese souffle served with a rocket & hazelnut salad and a dollop of cranberry jam.  Pretty tasty!

For main course, we had an unusual Asian inspired turkey salad - shredded turkey meat dry toasted with Chinese Five Spice mix, dried cranberries & cashew nuts served with a watercress, mint & coriander salad with a home made dressing which included fresh mandarin, lime & pomegranate & ginger juice, mixed with olive oil, sesame oil & a bit of soy sauce.  We served this salad on top of a slice of toasted Brioche & an oven roasted portobello mushroom.

I'd love to learn how the restaurant chefs stack their food so well.  We've tried to serve stacks a few times and it's not easy to strategically position the various ingredients without them toppling over either in the kitchen or on the way to the table!  Will keep practicing that one!  Hopefully it tasted yummy anyway despite the salad being on the side!!

In between our main and dessert course we did a seat swap so that the guests from the different tables got to meet more potential new friends.  With the sound of new conversation humming we set to work on the preparation of our final course of panettone French toast served with a spicy poached pear, mince meat ice cream (not mince meat from the butchers, but the yummy dried fruit & spicy mixture kind that is used a lot in Christmas cooking & baking).  We did also prepare a batch of whipped mascarpone cream infused with orange blossom flower water & orange zest just for another special & regular guest, Tom.  Definitely a rather decadent end to our festive brunch, luckily the first two courses consisted of lots of virtuous salads!  Here's a photo of a finished plate - forgot to take one of the pre-eaten one!

Well that's it for events in 2011 as we prepare to set off on a well earned holiday. Brunch & Co looks forward to welcoming you all next year - please keep an eye on the "Upcoming Event Dates" tab for new event details.  For all our beautiful guests who have made setting up this "underground dining" experience such a rewarding one, thank you for all you support & enthusiasm to try something a little bit different.  Until we meet again, have a wonderful Christmas & New Year and as always, happy brunching!

Lou & Mark xx