Brunch & Co's Event #8 - Jetsetter's Brunch - Destination Foodie Heaven - HAS LANDED!!

Photo by Pia Facundo

Today, 15 lovely guests boarded Brunch & Co Airlines for a whistle-stop tour to three of our favourite foodie destinations - Europe, North Africa & the Middle East. We had lots of fun setting our table with beautiful travel inspired placemats made by our pal, Lisa and boarding pass name cards which were a real hit!

Photo by Pia Facundo

On arrival, our guests were welcomed with homemade lemongrass cordial or cinnamon spiced iced tea to sip on at the departure lounge.

Photo by Pia Facundo

Once everybody had found our secret location, we swiftly fastened our seat belts and jetted off to Europe (Italy) for our first course of Panettone French toast served with caramelized pears and whipped mascarpone cream infused with orange blossom drizzled with glistening caramel-pear sauce. I had planned to have a go at making Ricotta cheese to go with this first course but will have to save that experiment for the next brunch event!

Photo by Pia Facundo

With tummies happy but still rumbling, we took off again to our next destination of North Africa (Tunisia) for our main course of Shakshuka - a red pepper & tomato stew infused with saffron & cumin served with a baked egg sprinkled with crumbled feta cheese and parsley.  We served this with pan fried merguez sausages, toasted Turkish Pide bread and a sharp tasting herb salad of watercress, rocket & coriander tossed with a lemon, olive oil & orange blossom dressing.

Photo by Pia Facundo

Before taking off for our final destination, our guests did a little seat swapping - it's so much fun watching people meeting for the first time and seeing new connections forming - that's what Brunch & Co is all about!

Photo by Pia Facundo

With conversation humming, we served a palate cleanser  consisting of a very tart homemade lemon sorbet sprinkled with crushed sugar & mint.

Photo by Pia Facundo

At our final destination of the Middle East, our guests feasted on a strawberry, pomegranate & rose Fool (whipped cream, folded with mascarpone) sprinkled with cubes of rose flavoured Turkish Delight and topped with pistachio flavoured Persian fairy floss it certainly made an interesting colour combination!

Photo by Pia Facundo

Along side our glasses of creamy goodness, we served little meringue drops for our guests to mix in to add more sweetness and texture. Destination Foodie Heaven - Landed!

Photo by Pia Facundo

Today, one of our special passengers, Pia, (who also happens to be an amazing photographer as you can see from these photos - thanks Pia!!), was celebrating her 30th birthday with a bunch of her friends - wishing you a happy, fulfilling and delicious year ahead!

Photo from Pia's camera!

Thanks again to all our lovely guests - your enjoyment & eagerness to try out all our new dishes & to meet other guests warms our hearts.

Photo by Pia Facundo

We look forward to welcoming you all again to Brunch & Co in the near future!  In the meantime, as always, Happy Brunching to one and all!

Mark & Louise xx

PS - Huge thanks also to our guest helper Hwee Yin - you're a STAR!

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