Good times with old friends

Tonight I met up with a few colleagues from a few years ago.  I haven't seen a couple of these guys since I left that particular employer more than 5 years ago, and some of these people have been in Singapore for most of this time, so it was really nice when they contacted me for a get together.

We met at Brasserie on the Eighth at the Conrad, which used to be one of my favorite hang outs in years past.  These days I don't go as often as I used to, but I still like the food and the staff still treat me like a VIP.  Together with a perennial discount from a major bank credit card (and another card offering a short-term promotion of 30% off!) it's just a fantastic deal.

For some reason I felt like having soup for a starter, so I picked sweet corn soup enhanced with curry and steamed salmon.  The corn soup was a little thicker and granular than I expected, and the sprinkle of red peppercorns were sweet and spicy at the same time.  The salmon was pretty oily and tasted a little strong against the soup.

I brought a bottle of 2001 Kistler Chardonnay Hudson Vineyard.  I love an aged Kistler Chard, and this one had a pretty sweet and ripe nose of butter, marmalade, straw, toasty oak, honey, marshmallow and lemon citrus.  Yummy!

It's been a while since I've had the pork chop here - it used to be my favorite dish - and the preparation has changed over the years.  But the char-grilled 10oz kurobuta pork chop on sautéed spinach and seasonal vegetables with green pepper corn sauce was still pretty damn good.  I love good Japanese pork, with that nice strip of fat giving so much flavor to the meat.  This was pretty nicely grilled, and at the end I couldn't resist grabbing the bone with my hand and trying to strip it of all the edible bits.  The spinach was nice and garlicky...

I also brought along a bottle of 1997 Guado al Tasso.  Nose of smoke, a hint of brett, sweet fruit, pine needle and eucalyptus.  Drinking very nicely now.

We shared a big portion of soufflé - the house specialty dessert.  I took mine with raspberry sauce.  How I have missed this dessert here... Must come back more often.

It was a lot of fun to catch up with these guys.  Catching up on all the gossip in the industry, and shooting the breeze about Facebook, FarmVille, and the similarity between the business models of social networking games and private banking... Now we just have to make an effort to meet up more often!