french breakfast, chocolate making class and italian lunch

breakfast @ Laurent Bernard Chocolatier
on sunday 28th, i arranged with Dap to meet early to have breakfast at Laurent Bernard Chocolatier. we sat in the backyard of the restaurant cos its cooler. there was a couple of tables taken up, they are the only ones opening up so early. the rest of the restuarant here open at lunch time.


while i had mango juice in a bottle, dap had oj with her hearty breakfast that has toasts, served with scambled eggs, very nice sausage and salad. i opted for french crepes. thin crepes that was served with whipped cream, chocolate and sugared strawberries.

we did our little catch up while waiting for the breakfast that took some time to come. the reason could be they are all freshly made. but the service crew here is not very efficient. tables not cleared, i had to help myself to the menu and walked to the counter to order. its the ambience that save the day.

Chocolate Making Class

then we head for class. its dap's first cooking class. Chocolate making class! we were making 3 types of chocolate. we started with Nama Choco which is like Royce chocolates. then we proceed to make basic truffles. then lastly we worked on the bonbons.

for bonbons, we had 3 different coatings. icing sugar, cocoa powder and almond nuts coated. for this bonbons, its made of cake crumbs, orange peel, and chocolate. for this we used cointreau.

as for nama choco, we used rum and for truffles we used cherry brandy. the black box provided by the chef was from Japan. think the gold boxes are not from j thou. we were given plastic containers for the bonbons and i transferred them into my own pretty box. i brought my own boxes and i was glad cos i like to pack my creations nicely!

Pietrasanta - The Italian Restaurant
after class, we head to the italian resturant for lunch. think this little breads made dap happy cos it reminded her of the bread she loved when she was in spain for a whole month! she loves to dip the homemade bread into olive oil & balsamic vinaigrette.
for appetisers... we ordered pan-fried snails in a rich garlicky tomato stew! i was the one who wanted to try and dap was game for it. it was not bad, tasted like topshell? this is my 3rd time having snails. i still like the ones i had with gx in Lyon, France. dap did her own creative presentation for 1st snails dish.

Our 2 mains we ordered to share was very nice. Ravioli with spinach filing and Pomodora e Fungi pizza. mushrooms with parma ham. we ordered italian dessert wine to go with our meal. i enjojyed the meal alot! i was also inspired to paint. there were many paintings on the wall. i like the ambience here.

this is the side of the restaurant. is pretty nice to sit here to have tea but that afternoon was so hot that we chose to have our meal indoors. I will be back to try some other dishes and desserts! the food is really nice and i like the place!


at the very end next to the Laurents, was a studio for arts. i love the orange shuttle windows here. i am very glad that i attended class with dap and had a fabulous italian luncheon!