I was very honoured when Pan Pacific Hotel contacted me to ask if I would like to go for this tasting. Really felt like it was a stamp of approval! So how was the tasting session?
We were first served tea & coffee but we weren't asked the type of tea, but it was English Breakfast tea served. Not sure about the coffee though! We were seated with the other bloggers/media and marketing staff of Pan Pacific and conversation just flowed! It was really enjoyable :)
We were presented with this afternoon tea set and everyone rushed to take photos, arrange the things nicely etc. And I was attracted to the bottom layer - cakes cakes cakes! What's different is that the cakes were sizeable, unlike afternoon tea sets from other hotels - dainty. So this depends on individual preference, where some prefer dainty cos big portions look daunting, some get wowed by the big portions and feel like its value for money!
This is how a set looks like - tea, the 3 tier stand + clotted cream/jam/curd to go with your scone!
Top tier - savoury sandwiches
Apple Wood Smoked Salmon with Traditional condiment on brioche - the bread was okay, a little hard can't tell its brioche, everything was quite normal. I quite liked the smoked salmon though!
gg truffle on baguette: creamy eggs with a whiff of truffle! Would be good if the bread was more crisp
Pumpernickel bread with camembert cheese w fig - I felt that the cheese taste wasnt strong in this, neither was the fig prominent
Mini turkey & cheese burger - this was extremely normal, like something you can have at home easily
2nd tier - savoury + sweets
3rd tier - sweets!!
So the chef came out and introduced the 3 tiers to us and someone asked where we should start eating from and he recommended starting with scones and then moving on to savouries then ending with the sweets.
Chicken & truffle pie (left): can't taste the truffle but if its just a chicken pie, its good, why? Because the pastry is flakey & crusty. And because its bite-sized, you can just pop the whole thing in your mouth without worrying about the pastry flaking!
Scone: this was quite a good scone! Not too crumbly, good mix of soft/crispy texture, buttery fragrance! Tiny thing but potently good. This was the 2nd on our favourites list for the afternoon tea set! Felt that the lemon curd went really well with the scone. The pastry chef said the cream was specially imported from Devonshire
Roasted Beef, Gherkin and Pommery Mayo in Mini Seed Roll
The bread was what the boy liked 'cos the seeds made it extra fragrant. However when eaten as a whole with the beef, somehow, there wasn't much taste to it and it was just average
Left: sticky date with toffee frosting
Right: Red velvet with cheese frosting
The idea of converting sticky toffee pudding into a cupcake is quite ingenious! It wasn't too sweet
Red velvet was not bad the cream cheese frosting not too sweet and cupcake moist
Classic cheesecake (left most): out of 3 of us at the table that day, all 3 put cheesecake as our top choice! It was really good, creamy but not too jialat, fragrant, crust just nice, and it almost just melts in your mouth. So sinful but so delicious! This was my and the boy's top favourite that day!
Lemon bar
Sherry triffle
Bittersweet chocolate fudge cake
Bittersweet fudge choc cake: this was fudge alright, till it was a bit too dense for me. Its more of a dark chocolate kind of cake and that tulle of chocolate there? Awesome. If you love dark chocolate, please eat that. Its so good. The chocolate cake is quite sizeable and we didn't manage to finish it between the both of us partly because we got a bit bored of it after awhile.
Lemon Bar
Now this would have been great should it have been executed properly. The lemon "curd" on top was frozen and it was SUPER hard to cut into it + it doesn't stick to the shortbread crust below i.e. they're two separate layers. The shortbread crust, is well, literally shortbread, super crispy and NOT the type you can cut nicely without crumbs spilling all over your shirt kind of crust. BUT I still kept eating this, why? The lemon "curd" was v tangy but with a slight tinge of sweetness so I liked that and ate that part separately from the shortcrust bottom.
Speaking to the head pastry chef later, he said that the lemon "curd" wasn't supposed to be frozen and supposed to be softer and he noted that mistake of his staff.
Sherry triffle - quite a classic dish that was alright
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Now after stuffing ourselves with the afternoon tea set (which there were replenishments of!) they brought out some Christmas items for us to try! These would be available in the Xmas afternoon tea set!
The spread for us!
Didn't try the fruit cake though cos its not my kinda thing!
Pumpkin scone - this scone was SUPERSUPER soft!!!! And in the middle I think there was some cream cheese filling? Not sure what the filling was but it was a joy to eat this! If you like crispy crunchy scones, this is not it. This is more like a sandwich of sorts I feel. But buttery fragrance with hints of pumpkin and that soft pillowy texture is just great for me!
Sorry I can't remember the exact name of this but it was some sort of a trifle thing again with raspberry! This was good because of the contrast between sweet + sour, and I finished it all! Even better that it comes in a cute glass jar!
Fruit Mince Pie
This was what the chef proclaimed to be his favourite! And well, the pastry is really really good and the filling was quite good with a good mix of dried fruits/nuts spiked with rum (which I would've preferred to be stronger but we can't please everyone and alcohol is difficult to gauge). I've never been a fan of fruit mince pie but this one warranted me to finish it!
Afternoon Tea set
$58, including coffee and tea for 2
Additional free flow red & white wine, $48 per person
Additional free flow champagne, $58 per person
Note: from now till 31 December 2013, coffee and tea + all food items in the Afternoon Tea set are refillable!
However after 31 December 2013, then replenishment would be $4 per item!
So as you can tell, some of the items in the afternoon tea set is more of for 1 person, so if you want, go before 31st December for the unlimited refill so that you and your partner can both have a taste without paying more! And without the awkward cutting into half to share kinda thing.
Thank you very very much to Mus of Pan Pacific Hotel for the invite! Was really humbled to be invited and to experience a food tasting session at a hotel! Thank you for the chance! :)
Pan Pacific Hotel
7 Raffles Boulevard
6336 8111
singapore@panpacific.com
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