Ms Skinnyfat

It's a new week again! This week shall be International Tea week as i introduce the various teas that i've had from around the world! This time, i'll be combining my 2 favorites- food and travel, in a series of posts. Since we are all kinda stuck at work (except for the lucky ones on break), this is something to help you get by till the next holiday! (I really need to start planning mine!) We'll start off with Singapore, then KL, HK and Korea.

Z and i headed to The Knolls at Capella for tea some time back (i didn't have bangs then). This is one great place to head to if one wishes that they are not in Singapore. I insisted on a pool view table and from there we could see the South China sea. The surroundings were luscious forests and I truly felt like i was on some secluded island for a glorious vacation under the sun.

The Knolls' afternoon tea menu comprises of 3 variants- Queens Tea, Japanese Tea and Peranakan Tea and is served daily from 3.30 - 5.30pm. Each set comes with a pot of tea of your choice and you can pick from an extensive selection by The Gryphon Tea Company. Each set costs about $38++. We didn't know that a set could serve 2 person and we each ordered a set! Imagine the horror when we were served our food (every item came in twos).

Modern Colonial Tea Set I hate to say this but the food was definitely a disappointment and fell short of our expectations. Pity pity. Again, i could make sandwiches better than these. The bread is nothing special- plain white (so Gardenia) and the brown bread tasted the same as the white bread but colored differently. For the price i'm paying, i'm certainly expecting artisan bread or at least something that's not off the shelf. Cucumber and lime based cream, egg mayo and smoked salmon are run of the mill flavors. Can tell that there's no thought put into this creation (if you can call that a creation).

The scones were slightly better than the sandwiches because they had good clotted cream and fresh jam to go along with them. I can never resist having clotted cream. Once again, i requested for some salted butter, which they failed to deliver, so i had to make my own (as usual). The Madeleine were so-so. I'm not a fan so i'm in no position to critique. 

I kinda like the fruit tart because of the light and refreshing custard which wasn't too eggy. The tart is crisp enough and not overly buttery. It helps to clear the palate after all the heavy cream and carbs with the tangy berries. Next to it is what i would call a marmalade sponge cake which was pretty dense. Z likes me. As for me, i was too stuffed to even wanna finish them. I recall it's pretty sweet, a little too much for my liking.

The Queens set on the other hand was HORRIBLE, except for the tomato with feta/goat's cheese. Everything else was plain weird. The top tier is a lavender/rose/floral infused fried quail egg which was absolutely bland and tasteless. There wasn't even a sauce or dip to go with it. I thought it was some croquettes and i was sorely disappointed when i bit into it. 

I have no idea what sorta sandwich that is but i remember it to be fairly sourish with cucumber and mayo (again). Cheap ingredients that didn't even taste good. Desserts were far too sweet again. Coconut mousse with mango and chocolate scones (which wasn't made from rich chocolate and i couldn't really taste any of the cocoa).

Queens Tea Set