Odette for the BFF's 43rd!

The BFF's birthday last year was during the week after Circuit Breaker started on April 7. That was not sad; it was just unexciting. This year, we could dine out properly. Celebrated the BFF's birthday at Odette. We were tempted to do sake, but that would be really heavy for lunch. She's very much a champagne, sauvignon blanc and chenin blanc girl. So I got to pick something I really liked too- an easy bottle of an Austrian gruner vetliner (a Weingut Hirsch Kammerner Grub Kamptal 2014) to go with the lightness of the meal.

We had dietary preferences for this meal and Odette obliged — no fish and seafood for the BFF, and no shellfish for me. We loved the snacks, as well as the appetizer of charred avocado with nashi pear and celery sprinkled with Vadouvan spices and coriander. The masala totally leveled up that dish! We couldn't stuff that much bread into the stomach, as much as we wanted to devour all the carbs. 

The BFF does not eat runny eggs. Hahaha. She has completely forgotten about the Odette's famous 'organic egg'. This is Chef Julien Royer's trademark since his days at Jaan. She thought she would try. I was like, "NO. Don't bother. You cannot. The chef would kill you if you ask for that egg to be fully cooked." Teeeheheh. So she had a beautiful creation of local vegetables instead. Eat vegetables at a fancy restaurant? Oh yes, they do it so so so well. I enjoyed this version of vegetables slightly more than the heirloom beetroot variation of salt-baked beetroot, stracciatella artigiana and honey. 

For our mains, the BFF swopped out her seared foie gras for the seasonal special supplement of Vaucluse green and white asparagus with morel fricasseé and wild garlic, vin jeune and crème fraîche. That was gorgeous. I should have stolen a few more bites off her plate. My fish was excellent. It was a line-caught John Dory with Kyoto miso, and endives drizzled with sake buerre blanc. I would have not needed the sake burre blanc at all. Hahah. We had lamb, and we didn't fancy it that much. It was a tad too gamey for me; I honestly didn't enjoy it at all. I should have replaced the lamb with the special supplement of asparagus and morel mushrooms too.

The petit fours at lunch were fantastic because it's not all cakes, candy and chocolate! Not just jelly, cream and caramel, macarons, meringue and marzipan! I should lunch at Odette more often and just pass over the dinners. Anyway I don't have four hours to spare in the nights. The popsicles were fun, and the thin dark chocolate tarts were really good. The canelés were inhaled by the BFF who loved those. I especially loved the addition of Japanese melon and white strawberries. The four-layered dessert ceramic box is truly a fine work of art by ceramists Loh Lik Kian and his wife Debbie Ng. 

Happy Birthday BFF! You are my one and only! Teehehehe. Go easy on the alcohol. Go love your sweets and continue to burn 'em sugar at the gym. Stay this smart and snarky forever. 🍸