We bring you some of the best yuletide indulgences to enjoy around town.

AN ORIENTAL TWIST
Experience Christmas dinner with a Chinese influence at Cafe Vic, Carlton Hotel. On the festive buffet spread are baked turkey in char siew marinate and crispy pork belly, as well as an assortment of traditional Christmas desserts and pastry to top off the feast.
Tel 6311-8195

TAKE HOME THE SWEET TREATS
Shangri-La Hotel’s executive pastry chef Herve Potus’ new creations include a list of log cakes in various fruity flavours — strawberry and lychee, mango and passion fruit or Oreo cheesecake with forest berries. He has also introduced a local twist with the durian log cakes made with the flavourful and highly valued Mao Shan Wang variety.
Tel 6213-4377

’TIS THE SEASON TO BE GIVING
Conrad Centennial is organising a charity drive in support of Singapore Red Cross Society. A 4.8m Christmas tree adorned with the hotel’s signature teddy bears stands in the hotel’s lobby. You can buy tickets — whose proceeds benefit the charity — to guess the number of soft toys for a chance to win hotel stays and receive a Conrad bear.
Tel 6432-7466

CELEBRATING LA DOLCE VITA
Feast on classy northern Italian cuisine at Bonta, by chef Luca Pezzerra, a Bergamo native. The menu starts with pan-fried goose liver with figs compote and raspberry in 25-year-old balsamic vinegar, and Italian favourites like pasta, cuttlefish with arrabiata tomato sauce and ends with chestnut panna cotta.
For reservations, call 6333-8875

Creativity bubbles up where the lab and the bar meet. Christopher Tan reports.

Prefacing culinary endeavours with the word “molecular”, to indicate a certain level of laboratory-like precision, is a popular pastime these days. Perhaps nowhere, though, is it more apt than behind the bar. “Molecular mixology” is not so much a movement as it is a flowering branch of bartending art, fertilised by the information and equipment that flows so vigorously between food science laboratories and restaurants these days.

The attributes of a good mixologist — a keen sensitivity for compatible flavours, physical dexterity, a certain combination of panache and playfulness — are hardly different from those of a sterling chef. Likewise, the modern cocktail’s subtle gradations of sweet-sour-salt, varied aroma juxtapositions, and textural plays are of a piece with modern cuisine’s mores. We asked some local exponents of molecular mixology to shake up a showcase of delicious and surprising examples.

THE TIPPLING CLUB
Frank Meier’s 1920 Tomato Cocktail
Spiced tomato sphere and vinegar paper.
 
Four Textures Of Cucumber Aviation
Tanqueray No. 10 gin, maraschino, citrus, carbonated cucumber fluid gel, cucumber crunchies and cucumber paste.

Air mail Cereal
Honey, 23-year Ron Zacapa rum muesli, lifolised fruit and Henriot Champagne.

ATLANTIC DINING ROOM
T1000 Gazpacho
Fizzy gazpacho sorbet, smoked water, raw red sea prawn, oyster, arbequino olive oil, honey leaves and fleur de sel.

SAINT PIERRE
Blue Lagoon
Vodka, Blue Curacao and lemonade.

Jailbait
Tequila, Triple Sec, sour plum reduction, sour plum and sugar syrup.

Kopitini
Cognac, Kahlua, espresso and toffee espuma.

Jaguar has sharpened its claws with its latest introduction, The XFR. And now, The question that begs to be answered: Can it be tamed? Kimitsu Yang finds out.

Conservative. Staid. Traditional — these are just some of the descriptions that come to mind when you mention the Jaguar brand. Such outdated notions probably means you haven’t seen the British marque’s latest efforts to shake off its stuffy image.

The undiscerning would be hard-pressed to tell the difference between the latest XFR, the fastest production Jaguar to date, from the regular XF flock. It simply doesn’t look like a car with the muscle of a supercharged 5-litre V8 engine. And it’s in no way a criticism because the base car already looks gorgeous to begin with.

Things get quite different when you fire up the engine. The exhaust murmurs as it waits for its next command. Stomp the accelerator and the engine lets out a ferocious, crackling roar. It’s when you put the pedal to the metal that you realise you’re dealing with a beast. It accelerates with sheer insanity on the straights as you get shoved into the back of your seat.

But it’s on twisty roads that the XFR truly snarls. The onboard computer monitors alter the damper settings — up to 500 times per minute — to deliver the best handling performance. The car is almost unflappable and even gives the most inept drivers a pat on the back. The SIX-speed automatic gearbox is smooth and very quick, and is responsive to the driver’s input via the shift paddles behind the steering wheel.

Whether you want to ferry the family around town in luxurious comfort or go berserk bombing down the back roads, the XFR is able to deliver both with aplomb. It upholds Jaguar’s traditions of comfort and luxury, yet adds new dimensions that were once never thought possible with the British carmaker.