I’m sure many of you know that I have been on a yogurt craze recently. Somebody convinced me of the benefits of having yogurt, and up till now, I still couldn’t believe that I actually came up with a list of yogurt places in Singapore.

Even though I am currently addicted to yogurt, it doesn’t hurt to have ice cream occasionally. When I walked by Galta Gelato Italiano Artigianale – a new gelato/ice cream place at Parco Marina Bay; any resistance was fruitless and I immediately surrendered to two scoops of gelato.

It was a shame that my friend didn’t like vanilla gelato as Galta Gelato had very good vanilla flavor. I went for the Hazelnut ($4.5 for double scoop) and was rewarded with a scoop of smooth and immensely rich hazelnut gelato. If I didn’t remember wrongly, the Imperial Dark was made up of 95% dark chocolate and surprisingly, it wasn’t as bitter as I thought. While it was extremely dark, there’s a subtle hint of the pure chocolate finesse and I actually like it.

I could just stand in front of the ice cream kiosk all day long and try out the different samples. Give me vanilla, give me the pistachio please, and I wouldn’t say no to the unique Stracciatella flavor too!

If you are shopping at the new Parco Marina Bay, why not have a scoop of gelato from Galta Gelato Italiano Artigianale?

Restaurant Review
Galta Gelato Italiano Artigianale
9 Raffles Boulevard #P1-08 Parco Marina Bay
Millenia Walk Singapore

I have a problem when it comes to ice cream. You see, I tend to stick to places that I’m comfortable with: like Island creamery, U.d.d.e.r.s, and Haato. So I decided that I need to try out more ice cream parlours this year, especially so when there’s so many new ice cream places in Singapore.

Vanilla bean, chocolate, cookie & cream, durian, strawberry, hazelnut, lemon sorbet, rum & raisin, orange chocolate, tiramisu, baileys, chunky monkey, cherry, salted caramel, earl grey, pistachio, matcha, sesame, and nutella. Whichever flavor it is, I hope that you are eating it.

I’m deeply in love with ice cream, for a split moment of insanity, I thought that she might actually like me back.  Ice cream is always irresistible; it’s like dew drops to a thirsty man in the desert, like air after being underwater for a long time, like sex to the forty year old virgin, like that Gucci bag to the fashionista – it is love.

I hope this list of ice cream parlours in Singapore will help on your hunt for the perfect scoop. Because ice cream will never let you down.

Anderson Ice Cream
6 Raffles Boulevard
#02-207A Marina Square
Tel: +65 6334 4727
Also at other outlets

Awfully Chocolate
1 Harbourfront Walk
#01-156 VivoCity
Tel: +65 6410 9725
Also at other outlets

Azabu Sabo Ice Cream
6 Eu Tong Sen Street
#01-46 The Central @ Clarke Quay
Tel: +65 6534 7178
Also at Marina Square, Taka, Plaza Singapura

Ben & Jerry
8 Dempsey Road
#01-14 Tanglin Village
Tel: +65 6473 3231
Also at other outlets

Blic Ice Cream Cafe
Blk 802 Tampines Ave 4 #01-23
Tel: +65 6786 0860

Buttercake N Cream
Blk 106 Clementi St 12
(Sunset way) #01-52
Tel: +65 6777 3477

Canele Patisserie
252 North Bridge Road
#B1-81 Raffles City shopping centre
Tel: +65 63347377
Also at Shaw, Paragon, Robertson Quay

Cold Rock Ice Creamery
24A Lorong Mambong
Holland Village
Tel: +65 6763 1323

Coccogelo Artisan Gelato
89 East Coast Road

Estivo Gelateria
26 Greenwood Avenue
Hillcrest Park
Tel: +65 6469 6763

Futta La Viva
21 Lorong Kilat
#01-01 Suncourt
Tel: +65 6838 8986

Gelare
181 Orchard Road # 04-23
Orchard Central Shopping Centre
Tel: +65 6509 9113
Also at other outlets

Gelatissimo
350 Orchard Road
#01-01 Shaw House
Tel: +65 6736 1618
Also at Singapore Flyer

Gelato Art
Blk 105 Clementi St 12
#01-16 Sunset Way
Tel: 9734 6243

Gelato Twist
3 Temasek Boulevard
#03-025F Suntec City Mall
Tel: 9226 2785
Also at Pearl Centre

Gusttimo di Roma
2 Orchard Road
#01-17 ION Orchard
Tel: +65 6509 9380

Haagen-Dazs
3A River Valley Road
#01-07 Clarke Quay
Tel: +65 6337 0846
Also at other outlets

Haato @ Ridgewood
5 Ridgewood Close Unit G1
Tel: +65 6464 9607
Also at Liang Court, Suntec, Thomson Plaza

Ice Cream Chef
520 East Coast Road
#01-06 Ocean Park
Tel: +65 6446 6355

Ice Cream Frenzy
Blk 501 West Coast Drive
#01-250
Tel: +65 6778 4498

Ice Cream Gallery
491 River Valley Road
#01-20 Valley Point
Tel: +65 6235 0870
Also at Eastwood Centre

Ice Cream Kingdom (** closed)
40 Holland Grove Road
Tel: 9699 9916

Ice Edge Cafe
2 Kovan Road #01-10
Simon Plaza Singapore
Tel: +65 6858 5729

Island Creamery
10 Jalan Serene
#01-03 Serene Centre
Tel: +65 64688859
Also at Great World City

Ice3 Cafe
11 Kensington Park Road
Serangoon Garden Estate
Singapore 557263
Tel: +65 6282 8126
Also at Bedok Library

Icekimo
8 Sin Ming Road
#01-03 Sin Ming Centre
Tel: +65 6455 7585

Lick Little Ice Cream kafe – Ice Cream Buffet
258 Tanjong Katong Road
Tel: +65 6440 8526

Maggie Moos Ice Cream & Treatery
313 @ Somerset #B3-54
Orchard Road

Marble Slab Creamery
201 Victoria Street
#04-01 Iluma @ Bugis
Tel: +65 6884 5933
Also at Cluny Court

Marvelous Cream
2 Orchard Turn
#B4-81/82/83 ION Orchard
Tel: +65 6509 8427
Also at Raffles City Link

New Zealand Natural Ice Cream
290 Orchard Road
#B1-K2 The Paragon
Tel: +65 6737 6259
Also at others outlets

Once Upon A Milk Shake
32 Maxwell Road
#01-08 Maxwell Chambers
Tel: 9823 3779

Raffles Creamery
1 Beach Road
Raffles Hotel
Tel: +65 6337 1886

Scoopy and Cream – Ice Cream Buffet
1 Pasir Ris Close #02-119
E!Hub @ Downtown East Singapore

Tiong Bahru Plaza #04-00
302 Tiong Bahru Road #04-00
Tiong Bahru Plaza Singapore

Scoopz
80 Marine Parade Road
#B1-154 Parkway Parade
Tel: +65 6440 3412

Seven Heaven
10 Raeburn Park
#01-24 Marketing Institute of Singapore
Tel: +65 6227 7787

26 Sentosa Gateway #01-207/208,
The Forum Resorts World Sentosa

Simply Shiok
9 One North Gateway #01-39
One North Residences Singapore
Tel: +65 6779 7926

Swensen’s Cafe Restaurant
68 Orchard Road
#03-23 Plaza Singapura
Tel: +65 6837 0650
Also at other outlets

Swirl Gelateria
557 Bukit Timah Road
#01-04/05 Crown Centre
Tel: +65 6464 6180

Taste Matters
501 Bukit Timah Road #02-19
Cluny Court Singapore
Tel: +65 6297 9713

The Daily Scoop
41 Sunset Way
#01-04 Clementi Arcade
Tel: +65 6463 3365
Also at Chips Bee Garden

The Ice Cream Man
7 Haji Lane Singapore
Tel: +65 6398 0919

Tom’s Palette
100 Beach Road
#01-25 Shaw Leisure Gallery
Tel: +65 6296 5239

U.d.d.e.r.s Ice Cream
17 Lorong Kilat
#01-08 Kilat court
Tel: +65 6466 1055
Also at Novena Goldhill, West Mall

Venezia Gelateria
1 Fifth Avenue
#01-01 Guthrie House
Tel: +65 6468 3656
Also at Tiong Bahru Plaza.

I will be adding this list to the top of my Delicious page, if there’s any place that I’ve missed out, feel free to let me know and I’ll add on to this list.

. . . In ice cream we trust

Remember the times when you were a kid, and blew soap bubbles into the air, making you go ‘aww..’ inside, I have the same feeling when it comes to ice cream too. In this world, not many things can give you that type of feeling and I believe, ice cream is one of them.

You do not need an excuse to eat ice cream.

Whenever I feel happy, I will indulge in ice cream as it makes me even happier. And besides having a patissier to cheer me up when I’m feeling down, ice cream practically does the same thing as it always chase the blues away.

How good can a good ice cream be?

I mean ice cream, being ice cream, is already perfect. How do the ice cream places in Singapore reinvent and continue the trend for something that is already done to death and found everywhere? Well, they either come up with all sorts of fanciful flavors, throw in some exotic toppings, hire pretty girls, let you mix-and-match your own ingredients, reinvent ice cream in the form of sundaes, or this case, milkshakes. Yes, milkshakes.

Ice cream, can never be bad. Even an exceptional ordinary ice cream will taste good when you are craving for it. Unike the other ice cream parlours in Singapore that scramble to compete on the varieties of flavor, the folks behind Once Upon A Milk Shake (OUAM) are a smart bunch; they keep things simple to just a couple of flavor, and package everything nicely.

What’s there not to like when it a) has a catchy name, b) sports a clean and yet bold color in white & purple, c) gives you choices of either ice cream, milkshake, or both, d) comes up with whimsical names like Agent Strawberry and Nutty Peanut Butler.

On the two occasions that I went there, I had the Chocolate Truffle Castle, Sir Cookies & Cream, Vainillapot, and Nutty Peanut Butler. The Chocolate truffle ice cream was awfully good. Thick and chocolaty, there’s no way any chocolate lover can resist this. But it was not my favorite pick, don’t get me wrong, I like chocolate, but I never really fancy chocolate ice cream; chocolate on its own, is already divine.

The Cookies & Cream milkshake, is oh-so-good. There are some renditions of the cookies and cream that are too dense and heavy, while there are others that are too light and hardly have any cookie texture. I like the lush vanilla base that has rich Oreo cookies bits, and at the same time, it’s also not cloyingly sweet. All in one cookie – this is a keeper.

Recently I’m hooked on Vanilla ice cream. Since there’s a huge supply of Ben & Jerry ice cream in my fridge, I’ve been having vanilla ice cream almost every day for the past week. Vanilla, is perhaps the simplest flavor there is, and yet the hardest to attain perfection. I think it’s the nature of vanilla, the subtle, yet sweetly-flavored, distinct elegant taste that appeals to me. Vanilla milkshake, anyone?

Peanut butter can perhaps, be mentioned in the same legendary status like Nutella. Peanut butter, I’m sure, was invented for the sole purpose of satisfying the wildest desire of the human species. Oh yes, there is the lovely strawberry jam, those are great, but it pales in comparison when you put it side by side with peanut butter. The richness of the thick and creamy peanut butter  milkshake simply makes anything ordinary, taste delicious. It’s so addictive that you will eat it straight from the jar.

Which makes it a pity when my friend claimed that she had tasted better Peanut butter milkshake elsewhere before. Perhaps the one here, is still not the one to beat.

The milkshakes are available in 2 sizes (mini @ $3.30 and regular @ $5.50). The mini ones are really tiny, but I’d go for mini and try different flavors. Best ice cream and milkshake in Singapore? Maybe, maybe not. But does it really matter?

Among all the ice cream parlours in Singapore, Once Upon A Milkshake (OUAM) is all about gimmicks,  but I love it! You know what? It’s like a guy knowing that the girl is lying to him, and yet, is willing to be deceived. I know I’m superficial. Whatever, I’m a sucker for all things pretty.

Restaurant Review
Once Upon A Milk Shake
32 Maxwell Road
#01-08 Maxwell Chambers
Tel: 9823 3779
Daily: 11am-11pm

2 Orchard Link #02-03/04
Singapore 237978
Tel: +65 9233 1624

1 Raffles Place #B1-03E
Singapore 048616
Tel: +65 9649 7893

Once Upon A Milk Shake is listed as one of ladyironchef’s favorite restaurants in Singapore.

Now that December has gone by and January is officially here, I kind of missed her already! December is the festive month, everyone was in a holiday mood and it provided us with the reason to indulge and feast.

Usually I don’t really fancy going out on Christmas eve and New Year’s eve because the whole world seems to be out on the street, but this year I had an awesome Christmas dinner, and good company to count down as we ushered into the new year.

Oh yes, December has been a good month to me.

Okay I will suggest you run along to grab a bag of chips first, and make yourself comfortable, because the photos are going to make you very hungry. We had a small gathering back in the last week of the year, it was very nice of Ivan to invite Catherine, Cheryl, Leroy & me over for the dinner party.

Call it the Post-Christmas party, or a Pre-New-year celebration, whatever – it’s just an excuse for us to come together and feast!

As a kid, the only form of Salad dressing that I knew, was the thousand island salad sauce. I also figured out that it tasted exceptionally nice with anything, I still like it now, but I came to discover more sophisticated ones like the Dijon vinaigrette that Ivan used for the tomato salad.

Is there a word that is more delicious than delicious?

The braised oxtail stew in red wine jus was simply, uh, delicious. The meat was so tender that it falls off the bone and melts in your mouth splendidly. The baguette that I brought along, came in real handy, everyone was tearing it into bits and soaking everything inside the stew.

Oh my, the potatoes are as simple as it can get, but they are so tasty. As I was trying to save room for the steak, I only had three baby potatoes, but the others adored them, we blinked, and there’s no potatoes left.

I couldn’t believe my ears when Ivan said that he only used salt and pepper to season the meat, and he did that just before it went into the pan. The secret was a block of real, solid butter. I like the medium rare taste of the meat, I like the slightly charred texture, I like how the steak was even thicker than a thumb, and I like it because Ivan cooked it for us.

We were stuffed to the brim by now, but there was still Cheryl’s apple pie for desserts. and I had two helpings of it. We were also spoil for choices when it comes to the ice cream, there were vanilla beans, rum & raisin, and even stem ginger, but I was really excited by the tiny specks of real vanilla seeds. Sweetie, cool vanilla beans ice cream, with the warm crusty apple pie; this, was a slice of heaven.

* * *

Thank you Ivan for inviting all of us to the dinner party! Great food, wonderful company, good wine, sweet desserts, and lots of food stories to share. Oh man, I’m really spoil when it comes to food.

I have a little fetish with desserts. I cannot resist them, especially during buffets. I mean, why wait till the end of the meal to have desserts, when you can have desserts right at the start? Because I eat desserts first.

Remember I took seven lucky readers with me for a dinner buffet?

The best part of the desserts section would definitely be the live station that serves fresh crepes and waffles; I had a great time marveling at the process of making the waffles, and then an inspiration suddenly struck as I took a spoon and drizzled the chocolate from the flowing fondue on top of the waffles and ice cream.

You know what’s the worst thing? They know my wildest desire and they demand my attention every now and then. It’s very irritating. They would wave and offer themselves to me. And then they tickle and whisper into my ears. If the others had not pull me away, I’d have stay at the waffle station for the whole dinner.

Their durian pengat is famous too, and it’s a great idea to have it together with the waffles too; anything goes with waffles – it’s just my excuse for having more! There’s an assortment of mini pastries and cakes available, I liked the mini fruit tarts, and simply enjoyed dipping the marshmallow inside the chocolate fondue, oh what joy.

Among the main dishes, the fried carrot cake caught my eye, and surprisingly it was very good and I couldn’t stop raving it to the rest. After the recent revamp, the buffet has doubled it’s selection and now focuses more on local and Asian dishes,

But when it comes to buffet, I always eat very little of the main dish, okay I will still grab some small bites, like one spoonful of rice and fried noodles, one piece of chicken, and some sushi. After which, I will go back and concentrate on the desserts. Oh well, I have a sweet tooth.

There’s also stations where you can prepare laksa and rojak, there’s several sets of different menu and the local favorites dishes will be rotated every night. Food is all about getting your hands dirty isn’t it? The fun of mixing and matching your own rojak, throwing in as much peanut and youtiao as you want, and putting more prawns and chili into your bowl of laksa.

It was not the chili crab, but the deep-fried mantou beside the crab that took my breathe away. What sheer audacity, they actually had a bowl full of deep-fried mantou along side the big pot of chili crab gravy – it was a direct challenge crying out to me, come, lets see how many mantous can you finish!

* * *

The buffet lunch is $39++ from Monday to Fridays, and buffet dinner for weekdays are $44++. Their weekend dinner buffet has a bigger seafood spread at $46++ per person. I will like to thank Chia Yee from Holiday Inn for the invitation for the food tasting session, and I hope that the seven of you enjoyed the buffet dinner.

Restaurant Review
Window on the Park Restaurant
11 Cavenagh road
Holiday Inn Singapore Orchard City Centre
Tel: 6733 8333

The idea was to eat, eat, and eat, but plan b, or rather the lack of a proper plan, meant that we start at Plan B. We started off easy, but it was surely one of the best burgers that I’ve.

It took everything that I got to resist ordering another burger for myself, and missed out on all the stuff that was about to come – and so three hungry dude shared one burger.

Plan B by Becasse is famous for their wagyu beef burger, and at just ten bucks, you must try this burger! What is wagyu, anyway? When even the MacDonalds in Sydney sell Angus beef burgers, you probably think it’s not a big deal.

But the real wagyu burger, comes in the form of a thick beef patty, everything was kept simple; there’s no exotic ingredients like foie gras, nor were there redundant sauce – it was so good that you could feel the sauce gushing out! Interesting, beetroot was used, and it provided the contrast from the other burgers.

Plan B, 204 Clarance sheet, have you taken down the address?

It will be disappointing if one did not step into any pub/bar when in Australia. The folks here simply love (read: adore, head over heels, cannot do without) drinking. Be it a glass of the fine wines from the vineyard, or a pin of beer straight from the brewery, say cheers! There’s a strong drinking culture here; it’s not surprising to see people drinking during lunch time, or 3pm in the afternoon.

I was glad when Richard proposed that we make a trip to his favorite pub, Bavarian Bier Cafe for some beer to chill down the hot afternoon heat. Since I always have a sweet tooth, I went for the Mango, which had a smell consistency of the fruit. The taste however, did not have such a strong mango flavor.

No one in their right mind will pass on the chance to have German Sausages, and so we ordered a platter to share. There was a krunching sound when I bite the cracking roast pork, as with the German food that I visualize, it was hearty, tasty and definitely not enough.

‘Deep-fried sushi?’

Richard casually asked if we are keen to try it out, but I could sense the excitement in his seemingly-subtle-tone.

‘I don’t know, I’m not so sure.. about this’

And the next thing I know, we were standing in front of Kana Express kiosk. This is one place where most people wouldn’t have heard of, much less try the snacks here; an oblivious kiosk by the corner of a back alley.

The sushi was done Korean-style, and there’s other popular Korean snacks like spicy rice-cake, but our focus was on these two words: Deep-fried, & sushi.

As the guest, or so they said, I was entitled to the first bite. It was edible. I think one’s enjoyment of this sushi comes from the revelation of deep fried to the mind. On it’s own, the sushi tasted very tame, but the addition of the fiery hot chili sauce enhanced the flavor greatly.

I love summer. I really do.

Summer, is the perfect excuse for us to indulge with ice cream, and more ice cream. We dropped by Passionflower, a dessert cafe which exotic ice cream flavors. The choice of vanilla hazelnut & burnt caramel was made by me, the former was evidently the favorite, and I liked the nutty taste in the vanilla ice cream, while the latter had a strong burnt caramel taste.

Summer, is not summer, without ice cream.

I stole a glance at Krispy Kreme when we walked by the shop, and was immediately dragged in and convinced to have one (just one) of the original donut. This should be the definition of how a good donut taste like: glazed with a layer of sugar, yet not to the point of being cloyingly-sweet, there wasn’t any hint of oilyness that a poor donut will have. One, simply isn’t enough.

Our original plan was to have tonkatsu at a nearby Japanese restaurant, but it was closed by the time we got there, so we went to Harry’s instead. I’m sure, any reputable guidebook will list the pies & hotdog at Harry’s Cafe de Wheels as one of the must-try in Sydney. Tiger pie is particularly famous, but to be honest, I’m not very certain of it. Mashy and meaty, maybe it’s just me, but I didn’t really enjoy it.

On the other hand, we thoroughly enjoyed the hotdog, it was a shame that we only had one to share. I’d imagine one to hold the big sausage with both hands, and put the whole thing into the mouth!

While on the way to Max Brenner, we passed by Le Patissier and decided to stop here for some sweets instead. For a small place, they have quite an array of desserts to choose from. I wanted to try vanilla pastry cake but it wasn’t available that day, so we had the Lemon Ganache. The sourish lemon ganache provided a good counterbalance to the sweet chocolate layers, but the whole cake was too dry, and I’m not a big fan of kirsch that’s also present in the cake.

When the fork first sank into the Creme Brulee, we already came to the conclusion that it failed. And unsurprisingly, the surface of the dessert was not caramelized properly; it was either a leftover, or they had torched and caramelized too early. However, the custard underneath was actually quite decent, and there’s even vanilla beans used.

* * *
Just in case you are wondering again, yes, we ate all of these in one afternoon.

Plan B by Becasse
204 Clarence Street, Sydney 2000
Tel: 9283 3450

Bavarian Bier Cafe
24 York Street, Sydney, NSW 2000
Tel: 02 8297 4111

Kana Express kiosk
Corner of Central Street

Passionflower
580 George Street
Sydney NSW 2000

Krispy Kreme
Queen Victoria Building
429 – 481 George Street,
Shop 95 – 97 Lower Ground Floor,
Sydney, NSW 2000

Harry’s Cafe De Wheel
Haymarket, NSW 2000
Next to Paddy Maguires Pub
Tel: (02) 9281 6292

Le Patissier
50 Clarence Street
Sydney NSW 2000
Tel: (02) 9299 0015

It’s always a good thing when visiting another country, especially when you are like me who usually do not research much on the place, to be in the company of fellow food bloggers.

I was fortunate to have my Sydney food blogger friends to show me around, and it was so much fun to hang out with them, everyone connected and soon we were chatting like we’ve known each other for years. And the food was good of course, no restaurant in their right mind will serve bad food to a group of hungry food bloggers.

Without Helen’s arrangement, I probably would never make it to Newtown, an suburb outside the city area, and I must say I’m glad I did. The place is a charming shopping paradise with the fashionable boutique by day, and when the sun goes down, it instantly transformed into a cool chilled-out area for all the night owls. The restaurant we’ve dinner was called Rowda Ya Habibi, they served Lebanese cuisine and we sat on the floor on cushions. Other than the exotic Lebanese cuisine, there was also special entertainment in the form of a belly-dancer, she’d danced around the room and then grab one of us up to dance (or rather move around) with her. Boy, it was hell lot of fun that night!

The eight of us went for the Extra Special Banquet ($30 per pax) which has a variety of 10 dishes selected by the chef. We began with Hummos, a chicken pea & sesame seed kind of dish that was really quite difficult to describe in terms of taste and appearance. The generous serving of Lebanese bread was somewhat like the Indian Naan, to dip with all kinds of sauces, and to be wrapped with the other sides to eat together.

I got confused by the Baba Ganooj because it looked so similar to the Hummos, but the main ingredient was smoked eggplant (one of the raw vegetables that I do not eat), and then all was good with the arrival of the fulsome Shish kebab, tender lamb fillets grilled on skewers that were mouth-watering.

In comparison to the Shish kebab, the Chicken skewers were much more tender, and juicy, and I couldn’t help stealing a glance around the table to see if there’s any leftovers. The remaining of the dishes include felafel, a deep-fried vegetarians balls of crushed chick pea (again), beans with spices, ladies finger which bears an uncanny resemblance to the Chinese fried spring roll, only that this one was filled with meat, onions and pine nuts.

Five minutes after we stepped out of the Lebanese restaurant, we headed further down the street for round 2 – ice cream! A few of the others unanimously agreed that Gelatomassi has the best (read: number one, top of the world, absolutely unbeatable) pistachio ice cream, and after trying it, I must say I agree with their judgment – it’s definitely by far one of the best green-nut ice cream that I’ve had before. The distinct pistachio nut taste would drive any fans of the green-nut crazy.

I’ve the ferrero roche flavour, which seemed tame after I tried the pistachio; it lacked the crunchy bite and wasn’t ferrero roche enough. Most of the folks didn’t like the lemon sorbet as they found it to be too sourish, but I on the other hand, thoroughly enjoyed the citrus sting. The other flavours we’d include chocolate cake, peanut, and strawberry.

Are we done? No, not yet, we went to another place in the Darlinghurst area called Messina for even more ice cream! Madness isn’t it? But that’s what happen when a group of food bloggers hang out together. The coconut lychee was a big hit here, but since I’m neither a fan of coconut nor lychee, it didn’t appeal to me. In addition, the second scoop was tiramisu which was pretty decent.

Afterwhich, the group of us went across the street to another place for frozen yogurt. It’s probably not the most sensible thing to do in the middle of a chilling night, but yet there’s nothing better than to sit out there in the cold weather while having ice cream and frozen yogurt.

‘Where are we going next?’ This simple question brought us to our fifth and final stop for the night, the very popular Chat Thai, in Chinatown. It was already midnight by the time we arrived at the place, and there’s still a long queue outside waiting to get in. No one could possibly miss out on Pad thai when in a Thai restaurant, so we had one to share. Just like the recent one that I’ve before I left for Sydney, it was sweet, not spicy at all, and the rice noodles were considerately thinner. I’d like my Pad thai to have lots of raw beansprouts and eggs, however Chat Thai’s rendition did not have enough of both to satisfy me.

* * *

Just in case you are wondering, yes we covered all these places within one night. This is the second part of my Twelve days in Sydney series, to be continued . . .

Rowda Ya Habibi
101 King Street Newtown
Tel: 02 9557 5368

Gelatomassi
262 King Street
Newtown NSW 2042
Tel: (02) 9516 0655

Messina
241 Victoria Street
Darlinghurst NSW 2010

Chat Thai
20 Campbell Street
Haymarket Chinatown
Tel: +61 (02) 9211 1808

You already know by now, I’m sure, that I like desserts. However, it does get me into trouble as I constantly (read: all the time) think about them and the craving just won’t go away. At least not until I satisfied the sweet tooth. So much so that I eat desserts first, and I can even skipped the main course for the sweet stuff.

Anyway, our initial plan was to have desserts for lunch at Buttercake n Cream – only desserts and nothing else. But we just couldn’t resist the kurobuta pork that was waving at us, I mean who can?

Buttercake n Cream was formerly known as Peaberry & Pretzel (selling German food), but the owners have since changed the concept to an ice cream parlour and dessert place. They are famous for their sundaes, and when I heard that they are serving sundaes, the first thing that came to my mind was MacDonald’s hot chocolate fudge. But trust me, their sundaes are really much better than that; we were considering between their berry berry good and Apple Pie Ala Mode ($7) since we didn’t want chocolate or banana in their other options, and we had the latter.

On paper, it was two scoops of vanilla ice cream, with apple pie fillings and almond crumble. Spotting the speckles of vanilla beans was enough to make my heart flutter, and surprisingly, the manner in which they deconstructed the apple pie ice cream (as we like to call it) turns out to be good. I like how the almond crumble provided the crunch while the apple pie filling added an tangy touch to the cold vanilla ice cream.

Tiramisu. Say it with me: Ti-ra-mi-su!

Desserts too, are special. Why end off your meal with a cup of espresso or a shot of alcohol when you can have soaked sponge fingers into both of them, with the mascarpone special that will set tongues wagging and licking at the whipping combination of coffee-liquor-mascarpone. And there’s the most wonderful cocoa powder sprinkled on top of the fluffy mixture which makes you go: oh-my-it-is-so-good!

As our spoon cuts into the Tiramisu ($5.50), the top cocoa powder layer gave way and filled our spoon. Eaten separately, the soaked finger layer tasted like wet biscuit with espresso, and the masarpone like any other ordinary cream, but combine both together, the result is totally different. The different layers seem to fuse perfectly, and the effect is a yummy sensation.

Maybe it’s just me, but honestly, all tiramisu taste good to me; how bad can a tiramisu be? Okay, you are thinking about the really lousy one; what I meant was between the pretty decent, and the very good one. This means us to the question: is a good tiramisu one that has a) strong liqueur taste b) no liqueur or c) a good mixture of both espresso and liqueur? Some people swear by the strong liqueur taste lingering in the tiramisu, while the original tiramisu actually do not have any alcohol as they were meant for children. There’s no such thing as a best tiramisu, everybody have a different preference to the espresso-alcohol proportion.

I feel silly discussing this with you, but the-best-tiramisu has been over-debated for centuries. But who cares? I like all tiramisu.

Here’s another reason for you to explore Sunset way, TGIF!

Buttercake N Cream
Blk 106 Clementi St 12
(Sunset way) #01-52
Tel: 6777 3477

I eat desserts first. There is not a single day that I will stop thinking about them. I have a really sweet, sweet tooth, and I don’t know how to control it. Oh heck, I don’t want to control it. Sweets are good, they make me happy.

First bite – wow. This is definitely a ferrero rocher cake. Even though the Caraibe ($8.50) was touted as a dark chocolate cake with dark chocolate cream, but it was really a lot sweeter than what we would like it. And this comes from someone who has a penchant for sweet stuff. It would be nicer if there’s more of the crunchy hazelnut nougatine. If you are a big fan of anything-hazelnut, go for Canele’s Le Royale instead.

Among all the different cakes on showcase at Canele, the Jupiter ($7) must be the most outstanding one with its attracting dome shape. The combination of the 64% dark chocolate mousse provided a good counter-balance to the flourless chocolate sponge; the sweetness was done just right, with a subtle hint of caramel and pecan nut nougatine in between.

If I have to use a word to describe the Baked fruit tart ($5.50), it will be pleasant. The whole thing was so nice, we thoroughly enjoyed the lemon filling on top of the tart. You definitely will not go wrong with it.

The Nougatine ($8) is one of the best ice cream around. No kidding. What’s there not to like about hazelnut praline ice cream and salted caramel? The ice cream was divine, and the salted caramel drip by the side was literally the icing on the ice cream. I fell in love, all over again.

* * *

I’m a guy. I like desserts. And I think you should too! Come on, take a nibble, sweets make you happy. This is my fifth (or sixth) time to Canele, and I almost tried all their cakes with just a couple of them left, so another visit should do the trick.

Canele Patisserie
290 Orchard road
#B1-25 Paragon
Tel: 6733 8893

It has been a long time since I last step foot here, my family used to refer Holiday Inn Atrium as “the black glass hotel”.

The air was sucked out of the room when the salad lobster ($9 per 100g) appeared; her sheer beauty took our breathe away, and for the next few second, we were wondering what to do, then one of us took a pair of chopstick and took a bite. And then the whole lobster was gone in a flash.

When in a Chinese restaurant, roasted pork is always a good indicator of the standard of the food. Unfortunately it was sold out when we went for dinner that night, but luckily we still had the suckling pig ($80 for half). Beneath the crispy skin, was the most delicious roasted pig ever, but it was the layer of fats in between that’s so sinful, but good!

I finally found a sweet & sour pork ($16) that’s good enough. I’ve been looking for one to satisfy the sweet-sour-pork-fan-in-me, and I must say Xin Cuisine’s rendition was done nicely; the crunchy pork was coated in the glossy sweet & sour sauce. The sweetness was further enhanced with the addition of lychee and apple instead of just the typical pineapple and cucumber.

And when we thought the salad lobster was good, the baked lobster with foie gras was even better. Thick, creamy mayonnaise sauce with generous chunks of foie gras, baked with the fresh, juicy crustacean. Just the thought of foie gras, and lobster, swoon! You get the idea.

Using the same sauce as the baked lobster with foie gras; the cod fish (not on the usual menu) was nicely seared on the outside and you could taste the freshness inside. We eyed it for a while and then we dug in. Removing the ginger garnish, I shoveled a corner of the fish into my mouth in one bite. The cod was perfect; it tasted good on its own, but it’s even better when we had it together with the sauce.

The Salted crusted baked Kampung chicken ($48 for whole chicken) was specially prepared in advance, and from what I understand, the difference between the normal bred chicken and kampung chicken was that while the former was caged up feeding on grains everyday, the latter gets to “run about” and exercise, which made the meat more tender and tasty.

And the main draw of the kampung chicken here was the infusion of the salted crusted into the chicken, and although it’s meant to be done this way, but we felt that it was slightly too salty for our liking.

First thoughts, the Braised 5-head abalone ($36) looks amazing. Drizzled with superior oyster sauce, there’s a reason why abalone is one of the top delicacy in Chinese cuisine. The abalone was braised until it was so soft, yet retaining a chewiness texture. It was good!

Since I had deep-fried ice cream before, I wasn’t so fascinated this time round. But still we couldn’t help not ordering it as it’s on the menu anyway. A split second into the pot of oil, was all it need for this beauty. Any longer and it would be ruin.

There was the chilled mango coulis pomelo sago ice cream ($10), and the chilled mango pudding ($6).

And since it’s the Mid-Autumn festival, we had some mooncakes too!

You like chocolate? You like mooncakes too? So how about some Mini snowskin mooncake with Champagne chocolate and pandan ($40 for 6 mini pcs)? Champagne chocolate centre with a pandan flavoured lotus paste – it’s one of those things that you either love it, or hate it.

On first look, I thought that this was the traditional mooncake with lotus paste, but it was not. Creamy moist custard filling is wrapped around a salted egg yolk and yum – I like custard! A sprinkle of edible gold flakes makes it irresistible, it’s a sin to eat something so pretty. Xin’s Mini special egg custard mooncake with egg yolk ($42 for 6 mini pcs)

The vibrant purplish blue snowskin made it very outstanding, and no, it’s not coloured flavourings. The blue pea flower was used to naturally infused and produce the beautiful colour. My family absolutely adored the Mini snowskin Peranakan mooncake with durian ($42 for 6 mini pcs); two mini mooncakes are definitely not enough for durian lovers.

My folks enjoyed the dinner of course; lobster with foie gras, suckling pig, abalone, I’m hungry now just by looking at the photos. I will probably go back to Xin Cuisine again, to try out their dim sum (it wasn’t available during dinner time).

My appreciation to Lynda from DBS, Cherylene & Seema from Eurorscg, and the Ivy & her staff from Xin Cuisine for the wonderful dinner. This is the third and final restaurant with DBS Foodster, my previous two dinner was at the Queen & Mangosteen, and Umami Japanese restaurant. You can find out more information about the DBS Indulge Series here.

Xin Cuisine
317 Outram road
4F Holiday Inn Atrium
Tel: 6731 7173

Yo Kanye, I’m really happy for you, and I’m gonna let you finish, but Udders has one of the best waffles of all times…

At least for now, until I find a better one.

Until now, I have always been a big fan of haato’s waffles, but now that I’ve discover about Udders, I’m not so sure anymore. I remember my first visit to haato a year ago; it was one of the moments which changed my humble opinion of waffles, and ever since then I never look back. I had others, which were overly priced and not fantastic. So I kept going back to the secret hideout at Ridgewood for a few more time and I never shared the place with you for fear that it might get over-crowded until recently.

Well, to put it this way, Haato’s waffles are still above the rest, but the problem is Udders is even better, and cheaper at $2.50 compared to $4. My grumble is their waffles are too thick nowadays, if my memory didn’t failed me, it used to be thinner and crispier back in the good O’ days.

Waffles make me happy. I’m difficult to please. Whatever.

If specks of vanilla beans doesn’t excite you, I don’t know what else will. Like one of those things which you will never be able to explain – I’m damn excited each and every time I see the tiny specks of vanilla seeds. There’s this natural vanilla flavour which beats the articifical vanilla essence hands down. I love it!

Memories are the best thing about life, be it sad or happy, they will always be there, although some seem to fade away slowly. Well I had fond memories of the Pure Pistachio, so we resisted ordering hazelnut flavour, which would be overbearing with vanilla beans. You could feel the bits of grounded nuts within the robust pistachio ice cream!

Wow! I can’t believe the waffle is so good. This is awesome. Resist from ordering another one, I’m going to tell everybody about it. Oh, how about haato? And then ouch, my beautiful memory is fading away.

Desserts make me happy, at least temporary, until the magic worn off, and then it’s time to eat it again. They are your best friends, and will always be there for you.

U.d.d.e.r.s Ice Cream
17 Lorong Kilat
#01-08 Kilat court
Tel: 6466 1055

Oh look, it’s Monday again.

The start of a whole new week, and another busy one ahead; with the OMY blog awards on Wednesday, going to Kim’s on Thursday, the YES 933 dinner on Saturday, and the third DBS Foodster dinner at Xin Cuisine on Sunday.

There are people in your life who will come and go, some eave in a while and some stay longer. I’m glad to have a batch of friends whom we know each other way back, and although we don’t have to meet up very often, but when we do, there will always be endless topics to chat about. And what better way than to meet up for a good meal together, and chill after dinner with ice cream?

We had two pints of strawberry fields and Snickers Mars honeycomb vanilla; the former was slightly sourish with a robust strawberry flavour, and I absolutely adored the latter with the presence of huge chunks of snickers bar inside the vanilla ice cream.

They are the ones who knew me way back and they are the ones who witness the changes in my life, and like how they put it, it’s hell of an amazing ride to watch me go from nothing to something today. I love my blog!

U.d.d.e.r.s Ice Cream
17 Lorong Kilat
#01-08 Kilat court
Tel: 6466 1055

There is no need for swanky restaurants, nor is there a need for exotic cuisines, or fanciful ambience,  everything taste good when you are with me. My idea of a perfect dinner? Having sweet for appetiser, another sweet for main course, and rounding up desserts with yet another sweet.

It’s alluring to me because nobody else does it; this in itself is a beautiful memory. And it’s not with anyone that I can do sweets for dinner, it’s only with you.

We are muddle-head, we want the best, seeking perfection in everything, and sometimes, I’m not quite sure if it even exist. Half the time we are chasing after unrequited love, after things that we desired but cannot get. Say you need me, and I will be there.

I want nobody, nobody, but you.

All guys should have a waffle-maker at home. There is nothing sweeter in life than to wake up beside your love one, and have waffles together. Making breakfast for that special person in your life, watching her pouring the syrup over the waffle playfully, feeding her a piece of the waffle that’s drenched in syrup and coated with butter; the smile on her face is worth everything.

* * *

This was at least my 5th time to haato, this lovely spot in ridgewood close, Their waffles are only 4 bucks (plain), and 6 bucks (with one scoop), move aside Gelare! Waffles on its own, with syrup and butter, are divine. There’s no need for an additional scope of ice cream; it doesn’t taste good on waffles since it melt faster before you can say ice-cream. I say it before and I will say it again: order the plain waffles, and get double scoop of ice cream separately. I always, always order hazelnut flavour at ice cream parlour, so this time round we had matcha ice cream and lychee sorbet – the green & white combination.

Haato @ Ridgewood
5 Ridgewood Close Unit G1
Tel: 6464 9607

I went to Kuala Lumpur, alone. A breathe of new air, seeking of new adventures, finding old friends, could do no harm. On that lonely night, travelling across the dreaded causeway was a breeze, I found myself to be earlier of schedule, bus schedule that was, by one and a half hours. So what I did? I ate. This was supposed to be a feasting journey, and my first meal started with Fillet O’ fish from our good old MacDonald.

The journey towards KL was much faster than I anticipated, so I arrived there 4am in the morning, and found a place which was open and had roti prata; I ate again. This was, the start of my feasting week.

And it was all very exciting indeed. I did it the typical tourist way; monorails, Lrt, cabs and of course walking about. Conversing in “English” with flabbergasted hand signs, I managed to find my way around, somehow.

To whoever who says that the only good food in Malaysia is their street food. I’m sorry, but I don’t agree. The whole dining scene in Malaysia is so vibrant! There’s plenty of creative concepts everywhere, I was so amazed by it that most of the time I was walking around checking out ideas which I’ve never seen before.

And I didn’t mention about the shopping yet. Unfortunately, it was the Malaysian annual sale when I went, everywhere was screaming the four letter word, S-A-L-E! It was almost like a scene out of “Confession of a shopaholic“; every store I walked past, the mannequin seems to be waving and beckoning me to step inside the shop. Among the malls that I went to, KLCC, Pavilion and Sunway shopping mall; the spacious Pavilion stood out with a good mix of the luxury and other mid-level brands.

When I ate with my uncle’s family, we mostly had Chinese food, everything was freaking cheap there (1SGD to RM2.45). So I ate, and ate, and ate some more.

My short four days stay had a typical routine, I’ll wake up to have breakfast from places like Oldtown & it’s competitors like OldBoy. Kaya toast, nasi lemak, soft boiled eggs, and a cup of kopi-o.

And then we will go shopping, until our legs are tired and the stomach started to growl. Then we’ll have lunch, the la-mien was from Chinese restaurant Dragon-i; a Malaysian version of our Crystal Jade. Their sister restaurant, Canton-i recently opened in Ion, Singapore too! Since I NEVER ate at Crystal Jade before, there’s no way I could compare the two, but the food was pretty decent for the price, considering a restaurant setting.

After lunch, we continue to shop, and shop, and shop. I love the tai-tai life, and how can there be no high tea? We had cakes, ice cream, every afternoon. Then we continue to shop, until dinner.

One of the highlight of the trip that I was looking forward to, was meeting the KL Bloggers. I’ve always enjoyed reading their food adventures across the straits. I managed to meet up with Sugar Bean, Kampungboycitygirl, and ivyaiwei for dinner.

And our pursuit of good local street food brought us to Jalan Alor – a long stretch of road where there’s so many stalls to eat from! Our mini food-tour started with the very delicious BBQ chicken wings, siew yoke mee (roasted pork noodle), and fried bee hoon.

Us: Hello, twelve chicken wings (for four of us) please.
Staff: Stunned for a moment. Are you sure about it?

The chicken wings, were freaking awesome, so was the siew yoke mee, althought I would prefer the roast pork to be sliced bigger! We headed to our second stop for BBQ Stingrays and squids. Their interpretation of the stingray was quite unlike our local version (which was closer to JB); it was dried with no wet chilli gravy on top. It was fascinating to hear from the rest about the difference in the rojak too.

Adjacent to Jalan Alor, is Changkat Bukit Bintang which reminded me of Holland Village; another stretch of road for the night owls, very hip & happening, with lots of restaurants, a complete opposite to the street food from Jalan Alor, but they complimented each other perfectly.

It was such a coincidence when we bumped into thenomadGourmand on the street.We chatted like old time friends by the road, and she decided to join us for desserts. But first, she knew that Masak-masak, awhiffoflemongrass, fatboybakes and gang were in the same area too. So we dropped by and say hi!

After some deliberation, our group ended at in Le Bouchon, a fine-dining restaurant for some sweets. It was hilarious and embarrassing at the same time when the complimentary breads seemed to be more than what we ordered for desserts.The creme brulee was pretty decent, while the tiramisu was disappointing. The latter didn’t have any texture, it was more like just mousse with totally no alcohol and coffee flavour.

* * *

This is more or less, the summary of my short trip to KL. Four days were too short, I didn’t want to come back at all. It was a paradise, eating, shopping, eating, shopping. I want to go back again! And there will be three more places, which I’ll like to highlight and show separately in the next post.

It’s a love-hate relationship with Dempsey; you either rave about the place, or you hate it being overcrowded, over hyped, and over priced. I used to be the latter, but that was before I paid a visit to Dempsey, and you ought to admit, despite the crowds there, there’s still plenty of places to check out, and who could resist the lush atmosphere?

The first dish is always of utmost importance; how the meal will eventually turn out – depends on this humble appetiser. You may think its not a big deal, but according to scientific researches done by Dr. Bradley, the first dish will usually dictates the mood for the upcoming dishes; humans are emotional creatures. Almost everybody else felt that the Rock shrimp tempura ($15) was ordinary, but I on the other hand, totally love it! It was a shrimp rendition of my favourite sweet & sour pork, and I wiped the whole plate clean since everybody was saving their stomach for the rest of the food.

Without further ado, let me introduce to the one-that-you-have-been-waiting-for, Sashimi of course, Mango sashimi ($29) to be precise. There was mango, avocado wrapped together with three kinds of fish in thin rice paper.

The Carpaccio ($25) was delicious. Thinly sliced, laid in the pool of savoury yuzu sauce; it was squeaky-fresh – it seemed to be swimming in the plate.

When we dine out, people usually want to try out some of the restaurant’s signature dishes. And the Tuna pizza ($22) was one of them at Zento. If skinny pizzas are your kind of thing, then this would be it. Raw fresh tuna on top of the oh-so-thin dough, crunch, crunch, the pizzas were gone!

I always have a thing for prawns, especially deep-fried ones. Naturally, I like the Volcano ($25) pretty much, with the focus in the middle of the futomaki. But some didn’t take quite well to it as they felt that the freshness was gone after the deep-frying process. Alongside the shrimp tempura, there was smoked salmon, avocado and crabstick too.

The combination of seven skewers ($48) was the perfect showcase of the different ingredients, and of course, it’s for sharing! Most of them were pretty decent, but if I were to choose one, I’ll go for the separate tasty foie gras ($15) instead.

The sushi rolls had fascinating names like fantasy, rainbow, and even monkey roll. But we had the Green river ($30) instead. Toro, eel, avocado and plum paste, with seaweed powder on the outside.

After the rounds of appetisers, yes, all the food you saw were just starters to warm us up. The first main course was the Roasted marinated duck breast ($48), and it was indisputably the best. The first impression of the duck was from a conversation when we saw the photo of it in the menu.

“Ah! they served char siew rice here too!”

The photo of the duck in the menu looked exactly like char siew rice! Anyway not many places serve duck, and do it well; the duck meat was done just nice, retaining the tinge of pink beneath the charred skin.

I love prawns, baby! Big, big prawny prawns. The Jumbo shrimp tempura ($42) was dazzled with the sweet and slightly sour pineapple sauce, and there was wasabi fried rice alongside too. Jumbo in size, great in taste, and a huge hole in the pocket too!

We weren’t expecting any surprises from the chicken since it’s a done-to-death item. And the Roasted spring chicken ($38) turned out to be what we expected, just chicken.

Besides the duck breast, I also enjoyed the Chilean seabass ($45). The miso-infused flavour was subtle, bordering on bland, but it actually enabled us to taste the sweetness of the fish.

I could almost hear the cat say, “purrfect!”

Every main course at Zento is paired with different types of rice, the same goes for the Rack of lamb ($45) which comes with almond raisin rice. Lets just put it this way, for the price, we’ve had better elsewhere.

We pointed to “the most expensive main course” on the menu, the Wagyu stripped loin ($75). We had it done medium, but it came slightly more at medium rare.

“Do you have stomach for more?”

It was towards the end that this simple question was posed to us,  Well we were glad that we did, otherwise we would have miss out on the amazing Crunchy spicy tuna handroll ($12). It was O-M-G. Instead of the typical seaweed roll, they used soy paper as a substitute, maybe we shouldn’t call it a substitute because it’s definitely a better option than seaweed. The soy paper simply dissolved when it touched our mouth; every bite was so good!

Most of the folks were stuffed by now, but how can we say no to desserts? So another dessert-holic and me tried most of the ones available; we started with the Coffee parfait ($12). It was frozen custard made with cream, with ice-cream texture minus the melting part.

We lamented about the quality of the chocolate within the Chocolate lava cake ($16). It could/should have been better. Nonetheless, you can’t go wrong when there’s icy cold vanilla ice cream together with the warm chocolate lava.

Dyana, the co-owner of Zento advised us against ordering the Green tea creme brulee ($12) but we decided to try it anyway. The taste was, forgettable, which explained why I couldn’t recall how it tasted like.

There was a period of time long long ago where the fried ice cream at the old Tiong Bahru food centre was in the rage. They called it the Tri colour fuzzes bomb ($14) here. and rightfully so. Underneath the crispy fried skin was cold ice cream. I was fascinated by the fact that the ice cream didn’t melt during the frying process.

* * *

Zento was quite unlike any other Japanese restaurants that I went to before, stepping inside you probably won’t know it’s a Japanese restaurant until you see the menu. Contemporary and chic design, with bold and innovative creations in their menu. My appreciation to Hungrygowhere.com for the invitation to the food tasting session, and Dyana for her warm hospitality.

Zento Asian Global cuisine & Sushi Bar
18B Dempsey road
Tel: 6474 0378

Hands up if you always ordered unagi when you stepped into a Japanese restaurant! I know there are many suckers, okay, fans of the unagi, so how about Unagi maki ($8)? You are aroused already.

The trio of appetisers that we started with, namely; Kawa ebi karaage ($8), Fugu Mirin Boshi ($10), and the Renkon chips ($4) from top to down. There are times where you don’t feel hungry, nor do you feel full; you just need something to bite, your mouth just feels itchy, popped a mouthful of the deep-fried river shrimps, done and done.

I enjoyed the dried puffer fish the most, I mean how often do you get to eat puffer fish, in Singapore? It was chewy and I just finished up the whole plate while nobody’s looking. I would order this again.

The fanciful name of Renkon chips actually referred to the lotus roots, pardon my ignorance, I just Goggled on it. Well I was never a big fan of lotus roots since we usually met when my mom prepared lotus root soup; the soup was delicious, but the lotus root was bland and tasteless. But here, they deep-fried the thinly-sliced lotus root, giving it a extremely crispy and fragile texture. Instead of potato chips, why don’t you have some Renkon chips?

Yay if you are a big fan of sashimi! The dream starter for all the sashimi fans out there; to begin with some greens and have your favourite sashimi to go along with. We sprinkled the wafu dressing on top of the garden salad with sashimi ($9.80), but who cares about the healthy greens when there are sashimi?

Lemon wedges are a god-sent item which should always be present on every table. With a squeeze of the wedges, the precious drops of lemon fell onto the fish hire ($14.50) and watch the transformation; the beautiful lemon dew came into contact with the golden-brown crispy crust and sank into it, with the fillet fully absorbing everything until death-brings-us-apart.

And oh did I mentioned this was the new-kid-on-the-block.

We used to have the rosu katsu(it is still available). Now we have the cheese katsu roll ($16.50) instead. Hello, are you reading? Creamy, melted cheese with crispy fried katsu, who wouldn’t want it? And they added in carrots and asparagaus to make it “healthier“. But if you asked me, give me more cheese, more cheese! Heck the eat-healthy-approach, we are here to feast, to gain calories and put on weight.

A whole fricking fish. You wouldn’t believe it, I didn’t. The fish was big, no huge, no gigantic! Okay, I’m exaggerating, but still, it was quite big. As much as I don’t really fancy Japanese food, but I like their soya sauce; it’s like a completely different level from the normal ones we had.

When I was young as a kid, my mom would always tell everybody I LOVE fish, well I like steamed fish, but to the extent of loving it, I like to associate myself with the more dangerous creatures like chicken and duck. Oh yes, the name – Tai Kabutoni which was boiled red snapper head with sweet soya sauce ($28).

This was fantastic. The Yaki Niku or the beef tenderloin ($16), if I may, had the melted-in-the-mouth consistency that you wouldn’t believe. I put one into my mouth, and it was melted away, so I kept on putting more slices and more slices in until everything was gone.

The sacred ritual was performed first; we bowed to the green wasabi signalling our intent to eat it, and mixed it with the finest soya sauce you can find on Japan-land. Stirred until there’s a milky brown appearance, and we are done. Carefully picking up a slice of that oh-so-thick salmon sashimi, we dipped it into the sacred sauce, and placed it into the mouth. My dear, this is what they called, Sashimi.

It’s a waste to dip the crispy crust of the katsu into the curry since everything will turn soft and soggy. But the one-fascinating-aspect of the Japanese curry – it was sweet, not spicy, not spicy at all. And you know I sweat when there’s intake of chilli into my body system. The katsu curry rice ($16.50) was the perfect solution for people like me who want to eat curry but don’t want to sweat.

I LOVE this.

I know there’s nothing special, but it’s always the simplest things that make us the happiest isn’t it? Hire Katsu sando ($5.80), I always think that sandwiches and burgers are the same, except sandwichs always come with the healthy-tame ingredients like tuna, eggs, while burgers come with the meaty beef, chicken. Since this was a breaded pork loin enveloped between bread, I proclaimed this as the katsu burger!

Ice cream always makes me happy, just the sight of it was enough to give my spirits a much-needed lift. And what’s more we have not one, but three different handmade fruit sherbet ($4.80).

The good thing: the strawberry sherbet was handmade, but the yuzu ice cream’s not. Still, the Yuzu ice cream on strawberry sherbet ($5.80) did nothing wrong with its pairing; the slightly sour and tangy yuzu flavour going well with the sweet strawberry sherbet.

* * *

My appreciation to Racheal for the invitation to the food tasting session, and I tried sake for the very-first-time! The new and improved menu was definitely a sign of good things to come; the enormous menu with colourful display of the photos made it much easier for making a decision.

Read about my previous visits to Tetsu here, here, and here.

Relish by Wild Rocket is a gourmet burger restaurant that aims to serve the best burgers in Singapore.

I never knew burgers could be so photogenic, they were dead gorgeous; there’s the sexy Williams, the hunky seafood mayo, the boy-next-door Ram-lee, the popular wild rocket, the sweetie bacon & cheese, and the macho char siew. The galaxy of stars (burgers), roll the red carpet!

The guest appearance of the tomato relish brought another dimension to the taste. And while the emmental cheese was good, if I could have my way, I would put double cheese, one on the top of the patty and the other beneath.

Crackle, crunch, crisp-cross. The crispy streaky bacon were the contrast to the beef patty. With so much ingredients packed together; the lettuces dropping, the melted cheese flowing down the patty, the tomato relish flying all over, and the bacon strips not staying in place – it was a messy affair. The bacon & Cheese beef burger ($18 for 180g)

There were bound to be comparisons among them, the signature Wild Rocket beef burger ($17 for 180g) was slightly tougher than the rest, with charred surface on the patty. There was no exotic ingredients, or any fancy name; just a very good beef burger.

The wannabe. This was surely how the rest eyed it; borne with the almost-alike name, and with its destiny tightly bound to the famous street side Ramly burger. This was a bold makeover, the upper east side ramly, Ram-lee beef burger ($19 for 180g).

The patty, ah, the heart and soul of the burger; it was done more tender and juicy than the cheese & bacon burger, but, this was not a ramly burger. The ramly burger, the real deal, was more generous with their sweet chili sauce. And the omelette wasn’t done to my liking; it was flimsy, and lacking in the egg taste. It was a pity really, for all the promises, it wasn’t shiok enough.

The blue cheese & William pear beef burger ($19 for 180g) was destined for stardom; the wonderfully-toned body, the rocket hair, and the sliced poached William pear. Oh-my! The walnut butter which was beneath the 180g of beef patty was crunchy, and the poached pears gave a different definition to burgers. However, the blue cheese taste was sorely missing, and that’s the only thing that prevented an Oscar.

The seafood burger lemon mayo definitely looked way smaller than the last time I’ve it, and the lemon mayo was also notably lesser. This one, was from the sea: crab, fish, prawns, octopus mixed together to form the patty.

Honey, they shrink the burger!

Oh-oh-oh, this was good. In fact good alone probably did not do any justice to the burger. Resting on a bed of homemade foccacia, the char siew soft-bone pork was absolutely delicious! The balance of the lean meat with the chewy pork tendons, it was perfect; how did they came up with the BBQ char siew pork open burger ($18 for 180g), it was mind-blowing!

And I was greedy, I took a few more bite while the rest wasn’t looking. Good stuff like this, it’s all right to be greedy. It’s mine, and mine alone!

And we chose two desserts to go along, first up was the pandan-infused panna cotta with gula melaka ($9). A fusion creation: the Western dessert with the favourite Asian ingredients.

I preferred the roasted black sesame puree with vanilla ice cream ($8) to the pandan panna cotta. It was a pity not trying their signature cheese cake though, it had firmly took a place in my heart ever since I had it last time.

For the six of us, we ordered four burgers from the ala carte menu, with the other two burgers and desserts coming from the two-course set lunch ($24). Relish ought to have some of the most pretty burgers around, and we finished all the fries too! The burger however, could be bigger: the infamously tiny Relish burgers.

And I’ve learnt that the old ala carte brunch menu from Wild rocket is available at Relish.

Read my fellow food blogger review:
Nic @ Black tie white lie here
Leroy @ Hungrycow here
Evan @ Bossacafez here
Julia @ Aromacookery here
Phil @ Singapura Daily makan photo here

Relish
501 Bukit timah road
#02-01 Cluny court
Tel: 6763 1547

The four of us, will meet up four times a year, you guessed right, for four of our birthday celebrations. After the initial awkwardness go away, we chat like old friends (we are anyway).

Here are some of the things we always do:

(1) I always choose the place

Being the guy that is deemed to eat good food, my friends always ask me for nice places to dine, naturally, I get to decide where to meet up, which also indirectly makes me the organizer for all my friends gathering.

With a poached egg sitting pretty on top of the pastas, the Carbonara ($13.50) looks great and tasty when it first arrived. But when I finally got to try it, the cream base pasta was a tad too strong; it was great for the initial few bites, but the cream was way too overwhelming.

(2) I take a lot of shots for every dish

It was almost like a magazine photoshoot; in place of the skinny models we have food instead, and the restaurant became the studio for the shoot. I took a lot of shots, a lot, especially so since the lighting didn’t exactly helped by being dim and romantic.

Spaghetti tossed in a classic rich tomato meat sauce and aged Parmesan cheese, the classic Bolognaise ($14.50).

(3) My friends are always very impatient

In the midst of getting engrossed in taking the perfect shot of my “models”, they would hold their utensils and sent eye-signals of ‘we-are-hungry’ to me. This was the moment, I knew it’s time to stop, much to the delight of everybody.

Bolognaise and poached eggs doria ($16), the traditional baked rice covered with cheese, and did you saw that? Poached eggs!

(4) We start to gossip, about everybody.

Croque Madame ($13.50) Homemade pain de mie (white toast bread) baked with ham, Swiss Gruyere cheese, sunny side up and side salad with house dressing.

“Sandwich for dinner?” You raised your eyebrow. “Why not?” Don’t look down on this Madame, she can sure hold her weight with the others; the thick slice of bread, the heavy cheese, the egg, ham, and salad – everything you need for a filling meal.

(5) Something sweet, to end the meal, before we continue elsewhere

One of us had the Earl Grey ice cream ($8) from Canele before, and she was bend on having it, wish acceded, it’s her birthday that we’re celebrating after all. The very distinctive earl grey flavour, the seemingly-smaller-scoop-than-my-previous-visit, and the milk chocolate shards.

(6) We laugh, fight, make merry and have fun

We almost fought over this, the madagascar ($8) was way too, common (read:plain), to worth the money. But I was proved wrong; open your eyes wide, that’s vanilla beans you’re looking at! Ooh, ah! That, alone, made me felt better about paying eight dollars for a scoop of ice cream. Fresh strawberries that were not very sweet, and almond crumble at the bottom to provide a crunchy texture to the smooth and soft ice cream.

(7) It is time to say bye-bye

I looked around the adjacent tables, throwing envious glances to the mont blanc, the tiramisu, the macarons, that the others were having. Unfortunately, the rest (on my table) did not have the same feeling as me, they never like cakes you see.

Even though we hardly see each other, well four times a year to be exact; the divergence of different routes in life that it may seems like we are strangers and drifting apart, but, we always had a good time when we met, again.

* * *

I wasn’t really impressed with the main course that Canele offered, but, to be fair, I think they are priced reasonably. And if I may, I’ll also like to think that the ice cream here are under-recognised; people always rave about the cakes available, but I don’t think much people know that they serve good ice cream too.

After three visits, I haven’t try enough of their beautiful creations yet. And I preferred the raffles city outlet, for better lighting.

(8) I want to eat cake.

Read my previous visits to Canele here, and here.

Canele Patisserie
1 Scotts road
#01-01A Shaw Centre
Tel: 6738 9020

If 7atenine was the best meal I had so far, then Au Petit Salut would be its equal.

I was the passerby in your colourful life, we never seem to meet, until now. Our encounter is but an absence and a providence: now that we’ve met, I hold you dear. The place of eternal memories; Au Petit Salut.

Lush, lush, lush and green. It seems so near, yet so far. Right in the middle, but not in the middle; I had to admit – I was wrong. Overrated, you are not, there’s just something special about you. I wished we’ve met earlier, but like they say, it’s better to be late than never.

It was all we need to get started with, a piece of bread, and a stick of butter. We threw envious glares at the seemingly-softer white-looking bread at the table adjacent to us; it was just, human nature.

When in Rome, do as the Romans do – and in a French restaurant, eat snails as the French does. This was my second time eating the slimy-looking creature, and as much as I thought it looked similar to cockle; I love the strong butter and garlic smell. Half dozen baked Burgundy snails with tomato and garlic butter, way to go!

I’m-a-carnivore! And the only appetiser on the menu which seemed to satisfy the meat-eater in me was the Pork terrine and mesclun salad, shallots, gherkins and capers vinaigrette. I took a bite, chew-chew-swallow-swallow, and I took another bite. A piece of pork with really extraordinary subtlety and texture. And my dear, this was where the meal just began.

Words are powerful stuff, they can make you happy, sad, angry or nervous. In this case, I was excited by the mere-presence of the word, beef cheeks.

What part, you asked again?

Beef cheeks. Pardon me, but I have never eaten somebody’s cheek before.

Red wine braised beef cheeks, carrots, mushrooms and parsley potatoes. I realised I couldn’t really tell the difference between the different parts of the cow, but did it really mattered? The braised beef cheeks were tenderly-done, and there was the potatoes which were a-part-of-it.

I had to agree that braised beef tasted better than lamb shank, or maybe I haven’t tried one that is worthy, yet.

If the beef cheek were tenderly-done, then the Pan seared onglet beef was done exactly the way I love it! And just exactly what was Onglet, I know it’s a prime cut of beef, but past that I’m beyond caring. Don’t talk to me about the different grade, the marbling of the meat, there ain’t no need to discuss the cooking technique, I-just-liked-this!

With a tinge of pink, the medium-rare meat was per-fect! And I love the confit shallots which spreaded over the top of the beef, like the sky covered over the land. The presence of the French fries were puzzling, I decided I was going to ignore its guest appearance on the plate and focused on the beef instead.

The lemon tart was fabulous – how can something so simple. be so, absolutely wonderful. The texture of the lemon curd was done just right, and paired with the subtle ice cream with a hint of lavender-honey, I’m a happy boy.

I had a quickie with the Crème brulée; I took the first taste, stunned for a moment, and took my second. This continued until I finished the whole dessert. Beneath the nicely-touched caramelised sugar, was the smoothest yet firm, custard, infused with vanilla beans.

Till we meet again, my love

* * *

Total bill was $70 for two set lunches. I, had an awesome time! Which left me with this question, why didn’t I go there earlier! Au petit Salut has one of the most reasonable set lunches at $30++, comparing with most of the restaurants which are doing theirs at $38++, I thought it is a steal. Of course, there are certainly better restaurants out there, but I love the place as a whole. See you there!

For more recommendations, read my list of the Best French Restaurants in Singapore

Au Petite Salut
40c Harding road
Tanglin Village (Dempsey)
Tel: 6475 1976

Au Petite Salut is listed as one of ladyironchef’s favorite restaurants in Singapore

Across the big colourful bridge, it is a path to company, fun, and good food on a Saturday afternoon. Thirty-eight of us, chat, laugh, and eat.There was a lucky draw, giving out some free desserts, tapas, pasta & burgers to the lucky few. And for the rest of you all, I’m glad you will not leave the place empty-hand, with the 1-for-1 vouchers.

The menu which I discussed with Helena, was to showcase the specialities of Epicurious. Simple, comfort food that you and I can do it at home if not for the fact that half of us are lazy creatures who preferred to eat than cook. Mushroom soup paired with croque Monsieur toast.

A lightly dressed Asian salad, paired with bacon-wrapped chicken. The latter was a brilliant creation. Taking one bite, I proclaimed it as the bacon Ngo hiang (prawn roll), just that instead of the beancurd skin that we are familiar with, they replaced it with the bacon, and the chicken in place of the prawn.

Mini burger paired with spaghetti Vietnamese bolognaise. Instead of the full size Epicurious burger, we did a half-patty-bun so that it will not be too overwhelming given we are having a four course.

And for the non-beef eaters, we specially did this pork patty for them. Oh-oh-oh-oh! The famous Epicurious burger! I’m trying to persuade Helena to have this pork burger on their menu as well! All right, the next time I go back, I’m gonna have my special order for this.

Hello everybody! Can you see the sparking vanilla bean that shines from the surface of the cold, creamy white? Vanilla-bean ice cream! Oh my, the sight of it never failed to excite me! The apple crumble at Epicurious was done on-the-spot, and the combination of chill ice-cream and warm crumble is surely a hit! My dear friend commented it’ll be better if there’s cinnamon added as well.

And the pairing of the apple crumble was the simple french toast, given a make-over by the folks at Epicurious.

* * *

I’m glad all of you came for my food outing, and I do hope it was an enjoyable one! This was my first time having a lucky draw for some fun, with Helena sportingly giving out several free vouchers for the lucky few, and everyone-else getting a 1-for-1 vouchers. Burgers, pastas, tapas and desserts. Whee!

I’ll like to thank Helena and her crew for hosting us at Epicurious, and see you all next time! I reckon there will be more impromptu small group food outing soon, but I probably just announced it through my Facebook page for those smaller outings, so do check it out!

Read about my previous visits to Epicurious here, and here.

Epicurious
60 Robertson Quay
#01-02 The Quayside
Tel: 6734 7720