I have been ditching ice cream for yogurt ever since the beauty blogger told me about the benefits of eating yogurt. But there are days when I just crave for ice cream and nothing else matters.

Haato is an ice cream parlour in Singapore which is known for their Japanese ice cream flavours. I was at their Central branch recently, and that place is ideal for people-watching while having a scoop of sorbet.

If you have been reading my food blog for a while, you’d know that Haato used to be my favourite place for ice cream and waffles. I liked the branch at Ridgewood Close, which was a nice little place to hang out with friends. Unfortunately, the waffles were not consistent and when I discovered the ones from Udders Ice Cream, I stopped going to Haato.

But I was craving for ice cream that day, and when we passed by Haato at Central (located just beside Sun with Moon Japanese restaurant), it was impossible to resist the urge for a cold scoop of pleasure.

We tasted a variety of ice cream and sorbet, but what I really want to tell you, is the waffle.

Nobody eats it better than me when it comes to pancakes and waffles. As much as I like the contrast between a hot crispy waffle and a scoop of cold ice cream, it tastes even better with butter and maple syrup.

I think I am in love with waffles. No, actually I love maple syrup even more.

I poured the maple syrup onto the clean white plate, in puddles big enough for the waffles to drown in. All of a sudden, the ice cream became secondary and all I could see was maple syrup and butter, and more maple syrup. In case you’d like to know, we had matcha and black sesame ice cream. Both flavours were excellent, but it was a shame that they melted too fast.

* * *

Haato & Co currently has seven ice cream shops in Singapore: Central, Liang Court, Marine Parade, Ridgewood Close, Suntec City, Thomson Plaza and NEX Mall. With so many outlets around the island, you have no excuse for not eating ice cream.

// Other ice cream parlours in Singapore: Tom’s Palette, The Daily Scoop

Singapore Food Blog Review
Haato & Co Ice Cream
6 Eu Tong Sen Street #01-74
The Central @ Clarke Quay Singapore
Tel: +65 6225 6956

Haato Liang Court
177 River Valley Road #B1-50
Liang Court Shopping Centre Singapore
Tel: +65 6337 8835

Haato Marine Parade
6 Marine Parade Central Level 2
Fairprice Finest Singapore
Tel: +65 6457 4036

Haato NEX Mall
23 Serangoon Central #03-K18
NEX Mall Singapore
Tel: +65 6634 4559

Haato Ridgewood Close
5 Ridgewood Close Unit G1 Singapore
Tel: +65 6464 9607

Haato Suntec City
3 Temasek Boulevard #01-140
Suntec City Mall Singapore
Tel: +65 6836 7530

Haato Thomson
301 Upper Thomson Road #03-44
Thomson Plaza Singapore
Tel: +65 6457 4036

Tom’s Palette at Shaw Leisure Gallery is a local ice cream parlour which specialises in homemade ice cream with very unique and exotic flavours. Are you game to try ice cream flavours like Longgan Red Date, Sarsi, and chrysanthemum?

With the exception of Haato ice cream at Clarke Quay and the newly opened Seventh Heaven at the basement of Takashimaya, most of the other homegrown ice cream shops like Island Creamery, Daily Scoop, Udders Ice Cream (just to name a few) are not in town. The location of Tom’s Palette is one of the reasons why I keep going back – it is located within a 5 minutes walk from City Hall or Bugis.

Tom’s Palette has always been known for their exotic ice cream flavours. On the few occasions that I was there, I managed to sample quite a few different flavours:

The Sarsi-flavoured ice cream was somewhat similar to a root beer float, with subtle hints of Sarsi. With a darker shade of green, the chrysanthemum had a very distinct and clean sensation.

Even though it was soft and slightly melted, the Salted Caramel Cheesecake was divine: silky smooth with an airily light cheesecake taste, it was my favorite among the different flavours that I’ve tried. I shall declared this as Tom’s Palette best ice cream!

The Melt & Sizzle Berries and Chocolate Pops was also a revelation. The chocolate pop gave a sizzling sensation, and it felt as though the chocolate was dancing on the tip of my tongue.

And then there’s the Chocolate Sorbet. It was bitter, and much darker than the Imperial Dark (made of 95% Dark Chocolate) that I tried at Galta’s Gelato. On its own, the Chocolate Sorbet was too bitter for me to stomach, so I decided to pair it with a scoop of White Chocolate with Cranberry and it was brilliant! The extremely sweet white chocolate provided the perfect counterbalance to the dark chocolate sorbet: it was a happily-ever-after ending.

* * *

The ice cream flavours at Tom’s Palette will change periodically, so if there’s a particular ice cream that you want to try, do give them a call to see when it will be out.

Which is your favourite local ice cream places in Singapore?

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

I meant to blog about U.d.d.e.r.s Ice Cream during October as I was enjoying my ice cream every day (excuse: sorching hot weather), but obviously I didn’t. What I really wanted to tell you was this: no matter what you are doing, please remember to have your ice cream.

Udders ice cream is a local homegrown ice cream shop in Singapore that is famous for their ‘adult’ ice cream. If you like liqueur in your ice cream, you will like Udders ice cream.

I have a good imagination: I’ll bring a book to the ice cream cafe, buy myself a scoop of ice cream, sit by the side and press my nose to the glass and stare outside. Then, I’ll imagine that there’s snowflakes falling from the sky while I enjoy my ice cream, but there’s really just the depressing rain. Still, I think it’s very nice to have ice cream during rainy days. Don’t you agree with me? Ice cream is really an all-season kind of thing.

Anyway, see the gorgeous waffle up there? Haato used to be my favorite ice cream place for waffles, but I currently believe that Udders has one of the best waffles in Singapore.

A word of caution though, only order it with a scoop of ice cream. If you prefer to have the waffle on it’s own, Udders do not serve it with the usual butter and syrup.

I probably sampled almost all the ice cream flavors on the few occasions I was there, and there were hits and misses of course. One of my favorites at Udders is definitely the Snickers Mars Honeycomb Vanilla. It has huge chunks of Snickers Mars bars within the silky smooth vanilla ice cream. The Mao Shan Wang Durian ice cream is another popular choice at Udders ice cream, but I won’t touch that for anything. Wineberries is a new flavor, which has Port and cranberries as the main ingredient – and I personally think that the use of dessert wine in ice cream is brilliant.

When I was in Kuala Lumpur, I noticed that there’s a lack of local homemade ice cream parlors there. Sure, they have well known ice cream brands like Haagen Dazs, New Zealand Natural & Baskin-Robbins, but it’s just different compared to the local ice cream shops if you get what I mean? We are so lucky to have all the ice cream places like Udders ice cream, Island Creamery, The Daily Scoop, and Tom’s Palette in Singapore.

Udders ice cream currently has five locations in Singapore: Novena Goldhill, West Mall, Lorong Kilat, Siglap and Serangoon Gardens. For those who stay near any of the Udders branches, it’s time to have an ice cream party!

If ice cream is not your thing, read my list of dessert places in Singapore.

Singapore Food Restaurant Review
U.d.d.e.r.s Ice Cream
17 Lorong Kilat #01-08
Kilat Court Singapore
Tel: +65 6466 1055

Udders Siglap
87 Upper East Coast Road Singapore
Tel: +65 6448 8732

Udders Novena
155 Thomson Road
Goldhill Shopping Centre Singapore
Tel: +65 6254 6629

Udders Serangon Gardens
#01-11 MyVillage

Udders West Mall
1 Bukit Batok Central Link #02-10
West Mall Singapore
Tel: +65 6862 2192

The Daily Scoop is one of the earlier homemade ice cream places in Singapore. They started off with a small cafe at Clementi Arcade off Sunset Way, and recently opened another new outlet at Chips Bee Garden. It has been almost three years since my last visit, and I thought that was a good enough reason for an ice cream party!

My dear friend urged me to order the brownie as she had the Daily Scoop’s waffle before. Maybe I will never find out if the waffles here are any good, but one thing’s for sure – the brownies are worth a try.

Time ticked by slowly as the ice cream melted in slow progression. All I wanted was to stop the damned second hand from ticking so that I’d have time to savor that precious minute with the ice cream — but alas, time still went by.

I can’t exactly remember the name of the ice-cream that you see on top of the brownie, but I think it is Salted Mister Brown. If it was up to me, I would definitely name it as the-tasty-scoop-of-salted-caramel-with-brownie-chips. Alright, apparently I’m not the best person to give suggestions for names. But the Salted Mister Brown which consisted of a salted caramel base with dashes of brownie in between, was a fantastic option to go along with the warm and chocolate-y brownie.

Oh God, I miss A&W! Will someone please bring them back to Singapore?

I’m one hundred percent sure that no one else can do a better Root Beer Float than A&W. It’s not because they have better root beer or ice cream, but the A&W root beer float is a part of our childhood memory that is irreplaceable. Using the excuse of ‘hot weather’, we ordered the Root Beer float with a scoop of honey vanilla ice cream from The Daily Scoop.

The Honey Vanilla wasn’t too bad with a subtle sweetness of honey captured in the ice cream. But I’m a big fan of Vanilla ice cream, and I think no one should mess with it. Just give me a scoop of vanilla ice cream with lots of vanilla bean specks.

Okay I think I am getting a little long-winded. It’s just two bloody scoops of ice cream, so get your ass off and head down to The Daily Scoop at Chips Bee Garden or Sunset Way.

Question: Which ice cream parlor(s) serve the best ice cream in Singapore? Or rather, which are your favorite ice cream parlours in Singapore?

Restaurant Review
The Daily Scoop Singapore
41 Sunset Way #01-04
Clementi Arcade Singapore
Tel: +65 6463 3365

Blk 43 Jalan Merah Saga #01-78
Chip Bee Gardens Singapore
Tel: +65 6475 3128

Once Upon A Milkshake (OUAM) is now open at Scape Singapore!

I know many of you would have heard of this by now since they have been there for a while already. But for those of you who have not been to Once Upon A Milkshake because of the location – maybe it’s time to check out their milkshake now that they have a new location in town!

My partner and I didn’t have any desserts at Raindrops cafe as we were saving some room for the milkshake. Stepping into an ice cream place is considered the most dangerous thing to me. I’m not sure if it’s dangerous to me or the ice-cream shop, but I  always want to try every single flavor in the shop. Strawberry, vanilla, chocolate – hand over the ice cream and nobody gets hurt.

Having tried their vanilla, peanut butter, chocolate truffle and cookie & cream milkshake flavor before, we went for the Spooky Mocha and the Cerious Maple milkshake ($3.60 for mini). According to the coffee-lover, the former lacked the caffeine flavor while I felt that the taste was actually pretty strong.

The Cerious Maple milkshake is definitely one of my favorite ice cream flavors at Once Upon A Milkshake. Tell me, who doesn’t like maple syrup? It’s awesome! I’m not sure about you, but everything is an excuse for me to have maple syrup. Now, maple syrup milkshake anyone?

Where do you usually go for milkshake? Having tried the Billy Bombers milkshake recently, I have to admit that my impression of them improved. Prive Bakery is also popular for their huge milkshake, and has anyone been to Steeple Deli at Tanglin Shopping centre? I have been wanting to go there since my friend told me that they have the best milkshake in Singapore!

Ice Cream Milkshake
Mini $3.60, Regular $5.70

Ice Cream Scoop/s
Single $2.90, Double $5.10, Triple $7.20, Pint $10.50

Restaurant Review
Once Upon A Milkshake
2 Orchard Link #02-03/04
*Scape Singapore
Tel: +65 9233 1624

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

To be honest, I never like Cafe Chains like TCC (the coffee connoisseur) and Coffee Club. Yes, they are very accessible with so many cafe outlets in Singapore, but that’s exactly the problem. It’s just too convenient and everybody goes there. I was quite skeptical when my friend asked me to try Coffee Club’s Muddy Mudpie, but after seeing it on the table beside us, I reckoned it’s time to stop the fruitless resistance.

I know it’s been said about many things, but my dear reader, this is the dessert that will make you go ‘aww..’

The Muddy Mud Pie ($9.50) may not have the nicest name, nor is it photogenic – but the sheer size of it would simply blow you away. We didn’t know where to start. After a second which felt like an eternity – there was no more fear, no uncertainly.

Lets dig in!

The drizzling chocolate fudge was somewhat like the morning dew; sweet, pure, and blissful. The cappuccino and chocolate ice cream were positioned nicely on top of an oreo base which reminded me of the cheesecake crust.

Together with the chocolate fudge and oreo base, the ice cream melted on the tongue, and evoked a strange yet familiar, tickling sensation. Tiny bottles of happiness were released with each lick of the spoon – it tastes like Christmas.

Fine. Maybe I did exaggerate. But the gigantic mudpie did overwhelmed us initially. For a moment, it was unsure if we could even finish the whole thing. The Muddy Mud Pie is not extraordinary, but it’s definitely better than good.

The Coffee Club’s Mud Pie is a dessert for all occasions – perfect with coffee/yea for an afternoon high tea, a happily-ever-after ending to a fairytale-like dinner, or just something to satisfy the sweet tooth in you.

* * *

To be fair, I have only glimpse through Coffee Club’s menu for their drinks. Coffee and desserts yes, but probably not their savory menu. With 25 locations around Singapore, Coffee Club is probably one of the dessert places in Singapore that most people has been to.

Here’s the question: do you prefer TCC (the coffee connoisseur) or Coffee Club?

Restaurant Review
Coffee Club Singapore
6 Eu Tong Sen Street #03-105/106/107
The Central @ Clarke Quay Singapore
Tel: +65 6534 9080

If you are among those who never understand the appeal of forking out a couple of dollars for a cup of frozen yogurt (FroYo or Frogurt) — hey we belong to the same kind, I totally understand how you feel — I was once the same, until recently.

I know that there are people who have been puzzled by my recent tweets about living a healthier lifestyle, and eating yogurt daily. Addiction is an understatement when I have been testing out all the Meiji yogurt, F & N Alive yogurt and Marigold Yogurt. If you must know the reason, everything started with this question two weeks ago:

“Why don’t you eat Yogurt? It helps in digestion and it’s good for your skin complexion too!”

I am not sure how true this claim is, but I decided there’s no harm giving it a shot. In recent months, we have seen many new Yogurt places in Singapore, and this can only be good news for all the Fro-Yo fans.

Till date, I have only tried BerryLite once, and sadly that was it. What? You mean you have never tried Red Mango, or Yami Yogurt or Yoguru or.. or even Frolick?!? I know, I know.

Now, I need to make up for lost time and look for the best yogurt in Singapore. I have come up with a list of all the yogurt places in Singapore — please tell me which yogurt shop is your favorite, and why I MUST have it.

List of Yogurt Shops in Singapore:

BerryLite
80 Marine Parade Road #B1-83J
Marine Parade Shopping Centre, Singapore

Frolick
241 Holland Avenue #01-02
Holland Village Singapore

Glacious Yogurt
Nex, Serangoon Central #B2-57
Tel: +65 9834 3390

J Co Yoghurt
200 Victoria Street #B1-24
Bugis Junction Singapore

OiO Frozen Yogurt
1 HarbourFront Walk #01-159
VivoCity Singapore

Pink Yogurt
200 Victoria Street #B1-K24
Bugis Junction Singapore

Red Mango Yogurt
3 Temasek Boulevard #01-140G
Suntec City Mall Singapore

Sogurt
617 Bukit Timah Road Singapore
Beside Coronation Plaza
Tel: +65 6468 8940

Sour Milk
14 Scotts Road Far East Plaza 01-16E

The Yogurt Place
391 Orchard Road #B2-07-8-2
Takashimaya Basement

Whyogurt
1 Kim Seng Promenade #B1-10
Great World City Singapore

Yami Yogurt
313 Orchard Road #B3-55
313 @ Somerset Singapore
Tel: +65 6733 9588

Yigloo
1 HarbourFront Walk #B2-06A
VivoCity Singapore
Tel: +65 6376 9757

Yoguru
252 North Bridge Road #B1-55
Raffles City Shopping Centre Singapore

Yogurt stop
370 Alexandra Road #B1-53
Anchorpoint Singapore
Tel: +65 9172 6713

Yoghurt Plus
Arrival Meeting Hall North, Level 1, #016-008
Terminal 2, Singapore Changi Airport
60 Airport Boulevard

* * *

If you asked me a couple of months ago will I ever choose yogurt over ice cream – the answer is definitely no. But hey, people do change, so I reckon I’d look here for new yogurt places rather than my list of Ice Cream Places in Singapore.

Ice Cream Singapore

The Naming Contest is now closed. Stella will pick the winner and I will announce it here shortly

* * * The winner is Sean, & the new flavor is Ms. Banana Butterspice * * *

Stella just created a new ice cream flavor and I dropped by Ice Cream Kingdom to try it. In case you are new here, Ice Cream Kingdom is an ice cream place in Singapore that serves the best ice cream (according to me) using premium ingredients (fresh skimmed milk, premium cream, and fresh fruits).

Before I digress, the main ingredients for the new flavor are Banana, Peanut Butter, and cinnamon. So should we call this ice cream Banana, peanut butter cinnamon, or Peanut butter banana cinnamon? I’m not good at giving names, and both sounds  equally boring to me. Stella needs your help to name the new flavor!

Who will have thought that Cinnamon can actually goes well with Banana (other than the usual apple-cinnamon combination)? The peanut butter was very subtle, and the bananas practically stole the show with a potent, yet distinct after-taste. Stella uses 7 bananas just to make a batch of ice cream, so you can imagine how banana-y it tasted. While the cinnamon was not obvious, but it added a slight crunch – giving it a complete taste.

There’s plenty of Chocolate + Banana creations, but Banana and Peanut butter? Maybe I am ignorant, but this is the first time I am seeing this unique combination.

HOW TO ENTER THE ICE CREAM KINGDOM NAMING CONTEST

Come up with a creative name for this Banana-peanut-butter-cinnamon flavor, and tell us briefly how you got the idea. Stella will choose the best name and the winner will get $100 dollar ice cream voucher from Ice Cream Kingdom.

1. All are welcome to join, but the contest is only open to those living in Singapore.
3. One Entry per person allowed.
4. Entries must be entered in this post’s comments section.
4. Winner will get $100 worth of Ice cream kingdom voucher, and you can use it for scoops (not redeemable for pint) at ICK.
5. Contest will ends at 12th May 2359pm and I will contact the winner via email.

Ice Cream Kingdom has a new logo!

Sometimes in life, the best decisions are the things that you never planned for. When I first went to Ice Cream Kingdom a month ago, we were choosing among a few ice cream places after our dinner. Since one of us was driving, we decided to check out this new ice cream shop at Holland Grove. I like the fact that Ice Cream Kingdom is off the main track, it feels like a little treasure hunt while you navigate and find your way there.

In search of the best ice cream in Singapore – here we go!

Having been to many Ice Cream Places in Singapore, the one thing that struck me about Ice Cream Kingdom was this: it felt like I was having ice cream at a neighbor’s place.

I’ve mentioned before that Stella is currently doing this as an one-lady-show; from making the ice cream, to serving you the perfect scoop. For those of you who have already gone down, I’m sure you will agree with me that everything is very personalized and Stella is really friendly to everyone.

I like the new Ice Cream Kingdom logo. I think it depicts the true meaning of what ice cream is about. Everyone deserves the royal treat, and at Ice Cream Kingdom – ice cream will always be there for you.

Anyway, this is a notice that the special 1-for-1 scoop promotion has ended last Saturday. Stella told me that the response was overwhelming – I was pleasantly surprised by the number of people who actually went down and mentioned ladyironchef for the ice cream deal! Thank you everyone! Even though the promotion has ended, please continue to drop by and show your support for Ice Cream Kingdom.

Stella and I are currently discussing some ideas, and there will be exciting plans coming up. Meanwhile, please remember to have your daily dose of ice cream!

If you have any fantasy ice cream flavors to suggest, please post a comment and let Stella know. Otherwise, you can get the latest ice cream updates by following @ick_sg on twitter.

Ice Cream Review
Ice Cream Kingdom
40 Holland Grove Road
Tel: +65 9699 9916

Ice Cream Kingdom is one of the new Ice Cream places in Singapore. The owner of the 8 month old Ice Cream Parlor at Holland Grove, is Stella, who quit her HR job in exchange for the impressive title CICO: Chief Ice-Cream Officer.

With so many ice cream places in Singapore, it can be quite a thwarting experience trying to decide on a place to satisfy the ice cream craving. I like Ice Cream Kingdom (ICK) and I am going to tell you why.

Unlike the other ice cream parlours in Singapore, it’s an one-woman-show at Ice Cream Kingdom. From making the ice cream to serving them – everything is done by Stella. Having ice cream in ICK, it makes you feel right at home.

Ice Cream Kingdom has 15 ice cream flavors – some are essentials like vanilla, chocolate and cookie & cream, while there are other unique flavors like kaya, green tea brown rice, and honey wheat crunch.

We were like kids in an ice cream shop, there’s so many flavors and we wanted to try all of them! For ‘research purposes’, we had 8 different scoops: Nutella Nutella, Vanilla Bean, Sticky Chewy Chocolate, Earl of Grey, Honey Wheat Crunch, Green Tea Brown Rice, Toasty Kaya, and Rasping for Raspberry.

Vanilla > Chocolate

When it comes to ice cream, Vanilla ice cream always win hands down – especially so when there’s speckle of vanilla beans in it. But that’s not to say that the Sticky Chewy Chocolate isn’t good. Before this visit, a dear friend brought me the chocolate flavor from Ice Cream Kingdom (ICK) and I had a whole pint of it for dinner.

Besides Vanilla bean, another of my all time favorite is definitely Nutella! I’m not sure about you, but I like nutella very very much. Since I’m not a tea lover, the Earl of Grey didn’t really appealed to me, but most of the rest raved about it as one of the better earl grey ice cream.

The Green Tea Brown Rice sounded a little too healthy for my liking; there was green tea, and there was brown rice – there you go – Green Tea Brown Rice ice cream! I know it’s not my best description – try it for yourself if you are curious. Among the different options, Toasty Kaya caught our attention with the catchy name and familiar taste, while the playful Rasping for Raspberry was sweet but not overly sweet, sour and not too much so, with an intense raspberry tinge.

Have you ever fantasized about having ice cream for breakfast? With the Honey Wheat Crunch, I think your little fetish can actually come true. Tasting it for the first time, it’s like having tiny bits of wheat cereal – in an ice cream. Ho ho, lets have ice cream for breakfast!

I did not exercise, but I only had a taste of everything instead of having eight scoops.

Rainy days are the perfect weather for having ice cream. But the same goes for a hot day too. There’s nothing more gratifying than to have a cold melting ice cream under the scorching sun. I’d also go for warm fluffy waffles, topped with a single scoop of cold vanilla ice cream and drizzled with hot chocolate.

I like the idea of ice cream: be it on a cone or in a cup, the sight of the melting ice cream always proved to be irresistible, I mean, who doesn’t like ice cream? It’s like the best creation (other than nutella) in this world!

Special for ladyironchef readers:

Mention that you are a reader of ladyironchef to Stella, get an additional scoop of ice cream when you ordered the Waffle with Single Scoop OR 1-for-1 deal on scoops. Promotion is valid for one month till 24th April 2010.

For directions please click here, and you can give a call to ICK before going down. What are you waiting for? Drop by Ice Cream Kingdom and say hi to Stella for me!

Ice Cream Review
Ice Cream Kingdom
40 Holland Grove Road
Tel: +65 9699 9916

Dear Awfully Chocolate,

I think I am in love. Having tried your one-and-only dark chocolate ice cream, I have to admit you are irresistible. Every spoonful reminds me of how a good ice cream should be like. Bitter sweet, and rich and chocolatey, you are every man’s dream.

It’s a pity that there’s no other chocolate flavors, but then again, this is precisely what makes it so special. Is this the best dark chocolate ice cream in Singapore? I have no idea, but I know it’s definitely a timeless favorite.

Give me ice cream, and I will smile for you.

I get over things easily, and sweet stuff always helps. Want to get into my good books? Get me a dessert – I can be easily bribed with a cake or ice cream.

The unique Awfully chocolate outlets never fails to catch my attention whenever I walk past it. Simple yet elegant, the all-white design is totally unlike the other cake shops in Singapore. After trying the dark chocolate ice cream, I’m wondering how the famous dark chocolate fudge cake will taste like. Promise me you will appear in my dreams tonight.

Restaurant Review
Awfully Chocolate
1 Harbourfront Walk
#01-156 VivoCity
Tel: +65 6410 9725
Daily: 10am – 10pm

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