In this world, not everything that happen will be bad. And I believe some things occur in one way or the other, for a reason. It must be fate that I get to know Cream Puff (C). I remember vividly the first time we met; she was sitting in a corner, dainty, and oh yes, stunning. I hesitated a while, then with the corniest pick up line that I can think of, I approached her:

“Hello, my name is Brad. I couldn’t help but noticed you when I walked by just now, and it will be such a regret if I didn’t say hi. I know this may sound superficial, but you are really pretty, can I get to know you?”

With that, we became lovers. It’s almost like an affair actually, I mean you don’t go around telling everyone about your great love. We are friends, we are lovers, we are soul-mates, we are life companions; she’s the half apple that I have been searching for.

I love you because I know you will always be there, whenever I’m feeling down and unhappy, when we are seeking for some thrill, when I need nobody, nobody, but you. I love you because you never fail to make me smile, our kisses are the best thing ever in this world, there’s nothing so magical, and wonderful. I love you, because I love you.

Give me a cream puff, and I will love you forever.

Forever, till the far side of forever? That was before I met Mont Blanc (M). I’m not sure if this is what you call destiny, but I’m very sure our meeting was a beautiful accident that was always meant to happen. In every way, she was very different from C. If C is summer, M will be winter. The former is full of passion, warmth and love, but the latter is the exact opposite; she’d keep me at an arm’s length and push me away, she’d ignore me whenever I tried to get to know her. Maybe this is why I’m so attracted to her. Man always like to chase, the things that we cannot have – all the more we will try and get it.

I shouldn’t be telling you all this, now it makes me feel guilty to C. I’m sure I told you this before,  C is incredible, like really really incredible. She kissed me lightly on the lips, and before I knew it, I swallowed her in a mouthful. I’m not sure if there’s anything on this world that can make me so happy.

But I like M too. I knew of her existence from a long time back, but somehow, she never interest me even though there were countless of opportunities for us to get acquainted. Her chestnut cream, was surprisingly, not as sweet as I thought, and somehow I’m grateful that the chestnut taste was quite subtle as I have never been a fan of the nut. Oh, the dilemma. I like Mont Blanc dessert too.

In between our love triangle, there’s Matcha Chiffon. I like her, in a platonic way. You don’t believe in platonic friends? Neither do I. But we seem to be able to get along very well, to begin with, she’s light, moist and airy in all the right places, and I did mentioned that she’s matcha right?

With this Matcha chiffon, will you please forgive me?

Restaurant Review
Tampopo Deli
177 River Valley road
#B1-16 Liang Court
Tel: 6338 7386

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

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

ladyironchef’s Food Event Outing at Ochacha!

A total of 20 people graced the event, with bloggers, readers of LIC’s blog, and their friends joining us for the green tea appreciation at Ochacha.

There was supposed to be more, about 15 more, but they all last minute had something on, anyway 20′s a big number, considering it’s LIC first time organising an event.

Dinner was supposed to start at 730pm, but you know Singaporeans tend to come late, so we actually started the ball rolling at 8pm.

Ochacha’s boss Miss lee arranged her cafe and gave us half the space, so thankful for that.

The menu is as follow :

Drinks: Matcha Rocks, Azuki Freezie, Ochacha Rocks, Ochacha latte or ochacha silk (3 cold and choice of 1 warm)

Soup: Shiitake Mushroom or tomato soup

Sandwiches: Sakura Egg, Wasabi Tuna, Furikake Salmon

Desserts: Matcha Cotton, Matcha Azuki, Financier, Matcha Panna Cotta

Its $17.50 per person to try the wide range of items in this menu. For all the food i’ll be putting the normal price beside it.

Reserved for LIC food event outing!

And apparently our ladies like green tea more than guys, hence the bigger differential in the numbers.

Complimentary chips

The chips were on the house, for our hungry guests before everyone turned up

Salad

The salad was also not included in our original menu. Miss lee thought that it will be better if there are some greens to go along with.

From left to right: Matcha Rocks, Ochacha Rocks, Azuki Freezie

Matcha Rocks ($4.95)

Chilled Matcha with sugar (no milk). I think most people preferred the Matcha Rocks one to Ochacha rocks which has milk

Ochacha Rocks ($4.95)

Chilled Matcha Latte. The Ochacha rocks is the middle one, coming with milk, its a lighter shade of green than the Matcha Rocks

Azuki Freezie ($6.50)

Ice blended matcha with azuki (Jap red beans). I believe the Azuki Freezie won quite a number of fan tonight, it stood out with the matcha taste on ice blend.

Please be reminded that what you are seeing are shooters, not the actual size of the drinks. The prices indicated are for the normal size.

Shiitake Mushroom soup

I think quite a number of people found the shiitake mushroom soup to be a tad too salty for their tastebuds.

Tomato soup

The tomato soup is more on the sweet and soup side. It really depends whether you are a fan of tomato and soup or not. I’m not a soup person though.

Sakura Egg Sandwich ($4.80)

The sakura egg sandwich is still my favourite among the three sandwiches at Ochacha. See here for the picture of the normal size sandwich on my last visit.

Wasabi Tuna Sandwich ($5,90)

Wasabi (spicy!!) tuna mayo fills up the delicious bread. This is my first time trying this, on the previous visit i had only the egg and the salmon ones.

For the wasabi tuna sandwich, i like tuna, but i don’t like wasabi.

Furikake Salmon Sandwich ($5.90)

Smoked salmon with Japanese seaweed. I had the Furikake Salmon sandwich on my previous visit too.

The Japanese seaweed added the salty aspect to flavor the salmon, but i found it to be a tad on the salty side.

Matcha Financier ($2.90)

French cake named after its shape like gold bar. The Matcha Financier did not disappoint, but then again i could be bias as i’m totally a dessert person.

Matcha Azuki ($4.90)

Layered matcha cake with azuki beans & cream. The Matcha Azuki totally rock my world, the usage of azuki red beans gave the matcha cake a sweet twist.

I had this on my second visit too!

Matcha Cotton ($2.90)

Fluffy Japanese souffle cake with fresh cream in the center. The extremly soft sponge matcha cake simply melts in the mouth!

Matcha Panna Cotta ($4.90)

Italian creamy dessert with matcha flavor. This dessert had mixed reviews, some didn’t like it and found it to be too soft for a panna cotta, while others adored it and find the soft texture, coupled with the matcha flavor a delight to have.

Again this shows that taste is subjective, what some might like, others might not like.

Ochacha Latte ($4.80) or Ochacha Silk ($4.80)

Hot matcha latte & soy milk with matcha. We had the choice of either one for our warm green tea.

Total Bill was $350 for 20 people ($17.50 fixed price for each person). For $17.50, i think its definitely a very good price as we got to try out a whole wide range of green tea, sandwiches and desserts.

If you go on your own, i highly doubt that you’ll be able to have so many items unless yours are a big group.

I didn’t have much tonight, mainly because as the host i need to walk around and entertained my guests, and its really stressful organizing an event. But its all right because i had most of the dishes on my previous visits.

Its a real pleasure for me to organize this event, and i sincerely hope that it’s good for all the diners. Do pardon me if any of you guys did not enjoy the dinner. And no refunds please (if any)!

I always believe that food is a very wonderful gift to us, it can bring like-minded people who love food together, people from different ages, background, to come together and enjoyed the good food.

Its an honor to have some of the food bloggers and readers of LIC, their friends, who in turn bring more friends to this event. See you all at the next LIC food outing, it’ll be soon : )

OChaCha
252 North Bridge Road
#B1-44F Raffles City
Tel: 6333 5886

PS: Let me know once you guys make write your reviews on this post, will linked everyone here!

Michelle’s @ Never Trust a Scrawny Foodie
Sihan @ Befuddlement
Jia ying @ Brownbread girl
Zheng Ning @ The Blue Plate
Styke @ Creations Wing

For those who went, got blog, but haven blog about it

Evan @ bossacafez
Jon @ newfoodie
Hisham @ mhisham
Vicki @ My Sweet Niblets
Claudia @ Claud talk

The rest who went but no blog

Christine, Melissa, Andy, Jane, Estelle, Shu qing, fz, Elisa

Thanks to all for coming, without you guys the event will go on smoothly!

OChaCha, the matcha latte people

At OChaCha, they specialise in matcha, the premium green tea served in traditional Japanese Tea Ceremony. O-Cha means green tea in Japanese and Cha is tea in Chinese, as tea orginates from the chinese. Hence OChaCha is the coming together of different cultures & they hope that there will be many coming together of friends over cups of matcha latte.

OChaCha quest for good tea brought them all over the world, they found that while tea is very much part of our eastern culture, it is not considered cool or hip. Yet tea is part of our heritage – tea was first discovered by the Chinese emperor Shen Nong in the year 2700 B.C! What’s more, the health benefits of C-Cha are simply amazing. OChaCha is determined to make it fun and cool to drink O-Cha!

So OChaCha is all about marrying tradition and modern technology; of great tastes & healthy drinks; of simply being different. So be cool, be hip, be discerning, be kind to your body. Be one of the Matcha Latte People!

The new basement of Raffles City saw many additional of tenants to the place, one of which is OChaCha. My buddy & I were wandering around when we saw OChaCha, it was rather empty, but being kaypoh people, we ventured into the cafe and did not regret ever since.

A chat with the friendly female boss Miss Lee Yin Siau (or rather she call herself everybody’s boss) we find out that OChaCha just opened for business at Raffles City for two weeks only, thus the emptiness of the place.

After we got seated a while, customers start to come in, i guess its only human nature, people are afraid to go into a place that has no one, but starts to rush into the place when there is crowd.

My buddy made his orders while i did not have anything partly because i was full from my lunch at Tuckshop, and partly I must admit green tea does not appeals to me. Miss Lee chatted with us and explained her concept for OChaCha, which impressed me, and i decided to support her by ordering food to try out.

There are many types of different matcha, from the Matcha Latte Hot, to Matcha On the rock which is chilled latted as well as the ice-blended Matcha Freezzie. There is also two chocolate drinks for anti-matcha people. To go with these great drinks, there are also savoury sandwiches, quiches & pies, matcha slices, matcha cakes and many more.

OChaCha Mond ($5.35)

This is the main character of the show. OChaCha matcha latte almond, there isn’t a very strong green tea taste, but the fragrance of the matcha is evident in the smell of it. I don’t really fancy drinking green tea, but after drinking it, i feel that its rather good, not like the usual green tea. Well, OChaCha is great news for non-green tea lovers like me.

Furitake Salmon Sandwich ($5.90)

Furitake gives an added crunch to the taste. The Furitake Salmon Sandwich comes with fresh garden salad topped with Japanese citrus dressing & nori-flavoured chips. I like the bread, it was suprisingly soft when we make the bite into it. Even without any ingredient, i think the bread can be eaten on its own. Nevertheless, this makes a good meal for the Salmon lovers out there.

Sakura Egg Sandwich ($4.80)

I like this one! Sakura denbu perks up the dish. Similarly as of the other sandwich, there is salad greens and chips as sides. The Sakura Egg Sandwich may look ordinary, but eaten together, it is very yummy. Who says ordinary dish can’t be extraordinary in taste?

For sandwiches, there are only three different types of sandwiches, with the other being wasabi tuna sandwich. When asked why isn’t there more variety, Miss Lee simply replied, “we do what we are best at, Matcha! ” That certainly make a impression on me, the direction of OChaCha is not just to make money, they want to bring good tea to the public.

Spong Cotton ($2.90)

This is on the house, courtesy of Miss Lee. However, being a free item should not affect the judgement of the food, the green tea spongcake was extremely soft, there is a layer of cream within the centre of the cake. I can’t have enough of the cake! A trip back to try the other cakes look to be high on the priority list.

Total Bill comes up to $15.05 (excluding the $2.90 for the spong cake). There is no GST or service charge, and the warm welcome by Miss Lee and her staff do shows that there is hope for the falling-standards of the service industry in Singapore.

Initially, i was skeptical about the place because I’m not a fan of green tea. Despite that, OChaCha won me over, and I must say my perception of green tea has been changed greatly. The next time in a cafe, rather than a cup of coffee or soft drink, drink OChaCha Matcha instead!

Both of us sat inside the cafe for roughly two hours, sipping matcha latte and savouring the sandwiches, OChaCha is a great place to hang out and chill with your friends. The next time you go to Raffles City, rather than the coffee cafes, give OChaCha a try!

OChaCha
252 North Bridge Road
#B1-44F Raffles City
Tel: 6333 5886

” The Green Tea of Starbucks “