Follow Your Heart

Toothsome haato gelatos & a priceless friendship. Luv you di! Remember: "Present fears are less than horrible imaginings" Don't worry so much!

Welcome to Elmo's World!

I declare 24/7 Elmo baking day! One potential client requested a sample on Frostie - so i ended up practicing lotsa and lotsa elmos.. big and mini elmos! Elmos are so cuteee. Some were alright while some didn't make the cut.. what do you think?

Happy Burpday!

Happy Birthday Jia & Tricia!
Amazing company, crazy card games, overload of good foods with cute dinosaur themed party hats & blowouts! So much fun!!

Attendees: Jia,Tricia,Angie,Deena,Di & myself

Strawberry Shortcake From the Patissier!!
Chantilly cream & strawberry on chiffon sponge on a sugardough base.
Fresh fruits, awesome crust, lick-so-licious cream = Super Yum!

*The Patissier
18 Ann Siang Road #01-01
62205565

4, Mohd Sultan Rd #01-01
67373369

Happy Stepday!

Attendees: Step, Neo, TX, Jo, Serene & myself

Second birthday celebration this month, this time is for the sweet and lovely step! TX suggested Sushi Tei (Serangoon Garden Branch) which was a change from the usual. Very zen looking place with moderate food. The best dish for me that night (wed) gotta be the Phoenix Roll (above pic) because it had two of my fave ingredients i.e Unagi & Avacado. Chicken cutlet with Cha soba (my main) was erm, blah. Chicken cutlet was tough and the noodles/sauce seemed to be lacking texture and flavour. Nonetheless the celebration was still a success! This time round, our gang decided to play smart and get small pieces of cakes instead so we dun end up over eating!

Not to overeat? Like real!! Right after dinner, we headed to this COOL place (pun intended) called Ice3cafe (pronounced as Ice Cube). Rejoice all sweet tooth alcoholics! This COOL place serves Magic Potion aka ice cream with liquor, their specialty! The liquors (over 10 kinds) come in test tube supported by a wooden stand which comes in three shapes. The ice cream on the other hand are 100% home-made! Isn't that COOL or what? hee. One complain tho.. the sofa is a little too soft making it slightly uncomfortable for the big butt me.

Credits: David Goh

*Ice3Cafe
11 Kensington Park Road,
Serangoon Garden Estate
Singapore 557263
67452708

Happy Budday!

Attendees: Bud, Cheryl, Elvin, Joyce & myself

Had a pre-bday celebration for Bud last Saturday evening. Our initial plan to go Eng Seng's Very Pepper Crabs was changed to No Signboard Seafood Restaurant @ Geylang because they had more variety so to speak. Our orders - White Pepper Crab, Butter Crab, Cereal Prawns & Scallop with Seasonal Vegetables & la la (I think!?) Good thing about this place is you can order 1 crab per flavour unlike Eng Seng where you have to order 2 crabs per flavour at least. But somehow when we were eating the white pepper & butter crabs, there were no ooohhs no ahhhs and worst thing.. my mind was crying out loud for Eng Seng's crab! How I miss the crabbies there. Sob! Nevermind, I'm sure there'll be a next time. But I'm really thankful for those who managed to turn up, enjoyed the company v much! Thinking back, the last time at No Signboard Restaurant was also with Bud/Cheryl/Elvin - almost 1 year plus back.

May I just add that the bud's bday chocolate cake was super-moisty-chocolately-fudgey-sinfulicious-goodness?? Mama Mia!!! If I didn't have to watch that waist line of mine (which by the way is disappearing), I would have gone for seconds or even thirds! Arghhhh! This to die for choc cake is from famous Choc.A.Bloc which happens to be a stone's throw away from where I live (Yay!). Usually they require orders three days in advance, but lucky they baked extras that day phew! Di, listen up I am so gonna get this for you on your next bday! *slurps*

*Choc.A.Bloc
Blk 86 Bedok North St 4 #01-179
Singapore 460086
Tel : 64466096
Closed on Mondays, Tuesdays

Not nuts about donuts

Man, this is crazy! Singaporeans love to queue, sometimes I think they queue for the fun of it. A long line forms at the basement of Raffles City everyday and waits could go up to 4 hours. I'm no donut fan but I was ever so curious to find out what's so special about this donut factory craze. Jo, Neoneo & me took half day intending to queue for the donuts. For the fun of it of cos. But we didn't in the end. Filling our stomachs were top priority at that moment in time so we dumped the donut idea altogether.

Then this afternoon, I received a call from Jo. She got her hands on the doughnuts after 2 hours of queuing! Woot! And she got us some..how nice of her!! I drove down to her place at night especially to view the entire collection of doughnuts and of cos to claim my share. Within one night, I sampled 7 flavours. What an accomplishment!

My thoughts? I am still not crazy about donuts. Flavours like Apple Cinnamon, Double Chocolate, White Strawberry Heart & Cheese Tartar were not bad but some erm were just weird and disappointing- Lotus Mocha. Think red bean paste in a tau sar pau but coffee flavoured *shakes head*, Peanut Butter - Pathetic solidified peanut butter filling (where's the creamy peanut butter which should ooze out fm every bite? Sigh!) Texture wise - it felt like I was eating semi-soft white bread with varied toppings all these while. Don't get me wrong, I don't hate it. But they don't come close to my version of my dream donuts - melt in your mouth kind - light, fluffy, creamy in the inside with a slight crunch to it! The last time I had decent tasting (and pretty!) ones were from Mister Donuts from Taiwan.

Donut Factory gets credit for creativity i.e injecting asian flavour into their doughnuts e.g. Spicy/Wasabi cheese & Kaya White Chocolate. (Jia thinks otherwise). Also for $11/dozen of assorted donuts, they are definitely cheaper and better than those you would find in 7-11 stores. But all factors combined, I don't think they are worth queuing long hours for. In fact, the management should rethink about speeding up donut making process which clearly is the root of the problem.

Ok. Enough of doughnuts and I will stay off 'em for the time being. To know how Donut Factory's doughnuts compare to US's Krispy Kreme, visit Jia's blog.

*Donut Factory
B1-61, Raffles City Shopping Centre
250 North Bridge Rd
Singapore 179101
Opens from 12.30pm

Overeating syndrome kicks in

Episode 1 - Black Pepper Crabs

Singapore Tourism Board listed it as one of the top 20 unique things to do in Singapore. Bloggers gave their thumbs up for it. Bud raved about it. What's with all these hype I wonder? Like what most will reply, "Go try it out yourself lor". So i did! Neo neo & myself rejected a somewhat tempting offer by one of our colleagues to go to the fragrance sale @ suntec for the VERY VERY PEPPERY CRABs at Joo Chiat! This has been on our "must-try" foodie list so it was only a matter of time before we embarked on yet another gourmet quest. Thanks to Neo's much to be improved navigating skills, we took a little longer than expected to reach our destination. Hehe. There was a 15 min queue wait and another 20 mins wait at the table before our orders arrived.

I'll just go straight to the point - Don't bother with the below average Bee Hoon & Kailan , head straight for the crabs! The Bee Hoon has got to be one of the blandest ones ever tasted, so blah! At least the black pepper crabbies did not disappoint! I loved the fact the claws were cracked so thoroughly for easy eating. The meaty crabs coupled with oodles of rich roe are tossed in this yummy thickened black pepper sauce which had a tinge of sweet buttery fragrance in it. OMG! I would recommend going in bigger groups so you wouldn't be so 'jur-lat" and can order more varieties. Other diners ordered you-tiao with sotong paste drizzled in sweet mayo and spicy chicken wings which looked pretty good. I'll probably give them a try on my next visit.

*Eng Seng Restaurant
241 Joo Chiat Place
Closed on Wednesdays

Episode 2- Beancurd & Toasted Buns

We decided to overstretch our tummies after dinner, dragged Jo outta her house and headed straight to Yonghe for beancurd. Parking in geylang is always such a pain in the a** but that did not deter me from getting my fave dou huay (beancurd). We ordered a bit more than we had planned to but only because we wanted to feed poor Jo who hasn't had her dinner! (Excuses!)

Nothing comes close to Yonghe Beancurd, NOT even Rochor Original Beancurd @ Short Street! Rochor Beancurd @ Geylang though smooth lacked the true soy bean flavour; the result of over-diluting the soy bean milk in order to achieve the silky texture. Yonghe dou hua is different; pretty smooth, soya oomph in existent, of the right sweetness and most importantly - not mashed up like Rochor Original's, totally my kinda Beancurd! Apart from the toasted bun with pork floss and egg , the rest of the items on the menu are second rate, maybe even third. The oversized you-tiao aka cripsy fried dough fritter is too oily for my taste ; guotie (fried dumpling) & xiao long bao are comparable to frozen siew mais found in NTUC.

But all in all, Yong He Eating House is a great supper haunt for the 'night owls'!

*Yong He Eating House
Geylang, Btn Lorong 9 and 11
Opens 24 Hours