记得吃 - Part 3

Next up on my 记得吃 dessert conquest list is the Banana Snow Ice.

The generous serving of banana flavored snow ice topped with peanut bits, nata de coco, thinly sliced banana and pearls had me grinning from ear to ear.

The wonders of the snow ice dessert lies in the snow ice itself. Aside from having the wonderful snowy melt-in-your mouth texture, the snow ice itself already carried the individual flavors, making the drizzle of any sweet flavored syrup totally redundant. I would have been more than satisfied even if there were only the snow ice and sprinkled peanut bits. The other toppings were simply bonuses.

I'll defnitely be back for a fourth time...perhaps I'll try the chocolate snow ice then! :)

Annalakshmi @ Chinatown Point

I came to know of the restaurant Annalakshmi through the Channel 5 program, Buffetlicious. It is just another typical Indian vegetarian restaurant if not for it's "Eat What You Want and Give As You Feel" philosophy made possible by the service of voluntary staff. Yes, you read it right! There's no fixed price for the food charged in the restaurant. Simply pay whatever price you feel is right or affordable to you!

Despite the airing of the program on national television and the 'reassurance' from the restaurant's website, it still sounded too good to be true to me. Hence, a trip was made to the branch at Chinatown Point.

Upon arrival at the restaurant slightly after noon, I was expecting to find it crowded with hungry customers looking for a cheap deal. On the contrary, it was not even half-full and only after being attended by a polite waiter did I realised that the tables were all fully reserved. I was about to make my hasty retreat in disappointment but was instead offered a reserved table with the condition that I free it in an hour's time. The deal was struck and after being shown to my table, I was delighted to be offered a list of drinks ranging from lassi, pineapple juice, lime juice etc other than plain water!

The buffet spread didn't really have the "wow" factor unlike it's hotel counterpart. Nevertheless, with a choice of 4 different types of rice, some 5 to 6 varieties of accompanying gravy, fried lady's finger, papadam (my absolute favourite!), sweet yoghurt dessert and freshly-cut water melon, it definitely more than satisfied my hunger pang on a Sunday afternoon.

Note: For those naan-lovers, it's only available during the dinner buffet. Lunch buffet (11am - 3pm) and dinner buffet (6pm - 9pm) at Chinatown Point are only available from Friday to Sunday. Reservation (6339 9993) is highly recommended.

I brought with me a somewhat sense of skepticism but left feeling good, knowing that there's still a strong belief of goodwill and charitableness in people. It's a nice feeling to know that not everything is about dollars and cents in this realistic world. :)

Curry Hor Fun @ OldTown White Coffee

Besides knowing that OldTown White Coffee originated from Malaysia and that local host cum comedian, Mark Lee, introduced it to Singapore, I pretty much know next to nothing about this growing franchise restaurant.

The last day of June 2010 marked the first time I stepped into the restaurant at Toa Payoh Central. What welcomed me was a wave of warm air and no sign of any waiters or waitresses. If not for my determination and curiosity to locate just one serving staff, I would have walked out of the restaurant instead of venturing further in. Upon reaching the counter, I realised that there's an adjacent part of the restaurant hidden from view at the entrance where it's so much cooler and alas, the 'hidding' place for the serving staffs. :)

The restaurant was relatively empty at 6.30pm in the evening and it was no problem finding myself a comfortable seat at a round table under a revolving ceiling fan - which sort of reminded me of the settings in a typical coffeeshop in the 80s, albeit more hygienic now.

The menu is typically made up of the usual Malaysian fanfare of noodles, rice, nasi lemak, toast breads, drinks and almost certainly, a great selection of white coffee.

I ordered the Curry Mee which is one of the recommended dishes in the menu but proceeded to change the noodle to hor fun instead in my attempt to have a less fattening meal.

My order was served to me promptly within 10 minutes and the redness of the curry gravy raised an alarm of the spiciness which I might not be ready for. The hor fun was submerged in a sea of red with two juicy, floating tau poks on the surface. It was only after digging at the base of the bowl with chopsticks that I uncovered some chicken shreds, beansprouts and a few pieces of curry leaves amidst the lump of hor fun.
The curry gravy is definitely potent in both look and taste so I'll advise full attention and concentration while eating rather than making small talks in between mouthfuls. It tastes like curry noodles no doubt but it doesn't differentiate from curry noodles sold in food markets elsewhere.

However, I can see myself coming back for the thick toast bread just for the sake of comparing it to those sold at the numerous Hong Kong cafés in Singapore.

Almond Jelly With Longans

Almond jelly with longans is one of my all-time favourite dessert. Despite so, it was not until recently that I finally decided to try making it myself after being a little fedup with the stinginess of the dessert stalls for heaving so much shaved ice on the few sparing cubes of almond jelly at the base of the bowl, topped with three, perhaps 4 pieces (if you are lucky) of preserved canned longans.

Longans are in season and I managed to get my hands on some fresh longans at NTUC Fairprice before heading to the baking section where I found three brands of almond jelly premix powder on sale. The most expensive brand cost $2.20 while the cheapest brand (Hollyfarms) cost a mere $1.55 - which is a whopping $0.65 or 30% price difference!

In the good spirit of wanting to validate whether quality is indeed proportional to price, I proceeded to make my purchase on two packets of almond jelly powder - the most expensive and the cheapest brand.

The almond jelly making process is fairly simple and straightforward if one were to dutifully follow the cooking instructions at the back of the packet. It simply involves the dissolving of the powder in boiling water, the pouring of the almond solution into a jelly mould and refrigerating it till the jelly is formed.

The end result:
* Hollyfarms yielded more almond jelly - approximately one more mould of jelly
* The more expensive brand yielded somewhat whiter and more porcelain-like almond jellies while Hollyfarms yielded more natural and normal-looking almond jellies (I definitely prefer the appearance of the latter).
* Taste-wise, it's not so much of a difference but I would rather prefer the Hollyfarms almond jelly as I find it to be slightly denser and closer to my personal liking.

Morale of the story: Good ingredients/food doesn't necessarily come at a higher price tag.

Dessert Buffet with Durian Pastries @ Goodwood Park Hotel

After having passed by Goodwood Park Hotel countless times and the thumbs-up from many friends about their durian dessert, I finally made the reservation for their dessert buffet with durian pastries.

Upon entering the Coffee Lounge, I managed to catch a whiff of durian which instantly fired up my salivary glands. There were a decent variety of desserts to choose from but not yet a great selection to wow me over.

I was immediately drawn to the durian section which featured six types of neatly arranged durian themed pastries - durian puff, durianmisu, durian oreo cake, durian pancake, durian pudding and durian roll.

clockwise from top: durian pudding, durian roll, durian pancake and durian puff

durian oreo cake (front left) & durianmisu (front right)

My favourite would have to be the durian pudding which taste the closest to my favourite durian pengat. Next on my hit list would have to be the durianmisu with the deadly coupling of kahlúa and D24 durian pulp!

After stuffing myself crazy with the durian desserts, there's naturally hardly any space left in my stomach to accomodate the rest of the desserts. Fortunately (or not), my 'partner-in-crime" is a durian-hater and therefore, I managed to capture some shots of the non-durian desserts as well as nipped a few bites from his plate.

Towards the end of an almost 1.5 hours dessert marathon, I decided to wave my white flag at the ice-cream tubs and heavenly big bowl of mango sago, which under normal circumstances are my absolute must-have desserts.

Priced at $24.80 per pax, I would strongly recommend all durian-lovers to GO FOR IT before the durian fiesta ends on the 25th July 2010.

A New Addition To The June Baby List

Birthdays are almost always a welcome affair - with the "oohs & aahs" in revealing the cake, the careful arrangement of candles to complement the cake design, lighting and often re-lighting of the accidentally blown-out candles, the often shy birthday girl/boy being placed in the centre of attention, uncoordinated clappings and singings (or humming) of the all-too-familiar birthday song, the nudge from all to make a birthday wish before the final blowing out of the candles.

This was no exception on the 6th of June for Sutika, who was extremely shy but nevertheless, 'coaxed' and 'coerced' into performing the above traditional birthday rituals.

The Fruit Tart Shop @ Raffles City Shopping Centre

Let me cut to the chase. This is one of the shops in my "Little Black List".

Complain #1: Despite the fantastic marketing tactic of showcasing a great variety of mouth-watering plastic fruit tart display which has succeeded in luring me into the shop, the real edible tarts upon ordering was only down to a pathetic few which could be counted with five fingers.

Complain #2: I had to wait for more than 15 minutes before being served with my order. Isn't it as simple as dishing the pre-cut tart out onto a serving plate?

Complain #3: Generously priced at about $7 per slice, the miserable tiny slice was rather stingily (I even have to invent my own word here!) cut and appeared to be overpowered by the white serving plate.

Complain #4: Despite the nicely worded description in the menu promising a chocolate mousse filled tart with strawberry toppings, I was greatly disappointed to find my teeth sinking into 80% of fattening whipped cream with only a sparse amount of chocolate mousse deposited at the base of the tart. The only thing that didn't disappoint me would have to be the crunchy tart base (which I could have easily bought at the supermarket) and the strawberries (which I'm pretty sure wasn't harvested from their kitchen).
Complain #5: After having ingested the tart, I proceeded to cleanse my palate with a cup of ice water only to find the grand 'surprise' finale staring at me - yes, you are right, it was lipstick mark at the rim of the cup or whatever that was red and sticky remaining after a hasty attempt at rinsing the cup for the next sucker customer.

I hardly make guarantees but I can more than 100% guaranteed that I'll never ever step into another Fruit Tart Shop again! :)

Chocolate Souffle @ Bakerzin

Thanks to the birthday voucher sent to me by one of the retail stores which I have made a contribution towards, I treated myself to a free chocolate souffle at Bakerzin just two days before it expires.

It was actually quite a good deal with the $9.20 dessert presented to me free-of-charge at no requirement to make a minimum purchase order.

That said, "Happy Birthday To Me"...again. :)
And did I mention that it was yummy? :P

Okos @ Botejyu

Okonomiyaki or Okos for short (in this case) is a light Japanese dish consisting of a watery flour batter as the base with toppings or fillings such as finely shredded cabbage, egg, fried noodles and choice of seafood or meat for a more fulfilling meal.

The only eatery that I frequent which sells okos is the takeaway store located at the basement of Takashimaya. The okos sold there does not include any meat or seafood but nevertheless makes for a quick snack in-between shopping.

That said, Botejyu at Liang Court would have to be my proper introduction to this Japanese savoury pancake. The restaurant serves a decent variety of okos and as I was showed to the table, I observed quite a fair bit of customers made up by Japanese families. Thus I couldn't help but secretly congratulated myself for a good choice of restaurant made. :)

I ordered a regular seafood okos which cost $8.80 and was a little disappointed when I realised that I made the wrong order. Everything was good with the shredded cabbage, prawn and scallop fillings and it would have been PERFECT if not for the missing fried noodles! Guess I would have to make a second visit there and make sure I order the right okos the next time.

As I was working at digesting my somewhat satisfying okos with a cup of hot green tea, I noticed a little poster advertising the Ajisen membership card and realized to my shock that this is another restaurant venture by the same corporation (Japan Foods Holding Pte Ltd) which manages Ajisen Ramen! The horror came when I did a Google search and found that the Fruit Tart Shop is another of their food venture! I'll be blogging on my not-so-pleasant experience at the Fruit Tart Shop shortly. Meanwhile, it goes to show that not all business ventures takes off even with the expertise of a giant food corporation but I would have to say that they are already a success with 2 out of 3 making it into my "I-would-patronize-again" restaurant list.

Dog Competition in Villach

The Austrians really love their dogs and cats. While the cats are pampered at home with treats and toys with some allowed to roam freely in the great outdoors, the dogs get to have their daily walk at least twice a day and even their furs fluffed up for the Villach Dog Competition.

The competition was held at an indoor sports stadium which was divided into four judging zones. However, it was not quite clear to me how the competing dogs were being grouped.

It was an all-day's event beginning early in the morning till the late afternoon with the award ceremony as the great finale. We arrived an hour before the break for lunch and did not managed to catch much 'action' really.
Some dogs were paraded in front of the judges who were furiously scribbling away on sheets of paper while others were having a hell of a time sniffing at the rear ends of newly met acquaintences, with their owners having a somewhat similar great time socializing with a pretzel and beer in hand.

But I guess the outcome of the competition was insignificant compared to the time spent playing with their owners and newfound canine friends. :)