Food Adventures!

Ham & Cheese Croissant. The Ham slice is thicker than usual.

Chocolate Chip Croissant

Blueberry Cheese Tart

Charcoal bun

One fine Saturday morning, we decided to make our way to Little India for some lovely croissants. Mirabelle makes one of the best croissants I have ever eaten in my entire life. Unless I have a better one, I think I would go all the way for their croissants. First time we had a plain one, second time we had a chocolate chip one, and third time we finally had the ham and cheese. Votes for ham and cheese and the plain ones. The charcoal bun with custard and the blueberry cheese tart is ok.

Had a hot steaming bowl of an ordinary looking prawn noodles. After sipping the hot soup, I proceeded to eat the kway tiao. Excellent. It tastes much better than it looks. Peppery and robust, we sipped the life out of the bowl until it is dry. *snigger*

Prawn noodle

Had an onion masala thosai at Sri Kamala's with some teh tarik before heading down to Crys' place for some cheesecake baking and try her lovely Indian dishes.

Thosai

Teh Tarik!

My first attempt at blueberry cheesecake baking

The dishes were ready. So was my tummy!

Pumpkin Prawn

Lady's Finger

Masala Chicken

Free Ice Cream anyone?

Got a free treat whilst strolling down Orchard Road. Woohoo!

Banana Cream Pie from PS. Cafe Paragon

Finally, the settings for blogger has straightened out and I'm able to post again! After almost 2 months of hiatus, I have kept a lot of pictures and realised that I have eaten a lot. Totally forgot my "promise" to eat healthy but have no fear because I do not feel any guilt for eating more. *snigger*

First up is the Banana Cream Pie from PS. Cafe Paragon. This is one hell load of whipped cream. I think to myself why is the cream tasteless? Is it a fat free whipped cream? It does not taste sweet nor salty. Much less creamy. And they do charge a buck for extra cream so please ration them if you are a whipped cream freak.

Then the freshly cut bananas taste....like how it should be. Then followed by the caramel on top of the pie crust. This is the part where I think to myself again that this stuff is too sweet and I could make it at home. The caramel has done it for me. Overdosed on sugar because we had a key lime pie together with this. I should skip sugary stuff for the week.

Pulut Hitam (Black Glutinous Rice Dessert)

I'd like to think of this as a Chinese styled rice pudding. My mom cooked this gorgeous dessert and let me bring it to work. The most common way of eating this is drizzling thick coconut milk which has a little salt added to it. It brings out the contrast of the sweetness in the dessert and hence makes it very palatable. My mom's version has fresh milk and condensed milk added to it. Very satisfying. ;oP

My Scones

Haha...and I finally managed to do it properly this time! I baked scones and it tasted nice and fluffy unlike the other times. I did manage to adapt from this recipe but I added raisins instead of cheddar and forgot to add sugar! But all was good and I think I will make this again.

Raisin Scones:
100g butter
2 cups plain flour
pinch of salt
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1 cup milk (leave some for glaze)
1 Packet of raisins

Bake them for 10-15mins at 230deg. Enjoy them with clotted cream/butter/jam/plain!

Jollibean's Green Tea Azuki Blend

Thankfully through her recommendation, I finally managed to try the green tea azuki blend. 2 thumbs up for this! I seldom take cold drinks but it was calling out to me when I was just standing near Paragon's Jollibean outlet. I like the mild green tea flavour in the milky soya milk. I like the mushy red beans. Mmm....I like this! >.<

Banana Cake

This time round, I have decided to make a simple banana cake. I have put in much less sugar comparatively to my past attempts. Recipe and method are the same as the previous times. Adaptation from Exclusively Food.

Banana Cake:
125g butter, softened
50g raw sugar
3 large ripe bananas (reserve 1 for decorating)
2 eggs
100ml buttermilk
225g plain flour 1 teaspoon of baking powder
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

Notes:

The original recipe calls for 330g of sugar and because I thought of trying something with much lower sugar content so I just added 50g of raw sugar. I did not have self-raising flour on hand so I just adjusted that part.

The cake batter turned out a bit dry and I think I poured out about 50ml more of the buttermilk to mix in the batter.

Pour half of the cake batter in the cake tin and spread evenly. Place sliced bananas and then top up the rest of the batter and place in more sliced bananas. I could do with more bananas in future as the banana taste was not very strong.

This cake was baked for about 40mins but the top part seemed pale looking. I deduced that the reason could be due to the lesser sugar content. I adjusted the oven a bit so that the top part can be browned.

The taste was just nice. The feedback given was that one could take 2 slices and not feel overloaded with sugar and grease. Success is mine! ;op

Banana cake innards

Dessert at Kyoto Sabo AJITEI 京都茶房味亭 (Takashimaya)

I always look at the displays for their desserts and finally gotten one myself. This is their green tea parfait. I like this dessert quite a bit. I noted some bacon dish that they kept serving up to other diners. I could try that the next time.

Clodhoppers

This is a dark chocolate fudge flavour which I thought was not too bad because the graham wafer clusters tasted like butterscotch. I had this for lunch, tea break and almost for dinner. This stuff is highly addictive so I would suggest you either get a small pack, or share it with like 10 people at a go. I thought the white chocolate ones are pretty good too.

Burmese Sweets

This semolina pudding was firm to the bite but it is highly addictive because of this. I like the texture of semolina and this particular sweet has got me interested because of three main reasons.

1. It is made of semolina.
2. It has a coconut flavour which reminds me of nonya kuehs.
3. The topping of poppy seeds has upped the interesting texture factor.

Chocolate Rice Banana Muffin

Sort of.

I kinda made up the recipe myself and realised its a tad too sweet. I didn't know what I was doing so i sliced a banana and slipped a slice in the centre. The muffin turned out to be interesting. The top part was slightly crusty and chocolaty and the centre was soft with mushy banana.

I think I had 3 of these yummy treats.

Chocolate Rice Banana Muffin
2 cups self raising flour
100g butter, cubed
2 eggs
1/2 cup raw sugar
1/2 cup milk(or less, depending on mixture)
1 teaspoon baking powder
chocolate rice for topping
1 banana, sliced
1/2 tsp salt

• Preheat oven to 180 deg.
• Sift the flour and baking powder. Set aside.
• Beat the 2 eggs and raw sugar. Set aside for later use.
  
• Rub in the butter into the flour until it becomes crumbly buttery mixture.
  
• Pour in the egg mixture to the flour.
  
• With a light hand, use a fork to gently mix them together.
  
• Stir in milk until it all comes together and just combined like a muffin mix.
  
• DO NOT OVERMIX.
• Spoon a little batter in the cupcake liner or aluminium case.
  
• Place a slice of banana and cover the banana with more batter until full.
  
• Sprinkle chocolate rice on top
  
• Bake them for about 15-20mins.

Indulge Patisserie

Located at 722 North Bridge Road, which is pretty near Zac's, Anna bought 2 cute looking mousse like dessert. They basically taste the same but were too sweet for me. Its some hazelnut and chocolate like soft cake with mousse and some other unidentifiable stuff. It is OK for me.

Mua Chee at Xin Wang, Anchorpoint

I could finish this by myself. So can you. The sugared peanut mixture is quite fragrant but the mua chee itself is quite the star in this dish. Resembling like a tang yuan, this chewy glutinous rice ball does not stick to your teeth and has no fillings. I just want to go to pasar malams and buy mua chees to eat. Why are they increasing their price huh?

Pannacotta from Pizza Pazza

This is a great recommendation by Gab who is a dear friend of mine and has similar tastebuds as me. This ultra smooth and palate pleasing dessert costs less than S$3 (i forgot how much) and can be found at Anchorpoint foodcourt.

This stall by the name of Pizza Pazza sells the usual Italian fare of localized pizzas and pastas to suit the general tastebuds. This pannacotta, however, was pretty impressive and just makes me wanna eat them 3 servings in a row.

Yummy!!!!

update on 25 Feb 2009
Went there again today. Pannacotta price is S$1.80.

Swirl Gelateria at Crown Centre

I wouldn't mind seconds. I mean, another set of six flavoured gelatos. It actually incurred in me that this could be just another gelateria in this neighbourhood. Gab recommended trying these gelatos in a sampler shot glass servings so that the 3 of us can try more. I really can't recall what flavours were there but I think the durian is absolutely flavourful. There was a chendol flavour which I liked a lot. These shot glasses pack quite a bit of gelato so do remember to share them.

Board games are available here so we gals just took a shot at Scrabble. Made the whole experience even more fun. :o)

Care Bears Marshmallow Pops!

Care to have one? This was from the Netherlands, courtesy of Eileen. I cannot imagine eating these adorable looking bears without filling guilty.

I have translated the instructions from Dutch to English: You can start by chewing from ears, followed by the head, then the belly, then the arms/paw.... argh!!!! Once you finished the whole bear, your body can almost feel the sugar overloading on all your senses! Everything you hear or speak now is in Care Bear language. Care Bear Stare!!

Lol. Merry X'mas to all! ;op

House of Tau Sar Piah, 603 Balestier Road

One day I spotted a box filled with tau sar piah and decided to sneak one out for tasting. It looked bigger than the usual tau sar piah so I thought I would eat half first. Before I realise what was happening, I found myself picking up the crumbs on the tissue that I was eating from. Yes, I finished the salty pastry.

I liked the slight warm and crispy crust, the salty and sweet mung bean (tau sar) filling and the box. Lol. I'm a sucker for nice packaging. It costs 60cents each and there are other flavours available but I am not tired of this yet so, erm, yeah, not trying other flavours until I am sick.

Mmm....

I need one only...really...

Key Lime Pie from California Pizza Kitchen

Next!

My last encounter with key lime pie made me very curious to try the version at CPK. I think I still like PS. Cafe's version. This one is too sweet and milky with the pie crust soggy with a strong honey taste which made the whole dessert taste weird.

Where to find nice ones?

X'mas assorted cookies

Assortment of shortbread cookies!

I have to credit Vanna White first because without any assistance, I would not be able to complete this almost impossible task.

I followed 2 recipes and hence have 2 types of dough. Recipes were taken and adapted from Exclusively Food & Joy of Baking. The only thing that I have substituted for both recipes is the vanilla extract with the organic vanilla pods that I have on hand. Feel free to use either one.

Melting Moments Recipe (Review & Notes):

• Dough was pretty soft to work with so I had left them in the fridge for about an hour before working with it. I needed quite a bit of flour to prevent them from sticking.
• The oven and baking tray was a little small so I had to bake them in many batches hence the different flavours because I was bored.
• Instead of baking at 150 degs, I baked the cookies at 190 degs for 30mins each batch as they did not get cooked after 20mins.
• They will not change colour.
• They had a milky taste to it and crumbles in your mouth.
• I could change the butter to a better quality one the next time.
• Flavours: Original & Cinnamon sugar.
• My melting moments cookie does not have the lemon icing in between.
  

Shortbread cookies Recipe (Review & Notes):

• Same as above except that this was easier to work with because of more flour.
• For the Jam Drop cookie, just use your thumb to make that little "well" for the jam.
• The strawberry jam needed was very little so be aware and careful when spooning the jam onto the little "well".
• I used the strawberry milk choco bits that I got from Phoon Huat and scattered in the dough.
• Can increase the flavours for all the cookies.
• Shortbread tastes drier and more crisp.
• Flavours: Star Shaped Shortbread, White Chocolate chip cookie, Jam Drop Cookie, Strawberry Milk cookie.
• Can keep up to 2 weeks when refrigerated.

I can take orders for up to 3 flavours @ S$13.

Thank you. Cheers!

Herbal Jelly at Koong Woh Tong

Koong Woh Tong Sdn Bhd (恭和堂) is a chinese herbal tea shop which has quite a number of outlets in Malaysia. I tried this at the Genting Highlands outlet. They specialise in Herbal Jelly (Guilinggao) and herbal teas. They are quite popular despite the limited choices. I suppose each of the outlets have similar interior designs like gold coloured pots containing the herbal bitter teas and the big gold container which is actually a steamer in disguise, steaming the herbal jellies. I got the hot herbal jelly to try.

It came with a pot of diluted syrup. For some, they may find the jelly too diluted or watery for their taste. For me, it was perfect as the ultra smooth and wobbly jelly slided through my throat and went straight to my tummy. I liked that the syrup was diluted as I can just pour a lot of it and slurp it straight from the bowl. There was a bitter aftertaste which I did not mind. I could just drink their bitter tea the next time.

Prices: RM8 (small), RM10 (big).