thechowfiles

Al Dente

2007-08-18T21:47:00.000+08:00

Went to Al Dente Trattoria down at Holland V a week ago, and sampled all their recommendations!

Summary: looks good, tastes not bad, but for the price (worked out to be $110 or so for two mains, two deserts and one starter) I don't think it's worth it. Out of everything the best has to be the pizza, wood oven baked, just the way I like it! Thankfully, Al Dente has a promotion of having their pizzas at $10 after 10pm everyday, so if you're thinking of hanging out one night with some friends drop by there and try their pizza!

I know this is brief, I promise a more comprehensive update next time!

Cold Rock

2007-08-09T14:33:00.000+08:00

Went to the Cold Rock down at Holland V yesterday with the class to have ice cream. The Cold Rock has a different concept from most other ice cream parlours - They basically use a special cold rock and then take the ice cream flavour of your choice and mix it with an extra ingredient of your choice - They have things like chocolate brownie, Tim Tams, M&Ms, Rocky Road and loads of other sweet stuff! You can add as many as you like - just pay extra.

There's my butterscotch ice cream + peanut butter ice cream + rocky road + cookie dough mix!

The ice cream costs a bomb though. A regular with one topping costs $6 already. It's all nice and sinful and very satisfying, especially for finicky people. You can always have a different combination at every visit! Mine got very chunky due to two toppings in a regular cup, and very sweet, good for a sweet tooth like mine but some may find it too much.

Ah well, I'm glad that there's such a place around anyway. May be pricey but now you don't have to fly to Auzi to get your fix of Cold Rock!

Secret Recipe Sale!

2007-08-09T14:17:00.000+08:00

Secret Recipe is having a 42% off all whole cakes in line with National Day celebrations! The queues for them are crazy and the promotion ends tmr, 10th Aug, so go and grab them while you can! There's different types at different outlets, and it's limited to 3 or 4 types per outlet only I think. Each person is only allowed to buy a max. of 3 cakes and no reservations are allowed.

I have this 2kg cake sitting in my fridge now, with a slice of it in my tummy.

It's HUGE.

And it only costs $26 after the discount!

This one is called Chocolate Indulgence (oh wonder why) and is coated in dark chocolate coverture with loads of cream and chocolate mousse inside, oh it's heavenly! All the cakes are fresh too!

Go and grab yours NOW!

Al Azhar

2007-08-03T23:14:00.000+08:00

School's been on and bad. Spending the days with the body present but the mind floating somewhere else... Coming home to slump in front of the com for a few hours before sleeping. Two weeks have just passed by in the blink of an eye.

To more interesting things, been craving a couple of things lately, namely cheese ravioli and prata. Just got them both satisfied in the past two days!

Had the cheese ravioli at Amici yesterday, but due to the place being way too dark for pictures, I'm left with none. Amici is a wonderful place, great service, great atmosphere, located at Holland Village (the place with countless renowned restaurants) serving up Italian food that's worth the money. The ravioli (they only have one type) is stuffed with cheese and comes with pesto cream sauce - one of my favourites. I noted that there was deep fried cheese ravioli with herb sauce as an appetizer too, but didn't get around to having it. Maybe next time :D

Went to Al-Azhar, a pretty well known prata place opposite Beauty World, for prata today after school. Finally! For the unacquainted, there are two big prata shops along the stretch of food shops there - Al Ameen (I hope I got the spelling right) and Al Azhar. Al Ameen is usually easier to spot as it's the first one along the row, but Al Azhar is known for having better prata and service. I've tried Al Ameen once a logn time ago, and today was the first time at Al Azhar!

Mozerella cheese prata, banana prata, mutton muturbak, tissue prata (and not featured: cheese and egg prata)

Milo GODZILLA!

Chicken, beef and mutton satay!

Butter naan

All these shared by three. My stomach is screaming now. Everything is good! The prata is not oily, unlike some pratas that shine with oil upon being served! It's the first mozzarella cheese prata that I've tried too - usually most cheese pratas are just cheddar, with those kraft sandwich cheeses or something. You can really taste the difference in the cheeses int he prata (we could compare since we had a normal cheese and a mozzarella). The mozzarella has a stronger cheese taste that may not suit everyone, but is great to me :D. Ordering the muturbak was funny - they come in different sizes, with portions priced at $3, $4, $6 and $8 if I remember correctly. We went for a $3, and it was already really big! Like, possibly too much for one to finish even. I can't imagine the size of the $8 one. Shall find out what it looks like someday, heh.

Milo Godzilla is really, like Godzilla, the king of the Miloextinctanimals series. First there was the milo dinosaur - iced Milo with extra Milo powder on top for extra oomph, and then it gets better with the Godzilla version: iced Milo with extra milo powder, a scoop of vanilla ice cream, whipped cream and of course the cherry on top! It's a nutritious drink, a desert, a fruit (uh.. the cherry...) all in one! Good.

Satay is pretty good, I think the chicken one is the best. Beef ones were pretty chewy, not that great, but the sauce is really chock full of peanuts! They also serve a wide variety of naan, this bread that's good with the curry.

Sorry for the rushed and not fully detailed entry, rather shagged from the week of long days! Overall: Not for the faint hearted, calorie counting female. For everyone else, it's really a place you must go to, and will likely come back again and again and again. Cheap food (we spent $8 each or so), great service indeed (the waiters are all super funny and joking with us and being really attentive and patient when we couldn't make up our minds on what to have!) and a really good place for comfort food. It's open 24/7 to boot, so you can literally go down anytime! It's ultimately still in the open and not air conditioned, but the food more than makes up for it.

As though we weren't full enough, we ordered this:

Soursop with jelly balls on shaved ice

Sweet sweet sweet.

Lunch Packs for the next Month.

2007-07-22T22:41:00.000+08:00

lunch pack for tmr

50 Quaker Chewy Granola bars. 40 "mini-cartons" of Florida's Natural sweets. 30 rolls of Florida's Natural sour sweets. 15 tetra packs of 100% fruit smoothies. Nature Valley's crunchy granola bars. Chocolate malt.

It's official.

I love my parents.

KUISHIN BO

2007-07-21T23:23:00.000+08:00

YES. YES. I have finally, finally, FINALLY managed to get a chance to go and eat at Kuishinbo today! It's been a year and a half since I was first introduced to that place, and after many delays and procrastinations, I finally managed to eat there today!!

I don't know if it is the extremely high glucose-in-blood-stream level talking or it's just me, but it was AWESOME. Maybe we were a bit too excited, ate so much that I felt really sick afterwards and had to keep quiet cause talking hurt. Too.. bloated...

There's way too much food to remember everything. I promise that had to be the most expensive meal that I've paid for this year (not from the Parents). It is $39.80++ for weekend dinners, so the whole thing worked out to be around $47 per person. Ouch.

I'll let the pictures do the talking:

the buffet tables

They serve EVERYTHING Japanese! Kaminabe (paper steamboat), kushiyaki (Japanese satay), sashimi, seafood, sushi, tempura, chawan-munshi, different types of soup, sweet cold prawns, their signature dish of snow crabs (free flow and only available at dinner) and many, many more! You'll simply be overwhelmed with choices there and there's too much to even try and stomach one of each item available!

sweet, sweet, sweet.

uh. salty, salty, salty.

The Guide on How to Enjoy a Sumptuous Meal. Not very useful, if you ask me. What may be more realistic may be: Eat. Just eat.

The softest mochi I have ever eaten! Absolutely delightful, it may have been the best thing from the desert section! Now I know what it means by "melt-in-your-mouth" mochi. They have it in two flavours too - green tea and peanut. I can't decide which is better. My suggestion? Eat them both, and as many as you can.

And Guess what this contained! -

Tea, anyone? But no! It actually contained soup!

A very rich stock to boot. When you open the teapot, you'll find ingredients like mushrooms and prawns inside! What you're supposed to do is pour the soup out from the teapot into a bowl and then drink. Trust the Japanese to think of such cool concepts.

The paper steamboat! For the unacquainted, the paper steamboat is a Japanese dish that is, well, a steamboat like any other, just that it comes in a paper bowl that's made of special waxed paper that doesn't get burnt by the fire beneath. Kuishinbo is really generous with the food they provide, and the steamboat was really good! There's fish, prawns, mussels and everything. The best part of it though, has to be the soup stock. Nice, strong, flavourful, and a tinge of seafood sweetness. Mmmm! (They look so pretty too!)

And for the highlight of Kuishinbo...

The LOBSTER. Every 45 mins or so, you'll realise that the normal Japanese music stops playing, only to be replaced by the music that has to be Kuishinbo's strongest trademark " Dong dong dong, 1,2,3, we are Kuishinbo." It's such an annoying tune, such a stupid song, such a retarded ad, and it achieved what any advertising gimmick is supposed to - stick in peoples' minds. Ah. I'd call it a sucessful advertisement. Everyone I know remembers the song. The best part is, in the TV ad, the song also adds "Suntec City Level3" in that annoying tune, so no one can forget where it is! How wonderful does it get!

Okay, back to the point. Once that tune starts playing, you'll see HORDES of people running to form a queue somewhere along the buffet spread, near the paper steamboats. What for? Lobsters. There's only 40 pieces of them at every round, and one person is only allowed to take one. If you miss it, you'll just have to wait for the next round. There's two types of lobsters, and they alternate the type at the rounds. One is the cheese covered lobster, and the other is a soy-and-thai-chilli one. Heck, both are good.

Standard of food wise, it's not bad. It's definitely better than what you'll get at Sakae Sushi or Seoul Garden or anything. Not top notch, I believe you'll still have to go to proper Japanese restaurants to get the best quality food - no buffet can ever have the highest quality of food, considering the large amounts of food they have to prepare and leave out in the open. For buffet food though, it's of considerably good quailty. Great, friendly, warm ambience. You can stay there and eat for hours (dinner is on from 5.30 to 10) and catch up with friends. While we were there a birthday song played multiple times too - they will willingly read out birthday dedications at your request!

One thing we realised though is that the majority of the staff doesn't understand English, so it's really tough asking for help if you need anything in particular. To make your money worth it, you'll really really want to eat everything, so by the end of it you'll have gained a kg or two and vow not to have breakfast (and possibly lunch too) the next day. It'll also stop any cravings for Jap food for a long time I believe.

Oh and some good advice to heed: skip all rice/carbs at any buffet, they fill you up too fast, so you won't be able to eat the nice and expensive things. Ha. Stupid trick by restaurants.

Burp. I think I shall go and digest the food. By watching tv, yes.

Chocolate fun + breadsticks

2007-07-11T19:13:00.000+08:00

Got back home, swore to do homework, and...

Went to make chocolate clusters.

So much for determination and self control. Was craving the chocolate clusters we made at the chocolate workshop, and thus decided to very quickly replicate them. Being at home, and with no need to share (wheehee!), it meant that I could use bigger cups! I'm guessing these paper cups hold twice as much each as the ones we made at the workshop.

Simple processes, and voila:

equals

Just tasted one of them. Then I tasted another, just to be sure they tasted alright. Then I took a third one..

Got to thank Nat for passing me some real good milk chocolate today! Shall bring some of these milk chocolate clusters to school tmr :D Too bad I don't have more exotic ingredients at home, or else I could make more types! So fun, unlike homework.

In other news:

Bought some breadsticks off the Cold Storage shelf the other day -

These are from Waitrose, the large supermarket chain from the UK that doesn't actually have any outlet here, but which products can be found here and there. Now, breadsticks are also known as grissini, which is an Italian word I believe (since they originated from Italy). They may be called bread, but they are really crispy and dry, something like croutons in long pencil-like form. I don't really remember seeing them being eaten much in Singapore, but it's good to know that the supermarket stocks up on some.

I got the plain ones (the other one has sesame seeds), which are great for dips. Have it with garlic butter, salsa, tomato dips, avocado dips, cheese dips, anything you fancy! I took one and started poking it around various jars I had at home (even Nutella) and it all tasted quite good. They're too plain for me to eat it on it's own though. They're pretty healthy, low on the calories (we're not including dip here), and come in packs of 20 or so sticks per box.

Ooo. They may be good with soups too, come to think of it.

Maybe I should go try...

Pizza Hut Kitchen Tour

2007-07-09T22:56:00.000+08:00

Ain't got much today! Went down to Pizza Hut at Bukit Timah as part of an enrichment course, to have a tour around the kitchen and see how pizza is made at the biggest pizza chain restaurant in Singapore.

NOTE: This is not about a good pizza or place of recommendation. I personally cannot stand Pizza Hut pizza. The toppings are not generous enough, and there's just wayy too much dough (that doesn't taste good for that matter). Or maybe it's just me: I like thin crust pizzas, not those 4:1 dough-ingredient ratio.

The tour was majorly disappointing. The kitchen is really small, we didn't get to play with pizza dough/ make our own pizzas (like I was hoping we would) and it was really quick. Oh, we were served a Pizza Hut meal each, that basically comprised a mushroom soup, a Hawaiian personal pan and Pepsi. Ick. The pizza was actually better than the soup. Warning: stay clear of the soup as much as possible. Don't ask.

Anyway, back to the tour: I sneaked my cam into the kitchen and took some pictures, however, the pictures weren't really good (I didn't know if a camera was allowed you see, so I just took pictures quickly whenever I could :D)

the hardware

So we were given an introduction to the machines that play the parts in helping us create the godly thing called Pizza (not saying that about the pizza there in particular though..). There's the big dough mixer, that well, mixes the flour and oil and everything else you need to make the base for the pizza. Then there's the large oven-machine, where you put the ready-made-but-uncooked pizza at one end and it'll come out at the other end in 7 minutes, ready to be served. Okay, that sounded like some sort of horrible digestive system, hmm.

The last picture is that of the cold room, where all the ingredients are stored. I took a walk in and smelled pepper chicken or something. There's cartons and cartons of bags in which all the topping were stored and a very interesting piece of paper stuck on the wall that read "ANY AMOUNT OF APPLE/ORANGE JUICE THAT IS STOLEN FROM THE COLD ROOM WILL BE REPORTED TO THE POLICE". Okay. I do not want to know what goes on in there.

Then a lady gave us a demonstration of making a regular Hawaiian pizza. That itself wasn't really interesting - all she did was count sprinkle half a cup of cheese over the base, put 15 pieces of ham (yes, they count and make sure it's 15), scatter a cup worth of pineapples over that and end off with another half cup of cheese.

The more interesting part was the colourful array of ingredients displayed. It all looked quite pretty, and we were soo tempted to pick some up with our bare hands and eat them like that. (Hygiene freaks back off! Nothing gets between us and food). There's also a chart against the fridge, that basically tells you how much of what ingredient to put on what type of pizza! Unfortunately I didn't manage to get a clear shot of that (was too bust trying to be conspicuous), so we will never know.

The uh. Personal pizza of my friend's. With heaps of cheese. Uh. Heaps.

That concludes the little tour we had. Pizza Hut has come up with a new Thin Crust Pizza, which I have yet to try. Hmm. Have my doubts about it, but shall go try it someday.

Bakerzin masterpieces

2007-07-08T21:13:00.000+08:00

Ahhhh! LOOK:

*gasp* Macaroons and more macaroons!

I think they're supposed to be superheroes. I don't get the panda eyes.

Love this one! The guy looks too big for the horse and his legs are akimbo! He looks sorta silly.. and dumb. Awww.

Any soccer + chocolate lover's dream

I KNOW. I KNOW! This is a kid's dream come true! Bakerzin has created these masterpieces out of chocolate and macaroons and they're on display at Novena Square in the atrium now, and not sure for how long more. I wanted to break something off or pick a macaroon (macaroons, macaroons, macaroons! I LOVE MACAROONS!), but the sales lady from Bakerzin (they're there selling the normal Bakerzin cakes and stuff) kept a firm eye on me. Poof.

And they're not for sale either :(

Go down to Novena Square to have a look before they're gone! There's a mini food fair going on there as well, and pick up a macaroon or two from the Bakerzin counter if you can't resist (I certainly couldn't!).

Marche Paella

2007-07-08T16:01:00.000+08:00

Went back to Marche at Vivo again today because The Parents wanted to try it out, especially after hearing bout the food yesterday. So we made our way down for lunch and got started.

Okay, so now I have more information about the Marche at Vivo. Apparently, much effort and thought has been put into this outlet so as to make give it a very authentically Swiss appearance and experience for diners. The interior, which is made to resemble a house in a Swiss village, was constructed by getting Five-hundred-year-old antique wood from two well-preserved huts from Adelboden (a village in the Alpine mountains). The wood was dismantled, and then very carefully transported over to Singapore and reassembled. Every window, door, hinge and knob are all original. Whoa, talk about meticulous.

My suspicions about the better quality of food were also confirmed. The rosti potatoes have changed, from the originally used American Russet potatoes have been replaced with better Yukon Gold potatoes, do it isn't just your eyes playing tricks when you see that the Rosti is a deeper, more beautiful gold-yellow now.

The meats are now grilled over applewood fires, rather than the previously used electric grills. For those who know, that's a big thing. Electric grills, though more convenient, always lack the real fire flavour. The fire flavour just makes anything taste so much better.

The pastas (which I found not to be very good at the old Marche outlets) have changed from being boiled-on-the-spot-from-dried-products to being freshly made on the premise itself. I have yet to get a chance to try the pastas though, so I'm not sure how much better they taste.

What I did get to try today is the Paella. Paella is a rich dish that originates from Spain and is a new staple added to Marche that wasn't found in the previous outlets. Now, paella is a very traditional dish that is basically made with rice, olive oil, saffron (the basics) and then with meats, seafood and veges that may vary with different renditions of paella. Paella is usually cooked in a paella pan, which is rather large and shallow. The very word "paella" itself means "frying pan" in Valencian.

our serving of paella

Marche's paella comes in two sizes - the first is a "one" portion, that is actually enough for two people to share, and the second is a "five" portion. You'll see at the counter a huge paella pan, in which the paella is cooked. I'm guessing that the "five" portion will mean that the chef makes you one entire large paella pan worth. I ordered a "one" portion, and the guy took a little pan and heaped the rice, chicken, mussels, squid and whatnots from a large paella pan that was already made.

Okay, so paella is basically the Spanish rendition of fried rice, just that with more exotic ingredients than the Singaporean ones. I was wondering what kind of rice it was, and learn that it is actually Bomba rice from Spain. Not bad. At least they remained authentic and didn't try some cheat-your-money gimmick by using other cheaper varieties like Thai rice or something. The rice is actually the most important part of the dish - use the wrong rice and it wouldn't be the right taste of paella at all. Bomba rice is the rice for paella, so you're really getting putting your money down for authentic tasting food.

Upon digging into the dish, I realised that they were very generous with the seafood! There's bound to be a squid, or some fish, or a prawn or a mussel in every square inch of the pan. There were a few large chunks of chicken too (with bone) that was rather juicy, not dry and overcooked.

I don't know how to describe the taste of paella, or how Marche's one compares to other paellas, since this was my first time eating the dish. It's such a reverie of flavours, and I can't quite put a name to it. It wasn't too salty, and the flavours of everything combined really overwhelms your taste buds. I'm guessing though, that it's the type of dish that you either like or dislike, due to the strong flavour of it. The ingredients were good, fresh seafood, nothing dry, and nothing bland. I guess you'll just have to go and check it out to see if you'll like it!

Paella is the dish from Spain, as much associated with it as chilli crab or laksa or bak chor mee is with Singapore. It's a good introduction to Spanish cuisine, and I love Marche for bringing it in.

The Father made a good point though: The entrance is sheltered but the exit is not, so how messy will it be for people to leave when it's raining! (since the only way of exit will be for people to uh, exit via the entrance). Hmmm.

Day at Marche

2007-07-07T17:59:00.000+08:00

It's the weekend at last! Headed down to Vivocity today to have lunch at Marche. It's the first time I ate at the Vivo Marche and it's either that I was really ravenous or the food tasted better than that in their now defunct outlets at Heeren and Suntec City! Almost everything we ordered was really good - the salad spread, the mushroom soup and the salmon crepe have ensured that I'll be back for more.

Vivo Marche is all the way up on the third level of Vivocity, and takes up a pretty little glass house. The premise is much smaller and more crammed than the old ones, and thus it gets really squeezy during lunch and dinner times. Prices have gone up too! Grumble.

Anyway there are two things in particular that shall be mentioned. Firstly, the "fruit cake":

As you can see, it's almost all fruit-and-jelly and hardly any cake. Another things is that this should really just be called "grape cake" instead of "fruit cake" because all the fruits are green and red grapes (did I mention that they are all seedless? mmm.) Marche has to be credited for being so generous with the fruit - I think there are at least 15 whole grapes on that slice of cake!

Here's the thing: the jelly is just WAY too sweet. The grapes are nice and sweet, and the cake is, well, passable for a sponge cake, but slightly to the hard and dry side. It would all have been fine if the jelly had, perhaps, half the amount of sugar that was put into it. It was so sickeningly sweet that I could hardly get through a quarter of the cake (and I have a sweet tooth y'know). It tasted like concentrated sugar syrup. Not worth the $4.50 we paid.

Then there's this:

*cries out in joy* Hot Cross Buns!! For some strange reason it's not easy to find hot cross buns in Singapore, and the only ones I've ever eaten are the plain ones. These at Marche had 2 choices of fillings - custard or chocolate cream. I walked by the pastry section and saw a huge tray full of these gleaming beauties, and grabbed one to try on the spot.

Mmmm. The bread, although no longer warm, was still fluffy and soft and sweet. And there was the custard that wasn't overly sweet, thus giving a lovely combination that wasn't too sweet (unlike the fruit cake) overall and was very very yummy. They were pretty generous with the custard too. From the outside all you can see is a blob of cream sticking out, and at first I was afraid that it was just a thin line running through the bread, or even worse, that it really was just that tiny glob (you know, like some cheat-your-money bakeries). Thankfully, a thick stream of custard is revealed upon biting into the bun. It kind of oozes out as you bite into it. Yum yum.

I liked it enough to buy two back - one custard and one chocolate, and I've just taste the chocolate. Whoa the chocolate sauce/cream is more liquidy than the custard and just flowed out of the bun! Oh so good. For $1.50, it's more than worth trying when you pop by Marche. There's even a large bowl of unsalted butter that you can help yourself to, just in case you want to butter the bread. Not necessary in my opinion though.

I'm definitely going back there to eat again. I heard something about this new Marche outlet being under a new management - it is now under the direct management of Marche International, which is the founding company of Marche. Previously, the two outlets in Singapore were run by Singapore franchisee Chee Swee Cheng & Company. Perhaps that'll explain the better standard of food. Whatever it is, I feel it is now better than Vil'age, though slightly pricier.

Pig Out Day

2007-07-06T20:52:00.000+08:00

And this is why life is good:

Green Tea Pocky (with green tea bits)

Tiramisu Mousse Pocky

Now, those who know me will know that I am on a quest to set up my very own Pocky Shrine - collecting as many different flavours of Pocky as possible (am keeping the boxes btw. After all that effort put into hunting them down and the $$$ spent on them, I better well have a souvenir).

These are two that I bought and tried today. Now, the funky Pocky sticks are very different from the standard chocolate and strawberry flavoured ones that are the most easily found at supermarkets and canteens. Those are made in Thailand, while the "collections" are made in Japan. Fact is, they do taste different, not just the coating but even the biscuit tastes better.

The Green Tea one gives a strong, clean green tea flavour, and you'll see tiny bits of deep green on the coating - those are supposed to be real green tea bits. Green tea lovers rejoice - this actually tastes quite like real green tea! Each box holds 4 packets, with 6 sticks in each pack.

The tiramisu one comes from the Glico Pocky Mousse family. I have previously tried the mousse ones in White Chocolate, Green Tea, Cream and Berry. The distinctive characteristic of the mousse series is that each biscuit is slightly thicker than the normal pocky and the coating is a lot thicker. I mean a lot. It's usually creamier tastes too. The Tiramisu is not quite up to standard though. I mean, it tastes awesome, but it tastes more like chocolate than tiramisu. It lacks the kick of coffee liqour you get when you eat tiramisu, and doesn't really taste like tiramisu at all. It does taste nice and chocolate-y though! For these, each box holds 3 packets with 4 sticks per pack. They may be fewer, but they are downright satisfying!

Now, tracking down Pocky is not an easy thing. I've not seen a single supermarket/Japanese supermarket/ Japanese snack shop that sells all the different flavours of Pocky that's possible found in Singapore. You can find one flavour there, and there and there, and some popping up in random minimarts around the island. The price varies too - usually around 3-4 bucks per box.
The Green Tea one I found from Isetan Orchard and the Tiramisu at Central basement, whee!

Arnotts snack sized packs

One of today's enrichment programs I attended was the movie screening of Great Expectations (you know the movie is 6 hrs long??? We only got through 4 hours of it.) The lit teachers were so nice as to buy us snacks to much on while we watched! Grabbed these, and came to a conclusion: Arnotts biscuits are not great. I think the best things from them are Tim Tams, but we'll get to those another day. Chicken in a Biscuit will beat all the savoury Arnotts Shapes there are. Somehow the flavours are not right, taste too artificial and the biscuit is just not as satisfying as a msg-soaked Chicken in a Biscuit. Mmmm. And the chocolate for the chocolate bears prove to be too little, and too... dry. They taste more like cheap chocolate biscuits, so nah, not worth it.

Gotta admit the packaging is so cute and colourful though! And snack-sized packs are so convenient and limits the amount you get tempted to eat. Chicken in a Biscuit should be found in these good-sized packs :D.

Then came these:

HAVE YOU SEEN SUCH THICK EGG TARTS??? They work out to be around 5cm thick each! These are Taiwanese egg tarts apparently, and The Father brought back a box of 6 today, whee! Okay, they don't taste great, the egg custard is too eggy, and the crust, which is the traditional, more biscuity type (which I likeee) is not crumbly and buttery enough. Only cool thing about this is the sheer thickness, quite satisfying to sink your teeth into.

Oh I SIN.

Sweet Traditional Bread

2007-07-05T18:08:00.000+08:00

I can't remember the last time I had Bonjour Bread, or Gardenia, or any other commercial, buy-me-off-the-supermarket-shelf loaf of bread for that matter.The bread is, well, relatively fresh, with new batches being made in the wee hours of the morning when the world is still asleep. However, I've yet to get off-the-shelf bread that's still warm from the oven.

These brands do have to be credited with providing a wide variety of flavours though: banana walnut, milk, pandan, sweet potato, raisin and whatnot.

Personally though, I find the good old, traditional ones the best still. You know, those that are used to make into kaya toast. Mmmm. Kaya toast, with a slab of butter. But I digress.

The point is, I found a place to get freshly baked, traditional sweet bread.

the bread in all its glory

This bread is so soft! It is freshly made in a very old bread factory, which specializes in making two types of bread - this sweet loaf and another, more rectangular shaped traditional loaf (non-sweet). There is a slight sugary sweetness to it, I'm guessing it's just due to a higher sugar content in the dough, but I can't be sure as to whether they have other secrets to it. So good, you can even eat it on it's own, really.

There's really no glamour of any sort to the shop. It looks like it has been there for the past 40 years and is pretty run down. The attraction would be the aroma of fresh bread wafting through the air, and the racks of freshly baked loaves of bread left to cool right outside the shop. This little factory that is located next to Whampoa market and food centre (I unfortunately did not take down its name - shall make a note the next time), occupies a little shophouse space and is actually the bread supplier to various coffeeshops. They do sell loaves of their bread at this little factory of theirs too, for us lucky customers to be able to buy bread just about as fresh as it gets.

No efforts put into fancy packaging whatsoever, the loaf simply comes like this - a plastic bag sealed with a knot. The sides have been trimmed off, so you'll just see the white inside instead of the original brown exterior. The top though, is left on. You can peel it off easily if you rather not have any crust. The Father loves the crust and The Mother doesn't.

The loaf comes at S$1.10 each, very reasonably priced in my opinion.

I just bought a loaf home, (handling it with such care on the way back to make sure I don't accidentally squish it) and it is still nice and warm! It's great with sweet spreads like kaya or jams, or peanut butter, or butter and sugar (I know, putting more sugar on a sweet bread... yummy to me!). What it goes really, really well with though, is otah. It may be a sweet bread, but trust me, it's good for savoury sandwiches too.

The slight spiciness of otah + the pillowy bread = mmmmm.

It's great toasted too, but I suggest eating it without toasting, especially on the day of purchase, so you can enjoy the softness of it. By the second day it gets a little harder, and then you can try toasting. The bread doesn't last very long, due to the fact that the shop doesn't use preservatives found in commercial bread, thus consuming it all within 2-3 days would be good.

In fact, I'm off to eat a slice with otah now. MMMM :D

Shiroi Koibito

2007-07-04T21:21:00.000+08:00

The Japanese are undoubtedly famous for producing some of the strangest and funkiest snacks around (I just bought a packet of avocado and shrimp bagel flavoured chips that I'll be trying later), but lets not forget some of the more traditional, normal, snacks too!

Shiroi Koibito - This is the famous Shiroi Koibito representative of Hokkaido, born from Ishiya Seika's excellent techniques and passion for confectionary. The soft flavored white chocolate sandwiched in fragrant "langue de chat" cookies (white type) after its first production in 1976 it has been enjoyed by many customers and was awarded by the Suisse Monde Selection in 1986. - taken from the Shiroi Koibito online shop https://www.shiroikoibito.ishiya.co.jp/

In simple terms: two pieces of thin but crisp cookies with a slice of white chocolate (that is thicker than both pieces of cookies combined), sandwiched between them.

These chocolates are famous, really. I remember going to Japan some 9 years back and The Parents bought some of these. I didn't really remember how they tasted, just a vague memory that they were pretty darn good.

Then, the supermarket at the basement of Isetan Orchard held a huge Hokkaido Fair, which unfortunately ended a week or so ago. Now, I went there, expecting the usual goodies (it's a treasure trove there), and my eyes popped out at the site of a trolley filled with these! Japanese, being, well, Japanese, have this thing for packaging everything beautifully, and then charging a bomb for them. Don't get me wrong, the packaging makes you feel like every item you buy is a special present, better wrapped than any Christmas gift.

Take the Shiroi Koibito I saw at Isetan for instance - at first glace I had no idea these little pieces of heaven were in that plain old trolley. All that could be seen was rectangular and square shaped boxes, wrapped up in teal coloured wrapping paper. That, and several people crowding around it and picking up those mysterious packages. Being ever curious about anything in a supermarket, I ran to take a peek. Lo and behold! They come in various different sizes, as can be seen on the website, and I grabbed a box of 28pcs - a piece of heaven for 33 bucks.

The box of 28pcs (pic taken off their webpage)

Upon unwrapping (or ripping mercilessly) the package, a white cardboard box emerges. Now I was getting frustrated - how many layers were there till I hit the chocolate! Ripping the cardboard box open revealed a lovely tin, (intricately decorated, of course) that can be kept and used to store other things once it's been emptied of the chocolate. Finally, the chocolate pieces could be seen upon removal of the lid.

Shiroi Koibito individually wrapped

THE Shiroi Koibito

It did not disappoint at all. The white chocolate melts in your mouth and the biscuit is so thin, yet firm enough to give a delightful contrasting texture to the chocolate. Oh, it was worth the money. Absolutely deeeelicious. The downside - it leave you wanting more. And more. And more. Meaning you'll either have to have great powers of resistance or a very big hole in your wallet.

Unfortunately, I went back to Isetan several times in the past week and it looks like it's gone for good, so I doubt they can be found in Singapore anymore. But fret not! They can be bought online at their online shop! Preferably in those with the metal tins (the smaller quantities come in paper boxes) so they won't get crushed.

These make great gifts too! You won't even have to worry about wrapping it!

choccolate making + donuts + ramen

2007-07-04T17:42:00.000+08:00

thechowfiles. My love for food photography (though taken with a digital and not one of those house multiple lens megaproness cams) has led to this!

Now, there isn't really much more to my life other than food. No. I'm not joking. I wish I was. But I'm not.

That sounds sad.

Anyway, there was chocolate making in school today! Part of this year's enrichment week, and one of the food related things I signed up for (food trail and Pizza Hut tour to come!) Honestly, it was quite a disappointment, didn't really make chocolate, it was much more of them giving us melted chocolate and ingredients like cornflakes, raisins and nuts to mix into clusters called rochers - the proper name for any chocolate cluster. Nuf with the talk, on to the pictures!

empty paper cups before we began

the mixing process of liquid milk chocolate, raisins and cornflakes.

the spoon we used to scoop the mixture into the cups (it was licked clean after that - mmm.)

the final product of the little work we did!

the empty mixing bowl and our finished product

what i brought home

They are now sitting happily in the fridge - yup, all five of them. The other three took a trip down my gullet awhile back. Good chocolate, I say!

After the activities, I went down to Isetan Orchard and had lunch with The Mother at this Japanese restaurant called Tonkichi I believe (wasn't really taking note), found on the fourth floor. Both of us had ramen and it was pretty decent actually. Love the flavourful soup!

Somehow, I love Ajisen Ramen's noodles more still, but this is good and springy in its own right.

Then *drumrolls* I begged The Mother to go to Vivocity to get donuts. I love donuts. Never knew when the love started, but I've always had cravings for them since young. Now with all the sudden craze for them in Singapore, I just hope better donuts will come in soon!

Prays for Krispy Kremes. And Kanes. And everything else.

While those may not be here yet, there is Vinco at Vivo that I never got around to trying. The last time I queued 4 hours for those from the Donut Factory down at Raffles City, but in all honest it wasn't worth the wait and the donuts were not great. Fresh, though, due to the fact that they were constantly making new batches, but the dough was... well, not as great as hoped. There was an aftertaste to it, and could have been fluffier. So I decided to try Vinco today, after having serious cravings for the past few days. The queue, thankfully, was short, due to it being a weekday afternoon, and we got out donuts in some 15 mins or so.

The Mother said I was allowed half a dozen donuts at first, but after much pleading we got around to getting a dozen. Whoopee!

And here they are, not really in all their glory. I couldn't wait to get home before eating, and thus opened the box in the car and began munching away, even though it was right after a very large meal. In all I ate 3 donuts or so already (please pardon the ugliness of it).

this looks slightly better

It's not bad. I got 6 chocolate, one sweet cheese, one normal cheese, a cherry one, a coffee flavoured and a caramel cinnamon. The dough (the most important part of a donut) is better than that of the Donut Factory's, lighter and with no aftertaste. The topping are good too, the cheese is especially interesting, great cheese toppings for both the sweet and the savoury ones! Wish the chocolate ones had chocolate fillings though. Overall, Vinco beats Donut Factory, both queue wise and taste. It seems Vinco has more manpower and higher efficiency too! Hope they go central though, Vivo is really kind of far out for me.

Burp.

Oh look, TV time.

And some say I should start studying for the A levels.

*scoffs*