Fruit Paradise

Synn and I have actually tried quite a few of their tarts till date, but I just never got round to posting pictures of these yummy treats.

Located at the by-now-not-so-new Tampines 1, these tarts often sell out quickly when they hit the shelves, which is surprising since these things don’t come cheap.

Priced at (I think) $7.50 a slice, it’s a lot to pay for a unhealthy dose of fresh cream (I see dead carbs, they’re everywhere!), a sliver of sponge and a generous enough topping.

Having tried almost their whole range, I think it’s safe to say that our unanimous favourite has got to be the Grapefruit and Orange flavour, teehee.

Precision handcut with a hot knife (see to believe), the look of concentration on the staff doing the deed is almost comical. They dip the knife in hot water, do a mental count (of god knows what) and cut. The serving staff even do a nice syrup art on the plate before you get it. Kewl.

Coming in a distant second, would have to be the Mango flavour.

Honestly, I don’t see why there’s even a craze over these tarts. Yes, they’re good, but they’re not great. I would say if these had more sponge in them, it be a lot better. They’ve got everything else down pat: presentation, portions, taste, etc.

The irony is that the sponge is nice and fluffy, and should feature more instead of the cream.

3.5/5 in my opinion.

Chicken Soup For The Soul

One large pot of water:

The Source Of Life

 

One chopped whole chicken:

$6.60

 

One radish and two carrots:

$1.10

 

One packet each of golden and oyster shrooms:

$1.55

 

One packet of bamboo shoots:

$1.50

 

Three sweaty hours of simmering and topping up of water:

Achtung!

 

The look of joy on Synn’s face when she sips the soup after a day at the office:

Priceless.

Soft Omelet From Sun Moulin

Synn and I discovered, quite by accident, the yumminess of this cake from Sun Moulin at Isetan Scotts down at the basement. You know, the one near the Mos Burger.

It Was Long And Thick

The sponge cake portion of it was nice and sweet, and oh-so-fluffy. Very light stuff.

The generous fresh cream filling with the banana running the entire length of the roll didn’t fill me up (and make me queasy) as much as I thought it would, unlike a lot of lower quality cakes.

With White Stuff Within

Also comes in Strawberry and Mango flavours for $4.35 a roll.

Good stuff, highly recommended.

: )~~~~~~

Plaza Market Cafe

Or something or other. I can’t remember the name of the place we had our recent clan outing. I’m not sure I want to. The food was baaaaaaaad.

Located somewhere in Raffles City, this buffet spread offers forgettable food at ridiculous prices. In all fairness, I must admit the service was acceptable, which is more than I can say for their food offering.

The outing started inconspicuously enough, with the front counter greeting us and showing us to our supposed table. The Grandparents had already arrived and already tucked in. Possibly already going on for their second, or maybe third rounds.

Starting off the buffet spread was a small collection of Indian food:

Run-Of-The-Mill North Indian Food

 Seen below are an impressive looking line of chefs going about their duties. Unfortunately, the food doesn’t taste half as good as they look. The Otah offered was dry, limp and devoid of any hint of fish.

Chefs Doing Their Thang

There was some chicken laksa that was cooking that I had two servings of, but not because it was good, mind you, only because it was the only thing that most closely resembled what it was supposed to taste like.

Pan fried dumplings were cooked in batches and instantly snapped up so those were the hardest food to obtain. Yet, after having managed to procure a couple, it was yet another disappointing result. Meat within was relatively dry, and was not sufficiently marinated enough to offer anything of interest to the palate.

Some Ratatouille was offered as well, although I did not deign to try it.

It Looked Better In The Cartoon

The buffet also offered the obligatory bread station (no pictures), salad bar, 

Rabbit Food On Offer

and the ever promising dessert station:

What To Eat, What To Eat?

Looks pretty good, huh?

Failed the taste test as well. Sigh.

Ice cream offered bore the Movenpick mark, but trust me, those were NOT Movenpick ice cream.

Having gone through failed taste test after failed taste test, I decided against committing another travesty to my palate and wisely avoided the jello.

Jello Goes *Wobble*

But it may have been good, though. Although, most probably not.

Anyway.

The overall spread seemed haphazard at best, almost as if they put together a slapdash of offerings depending on what best their chefs could do, instead of going for a themed offering. I mean, cmon, the selection of Indian food was pathetic.

Believe it or not, the price tag per person was a whopping SGD40. Read it. F-O-R-T-Y. Definitely not worth anyone’s time for that kind of price point. Heck, anyone can get better food at half the price.

I would rate this dining experience 1/5.

In any case, what’s a clan outing without clan pictures, right?

Sis Finally Managed To Tackle The Little Sumo

 

A Rather Amused Toddler With Mom-In-Law

And here we are, Father and Son, staring into space together.

Stare Dad and Stare Boy Loved Staring

Project MiniMe: Entry 0039

Synn and I have been practicing taking Tristan out to our neighbourhood malls for some time now, and we decided perhaps it was about time to try something more ambitious.

Are We There Yet?

 

So off we went to Equinox at the 70th floor of the Swissotel (no less!).

The little man was complaining a little as the express elevator took us up, threatening to give the ears of the rest of the passengers in the lift a solid workout. However, we reached our destination before he could give us a piece of his mind and Synn deftly scooped him out of his stroller to provide the neccessary comfort.

Once checked in at the counter, and shown to our seats, we took in the amazing view:

 

 

 

Synn couldn’t resist taking a couple of snaps with the squirt:

 

 

Yo Yo Where's My Bling?

Mmm...Juicy Thumb

We happened to be there at the time when full dress rehearsal of the impending National Day celebrations were taking place. It was rather amusing to watch the water performance at the bay from the 70th floor. Too bad we couldn’t stay into the night to watch the fireworks since ours was the High Tea session.

Speaking of which:

Who Doesn't Love Pizza?

While the main foods were the obligatory run-of-the-mill high tea foods like fried vermicelli, sushi, fried chicken and assorted breads and were rather forgettable, we did get some gems like the fresh pasta and pretty yummy pizza.

Of course, what would High Tea be without scones?

The Scones Worried Who Was Next

Of particular interest were the desserts:

*drool*

Waffles were freshly churned out every few minutes and went great with the ice creams. We got Maple Walnut ice cream and Pear and Raspberry sorbets as flavours of the day. While we didn’t actually try the carrot cake, it looked gorgeous!

I Wouldn't Have Guessed What Cake This Is

There was some fondue to be had as well:

 

Amazingly, the little man was super well behaved, preferring to chew on his thumb over giving the rest of the diners a migraine.

Sadly, the food was forgettable. Considering that the bill came up to SGD82.00, I would have expected a wider variety of food aside from the carbohydrate class of foods that covered about 90% of the buffet spread. Or at least better tasting carbohydrates. I would rate the quality of the food as 3 out of 5.

But, like Synn said, I guess 90% of the money covers the entry fee and bragging rights to the spectacular view.

 After that, it was time to do the coffee joint chill:

Just Me And My Homey

 Where we plotted our battle plan:

What Shall We Do Next?

After some mall cruising, we went home, and Synn and I congratulated ourselves for an awesome time out in town, thanks to the stellar performance by our little friend.  ^^ 

Pizza!!!

Synn and I finally caved in to our desire for PIZZA!!!

After months of enduring over-gingered and over-sesame-oiled (don’t ask) food, we finally decided enough was enough, picked up the phone and dialled the number of no return.

While most people would think pizza is synonymous with Pizza Hut, we can’t say Pizza Hut does it for us any more. Synn got into Sarpino’s during late nights in the office with her colleagues and passed on the addiction to me.

We decided to treat ourselves to their gourmet pizzas seeing as how we’ve not eaten junk food for so long.

Cheeseburger Pizza was tasty:

Zesty Italian was a tad too spicy and salty:

Yes. We have sinned.

Truth be told though, I still prefer our homemade pizzas, and I really can’t wait to start making pizzas with Tristan!

North Border @ Rochester Park

I had the opportunity to dine at a delightful restaurant at Rochester Park for lunch yesterday.

I never knew a place like this existed until a Filipino colleague of mine booked us a table at this restaurant from, where else, the Philippines! Lol.

Rochester Park (yes, the road is named Rochester Park, as is the place) is located near the Biopolis and MoE buildings. We found the carpark immediately turning into the road coming off the main road, and while trying to figure out how to gain access to the restaurants nestled within the park, I came across this almost unnoticeable staircase, lol.

A map shows the locations of the restaurants and their names, and up the stairs we went in search of North Border.

 

No. 2 Rochester Park is just up the stairs to the left, and immediately, I felt a distinct sense of leaving the world behind, walking into intense shade and entering an ambience that seems so distant from the bustle of city life.

Interestingly, the houses along the street have been converted into restaurants. Seen are the old style pre-war colonial architecture that I’ve always held a fascination with, but with a modern touch to the facade.

 

And of course, the interior has also been updated to give it a nice look:

Each restaurant has been cleverly located within the dense foliage to give the visitor an interesting sense of isolation and a certain degree of peacefulness.

Lunchtime prices seem rather reasonable:

Based on the number of courses you want, you pick the corresponding dishes that interest you off the menu.

Having the 3 course lunch, I went for the Quesadillas, Ribeye and Apple Crumble.

I have to say, the presentation is great.

But.

The ribeye steak was generally tender, and nicely medium, just as I requested. However, I found the sauce used a little too overpowering, and tended to drown out the taste of the beef, instead of complementing the flavour. I’m not entirely sure what was the vegetable used, but suffice to say, it didn’t impress me.

I would give the steak a 3/5. I’ve tasted better steaks at Jack’s Place.

The apple crumble was a little too doughy for my liking but the apple filling was perfectly done, not too sweet, with a hint of cinammon. The vanilla ice cream wasn’t anything to shout about, but was a much needed change to the texture of the crumble. 3/5 here as well.

All that being said, bear in mind, for the price point, the quality of the food is actually more than acceptable. Positively adding to the dining experience is the fantastic ambience and everything comes together to get an overall score of 3.5/5.

Rochester Park has my curiousity piqued and I’ll definitely be coming back to this area to explore the potential of the dining available here. 

I leave you with two more pictures of dishes from the menu:

Envy me.

Cream Puffs

Synn and I tried our hand at making custard puffs the other day.

The batter was easy enough to make:

As was the custard:

 

However, for some irritating reason, the puff pastry kept sticking to our tray!

 

We tried paper, it stuck.

We tried using a tray without paper and grease, it stuck.

We tried greasing the tray without paper, it stuck.

ARGHHHH.

So now we have to eat upside-down custard puffs.

Strangely enough, the custard tasted a little weird when warm, and after eating our first few, we weren’t looking forward to eating the rest. But, in the interest of not wasting food, we had some more the next day after chucking them into the fridge, and they actually didn’t taste half bad anymore.

Suffice to say, we finished the lot of them, hehe.

Happy Birthday To Me (Part 2)

Cake cutting ceremony for me tonight. ^^

Naturally, the bakers had to take a picture with their masterpiece:

 

Then after the birthday song, wishes had to be made, and the cake had to be cut:

 

With a nice big slice for Synn and me to share:

It was a birthday to remember. Synn and I had so much fun laughing over our cake creation in the kitchen and poking fun at one another that at certain points during the baking we were doubled over in laughter. 

And who could forget the obligatory birthday present:

I am SO winning the lottery tomorrow.

Happy Birthday To Me (Part 1)

Synn and I spent the day baking my birthday cake. ^^

It was to be a peach cake of sorts, so we needed peaches.

The sponge cake had to be baked, and the cream whipped:

 

And now they had to be layered:

Finally, the creamed layers:

On came the fruit and nuts!

 

 

Behold!

Cake cutting ceremony soon!  ^^