Last post of 2007

Dear readers, this will be my last post for the year because I'm leaving for Taiwan later in the afternoon and won't be back until 2 January 2008.

I'll be holidaying in the mountains so I doubt I'd have internet access or the time to blog while I'm there. So I hope you'll be patient and await my delicious & scenic posts of Taiwan once I'm back!

Also, I'm sorry to have to turn down all your Christmas cookie/cake orders! I really wish I could do a bake sale this Christmas as promised but alas, I do need a holiday before I start work next year. It's also to celebrate my graduation! :) Yes, I completed my final exams two weeks ago and am outta school!

So Merry Christmas & Happy New Year to YOU out there on your computer reading this. Thank you for your support and I wish you all the best for this coming year!!!


Love,

Cheryl
xoxo

Delicious eats & great company

I'm seriously glad to have plenty of foodie friends. I cannot imagine going out with a bunch of people who'd only watch and not eat. Most of my friends love food as much as I do and that makes life so much more fun and tasty.

You know how it goes. Although usually I'm the one whetting their appetites by continuously raving about a said dish/place. At least I end up persuading them and most of the time, they don't regret! It's a great satisfaction, to see my friends enjoying the food I recommended. It's a happy feeling.

haha yes yes, I'm all about food. A friend just told me recently that she associates me with food and that's the first thing that comes to mind when she sees me. Right... but I don't think it's a bad thing. Not at all! After all, I have a food blog and I'm really crazy about food, so she can't be wrong about that can she?

So anyway, I met up with my participants from YISS (Youth in the Spirit Seminar - organised by Amplify Ministry) yesterday and we had a blast. We ate ALOT (well I know i did!) and had loads of fun. I brought them to Azabu Sabo, my current favourite Japanese restaurant.

I really wanted the chicken avocado salad but apparently they have a new menu and that dish isn't on it. But it was okay... I shared some seafood salad with Michelle. Yes.. I had a heavy lunch at a Chinese restaurant and couldn't stomach that much for dinner.. besides, we ordered that huge chocolate banana sundae which you see at the top of this post :)

Let me show you what everyone ate:




I recommended this ramen pancake thing (i think it's the okonomiyaki) to Sury and he loved it. Well he was hungry! He only ate 3 bananas the entire day.




Aloysius had the hamburger patty with cheese. I think I've eaten that once. It's super duper. The meat is fresh and oh-so-tender. Lovely.

He had it with plum rice, which complements it:




Ben had the chicken karrage. It looks good. I didn't try it but I suppose it tasted good as well? He didn't complain anyways. haha.




Cheryl Danielle(ya not me... another one) had some yakitori:




and I shared some mushroom dish with Sury. It's cooked in butter I think. It's yummy!




And this is the seafood salad Mich and I shared:




The prawns, scallop and cuttlefish were really fresh. I loved this salad. The dressing was really unique as well. It has a bit of a zing but it's not quite 100% wasabi. Hmmm it's amazing though!

What I love about this restaurant is the fact that they serve free flow green tea. I like their tea and it helps to wash everything down.

You should try their desserts as well. I'm a big fan of their green tea icecream. But Mich doesn't really like green tea so we got the chocolate banana sundae instead. It was good too.... They give you more chocolate sauce in a small pot for you to pour all over. The soft serve icecream was light and creamy. Me likes. I think all of them agreed that this place was worth a second visit. I can't wait to go back again.

After dinner, we headed down to Timbre to chill out. Everyone drank except Cheryl and I. I just couldn't! I was too full and bloated! Had a wonderful Soda Chanh from Baguette (the Viet deli at the basement of Raffles City Shopping Centre) when we were on our way to Timbre.

The guys & Mich had Heineken beers and I think Sury ordered Kahlua milk.. Sounds yum but I really couldn't stomach anything. Well that's also because we ordered more food at Timbre.

Pardon my dark blurry shots of the pizza and prawn palillo - it was too dark:

That's parma ham and cheese pizza. It totally rocks. It's thin crusted and pretty huge! I heard that Timbre's known for their pizzas and of course, live bands. EIC performs there every Wednesday. I'm so gonna go check them out. They're reeeeeally good.

This prawn dish is amazing. They stuff it with bacon bits and cheese. Sinful but worth the guilt! :)

So there you have it, a delicious, sinful evening of good food, great company oh and good music by the cool singer Michael who belted tune after tune for us patrons at Timbre. He has a deep husky voice that's great for emo songs.. hahaa and Cheryl Danielle thinks so too!

Hey babes and dudes from my YISS group Endless, if you're reading this, I love ya'll. You're an amazing bunch and last night was great fun :D

_________________________________________

Azabu Sabo
Marina Square Outlet
6 Raffles Boulevard #02-170 / 171 Marina Square Singapore 039594
T: +65 6338 1244

Timbre
The Substation (Head Office)
45 Armenian Street

The French Stall

Guanaja Chocolate Souffle (souffle au chocolat)

If I could marry anything/anyone right this very moment,

Without a doubt, and a moment of hesitation, I'd pick THAT chocolate souffle.

Yes you read right. And please don't think that I need to check myself into the IMH. I don't! I'm just that much in love with their amazing superlicious fantastic souffle.

The souffle's made using dark Guanaja chocolate, thus the intense depth of rich cocoa flavour. The texture's excellent and I cannot find any faults whatsoever. Souffles that I've eaten elsewhere, they're either too runny or too dry but this one, this one's brilliantly fluffy and light. Simply amazing! I'm not saying just because.

Even if you're not a huge chocolate or souffle fan, you should try it because it's that good. :)

That's not all. They have great French Onion Soup too!


French Onion Soup (traditionnel soupe a l'oignon)

Packed with a sweet onion flavour, this soup is too delicious. Ashley and I slurped it up in record time. I love the cheese that's on top of the soaked baguette. It has a nice malleable texture that's not too rubbery. It's really soft!



Steam rolled dory fillet with Garlic scented mash potatoes (filet de dory en roulade, cuit a la vapeur, puree de pommes de terne a l'ail et huile)

We had some dory for main course and once again, we were blown away. I'm not kidding and I'm not over exaggerating. The dory was so fresh that I could feel the tender slight bounce when I poke my fork through. You know how fresh fish has this buoyancy? That's exactly what I felt when I sliced through the fish. Putting each piece in my mouth was even better. Fresh, tender, and devoid of all fishy smell & taste, this is by far the BEST dory I've ever eaten. Tastes very much like cod sans the oil. Amazing stuff.

At this point, I was eager to get on with the dessert because I knew that it'll probably be as divine - after all, the true test of a restaurant's calibre always lies in their fish dishes. Fishes are stark dishes; if you don't do it right, or use lousy fish, no matter what cooking method you execute, it's bound to be obvious to the discerning customer.



Oh I forgot to rave about the garlic scented mash potatoes - now these were gorgeous. Super soft and fragrant, we lapped up every single blot of potato off the plate. The pesto dressing was yum too. There was just the right amount of garlic.




Ahhhhh the souffle. The souffle takes about 15 minutes but heck, I don't mind waiting an entire hour if they're going to give me souffle of this standard every single time. I'm serious, I really do love this souffle to bits. Kudos to the chef whoever you are. I'm in love with your chocolate souffle. I dare say it's the best I've ever tasted. I left the restaurant with the chocolate aftertaste still lingering at the back of my tongue. Mmmm...




We were curious about their ice creams too so we ordered the pistachio one. And my oh my... again, it's like nothing I've ever tasted. Other pistachio ice creams always taste so artificial and overtly nutty but this one... oo-la-la... this one's beautiful. It's creamy goodness complements the light pistachio nutty nuance. There's a slight almond-ish taste even. It's really natural and we guessed that they made it themselves. By the time we finished this, we were on Cloud 9.

This dinner was superb and it really lifted my spirits! I went home a happy girl...

Oh and you know, I think the place looks fab. It's rather Parisian but not in the posh sort of way. It's quaint and cosy - I like!



Situated at the corner of Sturdee Road North, along Serangoon Road, this place is rather breezy too.




And I really dig the lovely street lamps used to decorate and light up the place.




This won't be the last they've seen of me for sure! I'll be back reeeeally soon...



So if you're wondering where to eat for Christmas, why not try The French Stall? They've got a Christmas Eve Special that's offered on 24 December.

Here's what they're offering:

Pepper seared tuna & marinated salmon on tomato tartar with green gazpacho - $18.80

Poached red snapper filet on braised fennel with dill-scented hollandaise - $20.80

Broiled red wine marinated beef sirloin with forest mushrooms and potato cake sauce diane - $26.80


In case you were wondering ... no they didn't ask me to advertise. I just wanted everyone to have a delicious yummy Christmas! And this is one restaurant that I'll be raving alot from now on. I can't believe it took me this long to actually eat at the place!

Go ahead, check out the place, try the souffle and you'll understand why I'm so in love with that souffle and everything else they serve :)


*Photos courtesy of Ashley (ashmocha@hotmail.com). You can email her if you need a freelance photographer :)
_____________________________________________

The French Stall
544 Serangoon Road
Tel: 6299-3544

Silkworm Pupa

Okay, I'm sure the majority of you readers would have gone "Eeewww" the moment you read the title of my post.

I'm sorry to subject you lovely people with something quite disgusting. But alas, you have an adventurous (hmmm or not? haha you'll understand later) foodie here who loves to try new things. Soooo....

Are you ready for something out of this world?

Allow me to apologise again and warn you first. hahaa I really don't want to spoil your appetite! Especially if you are eating your lunch/dinner or thinking of having some scrumptious something something later.

Hehehe..

Maybe I'll go into the story first... and then show the photo.

I know it's not really as bad as it sounds, but really, it's something I couldn't bear to put in my mouth. Sis and I were at this Korean supermarket and saw that yellow can of silkworm pupa. It intrigued us to no end and we kept talking about how it'll be cool to play a prank on my bro. Well we love him to bits but we were simply too bored :p So don't think that we are a pair of evil sisters who plot pranks everyday.

We did buy the can but didn't play a prank on our brother. We just couldn't bear to. Or rather, I couldn't bear to. I mean, it stinks to high heavens! And it looked really gross. I wanted to try one but decided not to in the end.

and this was the reason why:

...

..

.



I know, the brave ones reading this will be going 'That's it? but that's nothing! I've had worse!'....

Haha.. but well I have this thing against creepy crawlies. I don't like insects and slimey things very much. I usually am not fussy about food and would eat anything that's edible...

EXCEPT

that (the silkworm pupa)

and

gross insects.

Insect lovers out there, I'm sorry! I am just not a fan. So there you have it. You don't have to pose that "So what's the one thing you will never eat?" question to me ever again. You know the answer!

Please can someone tell me that Koreans don't actually eat that? I was like imagining them putting it in their kimchi soup... But then it just didn't make sense.

Whatever it is, I will never waste $2.50 (ya that's what it costed. haha) on something that gross ever again. :D

I promise my next post will be delicious and FAR from gross and disgusting!

Oh-so-fine Food

Hors d'oeuvres

You either love them to no end,

or have no opinions about them whatsoever.

As for me, I have to admit that I'm a big fan. hors d'oeuvres allow you to get maximum flavour with minimal bloat. I'm sure every foodie out there understands me. Well, sometimes big doesn't mean better. Sometimes, great things come in small packages! :)

But of course that's when the hors d'oeuvres are made by top chefs and where quality of ingredients aren't compromised. that's the big difference.

Ooo and it helps that they're called hors d'oeuvres (appetisers). haha. it just sounds so.. hmm yummy? Okay that sounds really bimbotic. haha. don't mind me, i just dig French :) But it's a tough language to learn!

So I was at this lovely post event thank you dinner at Goodwood Park Hotel yesterday and well, I took some lovely photos of the hors d'oeuvres and food. they're just too pretty! and yes they tasted fantastic :)

Was helping out my aunt with the NNI Brain Damage Research fund-raising pottery exhibition-sale at the hotel. The pottery are soooo beautiful I tell you!

Okay, back to the food. Here are the photos. Enjoy!



I forgot what they called it. But it tasted and looked like deconstructed vegetable soup or something. There was this jelly thing at the bottom and bacon bits. It was yum though.




Chicken Consomme with cute vegetables that looked as if they've been cut using a hole puncher!




Durian log cake. Okay i think that says alot. As usual, it's the bomb.




Poached pear in red wine. This was lovely.




Profiterole on chocolate tart. The profiterole was stuffed with whisky spiked chestnut filling I think. This one was amazing.




Pistachio Creme Brulee! First time having a pistachio based creme brulee and I must say I quite like it. It has a nutty undertaste that's rather pleasant.




And they had cute christmas cookies! :) I liked the christmas tree one. I snuck one home for my dear sis.

So there you have it... fine hors d'oeuvres that look small but taste phenomenal!

Hotpot

My voice is almost gone....

Weird thing is, it doesn't hurt at all. But I sound like a frog.

And I wish I knew the reason. Okay maybe I do. And it has got nothing to do with the hot pot I'm going to rave about right now.

For those of you who have been wondering where in the world did I go... not updating this lil food blog of mine for eons...

Well, it's okay because I'm back! Was so busy with my final exams and the YISS (Youth in the Spirit Seminar) that happened the day after my final paper. So it was really a mad rush.

Just came home a few hours ago and finally got to rest properly!

So, where was I? Ah my lost voice and hot pot. Yep. My voice is almost gone, but it's okay because it was worth it. Quite like how it's worth it, to burn my mouth when eating hot pot.

Just that both are a bit different. The reason for my voice being this way was probably because I was shouting too loud during praise & worship. Coupled with chocolates and belachan. That's a deadly combi!

The YISS was awesome and right now, I feel as though I've fallen in love with God all over again. You're probably wondering what all this has got to do with hot pot? haha well, I guess it is simply that hot pursuit.

The pursuit for something beyond what this world can offer. It's like when I eat chilli. I really love it, I get a kick out of it, but each time, I'm looking for the hottest option... I eat different chillies and sauces, wanting to find the hottest one...

And whether is it a hot pot or sambal belachan, it always warms me up. There'll be this warm tingling sensation that slowly settles in my tummy and it's so good that I just crave for more.

But before I go off tangent, allow me to give special mention to what must be the cheapest hot pot i've ever eaten. One that I might not eat so often anymore since I've graduated!

This Sichuan stall is so amazing. Located at NUS Arts Canteen, there's always a looooong queue. I like their food because it's spicy :) But the cool thing now is their hot pot. It's kind of new. They didn't use to have it. And my, it's really cheap! At only $5 you get this:

I tried eating the entire thing alone when I was so hungry. I managed to finish it but felt so full. So this time, I shared with my sis who followed me to school the other day when I went to study in the library...




Somehow it was just nice for the both of us. Check out the piping hot spicy soup. Mmmm it's heavenly I tell you! Pun fully intended. It's especially good to have during cold weather.. like now!

I guess I will miss the cheap NUS food! :)

Red Bean An Pan

There's this secret mission I have. No, it's nothing grand and neither does it have anything to do with saving the world.

It's rather mundane actually! So mundane that you might just laugh once you read about it. Haha. hmmmm.....

You see, I love red bean. Not just red bean soup but anything to do with red bean. Whether is it red bean tang yuan (glutinous rice dumpling), red bean pan cake or red bean doriyaki, if you give it to me, I'd eat it.

But there's a problem.

Okay it's not really a problem, it's just that I have a preference. I don't like my red bean too sweet. There are some red bean paste out there that tastes like pure sugar and a cup of water isn't enough to get rid of that sickly sweet aftertaste.

And so, everytime I go into a bakery, I look out for an pan (bun with a filling) with red bean filling. I believe the Japanese calls it anko.

Somehow I get disappointed over and over again because the filling is either too sweet or too meagre! I'm sure you know would know what I mean.

It's sad to bite into a bun with much anticipation, only to find out that less than half is filled with red bean paste. Worse - there's a hollow area that has nothing.

But let's not lose hope because I think my patience has paid off. I'm not sure if I've blogged about Sun Moulin before but I really love their breads and pastries.

Located at Istean Orchard Supermarket, this bakery has the best offerings.

And check this out:



That's alot of red bean paste! Best yet, it's the kind with the red bean skin still on. I love it.

This is by far one of the best red bean buns I've eaten.

Everytime I walk past the bakery I will always check if they have it.

Mmmmm.... until I find a better red bean bun, this one is going to stay in my mental list of best foods! Go try it ya'll... especially if you love red bean like me.