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the lowdown on desserts

December 22, 2011
Food FAQ
2 Comments

eating your stomach big.

well, well, this explains why people (girls in particular) have a second stomach for desserts.

“senior researcher Arnold Berstad and assistant doctor Jørgen Valeur from Lovisenberg Diakonale Hospital writes that sugar in sweet foods stimulates a reflex that expands your stomach, tricking yourself into feeling not as full as you actually are. Hence, a sweet dessert allows the stomach to make room for more food – i.e., that awesome millefeuille thats glistening with sugar, icing and custard! -_-”

hmm.. heck it.

*munch* =)

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arbite

October 9, 2011
Contemporary, Mid - Range ($15 - $30), Other Locations, Western
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simple playspace.

saturday mornings have become lazy, brunch-hunting mornings where I hunt down new cafes and establishments to soak in the atmosphere, comment about the ambience, enjoy a good meal and chat with good friends. =) that’s a pretty chill life, eh? so this time round, lik sin and i got down to exploring arbite @ serangoon gardens. after having watched michelle chong’s inspired portrayal of a serangoon gardener, i decided to go explore this area abit.

so arbite took the place of what used to be a chinese dessert stall that used to sell durian desserts which contributed to an overall pungent environment to its cosy confines. me no life. arbite has taken the space and has decorated it in a sleek, white minimalist theme, using swedish-style furniture to create a tasteful cosy area for people to escape the midday heat. the decorative elements are lego blocks that have been stuck onto cracks in the wall, and there are also jars of lego for little kids to play with. nice concept. location wise, arbite manages to achieve that hidden gem feel owing to the fact that it resides of the second floor above guardian pharmacy, but is actually really convenient, considering it faces serangoon circus and can be seen once u get off the board that leads into the area. let’s talk food then.

pappardelle with mushrooms and parma ham – button mushrooms, spinach, parma ham and cream sauce drizzled in truffle oil ($19.90)

yay for home-made pappardelle! it’s been awhile since i’ve managed to taste home-made pappardelle — those i tasted in florence really set an incredibly high standard with an amazing crunchiness and lightness to the taste of the pasta. mind you, there really is a difference when stuff is home made and made well. makes me really want to head back to florence again. FYI, the restaurant you MUST go to in florence for their pasta and wine tasting is Enoteca Pitti Gola e Cantina. anyways,the parppadelle here can’t compare to that found in florence, but stands pretty well on its own. there is a certain level of crunchiness and the ingredients really worked well together, the cream sauce balancing out the savoriness of the parma ham and the mushrooms. good stuff.

pork schnitzel, $17.90

lik sin got the pork schnitzel, which was a smart choice i suppose, since arbite is a pun for the german/danish word for work. anyways, he liked it alot, especially with the gratuitous dollop of blue cheese at the side.

my wife’s chocolate cake, served with a scoop of movenpick’s vanilla ice cream, $8.00

the dessert is kinda huge and should be shared. its delicious mind you but imo, too much chocolate makes on jelak very easily. anyways, i appreciated the fact that the movenpick ice cream used real vanilla pods because you could see the black grains in the ice cream. (the cheaper and much easier method would be to use vanilla essence) the ice cream went really well with the chocolate cake, which had a thick layer of chocolate ganache on top of the chocolate cake that swirled well with the ice cream. the cake itself was pretty light but still held its own flavors together with the ganache and ice cream. yummy.

all in all, i’m definitely coming back here, what with other delicious things on the menu, from brunch breakfasts to lamb shanks. nice chill ambience and a cool environment. 7.5/10

arbite | 66a serangoon gardens way | cafe, contemporary, desserts

group therapy

October 1, 2011
Contemporary, Drinks, Mid - Range ($15 - $30), Tanjong Pagar | CBD
6 Comments

boutique beer

i’m starting to really love the duxton hill area, what if the general artsy, designer-ish vibe juxtaposed with the traditional chinatown alleys, the many real cool hiding places and nooks and cranies that have been converted into chic meeting spaces, art galleries and bookstores, and of course, the many interesting food places around. as my dad was driving us around the area, I was excitedly pointing out of the various restaurants i had seen online and had wanted to try, be it buyan, bonheur patisserie and the likes.

anyways, our trip down this time was for group therapy (the place, not the activity). its this small, hidden restaurant/event space run by two charming, efficient ladies  right above etna italian restaurant. its kinda not too conspicuous, considering that its basically one small door tucked within the alleyway, but i guess its cool for what it is. and i liked the fact once you head up and opened the door, it was like heading into a friend’s cosy studio apartment in some boulevard in paris, where you could sit, chill, have some chips and beer whilst staring out at the balcony gazing at the streets below (not that the balcony was open). you know, that kinda feel…\

but yeah, there’s a very homely feel to it, and its also quite a small, cosy place. there is essentially one long communal table along with 3 side tables and a bar counter at the dining area, and a larger event space area filled with cushions and chairs. being a friday night, this place was comfortably crowded, all the tables were filled bar none (which we took =)) and there was an air of cheery merriment due to tgif. ok lets get to the food.

squid-ink ravioli (see that black stripe?) stuffed with mushrooms and topped with a basil/tomato sauce ($20)

this dish was surprisingly refreshing and light what with the mixture of basil, mushroom and tomato sauce. couldn’t really taste out the squid ink from the pasta but overall the dish felt healthy, tasty good and left me wanting more. and hmm, the price point was tad steep for such a dish perhaps (i suspect the ravioli wasn’t cheap) but its good stuff for vegetarians. (methinks an infusion of pine nuts would have made this dish even better)

beef shank stew with carrots and potatoes, paired with 3 pieces of grilled bread ($15)

simple, home-cooked food eh? i think its a real cool concept actually, its like having house-warming with friends and seeing them cook behind the bar counter at the semi-messy stove. to be honest, the food isn’t like outstanding or like pushing culinary innovation or something, but just well-cooked, well-intentioned food. and somehow the notion of pairing delicious-looking grilled bread with stew is something that can never go wrong. hehe.. wish they had gone more along the route of a beef bourguignon and had added a little red wine into the sauce =)

chicken ham and egg pie ($11)

wonder where they bought the pie because the crust was really delicious. (and if they pre-made it, then i really want to know how to make such crusts) the crust was flaky and buttery and overall the pie was yummy. essentially, it’s easy cafe food somewhat like delifrance, but more delicious and better prepared.

belgian waffle with blueberries and starberries, ice cream, almonds and maple syrup ($11.50)

the waffles crust was just right and delicious really good. hehe, though i wish some maple butter was added into the mix to send you to saccharine heaven. =) and on a sidenote, i realise how my family is turning into quite a small-eating, health conscious bunch. i mean, we shared this dessert among four people!! i remember how in Cornell freshmen year, we would totter to RPCC and like make ONE such waffle and drizzle all sorts of condiments, ice cream and fruits and eat it alone. shudders.. no wonder i got fat. =)

but make no mistake. the cakes here are pretty huge. i spied my neighbor’s table 4-layered carrot cake and noticed they took a full hour to work through half of it.. (well and also cos they were “pak tor-ing”) and i noticed the apple crumble was one massive horizontal slice of goodness. so yeah, share your desserts here.

there are also boutique beers and ciders for people to try — its a nice, lighter alternative to the common vino places. you know, seeing such a place makes me really yearn to set up my own cosy eating establishment.. sigh

all in all, a fun, cosy place to relax, have some desserts with friends and just enjoy the atmosphere. i like. =) 7.0/10

group therapy | 49 duxton road, #02-01 | desserts, chill-out, brunch

jewels artisan chocolate

September 24, 2011
Desserts, Mid - Range ($15 - $30), Orchard Road
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luscious temptation.

its interesting how using words like “artisan” can instantly bump up the price of common chocolates by two to three times, eh? so.. jewels artisan chocolate is another good place for tea, situated along bustling orchard road on the second floor in orchard central. now, orchard central, by virtue of its weird, completely vertical interior design, tends to be relatively quite even on weekends. jewels artisan chocolate doesn’t occupy much retail space and well, is pretty much just a chocolate shop with some simple tables and chairs for sit-in customers. ahh well let’s get to the food.

so for tea-time, they offer this indulgent set for $14.80, where u get to choose one piece of chocolate (read: ONE PIECE goes for roughly $3 – $3.50), one macaron, one small scoop of ice cream or sorbet, a slice of 85% chocolate cake and some tea/coffee/hot chocolate to wash it all down (i recommend the tea so you don’t get sick from all the heatiness the next day). so it boils down to really your own choice.

tea-time indulgence set, $14.80

i got myself a chamomile tea, perfect for soothing nerves after a walk down orchard road. the tea was accompanied by a chocolate truffle (chocolate ganache center coated with cocoa powder), an almond macaron with passion fruit conserve and almond creme and a white chocolate sorbet with berry compote. the verdict? pretty good. the 85% chocolate cake wasn’t too sweet and went well, not too jelak in any sense. my favorite was the white chocolate sorbet and berry compote, which was a nicely crafted dessert with flavors and truly melded together and complemented one another. the truffle was a little small but tasted good and the ganache had the requisite melt-in-your-mouth feel.

the almond macaron tasted really good, though methinks i didn’t really get the idea of pairing this with the passionfruit compote since the compote was slightly insignificant and well, didn’t seem to go too well with the almond flavor.

hmm.. all in all, yet another nice tea time locale along orchard road. the chocolates are really tad expensive (justified by slapping the word artisan on ‘em) but i guess having the tea-time indulgence might be worth a girl’s catch up session at any rate. 6.5/10

jewels artisan chocolate | 181 Orchard Road, #02-31/32 Orchard Central | orchard road, tea time, desserts

k ki

September 8, 2011
Desserts, Mid - Range ($15 - $30), Tanjong Pagar | CBD
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afternoon respite at ann siang

headed down to k ki and the little drom store with my sis today for some afternoon cakes and tea and some time for catch up. i noticed that my tendency to want to “hoard” things up led my to be ridiculously scrimpy with my leave so far and it was the realization that the people around you might not be with you forever that prompted me to take some time off and.. well, reconnect.

anyways, i love the district at ann siang, with the interesting curio shops selling stuff beautiful picture books to cool vintage wear, along with really chic and expensive-looking eateries, bars and cafes. k ki is cited slightly off from the intersection of ann siang hill/club st/ann siang rd and is super inviting, with bright glass windows showcasing a clean, minimalistic , Scandinavian aesthetic within.

k ki’s ambience is one of quiet, whimsical respite. people troop into the store for casual glances at the cute stuff sold at the little drom store, whilst others stay longer for some afternoon coffee and cakes. its the sort of place to go to to be reacquainted with yourself, spend some time just gazing through the window and musing about life, or get a close friend to escape and while the lazy afternoon away. it’s really undisturbed bliss, albeit for a short duration. let’s get to the cakes.

my sis got the noisette ($8), layers of hazelnut fillings with an occasional crunchier layer. its very light, not too sweet or rich, perfect for people who desire non-jelak desserts that can actually be finished by one person in a sitting. the nuances within the layers individually came through but also melded perfectly together for a delicious dessert.

i got the antoinette ($8), a white chocolate cake with a mango creme center and topped with some ginger bits. honestly, one of the best cakes i have tasted in a long time. its equally light, as with most japanese interpretation of western pastries. the white chocolate cake is like a semi-hard mousse sort of cake that melts in your mouth upon tasting and gives you the light, sweet white chocolate flavor. the mango creme, situated in the center of the cake, forms the PERFECT counterpart to the white chocolate, bringing a secondary, differently-nuanced sweetness to the palette. it reminded me of a typicaly hk-dim sum custard bun, but much lighter, more nuanced and more well balanced. i fully recommend this for sweet-toothers.

mango creme filling in the middle

overall, the perfect cafe for a lazy afternoon catch up session with a close friend. dun miss this. 8.0/10

 k ki  | 7 ann siang hill, #01-00 | desserts, cafe, japanese, chillout

st pierre

September 3, 2011
Clarke Quay | Robertson Quay, Fine Dining ($70 above), French
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unabashedly french.

last monday is what people would call a bridge workday — an unfortunate work day stuck between the weekend and a public holiday. so the common notion would be to take leave and enjoy a mega long weekend. so take the leave i did, and i used the off day to bring my parents for an executive lunch at st pierre, since dinner options would have been scarily exorbitant.

st pierre is tucked away along magazine road, in a quite little corner where you don’t just chance upon the place. you have to know the establishment exists and actually go hunt for it. but i guess with celebrity chef emmanuel stroobant at the helm, its worthwhile to hunt for the restaurant. mind you, i hunted for this restaurant because i had gone for the more pared down, cheaper version of chef stroobant’s creations at picotin and thoroughly enjoyed myself and hence i wanted more stroobant. lol.

so the interior exudes a sense of classy, understated luxuriance. there’s an air of sophistication and quiet atas-ness that can intimidate casual eaters initially, but you are put to ease immediately by the maitre d’. speaking of service, i must really commend the maitre d’ for a class act, being able to put everyone at ease and remove any sense of pretentiousness that one would assume would be attached to a classy restaurant like this. you see, my dad was kinda not familiar with the dishes and their names but the maitre d’ instantly saw my dad’s troubles and deftly handled the situation, warmly explaining what the lunch menu entailed and introducing us the best picks from the menu without a sense of haughtiness and without losing any bit of professionalism. that’s singapore service at its best imo. ok lets get to the food.

the first amuse bouche was a smoked salmon concoction (see picture above). this was a nice refreshing start, the salt grains blending well with the salmon and tomatoes. i couldn’t catch the full breakdown of the ingredients sadly, because after the maitre d’ left, the ensuing waitress wasn’t too good at explaining the dishes in detail. =(

we were next served our bread and i must say, one thing i absolutely adore about french food is how the weave in design and aesthetic within food, be it in the presentation, the colors involved with the food and even how food is described in french restaurants. every dish feels like a visual art experience both literally and metaphorically. i mean, where else would you see bread being presented in such an interesting manner? and it was delicious bread i must say — we had milk bread on the top panel along with sourdough and a yoghurt bread at the side paired with salted butter and hazlenut butter (which my dad loved). each piece was warm and smelt heavenly, and the dabs of butter lent a complementary savory touch to the bread. yummy.

amuse bouche #2 – lobster carpaccio with zucchini. again, i’m kinda annoyed because i couldn’t fully understand what the ingredients were thanks to the mumbling of the waitress. the lobster carpaccio was fresh, refreshing and delicious, the salty seafood flavor blending well with the zucchini.

appetizer – classic foie gras – pan fried foie gras with caramelized green apples and old port sauce. HEAVENLY. the best foie gras i had tasted in a long long while that truly melted in your mouth thanks to the warm sauce poured atop of the foie gras (that i assume melted the foie gras slightly). really complex, intense flavors. between this rendition of the foie gras and kinki’s foie gras and salmon sushi, i’m seriously starting to become a fanboy of foie gras.

another classic from the restaurant, the cabillaud au miso, miso braised black cod with bacon pancakes, pan fried endives and parmesan emlusion. when i saw this in the menu i instantly gravitated toward the bacon pancakes which sounded so good. when this was served, i was awed by the size of the black cod – almost completely justifying the price of the entire meal instantly. the cod was perfectly done, flakes falling off cleanly and tasting fresh and wonderful. but what really sold the dish to me was the combination of the bacon and the cod – wow, i wouldn’t have thought of such a combination but this really worked. somehow the salty flavor of the bacon juxtaposed perfectly with the nuanced, more balanced flavor of the cod, and enhanced the flavor of the cod, giving additional complexity to the dish. amazing stuff.

ahh desserts – chocolate cake, grandma stroobant’s flourless belgian chocolate with raspberries and orange zest confit. ya’know, i get immensely jealous when i see grandman’s blah blah.. on menus because i wish my family had a long heritage of amazing chefs or something with many treasured recipes to pass down. lol.. wouldn’t it be amazing to head home and smell this baking in the oven? the chocolate was just the right amount of richness and complexity. yum.

petit fours (french translation of “small oven”, usually small confections served at the end of a meal) – for this we had passionfruit macaroon, some sort of meringue and.. sigh.. i can’t really remember because the passionfruit macaroon dominated my taste buds memory. haha.. the macaroon was delicious and light, not as creamy as Canele’s renditions or as intense a flavor as La Duree, but somehow it felt just right in terms of the lightness and how it tied the entire meal together.

all in all, a beautiful gastronomic experience. i think only in french food would you call a meal beautiful, and this is one such case. the damage to your wallet? well, for set lunches, dessert+main course goes at 32, appetizer+main course goes at 42, with a supplement of 8 if you order the foie gras (do it), and the entire trio goes at 52. methinks its really pretty value for money considering the food you eat. its not those stingy bite sized portions, but sumptuous and yet nuanced dishes that excite your palete and bring you on a gastronomical roller-coaster ride. come here once for the real deal. 8.75/10

 st pierre the restaurant | 3 Magazine Road Singapore 059570 | french, fine dining, desserts, contemporary

house, barracks and camp

July 18, 2011
Contemporary, Dempsey, Pricey ($30 - $70), Western
2 Comments

lifestyle of the rich and faymous

so i had decided to take leave the past weekend to head down to hong kong to meet friends and eat a whole load of hong kong delicacies but quickly found that plan to be untenable due to my hectic work schedule in the upcoming weeks (read: i’m travelling overseas tonight.) as such, the HK trip plan was abandoned, but that left me and my friend with one free day on friday to while away. and we chose to do it the atas way, whiling away time at dempsey’s house, barracks and camp for lunch among the tai-tais and other glitterati, i kid you not.

the thing about establishments at dempsey is that their very surroundings conjures a certain relaxed colonial charm and sense of comfortable luxury. indeed, the whimsical contemporary decor (you had an oversized table placed over the actual dining table) amid the lush surroundings made for a really comfortable and enjoyable lunch location. ambience wise, the location, decor and clientele worked together to create a sense of a expensive, rustic retreat.

service-wise, im satisfied with this place. i’ve heard of pretty bad reviews from HGW regarding service, but perhaps that was due to the taxing demands of an oversubscribed brunch crowd. the service to us was sufficiently attentive and polite, and not at all intrusive/overly-enthusiastic to clear your plates type. let’s get to the food.

truffle fries, $11

the aroma of the truffle oil is indeed inviting, and the oil does wonders to enhance the flavor profile of the shoe-string fries. nice stuff. not too oily, with sufficient flavor from the truffle oil to even pass off as an appetizer without the need for any dips.

squid ink crust pizza, $25

interesting selection that turned out good because of the generous amounts of fresh seafood littered on top of the squid ink crust. to be honest, i didn’t really taste much of the squid ink within the crust because the crust was paper thin and crispy but it formed quite a nice carbs base for all the delicious fresh seafood. furthermore, such a pizza felt light and not at all jelak. good stuff.

macadamia crusted pumpkin salad, $16

oh this one’s good. the combination of flavors from the sweet pumpkin and macadamia along with the semi-salty/bitter (tbh, what exactly is the taste of veggies??) taste of the greens paired well to give a balanced and refreshing salad dish. the pumpkin was baked just right, not too flaky and dry but with a certain level of crispiness. this is a good, creative dish.

warm banana salted caramel cake, $7

again, a nice combination of flavors from seemingly simple ingredients. i mean, the cake base is a simple sponge cake with coffee accents then infused with salted caramel in the middle, topped with glazed bananas and sprinkled with popcorns. this worked, because the somewhat similar sweet flavors from the glazed bananas to the salted caramel meshed well with the coffee sponge cake base and there was a sense of an evolution of flavor. i think its a worthwhile idea to try and create at one’s own home!

i think overall, i really enjoyed barracks cafe also because i was in no hurry, and the glorious day just laid out in front of me. furthermore, with good conversation and such relaxed surroundings, one can hardly find fault with this place. might venture here for brunch one day. 8/10

house, barracks and camp |  8D Dempsey Road, #01-01 to 06 Tanglin Village  | contemporary, western, desserts

old school delights

July 13, 2011
Local, Upper Thomson | Novena, Value (less than $15)
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playful eating.

ya’know how when you were young and your mom told you not to play while eating your food, else you would get indigestion? well, mom, tell that to old school delights then. =) a brightly lit themed eatery intending to bring back one’s childhood memories, this place found along upper thomson road is one nice place to chill and just enjoy the cheerful ambience.

i say themed because the restaurant really does try its best to recreate the old time feeling — what with menus decorated as report card books, enid blyton books stacked on shelves along with wooden toy guns and a gratuitous use of the chalkboard for all sorts of scribbling. furthermore, each table has a toy box filled with old time favourites like five stones, country-flagged erasers and snap cards — i just realised how cheap our fun was compared to the children of today who demand ipads and tamagotchis to satisfy their interests.

anyways, come to this place more for the ambience and just for chill out sakes, but don’t expect too much fancy stuff on the food front.

mee siam, $5.50

you see, the problem with trying to create a cafe that sells simple Singaporean style hawker food at slightly pricier prices usually doesn’t work because it is so easy for people to find another standard for comparison. in a sense, such comparisons are so easily accessible to us as compared to say good french food and good japanese food that it takes an astoundingly outstanding rendition of a local fare to really justify an increase of price based on taste. indeed, old school delights doesn’t succeed on this front — whilst eating my mee siam, i was instantly drawn back to a time in JC where i would head to ghim moh for $2.00 mee siam that tasted pretty much the same.

i would argue that most cafes that serve local fare will suffer similar fates, though I would recommend people to head to Space @ Humble House, at Esplanade, as they renditions of local fares are really a step up, with choice ingredients such as scallops and prawns in your carrot cake, and a really cool, sleek, minimalistic atmosphere (and of course they make you pay for it).

well, old school delights doesn’t exactly make a mark on the food front, though the desserts look tempting (and perhaps one day I would try it). nevertheless, what it succeeds in doing is to create a warm, cheerful atmosphere that invites people to come in and relax, drink in the cheeriness and recollect on days gone by. 6/10

old school delights | 215M Upper Thomson Road | local, comfort food, desserts

artichoke

July 11, 2011
Brunch, Bugis | Little India, Contemporary, Others, Pricey ($30 - $70)
3 Comments

cosy little art corner.

when i suggested to my cornell friends to come to artichoke to eat, i guess they weren’t used to my liking of hidden finds and the likes and hence i got this sms from one of my friends when she was reaching..

“frank, im reaching, but are you sure this is correct? im opposite fortune center and it looks positively seedy“

lol. well, sculpture garden is tucked away at the edge of middle road facing dubious looking buildings like fortune center and ma-kwang TCM clinic but well, its a hidden haven away from the bustle of the city — the compound was converted from an old church into an art gallery with an ensuite restaurant space that used to house the secret garden. we decided to visit the art gallery after our meal and found it a really cool exhibition space for up and coming artists. this is the side of singapore i like.

anyways, the interior of artichoke is like that of a casual relaxed cafe, with simple wooden chairs surrounding normal tables, the monotony of white washed walls interrupted with graffiti-esque designs and blackboards chalked with today’s specials. its kinda warm, perhaps to give the impression of an semi-alfresco dining but there’s a sense of an otherworldly-ness due to its secluded location.

service-wise, lets just say this place doesn’t exactly win any awards on that front. the servers aren’t exactly the friendliest and weren’t too helpful. first of all, considering there were 7 people on my table and the water jug on our table was perennially empty, i wonder why it wouldn’t have been easier to just give us two jugs. also, when we asked for recommendations for dessert, this dude said we could share a date pudding among three people, prompting us to recoil and wonder just how big the pudding was (it turned out to be nice for one -_-”). finally, the cardinal sin was when a server came and swiftly took awake our dish of date pudding with one final morsel left that we had been struggling to decide who to finish since we are chinese and we all have the “last piece aversion syndrome”. what a crime.. lol

nevertheless, the food was excellent, so lets get to it.

grilled haloumi cheese, $14

delicious. the grilled cheese tasted amazing and paired well with the savory condiments of walnuts, olive oil, tomatoes and the likes. that being said, we quickly realised an issue with 7 people at the table — simply put it, the style of dining at artichoke and the portion size of the dishes makes it exceedingly difficult for a group of 7 to feel satiated, considering one gets small morsels of every dish ordered, no matter how many. and mind you, i think we got a little carried away ordering dishes to satisfy our hungry stomachs to the point that the meal became an exorbitantly priced affair. you see, artichoke encourages you to share your dishes, and whilst sharing such-sized dishes is decent for 3 – 4 people, it’s not the case for 7.. you practically have to order double for each, which we failed to realise. (i blame all ordering issues to the service, since the servers should be astute enough to advise on such stuff)

its irritating when the food is actually really good, with really complex and interesting flavor profiles, and yet the service, portions, price and just the overall satisfaction level lets you down.

home-grown grilled mushrooms – $15

i never knew mushrooms could taste so good. nuff’ said. the seasoning, along with the freshness of the shrooms made for a refreshing and delicious dish.

poutine (hashbrowns pieces doused in oxtail gravy with oxtail bits, fresh prawns, red cheddar and argula) $28

i would have ordered this online for myself had i the choice. Poutine is something i had when i first headed to Canada and had always wished for it to appear on menus in Singapore  - essentially a dish of french fries, fresh cheese curds covered with brown gravy, this version of your common fries is really something. I remember us students driving around trying to find a KFC along the Candian highway in order to get our poutine fix. anyways, this dish was really satisfying and good — the oxtail gravy and fresh prawns interpretation of a classic dish was creative and elevating the flavor profile of a long time classic. yum.

lamb rack, $28

there were six pieces on the dish. and seven of us. mind you, rationing of food was never as painful before, especially since the ribs were really tasty. but by then i was realizing the amount that we had ordered and how weirdly unsatisfying the portions were — like some tasting menu where u only got morsels of something good, instead of like servings of comfort food that you could really tuck in.

the date pudding that could be shared among 3 people. -_-”, $14

ok look at that dish and tell me that it can be honestly shared among 3 people. 3 anorexic ladies who had just weighed themselves a moment ago perhaps, but not 3 normal size individuals who weren’t feeling particular satiated. that being said, this dessert was amazingly good as well – the mixture of flavors from the peanut beanut, date pudding and salted caramel added many layers of complexity to the dessert experience, though i did feel that the sea salt grains were tad too large and made the salty profile a little heavy.

the bill eventually came up to around $40 a person (i am omitting some dishes we ordered). i mean, actually on hindsight, dining at a fine dining restaurant and having a dessert and a main course would probably have worked up to roughly that amount, but this place just felt oddly overpriced. i guess it was the fact that we were sharing what was single portions of desserts and small portions of mains and that the atmosphere spoke of comfort food than that of fine dining that made the meal seem really overpriced.

all in all, really delicious, good food that’s worth a try. don’t come with too large groups of people and know what to expect of the price range. the service is a little upsetting i guess and could be improved. 6.75*/10

*grr.. this is my first time giving a part score, mainly bcos the food was much above a 7.00 but the service and everything else threatened to drag it to a 6.5

artichoke | 161 middle road, sculpture square, s188978 | mediterranean, comfort food, desserts, delicious, little india

icekimo

May 24, 2011
Desserts, Upper Thomson | Novena, Value (less than $15)
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there’s something called too much pink.

so after previously reviewing on salted caramel, my friend asked me whether it was better than icekimo to which i commented i hadn’t tried it. and he then commented that i hadn’t tried much stuff around my area, which was kinda true. so here’s some make-up for it. icekimo is tucked away behind the main upper thomson road at sin ming centre, a really nondescript, semi-functioning mall that i have never been to despite living in close proximity to it. when driving by, i often see schoolgirls chillin’ out at this ice cream parlor, which creates the impression similar to that of island creamery @ serene center.

the decor is simple and slightly cartooney, with pink as their unifying color. yet another ploy to market to teenage school girls. it’s kinda small, but they have comfy looking cushions right by the glass walls to allow for people-watching (well.. if anyone walked past sin ming centre). a sidenote is the fact that as with any establishment that sells durian-related foods, this store welcomes you with a faint whiff of durian when you first enter. whether you like it or not is up to the person.. hmm… let’s get to the ice cream.

waffle with double scoop ice cream, $6.20 (promotional price for tuesday’s offer, usual $6.80). the two flavors i chose were banana coffee and blueberry cheesecake

wasn’t a fan of the blueberry cheesecake (well, i bought it mainly for my mom since she likes blueberries). there ain’t any fruits in the ice cream, so the blueberry can taste a little plasticky but the overall taste was pretty unique and passable. i did really like the banana coffee (imo, a better combination than everyone’s favorite chunky monkey) because the banana + coffee flavor really went well, though eventually you mainly taste the banana. i did like the flavor of the banana because it didn’t feel artificial and the ice cream paired with the waffle also makes for a delicious dessert reminiscent of some banana split waffle creation. nice.

i notice they have a ice cream spaghetti, but i didn’t exactly try it. hmm.. maybe next time. and there are also quite alot of interesting flavors i might be tempted to try out, including white forest trifle, dark mac and the likes. i’m intrigued.

icekimo |  8 Sin Ming Road #01-03 Sin Ming Centre | desserts, ice cream