记得吃

Popped by Ji De Chi at Liang Seah Street. I think they have an outlet along Upper Cross Street too.

The first time I came here I had their shaved ice which I think was great. This time I took the hot milk pudding. The pudding a fairly strong taste of milk and was not too sweet. I think it was pretty good here, although still not enough to beat what I had in Hong Kong.

When I was in Hong Kong, I had a dessert which consisted of black glutinous rice and a piece of fresh mango fruit dunked in it. While the combination seemed weird, the sweetness of the black glutinous rice and the slight tang of the mango went well together.

Upon seeing this being served here albeit wrapped in green tea mochi, I decided to try it. The mochi was not overly chewy and the whole combination complemented itself well. I do wish they served what I had in Hong Kong though.

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Apple Raisin Bread Pudding

Had a craving for both tiramisu and bread pudding, and so wanted to make tiramisu bread pudding, but Marsala wine was all out of stock. So I made apple and raisins bread pudding instead.

This was what I made my Brioche for and turns out to be pretty good. The top was a little crusty, but the inside was still moist and soft.

Sweetness was just nice, and you can taste the hint of cinnamon coupled with the apple, raisins and custard flavours.

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Recipe

Brioche Bread (stale)
Apples 2 (Royal Gala)
Raisins as desired
Eggs 4
Sugar 3/4cup
Vanilla essence 1tsp
Cinnamon powder 1tsp
Salt 1/2tsp
Milk 3cups

1. Remove the crust from the Brioche and cut into cubes. If your bread is not stale, bake in the oven for 10 minutes at 200 degrees C.
2. Skin and core the apples and slice cross-sectionally.
3. Put the raisins in a bowl and soak in hot water.
4. In a bowl, mix all the other ingredients together.
5. Lay your cubed brioche in a pan and pour the egg mixture in. Soak for about 30 minutes.
6. I use 5cm wide aluminum molds for easy eating. Lightly butter the molds. The brioche will be mushy, so just grab an amount enough to line the bottom.
7. Lay some raisins and apple slices, before topping with another later of brioche.
8. Bake at 180 degrees C for 30 minutes.

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Fruit Paradise

Fruit Paradise has been around for some time and the exquisite presentation of the tarts always catches my eye, but this is my first time trying it out.

Tried the the Grapefruit & Orange Tart, which had a cream cheese base. I like the pie crust which was crisp and aromatic. The cream cheese base was delicate and overall, it was not too sweet.

Chestnut Mont Blanc Strawberry Tart. This has a custard base, although the pie crust was pretty much the same. I never quite fancied chestnut cream as they usually feel pretty bland to me. I still preferred the cream cheese base over this.

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Ootoya 大戸屋

Back to Ootoya at Orchard Central, but now there's no longer as much crowd as before.

Shared this salad dish, which was a mix of seaweed, egg, taro and okra. Actually, it came with natto too, but we requested for it to be omitted as we were not quite into that. This was very light in taste and probably extremely healthy too.

Took the Sweet & Sour Chicken. I was a little disappointed that it did not come with the braised pumpkin side dish that I had the last time I was here. But the chicken pieces were fairly large and well coated with the tangy sauce.

Once again, we bought the waffles from Marvelous Cream. This time we tried the Tiramisu and Mandarin Orange Mango & Pineapple Yogurt. The Tiramisu was great, and the chocolate within was soft yet intense.

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Funan Weng Hor Fun & Once Upon a Milk Shake

Was just trying to settle lunch as this was not the main reason we were in the area, so we went to Funan Weng at Maxwell Chambers.

I took their signature hor fun, which came with prawns and chicken. The hor fun was very thin and soft, which I rather like. The chicken was all meat, yet very tender. Prawns were succulent and fresh, although it looks a little deceiving here as they were in fact sliced in half.

Next we went round the building to our main reason coming to this area - Once Upon a Milk Shake. The decor was interesting with some lower than usual stools and tables.

Was contemplating taking the Litchi or Rum & Raisin initially. At the last minute, I changed my mind and decided to try the chocolate which was supposedly the most popular. It was indeed very creamy and chocolate-y, although somehow it tasted a little like Milo to me. My friend took the Rum & Raisin, which was pretty intense.

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Green Tea Mousse & Red Bean Cake

As much as I like chocolate, it was time to attempt something else apart from the usual chocolate and cheese related stuff.

Covered with green tea chocolate ganache. Ganache's was a little too sweet in my opinion. I had a problem, though. Whenever making a souffle kind of sponge cake, it will always shrink at the top end as it cooled, leaving somewhat of a trapezium cross section. In the end, I had to trim off the sides, resulting in a smaller cake.

Three layers of souffle sponge with green tea mousse in between, as well as adzuki or japanese red bean.

I like the end result. The cake was soft, and the combination of green tea and red bean went well together. I did think the green tea taste could have been stronger. And I still need to improve my skills at stacking a layered cake and applying the ganache.

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Recipe
Printable Recipe


Sponge Cake
Eggs 4
Castor Sugar 90g
Water 30g
Vegetable Oil 50g
Flour 90g
Green Tea powder 1 1/2tsp

1. Separate the yolks from the whites.
2. In a bowl, mix the yolks, water, oil and half of the sugar together.
3. Add in the green tea powder and flour, and mix well till no longer lumpy. You will have a thick batter.
4. In a clean bowl, whisk the eggs into a meringue, adding the remaining sugar as you go along.
5. Fold the meringue into the batter.
6. Bake at 170 degrees C for 30 minutes.

Green Tea Mousse
Castor Sugar 70g
Fresh Milk 150g
Green Tea Powder 2tsp
Whipping Cream 300g
Gelatine Powder 10g
Water 50ml

1. Dissolve the gelatine powder in the water.
2. Heat the milk and dissolve the sugar and green tea powder in.
3. Remove from heat, add in the gelatine and leave to cool.
4. Whip the cream until fold into the cooled milk mixture.

Green Tea Ganache
White Chocolate 200g
Cream 200g
Green Tea Powder 2tsp

1. Melt the white chocolate in a microwave at High for a minute.
2. Heat the cream over your stove and mix in the green tea powder.
3. Pour the hot cream into the chocolate and mix well, ensuring all the chocolate had melted and mixed well with the cream. Leave to cool, or put into your freezer for a while until it become thick and more easily spreadable.

Assembly
You will need a can of adzuki beans which is already cooked and sugared.

1. Slice the cake into your preferred number of layers. Or you can even bake and extra round of the sponge cake to create thicker layers.
2. Alternate the mousse and sponge cake layers, adding in your desired amount of red beans within each mousse layer. It's easier if you have a cake ring you can use. I didn't, so I refrigerated the mousse until it is thick and spreadable.
3. Once all the layers are completed, spread a little of your cooled ganache all around cake pop into the fridge until it is a little solidified. This helps in sealing the crumbs of the cake and avoid a grainy texture on the ganache.
4. Spread the ganache over the cake until the whole cake is well covered.

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Dessertstory

Dessertstory at Tiong Bahru Plaza sells a variety of Chinese desserts and some savoury snacks as well.

I was in a yam paste mood, so I decided to buy some. The sweetness was just right as I do not like overly sweet stuff. However, I think it was a little tad too oily, but yam paste would not be 'smooth' enough without the oil. The blandness of the gingko balances with the sweetness as always.

Another Chinese dessert I will surely buy is the steamed milk pudding. I still miss the one I ate in Hong Kong. This one was a little sweet, but otherwise milk taste was pretty strong.

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Caffe Beviamo

Had lunch at Caffe Beviamo at Tanglin Mall, where my friend said there was good Sticky Date & Toffee Pudding.

The cafe serves a variety of sandwiches, pasta, salads and pizzas. I was adventurous and tried the Kumera sandwich. This basically consisted of sweet potato, lettuce, cheese and tomato pesto. It was quite a unique blend of tastes as you seldom find sweet potato in sandwiches, coupled with warm melting cheese oozing with every bite.

Finally, the reason why we were here in the first place - Sticky Date & Toffee Pudding. This was presented slightly differently, as it came in squarish slices with the vanilla ice cream sandwiched in between. The pudding was moist and soft, and in my opinion, does not lose out to Marmalade Pantry's. The vanilla ice cream however seemed pretty ordinary, and if I recall correctly, Marmalade Pantry's vanilla ice cream had a richer taste.

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Chocolate Eclairs

Realised it's been a long time since I ate eclairs, so I decided to make some. It was also time for a change to some sweet baking as well.

Made all chocolate, then realised I should have made some as normal cream. Anyway, I think they were quite successful - pastry cream was full of chocolate flavour but not too sweet. I hate eclairs which are simply filled with whipped cream that are sometimes sold in our local bakeries, so this came up to my expectations.

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Recipe (makes about 20 7-cm long eclairs)

Choux Pastry
Whole milk 1/2cup
Water 1/2cup
Unsalted butter 100g
Sugar 1tsp
Salt 1/2tsp
Flour 1 1/4cup
Eggs 4

1. Mix the milk, water, sugar and butter in a pot. Heat until all the butter has melted.
2. Lower the heat and pour all the flour in.

You will get a paste-y looking dough at first. Continue stirring over low heat for another 2 mins or so until you get a smooth looking texture similar to the pic on the right.

3. Beat the eggs together in a separate bowl.
4. Remove the pot from heat. Using a hand-mixer, mix the dough for about 1 min.
5. Slowly add the egg in in batches while whisking at the same time.

The end result would be a glossy, thick, stretchy dough that stretches a little before breaking when you lift it. If it does not stretch, add a little more egg white bit by bit.

6. Pipe onto the tray of about 1 cm wide and 4-5 cm long.
(The pastry will expand a lot while baking, hence there is no need to pipe it too large if you want small to medium sized eclairs. 1 row of piped dough should be enough. More importantly, pipe it such that it fairly high in height, or it will come out pretty flat. Use the back of a teaspoon dipped in cold water to smooth the piped dough)

7. Bake at 200 degrees C for 20-25 mins or until brown and slightly hard on the top.


Chocolate Pastry Cream
Whole Milk 2cups
Egg yolks 4
Sugar 6tbsp
Cornstarch 3tbsp
Salt 1/4tsp
70% Dark Chocolate 190g

1. Melt the chocolate in the microwave at high for about 1 minute.
2. In a separate bowl, whisk the yolks, sugar and corn starch together.
3. In a pot, heat the milk and salt together until boiling.
4. Pour half of the milk into the yolk mixture in a small stream to temper the yolks, while whisking all the time.
5. Pour the yolk mixture back into the pot of remaining milk and return to the stove.
6. Heat while whisking until the mixture thickens a little and starts to bubble.
7. Pour into the melted chocolate and mix well.
8. Press cling wrap directly onto the surface to prevent skin from forming. Allow to cool or refrigerate if not using on same day.


Chocolate Glaze
Semi-sweet chocolate 150g
Unsalted Butter 30g

1. Place chocolate and butter in a bowl and microwave until melted. Mix well and allow to cool.


Assembly:
1. Slice off the top third of the choux pastry.
2. Dip the upper piece in the chocolate glaze and allow it set. Freeze it for faster setting.
3. Using a spoon, fill the bottom piece with desired amount of pastry cream.
4. Cover with the top piece and enjoy!

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Egg Tart

Attempted egg tarts which was a failure by my standards.

Instructions called for baking at 300 degrees C, so that the pastry will be cooked but the custard will not curdle too much. But my oven could only reach 250.

As it turns out, the custard was a little too sweet for my liking as well. I have never had much success with pastries, so the recipe is not worth chronicling here. I think I should just stick to my cakes.

Egg Tarts

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Ah Chiang's Porridge

Since we are more free on weekdays than on weekends, we ventured out for lunch at Tiong Poh Road.

There were a variety of fish, pork or century egg congee. I took the century egg mixed with pig's liver. Congee was not too salty; pig's liver was not too thick, which would otherwise give me a queasy feel. Dough fritters were a separate order, which we forgot to do, compared to some other places which come with the congee by default.

Also ordered the raw fish; not too sure what kind of fish this was, but the meat was slightly chewy which was a little different from what I tried in the past.

Ended off the meal at Bakerzin. Actually, this is not mine, but my friend's as they did not have the pana cotta which I wanted. The colourful sticks here are made of meringue. Ice cream flavours were cream cheese, vanilla and caramel. The cream cheese taste was fairly strong, although overall, their ice cream seem to feel quite 'diluted'. But now I am quite inspired to make my own cream cheese ice cream.

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Apple Charlotte

Did an Apple Charlotte over CNY...

Filled with custard cream inside. However, the taste did not impress me. Guess it was largely due to the taste of vanilla bean, which I think is not suitable for cooking through heat.

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Chocolate Lava Cake/Green Tea Lava Cake

Taiwan's in a craze over this now; they call it 火山巧克力. You can watch it on 28 Nov 2009 of 我猜我猜我猜猜猜.

I did overcook it a little, and turned out a little more cooked on the inside than I would like it to be. I also did not have any vanilla ice cream available, otherwise it would have been a perfect combination.

Out of my own ingenuity, I concocted and successfully came out with a green tea version. This, on the other hand, was a little under-cooked, hence the moist looking outsides. But I think the green tea tasted pretty well, and I did not get as quickly sick of it as I did with the chocolate version.

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Recipe

Ingredients:
60% Dark Chocolate 120g
Unsalted Butter 240g
Flour 60g
Caster Sugar 60g
2 Eggs

1. Melt the chocolate and butter together in a microwave and mix well. Leave to cool.
2. In a separate bowl, whisk and eggs and sugar until light and frothy.
3. Pour the cooled chocolate mixture into the eggs.
4. Add in the sifted flour and mix well.
5. Pour into your containers till about 3/4 full. Bake at 170 degrees C for about 12-15 minutes depending on how cooked you like it to be.

Green Tea version
1. Replace the dark chocolate with white chocolate.
2. Add in 40g of green tea powder.
3. Proceed with other ingredients and steps as above.

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Tetsu + Coffee Club

Visited Tetsu at Tanglin Mall. Been some time since I last had a good Japanese meal.

 

Was feeling hungry so I ordered an appetizer - Hiyayakko or Cold Tofu. The condiments, which consisted of bonito, seaweed, spring onions and minced ginger, and sauce actually came in a separate bowl from the tofu. The combination, together with the crunchy and juicy cucumbers, actually blended quite well.

 

For mains, I ordered the Jubako Set. You had a choice of kushi-age or kushi-tem. Kushi-age means it is breaded and fried, while kushi-tem is fried with tempura flour; I chose the former.

 

The set comes with 4 mini appetizers - pickles, cold braised chicken, salad and a mini cold tofu. Out of the four, I think the cold tofu was the most unique as it was topped with mashed century eggs and the overall flavour was pretty interesting.

 

3 pieces of sushi; I cannot remember what was wrapped inside, but this was pretty ordinary.

 

The kushi-age which consisted of pumpkin, mushroom, beef, scallop and prawn. Especially noteworthy was the mushroom for its juiciness, and the scallop for its sweet freshness. These were served with 4 different sauces for you to dip in - flavoured salt, chili sauce, mayonnaise and tonkatsu sauce.

My set also came with coffee. Overall, the whole meal was satisfying and well worth the money.

 

We subsequently adjourned to Coffee Club and I had the Raspberry Ice Parfait. The raspberry was frozen hard, while the piece of cake wedged in between was hard and pretty rough in texture. A total waste of my calories! This was an utter disappointment, a stain on what would otherwise had been a night of good food.

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