Drinks China Square

I"m actually a happenin' mom, y'all!

You know how much I love being a mom to Cutie and Sweetie, and how every single little thing that they say or do makes me laugh. i look forward to evenings and weekends where it's our special bonding time, and where we get to do fun things together. Or like on Saturday, when Sweetie was still asleep and Cutie woke up earlier and we spent our time lying on the bed looking at the cracks in the ceiling and discussing the shapes (one really looked like spiderman having a poo). It's the little silly things like that which make me turn into a gooey mushy marshmallow.

Still, I sometimes do make an effort to meet up with my ex-colleagues in Raffles Place.. and have drinks!

So we headed to China Square because drinking places at Boat Quay (which is nearer) are not as nice (read: sleazier).


First up, an Italian beer. Peroni is refreshing and light, like an ale. I like.


Then a fruit beer, i think this was a pear. Also yummy.


Then, we shared some fried camembert. Always good with beer.

So all in all, a fun time. I think we were at Oosters the Belgian pub. Check out the pubs there, they all have decent happy hour prices.

Cheers!

More Interesting Snacks

Apart from the locally inspired cookies from Cookie Museum I also tried a number of other interesting snacks, all in the interest of researching for this blog.

So, we have, in order of appearance and fear factor status:
1. milk candy tablets


So the milk candy is the most innocuous. It still tasted funny though. 2 tablets are the equivalent of 1 glass of milk. It tasted like compressed milk powder, and since i never liked formula milk in the first place, I couldnt like this. I prefer milo or horlicks candy, which applies the same principle of compressing a powder based drink into a tablet.


2. vacuum packed boiled chicken feet



This wasnt supposed to be a big deal since I do eat chicken feet at dim sum restaurants. But honestly these looked a little scary (a little too big). And sweetie insisted that these were "chicken hands" because of all the "fingers".


Taste-wise, they were chewier than the melt in your mouth dim sum type. Salty, but otherwise not very exciting flavour-wise.

3. preserved donkey meat


Surprisingly, everyone was game to give this a try. Donkey meat! Seriously?


It tasted a bit like canned tuna. Texture wise.


Taste-wise, it was very strongly flavoured with possibly 5 spice and MSG. Sort of like preserved ham.


All in all an interesting experiment. And I think Kong Kong took the most, and was also the most game to try.

Cookies from The Cookie Musuem

I have more interesting munchies to recommend for this coming CNY.

Apart from the usual love-letters and snacks, I think it would be interesting to infuse some local flavour into our munching sessions.

The Cookie Museum has an interesting array of unique cookies, such as madeleine rose (pure pink rose) and english lavender (fresh lavender) and their bestselling berry lite (organic blueberry and macadamia nuts). However, it's their local range of cookies that particularly caught my attention.

1. Nasi Lemak Cookies



These were seriously good. They were slightly spicy, very fragrant, very crunchy and with ikan bilis and peanuts on top to evoke the experience of devouring a yummy packet of nasi lemak (except it's a lot more elegant and classy!).


Buy as a gift for your boss, or your MIL.


It's interesting and a pretty unique conversation starter during the CNY munching.


Comes in 3 layers of about 6 cookies, so I would put these in the expensive category.


Comes in a festive looking gift box too.

2. Laksa Cookies

Had a strong taste of coconut milk, with the fragrance of the daum laksa (laksa leaf). It was nice and also interesting but nasi lemak was still more shiok!

It is a little paler in colour to the nasi lemak.

probably less chili.


but yummy too.


We also tried the Hae Bee Hiam - This was great! It was spicy and crunchy and yummy. It was actually a little similar in taste to the Nasi Lemak except it didnt have the ikan bilis or peanuts. Sorry no picture.

We also tried the berry lite (blueberry and macadamias) - sweet and delicious, but less interesting and less of a conversation topic. Still good nonetheless.

Happy CNY Y'all!

Sunnyhills pineapple cakes 凤梨酥

Chinese New Year is coming!! I am so excited, all that feasting, visiting, ang pows, feasting, feasting, feasting... Hahaha.

So, what is your favourite snack for the CNY festivities? For me, it is always the pineapple tarts. It is practically synonymous with CNY. I will wait impatiently and anxiously for CNY just so that I can enjoy my first taste of pineapple tarts (yes, even though some places sell pineapple tarts all year round, it just doesnt taste the same unless it's eaten during the right season. Same thing with durians, they taste best when you eat them during the right season.)

So, you can imagine my excitement when I saw these 2 boxes of my favourite CNY snack!

Don't they look inviting and delicious?? All hygenically packed and individually wrapped!


I was breathless with anticipation, waiting to unveil this golden nugget!


And there you go, a perfectly formed golden cake, filled with organic goodness.


Did I say organic? Yes I did. That's the dilemma I always experience. I love pineapple tarts and CNY goodies, but I am always worried about the kind of food that I am consuming. Transfats, carcinogens - all the things that take away the enjoyment from eating something delicious.


And that is why, to me, it is so important to source for something that is both healthy and delicious. Impossible you say? Well not anymore. These delicious pineapple cakes are made with ORGANIC Cayenne pineapples grown on Ba Gua mountains in the Nantou County of Taiwan. They use gourmet baking flour from Japan and pure New Zealand butter. They bake the cakes using traditional methods and proudly call these "Sunny Bites". A taste of sunshine in every bite. Yum. Although these cakes are made in Taiwan, they are airflown to Singapore, freshly made, every 3 days. Yes, these treats are now available in Singapore!


I liked everything about this pineapple cake. The crust was buttery crumbly delicious and the pineapple filling was a perfect combination of sweet and tangy (definitely not oversweet, which is my greatest fear). In particular, the filling had a nice texture, with sufficient bite to it. My Dear Mom (DM) who is a very fussy pineapple tart eater because she used to make them herself from scratch many years ago, has proclaimed these the best pineapple tarts she has ever had. What a resounding endorsement! She especially loves the filling, which is not too sweet and has a good home-made texture.


Here is a close-up of the yummy treat! doesn't it look tantalising? Well, in my humble opinion, this pineapple cake is really good value for money because it comes in a beautiful gift box (perfect for giving to important clients) and is individually wrapped, and is huge (at least 2-3 times the size of a normal pineapple tart).


If you wish to order these delectable goodies, here are the details:

6pcs (300g) in a box: S$13.80
10pcs (500g) in a box: S$23
20pcs (1kg) in a box: S$46

Call +65 8522-9605 or email services@sunnyhills.com.sg for more details. Free delivery for orders above S$90. Those above S$180 receive a complimentary box of 10pcs.

There is also a booth promoting these cakes at Funan IT Mall Food & Lifestyle event from 17- 31 January 2011.

AND here is an EXCLUSIVE DEAL just for you wonderful readers of this blog:If you quote Chocolate Reindeer, you will get a free sample at the booth!!

So remember, nothing but the best for you, your family and your guests this CNY. Get your pineapple cakes from Sunny Hills now.


See this cheerful and happy face? Dont you want to give her the best pineapple cake in the world?


Yes you want to hug her and feed her pineapple cakes from Sunny Hills. I know it.

Quick call +65 8522-9605 or email services@sunnyhills.com.sg.

-Chocolate Reindeer would like to express its gratitude to Sandy of Sunny Hills for the samples provided for this review-

Japanese Snacks

To cheer me up, DH has bought me a bunch of Japanese snacks so that I wont be so depressed when working through lunch.

So here they are:



Lots and Lots of Royce chocolates! This is just the first batch btw. Already eaten up. He subsequently bought 2 more batches of different flavours for me. Dark Green is Champagne (my longtime favourite). Brown is Bittersweet (with no alcohol, but we still find it a little too sweet so DH bought Bitter the next time round, which was better). And Light Green is a seasonal special, Green Tea (my current favourite).



I love the delicate taste of green tea! I dont drink green tea much (except when they serve it in Japanese restaurants and always with ice), but I love green tea ice cream, green tea frapps and now, green tea chocolate. It's got this fragrant tinge and a little bittersweet edge. Lovely. Each box of chocs costs around $12.60.


Lots and Lots of Japanese cookies and biscuits. I kind of miss the Hokkaido cream biscuits. It's pretty famous - Shiroi Koibito. So we got all sorts of snacks, to see if any of them could match up to the gold standard of shiroi.


This Well Cookie from Morinaga is my favourite. It was buttery and crispy, with a coffee flavoured fragrance. The fragrance was subtle, yet lovely enough to make me want more than just one. The cookie and the coffee cream paired so well together, it was like a match made in Heaven. I couldnt stop at just one.



This was a white chocolate langue de chat, so it is the one that is most similar to shiroi koibito. However, the cookie was a little too light, and a little too thin, and the white chocolate was a little too delicate. So, all in all, it makes a good substitute if you cant get your hands on the real thing... but, for me, I think I would rather hold out for the real thing, or eat a Well Cookie.


This is chocolate langue de chat. The chocolate was a little too thin, and the cookie was a little too thick, so I didnt think it went too well together.

Each of the boxes costs around $5 each.



Cutie is also snacking on Japanese cookies.. these are ball cookies, I think its a Japanese brand with a chicken in the centre. Both Cutie and Sweetie like it, but it seems that Cutie snacks more often than Sweetie.


So here he is, having ball cookies as a supper snack with his Daddy.


I am not sure if its a good idea to encourage Cutie to have supper... but its just so cute when he bonds with his Dad over supper after Sweetie has gone to bed.. .so I give in once in a while.


And Sweetie is just as sweet as ever. She is now 12 months old, very active as you can see, she is climbing all over the place.


She has lots of nice clothes, more than her brother ever had.. Thanks for the pretty dress, Auntie YS!

Tokyo Tastings Part 5

Snacks in Tokyo


Some of the loveliest snacks that I have had, I tried in Tokyo. Such as cream mochi - ice cream mochi in the yummiest flavours, azuki red bean, matcha, strawberry sherbert... and I dont mean the hard frozen icky stuff that you find in the ice cream sections in Cold Storage. No no no. These were sold in mochi galleries, really classy, like an ice cream parlour, in elegant black boxes, and it was smooth and creamy and chewy. Not cheap at S$2.40 each, but I really loved them.

So this time, when I went to Tokyo, I tried some of their seasonal sakura snacks.


Sakura Ice Cream - $5. This was very light, rather fruity in taste. But not really tasting like a bite of cherry fruit, it was more floral. It was very interesting.

Sakura Rice Dumpling - about $2-$3. This was quite interesting. It was glutinous rice, with a filling of sakura paste and a little sakura blossom on top. The blossom itself tasted pickled. A sweet bakchang.

Sakura Pancake - about $2-$3. This was a light pancake, with a filling of sakura paste. It was very pillowy soft, sort of like our peanut pancake (ming chiang kueh back in SG) but a lot softer and fluffier. The sakura paste was light and floral.


Sakura Mochi - about $2-$3. On the leftmost side of the pack, you see the sakura mochi. This was also lovely, with a delightfully light and chewy skin of glutinuous rice flour. I liked all of them, and cannot say I preferred any one over the other.

Sakura Cheese Cake - about $9. I tried Hokkaido cheese cake in Hokkaido, and they were simply divine. They tasted light, with a little lemon and it was creamy and cheesy and melted in my mouth like air. I can still remember the taste, and this is one dessert that I hope to try again and again. So when I saw that they had cheesecake here, I decided to try some. Of the 4 flavours available (original cheese, new york cheese (darker yellow), blueberry cheese and sakura cheese), I chose sakura cheese. It would have been lovely if not for the fact that I forgot to take it out of the bag before eating, so it kinda melted a little and was not as firm as it should have been. It was nevertheless still very light and delicious.


Strawberries - about $9. Wanted to eat strawberries, because I really remembered the last time I ate Japanese strawberries, they tasted like an explosion of sweet berry flavours. So at the supermarket, I grabbed a punnet.


They were sweet, but not quite as sweet as I remembered. Anyway it is always nice to have some fruit after a meal.

Birthday Cupcakes

I am the social events coordinator for my team this quarter.

And there are 2 birthdays this month to celebrate... 2 lovely ladies, S and K.

So I ordered birthday cupcakes from Little House of Dreams, and they conceived a theme of handbags, dresses and shoes, which were lovely! Perfect for our elegant ladies.




Dont these look so sweet and gorgeous?


Lovely work.

They tasted great. Not too sweet. You know how, for most cupcakes, you would scrape away the topping or icing, so that you can just eat the cake and it might still be a tad too sweet? These cupcakes are just delicious, and you can eat the cream on it, and it is just nice.

Yum.

Thank you to Little House of Dreams.