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.

Obolo Chocolate Cheesecake

Happy birthday to Chocolate Reindeer!

This blog is 2 years old!

If you look back at my earlier posts, you will find that this blog was started on my birthday...

Thanks to DS and my family, who surprised me by sending a hamper with beautiful flowers, balloons and a chocolate cheesecake to my home..


Yummy cake, it was dense and rich and smooth, and not too sweet. Very very nice.


Thanks to DF,DM, DS, DBiL and DB for loving me so much!

PS: the cake is from Obolo, a boutique de patisserie (which means pastry boutique in French) in Joo Chiat... It serves all kinds of gourmet desserts and specialises in very classy, very exquisite cheesecakes like the Guanaja Chocolate Cheesecake that DS ordered. The Guanaja Chocolate Cheesecake is a luscious dark chocolate cheesecake made with premium cheese and Valrohna (wow!) 70% dark chocolate, studded with dark chocolate chunks, topped with chocolate macarons. MMMMM.... Thanks DS!

Canele @ Robertson Quay

I've heard a lot about Canele, it being a Les Amis restaurant and all... but I have never been there...

So, since we were in the vicinity, I made DH promise to take me there for dessert... after our lunch at Chiara... My rationale was, I didn't know how long we would have to wait for our next date... with 2 kids, it is a little hard to find time for ourselves.. so we better take this opportunity. My reasoning proved correct, as we have not gone out for another date since then.

DH ordered the Canele specialty Le Royale. It was rich and chocolatey... Very very decadent.



Doesn't he look pleased with his order?


I was still hungry... (what can I say, I am eating for 2 now!) so I ordered their recommended baked rice (with bolognese and egg).



It was ok, but not fantastic. I don't think I would order it again.

After that, I was in a rush to go home... cos I missed the little ones...

Cutie is getting more mature, as you can tell from this photo. He is now an elder brother... so he carries himself with more dignity, I would say. This was during the F1 racing week... and there were some bumper cars for children to ride, and be F1 drivers too. Yes, my Cutie is growing up!


And... here is Sweetie, at 2 months... She is growing well, and see, she can sit up already.. At the risk of sounding trite.. doesn't Sweetie look sweet? :)

Cupcakes from Little House of Dreams

It was a lovely and beautiful wedding, very intimate with only close friends and family.

The wedding favours were from home-baker Little house of Dreams. They were very good cupcakes, moist and not too sweet.

These were the pre-wedding dinner cupcakes, also by Little House of Dreams. I didn't take any, but I hear they were very good too.

Cutie was very very pleased to be at the wedding. He loves such happy occasions... He told me, in his sleepy voice that night before nodding off to bed, that he "enjoyed the wedding very very much..."

He also was very excited about the yam seng session... He was looking forward to it all evening! He was so good at the yam seng cheer, that he got invited up to the stage and even got to hold the mike and lead the rest of the yam seng party.

Yes, he was thrilled! DH and Cutie are competing to see who has the loudest yam seng voice... I think Cutie won!

Mommy, Cutie and Baby Sweetie. 39 weeks now. Counting down.

Din Tai Fung, Royal Coppenhagen Tea Lounge, Roland Restaurant

After my checkup with the gynae, I walked over to Paragon Shopping Centre for a bit of lunch.

DIN TAI FUNG @ PARAGON

I originally wanted to have shimbashi soba (I am still in a Jap food phase)... but there was a queue and Mei Mei was hungry... so I went to Din Tai Fung. There was a queue too, but the lady said it was only a 5 minute wait and I could place my order first so that the food would arrive shortly after I sat down.

OK, so I did. and yes, the food arrived quickly.

Appetiser of shredded vegetables (SGD2.50). It was an interesting medley of things - seaweed, beancurd, beanspriots, crunchy and savoury. It was doused in lots of sesame oil, making it fragrant but a bit overwhelming. I would have liked to taste the other flavours too, like vinegar, chilli.

Chilli Crab dumplings (SGD5.80, or SGD4.80 with Citibank). I thought this sounded interesting so I ordered it to try.

It was filled with shredded crab meat, with a little soup that was not at all spicy.

Their signature xiao long baos - They were nice, thin skin but resilient enough to be picked up with chopsticks without disintegrating. But not enough soup. I remember now why I am not that impressed by the xiao long baos here. I like my xiao long baos very soupy and these do not have much soup. Only maybe 1 teaspoon.

I felt dissatisfied with the xiao long baos I ordered, as they weren't as good as I expected. So although I was rather full by then, I ordered another dan dan mian (SGD6.50). It was one of the cheaper noodle options on the menu, as it is served plain, with a savoury peanut sauce. DH likes dan dan mian now. He ordered it both times we went to Crystal Jade Shanghai Palace at Terminal 3 Airport.

I found the noodles very nice, good bouncy texture, and fragrant with peanutty flavour. The crispy crushed peanuts were a nice touch. This is a good one.

ROYAL COPPENHAGEN TEA LOUNGE

I have never been to Denmark, but I would love to go someday.

This place is hidden inside Takashimaya, so I have never been there.

I was tired and wanted to rest my feet a bit, so I popped in here to get a drink. No more armchairs available so I had a normal table and chair instead.

Their guarantee of good food and drinks, on beautiful Danish tableware.

Chey, but my hot chocolate came in a normal boring old porcelain mug! The teas and coffees came in fine china, with beautiful prints leh. SGD5.5o. It arrives with a good head of foam, and is very sweet, by my standards, so don't add any sugar until you have had a sip.


ROLAND RESTAURANT

This is one of DH's and my favourite restaurants because it's air-conditioned, big and spacious, the food is good and reasonably priced.

We ordered the usual stuff - home-made spinach beancurd, and crab bee hoon soup. You can find my past pictures and reviews here and here.

We also ordered a new item, recommended by their waiter: live scallops in a garlic black bean sauce (SGD16). They were sweet and nice, and were a little spicy.

Only grouse was that they did not arrive at our table piping hot. But otherwise we liked it very much.

Cutie likes the crab bee hoon here. It's the thick laksa bee hoon, which is very slurpy and nice with the hot crab broth.

What's that on your hand, daddy? A callus?

Yes, they both enjoyed their dinner, and you can tell!

Lunch @ Hong Lim Food Centre

I am so into kway chap right now, I have been eating it at every place, maybe cos it's been pretty cold and I want to eat something steamy and hot, but am tired of fish soup.

This is the best best kway chap I have tried. the soup is fragrant and sweet and doesn't taste too much of garlic or salt. The braised meats are tender and not salty and just right. Love it.



2nd floor of Hong Lim food centre, near the crayfish hor fun lady.

Then I always have dessert here. I walk over to this 2nd floor place, where they serve sesame paste peanut paste and all kinds of hong kong desserts, including mango sago. I always have this - almond paste with glutinous rice balls (SGD2).

lovely!

Lunch @ Golden Mile Hawker Centre

I went to Beach Road to run errands...The Concourse at Beach Road is where all the best party supplies are, so I am told. I went there to see what was available. I am making goodie bags for the kids at Cutie's birthday party at the end of the month.

Lunched with Mr G, and at his recommendation we tried this Lor Mee stall on the 2nd floor of the hawker centre. A queue of about 3 people, but it moved pretty quickly. There were lots of accolades posted on the front of the stall, and the lady was quite nice and friendly.

SGD4 for an upsized portion. Wow, quite pretty isn't it? the fried wontons which lined the bowl were large and very crispy. Interesting addition of fried sliced lotus root. Quite yummy too. The gravy was not as generous as I liked, but that's just me. I like lots of gravy to slurp my noodles in. I think the lady here puts less gravy so that her wontons, which were clearly the stars of the event, wouldn't get soggy.

Dessert next.

I was thinking of trying the Belgian chocolate waffles (lots of hype about this angmo selling dessert in a hawker centre), but Mr G isn't keen on chocolate, and I also felt rather heaty so we ended up with a nice cooling dessert of tang yuen instead. Mine came in almond paste and his was a peanut soup. This stall was from the 1st floor, and though it had some accolades on the store front, it wasn't crowded. SGD2 for the almond paste, balls are an extra cost.

Thanks for the recommendations Mr G.

Chocolate Cake from Canele

This is the best cake I have ever eaten. It was dense and rich and not too sweet. See how elegantly it is decorated!

And it came in such a beautiful box - a flat tray with a box cover and gold ribbons, not those cheapo fold-it-yourself things.

Canele is the baking arm of Les Amis, with branches at Robertson Quay and Paragon. You might want to check it out if you wish to order a cake sometime.

Wow.

Classy!

Happy Birthday J!

Asian Kitchen @ Vivocity

I don't know why I came to The Asian Kitchen ((Vivocity, #B2-29) today. The food here isn't great at all.

My previous unmemorable experience should have kept me away.

The zha jiang mian (SGD8.80) I had was below average - clumpy sticky noodles, boring meat sauce, a sprinkling of tofu cubes and julienned cucumber.

We shared chilled tofu (SGD6.70), it's a slab of silken tofu, topped with chicken floss, dark soya sauce and some fried shallots. My mom used to do this for a quick meal, and come on, SGD6.70 for something which requires zero effort to prepare is exorbitant and criminal. We also shared some steamed xiao long bao (SGD5.70 for 4), and these were not too fresh, and mediocre at best.

I walked over to Beard Papa for dessert. Cream coronet (SGD1.80), oooh this was good! Chilled custard in a crispy flakey shell. Yum. My friend said that this was full of transfats and carcinogens. When butter is cooked at a high temperature, it creates transfats. Is that true? I thought transfats are found in palm oil and cheap oil, i.e. those cheap khong guan biscuits? Anyway, I just loovve this. Wish I had more than 2.

Choose the coronets, not the puffs. I find that the coronets give the best ratio of custard vs pastry. Sometimes the puff just doesn't contain enough custard, resulting in an unsatisfying dessert.