Canele

This is the second time that I tried the pastries from Canele. The first time was macaroons. They left me with a really "sweet" impression. I mean literally, I felt an overdose of sugary especially the rose flavour. But maybe, macaroons are meant to be sweet. Still, they are one of those lovely sweet treats at the glass windows display which you wouldn't mind stealing a quick glance at them!

This time round, I decided to get a cake from Canele for my Dad's birthday. La Pomme Verte, which means green apple in French. Look at the 'apples' on the cake, don't they make you drool? It does make me and I couldn't wait to get a slice of it. 

La Pomme Verte 500g ($36)

True enough, it tasted as good as it looked. It is actually a green apple mousse. The three 'apples' which you saw, were all filled with mousse too and on top with all the jelly-like substance. See the golden foils too? I actually wonder how does golden foils taste like. The mystery was finally solved. They are just tasteless. They melted the moment they were in your mouth and you really can't feel anything. Finally, the coconut crust was at the bottom outer layer of the cake which adds a little texture to the smooth filling mousse. 

I felt that the cakes at Canele are at a reasonable price since they are all handmade by executive pastry chefs. Highly recommended to get a birthday cake from Canele if you have not tried it before. Trust me! 

Raffles City 

#B1-46/47

Paragon

#B1-K8 

http://www.canele.com.sg/
https://www.facebook.com/canelesingapore

老伴 Lao Ban

I said food makes the world go round. But in fact, money makes the world go round. So you see the vicious cycle; to have good food, you need to have the money and to have the money, you need to work. So that was the reason why I have been missing from this little space for quite some time. But good things are worth the wait, because I have now come back with more recommendation!

Original- $1.50
Almond- $2.00

Yes! I have finally laid my hands on this high popularity chilled soya beancurd. Yeah, I know I'm kind of late since the great hype over the beancurd was quite some time ago. But it's better to be late than never, isn't it? And the good thing about being late is that, I do not have to queue! 

The beancurd has a really silky surface that you couldn't resist to shake it lightly and see the softness of it. I found the level of sweetness to be just right. But some people felt that it was a little too sweet. Well.. I have a sweet tooth, you see. Another thing I like about the beancurd is that, it is not watery. Some of the unknown chilled beancurd which I tried from the hawker centre near my house were just too watery. It's not pudding-like at all. 

Perhaps it was due to all the roaring reviews about the beancurd that caused my expectation for it to be set a little higher. But seriously, I do not think that it is worth it to queue for one hour just to get the beancurd. But if there isn't a queue, I would definitely buy it again when I'm nearby the area. 

And I love how cute the old couple cartoon is. ♥ 

Block 51 Old Airport Road 

#01-127/107

https://www.facebook.com/Laobansoya/

Sweet Sweet Tooth

This is what happened when your digital camera run out of battery. I have to resort to using my low-quality phone camera. So I would say these photos do no justice. It is a pity, but I guess it is more important that the food taste better than having nicely taken photos of food that does not taste as good. 

Before we went to Sweet Sweet Tooth, my friend highly recommended passion fruits and grapes snow ice. Telling me how great it was the last time she had it and she assured me that I would surely fall in love with it too. Thinking that she might had exaggerated a little bit, I was skeptical about it. 

However, the first spoonful I had, when the ice melted in my mouth, my facial expression gave me away. I know at that moment that she did not exaggerate at all. It was true. It was sweet but not the type that would make you sick of it but instead, make you want more. There were many different types of real fruits on it such as kiwi, strawberry, grape and mango. I think this is really one of the best choices for dessert especially in the humid weather of Singapore these days. 

Passion fruits and grapes snow ice ($6+) 

Custard eggs (The exact name was in french) ($7+) 

Tried one bite of my friend's dessert too. It tasted something like the custard on egg tarts but this was warm, I think they pre-heat before they served. But my friend said, the passion fruit and grapes snow ice is still the best. 

Marina Square #B1-04
6 Raffles Boulevard
Singapore 039594
https://www.facebook.com/sweetsweettooth 

The Daily Scoop

The Daily Scoop is now officially in my list of favourite ice-cream cafe/stores. I love their cones! They do not just have the usual waffle cones, but quite a great variety such as chocolate-coated cone, "Wonder Women" which is chocolate coated with rainbow sprinkled and chocolate coated with nuts, if I'm not wrong.

Strangely, when I walked into the cafe, the sweet-smelling aromas and all the colourful tubs of ice-cream right before my eyes made me smile happily to myself like a 7 year-old girl. Told you, I couldn't resist these sweet pretty little things.

We saw a little boy with the "Wonder Women" ice cream and my friend said he was holding on to the ice-cream so tightly as if the sky would fall down too if the ice-cream dropped. I wouldn't mind going back to the times when ice-cream was my everything, my world. Now, ice-cream could only chase away the blues for a moment.

Sesame scoop with chocolate-coated cone

Double scoop- Macadamia and Mao Shan Wang

But nevertheless, ICE CREAM IS LOVE.

P.S. Thanks to my best friend for introducing this place to me and giving me a treat!


43 Jalan Merah Saga
Chip Bee Garden #01-78
Singapore 278115
http://www.thedailyscoop.com.sg/

Grin Affair

Grin affair is a cosy little cafe hidden in a quiet corner of Everton Park. You would never have imagined that a cafe is secretly functioning in this seemingly out-of-place location - an old HDB estate. When walking at the dark void deck with low ceiling, you feel like you are in another part of Singapore, especially when my generation has been surrounded by mostly shopping malls and renovated HDB flats. But nevertheless, I love this idea of mismatch concept. 

I got to know about this cafe after looking at some food bloggers' reviews. And you know what, 

I was mesmerized by those photos of cake in a jar, beautifully decorated. I fell in love with them almost instantly. In my head, thinking only of making a trip there as soon as possible, I dragged my friend down with me, forgotten the facts that she doesn't eat cake. 

The drinks menu hand-drawn by the owner giving a personal touch

Drinks - Passion fruit and mango cubes ($2.80), Grapefruit with lychee

Durian ($5.50)

All the flavours just sounded so good that I didn't know what to choose from but in the end I chose my all-time-favourite durian.  It did not disappoint me. The cake was really soft and the experience of eating in a jar make it special. Well, it was just heavenly delicious.

Another special thing about this cafe is the recycling of the jars. For every jar you bought for takeaway, it comes with a ticket. And during your next visit, when you return these jars, you get another ticket for it. Collect 20 tickets and in return you will get a jar of cranberry!

In the end, my friend who only got herself the Grapefruit drink bought some jars of cakes for takeaway too, for her family. Tell me, which girl could resist such lovely sweet treats?

Jody is the owner of Grin Affair, she is a very friendly young lady. We had a little chat with her and found out that she actually gave up pursuing her degree in law and took up a few jobs here and there in order to open this, which I believed, is her dream cafe. I really admire her courage and of course, her innovativeness.

Check out Grin Affair's facebook status updates if you do not wish to make a wasted trip, these lovely jars are selling out fast almost everyday. Or you can simply text the owner to make a reservation of the jars!


3 Everton Park #01-77A
Singapore 080003
http://www.grinaffair.com/
https://www.facebook.com/pages/grin-affair/

Cupcake Engineer

Another planned trip down to Cupcake Engineer at Cluny Court sometimes in May with a friend of mine to satisfy our cravings for cupcakes. It is not difficult to find this cafe located in between the shophouses. Get down at Botanic Garden MRT Station, walk down Cluny Court and from the glass window, a shop with beautiful displays of cupcakes will catch your eyes before you know it. There you are, at the entrance of Cupcake Engineer. 

We tried the Horlicks and Bandung flavours and they were indeed true blue as their names suggest. What makes each flavour distinctive was the cream. For those people, especially girls, who are afraid of cream that are so milky-creamy, I am sure you will like this! However, I find the cake a little too moist. The cafe is rather small, enough for around 3 to 5 people only, if i remembered correctly. 

Horlicks and Bandung flavours (from left to right) ($4 each)

One of the flavours which I find it rather interesting is Hot Chocolate. The owner told me it is chocolate  infused with chilli, to create a tinge of spicy taste. It's is even topped with a chilli padi! I would definitely try this on my next visit!


501 Bukit Timah Road, Cluny Court
#01-03A
Singapore 259760
https://www.facebook.com/cupcakeengineer

Vanilla Bar & Cafe

 A visit to Vanilla Bar & Cafe situated somewhere along the junction of Amoy Street and Boon Tat Street. My friend and I had quite a hard time trying to find the place since we were walking all the way from Raffles Place MRT Station and the only thing we had was a GPS that wasn't that reliable. But all the walking and trying-to-make-out-where-we-were from the GPS was definitely worth it. The moment we stepped into the cafe, the simple furnishings of wooden chairs and tables gave us a soothing and peaceful feeling. Another plus point was, it was not crowded which is what I personally like. (Though I'm not that sure whether the cafe would get crowded during lunch hours.)

So we settled for these two for our dinner. I love how the smoked salmon is cooked with the right level of saltiness and the salmon does not taste raw, which is to my liking. Though i would have to admit that since this is a creamy sauce, one does get quite sick of it at the end. I tried my friend's curry don and it tasted good too.

Smoked salmon linguine ($11.90)

Japanese curry katsu don ($10.90)

Finally, what's better than having desserts after a meal? So these were what we ordered for our desserts. Yes, you're not seeing the wrong things, that's a flower pot. It is an oreo ice-cream cake served in a flower pot! The oreo crumble as the mud and gummy worms as earthworms. How creative! Actually it tasted somewhere in between cake and ice-cream, not exactly like a cake and not really like ice cream, so i just called it ice-cream cake. Nevertheless, I love it since I have a sweet tooth and I have never tried eating anything in a flower pot before haha! 

My friend ordered sticky toffee pudding. And she actually had to ask for the waitress to confirm again if this is really a pudding because it does not turn out to be what we have thought it should be. But true enough, this is sticky toffee pudding and it tasted like some of the malay cakes, if you get what I mean. (After doing some googling and reading food blogger's blog, I realised sticky pudding is a steamed sponge cake and not the jelly-like pudding.) 

Vanilla dirt cake ($8.90)

Sticky toffee pudding ($7.90)

Overall, I think this is a good place to chill out. Food is a little expensive but sometimes, it is worth it to spend for the ambience and with the people you love.


3 Boon Tat Street #01-01
Singapore 069612
http://www.vanillacafe.com.sg/
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Vanilla-Bar-Café/