Saturday, July 31, 2010

Let them eat K ki ! (ケーキ)

I had my most productive post-call ever on Friday. Usually, I just go home and sleep till the next morning cos I'm super exhausted, but I managed to drag myself down to k ki (thanks to the help of my chauffer brother) and procured myself a nice selection of cakes. I've been dying to try kki's cakes since having a taste of their Antoniette, but thanks to my long work hours and laziness on weekends (weekends are sacred and for sleeping in late), I haven't been down to K ki.My greedy selection of cakes - couldn't decide which ones I should have so I narrowed it down to these 6. Spent >$50 of my hard earned money on them too! But I think it's alright since it's such a rare opportunity for me to actually go down and get my cakes. Each slice is is rather expensive at about $8 each (plus they aren't very big), but I think that it's just for the ones that I really like. I like the cakes with the lighter flavours, so that means all those cakes with chocolate are out of my list (though I think chocolate lovers would really like them!)
One of k ki's more popular cakes, the Little Red Riding Hood, which has
I like how the chocolate coating is so nice, smooth and glossy, looks like it just popped out of a food magazine. I don't like this cake cos it's too chocolatey for my liking, and I'm not a big chocolate fan.
Raspberry jelly (or gelee?) gives a nice sour contrast to the rich chocolate.
My favourite cake is still the Antionette - its white chocolate mousse with a delicious golden yellow center of mango embedded within.
The mango is really refreshing and tastes so pure, fruity and sweet. It's one of the smaller and daintier cakes they have but it's well worth the money cos it's so delicious! I can't stop raving about this cake... If I only had space for one, it'll definitely be the Antoniette!
Kinabaru, which is another of thier hot sellers. Coconut mousse paired with passionfruit. The light and creamy coconut mousse goes really well with the tangy passionfruit. A word of caution: this cake really doesn't keep well in our local climate - my precious Kinabaru started sagging and falling onto itself after I removed the protective plastic wrapper - see how it looks like it's flattening out in the picture already. Mont Blanc - the famous chestnut mousse swirly tower
A whole load of fresh whipped cream and soft sponge inside. It was freshly piped and I had to wait about 5 min for them to prepare it. This really doesn't keep well in the refridgerator, so it's best eaten on the day itself. When I ate it (the 1st day), the chestnut mousse was creamy, not overly sweet and bursting with the rich earthy chestnut taste. It gets hardened if you keep it >1day (sadly, I can't finish everything in a day without having diminishing returns, so I've been eating little pieces of everything for the past 2 days).

The last 2 cakes which I don't particularly like - the round one is called Cafe Dumo - coffee and chocolate mousse with chocolate praline which didn't taste very unique and was rather forgettable (when compared to the Antoniette and Kinabaru).

The leaf shaped one on the extreme right is called Mona. It's chocolate and banana mousse. The banana taste is really strong, and goes really well with the rich chocolate mousse. It really tastes like you're eating a real banana (all of their fruit flavours taste really fresh and nice). But since banana isn't one of my more favourite fruits, it doesn't top my favourite list.

What I would like to do on one of my upcoming my leave day will be to get a nice book or trashy magazine, take some public transport to k ki (so I won't have to worry about the incredibly expensive parking, and paying millions of ERPs) and sit there for an hour savouring either the Kinabaru or Antoniette and drinking some nice tea. And maybe go to Goto while I'm at it ;P

K ki ケーキno. 7 Ann Siang Hill
Tel: 6225 6650
Daily: 11am-9pm
Thursday: Close at 7pm
Saturday: Close at 4pm

Sunday, July 25, 2010

K-ki - Antoinette

It's not my birthday, but this is a Antoinette, a cake from k ki which is so insanely good, the next time I'm taking leave (and not going overseas), I am definitely going to rush down to get myself a whole variety of cakes from K-Ki. I've been so freaking deprived, thanks to my long work hours and I haven't been able to go down even though everyone else has been raving about k ki!
And now, there's Flor which looks as tempting as k ki I really don't know which one to go to, but then if I go to both, I'm surely not going to have enough stomach space for all... Such a dilemma...
Light white chocolate mousse with a mango center. The mousse is so fluffy, has just the right sweetness and has a cheese like aftertaste (though I'm not sure if there is any cheese in it) and the mango layer tastes just like an extremely sweet and fresh mango.
I'm super motivated to rush down and get a variety of cakes during my next leave! Can't wait can't wait!!!! Ah I'm supposed to be sleeping now but thinking about k ki is making me so excited and hungry!!
Thanks to Sabrina who bough the cake! :D
K ki ケーキ(+ the little dröm store)
no. 7 Ann Aiang Hill
Tel: 6225 6650
Daily: 11am-9pm
Thursday: Close at 7pm
Saturday: Close at 4pm

Monday, July 19, 2010

Superdog Breakfast - budget friendly and an alternative to Macs

Had Superdog for breakfast before I watched Shrek 4 (I completely missed Shrek 3 I think?). It's quite sad that that's the last movie I've watched, but I'm dying to watch Toy Story (before it ends! I want to catch the 3D movie!) and Inception, but unfortunately, yours truly will be slaving her life away on the last 2 weekends this month.Superdog is a surprisingly good breakfast find - the pancakes were beyond my expectation! I would rate them as good as Macdonalds, and they even come with 'innards', which is either chocolate chips or banana and walnut. I would recommend the banana walnut pancake cos there's 5 pieces of delicious caramelized bananas embedded in the fluffy pancake, along with a few sprinklings of chopped walnuts for that extra crunch. Chocolate chip is pretty normal and nothing out of ordinary. The pancake texture is similar to that at Macs, just that it's slightly thicker, and looks a bit more home-cooked (no nice smooth golden brown surface). Its served with butter and honey. (Btw, my meal has 1 choc chip and 1 banana cos it's usually plain pancakes, you have to top up a small sum for the choc chips and banana)

I can't remember which breakfast set this was, but there's mainly pancakes and bacon sandwiches for breakfast, though I would strongly recommend the pancakes (haven't tried the sandwich myself, but I don't like bacon).
The breakfast set I took also came with a skinny chicken sausage, which isn't the inferior nitrite filled and very preserved tasting kind that you get out of a can (think Tulip Brand) or the dark brown ones that can be procured at any supermarket for an extremely low price. Superdog uses use 100% fresh food and they don't serve any frozen meats.
The greasy bacon and its rind of fat is rather crispy, though I'm not going to comment more on this cos I didn't eat it. The sunny side up egg has a nice oozey yolk.

The premium iced teas - I had the strawberry iced tea which had a light hint of strawberry. The sugar syrup is served separately, so you can get more control on the exact sweetness you like.

Definitely a great place to hang out for a slow leisurely breakfast if you're looking for a budget friendly alternative to Macs.

I was so happy with breakfast, I came back to have hotdogs for lunch :D

Superdog
1 Harbourfront Walk
#B2-40/41 VivoCity
Other branches are at 313 Somerset, White Sands, and Downtown East

Saturday, July 17, 2010

8th July 2010

This has to be my fave picture of my year (and the years before that!)
On an unhappier note, I am freaking posted to the FAR east for 8 freaking months. Depressed!!! It's so F A R. Wonder which part of fifth and LAST choice _ _ _ doesn't understand. And it doesn't help that so many other ppl are trying to swap their far east postings too!! Hope my luck's better and I will get something that I applied for next time! Hopefully I will be free-er and so I will stop neglecting this blog of mine! :D

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Wild Honey Revisited

Feast (courtesy of Jane!) at Wild Honey. Had a happy dining experience there previously (see post here) so we went back for more. The drink there is a whooping 18 bucks (didn't know it was so ex when I ordered it. Sorry!) but it's a potent mix of honey and vodka and mint leaves. Though it's rather strong, the sweetness of the honey masks the alcohol very well. Can't remember it's name tho!
Pumpkin and Spinach Salad ($18++)
They were very generous with the pumpkin and spinach, but sadly, their pumpkin is undercooked and were too hard and chewy. Which is such a pity cos other than that, I would have throughly enjoyed this salad. There were juicy tomatoes (slightly sour) and generous scatterings of sunflower seeds too. I think this salad would do much better with some crumbly feta or ricotta cheese sprinkled on top. It would do good much better if there was some creaminess to balance out the acidity.
Museli - Wild Honey's museli is made with orange juice, so I'm glad I steered clear of this dish. Though rather subtle, I dislike orange enough to detect every little hint of it in the museli.
Their lovely freshly baked bread basket ($6++) - I really like the thick slabs of toasted brioche which are so crispy and fluffy. Served with butter, honey and some strawberry jam.
Lemon Tart - it looked rather dismal and cracked ( I suppose it had been sitting in the fridge for some time?) but it's appearance is deceiving and the lemon curd was creamy with a tangy lemony taste. The tart base is the thick and buttery kind (that I like), but it was perhaps a few milimeters too thick for me to like it entirely. It is rather small (about the size of a normal egg tart, not the mini-sized ones).
Wild Honey is probably one of the few things I can afford in Mandarin Gallery (apart from Ippudo, which I'm not very partial to). I like the feel of the place (especially the woody furniture) though the ordering is a pain in the neck (only 2 menus and it's such a long wait when it's crowded!) though service here is pretty good. I'll be back for more bread - it's my favourite thing on the menu!
Wild Honey
333A Orchard Road
#03-02 Mandarin Gallery
Tel: +65 6235 3900

Friday, July 9, 2010

Happy Lemon!

I'm super addicted to Bubble tea and to all these artificial multi-flavoured drinks. I'm so happy to have discovered Happy Lemon, a new drink stall serving these flavoured drinks with lots of different toppings (not only pearls/tricoloured jelly/nata de coco!). I get my nearly daily fix of pearls from Mr Bean (lol makes my soya bean drink unhealthy!) and I really like Koi (but it's so ulu and far away, so hard to buy!), Each a cup and this new bubble tea stall at City Square (looks very cheena, like a TCM stall, but it's really good! It's name is Gong something...).
One of my new findings (which is accessible to nearly everyone) is Happy Lemon, which comes from Hong Kong (woohoo! I'm going there next month! Can't wait to do all my food research and zoom all around eating!). It's located at B4 Ion, next to Mei Hong Yuan. Their design is super cute (not that I am into all these cutesie stuff, but looking at the lemon face makes me very happy cos whenever I see it, I know that I will be getting something delicious to drink soon! I think I have a very strong Pavlov's reflex!) and they have a whole huge variety of drinks.

I have been stressing my pancreas, trying quite a few flavours in a short time.
One of the more unique drinks is their Rock Salt Cheese series - I've tried the Green Tea with Rock salt and cheese, which is a layered dirnk with rock salt and cheese froth on top, and green tea below. It's very interesting cos there's little bits of cheese (couldn't taste my cheese until I got to the bottom of my drink, the cheese bits are very creamy) and there's a very mild salty aftertaste (nearly undetectable) and of course, the very refreshing and cool green tea (looks more brown to me but nvm). You're supposed to drink it straight from the cup to enjoy the different layers of drink, and not to mix it up.

Other flavours which I've tried are the Blueberry with Kanten and Agar (Kanten is a Japanese jelly, supposed to be very healthy and good for people on a diet cos it's very filling), the Lemon Yakult mousse spin (They put in 1 serving of yakult. yum. I like yakult lots!) which is very acceptable to me even though I dislike lemon in my food (besides lemonade and lemon tart). I wanted to try the cocoa with pudding but they ran out of it today. I also quite like the refreshing and tangy taste of the Passionfruit yogurt with kanten and agar ($3.50), cos it also has bits of that pulpy passionfruit (including the crunchy seed) in it.
All are really delicious. Their drinks aren't cheap, with a regular drink costing from $2.30 onwards, all the way up to $4.80 (the most ex drink is the Latte with taro), but it tastes really nice. The drinks come in 2 sizes, regular and jumbo, though they seem to be out of stock of the jumbo cups (around Macdonald's medium drink size).
They have lots of goodies you can add to the tea, such as mesona jelly (fancy name for chin chow), Adzuki Bean (red beans), Malt, Kanten, Seaweed Jelly, Pudding, Brown sugar jelly etc. I wanted to try the brown sugar jelly, but they advised me not to have it with the lighter tasting drinks cos the taste would clash, but I suppose it will be nice with their coco and coffee series drinks.

I know I sound like I'm doing an ad for them but I'm not and I paid for everything. I just really like their flavours (not their slightly steep price) but it's super yums when I go to Ion I MUST get a cup of something from them unless I'm absolutely explodingly and incredibly full... I've just drank Happy Lemon 2 days in a row (one being just before convocation! so yummy! puts me in a good mood everytime).
I just went there again today - the queues are forming already! bet they'll be flooded with people tmr :( Took really long to get my drink just now :(
Happy Lemon
B4-35 Ion Orchard
Spore 238801

Thursday, July 1, 2010

Bunalun Brunch

Ah I have been neglecting my blog yet again, but then I'm so tired of typing and at the end of the day I just want to let my brain soggify. Another random thing (I'm very tired but trying not to sleep yet cos it's only 9pm!) - I'm convinced that after my super oily lunch today I am going to get a heart attack at a later point of my life. And not to mention my unhealthy lifestyle since I've started work x2mths ago!!

I have a nice brunch place to share today - it's tucked away in Chip Bee (opposite the more happening Holland V). It's a half cafe and half organic food store (a bit like Le Bon Marche) and it has lots of expensive organic fruit, organic tea, breakfast bars, oats etc etc (organic nearly everything).
My breakfast of scrambled eggs ( I can't remember if they're organic or not, but it costs about $16-$18?) which came with freshly toasted bread (I think it's brioche, but its not as nice as Wild Honey's) and a side of salad. I think the eggs are described in a more appealing way in the menu, but it's actually a very simple dish... I won't eat this again but I'll eat the other things we ordered. One of my favourites - 2 poached eggs on their breakfast muffins with pecorino cheese (or was it gorgonzola?) Ok I cannot remember because I didn't blog about it earlier, but it's a very sharp cheese and extremely tasty. Comes with a side salad too. The muffins were slightly moist, and not as airy as those you find at Mac's (btw, I have been eating Macs lots cos there's one at my workplace!! Never ate so much Macs in such a short time, and I've been happily chomping away on the deluxe breakfast whenever we can escape down to buy it before 11am!). The melted cheese on top makes the muffins incredibly tasty, and when the golden egg yolk bursts and runs over the muffin... ah the taste is just so yummy I am getting very hungry even though I ate alot just now! *satisfied sigh!*The above dish is this queer dish called fish cake. It's totally different from the fish cakes we usually get in the market, but instead, it's a weirdo texture and queer tasting battered and deep fried flaked fish patties. Weird tasting fish patties - at least they use real fish cos we can see the fish fibres... But I don't think I'll be wanting to try this dish again in the future...
Their pancakes here are fabulous. I'm very fussy about my pancakes cos they can't taste too cakey and personally, I like the Macs ones lots. I don't like those uber thick and floury kind. (Btw, I have found a very good pancake mix from a Japanese brand! I have to go and get another packet asap to satisfy my pancake craving!)
The blueberry pancakes at Bunalun are delicious. Huge (and I suppose organic?) blueberries which are so plump and juicy embedded into fluffy pancakes - even though they lack that nice even golden colour that the Macdonald's pancakes have, they're still delicious. And they're served with some blueberry sauce, (non-existent) maple syrup (I really don't know where the maple syrup went, I am quite positive it says maple syrup in the menu), and a side of fresh organic fruit salad (we had purple dragon fruit, papaya and apple).
If I come back, I am going to get the pancakes and the muffins. But the pancakes are my fave. It's about $15 or $16 if I'm not wrong.
We requested for butter and whipped cream, which they served.
My lemongrass and mint (I think) tea, which costs around $6++ but they give free refills and quite a bit of tea leaves. I think I refilled it at least 3-4 times, and yet my tea on the last refill still had quite a strong flavour.
Bunalun only has a bar top counter, so it's not a kid friendly place. It's super good to chill and chit chat and to spend a nice Sunday lazing around there. Plus, their brunch lasts all the way until 2plus/3plus (not too sure on the timing), which is fantastic for late risers like me :) They serve tap water too, so that's another plus :D
*urgh blogger isn't letting me upload my stars.. I'll give it 4/5 stars... when blogger lets me upload my star picture...
I think it's really nice to live in one of those terrace houses in Jalan Merah Saga cos you can just walk over to the 24hr Cold Storage anytime, and you'll be next to the new MRT circle line! Plus, there's so much food to eat around Holland V. But then again, parking your car will be so troublesome, and when you have a house party, all your friends will have huge problems parking... But the idea of walking over to somewhere in Chip Bee/Holland V for brunch every weekend is extremely appealing!
Bunalun
43 Jalan Merah Saga
#01-70 Chip Bee Gardens
Tel: +65 6479 2598