Obolo

Ok I better blog about this before LIC gives up on me blogging it forever! lol I think I'm the slowest! Yikes!:/ but nevermind, better late than never - Ive been in a hole for the past 2 wks :LIC organized a cake sampling session at Obolo very long ago, where we got to indulge in a tasting variety of cakes (as well as meeting other bloggers like Charlinary [who explained to us un-literary people about The Unbearable Lightness of Being], as well as meeting Foodies Queen - there were lots of other ppl but then didn't get a chance to talk to them).

The seating area is really small - it's more of a takeaway place but they do have a drinks menu.

Even though the cakes came in sample portions, they all add up to a pretty big cake, and it was worth the $23 even though there was diminishing returns. There were 9 different cakes to eat

New York Cheesecake
Mango-Passion Cheesecake
Pinada Cheesecake

Actually, when I was eating the cheesecake, I couldn't really tell which was which cos the flavourts were pretty subtle - I didn't quite like Pinada (pina colada) cheesecake, I much prefer the original drink - somehow I think that pineapple and cheesecake combi doesn't agree with me.

The cheesecakes are the creamy heavy kind, and since I started with them first (cos I thought the chocolate will be too heavy and mask the flavour for everything else) I got fully very fast.

Caraibe (the totally brown cake on the left) is a cloyingly sweet 67% caramel chocolate mousse, dark chocolate ganache, with a peacan chocolate fudge cake base.

Nikita (the green coloured cake) was one of my favourites - it had dark chocolate ganache mousse, cherry-raspberry gelee, Pistachio ivoire mousse and chocolate almond biscuit with kirsch. I couldn't taste the alcohol though. Tiramisu au Chocolat - I like my tiramisu slightly more moist - this one is a tiramisu cake, so understandbly it's not as wet as those kind that can't stand up on it's own and comes in a container.

Le Cassis - the pretty purple cake which most people liked. It had dark chocolate ganache mousse, blackcurrent ivoire mousse, chocolate-almond biscuit and crunchy praline feulletine (that's the base I think, which was pretty nice I like crunchy stuff in cakes).


There were 2 petite tartlets for us to sample; the Chocolat Noir and Chocolat-passion.

Chocolat-Noir was pretty good, remined me a bit of Chocolate Factory's Chocolate Tart (which is my favourite chocolate tart ever). It's filled with dark chocolate ganache so it's not too sweet.
Chocolat-Passion had milk chocolate and passion fruit ganache. Most people found the passion fruit too sour, but I thought it was fine (perhaps cos I quite like sour stuff).

Of course, by the end of this, everyone was already having a major sugar rush but there was more desserts to come!
One of my favourite desserts, the Dessert Shooter of Summer Berries. Description in the menu: Tangy mascarpone mousse, red berry gelee, kirsch-mixed berry compote and kirsch-soaked vanilla genoise, garnished with fresh berries.I liked how they made a cute little 'dew drop' on top of the raspberry. I can't seem to taste any alcohol at all, but then again, if there was too much alcohol, you'll be wiping off kids from your customer base. I liked the mascarpone mousse and berries cos it's so nice and creamy, and the berry gelee was tangy and sweet at the same time. Lastly, there was Les Macarons in 2 flavours - Hazelunt-Chocolate and Green Tea. Though these 2 flavours aren't on the top of my must try list, they also have sea salt caramel macarons (this is on the top most of my list, followed by rose) which looks really good, just that they didn't have any by the time we ended, or I'd have been tempted to dapao some home despite being extremely full. Hot and cold drinks were included inside the $23, so I got peppermint.

The people from Obolo even thoughtfully gave us some christmas cookies, cranberry with chocolate chips I think? Or was it nuts. It's long gone (already stored in my stomach).

Obolo

452 Joo Chiat Road

Singapore 427665

Tel: 63489791

Tetsu - LIC Food Outing

Here's my very horribly outdated post for LIC food event at Tetsu.The first dish was the Kami Tofu (right) and Kajiki Takaki.

I quite liked the taste of the kami tofu, which was tofu with century egg, but then it was an incredibly tiny portion (cos everything was sample size) that it slid down my gullet before I knew it.

The Kajiki Tataki looked more cooked than I had expected because I had pictured it being like the katsuo no tataki - seared on the outside and raw on the inside. It was marinated in vinegar and garnished with ginger and spring onion. Pretty good just that the portion was really small (sample size). Salmon and Yellow Tail Sashimi - very fresh.
You learn something new everyday - I learnt that you're supposed to pluck the petals off the chrysanthemum flower and put them in your soya sauce so that it'll be fragrant. Though my tastebuds can't really discern if there's flowerpetals inside my sauce (cos it's too salty anyway), it looks very pretty.
Clear Soup - lightly flavoured with leek egg and seaweed. It was very warming after the cold starters (I am lacking the exact words to describe this soup possibly due to my RAM being overloaded thanks to EOPT).
Yasai Takiawase (daikon, pumpkin, carrot and snow pea)
This is the dish I didn't like the most. It reminds me of those Chinese stewed vegetables with sauce. Actually, I thought that the daikon was a scallop. Cheat my feelings (like those small little cars who park right into the back into the carpark lot and you can't see them - and make me so happy for nothing when I think I finally found a carpark space).

Kushi Age Hire, Ebi, Softshell Crab and Scallop

I must say that I am not a big fan of all these breaded deep fried foods. I personally think that deep frying is reserved for foods which aren't very fresh. The breading was pretty good, slightly sweet and very crispy. I found their famous tonkatsu too dry and tasteless. The scallop was passable, and the ebi was fresh, and I liked the soft shell crab which still retained some of its' juices. There were 3 dipping sauces provided - curry, chilli and bbq. I thought that the curry was the most aromatic and delicious of the three, but then I couldn't put more than a little sprinkle of curry powder over my food as it was too salty.
Complimentary sushi roll - this was pretty good - with salmon, tuna, and I think squid(?) wrapped inside a sushi and coated with crispy tempura bits.

Kushi-Tem Lotus Root, Mushroom and Green Capsicum.

Actually, when I was eating this, I was quite impressed that the white piece of paper didn't have any oil traces at all - but then I looked closely and realized that it was pretty thick and waxy and not like the usual normal-ish paper that you find in most restaurants.

Apparently, the white piece of paper isn't supposed to be used to blot out the extra oil. It's supposed to demonstrate the quality of the tempura - if it's fantastic tempura, it's supposed to leave minimal oil traces on the blotting paper. Well, if anyone can enlighten me if this is correct, I'll be extremely grateful, cos my source was a Japanese tour guide (on a tour super long ago).

Udon - extremely smooth and chewy. I was wondering if its handmade cos the noodles were pretty uneven?
Goma Ice Cream

Somehow, Goma feels like a cat's name. Maybe cos Goma is a cat's name in Kafka on the Shore?

The ice cream is one of the better black sesame ice creams I've eaten - some of them have this oily after taste. This one was bursting with black sesame flavour and the gritty grounded sesame went very welll with the creamy ice cream.

For 30 bucks and dinner, I definitely won't be complaining. But I don't think that kushi style suits my palate.

Tetsu
163 Tanglin Road
#03-18 Tanglin Mall
Tel: 6836 3112

Swa Gardens

Attended ieatishootipost's makan session at Swa Gardens. Due to me getting the wrong address (somehow I read 540 as 400 in the sms - I have no idea why - no wonder why I'm so poor at math) we arrived just in time to catch the Cold Crab. I attacked the crab too quickly, and forgot to take a picture before getting my hands dirty :/Braised Goose- Taste wise, it was good but I foud this a bit too dry for my liking. I'm half Teochew (from my paternal side but I can't speak anything besides 'boh hor jiak') and goose is one of the few teochew dishes that everyone in my family likes, so I eat this rather often.
Mayonnaise Prawn - very lemony and oily. The prawns were fresh and the combination of prawn and mayo can never go wrong.
Oyster Omelette - which was my fave dish of the night. The oysters were embedded inside a golden yellow omelette, and there were many many oysters.
Packed with delicious fresh globules of oyster - it's probably the freshest oysters (other than the raw kind) that I've eaten. Not a single piece of the many oysters that I ate tasted grainy. I hate having the gritty feel of sand when I eat shellfish.
Steamed Promfet - fresh, steamed just right and with tasty gravy.

Fried Sweet Potato Leaves - this is one of my fave vegetables because of the texture. Ngoh Hiang - this is probably the fattest ngo hiang I've eaten.
Stir Fried Crayfish - I didn't quite like this dish cos the sauce just masked the taste of everything. One reason why I don't like Chinese food is because they have so much sauce that I can't taste the real flavour of the main ingredient.
Chye Poh Kway Teow - It's supposed to be a teochew dish (though (I've never had it before but then again I haven't tired alot of teochew food). It was an interesting dish, and I'd have eaten more if not for the long wait in between dishes. I didn't like the burnt crispy surface noodles, but other than that, I found the dish quite good (since I like kway teow).
People say this is the best Ohr Nee in Singapore. I'm not a great Ohr Nee fan, because it's so oily and filling. There's lots of pumpkin (my fave part of the dish) and ginko nuts too. The Ohr Nee is very smooth, not too gooey or thick. I was younger, my dad (who hates pumpkin) always ordered Ohr Nee without pumpkin and I never knew Ohr Nee came with pumpkin till very much later.

Its really taxing on the kitchen to feed ~80 hungry people and there were looong pauses in between dishes, which made everyone feel full. I felt that my $32 was well spent. Plus, I got to meet Singapore's most famous blogger and his makan friends.

To the person who got 8 of his friends to come down for the makan session, but couldn't because of a dish washing mishap, hope you get well soon! I'm sure your friends gave you a detailed account of dinner - they took photos of every single dish for you!

Overall, I'll give the restaurant 3 Michellelim stars:

But for the planning, logistics and other people who helped organise this,

Swa Gardens 汕园潮洲酒楼

540 MacPherson Road

Tel: 6744 5009

LIC's Food Outing - Ochacha

LadyIron Chef (who isn't a lady) organized a food-sampling-friend-meeting session at Ochacha, and since I've always wanted to try Ochacha (but the 2 previous times I walked past and went in to sample the drinks I was too full). So I thought it was a great opportunity to sample most of their menu for $17.50, and also, to meet other bloggers.
Price quoted is for normal size portions, this is just a sampler.
Shitake Mushroom Soup and Tomato Soup. I liked the tomato soup because it was very tangy, and full of chewy bits of vegatables, but I found it slightly too salty. The mushroom soup was thick and creamy, with lots and lots of shitake mushroom bits. However, there was a slight bitter after taste (prob due to the mushroom).
From Front to Back: Matcha Rocks, Ochacha Rocks, Azuki Freezie.
These are just small shots, but the actual size is much bigger, about the size of Starbucks/Coffeebean drinks.
Matcha Rocks ($4.95) is slightly sweetened cold green tea, and there is really alot of green tea powder inside - there was a thick layer of sediment on the bottom of mine.
My favourite was the Ochacha Rocks ($4.95), which green tea with milk in good proportions such that neither the milk or green tea overpowers the other. People who like milk will enjoy this.
The Azuki Freezie ($6.50) is green tea, milk and azuki beans. I think of the azuki beans as a healthier alternative to the pearls in bubble tea, cos it gives you something to bite on while drinking.
What I liked about the drinks was that they are not too sweet and thus taste very refreshing. I suppose that the more health conscious people who love their green tea and antioxidents will like it too.
The drinks come in 2 sizes, "Thirsty" and "Parched". The lady boss said that she was contemplating calling it "Dehydrated" but thought this wouldn't sit too well with her customers. I suppose if she called the normal sized one "Dehydrated", she could call the big cup "Hypovolemic shock". This is the complimentary salad which was so kindly provided by the boss as she noted that our tasting menu didn't have a vegetable dish:) The lettuce isn't the cheapskate iceberg lettuce you get for $1.50 a head at supermarkets (thought I'm not botanist and can't identify what type of lettuce it is but it's not Romaine either). It's dressed in a light citrus dressing (is it yuzu? tastes a bit orang-ish to me).These are the sandwiches we had: Sakura Egg ($4.80), Wasabi Tuna ($5.90) and Salmon Furikake ($5.90).
I enjoyed the salmon furikake the most, perhaps because there was a interesting Jap twist to the usual boring smoked salmon sandwich in the form of the furikake powder (seaweed, sesame seeds, fish flakes etc). I wasn't very impressed by the sakura egg since I don't really like eating egg sandwiches, and there was just a sprinkling of sakura powder, which I couldn't really taste very well. I found the wasabi in the wasabi tuna sandwich too strong, and it kept going up my nose. As you can tell, I don't like wasabi (unless it's the freshly grated kind). If you are a wasabi fan, you'll probably like this since the wasabi is reall very strong.
The bread was nicely toasted and it was very fresh and soft on the inside. I think that the salmon furikake is much more worth it than Delifrance's sandwiches for the same cafe style dining and pricing.
Matcha Financier ($2.90) is this quite thin, half cake half biscuit dessert which I think is very small (volume wise) for the price. It's based on a French recipe, and modified by adding the green tea powder. The good point about this is that it's very well made, with the crispiness on the bottom and sides, and the green tea taste is very strong. I'll eat this very willingly and happily if it were free, but not if I had to buy it for $2.90.Green Tea Panna Cotta ($4.90) was served last, and a good thing too because it's really creamy and heavy. The consistency is more like mousse, and if I weren't so stuffed, I would have liked it better. Diminishing returns indeed.This is the Matcha Azuki ($4.90), which isgenerously sprinkled with lots of green tea powder. Green tea and azuki beans make a great combination for desserts! I really like the intense colour that the green tea gives the sponge layers.
This is my favourite dessert of the day! It's the Matcha Cotton ($2.90) which is a Japanese style cotton cake but with green tea. It reminds me of the cotton cake at Tampopo, just that it has green tea and copious amounts of decadent fresh cream. The cake itself is very light and fluffy. I think it's quite worth the $2.90 pricing (even if it's mostly air, it appears big and impressions make a big difference ;)
I will definitely come back to eat this:DThe dinner ended on a pleasant note with the Ochacha Latte. It's the warm version of the Ochacha Rocks. By this time, I couldn't taste if it was sweet or unsweetened cos we just ate all the desserts, and there were many diminishing returns.

There's a variation of the Ochacha Latte called the Ochacha Silk, which comes with soyamilk instead of milk. I think that it's a very good idea since most Asians, especially Chinese are lactose intolerant.

Overall, I will recommend Ochacha for desserts, as well as a great place to sit and chill with a healthier, less sugary drink. AND you have to enjoy green tea - which is the whole idea of going to this place :)

Thanks to LIC for organizing the event:D

And now, for my new michellelim star rating:

Ochacha, rating for DESSERT only:

OChaCha
252 North Bridge Road
#B1-44F Raffles City
Tel: 6333 5886