Honey Creme

So the K-wave is far from over - but the good thing is that we have now gotten more delicious soft serve ice creams in Singapore. I'm such an old fossil (secretly 82) so I didn't want to go and crowd with all the other young things - so I have happily waited till the craze has sort of died down, before going to Honey Crème.

One of my friends who is in the F&B line has told me that soft serve ice cream is one of the most preservative filled artificially flavored foods ever, but I really love the taste and texture of it, and shall stubbornly remain in blissful ignorance.

I had to try their signature Honey Comb ice cream - which has their original soft serve ic cream with an entire comb honey. Honey on top of soft serve ice cream - such a brilliant idea - to add something sweeter to an already sweet item.

I don't recall ever eating real honeycomb ever (unless you count those fakey ones from the ting ting tang store wrapped in popiah skin with a dash of crushed peanuts). I didn't like the waxy taste that it left (spat it out cos it really was quite waxy) but the honey on top of soft serve ice cream exceeded my expectations.

It's supposed to have a whole lot of minerals, trace elements, amino acids and enzymes but I'm pretty sure that the purported health benefits are vastly shadowed by the amount of insulin resistance you're at risk of...

 

They have quite a few other flavours, including a cotton candy one (sugar on top of ice cream, just like honey on top of ice cream). I think ths was the tea flavoured one with pearls. Great to have more choices than Llao Llao  or Tsujiri only!

Honey Crème
#01-37
313 Somerset Orchard Road
Singapore 238895

How to Maximise your Llao Llao Experience

5 proper swirls

So the people who know me have been quite exasperated with my (unhealthy) obsession with Llao Llao. I've been queueing up many times for llao llao to get my llaollao fix, and also dragging people to queue up with me. Of course, I'm not a pro que-er like Serene (who has contributed to this post with her very keen observation skills, out of the countless number of times of queueing up and contributing to Llao Llaos speedy expansion in Singapore).

The branches that I frequent most is the PS branch and Orchard Central branch, and most recently, the United Square branch.

How to Maximise your Llao Llao experience
Usually, there will be an unreasonably long queue. First, I decide if it's really worth queueing, and if I can finish eating my yogurt before my next appointment. If there is a slightest doubt, I would not queue. What can be worse than queueing and wasting 15 minutes of your life than queueing and not getting to the end of the queue? I usually do not queue if the queueing time exceeds 20 minutes unless I am in desperate need of llao llao to satisfy my craving, or if I am with another friend as crazy over llao llao as I am, who would accompany me. Also, my tolerance for queueing at PS is lower as the queue snakes outside the mall, where there is no air conditioning (very important, since I am incredibly heat intolerant).

The Sanum
Out of their many items in the menu, my favourite is the Sanum. I don't believe in queueing up and wasting a part of my life (no matter how short) and then buying the Petit llao (smallest item on the menu). Seriously, if you're queueing up, just do yourself a favour and get what's best on the menu! Plus, it's $6.50 for a whole heap of ice cream yogurt, 3 kinds of fruit, one crunch and one sauce.

Crunch
The next step would be selecting the ingredients for your Sanum. The server will put a small whirl of yogurt into the cup, and ask you for your choice of crunch.

The crunches available are: sunflower seeds, chocolate muesli, caramelised biscuits (aka caramello biscuits), oreo, colourful pebble cereal, digestive biscuits, almond biscotti, kit kat and a few other offerings.

I don't particularly like chocolate with my yogurt - I feel that the sweet chocolate doesn't go well with the sour yogurt. But I think lots of my friends think otherwise. My favourite topping is the caramelised biscuits - it's quite sweet, finely pounded and goes well with the fruits.

I've tried the chocolate muesli and found it way too hard and pokey (pokes my gums, teeth, tongue and basically makes the whole experience very unhappy). I've also tried crushed oreos but they are chocolate base, I find that they don't go very well with the yogurt.

I haven't tried the sunflower seeds or the almond biscotti, but it would be next in my list to try (even though I am the most unadventurous person ever - I've been eating more or less the same combination  since I've discovered llao llao).

Fruit
You then have to choose 3 kinds of fruits to add into your Sanum. I am a huge fan of strawberry so I usually get 2 servings of strawberry, and a serving of blueberry. The other fruits available are banana, pineapple, mango, kiwi, rock melon and watermelon. I do like berries very much, but another reason why I choose them over the other fruits (i.e. banana) is that they are generally more expensive, so this will give you more bang for your buck if you are counting your pennies.

Another thing that I have realised, is that if you ask for 2 servings of strawberries, the server just takes 1 full spatula full of strawberries and dump it into your cup. As opposed to asking for strawberry, blueberry and strawberry, where they will scoop two servings of strawberry, and you'd tend to get a bit more strawberry, or any other fruit for that matter. I've tried this a few times and it's consistently more (but may be purely psychological for me, since I'm such a cheapo).

Sauce
The sauce comes next. There's a choice of caramel, wild strawberry, wild berries, Rafello, white chocolate, chocolate, chocolate crunch, white chocolate, apple sauce etc.

My favourite is wild strawberry, as there are really chunks of wild strawberry inside. Wild berry is way too sweet for milky liking. Rafello really tastes like the rafello chocolate, just that it doesn't go particularly well with the yogurt as it is too sweet and coconutty.

I haven't tried white chocolate or the apple sauce (looks really gross to me) yet.

Chocolate (just the plain old chocolate) gets very hard after being drizzled over your yogurt and at the bottom, it usually just becomes a solid chocolate lump. As I mentioned earlier, I don't like chocolate with my yogurt.
However, I will make a concession for the chocolate crunch, which is a different kind of chocolate. It doesn't harden like how the normal chocolate does, and there's a delightful crunch at the end of it. It doesn't taste purely of chocolate, but has a slight hazelnut taste.

The Top
Lastly, it all boils down to luck as well as keen observation skills. The last bit of the Sanum is the most important bit. It will decide if you're queueing is worth it, and if you did get your moneys worth. I have noticed a very large difference in the amount of soft serve yogurt that is given. You can get 5 really large swirls, to form a grand, towering Sanum, or a really crooked, small, twisted swirls which is barely even 1/4th a properly swirled Sanum. It's all dependent on your server - the swirling skills as well as if they are in a rush.

If I am queueing with a group of friends, and we do get a good server (5 generous swirls), we would usually try to order as a group, so that all of us can get a nice big towering Sanum. However, sometimes, this also backfires as the server feels overwhelmed and tries to make the swirls quickly, which gives us all very small tight swirls and a tiny Sanum. If the first person gets a lousy server, we will split up the order so that there will only be one unfortunate person would get the crooked Sanum.

My Favourite Combination
 Caramello biscuits, strawberry+blueberry+strawberry, and wild strawberry sauce
Do note that I'm not a big fan of chocolate (with the exception of chocolate fudge cake)

My Two Cents Worth
I really don't think that this yogurt can be considered 'healthy' especially since I'm convinced that there's more than 500 calories in a Sanum, but it really tastes so good that I have regular cravings for it! So please don't eat it just because you think it's 'healthy'! You can probably eat this as a not so balanced meal replacement.

I really dislike the way they let their servers leave their long ponytails swishing about - I feel that it's really unhygienic but this is just my personal opinion, I doubt that this really affects the taste of the yogurt. Perhaps it's all part of a marketing ploy, just like Frolick's. But then again maybe it's cos I'm 80 years old and as stickler for hygiene.

I do think their servers work really hard and there's a perpetual queue, but they are mostly efficient and quick and cheerful. So kudos to them!

The Branches
Marina Link #B1-04 Marina Square Shopping Mall

Plaza Singapura #01-22A (opposite Bread Talk) - you can see the depressing queue when you drive into the carpark. My heart sinks each time the queue snakes outside

Singapore Polytechnic
500 Dover Road Polytechnic Food Court 3 (lucky poly students!)

313 Somerset
313 Orchard Road #B3-55 - incredibly long queue, I haven't been back for a while cos the queue is ridiculous

United Square
101 Thomson Road #01-K14 - My new favourite outlet - cos it's out of CBD!

West Mall
#01-K6 1 Bukit Batok Central Link

NUH
1 Lower Kent Ridge Road #01-37

Anyway, for other cheapos (like me) out there, there's this economic rice post that's worth a read! Same psychology applies for choosing ingredients for Sanum!

St Marcs Chocoro and Dessert

I must be one of the most unenlightened people on earth - I never tried the St Marcs chocoro till very very recently. 

The croissants are really delicious - about half the size of the normal croissants, crispy exterior with many soft buttery whirls inside. 

Kicking myself cos it's really good and I would probably rate it on par with the TBB ones. Plus they're mini-sized so I can try more flavours. I tried the chocolate which was exceptionally good, and the strawberry one. I liked the strawberry filling, but I really disliked the red beans (I don't like red beans to begin with). I think it would be awesome if they could do a strawberry chocolate version. The strawberry tastes like the usual Japanese strawberry sauce (think Yan-yan kind of strawberry, which I really like). 

 They also do ice creme deserts - I had this one (can't remember I think it's Kyoto or something)  - comes with soft serve ice cream, kinako powder, warabimochi(which somehow didn't have a very good texture), mochi balls, and some butter pound cake below.

St Marc Cafe

#01-108-110 

Vivocity

1 Harbour Front Walk

Tel 62222309

Dail 10am to 10pm

Sunday Folks

So much hype about the new hipster soft serve ice cream store from the same people behind Creamier. Was really tempted by the numerous posts and feeds that I just had to get myself some soft serve ice cream. The Earl Grey lavender soft serve comes dressed with lavender infused konnyaku jelly cubes, blueberries, some almond brittle, and soft cubes of cheese cake under all that ice cream. Not bad at $7.50.

Salted Gula Melaka Waffles ($11.50)

Creamier is well known for their waffles, and the waffles here met my high expectations. They were fluffy, soft and eggy, and their buttery fragrance wafted out of the kitchen. However, my soft serve gula melaka ice cream melted too quickly into a soggy puddle and I felt stressed trying to slurp everything up before it melted. I don't know why this isn't the case with A&W ice cream waffles.

This place is so hipster that I was probably at least 10 years older than everyone around me. Le sighhhhh.

Sunday Folks
44 Jalan Merah Saga
#01-52 Chip Bee Gardens

Gusttimo Gelateria

Singapore is probably one of the best places to sell ice cream in (even though we are quite saturated with so many new ice cream stalls being set up now) cos there aren't any winters and the weather is so hot that ice creams are Their gelatos have a good mix of fruity and creamy, and one of the most popular gelato flavour here is the black rice. It's not like pulut hitam (black glutinous rice) but is a nuttier version. I also like their cheese ice cream lots. Their fruity flavours are very refreshing, and I particularly liked the strawberry gelato. Some other worthy mentions include the Rose (which sounds good but I didn't have enough space in my dessert stomach to try that) and rum and raisin.

Gusttimo doesn't only serve ice cream, but it also has 4 new desserts on their menu. Gusttimo has recently started serving desserts on top of their many gelatos. Each dessert costs $12.80, (which is around the usual market price for such desserts) and comes with a scoop of gelato of your choice.Sticky date puddings are one of my most favourite dessert - I have to order it whenever I see it on the dessert menu. My yard stick is still marmalade pantry's but the best I've tried in Sgp was from Boomerang. The sticky date pudding comes with a pool of butterscotch in the centre. I liked the sweetness and taste, but the outside of the pudding a bit too dry, though it was easily remedied by dipping it into the butterscotch... Somehow I just think that sticky date puddings shouldn't come in this shape cos they'll be slightly more dry.My second favourite was the Molten Chocolate lava cake. It's like licking the batter of the spoon when you bake a cake. Eating molten chocolate cake always reminds me of that. And since it's chocolate, it's hard to go wrong with this dessert. I quite liked Gusttimo's version of this cos the crust was a really thin layer and there was a large amount of the molten chocolate inside. If this cake is cooked too long, the insides will get cooked just like a regular cake. The brownie was the most underrated dessert of the day. If I had had one of these by itself, I would have said that it was a really good brownie since it was moist, soft and chocolatey but it was really overshadowed by the sticky date pudding and the molten chocolate cake.

The apple crumble had delicious bits of apple and cinnamon filling in just the right proportions, but the crumble was slightly soggy.

Somehow I always forget about Gusttimo whenever I go to Ion and my brain has up till now been wired to think of TWG and Marmalade Pantry for desserts in Ion. I must remind myself next time that there's also Gusttimo hidden in the corner of the first floor. It's probably because I never ever shop on their first floor?

Gusttimo Gelateria

2 Orchard Turn

Level 1 #01-17

ION Orchard

Tel: 6509 9380

Thanks to Gusttimo for the invite!

The Daily Scoop Chip Bee

This is one of my very outdated posts - around christmas and it's been over for nearly a month already! But the avocado ice cream is a worthy mention so I shall just blog about this...Ice cream & Fish's scrawny arm

I've never tried The Daily Scoop till very recently, even though it's in rather close proximity to my house. My very blurry photo of my Udderly Avocado Ice cream with chocolate cone ($3.40)

The Avocado Ice cream tasted like how the avocado milkshake at Alexander village tastes like, with a hint of gula melaka (I think?). Though I don't think the ice cream is really creamy, the natural oiliness of the avocado made the ice cream taste really smooth and delicious. I found the waffle cone rather hard and not very fresh tasting as it was slightly soggy and lacked the delicious freshly made smell. Perhaps it had been sitting around a bit too long. Some Christmassey flavours to put you in a festive mood - Christmas Pudding, Bourbon Berry and Citrus&Spice. There's also Gingerbread ice cream, which has the warm and spicy gingery flavour. Christmas Pudding didn't quite agree with me, cos it has lots of bits inside, but I did like Salted Mr Brown (or is it mr caramel??) but decided I had ingested enough oils and fats for the day in the form of my Cheese Fondue and Raclette Cheese for lunch and didn't want to stress my gallbladder and pancreas anymore.

Waffle with Vanilla Bean ice cream

Love the waffles here cos it's freshly baked on their waffle iron, and has the nice gooey kueh-ish texture, rather than the overly cakey/fluffy kind that you get from gelare (and most other places). I suppose I have low-class taste for waffles - give me the bakery kind (especially the artificial 'pandan green' ones!) anytime!

The Daily Scoop
Blk 43 Jalan Merah Saga
#01-78 Chip Bee Gardens
Tel: +65 6475 3128

Afternoon Milk Tea Sundae without Macaroons :(

Drats. The former Peaberry and Pretzel, now known as Buttercake and Cream changed their menu. Now, their Afternoon Milk Tea Sundae doesn't come with the crumbly multicoloured macaroons. Was really looking forward to it (including the macaroons) after having 6 hrs worth of mcqs - including a 30min break in between. Plus, the school also catered a not too bad lunch - which included siew mais, samosas, sandwiches, chicken wings, and even chocolate cupcakes. A much welcomed change from the usual catered food they provide, which is by default, fried beehoon and fishballs.
Without the macaroons, the Afternoon Milk Tea Sundae ($7) is rather ordinary now that the macaroons are gone. Though they do try to doll it up with a bit of hundreds and thousands, it still isn't the same. The tea digestive biscuits look and taste rather plain even with the ice cream. A new addition to their menu - some hot desserts, of which we tried the Apple and Rhubarb Crumble ($9). The crumble was a bit too chunky for my liking - prefer it more crumbly and in smaller bits and granules. Though taste wise it's buttery, sweet, and best of all, served nice and toasty out of the oven. There were chunks of apple (granny smith, I think) and rhubarb under the crumble, which were caramelized and pulpy. The vanilla ice cream is pretty good, though it's not as creamy as Taste Matters'. Good sized portion of ice cream though.

Won't mind coming back here, probably to try their other warm desserts. Food pricing here's quite reasonable, was checking out the soup ($2.50? or $3.50?) and the side dishes like potato salad, fries, mashed potato ($2.50 each), but I was feeling too sad after the disappointing milk tea sundae.

Butercake and Cream
Blk 106 Clementi St 12 (Sunset Way)
#01-38F
Tel: 6777 3477

Taste Matters

Read about Taste Matters from the Sunday Lifestyle food section (my weekly food guide) and tried it on a Thursday, when our usually long draggy lecture ended unexpectedly early. With Island Creamery just around the corner, and little frontage (it's tucked right inside Cluny court), Taste Matters is a rather quitet ice cream place. Which is a real pity, since the ice cream here beats Island Creamery hands down in terms of quality.

I loved the Lavander Ice cream, with French Tuille ($6.50)

The ice cream was infused with a hint of lavander, not too overpowering such that it feels like you're eating a bar of soap or drowning in lavander fragrance. I really liked the smooth ice cream base, which tasted rich and creamy. The plum (I think it's plum - I somehow can't remember) sauce was an interesting change from the usual raspberry/strawberry sauces.

The tuille was really delicious - buttery, thin and crispy, with a sprinkling of white sesame seeds in the middle. The thin tuille wafers are really great when it's eaten together with the luciously creamy ice cream. Hem and Haw ($6.50)

Hawthorn brings back my childhood memories - the little 'drums' of tightly packed haw flakes whcih came in a yellow, green and pink wrapper. The hawthorn sorbet is very light and airy, and has the lip-pluckering taste of hawthorn. Best of all, it's serve with bits of plum wine jelly - with real plum bits and a rather strong taste of wine.

We were also given samples of some of the other flavours they had. Vanilla tasted like a creamier, fresher version of Tillamook's Vanilla Bean ice cream, and had lots of the little speckles of real vanilla bean. I also enjoyed the Blueberry Cheesecake, which was a refreshing change from the usual Strawberry cheesecake ice creams. The ice cream had a rich cream cheese taste - and I think that it'll taste delicious in an Ice Cream Blueberry pie (ok the ice cream blueberry pie is just part of my imagination, but I think it'll taste great on top of a tart base).

I'll definitely be back to try more of the ice creams from the menu. Or maybe to buy a tub of lavender ice cream. My only regret was that I couldn't get a better shot of the ice cream, partially because I was too impatient and wanted to start eating before the ice cream melted...

Taste Matters

501 Bukit Timah Road

#02-19 Cluny Court

Tel: +65 6297 9713

KPO's Ice Creams

Short post... KPO's ice creams:
Honey and Chamomile Gelato - very pleasant tasting, but a bit too sweet (it's honey isn't it?). Chamomile taste is more of an after taste, very pleasant, creamy and I think the combination of Ice cream and Chamomile sounds like it'll be great to have before sleeping.

Chivas Sorbet - the texture reminds me of the pear sake sorbet from Udders, perhaps that why I kept thinking I was tasting pear when I ate this. It has a pretty strong alcoholic taste, but it's definitely more palatable than Chivas on the rocks.

Donatella (Hazelnut) I thought it'll be like Nutella (my all time favourite spread - goes with anything!) but then it was actually just hazelnut. There were a few sticky streaks of something (I doubt it's nutella but the place was pretty dark so I couldn't see it very well)



Baileys and Cream - Very very creamy, but not very alcoholic. I think Udders one's are better. Though Baileys isn't on top of my drinks list anyway.

$5 per scoop (inclusive of taxes and service charge)

I really should go and try seventh heaven's ice cream. Hopefully it'll be soon!

KPO Cafe Bar
1 Killiney Road
Killiney Post Office
Tel: 6733 3648

Ananda Bhavan Restaurant Revisited

We wanted to go to some tze char place near Novena, but then it was renovating and hence closed. So we ended up eating Indian vegeterian food at Ananda Bhavan Restaurant.

I really like the sauce with the bright orange colour in the North Indian Set ($6 something). It's just like butter chicken sauce, just that it has cottage cheese in place of chicken. Wonder what it's called? (It's called paneer butter masala, thanks Marky!)

There's also a whole lots of dips/sauces including yoghurt, some strange tasting (to me) stewed cabbage, some dhal (?) based curry which was pretty spicy, my favourite cottage cheese, and a vegetable curry.

The set comes with 2 naans and a whole bowl of rice (which has mushrooms and other spices) and a chaapati(?). There's even a desesrt (see the little brown ball at the 7o'clock position) which is some flour ball drenched in syrup.

I know my knowledge of Indian food is pretty bad.

I also had the Paper Masala Thosai ($3.50) which is filled with potatoes cooked in a yellow sauce. My favourite dip was white grated coconut based one, since the others were too spicy.

The spicy version of my thosai, the Mysore Masala Thosai ($4.50), which is essentially the same thing as the Paper Masala Thosa, just that it's really very spicy (I couldn't finish it the last time). Kulfi ($3.70)

My must-eat dessert whenever I have Indian food. It's extremely sweet, and has lots of Indian spices inside - spotted some cardamon and some leaf. Not too sure what they are though.

The Kulfi isn't called Kulfi in the menu, but it's under the non-descript name of 'ice cream'.

Like the last time, the cashiers were really patient with us taking a long time to decide and answering our many of questions (like is this dish spicy?). Saw quite a few tourists dining here during lunch - perhaps it's written up on some Lonely planet guide or Timeout or something?

Ananda Bhavan Restaurant

95 Syed Alwi Road
Tel 62979522

Opposite Mustafa, along the side road

Peaberry & Pretzel

This Peaberry and Pretzel post would not have happened if Audrey hadn't kept chanting "Peaberry and Pretzel" for the past few days.

Afternoon Milk Tea Sundae ($7+GST, no service charge)
Probably the best teatime snack to have in this climate. Instead of tea and scones, it's Earl Grey ice cream with macaroons and crushed tea biscuits.

The best part of this sundae is the ice cream itself. The Earl Grey is one of the best Milk tea ice creams I've tasted - it's extremely aromatic, with the slight spiciness of Earl Grey Tea. Every single bite is a burst of Earl Grey tea. It's like drinking those bottled Japanese milk tea (but creamier). For about $7.50 nett, this sundae is a steal. I think it's pretty hard to find dessert places, with nice ice cream sundaes for $7.50 nett. Looks like I'll be coming here for more afternoon tea time desserts!
Chocolate Cake from Peaberry and Pretzel (it's about $6, can't remember cos it's not mine)
I like the small choco-balls at the side of the cake. It's a rich chocolate mousse cake. Very chocolaty and delicious.
The list of Sundaes at Peaberry and Pretzel - I'm eyeing the Black forest one next. The others use vanilla or chocolate for ice cream, so I think the Earl Grey Tea ice cream looks like the most interesting flavour.

Their decor is very girly and cutesy. I suppose it'll be perfect for a girl's night out (or that kind of thing). Good since guys (generally) don't really appreciate good desserts:P

Their takeaway boxes are also PINK, and they even have a clothes line of doll's clothes hanging on the wall (to add to the cuteness factor?)

Hehehe no prizes for guessing what Audrey Pok has to say about Peaberry and Pretzel (oh no she's going to be angry with me now that I've uploaded an un-glam photo of her!! :O but it's not facebook so she can't untag herself!)

Peaberry & Pretzel

Blk 106 Clementi St 12 (Sunset Way)

#01-38F

Tel: 6777 3477

Gusttimo - Three Flavours better than one! (or two for that matter)

The cream cheese ice cream at Gusttimo is delicious. I thinking that it'll taste brilliant in a deconstructed strawberry cheesecake since the cheese taste is really strong.

The other flavours I tried were Cherry and Milk and Rice. The rice was interesting in that even though they use pulut hitam (black glutinous rice), they don't put it with a coconut base like how our local ice cream places do. So it's really black rice and milk.
I also think that Walnut has an interesting flavour, because usually when I take walnut, it's in the chinese dessert form, which is walnut cream and it tastes very oily. From the little teeney weeney sample scoop that I tried, it's really light and has a nice flavourful walnut taste. This will be on my must try list if I come back for ice cream :)

The cups come in 2 sizes, a small one which is $5.80 and a larger one which is $6something. I got the small one (which is still very expensive). There's 2 huge water dispensers filled with lots of ice inside Gusttimo - it's so nice to see dessert places serving water even though it probably contributes to the exorbitant prices (though personally, I think the rent in Ion contributes to the pricing more).

Gusttimo

2 Orchard Road

#1-15 ION Orchard

Tel: 6509 9380
(Facing Borders)

Oh man, I'm reading hgw and looks like other ppl hate this place! Didn't know that they have such a dumb policy! Here's some quotes from other reviewers on hgw (some are very funny, I really like reading hgw especially hilarious reviews!)

From awesom-o-4000:

Singapore's Dumbest Restaurant
...I went here with the missus and tried to order two of my favourite ice-cream flavours. Apparently, this is not allowed - incredibly, you have to name three or they won't serve you. "We're trying to be different", the nice chap behind the counter said sheepishly. "What, by annoying your customers?" the missus reasonably pointed out. "Erm, yes sorry - management insist" came the apologetic response.

Hello? Who owns this place? Giuseppe Retardo and his amazing extra-stupid sales policies? I daresay we could have found three flavours each that we wanted but I'm not, on principle, supporting this sort of pretentious pillockry...

From Murasaki Hime:

Trying to be Atas

...It was early hours (maybe approaching 6pm) and the outside area was deserted except maybe for a couple of tables. We were flatly denied a place because in their words 'we have customers who come in and order a drink or so and sit forever'. Such audacity! Come on, the place was empty. My kid could't use your high stools and the parlour was almost full. The alfresco was empty. What are they thinking? (hey one solution: place a timer on each table whether for drinks, desserts or dinner. Make sure All customers make way for more customers that's going to take up your time and place.)I for one think it's a little crazy to only open the place for dinner (unless you think you are El Bulli which in that case, you can afford to close for half a year)...

From blargh:

ridiculous policy

...As Gaz has mentioned in the very first review for this establishment, the smallest cup (picolo) of gelato is $5.90 and it says that you get three flavours. What they do not tell you is that the choice of three flavours is MANDATORY. you cant only have two flavours or one flavour. you MUST CHOOSE THREE flavours. you MUST HAVE THREE flavours for your $5.90 picolo cup...

Luckily I didn't find out myself that you only could have 3 flavours or I'll be insanely pissed! I'll go and drop by to try the next time I'm there and ask for ONE flavour ;p I love reading hgw to destress. (Mostly because the reviews are really very funny, and partly schadenfreude.) It's even more hilarious than the comic strips in Life!

I think I'm going to boycott this place already! It's super kid unfreindly!!! (Even though I don't like kids in general, how can they expect kids to sit on the high stools! They'll confirm fall over, or keep swinging and swinging and swinging and swinging and swinging and swinging swinging and swinging and swinging and swinging and swinging their legs)

Scoopz

We were walking around Parkway Parade killing time before mj and stumbled upon Scoopz. They're famous for their durian ice cream, which they make themselves in a frozen plate device. They also happened to have avocado ice cream the day I went, which I've never seen before (since I don't even live anywhere near the east I hardly go to Scoopz). The only other time I've ever had avocado ice cream was when I ate the honey avocado ice cream from Da Paolo Gastronomia.

The avocado ice cream was very delicious. It had a natural looking pale green (I hate the fake green colour, especially for pistachio ice cream!) very creamy, had a strong avocado taste and reminds me avocado milkshake.I think it's $3.20 for a single scoop and $4.50 for a double scoop. I think it I wasn't so stuffed, I'll defnintely buy a tub home.
Scoopz
80 Marine Parade Road
#B1-154 Parkway Parade
Tel: 6440 3412

Ikea's Ice Cream

I went to Ikea on Saturday cos my mum wanted to get photo frames but was too busy to go, and I ended up buying alot more than I intended to! I was quite glad that the one at Alexander wasn't crowded on Saturday - thanks to the new and bigger AMK hub Ikea, I don't have to contend with millions of screaming kids and prams rolling over my feet.

I got a good sized plastic rubbish bin for $3, a new yellow shower curtain (cos my old one is fungusy and gross), a black plate (cos it was only $2.50 for a pretty big plate, and it will be nice to take food photos with - on hindsight I should have bought 2 since the plates in my house keeps getting chipped), and the multi-coloured ikea plastic cups (6 for $3something). My plastic rubbish bin was incredibly handy, since Ikea is super environmentally friendly and charges for plastic bags. So I conveniently dumped everything inside it.

The best part about going to ikea is the Ikea ice cream. Even though the portion size has shrunk quite a bit, it still tastes great. It has a mild butterscotch after taste and is not overly creamy like the Macdonalds one. Its $1.50 for the cone.

Apart from the ice cream and hotdog ($1 per hotdog bun), I don't think that anything else is worth eating in Ikea. Especially the Rubberized Fish and Chips. (I wrote such an angsty post about the fish and chips last time - I must have been very distressed about eating at Ikea then!)

That reminds, me, I bought a bottle of Sweedish mustard from Ikea's food section ($4.20) but I don't know where it went - perhaps its still rolling around in the back of my car since I jam-breaked and my rubbish bin fell onto the floor and everything was rolling about in the back seat.
This is Fish, from 1.5 yrs ago - I think this was in Oct 2007. She was very happy when I told her that she actually looks a bit younger today, cos she wasn't wearing her specs. I'm the one holding the mad-looking puppet :P