Showing posts with label Paragon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Paragon. Show all posts

Friday, October 31, 2008

Halloween

Since it's Halloween, I shall blog a festive post!I don't know what the heck these agricultural produce are, but they can be found in the fruits and vegetable section of the Paragon supermarket. They're super mutated and look like they came right out of the Chernobyl accident. (I think they're supposed to be pumpkins?) Someone even put this ugly looking thing amongst all the pretty genetically modified pumpkins (not me!)
It really looks like the pumpkin things were infected with millions of viral warts and yikes this is starting to remind me of the STD lectures with all the caluliflower groweths everywhere!
This post is courtesy of Jane, who so excitedly told me that I have to see the 'fungating fruit'
-_-"
*Edit: I've just found online that they actually breed these things specially for Halloween! Freaking gross man! I feel like using liquid nitrogen to burn the warts off! In fact, they even say on the website that "These heavily warted pumpkins and gourds are NOT diseased! They are bred specifically to have the warts. In fact, it has taken over 10 generations of breeding to obtain the size and consistency of warting for these varieties!"

Friday, October 10, 2008

Shimbashi Soba - Teatime desserts to S t r e t c h your $

I really love eating desserts, and the best things about Shimbashi Soba is that they have a great tea time dessert offer, which is perfect since it's on even on weekends. With the exorbitant rental prices in town, this little restaurant is making every minute of their rental count.

Oh I just realized that I've never blogged about shimbashi soba desserts properly!! It's my fave Jap dessert place (during teatime).

I've been patronizing this place ever since it opened, and I was extremely happy when they had their tea time offer. $6++ will get you any dessert (except the Shimbashi Special Dessert Set) and a drink (green tea hot/cold, coffee, english tea). Best of all, the desesrts are super duper delicious! I'm feeling very greedy now, looking at my dessert pictures :(My most favourite dessert (as recommended by Jane's mother who always eats this) is the Matcha Tofu Jelly, which usually will set you back by $9.30++ at a normal dining time. My motto in life (and for food) is why pay more :D This costs a mere $6++ (it used to be $5++ before all the inflation) during teatime.

The Tofu Jelly is extremely soft, though it isn't soggy like pudding. The blocks of tofu jelly have a great green tea taste, and they're very silky. Best of all, it comes with a blob of vanilla ice cream, and when the ice cream melts, it coats each piece of jelly, making the combination of slightly bitter green tea and sweet ice cream incredibly delicious.


The little chips on the side are made from buckwheat, and are supposed to be very healthy. I think they're deep fried though. They are slightly sweetened and toasted sesame seeds are added for taste.

One of their newer desserts is the Soba Cha Pudding (usual $7.80++). I just ate this over the weekend and it's like a healthy version of caramel custard. This is pudding made from soba tea, served with brown sugar syrup. It comes with two chewy soba balls (which tastes like tang yuan skin).


Of course, being Singaporean, this is not really worth it economically, since you should get the most expensive dessert for the best discount. But for those people who like caramel custard, this is a less creamy version.
This is the Matcha Tiramisu (usual $8.20++). It's green tea tiramisu with vanilla ice cream. I don't quite like this because nothing really beat my Matcha Tofu Jelly. If you're a die hard tiramisu fan, this doesn't have coffee (or doesn't have as much coffee - I can't remember) and doesn't taste like normal tiramisu.
The Shimbashi Special Dessert Set (which can serve 2 people) is $10 during teatime (and comes with a drink). It usually costs $13++.

It comes with a soba crepe, which is filled with custard and drizzled with mango sauce, home made gelatinous cakes (the green stuff), soba balls (the tang yuan like balls, their biconcaved shape reminds me of RBCs, Red Bean Paste, Vanilla (or green tea, depending on the day) ice cream and sweetened fried soba.

I eat this when I'm feeling greedy (shared of course!!! >:O)English tea - I usually get the Iced Green tea though.

I've written about Shimbashi Soba in one of my first few posts, and there's a picture of the Cream Amitsu, which is pretty worth it since it costs around $8++ :D
For $6++, and a great place to rest your legs, the teatime desserts are definitely worth a try. Best of all, the serving sizes are same as the full price desserts, and the service is quick and efficient (all the time - I come here very often for desserts).

Teatime at Shimbashi Soba is from 2.30 to 5.30pm

Shimbashi Soba
290 Orchard Road
#B1-41 The Paragon
Tel: 6735 9882

Saturday, May 19, 2007

Ding Tai Fung

I don't quite like Chinese food (except Dian Xin) but then my parents like it so we went to Ding Tai Fung. I guess it doesnt require much brain power to decide - it's like Crystal Jade - convenient choice and not too ex.Red dates with glutinous rice ($4)- it's like red dates with mua chee inside. It's a new dish I think - but I haven't been to Ding Tai Fung for quite some time already. The dates are soft and sweet and the filling is smooth and chewy, but the whole dish is quite oily - the dates are coated in oil, probably because of the glutinous rice.I had the shredded pork fried rice ($8). I don't like rice, but the only rice that I will eat is fried rice or brown rice (other than sushi and Japanese rice, I don't like rice). I actually wanted to get the pork chop with fried rice, but I was probably hypoglycaemic and ticked the wrong dish :( the pork chop fried rice is much better. The portions have shrunk (and the prices have remained the same) since I last went to Ding Tai Fung. Dou Miao fried with Garlic ($10)
Going to Ding Tai Fung means one thing - Xiao Long Pau. Personally, I'm not a big fan of Xiao Long Pau cos it has this pork-ey after taste which I don't quite like, and the meat is always very fatty and oily, and it's such an art picking them up and eating them without bursting them, and it's a delicate balance between eating it when it's too hot and scalding yourself, and yet not waiting for it to cool down till it's too cold and the skin too hard.I always order the Thousand Layer Cake ($3). It's actually a posh version of a cheap Chinese cake - but then I like to peel off the layers and eat them separately. My favourite layer is the top most one, cos there are these sweet pink and green bits.

Something amusing:
Q. What do you call air in the lung?
A. Pneumothorax
Q. What do you call pus in the lung?
A. Erm... Pyothorax?

Sunday, April 22, 2007

Shimbashi Soba - Paragon

Shimbashi Soba is a tiny restaurant in Paragon. Its speciality is none other than soba - if you go past you will sometimes see the soba chef making none other than soba in the little glass container (it must be very hard cos everyone keeps peering in and taking photos of him, a bit like an animal display). But this shows that the soba here is really freshly made and hand made.

I usually eat here when I am too lazy, tired or hungry to think of where to go since it's
not so heavy or pricey.

The lunch menu is much cheaper and has quite a few sets to choose from. For dinner, it's about $23++ for the Set C, which you see below.

You can either have the soba warm or cold, and i think you have the option to change it to udon too. I like the soba (especially the idea that it's fresh and hand made, without all the preservatives).

Set C consists of soba served with sashimi, tempura and grilled fish and sweet egg.
Nice, light and un-oily noodles. I don't usually drink the soup cos I find it quite salty. Most authentic japanese soups are anyway. I guess it's a different taste from ours.
Grilled fish and egg.
Salmon sashimi. Yum :D
Tempura

This place gets pretty crowded during weekends dinnertime, and sometimes you may be seated on a table facing outside with very little privacy. Other than that, the food is refreshing and I usually come here if i can't think of anywhere to go.


Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Canele - Patisserie Chocolaterie

Went to Paragon to try the new dessert restaurant which is located next to Orange Julius and opposite Star Bucks.

This is probably the closest that Singapore had to Koko Black, from Melbourne.
I tried the L'Amour Ice Cream, which is Rose Petal Ice Cream with raspberry swirl, rose meringue and lychee pieces. This does not taste of Bandung (rose syrup) but it has a more fragrant smell. (Is there even real rose in bandung??) I suppose they use real rose since it's at a hefty price of $8 for a single generous scoop. The rose meringue was nice and crumbly, i think you might even be able to buy it from the shop by itself.

Next was the Sweet Crepes. We tried Forest Noire (Black Forest) This had Dark cherry compote, chocolate ice cream and kirsch chantilly cream ($12.50).



The Nougatine Sweet Crepe ($13.50) is a house special - it's apparently very popular. A large scoop of Nougatine icecream, which is Praline ice cream with hazelnut nougatine (aka Hazelnut Ice Cream) on a crepe filled with Nutella, and topped with salty caramel, caramelized Filo and Vanilla creme chantilly. The vanilla creme chantilly is a fancy name for whipped cream i supposed, but there are real vanilla seeds inside the cream.

Another house special is the Mont Blanc Sweet Crepe ($13.50), which we didn't have space to try. It's candied chestnut icecream on a crepe with vanilla creme chantilly, black currant coulis and almond crumble.

Overall, i thought the L'amour icecream tasted the best! However, it does not come in crepe form. I woud also like to return to try the Chestnut Souffle with French candied chestnut and served with Fromage Blanc sorbet, and the earl grey icecream :D

They also have a range of desserts like tarts, crumbles, custards etc which i would like to try. Water is served (unlike BakerzInn) so you don't get too thirsty from all the sugary stuff.

Hope that you will drop by and give it a try!

Boutique
290 Orchard Road #B1-25 Paragon
Tel 67338893

Cafe
Esprit Cafe by Canele
176 Orchard Road #03-100
Centrepoint Shopping Centre
Tel 67337898

For more information, visit www.canele.com.sg