Udders - Udderly exciting and Udderly good!

This was highly recommended by Julie - and of course, I took eons before I managed to crawl there. I tried the Kopi-C and the Chempadak (after sampling a whole myriad of flavours) because 2 scoops are cheaper (per scoop) than one, and also because I was greedy. (Yikes I can't rem how much each scoop costs, but nvm, within the next week I will know!)

Chempadak is actually one of my more favourite fruits, and so far, this is the best chempadak ice cream I've tasted. For that delicious wholesome chempadak taste and smell, they use 100% real chempadak. No more sorry pale-looking-faint-smelling chempadak ice cream for me! The highly aromatic chempadak smell hits you the minute you put it into your mouth, and the taste just fills your whole mouth. Extremely yummy!

Other flavours I tried were the Pistachio, Armaretto, baileys, the famed Mao Shan Wang and D24. The Mao Shan Wang is really potent - and tastes thousand times better than the D24. If you want to get durian ice cream, just go for the best - it's not worth wasting your cash and calories on D24 since the Mao Shan Wang is so much better! Actually, I don't like eating durian ice cream outside cos I'll have horrible durian breath the rest of the day. But I do like the taste of durians.

Their alcoholic ice creams are highly potent - one mouthful feels like a drinking a shot - you can feel the alcohol going up your nose. I think the alcoholic ones are $5 something per scoop. Bet Audrey will become a lobster after half a scoop! :P I'll be scared to drive after eating 2 scoops!

Just to see how generous they are with the scoops - tt's a HTC touch diamond there (not mine - No more HTC for me the camera sucks!!!) Ok so I'm not great at taking photos the ice cream doesn't look that humongous but the scoops are really generous - after eating the 2 scoops, I was super stuffed. And I can eat lots of ice cream.

I was pleasantly suprised to be served water (and one for my friend who didn't eat the ice cream) by the waitress. Most ice cream stalls don't even serve water. Great way of making me eat more ice cream! :D

My next posting will be in Novena - Udders here I come!!!! (Note to CG, who will inevitably be dragged along, don't be lazy it's really worth the crawl there!)

U.D.D.E.R.S

155 Thomson Road

Goldhill Shopping Centre

Tel: 6254 6629

Tags Reply

Yikes I haven't been replying my tags! To the taggers: I really appreciate your tags just that I'm a procrastinator in replying them :/

<julie>: hellooo the next time u wanna rest ur legs in town call me out to the canteen at shaw cente or the very pretty ps cafe at palais okayyy!
<xq>: i agree tt royal coop is sucky. was v disgusted with the food the only time i went
Actually, I only go to royal copenhagen because it's near Taka, which I happen to be at the moment. I sometimes go to coffee club too. Tired legs can't walk all the way to shaw and palais!

<ice>: hellooo next time u wanna go iggy's call out loudly to me! :O
I will! But I want to go Gunther's first!;D

<emily>: i love the cappellini, i've been having cravings for it! anyway when are you going to gunther's?
I don't think I'll be going to Gunthers anytime soon, but hopefully I'll get there! Yum I like the capellini too! Which explains why I went to Brown Sugar and ate pasta (which really can't compare).

<anna>: i think u should format ur wish such that u can strike off the restaurants u visited... <anna>: argh i forgot the word 'list'.. =S
I can't do the html code for strikeback onto the blog list. Cos it's some widget thing then I can't do strike off. Haiz!
<
WRX-STi>: Nice food michelle! :) I'm so hungry now. :(
<WRX-STi>: haha. Portsdown road! I love that place - the roads are twisty and quiet so i can flex my 300hp & symmetrical AWD; and not to mention, Good Food and Nice Ambience oso! The pasta looks good! will go there one day! :)
Hello WRX STi, I also get very hungry at night blogging and looking at all the food that I've eaten:( The food's at Pietrasanta slightly cheaper than other places and it's v near school! Free carpark too! :P

<xq>: blog faster!
Faster than you! :P

<fish>: i think my com is v slow...it takes quite long to load the 2 sidebars. looks gd though.
It loads quite fast on my comp. Oh no is anyone else having problem loading the sidebars too? :/

<anonymous>: hey,when does the dbs 1-for-1 offer end at persimmon?is it only valid during wkdays?thanks (:
I think it's valid till 30th Sept. More info can be found on their website.

<veldaa>: heyys! my family went to brown sugar recently and thought that the lamb rack and pork belly was really good((: but you only gave it 3 stars overallllll..
Hello Velda! It's 3 stars cos I didn't like my pasta and I think desserts were only ok. The lamb was very nice though. Perhaps I had very high expectations. But I will def try the mains next time :)

Brown Sugar

Well well, I've finally made my pilgrimage to Brown Sugar, which I have been waiting eons for. I've been wanting to go since ieatishootipost did a review on it. Warm Bread served with olive oil and balsamic vinegar
Organic Mushroom Soup ($11) Oystar, Hiratake, Willow, Royal Abalone, Emperor Shitake mushrooms freshly harvested from Mycofarm organic mushroom farm.

The soup has a very strong mushroom-y taste, and is very thick and quite creamy.Salad of Deconstructed Apple, walnuts, Brie, Apple Balsamic Dressing ($13)
The salad was very light, but incredibly tasty. The apple gave the usually tart balsamic dressing a nice sweetish flavour, and the sauce went well with the crispy chilled apples, salad leaves and creamy brie cheese.
Capellini tossed with Seafood Roe and Lobster Oil ($23)
I actually was thinking about Iggy's Sakura Ebi Capellini - but I really shouldn't have ordered this cos I don't think anything can come close to Iggy's one (especially with the price differenct >.<) My artersclerotic meal included three different kinds of roe, and capellini drenched in lobster oil. Actually, I couldn't taste much flavour in the oil. It's a pretty unfair comparison, but Iggy's scampi oil has a much stronger aroma and flavour, whilst Brown Sugar's one is just plain oily. To give them credit, the pasta was prettily presented, and the capellini done perfectly, just that it was too oily and left me feeling in need of a bitter cup of Chinese tea. Slow baked Rack of Lamb (served pink) with Ratatouille, Soft Polenta and Rosemary ($33)

I pinched a bit of this and I must say that it's really delicious. The little morsel of lamb that I stole was pink and juicy, with the robust meaty flavour of the lamb juices tickeling my tastebuds. I would probably get this or the cod fish the next time I come here.Hand Chopped Wagyu Burger ($28), Truffled Mushroom sauce, salad and fries served with pan fried foie gras (add $7)


By now you would have probably realized that I don't eat beef. There are only 2 dishes that have ever tempted me to eat beef ever! The first one is Burger King's mushroom swiss cheese burger - which is really CMI (cannot make it) with the chicken patty (they used to have it with chicken patty for a period of time), but it sucked so it's off the menu. Dunno if its back now though.

The second dish is obviously Brown Sugar's signature beef burger. It looks really yummy, and comes with foie gras *drools* and truffled mushroom sauce *drools again*, which are probably my two favouritest foods.
I just realized that my friends went to take a picture of the non-foie-gras burger. Ohwells, they were amazed at the miniscule size of the foie gras. Purists would say that you shouldnt chop wagyu since it ruins the texture, but if it tastes good, then why not?

Sticky Date Pudding with Brown Sugar Butterscotch, walnuts, vanilla ice cream (only for the sweet toothed) ($12)

The people at Brown Sugar are so kind as to put a note of caution in the menu:P The sticky date pudding was doused in a rich, diabetes inducing caramel sauce Tart Tartin of Pears with Honey Fig Ice cream ($12)

I made the mistake of sampling the sticky date pudding first, and the intense sweetness rendered my tastebuds useless. So when I reached the Tart Tartin and honey fig ice cream (whicn I was eagerly looking forward to, just so that I could see whether it was better than Marmalade Pantry's), I was dissappointed to find that I couldn't taste any fig or honey. Tasting with my attenuated taste buds is like trying to navigate through the Great Singapore Sales with cataracts. From what I could taste, the pastry part was quite good, and the pears were soaked in whatever marinade they were put in, just that I couldn't quite taste anything much.

Brown Sugar has fallen slightly short of my expectations, maybe because of the extremeley good reviews it has gotton? my brother and I have come to the conclusion that Brown Sugar's pasta dishes are not on the same standard as their mains. Oh well, the next time I come here I'll definitely get something from the main section

277 River Valley Road,
Stardus Clubhouse
Tel: 63336612
Email:info@brownsugar.com.sg
Opening hours: Tue-Sat, lunch & dinner,
All Day Sunday Brunch 10am-4pm, Closed Monday (unless Public Holiday)
Public Holidays: Fri & Sat - open as usual,
other Public Holidays, even Monday -
All Day Brunch 10am-4pm
*Free Parking (yay I like free parking!!!)

Persimmon

Persimmon is a fusion restaurant located at the Link Hotel in the quaint Tiong Baru estate. I used to be prerry wary of fusion restaurants, because I had quite a few bad experiences (way before I started up my blog). My friend told me about Persimmon when it first opened, but I’m pretty wary about fusion foods since I’ve had a few bad experiences in the past.


Persimmon was having a DBS 1 for 1 lunch offer, so I decided to take the opportunity to go down to try the lunch - at least, if the food didn’t agree with me, I wouldn’t bee so sad since I’ll be paying half price. We chose the 3 course set lunch ($28 ), which includes a starter, main and dessert.


Crabcakes : Crab claw meat, white pepper, garlic, ginver, spring onion, chilli; mango and lotus salsa, lotus crisps

For starters, we had the Crabcake, which was sweet and juicy crab claw meat with an Asian marinade consisting of chillies, garlic, ginger and spring onion. The moist crabcakes went very well with the chunky mango salsa. I liked how the dish was prettily presented, garnished with lotus root crisps. The yellow mango salasa and green salad gave the dish nice contrasting colours.
Chicken Salad: Hainanese-style poached chicken, fresh local herbs and mesclun greens; rice crisps; chilli, garlic ginger, soy and lime; sesame and olive oils


The Chicken Salad is their signature dish and its not to be missed. For those calorie counters, it's the goodness of Hainanese chicken without the guilt (and carbos). The salad greens were tossed with the delicious chicken gravy, and blended with potent garlic chilli. Traditional Chicken rice herbs and vegetables (parsley and spring onion and cucumber) were also mixed in with the musclun greens, and the rice crisps gave the salad a crunchy texture. Of course, there were delicious shreds of chicken to complete this hearty salad. Caution: you'll get a bit of garlic breath after this so bring some mints!

Their signature Linguine laksa-leaf pesto, which really hit the spot. It’s a refreshing change from the usual basil leaf pesto. Best of all, the laksa leaf is so aromatic that one whiff of it leaves me salivating. The distinct flavour of the laksa leaf is melded with butter, cream and white wine, giving a delicious blend of East meets West. Every mouthful of this linguine was a delight, and we polished off the whole plate of al dente linguine easily.

Fisherman's Pie prawn, fish and tau-pok, spicy coconut and crabmeat gravy, puff pastry on top

We also had the Fisherman’s Pie, but it was outshone by the lingiune. I didn’t really like this dish because it was too spicy for me.It’s an interesting twist to the normal puff pastry soups, as a golden orange curry is hidden under layers of fluffy and decadently buttery puff pastry.

Some other interesting main courses which I definitely want to try the next time include the Spaghetti aglio-olio porchetta: roast pork belly Italian with herbs and lemon garlic, chilli and EVO oil, as well as their Chicken roulade: boneless chicken thigh tandoori marinade, basmati rice pilaf and mango raita.
The Fruit Crumble has chunks of apple and persimmon hidden underneath a layer of crumble. The banana ice cream perched over the steaming hot crumble was bursting with flavour, and the banana taste was very strong. The apple and persimmon pieces were lightly cooked, warm and juicy.
We also had the 8 Treasures Ice Kachang Sundae. Although it’s called Ice Kachang, there weren’t any icy bits inside. Instead, it was lucious layers of young coconut ice cream drizzled with rose syrup to give it a hint of pink. It was daintily decorated with pistachio bits, red dates and golgi berries. Under the white folds of coconut sundae, there were sweet juicy bits of persimmon and red beans.

I like the way Persimmon includes their namesake into their dishes, who would have thought that persimmon could be used in fruit crumble?

Persimmon also has other interesting desserts, which unfortunately, I was unable to try. They have pandan creme brulee as well as Panna cotta with coconut cream and gula melaka. Such exciting dessets - I must hurry back to try them all before the offer is up!!

This is a special SingHealth staff menu - you have to show at least 1 card per table before you can get the offer, but then I think that it's really worth it - it's only $20 for a 3 course set lunch. Although the choices are more limited, the menu features their signature dishes, and even comes with coffee or tea. My super yummy and intereseting meal costs $32 for 2 people, which brings it down to a totally worth it $16-something per person. It's really worth it for a 3 course set lunch which tastes great. The portions are also sufficient - I really hate restaurants that give minuscule portions. I'm really glad that I decided to give Persimmon a try - I never knew that fusion food can be so good. It's one more reason to sign up with SingHealth.

The service was quick friendly and efficient, with iced water being topped up whenever I downed a cup (since the fisherman’s pie was spicy). Persimmon is a perfect place to have a lazy lunch. The restaurant itself faces the main road, with ample lighting and yet gives off a relaxing vibe. The decor is simple, in muted blacks and whites, with mosiac floor tiling. I would definitely return to this restaurant to have a refreshing meal. Small tiles!

Persimmon
#01-07 The Link Hotel,
50 Tiong Bahru Road

Telephone: 6227-2271

Website: http://www.persimmon.com.sg/

En Japanese Dining

I don't know why it took me so long to try En Japanese Dining - Julie recommended this restaurant to me quite a while ago. It's so near my house too, just that parking's quite a hassel - the carpark was full when I went, plus it was raining. Lucky I wasn't the one driving! :P

I went to the En Japanese Dining Bar (Bukit Timah Branch) on a Saturday evening, and could only get the al fresco seats. But when I got there, we managed to get an indoor table, which has much better lighting (good for my photos :D). Amongst the 3 of us, we ordered a few dishes, as well as a steamboat and a carbo dish.

Takowasabi ($16.80++) Marinated chopped octopus with wasabi

The first time I ate this was at Nakasei, where I liked the chewy texture of the raw octopus but the wasabi was too potent for me. I like En's better cos they have these bits of vegetables which add to the texture of the dish. Plus, they're lighter handed on the wasabi so I can eat this without it going up my nose.

Yaki Mentaiko Okura ($8.50) Grilled Mentaiko roe with ladies finger

This looks to me like the perfect Christmas dish. Slimey pureed ladies finger served as a foil to the saltiness of the mentaiko. The mentaiko roe was half cooked - see that distinct pink/red border.

Kawaebi - Deep fried river shrimps ($9)
This was a hot favourite - little snack sized morsels of shrimps - crispy on the outside and bursting with prawn flavour. I imagine that this will be a perfect bar snack.
Sukugarasu - Salted small fish on chilled tofu ($6.50)
The intense saltiness of the little fish went well with the bland tofu. It's delicious when paired with a little soy sauce and the minced ginger and spring onions. The tofu was silky and smooth, and the soyabean taste was distinct.
Eihire ($12++) - Grilled sun-dried stingray fin

The texture of this reminded me somewhat of a more poke-y kind of beef jerky. It didn't have much taste, but it went really well with the mayonnaise, like how most things do. It reminded me of the dried fugu (puffer fish) I had at Akashi. It would have been even better if the the mayo had little bits of roe inside - I'm still reminiscing of my delicious meal at Akashi?

Yakitori - Grilled mushrooms stuffed with minced chicken meat. I can't remember the price but I think it's about 9 bucks.

The mushrooms were doused in a salty sauce - which reminds me of the yakitori at Tori Q (haven't eaten those in a really long time, but I used to be crazy over them in Sec sch).

The mushrooms were juicy and went really well with the generous minced chicken stuffing.

Maguro Natto ($9.00) Fresh tuna on fermented soya beans

I really like natto, which are fermented soya beans. They have this unique coffee-like smell and are delicious when eaten on top of freshly cooked Japanese rice. At least, I ate this every morning when I go to Japan for holiday. Though it might not agree with everyone's palatte - some people associate the goo with mucus. I must say that I couldn't taste much of the tuna after mixing everything together, but I quite liked this dish.Wagyu beef hot pot ($38++)

I didnt' eat this, but according to those who did, it was tasty. My personal belief is that steamboat doesn't require any skill in preparing and so I refuse to eat any outside and pay a hefty sum for something which I can easily make at home. To each his own. Soft Shell Crab Fried Rice ($20)

Reminds me a bit of muay fun (hor fun sauce on top of rice, at Tze Char stalls), just that it has 2 measly pieces of soft shell crab on top. Of course, the sauce tasted brilliant - egg-y goodness with lots of fake bright red crab meat. There were a few bits of real crab meat inside or else how can they call it crab fried rice? I think this dish would have been perfect if they had given more soft shell crab - the soft shell crab was delicious, crispy and slightly salted. The insides were juicy and meaty, unlike some of the charred anorexic ones that I sometimes get.
Tounyu Panna cotta ($6.50) Soy bean milk panna cotta

We nearly ordered another of this. The panna cotta was like an insanely soft pudding, drenched in a caramel-like sauce. It was a hot favourite and although the portion isn't very small, it was finished before I knew it.

Goma pudding - Sesame Pudding ($5.50)

The black sesame taste was distinct, and the texture of the pudding was silky. It's served chilled and is a delicious ending to the dinner.


Some of the waitresses wer quite blur. They didn't understand what I was saying when I was trying to ask them to describe the dishes in the menu in a bit more detail, but it was ok once a more senior staff took over. The restaurant is pretty new, and there are Japanese style tables inside private booths, but I suppose you'll have to book really early to get those. Each private booth can take about 6 to 8 people.


En Japanese Dining Bar
#01-14/16, Crown Centre,
557 Bukit Timah Road
Tel.:(65) 6468 5710

Other Branches:
En Japanese Dining Bar
#01-57/58, UE Square
207 River Valley Road,
Tel.:(65) 6735 2212

En Lounge
#01-59/60,
UE Square
207 River Valley Road,
Tel.:(65) 6732 6863

Pietrasanta

Here's a long outdated post ( I seem to be starting every post like this :/ but really, short postings aren't as slack as I imagined them to be :S)

Portsdown Road has been rejuvenated, with lots of new restaurants in these old barracks(?). There's also Klee, a jazz bar that serves interesting drinks.

Actually, I'll be very scared if I lived so deep inside Portsdown! The road is really very scary especially at night. Dunno how people can sit and wait inside those 1-bench bus stops! It's like sitting and waiting for a bus at South Buona Vista road! So scary - at least hungry ghost festival is over...For those of you who are afraid of the dark, don't worry cos Pietrasanta is very well lit - a welcoming sight if you drive (there isn't really any other way to get to Portsdown) from the North Buona Vista side, alternatively, you can take the AYE and exit at portsdown Road, saving yourself the scariness of driving through the dark windy roads. Soft dinner rolls
Linguine Alle vongole - Linguini tossed with clams in white wine sauce and fresh tomatoes ($16.90)
I quite liked this vongole cos there were tomatoes in it, which gave the dish a nice colour. The tomatoes were sweet and juicy, and not tart at all. The linguini was well coated with the clam juices, and I really enjoyed the dish.
Quattro Stagioni - Tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese, Cooked ham, artichokes, black olives and mushroom ($18.90)
This kind of pizza is the slightly thicker (though not as thick as the usual pizza hut kind) and has a nice bready fragrance. The thickness also gives the pizza more bite - and it's much more filing too. The ingredients are generously scattered over the gooey mozzerella cheese, and the tomato base is tangy and not too salty. Since they're so generous with their ingredients, a pizza can probably feed 2 normal people, leaving you with space to try an appetiser and dessert, which is what I'll do the next time I come back here.
Tiramisu ($8.90) - I seem to be very uninspired and ordering this at Italian restuarants all the time. I really can't say that this blew me away, taste wise it was pretty average, can't really taste the alcohol but the texture probably requires some work cos it's pretty lumpy.

The service here was very good the evening I went, with the waitresses being very knowledgable and helpful when I asked for recommendations - there's only so much two people can eat in one sitting. They even brought out extra plates (without us asking) so that we could share the pasta and pizza.

Little chair for you to put your bag! (but not every table has it - mine didn't)

Pietrasanta

Blk 5B Portsdown Road

#01-03

Singapore 139311

Tel 64799521