Boomerang Sticky Date Pudding

I'm so sad that my 2 days of annual leave flew past in the blink of an eye!! I think that getting back to worse is 1000x worse but I shall now slowly blog about my delicious food adventures during leave so that I can look forward to my next annual leave, which will again, be spent eating ;) (since I'm too lazy to plan anything or to crawl anywhere...) I've had a brilliant total of 5 days indulging in all my favourite foods, and sleeping >12h each day :D Though I am very sure that Friday's call will undo all my sleeping... You know how food doesn't taste as good when you're full? I just ate the bento set from Tomo Izakaya, and had 1.5 tacos from Spruce, and had the Sticky Date Pudding from Boomerang to top it all off. And it still tasted amazing. Amazing enough to taste even better than Marmalade Pantry's Sticky Date Pudding. I think it would have been even more amazing if I had been hungry! So this is how freaking good the sticky date pudding from Boomerang was... (Lol I know that I am very gluttony, but I have been eating crappy food and will be eating crappy food for the next 6 months...)

Melt in the mouth texture, if you inhale deeply just before eating, you can smell the butter. And the taste of dates is distinct and not hidden under the sugary goodness.

However, I must say that Marmalade Pantry's Kapiti ice cream beats Boomerang's default vanilla ice cream (a very unmemorable one I must say) hands down. No real vanilla beans in this ice cream! Cost wise, it's same as Marmalade Pantrys at $12 ++ (it's around $14 after all the pluss-es).

I'd say that this definitely beats Marmalade Pantry (but not the ice cream!) but Boomerang is so out of the way, especially since Marmalade Pantry has moved to Ion. (Come to think of it, the last time I had their crabmeat linguine was so long ago! Time to pay them a revisit soon!) But for convenience, since Boomerang is really out of my radar and since there isn't any aircon (which is a essential for me especially with our sweltering hot weather), I'll still be patronizing Marmalade Pantry.

On a side note, I've been to Boomerang for their brunch, but it's not that impressive as their sticky date pudding. I'm still dying to try Pamplemousse for brunch tho!

Boomerang Bistro and Bar

60 Robertson Quay

#01-15 The Quayside

67381077

Spruce Taqueria

Part 2 of Day 1 of Annual leave! Pardon the interruption from the Truffle Infused Creme Brulee I was so overjoyed after eating it I had to blog about it stat.

I've positively been dying to try Spruce Taqueria but their office worker unfriendly cos their opening hours are only weekdays 12-3pm. So I used my annual leave day 1 (for this posting) just to try it (and many other yummy foods which I will be blogging about later).

Somewhere around 2pm, we arrived at the much awaited Spruce Taqueria (right on top of the hill, at some obscure corner of phoenix park). Underwhelmingly, it's a little black and white shack with a small shelter infront and some plastic/wooden tables and chairs thrown around. Suprisingly, there was a rather huge group of people there feasting on the tacos already.

We decided to have the set with 2 tacos, corn chips and their salsa, plus a drink ($9). For the set, you can only choose one type of filling for both tacos, so we settled on the pork carnitas. There's other choices of beef tongue, grilled snapper, portobello mushroom etc but pork it was... No regrets about the pork - insanely soft, juicy and with a bit of that porkey smell, its a generous portion (for $3 per taco) of succulent tasty pork topped with guacamole. Though it got a bit soppy and wet after a while when the pork released its juices on to the corn tortilla and onto the plastic plate...

It's purely al fresco seating right next to nature - think having a nice picnic with wooden tables under a large shady tree, with all the ants, houseflies as well as a cacophony of crickets to accompany you and your meal, not to mention patches of birdshit on the tables and chairs... We found ourselves taking refuge in the car - the carpet of decaying leaves and lots of ants under our table was too much to handle. Of course, the tortillas being slightly wet from the juicy pork made it even trickier to eat inside the car...

I really pity the people working hard inside the little shack during midday, when the sun is scorching hot. No air con inside either! But thanks to them, yummy soft corn tacos for a super worth it $3 a pop.

The watermelon with lime drink (it's some fancier name in the menu, but essentially, it's watermelon with lime) is extremely refreshing, and I think it'll taste even better with a dash of vodka... Though I must say it did the perfect job of washing down the spicy salsa dip...

I really cannot figure out why Spruce would want to have this little shack instead of opening up their main restaurant. But it's really yummy so if you're not afraid of the heat, the long trek up the slope (unless you drive) and if you happen to be free from 12-3 on a weekday, do go down to try some tacos. Though if you're a non-nature lover like me you would probably want to drive and have it inside the car...

Spruce Taqueria

320 Tanglin Road

68365528

Btw I have 1 more post before I blog about my annual truffle affair at Otto! *satisfied and highly contented sigh*

Truffle creme brûlée

I'm going to die happy had my annual white truffle infused creme brûlée from Otto. Super divine.
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Tomo Izakaya - Clarke Quays' $15nett set Lunches

Having cheap set lunches were the joys in my life but ever since starting work (think weekends PLUS public holidays and 6 calls/month) I've been missing out heaps on the wonders of set lunches. But I have reason to rejoyce cos I'm on annual leave! :D I'm going to maximise my leave by catching up on the hundreds of hours of sleep I've missed and perhaps if I'm feeling not too lardy tmr, I shall go down to borrow Inception dvd :)

Actually I had wanted to eat Pamplemousse for lunch today but Pamplemousse is CLOSED on Mondays! Sadness. Looks like the next time I'll be free to try it will be Sunday Brunch :(

I'm going to share one of my best finds ever - Clarke Quay is still having their $15nett set lunch promos at certain participating outlets - and if you have either DBS or POSB cards, you are entitled to further discount/offers on top of the $15nett set lunches. Spent quite a long time debating between Tomo Izakaya, Fremantle Fish Market as well as Hotstones, but we settled for the Japanese bento box lunch at Tomo Izakaya.

Had the bento boxes Set A and Set B for $15 nett each. Set A is the grilled mackeral and set B is the exact same sides with pumpkin croquette. I'd say to go for the fish instead of the pumpkin, even though the pumpkin croquette is so nicely fried and battered, and the golden pumpkin puree inside is extremely tasty, I somehow don't feel satisfied until I have a piece of meat in my meal (unless I've already psyched myself up for vegeterian lunch ;P) It comes with mustard leaf salad with sesame dressing, duck and spinach salad, 2 types of sashimi, pickles and miso soup. The rice they use is the normal long grain rice, not the nice glossy Japanese rice though I suppose for $15 nett it's alright? Pretty worth it considering it's in a restaurant and it's nett price.

And if that's not enough, if you pay using DBS/POSB, you'll get a returning dining voucher of $15 when you spend $30 bucks. Shiok or not?

3A River Valley Road

#01-04 Clarke Quay

Tel 6336 0100

I shall blog about part 2/3 of my delicious lunching on annual leave day 1 later.. more delicious food to come - including Spruce's Tacos and a sticky date pudding which is better than Marmalde Pantry's!

The Tanglin Tree

So I have been not blogging consistently despite getting my iphone.

Good stuff that's been happenning lately (in no particular order)
1. Having yummy food at Pu Tien and Tangling Tree
2. Massive discharge though only enjoying the fruits of labour for 2 days
3. Sleeping >3.5h last night and eating a yummy++ vietnamese dinner
4. Drinking Gong cha at least once weekly - Fresh milk with hearbal jelly and Winter melon tea with BC jelly are my current faves
5. Looking forward to my leave next week!! Super excited I am going to go for a darn good Japanese lunch stat!
6. Friends coming back from overseas!

The not so good stuff
1. Going postcall at 730pm and having EEOD calls.
2. Missing dinner at TGIF cos I was too tired and sleepy
3. Cancelling meetups cos I'm too sleepy (sorry pok!)
4. Napping at 330pm and waking up at 930pm and being hungry
5. Hong Kong Cafe at Novena closing down! Just realized last weekend!
Had a suprisingly good breakfast at The Tanglin Tree - their breakfast set of eggs, bread, baked beans, bacon, sausage and salad ($12.50++) was filling and satisfying, and yet won't burn a hole in your pocket (unlike those overpriced at Dempsey). Choices of add ons include mushrooms with garlic ($3) which is yummy and a worthy add on, as well as hollandaise sauce (ok, so so but what are poached eggs without hollandaise sauce?)

Scrambled eggs with the same breakfast set minus the add ons - so so I think their poached eggs are better.
Minus points for the little kiddy birthday with screaming kids ++ Fortunately they left halfway through our meal. Another kid friendly restaurant I suppose? There's an al fresco seating area (which didn't have screaming kids) but I don't like the thought of sitting next to the main road and inhaling car exhaust while eating my breakfast.

One of the must trys here is their Trufflle Mashed Potatoes. Move over House's Truffle fries - for just a mere $5 bucks the truffle mashed potatoes come served to your table piping hot with the aromatic truffle smells warfting all over. Sprinkle on some freshly cracked black pepper and mixed salad leaves. The truffle mashed potatoes are very light smooth and airy. Supberb in every way. Totally didn't regret my greedy decision to order this on top of the breakfast.

Tried Cedele's Gula Melaka Pandan Cake ($5.80)

Walked over to Tanglin Mall for some desserts. Saw this in the Posh Nosh section of Urban.

Somehow the cake didn't live up to it's hype - the gula melaka frosting didn't have a strong enough gula melaka taste that I was expecting, and the pandan cake was rather hard and totally not like the soft spongy pandan chiffon I was imagining, though I suppose that perhaps it's more dense and compressed so that it can take the weight of the true Cedele style's thick slather of gula melaka icing. I'm liking the layer of kaya in between the cakes lots! I think the next time I eat pandan chiffon, I shall procure some really good quality kaya to go along with it - somehow it tastes really good together and they're 2 of my more favourite things.

The Tanglin Tree

56 Tanglin Road

#B1-01 Friven & Co Building

Singapore6733 0992

Yoguru and gong cha at raffles city

Free toppings every weekend at yoguru. Had my default plain ice cream yogurt from here. On top of their signature berry flavor they also have a new mango flavor. Didn't quite like it cos There was a slight bitter tinge. Best of all, yoguru at raffles city is very conveniently opened next to the newly opened gong cha.



Melon tea with BC jelly is my current fave- tho u can't have it less sweet. Tastes great with additional ai yu jelly which is essentially the same as the jelly in ice jelly cocktail.
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Gogo curry

Gogo curry is this budget friendly fast food curry chain from japan which has recently opened up a stall in ion orchard. Their curry is simple and fuss free with different combinations of deep fried pork cutlet/chicken cutlet/shrimp/sausage/egg placed in top if steaming rice and doused in their signature brown curry sauce. Japanese curry sauce is less spicy and sweeter than the local curries we are generally used to. I like to load my curry with cheese ($1 additional charge) and I like the thinly sliced raw cabbage on the side which reduces the oily feeling of the cutlets and heavy sauce.

Gogo curry
Ion orchard b4
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The Insatiable Beard Papa Chocolate Eclair Craving

I've never blogged abt this before but I must now cos I've been having this incredibly mad Beard Papa chocolate eclair craving for the whole freaking week and haven't gotten it out of my system since I haven't had the time to go down to Beard Papa to settle my craving...

The Beard Papa chocolate eclair is probably the next best eclair (which is convenient and extremely affordable) in my food inventory.

I love the thick layer of chocolate which melts instantly in my mouth (and even when I hold the eclair the wrong way). It's a bit like the nice chocolate coating that Magnum ice cream has, but just thicker and melts more easily and tastes better.

And then there's the delicious puff - of course nothing like the wonder of Sadaharu Aoki's eclairs but the puff part of the eclair is just the right texture. It's nice and soft but not wimpy and soggy- and it's just the right balance of firmness to hold in the moist filling.

And the innards just complete the whole lovely eclair. Instead of the usual traditional whipped cream, it's luscious chocolate custard - same texture as the Beard Papa Cream Puffs vanilla custard filling, but it's in chocolate. And not those dark and bitter or overly sweet kind of chocolate - it's just right and goes exactly well with the puff and the outer chocolate layer.

I think this has to be one of the most underrated desserts around! and it's super affordable too I think it's merely $2 or $2.50 for such a divine eclair. I think I could eat 5 of these at one go but the most I've ever eaten is one ;p

The last time I had a mad eclair craving I tried to settle it with an eclair from Polar (which is very extremely convenient for me since there's one at my work place) but it was Dry and Hard and really didn't settle my craving at all. Tragic.

I probably have a shot of the eclair stowed somewhere in my computer but I think once I see a picture of it my craving will be unbearable ++. Hopefully I can scuttle down to Vivo/PS/Bugis soon to get my eclair. I think I will get Two if I do go down. Just to ensure that my Beard Papa Chocolate Eclair Craving doesn't come back so soon...

I have been talking about it so much that now everyone I've spoken to wants to try it and I am making myself really hungry thinking about it.

I'll put a photo of the Eclair up once I'm done eating it...

District 10 Bistro

District 10 bistro has been opened for quite some time now and I've been wanting to try it for a really long tim - I am very sad I only discovered it after I was posted to the far east and not when I was a stones throw away from it for 4 months! The lighting is rather dim even my S90 couldn't save the photos (so they are edited+++) We had some platter thing (not so sure what this was called but it costs around $28 bucks? or was it $18) which had 3 pieces of everything including duck spring rolls (not particularly yummy or memorable), fried fish (just like fish and chips), fried prawn etc... Ordered this cos we were hungry and were waiting for the rest of the group to come...

The soft shell crab chilli pizza was pretty interesting, though I wasn't crazy over it. Deep fried soft shell crab with a mildly spicy chilli sauce and rocket leaves over a thin crust pizza.

My fave dish of the day (didn't go there with Julie but we ordered the same thing!) was the special Florentine Truffle Pizza (it's not on the menu!) which came with 8 blobs of oily truffle paste. The black goodness went supremely well with the cheese and the al dente pasta. Though the egg in the middle was overcooked and hard, I'm willing to close one eye on this cos the truffle made the pizza taste so lovely. It's a white base pizza so no tomato sauce here!

I think this was a prawn tagliatelle but it wasn't my dish. The sauce was really good - very robust, tasty and tangy - I would definitely order this and the truffle pizza the next time I'm down.

Dessert platter with 4 different types of chocolate dessert (I think it was either $12 or $14 bucks). The chocolate mousse (2nd from the front) is uber delicious - can totally taste all the egg and chocolate and cream they used to make it! Other than that, the profiterole was very unremarkable, and so was the ice cream and brownie...

Overall, district 10 bistro has great ambiance and is a really nice place to chill. Too bad I didn't discover this sooner!! Carpark's not a problem either - $2 per entry or just park along the road (after 7pm cos it's a single yellow line - I think).

District 10 Bistro

10 Winstedt Road (it's the turn after the petrol station on your way toward Newton Circus)

#01-17
Tel: +65 6738 4788