Ice Cream Making Session @ Tom's Palette

After many postpones due to our commitments to work, we finally made it for the long anticipated ice cream session at Tom's Palette on 15 Aug!

The lesson costs $50 per person. Lasted around 2 hours, pretty interesting we would say. The lesson teaches you how to make ice-cream (a cup volume) from home.

In the first hour we learnt to make green tea and horlick flavours ice creams. The next hour was more or less spent on tasting different ice cream flavours, learning the different ice cream types - french ice cream, gelato, sorbet etc, and how flavours make it into the ice cream.

Some interesting take aways, there are a few things which can make a ice cream texture smooth, with any one absent, it has to be made up via other ways -

1. Fat/ buttery

2. Air

3. Sugar

Sorbet itself is very smooth while it taste just 'sweet' it is actually very high in sugar content. Because it is tasted very cold, the extreme sweetness is not felt. Gelato while having milk absent from its content is also very sweet due to high sugar content. So the point here is, as long as your ice cream taste good it is SINFUL!

Another interesting thing to point is that, ice cream extracts flavours from the ingredients via milk. Hence if you would like to create 'fried onion' flavour, you can, by 'extracting' the flavour out of the fried onion by dipping it into the milk for the ice cream making - imagine how sinful it sounds, all the oil!! (Oops..) Still a flavour innovative enough to deserve a try! :)

Summing up, it is still a fresh experience. Worth your $50 bucks we would say! (Oh by the way, we were given 2 ice cream vouchers each at the end of the lesson.. :) )

Shirley and me working hard making our first ice creams!

The number of cups you see there are the number of flavours (half that please.. since its 2 of us) we got to taste.

Ipuddo @ Mandarin Gallery

One of the best ramen we have had so far - check out Ippudo @ Mandrin Gallery:


With a nice combination of modern and authentic decor, the ambience was great... a 30min wait on weekend nights are no surprise.. u always find a long long queue outside this yummy spot during meal times.. once you enter, you will go around this big wooden table where you get to look through the menu while wiaitng for a seat.. if u r there for the first time, check out the chefs... think they are all japanese!

The ramen? it's 2 thumbs up! The soup is so rich and delicious that both of us finished all of it.


Psss!!!! I ate besides Prof Mark Saeys!!!! :PPPP



The gyoza is typical.. nth great about it:



But the ramen is unbeatable. We will definitely visit this place again!

A dessert bowl

Looking for yummies is one of our favourite activites...

This time round, we like to share about one of our fav dessert spot: A desert bowl, located in serangoon garden...

It's pretty easy to find among the shop houses because of its read sofas beside the full glass window facing the road as show below:


That's Mark, happy as can be, waiting for his yummy:


The highlight of our evening came shortly. Here we have:

1) Mango with black glutinous rice - my personal favourite! the combi is surprisingly yummy! Somehow, the mango, glutinous rice and coconut came together as a perfect match. The black glutinous rice added an extra texture, giving it an adiditonal kick:




2) This is not new.. traditional warm dessert, cooked with chinese pear, almond and gou ji zi

Burger Shack!

We found this place by chance. We were actually looking for Melvados, a brownie cafe that also supposedly serve decent meals. To our dismay, the restaurant was replaced by a burger place - Burger Shack. Since fate brought us here.. Haha we decided to give them a shot!

We tried 2 burgers complete with fries and drinks. The bill totaled to around $18. The 2 burgers were original and chicken. Shirley thought it was a more 'atas' version of Burger King and that Burger King was better in taste! It tasted ok, but the ambience was a draw. We saw groups of teenagers to young adults. A good place to chill out - bright white lights near the counters, very westernized style of layout. The meals were served in small aluminium trays. There was definitely a sizeable crowd and looking at the photos on the wall, the main stream of fans were definitely students. A bit pricey but worth to check out. By the way, the restaurant claim that their beef patty is battered by the chefs themselves to ensure quality of the meat source.

Check it out. They open Tue to Sun 12pm to 10am. Address is 559 Bukit Timah Road #01-01 King's Arcade.

I thought the beef burger tasted better (reminds me of Burger King though..)

Thai Food in Shaw Centre opp Suntec

On 17 Apr 10, Mark recommended me this Thai restaurant - Ah Loy in Shaw Centre. I was also told that they have a branch in Siglap. It's near Ah Yit Seafood Restaurant on 1st floor. It shouldn't be too difficult to find if you have been there before.


We reached at 12 noon and was told by the boss of the restaurant that they would only open an hour later. The hour seemed to take forever as the building lacked of shopping spots. I was already impatient and hungry since I did not have any breakfast. At 1.03pm, I became pissed when we were told that the chef and cashier has not arrived at work. HOW can the boss let that happen?!!! The restaurant was supposed to open at 1pm! I was already giving it a rating of 0 out of 5 for Service before I was served by anyone. It was a bad start and I was warning Mark that the food they are going to serve better be worth all the waiting. Here's what the 2 hungry monsters ordered for about 25 bucks for 1st round:


Green Curry, Tom Yam Soup, Mango Salad, Pad Thai, Traditional Thai Red Milk Tea and Homemade Lemon Grass Drink which is missing from the picture.

Below are some close ups:


Tom Yam Soup: I found it quite like tomatoe soup. But Mark loves it.

Pad Thai: I think Thai Express's is better. But it looks good doesn't it? We took about 1/4 of it before we remembered to take a photo of it.


Green Curry: Pretty much similar to my cooking. But lacked of fishballs and chicken. Suitable for one person though.


My Oh My! Don't be deceived by how harmless the mango salad looks. There are so many chili padi slices hidden that I drank a full cup of water with every scoop. I found the tom yam soup and green curry harmless. Beware if you are alread threatened by the tom yam soup and green curry like Mark. He had barely 2 or 3 stripes of it. muahaha... The handmade steamed fish cake came much later. Taken with he peppermint leaves and onions, it reminded me of Pho Bo I had in Hanoi.




Overall, I would say that the food is still recommendable. Not too pricey. For taste, I give it 3.5/5. The restuarant is rather small. But it seemed to be a very popular place. May be that's why the chef and cashier are so spoilt.

Long Weekend at Bintan

With a long weekend coming, from Good Friday onwards, we decided to get away from the city buzz of Singapore. 3 days of break probably meant that a short trip nearby would fit the bill perfectly. The destination would be Bintan. The resort? Blue Lagoon. The room cost $232 per night and a ferry ticket to and fro cost $65. From our understanding the room rates were considered pricey as rooms booked much earlier would probably be in the $100++ region.




Day 1

We headed to Pasar Oleh Oleh for some good massage and local food. The single way taxi fare costed $22 and it took around 15 - 20 minutes. Once we reached the place, we were spoilt for choices which massage parlour to go to. The guides at Pasar Oleh Oleh each tried to persuade to each of the massage parlour. The interesting thing is, each massage parlour is paired up with a restaurant. Usually the massage parlour you opt for will provide you transport back to the resort.

Lunch was settled there. 3 of us ordered Ayam Penyet while 1 ordered Bryani. Honestly, we weren't used to paying $12 for a meal of rice and drumstick that was probably only slightly bigger than the bbq chicken wings you see in hawker centres in Singapore! It tasted not bad but not worth your money. Bryani wise I guess it was ok (we didn't sample it). I guess if given a choice I would have to say Singapore's Ayam Penyet was definitely a more decent meal overall.




After lunch, we walked around Pasar Oleh Oleh before heading for the massage session. The place was filled with shops selling wooden handicrafts. There were also some provision shops for you to stock up.

After a while we went for one of the massage parlour and it costs around $55 per person.
What it includes
1. 1 hr body scrub
2. 1/2 sauna (in this small cubicle)
3. 1 hr massage

The massage was good, so was the scrub. Money well spent!

Dinner was at place recommended by a friend. Haha its called 'Cafe Helo Helo' (nvm the spelling). Mee goreng and cha kway teow each cost $3.5. We also ordered chicken wings, bbq prawns and cuttlefish as well as satay. All in all plus the drinks it costed $43 bucks (same as lunch!) A more generous spread vs lunch (ok... a very generous spread of carbon too ....) Chicken wings, mee goreng and cha kway teow was good, the rest not worth the mention!




After dinner we headed back the resort. We went to the beach and stoned for a while, enjoying the breeze and the lovely moonlight. The sand was really fine and the beach was really clean. Day 1 was wrapped up.






Day 2

Shirley and I woke up early to have breakfast. Breakfast was ok, with omelette 'stealing the limelight'. Well, you pick your mix of button mushrooms, union, cheese and bacon and on the spot they would fry the omelette for you. After breakfast, we took a stroll by the beach. The waters pretty clear (as compared to Singapore) and occassionally you would spot fishes swimming near to the shores. And to our pleasant surprise, we caught 2 hermit crabs by the shore! I caught 1 first, Shirley wanted part of the fun so she combed and very quickly caught 1 too! Well.. honestly the 2 crabs were not too lucky, cos they were the only ones we managed to find!!



We really enjoyed the sea sports that followed after that. We kayak for and hour - $18 where Shirley was happily feeling the waves splashing against her. Really felt like 'natural jacuzzi'. We would align our kayak perpendicular to incoming waves and the 'jacuzzi' would follow shortly. It was fun. Next thing was the banana boat. $18 per person. Damn.. later did I realize very much of the fun from banana boat was supposed to come from the boat capsizing!! The ride was really bumpy, suddenly the speed boat in front slowed down and SPED UP, MAKING A TURN! That's it - all of us in the waters. My eyes closed to a fine line, feeling really silly in the pathetic state when I could hear the laughter of Shirley behind.. What a contrast! Later, the boat capsized.. AGAIN! OMG why would anyone pay $18 to get himself capsized!!!! Ok.. I gotta admit it was fun still haha

For the rest of the day, it was raining, and we just slacked in our room till dinner. We had dinner at a Japanese restaurant (and it ain't as bad as what Shirley's friends said!) A bit pricey - how much was it again? Let me try to recall..

Night was simple but fun. We played mahjong. It costed $10 for renting a mahjong set for 3 hours. Day 2 ended.

Day 3

Haha. 1 word - Mahjong! We had a heavy breakfast and played mahjong till the time was right to take the resort bus that fetched us to the ferry terminal. A short but fun trip, long enough for us to start missing our beds in Singapore though...

Supper in Canopy @ Bishan Park

Sick and tired of the bustling city? Have a relaxing day in Bishan Park. On this day, Mark and I lazed at home and played some board games. After dinner, we decided to try out Canopy bar which we passed by during our morning jog a few weeks ago for supper. We haven't chilled out together for a long time.

It was way too dark for my humble 2 megapixel phone camera to capture clear photos. We sat outdoor at the garden bar just beside the restaurant. The ambience was great. Here's a photo of some decor on the tree just beside us:



Mark ordered Baileys and I had one of their signature dessert - Sticky date pudding:

It's really good. I give 5 tumbs up! Served with vanilla ice cream, the date pudding is sweet, moist and a little sticky. But its texture is more like soft cake.

I forgot what is this drink. We shall wait for Mark to update :P ( Mark: Haha.. Ok I gotta admit I don't have the name in my head... but this drink is really refreshing! I believe its some lychee drink with crushed ice and minty feel..)