Chihuly Lounge- Summer Weekend Afternoon Tea

Take a feast on all the names. Passion fruit mango éclair, casis violet écclair, mango éclair, caramel écair, mac-clair, cherry écair, cookies and cream écair, gula melaka écair, chocolate écair, green tea écair, mixed berries écair, hazelnt éclair, apple écair.

An Equador Rose

Say it with me. #iloveyouimissyousecretfriendshippleaseforgivemeremembermethankyoubemysweetheart. On a rose.

Chihuly Lounge- Summer Weekend Afternoon Tea

Take a feast on all the names. Passion fruit mango éclair, casis violet écclair, mango éclair, caramel écair, mac-clair, cherry écair, cookies and cream écair, gula melaka écair, chocolate écair, green tea écair, mixed berries écair, hazelnt éclair, apple écair.

An Equador Rose

Say it with me. #iloveyouimissyousecretfriendshippleaseforgivemeremembermethankyoubemysweetheart. On a rose.

Chihuly Lounge- Summer Weekend Afternoon Tea

Take a feast on all the names. Passion fruit mango éclair, casis violet écclair, mango éclair, caramel écair, mac-clair, cherry écair, cookies and cream écair, gula melaka écair, chocolate écair, green tea écair, mixed berries écair, hazelnt éclair, apple écair.

Archive for August 2010

Black Diamond Mooncake

Saturday, August 28   keyboard  


Sunny

Last year, Bakerzin rocked the tampines town with its midnight sesame truffle with charcoal. Bamboo charcoal; the doted newer science on black food, after squid ink. And if you do see any charcoal bread, it is so stark and odd that it is a point of no return, having to stop and stare even if hurrying through a photopool.


This year, Peony Jade is the beloved daughter with Black Sesame Truffles in Bamboo Charcoal Powder. Yet when one thinks that all species of the family has been found, we have forgotten about the original stand of buying and eating mooncakes. Hong Kong, or Mainland, where they have been eating it for centuries.


So besides the Singapore names, there are more black snowskin mooncakes in bamboo charcoal powder, and more traditional black mooncakes in bamboo charcoal powder. Each one making the promoters beam like a computerised sensor; "the bamboo charcoal 'flavour''', when you stand still for a moment.



Black Diamond Mooncake (Bamboo Charcoal) (SGD 7.75)

This is black for snowskin and traditional mooncakes! No more misunderstandings on black sesame snowskin mooncake, where they are mini and 'light black' made up of tiny black shrapnels. Or the rum & raisin flavour mooncakes, where they look black, but stave off an allure from wizened red grapes/wine. And the most heinous, sesame mooncake. Where they are made from black sesame, but has retained a genetic off-colour on its skin- grey due to unforeseen causes.


When it is black, we have to look into its origins to see if it's really black. The charcoal, or leftover of a bamboo, it could be black, like opaque and threateningly hueless here; or raw and wet and indeterminate, but black still from the courtesy of charcoal.



Bamboo charcoal on the skin, and it glowers blue from the intensity of the midnight sun,


not red from the sun kiss of red beans, or brown from the dark robes of chocolate. Unwittingly, it is blue which sets it apart as real black. When you get into the colour not to find reds and browns inside, but lighter black- blue.



Taking it apart and you get lotus seed paste and an egg yolk! Traditional black mooncake this one is.



The crust is sandy and foamy, like styrofoam, not moist or lacquered with glaze like the traditional mooncake skin. Probably the bamboo charcoal acted as a dehydrating agent. Inside the paste is rich with flavours, a very succulent bite and satiating, but not sinful at all and balanced by the charcoal.



P.S. SEASON mooncake. Est. 1975. Less threatening when sectioned into triangles.


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Black and Green Jerries

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Sunny

Bringing together a world with its characters is MEIDI-YA. Basement of Liang Court. Yakult 4 flavours, philadelphia cream cheese, shabu shabu sauce. Where grocery shopping is bright and cold like an airport.



Creating the landscape is steaming hot food stalls. Equally hygienic and tidy. Costume and weaponry design are japanese confectioneries; transparent, sandbag or dainty-looking. There were a lot of new terms and gestures to be picked up, from shochu to kinoko. A repository of articles.



Black Warabi Jerry with Black Bean & Black Sesame (SGD 3.00)

So this is what a mouthful. Note: jerry. I feel cheery already.



KUZU Jelly Noodle with Fruit Jelly (SGD 3.00)

And this too. Kuzu, a healing plant which can be made into soaps, jerries, and herbal teas. When we usually see nata de coco, aloe vera, or konnyaku in our jellies.


Rummaging the sagachiku counter jellies are rrolled like sushi/sashimi. Apple jelly, grape jelly, even the black ones in clear nori. Mochis too in oak leaf. So this is what they call jerry, not jelly. Jerry, something which fills the entire container in one colour; like water.



The fruit jelly is grape. Glucose; or fructose. "White" table grapes that make it green.



The packet on command to turn the black jerry into warabimochi! Kuro warabi mochi, because there is black sugar in the jerry; black sesame, black rice, black soybean in the soybean powder.



Like a bento set, there is noodles in the jelly! Floating around like invertebrates. Noodle jelly, or glass noodle jelly even; they take some time to comprehend because there is a clash of two nouns. Like rainbow salad or sandwich cookie. It could have been a jelly made of noodles or noodles tasting like jelly. Your main course and fruits dessert all being served at once.


So we can scoop the noodles with a spoon. The kuzu was mineralised, tasting strongly of grape extract. The noodles gave your jelly something extra else to eat, though being of rather similar porosity and density, yet remember, the colour's different.


Whole, round black jellyjerry. So black; it looks naked. Where black and green are seldom marketed in dessert, black less with its credentials not powerful enough alone to do crowd controls. We remember the grass jelly, tortoise jelly(guilinggao), and liquorice herb-like tasting and 'mugwort'.


But no, this one is cola, look at the rims of gold emitting hope! Sinking the teeth into the bracken starch, it is caramel; black sugar! Burnt to perfection, like egg tarts, rumy.

And it all comes to light with the splaying of soybean, (the black soybean, black sesame, and black rice powder). Velvet puffs, remember, the mochi or kueh you find in japanese bowls, with your parfait or hot and cold desserts. Allay it with more or whittle in cubes and you will find it all the more familiar. Those pliable brown/white little things that make the sweets japanese.






Now that it looks like a mooncake with precious pearl powder, it do tastes out-of-the world too. The runny, liquidised puree with smooth, melt-in-your-mouth powder. No wonder many Singaporeans take peanut mee chiang kueh or chwee kueh as their daily bread. Starch dabbled in sweet/savoury powder has always been a combination number.

P.S. Bento box or do it yourself projects, this is the final step of the game; the building up of emotions in the package, with you and your jelly in uncovering the different layers, it/of eating it.

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Black Mooncake

Thursday, August 26   keyboard  


Aug 24, 2010



If you ask Clarke Quay why it paints this side of the town chalcedony, it would be because of Peony-Jade. River-side dining with first-class view. And if you wonder how to get to the Clarke Quay's double storey, shop/warehouses have lifts inside.



Peony-J de. It was once reputed for its black Har Kau and fish and bird dim sum. Gleaming like glass marbles each, it was hard to picture the foods or the restaurant beside this. Glaring, wooden, and sweltering.


Yet it makes more sense as you approach it closer. The coveted red halls coming to you. Since last year, everywhere from confectionery companies to restaurants and hotels are going on a leaner, medicinal take. This year, mooncakes are on a sloughed strike. No more fancy footworks and unconstrained flavours, but down-to-earth goji berries, low-sugar, and sugar fructose.



Black Sesame Truffles in Bamboo Charcoal Powder (SGD 45.00)

Still, move over Bakerzin; for rum & raisin 2010, this year Peony Jade has the legitimate Bamboo Charcoal! Bamboo charcoal to improve your health and cleanse the body.



Dark and slimy, even if it is not black, it is bamboo charcoal. Bamboo charcoal, and that will suffice; for widow. This is because Dark alchemy- the only official solid that will not be superseded/lightened when running into things. We have seen too many chocolate, blackforest, mocha, red bean and red bean paste.



The two white chocolate truffles slightly out of place here. Steeped with liquor, its half-cream half-solid trance makes it cocoa and cocoa butter at once. The paste is black sesame paste inside, so rich— that it gets better with eating it from the fridge every time (the blog post shifts with every sampling time!) And on the skin somebody says they tasted the charcoal.

P.S. Bamboo charcoal and full palm-sized, there is no hesitance on this mooncake at all. Wholly black, only this kind of mooncake can be as black as a frog's skin. The white chocolate truffles were like litmus paper, or red rouge standing against the test of yellow teeth; white chocolate still looking white and mooncake still appearing black. Always look out for bamboo charcoal.

P.P.S. The challenge though, is to which direction and bearing do the 2 truffles/yolk lie, in the cake.

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Rainbow Soumen

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Sunny

A third of a year ago, there were wholemeal spaghetti, cracked wheat spaghetti, pink plum noodles and brown rice vermicelli. All ready in packs and shopped. So was this.



Shigeno Ajisuzumi Hiyamugi Dried Noodle (SGD 5.35)

Now over a third of a year, they were brought out and cooked. Expiry date still a mile away as they lie. And now even with whole wheat fusili introduced on the shelves, the infatuation with Shigeno still stays- across that-a third of a year border.



{Pic: With Morikawa Tamago(yellow) soumen on the left}. Not even 'colouring' can defeat the purpose of these noodles. Not chinese noodles, ramen, soba, udon, but soumen. They are just toogoodrainbow to be true.



Aji suzumi. Cold dipping noodles. Spot the ice. Ok it has melted. How many a times will there be pink, yellow and green with your noodles? 'Rainbow' pasta brown, green and orange; 'rainbow' dim sum corn, peas, and carrots. The unaware pink and light green here like sweets, allegory for rainbow.



Sparse, and in just three colours; they are what you need like concentrated dye, a tiny dose to spread the world. Coloured and made of egg, yet they are so organic in taste- as if the poultry had nutritional feed or they do not have sulphur or boric acid like the chinese's. Very flavourful like broth and remaining bouncy even when left cold! A very exquisite flavour for rainbow.

P.S. No wonder people want to streak/highlight their hair. When it was always the ingredients to add colour, now it is the principle carbohydrates to go all out. The déjà vu's alter ego; when you have not come before rainbow noodles and you don't know how it will look like/interpretations. The asian version. The main course did not feel so 'main' eating rainbow. The stunted rainbow, red green yellow blue but developed enough. Yet I also saw white, and rainbow noodles.

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Green and Black Haatlets

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Aug 24, 2010

I have always liked central©. China, Zhongguo; or the Middle East. Ciphering oneself as the center of the earth. Central too, for its outlandish advertisements and flamboyant window display. We could recall the underwater ballet.



Just this august, I received its complimentary booklet. Like a national day-tear me out brochure; sept, oct, nov was always a goodie bag month! The most prominent was Haato & Co inside.



Ingredients from Singapore, craft from Japan; marketed under Italy, gelato. 01-74- far-fetched sounding! From the map it is a triangle disjoint from the main cluster.



When we found out another time that it was actually that inconspicuous bar we had coursed through 4 times! The one selling ice cream and style-cakes. When ahem; stone's throw away Haatlets were sold.



Haatlets (SGD 5.00 for 3)

Shh. Yes. Not in central, not on the brochure. Beside the ice cream displayed in a box were these heartlets, in a multitude of flavours to pick like berries.



This one's black sesame. Powdery like mochi skin, but grainy and more resistant. Inside the black sesame ice cream is crystallised, fragrant and grazable on other sides. Giving the tongue lots to traverse.



The green heart's green tea. Pebble-shaped, it makes a mould difficult. And the skin to be consistent. It looked like the glass heart I own for holding paper.



See unyielding; unlike mochi ice cream or lots and lots of cheese refusing to depart from a pizza. The green tea ice cream wasn't bitter at all. It would be the gelato you get from ordering Haato & Co's ice cream.

P.S. The peach pillow is rock melon. The 'dessert' i would try to eschew when in school. But not now, when in a heart!

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Rainbow Light

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24 Aug, 2010

Which one is more colourful? You asking me? Though this one lacks orange and green, but I am actually talking about the prawn & fruit salad or grilled barramundi(with lemon butter sauce).


The people and food; which gives this light light, and the colour that it is missing. If not it would have no duties to light up.



Today, I was perked up seeing an elderly couple tucking in into their 1, breaded grouper with fries; and 2, greens and grilled barramundi. White is the new steak and they had a very good appetite and going at a strong rate.

P.S. Something like The Emperor's New Clothes, you know. We can all see colour because it is in the Name Swensen's.

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Green Mooncake

Tuesday, August 24   keyboard  


Sunny

In an evening bundled with the weather, fatigue; consequence from eating one's fill, schedule and unsettled meals- yet we were magnetised to the Icing Room. New mooncake not in colour, but shape.



Icing Room's the only specialty cake shop with fixed cake menu. Not rotatory or spontaneously. Decorations and designs from a mould. Yet for mid autumn this year, rabbits let loose from the celestial body are different in colour! 6 colours- pink, orange, green, yellow, white and purple.



Mini Snow Skin mooncake (SGD 16.50 per box) (4 pcs)

Clockwise from top: Mixed Fruits & Nuts (Yellow). White Lotus Melon Seed (White). Macha Red Bean (Green). Red Bean Melon Seed (Purple).



Like ham, I was taken aback with the familiar pine nuts, a good entrée for double-yolk! So that was the fruit & nuts' nut. A tough cookie the yellow rabbit on the inside. White lotus and red bean, they were more docile with smooth and not too tooth-cutting sweetness, crispy with a dash of melon seed.


The star of the day, {rabbit shape}green! Only the BreadTalk family insists on this derivative- Matcha. Pocked marked with red beans, it was shower on the beans with rest of the seeds hidden inside the mooncake. The beans did not continue into the rabbit's anatomy, it was matcha- tap-water tasting with a knoll of porcelain stones. The most remarkable matcha I had tasted not delicate and slowly sprouting to the end like rest of the green teas!

P.S. Clumpy and not settling when you bite it, the skins were like well-done mochi. How many years had I not had mochi or snowskin mooncake? It was toothpick ears and toothpicked eyes, that made this mooncake moudless- and to why it is snowskin green. Or macha.

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Blue Corn

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23 Aug, 2010



Tohato Caramel Corn Ramune (SGD 2.50)

Where I was trying to be clever, here it came. In sky-blue packaging at most associated with printer cartridges. Not Kit Kat, but Caramel
Corn.



Spacefood- say it to the ramune first. The incola. Bottle-marbled, not capped. Toast on the familiar is kid's meal in a japanese house; where coral, I want to buy the soda because its blue/green. So like cola, it can have cola sweets, cola ice, cola chicken.



Ramune chips. Original ramune is lemon, not blue; hence this is Caramel Corn, but dusted in Warheads-like sour powder crystals. Whole and plump and crisp, there isn't any brittle bits as you can see.

P.S. Your tummy feels more buoyant when it is chips: sweet and sour! Yet there is blue corn. A native wild spices of corn in America.




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Green Cone

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Light Rain

Matcha is a common flavour in ice cream now. Close your eyes in front of a gelato/ice cream stand; colourful ice-creams beckoning you, one of the green definitely green tea. If not what else? There will be no green.



[Unless it is some oldie selling pistachio or mint;] though they are endangered with green tea today. But the problem with matcha is, why is it dessert; mitsu mame or zenzai, if not novice-looking slabs or scoops? Why no soft-serve, Singapore?


If you don't want to be too affected; buying and installing a soft serve machine at home, find yourself a young-blooded neighbourhood. Go to its biggest mall, perhaps amongst the student meals there will be some adjustment of menu; novelty such as green tea soft serve.



Green Tea and Green Tea with Vanilla-mix soft serve (SGD 1.50 ea)

Finally, cones found in a restaurant! No more Hokkaido Fair, there is even duo-colour; 'Visit Japan 2010' way! We should have been selling this long time ago on our streets.



Household staple, it is matcha and vanilla; not chocolate and vanilla of modernism. Matcha(like catechin in cacao for the adults); vanilla or vanilla-mix, if the kids are sufferable, hence this licked-out surface in green ripples is synonymous with chocolate-brown and white heads. Lucid green the green tea's really strong, something like transparent ice cream, where you can infuse right through with the tea. Perfect with/without vanilla.

P.S. You have to order the Ramen Set or Chuka Set (in Ajisen) before you can get this matcha in typify soft-serve, YOKOSO! Japan with dual twist to boot!

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