Nyah! The Tiramisu Hero to the rrrrrrrescue!

Chanced upon this place while my relatives and I were having some hawker food around the area. The pretty shop front caught my eye. I've heard a lot about this place so we decided to go in and try their signature dish... the tiramisu!

And if you are lucky like me, you might catch their resident community kitty loitering about the front of the store. 

Store front

Interior of the cafe

The hero inviting us fellow hoomin beans.

Menu

Jars and jars of tiramisu

They sell kaya too

Amusing tip box, from the looks of things, men may be winning.

Fortune cats

The vibe of this place is really very chill. Staff were also polite and friendly. We ordered three jars of tiramisu. The chocolate, original and cinnamon. Each jar came with a different expression from the Tiramisu Hero. Out of the three jars we shared and tasted. We agreed the cinnamon was the best. 

After we were done, we felt it was a waste to let the jars get thrown away, we asked the staff if we could keep it. To our delight, they said yes and the staff even went and got us new jars to bring back. 

Sweet of them. 

Noticed that they have brunch and other main courses as well. Made a mental note to go back and try their other dishes. Really a lovely place to hang out at. A lot of photo opportunity as well.. like the 3D head of the Tiramisu Hero. Just need to be careful not to boop your head when you get out of it. 

I'm pretending to be a tiramisu hero for a day. 

8 Degrees in Taiwan and a Milk Cow: 8 Degrees Taiwanese Bistro (八度空间) and MilkCow (밀크카우)

When I saw the bistro sign 八度空间, I was like thinking "Jay Chou?" Yeap, true enough, this bistro tucked away at 37 Tech Chye Terrace is named after Jay Chou's hit album. Went there for lunch and found the place to be quite cosy and trendy. Being a Taiwanese bistro, the menu offers a mix of Taiwanese street food, classic Taiwanese dishes, desserts and bubble teas.

I opted for their lunch promo which is their bento set and it comes with free flow of their iced tea of the day. That day, it was Lychee tea. The lychee tea was not too sweet and it was a refreshing drink on a hot day.  

The food came relatively quickly. 

Chicken Bento Set

I love the tofu, both the fried and the steam tofu. Can't go wrong with tofu, honestly. The pickled vegetable side dish was refreshing. My only gripe was the chicken cutlet, I tasted more of the flour than the chicken meat itself. Otherwise, can't go wrong with the bento.

Salted Crispy Chicken

I love the salted crispy chicken, unlike some other places, the chicken meat is chunky, not fatty. There is a hint of saltiness, not an excess of it. A must try dish.

Strawberry and Mango Snow Ice.

Finally, the dessert came, the strawberry and mango snow ice. I'm not sure if they SPECIALLY picked out strawberries with the perfect shape of hearts, but I'm digging the heart shape strawberries decorating the mango ice. It has a sweet yet sourish taste that obviously melts in your mouth. Another must try dish.

That was my lunch experience at 8 Degrees Taiwanese Bistro. Definitely an interesting and authentic place to try if you are craving Taiwanese food.

I met up with my fiance over the weekend and we tried the much raved about Milk Cow soft serve ice cream located on the ground floor at The Cathay, 2 Handy Road. I was a little skeptical at first because having tried Honey Creme and I found it to be quite normal, nothing to shout about, so I told myself to just try it with an open mind.

We ordered the Milk Cow Snowdrop, consisting of cotton candy and M&Ms for a rather hefty price tag of $5.9. Well, they claim it's organic milk and honey, so maybe that explains the price. We'll found out soon enough, I took a bite.

Milk Cow's Snowdrop ice cream

Mind. Blown.

You can taste the freshness of the milk with a hint of honey, so, so smooth. Literally, it slides down your throat. The cotton candy and the M&Ms is an insult to the flavour of the ice cream seriously, because it makes the ice cream too sweet and ends up making it taste 'artificial'. Immediately, I regretted not ordering it plain. It is so, so, so good on its own. I'm surprised there was no queue for this place yet Honey Creme has snaking queues. Well, all the better for me. I really regret sharing it with my fiance, we should have have one each.

Definitely a must try if you are around The Cathay. Now I can see why it costs quite a bit.

April Fool's Day Catch Up

Someone should just give Google a medal for the best ever April Fool's Day prank. 

Basically Google released a video saying whoever catches all 150 Pokemon on the Google Maps App may stand a chance be a Pokemon Master and join the Google team as one of their designated Pokemon Master. Of course, it's a joke on their part, but what I didn't expect was that you can really 'capture' Pokemon on the Google Maps App. I ended up getting so hooked, 'travelling' from Tokyo to Tarzania obsessively hunting for Pokemon. 

I bet you are wondering, if you know it's a joke, why are you still obsessed with trying to catch them all? 

BECAUSE I AM LIVING MY CHILDHOOD DREAM OF BECOMING A POKEMON MASTER. DUH. 

My work day that day was bloody unproductive. And I love how Google placed Pikachu on the Tokyo Tower (Channeling electricity for the whole of Tokyo, well played) or Tyranitar in Pompei / Tokyo (Godzilla reference, get it?) and even included the legendary Mew as the 151 Pokemon. It's just awesome. Who cares if it's a bloody joke? I was given a day to live out my childhood dream from my office desk, I'm bloody taking it. So thank you Google, for giving me this opportunity to live my childhood dream. 

Caught all 150.. couldn't find Mew though.. T__T

Ok now back to the main point of this post. My April Fool's Day catch up. I met up with my pole mates to celebrate my belated birthday and another person's birthday. We headed down after work to November 8 Coffee and Company at 11, Sin Ming Road #01-30 Thomson V Two S(575629). 

It's actually a pretty well hidden place. I have been going to Thomson for Scoopz, Fatboys, Ne Li's Ice Cream and Rochor Beancurd like forever and always thought that Thomson V was like just a residential area. So imagine my surprise when I realised there were a few eateries and stuff in there!

The ambiance is pretty hip, I love the decors and all that.. it feels like I can just kick off my shoes, unhook my bra and just lie down on the couch and read a book. But of course, I can't do that unless I want to be arrested for indecency. They do take reservations by the way.. so when we were seated at our table, I was quite amused with their decor.

I mean look at it.. an origami flower in a pot filled with coffee beans? How cute is that?

I ordered their Chicken Breast Steak $16 which comes with bacon and cheese on top served with vegetables with passion fruit sauce at the side. I like chicken breast meat but some places cook it way too dry? Over at November 8, it's not too dry and the marriage between the cheese and bacon just makes it taste swell. The passion fruit sauce is unique but I feel it goes better with the carrots than with the chicken. Maybe I'm just not used to it? It's definitely a dish I will order again though because it has all my favorite things in it. (I always avoid most of the vegetables when I order dishes like this but they have carrots and mushroom which is my favorite!)

We ordered the Strawberry Waffles $10 to share and we picked the rainbow ice cream to go with it. Basically the rainbow ice cream tasted like the Paddlepop one. Nothing particularly special. But the waffles were well done! Very crispy on the outside and soft and fluffy on the inside. The strawberries were fresh! The total damage for me was $18.50 (since we shared the waffle, the four of us split it.. it was $2.50 per person) no GST. The price is pretty fair.

The service was also good. My friend wanted a skinny latte which they didn't have skim milk for.. and the waiting staff specially ran out to buy a bottle of skim milk back just to make it for her. Good service I must say! The food was also cooked fresh so expect an adequate amount of time waiting because they only have one person cooking from what I see. So be patient when you are there ordering! Music is also not too loud and we had quite a good catching up session there. Definitely a good place to go and chill out with your friends if you are in the Thomson area!