Cereal-iously weird yet delicious.

After my yoga class, I was desperately craving for ice cream. My fiance and I decided to pop by Tom's Palette at Shaw Tower, 100 Beach Road. Big mistake. Super long queue on a Friday night. Should have seen this coming. But since we were there, we decided to persevere and wait for our turn. I ordered the Miso Walnut and the Salted Egg Yolk ice cream just because it is something different.

Miso Walnut and Salted Egg Yolk

What can I say? My fiance who is not exactly very adventurous with his food, disliked both flavours, but for me? I LOVED IT. The miso walnut is laced with pralines within so there is this unique marriage of miso, walnut and chocolate taste. I admit, it does take some getting used to, but hey, YOLO. The salted egg yolk.. how do I describe it? Imagine you are eating the lui sha bao? Except the custard is not pipping hot, but freezing cold. Again, the taste takes some getting used to. 

After that the fiance said he hasn't had dinner yet and he wants to eat something more filling. We decided to head to Bugis Village nearby to hunt for some snacks for me and some main course for him. Unfortunately the place I had in mind had closed, so we wandered to the third floor for some thai food? Unfortunately, it was closing and they couldn't take our orders. 

Were we destined to starve? NO, this is Singapore, we will never run out of places to eat! 

NEXT to the Thai food store was a zi char place called Yi Lu Fa (literal translation: fortune on the entire journey). What caught our eye on the menu was... CEREAL CHICKEN FRIED RICE? We ordered that and the har cheong gai (prawn paste chicken) to share. 

Yi Lu Fa store on the third floor of Bugis Village

The fried rice and har cheong gai came rather quickly and it looks like the following photos. 

Cereal Chicken Fried Rice, cereal-iously good! $5

Har Cheong Gai, 2 pieces $3

Look at how thick the batter is!

Take your time to eat because the food came piping hot and fresh off the stove. The cereal chicken was delicious, the cereal was fried to a nice crisp and it went well with the fried rice. The fried chicken hidden beneath the mountain of cereal was nicely coated with the cereal as well. Thumbs up for this dish.

Their har cheong gai however, I felt the batter was too thick, making the chicken meat look well.. insufficient. I felt like I had more batter than the chicken. And I felt that the batter was a bit too oily and somewhat salty. Made a mental note to come back for their fried rice but not for the har cheong gai. If you are into food with thick batters, then their har cheong gai is for you. Otherwise, this store is definitely a hidden treasure within Bugis Village. 

Hear ye, hear ye, here is The Daily Scoop!

Chanced upon The Daily Scoop at the School Of The Arts, 1 Zubir Said Drive. I was ecstatic, this meant that I won't have to travel all the way to Clementi just to have it. 

Counter of the Daily Scoop

 The place specialises in... *drumroll* ICE CREAM. Now, I have this weird habit of mine where I like to try out different ice cream parlours in Singapore.. but I do not like to go for the usual banal flavours of vanilla, chocolate, mint.. I am not paying over $2.50 for these where I can get from the ice cream uncle for $1-$1.50!

I go for the weird flavours. Things that I usually cannot get from Ben & Jerry's. #justsaying

Unique flavours like Almond Longan

They have the usual flavours as well like their vanilla...
I mean seriously? Pay $3+ for plain vanilla ice cream?

My fiance and I decided to share their set, which consists of a scoop of their ice cream and a warm brownie. I saw that they had lychee martini ice cream and I was quite tempted to take that one. However, I had tried lychee martini ice cream before so I decided to be adventurous and try their Lime Cherry Tart ice cream.

Lime Cherry Tart with Brownie $7

As I have mentioned before, I have tried different ice cream parlours in Singapore and I can't help but have some form of expectations when I try the ice cream. I expected the Lime Cherry Tart to be like Ben & Jerry's Cherry Garcia.. except with maybe lime shavings thrown in with the cherry? So I expected the Lime Cherry Tart ice cream to be heavily laden with vanilla judging by the colour of the scoop.

To my surprise, it tasted like lime sorbet with the cherry and the tart. I took a double look at the ice cream. It looks milky, so why does it taste so goddamn refreshing? Screw it, it tastes bloody good and light, so I'm not going to figure out why it doesn't taste like the milky and filling vanilla ice cream I had expected. And I loved how it seeped into the brownie.. so when you take a bite, the warm chocolate sauce melts with the brownie and the refreshing lime gives it a sour tinge. It's an odd combination, but I love it.

As the old saying goes, never judge a book (or in this case, scoop) by its cover.

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.

Ate and ate and ate on my birthday last Thursday.

Last thursday, I turned twenty ______ and because my boyfriend wanted to go to the Reebonz sale at Clifford Center, I requested that we go to the Black Swan (19 Cecil St, Singapore 049704) for lunch as I have always wanted to try it out. 

He tried to make a reservation a day before but it was fully booked so they advised us to go down when their doors are open to try our luck. We went in at 11.30am and were seated at one of their high tables. 

The first thing I liked about The Black Swan was the ambiance. The moment you step through the double doors, it's like you are transported back into New York or Chicago in the 1920s.

I also love the waitresses' outfits. I was telling my boyfriend it's one of the best looking service uniforms I have ever seen in a restaurant (don't get me started on the 'maid' uniform at Lawry's *shudders*). The uniforms makes the waiting staff look so pretty and classy for the ladies and  suave for the men. The second thing I liked about this place is how this place is situated next to one of the busiest junctions in CBD and I don't hear a SINGLE sound coming from the traffic outside. It's like I have effectively traveled back in time. The tinted windows also helped to effectively cover the traffic outside.

Now onto the third thing I like about this place. THE FOOD. 

The Black Swan serves an executive lunch set where you can choose between a two course ($32+) or three course meal ($38+). The prices are dependent on what you order. Say you order the $38 set but you want to add in the foie gras, that will add another $8 to your set. You can see the full lunch set menu here for a better idea. 

The first course I had was the Char-grilled Beef Tartare. I have always wanted to try steak tartare and I finally got the chance to..albeit it's slightly grilled! (Ok, I know steak tartare have to be like RAW but this is the closest I can get to it!) It is put on a bed of diced pears and served with toasted bread. I LOVE this dish. This is the taste, imagine sashimi with sesame sprinkled over it with the sweetness of the pear blending with the meat. It shouldn't work, but it does. I lapped up every single bit of this. 

The second course was the Chilean Seabass with quinoa, bacon jam (the itty bitty yellow sauce surrounding it) and diced beetroot.

Another dish worth trying if you love fish. I have tried fishy tasting seabass and blah tasting one before. This dish somehow manages to grill the seabass until the texture and taste ended up like my favourite cod-fish meat. It's so fresh. I'm not a fan of beetroot but somehow the quinoa and the beetroot combination works and it left a slightly sweet taste in my mouth. The bacon jam went well with the quinoa and the seabass meat. It had a slightly smoky yet sweet aftertaste. Interesting.

The final dish is the Dark Chocolate Dome with a little bit of edible gold foil on the top.

If you are a chocoholic like me. THIS IS NOT TO BE MISSED.

The berries at the side is FRESH. I am genuinely impressed, because a lot of dessert dishes that comes with berries, the berries always feels 'out of juice' and overly preserved. I don't know how The Black Swan keeps their berries so juicy and fresh, but whatever they are doing, they are doing it right.

Finally, we got to the chocolate dome. I love the flaky base of the dome.. I don't know what it's called (and I have been dying to find out but this kind of chocolate dome base is so hard to come by) but I really love it. The dome itself is filled with chocolate until you hit the center where the vanilla creme melts with the chocolate.. oh heaven. Definitely a dish I will try again.

The total damage done for the both of us was about $140+. My boyfriend ordered the foiegras, the Black Swan burger and also the chocolate dome (didn't snap photos of it). The still water was quite expensive.. it costs $9 a bottle. The service was good... just that I did get a little irritated with one of the staff who kept asking us while we were in the process of eating our dishes, how were things. I get that the staff is trying to be hospitable but to ask how were things during each course... I felt it was a bit of an overkill because personally, I feel it makes more sense if they ask us how is the food and all that DURING or AFTER our final course. Not during EVERY course. But oh well, I guess she was trying to be nice? Overall, if given the opportunity to go back to the Black Swan for a meal, I will definitely go back because I do like the ambiance and the food!  

We headed down to the Reebonz sale and went for some window shopping before we settled for some high tea at Tom's Palette at Shaw Theater building at Beach Road (100 Beach Rd, Singapore 189702). I have heard MANY rave reviews about this ice cream parlour and I have been dying to try it. When I got there..like wow, look at the flavors!

One of the ice cream Tom's Palette is famous for is their Salted Egg Yolk ice cream. I tried a sample of it and it does taste like cold liu-sa-bao. But what I ultimately ordered was their Parmesan-cheese and crackers ice cream. I just liked the taste better. My boyfriend got the Stout Chocolate (alcoholic). We paid $4.20 for two scoops which is worth it!  

The stout chocolate tastes like chocolate with a Guinness stout aftertaste. My boyfriend is not a fan of alcohol to begin with but he made an exception with this because it tasted so good. My Parmesan-cheese and crackers ice cream tasted like Ben & Jerry's Strawberry Cheesecake without the strawberry and a stronger cheese flavor (the parmesan bits in the ice cream I guess). I am now making plans to go back to Tom's Palette again just for their salted egg yolk ice cream next time.

After that we headed to the Waterloo Times for dinner with the family. Talk about eating all day. Oh my goodness.. but it was a lovely way to spend my birthday.. eating where I want to try and ending it with a meal with my parents.