Cakes Galore!

Assembled a birthday sliced cake platter recently - I had alot of fun going every where to buy slice of cakes to try (especially since I was rather sore that I missed Ladyironchef's Obolo outing) . This isn't the first time I'm doing this platter because I did this for my birthday too trying cakes from Obolo (and the awesome durian puffs from Puteri Mas opposite), Canale, Cedele, and the Big O. I posted a picture of my platter (but no individual reviews) previously. This time round though, I bought the cakes from Hilton Checkers Deli, Big O, Rive Gauche, Canale and Bakerzin.

First up... the 4 SUPERB cakes from Hilton. They are famous for their cheesecakes but my family used to order the American Cheesecake for birthdays ALOT so we didn't eat any this time round. Reading my all time favourite cake blog - Fen's - I realise that the Hazelnut Royaltine sounds like the type of cake I wanna try - I only intended to buy this particular cake but i ended up buying another 3 slices because they were sooooo visually appealing! And they ALL tasted as good as they look, which is of cos the most important.

Hazelnut Royaltine
Hazelnut praline, Chocolate sponge, Hazelnut Mousse

This is my favourite cake of all the cakes featured in this post simply because the crunchy praline layer was really thick! Usually when i eat other praline cakes (from the Patissier or chocoabloc) I'm always eating the thin flaky biscuit layer at the bottom first - but there is so much of the crispy layer in this! I really liked it -most of the middle section was this Ferroro Rocher crispy biscuit layer. It is not very dense, and the rest of the cake was filled with hazelnut mousse.

L' Opera

Expresso Coffee, Coffee butter, Myer Rum, Jaconde sponge, Chocolate Ganache, Ground almond

Unlike Tiramisu, this cake is really DENSE and the coffee aroma is really quite strong. This cake is really good if you like dense coffee-chocolate. There was hardly any sponge in this - which is good for dense cake lovers like me.

Snickers

Jivara milk chocolate, Peanut Caramel, Biscuit jaconde, Dark chocolate glaze, Peanut Crisp

This cake was calling out to me cos I loveeee Snickers!! Peanut - caramel - chocolate..beat that! And what is great about this cake is that the bottom layer is the peanut crisp - I mean, I would rather pay 1/3 of the price and eat the real Snickers candy bar but this crisp layer made all the difference to eating this Snickers cake. The topping of caramel popcorn made it all the more fun to eat the cake too =)

It slipped my mind that Snickers was on the melamine radar some time ago but oh well. Such a late after thought.

St Marc

Butter Cream, Choc ganache, Dacquaise sponge, Hazelnut

You will like this cake if you like butter and hazelnuts because this cake was really creamy. The topmost layer was the thickest - full of butter cream followed by sponge then another layer of hazelnut cream. What breaks the monotony of all the milky goodness is the bottom dense dark chocolate ganache layer. Quite a creamy cake - as compared to the other 3 cakes from Hilton which were really dense.

The next 2 cakes are from Big O

Indecent obsession

Chocolate Hazelnut cake

I tried this during my previous birthday cake platter and liked it enough to buy it again. But this time around I didn't get to eat these 2 slices of cakes from Big O (sigh) but from the last time I ate it, I conclude that you'd like this cake if you like chocolate fudge cakes (like those from Awfully chocolate). But this cake is more interesting to eat because again there's the crispy hazelnut wafer layer, which goes really well with the fudge and sponge. A sufficiently moist chocolate cake as well, and a good balance between chocolate and hazelnut - not too heavy going and dense.

Bailey's Irish Cream Cheesecake

This was the lonesome (only) cheesecake which I didn't get to try!!!! oh well another time then. The previous birthday platter I tried the Spike D - this chocolate covered durian puree cake that is semicircular in shape. That was awesome!

The next cake is from River Gauche

Guanaja

Bitter sweet chocolate mousse and Ganache with 2 layers of chocolate sponge

comes with a bottom layer of Crispy biscuit

I tried this before a long time back during Yvonne's birthday (Jason bought it for the birthday) and Jason and I were raving after that about how good it was, I really couldnt stop at one slice. But having tried it now again..(and having tried all these other chocolate hazelnut praline cakes =P) I think the chocolate sponge layer was a little to thick for me - I would prefer more mousse and a more dense cake. Again, the crispy biscuit was the clincher but its too thin!

The next 3 cakes are from Bakerzin at Paragon

Sweet Pleasure

Layers of hazelnut praline dacquoise, Jivara milk chocolate ganache with fleur de sel, topped with chocolate mousse.

This cake is gorgeous -okay it looks WAY better in the brochures - and its not only the photography okay, you scrutinize it properly and you'd realise they decorate it much better in their catalogs - the hazelnut praline is not supposed to be a layer like that but supposed to be like little globules of praline creme. Okay im a sucker for aesthetics, but even taste wise I don't think it impresses much. The milk chocolate was slightly sour - the same taste as Cadbury chocolate. It got difficult to eat as well because I dismantled the whole cake when i sank my fork in. This cake had plenty of hazelnut cream and crisp but the sour chocolate just didn't cut it.

Chocolate Amer

Flourless chocolate sponge layered with bitter chocolate mousse

oops i forgot to remove the plastic wrapper but This is THE cake that earned Bakerzin a spot in the top 50 cakes but again I'm not very impressed by the quality of chocolate used. For someone who likes a balance between sponge and mousse, the balance is good here. But then again, I am not really a fan of flourless chocolate cakes too, I found the flourless chocolate cake at Laurent's average only, compared to his awesome chocolate tart and souffle.

Lavande
Lavender infused dark chocolate mousse cake

This is what saves Bakerzin for me because this cake was excellent. I forgot how aromatic Lavender can be and it added a different dimension to chocolate cake - i got really sick of dark dense chocolate-hazelnut-cream after a while (yes i tried all these cakes in one sitting because otherwise my family will finish everything!!). Hardly much sponge in this cake as well, alot of dark chocolate cream.

The next 3 cakes are from Canale at Paragon

Chocolate Nutella Pie

Dark chocolate tart + Nutella

Dark Chocolate cream

This is a new offering from Canale but it doesn't taste as good as it looks (or sounds). I could hardly taste any Nutella in any layer. The best chocolate tart is still from Laurent's. This dark chocolate layer was really HARD! And the pastry layer at the bottom was not the flaky type (like the one from laurents) but more of the buttery biscuit type.

Caraibe

Dark Chocolate cream 66%, Dark Chocolate cake 66%

Hazelnut nougatine, almond chocolate glaze

My all time favourite cake from Canale. Dense, dense, nutty, nutty - there are whole hazelnuts in the thickkkkk layer of dark chocolate cream! It is like a whole chocolate hazelnut bar (the chocolate is very very dense) with a minimal layer of sponge at the top. Awesome!

Le Royale

64% dark chocolate mousse, Chocolate genoise with rum

Almond succes, Hazelnut feullitine

This cake has a better balance of mousse, sponge and the crispy hazelnut layer. The cake that earned Canale a spot in the top 50 cakes.

Overall, I really enjoyed the Hilton cakes the most and im glad i tried them as my family has been ordering their American cheesecakes all these years without realising the other goodies they have to offer. Even better now that Christmas is coming, we know where to get our logcakes and sugar fix from =)

Four Christmases, Noodle House Ken

Of late, best friend time spent with Kels has always revolved around movie+junk food extravaganza. Arming ourselves with the largest size of popcorn (trust me, its never enough) and other savoury snacks, the movie is never the same without the junk food.

this is the largest sized popcorn from Cathay Cineleisure and costs $7.80 with a drink (extra top up of 60 cents for iced lemon tea). Cinemas here are a total ripoff when it comes to popcorn and nachos but its like the only place we ever eat popcorn (k and i are huge fans of popcorn) and it does seem strange if we go shopping munching on popcorn.

There are many counters scattered around the 4th to 6th floor of the cineplex selling popcorn but obviously the nicest, warmest, freshest popcorn comes from the counter with the highest turnover ie the one at the 4th floor - but there was only once when the popcorn was really freshly popped and the sweet clusters were clumped together by the hot caramel and it was really warm and crispy, thickly coated with sugar! But ever since then all our popcorn encounters were less than stellar. Looks like we must observe when the popcorn is made and quickly chiong to buy the freshly made batch. Haha..we must be the only insane ones to watch the movie to get our popcorn fix.

This time we tried the nachos too. Again another ripoff at $4.80 with a drink...that can buy me a whole pack of tortillas (oh the one with a hint of lime is superb) and the cheese today is quite diluted according to kels who is particularly about her sauces. Seems pretty good to me still, possibly because I was ravenous.

As for 4 Christmases (which is a movie by the way, just in case), it had many subtle references to maternity which was uncannily relevant to what we are studying now (and an ominous reminder to STUDY) and the movie had us thinking about commitment and motherhood (and osces). It was okay-funny but some of the scenes tried too hard with their blunt and crude humour it vaguely reminded me of Stepbrothers. Definitely not Love Actually standards, where the interplay of relationships were much more interesting (and more eye candy too), this is more like a Meet the Fockers kinda movie. We were planning to catch Cape No 7 but the timing clashed with tea and tea was more important (we wanted to go Jones the grocer or Freshly Baked at Kiliney) plus Cape might have marked the start of a dreary weekend so we thought a comedy like 4 Christmases will be good.

We wanted to have dinner at Freshly Baked but to our disappointment they ran out of the sandwiches when we reached there about 7pm after our movie (they close at 8) so we adjourned to nearby Noodle House Ken at Orchard Plaza for dinner. I have been wanting to try this place for ages.

Orchard Plaza and the Cuppage Plaza houses a treasure cove of eats and this is one of them. Unpretentious place it is, compared to the nearby newly renovated glamourised/expatriate-fied Cuppage Terrace.

Noodle House Ken occupies 2 shop units, and there are also some tables outside where you can sit alfresco. The shop unit nearer the road houses the kitchen as well, and there are only bar seats inside. But it was a hot day and the steaming kitchen was just too uncomfortable for us so we moved to the next shop unit, which was equally small (minus the kitchen, of course) and was nicely air conditioned. We sat at the bar counter.
This was where we sat at. There are shelves of manga (all in Japanese though - really inspires me to take up Japanese so I can read these!) and Japanese magazines in both shop units.

I found the Japanese poster very retro and I really don't know whats up with the Chinese New Year lantern up there. Strange.

The nicely comfortable air conditioned second seating area. Don't be misled, this place was packed around 730pm and there were people waiting outside, but we took our time with our food and we discussed some questions (well we were supposed to be studying) and time flew by, leaving us the last to leave this restaurant. The background music was actually pleasant chill out type, and it was actually quite a nice place to catch up when there are less people around.

The menu was only a page long and consisted of some simple starters and ramen. Their ramen soup is double boiled for 8 hours and there is no MSG. They do not offer any desserts - I guess places like this, being a ramen specialist they offer only what they do best in, not like those generic places which try to be the jack of all trades and master of none. This place is like super Japanese friendly - the reverse side had the same menu but all in Japanese characters.

Cold Noodle $12

I requested a change of meat to sweet corn. This dish was really good! The noodles were really firm to bite and chewy, and the sauce was tasty and had a subtle sour twang to it - it is actually a sesame sauce. The vegetables added a crunch - and I particularly liked the bamboo. There was also some crabmeat which was rather generic yong-taufu type, and some strips of tamago. Oh the yellow mustard by the corner was really potent.

I love sesame seeds and when I found the sesame seed container I didn't even bother grinding it and just sprinkled the whole seeds on my noodles. (Okay at first I didn't know how to operate the grinder =p). The aroma was wonderful!

And when the noodles ran out, I liked the sauce so much I didn't want to waste it so I emptied most of the sesame seeds from the container so I could mop up whatever sauce left with copious amounts of sesame seeds - it is like sauce-coated sesame seeds and tastes of the sesame ahbaling interior..yummy!

Stewed Boiled Egg Ramen, $12

Kels really enjoyed her bowl of ramen especially the soup, which she said was really tasty. and....

the stewed egg! do you see the layers of yolk and egg white? she says it is really different from the other eggs she has eaten. And a huge one at that!

We spied the chef reading his manga on our way back. Haha! now we know that the shelves of manga are the source of entertainment for the chefs! This place closes late and will be a wonderful supper place for comfort food yay.

Noodle House Ken

150 Orchard Road#01-17/18 Orchard Plaza

Tel: 6235 5540

Mon-Sat: 12-2pm, 6pm-2am

Hansang Korean Family Restaurant

My CG and I had a rocking good time at this restaurant and endorse it as YUMMY(worth the shuttle bus trip here)! Luckily didn't listen tio the kok and leave the restaurant for curry flavour =P politeness of Kumar and I NOT to walk out - cos the Kok suddenly remembered curry flavour was near and good, the guys yearning to watch hip hop (i still dunno why they were so obsessed to catch the performance at the forum below) and jason hating cheese and buttery food (hence no Pasta de Waruku) sealed our fates ; we had to try this restaurant.

can you recognise the artiste here?

its edmund chen..my original intention was actually to take a photo of the logo of the restaurant not realising it was Edmund Chen at the corner there until my friends thought i was papparazzi trying to snap him with some illicit kids(they don't look like Chen Xi =P)THEN i realised who he was.

Hansang has this open concept and Kels and I was always walking through this passageway from TTSH but somehow we never stopped to try their food which is a waste really....the Korean food here is so much better than Seoul Yummy.

Hansang occupies most of the third floor and there are several sections. There's this open area where you can look over to the lower floors and we chose to perch ourselves at the tables nearest the latch so we can lean over to check out the hip hop competition happening down at the forum...oh the moves by one of the contestent was amazing it was as if he could detach certain parts of his body, getting them to move independently. The other groups just amaze us with their energy and strength swinging around their limbs....while sedentary us (or at least me oh sobs i realise i was the only stagnant one in the group kumar and kok run , jason tennis and kels hits the pool =/ ) just loaded up on the calories happily.

Korean Amuse Bouche?

This is the complimentary starter.. their rendition of a palate cleanser? At first (to my horror) I thought it was the complimentary side dishes and before I could exclaim how little it was, the many many side dishes finally appeared shortly =P

this starter consisted of (from left) ikan bilis and peanut, potato salad (looks deceivingly like icecream!!) and kidney beans.

Dubokgee $5

There's this small counter where this lady was cooking these rice cakes - and I always see this dish in those Korean shows - so I was really curious to try. This was the small size and the large size is 10 bucks. This was like the highlight of my meal because it was my first time having Korean rice cakes and it was really chewy and the sauce was savoury-sweet, and perfect with the dash of sesame seeds. Its like denser mochi skin in a miso paste. Very very good.. and not all the rice cakes were of the same cylindrical shape! There were some triangular shapes, and I think there were some bits of onions inside the sauce.

Complimentary side dishes

Bibimbob Hotstone Pot $13

I must always try the Bibimbab in Korean restaurants because I like claypot rice - i especially like the charred rice when it contacts the hotstone. Korean claypots always come with a yolk and with some vigorous stirring every grain of rice will be coated with the yolk, with the heat cooking the yolk. You gotta be real quick about it because once the yolk cooks you can't mix it around the rice. I lovee the smell from the sizzling hot stone.

The vegetables here -and my favourite mushrooms too - are definitely of the more expensive type (as compared to the Seoul Yummy express outlet at Food Republic Suntec where I always go for my super good Bibimbap fix) - the macrosomic tauge (the bean seeds are huge!) and the soft cucumber and purple cabbage.. after mixing the vegetable and (very little) beef around it really tastes like fried rice, with the crunchiness of the raw carrots and assorted vegetables. All I had to do was add some red miso paste sauce and I was one happy person stirring around and eating.

Oh the only suspicious looking thing here was this 2 translucent rectangular starch like chewy thing that we couldnt figure out what it was. any clue??

Dupbob Beef $10

DubBob Chicken $10

The 3 guys that had this DubBob - can choose either beef, chicken or cuttlefish - concluded the meats were fantastic because it was marinated very well and they were very generous with the portion of the meat. There was substantially more meat than rice. And they're big eaters ok(in more ways than one), I can vouch for that.

Hotpot Lunch set - with pancake and rice $15

Kels had this..there were alot alot of vegetables inside the soup as well as some noodles which I tried and tasted like ramen..what was awesome in the set was the fried pancake. It was a rice cake which was crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside.. oh I must try the other pancakes the next time round.

They served dessert too (although only Kels ordered a lunch set) - watermelon slices in a juice which i didn't eat because I dislike watermelon. I don't know why they always serve this fruit after all the Japanese and Korean meals...if its so economical isn't it not very fresh when they serve it outside? Nonetheless all my friends enjoyed the dessert (and none of them had a stomachache)

The take-away rice cake shop. I believe they sell both sweet and savoury rice cakes.

Now that we are all charged up we are all ready to face the onslaught of tutor (thankfully the tutor today was hilarious and so so nice signing everything for us, made our day even better!!!) and lecturer (bad bad bad). Good lunches are oh so important.

And it seems my CG is always having Korean food, it was with Kels, Kumar and Kok that we tried Seoul Yummy round the corner too, but not like im complaining because Korean food is really interesting. Oh thats many many Ks in one sentence..

Hansang Korean Family Restaurant

Square 2 Novena

Cafe Salivation, Space@Humble House, Cafe Domus

K and i 's grand plan was to scot off to Wild Rocket so we can check out the Mount Sophia area -Sinema Old School and the new Timbre @ Old School during our long long lunch break but we got so lost in the Mackenzie area and it was very very late , close to their last order and closing time + ERP -> Little India/ Golden Mile...the former cos I really didn't wanna sweat cos I'll be out for dinner/ supper too although I'll def make a trip to Golden Mile soon to try the ROC pizza, Ice Queen and Belgian waffles!!

there was a recent article in the Sunday Times about how all these non Indian eateries are popping up all over Little India and diluting the Indian culture there...i totally disagree cos these places add a dash of vibrancy to that area and its not as if the Indian culture is that easy to dilute lol

Situated along Syed Alwi which is this lane of traffic (and PARKING!) madness alongside Mustafa (which I havent entered before - there's a new Mustafa building -which has no snacks!! -beside the older Mustafa ), Cafe Salivation is this new chic and GIRLY (wallpaper screams pink everywhere) cafe offers a smorgasbord of Western vegeterian fare - pasta, sandwiches, burgers, wraps. Some of the food has some Indian influences - spices, although there was no curries nor Indian-named dishes like Idli or rice dishes.

Mezze Platter - Cream Cheese Pate, Tsatziki(raita), and Hummus

Served with Pita bread $7

We started off with this Mezze platter which I always order in a middle eastern restaurant. I love the fact that the Pita bread was toasted and nicely warm.

The cream cheese pete (the orange one on the right) was new for me, and this tasted quite like Philadelphia cheese with an onion aftertaste.. there was red bits which we were trying to figure out what they were.

the Tsatziki is actually a yoghurt (the white one on the left) - another first pairing bread with yoghurt for me (always granola and yoghurt!)

the Hummus (the middle dip) was the best, although there was quite a large proportion of olive oil in it! We mopped up every bit of this, with the fries and burger bread which was in our Soya burger.

Soya Burger - spicy soya granules formed into patties and seasoned with spices $5

Being fans of soya beans (and I a burger fan!) we couldnt resist choosing this - although the manager recommended the feta cheese burger. well we concluded...always follow the manager's opinion =P we couldn't really taste much of the soya beans as it was overwhelmed by the curry spiciness and in the end it tasted like a fried curry potato cutlet =P a first for me trying a vegeterian burger man, can't fathom burgers without the meat patties.. i can never figure out how people can order the Portabello cheese burger from Relish man..

although there's this tempeh burger that was featured in the same Sunday times article, this cafe in Little India called Food03 that offers this...sounds interesting!

Enchiladas Remo

Tortillas stuffed with stirfried vegetables and topped with tomato sauce, white cheese sauce and baked in the oven $7

Enchiladas is a Mexican dish and this turned out to be the best dish - maybe cos we are fans of anything that has flour and cheese and tomatoes ie pizza. but i must say the vegetables, despite being stirfried, retained its crunchiness and they added some raw red capsicum as well, so it went well with the tortillas that was softened with the cheeses and tomato sauces.

in honour of dr annapoorna...
we were bored with walking around Mustafa so we went off to our usual threading place Vanessa along Buffalo road and we decided to henna our backs (although the plan was to henna the legs) ..the dye requires a down time of 30 minutes at least to dry and because we were in a rush to get back to KK by 430... it was hilarious because in an effort not to smudge the tattoos and not to kena my car seats..we didnt belt up and we were leaning forward during our entire speedy drive back! crossing our fingers the entire time the lecturer was gonna be late - and i couldnt not go cos i unfortunately attended his morning clinic.

the dye will actually peel off leaving a brownish stain on your skin and lasts up till 7 days..K and i thought it'll be interesting if we go tanning and we'd have interesting tan lines but since I don't go under the sun now, K will tell me if it works!

then for dinner, i continued onto Space @My Humble House for dinner with short and doms..short and i were very amused by this sign in Esplanade.

been wanting to try out this place after ian raved about their fish soup and m raved about the lamb bakuteh, which is possibly the only bakuteh i can ever eat (despite the fact that i can just buy the herb off the shelves and cook with whatever meat i want).

Oh yes this place has the dumb NO PHOTOGRAPHY policy too (bad reviews?copycats??) i mean, whats wrong with photography?? its publicity all the same (good or bad, still publicity means some talk about your restaurant) and copycats are the best form of flattery anyway. but still managed to get some shots, despite being eyed by the waitress in her very short short qipao blouse. the waitresses from the more expensive humble house have skirts with slits all the way to the hip bone man, must be incredibly stressful being a waitress there being careful not to zaogeng all the time (or maybe they have instructions otherwise, shudders).

we ordered these 3 items...there were 3 more items behind but we didnt order those...

Rice Noodles with fish fillet - Crisp fried fish fillet, salted vegetables, tomatoes, coriander, lettuce, spring onions and fried onions with rice noodles in a fish consomme, $12

this was nat's. well I'm always eating fish soup with rice and since this was highly recommended by ian i tried some of the soup but alas, the fish soup was tainted by the sour twang from the zealous addition of tomato. tried the fried fish too but again it was nondescript. I prefer the Jinhua fish soup rice over at Maxwell Market, anytime.

Claypot rice in Consomme $12

Fragrant Jasmine rice is simmered with crabmeat, shrimp, scallops, straw and shiitake mushrooms and quail eggs, in a chicken consomme, sprinkled with fried onions and coriander

this was dom's and was the favourite dish of the night. the stock was flavourful - soaking up the seafood and chicken essences thoroughly. there was a generous serving of seaweed too, and it tasted oh so good with the soup and rice. the prawn was crunchy too. no wonder dom wanted this all to herself!

Rack of lamb bak kut teh $ 14

Airflown from New Zealand, the most tender and succulent baby lamb rack is cooked with mushrooms and Chinese herbs in a Bak Kut Teh broth and served with rice and kailan

This was mine. I like lamb alot, and the only other time I had lamb soup outside was at Foo House when I tried the Irish lamb stew. This was the Bak Kut Teh version of lamb soup, and the soup was also robust with the distinct lamb taste (but not to the point of being overly muttony). The lamb was quite tender too but it was rather small!! just 2 small pieces of lamb chop. definitely not enough meat. I soaked the rice (garnished with fried shallots and spring onions) in soup and it was warm, comfort food =) herbal soups really remind me of my grandma's cooking.

and because I left my week's worth of painstakingly handwritten notes in the MO room at KK..i drove back to KKH again crossing every possible finger i have cos i was so scared i wont find it!! im a horrible driver when im stressed so luckily i made it there in one piece...and after that we decided to cover ANOTHER place in Little India in the Sunday Times article - so yay 2 places conquered in a day!!- Cafe Domus which opens from 7 pm to 3am on Friday nights. Perfect for the late night supper...and desserts and drinks.

This place is really VERY ulu..its at Owen Road and at night (and at little india) it can be quite scary cos its totally desserted (no pun intended...read on). There are only shophouses there and plenty of lorries and suspicious looking cars. We almost wanted to run off to UDDERS (but I forgot what time it closes) but luckily I didn't because I found a gem in this quaint hangout.

gorgeous lights and pretty pinkish flowery wallpaper galore.. M actually told me that this place is a hippie homofriendly place but i totally forgot because I was so excited about the dessert offerings here. nonetheless, great music, boardgames and cards - great for a late night chilling out with the girls.

After Chong arrived ( and we alr decided before she did =P and dom found a fried food partner in crime) - and her strange request to have a pot of Earl Grey tea meant we ordered 2 sets of desserts (the desserts paired up with tea) and another ala-carte order of 2 scoops of ice cream.

Chocolate Pecan Pie - with I-scream, $9

This was the favourite of the night. The pecan nuts were plentiful and the chocolate was chewy. We had this with Nutella delight with oreos ice cream.

Cheese cake (Ferroro Rocher) $8.50

You should know by now that we are big fans of Gianduja or hazelnut flavoured chocolate. The cheese centre was really dense, and there was more chocolate brownie covering than cheesecake, and we thought it'd be better still if it was paired up with an icecream. A rather heavy going cake but delicous nonetheless. The black cherry cheesecake seemed interesting too, shall try that the next time i return.

2 scoops of I-Scream - Mrs Smith, Nutty Peanut Butter $6.20

I liked the nutty peanut butter alot, it was creamy but i wished there was more nuts! I actually found the apple flavoured Mrs Smith yummy as well, despite not liking sour ice creams much. The apple flavour was distinct, but not overtly sour like real green apples ( i hate those)

Oh the I-scream here is from Ice cream chefs. Anyone care to share the scoop prices as compared to the main branch? here there is no ice cream teppanyaki concept though, that is the trademark of Ice cream chefs in the east.

and every monday they have a i-scream buffet from 7pm to midnight and judgin by how much we enjoyed the ice cream here we'd definitely be back. It costs $10 per person and bookings are essential according to owners Fred and Jacq who say that they are usually full on Monday nights.

This place serves fried savoury platters as well, and M says their alcoholic drinks are potent. We had 2 pots of tea - Earl Grey and Cranberry infused tea. We should have tried their coffee liquer because all their combinations of coffee and liquer sound really good!

This place gives a real homely vibe. There is an alfresco area behind, and the layout is like that of a pebble garden (bamboo trees, minimal lighting..you get the idea) and there is a balcony area that is only open for private(hmmmmms....) events.

Even the desserts are home made. Jac's mom bakes the chocolate pecan pie and Fred's friend's mother bakes the cheesecakes. Oh it is my dream to own such a lovely hangout which opens only at 7 pm - imagine everyday waking up so late!! My friends don't think so though, they think that by the time the Cafe opens there will be nothing left to sell. Oh well.

Cafe Salivation 75 Syed Alwi Road

Space @ My Humble House 寒舍一隔 8 Raffles Avenue #02-25 Esplanade Mall

Cafe Domus 124 Owen Road