Girls’ Day Out with Häagen-Dazs

Have you been to Häagen-Dazs recently?
I was at the Holland Village shop and realised it has been decked up a bit!
There are quite little sidewalk lights and pink banners around!




A few guys (including me) were seen gate-crashing at Häagen-Dazs Holland Village for their Girls' Day Out launch.

The folks at Häagen-Dazs has a menu specially for the girls from now till end of May. I am not sure if they were the first, but my first moon cake ice cream more than 10 years ago was the ones by them. Now they have Ice Cream Macaroons!



High Tea Affair ($38++)

Called the "High Tea Affair", instead of cakes and pastries, there are 3 mini scoops each of Cookie Dough Chip, Belgian Chocolate and Strawberry ice cream on the top layer.

The middle layer you have a choice of 6 delicate ice cream macaroons.
On the bottom layer, pieces of kiwis, raspberries and grapes.

How do I find it? It's something really different. It's ice cream all over instead of sugar, egg whites and almond power with sweet fillings. To me, it's less sweet than the usual macaroons.


Macaroon Mélange ($18++)

If you just want the macaroons, you can order the Macaroon Melange. It's a platter with just the ice cream macaroons.

You can take a look at how the 'brochure' version looks at their Facebook Page.
Five assorted ice cream macaroons containing creamy, luscious ice cream and Chantilly cream encased in a chocolate shell, served with mango sauce and garnished with almond nibs and strawberries.



For those who wants to bring the treats back for their love ones, they have a gift box too!


I can't help giggling when I saw the above frame. It just reminded me of a British royalty who had that on her head during a royal wedding! You know who I am talking about right?



Petite Temptations  ($18++)

If you are or were a fan or the Cookie Dough Chip flavour, you might be interested in the above. Balls of vanilla ice cream with buttery cookie dough and sweet fudge chips. It's slightly smaller than the size of a golf ball. It rests on a cookie and drizzled with mango and chocolate sauce.

I find the macaroons interesting. You got to eat it fast though. Ours melted rather quickly. That doesn't mean you can't have long conversations between the girls. A coffee or tea will carry the conversation longer.

Available at all Häagen-Dazs shop in Singapore from 27th March 2012 to 31st May 2012.

Tom Kitchen @ Bukit Timah Food Centre

It's the same question most of us will be asking our partners/dining mates.
What shall we have for lunch/dinner?

KopiKosongGirl has been saying she calls the "Ngee Ann Poly kind of western food" and price. Don't want the modern western / modern european / european fusion thing. In my head, I interpret it as the hawker centre' kind of western food.

One Sunday after church, we walked over Bukit Timah Food Centre to satisfy her craving.
There are 2 stalls there that serves Western Food. We went to Tom Kitchen because the lady is always more courteous and smiles.

We kind of like the food, KopiKosongGirl says it bloggable, so here it is....




The Chicken Chop ($4.50).
Nice crispy on the outside chicken chop with thick crinkle fries. The sauce was at the bottom and not all over it.


I asked the lady which is nice to eat, and she recommended their Bake Rice ($5).
There were options for the meat and I had the chicken baked rice.


We noticed their version here is more saucy. It's wet and the sauce was quite tasty too. The tangy taste from the tomato sauce. The meat was quite generous too.

I like my rice with lots of sauce. If you are hungry when you are around the area, you can give them a try. Heard their fried rice is nice, so probably will order them the next time!


Tom Kitchen
Stall #02-169
116 Upper Bukit Timah Road
Bukit Timah Market & Food Centre
Singapore 588172

Hours: 12 noon to 10 pm daily except Mondays.

Cooking with Chefs from DoubleTree by Hilton, Kuala Lumpur @ ToTT Cooking Studio Singapore

I was recently invited to a Cooking Workshop by one of the PR firm representing Doubletree by Hilton. The cooking class / workshop was conducted by two chefs who came all the way from "Makan Kitchen", Doubletree by Hilton's signature restaurant with 350 seats located at Level 11.

Talking about Hilton, my colleagues and I know exactly how many Hiltons are there in Malaysia. I have a colleague (we nickname him Miles in the office!) who is a frequent flyer miles and hotel points collector! 'Miles' happens to be a Hilton Honors member and he tries all his might to retain his Gold membership level. I am sure you have read about points and miles junkies, 'Miles' happen to be a real life person that does that!
 During our lunch time, 'Miles' will be talking about Hiltons in the places he will visit for his next holiday. If you are familiar with the Hilton Honors program, you will know that there are certain stays you need to fulfill to retain your membership level. The cheapest way to get those few nights will be in Hilton Malaysia if you are living in Singapore!

So, do you know how many Hiltons are there in Malaysia? 4 Hiltons and now 1 Doubletree by Hilton hotel. I was once like 'Miles' but probably with just 1/8 of his enthusiasm. I was once a Gold Member too and with that I got free upgrades to the Executive Floor and yes, free flow of food and drinks and somehow they address you by your family name! I have stayed a few times in both PJ Hilton and Hilton Kuching, once at Hilton Batang Ai Longhouse, probably the most unique Hilton in the world!

Now in Kuala Lumpur, there is the DoubleTree by Hilton, which is one of the many brands of the Hilton group. For foodies who loves to go for Hotel Buffets, if you happen to be in KL, visit the Makan Kitchen. This locally inspired restaurant serves six different kinds of local cuisines, Malay, Chinese, Indian, Peranakan, and even Kristang and Iban delights!



Our teachers for that night, Chef Prem Kumar from Ipoh and Chef de Cuisine Ahmad Nurul Azri from Selangor.

We always see chefs wearing white chef hats, but these guys are all in black! I was naughty and asked them who is taking care of the kitchen there? They have an army of chefs there taking care of things. Do you know they prepare over 150 local dishes across 3 interactive kitchens? I am so interested to try the Kristang (mixed cuisine of the Portuguese-Malaccan community) and Iban cuisines!

Two dishes that are available from Makan Kitchen were demonstrated first by the chefs and with the ingredients in front of our own cooking stations, we replicated it. There was a competition too which we only found out when we were about to cook. 'Oh oh...' I thought in my mind. There's a lady, Mak-Fly on the front station that we found out is a cooking teacher! Two person whom I know cooks really well,  Maameemoomoo and CookSnapEatLove were there too. I also know DanielFoodDiary and Aimakan cooks too! There were people I already know that was there. There were others!

Ketam Masak Lemak

Chef Azri told us this dish is a very simple dish and it originated from Negeri Sembilan. The original recipe had fewer ingredients. Here's the recipe:


Ingredients (for 10 persons serving):
Flower crabs (cut into half) 400 gm
Coconut Milk 90 ml
Water 40 ml
Turmeric leaves, thinly sliced 15 gm
Tamarind, peeled 12gm
Lemongrass 10 gm
Tomato 1 


To blend/pound:
Turmeric, fresh 25gm
Bird eye chilli (cili padi) 30gm
Shallots (optional) 15 gm
Galangal (optional) 10gm
Green chilli (optional) 10gm


Guess what? Everyone had a blender on their station and I had none! They ran out it. Since Chef demonstrated the dish using the stone mortar and pestle, I went to grab one too. I did not want to waste time waiting for the rest to finish using theirs.


Oh man.. hard work! Pounding ingredients can be so tiring!

It was even more tiring as I was cooking and taking all these photographs at the same time? One with a DSLR and the same photos on the iPhone which some of you might have seen the photos appearing live on Instagram and Twitter while I cooked!



In a pot, put in the blended ingredients, lemongrass, water and crabs and let it simmer for about 2 to 3 minutes. We noticed there was no oil was used. The chef said there was no need to!



While the crabs were simmering, thinly cut the turmeric leaves.
I seldom see turmeric leaves, but you can buy them from the wet markets.



I also cut the tomatoes first and I did not used up all the cili padi that was provided. It would be crazily spicy to used them all up!



Throw in the tamarind first and after a while, put in the thinly sliced turmeric leaves. The moment the leaves went in, a fragrant smell whiffs up! I can remember the smell as I look at this photo now.



The tomatoes are supposed to be for garnish in the recipe, but I prefer cooked tomatoes so I threw them in.

When chef came to 'inspect', he added more water in to my pot. It seems the heat was too high and the sauce has evaporated quite a bit. More sauce is needed because there's still the coconut milk to go in.

Add in the coconut milk and some salt, pepper to taste. A tiny bit of sugar and stock powder is optional. Let it cook for 3-4 minutes.



Here it is, the dish I whipped up. The sauce is a bit milky and light tasting.
Looks good? I used the leftover ingredients to 'decorate' the dish.

It's so simple, you can try it at home.
If it's too hassle, head to Makan Kitchen to eat lah.....

Jingga Malai

Next to demonstrate for us was Chef Prem and his creation the Jingga Malai. When we saw the ingredients and see him preparing it, we were all kind of salivating! The marinate was so good to eat it by itself! This dish goes very well with biryani rice or naan bread.


After we watch the chef, it was our turn to try. The ingredients on my cooking station.

Ingredients (for 10 persons serving):
Tiger prawns 22 pieces


Marinate:
Cumin powder 15gm
Garam masala 15 gm
Lime Juice 10 ml
Plain yoghurt 100 gm
Salt 35 gmBlack Pepper 10 gm

To Blend:
Cooking cream 70 ml
Cream Cheese 100 gm
Ginger, cleaned 25 gm
Red onion, peeled 30 gm
Garlic, peeled 10 gm
Bird eye chilli 15 gm



I shared the blender with Jacob from CookSnapEatLove. We put both our portions of ingredients and blended them. We then took half of it each.


A few pulze and this was it. It's cream cheese and I tell you it tasted really good just like this! With the cili padi, it's spicy and kind of addictive! Like having cili padi and spice ice cream!



Marinate the tiger prawns with the cumin powder, garam masala, black pepper, salt and lime juice.
The prawns were 'butterflied' so that it won't curl when it's cooked.


The blended marinate, massaged it all in! Wrap the naked prawn with these cream cheese blend! As much as you like! Though the chef says not too much, it might not look too pretty when it's cooked.


Marinate it for 45 minutes. We did not have time to wait, we waited 5 minutes and off it went into the oven that had been pre-heated at 190 C! Bake the prawns for between 8 to 12 minutes. Baking time depends on the size of your prawns.


This was how I plated my dish. Used the leftover turmeric leave as the base to give it some green.
When you bake the prawns, you will notice the prawn juice and lots of extra browned cream cheese sauce. Mix them up and you can have a 'dip' that taste nicer.
(The idea was from Jacob. He was even better by adding super fine lemon zest into the dip.)


The other view of the prawn. The prawn juice was oozing out and it looked kind of pretty, which was not planned but probably earned some brownie points for deco / plating. 


Guess what? I won the cooking competition for the night.
Both the chefs thought my 'replication' of the dish tasted the most authentic and the plating was neat and clean too.

The prize was a 2 night stay at Doubletree by Hilton Kuala Lumpur!
Thank you chefs for picking me! I am going to visit the Makan Kitchen! I bought my air tickets!

For the coming holidays, if you are heading to Kuala Lumpur, why not try out Makan Kitchen?
You can choose from a selection of local delights from the a la carte menu or have the full Makan Kitchen Experience where you can savour over 150 local dishes.

The Full Makan Kitchen Experience is priced at:
Lunch: RM59++ per adult / RM29.50++ per child below 12 years old.
Dinner: RM79++ per adult / RM39.50++ per child below 12 years old.

On weekends, there's the Malaysian High Tea with over 60 classic favourites, priced at:
RM45++ per adult / RM22++ per child below 12 years old.
More info at www.makan-kitchen.com

Doubletree by Hilton Kuala Lumpur The Intermark 182 Jalan Tun Razak 50400 Kuala Lumpur Malaysia Tel: +603 2171 7272 Email: KULDT.Doubletreekl@hilton.com Web: www.kl.doubletreebyhilton.com

Invite Mr Wright debuts 29 March 2012 @ TLC Asia - Starhub Channel 427

Do you recognise him? Yes, it's Ian Wright!

The Singapore heat might be a tad too much for dear host of "Invite Mr Wright". However, that's not bothering this globetrotting host. He was in Singapore to promote his show,  "Invite Mr Wright 2". If you watch the first series, he went to a few countries, including our neighbouring countries and stayed with families and immersed himself in the local way of life.


Fortunate enough to chat with Ian at Sky on 57, Marina Bay Sands recently.

In the first series, he visited Singapore and stayed with local actress and DJ, Vernetta Lopez.
In this second series, he is visiting Singapore again! Can you guess who he is staying with?



This photo tells it all! Vernetta whose family Ian stayed with in Series 1.

In the "Invite Mr Wright 2", he will be the guest of celebrity chef Justin Quek. Justin invites Ian to spend a week at his restaurant, Sky on 57, located on top of the iconic Marina Bay Sands Hotel.



A photo taken using Canon cameras, Ian's adventure in Sapa in Vietnam.

Other locations that Ian will visited in Series 2 are Okinawa Japan, Sumatra Indonesia, Darwin Australia, Sapa Vietnam, Rumtek Monastery India and Singapore.

Watch him with the Ryuku FC in Okinawa, discovers what it means to be a monk etc.



I thought this photo is rather interesting and I took a shot of it.

It's silly, but I used my Canon DSLR to take a photo of a photo taken using Canon camera!

INVITE MR WRIGHT 2 premieres: Every Thursday at 2200 hrs (10:00 p.m.) On TLC (Starhub Channel 27) Starting 29 March 2012. Encores every Sunday at 2100 hrs (9:00 p.m.)

The Sleeping Rhino @ Klapsons The Boutique Hotel

This was an HungryGoWhere.com invite to taste the food at The Sleeping Rhino at Klapsons the Boutique Hotel.

What an unique name! The Sleeping Rhino? We were hosted by Belda from Klapsons and she said the name and the initial TSR sounds cool. The hotel itself is really cool too! When you enter the building you will see a big sphere as the reception area. Try walking into it and ask the service staff something. Why? Try it and you will find out!

Out of curiosity, I did an online search to find out how long does a Rhino sleep each day. A rhino sleeps about 8 hours a day!


The tasting menu for the night. Eaten last week.


If you are a bread person, the bread roll here might just make you really happy.
It's warm to the slightly hot side. It was also really soft inside. The roll had sun dried tomatoes and I ate it without butter. It was very good by itself.



One of the signature dishes is the Avocado, Mango and Prawn Salad.

This was the tasting portion. Normal serving size is huge and could be a dish itself, great for lunches for those working around this area. ($16.50 for full portion)

The mango was sweet and it goes well with the leaves, avaocado and prawns. Great idea mixing some sweet soft fruits into salads. I usually don't have dressing for my salads. The slight drizzle of the balsamic dressing does gives it a slight sweetish and slighty tart flavour to it.



Roasted Mushroom Soup. Normal serving ($9.50)
Roasting the mushroom makes it more fragrant. You can tell from the colour that it's not the pale cream coloured mushroom soup. What a rich luscious colour!

The first mouth will give you a 'I want more of this' thought in your head. It's not the thick kind of soup. The viscosity of the soup is what I describe like melted ice cream. The truffle oil of course gives it an extra aroma. So if you soup the type of consistency I described, this is your kind of soup.

If you did keep some of your rolls, it goes well with the soup!



Macademia Crusted Salmon Fillet. (Normal portion $22.50)

This was KopiKosongGirl's main course. She liked the macademia crust on top which she said gives it a nice bite and touch to the usual salmon.

Did not really taste it, so I can't give you more description about it. 
 


Double-cooked Pork Ribs
(Normal portion $26.50, which I was told is much more than what is already quite a huge chunk of meat that was served.)

This photo was taken without the chef's secret BBQ sauce over it yet. I have a soft spot for ribs. First the smell of pork ribs was one that makes you salivate immediately. I ate the first two ribs without the sauce first to taste how it is, and it was pretty good. The meat was tender, a gentle nudge with the fork and knife gets the meat off the bones.

I then tried it with the BBQ sauce. It was a slightly sweetish, slightly smokey and tangy sauce which was rather appetizing. The sauce is not thick kind, but is runny consistency of soft boiled egg yolks. I kept pouring it over the ribs when I was enjoying my ribs that Belda asked if I wanted to have another 'jug' of sauce! (There's more than enough sauce haha..)

With the soup and this sauce, I kinda of guess the chef does not like to thicken things up too much. So if you have similar kind of liking like me, you might like the chef's food. I know some of you folks prefer the thick gooey sticky kind of sauce over your ribs.



Berry Mousse Cheese Cake (Normal portion $9.50)
With the salad, soup and mains, most of us were quite stuffed. So we could not enjoy the dessert as much as we would like to.

I remember it as not being too cheesy and rich, which was good because we were quite stuffed. I remember the texture as very soft and creamy.



For drinks, I had this apple flavoured tea. A glass of tea with apple flavoured syrup in a cute little beaker.

My personal take, I did not really like the syrup. Not my cup of tea literally. I did not like the smell of the syrup, reminded me of ahem.., shall not mention it here. The tea itself without the syrup was nice though. I did notice something, the ice balls in the tea were made of the same tea! As you drink your tea, the tea does not get diluted!


If you work around this area, TSR have partnered with HGW to have quite good deals.
Visit the http://www.klapsons.com or http://www.hungrygowhere.com/ to look at their deals.

I walked around and saw that they have a Cold Buffet during lunch time. All-you-can-eat spread of appetisers, soup, salads and desserts for $26++ per pax.  There is also an option of adding a main course and coffee/tea at $38++ per pax.

The Sleeping Rhino 15 Hoe Chiang Road, Klapsons The Boutique Hotel, Singapore 089316 Hours: Mon to Sat - 7am to 10.30pm, Sun : 7am to 11am Tel: 6521 9001

Cold Stone Cremery @ Orchard Central

We got this voucher for Cold Stone Cremery from Far East Organisation  / Quincy Hotel since last year and we were thinking of an occasion to use it for someone's birthday.

When we finally wanted to use it for someone's birthday. It was meant to be a surprise cake for that person in our Care Group meet up, guess what, the Care Group was cancelled last minute! The cake had to be ordered 3 days in advanced, so we can't cancel the cake.

So the 3 of us at home celebrated 'someone's' birthday without the person around! It's so silly, but it was so fun at the same time. We were laughing at ourselves when we cut the cake at home for supper!


Probably the most delicious ice cream cake so far we have tasted.
It was the small round size we had.

The flavour's called Coffeehouse Crunch.


Layers of moist devil's food cake and coffee ice cream with Daim Bar, wrapped in rich fudge ganache.

Does that sound absolutely tempting?
We noticed they had lines on the cake, a bit like perforated paper, acting as a guide to cut the cake.


It's not ice cream the whole cake, but layers of Devil's Food Cake (i.e. Rich Chocolate Cake) and ice cream. That makes it easier to cut.

The 3 of us at home will now recommend this cake instead to people if they want to have ice cream cake!

Cold Stone Creamery 181 Orchard Road, Orchard Central #01-09/10, Singapore 238896 Hours: 11am – 11pm Daily Tel: 6238 9060

Maison Ikkoku Bar @ Kandahar Street

Some people leave office on the dot so they can pick up their kids.  Many of my colleagues do that!

Some leave work on the dot so that they can go exercise. I know more people doing this!

Some others have to work late because everyone in their company stay back just to show they are hardworking! It's true, I have friends that work in such company!

Some others leave work to meet up and enjoy a drinks of two with their friends or colleagues to network or to catch up. If you are in this category, lucky you! 

Here's one place that recently opened that might interest you.


(These 2 photos courtesy of Maison Ikkoku)

Maison Ikkoku recently opened up their Bar on the 3rd floor of the shophouse they occupy. It's 1000 sq feet in area space with a seating capacity for 45 pax. It has a nice cosy indoor place and a 'roof top' outdoor area too.

I was there recently to try out some of their MI Signature Cocktails.


MI2 - Passionate Moment is the name of this drink.

The server came and took out a lighter. The sprig of rosemary was set a flame. It's to extract the flavour of the herb. I can only smell a bit of it! LOL!


MI2 Passionate Moment is made from Fresh Passionfruit, Lemon, Rosemary, Gin, Vodka ($22).
It's made from Freshly Squeezed Juices! You might it's fruit juices when you have it until the alcohol hits you!



MI1 White French Maid is another of their signature MI cocktails. It's concocted with Coffee Liquor, French Caramel Liquor, Vodka, Fresh Milk and Coffee Beans ($25).

See the layers? The top layer of fresh milk that has been froth up and 'burnt' using a torch has a texture like marshmallows!

I am not much of a coffee person nor an alcoholic but KopiKosongGirl is! It's her kind of drink with alcohol added in! Coffee bean's the same one they used to brew their coffee on the ground floor.



The cocktail bar is helmed by Director of Bar Operations and Mixologies, Ethan Leslie Leong. He has over 18 years of experience in the food & beverage/hospitality industry as a bartender, consultant and mixologist.

Here he is mixing another glass of MI1 White French Maid.


We were chatting and I was looking at how Ethan made the drink.
That's not fresh cream, but fresh milk that has been froth up!



The Fabulous DianaV ($25)

MI’s mixologist Ethan has collaborated with three personalities to come up with their own bespoke cocktails.

- Renowned Show Producer Daniel Boey
- Award-winning Art Director Justin Long
- Home-grown singer-songwriter Aarika Lee

Looking at the ingredients of the drinks, I had Daniel Boey's The Fabulous DianaV. Ingredients were Red apple, Mint, Gin, Pomegranate, Lemon, Apple Liquor and Menthe-Pastile. It's nice!

These cocktails available for a limited time from now till October 2012 and each is priced at $25.



One of the interesting snack I had with the drinks is the Spam Fries!
Ooo, so salty and yet to addictive!

Maison Ikkoku Cocktail Bar 20 Kandahar Street Singapore 198885 Hours: Mon - Thu (6pm – 1am) Fri, Sat and Eve of Public Holiday (6pm – 2am). Closed on Sun. http://www.maison-ikkoku.net/