I was chatting with a friend over instant messenger the other day and she asked if making ice cream using liquid nitrogen is popular in Singapore. I thought for a while. I have only see them made at the Singapore Science Centre during the annual Science Week.
Are there such an ice cream place in Singapore? I search online using my favourite search engine and found 2 places in Singapore. One was a kiosk operator and have it for special order, the other is 320 Below Nitro Cream Cafe at Mackenzie Road.
How interesting. The geek in me thought I must go see it in action. I was picturing mad scientists in white mixing liquid nitrogen into milk and flavourings. The ice cream person in me was craving for some ice cream, so I asked the wife if she's game to try some.
We are working in different parts of Singapore and thought taking the MRT would be the best option since we found that it's just beside Little India Station. Take Exit A and you would see this place.
A very 'kiddy place', but welcoming. First thing you see won't be the menu, but the 4 Kithen Aid mixers! Can't make it too obvious that I just want to see how the ice cream was made.
The other wall is full of paper cups filled with cute drawings.
Here's a zoom in of the menu that's from the top photo. It says introductory prices for a limited period. I am not sure until when though.
It took both KopiKosongGirl and I a full 5 minutes to select the flavours that each of us want. Don't worry. The guys at the counter are too too busy, they won't bother you to hurry up. ;-)
I chose Salted Caramel and KopiKosongGirl chose Peanut Butter.
The ice cream lady finally had a pause after finishing other orders and she took our orders.
(Techies out there, they are using iPad for the cash register here. Just like a few other new establishments like Carpenter and Cook)
I asked the lady if I could take photos, she said sure, but if I want her face, it's in the newspapers. She said something like that. Shhh... I was just interested to take the machines, but I did not say that to her.
Earlier when I placed my order, I said I wanted Salted Caramel. The lady taking my order suggested I had it with honeycomb. It's a great combi she said. I said sure. It does sound good!
For Peanut Butter, her partner which is the other guy also busy with the other 2 machines, said Oreo goes well with Peanut Butter. Again, we said: Sure, why not?
We were sitting down waiting for our orders and enjoyed looking at how they make ice cream in front of us. They have containers of probably cream and other stuff
already weighted in metal measuring cups. When they are making our ice cream, they mix the pre-measured stuff in, added whatever flavours we want in, measured some fresh milk and added it into the
KitchenAid Mixing Bowl.
They turn on the mixer and then turn on the tap for liquid nitrogen to flow into the mixing bowl. A few seconds of it and the whole place fills up with smoke-like cold mist.
Quite clever of them to have changing lights!
After a while, the ice cream is ready! They then had to scrap the ice cream out from the metal bowls. It looks like hard work! They seem quite busy and they must be quite tired with all the scraping and washing of the mixing bowls!
The other two mixing bowls. I wonder why KitchenAid and not Bosch or Kenwood. (I am a fan of Bosch and Kenwood haha)
Probably of the colours of KitchenAid mixers?
Here's my Salted Caramel with Honeycomb.
The ice cream was quite smooth and creamy. It has a nice feel in the mouth, no big crystals and definitely not icy feel. They got the chemistry right and the ice cream taste good in your mouth. The honeycomb gave it a nice sweet crunch. Good recommendation!
This was KopiKosongGirl's Peanut Butter with Oreos.
As KKG is a peanut butter fan, we recognised the peanut butter brand they used. We saw the bottle and the cap and recognise it even thought they have rip off the labels. It's the smooth version of it.
The texture is nice, but not as smooth as the salted caramel I had. It's still quite good. Sweet and a bit salty, it's a nice mix too. A good combination too. The other suggestion was I think tequila with peanut butter.
Some interesting things that you can read while you are waiting for your ice cream.
We thought for $4.50, it's a good price. Most ice cream shops sells it for the same price or more. This is freshly made too. So if you are a ice cream person or some scientist wanna be, this is a nice place to have some ice cream and see the 'science experiment' in action.
I won't say their ice cream is superior to other shops. Ice cream make the old fashion way can be much better if made correctly. I make ice cream at home, so I know that ice cream do need some curing time in the freezer to taste richer. It all depends on your ingredients, skills and practice.
This is a fun way of having your ice cream. The taste is good and price is quite fair. I will go back again though. The 'fun' factor is there. I want to try their sorbet and frozen yoghurts.
Now, I feel like getting liquid nitrogen at home to make this. If I do, my ice cream machine at home will be in hibernation mode for some time. LOL.
320 Below Nitro Cream Cafe
33 Mackenzie Road
#01-01
Singapore 228686
We were visiting a friend who got a new place at the Joo Chiat area. A very nice and cosy place in a very relaxed neighborhood too! After chatting a while, we went walking around the area before we head off for a makan outing.
Jon our friend says he has been addicted to this gelato place and thinks we would all love it. He's very right.
We found out some bad and good news though. The bad news to Jon and the nearby residents, they are moving out of Joo Chiat.
The good news for the rest of us, they are moving to a more central location! (My memory is getting bad, I think it's the Cantonment area if I remembered them correctly)
So many flavours. Jon said that the pistachio is good.
I glanced around and noticed that they are a chocolate place. (The name tells it! haha). It seems they are one of the few companies in Singapore that offers chocolates from single source cocoa beans.
(go do an online search about single source cocoa if you are interested)
This lady (no she said she's not the boss) is a funny lady.
Jon must have been there so often, the lady insist on serving him. She asked the younger boy to serve me instead. Jon's a handsome chap and the lady calls him my Handsome Boy No. 1.
We had 3 other ladies with us, and when they say only one handsome or pretty one around, she said to me: "OK lah, you are number 2. First time here, cannot be No. 1."
She looked at me again, ya, not as handsome as Jon, but can lah, I give you a No 1 title. No. 1A ok? First position still to Jon. *roll eyes*
I had the Dark Chocolate and Pistachio.
Yup, the chocolate was quite intense, the choc bitterness that I like and some sweetness to it.
The pistachio, oh, how do you describe pistachio? Go to their shop and ask for a sampling!
Texture wise, it might look rough on the photo, but it was really smooth and creamy when it touches your tongue. The sweetness according to my taste buds is just nice for me.
(Maybe I should invest in a refractometer and bring it to all the ice cream and desserts places that I go to so that I can give a scientific measurement of sweetness to my posts!)
You can also order a waffle cone if you like cones.
Shh... we realised something amongst the 5 of us.
If you are on a diet, opt for the cone, it has less gelato in it. (Get the hint?)
Chocolato
154 Joo Chiat Road
Singapore 427432
Tel: 6497 7358
The long weekend is coming and thought this post would be useful to those who plan to have a gathering of family and friends over some good BBQ.
This was a BBQ Party that I went quite some time ago! The folks from HungryBBQ (Zac and wife Carol) invited a few of us over to try out their kind of BBQ. I think it's how modern day BBQ should be, which was quite a memorable indeed!
Why? It was probably one of the tastiest BBQ I had in quite a while.
Most of us have been attending BBQ that are mediocre. That's because our friends or we ourselves are not doing it daily. So our meats are not properly marinated. Our marinate is either too sweet or too salty. Or the marinates makes the meat get charred too easily.
Some of you are very good in 'controlling the fire', but most of us just 'can't make it'. I only know of 1 friend who does it very well, if he's bbq-ing the food, most of us would turn up!
If you host a BBQ, it can be super tiring too. I remember helping mum prepare and we would be dead tired when everyone's gone home. There should be a simpler way right?
The HungryBBQ.com website has everything you need to plan a successful and delicious party. Pick the ingredients you want, everything you need to have a successful BBQ, you can order it on that website. You can even hire a BBQ Cook! Yes, someone who knows exactly how to BBQ food properly!
Of all the service, I think their BBQ Cook service ($90 for 3 hours, additional hours at $15/hour) is a most important service to engage!With them around, leave them to do the cooking and you entertain your guests and/or eat and drink with them.
If you live near Jalan Tua Kong, you can pick up your orders during their physical shop opening hours. If not, click on their website anytime of the day to order, and you orders will be delivered in these boxes.
The reason why the BBQ party was memorable because of the BBQ Cook service! That night we had Zac, the HungryBBQ guy himself cooking for us. (We were told the rest of the guys who BBQ the food are equally good!)
No need to labour over the hot fire for food. We just sat down on the table and slowly savour the BBQ food right off the barbie.
Guess what? Told you they provide anything BBQ right? You can even buy or rent the BBQ Grills from their website. You can buy disposable BBQ pits at $8 or buy something like the ones above for $650. You can also rent BBQ grills from $60-$90. Check out their website for details.
These were the cheese portobellos. $12 / 5 pcs.
Are you a mushroom fan?
Look at these chicken wings. The wings were so nicely done, a slight char to give it a nice BBQ smell and the meat inside were tender and juicy.
When we asked about the marinate, they said it's a trade secret. One thing for sure, it tasted very good.
They are halal certified, so the marinates have no wine/alcohol in them.
These were the Herb Butter Baby Asparagus.
Probably the only veggies we had that night! We were carnivores that night.
BBQ Meats... This was I think the NZ Airflown Ribeye Steak.
Still tender and slightly pink inside, you would not do that if your meats are not fresh right?
The BBQ Cook will prepare it the way you want it.
The Southern BBQ Sirloin Steak. Don't you feel like biting into it now?
It's been sometime and I can't recall the taste of their Southern BBQ Marinade. Maybe I should order some.
Let's talk a bit about Zac. Remember Curry Favor Japanese Kitchen @ Stamford House? Zac was the managing director/executive chef there for 7 years. It was one place that served very good Japanese curry until it was closed in 2010 because the landlord took back the building for redevelopment.
Maybe one of these days, Curry Favor might be back or maybe BBQ with Japanese Curry?
The market fresh large prawns they have. They also have small and medium prawns too.
They have a nice range of seafood too.
The sambal sotong in foil.
Looks good ya?
The Herb Pepper Salmon Steak was really really nice. It was just so soft and melt in your mouth inside. The seasoning was just nice for this slab of salmon. We remembered this dish because it was so delicious.
One of the things that you should order is their raw satay, ready to be BBQ-ed.
Take a look at their website to see the choices of meats and you can choose the cooked or raw ones.
Someone put his hand out just I was taking this photo. I think it was Leroy's hand! He wanted to show how big the satays were. Can you imagine how big it is? It's just so satisfying eating satay in a big stick and even better when it's right off the heat and the marinates for the meat was nice.
Depends on the quantity and types of meat, each satay is around 60-75 cents, they are kinda worth it right?
More meats! They were feeding us so many types of meat they sell on their website.
Here's the Herb Black Pepper Chicken Fillet.
One of the memorable meats were these. Kalbi, korean style beef short ribs.
Oh, these were so so delicious. I notice they are not on the website anymore. You could call or email them and see if they still have it. Maybe special orders from them. They are really flexible. Just give them enough time to prepare it.
I can't get enough of this! I like it because korean style short ribs are so tender and yet near the bones, they are a little chewy/tough. I love to clean up the meat near the bones and have a nice clean tera drop like clean bone on my plate.
Speaking of plates, if you order from them, they are able to supply bio-degradable cornware.
They also have cooked food too.
For desserts that night, we tasted a ice cream from a new ice cream place that has set up shop at Serangoon Ave 2. It's called Ice Scream Singapore!
Their ice cream is made from fresh ingredients. Their rules for making ice cream are No essence, No artificial flavouring and No preservatives.
HungryBBQ.com 57 Jalan Tua Kong Singapore 457253 Tel: 62432243 Website HungryBBQ.com hours: Opens 24/7 Outlet hours: 10am - 6pm daily |  |
Ice Scream Singapore 301 Serangoon Ave 2 #01-328 Singapore 550310 |  |
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.
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 |  |
Have you seen the Häagen-Dazs bus in the city? Circling from Esplanade to Orchard Road and back again? Do you know that the people on board the open top double decker bus get to indulge in free-flowing Häagen-Dazs ice cream, gourmet chocolates and bubbly champagne?
Do you want to get on it as well? If you do, you got to hurry up! Only 900 pairs of tickets will be given out!
How to get a pair of tickets? Head down to any of the 13 Häagen-Dazs cafes across Singapore and spend $50 (Dine-in only, before service charge and GST) to receive two complimentary tickets to the bus. There will be three rides a day at 7pm, 8pm and 9 pm from 19 November 2011 to 4 December 2011. Each Häagen-Dazs Journey of Indulgence will start and end at Häagen-Dazs Esplanade cafe, going around the CBD area then go under the Orchard Road Christmas lights.
I went up the bus few days ago, courtesy of Häagen-Dazs and Word of Mouth Communications.
Here's my experience of the ride.
Journey starts at the Häagen-Dazs cafe at Esplanade.
A funvee open top bus has been transformed into a Häagen-Dazs bus!
Ain't it cool? (literally!)
Guys, surprise your wife or girlfriend or mother or 'partner'!
Gals, you can do the same.
I have only been to Open Top buses in Paris and not tried the ones in Singapore, so this was a good chance to try it the ones in Singapore. One that is 'free' in a way and serves you food and drinks!
Only on the preview night that Sara Wee will sing to entertain those on the bus. ;-)
On the normal nights, Christmas music will be played on board.
The part that I have been waiting for. Free flow of Häagen-Dazs ice cream served to us.
(photo taken using mobile phone)
Champagne too if you want. If not, water is also served and they were served by Singaporean Santarinas.
(photo taken using mobile phone)
Cheers!
(photo taken using mobile phone)
Oh yes, chocolates were served too. Delicious gourmet chocolates!
(photo taken using mobile phone)
The ride was fun! It was a nice cool night and it was lovely to be on that ride.
The ride ended around 45 minutes later. It was quite an interesting experience. The ride was slow and smooth. It's only on this ride that you hope there is traffic jam so that you can have a longer ride!
The Christmas Lights seemed so different when you are so up high and you go right below it! The lights are already on and it's wonderful.
