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

Mooncakes by Jewels Artisan Chocolate

Ding-dong! Ding-dong!

Our doorbell sounded and there's a guy outside with a nice little paper bag delivering a box of mooncakes to us! It's delivery from one of our top 5 places for macarons in Singapore.



A surprise from Jewels Artisan Chocolate.
It's not macarons this time, but Snow-Skin mooncakes!

A semi 3D style light green box was inside the package and in it there's 3 icy jewels!




The kind folks from Jewels Artisan Chocolate and Siriusart sent me 3 types of mooncakes to sample.



Hand made by the artisans from Jewels, these cold delights comes in limited quantity.

These mini snow skin mooncakes comes in boxes of 8 mooncakes, and prices are between $52.80 to $56.80. They have the traditional baked ones as well.


Now for the taste test:



Mini Snow-Skin Mooncake with Salted Caramel Truffle - $52.80 for a box of 8.

A ball of chocolate crust with salted caramel truffle inside, tasting slightly salty and sweet at the same time. The filling is smooth and velvety on the tongue.




Mini Snow-Skin Mooncake with Champagne Ganache Truffle - $53.80 for a box of 8.

A white chocolate ball with champagne ganache inside. It's a low sugar recipe, so it does not taste so sweet. When you open the package, a nice fragrance banana and champagne smell tempts you to want to pop it in your mouth!




Mini Snow-Skin Mooncake with Korean Black Garlic - $56.80 for a box of 8.

This sure is unique! Jewels have been making korean black garlic macarons, and now they have added it into their mooncakes as well. Black garlic has 10 times more anti-oxidants than normal garlic.

Garlic lovers and garlic PRE-lovers might want to taste it. It smells of garlic, but not a whiff of the pungent smell like fresh garlic. In fact, you don't really smell it from your nose, you can taste it on your tongue when you pop the mooncakes in. The black garlic has a sweetish and yet a slight vinegarish taste, a bit like pickled radish in korean banchans.




You can get these delicacies from now till 11 September 2011.
You can email them at sales@jewels.com.sg or call them at +65 6509 8998

If you want to grab it right now, make your way to:

Jewels artisan chocolate
Orchard Central
181 Orchard Road, #02-31/32.

Takashimaya Square
Basement 2 Ngee Ann City
391 Orchard Road.

Entertainment Centre Atrium (In front of Carrefour)
Suntec City Mall,
3 Temasek Boulevard.

If you want to view promotions of some offers, go to
http://www.facebook.com/Jewels.artisan.chocolate

Cold Stone Creamery @ Orchard Central

Do you like ice cream? I do! Anyday (even rainy days) are good days for ice cream in Singapore!

2 Fridays ago, Momo,  Camemberu and I did something crazy and ate lots and lots of ice cream on a Friday night for supper! Friday night's happens to be super busy nights at Cold Stone Creamery, so you can see a super long snaking queue! The next time you are at Orchard Central, gravitate towards it! Join the queue, you won't regret it!




Cold Stone Creamery, from Arizona, USA arrived in Singapore on 12 March 2011 and has recently opened the 2nd branch at Far East Square.

Their ice cream here is made fresh daily in each store with their ingredients imported from the USA. You can take a peek at how they make ice cream in their open concept kitchen!

Out of curiosity, I asked where where the milk is from. I was told it's all in the 'secret' mix that is all imported from USA. Their toppings too are all imported and not sourced and replaced with local alternatives.




Oh the flavours to choose from!
Do you know 8 out of 10 times, I don't taste the flavours of the ice cream that I picked?
I 'taste' using my eyes!




Toppings. If you are a fan of ice cream toppings, they have many kinds of toppings!

Oh, the concept here is that you pick your ice cream, choose your toppings/fillings and they will perform a show of mixing the ice cream in front of you!



On a super cold surface, the (I will call them) 'ice cream magicians' will perform magic in front of your eyes! The juggle your ice cream, treat it like a voodoo doll and stab it with all their might, then suddenly gently 'sayang' it as if it's their child.

Are these people trained to perform I wonder. Oh yes! I was told these 'magicians' as I call them,  attend classes at graduated from the Cold Stone University (yes, there's such a uni!)




Didn't I tell you they have all kinds of toppings? Look!



Oh by the way, these merry bunch here does all sorts of silly things.
Yup, I got special permission to visit this store and stand behind the counter too!




Adults can view the 'magic' show when they stand in front of the glass counter.
But children are not left out here! Look! A kids viewing area!




What are kids doing at 10 plus on a Friday night in Orchard Road? They should be sleeping!




An ice cream 'bomb' landed in front of me when I was busy taking photos in this ice cream parlour. ;-)

How on earth did it land in front of me? Do you know you can 'catch' your own ice cream here? After the mixing of the ice cream and toppings and fillings, you can hold the cup and 'catch' the ice cream that is flipped into the air by the 'magician'. Try it if you confident when you visit!

The Ice Cream - Choose Your Own

This was what I ordered from the glass freezer display. I chose the 'blue' cotton candy and also orange and had gummy bears and rainbow sprinkles as toppings. I was given a weird look!

They were awesome flavours, but I was told the combination I chose would not go well together if they do the mixing of the flavours. LOL

So the only magic was the gummy bears and rainbow sprinkles were mixed and the cotton candy flavour on top of it. I think both the cotton candy and orange flavours were awesome! I mixed them up myself in my bowl and it tasted great. It does taste like cotton candy with orange flavour!

The Ice Cream - Choose from the Signature Creations

 

If you can't decide on what flavours to have, choose the Signature Creations! ($5.50, 4 oz size)
Additional $1 for freshly-made waffle bowl; $1.50 for chocolate-dipped waffle bowl.



Those of you who follow me on Instagram / Tweeter would have seen this.
This was the German-Chökolätekäke (Chocolate Ice Cream, Pecans, Brownie, Coconut, Caramel).

Yup, the German way of saying and spelling Chocolate Cake! (Like how the spell Mercedes Kompressor haha)

I like this combination! Looking at the ingredients as I type this now just made my stomach growl!





This was the Banana Caramel Crunch (French Vanilla Ice Cream, Roasted Almonds, Banana, Caramel).

The girls preferred this while I like the previous one! This one melts too fast too!




This was Apple Pie A La Cold Stone (French Vanilla Ice Cream, Cinnamon, Graham Cracker Pie Crust, Apple Pie Filling & Caramel)

Interesting I would say.  If you like Apple Pies, try this combination!
The Apple pie fillings are from the USA too, yup, I asked.




The Berry Berry Berry Good (Sweet Cream Ice Cream, Raspberries, Strawberries, Blueberries).
It's sourish because of the different kind of berries. Momo loved this. She likes sour stuff. She was licking this off!

Signature shakes

If you happen to be alone on Orchard Road and you feel hungry but you don't want to sit down but prefer walking slowly along Orchard Road, I recommend ordering one of their signature shakes.

It's quite filling and super delicous! Carry your shake and drink it slowly while strolling along Orchard Road.



We tried the PB&C! Peanut Butter with Chocolate Ice Cream and Milk! Ooo.. the thick slurry milkshake!

Have you tried Reese Peanut Butter Cups? It's a bit like drinking liquid Reese! $8.50 for 16oz of wicked stuff! I like!

Ice Cream Cakes

They have ice cream cakes too.

Their version of ice cream cake has some real cake inside, so that it's easier to cut. So it's perfect if you are celebrating it outside and don't have access to samurai swords / choppers from your home kitchen.





Note:
The ice cream was paid for by the PR Folks of Cold Stone Creamery Singapore, who also answered my queries on how the ice cream is made and ingredients too.


Cold Stone Creamery
181 Orchard Road,
Orchard Central #01-09/10,
Singapore 238896

Hours: 11am – 11pm Daily
Tel: 6238 9060

Their other branch:
49 Pekin Street
#01-01 Far East Square
Singapore 048779


Hours:  Mon–Fri: 10am – 9pm,  Sat: 10am – 8pm (Closed on Sun)
Tel:  6557 2979


Website: http://www.coldstonecreamery.com.sg/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/coldstonecreamerysg

Bloggerific Tea Party @ AFC Studio (Asian Food Channel Studio)

Just about a week ago, the Asian Food Channel folks invited a few bloggers to a Tea Party at their AFC Studio located at Orchard Central.

If you have been watching Asian Food Channel, you would have seen their show clips about cooking classes conducted by celebrity chefs. Well, for the classes in Singapore, they are mostly held here, right in the middle of Orchard Road!

Last year, I attended a few sessions here. I was here before for a Spain Cultural Experience hosted by Chef Joseba Jimenez de Jimenez and also Taste of Philippines hosted by Chef Bruce Lim. How time flies!

Located on the 7th level of Orchard Central, they have a fully functional kitchen, a cafe, a mini library and also a retail shop!




The next time you are tired after walking along Orchard Road, why not pop by the AFC Studio for a cuppa and cakes!

While you are having tea, you can browse through their mini library. They have quite a good collection of food related books! When there are no cooking classes going on, you are welcome to sit down for hours and browse their books!





Back to the tea party. The tea party was also a baking class! Sounds so exciting ya?
With the heart shaped mold, I am sure you can guess what we were going to bake!





First of all, let me introduce you to the guy who hosted us. The man himself, Hian Goh, the big boss of AFC. Thanks to him and his business partner, we had our first taste of 24 hours of food related show!

(I am sitting in front of the TV tuning in to the AFC Channel as I type this! - Channel 435 on Starhub TV in Singapore)








Introducing the resident chef of AFC Studio, Chef Sue-Ann Lambert who was our baking teacher. She's a skilled pâtissier! If you are a fan of Laura Calder, Sue-Ann and Laura are both Canadians! It seems they come from the same part of Canada if I am not mistaken. If I got it wrong, it's probably Sue-Ann got excited and started blurting out in French! ;-p



She taught us to bake 2 types of biscuits: Sugar Cookies and Chocolate Chip Biscotti.
Here's the recipe for the Sugar Cookies.

Recipe 1: Sugar Cookies

Ingredients

Dough

• 2 cups flour
• A pinch of salt
• 85g of butter, softened
• 170g sugar
• ½ tsp vanilla 
• 2 Eggs

Method

1. Preheat oven to 160C.
2. Cream butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time and mix to combine. Add salt, vanilla and flour and mix until dough just combines.
3. Chill for 30 minutes.
4. Roll chilled dough and cut with desired cutter. 
5. Transfer to baking tray and bake at 160C for about 8 to 12 minutes or until edges of cookies turn golden brown.

Fast forward the kneading, rolling, flattening, molding and baking process....
The cookies were cooled, and it was play time!

Can you spot and recognize the following people?
Dim Sum Dolly, Camemberu, HungryCow, LadyIronChef, CalvinTimo and BakerWhoCooks.




The icing is so eye catching, isn't it?
If you want the recipe for the colourful royal icing we used, here it is:

Recipe 2:  Royal Icing (Using Egg Whites)

Ingredients

• 2 large (60g) egg whites
• 2 tsp fresh lemon juice
• 3 cups (330g) confectioners (powdered or icing) sugar, sifted

Method

1. In the bowl of your electric mixer (or with a hand mixer), beat the egg whites with the lemon juice until combined.
2. Add the sifted powdered sugar and beat on low speed until combined and smooth.
3. Use icing immediately or transfer into an airtight container before it hardens.
4. Cover with plastic wrap when not in use.

I made quite a few sugar cookies! This was one of it!





5 of the above were my creation! Can you guess which ones?





The 7 of us made so many cookies! We are a creative lot aren't we?




When I saw Chef Sue-Ann demonstrate in front of us, everything looked so easy peasy!
When it was our turn, most of us felt our hands had lead bars on it. It's so heavy and we felt clumsy. Why?


Anyway, here's the recipe for the biscotti that we made.

Recipe 3: Chocolate Chip Biscotti

Ingredients

• 1 cup of white or brown sugar
• ½ stick (¼ cup, 4 tablespoons) of butter, softened
• 2 eggs
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tbsp cocoa powder
• 1 tsp of baking powder
• A pinch of salt
• 1 cup chocolate chips

Method

1. Preheat oven to 160°C.
2. Cream the sugar and butter together in a stand-up mixer until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, and continue to beat for a few more minutes, then add the vanilla.
3. Whisk together the flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt, then add to the mixer. Combine well then stir in the chocolate chips.
4. Shape the dough into a log, approximately 12 inches long and 3 inches wide with lightly floured hands. You may find it easier to divide the dough in half and form two shorter logs. Place on a parchment-lined baking sheet and flatten slightly. Bake for 30 minutes.
5. Remove from oven and allow to cool until you can handle it. Slice diagonally, into ½-inch slices and return to the baking sheet. Bake again until the cookies turn light brown for about ten minutes. Flip them over and brown for another few minutes. 
6. Allow to cool and enjoy with a cup of espresso!

Yup, in North America they use stick for measurement of butter. The recipe above has the conversion that we can understand.








The biscotti dough on the left was moulded by yours truly, because I was 'volunteered'. The one on the right, Chef Sue-Ann. I did quite ok right?





Just like on TV, when the dough was put into the oven, in seconds it is ready!
Chef Sue-Ann demonstrates how to transform a piece of baked dough into biscottis!





Now, a participant tries. Not bad! Chef Sue-Ann gave an approving look and smile.





Perfect for your cuppa!

Do you know if you want to host a cooking session as part of a birthday celebration, or a ladies day out baking, or even a man day's out flipping burgers, you can contact the AFC Studio. They can work out something for you depending on your budget.

You can contact them at: http://www.theafcstudio.com/





I have a weakness. When I see books, ingredients or gadgets, I am always tempted to buy them.
I asked if there were any geeky books, and was recommended this book: "What Einstein Told His Cook".

Yup, I saw the book and bought it! Another geeky book to my personal collection!

(A special note of thanks to Kimberly and Jannah from Fulford PR for the invite!)


THE AFC STUDIO
181 Orchard Road,
#07-02 Orchard Central,
Singapore 238896
Tel: +65 6834 4829
Opening Hours: 12:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.

Taste of the Philippines by Chef Bruce Lim @ AFC Studio

Today's post was an invited session by Asian Food Channel www.asianfoodchannel.com and hosted at AFC Studio www.theafcstudio.com


Last Sunday, I got invited again by Fulford Public Relations to attend the "Taste of the Philippines" by Chef Bruce Lim at the AFC Studio. Can you guess the reason I attended the session? It's because he has the same family name as me!


Here he is. Chef Bruce Lim. He is the co-host with Angel Aquino on Tablescapes: Life on a Plate airing on Asian Food Channel on Thursdays, 9:30 PM. Have you watched the show?


You can see he's a very friendly and chatty guy, just like in the show!
I noticed he loves his pots too! (now you don't see that in his show right? LOL)





He demonstrated 3 Filipinos recipes to us:
- Smoky Banana Heart Salad (Delicately Stewed Heart Shaped-buds and Smoked Fish)
- Chicken Adobo with Aromatic Pandan Rice (Stewed Chicken with Pandan infused Rice)
- Banana Leaf Wrapped Prawns (Baked prawns and mung bean noodles)


The first dish: The Smoky Banana Heart Salad.

The Filipinos uses banana heart in the cooking like our local Malay and Indian dishes too!
But what makes it different is that Filipinos use Smoked Fish (Tinapa) and lots of Chicharon (crispy pork skin) on top of it!

It was fun watching him cook. As he is a classically trained chef, he likes to plate the dishes nicely. This is what Chef Bruce prepared. The salad here was served on the banana heart outer petals.




It's so nice to have two assistants helping when you are the main chef.
After Chef Bruce prepared the dish, these two lovely resident AFC chefs took over and dished out the rest for the audience.




You can see it's not a lot, but at least we got to try it. It tasted good! I brought along my teenage cousin this time and she said it was nice too! Look like our cousin is now game on trying all kinds of food now! She used to be so so picky!

The banana heart taste crunchy texture. Something like black fungus (hei mu er).  It's really appetizing! I almost wanted to ask for seconds. But I guess not everyone is as adventurous. I saw one person in the front row barely touching it!




The second dish: Chicken Adobo with Aromatic Pandan Rice

Something funny happened when Chef Bruce prepared the pandan rice. We noticed that it's exactly how we cook our chicken rice in Singapore! It's using the exact same ingredients too! (with chicken fat too!) Someone in the audience could not take it anymore and said it out loud: "Hey chef, this is Singapore Chicken Rice lah.... Not Filipino at all!" Everyone burst out laughing.

So, which country's dish is it? Is the Chicken Rice 'rice' an uniquely Singapore thing?

But the Chicken Adobo part was an eye opener to us. There's lots of vinegar and soy sauce used in the preparation of the chicken adobo. The whole studio smell of the sharp distinct vinegar smell. We were thinking how sour will that dish be! My cousin said hey, it smells like 'vinegar pork trotters'.

Chef Bruce says let the magic begin. Don't be tempted to stir the chicken in the pot and just let it boil. After like 20 minutes, miraculously the vinegary smell is gone. It suddenly begin to smell so pleasant! Wow!

The beautifully plated Chicken Adobo with rice by Chef Bruce.




This was what we ate. I tell you, Filipino dishes are SALTY!
But we were told that's the way they cook it in the Philippines. Most people eat a lot of rice and not so much meat. So a little salty meat and sauce goes a long way with lots of rice.

The flavour was good, just too salty for local tongues.  But you could see a group of Filipinos amongst the audience eating it as if they have not eaten such nice homeland food in years!




The third dish: Banana Leaf Wrapped Prawns

The secret to this dish is "Aligue". What is that? It's crab butter! What we usually call it crab roe.
Oh man, you should see how much it goes in! Half a big bowl of it! Cholesterol alert!

Chef Bruce wrapping the prawns in banana leaf.




As this was being baked in the oven. I tell you, the whole studio smell so so good!




The taste? It's like wow!

The sauce was a mixture of Aligue, garlic, ginger, onions, chilli sauce, coconut cream. Imagine all this soaked into the Mung Bean noodles (what we call Tang Hoon in Singapore).

My cousin and I thought of Ming Kee's Crab Bee Hoon! It's like a dry version of it. So tasty. (and salty too lah) 

We wanted to laugh at the 4 person sitting on the first row on the left. They were saying that's too much Aligue. Cholesterol ah! Are you sure you want to put so much? (Oh man, shoosh! You are not the chef. haha) Guess what? They finished it all when they were served the dish.




I took a photo of this couple from Philippines who was so excited to see their fellow countryman Chef Bruce Lim cook. They were being interviewed on video when I took a photo of them. I got their permission to post their photo here! They just looked so happy. ;-)




This was my second time attending an AFC Studio course. I would say it is quite a relaxing and enjoyable session. You get to eat what was prepared by the chef as well as a copy of the recipes to take home.

Looking at their course schedule at http://www.theafcstudio.com/courses/ I spotted these interesting sessions coming soon:

Sunday, 25 April there's a Coffee Appreciation Session by Danny Pang. I met Danny before when he was at Geek Terminal. He's a guy who is so passionate about Coffee! Do you know he's also a certified Barista?

Friday, 30 April there will be a healthy ice cream making session! How cool is that? (pun not intended)

You can always pop by the AFC Studio when you are visiting Orchard Central.

AFC Studio
181 Orchard Road
#07-02 Orchard Central
Singapore 238896