Foodography: A Singapore Food Blog

May 25 2013

Food

[Advertorial] Luxby Chocolates

Luxby – a chocolate discovery subscription service.

Thanks to David Tan, founder of Luxby for sharing about Luxby with me. Around 6 months ago, it originated from a trial box with truffles and pralines. However, due to high sensitivity to temperature and humidity, he decided to change them to chocolate bars for a higher resistance against those factors.

Luxby is now a full-fledged chocolate bar delivery service which delivers a box of premium chocolates to subscribers every month. It’s really nice to see such new services operating. Hassle-free and very much convenient for the chocolate lovers cum online shoppers.

What I loved about Luxby Chocolates is their choice of chocolates. Unlike the usual brands in Singapore, Luxby selects award-winning, boutique artisan chocolates hardly seen in Singapore from all over the world. Think Italy, France, USA, Belgium, Switzerland and more…

2 types of boxes are available – Box of 2 (2 chocolate bars) and Box of 3 (3 chocolate bars).

I had the box of 3 alongside with dear friend Amanda to help me taste them as well. Cafe Tasse’s milk chocolate from Belgium was a spot on for me. There were touches of salted caramel to every edge of the chocolate bar, which had me hooked to it. Adding on to my addiction were hazelnut bits. Crunchy.

Waialua’s Estate 70% cacao extra dark bars from USA came with a gradual tinge of sweetness from the flavor of berries. A lingering aftertaste stays in the mouth – not overwhelming but it satisfies. And lastly, Dolfin’s earl grey chocolate from Belgium is certainly good for earl grey lovers. With a scent of dark chocolate and tea, it was quite pleasant.

A premium option for gifting is on the way, featuring a better looking, hard cover and textured box with a pretty gift card and hand written message. Easily sent as surprises to your loved ones!

You can either subscribe to their monthly chocolates or simply buy the product “a la carte”. The notion of bringing the world of chocolates to your doorstep is certainly offered.

Find out more at their site www.luxby.sg

May 17 2013

2 Comments

Food

Ladurée Boutique Singapore

The macaron craze is back. Thanks to the much awaited Laduree which set up operations not long ago in Singapore, of course. Moreover, other than the permanent boutique fixture, there is yet another takeaway counter. To add a ~~cherry~~ macaron on top of the ice cream, both are conveniently located in the heart of Singapore in Takashimaya shopping centre. The former is at level 2 while the latter is at level 1. Oddly enough, the queues at both counters are of about the same length so I would definitely recommend to peek in at the classier, bigger boutique.

It starts off with a wallpapered ceiling of a picturesque sky and classic chandeliers against the backdrop. Then are the rows of shelves of boxes, tote bags, jars of soft caramel and scented candles exclusive to the boutique.

A minimum of 8 macarons are needed to get you a box to fit them all in, otherwise it’s just a scrawny paper bag. I decided to go ahead with the Singapore Limited Edition box (8 macarons) despite the $38 price tag which can make hearts skip a beat. A macaron costs $3.80 but there are only 8 of them, so essentially you’re paying about $8 for the box. That was hefty but I took it anyway.

The Strawberry Candy Marshmallow was one of my favorites. The marshmallow bit in the filling was a surprise and gave the macaron some different mouth feel compared to usual, creamy fillings.

However, the Chocolate Coconut Marshmallow did not meet my expectations – what I felt was an incompatible taste of chocolate with coconut.

I’ve had tons of really sweet pistachios which I liked a lot. The rendition of Laduree’s Pistachio was not overly sweet yet it did not fail to amaze me.

The Salted Caramel is another hot favorite. It was more substantial than those from other macaron places.

An interesting macaron would be the Marie-Antoinette Tea. It has a bubblegum feel to it which was refreshing.

The Liquorice (black) was average.

The Coffee flavor had a lingering aftertaste of – well, coffee.

As aforementioned, macarons here cost $3.8 each. Except for the 24K Gold Chocolate which costs $7.8. Basically it’s a chocolate macaron coated with “24K gold”. You can see that I actually bought it – for the pure reason of curiosity and tempt. Tastewise… yup it’s just a chocolate macaron.

The overall feeling speaks of classiness and it’s not hard to understand why: simple ganache fillings but made more than ordinary and macaron shells of the right texture (at least for me). What’s next for Laduree in Singapore? A tea salon – coming soon.

391 Orchard Road

#02-09 (boutique)

#01-24A (counter)

Takashimaya Shopping Centre

Ngee Ann City

10am – 9.30pm daily

Tagged boutique, dessert, food, macaron, orchard

May 11 2013

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Food

Menya Musashi Kodou

Named after Miyamoto Musashi, the 5 branches of Menya Musashi are currently enjoying some attention as they join the new ramen scene in Singapore. Originating from Tokyo, it seems that their ramen stalls in Japan sell a-huge-number of bowls a day with stretching long queues.

And then, it’s always a battle in the mind between choices of ramen. Over at Menya Musashi, Ramen comes in white (original), black (garlic and onion) and red (spicy) flavors for the soup base.

We went with something rather original to start with. If there’s anything memorable about the White Kakuni Ramen ($14.9), it would be its braised pork belly which was juicy, tender and oozing with goodness. I also had the Bokuto Gyoza ($5.9) as my I’m-bored-I-want-my-ramen appetizer and sure enough it served as a dish solely for that purpose.

The tsukemen, a.k.a dipping noodles, was something new I’ve never tried. Tsukemen comes in white, red and black as well. Unlike the usual ramen served in soup stock within the same bowl, the noodles are dry and separated from an independent bowl of hot, piping stock which is much thicker than soup. The right way to devour the 2 bowls is to dip a pair of chopsticks full of noodles in soup and slurp them up right after. Otherwise, you may find yourself a mouthful of extremely thick and salty soup. I had the Black Tsukemen ($14.9) which was interesting. The soup can, however, get less warm if you stop too long for photos though….

Overall, I still find their soups a little too salty for my liking. It appears to encourage you to drink more water rather than the soup. Despite those, the tsukemen experience is worth a try.

2 Orchard Turn

ION Orchard

#B3-25

Daily 11.30am – 10pm

Tagged food, japanese, orchard, ramen, restaurant, singapore

Apr 26 2013

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Food

Wild Oats: in the park

Funny how Punggol Park is one of my frequent haunts yet I never got down to Wild Oats ever since it took over Bliss Cafe sometime back. So on an unfortunate evening which rained, I had no excuse to make about jogging at the park instead of eating at the cafe. Wild Oats is under the same family together with Wild Rocket and Relish, with another branch at Mount Emily.

We started off with something safe on the menu – Golden Chicken Wings ($7.8). A good appetizer indeed – what with its crispy, prawn paste-like texture with a tinge of spiciness from accompanying chili sauce.

Moving on to the mains, Wild Oats offers both western and local delights such as sambal fish. Ribeye Beef ($17.2) was not that worthy of a mention. The tenderness of the beef was clearly lacking.

The Fish & Chips ($14.5), on the other hand, was much more decent with an outer layer crispy enough while the fish remained tender.

We were practically left with 2 desserts since the rest were unavailable. The Brownie ($6.3) was not that bad. The chocolate fudge brownie was real thick with a nice scoop of vanilla ice cream and heavy drizzles of thick chocolate sauce as well.

Wild Oats’ version of the local favorite Chendol ($6.3) has it in a tall drink glass instead of a bowl, transforming it into a dessert somewhat like a cool milkshake or ice cream. Its taste is comparable to the chendol we can find in hawker centers, or perhaps even better than local renditions.

Service is a little shaky at times – the crew is mostly attentive but fall short in other areas. Another gripe would be the fact that plain water is not served here. They do a wide variety of booze though, making it a late night hang out as a liquid kitchen. This also leads me to another point that the alfresco furniture has a heavy, lingering feel of beer from people drinking them the previous night. Other than that, the cafe does make a pretty sight from across a lake.

Hougang Avenue 8

Punggol Park

Mondays to Thursdays 4pm – 12am

Fridays 4pm – 1am

Saturdays 4pm – 2am

Sundays 4pm – 12am

Tagged Cafe, hougang, local, punggol, punggol park, western

Apr 20 2013

4 Comments

Food

The Fabulous Baker Boy

At the foot of the less visited side of Fort Canning Hills is a quiet area, now transformed into a party place for food. The Foodhills, is what I’ll call it.

At TFBB, the Xmas Special Sandwich ($11.5) is always here no matter the season. Of caramelized onions, salad, turkey breast, edam cheese and cranberry jelly in foccacia, their colors truly bring the christmas feel across. More than that, the combination of cranberry on turkey breast made the sandwich a little more than ordinary with a refreshing feel on your taste buds.

For the other main, I had a hard time choosing between eggs benedict and all the pancake flavors they had… In the end I ordered the Blueberry Pancakes ($11). Their pancakes, unlike the usual round and golden brown ones, were more old skool. They were a much darker shade of brown and had jagged edges. I would say they tasted as good as other ones. Among the fluffiness expect pops of whole blueberries embedded within. My only gripe is the insufficient maple syrup drizzled on the pancakes.

The Fabulous Baker Boy lives up to its name, so don’t forget to pick a few slices of cakes from the array. Even though it hardly looks a luscious red, the Red Velvet Cake ($8.5) is mostly spot on. The chocolate icing went incredibly well with the layers of red velvet surprisingly.

Last but not least…. Big Lub’s Carrot Cake ($8). Some comment that red velvet is their best but I beg to differ. Big Lub’s Carrot Cake was moist to my liking, sweet to the right amount and outlined with a copious serving of coconut shavings. Comparable to classic versions in Singapore.

That’s not all. TFBB serves a bigger mains menu for dinner on Fridays and Saturdays and also does customized birthday cakes and cupcakes. Other big names on the menu include pot pies, garlic fries, pastas and gourmet coffees. You can hardly get a seat on weekends especially so reservation is a must – as early as possible.

The Foothills

#01-15

70 River Valley Road

Tuesdays to Thursdays 11am to 6pm

Fridays 11am to 11pm

Saturdays 10am to 11pm

Sundays 10am to 5 pm

Apr 14 2013

3 Comments

Food

d’ Good Cafe

It’s been a while since I’ve entered the food enclave of Holland Village so I thought why not take the chance to go back during the eve of a public holiday. Initially my thoughts were set on Mu Parlour but I did a last minute change to this much-newer-than-mu-parlour cafe that I’ve seen some snippets of on Instagram. (I’ll be back for Mu, though).

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d’ Good Cafe specializes very much in providing the most suitable type of caffeine for you. For a minimal sum, a barista will help concoct a cup of coffee for you based on your likes and dislikes. You can then “save” the concoction under your name for future visits.

Upon stepping into the 2-level cafe, I was very much impressed by huge coffee machines. I reckon they’re for blending coffee beans. The cafe is neatly divided into 4 seating areas namely: The Bar (where you sit next to baristas), The Lawn (cosy space), The Attic (with child seats) and The Balcony (alfresco area – lights at night!). I fell in love with The Lawn area. Swing seats and carpet grass are really a girl’s thing. I guess the swing seat was the highlight of the day. It was really “swingable” and we rocked on the seats for a good couple of hours while watching the rain fall on Holland Avenue…

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On to the food. I was pretty disappointed with my Eggs Benedict ($13.5). Appearance-wise, it was already lacking much with a sloppy look to it. You can see from the picture that the egg white for one of the eggs wasn’t even nicely atop the runny yolk. Taste-wise, it was nothing more than average.

The Chicken & Mushroom Pie ($10.5) on the other hand was much better done with a crispy curry puff-like crust with warm chicken and mushroom bits in it. Although I have since then gotten a bad impression of their food, some reviews do agree that they have decent mains like their pasta and rice. I have seen pictures of their other egg benedicts served to other customers and they sure look a lot better than mine.

The Blueberry Cheesecake ($8) was a huge slice of cake so be prepared to share. It was so rich with cheese and probably impossible for someone to finish it all by herself after a main course.

I ordered another dessert – the Matcha Red Bean Cake ($6). Sad to say, it was rather tasteless except for the layer of red bean in the middle. I was expecting something more but the matcha failed to give off its flavour, resulting in its blandness.

I say: Snuggle in their coziness. Get addicted to their house brews. Accompanied by a lava cake, macaron, cheesecake or so.

273 Holland Avenue

#02-01

Sunday – Thursday 1000 – 2200

Friday & Saturday 1000 – 2300

Tagged Cafe, coffee, holland village, singapore

Apr 05 2013

3 Comments

Food

Equinox Restaurant – High Tea Buffet

My maiden visit to level 69 of Singapore’s Swissotel The Stamford at Raffles City was a wonder. Equinox Restaurant had always been one of the buffet places on my list to tick off, and now it’s certainly not an easy task to sit down in front of my laptop and piece back the every bit smoothly.
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The first thing you notice at Equinox is not its food. As you start to step on soft carpeted ground, the area is transformed into an orient setting of wooden frames matched effectively with velvet, light blue seat couches. This sleek setting, at 69 floors high, overlooks Singapore’s CBD and all over Marina Bay. A mandatory shot indeed.

I had a hard time thinking if I should jump start on the array of desserts since they look especially good. But I decided to play it safe and went off to get the savoury. Despite it being a high tea buffet, I found the spread rather wide. Western classics include salmon sandwiches, duck wraps (which I loved a lot) and salads; the Chinese selection includes dimsum buns and dumplings; and there are bentos of sushi assortment for the Japanese lover.

There is a short coming though. The food quality for its high tea buffet will definitely pale in comparison to the lunch and dinner buffet. Their savoury finger food, although alright, was nothing much worth tasting or remembering. Some were slightly above average, while others fell short of it.

To my surprise and delight, there is a completely different corner near the entrance specially for pastries and desserts. I’d name it “My World” or “Willy Wonka’s World”, but probably My World so I can have it all to myself. The cakes are definitely worth a shot. I had numerous slices of log cakes, from which I have come to like their chocolate mousse cakes. Other worthy bites are the mini lemon meringue tarts, chocolate fruit tarts and glass shooters. Not to forget their spread of pralines which are classic. Skip the ice cream though. They were nothing more than ordinary.

Vague memories remain of my trip to Equinox. With only an hour and a half for the high tea buffet, I was literally chomping down on my food as fast as I can to try as much of the spread. If possible, I’d likely go for either a lunch of brunch buffet so I have the luxury of time to slowly dine and admire the view. With that said, it’s advisable to go for brunch/lunch/dinner instead but of course they come with a higher price tag. With such an idyllic setting, view, service and spread, I don’t see why not (come back for more).

Level 69

Equinox Complex

Swissotel The Stamford

High Tea: 1530 – 1700 daily

Brunch: 1100 – 1430 on Sundays

Lunch: 1200 – 1430 from Mondays to Saturdays

Dinner: 1830 – 2230 daily

Tagged buffet, food, high tea, singapore

Mar 24 2013

3 Comments

Food

Kith Cafe

The new (or not that new anymore) branch of Kith Cafe at Park Mall could possibly be one of the biggest trend among cafes currently. A buzz started late last year and as Singaporeans, we go with the trend. Since then, I’ve made 2 visits to Kith Cafe and it’s easy to know why they’ve been popular for quite a while.

Kith Cafe’s strategic, central location at the less crowded Park Mall is a great advantage compared to its older location at Robertson Quay. The area is also much bigger with both indoor and outdoor seating. The alfresco area was much more appealing to me compared to the indoor area which had an overwhelming cast of yellow hue from ceiling lights, the best part is that it was hands down, one of the best places for food photography.

To start off the meal, we chose a random side, the Spicy Batter Chicken ($10). It reminded me of a mix of tikka masala and tandoori chicken, only more crisp. A decent chicken dish to munch on while waiting for mains.

On a previous visit, I had their Amatriciana ($16) which was penne with bacon, onion, tomato and parmesan while my friend had another pasta from their lunch specials. Even though alright, I felt they were average and below my expectations. Hence when ordering the Beef Lasagna ($16) on the next visit, I had my reservations. To my delight, it was perfectly smooth, creamy and rich like how I wanted it to be. Even though not cooked in the traditional way, the texture was just right for me.

Something worthy to note about Kith is that they serve All Day Breakfast till 3pm daily! Green Eggs w/ Toast ($14) is one of the dishes on the breakfast menu and I had that for myself. Relatively a simple breakfast dish, but definitely tasted more than that. It was of scrambled eggs infused with greens instead of the usual side salad together with basil pesto atop fresh tomatoes and toast which smelled of warm butter and buttermilk. Yumm.

Few desserts are offered at Kith so I opted for the Tiramisu ($7). I wouldn’t have expected it but my tiramisu was nicely done and essentially a good piece of cake for a tiramisu-lover like me.

Other than the bigger space, the menu at Kith Cafe at Park Mall is also much bigger as well, with breakfast items, sides, salads, starters, sandwiches, pastas and a whole lot of beverages. I’ve got a huge eye on cafes that serve everything with consistent quality and I think this place made it to the list. On both occasions I managed to try 3 of their milkshakes altogether (hazelnut nutella, caramel cookie and banana peanut butter) and I loved their richness. Seems crazy though. I’ll gladly pick up other options like their coffee, tea or juices if I ever get back there. Chances are, soon.

9 Penang Road

#01-01E

Park Mall

0800 – 2200 dialy

Tagged brunch, Cafe, park mall, singapore

Mar 19 2013

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Food

Ramen Keisuke Tori King: Best Ramen in Singapore?

I hardly go crazy over ramen, but once I find a fantastic rendition, it’s gaga time.

Ramen Keisuke had two branches, Keisuke Tokyo and Keisuke Tonkotsu before their latest, third outlet, Ramen Keisuke Tori King. I’ve never tried the first two and decided to leave them aside to go with the new craze on tori king. It is located at the newly renovated 100AM mall at Tanjong Pagar, just a few minutes walk away from its sister outlet Keisuke Tonkotsu at Orchid Hotel. 100AM’s rather quiet so far with the slow stream of people. As such, Tori King seemed like a bustling dining place.

On a weekday night, it was already crowded and we actually queued at least 10 minutes in line. Don’t expect to spend a long time in there since diners come and go quickly and there always seemed to be people waiting for seats.

Tori King’s menu revolves around chicken. Their ramen come in three different types of chicken soup base – the original, black spicy and green spicy. Of which, you can choose three different levels of toppings – seaweed, tamago and all toppings.

I had the Black Spicy Keisuke Ramen ($16.90 with all toppings) and it was by far the best bowl of ramen I’ve had in Singapore. What makes the black spicy broth different from the original broth is the additional factor of spiciness by peppercorn. Spicy chicken broth for ramen was a first for me. I found it much more interesting than pork broth. From the broth to the noodles to the partially runny tamago, everything was worthy. The best part? Definitely the tender chicken thigh which it is easily ripped by the teeth, grilled to perfection. The jap food khakis and I barely talked much as we were busily slurping through the bowl.

Free flow hard boiled eggs and beansprouts come along on the table, so remember to get a fair share of them.

100 Tras Street

#03-15

100AM

1130 – 2200 Daily

Tagged 100am, food, japanese, ramen, restaurant, singapore, tanjong pagar

Mar 16 2013

2 Comments

Food

[Advertorial] Booxify: Home and lifestyle subscription boox

Most of you may not have heard of Booxify before. Well, they are a new Singapore Startup as to which you can subscribe to their boxes. Oops, I mean booxes. It’s simple to understand how it works.

Basically, the team behind Booxify curates booxes once in every 1 month or 2 months for you to buy. In every boox are 4-7 products ranging from lifestyle, home and taste goodies.

Just recently, I had their Ice cream and Brownie Boox consisting of 2 P.osh brownies, a cup of Marble Slab Creamery’s chocolate fudge ice cream and another cup of New Zealand’s Natural chocolate ice cream. I like to think of it as a lifestyle bento set, it’s a great mixture of light bites which you can have while doing anything at home and absolutely convenient with free delivery right to your doorstep.

Simply subscribe to them to get your lifestyle boox at $16 each, featuring a different theme each time. Head over to http://www.booxify.com for more details!

Tagged advertorial, delivery, food, singapore

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