Goodwood Park Hotel Deli
22 Scotts Road
Tel: 6730 1786
Opening Hours: 9am to 9pm daily
Website: http://www.goodwoodparkhotel.com/promotion-dining.htm
Been a while since I've been out for high tea. After quite a bit of research, Mum & I still ended up at Goodwood Park Hotel; known for its Peranakan high tea buffet. Come to think of it, it must have been a long time since I've visited the Coffee Lounge because the decor had totally changed and if my memory served me right, there seemed to be quite a downsize in the food spread. Despite that, I thought the food was pretty decent. Some of my favourites were the laksa which had generous amounts of dried shrimps, kueh pie tee, roti jala with curry chicken and the nine-layered kueh which was deduced by Mum to be supplied by Bengawan Solo.
OK. I have a confession to make.
I deliberately chose Goodwood Park in the end because I needed an excuse to drop by the Deli to grab some durian treats. Honestly, I've never had much although this yearly event has been going on for a while. Ling was always raving about the delicious treats but I just never got down to making a trip there just for its famous durian puffs and cakes. That was until last year, when bro bought me a durian roll for my bday. That got me hooked and a year on, I left with a smile on my face with 6 Durian Puffs, 1 Durian Crepe and a 1.3kg Durian, Pandan & Coconut Cake.
Every item bought was delicious but out of the 3, my favourite was the durian puffs. There was a whole generous lot of durian pulp which was rich and creamy yet not overly sweet in each puff. I especially loved the part where I had to open my mouth so wide just to stuff the whole puff in (I know, it seems a bit unglam if you try to visualize that). I just thought it would taste way better if I had the whole creamy puff tingle my taste buds and permeate my whole mouth with its distinct flavour. Trust me, it does taste better eating it this way.
This was my first time trying Goodwood Park's Durian Crepe and I must say that I was pretty taken aback initially. Before this, I had tried another well-known bakery's durian puffs and didn't think too much of it so I had no expectations when it came to giving the crepe a shot. When I tried to split the crepe in half to share with Mum, I was amazed that there was such a generous amount of durian pulp in it. Again, the taste was pretty similar to that of the durian puffs' and was undeniably delicious. However, I felt that it might have been better to probably make the crepe a little smaller so that it'd be good for 1 person. With the current size, you'd probably need at least 2 people sharing it. My thought was that it would have been too jer lat to polish the whole thing off on my own.
I actually liked the Durian, Pandan & Coconut Cake too. I'm not sure how many of you have tried the Pandan cake that's available at Bengawan Solo or neighbourhood cake shops. It may not be the fanciest cake but it's one that I really love and used to have a lot of when I was much younger. Somehow, the Durian, Pandan & Coconut Cake reminded me a lot of that cake, just that the pandan jelly part was now replaced by the durian pulp and sponge cake. One thing I really thought that the chef did well was to allow the flavour of the pandan sponge to be pretty distinct despite the strong flavour of the durian. Apparently, this item was brought back due to popular demand and I highly recommend that you give this a try too (in addition to the durian puffs!) if you're happen to drop by for some of those durian treats.
The Durian Fiesta is on now til the end of July. Don't even think of putting off a visit if you're thinking of giving the durian treats a try cos time flies so fast that sometimes one doesn't even realise it. You definitely don't want to wait another year for this. In my own opinion, you shouldn't even be thinking about it.
