Island Creamery
10 Jalan Serene
Serene Centre #01-05
Tel: 6468 8859
I'm suffering from an overdose on ice cream. I know it seems boring that I'm writing about ice cream again but I thought I have to share the ice cream experience I had over the week.
To cut to the chase, my family were in the area and thus decided to pop by Island Creamery to ease the heat we were feeling under the hot sun. I guess we were going to The Daily Scoop too often so we just wanted a bit of a change. So when we were choosing our flavours, something came over me to be adventurous so I chose the Tiger Beer sorbet. It's supposed to be their specialty or something. If you think it's a novelty already, I think they've outdone themselves by having a Guinness Stout ice cream on their menu.
Tiger Beer Sorbet
So yes, I made my choice and I tell you, it is by far the weirdest sorbet/ice cream I've ever had in my life. I'm not saying that it's not good. In fact, it's not too bad cos you really feel like you're drinking the beer. It's just that it's in a semi-solid form. The smell and the taste is all there but it's still too weird for me. Maybe it's cos I've never been big on alcohol (save for my lychee martini ice cream). Having said that though, I do encourage for those who see it on the menu to try it. In fact, I going to have a go at the Guinness Stout flavour when I see it; just to see if it can top the Tiger Beer flavour.
Other than that, rest of the family had familiar flavours like Soursop, Kahlua Coffee and another of their local specialty, Teh Tarik. It's pretty good cos of the creaminess and the burnt taste from the soaked tea leaves. Again, like drinking the actual thing but only that it's frozen.
All in all, I think it puts out a good fight with The Daily Scoop although I do have my own preference for one over the other. For those who've been to both places, what do you think? Update: I think I've found a winner. The Pulot Hitam flavour is an absolute must try! Ok. maybe I SHOULD stop now.
The Daily Scoop
41 Sunset Way
#01-04 Clementi Arcade
Tel: 6463 3365
Website: http://www.thedailyscoop.com.sg
OK. The Daily Scoop isn't helping me out much on the "diet" section but I love their ice cream! I think in the past 2 months or so, I've been there so many times. If you're thinking daily then no, not that often. However, considering that I live in a totally different area on the island and that I'm on a diet (I'll be honest, I've been on a diet since I was 15), 5 to 6 times is often enough I think.
So what do I love at this place? I've tried a couple of flavours like the Ginger Crumble, Durian, Cempedak. I've did tastings of Cha which is a earl grey sherbet and the Peach Bum; a peach yoghurt. Actually I think the Durian flavour is quite good. It tastes like the durian filling from the durian puffs except with less pulp. I just had it last night with their bitter chocolate cone. Very nice...
But...of all the tastings I had, the winner to me is the Lychee Martini flavour! It's a concoction that has Lychee (obviously!) and vodka. Nope. I'm not an alcoholic. In fact, you can hardly taste much of the vodka in it. I just like the light fragrance of the lychee, the creaminess and the bits of canned lychee in it. My mum and sis are big fans too. So... when I was at The Daily Scoop again yesterday, I bought a whole 700g tub home! I don't think it'd last long though. The last time I bought one half the size, I only had like 2 scoops of it. The rest of it was devoured by Mum, sis and her gal pal.
I encourage anyone who's reading this to give this place a try. The waffles are really good too, crisp and light. The serving guys's really helpful with giving tips on what ice cream goes with what. Prices are reasonable too. Only problem though is the location. It's right deep in Sunset Way. So unless you're ok to walk from the main road or take a cab, it's probably neccessary to have a car.
So for now, I just have to reach into my fridge for MY daily scoop. In fact, I'm going to do that rightaway. *lick*
Patara Thai
163 Tanglin Road
#03-14 Tanglin Mall
Tel : 6737 0818
I remember the first time I ate at Patara Thai. That was during my internship almost 3 years ago. I remembered the good food and yummy dessert spread. However, what really stayed deep etched in my mind was the price I had to pay at that time. Think the set lunch set me back $20+ to 30 or something like that. Price doesn't sound that bad right? Wrong. I was only earning a meagre $500 at that time. Eating that $20 lunch and others in the same week almost reduced me to eating kaya toast for lunch! But gladly... I survived. This time, thanks to my gal pal Xin, I managed to taste the good food at Patara again! It turned out to be a great experience. Food's still good and in fact, a little better than I remembered. Company was great and best of all, I get to go back again next time cos D ended up loving the food!
So anyways, I think we ordered something like 9 to 10 dishes or something. Other than the veg dish which I think was pretty normal, I think the rest deserve some credit. The food served is somewhere along the lines of Modern Thai so a lot of emphasis is placed on presentation. Just to share some of my favourites from the dinner below. Although this place is a little on the pricey side, I think Patara Thai is worth a try.
Thai Pomelo Salad with Smoked Salmon
This dish is pretty special cos you don't see smoked salmon served with Pomelo salads in typical Thai restaurants. Despite it being out of the traditional mould of Thai cuisine, the combination was actually applaudable. It looked really good when it arrived at the table and needless to say, tasted good as well.
Thai Stuffed Chicken Wings
I think everyone should be pretty familiar with this dish. It's usually a family favourite I would think. I loved this version cos the meat stuffing was yummy and generous.
Thai Yellow Fish Curry
This dish looked too good to be eaten. The presentation style made the dish look all the more appetising. However, I didn't have much of this so I can't recall how good it tasted. The only thing I remember is that that the curry was quite smooth and lemak.
Thai Olive Rice
This is the dish that is going to bring me back to Patara cos D loved it. After we left the restaurant, he kept going on about how the rice tasted soooo good with the lethal chilli padi. Oh... lucky me...Afternotes: I forgot to mention the dessert buffet! The dessert buffet at Patara is a must-try! It boasts a huge variety of familiar Thai desserts such as the steamed tapioca, glutinous rice with mangoes, red rubies in coconut, pumpkin kueh and so on. Make sure you leave space in your tummy for the after-meal sweets.
After reading this entry, I think many people are going to laugh. Why? Cos the supposed "foodie" (that would be me) doesn't know how to shop for melons! Yes.. I can't for the life of me remember how to tell if a melon is ripe or whether it's going to be sweet, not even when I've read about it or been told a gazillion times. So after reading about this in the Wine and Dine mag again, I've decided to put it down in writing to remind myself. Afterall, I'm sure there are many out there like me who can't tell a good melon from a bad or an unripe melon from one that's ready to be eaten. So here goes...W A T E R M E L O N STap the fruit to tell if it's ripe. A ripe melon will have a dull thud whilst an unripe melon would sound hollow. C A N T A L O U P E S & H O N E Y D E W SThe aroma of the fruit should tell you if it is ripe for eating. Basically, the aroma should be strong and sweet.The weight of the fruit should be between 1 to 1.5 kg. If it's heavy for its size and if the base of the melon where the stem is located is soft, this also means that the melon is ready to be eaten.So start practising please. At the supermarket, at home or wherever. There! I've written it down so I've got no more excuses to forget. Well technically, that could happen too since I may forget that I wrote this entry...
überburger
9 Raffles Boulevard, Time Square
# 01-06 to 10, Millenia Walk
Tel: 6837 0280
Website: http://www.uberburger.com/
Seems like there's still a buzz over the $101 wagyu burger and the total number of $101 burgers they've sold to date is actually quite impressive. Seriously, I personally wouldn't pay to have that burger. It's so sad that the wagyu burger has to be minced up! But of course, if someone wants to give me a treat, it would cheer me up a little... heh.I didn't think that burgers should cost so much. When Carl's Junior came along, I thought it was expensive although the portions are much bigger than the regular McDonald's burgers. At least Carl's Junior serves their burgers the way they should be; greasy and messy. As skeptical as I was about überburger, it actually turned out to be a pretty satisfying experience.D had the überbockwurst sausage which I was thought was decently priced at $9.50. Bro had the chopped beef and pork loin burger whereas I had the übmonster colossal burger. We also had the steak tartare to share. Unfortunately, some of my pics got corrupted so I can't show much of it. The hotdog was actually quite good although it's technically not a burger. Bro thought his meat was a little tough cos of the pork that was added in the patty. Mine was huge as you can tell from the name but it was really yum! They gave this nice salad with very sweet mini radishes on the side. 
steak tartare
The steak tartare was so-so. We thought they should have mixed everything up for us instead of leaving it to us. Compared to the steak tartare we had at some random cafe in Paris in the past, this version doesn't measure up. Somehow, I think the meat's not as fresh tasting cos of all the freezing from importing. 
überbockwurst sausage
überlemonade and squished strawberries thick shakeI highly recommend that you try their thick shakes when you're there. Bro ordered the strawberry thick shake. It was so creamy and thick; so sinful but so good! They have lots of other flavours too which I think might be worth a try. Overall, although their menu is too confusing to read and prices are not that friendly for the food you're getting, it's still a nice place to have a casual meal and catch-ups with old pals.
Sorry for the lack of updates recently. I've been pretty caught up and obsessed with certain things lately. Heh.. Anyways, I've uploaded pics from my Korean trip as promised. The experience I had there, not just food wise, was really memorable. Although I would say that I DID enjoy myself food wise especially on my last night in Seoul (Thanks to JK!), I feel like I haven't really experience their food culture to its fullest though. I mean, can't blame anyone cos I went on a tour package. Although I had my little bites, I missed a lot of other stuff like Soon DuBu Chigae, Naeng Myon, Chap Jae etc. There's so much stuff to try there so no points for guessing. I'm going back to Seoul again! As for when, I'm not sure yet but hopefully soon. *crosses fingers* This time on my own though so I can eat whatever I want, whenever I want.
I have to make special mention of the food I had in my last night in Seoul. We had too much fun at Lotte World so we didn't have dinner. Thank god for that cos otherwise I wouldn't have tasted Kamjatang! It's actually a soup that's boiled with the pork backbone so the soup turns out really sweet and tasty. Kamja refers to potatoes so obviously there are potatoes in the soup. Then they add chilli to add kick to the soup and some sort of pickled vegetables. After the soup and meat course was over, they put a bowl of rice in the same pot and stirred in kimchi and seawood. Mix it all together and leaving it to burn a little made the rice dish simply delicious! We were sitting on the flour with our legs crossed, sipping our soju, learning about Korean customs from JK and best of all, soaking in the Korean culture and atmosphere. I don't think we can get Kamjatang here though cos I've asked around so I guess to know what it tastes like, you'd have to make a trip to Seoul! I'm thinking of it again just looking at the pic.
So I had a lot more good foods along the way. Even tried the famous sulphur duck (ppl who have watched Da Chang Jin would probably know this)! I've put together a collage of some of the stuff I tried. Tell me if you might be making Korea your next holiday destination.
