Miscellaneous Food: Best Sweet Treats

Inspired by a recent sugar rush and a recent headline article about a Singaporean gigolo selling his consulting services like a Dragonfly version of Hitch, I decided to come up with a list of desserts that I actually think about from time to time. Like being in a 15 hour airplane ride and suddenly thinking of the aroma wafting off my favourite Japanese garlic fried rice. (The headline picture is from Miette Bakery in San Francisco and yes, I do think about their cakes from time to time, despite being half a world away).

These are real desserts in our own fair city that you have to drive out for, not brilliant commercial inventions like Mini Magnums (white magnums are God's vanilla pod-ed gift to Europe's tourist attractions) or Haagan Daaz's chocolate-upon-chocolate chip ice cream, or when my fingers itch for a packet of chicken Twisties or Mamee. So, the next time you are craving something sweet or want to please a girl, try something off this list. Oh and feel free to add comments telling us where to find your guilty sweet treat, or if you are aghast that we've left your favourite off the list.

In no particular order:

(1) Cream puffs from Choupinette, #01-01 607 Bukit Timah Road
Cutely-named Sweetie pie, this little bakery cum french bistro makes some of the most wicked pastry. Some of the selection is a bit crumby but the two outstanding ones are the chocolate and coffee eclairs and cream puffs. They may not be the prettiest nor the cheapest but they are chock-full of rich, pure dark chocolate and french pastry cream. Worth burning the calories over. $5 for a cream puff or eclair.

(2) Passionfruit cupcakes from ETA Artisan Sweets, 32 Holland Grove Road, Henry Park Apartments
Eileen's bakeshop has the motto of "we believe in purity of taste and the art of eating well. Our sweets celebrate the nourishing goodness of natural flavours through the use of only the finest ingredients - Madagascar Bourbon vanilla, French cream, pure sweet butter..." and this is particular true of her passionfruit cupcakes.

Tangy and topped with passionfruit curd and a dollop of vanilla buttercream, this is possibly the most well-made and satisfying cupcake to be had in the island. There are many cupcake flavours but passionfruit is the best, followed by lemon, call before you go to ensure there are any left as production is limited for freshness. $3.50 per cupcake.

(3) Salted Caramel macarons from MadBaker, http://www.madbaker.net/
Sadly, this is no longer available except on an incredibly special order, as MadBaker has a different kind of bun in the oven. If you can get your hands on them, consider yourself blessed. Karen is a genius with all things sweet but her macarons are the most ridiculous. Culled from a painstaking process of minute trial and tweaking and made from an exhaustively finely-milled and triple-sieved process, these are without doubt, the best macarons in Asia. Believe me, I've tried 90% of the macarons in the world and these are truly world-class.

(4) Passionfruit Meringue, The Patissier at 18 Ang Siang Road or 4 Mohd Sultan Road
Inside the quaint peranakan-tiled shophouse, this still, contemplative cake boutique has lovely creations of pure spun sugar goodness. One of their famous cakes is the Passionfruit meringue cake, which is like a tall sponge pavlova, sandwiching berries and passionfruit pulp. Sweet, tangy, creamy and crunchy, all in one bite. This is a great birthday cake but has to be eaten on the same day to maintain the texture. $37 for a 6inch cake and $6 for a slice.

If you're looking for something cake-like but not as sweet, try the Scoop Cake or Light Chiffon Cheese Cake at Tampopo at Liang Court or Takashimaya. The only casual Japanese restaurant to maintain a full-time pastry chef, (Akemi in her pre-Tampopo honed her skills in soft and moist pastry at Provence Bakery in Holland Village), it's no wonder that the Japanese sponge and chiffon cakes are out-of-this-world light and satisfying.

(5) Basil Ice Cream, 2am Dessert Bar at 21A Lorong Liput, Holland Village
This second story purveyor of late-night sweets is a comfort corner, tucked away and helmed by my girl, Janice. What makes the place and desserts sophisticated and timeless is that she offers up the fruits of her Cordon Bleu culinary training and her work in New York at Room 4 Dessert and WD-50. I was going to put on this list her thick, hot chocolate and churros, which is what I always have when I go there (remember to order extra churros) but the one item that really made me pause was her Basil Ice Cream. The taste is extraordinarily evocative, like you want to melt it on pasta. Desserts are $13-15 per plate.

(6) The Ugly Cake, NYDC Cafe at Holland Village, 30 Lorong Mambong or 501 Orchard Road #02-19 Wheelock Place
This cake is also called the elmer fudge, a dense mocha cake with palette-slapped american chocolate frosting. A very pure chocolate cake and frosting that is as good as it is unpretentious. Served warm and soft, with a comforting scoop of vanilla bean ice cream, it makes all problems and rainy days melt away. Could be less but I remember something like $12/cake slice and accompaniments.

If you're looking for a high-end chocolate cake, then I would suggest Truffs at 179a Telok Ayer Street, helmed by chocolate man Ei Liang. Although truffle chocolates are his specialty, he also makes a rich, powerful chocolate sponge layered with that top quality ganache. Pricey at $70 a cake but worth the splurge for that special occasion.

(7) Crepe Suzette, The White Rabbit at 24 Harding Road
I have a sentimental weakness for this European-inspired dessert, I think it stems from when I was little and my dad would let me order this in restaurants as a treat so I could watch the cart come by- there was always something velvetly romantic about the copper crepe pan, the melting of the thin crumbly layer of sugar and the caramelization of the orange juice and Grand Marnier.

There are a few places that make crepe suzette in Singapore, mostly old steakhouses like the Gordon Grill at Goodwood Park Hotel and Lawry's Steakhouse at the Ion Orchard. I chose The White Rabbit given the good ambience and beautiful setting, it is a dessert for two after all. $18/plate of 2 crepes.

(8) Durian Crepes, Goodwood Park Hotel at 22 Scotts Road
The durian festival at Goodwood Park Hotel lasts from April to almost August, so it's really more of a fiesta than a festival. The specialties includ the durian mousse choux-pastry, the Durian Puff, Durian eclairs, Durian crepes, Durian streudal and even Durian kueh dadar.

If you are a fan of the King of Fruits, you'll not want to miss the original Durian mouse cake topped with cubes of light vanilla sponge, or the durian crepe sandwiched with a thick layer of creamy, smooth D24. $8.50 a slice/ $48 whole/ $2.20 per puff

(9) Sugee Cake, Chin Mee Chin at 204 East Coast Road
This old-school confectionary has been around for almost 100 years, peddling their traditional raisin buns, luncheon meat buns, kaya kopi breakfasts and shophouse flies. The one thing I love here and which warrants the long drive out, is the sugee cake, chock full of probably 20 eggs and oozing slightly of oil onto the grease-proof paper wrapping. Almost savoury in its richness, the nutty crumb will have you eating way more than is good for you. Sinful! From memory, I think the price was $18-24 for a regular sized low-height sugee cake though you'd better go early, the baker only makes a few batches a day.

(10) Iced Teh Tarik at Amoy Street Food Center, Syed Mohamad Drinks #01-67
I'm sure most people have heard about the many specialties on offer at Amoy Street Food Center like the Han Kee Fish Soup, Teochew porridge or Thunder Tea Rice but when it comes to sweet, it doesn't get any sweeter than the Teh-Peng, or Teh-Ice at Syed Mohamed Drinks.

Teh Tarik translates as "pulled tea", the preparation of passing thick and frothy tea from one metal mug to the other with a "pour/pull" action that cools and aerates the tea. I'm really picky with milk tea, it has to be orange tea dust for a lovely copper colour and the flavour of the tea must be stronger, yet balanced by the sweetness of the milk. It must be a Sarabat (from the Arabic word "to drink") stall, traditionally run by Indian Muslims.

This place is a thriving, hugely profitable stall and no wonder, their Teh Tarik, Teh Halia (he blends fresh ginger daily) and Teh Ice or with less sugar, Teh C(Si)Peng drinks are refreshing and a real boost to the start of your day. Move over, Mr Teh Terik Cartel.

Recipe: Coconut Cake

This past weekend, I had a sudden craving for coconut cake, inspired by a very old memory of coconut cakes from Goodwood Park hotel (anyone remember them, circa maybe 20 years ago?) It was also, I must admit, a result of having over-zealously purchased too much shredded coconut than I knew what to do with. Sadly, coconut cakes really seem to have gone out of style and it's hard to find a good one nowadays, one that is light rather than greasy and sweet rather than dessicated. It seemed the only solution was to turn to the cookbooks and even then, it was hard to find a recipe that was not overtly American.


Luckily for me, my friend PL enthusiastically took up the cause, even sending me a copy of a recipe from her book, Breads with Amy. She felt the recipe looked the most likely to yield a moist and fluffy cake. I read it through it and the combination of cake and frosting seemed really involved but I was resolved that I had to do it properly, so off to the grocery I went for all the ingredients I didn't already have.


The recipe, upon closer reading, was really for a custard-like frosting, into which you whipped cream, to make it light and fluffy. Since the frosting had to be made the day before, I gamely opened up the cans of coconut milk and began to boil, stir and thicken the custard, then I added the cream cheese and vanilla bean but left out the white chocolate, as I didn't have a small quantity on hand.

I tasted the custard while it was still warm, liquid and thick, it tasted amazing, like solidifying coconutty but cheesy cream. The next day, I was gratified to see that the custard had set and the darkish vanilla bean colour had disappated into the custard. Now, it tasted like solid coconut cream- still amazing. I would definitely add the white chocolate, I believe it would have added a sweet depth to the frosting, lovely as it already was without it.


Onward to make the cake, which was a cinch and which came out well-risen and perfectly shaped. This cake does peak but it is really easy to slice up for layers, my only disappointment with it is that it is a little dry and it does not taste of coconut, despite the addition of coconut milk. I wished I had put in shredded coconut too because it looked and tasted pretty much like yellow cake.


I whipped some cream and mixed it into the coconut custard, now, it was really heavenly. Light and cheesy all at the same time, even our helper, who is as picky as orthodox kosher, cleaned out the bottem of the mixing bowl and declared it "mmmm, very nice!" The only problem with the frosting is that as stated in the recipe, it's not as stiff as buttercream and doesn't really hold it's shape.


It can be used to stick the shredded coconut to the exterior of the cake but it doesn't really dry nor spread thick. If you want to stack layers, you should try to work in an air-conditioned space and adhere two layers at a time with just a thin layer of icing, then refrigerate the cake, to allow the frosting to harden slightly. Even then, given that I had four layers, the cake was not the most structurally sound and threatened to slide off its axis as I stacked and the frosting melted.


I think if I made this frosting again, I would use a denser, more moist yellow cake or even a sugee cake, for better crumb and texture. Or, I would use this cake recipe and frost it with some of that coconut custard mixed into buttercream, so that the outer layer could be piped and decorated.

Most importantly, I'd probably next attempt this cake when I had a big occasion for a four layered cake! It was so tall and pretty but most people, I've discovered, are entirely intimidated by a slice of four-layered cake unless it is a wafer-thin slice, so although it was all eaten up in the end, the frosting does only keep for three days and a cake this size would probably have been better received tarted up for a birthday party.

Recipe: Pandan Chiffon Cake

I'll admit that I am not the biggest fan of either chiffon cakes nor pandan chiffon cake. Growing up, it was always a rather cheap, artificial dessert, sold in the school canteen and the bright green colours repealed me. That, however, is not the case with this pandan chiffon cake, which is a wholly luxe, modern take on the traditional classic. This pandan chiffon cake really celebrates the tropics that we live in, it is made with fresh coconut milk, hand-squeezed out of a shredded coconut and real pandan (screwpine) essence, distilled from blended pandan leaves and flecked with vanilla bean.


The heady aroma of the coconut and pandan baking in the oven and cooling on the countertop, is the stuff of legend. I was given this recipe by my friend J. and after my initial failed attempt, she graciously allowed me to observe her at work on sunny Sunday. We made two cakes for family lunch on Sunday and they were all gone- this cake is so good that it's immediately become a family favourite! Here are the steps, one of which needs to be done the day before. Try to follow them faithfully and get the correct raw ingredients, it is so very worth it.


Ingredients:
150g cake flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
8 egg yolks
300ml coconut milk
2tbsp pandan juice extract
160g caster sugar
1/2 tsp pandan essence
9 egg whites
1tbsp caster sugar
1/2 tsp cream of tartar


Method:
(1) Crush a handful (I like to use at least 4 stalks) of pandan leaves and blend them in a blender with a small amount (just enough to liquify pandan leaves) of water. Make sure the pandan is well and finely-blended. Leave the liquid in the fridge to stand overnight and then discard the water that rises to the surface. The thick, green essence that sinks to the bottem is the pandan juice.


(2) Buy fresh grated coconut from the wet market (300ml is about 1 coconut's worth of milk) and squeeze the fresh coconut milk from the shaved coconut. The remaining coconut pulp can be used to make dessicated coconut for other desserts or as plant fertilizer. Add the pandan juice to the coconut milk and add the pandan essence. If you use more pandan juice, you can forego the essence. We did this for the cakes shown here and they still turned out very green and flavourful.
(3) Beat egg whites with cream of tartar and half of sugar till stiff
(4) In a separate bowl, add sugar to the egg yolks and whisk. Add Coconut milk and pandan extract mixture.


(5)Fold in cake flour, baking powder and salt. Fold the egg white mixture into the egg yolk mixture gently, without breaking out the air bubbles and pour into mold. I would use a bundt pan so that the chiffon rises and bakes evenly. The pan does not have to be greased or paper-ed but you will have to cut the cake out of the pan.


(6) Bake in the oven at 160C for 35 mins. J. has found that baking the cakes at a higher temperature of 180C results in a better crumb and nice brown crust.
(7) Serve warm and fresh out of oven, if possible

Review: En Japanese Dining Bar

People always react with surprise, and sometimes a little consternation, on discovering that Japanese is my least favourite cuisine. In many minds, Japanese food is the embodiment of the heart and soul of food: fresh, fatty slices of otoro gleaming on shiso leaves, skilful chefs rolling up tubes of sushi in an assembly line so precise it takes a novice ten years to work his way up the various ranks, hungry diners slurping up steaming bowls of silky ramen noodles, and the onomatopoeic shabu shabu of ladles sloshing through flavourful steamboat broth.

I think part of the problem has been the fact that I don't like raw food (man invented fire for a reason), and the fact that Japanese food's very simplicity sometimes works against it: in my younger days I gravitated towards technically complex, well-executed dishes with lots of bells and whistles. That aspect of my bias has receded with age, only to be replaced with another: Japanese food (at least good Japanese food) is too expensive.

The corollary of that seems to be that if a Japanese restaurant is not prohibitively expensive, chances are it's not very good (and/or that even mediocre Japanese restaurants are very expensive). Which proved to be the case with En Japanese Dining Bar in Bukit Timah. En Dining has been around for a while: it's flagship restaurant is located at Mohd Sultan Road, and it has done well enough for itself to open another branch at Crown Centre, serving a wide array of food, from shabu shabu to sashimi to yakitori.


The salmon sashimi, for some reason, was not uniformly coloured, which troubled me slightly, but the flesh of the fish was smooth and creamy, so there was nothing untoward there.


The wafu steak was exceedingly disappointing: it was cut up into little cubes, making the meat lose whatever tenderness it might otherwise have had, and accompanied by deep roasted slices of garlic but precious little else. The concept of a wafu steak, as I understand it, is that the Japanese have taken a quintessential American comfort food and reinvented it, as they have with much of American heavy industry or manufacturing. I would expect, therefore, a lovely piece of Kobe beef that's been seasoned with rice wine and shoyu, and cooked with the sort of perfection that only the Japanese seem capable of. En Dining's wafu steak was a pitifully far cry from that expectation.


Skewers of enoki mushrooms wrapped with bacon are fairly de rigueur in yakitori restaurants, and these were fairly tasty, if rather greasy.


One of my preferred kinds of sushi is spider crab (te)maki, and while I found the seaweed wrapping to be too unyielding - I had some trouble biting through it and getting to the rice and deep-fried crab below - the rest of the sushi was enjoyable, though perhaps in future I'll order the maki rather than the uncut temaki.


The crispy fried shrimp are as addictive as crisps; once you pop you can't stop... unless that is you pierce your gums against one of the prawns' sharp spines or shell segments, which I did.


The chicken yakitori is delectable, glazed and caramelised with a sweet, umami sauce that makes the chicken cubes come alive in your mouth.


I quite like unagi: it's got a sweet, nutty flavour that is unique among seafood, and apart from Japanese restaurants, it's rare to see eel on the menu. Unfortunately, I thought the seaweed that was meant to wrap the sushi was much too short for its purpose, which resulted in the sushi coming apart when I tried to grip it with my chopsticks, making for rather messy eating.


We ended the meal with a bowl of Okinawan soba, which was served with a very light broth, and a generous helping of vegetables like grated daikon, seaweed, and what may have been kelp. A pleasant carbohydrate course that also helped to wash down the sticky Japanese rice.

Overall, I was not greatly impressed with En Dining. The food quality is somewhat patchy, with some dishes being obviously more outstanding than others, and the variety on offer was also nothing to write home about. Service was pleasant enough, but that on its own is probably sufficient to make me return.

En Dining Japanese Bar
557 Bukit Timah Road
Tel: +65 6468 5710
Website

Giveaway 2 update

We are in the processing of reviewing and contacting giveaway winners, so please leave us your contact details, it would be sad to miss out just because we can't call you back. As a sweetener, here are three additional items! The first is three tea tins of flower tea, from a boutique tea house in Beijing. These teas are each bulbs of Chinese tea that open into gorgeous pink lotus flowers or white jasmine flowers, they are really beautiful in glass or ceramic tea cups and perfect for tea parties or tea appreciation, for Chinese New Year or Grandma's birthday.

The second are festive yellow table runners. These table runners are each 2.7m in length by 45cm in width and beautifully finished with hemmed edges and a tapered ends. There are two patterns for these runners, one is a solid mustard yellow colour and the other is a fairly thin chrome yellow and white striped pattern, reminiscent of linen Ralph Polo Lauren shirts. Again, the picture is an approximation as the first runner pictured mixes both patterns together.


The yellow of the runners is slightly darker than what is pictured here, they are pure cotten and give a real pop of colour to your table. They are made to go over the edges of a large round or rectangular table and are perfect for parties or even a small, colour-coordinated wedding. We have 10 of each to give away, so please state how many you are interested in.


The second item is a set of three wrought iron candlebras, this picture is an approximation but they are fairly close. The three candle holders are lofted at different heights and have a single stem each with a fluted pattern only at the base (rather than all the way up as shown in this picture). They are made for table-top use and are a lovely accent for festive dinners.

Leave us a comment or contact weyzhan@gmail.com with how to reach you if you would like to win these items and as usual, the receipient is responsible for picking them up.