Anti:dote

Another high tea place I visited late last year - Anti:dote. Well, on my birthday to be exact. Since our office has a birthday-off policy (you can take the day off aside from work exigency), I made plans in advance to meet a girlfriend for high tea that day.

I had quite an enjoyable birthday last year in fact. I slept late, woke up and baked some scones for a late breakfast/lunch snack, had high tea, followed by a sumptuous Japanese dinner at Tatsuya. Yes, as you can see, an enjoyable day for me = feasting.

Anti:dote high tea, 2014

Taiwan 2012: Sadaharu Aoki

I've previously proclaimed my love for Sadaharu Aoki desserts. And lucky me have actually managed to sample a few of his macarons (and chocarons) through friends and family who help me to bring back boxes of his stuff.

Sadaharu Aoki

ReStore

The same day I visited Toby's Estate for brunch, girlfriend and I decided that we needed some "sweet stuff" to end our meal. I know. How lucky I am that said girlfriend has a sweet tooth like me. Toby's Estate sweet offerings didn't appeal, and neither did any of the other cafes near by at Robertson caught our fancy. Thus, we whipped out our trusty iPhones and started googling for dessert places. What a surprise when we found that several places at Duxton/Ann Siang area were closed on Sundays (either that, or it was too late in the afternoon, and we were afraid that there might not be anything much left...).

We did managed to find one that we agreed on - ReStore. So off we drove (in our respective cars I might add - HA!) in search of that place. I'm no expert at directions, so I trailed happily behind my friend's car. We took a while to find parking (damn Singapore and its limited parking spots), but in the end, we managed to find lots pretty near the place.

ReStore

Bonheur Patisserie

I'm currently holiday-ing and (hopefully) enjoying myself while I take my vacation...

I took an extra day of leave the day before I was due to fly off to S. Korea. The reason being I had tons to plan and pack and since my flight was at 1am in the morning on Tuesday, I thought heck, I need an extra day off to reward myself for staring at the computer for two days straight planning my holiday itinerary.

I had to run quite a few errands that day - popping by Chinatown to change money, grab a quick lunch, buy socks and some other holiday necessities and more. I managed to pop by Duxton Road to check out a new patisserie for a quick tea-time break too...

Bonheur Patisserie at 70 Duxton Road

Sadaharu Aoki macarons

The weather this week has been really cold. In fact, with the non-stop rain (okay fine, it stopped. Like for what? A few hours? Before resuming again grr.) that has been going on like for the past three or four days straight, I feel like our sunny island is going to get flooded soon or something. If this goes on again for the next coming few days, I think I'm going to run out of clean underwear and laze-around-at-home clothes to wear (supplies are running seriously low, the Sister suggested re-wearing them. :/) cos our laundry (from three to four days ago) had not been able to dry at all!

Even though I enjoyed the cold weather while studying in Australia, I admit that after being back in Singapore for a year plus, I kinda forget Brisbane's winter temperatures. Though not till the extent of being minus degrees Celcius, it was really cold at night (where I'll avoid turning the heater on too much to save money). And now, sunny rainy Singapore is feeling a little like the winter nights in Brissy. Whereby while using the blowdryer after my shower, I'll aim the airdryer at my feet and to keep them toasty warm (albeit for even a mere few seconds). Which was what I actually did last night. In Singapore. I felt like I was back in Brissy again for that short moment. :/

Anyway. Let's talk about something that makes my innards feel warm and fuzzy - Sadaharu Aoki goodies from Taiwan hand carried back to Singapore by my lovely girlfriend! I saw Evan's tweet that there was Sadaharu Aoki in Taiwan, and I was like all, "whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat, really?". I was that excited cos I knew for one thing, one of my favourite girlfriend was holidaying in Taiwan then, so I immediately texted her and begged her to buy some goodies back for me if possible. And guess what guess what guess what? :)

Sadaharu Aoki goodies from Taipei!

Kki (revisited)

With only the few pâtisseries in town, it's inevitable that I'll be revisiting the nice ones to try out more of their cakes. I was back again at Kki for the third time, with the Sister this time, to try my luck at obtaining a Mont Blanc. Alas, the Mont Blanc was not available at our time of visit, so we settled to share the Little Red Riding Hood and Emily.

Cedele & Obolo

It's been almost two weeks since I last blogged. My my. Time really flies. I was busy training for the Standard Chartered marathon. Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays were spent in the gym with my girlfriend, while Tuesdays and Thursdays were filled with dinner meetings. Weekends were left for baking and relaxing and family time. Thus, the long absence.

Thank gosh the run is over now. I'm happy that I completed my first half marathon, but disappointed that I didn't perform as well as I wanted. The first 12k was a breeze and I thought, hey, I can actually do this! Then right after that, my knees starting aching and I couldn't run even when I felt physically fine (darn my old knees)! I spent the most of the next 9k walking, pausing every now and then to apply the heat rub cream. :( It's okay, I've already made an agreement to join next year's race with one of my girlfriend! Cool. Another year to train. :)

Anyway, first post will be on my second meeting with Evan, and we decided to do brunch and desserts on the same day. Ha! A girl just after my own heart (though my waistline begs to differ cos it's expanding at an exponential rate...).

We met at the Cedele in town, and had a late brunch/lunch first to start off the day. Evan ordered the Big Breakfast set, while I ordered the Poached eggs set. My eyes couldn't be persuaded to move past the words "pancakes" on the menu, and we decided to order a plate to share. Ah. That's the joy of eating with someone who loves food just as much as I do. ;)

Big breakfast set; Pancakes; Poached eggs set

Banana cinnamon pancakes with sausages

Kki

Having heard only rave reviews about Kki, I knew I had to try their pretty looking cakes one day. My original plan was to try it with one of my best girlfriends, when we are out for one of our exploring "trips" to Ann Siang Hill. Alas, our session was almost always postponed due to various reasons, and so, my trip to Kki was also always delayed. Then again, the place is within walking distance from my office. So one fine day, Allie was saying that's she's gonna drop by Kki during lunch and did I want anything from there... Sorry girlfriend, but I hear the cakes beckoning me...

Kki at Ann Siang Hill

Bakerzin (again) and (again)

I happened to lay my hands on some Bakerzin vouchers when they were having discounts on several of their desserts (six macarons for $6, and promotional prices for their cakes). Within the month, we used the vouchers on two occasions -

Macarons (L to R) - Teh Tarik; Lemon Cheesecake; Blueberry; Whisky; Mango; Sakura

Flor Patisserie

Blogging may have its perks at times. I made a new friend through blogging, who share similar interests in baking and Korean food. (: I met up with Evan (bossacafez) from Evan's Kitchen Ramblings one weekend last month to try out a relatively new dessert place - Flor Patisserie. The chef behind the patisserie recently just opened his shop after leaving Patisserie Glacé, another well-known pastry shop I've yet to try (note to self: shall walk over there one day during lunch time to grab some of the goodies).

Flor Patisserie

Gimme some macs.

Remember like a month or so ago in March, I mentioned that while I was at Jurong Point meeting a girlfriend for dinner and movie, when I saw that Bakerzin was having their monthly promotions for macarons? Well, I knew that I was definitely going to get my hands on some, as they were $6 for a box of six macarons. I'm not that big a fan of macarons, I mean I won't especially go all the way to make them specially or something, I only ever make macarons when I have leftover egg whites from making other deserts. But looking at the list of macaron flavours that Bakerzin offered, I couldn't resist temptation as they sounded really good.

Well, technically I don't really love macarons, I just...enjoy. Yes, the word is enjoy.

Nectarie

There was a dessert place near my old workplace. Michelle and I had walked by once and brought a cake to share during tea break. After that, we agreed that we were going to dine in there one day. During my last week working there, we dropped by there one day during our lunch hour, and proceeded to have cake for lunch. Who says you can't have cake for lunch? (:

 

Nectarie