The softcore bakers from Smoulder are well known among my dessert-loving friends for their exceptionally delicious lava cakes with creative flavours that you don’t get to see in the typical molten cakes. From my personal favourites like White Chocolate Lemon and White Chocolate Pistachio to stronger tasting Milk Chocolate Rum & Raisins and Milk Chocolate Mocha. Smoulder is definitely one dessert specialty shop set to challenge our mindset of eating all things sweet.

In preparation of this year’s mid-autumn festival, Smoulder has launched their own mooncakes series with an eye catching statement: The Moon has never tasted better. It almost sounded like a challenge to other established competitors and given the fact that there are so many mooncake makers already, they better be prepared for the annual competition. Everyone is vying a share of the festive pie but not every eateries can handcraft out such pastries successfully.When I think of mooncakes especially snowskin ones, I don’t really reminisce about the past and I certainly don’t picture the moon in my head. All I care is when should I have them instead. I personally regard mooncakes as desserts. Great to have during afternoon tea or taken as an after-dinner dessert. Hence I always prefer lighter sweet tasting ones as compared to the stronger pungent savoury ones.

Smoulder snowskin mooncakes came in four flavours: Dark Chocolate, Raspberry, Green Tea and Rum & Raisins. They are certainly all dessert-worthy pastries and it shouldn’t surprise you that these four flavours are also available in their lava cakes too. Apart from the commonly seen green tea ones, dark chocolate was superbly rich especially at the chocolate truffle core. But awesomeness has surely gotta come in the form of the petite pink mooncake. Most of my family and friends who sampled the raspberry flavour sang praises for being refreshingly fruity.For dessert lovers who adore sweet treats with an additional kick, I say Smoulder rendition of the rum and raisin would suffices without being excessively alcoholic. All their mooncakes have a lotus paste base with a chocolate core made with Belgium chocolate. I don’t find them artificially sweeten like some bakeries does so this is one place you can definitely grab a box for personal consumption or as a gift to someone close.

Unlike today’s pasar malam, the night market in my days was much more vibrant with auctioning running with CDs playing Hokkien songs and the lights from all the stalls seemed to light up the night. It was so packed that it seemed like everyone from the neighborhood were there.

Set aside the toys you could win by fishing floating “frogs/ducks”, the next most important aspect has got to be the food. It’s a must have this and a must have that. From oily tapioca cakes to a packet of chewy muah chee but a “I confirm must eat!” food has got to be petite flourly tutu kueh!Sad to say, finding someone who makes tutu kueh is no longer as pre-dominant these days. It’s almost like a dying trade like you can’t find old cobbers repairing your shoes on the streets that easily. Somehow, by a stroke of luck, I managed to stumble upon one hawker stall that solely makes them for a living. To see the steamers in front of the stall, was enough for me to relive my childhood but I just need to try one for myself to complete the nostalgic feeling.Upon buying, I was disappointed. Disappointed to see that my tutu kuehs weren’t steamed on the spot but picked from a stack hidden under some towels. Although it was still warm, I just prefer mine to be piping hot. I wouldn’t mind waiting for them to be steamed you know?

The disappointment was gone as soon as I stuffed one of those puffy treats into my mouth. Especially savouring the grated coconuts. They were easily the best tutu kuehs I had in years but I can’t say much for their peanuts. One moment it was sweet and the bite was salty. I can’t say what happened to the process since I am no expert in roasting nuts.

Eating these tutu kuehs were like relieving my memories as a child running around the night market, pestering my mum to buy me new toys, playing with my neighbors and always nipping a bit of tutu kueh all in the name of fun, laughter and joy.

Sushi Express is located conveniently at CityLink Mall near Marina Square and during lunch and dinner time, it is fully packed with people and often, you had to queue up to 15 mins to enter. However, this is one of my favourites if not, my first choice when it comes to satisfying my salmon sashimi craving. Due to its high traffic amount, the food is always fresh, especially their sashimi. Costing only $1.50 a plate, one can fill their stomachs with endless amount of sashimi and other varieties of sushi. The thing about it is, you can get salmon sashimi, salmon sushi, salmon belly etc. all at the same price. It is economically friendly yet able to satisfy the cravings of salmon lovers. The salmon sashimi tastes sweet and you could see trays of salmon being prepared right in front of you.

All the sushi are freshly prepared by the chefs at the different section and they tasted pretty tasty. Among all the sushi I tasted, the only one I hated was the sea urchin one which was nasty, tasted like rotten food from garbage. There are also non-sushi dishes served like fresh scallop which are huge in size and tasted fresh and sweet. There is also salmon miso soup which i do not recommend. It is salty and very oily; we could see a layer of oil floating on top of the soup base, totally not worth it. The desserts served are usually pudding that tasted like supermarket pudding thus not worth the $1.50.

Anyone who wants to enjoy cheap and good quality sashimi is recommended to visit this place.

This small quiet Japanese cake shop is situated at the corner of Duxton Hill. I was on the hunt for the perfect birthday cake for my fussy eater mum and one of my good friends told me to give it a try and promised I wouldn’t regret. With high hopes, I made my way down alone to the café to do a taste test and did some research on their popular selections. After making myself comfortable in the café, I proceeded to order 2 slices of cake to try out.

Berries Berries was one of the more popular flavours according to my research plus it was a Chef’s Signature. Undoubtedly, it was the best berries cake I ever had. Not only was the cake fluffy and soft, the cream was equally tasty and the flavours from the fresh berries exploded in my mouth.

The cake was not too sweet and the natural sweetness came from the berries and cream itself. I personally do not like my cakes to be thickly coated with artificial whip cream on the outer layer but the fresh cream used in the cake was minimal and did not make me feel sick after a while from eating too much cream.Napoleon was a special recommendation from a friend of mine and the puffy pastry left me with a good impression. The layers of crispy puff were complimented with the sweetness of the strawberries.

It is pretty interesting to me as it was my first time having such a cake and I didn’t expect it to taste this good. The crispy puff was the chef’s specialty and it reminded me of a perfectly baked croissant, fragrant, crispy on the outside, soft on the inside. However, it can get really messy while having the cake as the crisps just gets everywhere.

In the end, I ordered the full size version of Berries Berries as my mum’s birthday cake and my whole family loved it and even branded it as the “best cake they ever had”. If only the location was much more convenient for me and I will be stopping by frequently.

NYDC is a familiar name to many Singaporeans as it has several outlets in Singapore including Bugis Junction, Tampines 1 etc. NYDC stands for New York Dessert Café and I have been eyeing on the cakes they display for quite some time. Unable to resist the temptation, I decided to give my partner and I a little treat to their cakes during one of the evenings. The cake I really wanted to try first was their New York Cheesecake, and to my delight, it was soft and cheesy. The cake has a very creamy texture and the taste of cheese was literally dancing in my mouth. The biscuit like base was sweet but compliments the cheesecake very well. It was one of the best New York Cheesecakes I ever had and is definitely worth a shot for anyone’s time. Boo Boo cake sounds very child-like and just like its name, it is a cake that even children will love. It is a classic chocolate cake that will capture the hearts of many with its rich chocolaty taste and fluffy cake mixture. The cake is coated with a layer of dark chocolate which tasted sweet with a slight hint of bitterness. No wonder it is one of the must try in the café. Lastly, the server recommended us to get the Cookie Monster cake on the menu, commenting that it is one of the hot favourites too. We were very surprised when we took the first bite into the cake because it was really cold, like ice cream cold.

Slowly, we realise Cookie Monster is made up of an oreo cookie base together with double chocolate chip and mocha almond fudge ice cream on top. It is an almost perfect match as the ice cream was filled generously with chunks of cookies that melted in our mouths with every bite. The Oreo base was crispy and added another layer of texture and flavour to the smooth ice cream.

Even as I am typing, my mouth is watery and I can’t wait to go back and taste the cakes of NYDC again.