[ Coolplay Softserve Singapore ]
Location: Toa Payoh Lor 4, Blk 85B
Situated at Toa Payoh old estate, below a hdb block, it's was standing in the middle of the whole stretch. Location wasn't impressive, you might just walked past without noticing.
Deco: The whole shop was in blue & yellow wallpaper throughout, with cute moustache cartoon illustrations on them. A long bench was placed for customers to take photos against the yellow background. Lotsa interesting props were also provided to you to play around with your camera.
Food: Softserve ice cream on cone or cup. $4.50 for a flavour and $5.00 for mixed. Different flavours are rotated each week. This week they have Strawberry, Heavy Chocolate & Honey Walnut. I bought all 3. The texture of the softserve was smooth & creamy.
For me, best among all is the strawberry flavour softserve. Refreshing plus abit sourish taste from the fruit bits. Felt like eating frozen strawberries
Heavy Chocolate tastes dark and intense, chocolate lovers will like it. If you choose the mixed version softserve, it actually balances well with strawberry.
Honey walnut has a nutty aftertaste and halfway through it, the taste that remains in my mouth becomes like gula melaka.. This flavour is too sweet for my liking.
By the way, a cute little piece of moustache-shaped cookie is placed on each order too.
Verdict: Overall experience was decent. Price reasonable and staff was friendly also. I will revisit soon for other flavours if I'm in Toa Payoh hood.

[ Black&Ink ]
A cosy cafe along Changi road. Nearest to Eunos MRT station, followed by 5-8mins walk. The interior deco were mainly in black & white. White marble-top tables with old skool black wooden chairs that we usually sees in aged coffeeshops.
The owner behind this place is Roy. I had quite a long chat with him and heard him saying the mission behind these work that he is doing. Alot of entrepreneurs started cafe businesses because of the current market trend & profits, but he does it to help a certain group of people. People whom are in need of proper help, care and guidance which books can't assist. Conclusion: A small place with a BIG HEART.
The main highlight of Black & Ink is coffee. Although I'm not good in it but when you taste it, you can feel the passion and heart that Roy puts in it. He's a certified barista by the way and he is really proud of his coffee.
My personal preferences are the cakes & pastries served in a cafe. There are quite a variety of them offered in Black & Ink and I could assure you, they're as good as they looked! I ordered a Salted Egg Yolk Muffin and the "Under Table" cake. A savory and a sweet. For coffee, we had a black and a white
My white coffee: Smooth and not very acidic, the taste I like it to be. When cool, it has a berry aftertaste that lingers in your mouth.
Salted Egg Yolk Muffin: As coffee is the highlight here, thus main ingredient for this muffin. Initially I thought it's gula melaka till Roy clarifies. And the fillings? Let it flow.. Let it floooooww... The salted egg yolk taste wasn't very over-whelming or salty, thus create a balance with the coffee muffin. It's yum!
Under-Table cake: First layer of cream cheese, then the bananas, followed by belgium chocolate and the crispy base. It's heavenly! The fruit & chocolate blends so well together while taste of bananas wasn't overpowered. Most importantly, it's not too sweet
Assorted pastries, danish, buns & cakes are on daily menu. Currently cafe serves new items like burgers, assorted gelato. Gelato flavours changes monthly Mao Shan Wang gelato is the highlight of July.
Verdict: Black & Ink cafe is a great place to chill out. Prices are reasonable too. I will definitely frequent here.

[ Dessert Project ]
Location: Blk 22 Havelock Rd #01-673
Decor: White walls with simple "concrete" finished areas around the whole shop. Wooden tabletops & metal chairs.
Service: Boss is friendly but he opened the shop late. Supposed to operate at 12noon but till 1230pm, it's not ready. My order came in only at 1.10pm
Food: Other than coffee, I ordered the Nutella Toast. Boss says he get this inspiration from Thailand popular cafe, After You.
This selection comes in a 3inch buttered thick toast (9 cuts), Vanilla & Ferrero Rocher ice cream scoops, Nutella drizzle, crushed peanuts, whipped cream & a strawberry. One share is $14.90 Enough to share among 2pax.
If you are a Nutella lover, this choice is da bomb! The Ferrero Rocher ice cream was so yum too with Rocher bits mixed in
Verdict: 4/5 Definitely will come again but hopefully they could open their shop punctually.
I also suggested to Dessert Project, to cut the toast into 12s, rather than 9. So that butter coverage could be more. More BUTTER would taste even better

[ Do.Main Bakery ]
By looking at this Bakery name, have you wondered the meaning behind it? Because the word "domain" to me is about "owned","territorized". The great man behind this , Chef Frederic Deshayes, tells us that "Do" represents dough, "Main" means hands. And together, the magic hands created fresh & heartwarming french pastries daily.
On this perfect Wednesday evening, I hopped onto Openrice food tasting bus and came to Do.Main Bakery. When you pulled open the door, the aromatic smell from within pulled your souls away and making me hungry at the same time. Really can't wait to taste the french bread and dishes.
The whole place has simple classic deco, themed of black and white, making the bread and pastries at the counters outstanding. Cosy is the word.
Fellow Openrice members and i were shown to the kitchen, where we could see the sous chefs in action. Chef Deshayes tells us their daily kitchen routine and show us the machines they were using. Woah they were huge and I bet they were very costly too. It was a quick tour, probably Chef Deshayes knows we are hungrrrrry *hahaha*
Thereafter came our first appetizer, Charcuterie Platter with sourdough basket, followed by a salad. This platter consists of Ham, Pork Rillette, Duck terrine w/Pistachios and pickles on the side.

The meat in the rillette was shredded nicely into semi-paste form and served as a good spread on our bread. I put a pickle on it to bring up more taste, as having it alone is abit bland for me.

As i munch my way through the chunks of tender duck meat inside the terrine, the pistachios in it did blend in well to give that additional crunch and nutty taste. This duck terrine was seasoned nicely and feelings I had for it is the same as the ham. I could eat it on its own without any additional carbo. $20 for this platter is rather reasonable to me
Next is Four Seasons Salad- The colors they presents on the plate was so pretty that I don't bear to mess them up with my fork! This pretty creation is a combi of lentils, shredded carrots, cherry tomatoes, lettuce and roasted capsicums. Among all, I crowned the roasted capsicums the winner! Soft but not mushy, roasted but not burnt, yums! I can have a few more rounds of the capsicums alone The price? $18 per serving.
Third we have the Broken Eggs with Mouillettes. Base is tomato confit, made in-house (4 hours processing time). French ate it the rough way where you pick up a bread stick and swirl up the eggs hard, like a tornado. For me, it tasted rather plain and not salty enough. For $15, it's rather pricey.
After the eggs, we have the Tartiflette with Reblochon cheese and Cassolette oven-baked Escargots. Each serving is $16. Tartiflette with reblochon is a winter dish for the French families. It consists of cheese, bacon bits and potato cubes. If you are a cheesy person like me, then this dish is the right one for you. Indulge every mouthful filled with melted cheese, flavour from the bacon & sweetness from the potatoes cubes. The melted reblochon cheese covered on top kept the ingredients below warm, it warms our tummies when we gulp it down, probably that's why French families love to eat this during winter.
The other dish to brag about is the Cassolette oven-baked escargots. 06 sexy shell-less creatures swimming in tomato confit and topped with parsley garlic purée. The parsley garlic purée is so good and it lingers in your mouth for quite awhile. Initially I still thought it's pesto. As you know snails can be tasteless on its own, therefore this combination of tomato confit, parsley and garlic brings life to this dish.
Finally we have come to the long waited desserts time! Girls love desserts, but after this food tasting session, I realized guys at our table love them as much as we do!!
Chef Deshayes presents us with Lemon tart, Paris Brest, Royal Chocolate cake (Gluten free) and Red Plum Quetsche tart. My favorite dessert among all 4 is the lemon tart. The crust is buttery and not too hard. The lemon curd inside is jelly smooth and zesty. I love it!! Next is the royal chocolate cake made with valrhona manjari chocolate. Rich in texture and crisp at the base, feels like eating dark ferrero rocher chocolate in cake form As for the Paris Brest, the choux pastry is covered with so much nuts compared to the sugar studs, giving the choux a good crunch but the praline filling lacked flavour. I've ate more impressive ones elsewhere. Dark red plum quetsche tart is one of Do.Main bakery's hot selling item. Made daily with fresh red plums, tastes sweet with a little natural sourness from the fruit. Although I'm not a die hard fan for fruit tart, but this is worth a try. Prices for cakes, tarts, eclairs range from $5 to $8 each.
This food tasting session ends with a fun group photo. I had a great time and hope the rest too. Thanks Openrice for having us.
I will definitely revisit this bakery. It is a cosy place for afternoon tea, not noisy, good for both business meet-ups and dating too. Food portion is good enough to fill up my tummies as most mains comes with French bread but price wise, mostly reasonable but a few abit pricey. But if compare between the mains and desserts, I still prefers the latter so I will come back again for more desserts.
Bon appetit!

【Chick And Ken】
Owners behind Stateland & Honeycomb started another new wings joint opened at Lor Telok to follow the current Korean fried chicken trend.

Last Saturday, I went to try it out with my hubby. First impression already failed us because it's supposed to operate at 12noon but when we walk past the back alley at 12.10pm, chefs were smoking behind. When we stepped into the shop, the lady assistant told us that kitchen wasn't ready and ask us to come back 20-30mins later So we went to have ramen first. Our tummies were almost 80% full before we complete of actual mission of trying out the wings.
At Chick and Ken, the deco is the same as Stateland cafe. We only ordered 4 whole wings, 2 flavours of Salted egg + Yangnyeom, & a drink. No space for other dishes.

From many social media channels, I saw most people like their salted egg wings more. But for me, No WOW factor because my hubby makes better Salted Egg sauce than this 😁
Without the coated sauce, the wings are just bland wings. If only they were marinated...
Compared to the Salted Egg wings, I prefer the red ones, Yangnyeom wings But I prefer them to be more spicy, if possible.
Love the crunchiness of the peanuts & the nuts fragrance aftertaste that stays in my mouth
Probably I won't visit again for their wings, unless jio by friends. But I may come try their bingsu when I'm around this vicinity or if I'm super free