A brightly lit and clean place was the first impression I had when I stepped into this highly raved desserts place for the first time. All white is the theme. Pretty surprised that the whole place was empty on a Saturday afternoon around 2pm.My friends and i were introduced to the whole range of eclairs and parfait sets at the counter. As the name says it all, "Karafuru" which means colorful, so you can really expect to see many colorful eclairs available.There were at least 15 flavours to choose from and its not easy to decide which ones to get. In the end, we gave up (hahaha) and blindly chose 4 eclairs and a Hanami parfait set.
(1) Matcha Azuki $6.00- Matcha creme, azuki beans and matcha sables. Although I'm not a matcha person but this flavour do catches my tongue notice. The cream was smooth and matcha taste was distinctive. The soft azuki beans' paste blends in well with matcha creme, adds sweetness to the eclair while balancing the slight bitterness from the matcha.
(2) Cafe Au Lait $6.00- Milk coffee creme, chocolate sables and edible gold dust. I like this flavour most among the rest of our choices. Being a coffee and chocolate lover myself, coffee and chocolate combi usually works pretty well together for me. Coffee aroma was so fragrant and the milk coffee creme inside so creamy. The chocolate sables adds additional crunch to the eclair. Although gold dust wasn't any necessary but it does makes the overall looked prettier.
(3) Black Forest $7.00- Kirshwasser creme, candied wild cherries, raspberries and dark chocolate. Felt that the pairing of kirshwasser creme, dark chocolate and berries was a mistake. These elements doesn't taste good together. Brandy taste wasn't clear and when combine with sourish berries and chocolate, it's simply weird. I would suggest to skip this.
(4) Sakura Rose $6.00- Sakura rose creme and marzipan. Having the most pretty color among the rest 3 eclairs, this eclair smells really floral. First bite into it eventually stops me from having the second. Taste reminds me of pink cough syrup from clinics; A very strong dose indeed! Yucks! Sorry but I do not know how to appreciate this highly raved flavour.
(5) Hanami Parfait set $20.00- Sakura soufflé, Vanilla pudding, Sakuru syrup, cereal crunch, hanami dango, raspberries, strawberries, red fruits coulis and Sakura langue de chat. A detailed crafted plate of dessert comprising so many wonderful elements.
Milky yogurt softserve was smooth and creamy. Paired with the sourish red fruits coulis provided was brilliant. Sakura soufflé was very soft and cotton-liked. The fluffiness made me fell in love with it immediately. Vanilla pudding texture was coarse and the sakura syrup (cough syrup taste) drizzled over it made things worst. Hanami dango were really chewy and I liked the greeny piece most because matcha taste was distinctive. Not forgetting the cereal rice puffs that gave this dessert the crunchiness among all the soft ingredients on the plate. Overall look of this pinkish parfait set was pretty and attractive, girls will definitely choose this.This $20 parfait set comes with a pot of tea and we chose "Soba seed stem" tea to go along. Made using aromatic soba grains and stem tea, this blend was light with slight sweetness aftertaste. A great choice to have after all the sweet treats. The mini brown sugar madeleine that comes with the tea was yummy too!! (Better than the eclairs)Verdict: For me, their parfait set was more worth the calories. As for their eclairs, the choux dough texture were too soft and dry inside for me liking. Appearance definitely scores but as for taste, it's really subjective among all 5 of us. Not much to rave about this place but just another instagrammable dessert place with colourful instagrammable food. I might step into Karafuru again for other parfait sets as there are many selections but for their eclairs, it's definitely a "no-no".
 

[Hyde & Co]
785 North Bridge Road
Singapore 198753
By invitation from Hyde & Co cafe, I'm here with a few girl friends to try out H&C's new dinner menu together with new desserts.
New dinner menu available now from every Wednesday to Saturday, 6.30pm - 10.30pm. Reservations are recommended.
(1) Drinks $7.50 each(a) Into the Woods - Iced berry tea with blends of ripe berries, hibiscus and rose hip.
(b) The Addams Family - Iced moroccan apple tea with fresh slices of granny smith and rim of glass coated with sugar.
- Both were refreshing cooler drinks great for hot weather like Singapore. My opinions, they're decent but I prefer "Into the Woods". The rim of sugar was too much for The Addams Family.
(2) Buffalo Wings $10.00- For starters, we have chicken wings tossed in Chipotle BBQ sauce. This starter presents us with slight spiciness and a nice smoky jalapeño taste. Celery and carrot stripes on the side are accompanied by creamy homemade garlic aioli dip. A great finger food dish to start with before our mains.
(3) Assam Halibut $21.00- We start off our mains with a fish dish. Recommended way of eating is to toss all ingredients together first before you eat as I tried tasting each seperately and it wasn't impressive. The halibut was fresh, soft but tasted bland. You have to compliment it with H&C homemade assam to get the flavour and to highlight, the sourish mild spicy assam was indeed gooOood.. Japanese soba was too soft and slippery for my liking, wish they were more firm. No surprises for this fish dish.
(4) Nasi Lemak Risotto $22.00- A fusion yet familiar dish with great efforts behind. Risotto cooked in coconut cream and fresh coconut water, resulted in a more sweet than savory aftertaste. Risotto was grainy, al dente, more of the authentic style which italians would have prepared it. The deep fried leek slices together with the crispy ikan billis scattered around, adds more crunch to the overall dish. The yolk from the poached egg was too runny to be mentioned. Prawns cooked with H&C homemade sambal sauce were fresh, crunchy and blends very well with the sambal. If only the sambal can be more spicy, I believe it will bring up more punch. The infusion of lemongrass was also a great move as you could smell it along way while enjoying the dish. A great marriage between Asian & Italian cuisines.
(5) Beef Cheek Rendang $25.00- This beef cheek rendang was the most pretty dish among all other mains. As told by the chef, this beef cheek rendang was slow-cooked for more than 4hours to achieve this tenderness of meat. It was flavourful and each bite is thoroughly immersed with the marinades. Sweet potato mash was nicely done with a smooth texture, not overly sweet and it disperses a buttery fragrance. The crostini laid on top not only beautified the whole dish, it's texture was really crispy and also made inhouse from scratch
(6) Truffle Mac & Cheese $18.00- The overwhelming smell of truffle made my saliva drools way from H&C kitchen before this dish reaches our table. This truffle mac & cheese looked ordinary on appearance but tastes otherwise. From top, the torched panko gave an additional crisp to the cheese and I'm so loving the "chao ta" aftertaste in my mouth. The candied bacon bits were the source of saltiness, paired with the roasted mushrooms, this is savory!! Macaroni texture was good, not too soft or mushy. Put each different elements onto your spoon and gulp them down in a mouthful, it's da bomb! A very tummy-warming dish and also my most loved among all other dishes.
(7) All Star Tea Affogato $7.50 each(a) Millie - Comprises of Vintage Earl Grey tea, Orange zest and Vanilla bean ice cream. Smells good and tastes mild minty with strong citrus aftertaste. It's quite a refreshing choice.
(b) Matilda - Comprises of Strawberry Ceylon tea, berry compote made inhouse and vanilla bean ice cream. Ceylon taste was very distinctive, with light fruity berries aftertaste, this is my no.2 love among all 4.
(c) Charlie - Comprises of Chocolate meringue tea, salted chocolate drizzle made inhouse and vanilla bean ice cream. No wow factor for this selection, it's just simply taste like creamy chocolate milk.
(d) Hamilton - My no.1 choice and I recommend you guys to try it. Comprises of spiced lapsang souchong, sesame segments and vanilla bean ice cream. This tea was heavy with strong smokey flavour, the dried chilli flakes gives you the additional punch along the way. This combi is something unique which I think you can't get it elsewhere but here at Hyde & Co.
(8) Christmas Gingerbread Waffle $14.00- This creation was made from a gingerbread based waffle, topped with a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream in the center, paired together with caramelized apple slices, wine poached raisins and drizzled with salted caramel sauce. I can feel Christmas came early
Gingerbread waffle was very crispy on the outside and fluffy inside. Cinnamon smell and taste was quite heavy, you could get it in every bite. Luckily, the salted caramel drizzle plays an important role by neutralizing the cinnamon taste in my mouth because I'm not a cinnamon person. If you are, this creation is made for you. The caramelized apple slices and raisins also brings up additional sweetness to this dessert dish and giving it more texture while biting. This Christmas waffle will be launched after 2nd of Dec so stay tuned!
(9) Coffee- Magic- It's Hyde & Co first year anniversary and to celebrate the mark of this new milestone, new coffee blend, Magic, was introduced. Magic blend consists of beans from Brazil, Sumatra and Ethiopia. Heavier hazenut & chocolatey notes with slight berry sweetness aftertaste. This blend was more intense than their usual one and I'm loving this more. Come down to get your hands on it, no regrets definitely!!

[Meet & Melt]
Blk 915 Tampines St.91
#01- 49 Singapore 520915Dessert before dinner at Meet & Melt. It was my first visit here at this ice cream parlour. The shop unit below this hdb block was rather small, minus the space used for baking and ice cream chiller, there's only a 2-seater placed indoors. The rest 20 are alfresco seats. Business was quite good on a Sunday, most seats were taken up and average waiting time was about 10-15mins for waffles and toasts. My choice of desserts were:
(1) Charcoal waffles with Premium Salted Egg Ice Cream scoop $9.90 (+ $1 for Premium ice cream)- This selection comes with 2pcs of 3" X 3" square waffles. The waffles' texture were very crispy, totally MY KIND of waffles. I dislike those soft, chewy fluffy types.As for the premium salted egg ice cream scoop, extra $1 chargeable for premium selections. The curry leaves' taste in the ice cream was more distinctive than the salted egg taste, slightly overwhelming but overall ice cream still savoury.
If you like something heavier, you also have other choices such as adding salted egg sauce or matcha sauce at an additional cost of $1.
(2) Ferrero Rocher Toast Creation $12.90- As how the name describes, this creation comes with a rectangular bread toast and a scoop of ferrero rocher ice cream. Topped with 2 pretzel sticks, 2 chocolate rolls, a ferrero rocher chocolate and drizzled with chocolate sauce.The toast was baked till crispy on the outer layer and slight fluffy on the inside. Each sides were evenly spread with butter and tastes good even on its own without ice cream.
As for the Ferrero rocher ice cream, the texture was chocolatey and creamy. Those hazenut taste found in our usual rocher chocolate was quite distinctive here in this ice cream but personally views, it can be heavier.
Although overall chocolate elements add up were abit too sweet but I still enjoyed it, especially with great company like my family.
Verdict: Strengths were more in the waffles than toasts if I have to choose 1. Those who love crispy waffles (like me), this is definitely the place to visit. Ice cream varieties will have to improve as the existing flavours are too common and easily found in the market. Lady boss together with her family are friendly people, prices here are reasonable and affordable too so do give them your support if you're around the vicinity 😊

The recent trend of modern fusion coffeeshops has made its way to North east area of Singapore (finally)! Legend coffeeshop, which opened their doors this year April 2015 at Sengkang, has yet to made known to public so I decided to blog about it.The whole coffeeshop interior was a mixed of modern fusion + old skool concept, with wooden tables, rustic metal chairs and some elements of the 80s. There's coffee stall, western food stall, ramen stall, roast meat stall and cze char stall. I patronized Legend on 2 continuous nights and the following cze char dishes were what I've ordered:
(1) Deep fried Tofu cubes in cereal $6 [1 size]- Tofu cubes were very crispy on the outside and smooth on the inside. Tofu itself tasted bland without any seasoning but the buttered cereal adds an additional punch to it giving them more taste and crunch.
(2) Salted Egg Prawn Balls $22 [medium]- Portion was abit small for a medium sized but luckily it tastes good. Salted egg flavour was highly dosed, fragrant and the prawns were fresh too. Everyone on the table loves this dish.
(3) Prawn Paste Chicken Wings $12 [8pcs]- Deep fried to golden brown, these sexy legs are indeed CRISPY! Marinating process could be longer, marinades can be heavier, so that the prawn paste taste can be more distinctive. Although this current version is good enough BUT I love 重口味.
(4) Curry Fishhead $25 [1 size]- A pippin hot claypot curry fishhead was the most suitable choice on a breezy day like yesterday. Other than the meaty fishhead, chef was generous with the veggies that came with it. Lots of cabbage, eggplant, long beans and tau pok (bean curd skin). The curry gravy wasn't those thick type, it's slight watery but still full of flavours. It's not a bad choice after all.
(5) Mongolian Pork Ribs $10 [Small]- Initially we asked for Zheng Jiang Pork Ribs but it was sold out. So we chose Mongolian as alternative. The meat was tender and comes with bone. The Mongolian sauce was rather sweet for me and luckily the hints of cinnamon wasn't too overwhelming as I dislike cinnamon.
(6) French beans with Minced Pork $12 [small]- French beans, my favourite type of veggie since young. I've always love it with hei bi hiam (spicy shrimp paste) but here doesn't cater. We had the version with pork instead. French beans were crunchy, stir-fried with minced pork and mushroom bits. Overall was slight salty but still nice.
(7) Spinach with 3 types of eggs $10 [small]- Veggie part is done well, stems of spinach still have the crunch. Egg portions are generous but too bad the broth is bland. I would say "can do without" this dish.
(8) Stir-fried Potato Leaves with Sambal Chilli $8 [small]- Compared with the plate I had at Bedok Wee's family, this is a yummier choice. The vegetable chosen were mainly smaller young potato leaves which provides more texture while biting. Sambal chilli used was more spicy too which what most of us preferred.
(9) Roast Meat $7.50- The char siew sold here was different from others which I've tried before. The texture and taste was more like Chinese sausages (lap cheong) than our usual char siew. I quite like it. Roasted pork belly on the other hand, wasn't really impressive. It was overly salty and skin wasn't crackling.
(10) Fried Rice $6 [medium]- Fried rice smells real good when served. The rice texture was done just right, not mushy and 粒粒分明. The bonus part is they still use char siew in their fried rice whereas a lot other cze char stalls already changed to mock meat. A satisfying plate of rice which is flavourful and not oily.
Verdict: A cool place to chill at for food, beer and fresh fruit juices. It's a friendly environment suitable for all families. Cze char dishes were quite good. I must come back to try other stalls in this coffeeshop since this location is quite accessible from my house. The only complain was service can be quite lagging when place is crowded. You might have to pick up your own food from the ordering station when they're ready as Legend shorts manpower now.

I'm a frequent shopper at City Square Mall but didn't really took notice of this restaurant until my friends chose this place for dinner. Paddington House of Pancakes was halal certified thus attracted mainly Malay customers. The whole place was packed during dinner time and we queued for 25mins to get a seat.
There were 100 items on the menu but we only managed to order these:
(1) Monaco $19- Lamb shoulder marinated with herbs and grilled over the fire. Served with homemade zucchini onion pancakes, accompanied by mashed potato and yogurt mint sauce.
The lamb was sliced too thin, thus over-cooking causes the meat to taste tough and chewy. The herbs marinade managed to conceal partial of the mutton fats' stench but it's more perfect when you eat it with the yogurt mint sauce. For this dish, the zucchini & onion pancakes was the highlight. Pancakes were soft, with additional crunch from the zucchini and fragrant from the onions, it's more oomph having them alone.
(2) Mexican Double Burger $22- This huge tower of meat was made up of 1 chicken and 1 lamb minced meat patty. You do have the choice to choose 2 patties of the same kind. Chicken minced meat patty was tender, flavourful with slight char on both sides. Lamb tastes slightly inferior because of the mutton odour and patty was abit dry too. Homemade buns used in this burger was actually called the "sesame puffins". It is rather bland, definitely a healthier choice and contains buckwheat too. Other ingredients such as pineapple ring, avocado slices, tomatoes, grilled cheese and gherkins are also part of this tall burger. Side was french fries and dip given was salsa.
(3) Nice $16- Homemade crepes wrapped with turkey bacon, chicken, prawns, mushrooms and grilled mozerrella. Finished with creamy mushroom sauce drizzled on top. This is my favourite choice among the 3. The eggy crepes were very fragrant, having slight crisp on the outside, it's yum! Pairs really well with all the ingredients, I felt myself as if I'm enjoying cheesy thin crisp pizza!!
(4) Fruit Juice- Immune Zoom $7- Fresh juice made up of Peach, apple, honeydew and cranberry. This combination tastes rather sweet but since it indicates to have "immune zoom" effect, I gulp the whole glass down without second thoughts.
Verdict: Food was average tasting and took more than 30mins to come. Ambience wasn't great too. The whole restaurant was really noisy during mealtime and not easy to chat with friends too. I admit pancakes, crepes are really their strengths but not the meat. It might take me very long time to come patronize again, unless it's for their pancake desserts.