I spent quite a while in The Cheese Ark waiting for the meticulous work to be done. The lady in charge took much care preparing the cheese for everyone, and even plating them on this cool charcoal-black platform. Well, by "cool" I meant that it's chilled to maintain the optimum taste of the cheese.

Enjoying cheese definitely requires an acquired taste, not everyone likes it but those who do, will love it. For me? I thought I won't like it, but surprisingly, the cheese presented to us is slanted towards the less strongly flavoured ones and I really appreciate them when pairing them with the figs. I can tell it is of high quality but my palate is not finely attuned to them as I am not very much exposed to cheese. 

While browsing the shops at Pasarbella/GrandStand, my parents and I chanced upon the promotion - 45% off Italian Ice Cream on Tuesdays for students and children ($4.90 for a grande cup of 3 flavours), which is very attractive for premium ice-cream parlours nowadays. Of course we went in to check out what they have. I liked the ambience a lot, it has high ceilings, allowing sunlight to stream in, very bright and airy.

There were many interesting flavours, but we settled for Honey & Yogurt, Lavendar Vanilla, Green Tea flavours. Their ice-cream is definitely the 'quality' sort, smooth, rich and decadent. It is also on the sweeter side. The Honey & Yogurt reminds me greatly of llaollao, while the lavendar vanilla is very distinctly floral. It does not taste like washing powder even though I thought it might. The green tea is too sweet for my liking, I thought it would be more muted. Overall, I would say that it's only value-for-money with the discount. They need to go easy on the sugar level of their ice-cream.

I know, Carpenter & Cook has been around for ages and I've been raring to go since its inception. The only thing that really puts me off from going is the distance, but I can safely tell you that this cafe is one of the rare few worth travelling for. Or at least for people who appreciate the same things I do in a cafe (ambience! food!), and would not mind about the other elements (how detailed they are with coffee). I have to say I adore their whimsical Elizabethan theme of floral teasets, wooden tables, all things vintage and rustic kitchenware. It reminds me of Alice in Wonderland, and not being in puffy frocks made me feel quite out of place. The grey hues cast across the cafe by the rainy weather contrasted with the warm glows from the lighting made the cafe a fantastic hideout from the rest of the world. I can already foresee myself coming here, equipped with a good read in hand.The glob sister and I at this cafe, finally. We've been wanting to go since forever... and almost put it off yet again because of the rain. But procrastination has to stop. You bet we didn't regret going forth with plans we've previously agreed upon with such a lovely setting.The Ham & Cheese Croissant is seemingly predictably good as this is already a winning combination. The croissant blew me away quite a bit as it exceeded my expectations. The croissant had an extraordinarily buttery fragrance melded with the savoury cheese and bacon that are really chewy. The croissant were also finely layered in fettered crisps when the knife goes through. Definitely better than average... I would recommend this, but first of all you can't leave C&C without trying their tarts. As our stomachs have limited space and cafe budgets, each of us chose only one tart. C&C tarts go at $6.50 each. This is one of the toughest decisions in a while. Finally, glob sister chose the Sea Salt Caramel Chocolate Tart while I went with the Passionfruit Meringue Tart. The decisions were weighed with different priorities in mind: for her, it was chocolate; me, photogenicity of the food (uh, duh). I would have chosen the Lemon Cream Tart based on my imagination of how they taste, but it was sadly pretty ugly-looking with this squishy yellow paste on the tart structure. Back to our orders: the Sea Salt Caramel Chocolate Tart turned out to be pretty interesting in that each of its components are unmistakable and distinct, especially the saltiness. The dark chocolate aftertaste came on fast and furious thereafter, but it's not too imposing nor sore-throat inducing. On the other hand, my Passionfruit Meringue Tart was spectacular in that it tastes as awesome as it looks. I often don't have much faith in good-looking food but this proved me wrong. The meringue is actually quite soft and not too sweet, and complemented the sour tones of the passionfruit (which looked like the lemon cream tart) stuffed generously under the meringue soft spikes. I really liked it! I wonder what the Lemon Cream Tart would taste like. The hot mocha didn't impress me as much as the tarts did, though I must say the caffeine kick is very substantial. To me, the mocha felt neither here nor there, resting in a comfortable range of a decent, smooth, predictably good coffee. I enjoyed it even though I'm sure people who are picky about their coffees may not rank C&C with the really good coffee-driven cafes. I definitely loved the experience here at Carpenter & Cook, and a second visit is in order.For more food reviews: www.amiehu.com

Ever since I tried the Portuguese egg tarts from Lord Stow's on the chilly shores of Coloane, I knew it's going to be hard to find anything better than that (I wolfed down three of those at one go). Every single time I see somewhere that claims to offer original Portuguese egg tarts, I'm tempted to try and see if I can finally get something similar to it but closer to home. I was at Tanjong Katong Road when the Madeleine's Original Egg Tart caught my eye.With its piping hot, glistening and golden crispy layering, it does look the part of those yummy egg tarts back in Macau. Yet with a bite, there was still something missing, perhaps a more generous buttery fragrance, the lack of a slightly torched surface... almost there, but not yet for the picky tastebuds. Well, egg tarts still make for awesome afternoon treats anyway... especially on rainy days like these.

For more reviews: www.amiehu.com

In a bid not to go to a cafe that disappoint, I've gathered a lot of cafe suggestions from different sources and decided that Common Man Coffee Roasters rest on the top of the list when it comes to cafehoppers' choice. Following close behind, The Plain, Nylon Coffee Roasters and Symmetry. One at a time, so CMC (that's what the baristas and service staff call their cafe) will go first! I was thrilled to go to CMC with all the hype built around it and also because it is my first cafehopping trip since two months ago when I visited Wimbly Lu.Set slightly further down from Robertson Quay on Martin Road, this cafe can be considered quite inaccessible for the lazy and an awesome opportunity for those who love a walk down Singapore River. It was a rainy day, like many other days of the week, so it felt especially warm and cozy inside, almost like the Leaky Cauldron from Harry Potter. Behind their counter, they hung a humorous quote: Free coffee and doughnuts for the unemployed. I think I fall under that category too...kinda.Nothing better to kick start every cafe experience with a thick, piping hot mocha. When it comes to coffee, the team at Common Man Coffee is very serious about it! When asked about where they source their coffee beans, the service staff rambled on endlessly and enthusiastically about them, I got quite lost in it. Well, it definitely impressed us in the looks department with this stunning latte art when it was set on the table. Recently, I got hooked onto watching latte art videos on Youtube and realized how much wrist strength, patience and memory work to create all the different latte art patterns. This, my friend, is one of the more complicated ones that require a lot of pausing, pouring, and timed precision. Kudos! I feel happy being in CMC already. A sip of the mocha - it's got this unmistakable deep satisfying bitterness that veers away from many mochas that pander to the chocolate loving tastebuds, tips towards more acidic undertones and finishes off smoothly.This marvelous case of an accident that happened on my plate is called the Common Man Pancakes. On the menu, it reads: fluffy pancakes, caramelized bananas and walnuts, salted caramel sauce, nutty crumble and berry coulis. Can I be lazy and say that this is awesome?!! No? I agree, because that won't be doing it any justice at all. I would begin by saying that it tastes inversely good as it looks. What I appreciate about this dish was the berry coulis that was very fresh, a good blend of sweetness and sourness that goes so well with pancakes. It's so indulging to mix salted caramel sauce, the crumble, caramelized bananas on top of this luxurious toppings, and I wish for this to be my breakfast in bed everyday and I'll never get sick of it. I'm serious.The much neatly plated Common Man Full Breakfast which includes two free-range organic eggs (scrambled as pictured, but you can choose the style you want it to be), back bacon, sausage, grilled tomatoes, chorizo hash browns, portobello mushrooms and house-made chorizo baked beans with artisanal sourdough toast. It was pretty good too, though predictably so after I tried the pancakes! I would suggest that you go for the full breakfast if you're the picture-conscious sort, but the pancakes for a yummilicious time at CMC. I loved the pancakes a lot. You can probably tell.My churros-seeking adventures have been picking up speed as I lunged for the Common Man churros as gracefully as I could. Sugar dusted and served with luscious chocolate sauce, these churros actually reminded me of the foregone ones at Spanish Doughnuts. It's pretty similar, but less tough and more soft. With very faint cinnamon tastes as compared to Churrosity's, these churros excel at a perfectly timed frying duration for the delicious crisp you are looking for. I might in fact, come back for this if I'm in the area.Common Man Coffee Roasters exceeded my expectations in many ways even though I was already carrying pretty high hopes on the way there! I've heard so many good reviews about it and have finally seen it for myself. I wished you could be here to enjoy this too, so if you haven't... you know what to do.