Supply & Demand

This week for Saturyay I finally got to meet Vain Pot after work has kinda overwhelmed us. The month of August hasn't been my favourite month but it also marks the beginning of a new project I've just embarked on... so exciting times ahead! This week, I wanted to go to the National Design Centre to see the lego exhibition there but heard the queue is more than 2 hours! Then there's the Night Festival at the National Museum but I heard it's spilling with human traffic. I think I'll stick to food... seems safer!

Supply & Demand is known for Italian Casual Dining. I've shortlisted them since last year but never got round to trying them out so I'm really glad I finally did! It's also great they have a constant stream of business but their venue is big enough that there's always pockets of seats around which doesn't require much waiting time. On a weekend in the heart of town, it's awesome!

I wanted to order a feast but Vain Pot stopped me. Thankfully she did, I'm really getting rounder. We kicked started our meal with garlic truffle fries ($17) one of their specialties. Truffle seems very popular in this place, the entire place was oozing of truffle aroma. We found the fries to be very generous, sufficiently garlicky with salsa and tartar dips to satisfy you in every way fathomable. The truffle wasn't overwhelming, in fact, some may find it insufficient. I'm not a fan of truffle so I didn't mind. I liked the potato cuts which were chunky and not overly soft or crispy. Just right!

We had a very late lunch thanks to Vain Pot's uber that took an hour to send her over and my work schedule. Hence we tried our best not to over-order. We shared a tasting portion of the Al Granchio ($20) which was made of crab meat, aglio olio, cherry tomatoes, capsicum and white wine. It was very rich in flavour and the portion is just right if you are eating other stuff. I enjoyed the tangy spiciness which wasn't overwhelming and it wasn't too oily unlike some aglio olios. The crab meat flavours gelled well with the white wine making the dish very addictive to eat.

We also ordered the Truffle and Egg Pizza ($21). The pizze is very delicious. The truffle infused taste was distinct and I enjoyed that the black truffle paste spread across the pizza gave the pizza as much flavour as one topped with veggie and meat. I'm impressed by the simplicity of the dish and it's quite a joy to dip the pizza into the soft boiled egg yolk smacked in the middle. Normally, I'll only settle for 2 slices of pizza but with this pan, I see my hands going back for more.

Would I be back? Yes! I think this is an awesome place for gatherings because you can share food and try lots of very good Italian cuisines. It's the perfect kind of place for group outings where you chill, talk and relax over good food and wine. The location is perfect too!

Supply & Demand
277 Orchard Road, #02-13/14 Orchard Gateway, S238858

Le Sucre Du Patisserie

So last week was Vain Pot's birthday and we had a mini celebratory dinner. It's probably the only bright spot for the both of us with insanely packed schedules. Don't even have time to meet up and hunt for food! Hopefully, the coming weeks are better... In any case, we tried Beauty in the Pot, my first time and technically her second (she was ill the first time so didn't enjoy the food). This year, I was lucky enough to try both Hai Di Lao and Beauty in the Pot for the first times and interestingly both on our birthdays! I declare Beauty in the Pot the winner in every aspect besides their booking system which is really hard to get through. You can see the bolded words...  no exaggeration, what's so nice about Hai Di Lao besides the price?

For most years, the cake was the least emphasized part of Vain Pot's celebration. I mean, it's just for blowing of the candle, making a wish, sing song and then we don't even bother finishing the cake... so why bother with such a nice cake right? But me being me, I grew bored of ordinary cakes and last year was the beginning of making the birthday cake a bigger deal. I baked my first ever cake the previous year and I'm proud to say, Vain Pot asked me where I bought it from! This year, I wonder why she didn't ask. Heh!

I ordered this customized cake from Le Sucre Du Patisserie ($145) for 5 inch cake. It's an online shop and their main business lies in macarons. So the story goes that initially I asked them for a quotation for a cake with 2 pusheen cats, 1 lapras and 1 bulbasaur. I was told cannot because minimum order for the pusheens which they didn't have was 12 pusheens. I had to salvage their business for them by suggesting giving me my cake as per my order based on the price of 12 pusheens and have the 10 pusheens packed separately.

See my 10 pusheens?

The cost breakdown of a customized order like the one I made is as follows:

5" Cake Base
$65 Rainbow frost
Macaron $5 per piece

I think the wordings might have cost some money but I didn't bother to ask.

Given that this is my first time ordering a customized cake, I had a number of apprehensions. What if they failed to deliver on time? What if the cake taste horrible? What if the design doesn't look as nice as what I see online? What if they don't deliver at all?

I'm glad that most of my fears are unfounded with Le Sucre Du Patisserie. A few things that deserves praise. Prior to ordering from them, I tried a few other online bakeries and to be honest, I really really wanted to go with a friend's sister's shop but she didn't seem excited to take my business and took hours to get back to me (weirdly at the point, when I was ready to place the order). Le Sucre Du Patisserie was prompt in responsiveness, something which I valued as a paying customer. I also got the date mixed up as I ordered the cake to be ready on Vain Pot's actual birthday but I forgot I was celebrating a day earlier. I'm glad they were accommodating and managed to give me my cake a day earlier. I also appreciated the fact that the whiskers of my pusheen cats are twisted because the cats in my carriage have twisted whiskers thanks to soft toy abuser, Vain Pot. Finally, I'm happy that the cake turned out nicer than I expected and Vain Pot had a happy birthday. I'd recommend ordering from them if you want a cake which is presentable and every bit easier to eat. Most cakes are made of fondants which looks good but basically you are eating sugar. Macarons characters are definitely a healthier choice to fondant cakes. Having said that, even for Le Sucre, make a request to have the cake less sweet because the sugar seems a little too much.

Le Sucre Du Patisserie
http://www.lesucre-macaron.com/

redpan

This is a throwback post as I was hard at work this weekend. Too many exciting projects on-going and I've a birthday celebration to prepare for next week. Nevertheless, I'm thankful for a restful weekend and had some fun supporting Manchester United in their opening game thrashing West Ham (hope there are no West Ham fans reading!).

redpan is a fusion restaurant. Lately, such cuisines seem to be on the rise but I set my sights on redpan since last year. The overwhelming number of restaurants to try in Singapore had them drop down the pecking order thus only having it now. redpan serves Singaporean-Western fusion cuisines. Personally, I'm not much of a fan of fusion food but I try it every now and then.

Whenever I eat with Fat Fat, I tend to over-order. Actually, I think she's the culprit. We kick started our meal with Char Siew Chilli Fries ($8). It is prepared with house-made char siew ragout, sour cream and jelapeno salsa. The char siew ragout is very tasty and goes really well with the fries providing the right balance. I found that the chilli in the dish to be very tame and mild which might not be pleasing to spicy food lovers but it's never the less a good opening dish!

As we were heading for desserts elsewhere, we simply settled for mains and nothing else. My choice of main was the Prawn & Hae Bi Hiam Pasta ($19) while Fat Fat picked the 'Bak Chor' Foie Gras Pasta ($19). I was telling her, must pick food with stars on the menu since it's our first time there. Not sure if this method makes the selection safer or just a trick by restaurants to get people to pick the pricier dishes. HAHA! In any case, I enjoyed my Prawn & Hae Bi Hiam Pasta which was very very rich in Hae Bi Hiam taste. The tagliatelle soaked up the sauce very well making it extremely flavourful. Pretty much expensive prawn mee pok.

The 'Bak Chor' Foie Gras Pasta however didn't seem to agree with us. The sauce tasted weird although the meat was tender and flavourful. We felt that the choice of tagliatelle didn't go too well with this one and a thinner choice of pasta like linguine or angel-hair might have been more appropriate. It's definitely an interesting dish but with room for improvement.

I actually might come back again to try the other fusion dishes. For instance, I was quite drawn to the Banana Donuts Milo Dinosaur which I didn't try this time round. The ability of the chef for successfully incorporating our local flavours into traditional western cuisines also left me impressed. On most occasions, my experience with fusion food isn't very good but this one left a pretty good impression. If you want somewhere near the train station, with shopping and movie ammenities, with decent food without breaking the bank, come here!

redpan
6, Raffles Boulevard, #02-03/04 Marina Square, 039594

The Dark Gallery

I'm growing sideways. Been meeting up with too many people, I seriously need to cut back on my eating. This week, I celebrated Saturyay by dining at Koh Bar & Grill, followed by some retail therapy. Earlier this week, I just adopted two very adorable soft toy penguins from Mini Sou, called Fatty and Chubby. They have brought me lots of joy since!

I love all things chocolate except chocolate itself. Hence the visit to The Dark Gallery. It's a really small cafe located at the center of level 1 in Millenia Walk. The design gave an impression of class so be prepared for heftier prices. The interior is really small thus locating seats is a challenge. If you have flexible hours, perhaps it'll be better to experience the food on weekday afternoons where office executives are all working their asses off. The Dark Gallery is known for their dark chocolate desserts. It comes in all forms from smores to beverages to ice cream. Probably the perfect dessert shop for bitter chocolate lovers.

Greedy me wanted to try everything. So I kinda forced Fat Fat to order a buffet spread and this was right after dinner. Whoops. The frozen smores ($7.50) you see in the photo was kinda our appetizer. It's basically toasted marshmallows with dark chocolate. Both fat fat and I didn't really enjoy the dessert. We felt that the marshmallows didn't blend well with the dark chocolate and both are separate desserts put together to you know mark up the price. There's also not much blend of sweetness from the melted marshmallows to counter the bitterness of the chocolate. Not something I'll order again. I'll give it an A for instagram-worthiness.

Another dessert we decided to incur calories on is the Chocolate Rhapsody ($18). It's sinful, rich in calories but you won't feel a pang of guilt eating. It's worth it. The Chocolate Rhapsody is a combination of 3 chocolate ice creams, dark, milk and white chocolate, decorated with chocolate crumbs, meringue and shards of cacao tulle. The chocolate ice creams stand out in their individual flavour and goes perfectly with the chocolate crumbs and crunchy meringue. The sweetness isn't excessive, in fact, the balance doesn't make your taste buds frown upon any jarring flavours. I also enjoyed the shards of cacao tulle which I can happily eat without the ice cream. Wonderful dessert!

For beverages, we ordered the Signature Chocolate ($7) and the Chocolate Cube Hazelnut Latte ($9). Fat Fat didn't like her signature chocolate as she felt 'jelat' drinking the thick chocolate drink after consuming all the other desserts. I need to disclaim she isn't a chocolate person so that might explain it. To be fair, the signature hot chocolate was very 'gao' (thick). It'll probably be more enjoyable for chocolate lovers.

My Chocolate Cube Hazelnut Latte admittedly is ordered to cater to my camera more than my tummy. I found the beverage a little on the bitter side. Perhaps they should add some sugar syrup on the side. It is a good hazelnut latte if you prefer your coffee with a tinge of bitterness. I might actually order it again. It did give me my caffeine satisfaction even though it's late at night.

There're hit and misses at The Dark Gallery. Those stuff that were hits, I love them to bits and would definitely return to indulge again. The biggest drawback is the seating space because such cafes are no good if you sit, eat and leave. I'll probably like it a lot more if I can bring someone here to chill, enjoy some good desserts, nice conversation and have some enjoyable beverages without the stress of everyone else who wants your seat giving you death stares. I'll highly recommend this place for a relaxing dessert and coffee on your off day, definitely not weekends to enjoy a good break while the rest of the world is preoccupied meeting deadlines.

The Dark Gallery
9 Raffles Boulevard, #01-K5 Millenia Walk, S039596