Camaca - Taiwanese Dessert Cafe staking roots in Singapore

With the growing number of foreign establishments setting up shop in Singapore, Camaca is one of the latest additions. Originally from Taiwan, some of the highlights of Camaca is some of its sugar free desserts as well as its capsule gelatos. In my case, making the trip to Camaca was a case of making up for initial disappointment. My initial plans to assuage my craving for the popular Kaki Fuyong at Ngee Ann Polytechnic was derailed when the stall so happened was closed that day. Given that I've already driven all the way down, I was determined to make my petrol's worth.

The unique highlight of Camaca's gelato is that it comes in a frozen capsule. You pick the capsule you want and they put it through a machine and it comes out as gelato. This form of gelato is both creamy and with sufficient solidness that I like. The Musang King Durian Gelato won plentiful of praises from my dining companion. She was raving non-stop about how much she is enjoying her durian ice cream. For durian lovers, this will be a rather satisfying choice considering the richness in flavour and the creaminess.

I was recommended the Black Sesame Banana Gelato which is really an acquired taste. My willingness to be adventurous with this ice cream started from the very good experience I had at Sadaharu Aoki in Paris where I had black sesame ice cream. It was awesome. While the flavour here isn't as robust, the mixture with bananas is rather unique. As a banana lover, I'm not oppose to this and pretty much enjoyed my gelato too!

Given the good experience, I was motivated to try their other creations. So I ordered the Hazelnut Dacquoise and Rose Dacquoise after my companion graciously agreed to share the calories with me. The Dacquoise pronounced as - 'Duck Coils' is basically a french dessert that is similar to a macaron but taste like a soft nougat. This dessert at Camaca is sugar-free. It's best to serve it cold. For a sugar free dessert, it carries the natural flavours very distinctly and even a person who has a sweet tooth like me have nothing to complain about. Sweetness is just right!

The overall ambiance of Camaca is designed cozy and poised. I would definitely love to come back here with a book, some desserts and coffee simply to chill. It's an awesome place to bring someone here to get to them better too. Looks like they just got a new raving fan in me.

Camaca 
9 King Albert Park, #01-11/01-12, S598332 

Ice Cream Skool - Affordable Instagrammable Desserts

I'm shocked. I just realised I didn't put up any content for the entire month. Sometimes you need this sort of reality check to know how much work has consumed you. Then there's the Chinese New Year break... and I didn't manage to buy much new year clothes this year or new shoes! The pay check better be worth it haha!!

This post is made up of 2 visits. I actually went back two days in a row because they opened late on the first day and we sort of had our lunch before heading back to try our luck for dessert. I went back the next day for the highly raved about Tom Yum Pasta. In a nutshell, Ice Cream Skool is popular for wallet friendly desserts that caught my eye because of their instagrammable nature. It's said to be popular among school going teenagers (obviously I'm too old to fit in) but interestingly enough, the two days I visited, the cafe was empty.

I'd kick off the post with the Tom Yum Pasta ($10.90) that many food bloggers rubber stamped as tastes good. It certainly lives up to its reputation. I like the tangy spiciness that follows every bite of the tom yum infused noodles. It's so addictively good I devoured the food in minutes. For $10, I consider this a steal.

I ordered the milkshake at the staff's recommendation. Basically I asked, "if I want to take picture what drink should I order?" Yes superficial me. I'm really glad she recommended me the milkshake because I found my favourite drink in Tampines through this experience. The blue drink you see in the photo is a double flavoured milkshake ($4.90) comprising of Mr Smurfie ice cream mixed with Cookies and Cream ice cream. Mr Smurfie is basically cotton candy flavour. As someone with a relatively strong sweet tooth, this is an awesome treat! 

And then... there's the double chocolate waffles I had with dark chocolate ice cream and Mr Smurfie. Together with their afternoon tea set it cost us $13.90. Dark chocolate is a premium flavour apparently. I found the waffles to be crispy and nice but lacking in fragrance. It was leaning more to the dry side which reduced the desire to finish the food. Incidentally, I was very engaged in an intense discussion about fengshui with my friend. Yeah, we didn't finish it.

As a whole, I enjoyed my experience. I loved it that the shop was empty so I could enjoy my food in peace. I hope for their sake, business is good on weekends because I'd still want to come back here occasionally! I'd be willing to give their waffles another shot given that I really enjoyed the milkshake and pasta. So if I'm back why not? This is an awesome place to dine if you want to impress someone and not blow a hole in your pocket. There's no gst or service charge. How awesome! Considering the talk of the town right now is Budget 2018 haha! The only drawback is that the location is rather obscure.

Ice Cream Skool
Blk 445 Tampines Street 42 #01-10, S520445

Cakes & Snacks in London

London is always known for fresh bakes and afternoon teas. It's almost a waste if anyone in London doesn't give cakes, cookies and biscuits a chance. In my stay there, I have noticed that London is pretty similar to home, they got all sorts of food ranging from the street snacks to the dessert parlours. This week, I wish to share all that my stomach consumed (it's bulging more now) and what I feel everyone should try.

Peggy Porschen Cakes is a popular cake shop at the city centre of London. They are known among tourist as the instagrammable cake shop. My visit there was marred by the misjudgment of the day turning dark early due to Winter. My photos turned out less instagram-worthy.

Aside from the appeal to the eyes, the quality of cakes at Peggy Porschen Cakes is really high. The owner herself is a Le Cordon Bleu Graduate. The both cakes we tried, Bejeweled Chocolate (Christmas special) and Pink Prosecco (Christmas Special) were both soft and fluffy with icing blending very well with the cake. For tea, we shared a pot of Sugar Plum fruit infusion cinnamon spice. The hot tea went excellently with the cakes and it'll be perfect if the day was brighter so I am appreciate my food better. It really gives you a taste of what tea in London should be like on a lazy afternoon and oh yes, before I move on, be prepared to queue.

Peggy Porschen Cakes
116 Ebury Street, Belgravia, London SW1W 9QQ

One of the most memorable stuff I ate during my London trip is the Butterbeer and Butterbeer Ice Cream. Yes, if you are a Harry Potter fan you no doubt know what I'm talking about. This is found in Harry Potter World so unless you pay for entry to the tour, you won't be able to try it. I'm personally not a Harry Potter fan, heck, I didn't even read the book! Despite this, I'm largely fascinated by the Butterbeer, made of butterscotch soda with ice cream on top and caramel ice cream for the Butterbeer Ice cream. I enjoyed what I ate, it was delicious, I got to share it with you! I've no regrets paying for Harry Potter World too, coming from someone who knows nothing about Yule Ball or Firebolt.

Harry Potter World 
Warner Bros, Studio Tour, London

One of the task I really wanted to complete this trip was to finish reading my book. So I went to this tiny quaint cafe in the heart of town to try some of their very unique ice cream flavours. It's a small place but I found a seat to read my book. No kidding. It's my very first dark chocolate chilli gelato. I also enjoyed the more normal Tonde Gentille Hazelnut. Ice cream was smooth and doesn't melt easily, just the way I like my gelato to be. Awesome! I also tried their oreo hot chocolate which I found very enjoyable as well. It's worth checking them out for their unique ice cream flavours. They won some awards! 

La Gelateria

27 New Row, Covent Garden, London WC2N 4LA

I visited the famous Dominique Ansel Bakery on my last day just before my flight. For the entire duration I'm in London, we have a few occasions where I nearly ate there but had a good reason not to each round. So my foodie nature kicked in and the last day saw me making a special trip to Victoria Station just to try my very first Cookie Shot and Cronut.  

A Cronut is basically a donut and a croissant combined as one. The one I ate had strawberry filling in it. Not much of a strawberry fan but it tasted awesome. I was quite surprised the cronut wasn't served pipping hot but I supposed that's how it was supposed to be. The sides were coated with sugar and the top glazed with pink sugar. Taking a bite into my cronut, the few adjectives I can think of are fresh, addictive, good pastry. The coffee shot is another interesting experience but I won't be specially doing this again. The cookie cup was really solid and the cold milk tasted good in the cup. Some of you who like to buy the cookie cup as a gift can do so in a box of 6. Really though, the main show stopper are the fresh bakes. 

Dominique Ansel Bakery

17-21 Elizabeth Street, Belgravia, London SW1W 9RP

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

Wimbly Lu

I foresee a very busy week ahead hence the morning post again. Been catching up with friends and exploring new food in between work breaks this past week. Sometimes I feel like I'm adding value to people's lives through food by giving them new experiences. Haha, positive thinking to assuage the guilt of pigging out.

It's very rare I visit the same cafe twice simply because there's too many new cafes to dine at. Usually, a return to somewhere nice happens only when you bring new friends there to try food. In this case, the story started with what nice dessert is there in Nex? I told my friends none and told them the nearest dessert I really really liked is at Wimbly Lu, just a 5 mins drive away.

We settled for Cookie Dough Cheesecake ($6) like all their other cheesecakes is so rich in flavour I recommend you share it. I felt that the cake was a little too hard such that it's difficult to fork through with the complete chocolate icing, cookie dough, cheese and cookie base. I still prefer Mel's Double Chocolate Cheesecake ($6) which I ate the last time.

Another recommended dessert we tried was the Root Beer Float Cake ($6). The vanilla ice cream blended well with the root beer cake which tasted slightly chocolatey. I felt it can be further improved with a stronger root beer taste. I also felt that a semi-melted vanilla ice cream soaking into the cake tasted very much more like the Root Beer Float taste the dessert seek to attain.

And finally, the waffles with ice cream ($11.50 for double scoop) that first brought me here to try Wimbly Lu in 2013. I recalled googling top 5 waffles in Singapore back then and this came up as top 5. I'm pleased to say that the waffles I had recently tasted much better than what I tried back in 2013. As someone with a relatively sweet tooth, the choice of salted caramel ice cream and cookies and cream coupled with maple syrup was a good combination. I also enjoyed the waffles on its own which was crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside. Good waffles can be eaten on their own without the add ons and you can do that with the waffles here.

Wimbly Lu remains my favourite dessert place in Serangoon. I especially like the red and white vintage beetle parked outside the shop and won't get tired of having dessert there. The fairy lights decorations still give me that whimsical feeling I've travelled out of Singapore and it's definitely a good place to chill.

Wimbly Lu
15-2 Jalan Riang

Kiss the Tiramisu

This week I'm honestly flooded with stuff to do! Car inspection, renew road tax, work as much as possible, spend time with my other hobby investment plus put it into practice, and I discovered some new stuff I want to try to increase my knowledge on topics of my interest... so you get the picture. There's still the cruise and Bangkok trip the following week which I'll be taking a break from showcasing food. Oh, I would like to add that my original choice of feature was Hai Di Lao which I've never eaten before (despite my love for good food) but the queue is insane! 4 HOURS! I'm amazed. I'll go the next time after I make reservations...

This entry is kept deliberately short. Kiss the Tiramisu originates from Korea. It's a combination of tiramisu and soft serve making it awesome tiramisu ice cream. At least that is the idea. It's pretty popular here too but thankfully no queue. The crowd is just enough to keep the servers busy but not enough to form a line.

We picked the original flavour ($6.90) and it earned my stamp of approval because I'm one of the typical instagram junkie who must take picture of every food I eat. I love it that it's served in this golden flute plastic cup. I didn't take pictures of the preparation process but I felt it's worth watching if you are the curious sort like me. The taste on the other hand doesn't really live up to its hype. I mean it doesn't taste bad. It's just not special. Vain Pot and I kept digging through the cup trying to taste the distinctive tiramisu flavour but all we got was vanilla soft serve and cocoa powder. Essentially I paid $6.90 for a well decorated vanilla ice cream.

Will I eat it again? No. However I didn't regret trying it. While I've been hunting for food every week, I hardly hunt for snacks or desserts to eat on the go. I found this to be a rather novel experience for both Vain Pot and myself. Unless you fly to Korea very often, I recommend going through the process of trying it once. At least you won't be sua ku. I enjoyed the entire experience even though I won't buy it again.

Kiss The Tiramisu
277 Orchard Road #01-15 Orchard Gateway