The Baskin Robbins outlet had finally opened at Clementi Mall. I went there and had a Maui Brownie Madness and Chocolate Mousse Royale. There’s pecan in the Maui Brownie Madness and chocolate chips in the Chocolate Mousse Royale.

Sayang was back for a short while to attend a wedding. I knew that she would be busy meeting up with relatives and friends so if I was going to see any sight of her, I would have to take leave and meet her on a weekday. Even so, her schedule was so packed that she had to keep changing the date and it was not confirmed until one or two days before. So I took a full day because I’m not hardworking enough to want to go to work in the morning. I told Sayang that I made a very big sacrifice because I gave up a day of earning money just to accompany her, ha ha. Sayang immediately said, “Rubbish!”

Sayang wanted to try out a dim sum buffet. We did not make any reservations, thinking that it’s a weekday and there should be enough tables. But when Sayang went at 12 noon, she found it fully booked. So we went to Cedele @ Wheelock Place for lunch. I was feeling hungry so I ordered a Beef Onion Portobello Burger with pumpkin bread ($14.80). Too bad Cedele did not have chocolate chip pancakes anymore or I would have ordered that for dessert.

Sayang brought me to Canele Patisserie @ Shaw Centre for dessert. I had passed by it before but I had not tried their desserts.

I had a triple chocolate cheesecake (around $8). It was nice and did not feel overly rich as the portions of cheese and chocolate were just right.

Sayang had the strawberry shortcake (around $6.50) which was light and fluffy. There were a lot of strawberries in the cake.

Having eaten a full meal, Sayang dragged me to Mango first, then Zara. She wanted to buy some new clothes because according to her, she had a new haircut and none of her clothes matched it. Excuses only. I’m not interested in shopping for clothes so I just followed Sayang around the shop. Sayang kept urging me to pick up some clothes so we could go and try them together. I rolled my eyes and ignored her.

When we finally stepped out of Zara, it was pouring heavily. Both of us had umbrellas but the rain was so heavy that my shoes and jeans still got wet. We hurried to Wheelock Place and then walked through the underpass to the MRT station. If it wasn’t raining so heavily we might have walked to Somerset but it was, so we took the train instead.

After Sayang did more shopping, I brought her to Jewels Artisan Chocolate @ Orchard Central. The shop was an open area next to the escalator but because there wasn’t heavy traffic so it still felt pretty peaceful and isolated.

Both of us ordered the blood orange sorbet ($3.80) which was sweet and tangy. I had a Grand Cru hot chocolate ($6.80) with mashmallow toppings while Sayang had cafe latte. I loved the hot chocolate which was thick, creamy and milky. I supposed that’s the way I like it. We stayed there for a while and chitchat.

It stopped raining after a while and we were able to walk to Dhoby Ghaut. I said goodbye to Sayang who went off to meet another group of people for dinner.

Related posts:

1. Cedele at Takashimaya
2. Once Upon A Milkshake

MMC gave us a promo treat at Buttercake N Cream. It was a nice little place that wasn’t crowded at lunchtime.

All of us tried the Wild Mushroom Soup ($4.50) which was very nice. The portion was generous and it was so filling that I was already filling a little full after drinking it.

For main course, I had the Grilled Chicken Burger ($12.90) which was tasty. The burger was full of flavor although some people might not like big chunks of raw onions. I love onions so it was no problem for me, just that I felt I had onion breath for the rest of the afternoon. The chicken was juicy and tender. The burger came with grilled mushrooms and steakhouse fries. The mushrooms were nice but I felt the fries were a little bland, not enough salt I think.

The Chocolate Pot ($5.50) was a rich chocolate mousse on top of almond crumble.

The Warm Chocolate Pudding ($11) deserved its place as the restaurant’s specialty. It was big enough for two people. It was rich and fluffy and had the bitterness of dark chocolate. I really like this.

Buttercake N Cream
Blk 106 Clementi St 12 (Sunset Way), #01-52 Singapore 120106
Tel: +65 67773477

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Bell and I met for dinner at the Esplanade. We went to Al Dente Trattoria which opened at 6pm. We were among the first few customers to the restaurant. I thought we were early but there were actually people earlier than us.

Bell and I started with some cocktails. It was the weekend and we both felt like splurging a little. Bell had the lychee martini ($14) while I had the caipirinha ($14). The caipirinha was pretty nice as it had lime and sugar.

Bell had the Spinaci Risotto con Gamberoni ($28) which looked pretty small at first. We forgot how filling risotto could be and in the end, the amount was just right for Bell.

I had the Angus all Lasagna ($25) which was not too bad either. It also looked rather small but the cheese helped to fill me up. It felt like I was eating spaghetti bolognaise with pasta sheets instead of spaghetti. After eating this dish, I came to the conclusion that when you minced up the meat it is difficult to tell if it is angus beef or just normal beef.

Al Dente Trattoria
8 Raffles Avenue, #01-13 Esplanade Mall
Tel: 63419188

We went to Max Brenner Chocolate Bar for dessert. Or rather I did. Bell just accompanied me as she was still full from dinner. I had a chocolate truffle with fruits. It also came with a small dish of yogurt + caramel. I don’t like the yogurt so I finished it first. The chocolate truffle was smooth, rich and very nice. However, the service was quite slow and not very good either.

Max Brenner Chocolate Bar
8 Raffles Avenue, #01-06/08 Esplanade Mall, Singapore
Tel: 62359556

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1. Corned beef for dinner
2. Colorful dinner
3. Sandwich for dinner

Pretty in pink!

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1. Galapagos: Dragon Hill

Bell and I had dinner at Quiznos. Instead of having my favorite Zesty Grill Steak sandwich, I decided to have something different this time.

I had the Mesquite Chicken sandwich with brown bread. The brown bread was really soft and tasty. I let Bell try a bit of it and she agreed that the bread was tastier than Subway’s. Besides, thick chunks of chicken, the sandwich also contained bacon, melted cheddar cheese, lettuce, tomato, red onion and ranch dressing. It was tasty and I enjoyed dinner.

Then Bell and I shared a brownie with ice-cream from Tully’s Coffee. I laughed when I saw that the ice-cream came in a cup. The brownie was quite nice and we enjoyed the dessert. Bell commented that it was not bad and wasn’t too expensive.

Related posts:

1. Quiznos
2. Egg and cheese sandwich again
3. Egg and cheese sandwich

After dinner, we went to Laurent’s Café & Chocolate Bar for dessert. I told Mao Mao that I have not been there before and she gave me the “I’m-so-shocked-you’re-so-suaku” look. Damn rude but I take comfort in that no matter how suaku I am, there will always be someone more suaku than me.

We sat outdoors because it was such a cold day.

I tried the hot chocolate and I was glad that this was real hot chocolate, not those thin, diluted cocoa drinks that other places tried to pass off as hot chocolate. I had the Gran Couva which the server told me was one of their best sellers. It was thick, chocolaty with some citrus notes.

We also shared an apple tart. I think it had a fancy name, Tarte Tartin. The caramelized apples were so soft that at the first bite, we wondered if they were really apples. It was soft and yet not mushy. It was quite sweet but not overbearingly so. Mao Mao wished there were more of the pastry.

Laurent’s Café & Chocolate Bar
80 Mohamed Sultan Road #01-11 The Pier @ Robertson
Tel: 62359007

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1. Dessert at Jewels Artisan Chocolate

After we placed our orders, I showed Keropi my ebook reader. From her reaction, it seemed that it was the first time she had heard about such a device. Even though I told her once or twice that there’s no need to scroll through the options, just press the button next to the option, Keropi kept forgetting and still continued to scroll. Mao Mao laughed and said our friend acted like she just came out of the mountains. Maybe we should meet up with Keropi periodically to update her on the technological advances in the world.

For starters, we had Roquefort y Apio empanadas ($6). The empanadas were curry puff-shaped pastry. One serving has three empanadas so just right for the three of us. The pastry was light and flaky but not all empanadas were made equal. Keropi have too much pastry and not enough filling in hers.

The empanadas we chose were stuffed with Roquefort cheese and celery. The cheese and celery were blended until it was like a puree. We couldn’t taste the celery as the cheese was very strong. There was a slight bitterness to the taste which I did not like. We all came to the conclusion that it was an acquired taste.

Next we had the Provoleta ($16) which was melted Provolone cheese with oregano, mushrooms, greens and smoked paprika mayonnaise. The cheese was thick and chewy and not easy to cut. Mao Mao commented that she felt like she was eating meat because the cheese was so chewy. From the description in the menu, I thought that it was a salad so I was surprised that there was more cheese than greens. I commented about it and Mao Mao laughed, saying that it was the first time I complained that there was not enough vegetables on the plate.

By now we were feeling rather tired of cheeses so it was a good thing we ordered a bowl of tomato soup ($10). The staff had kindly divided it up into three several bowls after we told them that we were sharing the soup. The tomato soup was sour and it helped to cleanse our palate of the oily taste.

A waitress brought three small pots of sauce to go with our main course. She explained that the steak was just simply seasoned with salt and pepper and (maybe) olive oil. So we can dip the meat in the sauces if we want. There were three types of sauces – coriander and garlic; paprika; some kind of chopped vegetables with white wine vinegar. My favorite was the coriander and garlic. The paprika was also quite nice but I was careful to take only a little because it was spicy. Mao Mao also liked the coriander and garlic best. Keropi mixed all three together and said it was quite nice.

Mao Mao had the Bife de Chorizo – Sirloin ($35). What you see in the photo was a 400g steak. It was huge.

Keropi had the Lomo – Tenderloin ($30) which was 300g.

I had the Corazón de Cuadril – Heart of Rump ($30) which was 300g too. It was tender and juicy and I felt it was pretty flavorful. Mao Mao commented that mine was the softest among all three steaks but I thought it could also be that Keropi asked for the tenderloin to be cooked medium well while ours were only medium. I loved the potatoes that came with the steak. They had a crispy skin and were fluffy inside.

All of us couldn’t finish our steaks so we invited Mao Mao’s husband after we found out that he was in the vicinity. Luckily he did not eat dinner yet so he came to join us for the rest of the meal. He finished off the steaks and thought the tenderloin and rump were nice.

We did not know that the steaks would come with potatoes and tomato so we also ordered two sides. We had the Papas al Horno ($4) which was rosemary and garlic baked potatoes. I felt that this potato was not as tasty as the ones that came with the steak. It was harder and tasted different.

We also ordered Batatas Fritas (4) because it sounded interesting. It was sweet potato fries but the color was not something I associated with sweet potatoes because it was neither the orange nor yellow. The outside was coated in batter so it was a little crispy. The inside texture felt like yam or tapioca and was sweet. We didn’t like it.

For desserts, we had the Flan de Dulce de Leche ($10) which was nice and sweet. I liked the sauce which tasted like condensed milk. Keropi corrected me, it was like high-class condensed milk because there was nice caramel flavor to it.

We also ordered the Queso y Dulce ($8) which was a traditional Argentine dessert of cheese and quince jelly. Besides the cheese and quince jelly, there were also walnuts and fruits.

I thought the quince jelly was quite nice, a little sweet and a little tangy. Mao Mao felt the cheese was the mildest of all that we had and it goes well with the quince jelly.

Altogether we spent $50+ each on the meal. I only found out a few days later that there was no service charge so tipping is encouraged. A word about the service. When we were there, there were only a captain and two servers in the restaurant despite it being a full house. So it does take a while for us to be served. This is definitely not a place to go if you are in a rush. Luckily we have a lot of catching up to do so we didn’t mind the wait. The staff were all pretty polite and helpful but they have so many tables to look after that they tend to forget things. The captain recommended me a glass of wine but he forgot to note it down. I didn’t mind because I wasn’t in a “I must drink wine” mood, so I didn’t bother to remind him. I felt that service wasn’t really bad but more like distracted?

Salta Argentine Parrilla + Grocer
Icon Village
12 Gopeng Street, #01-56
Tel: 62258443

After lunch, we took a slow walk to Orchard Central. We headed to a cafe called Jewels Artisan Chocolate on the 2nd floor for desserts. It was an open area right next to the escalator. I don’t fancy everybody seeing me when they past by so we chose one of the table furtherest away from the escalator.

I had the white chocolate sorbet with berries compote ($3.80). On their own, I found the white chocolate sorbet too sweet and the berries compote too sour. But together, they tasted great.

All of us had one macaron each ($2 each). Hotasuki and Rixou had a raspberry macaron each while I had the dark chocolate macaron. The dark chocolate macaron is nice and very chocolatey. I felt that $2 is rather expensive for such a small thing, no matter how good it tasted. But then I think all macarons are rather pricey. I guess it’s a good thing that I have chocolate craving and not macaron craving because I don’t think my wallet can support my appetite!

Jewels Artisan Chocolate
Orchard Central 181
Orchard Road #02-31/32
Tel: 65098998

Related posts:

1. An afternoon with Sayang
2. Laurent’s Café & Chocolate Bar

It was a small little place and there were very few seats. Even though it was a small place, it felt cheery because it was brightly lit and the whole color scheme was predominately white with some purple. It sold milkshakes, ice-cream and some snacks. But the main draw is the milkshakes. When I was there, over 90% of the customers were drinking milkshakes. Many people also walked in, brought their milkshakes and left.

At Mao Mao’s recommendation, Sayang and I tried the grumbling raisins (rum and raisins) and chocolate truffle castle (chocolate) milkshake. We bought the mini cup ($3.60) which was very small, no taller than my hand. At first it didn’t seem like much, but each milkshake was packed full of goodness. My chocolate milkshake was very rich and thick, almost as if I was eating chocolate ice-cream instead. It was even richer and thicker and Billy Bomber’s milkshake, which for a long time had been my No. 1 milkshake in Singapore. After drinking this, I had to agree with Mao Mao’s husband that this is the best milkshake in Singapore.

Sayang had the rum and raisins which was just as good, full of creamy goodness and a taste of rum. If you like rum and raisins ice-cream, you will love this.

After we finished our first cups, Sayang and I decided to try other flavors, much to the horror of Mao Mao. We tried vainilla pot (vanilla) and spooky mocha (mocha) milkshakes. We felt the vanilla was too creamy to be enjoyable. The mocha was quite nice but our favorites were still rum and raisins and chocolate.

Once Upon A Milkshake
32 Maxwell Road #01-08 Maxwell Chambers
Tel: 98233779

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