Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Sweet SLICE of Life@Far East Plaza

Demona: One of Dogma's best friends, K, who's a Taiwanese, decided along with a few more of his homeland friends to bring over their popular dessert: a flavored ice sliced into layers and garnished with various toppings into Singa-land. Their chic looking shop is located at the basement level in Far East Shopping Centre, right next to Long John's Silver.

Since we were nearby, (this was the free Taka voucher shopping day), we popped by to say hello and let our tongues and tummies to 'say some hellos' also. We also bumped into A and her bf, thus we invited them to join in as well.


Demona: This was the "Summer Fling"! From the menu, it says, "Made from the freshest mango cubes, available in summer, this dessert is only served seasonally in Taiwan. Aren't you glad then, that everyday is a day for a summer fling."

Sure enough, the mango cubes were very sweet, coupled with smooth milky vanilla like ice shavings. I'm not exactly sure what flings I would get from this, since both our bfs were around (Ooops, haha) but this dessert surely got A and I smiling from one ear to the other. We are both mango fanatics! When I post up A's infamous home made mango milk shake, you readers outside will understand what I mean by 'fanatics!' haha.

SGD 4.50, mango lovers, do give it a try :)

Demona: This was the "First Kiss", and the story behind this dessert was, "And you stood at the door, with your hands on my waist, and you kissed me like you meant it. And I knew that you meant it, that you meant it."

In my opinion, I guess the strawberry dessert was linked to First Kiss, since strawberries are always linked to romantic scenarios and the reddish appearance seems like love. It wasn't too bad, but the mango was better. Dogma's choice of cornflakes as its topping combination was a little wierd though, probably would have been better without or using chocolate hot fudge as its topping. SLURPS!

SGD 4.50.

Demona: I must say, I really thought the marketing concept of SLICE was quite cool. Gives a vibrant feel to the whole experience of eating it there.

Rather than, "Auntie, one mango ice shaving please," or "One chocolate flavour."

You step into the shop asking, "Can I have a "First Date?" or ," I can't decide.. take my "First Kiss" or take a "Hot Chic"?"
There's a flow of a life story throughout the dessert menu, which was kinda' cool although, I could not connect the flavour to the name on some desserts. Nevertheless, still a creative effort put in by those guys!

Demona: While discussing on our own about the shop, both boyfriends agreed that this place may not be a top preference for a guy/ a bunch of guys to come.. it is more of a couple date place or a chics thing (since its desserts= ice shavings= sweet stuff= suits females. And oh yea, there's bonus points: Good looking Taiwanese dudes selling!)

Dogma: Guys may not have high interest to try this out, if you do see a bunch of boys eating this together, sure gay!"

This three dudes behind our table, suddenly froze, one with a spoon halfway entering his mouth, another staring at us, and another turned around.

Us, four? Quickly changed topic, and looked elsewhere. Ooopss.. we were too loud!



Demona: When we were about to leave, one of K's partners dropped by our table to check on us. He also passed us a flyer printed with whole dessert range of SLICE. That was when we saw... HOLY MATRIMONY! Anything macha flutters Dogma's heart.

"The perfect match of green tea and red beans. You just can't go wrong with this clasic combi!"

This... in fact was the champion dessert among the three that we've tried. The green tea ice shaving flavour was very strong, yet with a little hint of sweetness and in between of all that sweet smoothness, you get to have some nice minchy munches of these fat, big, juicy red beans and finely chopped nut toppings. Oooh la la!

We were already too full from the top two, but in some bizarre manner, we could fit one more holy matrimony in!

SGD 3.50

Verdict: On my next visit there, this will surely be my priority order unless, I am tempted to get a Hot Chic or a First Date to try out first. Good job you guys! Your efforts really do inspire me in my baking thing, despite the fact that F and B business are hard work, risky, challenging but if you succeed from it, can be ultimately satisfying!

All the best to you guys with SLICE! May your business continue on to prosper bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger and the bigger word goes on.....

For more details, check their official website out:
http://slice.sg/

Ayam Penyet Ria@Lucky Plaza

Demona: Today was going to be our "Yey! Shop for free day!" (Although we are limited to only 100 bucks). By some bizarre windfall / durian runtuh, I managed to win first prize for some work assessment... and yeah, the prize was 10 pieces of SGD 10 Takashimaya vouchers. Woohoo! Right time to win something for this poor girl in an expensive city!

While making our way to Takashimaya, we strolled past Lucky Plaza. Almost crossing over the road to the next building, this big banner with a picture of a HUGE rooster caught our attention. "AYAM PENYET! CUBA CUBA!" Oh no..... our dormant tummies suddenly awaken! Vouchers and shopping aside... feed ourselves first!

Demona: The flakes from the fried chicken was .... ooh lalala! Sinful no doubt, but how could you resist these golden brown crunchy lil' buggers? The sambal given was also extremely spicy.. fuh, even for a chilli gobbler like myself.. i salute you, spicy sambal.


Demona: Mr. Chicken, you are the winner dish in this nasi lemak meal. Although the fried chicken really highlighted the whole part of the meal, Village Park's rendition still wins the race to me.

Demona: Total damage was SGD 8 with an ice coffee. The coffee was horrible. Overly sweet, and watery. Total zap off!




Demona: Off we go! Continuing on with our journey to free voucher land. If only I had 10 million pieces of these. *Big sigh*


Demona: The clothes in Takashimaya were really crazy expensive even after discount! Maybe I'm still having the concept of converting to RM that's why. What to do, poor girl in expensive city. The 10 pieces sure came in handy. We decided to splurge not on clothes, not on shoes, not on household accessories.... but........... *yawns* what else other than .... FOOODDDDD again?

We bought some chips, cheese, perrier water and sushis for dinner using the vouchers, and came out of Cold Storage, sat by the Taka fountain with the rest of the world and munch our way down this simple dinner.

Romantic!

Alain Paret 420 Nuits 2004, Saint Joseph

Opened this after dinner during my stay at Demona's crib in SGP, but end up finishing most of the bottle myself.

Open with typical nose of licorice, heavy smoke and barnyard, some raisin, and leather. Pretty wet on the nose and hollowed palate. Open up after 30mins with more fruits but still not as great as I thought it would be.

No repeat order from poor dogma!

Chippie Chips@Made in China

Demona: Recently, I went on a business trip to Hanzhou, China, which was also my first trip to the country itself. Foodventura-ing in Hanzhou wasn't much to my liking. It was a 10 course super duper trooper oily meal every breakfast, lunch and dinner... even supper! I wondered if the locals drink oil rather than water for survival. By looking at their infamous dish, Tong Puo Rou, you could feel your cholesterol level shoots right up the roof. What was equally unpleasant was the terrible air condition over there, you could really feel your breathing capacity greatly constrained.

Being a courteous girl like myself *ahem*, I bought some funky looking, flavoured chips produced locally in China home for Dogma as gifts and also for our food venture sessions (I bought these also because there weren't much that were interesting enough to bring back home)

Demona: I bought these small lil' packs of locally made chips with some really funky flavours eg: stewed mutton, curry beef, barbequed pork for about an SGD dollar each.

Demona: The chips were average. They were quite crunchy but some flavours didn't taste like what they were supposed to be. None stood out from the rest, thus we had no breadwinner from the family. However, for the price of only a dollar, we have no rights to criticise further.

Demona: At the Shanghai airport itself, I saw this funky D2 Doritos mini pack, SGD 1. The content was a little dubious as the description of the taste wasn't written. Nevertheless, the marketing team for this product definitely deserved a fat bonus from Doritos, because despite not knowing what exactly was the flavour itself I still bought it anyway because the packaging was just.. sooooooo cool looking.

Demona: Even this pack caught Dogma's eyes. We came to a conclusion that D2 just meant that the flavour of the nachos were twice as strong. In this case, peppery and cheesy. They weren't too bad... slurps!

Demona: This flavour caught my eye too! Lays Cucumber:Natural and COOOOOOL. At first I wondered why the name was given in such a way. Until I finally tasted one, then I knew. In some wierd way, the chips gave a menthol after taste. And definitely, a very cucumber-y feel. Sorta makes you feel like you've just swallowed a icey cold facial mask. I must say, it was an acquired taste. It wasn't Dogma's cup of tea. I finished most of it anyway :) SGD 2.50

Verdict: Maybe if I had stayed long enough there, I'll start to enjoy these locally flavoured chips.. but for now, Dogma and I are still sticking strong to our Kettles, Mister Potatoes, Ruffles, Lays, Calbee with familiar flavours. Anyway, this is what Dogma and I truly enjoy doing. Discovering new places, new tastes, new experience. In this case, it was chippie chips!

Bloooie's Roadhouse Bar and Grill@The Aquarius

Demona: Life has been a real mad house. Eye bags grew heavier. Backache worsened. Work still piling uphill..... worst of all...... no FoodVentura-ing with Dogma! Your absence was greatly felt (tummy churns...................).

Dogma brought me to Blooie's for dinner after a great workout swim on our last few nights together. Nice ambience, filled with pretty, bud-like dimmed lights, greenery and a strong aura of countryside... except for the modern pool table.

According to Dogma, this place used to be one of the few regular areas that he hung out during his younger varsity days. I even teased him by asking if his meaning of regular 'hanging out' place is a place that he 'tipu' (in a way, bluff) chics... since the ambience was fairly cozy, homely, with a lil' feel of romance and easy going food menu with an affordable price.

Demona: Hang out place? Sure boh..... With chicas wicas is it?
Dogma : *gulps* No.... ? no....? (sweaty forehead)






Demona: We were allocating some extra tummy space for chippie chips and wine after dinner, thus we've decided to have a light meal for dinner. We ordered a plate of buffalo wings, which came in a set of 4. They were very glistened looking.....if not for the slight steam which arose from the wings, they could easily be mistaken for the plastic based look-alike food that many a times, are used as displays outside Japanese restaurants.

The wings were average. Not much re-collection from it after the meal.


Demona: We've decided to try their signature dish, the Blooie's burger. The beef patty was fairly satisfying. The patty was definitely juicy, because the moment we cut it open, bits of sauces flowed out. The meat was also nicely marinated with the right spices. The slack part about it was the cheese layer which didn't seem to have nicely melted on the patty.

The fries were sprinkled with paprika... again, it did not stand out from the many other fries outside. The only good thing was that the restaurant did give a generous (or unhealthy I should say, haha) portion of the fries.

Verdict: All in all, food taste wise.... I would say, average. Overall package however, (including ambience, games etc) this is a nice place to hang out, with some friends over greasy food and hints of 'angmoh-sihm' :)