Cold Stone Creamery @ Orchard Central

On 12 March 2011, Cold Stone Creamery has its grand opening of their first outlet at Orchard Central, Singapore. Just a few weeks back during our weekend shopping along Somerset area we will draw to Cold Stone by it's attractive advertisement banner and Hip Hot music along the pathway outside Orchard Central. Within a few metres away from their outlet, we already can see quite a number of people queuing outside of their doorway waiting for their turn to try this new products.

Here we ordered their Signature Creation which is known as Chocolate Devotion that consists of Chocolate Ice Cream, Chocolate Chips, Brownie and Fudge serve on plain waffle cup at S$8.90. After ordering, we proceed to the waiting counter to see how their "fry" the ice cream with the mix-ins  and also some of the amazing "stunts" perform by the count staffs  as they threw the prepared ice cream up in the air and catch it back with the waffle cup.

Although for us there is nothing fancy or with "WOW" facts about this ice-cream as to compare with some other well-known local choices such as Ben and Jerry or Haggen Daze. But ust for your information, at Cold Stone you can mix and match your favourite ice cream in different serving sizes or just pick up their Signature creation from the following choices:-

~ “Like-it”(4 oz) Signature creation costs S$5.50;
~ “Love-it”(6 oz) Signature creation costs S$7.90; and
~ “Gotta-Have-it”(8 oz) Signature creation costs S$9.90.

On top of that you can also choose some add on such as plain waffle cup for S$1.00 or chocolate dipped-waffle cup for just S$1.50 to go with the ice-cream.

You can also take a look at their Signature Creations(click HERE) via their website. If not try your creativity by picking up any flavor of your choice and infuse it with different combinations of toppings ranging from chocolate chips, brownies, fruits, Oreo and etc.

To create your own (1 Flavor with 2 Mix-ins):-
~ “Like-it”(4 oz) costs S$5.90;
~ “Love-it”(6 oz) costs S$8.30; and
~ “Gotta-Have-it”(8 oz) costs S$10.30

Cold Stone Creamery

181 Orchard Central
#01-09/10
Singapore 238896
Telephone: 6634 1015
Website: http://www.coldstonecreamery.com.sg


Operating Hours:
11.00am – 11.00pm, Daily

[Dessert] Bo Bo Cha Cha(摩摩查查)

Bobo (Bubur in Malay) Cha Cha is a popular Nyonya dessert make of coconut milk together with sweet potatoes, yam(taro) and colourful tapioca cubes.You can eat this dessert either warm or cold with shaved ice and they taste wonderful with a mixture of texture from the sweet potatoes and chewy tapioca cubes with luxury coconut milk base.

There are a few methods on cooking this Bobo Cha Cha dessert where you can put all the mixture together and simmer till cooked or steamed the sweet potato mixture separately while preparing the coconut soup base.

Ingredients: (serves 4)
1 Packet of Bobo Cha Cha Premix from Top Gourmet
1 Packet of Colourful Tapioca Flour Cubes
200ml Coconut Milk
Pinch of Salt
Cane Sugar to Taste
A Bundle of Pandan Leave, tied into knot
1 Litre of Water

Method:-

1. Prepare a pot of water and bring it to boil, add in the colourful tapioca flour cube, simmer over medium heat(stir on and off to prevent them from sticking to each other) till they float to the surface.

2. When they became translucent and cooked, drain well and transfer them into a bowl of cold water. Set aside.

3. Bring 1 litre of water to boil over medium heat, add in pandan leaves and simmer for about 5 - 7 minutes.

*4. At the meantime, rinse the sweet potato and taro cubes in two rounds before adding it into the prepared pandan water.

5. Simmer the sweet potato mixture till soften then add in cane sugar to taste.

6. Lastly, stir in coconut milk, salt and cooked tapioca flour cubes, keep stirring to prevent mixture from curdling. Remove from heat after it boils.

OR Alternative Way:
(Steaming Method)

*4. Rinse the sweet potato and taro cubes then steamed it over medium heat for about 8 - 10 minutes until cooked.

*5. Sweeten the pandan leave water with cane sugar then stir in coconut milk and salt, keep stirring to prevent mixture from curdling. Remove from heat after it boils.

*6. Place cooked sweet potato and taro in a bowl together with some cooked tapioca flour cubes.

*7. Ladle some hot/cold coconut milk mixture over it and serve.

Dim Sum @ Victor's Kitchen, Sunshine Plaza

Being located on ground level in Sunshine Plaza, Victor's Kitchen was only a few stalls away from the well-known "Parklane Zha Yun Tun Mee House" that sells pretty good Wanton Mee. Victor's Kitchen has very simple interior layout with wooden tables and red plastic stools and after securing a table and seats you just need to grab the paper menu from the counter and start ticking off what you want to order.

Finally last weekend I managed to set foot at this coffee-shop style dim sum eatry which I always drool over their Custard Bun whenever I read/saw the related tweets.

Since they don't have Ice Milk Tea on the drinks menu, we decided to try this H.K Summer Ice Ying Yang(香港夏日兵镇鸳鸯)which is a common item on most of the occupied tables. Nothing fancy about this drink which is just a cup of coffee with tea mixture served in a bowl of crashed ice. For us we find the coffee taste is too overpower and can't seems to blend well with the tea which cause it a bit bitter in taste.
Price: H.K Summer Ice Ying Yang(香港夏日兵镇鸳鸯) @ S$2.50 per cup

This is the reason I came here for their famous Golden Egg Yolk Lava Bun(黄金流沙包) or also known as "custard bun". Since I have read some mix reviews on these buns regarding about their fillings being too dry out and etc. I immediately cross my fingers when these pipping hot bun arrived and hope that it will have that oozing flow type of custard when we break it open. And thanks God what we had that day was really good from the photo show above, the flowing custard was so tasty with mixture of sweet and savory flavour that makes you crave for more.
Price: Golden Egg Yolk Lava Bun(黄金流沙包) @ S$ 3.50 per plate of 3 buns

Although this is known as "Queen Size" Siew Mai but some how or rather we guess it was just another "nickname" as it is not as huge as those serve in "Yum Cha Restaurant(饮茶酒楼)" or neither it is smaller than the usual size. After all we find their siew mai consists more proportion of pork than prawn which makes it more firm and with a "porky" taste too.
Price: Tasty Queen Size Siew Mai (美味蟹皇烧卖) @ S$3.50 per basket

Steamed Glutinous Rice parcel is always one of the must have dim sum items during our visit to any dim sum eateries. The glutinous rice in this Chicken and Sausage in Glutinous Rice(干贝蛋黄腊味珍珠鸡)was soft and with right texture that combines well with the rest of the ingredients.
Price: Chicken and Sausage in Glutinous Rice(干贝蛋黄腊味珍珠鸡) @ S$4.00 per plate

Lastly I was quite disappointed with one of their famous dish which is this Scallop, Sausage Carrot Cake with XO Sauce(XO酱干贝腊味蒸箩卜糕). First there was no trace of either scallop or sausage mentioned. Secondly the top layer of the carrot cake seems to be not fully cooked as we still can taste and see the sticky flour mixture on top. And personally I still preferred pan-fried carrot cake compared to this that look soupy like "steamed minced pork" texture.
Price: Scallop, Sausage Carrot Cake with XO Sauce(XO酱干贝腊味蒸箩卜糕) @ S$4.00 per plate

Other than the above mentioned dim sum, Victor's Kitchen also provided some other common dim sum such as Spring Roll, Chicken and Fish Porridge, Assorted Cheong Fun, Dumplings and Double-boiled Egg White and etc. So if you like traditional style of Hong Kong dim sum or you happen to by-pass Sunshine Plaza area perhaps you can consider to try out some of their famous dim sum dishes. Prices for their Dim Sum range from between S$2.50 to S$4.30 per plate.

Victor's Kitchen
91 Bencoolen Street
Sunshine Plaza
#01-21
Telephone: 9838 2851

Opening Hours:
Tuesday - Sunday: 10.30am to 8.00pm (closed on Monday)

OREO Funbox

Talking about OREO, I am sure most of us will think of that 2 pieces of black chocolate flavor sandwich cookies and white cream filling. Usually some kids or adults will enjoy the twisting, licking and dunking of this all time favourite cookies like what it is shown on their TV commercial Ad.

Yesterday while doing our weekend groceries shopping I was caught by some bright blue colour tools box items at one of the corner near the cashier. So out of curiosity I went to check it out and saw these cute OREO Funbox which is at S$3.95 per box.

Each Fun Box consists of 1 packet of Marigold Full Cream Milk and 3 packets of 68.5g each Oreo Sandwich Cookies. These funbox sure come in handy as you can even use it as a lunchbox for your kid to pack Bread together with packet drink for school tea-break or excursion. As for the cookies if you can even use some of it to make "Oreo Cheesecake(recipe here)", "Banana and Oreo Muffin(recipe here)", "Oreo Durian Butter Cake(recipe here)" and etc.

You can purchase these Oreo Funbox from any leading Supermarkets in Singapore such as NTUC Fairprice and Cold Storage from S$3.95 each.