Dessert Delights

It’s my first time having the Vivocity outlet exclusive Concrete, playfully named the Viva La Vivo. The addition of strawberry syrup, frozen strawberry bits, waffle cone bits & rainbow sprinkles add a little whimsy to the thick but plain vanilla custard. The thick frozen dairy treat tastes & has an ultra thick & creamy consistency that reminds me of how good Ben & Jerrys used to be fifteen years ago before they threw their standards off a cliff. I’ve slept on The Shack’s custards for far too long, and it’s about time to get woke.

Perhaps it’s a side effect of turning thirty, but I find myself enjoying traditional Asian desserts a lot more now. From Pulut Hitam to Tau Suan and to Chendol, I love ‘em all. So when I saw that @enjoyeatinghouse offers Teochew Orh Ni with Butternut Squash ($8++), I ordered it without a second thought.⠀
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Orh Ni is a traditional Teochew dessert that’s yam that’s processed into a paste, sweetened and doused in coconut milk. Over here at Enjoy Eating House, they have added butternut squash and ginkgo nuts for a little textural variety. The yam paste was silky smooth and slightly sticky, and each swallow goes down easy thanks to the lubrication provided by the coconut milk. The yam paste was sufficiently sweet and earns the ultimate Asian praise of ‘not too sweet’. The butternut squash and gingko nuts did add extra resistance to the otherwise soft & smooth texture for a little variety.⠀
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If you ever decide to patronise @enjoyeatinghouse , don’t forget to order this delightful dessert so you can truly enjoy eating at this house.

If you thought that @fura.sg small plates were intriguing, wait till you finish your drinking session with some of their desserts. Just like the tapas portions, Fura uses mundane & easily available vegetarian ingredients & reconstructs them into something unique & wonderful.⠀
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For the more peculiar dessert, Fura has a King Belote ($15++) that’s built from zucchini turned into an upsized financier, mushroom ice cream, and lemon yogurt meringue. The zucchini cake is slightly bitter, but it goes perfectly with the salty & umami mushroom ice cream and the sweet & tangy lemon yogurt. Salty, umami, sweet, creamy and even a little bitter, almost every last taste profile is represented here and it was an unexpectedly satisfying dessert.⠀
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Fura has thoroughly impressed me: not only have they managed to make vegetarian cuisine intriguing, they’ve made it plenty delicious too.

If you thought that @fura.sg small plates were intriguing, wait till you finish your drinking session with some of their desserts. Just like the tapas portions, Fura uses mundane & easily available vegetarian ingredients & reconstructs them into something unique & wonderful.⠀
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Take for example this superb Smokey Banana ($12++). Deep fried bananas are dressed in a banana cream, dulce de leche that’s been spiked with Courvoisier VSOP and a pasilla sauce. The familiar flavour & crisp texture of the deep fried bananas resembles that of goreng pisang (deep fried bananas). However, the rich & slightly boozy dulce de leche makes the bananas feel like a banana split instead. Either way, it’s a deliciously sweet way to eat bananas.
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Fura has thoroughly impressed me: not only have they managed to make vegetarian cuisine intriguing, they’ve made it plenty delicious too.

@pilot.sg run of divine dishes doesn’t just end at the big plates (mains), their fantastic form carries over to the deceptively simple sounding desserts.
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The dessert on the specials menu, which was the Apples & Berries ($15++) is equally simple yet equally satisfying. Poached apples are married to a mascarpone berry compote, candied walnuts and milk ice cream for a perfect finale to a delightful dinner. All the vital textures and flavours are represented here: sweet, sour and salty are accompanied by crunchy, creamy, crisp and tender textures to maximise engagement with your whole palate.⠀
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Even though Pilot is a little out of the way, I can definitely see myself flying down here a couple more times to dine at this small but superb restaurant.

@pilot.sg run of divine dishes doesn’t just end at the big plates (mains), their fantastic form carries over to the deceptively simple sounding desserts. The Butter Cake ($12++) sounds so painfully pedestrian that you’d pass over it without a second thought, but you’d be cheating yourself out of a shockingly superb dessert. The butter cake was astonishingly moist but not oily, and each soft & fragrant crumb of cake was a class complement to the salty & sweet camembert ice cream.⠀
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Even though Pilot is a little out of the way, I can definitely see myself flying down here a couple more times to dine at this small but superb restaurant.

(PARTIALLY SPONSORED) We were stuffed to the gills at @estuary.sg, but the beckoning of the Banana Parfait ($18++) was irresistible. Mashed bananas, whipped cream and cocoa power are layered upon one another and covered by the top layer of cookie crumbs. Two little pipettes of whiskey are sticking out alluringly, daring you to inject its alcoholic ambrosia into this sweet treat.⠀
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Banana and chocolate go together like bacon and cheeseburgers, and the sweetness of the chunky banana mash meshed excellently with the cocoa powder. The whipped cream had been beaten until it takes on a texture akin to mousse, and the parfait feels a bit like a cake at times. Inject the whiskey into the dessert for a boozy, oaky and slightly bitter counterbalance to the sweetness of the banana & whipped cream, and you have a so-fish-ticated dessert that’s guaranteed to delight.⠀
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For the last time (for now), thank you for having us @estuary.sg, and thanks to @scalemicroinfluencers for inviting us!

Weirdly enough, the older I get the more I appreciate the traditional sweets, especially Nyonya kuehs. I didn’t expect to find Nyonya kuehs in Bugis, but thanks to a tipoff from @wobblethebui, I found The Nyonya Kueh, a tiny little pushcart stall in the same coffee shop as the famous roast meat merchant.⠀
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I’ve only tried their ang ku kueh, pulut indi and kueh salat so far, but all of them have earned the most prestigious Asian accolade of ‘not too sweet’. The pulut indi’s (left) slightly crunchy coconut shavings are sweetened with gula Melaka for a molasses flavoured sweetness, and the blue pea coloured glutinous rice is fluffy & sticky, but not mushy. The ang ku kueh is a universal crowd pleaser with its marvellous mung bean filling and delicate, sticky skin that’s coloured red. ⠀
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However, my favourite is probably the kueh salat, with the same excellent glutinous rice as the pulut indi, but with a delightful kaya custard layer. I have no idea why the kaya custard layer on top is purple instead of green, but I do know that it’s sweet, creamy, chock full of pandan aroma, and an absolute winner.⠀
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With The Nyonya Kueh, the early bird gets the kueh, as these sweet treats sell way faster than hotcakes. And at an average price of a dollar & twenty cents apiece, these toothsome treats are an amazingly affordable indulgence.

Every good meal deserves a sweet ending, and @charliesgrill.com.sg serves a limited but well curated dessert menu. Due to us being super stuffed from the enormous entrées, we had to pass on ordering the House Made Brownie ($7.90++). Instead, we spilt a Belgian Chocolate Lava Cake ($7.90++), and a slice of Apple Crumble ($7.90++) between us.⠀
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While apple crumble isn’t exactly the same as apple pie due to the former having a crunchy crumbly topping as opposed to the flaky pie crust lid you get on an apple pie. Still, Charlie’s Apple Crumble feels plenty American to me with its sweet, comforting mix of spiced apple filling in a buttery pie crust and capped with a lid of crunchy cookie crumble. I was delighted to find that Charlie’s apple filling is slightly on the tart side, bringing a nuanced balance of sweet, tart and spicy from the cinnamon & vanilla. The only gripe I had was that the pie was served lukewarm instead of steaming hot. It was still decent, but I would’ve loved to see that luscious vanilla ice cream melting all over this slice of apple crumble.⠀
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Thank you so much for the hospitality @charliesgrill.com.sg, and thank you @eatwithkeat for inviting me!

Every good meal deserves a sweet ending, and @charliesgrill.com.sg serves a limited but well curated dessert menu. Due to us being super stuffed from the enormous entrées, we had to pass on ordering the House Made Brownie ($7.90++). Instead, we spilt a Belgian Chocolate Lava Cake ($7.90++), and a slice of Apple Crumble ($7.90++) between us.⠀
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The Belgian Chocolate Lava Cake was very sweet, mainly due to the deluge of melted chocolate contained within the soft cake, but it’s manageable as long as you share it. Of course, a lava cake is simply incomplete without ice cream, so Charlie’s very generously serves every lava cake with two scoops of vanilla ice cream. This sweet frozen dairy treat provides a cold contrast to the heat of the gooey lava cake, and they mingle to form a rich, decadent dessert.⠀
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Thank you so much for the hospitality @charliesgrill.com.sg, and thank you @eatwithkeat for inviting me!

Speaking of second chances, @flakyhaus also managed to pull off a redemption arc with their appealing Apple Turnover ($3.50 nett). It was everything the croissant failed to be: airy, flaky and downright enjoyable. The apple filling within earned the ultimate Asian accolade of ‘not too sweet’, with the sweetness accentuated by the cinnamon mixed into the sweet & tart apple mix. Down it with a remarkably excellent coffee from the Yeo Yeo Huat coffee stall, and you have yourself a delightful dessert.

The food pairing this time was a dessert platter with a spicy chocolate ball that crackled & popped in your mouth like the old fizzy candy we used to have as kids, and a spicy & sour mango tart that was paired with mango coconut nitrogen dessert for a tart yet sweet ending to our little cocktail adventure. I can confidently say that I’ll definitely be back for more cocktails when I need some strong remedies to cure me of my life related ailments.⠀
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Thank you so much for the hospitality @antidotebar.sg, and thanks for having me as your plus one @wobblethebui!