Bangkok Dangerous!

Hey loves! Back before I enlisted in December, I had a little short trip to Bangkok with three of my girl friends, C, THM, and AXY! And while we were there, we found ice cream treats for future/potential Bangkok tourists!

This is really exotic in my opinion, as I've personally never seen or heard of coconut ice cream before but apparently it happens to be a local delicacy and cheap thrill for the Thais!


On one of the days while we were in Bangkok, we went over to Chatuchak Weekend Market for a blood-thirsty shopping spree and came by the very delicious Coconut Ice Cream.


Personally, I'm not a fan of coconut, other than loving it's existence in Pulut Hitam, Kueh Lapis, Nasi Lemak, and Peranakan Curry (it's in my blood being a die-hard Peranakan fan, although I always hated cooking Peranakan Curry). But a taste of the coconut ice cream which C and AXY bought was awesome on a hot day in Thailand.


At 25 baht (Roughly S$1.25) a scoop served with generous portions of fresh coconut flesh, I would say this is really a much better deal than our local one-dollar ice cream. The really smooth texture in the ice cream was awesome for the hot weather and the coconut taste wasn't extremely overwhelming so it was pretty alright.


Watch how AXY holds her precious cup of coconut ice cream with such adoration! You can guess pretty much how awesome it'd be!


It was also cute that they served the ice cream in a coconut husk shell. Adorable huh? Some stalls served the ice cream with peanuts, and others with the jelly and red ruby.


Along the way we also found another stall which sells Fruit Popsicles dipped in chocolate and generously coated all over with rainbow rice/peanuts, another great chilling deal for the hot weather there. So in case you're flying over to Bangkok, Thailand at the very next minute, do give the coconut ice cream a try!

Oh, and while you're there, grab a few bottles of their freshly squeezed mandarin orange juice (which is really really sweet).

NS 22 - Orchard MRT Station [ION Orchard]

HAPPY 2011 EVERYONE!

Whether or not the past year had been a blast of a time or a terrible memory, it's all over now and let's look forward to the beautiful years ahead of us! I wouldn't say I had exactly the best times of my life in 2010, but I definitely do know that there are still many more years to come and hence many more beautiful memories to create. (:

Anyway, apologies with regard to my previous hiatus as I've recently got enlisted into the army. So yes, no more hair. I had quite a few ice cream trips in the weeks before I enlisted, but haven't really had the time to get down to typing and all, however, seeing that today is such a special occasion, I shall do up at least one post for the first day of the new year.

I was supposed to have booked out on Wednesday night earlier this week but unfortunately/fortunately (depending on how you see it) I was selected for this week's regimented guard duty in camp, so I stayed in all the way till Friday. So I went out on the first day of the new year with N and E, and we decided to grab my favorite ice cream so far, Latte (otherwise known as milk flavored) ice cream, from Gusttimo!

picture taken from Google Images
Gusttimo Di Roma - ION Orchard
2 Orchard Turn #01-17
ION Orchard
Tel: 6509 9380
Opening hours as accorded with ION Orchard

Located at the pocket-burning zone (well that's what poor people like me and my friends call it, since the wallets around the area at that level produce at least two zeroes on a single receipt) of ION Orchard, you could find Gusttimo sitting at the corner area right in front of an escalator coming up from B1.

First started out in Rome, Italy Gusttimo moved on to hit Seoul, Korea and experimented with the Asian taste buds. No doubt they swept the Koreans off their feet with the art of Gelato (just like how they managed to sweep me off of my feet in Singapore). Gusttimo provides a total of 230 seasonal flavors and prepares 32 best in season flavors catered to consumers.

One thing to note about Gusttimo is that they recommend a selection of at least three flavors in a single cup so that the customers could enjoy multiple varieties of quality ice cream in a single purchase. In this case I would say that this so-called policy is very much a form of privilege provided for the customers. I'm pretty sure most of you can guess (without even doubting, due to the outlet's very location) that the high quality gelato produced comes with a erm, high quality price tag as well. At $7.20 a cup, I would say that it is fairly much more reasonable to get three flavors than just a single flavor. However, it is still possible for you to purchase an entire cup of one single flavor at your request. (And that, is very much a privilege as well)

Somewhat behaving like a monster unleashed from a thousand-year-talisman-seal (well that's what happen to most people when they got locked up and tamed in camp) the very greedy me had the biggest appetite for ice cream today and hence we got ourselves two cups of six flavors!


Melon
(honeydew)

Latte
(fresh milk)

Black Rice
(Pulut Hitam)

White Wine

Cream Cheese

My all-time favorite at Gusttimo would be Latte, it's really very simply, milk ice cream. And the relationship I have with milk, is indescribably heavenly. I would definitely also recommend the Melon flavor (by now you all can most probably tell that I love melons, like some psychotic wild animal that lives off on melons and ONLY melons, just like how anteaters survive solely on ONLY ants), which is absolutely strong in its honeydew taste, but do take caution that the flavor can be pretty much overpowering.

The cream cheese flavor, according to reviews found online, is an all-time favorite among the netizens in Korea, so I would definitely recommend it if you are a cheese lover. The cheese taste isn't very strong, and doesn't come hitting you up until after the ice cream melts on your tongue, leaving an after-taste of pure creamy cheese. Do also try the Black Rice as it's very much different from the usual magic you get from Island Creamery or The Daily Scoop. The Black Rice flavor at Gusttimo focuses purely on elevating the flavor of black rice, giving you the pure taste of the main ingredient rather than enhancing the flavor by using coconut milk like IC or TDS.

There was a sixth flavor which I absolutely abhorred cause it tasted quite horrifying (in my opinion), if I'm not wrong it would be the Soy-Vanilla flavor or something. It's yellow in color, my apologies if I'm pretty vague on describing the flavor, but it was just as horrifying as the White Wine flavor (another flavor which I found repulsive), such that I didn't give either flavors any attention at all. :P


By the way, they also have a seemingly awesome ambiance, great for friends to catch over ice cream, or simply sit by and chill. Do note that they also serve pastries that go along with their gelato.


Here's N and E letting you guys know that if you need more information, go on to:

GUSTTIMO DI ROMA

Once again, Happy New Year to all my lovely readers! (:

EW 8 - Paya Lebar MRT Station

Okays so I suppose everyone has been pretty much disappointed after turning up at this space for the past one week and not finding any new posts? (Shameless much, I know but Narcissism is in my genes, it's my favorite gene too you know.)

So anyway, I have been really busy! Busy looking for ice cream and eating ice cream too! Look forward to at least two posts this week. (:

First up, Paya Lebar MRT! Now, the Eastwest Line is truly a killer as most of the stops do not really exactly have a mall nearby, and I SWEAR its a pain in my ass trying to find an ice cream parlour. So just the other day (okay perhaps SEVERAL days ago since I have not had much of a chance to blog since I was away rolling in bed.) R and I were down by Changi doing some business (which is obviously none of your business, hahahaa) and she suggested that we head on over to Parkway Parade for Scoopz!

To get to Parkway Parade, simply hop onto buses 43, 76, 135, and 197 from Paya Lebar MRT Station and alight 6 stops later.

couldn't find the logo, so I took a photo of mini ice cream chocolates!

Scoopz - Parkway Parade
80 Marine Parade Road
#B1- 154
Parkway Parade Singapore
Tel: 6440 3412
Mondays to Sundays: 10am - 10pm

So I've heard about Scoopz quite a few times with regards to their extremely wide range of fruit flavors and awesome durian and jackfruit flavors.


And the best of it all is that Scoopz offer really cheap prices, with a mere $2.50 of out-bursting frozen fruit juice. (And I mean it, it's literally a frozen fruit in a cup, you feel healthier just eating it. No. Sins. Involved.)


So nope, I did not get the durian flavor, but instead had the chance to try my favorite Rockmelon flavor, along with the Jackfruit (Chempedek!). I have to be honest and tell you that I am hooked onto their Jackfruit flavor. It's extremely intense, that I totally neglected my Rockmelon scoop, and they have real juicy bits of the fruits itself, and the chewy texture of the Jackfruit is still encapsulated within the ice cream itself. It was like getting introduced to the fruit all over again, and having the tantalizing sensation where it dances around your taste buds.


And because Scoopz is so awesomely cheap and delicious, I refused to share my cup (What a selfish bastard I can be at times) and hence R got her very own scoop of watermelon sherbet! And what more can I say about the flavors here at Scoopz? You really have to go down and try it yourself, cause it's really not just ice cream, it's iced fruits in a cup. They also serve non-fruit flavors such as coffee and vanilla bean, so it's really a wide variety for ice cream addicts like me, and you. (:

Sadly, Scoopz does not have their very own website, Facebook fanpage (perhaps you guys should set up one if you really love it!), nor email. So for more information, simply hop by Scoopz itself and get a taste of it!

*This post is incomplete as there are still a few more ice cream parlours to be conquered, hence Parkway Parade will be re-visited.*

NS 2 - Bukit Batok MRT Station

So as I mentioned in my previous post, I was kind of busy with Erdinger's Oktober Festival 2010 at Swiss Club, but nevertheless, I managed to squeeze out some time, precious ice cream time to do a little review. Hehe.

R was on her way down to her gram's place, so we decided to a little review on the humble Northsouth Line Station, Bukit Batok. As most of you would know Bukit Batok for it's tiny and much useless West Mall (I stay right next to the mall, even the Macdonald's located at another block is much more useful, so don't try to debate with me), be also glad to know that on the second level of the tiny mall, you would find one of the four outlets of a rather famous ice cream parlour.

logo taken from Udders.com.sg

UDDERS - West Mall
1 Bukit Batok Central Link
#02-10 West Mall
Singapore 658713
Tel: 6862 2192
Mondays to Sundays: 11am - 10.30pm

Déjà moo? Heard this cow before? Well you've got to hear more about what they are all about! Udders focus on five simple criteria for their ice cream, Fresh, Home-made, Natural, Original, Healthy (hmmms, not sure about that one, but ice cream is no doubt healthy for the brain since it ups your mood!).

Slightly hidden behind retailing outlets, be sure not to miss out on Udders ice cream when you drop by West Mall in Bukit Batok! This is my favorite outlet of their four existing outlets, much due to the fact that I live right across the street and was able to get my own pints of ice cream daily back when my wisdom tooth surgery nearly killed me (in my own PJs and with disheveled hair as well as a swollen pork chop left cheek).


So, in an honorary post, I decided that the West Mall outlet (under Bukit Batok MRT) would be the first entry to post about Udders ice cream!

Some flavors you might want to give it a shot when you hop by any Udders Outlet would be:

Mao Shan Wang Durian
(King of Cat Mountain durian)
Connoisseur Range
King of the king of fruits, need we say more? It's either you'll live to love it, or hate it. So drop your caucasian genes and grab yourself a cup!

Gila Melaka
(gula melaka, attap chee)
Classic Range
Combination of gula melaka (palm sugar) with chewy bits of attap seeds (palm seeds)

Bailey’s & Bourbon
(bailey’s, bourbon)
Premium Range
Bailey’s Irish Cream combined with bourbon.

Choya Lime Umeshu Sorbet
(choya, lime )
Connoisseur Range
Japanese plum wine refreshed with lime.

Orange Choc Bitters
(triple sec, dark choc)
Premium Range
Dark Belgian chocolate generously spiced with Triple Sec, an orange liqeur.

Lychee Martini
(lychee, vodka )
Connoisseur Range
Lychees enhanced with vodka.


You might be wondering what's Connoisseur, Premium, and Classic. These are the ranges of ice cream at Udders, Connoisseur would usually be the liquor ice creams, Premium being the more "sophisticated" flavors without liquor but with a twist in their flavors, and Classic as the more commonly known flavors, or standard flavors.


So anyway, we decided to share a double scoop since I was in a rush elsewhere too, and we had Mao Shan Wang Durian + Alphonso Mango Sorbet (Rich and flavorful Indian mangoes).
Anyway mao shan wang is so good, it makes you orgasmic. It's so durian that one mouth of it was enough to make me nose bleed and cardiac arrest on the spot. As for the Mango Sorbet, I like it cause you can really tell that its purely made from fresh mangoes, there's a whole lot of difference from the regular mango flavoring made ice cream.


Anyway, as it's a fairly small outlet, they do not have enough space to open a cafe (told you West Mall was tiny!), but they do have free seating (shared with My Toast next door).

Since I stayed around the corner, you can bet on it that I'm quite the regular to Udders. Other flavors that I've tried are, Pear Sorbet (with bits of pear in it and puuuurrrfect for the hot weather to kill the heatiness), Green-Tea-riffic (Macha ice cream, very strong and thick flavor BUT there's this powdery after-taste that I personally do not like), Choya Lime Umeshu Sorbet (my personal favorite flavor, since it's made from my favorite liquor), and many others.

R and I also decided to sample out a few flavors, such as the Lychee Martini (tasted slightly weird, guess the liquor level isn't strong enough for alcoholics like us) and the Earl Grey (way too strong, honestly speaking. You can tell how strong the tea in the ice cream is just by looking at how brown the whole tub is). It was also kind of funny hearing the ice cream artist explaining to one of the customers about Earl Grey as "ang moh teh flavored".


Though I do not love all their flavors, I definitely do love Udders! (you can obviously see that from my face)

Other outlets of Udders include, Siglap (coming up in Kembangan MRT's entry), Kilat (coming up in the yet to be fully constructed Beauty World MRT's entry), and also Goldhill Centre (coming up in Novena Mrt's entry).

Do note that they also provide Ice cream workshop cum Buffet!

For more information, go on to:

UDDERS ICE CREAM

EW 23 - Clementi MRT Station

Today, we're doing somewhere I'm much more confident of not getting lost around as I'm highly familiar with the location, Clementi. I no longer stay here, but I did grew up high, and spent the first twelve years of my life running around naked in the neighborhood (of course not, the pedophiles that could have been chasing after me might have formed a long line of queue that stretched till Pasir Ris! Do you sense narcissism here? Hmmmms, I'd better reflect. )

Coming back to Clementi brings back nostalgic memories of the old fountain that used to be the attraction of the old and run-down place. I came down with THM today, secondary school best friend and still my best friend to date. (: Today, the area is almost newly refurnished into a brand new Clementi Hub, however, with much of the construction ongoing at the central area, it would be impossible to find us an ice cream parlour. However, please keep your hopes up as just a few bus stops away down at Clementi Road, is another unique ice cream parlour.

picture taken from TDS.com

The Daily Scoop - Sunset Way
41 Sunset Way #01-04
Clementi Arcade
Singapore 597071
Tel: 6463 3365
Mondays to Thursdays: 11am - 9pm
Fridays & Saturdays: 11am - 10pm
Sundays: 2pm - 9pm

Just along Clementi Road, a handful of bus stops away from the Singapore Institute of Management (SIM) and Ngee Ann Polytechnic, you would find a small stretch of shophouses along a residential area called Sunset Way.

Back in 2004, their very first outlet was set-up in Clementi Arcade, and popularly known for their unique hand-churning methods of preparing their fresh daily made ice cream, to ensure deliciously rich ice cream products.

In the past six years, the owners of TDS have definitely been very busy creating new flavors to attract more customers, and hence to date they have conjured a wide variety of up to 40 flavors! But of course, not every flavor is always available (and they would definitely try their best to keep up with the local demands of certain flavors).

Some seemingly weird, but definitely interesting flavors that you might want to keep a lookout for will be,

Pur-Pearl Rice
(Coconut ice cream with generous swirls of glutinous (pearl) rice, sounds absolutely brilliant for the Burbur Hitam fans!)

Wasabi Mango
(Spicy, sour, mango with wasabi, I wonder if it really hits the spot and bring you tears of joy.)

Utterly Avocado
(blend of avocado and gula meleka, very interesting!)

Lychee Martini
(Lychee juice + Vodka, nicely alcoholic, now you've got me anticipating! hahaha)

Chili Choc
(Chili and Dark Chocolate ice cream, hmmmms.)

Lime & Black Pepper
(First there's tangy lime, and then there would be spicy pepper. Yes, pepper!)

So as you can see, they have very interesting flavors, most of which I would say, are not for the ones who cardiac arrest easily. Anyway, we went down expecting a roller coaster ride in our mouths, with our taste buds knocked into confusion with the exploding clash of spiciness, sourness, and sweetness. Click here for the entire list of funky flavors!

Honestly I think sometimes I can be pretty unlucky, as sometimes I tend to get to an ice cream parlour and not get to taste out the flavors which I have been anticipating to try out for, nevertheless, THM and I got down to our own double scoop, Simply Chocolate + Green Tea & Red Beans.


Simply Chocolate
(just chocolate. and the color is so strong, that you will know that it is really simply chocolate.)

Green Tea & Red Beans
(sweet red beans folded into bitter-sweet green tea ice cream)

I liked the fact that they chilled their ice cream bowls so that by the time you reach you seats, your ice cream would still be nicely chilled and not already slightly melting. It's a small outlet, so it may get pretty packed sometimes, but during the afternoon while we were there it was still pretty alright.


The Cold Storage at Clementi Arcade is also made to cater to the residences around the area, so you would be able to find cooking ingredients that are harder to find in your regular supermarkets. THM shopped a little and I found several baking needs that can often be hard to find. You can get the Betty Crocker Chocolate Frosting here, Organic Cereals, Bakingmate Icing and Frosting, and even Chestnut Puree! (Alright, let's not digress, back to the main topic!)


As there weren't many choices today, (having a sore throat as least I die from cough-induced cardiac arrest, I decided to skip the Chempedek Jackfruit flavor.) so we decided on our favorite combination of green tea with chocolate (personal favorite concoction). I like TDS's green tea ice cream cause it's not powdery and overly domineering in the green tea taste, and the red beans even out the slightly bitter after-taste. Simply Chocolate was really good, strong chocolate. But I found it a little too sweet and hence we had quite a bit of leftover when we were leaving.



For more information, go on to:

The Daily Scoops

Sunset Way is fairly easy to get to, simply hop onto buses 52/154/184 from the bus stop opposite Clementi central, and go in the direction of Ngee Ann Polytechnic/SIM. For the ones staying in the North, there is also the alternative way of taking bus 61 from Bukit Batok Bus Interchange. Either way should take you roughly about 10-15mins in total.

Getting to TDS is the tricky bit, after alighting you should find yourself in front of an aquarium store (fish hobbyists would know that the place is famed for their in-house bred pedigree Guppies and Goldfish). Walk along the road heading into the Sunset Way residential area, you would have to walk quite a bit in, after the stretch of shophouses simply walk along the road until you see a Cold Storage, or until you can visibly see the sign that says Clementi Arcade.

Of course, some of you lazy asses out there might find that the place can be quite inaccessible, as I suppose the location was decided so as to attract the rich ang mohs around the area. So of course, I managed to find a much more accessible ice cream parlour, which happens to be at Sunset Way as well!

Gelato Art @ Sunset
Clementi St 12
Blk 105 #01-16
Singapore 120105
Tel: 9734 6243
Sundays, Wednesdays to Thursdays: 2pm -9pm
Fridays & Saturdays: 2pm - 11pm
Closed on Mondays & Tuesdays

From the same bus-stop you alight to get to TDS, walk along the road heading inwards as well, simply walk pass the aquarium store, a few vet clinics and a Hainanese chicken rice store you would be able to get to Gelato.

What sets Gelato apart from the other ice cream parlours is that, gelato itself is a much more healthier form of ice cream, whereby it has a lower fat and sugar content as compared to regular ice cream, making it a healthier choice and no doubt a less sinful choice.

They have a wide range of flavors from fruitty flavors, to regular vanilla/chocolate flavors, to liquor gelato as well. They also specialize in Belgian Waffles (yum!). Some of the flavors you might be interested to try out are:

Russian Orange
(Orange + Vodka)

XO Cranberry
(Cranberry that has been soaked in full drunkardness of XO)

Guinness Gold
(Stout)

KahLua Fizz
(Coffee Liquor)

Yuzu
(Pomeleo sorbet)

Pink Grapefruit

Rocher
(Yes! Ferrero Rocher!)


Opened by Madam Rose Quek and her husband (they are a really cute elderly couple!), who attended gelato-making classes, this is a nice cosy spot to hang out with friends.


We did a little camwhoring here while waiting. Guess what did we order? Belgian waffle with double scoop! :D


We had Rocher + Strawberry Cheesecake. Rocher is really nice and strong in it's hazelnut taste, but less chocolaty in flavor as compared to the real Ferrero Rocher. The Strawberry Cheesecake is really nice, you can taste the mild and light sourness of the cheese, but unlike the more popular B&J's Strawberry Cheesecake ice cream, this one has no cheesecake crusts in the ice cream to hype up your tastebuds. However, it does still pack a punch of the cheesecake flavor, and on top of that, you never feel sinful eating the ice cream since it's gelato!

Sad to say, Gelato Art @ Sunset does not have their own website to date, so it would be hard for you to find out more about the place, however, for more information you may drop them an email at:

joingelato@hotmail.com

Their current promotion features a free topping for all ice cream, from chocolate sauce to nuts and to dried fruits! While stocks last though, so get your aunty spirit and head on down! (: