Sweet & Cheap : Dessert Nation

So what can cure rainy days and bluey Mondays? Gorgeous-looking sugar, methinks. What's really awesome and unassuming is Baked Alaskan @ The Ship (#04-34/36 Shaw Centre 1 Scotts Road, Tel: 6235 2235). It's ice-cream wrapped in a swiss roll, encased in thick meringue. There were four of us at the table, and we were struggling to lap up the last scoops of the sugar-rific dessert.

I, of course, took it upon myself to bear this yummy burden. Hah! It's less than 20 bucks - great value for money. But do order at least 30 minutes in advance.

Someone at the table did comment that the ice-cream roll did taste like it was bought off the shelf...oh please...so what?!! We did gobble this up after our steaks and noodles, which pretty much would explain why I felt like barfing after stuffing myself silly...

Then there's Hediard's (123-125 Tanglin Road, Tudor Court,

Tel:6333 6383) butter croissant, awesome coffee list and coffee eclairs...The butter croissant comes toasty and crispy at $3.30 each. And the coffee's just stunning. The coffee eclair is authentic, I must say, but a tad too sweet for even a sugar fiend such as me.

I must admit I did just have wanton noodles at Kovan Hub before meeting my ex-classmate for the bougeoisie treats, which warrants an entire blog and a half on how majestic these noodles are...so beautifully prepared with ketchup and chilli and other nick nacks. Char siew (barbequed pork) sliced and stacked with voluptuos meat dumplings were ooh-la-la. Thanks for the introduction, Greg! It's how I remember it when I was growing up, and wanton noodles were only $1.50 a bowl.

And of course, there's newbie Whisk (435 Orchard Road, #03-15 Wisma Atria Tel:6836 5080)...right next to the taxi stand. They have a compact menu of pasta and western favorites as well as sweet stuff. The mushroom soup had a good texture but came lukewarm...ugh. The salmon burger and prawn aglio olio were not bad at all...though the pasta's better...am planning to check out the fish & chips when I'm back. Also, the banoffi came in a little glass so I shared it with my girlfriend, even though we were so stuffed. It was as sweet as it should be. Let me just say, I dislike bananas intensely, so I spent half the time licking off the carmel from my spoon, and shoveling out little bits of bananas onto the napkin. The check came for 60 bucks for two people - 3-course meal x 2 plus dessert - not bad at all.

Loosen Up My Buttons, Babe

Sweet Surrender. That’s my theme song, you know the one from Sarah McLachlan. Thought I’d share with you some of the mighty fine-looking candies I’ve laid my eyes upon, and was moved to stab a fork into.

Starbucks’ strawberry tart is something, isn’t it? It’s so worth the money and the calories. The strawberry chunks are pretty big, so it does offset the sugar loaded in the rockin’ pastry...I think...I hope. Can share one. Looks teeny but really packed with grub-a-licious, so delicious, yum-in-my-tum from the L-I-C-I-O-U-S.

Carrot cake from Toast. I just can’t rave enough about it. It’s the best in the country! Crammed with chockfuls of pineapple, walnuts and raisins smooshed into real carrots and moist cake, this is the best treat to a long day or to celebrate the end of a crazy diet. Slathered with true-blue cream cheese, you’d be tempted to inhale the whole cake.

A really simple yummy-doodle treat is almond beancurd with longans, which I LOVE at The Ship. They don’t serve it all the time, but when they do, you wish they could serve it in a bigger sundae cup! It’s so smooth-tasting, very refined really. It doesn’t taste synthetic at all which most jello tend to be. And it gives off an aromatic almond smell.

Ooooh….the curd just glides into your mouth and skis into your tummy through your throat. So light, you’ll have space for more desserts…happy days are here again :)