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.

I Am Definitely Not Staying Till 2 A.M.

If you're constantly sugar-starved like me, and become very snappy when sharing a box of assorted Van Houten chocolates with a bunch of like-minded grubby munsters, then you're probably understand how I felt at 2 a.m. dessert bar.

Yawn-sational.












I don't understand the concept of it at all. Is it a dessert joint or a bar - as in an alcoholic checkpoint? The decor stirred up mixed reactions - firstly of nostalgia, since the concept was very similar to a joint I love in Siem Reap called Blue Pumpkin. Secondly of yuckiness, since the colors clashed...white seats and cushions (pretty cheap ones really) with multi-earth-toned tables and counters. The place is not that large to begin with, so browns would just shrink the space more. Thirdly, the lights were yellow and too bright for a chill-out session with friends, that special someone or just to wind down after a hard day's work.

Regardless, my friend and I found a cosy spot and dominated the corner facing the window on the long daybed flanked on one side of the dessert place. The service, I must say, is timely and pretty efficient. Apparently, the owner herself even served tables that night, including ours. And the manager of the outfit was more than nice and chatty to us.

But see, that doesn't redeem them of the slightly bigger than miniscule desserts printed in microscopic font on the menu. Unforgivable, really. For a dessert joint that opens from 6pm - 2am, the dessert selection is seriously wanting of good old Granny Smith Apple Pie, Old-Fashioned Cheesecake with fun versions, and Molten Lava Chocolate; None of which could be found. Honestly, the desserts we ordered were teeny-weeny, and unsatisfying to say the least.

The chocolate warm tart with a thin, crispy crust cradled overflowing saucy chocolate - and this experience should have been divine for a chocoholic like me, but I found myself downing water to somehow save my throat after two small spoonfuls. The thin crust, in my opinion, should have been cake instead to absorb at least some of the molten chocolate, topped with frozen vanilla bean ice-cream. And the whole makan experience would have been savoured. Instead of ice-cream, blood orange sorbet was presented instead and boy, was it sweeeeet! Saccharine sweet. Only a dollop was served, I noticed, as opposed to a full scoop.

If this is designer dessert, then it really needs a makeover overhaul. "Designer" should infer genuinity, quality and lots of love. Not attempts at nouveau art and skinny creative servings. We ordered the Twix after that whole warm chocolate debacle to give them another chance. I mean, what are the chances of finding 1 indulgent dessert among a paltry 8 right? Guess again.

Expresso is described as warm mascarpone foam, Kahlua jelly, crumble with expresso ice-cream. How did that go? Forgettable. A top local food critic once said that if you can't remember what you put in your mouth, then it wasn't worth remembering anyway.

With names such as "Twix", "Green Tea" and "Cheesecake", no one could blame you if you can't recall them 5 minutes after having ordered them. The names are too generic.

It's time to bring back desserts as how they were created to be - fulfilling sizes, rich creams, decadent ice-cream and chockful of character.