i really haven't been baking much lately. apart from the orders i had, the ovens (yes plural, i hv two ovens now) were basically left untouched. i'm not sure why but i seem 2b suffering from a "baking burnout", if such term exists. things are so bad that i'll leave butter or cream cheese at room temperature and then return them to the fridge afterwards without baking anything LOL. i guess going out for desserts with the kakis might also a contributing factor. i wouldn't wanna make more desserts since i'm already going out so often to hv them.

yep i was there again yesterday for the 2nd time. i've never done this b4, patronizing a cafe twice in a span of less than one week haha. but this time, i was disappointed coz their cakes & pastries tasted somewhat stale. the place was pretty deserted on a weekday, and besides us, there were virtually no one eating in, but just 1-2 people having takeaways. so i reckon the cakes must be leftovers from the weekend. and with no demand on weekdays, i believe they hardly churn out fresh bakes since nobody's gonna buy anyway. so the moral of the story - go there on a weekend instead!

Twelve + One Patisserie & Cafe



i didn't know of its existence until today. was supposed to check out laurent bernard chocolatier @ portsdown road when sihan sms-ed me at 8am in the morning, telling me she saw this article on today's ST about this patisserie & cafe at no. 6 rochester park, so we decided to check it out instead.

the moment we stepped inside this quaint little cafe, i was immediately greeted by what seemed like a dollhouse/little girl's bedroom - shades of white, sweet pink & baby blue...it was the prettiest cafe i've ever seen! and so happened that pink is my favorite color, i fell in love with the place almost instantly and afterwards couldn't stop thinking about it. i'm definitely going back again, and thank you sihan for introducing the place! without further ado, i shall let the pictures do the talking :p

its been eons since i made something other than desserts! so i've decided to try out something savory this time, just to make sure my "cooking skill" hasn't gone all rusty :p i've been buying quite alot of cookbooks lately and one of my recent addition is this one called 'nibbled - 200 fabulous finger food ideas' by katy holder. think some of you might hv seen it in popular bookstore. there are a few books in this series like 'tempted', 'nibbled', 'iced' etc and i've got all 3 of them. and this has been on my "to-try" list for quite sometime, even before i got this book.

checked out the lunch buffet @ shangri-la's the line restaurant with my friend, and boy was it good! so glad i went, after all (well, most) of the positive reviews and raves from people around. i haven't been to that many buffets and its only the equinox high tea and this for all of this year. previously like i said, i only checked out goodwood park's english high tea and pariss international buffet in 2004, and both sucked. this one is definitely worth the price, consider the variety of food they serve and the amount of premium ingredients they use.

if i'm not wrong, this stylish restaurant was known as the coffee garden previously and is designed by adam tihany, a famous interior designer & architect. it's situated at the basement (lower lobby) of shangri-la hotel, tucked amidst lush greenery & the hotel pool. totally dig the ambience coz its so fresh, modern & futuristic, plus there's an adjorning bar which serves very expensive cocktails, imo (between $13-$17++ per drink). there are 16 buffet stations which has its own individiual kitchenette/prep area/fridge etc and i think its totally cool. this is gonna be a pics galore, so be forewarned :p

Chocolate Almond Biscotti

my 2nd attempt at biscotti, the first was really long ago, like 2006 or something. was craving for something chocolatey and at the same time captivated by the biscotti over at elyn of e's joie, so i decided to go for it. found out that she's a fan of anna olsen's program called sugar on afc (asian food channel), so am i! and this recipe is adapted from her program so i'm pretty sure it'll be good.

am back from my korea trip not too long ago. it was really really fantastic, almost close to perfect. in fact i wished i never came home! overall it was alot better than i expected. i'll blog more abt the trip in my next entry but meanwhile, here's some of the food pics. i don't think the food was actually very good, we had pork for almost every meal coz apparently pork is very cheap in korea so it was pretty sickening. only 2 meals consisted of chicken and there was no beef at all. plus the side dishes, its always kimchi, beansprouts, seaweed (and laver/kelp soup), fishcake-like dish etc. pretty boring and predictable i would say. some people who couldnt take in another meal of pork & kimchi actually bought cheesecakes and bread from the bakeries LOL. it was ok i would say, the food is still edible but nothing to shout about. here are some pics of the food :


breakfast in jeju island - abalone porridge, with hardly any abalone in it