Monday, July 2, 2012

Baking Class

As mentioned in the previous post on Rolleyes, X and I had the privilege of attending a baking class organised by Caffe Pralet and Rolleyes. We were pretty excited as it was our first time at a baking class! Haha. The venue of the baking class(Creative Culinaire) is right next to Caffe Pralet.

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Bloggers that were invited!

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We were first introduced to Rolleyes, by Mavis!

After being bowled over by what we were shown and told, Chef Judy took the stage and started teaching us some basics of baking

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We were going to make the chocolate zucchini cake!

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Chef Judy starts the demonstration!
The mirror was really useful haha. I didn't notice it until X told me that I could actually look into the mirror.. Haha

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All the ingredients packed nicely for us.
It's our turn now!

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I was pretty horrified by the idea of a vegetable cake as I don't eat vegetable hahaha

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Mixing the butter and brown sugar at an optimum temperature of 19 degrees celcius

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Sieving the flour

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Mixing the chocolate chips and nuts

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Adding the zucchini

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Mix them evenly

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Mix everything together

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Dome shaped chocolate zucchini cakes made by Chef Judy

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Time to pipe!

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And into the oven they go!

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Little chef haha

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What goes on behind the beautiful cakes

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Sticky candies and saucepan from Rolleyes!

Tea-time at Caffe Pralet while we wait for our cakes to be baked
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Caffe Pralet's signature cake : Pralet
I totally understood why this was their signature cake. It's really good!

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Yummy breadsticks!

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Low fat banana cake
This was delicious!

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Eggwhite marble sponge cake
X was saying that this looks scary.. Haha and he was a bit hesitant to try it hahaha. But it was good! Really soft and kinda melts in your mouth haha

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Yum yum

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Our beautiful cupcakes!!! SUCCESS!

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Announcing the winners of the baking competition

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After coating and some decoration

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The chocolate zucchini cake of Caffe Pralet

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It was a fun-filled afternoon where X and I learnt alot about baking and successfully baked delicious cupcakes! We received many praises about the cupcakes hehe.The cake is chocolatey, yet healthy! I can't even taste the vegetable at all. I wouldn't have guessed that there's vegetable in this cake if nobody told me! Do check out Caffe Pralet if you're looking for 'healthy' cakes!

Thank you Chef Judy, crew at Caffe Pralet and Rolleyes for a wonderful and informative afternoon! (:

17 Eng Hoon Street  #01-04

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Love, K

Friday, June 29, 2012

Lai Heng Prawn Noodles

When i was younger, I used to follow my dad to this really old school looking shophouse kopitiam along upper bukit timah road for breakfast.  That stretch of shop houses had since been evicted in place of a condo , The Linear. We would always go to the coffee shop just for one dish, their prawn noodles. I remember quite vividly that the noodles came in a "rooster bowl" and we were always served by an old man who walked around bare-footed. These memories were a good 15 years ago at least.

The current stall now sits in a little corner of a coffee shop along Teck Whye Lane in a more modern setting compared to the one I experienced years ago. They are still attracting quite a crowd. When I went the other time on a Saturday morning, I had to wait around 20 minutes for my food. Definitely, speaks volume of their popularity.
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Prawn noodles - SGD$3.50

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Prawn Noodles with intestines - SGD$4.50

A big bowl of noodles with dark sauce gravy, complemented with fresh prawns, fish cakes and pig intestines. The secret to the dish is their noodles. It is cooked to perfection. It has a "bouncy" texture yet when the noodles are in your mouth, it feels like they are melting on your tongue. And because the noodle is very well cooked, it is able to soak up the richness of the dark sauce gravy unlike many of those tasteless noodles you get out there. Anyone can add fresh prawns and ingredients to make a dish better but not every one can cook the noodles this well. This is the taste of my childhood. I would say. still as good as ever. 

143 Teck Whye Lane

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Love , X

X's rating of Lai Heng Prawn Noodles: 8/10

Monday, June 25, 2012

Rolleyes

Advertorial

Have you heard of Rolleyes?

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If you haven't, its high time you do! Rolleyes.com.sg is something new and exciting that has taken the F&B world by storm and is definitely gonna change the culinary scene in Singapore. Rolleyes.com.sg introduces and brings to the table something that has never been seen before in our sunny little island. Are you excited to find out more? We're sure you are!

X and I had the honour of attending a baking class organized by Rolleyes and one of their partners, Caffe Pralet. Chef Judy taught us how to make healthy yet palatable chocolate zucchini cake! During this session, we were exposed to the wonders of Rolleyes.com.sg and how their innovation will impact Singapore. We'll like to first, take this opportunity to thank the people behind Rolleyes, Chef Judy and the crew at Caffe Pralet for a wonderful afternoon.

Let us first, tell you how the name Rolleyes came about. You must be thinking of mean girls rolling their eyes with sarcasm aren't you! Haha but this has totally nothing to do with that. Rolleyes emerged from the idea of a camera ROLLing and how our EYES are used to appreciate visual elements. Rolleyes.com.sg is essentially a site that brings to you reviews of restaurants, not in pictorial, nor written form, but in video form! You get to see really exciting and extremely well-made videos of different eateries. Not only do you get up-close and personal with delectable food, you also get to see the restaurant space from the comfort of your home and also experience the atmosphere and ambience of that particular eatery. You can see in detail how the restaurant really looks like and know what to expect when you decide to visit the restaurant. As compared to pictures, a video definitely has an upper hand as it allows viewers to gain awareness of the entire layout of the restaurant while pictures, more often than not, try to show an "all-encompassing" perspective without much success. Rolleyes.com.sg is revolutionary. Their videos are captivating and allow their viewers to have truly, a bird's eye view.

Here's one on Jimmy Monkey(one of our favourite cafes)


In addition, footages of preparation of food gives you an idea of what the restaurant serves, in a dynamic manner. You see many different items dished out right in front of your eyes. As each dish flashes by, you'll inevitably hear your stomach growling (I was a victim of that haha) Food is now being presented in an enticing manner that will make you crave for them like never before. There is indeed no better way of knowing an eatery than watching an attractive video that leaves a deep impression which also magnifies details that pictures and words are not able to capture. You will be surprised, and delighted at how their videos will tempt your taste buds.

Just look at this


Aren't you impressed!
We were blown away by the videos that Rolleyes have came up with! They are fun, informative and engaging! And they surely do make you hungry, don't they!

For more videos: check out Rolleyes on Youtube


Well, that's all about Rolleyes.com.sg. Nothing too impressive. OH, WHO ARE WE KIDDING? Rolleye.com.sg has so much to offer! Their site is easy to use and navigation is as simple as ABC. You can view videos of restaurants or cafes under the respective tabs. They also have tabs like Specialties which feature vegan or organic eateries. That's right, they cater to people of all tastebuds!

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They also have numerous videos that will teach you tips and tricks on how to be more successful in the kitchen! For example, they have videos that teach you how to make an avocado milkshake and this! How to efficiently slice out mango skin. Now I can show my grandmother how to slice a mango and she'll certainly be impressed haha



In addition, these awesome videos can be shared on social media platforms with your friends and families! I've always been told that good things are meant to be shared. What better way to spread the love than to share these fantastic videos with your loved ones? Now now, we have to share wonderful things with the world, so hit those SHARE buttons!


Just when you think that Rolleyes.com.sg can't possibly get anymore awesome than this, we have another surprise for you! Rolleyes has in store for their subscribers special discounts and privileges from their respective F&B partners. Subscribe to Rolleyes.com.sg now to be entitled to incredibly unbelievable privileges that are not offered anywhere else!

What are you still waiting for? Subscribe to them now!

P.S: You're gonna subscribe one day anyway, so why not now! Especially when you get another perk of receiving Rolleyes Sticky candies for free!

We can't do a better job at describing and portraying Rolleyes.com.sg than an experience there itself.  So head on over and be amazed right this instant (:


Love,

X and K

Friday, June 22, 2012

(CLOSED)Cafebiz

I was checking out credit card discounts when I came across a 1 for 1 buffet promotion at Cafebiz! I was immediately drawn to it and went to their website to take a look. The offer stands for DBS/UOB/OCBC and Maybank card holders. I called them to make a reservation for 6 on a Thursday night. The promotion runs from Mondays to Thursdays.

We were really excited to see what they have to offer!

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Counter to get drinks. Free flow of coke, sprite, coffee and tea.

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Japanese section : sushi and sashimi
The variety is pretty limited. There were only tuna and salmon sashimi and simple sushi

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Seafood section : Prawns, clams, mussels, lobster, crabs

What shocked us was the non-existence of oysters.
Which hotel buffet has no oysters ):

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Chinese and Indian section: Laksa, tea eggs, roast meat, roast duck, naan, satay
Nothing really left an impression

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Dessert section : Chocolate fountain with fruits and marshmallows and hollow puffs.

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Simple fare like pandan cake, kueh lapis, and jelly
There were fruit tarts, opera, eclairs, chocolate cakes and swiss rolls too

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The prawns were juicy and pretty fresh.
The legs of the crabs were hard to tackle but were pretty good.
The highlight has gotta be the lobsters which were fleshy and juicy
The clams and mussels didn't taste very fresh
The scallops were alright
The norwegian salmon was pretty delicious

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The sashimi were refilled quickly and were generally quite fresh.
The cold cuts were alright. The taste of the spices were overpowering

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Chefs went around tables passing certain items which were not available on display to us personally. This hotdog was quite good!

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Pasta which was creamy and delectable.
The fish was cooked in an earl-grey infused sauce which was pretty interesting.
I felt that the seafood pudding was pretty unique but wasn't very tasty.

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Sashimi again

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Laksa, which I barely touched

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Nothing really impressive.

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One of my favourite sections was actually the bread section which boasted a few types of bread, along with butter or garlic butter. I ate a few of them hahaha the garlic butter was yummy! And as you can see, we made chocolate bread haha.

The hollow puffs were a disappointment. They were like "lao-hong"

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Marshmallows and fruits drizzled in chocolate.
The selection of fruits ran out but were not re-filled

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The chocolate cakes were good! The opera was not too bad and the eclairs were alright too.

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I asked for a cup of milk tea but they told me that that's chargeable so they offered me tea with milk.

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Icecream with nuts and fruits

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Gummies

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My friends felt that the selection was pretty limited. And they were disappointed at the absence of oysters. Some of the dishes on display were refilled promptly but most of them were not. For example, the black pepper chilli crab container was always empty and I did not even get to see one crab. And we did not have the opportunity to try that too. But I guess, given what we pay, $38 per pax, we can't really complain much. And also maybe because this buffet is kinda a fusion one, so several of the items were not as appealing. The quality of the food was generally alright. Service was good and the staff were friendly. I doubt we'd be returning anytime soon though

Traders Hotel, Level 1
Daily: 6.30am–10.30am, 12pm–2.30pm, 6.30pm–10pm

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Love, K

K's rating of Cafebiz: 6/10