Meatballs penne

[[of vanilla therapy]]

I love it when the smell of vanilla fills the kitchen as I bring out the freshly baked cookies. The smell is just so lovely. It sends me to heaven and back! No kidding.

How I wish I could store this sweet, richly fragrant aroma into little airtight jars and open them when I'm feeling down. I'm pretty sure that I'll be back to a happy state. Vanilla is my latest addiction.

I still can't decide if soft vanilla cookies taste better or crispy ones. Baked 2 batches to test it out; one was left to browned slighter longer.
Did a poll and it's still a draw! Sigh. Shall start polling more pple.

Fresh from the oven

Vanilla cookies

[[Of more sweets]]

Desserts at Canele with my sis n SY. We had ramen at Miharu. It's becoming my favourite place, really. I tried the Tokusen Ton shio ramen this time. It's a pork-based flavoured stock which is slightly milky. The flavours are not as intense as the one that I tried the last time. After that, we took a short walk down to Canele. How could we resist the desserts there?It was my sis's first trip to Canele and she was wowed by the pretty displays of desserts.

The winner of tonight: Matcha

In the end, she decided to get Jupiter which I tried the last time.(see my previous post)
SY ordered the Matcha which is really an interesting flavour. There are three layers: the first is the Matcha mascapone cream, the next is a chestnut cream and there is a biscuit crumble bottom. It wasnt too heavy so I really like its flavour.

Tiramisu

I ordered the Tiramisu. Boring dessert. But I didnt know what else to order. The tiramisu was not bad. But not the best that I've tried. There was hardly any taste of liquor. But the espresso soaked biscuit(the two brown layers shown in the picture) was really richly coffee-flavoured. Our theory was that the richness of the espresso masked the liquor flavour. However, the mascapone cheese was smooth and it was overall a more than okay dessert. I found it too rich to be eaten on its own though.

Japanese potato salad: cucumebers, tomatoes, potatoes, bratswurst sausage, bonito flakes, almonds, green apples with lemon and olive oil dressing.

Chicken kare rice, seaweed soup, and part of our efforts to decor our food

See the "lemon-skin" flower in the centre: cut and twirled by J

The plate that I've been eyeing for a long time. Finally bought it!!

I was rather absent-minded yesterday. Or rather, I was rushing for time and I started to melt the butter with the chocolate as how I would do if I bake brownies! how silly.

Anyway, here's the recipe for the double chocolate cookies.

Double Chocolate Cookies (makes 16)

120g dark chocolate, chopped

110g unsalted butter, softened

3/4 cup brown sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup all purpose flour, sifted

1/4 cup cocoa powder, sifted

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

125g dark chocolate, extra, roughly chopped

1) Preheat the oven to 160 degrees C. Place the chocolate in a heatproof bowl under a saucepan of simmering water and stir until chocolate is melted and smooth. Set aside.

2) Place the butter and sugar in a bowl and beat for 8-10minutes or until light and creamy. Add the egg and vanilla and beat for 3-4 minutes. Stir in the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, salt and the melted chocolate

3) Add the extra chopped chocolate and stir in to combine

4) Roll tablesppoon of mixture into rounds and placed on baking trays lined iwth baking paper. Bake fpr 10-12 minutes or until slight cracks have formed.

5) Cool on wire racks before serving.

****

For a casual dining experience, go to En, at Mohammad Sultan Road.

It's a casual japanese bar and restaurant. We went there for a quick meal yesterday. The unakyu sushi(unagi with cucumber and tamago was really nice. The unagi was drenched with sweet sauce and was still warm. The tamago was just the right sweetness with the layers nicely done.

I had the salmon don. Really light and refreshing. Rice was lightly vinegred and the salmon slices with salmon roe was what i needed to perk up my night.

Would definitely pop on by to try their other stuff.

Jap lanterns in pepsi colours!

Unakyu sushi

Taco rice: basically its a very simple dish of bolognese like beef with rice.

After our bowl of ramen, J was contemplating having the second one. Goodness. But we decided to save our stomachs for our favourite dessert place: Canele Patisserie.

I only intend to get a cake to share. But everytime I step into this place, I know I can't resist the urge of trying out more cakes. Hence, we ordered Jupiter and Cafe Noix. This place beats The Chocolate Factory anytime.

Look at Jupiter: It's absolutely gorgeous. It really does live to its name with its dome shaped chocolate "cover". The fudge with infused with some kind of fruit liquer(i think) and you can't deny the quality of the chocolate used. The inside is a mix of passionfruit, almonds and of course, more chocolate. This is one where the taste is even better than it looks.

The cafe noix was not bad. Rich and aromatic coffee was used to flavour the cream. There are namely 3 layers: the first is the coffee cream, the next is chocolate sponge cake and the last is nougatine.I much prefer the Le Royale that I had last time because I'm just not a big fan of cream- in any form.

Jupiter

Cafe Noix

After our desserts, we walked around MS but we couldnt find The Patissier( the one which SY wrote about on her blog). So after walking around and picking out the restaurants that we would like to try the next time, we headed to Wine Hut to chill. =)

What a satisfying day!

I can't wait for more ramen and dessert days.