Hype Hunting

If you love your tarts crumbly, buttery and comforting, give the handcrafted tarts here a try!

We found that the taste and texture of the tart was great on its own, but the buttery taste got a bit too heaty/jelak after a while, even though we were sharing it between two.

Luckily, we decided to go for the Earl Grey Tie Guan Yin (+$0.70 for this premium flavour) gelato, which was refreshing and helped to cut through the 'heatiness' of the tart and balance it out. Though the Tie Guan Yin flavor wasn't very prominent, the gelato still had a light tea flavor that cleansed the palate very nicely.

The tart and gelato was served with a cloud of cotton-candy like sugar crystals and a smear of white chocolate, which didn't actually add to the flavor, but it made the dish really pretty.

This ice cream cafe is tucked away in a housing estate, but located pretty near the main road and bus stop, so it wasn't too difficult to find. The cafe has power outlets, spacious tables and benches (no spindly tiny tables or chairs, hallelujah), comfortable lighting and great ventilation - a really comfortable place to chill out for the afternoon.

2 Scoops for $6.70, Premium Flavors +$0.80

Back here again to try their new Dark Chocolate Sorbet flavor. Did you know that 'sorbet' means made without milk?

I usually prefer dark chocolate over milk chocolate, so the chocolate flavors offered at most ice cream places are usually too sweet for my liking. This however, hit the right spot. It was rich and chocolatey, with a bitter edge, but there was enough sweetness to balance things out.

The Earl Grey Lavender had a strong tea fragrance, and was delightfully creamy. None of that 'siap' aftertaste that some earl grey desserts have. Just pure bliss.

Ice Cream Shack often has really innovative flavors, and what I appreciate most is how their ice creams truly taste like the flavors that they claim to be. (Their Mai Pian flavour from a while back seriously tasted like the cereal from Cereal Prawns, and it was awesome.) The texture is also always on point - creamy, thick and smooth, never icy.

Catch the flavors while they're still available!

Hopped onto the Salted Egg craze and gave the Golden Lava Cheese Tart a try. The golden lava filling inside, unfortunately, was a huge disappointment. It was 20% salted yolk and 80% oil! At first bite, the oil came pouring out. I thought it was a dud, but friend's tart had the same issue. Not too sure if something simply went wrong with that particular batch. The tart crust was also a forgettable generic tart with little flavour. It's sole merit was that it was decently sturdy and held its structure as we bit into the tart.

The saving grace came in the cheese filling, which was creamy and flavourful without being overpowering. Customers are advised to try the tarts at various different temperatures for different texture experiences. I had mine at room temperature, so the cheese was delightfully smooth, somewhat similar to a custard like consistency.

At $2 a pop, and given its smaller size, I'd say that the Prima Deli version would be a much more satisfying deal.

However, I wouldn't mind giving the original cheese flavour a try - their golden lava filling was terrible, but the cheese won me over.

We ordered a feast of Zha Jiang Mian, Pumpkin Pancake, Red Bean Pancake, Pot Stickers, Steamed Dumplings and Xiao Long Bao (炸酱面，南瓜饼，红豆饼，锅贴，蒸水饺，小笼包) and it only cost us $32 in total!
The dumplings were great - juicy with loads of filling, moist skin that wasn't too thick. The red bean pancake had a good amount of filling and the sesame seeds on it was a great touch. the zha jiang mian noodles had a good texture, and the sauce was balanced and flavourful.
The only disappointing dish was the pumpkin pancake, which was too gelatinous for our liking. Its texture and taste was very similar to nian gao (年糕) and it was unfortunately lacking in pumpkin flavour.