Hey sweetie!

We had initially wanted to share the dairy free waffles but since it was near to closing and they ran out of the waffles, we picked the an-butter brioche for sharing instead.

An-butter, which is Japanese sweet red bean paste made from azuki beans (anko) blended with rich butter. It’s sweetness was just right to balance the umaminess of the matcha gelato, while the butter was pretty subtle. The brioche bun was, however, slightly dry. You could have a choice of the bun being served alongside a scoop of oatmilk or matcha°1 gelato.

The consolation of missing a good cup of matcha from Japan is finding something similar from @hvala_sg. Boasting a velvety texture, Yuki, an everyday premium grade matcha delivers a harmonious balance of umami and natural sweetness. The mellow flavor profile encompasses a pleasant bitterness that is neither overpowering nor sharp with medium astringency.

A suggested pairing would be the Goma Slice, where layers of goma (black sesame) sponge and cream imparted a rich, toasty note that danced on the palate. The sweetness of the cake was perfectly balanced, complementing the nutty essence without overwhelming it. Recommended for sharing.

Definitely not your usual ice cream sandwich. I can’t deny the fact that we ordered because it was an instagrammable dessert. Sandwiched between crispy biscuit that somewhat felt like taco shells, the lightly sweetened sour cream was a good complement to the cherries soaked in sake, where you get a fresh twist of different flavors on a traditional ice cream. Garnished with dried rose petals. Could come across as a rather floral dessert that not everyone might enjoy.

Ended the dinner off with one of the recommended desserts, Ondeh ondeh cake with young coconut ice cream. Sandwiched in between layers of the cake, I felt that there could be a little more Gula Melaka for the cake to be more moist. The young coconut ice cream that wasn’t overly sweet was served on the side with a sprinkle of peanuts.

Ended the lovely dinner off with one of the recommended desserts, Okinawa Black Sugar Poached Pear ($26). A unique combination of Candied Peach Gum, Red Date Powder and Longan Granita sprinkled on the sweet poached pear. Personally, it was more of an oriental style dessert with the use of nourishing ingredients such as peach gum, red date and longan. The contrast on textures from the granita to chewy peach gum and firm poached pear brightened up the dessert altogether.

The mango sticky rice, on the other hand, was an interesting rendition. Reconstructing the familiar mango sticky rice into caramelised mango (I would actually prefer the natural sweetness of the fruit itself instead of the caramelic sweetness), coconut “rice” crisps reminiscence of wafer biscuit and coconut sorbet. The use of sago beads here to replicate the sticky rice was unique and had a firmer texture.

To end off the dinner, we had both choices of the dessert. Durian lovers are in for a treat with this durian cheesecake, as it is created with Musang King Durian. A creamy rich layer of durian and cream cheese atop the crushed biscuit base, the dessert was enjoyable as it was a good balance of sweetness and pungency from the king of fruits, embellished with caramelised spun sugar shaped like a crown.

To end off the dinner, we were served each a chocolate tart embellished with some soya miso curd and black sesame seeds, paired with Hokkaido milk gelato and cereal flakes. While the dark chocolate filling was pretty smooth, the tart shell was a tad too dry and upon cutting, the tart shell was separated with the chocolate filling. The soya miso curd was interesting, although the taste of soya superseded that of miso, while the Hokkaido milk gelato paled in flavour. Overall taste of the dessert could have been better balanced.

Chanced upon the Herencia while in the area where we found KURA, and several other dining concepts under one roof. It was tough time trying to choose just 1 dessert to share because everything on display looked simply alluring. We asked for the best seller and yes, this was it; La Vie En Rose.

Aesthetically shaped, the tart comprises sea salt chocolate, dark chocolate and milk chocolate. The Rose itself looked like it was too creamy to handle, but it was so well whipped that the cream tasted pretty light. The combination of dark and milk chocolate was a good balance of bitterness and sweetness, while adding a touch of saltiness with the sea salt. What I enjoyed the most was the cacao nibs under the rose since it contributed some crunchiness to the overall texture.

We paired the tart with a cup of local yuan yang which was rich and reasonably priced at $1.50.

•HOSTED TASTING•

We ended off the dinner with 2 desserts; 1 being the brownie ice cream bomb which we were all expecting a lava to be oozing out from within. However, it was extremely hard to cut through as it was a frozen slab of brownie. Hidden within was a block of New Zealand vanilla bean ice cream. No doubt I enjoyed the sweet creamy vanilla bean ice cream and the fruits and crumble that came along, the texture of the brownie was probably not something I could appreciate.

Thank you @burpple for the invitation and @theassemblyground for the hosting! The Assembly Ground is a Burpple Beyond partner where you can also enjoy some awesome 1-for-1 main dish, brunch and waffle set deals.

Dewgather has indeed gathered pretty much crowd ever since their opening at Star Vista, with both indoor and outdoor seating. Spacious, bright thanks to its full length glass windows and an overall dusty pink interior.

Other than being instagrammable, I would not recommend getting the French Toast. Firstly it was only served an hour later although we asked to be served upon ordering and in between we have asked for it multiple times. No doubt it is aesthetically pleasing, the overall taste was merely sweet, without much depth. Served on a thick sliced brioche toast which was extremely dry. Thankfully, there was a scoop of crème anglaise ice cream, brown sugar crumble, crushed pistachio, berry compote to soak up the terribly dry brioche toast, before topping it off with candy floss and some edible flowers. If I were to ever return, I will probably just stick to the savoury mains.

I must say it’s a creative idea to inject some local-inspired flavours into their pizza range especially for a dessert pizza, however, there’s much room for improvement for the ondeh ondeh pizza. It is equally as thick and has the similar dry crust as the other range flavours, which feels like they are simply using the same mould across. Personally I thought that for such a sweetness overloaded pizza, it would have been better if the size was smaller and definitely worked better with a thin crust. The overall flavour was rather one dimensional, mainly with grated coconut drizzled heavily with gula melaka, such that the coconut ice cream was overpowered. Ended off quite jelak.