Cliff(y) Goes Dining

Virgin experience with cheesy hot cross buns! Blessed Easter Sunday! It's a cherished tradition of mine to indulge in hot cross buns for the occasion every year. This year, I bought some from Marks & Spencer, a British multinational retailer founded by Michael Marks and Thomas Spencer in 1884. Also included in this blog post are a few other treats from the store.

No beavers are harmed in the making! Fancy some deep-fried dough pastries that are individually hand-stretched to resemble the tails of beavers? BeaverTails is a Canadian chain that originated in Killaloe in 1978, and established its first permanent store in Ottawa in 1981. Since then, it's expanded to six countries, including the USA, the UAE, Mexico, France and Japan at the point of writing.

Not a fan of the local 'chee cheong fun', but the ice cream was good! I shall take the opportunity to write about something local today. Singapore celebrated its 55th birthday on 9 August 2020. In conjunction with our National Day, an ice cream stall named Butterknife Folk, which has been around since 2016, is offering a total of 43 local flavours for the entire month of August.

A scoop of something quintessentially Finnish! Pardon me for not being as active in updating my food blog these days as I've been quite busy recently, not to mention that I was sick for a few days. I've also been trying to churn out more posts to catch up on my  travel blog . Anyway, let's take a look at two flavours of Ingman ice cream from a kiosk at Kauppatori (lit. Market Square) in Helsinki, Finland.

A sweet Czechian treat in Tbilisi! Still in Old Tbilisi, Georgia, I was so excited upon seeing a stall selling chimney cake. The alluring aroma pf the spit cake by Mr. Lumier from Czechia was too difficult to resist, so I dragged my BFF to share the calories.

Aromtic, smooth and silky tofu pudding for 'yu' and me~ :P Fans of almond milk shouldn't skip this particular hole-in-the-wall shop near Ximen Station in the capital city of Taiwan. Established in 2004, Yu's Almond Tofu has been whipping up a variety of dessert items loved by many.

Would you like some chocolate sauce on your tofu pudding? :P To end off this current series of reviews of HK eateries, let's go back to Victoria Peak. An attractive-looking shop at the entrance of The Peak Tower, Mimi Desserts offers an array of traditional and modern beverages, as well as dessert items for the sweet tooth. Anyway, does the Chinese name of the shop remind you of that old song by Teresa Teng?

A gamble of flavours in your 'muah chee'! Somewhere along the bustling Petaling Street in the capital city of Malaysia, an old lady by the name of Madam Tang has been selling muah chee (Chinese glutinous rice cake coated with ground peanuts) for many years. It's said that she managed to fend off three different competitors at the heart of the Chinatown over the years.

"Born in America, raised in Okinawa" :) What a catchy slogan, don't you think? The history of Blue Seal can be traced back to 1948 as a factory to supply dairy products for the US military personnel stationed in Okinawa, Japan at that time. It is now a famous ice cream chain that can practically be found everywhere throughout Okinawa.

Baklava, glorious baklava galore~ After the relaxing dinner at Nostra Casa , there was just one more place that we had to visit without fail. Karakoy Gulluoglu specialises in the quintessential Turkish baklava , a type of pastry made of layers of filo and sweetened with simple syrup or the likes. A must-go place in Istanbul, Turkey, it's been in business since 1820, close to 200 years at the point of writing.

Cool, refreshing Turkish ice cream near Hagia Sophia! It's time to talk about the food I had in Istanbul, Turkey. Let's start with something chewy, elastic and thick. These are the three adjectives that I can think to describe Turkish ice cream, known as dondurma (lit. freezing) in its country of origin. Not far from the famous Hagia Sophia is a stall serving such a delicacy of various flavours.

Red velvet and pandan churros! One year has passed since I had my first bite of  Ramly Burger @ Geylang Serai Pasar Malam 2014  during the Ramadan season. This year, Bakes & Crafts has decided to set up a stall, whipping up the crowd with unusual churros (Spanish deep-fried ridged snack).

Nice taiyaki stuffed with banana, cream cheese and custard! UPDATE (28/02/2016):  All the available branches have closed down. When I walked past Tai-Parfait's kiosk at Plaza Singapura, I was immediately reminded of the amazing taiyaki (Japanese sea bream-shaped cake) from Kogane Taiyaki (黄金鯛焼き) I had in Kyoto, Japan on the last day of 2013. My mouth was pretty itchy, so I decided to drag my friends to try one or two from Tai-Parfait, hoping to relive that magical moment on New Year's Eve.

Awesome mint chocolate chip ice cream to beat the hot weather! Today's short and sweet (pun intended) review is on an ice cream brand that many people often jokingly refer to as my own establishment, even though my surname isn't spelled that way. I'm not going to bore you with its history, but Andersen's Ice Cream first came to the shores of Singapore in 1989.

Green, pink and brown on top of a waffle! Marble Slab Creamery was founded in 1983 in Houston, the USA. Ever since its first arrival in 2009 in Singapore, I've always wanted to give it a try. It was only yesterday that I finally had the chance to visit one of the outlets at The Central, which is within walking distance from where I live.

A bowl of hot tofu pudding on the way to Yung Shue Wan!  After a what-I-considered-to-be-pretty-light lunch, we decided to walk back to Yung Shue Wan to catch a ferry back to the main island instead of trekking all the way to Sok Kwu Wan as my mom wouldn't be able to walk too far. On the way back, we stopped by a small shop with a shelter, specialising in dou hua  (Chinese silken tofu pudding).

Decadent rum and raisin  mille crêpe! Probably the most famous cakery chains in Melaka, Malaysia, Nadeje has been in operation since 2006. It's well-known for its intriguing variety of mille crêpe (French cake made of many layers).

Smooth and creamy coconut ice cream! In this sunny island of Singapore, ice cream is a year-round treat for many. Today, I'm going to write about a particular ice cream vendor, which history dates back to 1984. As a purveyor of premium ice cream, New Zealand Natural can be found in no less than 23 countries as of today.

"Even the Godfather loves it!" Be natural, nice and excellent. These are the three principles that have been guiding Marco Alfero, the owner who first opened his café at Marina Square in September 2011. I chanced upon one of the branches while I was wandering inside Orchard Gateway, one of the latest additions to the vibrancy of Singapore's shopping paradise.

Beat the hot weather with Mobile Softee! Prior to having that awesome skewered large intestines from Duo Bao Mei Shi (多寶美食 ) at Temple Street, I actually had had dinner at One Dim Sum . However, my stomach was easily emptied due to the long walk around Kowloon. As the Avenue of Stars was our final stop for the day, I couldn't help but drop by the Mobile Softee not too far away from Starbucks Coffee for an icy cold treat.