Life of Food (food to the power of Pi)

I'm pretty sick of all my customers talking bout Lana Cakes all the time. Seriously. On and on they yak bout it. It's really tiring on the ears, but a girl in service has gotta do what a girl in service gotta do. So pamper my poor ears with earrings. But back to Lana Cakes, during housewarming last year which coincided pretty much with my sister's birthday, mom ordered an orange cake from them. It looked pretty ok in that yellow gelatine covering and the cake was really nice and light, but it looked too much and tasted too much like a mango cake. However, I do have to say that the cake tasted very good and very different from the other mediocre cakes out there in the market. Lana is something I must say has made a mark in the Singaporean baking industry. But then again, because of its success, its cakes are at times much too overrated for my liking.
Today was a day-off for me. Finally. Work was really tiring yesterday and I didn't even get to sit down from the moment I opened shop so I was ready to relish this friday morning and afternoon and evening and midnight and arhhh..there goes friday. So I brought mom down to Greenwood Fish Market & Bistro. I'd already placed a reservation for 3 cos gramma came along too. (I know...it was my treat...ouch) It's one of my favourite restaurants, albeit a pricey one, because the fish is terribly fresh & juicy and what with the wide variety of seafood in the bistro in the market itself. The bistro is also decorated in a rather romantic fashion yet reminiscent of a by-the-sea fish&chips take out cafe-bar. What's really interesting bout the market is that they sell bottles of seasoning like salmon salt-rub, white truffle oil, etc. Anyhow, I had the house fish & chips and recommended the chargrilled barrumundi to my gramma cos it was what I ate the last time I went there. I'm a barrumundi fan if you don't know. :) And after that, when all was stuffed, I persevered and ordered a Valrhona Warm Chocolate Cake. The cake itself took 15min to be heated up and prepared and another 2-3min for its final touches. Photos of it are stuck in my handphone, my apologies. I applaud the chef because this was done beautifully. The cake was placed slightly off-centre atop a very artfully drizzled dark chocolate sauce. A humble scoop of vanilla ice cream with a strawberry atop it was also placed in close proximity to the cake and assembled above pieces of candied scribbles. The dish was also garnished with berries (the funny-looking gooseberry too) and dusted with a little icing sugar. This was served promptly so that the cake was still warm and molten, whilst the ice cream was still firm and unmelted. To me, the amount of time used to serve a customer and the way the plate is placed in front of you is really important. A dish can look perfect but if the serving is all wrong, there goes the dish down the drain. Anyway, presentation wise, it really hit a 9/10 for me and when my fork ate its way through the cake, the dark chocolate within did a sexy catwalk onto the plate. I loved every moment that I stuck my fork into my mouth. But in all honesty, I still have to hail Bakerzin for the best chocolate cake I've ever had the honour of tasting.

So after this food explosion, we walked into Lana for a quick peek. Nothing much really. Almost everything was out and what was left look pretty withered and pathetic. Mind my harshness. BUT! The California Date cake was hot from the oven and it looked absolutely lovely. Check it out. The fat walnuts and big-bad chocolate chips really blew me away and made my toes tingle. Mom was quite caught in the love-at-first-sight thing too and we walked out $17 poorer, not that we minded really. The cake is really pretty and because it was still hot, it exuded this really interesting smell. It smelt a little bit like waffles, hot chocolate sauce and butter but everytime you caught the aroma, it smelt a little different. Very interesting. The taste was a let-down though. It wasn't crusty or spongy as I thought it would be judging from the look of it, but more chewy and bouncy. It was pretty bland too and surprisingly salty and eggish. I'm not sure if I'm describing this right but in my opinion, it's a cake that you can have enough of once you've had a slice. It wouldn't leave a lasting memory in your mind other than the fact that it's prettiness blew you away - sort of like a cake bimbo i guess.

Next stop was a quick check-in at IKEA for supplies and thereafter back to Greenwood for an iced tea with syrup and a Kiwi Gelato SLUSH (which was down-right filling and utterly amazing) at Estivo. Will be wrapping up my day with a special udon dish for dinner (i've got a cooking license in this family), probably some bread for myself because i'm so stuffed I think my lungs can hardly operate themselves, and a quick tuck-in into my all-favourite AwfullyChocolate HEI ice cream over a few movies I just rented (Charlie & the Chocolate Factory, Brothers Grimm, Kingdom of Heaven). To those ignorant few out there, do buy back a pint of this ice cream. It's amazingly creamy, rich, yet not throat-assaulting. The dark chocolate creates a very intriguing flavour and balances the sweetness and milkiness of the ice cream, so much so that you feel it's more chocolatey than any other ice cream you've ever tasted yet not terribly special that you have to have an occassion for it. It's really just the perfect dinner companion, movie companion, and who knows what else.

So today was such a brilliant day, I'm all geared up for a challenging day at work tmr. All set to prep for the Biatch Fest at marche too (drinks all round. woohoo.) despite the fact that i spent monday night at marche with my ol' girlfriends. Check out the fried calamari (they're addictive) and fried soft shell crab with the special tartar sauce. You'd be stupid not to.