Chin Mee Chin Confectionery

Probably the last of its kind left in Singapore, Chin Mee Chin Confectionery or CMC as it is popularly called in Katong is a old style Hainanese coffee shop serving beverages and bread served the traditional way.

 

Inside the 2 old style glass cabinets are trays of freshly baked buns

Authentic custard tarts.

And custard buns. These are good. Soft and the custard literally oozes out.

And they sell kaya too. Sickeningly sweet kaya. Damn shiok but don't eat too much though. Its really really sweet.

Its most famous item has to be the butter kaya bun where instead of the usual 2 slice of white or brown bread, the kaya and butter is spread onto a sweet bun.

And we not talking of a small thin slice of butter either. It is a thick thick slice right on top of the kaya which is spread on both sides of the bun. Yummy.

Another hot favourite of theirs is the lucheon meat bun but it was not available on this occasion.

Go try it if you in the area. Before the old owner retires and the shop makes way for another new style coffee joint.

Street Food of Tokyo

Tokyo was not some place where we expected to find street food but we did came across some gems.

Like while stumbling around in Shunjuku one night, we found this back alley where there were a whole lot of small little outlet selling Yakitori and noodles. These are really small outlet like this one here which can only seat at most 6 persons in front of the counter.

There were a few variety of skewered meat wrapped over different sort of vegetables and mushroom.

 

Nothing really spectacular about the food except for the below bowl of curry like food filled with what I believes are the left over from the making of the Yakitori. This was really good. 

Just a short walk away from the above was a soba stall which had a perpetual queue. One reason for the queue was that the place can only sit 8 persons so everybody wait their turn for some one to finish, sit down, order and gulp down the gigantic bowl of noodle and then goes off. 

  

Of course, we being food loving Singaporean, we got to join the queue and wolf down the bowl of noodle despite us just finishing the Yakitori. By the way, the bowl of noodle only cost Y300!

Just before our hotel, there was this little mobile truck selling Sweet Potato. M bought 2 to try. She said they are very soft. I think they have been cooked to death!

At Asakusa, there were stalls after stalls of snack food. Most time we don't know what they are but that did not stop us from buying everything that looks good which practically mean every stall.

Some sort of pastry which comes in different flavours like green tea and strawberry.

This store had the longest queue

 And the Princess with their produce - a huge polo bun

 Master chef making some sort of hot dog.

And M enjoying it

Another Chef doing something else

And that me with the result.

Not really a lot of street food but what was available was good although I think they are not too healthy. But heck, I will have regretted it forever if I didn't try any of them!

Mooncake Index 2012

Somehow I missed compiling last year's mooncake index. What happened? I can't seem to remember why.

Anyway, this year economy is supposed to be better which usually means that come this time of the year I will get a lot of moon cakes from vendors but interestingly, this year the number actually drop.  Maybe it is really a sign of the good time since I didn't get a single box from any of the auction house cos I haven't given them any properties to auction for the past years.

So what I got are from the media owners and vendors hoping to get a slice of the advertisement pie of the company. Hmmmm is that bribery? Anyway, to play safe, everybody get to eat the mooncakes. I think it is good that the Mooncake festival last only 15 days otherwise everybody in the office will have increased cholesterol after stuffing themselves silly with all the mooncakes being passed around.

Shangri la Hotel Shang Palace - Kumquat Orange Paste with Grand Marnier in Snowskin. Surprisingly my only box of non-traditional mooncake. Taste like sherbet. A bit fizzy. Very unusual.

Ritz Carlton – Traditional baked white lotus seed paste. My favourite because of the box it came with. Took home the box to use as a watch storage case.

Gim Tim group of restaurant– Something from a “real” chinese restaurant. Taste like the rest which was a bit disappointing as I had high hopes for it.
Sheraton Towers Li Bai – Traditional baked white lotus seed paste. Still one of the best

Raffles Hotel Royal China – No truffles infused mooncake this year from Raffles just the traditional lotus seed paste. So sad. Luckily, another department got many boxes from a law firm and we had a truffle party!





Pine Garden – Finally something different from a HDB bakery but one which is pretty well known for their cakes. This one came with 2 different type of mooncake. The normal lotus seed paste with salted egg yolk and the assorted nuts. The latter hearken back to the good old days of mooncake where mooncakes are either filled with yam paste or red beans or lotus seed with nuts and watermelon seeds. And it comes with the giver's name on it too! Wonder why they do it? I mean put their company's name on to items which can be eaten. Isn't that like asking people to eat up their company?







That's all. A disappointing 6 boxes but good for my cholesterol . By the way, there are limited pictures of the mooncake itself since my hands are too shaky to take close up with the camera phone. And no, it is not because I DIY often until hands become shaky!

Sunnyhills Pineapple Cake

Was reading the Sunday papers on Tuesday and came across this review of the Sunnyhills Pineapple cakes. Pineapple tart is something I must have during CNY and this year unfortunately my lobang for the Le Cafe golf ball pineapple tart is no more. So I was pretty keen to try this import from Taiwan until I saw that it was located at Raffles Arcade in Raffles Hotel which means it was going to be expensive and true enough it was going for 10 pcs for $25.00.

But somebody up there must like me a lot cos the next day back in the office, a box appear on my desk!

And in less than 10 minutes, 3 quarter of it was gone. Okay so I shared it with the colleagues but I still kept half for myself and I rationed myself to 1 pc per day.

This pineapple cake is very international. The pineapple and eggs are from Taiwan, the flour is from Japan and the butter from New Zealand. So how was it? It wasn't too bad but different from our local version. And 10 pieces for $25.00? Way too overpriced. I think we paying more for the packaging and air freight!

Mooncake Index 2011

It's that time of the year for the Mooncake Index, first stated in 2007. For the life of me, I can't remember why there wasn't one last year. Maybe I didn't get any moon cakes? Not very likely though.

Anyway, the MCI reflects the state of my expenditure and the business given out and the corresponding reactions to the business doled out. On this count, the year appears to be a good year for businesses despite a drop in ad spending.

The first one (actually 2 of them) was from Crystal Jade.

Among the early bird to arrive at my desk was everybody favourite, the Champagne Truffles Mooncake from Raffles Hotel.

Father's Day Cake

The Princess baked this Coffee cake for Father's day. 

Chocolate Overload!

What more can a chocolate craving mad guy ask for? Imagine a full fudge chocolate cake with Kit Kat around its side and M&M as toppings. It's enough to make a grown man weep!

And I gonna weep cos it was in my house and I didn't even get to touch it:(. The Princess made this absolutely beautiful looking cake for a friend's birthday and I got no share in it! What the *^$$)))&%. Excuse me while I go comfort myself with my Kinder Buenos.

The Princess' Creation

The Princess latest creation:

First a layer of butter cake

Next top it up with cream and strawberries

Add more layer on top

Of course must have the chocolate

And finally throw on more strawberries and volia:

Of course, the proof of the pudding er cake is in the eating, and in this case, speaking from a strictly biased point of view, can pass lah. Not exactly "Awfully Choc" or even Temptation standard but certainly can match up to those of the neighbourhood confectionery.

Presenting the Princess' Collections

The Princess has continued with her now almost weekly baking and these are the output. (Proud father must show off a bit leh....)

Shepherd Pie. We finished it all off so it passed the test

This one dunno what it is. A bit like a biscuit with chocolate inside. Smell nice but a bit too dry and hard

Another chocolate creation. Both of us love chocolate so she uses a lot of them in her baking. This is a bread with chocolate filling. I think it is called a chocolate swirl bread or something like that. Passed. Finished it off during breakfast the next day

Her contribution for Chinese New Year ~ Cornflakes cookie. This got can sell standard!

This so cute. I think got white chocolate and marshmallows or something. Sweet, crisps. Nice 

This one very plain looking but one of the best. Lemon biscuit or cookie 

My favourite type of food ~ muffin. Still  no muffin top but nevermind taste good more important.

I think this is some sort of chocolate brownie. Bit chewy. Not exactly my cup of tea though.

And last but not least, something which I had a hand in, White chocolate cookies. Guess what role I played in bringing it to fruition?