Blackflower Patisserie @ Haymarket

Blackflower patisserie is a new pastisserie, that is a side business with Passionflower (the ice creamery). It opened at the end of 2012, and still building a reputation. They offer an assortment sweet delights including macarons, cakes, biscuits, teas and coffee. All their desserts provide a combination of great flavours.

The pastisserie has a handful of tables which can seat roughly 20-30 people. There is a lovely display of macaron towers, cook books, and empty patron bottles. They have their blackflower bags as decoration for their cabinets, and shelves. A nice place to catch up with friends over some sweets and beverages. Each macaron costs $3.00, and the cakes are around $7-8 each. 

 Panda - Black Sesame

How cute are these macarons?! They were a limited edition macaron that they used for a club promotion. I loved how the other side of the macaron had a little tail. The black sesame was a great flavour, that wasn't too strong but still had the kick. It was almost too cute to eat.

Hamburger 

Another cute looking macaron, I thought it might actually taste like a hamburger but staff said otherwise. The inside contained a patty of chocolate ganache, cheese made of yellow hard icing, and tomato sauce using red icing. The sesames put on top of the macaron, made it look that more realistic. The ganache was smooth and helped counteract the taste of fondant (which I don't like, but others may).

Salted Caramel

This was the most subtle tasting salted caramel macaron I have ever tried. It didn't have the kick that most salted caramel macarons had, needed just a touch more saltyness.

Chocolate with cafe patron

When I saw this, I couldn't not buy it. The idea of chocolate with cafe patron is a combination I would have never considered. There was a perfect balance with chocolate, and you could definitely taste the patron. A great treat for those who always like a bit of alcohol in their desserts.

 Wasabi and white chocolate

I thought, that these two flavours would work, but it just wasn't right. I could taste too much of the wasabi, but the white chocolate did help a bit, just not enough. 

 

 Green tea and genmaicha

Genmaicha is the blend of brown rice with green tea, which adds a slightly roasted nutty taste. The macaron had a great taste of green tea, as other places have a stronger taste of vanilla or chocolate.

Envy - Japanese green tea, white chocolate and black sesame

All the cakes have very interesting names, such as pash, orgy, envy, hangover, and you can kinda get the gist of it. Going a long with the Asian inspired desserts, this was the best of all the dessert options. The layers of blacksesame, and green tea were amazing! The white chocolate added a bit more sweetness against the slightly bitter green tea.

 

Dessert of the day - Passionfruit and Lychee Bomb

This sounded delicious, looked great, and has one of my favourite flavours of passionfruit. However, for the first time the passionfruit flavour was too overpowering for me. It needed a bit of chocolate to help balance it out. The passionfruit overtook the flavour of the lychee as well.

  

Dessert of the day - Green tea and white chocolate treat

This was a little egg of joy. The bottom layer was white chocolate mousse, topped with a green tea ganache and garnished with coated cornflakes. It wasn't like anything I expected or ever tried before. The green tea ganache was the highlight of it, definitely something I will try to attempt one day.

Blackflower provides desserts that are filled with flavour. There are a lot of options, for those who love intense flavours, and for others who enjoy a bit more subtlety. 

Good food, good times!

Petaling Street Malaysian Hawker Food @ Haymarket

Malaysian is slowly making its way up in all dining experiences, in terms of popularity. Mamak in Haymarket, continues to have long lines but new restaurants are slowly emerging. Petaling Street tries to provide a first hand experience of Malaysian street food. I first tried Petaling Street with my family a few months ago, where we ordered enough just to knock us off the edge and waddle out of the store. This time around, I was having lunch with a friend, and made sure I didn't make the same mistake of over ordering. The main dishes range from $9-20, which I think it very reasonable!

Rose water based drink

What a lovely coloured drink, and extremely refreshing! The combination of rose water, grenadine, water and lime. I forgot the name of the drink, but I know it is a speciality at the restaurant! I just googled the names of the drinks that were on the menu and went with the one that sounded the most irresistible. Similar to an ice tea, but not as sweet. Perfect for a hot summers day or night.

Hainanese Chicken with rice and soup

A classic Malaysian dish that does not go wrong. The chicken was cooked perfectly and dressed with a soy based sauce. There was a side of cucumber, and two sauces which accompanied the chicken and rice perfectly. The soup that accompanied the dish had a strong flavour of onion, which was way too overwhelming for my liking.

Malaysian style crispy chicken and noodles

We all love crispy chicken, and the Malaysian style wasn't any different, where it still had a crispy skin. The noodles were stir fried with a brown sauce. The serving size was huge! Should definitely fill up anyone who is super hungry.

I have yet had the chance to go to Malaysia, but if the food is as good as Petaling St, then I am pretty sure I would be on a non-stop eating adventure of the streets of Malaysia.

Good food, good times!

Dan's House @ Haymarket

We all love a good meal deal, and one of my uni friends found a great one for Dan's House which is a Chinese Cuisine restaurant with a speciality in peking duck, and other duck based dishes. It is a new restaurant that has been open since Late April 2012. The deal allowed us to pick 2 entrées with peking duck as the main dish, and a dessert to share.

Sugar cane smoked duck breast with lychee and mango jelly

As soon as I saw this on the menu I wanted to try it, the idea of lychee and mango with duck sounded tantalising. The result, was good but not great. I found that the texture of the mango jelly was too hard, which didn't quite work with the soft duck. However, the lychee sauce with the duck and the cucumber worked extremely well. If the mango jelly was a bit softer, it would have made the dish great.

Sichuan numbing chicken with fresh fruit salad

Now this entrée was tasty! After doing some quick Google research, the term 'numbing' comes about due to the use of Sichuan pepper as an ingredient. The chicken was cooked with perfection, but the marinade is what made the dish. It had a perfect balance of sweetness and spice. That marinade could accompany any meat. The strange part of the dish was the fruit salad for 2 reasons, first we were unsure how to eat it with the dish, and secondly the fruit purée at the base. 

We ended up just blowing the fruit salad into our bowl and eating it with the chicken (which was a good result). However, the ingredient of the purée was difficult to figure out (I was supposed to ask the waiter, but I forgot too). It tasted like rock melon, but at the same time it didn't, and it had a slightly rough texture. We were both confused.

Peking duck with complimentary soup

Mmm peking duck. We both love peking duck, and this definitely hit the spot. No words can really describe how good peking is. In summary though, soft duck meat with a slightly crispy skin and vegetables all wrapped up results in a great main.

Chilled mango sago cream with pomelo and vanilla ice cream

When this dish came out I was actually unsure on how to eat it, lucky for me, my friend knew how. We split the sago cream into 2 portions, and dumped a spoonful of ice cream into each bowl. The sago cream had bits on mango, but the pomelo is what made the difference where it added the bitterness, resulting in a bittersweet dessert.

The overall dining experience was exceptional, where the wait staff reminded me of people you would see at Yum Cha. This means, that as soon as they saw any dirty plates on the table they would take it away.

Good food, good times!