Thursday, February 25, 2010

Maison from Pâtisserie Glacé

Since 2008, Pâtisserie Glacé has been making a name for itself. Helmed by Master Chef Yamashita who hails from Nara, Japan, this Pâtisserie does not use baking powder, stabilisers, preservatives, or butter cream. As such, its cakes are naturally very soft.

Its Strawberry Shortcake was good. It is soft, fresh and not sweet at all.

Its Mont Blanc, made with chestnut paste from France and chestnut from Japan, was something one either like or don’t like. It was a bit of a disappointment for me as there wasn’t any distinctive taste. I wouldn’t know it was chestnut paste unless I was told.

Its Opera, almond sponge cake with coffee and chocolate filling, was rich but not too rich.

Its Baumkuchen, tasted like kueh lapis, minus the richness and fat of butter. Hence it is a good, healthy and unusual substitute for kueh lapis.


Its Masion, shaped like a house, has four different types of sponge cakes (vanilla, organic green tea, coffee and Belgian chocolate) with four different fresh creams. They complemented each other and one of the more unique and best cake I have tasted. My mum loves it. And that’s why I serve this to my Chinese New Year guests this year.


The Masion can be purchased as a single piece or comes in Half (for about 5 persons) or Whole (for about 10 persons) size cake.

Pâtisserie Glacé is located at Icon Village and opens from 11 am till 7 pm on weeknights or 6 pm on weekends and public holidays. Delivery service is available.

Chinese New Year Goodies

Pineapple tarts, love letters, kueh bangkit, kueh lapis, kok chai, and all sort of cookies – these are the usual CNY goodies you buy to eat and serve your guests. Imagine eating these at every place you visit and then at home and at the office – enough is enough even though this is just a yearly affair.

I started to buy less and less of these goodies each year because I don’t want to end up having so much of them left. I remembered one year I have four different types of pineapple tarts and three different types of love letters – some were bought by me whilst the others were given to me. It is usual for relatives and friends to give each other these goodies. When you visit each other you see the same kind of goodies and chances are you won’t be eating them as you have them at home or you are expecting more of these at other places you will be visiting.

Two years ago I decided to serve my guests non-traditional Chinese New Year goodies instead. Now I serve them chocolates, cakes and ice cream.


This year I have baton marechaux, raspberry snowball, and varieties of chocolates. I had bought different ice creams the last two years. This year I made orange sorbet and served them.

It is a challenge to come up with very good, a bit not so common and appropriate cake to serve each year. Appropriate because you don’t want the cake to be too heavy as your guests probably already had a fair share of the usual goodies and may be expecting more at the next home.

Hopefully this will make visiting my place less of a routine and more of expectation.

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Where to cut my hair?

Like most people, I prefer to go to my regular doctor, dentist, hairstylist and even grocer simply because they know my needs.

So when my regular hairstylist suffered a near-death incident, took almost half a year to recover and now decided to work on a free-lance basis operating from the late afternoon onwards, I had to find an alternative.

I decided to try those around my neighbourhood. Went into one salon and had a not bad haircut. And it only cost $12 (without wash and blow dry). More importantly I saved a lot of time – no need to travel to Orchard and stick to any appointed time. But unfortunately this salon stopped operating after my second haircut there. That meant I had to look for another salon. Fortunately, the new operator who took over the salon, opened within a week and the haircut was even better and cost only $8. This compared to the $22 to a high of $69, for just haircut, wash and blow dry, I had paid in Orchard area.

Now that I have so much less hair to cut, there is no need for layering and texturing and what-have-you, just a simple neat haircut will do. On my way home from work, I will pass by the salon. At that non-peak hour, if I see there is no one or just one person in the salon, I will drop in for my haircut. Really save a lot of time and convenience besides money.

The hairstylist recently asked me whether I wanted to colour my hair for the new lunar year. I don’t need to and furthermore I think I still have prejudice against neighbourhood salons not to entrust them with putting so much chemicals (must check what they are using) on whatever little hair that is left on me.

Now my mum goes there too.

Just hope there won’t be any change in operator or hairstylists.

Interesting Fact about February 2010

An interesting fact about February 2010 is that it has exactly:

4 Mondays,
4 Tuesdays,
4 Wednesdays,
4 Thursdays,
4 Fridays,
4 Saturdays, and
4 Sundays.

This happens only once every 11 years. The last time was in 2001 and the next will be in 2021.

Saturday, February 6, 2010

Tell Me Why by Declan Galbraith

This song, by Declan John Galbraith, was released on 9 December 2002, ten days before his 11th birthday.



In my dream, children sing
A song of love for every boy and girl
The sky is blue and fields are green
And laughter is the language of the world
Then I wake and all I see is a world full of people in need

Tell me why (why) does it have to be like this?
Tell me why (why) is there something I have missed?
Tell me why (why) cos’I don't understand
When so many need somebody
We don't give a helping hand
Tell me why?

Every day I ask myself
What will I have to do to be a man?
Do I have to stand and fight
To prove to everybody who I am?
Is that what my life is for
To waste in a world full of war?

Tell me why (why) does it have to be like this?
Tell me why (why) is there something I have missed?
Tell me why (why) cos’ I don't understand
When so many need somebody
We don't give a helping hand
Tell me why (tell me why)
Tell me why (tell me why)
Tell me why (tell me why)
Just tell me why (why, why, why)

Tell me why (why) does it have to be like this?
Tell me why (why) is there something I have missed?
Tell me why (why) cos’ I don't understand
When so many need somebody
We don't give a helping hand
Tell me why (why why, does the tiger run?)
Tell me why (why why, do we shoot the gun?)
Tell me why (why why, do we never learn?)
Can someone tell us why we let the forest burn?

(why why do we say we care?) tell me why
(why why do we stand and stare?) tell me why
(why why do the dolphins cry?) tell me why
Can someone tell us why we let the ocean die?

(why why if we’re all the same?) tell me why
(why why do we pass the blame?) tell me why
(why why does it never end?)
Can someone tell us why we cannot just be friends?

Why why?

To know more about him go here: Declan Galbraith Official Website