San Gimignano

This post should be instead titled "Do You Know The Way to San Gimignano" because that was exactly the phrase ringing in our minds (albeit with a more Spanish-American twist) as we were heading to San Gimignano by bus. Our journey started out innocently enough - we got on the public bus at Florence, and were told to change buses at Poggibonsi and look for the bus to San G "right across the road". WELL. We must have had the best luck to run into Florence's Most Perverse Bus Driver ever, who dropped us off at the side of a Poggibonsi highway in the middle of nowhere, telling us the bus to San G would come soon. It was the middle of the day, and there we were, 2 lost Asians, smack in the middle of rural Tuscan countryside without a single taxi or bus in sight. Thank God, he sent us a random stranger who "just happened to be passing by" (in the middle of whoop whoop), who walked us 1km to the Poggibonsi train station. And we made the bus, with 5 mins to spare to buy a ticket from the tabacchi at the train station.

The bus ride to San G was a beautiful one (and no, the bus did not pass by that random highway where we were agonising over what to do), and we slowly started to appreciate the scenery after we got over our anger at the earlier mentioned bus driver, and realising our rescue was pretty miraculous. The view of the city, when we got there, was even better.

Another view of the towers from one of the piazzas inside the town - about a dozen or so have been preserved, and it must have been amazing to see the city in its heyday in the 12th and 13th centuries when the entire skyline must have been dotted with towers.

Olive trees galore

Gorgeous Tuscan countryside.

Church of Sant'Agostino - featuring the life of St Augustine.

View of the towers from the Rocca, a fortress-like structure on a hilltop at one end of the town

Random side street

Sitting in the main square, Piazza della Cisterna, named for its well in the middle.

 View of the towers from the square

Amazingly, the entire square was filled with people eating gelato. Being intelligent Asians, we went for the one with the longest queue.

There were too many flavours to choose from, so I decided to let the husband decide.

This had to be the BEST gelato of our entire trip. It was creamy. It was rich. It was intensely flavourful. And it was reasonably priced. I can't recall what he got, but I think there was a nocciola, tiramisu and something else.

It was so good, we went back for another round! All fruit flavours this time - mixed berry, lemon and something else. The lemon was AMAZING.

If you're ever there, you know which shop to look for. And you can say you read about it here, on the Hungry Greedy Hippo.

Just found the website of the shop! http://www.gelateriadipiazza.com/english/master-gelato-maker.html

And that's it for Italy, over and out.

Sweet Box Crepes at Harajuku, Tokyo

We were walking along Omotesando when we saw a mother and her children sitting on the railings at the side of the road eating crepes which looked super delicious. We were already near the top of the slope, just opposite Harajuku station, and despite darting in to every small shop, were unable to find a crepe stall. So we decided to head to Meiji Shrine first, and to find the crepes after.

We crossed back, and decided to walk further up the road opposite the train station. We saw many people eating crepes along the way, and got more and more frustrated. After seeing a very crowded alley, we decided to head in and lo and behold, the crepe stall was there.

The queue started from the staircase leading to the basement of the building.

The menu's on the wall as you slowly make your way to the top

Their plastic stuff looks good enough to eat

We ordered one crepe each, and spent about S$15 on both.

The husband had a chocolate banana crepe.

While I had a chocolate, strawberry and vanilla ice cream crepe. I liked mine better.

The crepes were soft and chewy, done to perfection. Japanese fresh cream is always amazing, and under any other circumstances we would have removed the creme. The only draw back is that there's really nowhere to sit and eat, so we stood in a small alley across the shop.

The crepe stall is in a small alley opposite the Harajuku JR Station. As you turn in, it's on the right. They even have a sunnypages listing! http://www.sunnypages.jp/travel_guide/tokyo_restaurants/japanese_sweets_cafes/Sweet+Box/3680

Wimbly Lu at Jalan Riang

I tried Wimbly Lu out with a bunch of friends on a Friday night, and found the place surprisingly pleasant - it felt like a laid back suburban Melbourne cafe, and we really enjoyed the desserts.

I had a crepe with rum and raisin ice cream and caramel sauce- it was slightly too sweet but the crepe was quite well done.
The molten lava cake was brilliant with a coffee

I didn't try the chocolate cheesecake, which a friend ordered.

No idea what the cake was (orange?), and this is what the tiramisu looked like. Didn't try either, just posting the pictures for fun.

Address: 15-2 Jalan Riang
Tel: 62891489

Tea at Antoinette

I've never been a huge fan of Canele, but I like it generally and I'm sure most of their stuff is pretty good.

Antoinette has opened up at The Scarlet Hotel near the office and we went there last week after work for a post-work afternoon tea. The strawberry shortcake was enjoyable, although pretty expensive at $8 per serve.

Eton Mess at Oriole

The husband and I love the coffee at Oriole, except that we're finding it a little difficult to tolerate coffees at night at our age. Apart from the coffee, they've also got a really good dessert -their Eton Mess is the only dessert that I'll eat with lots of whipped cream. I don't know how it's made but it seems pretty easy though - meringues with whipped cream, raspberry sauce, and strawberries. It's good enough to keep me going back.

http://www.oriolecoffee.com/

Wittamer, Brussels

Brussels is synonymous with beer, mussels, fries and chocolate - while the first 2 appeal to me more, the last 2 appeal more to my husband. So on our first evening in Brussels, we went to Wittamer for a pre-dinner drink of hot chocolate, which my husband had been craving ever since our last trip there. I recently discovered macarons (yes rather late I know) and was dying to try their macarons, which came in a box of 5 for 7 Euros.

These were lovely, with a light crisp outer shell and soft fluffy interior. Almost too pretty to eat.

The husband had an ice cream sundae named a Dame Blanche ou Noir, which had scoops of vanilla and chocolate ice cream covered in chocolate sauce. Unbelievably rich and sweet and pleasurable.

Their hot chocolate was like heaven in a cup - the first sip brought to mind memories of the chocolate waterfall in the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory story; rich, sweet, full of warmth and goodness.

This was just the beginning of a gastronomically fantastic 4 days in Brussels. More posts to come!

Macarons from Artisan Sweets

This is a belated post, but the macarons were so good that I could not not blog about them. They were given to us for Christmas by friends who know us well - that when in doubt about what to get us, food usually is the answer.

I loved the design of the box. And it was lovely opening it up to find brightly coloured macarons below.

So pretty it took a bit of time to bring ourselves to eat them. We've never been die hard macaron fans, and would normally never venture to Marmalade Pantry or Canele to buy them. So this was a very pleasant introduction to the dark side - it really got us hooked.

Even comes with its own legend so you know what you're eating

We carefully sliced every macaron into half so that we could try every single one. The macarons were extremely light, crispy and not too sweet. Lovely with a hot cup of tea.

Prior to 2 weeks ago, all I knew about Artisan Sweets was that it was the shop that my friend had bought the macarons from, and that I would go back there to get macarons if I was going to buy any at all. As it turned out, we happened to be randomly seated next to the baker-owner of Artisan Sweets at a friend's wedding, and after we started chatting we were extremely surprised but delighted to have finally met the genius behind these amazing macarons. For a while I could not stop gushing over how good they were - it was rather embarrassing - but she and her husband appear to be a lovely couple who are most sincere and genuine about producing top quality desserts.

They're at 32 Holland Grove Road, Henry Park Apartments. Tel: 64686700, closed Sundays.

Bakerzin Dessert Platter

I thought the dessert platter at Bakerzin was really good value - $22 got us a warm chocolate cake with ice cream on top, 2 scoops of ice cream, a waffle, 4 macarons and another cake which left us absolutely stuffed. And Bakerzin's desserts are all top quality. Highly recommended : )

Saturday afternoon eating

The husband and I spent the whole of Saturday afternoon eating. Our first stop was Margaret Drive hawker centre. It's a bit strange to go to Queenstown now, especially with the former town centre being so quiet and having lots of open spaces around, but it has a great laid-back feel. If only parking wasn't so difficult. We went there because (A), we wanted a cheap lunch; (B) we were in the area anyway and (C) I was craving chicken rice. The husband initially wanted to go to Holland V. I managed to talk him out of it, having just left the area with no less than 5 cars waiting for my parking lot at 10.30am.

I love the chicken rice shop on the second storey at stall no. 02-548. It's always crowded on weekends.

Practically everyone else sitting around us ordered the steamed chicken. Being too smart for my own good, I decided to order the roast chicken. This set cost me $4.50.

The roast chicken meat was good, but slightly dry. I should have gone for the steamed chicken instead.

The rice was really good. Soft, fluffy, and tasty, and not too oily.

The poor husband decided to deviate from the plan, and went to order beef brisket hor fun from a nearby shop (which shall remain unnamed). The beef was good, but the rice noodles were pathetically limp and tasteless. It was like eating flour strips.
After that, it was off to Sushi Tei at the old Big Splash to join my sister and her family for their lunch. We had a few more things to eat....the niece had a california hand roll.

The nephew had a sukiyaki set, which he ate about a third of. The husband and I helped to polish off the rest.

The husband ordered edamame. Would have been better with beer instead of tea.

The niece had tempura and dobin mushi (not pictured).

The husband and I shared a sashimi salad. I love Sushi Tei's sashimi salad. The raw seafood (consisting of sake, maguro, ika, tako and akagai) is always fresh, and they're generous with it too.

A closer look at all the sashimi off cuts.

Salmon skin. Goes with mayonnaise and lemon.

We mucked around for an hour playing minigolf, after which it was time for dessert. The nephew ordered a mango mochi.

The husband and I shared this durian with gula melaka dessert...it came on top of shaved ice....

...And we also shared an almond cream.

I didn't manage to take pictures at the family dinner we had soon after with my inlaws, consisting of braised duck, char siew, roast pork, steamed chicken, beef rendang, mee siam, mee goreng, with potong ice cream after.