Joyus Pastries

A thousand apologies for such a long long absence! Been busy and haven't had time to blog but still determined to keep to it :D

In the spirit of the festive season, I decided to blog about my favouritest almond cookie which is available all year round but I try to restrict myself eat it to just during Chinese New Year -


The almond cookie from Joyus Pastries are absolutely... joyous! Ok, enough corniness... but this cookie is seriously "can't just stop at one" amazing. At nearly $10 it's not cheap but I feel it's worth every cent. I also have the tendency to drag it out for quite a while - am incredibly disciplined about not eating too many at one go. Erm, it's usually more than one but less than five :D

I used to buy it from a pushcart in Raffles Place but they now have a shop at the Tanjong Pagar MRT station. Heard the pineapple tarts are really good too so will try to make time to go and buy some soon...

Luxemburgerli

You're probably going - luxem what?? :)

I discovered these lovelies on my trip to Switzerland last December. I first saw them in Zurich, and despite being a big fan of anything vaguely meringue-ish, I was unwilling to buy them - they were not cheap! But I finally caved while I was in Lucerne and ate them while walking to the Dying Lion of Lucerne monument.

I went from one extreme to another - from not wanting to buy any to getting two of each flavour they had in the shop :D And they were as heavenly as I imagined...


Didn't take very long to finish them all despite me taking every effort to make the experience last as long as possible :) Unfortunately they don't travel well so I couldn't get hold of any - till now. Thanks so much, Stefan!

What exactly are luxemburgerli? Wikipedia describes it as something "similar to a small French macaron", meringue-like cookies. But the Luxemburgerli is very cutely bite-sized and is much lighter than a macaroon. You can only get them from Confiserie Sprüngli in Switzerland.

If you ever go to Switzerland, this is a definite must try (the other must try is Teuscher Champagne Truffles).

Confiserie Sprüngli
http://www.spruengli.ch/index.php

Mango Onde Onde from Hui Lau San

On a recent trip to Hong Kong, I discovered what I have since renamed Mango Onde Onde. Hui Lau San is a mango dessert place that I go to at least once every day when I'm in Hong Kong. Victor recommended that we try this new creation, and I have to admit I was really hesistant about it...


but it is heavenly.

I'm a huge mango fan, and I love onde onde (anything the same consistency as tangyuan, remember? :) so I totally fell in love with this. The filling is fresh mango puree and the kueh itself is also mango flavoured. I'm so going to have an insane amount of it the next time I'm in Hong Kong...

Thanks Jovie, for bringing this box back for me! :)

Tim Tam Creamy Truffle Temptation

I've always loved Tim Tams so when I saw the different varieties they had at Candy Empire, I just had to try at least one. So I ended up picking this one...

Finally caved and opened the packet yesterday... and I had to use all the willpower I had not to have more than one. It tastes exactly like my favourite chocolate candy, Twix, just a bigger version of it - chocolate biscuit with a layer of caramel, wrapped in a layer of milk chocolate.

Have to really hold back on eating this as I don't know if I want to go back to Candy Empire again... not to mention how many calories there is in just one little Tim Tam...

Additional note : I was told last nite that it's humanly impossible to eat more than three Tim Tams in a minute... anyone want to test that out? :)

Reese's Peanut Butter Cup

This is something I keep hearing about in movies and TV shows but never had the chance to try it. My sister got her friend to bring back some from the US so we finally got to try it :)

Talk about a sugar rush! Even for someone with a sweet tooth, this was mind-numbingly sweet... it's basically a milk chocolate cup with a peanut butter filling. It's not as good as the Peanut Butter Kit Kat, but definitely hits the spot when you have a sugar craving... for some reason, the peanut butter smell is really strong even though it's inside the chocolate.

Have a few more at home if anyone wants to try, but once my stash is gone, the only way to get more is to bug people travelling to the US to buy some back :)

Kit Kat Chunky Peanut Butter

Went to the Candy Empire at Vivo City recently and I was literally like a kid in a candy store. My sister could not resist buying this...

There's a layer of peanut butter in the Kit Kat and it's really good! I cannot get over how amazingly well peanut butter goes with chocolate. That's my new obsession... as you can tell from this and my next post :)

It costs $2.50 a bar at Candy Empire, but I suspect it's much cheaper when you buy it overseas.

I'm still undecided about patronising Candy Empire - they banned wheelchairs at their new outlet at Vivo City (read about it here). They have since apologised and now allow wheelchairs in their stall but I'm not quite ready to patronise them again...

Krispy Kreme!

I'm absolutely krazy about Krispy Kremes! :)

Once made a friend lug it all the way back from Sydney... Hand-carried a dozen myself from San Francisco last year... For that matter, I ate them every chance I got when I was in the US - fresh out the fryer, it's like eating air... absolutely yummy!

And my sister just came back from London yesterday with a dozen!! It's a good thing I got her to check if they could be hand-carried before she bought them - coz it turns out due to the recent security measures, you can't hand-carry them!! She saw people having to throw away boxes and boxes of Krispy Kremes... What a waste!

So she only bought a dozen Glazed ones and stuffed them in her luggage... that's why they look like this -

Erm, the half is because I could not help myself and ate half before I remembered to take the photo :) Also I don't have a microwave so can't heat it up for the 2 seconds that's recommended... so just took it out of the fridge, thawed it out for about 20 mins...

And finished it in about 2 seconds :P

Anyone who's going to HK, Korea, Sydney, London or US - go try Krispy Kremes! And while you're there, buy a dozen back for me!

Marks & Spencer Belgian White Chocolate Coated Blueberries

A new find!

Bought a packet when I was at Marks & Spencers over the weekend. Was looking for my favourite potato rings (which, by the way, has been out of stock for the past few weeks - argh!) when I saw this... White chocolate and blueberries sounded like an interesting combination so I thought I'll give this a try.

Here's what it really is - freeze-dried blueberries coated with white Belgian chocolate, dusted with blueberry powder. Ok, so freeze-dried blueberries doesn't sound very appetizing, but really it tastes very much like raisins. It's an interesting twist on your usual chocolate coated raisins.

It's a bit of a weird fake-looking purple colour (because of the blueberry powder dusting). But pop one tiny little piece in your mouth and I guarantee you will not be able to stop at just one :)

It costs $3.90 - not that cheap for such a small packet... but that just forces me to ration. So it works out perfectly for me - I don't eat too much so I don't put on too much weight, and I don't eat it up too fast so I don't spend ridiculous amounts of money buying more of it!