St Leaven 2

Here's more of what St Leaven have to offer...


Milk Toast

Now, this is something to die for.

Extremely easy to make, but the result is amazing. The whole toast do not have any dark/hard skin around it(like you find on many others). It's just plain soft bread, thick, toasted with a generous amout of sugar coating around it. This little fellow is so good, that I find myself buying another 2 after having the first one. It is extremely perfect for afternoon tea time, coffee and tea with it will send you to heaven and back!(The photo is extremely terribly badly horribly taken. So, please do not let the photo have you thinking "there's no way I am eating this thing..."

Jack's rating for St Leaven Milk Toast :




Potato Donut

This is strictly for potato lovers only.

It's a little dry inside and the mashed potato tasted a little blunt. I find myself struggling to have another bite, even UsagiKiller have challenges finishing it…

Imagine, dry mashed potato inside a bun…

Jack's rating for St Leaven Potato Donut :

Donut House

Donut House is located at the basement(food area) of Takashimaya Shopping Centre.

It have pretty good donuts on offer. I would usually hit that place on weekends(after visiting my favorite bookstore~Kinokuniya) to get some back for tea/coffee.

The 3 Donuts you see in the photo are the regulars that I will definitely get.

Clock-wise from bottom left : Strawberry Jam Doh.
The top is coated with cheese(Absolute perfect richness, not too thick not too thin), with Strawberry Jam in the middle. Once you bite into this fellow, you will reach the strawberry Jam and finish it so fast without even knowing it. You will just keep on eating away…and regret not enjoying it slowly…

Jack's Rating for Strawberry Jam Doh :



Strawberry Doh
The Strawberry coating is definitely delicious and to die for. BUT, the donut itself tasted a little to dry. So, make sure you have a good cup of tea/coffee when you are eating this sinful bastard. You will find yourself asking for water after about the second bite…

Jack's rating for Strawberry Doh :


Cheese Castard Doh
Cheese coating with custard filled interior. Once you sink your teeth into this one, you will taste the Cheese followed by the custard, from there, there's no turning back. The custard and cheese just compliments each other perfectly. It's one of my MUST HAVE whenever I visited this store.

Jack's Rating for Cheese Custard Doh :


Photo : Donuts from Donut House...(Duh!!)

St Leaven 1

There are some really decent bakeries in Singapore. So I will be going thru some of their offerings slowly but surely.

Please do remember that what they have for sale might differ from time to time, so dun be surprise if you do not find some of what I mentioned on their shelves.

Onion & Cheese Ham Roll


This is a typical Ham and Cheese roll. Well mixed of both ham and cheese taste and added crunch with the onions. Not too dry or too soggy. Just about right. Nothing exciting or innovative. A safe choice for filling hunger.

Jack's Rating for St Leaven's Onion & Cheese Ham Roll



Cheese Croissant


Now, this is good. The butter croissant with a touch of cheese on top of it. You can distinctively taste the cheese on top with the mixed of butter that the croissant gives. Not too dry, easy on the throat. I find myself finishing it in about 4 bites, just simply cannot stop putting it into the mouth! Hahaha! Good stuff.

Jack's rating for St Leaven's Cheese Croissant



Twin Wiener Roll


I have this love for sausages and the likes. So usually I will not past out any sausages bun/rolls available by most bakeries I visited. This one is pretty good. The Wiener is pork, so the taste is good, in comparison to many chicken sausage buns you find in the market. The size is kinda small, but I guess it's just right for many people.(Always too small for Jack!) Juicy enuff, definitely not dry like those available from some bakeries.

Jack's rating for St Leaven's Twin Wiener Roll

Missy Donut???

Is this the start of another stupid bubble trade in Singapore?

Remember "Bubble Tea", Roti Boy" etc??

From one and only original idea and store, people here just cash in on the idea and start their own trade in that area! All sorts of Bubble Tea chains, all sorts of relatives from Roti Boy(Uncles, Papa, mama etc etc). See what happens now? All gone. Even the original idea. All thanks to the copy cats in this little island.

There is a serious absence of proper Donut Brands in Singapore(Mister Donut, Krispy Kreme, Dunkin' Donut, Donut Plant etc etc these big boys are all missing…!!)..I mentioned earlier about Donut Factory, great job, great idea, great price.

Just over the weekend, I saw a new Donut Store opened for business.

In Bt Panjang. Called "Missy Donut".

My first thoughts was, here we go again! Spin off from the Donut factory idea. Then on the big sigboard infront of the store, it said proudly.."Recipe from Japan"…

A queue was steadily building up…

I stood there, took a good look at some of the donuts and the "Story", "History" of the store…

I was a little puzzled… It said that it's recipe is from Japan and since year 2000(I think)…yet I dun remember hearing about this brand before…Maybe I dun know Donuts well enough…so I gave it benefit of the doubt.

UsagiKiller was immediately 500% sure that it's a direct copy of Mister Donut from Japan and cashing in on the hot popularity of Donut Factory in Singapore. I was being nice(hardly myself) and said, "we should check and do some research first before accusing."

But, I was unable to find anything(history etc etc) about this shop…hmmm….(maybe they will "come up" with a history and story in a few months time…).

Couple of things, their pricing is almost identical to that of Donut factory, their 15 choice of Donuts looks familiar(uncanny)…this "Famous" Donut store decides to open in Bt Panjang??? Not Central or Orchard area??? Beats me…

You know what, I have yet to taste their products, but I am already kinda sure that this is the start of another bubble trade in Singapore. This trend is dangerous.

Get Original!!

Photo : Flyers from the new bubble trade company...

Kopitiam French Toast

This French Toast…

From "Kopitiam" foodcourt.

It's simply too oily, not sweet and looks unappetizing. The egg mixed for this toast obviously did not have enough sugar added. Even after getting the toast off the frying pan…it omits an obscene amount of oil and made the whole plate so so so greasy…

for a toast lover like UsagiKiller...she could not even finish one slice of it... yucks!

Jack definitely does better French Toast than this.

JackRatings for Kopitiam French Toast :

(This icon is a pile of SHIT on a piece of Toast. It's one of the worst ratings that Jack can give... This French Toast simply does not even deserve a Zero Croissant, It deserved Shit on toast!)

Starbucks Pastries

Starbucks is Jack's favorite coffee chain. Every week, a visit to anyone of it's many outlets is normal. Naturally, I would try some of it's pastries, some are really good, some sinful..some just plain bad... so here's my first take on some of the pastries...

1)Mango Cheese Cake
The look of this fellow just begs to be purchased and tried.

Basically, cheese cake, with Mango flavor. It's not too "cheesy" and thick, just about nice for the taste. However, the mango flavour could be a little stronger. 1 piece shared between 2 person is just nice.

JackRatings for Mango Cheese Cake :



2)Ugly Chicken Puff
It is indeed ugly. It's one of the ugliest "puff" I have came across.

When you cut it open, mixed pieces of chicken meat and potato greets you. The whole puff tasted dry, especially the chicken pieces. The taste is a little too blant for my "salty" taste. It's a big puff, thick crust, but inner beauty is lacking.

JackRatings for Ugly Chicken Puff :



3)Cinnamon Roll
This "snail" looking cinnamon rolls looks tempting, shinning and "smart" looking.

It's obviously tasted of Cinnamon(duh!), however, it's a little dry. Each bite will need to be accompanied with either coffee or tea. You will probably craving for drinks after eating this...

JackRatings for Cinnamon Roll :


Photo : (Clock-wise from left) Mango Cheesecake, Ugly Chicken Puff and Cinnamon Roll.

Donut Factory

Donuts.

This is THE obsession of Jack.

With the lack of proper Donut chains in Singapore, the only solitude I can get are from various independent/chain bakeries all over the island. Thus whenever a overseas trip happens, Donut hunting is on the top of the list.

When Donut Factory opened it's door for business in late 2006, I was a a little interested and excited. A proper Donut store in Singapore?! That's gotta be good enuff to check it out.

So one day in Dec 2006, I walked over to Raffles City Shoping Centre, Basment 1, bought a box of 12 mixed falvours from Donut Factory. There were only about 4-5 people infront of me. My thought was "Hmm..nobody in Singapoe is interested in Donut…" I brought the donuts back to the office, let the gals enjoyed. Some loved it. Some avoided it due to the potential danger to their beautiful figure.

I personally love it.

4 Reasons.

1- The donuts are soft. Even left overnight(not in the fridge please) are still soft like freshly baked.

2- Not too sweet. Just right amount of sweetness, thus you can have a few at each go.

3- Interesting flavours. Besides the usual glazed donuts, they have interesting flavours like Wasabi Cheese(Killer!!), Kaya, Apple Cinamon etc..

4- Extremely reasonable prices. Average about S$1 per donut.

Apparently, the owner/creator of this Donut Factory did intensive research, which took him through recipe books and taste tests of doughnuts from Europe, United States and Asia. Tailored the donuts to fit local taste. Great job!

I went back after a few days, intending to get more donuts..and got a rude shock.
There were about 50 people waiting in line fot the donuts!

It seems Singapores have this thing about "In-Fashion-Things" and "Follow-A-Queue-When-You-See-One" mentality. I gave up, and walked away.

With constant bugging from all the gals here for more of thath Donut, we managed to put in some time to get in line and buy the Donuts. It's ridiculous. Singaporeans are unbelievable. I saw so so so many rude Singaporean behaviors while waiting…(dun even get me started…)

Still, even if you do not like Donut, you must try this. It's good.(Dun forget the coffe and tea to go with it!)

Worth it even for the amount of time wasted to get in queue.(bring along your PSP, Nintendo DS, Books, mobile phone games etc to keep you company and past the dreadful time…)


JackRating :