D & D @ 1 Caramel

today's the return visit to 1 Caramel in less than a week. went with Cece for a major catch up sesh which was partially overdue. we stayed there for 5 hours. from 7 ish to 12 ish.

customised cupcakes selling @ $6 per cupcake and min order is 12. very pretty!

thought i saw a family having pizza the other time i was there and told Cece that yes, they served mains. however, after studying the menu for like countless times, we didn't see any pizzas! in the end, we resorted to asking the waitress if they served other savories. surprisingly, they did. 3 kinds of pizzas: Margarita, hawaiian and parma ham. so we opted for the parma and mushroom soup. we didn't order cakes at the point in time coz we were going to revisit the display fridge after the mains.

the mushroom soup arrived first and had two slices of crispy toasts. i like the just nice richness of the soup. it's thick with generous bits mushrooms blended to just the correct size adding a good texture to the soup. unfortunately, the were bits of leaves (i think dried basil leaves? Dunno) in the soup and it sort of marred the last few moments of drinking the soup. overall, i'd order it again coz it's savoury enough and not overly creamy!

the pizza arrived thereafter and it's quite big. divided to 8 slices, it can feed at least 3 people or even 4. it's definitely not as good as the one i had in Skinny P coz the toppings weren't that generous and the dough was not exactly fantastic. it could also be because we had too much. we didn't finish the pizza. 2 slices were left behind though we finished the rocket leaves and the parma ham.

if you don't want to visit the fridge, which is something you should do, they also have a menu. i counted, there were a total of 27 different kinds of cakes!

we ordered tea too. mine's the fruit mountain. not too strong, it's quite light but not as light as Cece's Geisha something. the butter cookie is yummy too!

by then we were pretty full, took a walk to the gigantic see through fridge to finalise the cake of our choice for the night. initially we were pretty optimistic, that we will be able to eat 4 cakes in total, but we ordered 2 different cakes first, just in case.

cece ordered the Chocolate Praline Cake. As described in the cakes' menu, quote: '1 Caramel's Cocoa signature with varying layers of chocolate mousse and hazelnut praline feuilletine.' when i ate the cake, i thought it was sweet. cece didnt think it was. i guess we have different levels of sugar tolerance. to me the cake tasted like kit kat again. i very much prefer the CBL coz of the balance of tart and sweet.

i ordered the Nid d'abeilles. Don't ask me how to pronounce it, but quote again: 'Layers of honey chiboust cream and strawberry jelly sandwiched with crispy almond dacquoise.' hmm yet another cheem description. i thought the cake was quite sweet as well. Though the strawberry jelly is sour, it's still sweet. overall, sweet. i didnt taste much honey but the cake was really soft and the chiboust cream was light a fluffy. almond dacquoise is also sweet. hmm.. everything sweet.


i think we had a bit too much sugar that we went on a sugar high and was hyper for a short 30 mins and started to seh for the next 30 mins. we got back to our original state by drinking lots of water that coupled with lots of laughter as we chit chatted. it was so therapeutic and i missed her company. it's always nice to chat with her when there are things i find it hard to understand and needed someone who bothers to analyse and unafraid to tell me her thoughts in a evaluative manner. she didn't need to provide solutions, it's just great to hear what she has to say.


food though not as amazing as the first experience, company was great and the place was so nice to nuah!! i didnt feel like moving from the long bench with that huge fluffy brown pillow. felt damn shiok! it was a wonderful friday night and i look forward to meeting up with my dear friend soon :)!

Leave Day 1 - 2nd half - Din @ Naive

so dinner at Naive did happen and boy was i glad i finally went there. It was a plus coz i was happy to share the meal with Dad and Mum. I'm glad the day's decision went on well all the way.


what struck me about Naive was it's signage when it first 'established' its presence in Katong. it caught my attention one day when i was on the way to work in bus no. 16 and was intrigued by what this new place in katong is for. so i searched the web and couldn't find any info. I thought it was a graphic design firm coz it didnt look very foodie. so another day i walked pass, i realised it was selling food. i thought it was either coz the food sucks as such no one talked about it or, it's too new and people are unaware about it.


anyway, it's quite hard to miss it especially since they put up a big banner citing 'WE ARE OPEN'. the colour of the banner is red and the words white. against a background which i thought was almost white and i realised it isn't really the case coz they painted the building in stripes and shades of different greens and creams. i love the colours very calm and soothing just like the food.

the pleasant interior, zenish and chic

naive art! very cool, attracted my attention too!

so i shall cut the crap and go down on the food. i ordered 5 dishes for the three of us. 6 if you include the olive rice.


the first thing which arrived was a small mortar of white and black sesame seeds with a wooden pestle. this was termed the 'BLOSS' ceremony - Blessing of the Sesame Seeds. Mum did the grinding and she seemed to enjoy it lots. i say, it's a damn unique start to having food. kinda like a prayer, but instead of words, it was an action performed. makes it so much more symbolic!


i did my research in HGW and found out that if you mentioned HGW prior to ordering you get a 1 for 1 main course. means you pay the price of 1 main but you get 2 instead. So i ordered 'Enchanted Forest' and 'We Em-brace'. it was really worth it and of course you pay the price of the more expensive item.


what hit me about these two dishes, the monkey head mushrooms used to cook these dishes have zlich taste of mushroom. i didn't even think that i was eating mushroom.


The cubes in 'Enchanted Forest' tasted like chicken breast meat to me. they added broccoli (love it that it's still crunchy and fresh), wolfberry and fa cai. there's a bit of 'tang gui' too! i'm not sure what the sauce is made of, but it's better than oyster sauce man! As for the cubes of mushrooms, there was a bit of coating of corn flour if i am not wrong and it was stir fried first before the sauce was added. this coating enhanced the taste of the mushroom and it was good!


for 'We Em-brace' it has a bit of soup. this time the mushroom tasted a bit like fried fish to me. it's not exactly the melt in your mouth kind but a bit chewy. i can't really describe the taste, maybe it's a little more like frog leg? hmm.. the dish came with chinese cabbage and wolfberries too.


i also ordered 3 side dishes. I am a sucker for lotus root with peanuts, so i had to get 'Peaceful Plant'! And it was delish! question in my mind was, gee.. without meat, how did the liquid which came along with the lotus roots and peanuts taste so wonderful! it tasted like lotus root pork rib soup but even better. it has a slight minute tinge of spiciness which was really pleasant and made it even more appetizing! I couldn't stop drinking the soup and i don't know how long they cooked this dish. somehow, the lotus root didn't turn soggy and it was still damn crunchy but also soaked up the essence of the soup and the peanuts too! i am also a sucker for food which requires chewing and not those nuah types. oh one thing though, i had a rude suprise when i bit on a piece of spice i can't remember the name though.

i love my baos lots!!

the other side was the 'Black and White'. It was braised mushroom in cinnamon sauce served with steam buns (2) and guess what, it actually tasted like KONG BA BAO without the kong ba (fatty meat) but it was good enough and tasty even. who would know that such combination could also be so darn heavenly!! whoooo!


we had the battered organic oyster mushroom too. the batter i'd say is damn shiok! it has a savory tinge to it. very fragrant and light. eaten together with the accompanied sauce which i am pretty sure there's passion fruit in the mixture, it's a wonderful combination and a definite must try. Eat it when it's hot too!


our rice was called 'Oliver Twist' and initially expected it to be an overpowering taste of olive, but OMG! It damn fragrant. didn't even taste the olive at all. in it i think they added finely chopped mushrooms too! i think i can eat two bowls of this rice if i didnt order so many dishes!!

the drinks menu which was not on the website.

the next thing i must recommend is this drink 'Sour Power'. I love sourish stuff too! This drink is good. it came presented in 3 layers. the bottom most is the sour plum mixture or whatever you call it. then came a layer of lemon and the top most is the bubbly, it's probably soda water. it's damn nice and damn big. drink until you full ah! So it's pretty worth it actually!


i'd recommend this place to everyone. got to try it and be surprised! in total i spent $68 hmm, may sound expensive for vegetarian dish, but i think it to be ok. i think monkey head mushrooms are not cheap right?