Macritchie, LingZhi, and the Ice Cream You Won't Find In Texas

On Saturday, we met up with a friend for a long walk around the Macritchie reservoir in the middle of Singapore. It gave us the opportunity to revisit the tree-top canopy walk that we'd first experienced when Patrick Meeker visited us. This time there were no shortage of monkeys throughout the walk. (note monkey on tree branch).

We finished up around lunchtime and decided to try something different for lunch. We headed up to Novena on the MRT and tried out a combination 'dim sum and mushroom hot pot buffet' at LingZhi Vegetarian restaurant. It was great and the waitstaff was very helpful in navigating the experience and any choices.

Dim sum are steamed dumplings filled with variety of different things. And being a vegetarian restaurant, we could enjoy everything they had to offer. There were also a variety of other appetizers, all great fun to sample. The main course, was hot pot. The waiter puts a pot with two types of boiling broth in the middle. There are five flavors to choose from, some earthy, some herbal, and some spicy. You then pick out the various ingredients you want to cook in the broth. There were 5 types of mushrooms, various green vegetables, some crouton-like things, corn on the cob, lotus root (new to Raye), okra, and many others. It all goes into the soup for about 5-10 minutes and, well, the rest is delicious.

We walked around the mall for a while and then headed over to a place we'd read about and wanted to try. It's called Udders and it's Singapore original ice cream place. It's a fun place with an eclectic feel to it, like it really should be on a college campus somewhere. There's a chalkboard that lists the flavors they have and continuous voting for the next flavor customers want them to introduce. The place makes all their own flavors (and has regular weekend workshops that let people make their own flavors, too - sold out until November!).

The flavors range from typical to tropical. They have mango and two different kinds of durian flavors. That's like having a both 'valencia' and 'navel' types of orange ice cream. (In this case it's Mao Shan Wang and D24.) The completely new one to us was cempedak, another local tropical fruit. The durian flavors were true to the fruit. The cepedak was best described as interesting: not quite as strong as durian, but definitely from the same neighborhood. It would be a good "dare you" flavor.

And while these tropicals are flavors you're not likely to find in Texas, the flavors that you'd be even harder pressed to find are the adult flavors. As in made with liquors and liqueurs. They even have a different number of martini glasses on the flavor label to indicate the 'proof' of the ice cream. We were tempted by the "Tia Miss You", but opted for the bitter belgian chocolate with triple sec and were not disappointed. It was clear why it's one of the best sellers.

And just when we thought there was nothing else to post about ice cream in Singapore...

Robin's Photos

This is an entry where we will post photos taken during Robin's visit to Singapore. Check back as we will be adding to these throughout her visit. The posting date will be updated after we add new pictures.

Link to photo album.

Snow Ice

"If ice kachang [a local kind of sno-cone] and ice cream had a love child, it would be snow ice." Snow ice is a dessert that originated in Taiwan and which has found a home in Singapore. It is made by feeding frozen blocks of milk, or flavoured milk, into a machine that shaves it into thin sheets. The layers of milk ice, piled high in a bowl, are served with toppings that run the gamut from chunks of fresh fruit to chocolate sprinkles.

We took our visiting friend Robin to Chinatown to book a side trip to Bintan (Indonesia) later during her visit. After some exploring around the area, including a visit to the wet market that Raye frequents, we stopped for lunch at a hand-made noodle shop. After some more walking and a stop at the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple, we opted to go for snow ice at Mei Heong Yuen on Temple Street.

The place was jammed and we had to wait for about 10 minutes for the opportunity to squeeze 3 people around a table that moments before had been cozily occupied by a young couple. A jammed place is a good sign, particularly in ethnic neighborhoods like Chinatown. [We were the only Anglos in the place.]

From the wide selection of flavors (example: mocha, chocolate, durian, yam, and green tea), we opted for mango and an off-the-menu flavor, strawberry. For S$5 (about US$3.50) per serving you get a small iceberg of the stuff. The flavors are terrific, but it's the texture that makes it really interesting. It doesn't have the graininess of a sno-cone, nor the creamy mouth-feel of ice cream. It's somewhere in the middle; perhaps best described as smooth and clean, but different than sorbet.

Raye & Robin are planning a return trip to check out some additional flavors. Next time I go, I want to try some of the traditional desserts like mango sago pomelo, black sesame paste or egg custard with ginger.

Ice Cream in Singapore

It's summer here. But then again, it's always summer in Singapore. And what goes with summer? Ice cream! And it's everywhere in various interesting varieties.

Like the Fair Price grocery store. It was on sale, so we decided to buy some. But how to get it home before it melted? A quick look at the sides of the box gave us the answer: it was prepackaged in Styrofoam.

And what intriguing flavors: Durian, Mango, and Sweet Corn.

The name "potong" on the box means "cut" in Malay. The traditional way of serving up what we call Popsicles was to cut a rectangle of ice cream from a larger block, put a stick in it (called a lidi, made from the spine of the coconut leaf), and serve it up.

Out on the street, you can see this tradition in action at any number of the portable ice cream stands. (Notice the integrated motorcycle; it's part of the stand.) For S$1, the vendor cuts your serving of your flavor of choice from the large block and gives it to you on a stick (Malay style), between two wafers (Hong Kong style), or on a slice of colorful bread (Singapore style). We tend to favor the Hong Kong option.

In the various shopping venues you'll find a wide international representation of ice cream options. There is Azabu Sabo Hokkaido Ice Cream from Japan with such interesting flavors like green tea (of course), black sesame seed, sweet potato, and (one of our favorites) caramel and sea salt. Ben & Jerry's is here. (Our friend Hunter Rose, the Ice Cream Czar would feel right at home.)

And there are several gelato options: Bravissimo and Gelato Twist are two examples. While maintaining a strong Italian tradition (chocolate, cappucino), both cater to local palates with flavors like Milk Tea, Red Bean, and of course Durian. All will let you taste extensively, and that's definitely part of the fun.

But alas, there is no Graeter's in Singapore (except for a brief shining period when we managed to bring some back with us packed in dry ice). So as much as we may enjoy the exotic options here, our mocha chip and raspberry chip cravings have to wait for our visits to the US. At least Kroger's (in Texas) now carries it.