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2009-08-05
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It was yet another fabulous night of dinner with the guys. On our way back one dessert monster decided to head over to the anticipated desserterie serving McDull and McMug (for the eyes) while sweets for the appetite. I feared shops like these, most often they serve mediocre foodstuff as they put too much focus on the merchandise they're trying to get you to buy and focus on and seem to have forgotten that the shop actually is registered as "serving food"Strolling across the strip mall we arrive
Strolling across the strip mall we arrived at the entrance greeted by the two piglets, all too familiar to locals who grow up with the cartoon. Entering the joint I realized that the dessert menu was a simple one, with neither specialty you cannot find elsewhere, nor are the names a play of words from the cartoon. It lacked the inspiration I was hoping to get a high from. But here's what we ordered, after some prolonged anticipation and struggle in decision making.
CHEESECAKE -- A generous thick wedge of it with a promisingly thin biscuit crust, moist with a decided buttery flavour. Kudos to that. The cheese mixture on the top is slightly too gelatinous to my taste. It tasted like cheese, with a slight twist of lemon zest blended within, but it also tasted somewhat like powdered gelatin overdose. The cheese mixture was very set but slightly 'granular', if I may describe it.
腐竹薏米糖水 is a milky white concoction you can easily re-create at home. The barley was not turned to mush, but some gingko nuts turned out to be quite bitter at the core.
番薯糖水 is only so-so. It's not about the sweet potato, as each chunk of it was sweet to the core, and very starchy indeed. It was the 'syrup' part that was too bland and the fatal mistake of the lack of ginger in it. You could only taste the faint sting of ginger from the aroma but not quite on the flavour level.木瓜雪耳糖水, on the other hand, was good. Yet another simple dessert this one was not double boiled. The snow fungus has a slight crispy texture (not mushy) while the papaya was sweet enough as the 'syrup' just complement both crucial ingredients that make a simple dessert proud.
紫米露, the last of all desserts, was a favorite order of mine. I prefer a version like this one, where the black glutinous rice are cooked until thick and coconut milk was added when served. The sweet chewy texture of the rice was slightly mellowed out into part-mush, part-chewy congee only to have a rich finish with coconut milk. I have not always enjoyed 紫米露 in a lot of places but this one was surprisingly satisfying.
The concept of inviting cartoon characters into a themed shop is quite exhilarating to begin with. Yet I envision something quite different, maybe on a more creative level of referencing to the comics/ cartoons through the creative processes of making some of these dishes different from "just an ordinary dessert store with cartoon merchandise for sale". It may be able to get the children perked up with the opportuny to "eat with your favorite cartoon character", but for the folks who are paying for the desserts, it remained just another desserterie around the corner, only with dolls and cuter decor.
Note: I do realize that none of the desserts here were made with LARD/ PORK FAT -- was it on behalf of health, or was it coincidentally because the cartoon characters were two cute piglets? That, is for the customers to decide, I guess...
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