Makisan / M(- a -)ki san - Sushi and Salad with nice presentation and taste

• Operating Days: Daily
• Address: Multiple Location
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Fancy some healthier options after indulging all the junk food you see during your CNY visiting? 

We chance upon Makisan when we were walking past Ang Mo Kio central and decided to give this shop a try. Makisan is a halal certified Design-Your-Own Sushi / Salad restaurant situated alongside with many shop houses. 

The shopfront is neat and clean, and the staffs working in store were systematic - one to take order, one to place the ingredient the customer choose together and one to wrap and cut your sushi into pieces (via a machine), before packing them the into the sushi box. 

You can choose to design your own salad or design your own sushi by filling up the forms available at the entrance of the shop. The guided steps on the order sheet is clear and easy to fill. We’ve decided to try out the DIY sushi during our visit. Other than the Japanese white rice, they have the healthier brown rice option for you to choose on top of your usual nori (seaweed) base, or egg crepe base - for a change!

We waited about 5 minutes before our order is ready. While waiting, we noticed a lot of deliveroo and foodpanda deliverers collecting their orders as well. Our diy sushi came with a cute Tiffany blue box, and it totally looked like we have received an expensive gift ( well, it does look like a watch box to be honest) !

They have two sizes for sushi, one is Mega San and the other, which we ordered, is the “Little San”. The difference between the two as per how it is named, is of course the size of the sushi. 

Our creation as seen above. Everything in it has what we usually order off the sushi bar! Our wrap contains Chicken floss, tamago and crab stick. For the sauce, we have chosen yuzu sesame. We like the slight hint of yuzu in the sesame taste and we thought it went quite well with the overall ingredients we have chosen. It has a refreshing taste and yet it’s not overpowering, definitely a sauce you can try if you visit!

We ordered the tempura enoki mushroom to go along with our Little San. The tempura batter was very crispy, but a little too oily for our liking. It would be so much better if the chef can heat up cooking oil in the deep frying pan to the right temperature before frying the enoki mushroom.

Makisan is one of the no frill and healthy food store concept that is slowly gaining its popularity especially among the younger generations. About 90% of the ingredients are non deep fried, and what makes it greater is that you can choose the ingredients you like to put them into your sushi, based on your mood. If you have no idea what to put inside your sushi, Makisan has their own menu for you to choose as well. We will definitely return soon to try out their DIY salad. Do share with us your experience if you have tried them before! 

Dessert Hut 甜品小屋 - A Traditional Chinese Dessert Stall with Korean Bingsu inspired desserts?!

• Operating Hours: 10 AM - 8 PM
• Operating Days: Daily
• Address: People's Park Centre, #02-48/58, 101 Upper Cross Street, S 058357
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The hot weather in Singapore gets even hotter these few weeks! Happened to chance upon Dessert Hut 甜品小屋 while we were running errands at People's Park Centre, so we decided to give this stall a try, as well as to seize the chance to enjoy the aircon in People's Park Centre.

A "mother-daughter" team established Dessert Hut 甜品小屋 in the year 2004 to share their passion in making Chinese traditional desserts with all the like-minded individuals. As time goes by, the owner has introduced new flavours and items to be added to their menu, to improvise their desserts and also to keep up with the market trends. 

There is another dessert stall right beside Dessert Hut 甜品小屋 that sell similar desserts, but you can't miss Dessert Hut 甜品小屋 as they have expanded their business space by buying over the area directly opposite their stall.

These are the hot and cold dessert they have.

We decided to go for their Oreo Kakigori (Shaved ice in Japanese), Milo Kakigori and Tau Suan.

The Oreo Kakigori came first and taking the first look at it, it is 90% similar to a bowl of Korean Oreo Bingsu! A good amount of crushed Oreo used, topping up with condensed milk; the only difference between the Oreo Kakigori and Korean Oreo Bingsu is probably the price. $4.80 for this bowl of goodness, seriously?

The amount of condensed milk used was just right for us. Though we all have sweet tooth, we can't really take desserts that are too sweet/rich, and very often we would stop eating halfway. The Oreo Kakigori here was what we are looking for - generous amount of Oreo powder used, topped up with the right amount of condensed milk on a bowl of snowflake ice that literally melts in your mouth. Perfect!

We were surprised to see a small piece of Oreo Cheesecake hidden in the middle of the bowl. To Oreo fans- this is a bowl of dessert you should go for. Highly recommended!

Next came was the Tau Suan. Priced slightly on a higher side ($2.20), the Tau Suan served here is actually a healthier version (as compared to the regular hawker stall), which is less sweet. 

The last item came was the Milo Kakigori. This was actually the additional order (as we really like the Oreo version) so we were having high expectation on this as well. Similar to Oreo Kakigori, a generous amount of Milo Powder was given, topped up with condensed milk and marshmallow bits. The condensed milk given in the bowl of ice was significantly lesser, not sure if it is due to the marshmallow bits are given - as it will definitely affect the overall sweetness level of this bowl of dessert. 

Instead of the Oreo cheesecake, a small piece of the brownie was given instead. The brownie was slightly dry but overall it does taste good as well when you pair it with the ice. Personally, we felt that the Milo Kakigori is a fusion dessert (Milo powder - Singapore, Kakigori ice - Japan and Bingsu look alike - Korea) whichyou can try if you are a fan of these three countries like us.

All in all, the dessert served at Dessert Hut 甜品小屋 are generally on a healthier side as it is not as sweet as compared to the desserts served at a regular dessert stall. Though we did not try many of their traditional desserts while we were there, we have seen many patrons ordering their hot desserts despite the hot weather. Being in the market for more than 15 years selling traditional Chinese desserts, we like how the owner improvised their menu to keep up with the current trend, opening up the new market with potential to attract a younger crowd to patronize their stall. Do give it a try and share with us how you feel after visiting!

Creamier - Good Waffle with Ice cream located in peaceful area

Operating Hours: 

12 PM - 10 PM (Tuesdays to Thursdays And Sundays)

12 PM - 11 PM (Fridays to Saturdays)

Operating Days: Closed on Mondays

Address: 

Toa Payoh - 128 Toa Payoh Lorong 1, #01-835, S 310128

Gillman Barracks - 5A Lock Road, S 108927

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Started in 2011, Creamier opened its first cafe in Toa Payoh. In 2016, they opened their next cafe at Gillman Barracks. Both cafes are located at a peaceful area. Many people may wonder "Where is Gillman Barracks?" Although people were still asking this question, this Creamier branch still draws crowd especially at night and during weekends.

One thing I noticed about both cafes is the space between each table. It is quite cramped with limited seats. Creamier can hardly accommodate most of their customers especially during its peak hours. This place was packed with people! The one thing I don't like is the super small table and the cramp dining area in both cafes. I was sitting in the middle of the cafe and it was so cramped that I had to lean forward whenever a person walked pass me.

Creamier sells waffle, ice cream, and beverages. 

Creamier’s interior looks lovely with the hanging artworks. 

The most common thing people are doing when we were there was to wait, be waiting for a seat or waiting for their ice-cream waffle.

A must order is their Waffle with Ice cream at $9, and since we are already here, might as well just get an extra scoop of ice cream! 

Look at the number of different flavors they served! They have some unique ones, such as Thai Milk tea, Black Forest and Kaya flavors! Was told to wait for about 30 minutes to serve our orders.

Ordered their Waffle with Ice Cream with an additional scoop of Ice Cream. Ordered Cookies and cream with Kaya. They are generous in terms of the portion of their ice cream, a great plus. Their ice cream is very nice especially their Kaya, not too sweet and full of creamy milk taste, I will order their kaya flavor ice cream again in future.

The double thick waffles were slightly crispy around the edges and moist on the inside with egg fragrance,  topped with honey and chocolate sauce around the plate. 

Although there's always a large crowd, their waffles still maintain their fluffiness & crispiness and their ice cream are consistently good

With most cafes selling waffles, which is the best? At creamier, the waffle they served are one of the better ones I've tried so far. However, who knows there may be new cafe that serve better waffles appearing on street the next day.

The location of Creamier is quite inconvenient for friends who are not driving, but well nowadays private hire cars are quite affordable, but probably not for frequent visits unless you are driving or staying around the area.

M2 Cafe - Disneyland Mickey and friends Restaurant Theme in Johor Bahru!

• Operating Hours: 2 PM - 1 AM (Last Order @ 11.45 PM)
• Operating Days: Closed on Mondays
• Address: 7-01, Jalan Austin Heights 8/3, 81100, Johor Bahru

Good news for the Mickey Mouse of Disney fans out there, finally, there is a Mickey Mouse themed cafe in Johor Bahru.

M2 stands for Disney famous cartoon character - Mickey Mouse and M2 cafe has a theme based on it. 

I'm sure kids will love it and adults will enjoy reconnecting with our favorite childhood cartoon. It situated nearby the Austin Heights water theme park. So why not give it a go while you’re at there.
Now you may not see where is the shop, the cafe is located on 2nd floor, so look out for the door with a Big M word to proceed.

They do open it till 1 AM so for those who are nearby, you can have supper with Mickey and friends!

Their entrance was locked so you will need to wait a minute for the staff to click their auto gate for entrance. 

So once we were in, we were welcomed with lots of Disney themed decorations! The cafe can definitely satisfy Mickey lovers as the wall are decorated with Mickey wall art. 

The cafe offers main courses, desserts, and coffee. 
Even the menu, cakes and drink cups are also in line with the theme.

"The store started in January of the year 2015, which the cafe is based on black, red, and white color plus hand-drawn wall art with DIY decorations. The store owner hopes to provide their customer with a comfortable and warm environment for their meal. This cafe is definitely for friends and family, business talks, or couple for their dates."
They stated that their cafe does provide board games, but I do not see them anywhere. Maybe need to ask them for it.

If you have a big group of people coming, they will provide you with these seats.

They sell souvenir like Mickey mug but I feel it's quite expensive. A Mickey mug cost 80 RM.

 They provide wifi and a clean toilet!

I am very impressed with their hand-carved world map of every Disneyland in the world, it shows where is each Disneyland theme park is and their current time. Very interesting!

Our first item came - Apple juice. The item tasted much like any fruit juice stall anywhere with added syrup to sweeten it. But their drink stand is cute!

Next is Ice Blended Chocolate! This cup really too cute! Tastewise is like a normal cocoa powdered drink, just that it was not fully blended, there was quite a lot of ice not totally crushed yet.

 I am attracted by the decoration of the place. However, the food has always been my priority. After a good wait of 10 minutes, here came the salted egg chicken chop, which they stated it's their newest invention and their signature dish!

Their chicken chop looks dry but when you cut it up, lots of the juice flew out and onto our clothing!

The chicken was tender, very juicy! What really makes it nicer is the salted egg sauce given!
The sauce is good that makes me feel delighted but if without the sauce, I will feel that that chicken chop is just a normal chicken thigh meat with satay taste like seasoning. The salted egg chicken chop was something I loved it immediately after trying for the first time. The owner gave just the right amount of salted egg and the sauce was also deliciously creamy.

The last item - Bittersweet tiramisu with a Mickey Mouse twist.

The Coffee Tiramisu came with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream and a slice of tiramisu cake. The vanilla ice-cream was yummy, it melts in my mouth. It is slightly milky and you can still taste bits of vanilla beans in the ice-cream. As for the cake itself, it was served cold. I believe it was frozen before being served. The spongy cake was moist with creamy mascarpone and espresso. What I do not like is the coffee taste was too heavy at the bottom. It was drenched with coffee. This would be perfect if the last layer was taken out.  

While the place is designed in Mickey and friends theme, the food is above average. Try the chicken chop that comes with the salted egg sauce.

Nice cafe with nice environment. Food tastes good with reasonable price. Worth to give it a try. If you are looking for a place to hang out with your friends or family, this would be a great place to enjoy food and their decorations. If you love Disney productions cartoons characters, you wouldn’t want to miss this place. It is seriously too cute to be missed!

Hoki Cake Bakery 福气本铺古早味现烤蛋糕 - Tradition Cake improvised with their chocolate cake in a good way!

• Operating Hours: 12 PM - 9 PM
• Operating Days: Closed on Monday
• Address: 67, Jalan Austin Heights 8/5, Taman Mount Austin, Johor Bahru
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Taman Mount Austin is an area in Johor Bahru where hip cafes, nice restaurants, and bakeries are found. It has slowly gained popularity amongst the locals and Singaporeans for its wide variety and relatively cheap restaurant food (Please continue to maintain like this!). A good 10-20 minutes drive from Woodlands custom if you are going to visit Taman Mount Austin.

When talking about 鸡蛋糕, I bet most people will say Taiwan Danshui 淡水 has a stall that sells the best 鸡蛋糕. The craze for this traditional cake has been increasing constantly since a few months ago. Be it in Singapore or Malaysia, people are literally seen spending 1-2 hours queueing just to buy these cakes.

Just a few months ago, Hoki Cake Bakery 福气本铺 opened its very first traditional 鸡蛋糕 shop at Taman Mount Austin. Claiming to be the first shop in Johor that brings in Taiwan 淡水's famous traditional cake, it was not difficult to see endless long queues when it just started. I was one of them who queued for almost 2 hours to get these cakes. 

And just a few months later, the crowd at Hoki Cake Bakery has died down. As many similar shops were now seen at big shopping malls like KSL and City Square mall, it is inevitable for a shop like Hoki to lose its appeal to the consumers. However, it does not define their products are "not nice". It is in fact very nice and I will be sharing more in the later portion.

Big ovens and trays were seen at the shop front. There were many more ovens in the kitchen area, and imagine I used to queue up for 2 hours to get the cakes when there are so many ovens. Can you imagine the crowd?

This is the famous traditional cake with cheese filling. I tried once and I like it a lot. The generous amount of cheese really enhanced the sweetness from the cake, and yet it's not too overwhelming. Personally, I like to eat it with a cup of coffee as breakfast or tea break.

Rows of traditional cakes on the table waiting to be sold.

The chocolate flavored cake is Hoki's latest creation, and this is the main reason why I am back here again. Hoki is really very generous with the amount of chocolate chip used in their cakes. 

I don’t normally reach for chocolate desserts but for this but I would gladly grab one. Seriously, just look at the amount of chocolate stuffed inside the cake! I really like the chocolate version as it is really like a fusion kind of cake traditionally made with the simplest ingredients eggs, sugar, flour, and with very generous amount of chocolate given. The chocolate is not too sweet and in fact just nice for my liking. Really thumbs up for this!

Facing many competitions in the market, I like the way Hoki does it's business - friendly staffs, nice cakes, fresh ingredients used and most importantly, being the first to bring in this traditional cake to Johor, Hoki knows when is the right time to introduce a new flavor for their cakes so as to bring back the curiosity of the customers. Hoki's traditional chocolate cake is definitely a must to try and it is worth all your effort to travel there just to get one. Heard that if you put the chocolate cake in the fridge, they will taste better. As I have already finished the chocolate cake before knowing this fact, do leave me a comment and let me know how does it taste like when chilled, when you happen to get one!