Of Silk, figs, and Andre

This past Sunday was our 12th wedding anniversary, which is also known as the silk anniversary. I only found out about this via an internet search when a friend asked which anniversary is the 12th. As it happened, one of the presents that I got for hubby is a silk tie, so it’s totally in sync with the theme!

Two days before our anniversary I received a tip from a chef friend that my local supermarket just got a shipment of super sweet Turkish figs. The next morning I rushed over to said supermarket and bought four packets. I love figs, but only if they’re sweet and actually taste of figs. Often times even when they are ripe they have a watered down non-descript taste that won’t excite anyone. These ones were very sweet, with intense fig flavors.

Hidemi Sugino has a fig tartlet that I have never been able to try, because I somehow always go to Tokyo when figs are most definitely not in season, like in the dead of winter. So naturally the first thing that popped into my head was to make the fig tartlets. As far as Hidemi Sugino recipes go, this is one of the easiest ones, all you have to do is to find good figs. For the first time, I’ll share his recipe on my blog with you guys, because it's not too long to translate. You’ll need to either know or look up some of the basic techniques, since I’m too lazy to type it out, but it should be fairly easy to google and find out. So here it goes.

Tartelette aux figues (makes 12x 7cm tartlets)

Pate sucree:
90g unsalted butter at RT
60g icing sugar
30g whole egg
20g almond powder
150g light flower

crème patissiere:

250g milk

55g caster sugar

¼ vanilla bean

50g egg yolk

12g light flour

12g corn starch


Crème d’amandes
40g unsalted butter at RT
40g icing sugar
40g whole egg
40g almond powder

6 large figs

kirsch

30B syrup (130g sugar +100g water)

crème Chantilly

Apricot jam
Raspberry jam

1. Make pate sucree and chill in fridge

2. Make crème patissiere and chill in fridge (steps 1 & 2 can be done the day before)

3. Roll dough out and fit into tartlet pans, rest in fridge while making crème frangipane

4. Make crème frangipane by whisking together crème d’amandes and crème patissiere

5. Take tartlet shells out of fridge, use another tartlet pan to press dough down, then prick with a fork a few times.

6. Pipe about 25g of crème frangipane into each tartlet pan and let rest in fridge for 30 minutes

7. Meanwhile, slice each fig into 16 slices, removing skin only after you’ve sliced them, one slice at a time. This took me almost an hour, but it results in neater outside edges, so it’s worth it.

8. Arrange slices on a tray and sprinkle granule sugar on it (how much sugar depends on how sweet your figs are), then sprinkle with kirsch. Chill in fridge for 30 min

9. Bake tartlets at 170C for about 15-20 minutes, until crème frangipane is a dark golden brown

10. Remove tartlets from pans and cool.

11. Whip up crème Chantilly to very stiff peak. You’ll need about 20g for each tartlet

12. Mix together 20g of 30B syrup, 10g water and 12g kirsch. Brush onto top of tartlet, let syrup soak in

13. Spread a layer of raspberry jam onto the baked tartlet, then pipe a mound of Chantilly on top.

14. Arrange 8 slices of figs in an overlapping pattern onto each tartlet

15. Heat 50g apricot jam and 10g kirsch in a small saucepan until fluid. Brush onto cut surfaces of figs

16. Top each tartlet with a raspberry and you’re done!


We had some of this for dessert the day before our anniversary and gave some away to friends when hubby went to play tennis with them, but our real celebration was the dinner at chef Andre Chiang’s eponymous restaurant Andre. I liked his cooking when he was helming Jaan at the top of Swissotel, but somehow never got around to trying his own place since he opened it about a year ago.  I made the booking more than a month ago because it is F1 week in Singapore and it never hurts to be prepared.

The front of the restaurant was so inconspicuous that I missed it the first time and had to double back and drive down a short stretch the wrong way to get back. Good thing Sunday night traffic is light in this part of the town. The restaurant has the feel of a house. Off to the side on the first floor is a small sitting area, but we were led to the second floor dining room. The space has the clean modern feel of a French house. One side of the wall has black and white wall papers of a little forest, and sheep clad in suede are used as bag stools.

Hubby chose the wine pairing, as it is too tiring to try to pick out wines that will go with most of the eight-course meal, especially since I don’t drink. I notice most other guests opt for this lazy option as well.

Before we start we were treated to a quartet of palate cleansers: “fish and chips”, “popcorn”, some silvery fish slices on a crisp cracker served with porcini chips and Andre’s signature chicken skin chips.

His eight-course menu is based on his “octophilosophy”, the concept of which is highlighted in the link above, so I shall not repeat it here.










The first course is Pure, which was scallop ravioli, chives& dill flower in purple cauliflower consume. Very little seasoning was used and the fragrance of the dill flowers ties everything together nicely.

Next came Salt: French oyster wrapped in Japanese seaweed, served granny smith foam. The dish was decorated with tiny cubes of cucumbers and apples. No salt was added, only the saltiness from the oyster provided seasoning.

 

The third course was Artisan - Kyoto eggplant topped with caviar, served with a savory crème Anglaise sauce sprinkled with hazelnut shavings and fried burdock roots (gobou). The savory crème Anglaise was a nice twist and the fried gobou brought a nice contrast to an otherwise creamy dish. To top it all off, the dish on which this course was served is designed by chef Andre.

The next course is named South and pays homage to chef Andre’s time spent in the south of France, close to the Mediterranean . It consists of flounder with tomato & white peaches, and tomato sorbet in one dish. Uni risotto and blue crab foam in a second dish. The risotto was probably one of the best I’ve ever tasted, done to perfection with just the right amount of bite to it and is perfectly flavoured with the uni sauce.

Texture came next and is squid "arborio rice" with charcoal rice crackers. The “rice” is actually squid and tasted much better than my chicken substitute. I usually don’t like squid because of the chewy texture, but here the texture is completely changed, and I find myself wishing I had stuck to the original dish.

The sixth course is Unique, and here the unique ingredient is French artichoke. The dish was stuffed baby barracuda, French artichoke and artichoke foam. To be perfectly honest I felt that the artichoke was rather tasteless on its own, however the sauce was so robust and the stuffed baby barracuda so tender that they saved the dish. I just felt that to be THE unique ingredient in the “unique” course, the artichoke should’ve taken a more front row seat.

The next course was “memory” and it was a dish that Andre has always kept on his menu, with different variations. Tonight it’s a baked foie gras jelly with black truffle glaze. The “jelly” contains egg white and has the silky consistency of a well-executed chawanmushi, and the black truffle glaze was so fragrant that even later, when the next table had the dish we could smell it. Although hubby thought it was a great dish and I loved it too at first, ultimately I felt that either the portion was too big, or it needed an accompaniment to cut down on the richness, like a champagne jelly or something similar.

Our final course was “terroir”, although in our case it’s something from the sky: French pigeon with pigeon jus, pea purée & potato gnocchi. I was still recovering from the last dish and found the pigeon a little too gamey for my taste, although to be honest it was a perfectly cooked pigeon, with just a hint of pinkness in the centre, so Hubby was more than happy to finish my portion for me.

Before dessert, we cleansed our palate with mini marshmallow, strawberry granita & yogurt jelly in a cute little pot. Dessert was chocolate sponge, which really looked like a piece of sponge; soft chocolate sphere filled with warm chocolate ganache, and burned butter ice cream. I’ve always found restaurant desserts boring and this was no exception. I think it was my least favourite course of the entire evening, but I guess nobody is perfect.

When my latte came the waitress apologetically said something about “please be careful, the cup is designed by chef Andre and the shape is a little strange” and indeed it was. The cup was more of an irregular rectangle rather than a round, and hubby immediately commented that he could’ve made one just like that. It wasn’t until I picked it up that I realized the bottom was not flat. Good thing I didn’t try to set it down on the table!

We rounded off our meal with some French figs, popcorns that “pop” in your mouth, passion fruit marshmallow and honey hazelnut Madeline. All in all, it was a very memorable meal. I’ve heard mixed reviews about Andre but we felt this was the most exciting meal we’ve had in Singapore in years. I think chef Andre is a creative genius and is really setting new standards for all restaurants in our little dot on the map. So hats off to him!

The Gingerbread House Chronicle

The first time I attempted to make a gingerbread house was four years ago. I was in Tokyo and going to Le Cordon Bleu. That was also the last winter we lived in Japan. Since then, Christmas seasons had been spent moving, traveling, and being busy with teaching and churning out cake orders. This year, I made a decision to stop teaching all classes one week before Christmas and not to take any orders for Christmas and New Year. This year, Christmas was to be spent cooking for friends and family.

Ever since the success of my first gingerbread house, I’d been itching to make another one. Living in hot and humid Singapore, however, presents its challenges. With the humidity level constantly hovering around 90% , everything turns soggy so a gingerbread house will no doubt collapse within hours of being constructed when the walls absorb moisture and give in to the weight. Two years ago I made a gingerbread tree with the yummiest, most buttery recipe I’d ever tried, but making a gingerbread house with that recipe is out of the question.

After some research I found two “structural” recipes. They are supposed to be very sturdy and humidity proof. In the end I chose one that had very simple ingredients because the alternative is one that contains honey, which is bad news because the house will be an ant magnet.

Time spent searching for recipe: 2hrs

Once the recipe is chosen, the next step is to finalize the design of the house. The cottage I built in Tokyo was cute, but for my second house, I had grander plans. I wanted Victorian, with two sections, a bay window, and maybe a porch. I found a basic template on the internet but to make sure everything fit, I cut out some foam boards and fine tuned the design. The pitch of the second roof that joins the main roof proved the most troublesome. I knew I should’ve paid more attention in three-dimensional geometry, but who would’ve thought you’d need that for anything, let alone baking? After endless tweaking, the roofs finally fit together, but I made the executive decision to forgo the porch this year. After all, I need to keep something for next year, don’t I?

Time spent building and fine-tuning the foam model: 4 hrs

Just like landscaping is an integral part of building a real house, some thoughts need to be put into building a garden for the gingerbread house. A snowman is a must, of course, and since the house will sit on a big board (13”) there’s space to place a girl making a snow angel, plus Princess Libby doing a doggie angel in the snow. But why limit yourself to just outside the house? Since I had all those big windows, I made a Christmas tree for the living room too.

Time spent making fondant figurines and ice-cream cone trees: 4 hrs

At this point, I was spinning a little out of control. Never mind I had no idea just exactly how sturdy this supposedly “structural” recipe is, and whether it can really stand up to the Singapore humidity, I must have light in the house! Here is where I ran into some trouble. You see, once upon a time in high school physics, I clearly recall yours truly wiring light bulbs and building circuits, but that part of my education must’ve been permanently deleted from memory. It didn’t help that there’s no true DIY stores like Home Depot back home, so I wasn’t able to find any electrical wires even if I were capable of wiring the house. Dear hubby, whose Electrical Engineering degree from M.I.T. had been collecting dust since the day he graduated, offered this when I asked how come he could once build a robot but now can’t even wire my house: “Do I look like an electrician to you?” Plan B: I bought a mini flashlight to be stuffed inside the house through the doggie door in the back. Whatever works, right?

Time spent pondering the myriad of products on display at Home Fixe and other DIY stores: 30 minutes


Baking the cookie pieces with this recipe was so easy. Since there’s no baking soda or powder in the dough, whatever shape I cut out, baked the same exact shape after it came out of the oven. There was no need to trim after baking!

Time spent baking: 3 hrs



After baking the cookies, I let them rest overnight in a spare bedroom with a dehumidifier running before decorating them. The one lesson I learned from making my first house: it’s much easier to decorate the walls and windows BEFORE you put them up. I had a lot of fun dreaming up how the house should look. I knew I didn’t want a childish rendition, but I also didn’t want a pure brown and white house, so I went with a classic look. I knew I wanted windows this time, but didn’t want to melt candies inside the window holes (again, fear of ants), so I used gelatin sheets instead. Simple! To decorate the roof, I decided not to cover it with candies or cookies. I was afraid that the added weight would cause the walls to buckle, so instead I piped snow “garlands” and small designs inside. The inspiration was from a flickr member’s gorgeous gingerbread house designs, and it worked out well. Another decision I made was to not leave the back wall blank, because, even though nobody will look at the back, I thought the back deserves some attention too. Since I’m planning to have Santa stuck upside down in the chimney, I thought I’d pipe Santa’s sleigh and his reindeers on the back wall, to make it look like they’re waiting for him. To fill up space, I also did a Star of David, and a doggie door through which the light source is to be stuffed inside the house to light up the rooms.

After decorating the pieces, however, I was horrified to find some of the cookie pieces starting to sag. NOOOO!!! The culprit, after I calmed down to find cause, was the flooding of royal icing. The extra water used to thin out the icing was absorbed by the cookies and made them soft. Horrified that I may not have a house after all, I laid out all the pieces on cooling racks and placed them into the spare room, with not one but TWO dehumidifiers running around the clock. I went to bed with my fingers crossed, hoping the pieces would dry out the next day.

Time spent decorating cookie pieces: 7 hrs

D-Day: will the house stand up or will it collapse? Holding up the walls with royal icing was very easy, but you know sometimes you have this nagging feeling but couldn’t really put your finger on it? For days I’d been thinking the position of the doggie door was weird, but didn’t know why I thought so. Then it came the time to put up the back wall, where I painstakingly piped Santa’s sled plus reindeers, along with the beautiful Star of David that almost caused the wall to collapse, and it hit me! I had forgotten to flip the template when I cut out the back wall, so now, all the piping details are INSIDE the house! I was so sad I could’ve cried, but construction must go on. Besides this major blunder, the only other minor hiccup encountered was that after putting up a weight-bearing support wall between the two parts of the house, I realized that I needed a hole in that wall for the light to shine through, because (didn’t I say the position of the doggie door was bothering me?) the doggie door where the light was going to be pushed in was on the other side of the house! So that wall quickly came down and I managed to saw an opening in it. Boy, now was the first ray of hope that this house just might stand up after all, because that wall was so tough to cut through!

After I had gotten over the trauma of the inside-out back wall, I started to enjoy the process of putting all the pieces together. I took one last look at the Star of David that is now a wall mural for the living room, and placed the roof on. Now it’s looking like a house! Even with all the tweaking and fine tuning, the two roofs still didn’t fit exactly, but the beauty with gingerbread house is that you can fill up any holes with royal icing and call it snow! I know I did a lot of planning for this house, but this is where I improvised. I added candies to the bay window roof, made extra bushes with gummy candies, put down a Quaker oat square doormat, and placed a pretzel fence around the house. I was having so much fun it was hard to stop adding stuff to the house!

Time spent assembling the house: 2 hrs

So there you have it, the gingerbread house that cannot be eaten and has to live in the spare bedroom where the humidity level is maintained at 50% by two very hard-working dehumidifiers. It did sit in the living room front and center during my dinner parties and will go to Palate Sensations for a photo shoot. After that, it will live in the reception area of the school until the humidity gets the better of it.

Until next year!

DIY Pastry Tool

Tiramisu is one of my favorite desserts to make, be it the traditional coffee kind or my own green tea version. I also like to make a stenciled pattern on top with icing sugar, after the coco powder or green tea powder, to give it a little something extra.

In the past, I've always had to ask someone to help me with this taks, either to hold the stencil or to do the dusting. The problem with that arrangement is that most people who are not pastry chefs, or surgeons, don't have steady hands. My helper gets really nervous when I ask her to hold the stencil just above the cake, without either touching the cake or moving the stencil. Her hands end up shaking violently. But when I asked her to do the dusting while I hold the stencil, she ended up dumpling mounds of sugar in some places and skipping other areas altogether. Trying to point her to the right direction without moving the stencil was next to impossible because you essentially have to hold your breath in order not to move the stencil. The husband faired slightly better but he's not as readily available.

Months went by where I had to put up with substandard stenciled pattern. Then I remembered one of my pastry students who always commented that there should be a tool for every pastry need. I started looking around the kitchen for something that can be turned into a tool to facilitate this particular pastry task. Lo and behold, the toasting rack for the microwave oven!

I attached three binder clips to the stencil, then attached the clips to the three legs of the rack with rubberbands, adjusting the length of the bands by wrapping them around the legs so the stencil would be suspended at the right height. I then carefully slid the tiramisu under the stencil and Voila! A DIY stencil sling!



Is it too premature to apply for patent?

How to Convert Your Friends into Twilight Fans

Like I said, I’ve turned into a Twilight fan. For three weeks after I came back from New York, I lived and breathed the Twilight saga, reading the books over and over again, watching the DVD, listening to the soundtracks, and searching any Twilight related video clips on YouTube. Yeah, I know, it’s all a little bit obsessive. The worst part though, is that I don’t have many friends who’ve read Twilight, it being a teen novel and all, which made it hard to share my obsession. So, what’s a girl to do, but to try to convert all her friends into fans, just like her? And what better way to do it than to throw a Twilight-themed girls’ night complete with a screening of the movie?

Here’s what you do:

Step 1: send invitation to all your girlfriends regardless of whether they’ve read Twilight or not. After all, the goal is to have as many of your friends as possible with whom you can discuss and obsess over Twilight together, so new blood (no pun intended) is crucial.

Step 2: get your friend who owns a cooking school to send her chef to cook the “bloody” feast for you. Who can resist a gourmet meal cooked by a handsome chef? So he’s no Edward Cullen, but in real life we have to make do.

Step 3: fill your place with as much greeneries as you can so it resembles Forks, the little town the book is set in that’s perpetually green and luscious.








Step 4: conjure up the idea to make a cake that look like Edward’s meadow and reincarnate Edward and Bella in fondant, despite the fact that you’ve never made any human figurines out of fondant before and that fondant literally melts in Singapore’s heat and humidity. To quote Edward, “Mind over matters.”












Step 5: play the soundtrack and Debussy piano music to set the mood.

Step 6: details, details, details. This includes the red apple, which is on the book cover, and represent the forbidden fruit; flowers that smell good and aroma candles to simulate Bella’s floral scent; drinks that look like blood, such as sangria and watermelon juice; and last but not the least, dress up in your vampire chic best! You want to make Alice proud.












Step 7: channel Siobhan’s ability so you can will it to rain after three straight weeks of sunshine and scorching heat. It wouldn’t be Forks if it weren’t wet and gloomy!

Et Voila! You have yourself a bloody good time with friends and virtually all of them are now converts. The next time you throw a New Moon party, nobody will be going, “Aren’t vampires supposed to kill people?”

Pierre Hermé in Singapore

One thing I won’t complain about living in Singapore is the size of the place. True, it is just one tiny island that you can drive from one end to the other in less than 45 minutes, but it is conveniently located for easy traveling. Most places in Asia are just a short hop away and even Europe and Australia are well within 12 hours. North and South Americas and Africa are a little far to get to, but I don’t need to go there too often, now that my parents have retired and moved to Shanghai, and how many times do you need to go on a safari, right?

Anyway, my point is, Singaporeans are a well-traveled bunch and coming from a food-loving culture, they eat where they go at the best places they can find. As a result, mention any internationally renowned chef to any globe trotting Singaporean and chances are he/she has not only heard of the chef but has also eaten at the famed establishment. It is therefore no surprise that each year at the World Gourmet Summit held in town the list of guest chef looks like the who’s who of the culinary world. I missed the one last year because I was back in the States helping my parents move, i.e. tossing out high school report cards, college notebooks and even my wedding dress from their basement.

This year, I made sure I was in town during the WGS and I am so glad I did, because Pierre Hermé, the man who single handedly changed the way desserts are made and presented was one of the guest chefs.

I have long been a fan of Mr. PH ever since my Tokyo days and have visited his store in Paris as well. He may not be my all-time favorite pastry chef ever (that honor goes to Mr. Hidemi Sugino), but his innovative flavor combinations never cease to amaze and inspire me. Naturally, when my friend called to tell me that he’s going to be serving his signature desserts at Mezza9 I wanted to make a reservation right away. I also wanted to attend his master class, however I was not as decisive in that front. So in the time it took me to come to the conclusion that yes, I really do want to watch him from the back of an auditorium that seats 200, all the tickets were sold out. At least we booked our seats at the Mezza9 early enough.

After more than a month the day finally came. The six of us agreed (or rather, the wives decided on behalf of the husbands) to order a light dinner so we could try all seven desserts on the menu. In true Singapore “kiasu” style we pre-ordered our desserts before our meals, just in case any particular item runs out. While we were deciding what main dishes to order, Mr. Pierre Hermé stepped out into the dining room and all of a sudden I could feel my heart palpitating. He came over to our table and I asked Jason to take a photo for me with the master himself, then another one with all three ladies at the table. Normally I am not the type to swoon over a movie or rock star but I found myself gushing in the presence of Mr. PH. So it was in the presence of an iconic chef that I finally got a little taste of what screaming fans must feel when they’re faced with their idol.

At the waiter’s urge we ordered some side dishes to go with the main, but the main dish portions turned out to be very generous. I had almost half a duck on my plate and in order to conserve precious stomach space I had to give most of it to Jason. When finally the dishes were cleared away we ordered a bottle of dessert wine and waited for the arrival of Mr. PH’s masterpieces.

Now, in the order of flavors going from lightest to heaviest, they are:

Dessert Ispahan – rose flavored macaron filled with rose petal cream with raspberries and lychees, served with sorbet ispahan: lychee, rose petal aromas and raspberry sorbet.

I have had both the ispahan (macaron) and the sorbet (in the form of and ice cream bar, named Miss Gla-gla), which are both excellent on their own. But I have to say that having them side by side like this, when you chase the ispahan macaron with a light, refreshing bite of the sorbet, you’ll understand why this is his best known dessert.

Emotion Satine – compote of passion fruit, seasoned orange segments, cream cheese cream, topped with shortbread cubes soaked in flavored syrup.

I have also had this while in Tokyo, when the range was first introduced. I’ve always liked the tartness of passion fruit, especially when it’s paired with something sweet and creamy. One of my favorite elements of this dessert is the shortbread on top. People are weary because they look like brown sugar cubes but of course when you pop one into your mouth you’ll immediately realize your mistake.



Revelation – puff pastry with tomato, mascarpone cream, olive oil, pieces of black olives, tomato and strawberry compote.

There is a split of opinion on this dessert, with only two guys in our group liking it. Usually I am the first to order something weird like this because I am always for trying new flavors, but even for me this is a little strange. Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against tomatoes in desserts, it is a fruit after all. In fact, one of my favorite tarts was a cherry tomato tart from a bakery in Tokyo. However, the revelation lacks the magic element that pulls all the components together, so the tomato tasted like salad and the olives seemed really out of place.

Tarte Mogador – shortcrust pastry filled with milk chocolate and passion fruit ganache, with a piece of flourless chocolate cake inside, topped with roasted pineapple

Here is another one I did not like. For one, the short crust pastry shell was really hard and very difficult to cut, and then there’s the problem of the pineapple. Maybe the Hyatt couldn’t get a good batch, but it was kind of tasteless. Then there’s the cacao nibs. I confess I’ve never been a fan of cacao nibs, and especially not in ganache. I am all for contrast of textures, but biting into cacao nibs in an otherwise silky and smooth ganache is like finding coffee grinds in a nice cup of latte. It’s just not my thing. Sorry, Mr. Hermé!

The next dessert has no name but only a description: variation of chestnut, passion fruit and matcha green tea.

The bottom half of the martini glass was filled with a silky custard so rich and creamy and full of egg flavors I couldn’t stop eating. Then there was a layer of sweet chestnut cream and a layer of matcha mouse. Passion fruit pulp was drizzled on top to give this sweet and rich dessert some zing. The scoop of ice cream lent a nice contrast in temperature and it was all rounded off nicely with a paper-thin tuille. This is more like the Pierre Hermé I know.

Crème brulee with foie gras, cranberries and pear compote

Ladies and gentlemen, this is by no means your regular crème brulee! Although I eat foie gras at every chance I get, I’ve never had it in a dessert and to be perfectly honest, I had my doubts: will it be too rich, will it be too weird? All my doubts were dispelled the moment I took a tentative little bite. Oh how do I describe it? You know when you eat foie gras, you like the intense rich flavor but the burst of oil in your mouth is not really pleasant? Well, somehow Mr. Hermé managed to solve that problem. You taste the intense fragrance of the foie gras without the greasiness because, me thinks, it is first neutralized by the custard cream and further played down by the refreshing combination of cranberry/pear compote and fresh pear chunks. In the words of Randy Jackson, (watch American Idol much?) “Yo, listen dude, this is molten HOT!”

And last but not the least, an assortment of macarons:

The vanilla was too sweet for my taste and the chocolate had the same problem with the tarte: cacao nibs in ganache. I didn’t try the passion fruit milk chocolate ganache macaron but I really enjoyed the rose flavored ispahan, again. My favorite, however, was the white truffle. I know it sounds so cliché, but I really did enjoy it the most. I know it’s hard to make a good truffle dessert because I’ve had some pretty bad truffle ice creams before. Nevertheless, when it’s done right, it is the most incredible experience of flavor and aroma, which PH managed to do in perfection. The fragrance of the truffle is neither too pungent nor too subtle and the flavor is neither too intrusive nor too delicate. And with that perfect macaron we finished off our wonderful dessert course.

I was feeling content and happy about the whole experience, until the next day, when I found out that there was actually another different dessert menu just next door in the Martini bar. Had I known that I would’ve convinced my dinner companions to skip dinner altogether and order that entire menu too! Oh well, there is always Paris and Tokyo. Until then, Mr. Hermé.

So how did you spend your Valentine’s Day?

Here’s how I spent Feb 14th, 2008

12amv – 1:45am
Emergency Room of Mount Pleasant Animal Hospital
Libby and Cherry Garcia got into a fight and Libby’s two upper canines were ripped from her gum. The one on the right is pointing horizontally out instead of down. Her upper lip couldn’t even close properly. After a shot of antibiotics, pain relief meds and some blood sample we were sent home.

2am
Home
Dead tired, but had to make sure the dogs are ok sleeping in the same room after a big fight. Libby ended up sleeping on my side of the bed with her E-collar on and Cherry slept at the foot of the bed between Jason and I.

9am – 10am
Mount Pleasant Animal Hospital
Dropped Libby off to get her teeth fixed. Since she had to go under general anesthesia anyway I asked the vet to scale her teeth. She looked so timid and helpless and her upper lip was still pushed up by the uprooted canine I almost bursted into tears in the exam room.

10:30am
CK Tang, 4th floor
Bought a set of jungle animal figurines as cupcake toppers for a friend’s daughter’s jungle themed cake order.

11am – 4:30pm
Home
Baking cupcakes, chocolate with chocolate butter cream and lemon with lemon butter cream, plus a small cutting cake for above mentioned jungle themed birthday party. I hate rushing things when I make desserts, but I had no choice. I actually wanted to make the cake toppers with fondant, but it was too last minute. Good thing I scouted out the plastic figurines as a backup. I am very glad I had this cake order to take my mind off Libby, otherwise I probably would’ve resort to retail therapy and bought things that I’d regret later.

5pm
Mount Pleasant Animal Hospital
Back to pick up Libby. I was hoping her left canine could be saved but she came out with both canines gone. The bill from both visits added up to be about $500, a lot lower than I expected, but I would’ve paid anything if they could’ve fixed her canines instead of pulling them out.

6-7pm
Camp Rd grassy area
Walking/training Cherry Garcia to heel off leash. Jeffrey the dog trainer thinks that if I train Cherry more vigorously with higher expectations, the dogs will stop fighting. At this stage I’m willing to try anything.

9pm
Home
After a quiet dinner, I Finished up my royal icing/pretzel stick coconut trees for the cake. The royal icing didn’t have enough time to dry thoroughly so a lot of them cracked. I tried my best to patch them up, hopefully they won’t crack after I put them on the cake.


When we were waiting at Mt. Pleasant Animal Hospital’s ER, I called The Animal Recovery Centre at Greendale Ave and Balestier Rd, to see if the vet there could see us sooner (the wait at Mt. Pleasant was more than an hour). After describing the situation to the technician I was informed that the vet did not think it was important enough for him/her to come in and see Libby, even though I was willing to pay the $260 night call rate. I told the technician again that Libby’s teeth were completely ripped out and that she was in pain, but the vet still didn’t think it was a big deal. In fact, they didn’t even think it was serious enough to book me the first appointment the next day. They wanted me to go in at 2pm! They also mentioned getting an ultrasound before determining what to do. This is the point where I hung up and decided to never go to the Animal Recovery Center again.

I had one bad experience with them when I took Cherry Garcia in for a very severe case of diarrhea. Libby had something similar in Tokyo. The vet there took a stool sample, determined the bacteria that was causing it and prescribed the right medicine. She was better the next day. At the Animal Recovery Center, they didn’t want to do any test but instead gave her a broad-spectrum antibiotics, which didn’t cover anaerobic bacteria because from experience, even I know the diarrhea was probably caused by something in some garbage that Cherry ate, which is perfect breeding ground for anaerobes (see, I haven’t completely forgotten my training in clinical pharmacy). They also gave her some vitamin shots, which were expensive and completely unnecessary. The bill came up to almost $300 and Cherry continued to have diarrhea for the next week. Needless to say, I was not impressed, and the only reason I called them that night was because I was willing to do anything to relieve Libby’s pain faster. I was prepared to pay through the nose but I never expected the vet to be so cold-hearted and uncaring. If his child had some teeth knocked out I would like to see his reaction if his dentist told him to wait for more than 14 hours for treatment. I know we couldn’t perform the surgery that night, but at least we could give her some pain relief and antibiotics. Hasn’t he ever heard of endocarditis? I just think that someone who has so little compassion has no business being a vet.

On a more positive note, the friend whose daughter is having the jungle themed birthday party runs a medical foster home called Blue Sky Healing Homes in Beijing. She temporarily houses and provides medical care to orphans who go to Beijing for medical treatments. Often times she ends up being the one to raise money or finds doctors to treat the kids. It’s a great cause and she does it with her own money plus generous donations from people like you and me. So instead of giving each other presents this Valentine’s day, we are donating to her organization. Take a look at her website and I hope the stories will inspire you too.