Written by: Jo Yeoul (EJC Press, 19-A2), Beverly Tan (EJC Press, 19-E3), Zhao Keyang (EJC Press, 19-I1)
Designed by: Jo Yeoul (EJC Press, 19-A2), Athena Lim (EJC Press, 19-A4)
Photographs taken by: Jo Yeoul (EJC Press, 19-A2), Beverly Tan (EJC Press, 19-E3), Clare Lam (EJC Media, 19-I1)
Small Potato Party
Small Potatoes Ice Creamery, 313 Orchard Rd, #B3 – 48, Singapore 238895
Photograph by: Clare Lam (EJC Media, 19-I1)
Allergens: Dairy
Cost: $10 (no service charge)
Small Potato Party, offered by Small Potatoes Ice Creamery, consists of matcha warabi mochi, puff rice, sweet potato chips, mini sweet potatoes, mashed Japanese purple sweet potato, azuki bean paste, mochi balls and sweet potato ice cream. The dessert certainly provides an accessible escape to those who crave the long chain of sweet-salty-sweet-salty combination (Mobius Strip much?). It’s design is very pretty too, and is very “Instagrammable”.
Although the name certainly sounded promising, the sweet potato ice cream was lacking in flavour. The dessert unfortunately did not live up to its hype and was rather overpriced, considering that the cup was small enough to fit in a child’s palm. Even the spoon was small; maybe the name of the dessert was truly an apt one.
Rating: B, would eat if in the area.
Taro Milk Tea with black pearls (100%)
Liho, The Star Vista, 1 Vista Exchange Green, #B1-39, Singapore 138617
Photograph by: Beverly Tan (EJC Press, 19-E3)
Cost: $4.40 (no service charge)
Allergens: Dairy
When we got the cup, we received a poor imitation of the vibrant shade of purple as seen on the Liho menu. Is mass manufacturing a trade off for high quality bubble tea? Maybe. The drink tasted worse than expected – bland and with too much milk. For the love of bubble tea, we drank it anyway. Although the pearls were fairly chewy (the only great point about the Taro Milk Tea), they were excessively tiny and we quickly found out that swallowing too many of them is a potential choking hazard. Nevertheless, it was at least edible.
Rating: E, would consume if offered for free
Taro Ang Ku Kueh
The Star Vista, 1 Vista Exchange Green
Photograph by: Beverly Tan (EJC Press, 19-E3)
Cost: $2.60 for 2
Allergens: None
The Taro Ang Ku Kueh has a nice pastel purple colour (rather unnatural looking, actually), with regular Ang Ku Kueh skin and taro filling. The chunks of taro bits in the filling add another dimension of texture to this food item, albeit marginally. However, the greasy skin of the Ang Ku Kueh does leave a fair bit of oil on one’s finger if one attempts to eat it with their hands. It does tend to stick to human teeth but the pieces are generally easy to remove (we have not tested this on any other species yet). The Taro Ang Ku Kueh has no strong flavours but is still palatable and reminded one of us of a Peranakan grandma’s cooking (the other two did not grow up in this land).
Rating: C, mayhaps a chance
Sweet Potato Macarons by Clare Lam
Photograph by: Clare Lam (EJC Media, 19-I1)
Cost: Priceless
Allergens: Nuts
Clare Lam of EJC Media kindly offered to make sweet potato macarons for our food review. The macarons we tasted were slightly soggy because they were out of the fridge for many hours. Nevertheless, they were delicious. The macaron cookie was crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside. The filling had a nice consistency and added to the strong sweet potato flavour. Overall, we thoroughly enjoyed the macaron. Some of us are even willing to eat Clare’s macarons despite having severe allergies to some of the ingredients, and might trade our first born child for more of these. Thank you Clare!
Rating: A, would do anything to eat it again
P.S. scroll down for Clare’s macarons recipe.
Yam Bao
Hot Drinks Stall , EJ school canteen
Photograph by: Jo Yeoul (EJC Press, 19-A2)
Cost: $0.80
Allergens: none
Piping hot, the yam bao’s encased yam filling is unexpectedly flavourful. Despite its diminutive size, the yam bao is probably able to satiate your hunger, easily consumed in the interval between lessons and CCA. To savour the yam bao, we found that it is best to eat it on the spot. The yam bao is truly an enjoyable and underrated gem in the school canteen.
Rating: B, would eat if we’re in the area
Recipe for Clare’s Sweet Potato Macarons
Ingredients:
Almond Meal – 70g
Icing Sugar – 70g
Castor Sugar – 84g
Egg whites – 84g (about two egg whites)
Purple gel food coloring
Macaron Shells:
Separate your egg whites from your yolks, leave whites in a dry and clean bowl (whites to be whipped later) until it’s at room temperature.
Sift your almond meal and icing sugar together twice to ensure that your macarons will be smooth and not grainy.
Whip your egg whites with an electric mixer, gradually adding the castor sugar as you go along. Whip until whites are at soft peaks stage and add desired food coloring.
Keep whipping until whites are at stiff peaks stage (if you flip the bowl over, whites should not fall down).
Pour half of your dry ingredient mixture (almond meal and icing sugar) into egg white mixture and gently fold in.
Once other half is folded in, purposely deflate the mixture by using your spatula to flatten the mixture against the sides of your mixing bowl. You would have deflated your mixture enough when you scoop some of the mixture up with your spatula, and the mixture just pours down in thick ribbons.
Scoop mixture into a piping bag and pipe 1.5 inch circles onto a baking paper lined tray.
Let shells dry (when you touch the surface of the shell, it should not stick onto your fingers).
Bake in an oven at 150 degrees for 12-14 min and let it cool.
Sweet Potato Cream:
Ingredients
5-6 sweet potatoes (700g)
100ml heavy cream
100ml milk
35g sugar
35g butter
Steam sweet potatoes until soften, peel and cut/mash them.
Add sugar, butter, milk and cream into a pot and boil until the sugar and butter dissolves.
Use a blender to blend the sweet potatoes while adding milk butter mixture until everything is combined.
Refrigerate, and it’s ready to pipe.
The Origin* 