The restaurant:
***Dozo***

Serving a fusion of French and Japanese. My two favourite cuisines. At S$58++, this sounds like a dream come true.

Unless of course you love overkill. Should have sensed it from it’s tagline: “Fine Modern Japanesque”! Eeeeeeeek!

AMBIENCE:

I’m not an ambience person but I also like places that are pleasant and not in your face. Step right in and I thought I was in a high-class karaoke joint. A noisy table with yuppies toasting wine was a tip off that this is anything but ‘high class’.

We were shown to a table along the walkway, that had 1) POLYESTER table cloth that was TOO LONG (a Martha Stewart nightmare!); 2) tacky colour; 3) too noisy and bustling

However, upon request, they did accommodatingly give us another table that was less frenetic.

SERVICE:

Now the service. Some service staff have it (that is poise, charm, eloquence and wit). Undoubtedly the wait staff at Dozo were trained to be friendly. BUT, come on, repeating the SAME CORNY jokes to the next table is a real turn off. If you haven’t got natural chattiness and charm, please, save it! Not to mention, their spoken English was absolutely appalling that our poor assigned server had to repeat what he was saying at least 3 times. Even then, we had to guess what those rolled together words with hideous pronunciation, were. On top of that, the service was very intrusive. I mean, come on. I don’t need to be attended to every 30 secs! Too much of a good thing is a waste.

FOOD:

What was I eating? Actually, I know what I was eating, but I do not need the wait staff to explain to me as if I had just stepped out of my home for the first time in my life. Please. Oh, and to use my cutlery to cut my steak to explain ‘doneness’…well, I thought that was plain rude and inappropriate. Service staff should NEVER touch my food with my cutlery. And besides, I like my steak rare…It came medium/medium well. And I was told that truffles are ‘very very expensive mushrooms’ which is why I only got a 1sqcm worth! Why thank you very much. I’m not worthy!

My guess is the chef has high hopes of being recognised and someday working in a michelin-star restaurant. His presentation, I must say, was impeccable. However, I can’t say very much for his food and the flavours. The food came off over-presented, over-manicured, overkill overkill overkill. It wasn’t exceptional. It was forgettable. Then again, what do you expect for $58? Threw me for the loop the way it was all brought out. What’s with all the gimmicks? So cheesy!

A truly great restaurant never has to rely on gimmicks and cosmetics to draw people back. It’s like a plain looking girl that wears too much make-up in order to get noticed! Sad but true.

7-courses – that’s how good ‘value’ this place was supposed to be.
But 7-courses of what? Tiny bite sizes of overly presented, forgettable food that had no distinctive flavour – nothing French nor Japanese about any of it.

My ‘favourite’ was the 6th course. Our server boasted it’s an ice refresher! What’s that? Call a spade a spade, it’s a glorified name for fruit juice with cut fruit bits and tea. The dessert, our server was boasting once again, was the ‘best choc lava cake’ in Singapore. Didn’t rock my world. In fact, didn’t even make history in my books.

The Japanese bit wasn’t really good. Then again, the French bit was a huge disappointment too. Pity. It didn’t encapsulate the essence of Japanese (simple concepts, natural flavours, freshest ingredients) and French (robust flavours with simple home-grown ingredients) cuisines. Once again, too much cosmetics! And way too cheesy.

VALUE:
$58++ for 7-courses initially seems like a good deal. On hindsight, I’d rather pay more to have a beautifully cooked 2-course meal, than pay less for SO-SO, FUSSY, FORGETTABLE (neither here nor there) and GIMMICKY food that’s nothing but cosmetics. Not so good value after all.

To sum it up, Dozo pretends to be a fine dining restaurant without the 5-star price. Isn’t that just pretentious then? The old adage of quantity does not equal quality is applicable here. Always best to be good at a few things, then to try to be overly ambitious and not be very good at many things.

What would Gordon Ramsey say? Most likely scale down from 7 forgettable bite-size courses, and focus on 3 or 4 good size portions of signature dishes and do it really really well. In the end, ultimately it’s great food that wins. Not the number of courses and gimmicks a restaurant throws in.

Smart Tart rating: +

I am not recommending this place nor will I be responsible for what you eat if you decide to try it for yourself

Dozo
491 River Valley Road
#02-02/03 Valley Point
Tel: 6838 6966

***THANYING at Amara Sanctuary @ Sentosa***

And my tongue loves it too – not one time was it on fire.

You see, I cannot stand “Authentic” Thai food. Unfortunately, most touristy Thai food ensnares with nothing but pure MSG, sugar, salt, and chillies – my enemy #1. If you have to kill flavour with chilli, then why even bother having any cooking skills at all?

Royal Thai cuisine on the other hand, is the true Thai food. In fact, in some countries the Royal Thai Government has bestowed a “Thai Select” seal on restaurants serving Thai cuisine which truly reflects the true Thai culture and dining standards. The bar is set high, and the standards are strict. Unfortunately, most Thai restaurants around the world don’t fall under those standards, pawning off cheap, and badly prepared food as “Authentic Thai food”.

Most people think of Thai food should be spicy and laced with chilli.  This is far from the truth.

In all Thai dishes, there must always be a balanced harmony of flavours. No one flavour should jump out more than another. That’s the mark of Royal Thai food – well-balanced flavours.

For a start the Pomelo salad was the perfect balance of fresh, plump and succulent pomelo bits, coconut cream and a hint of chilli. PERFECT!

Then came the Stuffed Wings – delicate, not greasy, juicy and full of lean meat (unlike those places that rely on fatty chicken bits to make it tasty).

For mains, my favourite had to be the Steamed Seabass. I’m a fish connoisseur and snob. So I prefer nothing less than supremely fresh whole fish. Not filets. And definitely not that horrible frozen stuff.

Thanying’s Steamed Seabass – there are no other words to describe it than pure perfection. It was 1) the right size, 2) delicately flavoured (without heaps of chilli and lime to drown out the freshness of the fish), 3) very tender.

Both Green (chicken) and Red (pork) Curries were also very good. NOT SPICY! But full of flavour – can taste the lemon grass, aubergines, basil etc, all without heavy coconut flavour as well.

This is indeed true ROYAL Thai cuisine indeed. Very refined. Very exquisite.

Service was polite, helpful, efficient and obliging.

Ambience – lovely. Calming and soothing surrounds with lot of natural light makes for a wonderful and comfortable experience. It is the Amara Sanctuary at Sentosa after all.

My only gripe is it’s a tad pricey, but hey given it’s the only place in Singapore that serves decent, edible and very very refined Thai food, I don’t mind forking it out over and over again!

Must Tries: Pomelo salad, Steamed Seabass, Green & Red curries

Smart Tart rating: ++++ 1/2

Details:

Thanying at Amara Sanctuary @ Sentosa
1 Larkin Road
Sentosa
Tel: +65 6825 3881 / 6825 3888

Chocolate cake with Bittersweet Ganache and tower of tri-colored Ferrero Rochers

My hubby had a birthday just this past week. Birthdays are usually the biggest events in his family, so naturally, things have to be perfect.

He’d specifically asked me to make him his birthday cake (usually store bought every year). And since I’ve been churning out desserts and cakes as if I’m putting the neighbourhood patisserie out of business, I knew this had to be my best creation to date (sad but true!).

Like me, my husband is a real chocolate fiend – well, I think I have him beat. The more bitter, the better! So no surprises, I decided his birthday cake was going to be a chocolate cake. But it had to be different! I know where my baking weaknesses are – mainly in icing and piping! My hot and humid Asian kitchen just isn’t conducive for that! Without a doubt, it was NOT going to be a design that required artful icing. 

After days of planning, I combined my love for architecture, textures…and chocolate, and came up with the creation you see above. I’m immodestly going to say, it was simply orgasmic! Visually and on the palate! Oozy and bittersweet on the outside, lightly sweet, and slightly firm with crunch on the inside! A whole lot of amazing sensations! Wish I’d save myself and extra slice to take home…

The Chocolate Cake base

(serves about 10 – 14 depending on size of slice) 

The Elements

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 2 egg
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup water
• 4 oz bittersweet chocolate morsels/chunks
• 1 3/4 cups pastry flour (or plain flour)
• 1/4 cup cocoa powder
• 1 tsp baking soda (not baking powder!)
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 cup sour cream/yogurt

The Method

1. Preheat oven to 180ºC/350ºF. Butter and flour 2 9-inch cake pans.
    
2. Cream butter and sugars together until fluffy. Beat in eggs and vanilla.
    
3. In a small pan stir water and chocolate over low heat until melted. Allow to cool slightly before beating into butter mixture.
    
4. Sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt and stir into batter alternately with sour cream. Divide evenly between the 2 pans and bake for 25-35 minutes, until a tester inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.
5. 

   Trim off rounded top in preparation for icing

   

   Run knife along edge to lift cake away from pan to prevent cracking

   Once it’s done, remove promptly and set it on a rack to cool. Be sure to use a palette knife to remove edges from cake pan to prevent cake from cracking when it cools (right). Allow to cool 15 minutes in the pans, then turn cakes out onto rack to cool completely.

6. Trim off the rounded tops of the cake to prepare for icing with Ganache (top extreme right).

Chocolate and Ferrero Rocher filling

The Elements

• 200g (about 1 1/2 cups) bittersweet chocolate morsels/chunks
• 2/3 cups whipping cream
• 10 Ferrero Rochers (regular flavour)

The Method

1. 

   Blend choc mixture with smashed Rochers

   

   Thwack Ferrero Rochers with a rolling pin or wooden spoon

   Put Ferrero Rochers into a Ziploc bag and thwack it until it’s nice and chunky.

2. Heat whipping cream in a pan until it bubbles to a boil.
    
3. In a separate bowl, add in the bittersweet chocolate then pour in the hot whipping cream.
    
4. Gently stir until chocolate melts and mixture is shiny and smooth.
    
5. Now add in the smashed up Ferrero Rochers and blend well.
    


Spread filling and chill

6. Make sure cake is completely cooled before you begin the next step.
    
7. Spread filling into middle of cake and press down firmly. Chill cake in fridge for 30 minutes.

Bittersweet Ganache

The Elements

• 220g (about 1 1/2 cups) bittersweet chocolate (chopped)
• 3/4 cups (about 180ml) whipping cream
• 2 tbsp unsalted butter

The Method

Gorgeously silky Ganache

1. Put chocolate in a bowl.
    
2. Heat whipping cream in a pan until it bubbles to a boil.
    
3. Pour into chocolate and add butter. Leave it for a few moments. Then gently stir until mixture is smooth and shiny.
    
4. Remove cake from fridge and pour over cake. 
    


Voila! Chocolate Ganache Cake

5. With an offset palette knife, gently smooth and spread Ganache and coat cake evenly.

Finishing Touch

To be honest, the cake is really ready to eat at this point. But if you want to impress further, go for the tower of Ferrero Rochers.

I’ve used 4 Dark Ferrero Rochers, 6 regular Ferrero Rochers and 3 White Ferrero Rochers. If you can’t find either dark or white Ferrero Rochers, no worries. You can always substitute it for chocolate truffles. But to make White Ferrero Rochers, you can simply melt some white chocolate and dip the Ferrero Rochers in it (if you’re having a hard time melting white chocolate, click here).

Now begin building your tower. There’s no real rule. Best to just work it out on a plate first and decide on how high you want it to go. My tower is a 8 – 4 – 1 configuration. After you’ve built your first ‘draft’, time to do it on the cake. To get the Ferrero Rochers to stick together, you can always use a bit of buttercream.

The Smarts

The Cake

1. Use Baking Soda over Baking Powder. Baking Powder is just too neutral and will change the taste of your chocolate cake. Remember to always use a moisture and acid to activate the baking soda. Otherwise your cake will be too bitter. Click here to find out why.

The Ganache

1. Use heavy whipping cream. Why? The higher the fat content, the thicker and smoother your ganache. If you go for low-fat, your ganache might end up being too runny and messy.
2. To ensure your ganache is shiny, add 2 dollops of butter.
3. Don’t over stir the ganache. This will cause it to lose its shine. 
4. Always gently stir otherwise you’d end up incorporating too much air in the ganache. You won’t want tiny air bubbles in your silky smooth ganache.

The Dummy

1. Always make sure the cake is COMPLETELY cooled before you begin any sort of icing. Obviously, you won’t want your frosting to melt before you can even begin!
    
2. Once you’ve spread the Ferrero Rocher filling between the two halves of chocolate cake, it’s important to chill the cake. This is to ensure that you set any loose crumbs in place. Notice that cakes are always flufflier when they are warm. So the last thing you want is crumbly cake when you pour over the final ganache coat. Not very pretty!
    


Seal in crumbs with buttercream frosting

3. To be doubly sure you’ll have a smooth cake, before you chill the cake, you can spread on a ‘crumb coat’. You can easily use ready-to-use over-the-counter frosting for this purpose. With it, you can be confident, that all loose crumbs will be set in place!
    
4. A chilled cake also makes for shiny ganache! If the cake is warm, the ganache will lose its shine.

By understanding the chemistry behind baking soda and baking powder, perhaps you can begin to understand a little more as to how each works. From here, you can apply what you know to any recipe and make it your own by adding ingredients that work well with each ingredient.

Baking Soda

Baking soda (or sold as ‘Bicarbonate of Soda’ in Asia and Europe) is pure sodium bicarbonate. How a ‘bicarbonate’ works is simple. By adding moisture and an acidic ingredient (for instance, sour cream, yogurt, chocolate, buttermilk, honey), a chemical reaction begin. This reaction or carbonation process, produces carbon dioxide bubbles that expand in oven temps. Which is why your baked goods can rise. The reaction begins immediately as soon as ingredients are mixed – you can see instantly that your batter begins to stiffen and expand. So any recipe with baking soda needs to be baked immediately. Otherwise, the batter will go flat as will your baked goods!

Baking Powder

Baking powder is also a sodium bicarbonate except it already contains an acidifying agent – in this case, Cream of Tartar. You may have noticed that baking powders come in two forms: single-acting and double-acting. Single-acting powders are activated by moisture (eggs, milk etc). Therefore, you MUST bake this mixture immediately. Double-acting powders react in two stages. In one of the stages, the mixture will be able to withstand some time without baking. In the other stage, when the baking powder is added to the batter or dough, some gas is released at room temperature and the majority of it happens after the dough rises in the oven. 

When do you use Baking Soda and Baking Powder?

Some recipes need baking soda, while others need baking powder, yet a rare few may have both. Baking soda will yield a bitter taste unless it has an acidic ingredient, such as buttermilk or sour cream to counter it. You’ll find baking soda in cookie recipes with chocolate. Because baking powder is both basic and acidic, it actually just neutralises a recipe. Recipes with baking powder usually combine with other neutral-tasting ingredients, such as milk. 

What you if have one but not the other?

You can substitute baking powder for baking soda – but, do realise that because baking powder tends to have more of a neutral taste, it could affect the taste of the final baked product – which is why sometimes that cookies just taste like a milk cookie. No oomph! The other way cannot happen though – which is substitute baking soda for baking powder. Baking soda, as mentioned before, requires an acidic moisture to make a bake product rise. But you can easily make your own baking powder by combining two parts cream of tartar with one part baking soda.

Now that you’ve gained some insights into some common baking slip-ups, hopefully you can rise to the challenge with some of your own delicious creations!

Granny's not-so-common-sense Fluffy Pancakes

How many times have we ordered a stack of pancakes or flapjacks only to be disappointed as they resemble a stack of CDs? Perhaps that’s where the phrase ‘flat as pancakes’ was derived from.

If you’re a Smart Tart, you’ll know that pancakes are anything but flat.

It’s no secret that if you want anything raised and fluffy, just add baking powder. That’s the common recipe most grannies will share.

My grannie’s pancakes are truly phenomenal. They are as fluffy, soft, thick and light as pillows that would put you into dreamland. The secret? Baking soda – or Bicarbonate of Soda in this part of the world.

Don’t be fooled. My granny didn’t substitute baking powder with baking soda. She used them both. Though she may not have understood the chemistry behind the two, she knew just the right way to get the best results.

The first time I attempted granny’s pancakes, I thought I was being clever by omitting baking powder as I simply didn’t have it in my pantry. I also left out buttermilk as I just don’t have any in the refrigerator.

My husband, the ever-willing taste test lab rat, will attest that my pancakes were the best he’s ever seen – with the most bitter taste!

Before I explain why this happened, here’s the recipe.
Be warned: Stick to the recipe!

The Elements
(serves 6)

Dry ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons white sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Wet ingredients

• 1 cup milk
• 3/4 cup buttermilk (or sour cream; plain yogurt)
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil

The Method

Lumps add air and texture

1. Pre-heat a lightly oiled griddle over medium heat. If you haven’t got a griddle, a large shallow frying pan will do.

2. Combine dry ingredients. Make a well in the center. In a separate bowl, beat together egg, buttermilk, milk and oil. Pour wet mixture into flour mixture. Beat until well-blended. Don’t worry if there are lumps (top right) – believe it or not, this will make for airier and fluffier pancakes!

3. Pour or scoop the batter onto the hot griddle using a soup ladle for each pancake. Base will begin to brown. Wait for bubbles to form and burst before flipping (right) Brown other side and serve immediately with your favourite toppings (below)

Served here with warm marmalade compote	Only 3 in a stack and it’s sky high and irresistibly fluffy!

Hey! Before you run off and try this on your own, here are some pitfalls you may encounter. By understanding how baking soda and baking powder work together, you could avoid a little bitter embarrassment before you serve this up at your next brunch party!

The Dummy

If you haven’t got baking powder, don’t think baking soda works the same way. It doesn’t.

Baking soda is basic and will yield a bitter taste unless you add something acidic like buttermilk or yogurt or sour cream. Don’t believe me? Try it for yourself.

The reason why this happens, is that baking soda is pure sodium bicarbonate. Which means it needs moisture and an acidic ingredient (eg., sour cream, yogurt, chocolate, buttermilk, honey) to produce carbon dioxide – this is why your pancakes will be fluffy and light.

Also, once you add your acidic ingredient into your batter, you’ll notice that your batter will become stiffer and begins to expand slightly (right). This is baking soda at work, expanding and creating all those wonderful pockets of air! The effect is a little similar to the way yeast works to make bread.

When this happens, don’t be alarmed and certainly DON’T try to add more milk to thin it out. A stiff batter is good! That means fluffy pancakes! Once it stiffens, hit the griddle immediately before it falls flat!

The Smarts

1. You can substitute baking powder in place of baking soda (you’ll need more baking powder but it may affect the taste), but you can’t substitute baking soda for baking powder. Baking soda by itself lacks the acidity to make a pancake/cake rise.
2. If you haven’t got baking powder, make your own by combining 2 parts of cream of tartar with 1 part of baking soda.
3. Both baking soda and baking powder are leavening agents. They are added to baked goods before cooking to produce carbon dioxide and cause them to ‘rise’. The two substances are used under different conditions. Find out more about them here.

Smarty pants Chocolate Covered Strawberries

Sounds easy enough. It really is – unless you try to get too smart about it. Which is what I did. Much to my chagrin (wish I could use the undo command z for my mistakes!). Note to self: don’t try to get too creative!

You see, sometimes the simplest things should be just that way – simple. There is a science to all foods. With a bit of knowledge of the physics and chemistry of each ingredient, you realise the best results often stem from the most simple approaches.

The Elements
(Makes 10 – 12 servings)

• 15 large riped strawberries, washed and dried (Impt: make sure it’s dry!!!)
• 1.5 cups of semi-sweet chocolate (morsels or chopped-up cooking choc bar)

The Method

    
1. Place chocolate in a deep heat-resistant glass bowl
2. Add some water in a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Then turn down heat.
3. Place glass bowl over saucepan and melt chocolate, while continuously stirring. This is called ‘double boiling’.
4. Once the chocolate liquefies, begin to dip strawberries in it. One by one, holding each one by the leaves or stem.
5. Dip and coat all over, then place on a baking sheet. When you’re done, refrigerate for up to 1 hour before serving.

That’s it. Like I said, easy.

But, here’s what could go wrong if you decide to give it your own twist.

The Dummy
For one, the chocolate may seem a little thick. And, you’d be tempted to add cold milk to thin out the chocolate. Before you ruin a good thing, let me tell you what will happen. Your lovely, lazy, melty chocolate will become really thick and stubborn. By this time, your natural reaction is to add more milk…after all, we’ve all grown up with cooking knowledge that the more liquid, the more diluted. Not in this case. Chocolate is a different creature altogether.

In the end, you’ll have hard and lumpy, almost immobile chocolate, which really can’t be saved anymore. You may try to re-melt it again, but alas, it isn’t going to regain that silky smooth luxury which you started out with.

So remember, adding milk to melted chocolate, is like adding salt to green tea. 

The Smarts

1. If chocolate is too thick, turn up the heat and continue stirring – this will thin it down again.
2. Also, make sure strawberries aren’t too cold and wet as this will thicken chocolate more quickly.
3. Semi-sweet chocolate also has less cocoa butter in its structure – only about 31 – 38%, which means it will crystallise quicker than milk chocolate. Because of this, you may want to use milk chocolate instead (cooking chocolate of course). But there’s nothing like the smoothness and richness of semi-sweet chocolate! I hear it’s a great anti-oxidant too!
4. Lastly, if you have to add milk, either add it to the chocolate BEFORE you heat it up, or make sure milk is hot before adding to melted chocolate. And remember to stir.

Do not take the lazy way out by melting chocolate in the microwave. You don’t know just how hot the microwave could get and your chocolate could end up getting burnt, and unevenly melted.

Want more smarts on the science of chocolate, click here.