Small Potatoes Make The Steak Look Bigger

This place (30 Robertson Quay, #01-03 Riverside View, tel: 6238 8962) which I've happened by from time to time, from what I've been told is suppose to be Taiwanese and Japanese. I'm not sure which is suppose to come first, but the restaurant serves bottled beer from both countries and the food leans towards being very much Chinese styled while a large number of the clientele is actually Japanese. I suppose that there is an element of Okinawan influence in the food here since the Okinawa Prefecture extends all the way to Taiwan and the food that hails from that region does appear noticeably, very much like Chinese food.

The menu items at this place ranges from really affordable ($3 braised meat rice) to a brow raising pricey ($35 for fried oysters). I'm not sure I have the logic behind the prices figured out here. The food is pretty enjoyable to the point that I'm quite positive I'll be back again someday.





One of the items which I did not pass up on was the braised pork rice which I had a basis of comparison from the lu rou fan from both Peng Lai Ge and Lai Lai. Besides, I love that stuff. The one served here tasted much like the ones served in the former location, being savory rather than slightly sweetish. The portions of that did turn up a little smaller than I had expected, but it was tasty and I could have downed two of those. There was a pretty good fried rice as well as deep fried pig liver which I've not had done in such a manner before. The pot stickers or guo tie was quite decent, but I think I prefer the ones that are sold at the food centre down at People's Park which is meatier and has more flavorful fillings with crispier skins.

Being a Taiwanese place, I was hoping to see either braised or fried pig intestines on the menu. Unfortunately, those weren't available. And I'll also stick to a tried and proven Asahi compared to Taiwan Beer the next time.

These jellies have the little devils in them that make you subconsciously reach out for the next one after you've had the first and then another. This will only stop when the packet is finished. There's actually very tiny bits of yuzu peel in them jellies too.

Chella's is fast becoming my favorite Indian eating place and little had I expected that for a place that doesn't serve meat. But things are still looking pretty good from my third visit in a couple of weeks. The main draw to this place for me is the tasty food, affordable prices and a very healthy variety in the menu. Apart from identifying a couple of favorites like the kesari bath and the marsala teas/milk, I'm still finding new things to like about the offerings here.

One of the things that got me excited about Chellas is the cheese pav bhaji which is essentially some sort of thick, sourish and spicy gravy with potatoes or yellow beans. There're a couple of options for this item, but I picked the cheese version which comes with a blanket of shredded cheese. The bhaji is served with buttered and toasted soft buns and some chopped onions on the side which adds a very pleasant depth of fragrance to the spicy dip and I found myself wolfing this stuff down really quickly.

Another notable mention goes to the jeera ghee rice which despite its plain appearance, contains a remarkable fragrance like those found in good chinese fried rice. I was quite pleasantly surprised by the depth of the aroma from this small innocuous looking dish which made me want to consume copious amounts of. Remember the old Gardenia tune "So good you can even eat it on its own."? That's what they were talking about there.


Over the past few months, I've had a few renditions of gobi manchurians at a few places and the one here would be one of the better ones, alongside the rendition served at Spice Junction. The gobi (cauliflower) is lightly battered and fried before being stir fried in the gravy which tasted a little like a garlicky kung pao gravy here. For me, it would have been perfect if not for the ginger.


These dahi puri are rather appetizing snacks as small bites go. They're actually somewhat of a spherical taco like things and hollowed out on the insides. The insides are filled with potato, some chutney and yoghurt before being blanketed by the crispy yellow bits which are known as sev. Each of these balls are a fairly large mouthful to be popped in whole at a time.

It is said that a picture paints a thousand words.......so I'll let the pictures do most of the talking here. I always thought that Akashi (290 Orchard Road, #B1-01 The Paragon, tel: 6735 8887) which has been around for about 10 years or so is pretty good for Japanese food, however there seem to be others that feel otherwise. I wonder what kind of comparisons are being made. I'm normally one that avoids things like Californian and spider makis and I found them to be pretty tasty here. There's definitely no complains on the portions nor the freshness, though I must say that prices have noticeable inched up a little this year. But then again, prices always go up some time or another.

I was prompted to visit Le Papillion (28 Maxwell Road, #01-02 Red Dot Traffic Building, S069120, tel: 6327 4177) before they were closed for good at the end of the month because of their highly recommended rigatoni pasta with crustacean oil, shave bottarga and tiger prawns and this I did. It's quite unfortunate that this dish may not see the light of day for much longer. This turned out to be one excellent pasta and one of the more enjoyable ones that I've had from memory. My photo of it unfortunately does not do it much justice.

I can't begin to even describe how impressed I am with the al dente quality of the rigatoni. I'm sure many Italian restaurants, good as they may be in the execution of the cuisine of their homeland falls short of the standards that I tasted here in a French place. Or maybe the restaurant wasn't very busy and more attention was put into the cooking of the pasta? The doneness was excellent and the crustacean oil which I was told once tasted like hay bee hiam from Wild Rocket, didn't quite taste so much that way here in Le Papillion. It was aromatic to an extent without having the flavor being to excessive and the spiciness was definitely appreciated. This comes paired with four plump tiger prawns shelled to the tail that are crunchy to the bite. Those were definitely enjoyable. The bottarga slices were unfortunately a tad underwhelmed by the spicy nature of the pasta. So, where's the seaweed?

After extolling the virtues of the pasta which I thought should be mentioned before the rest, let's take a step back in time and start from the beginning......

The bottom line of Le Papillion was that, I'm not too impressed. With the exception of the rigatoni, I think I can see why a place like Red Dot Museum would be a place that draws a crowd all around while this restaurant was barely a third filled on a Friday evening. Dinner started with an amuse bouche of a cube of green apple with crushed toasted almond, balsamic vinegar and a leaf of arugula. I must say that I had expected something more out of this, which is something I probably could have done myself at home. Me, someone with minimal to no cooking skills of mention.


The opening notes definitely didn't leave much of an impression. I thought that the mud crab smothered in everything mango turned out quite refreshing to the taste because it was nicely chilled, but that was all there is to it. The terms "freshly picked" didn't quite register on the taste buds. For a French place, the foie gras was quite unremarkable. There was a glaring omission of the flavor associated with the duck liver and instead of a charred appearance, it looked a little blistered. Usually, the accompanied glaze/compote/sauce would be something with citrus, a little sour zest or a tartish flavor to compliment the rich fatty liver. This liver didn't really taste fatty at all and the pineapple compote was all sweet.


So we see the same kind of foie gras here again with the chicken consomme which was decent but otherwise quite unimpressive if not bolstered by the truffle oil.


The Granny Smith apple compote was very nice, so were the orange and honey glaze carrot strips which was pleasantly, slightly sweetish. Cushioned with a small amount of fats, the pork rack was a tender piece affair which was downplayed by the raspberry vinegar glaze which was again mostly sweet and didn't really remind anyone of raspberry of vinegar. I think salt and pepper would have sufficed.

There wasn't enough of a wow factor to this point to inspire a pick from the small selection of desserts.

Au revoir, le papillion. Je ne m'affligerai pas pour votre perte.

I like this place (70 Serangoon Road, tel: 6297 6297) down in Little India more than just a little bit despite the fact that I'm a meat loving person and there is only vegetarian food that is served here. I had some initial apprehension about the food here since the front of the restaurant looked like a fast food joint of sorts and indeed, the food was served pretty fast after we had ordered. All of the lingering doubts were dispelled after a very satisfying dinner from Chella's.

Being not too familiar with many of the items on menu, we picked what we thought looked interesting and asked the serving staff when we hit things that we didn't recognize at all. Here's a show of what we ended up with apart from the stomach comforting masala tea and milk.






What I found very appealing was the variety of appetite whetting sauces/pastes that were available for the dosa. In effect, it gave variety to the flavor of the rice flour pancakes. As I had preemptively guessed pineapple & cheese dosa was a rather savoury and delectable, married by the salty cheese and appetizing pineapple chunks in the centre. The ragi iddiyappam was a variant of the regular iddiyappam (string hoppers) using what was mentioned to be made with another type of flour. The taste was quite similar to the regular version and it came across surprisingly freshly made and was good with both the orange sugar and spicy coconut chutney. I think I may have found what I've been looking for from what I had some time back in the Song of India, in the form of the kara bath which was a savoury semolina cake with diced vegetables. I'm fairly sure that the sweet version called kesari bath is the very thing I've been looking for.

The gobi masala's delicious with the bits of battered and fried cauliflowers soaking in the spicy gravy. I was a little surprised to see an actual piece of butter melting in the paneer butter marsala.

This place had me scraping up the residual sauces with the spoon. All for $20.50 and very friendly service.

19/04/2008 update - A revisit!!


I had certainly not planned to return just the next day, but I'm definitely not complaining about it. The original intention was to drop by Chellas for some nice hot masala tea or milk, but we ended up ordering something to chew on while at it. This innocuous looking earthy orange mound as you can see above, is the kesari bath which I have mentioned earlier. A sweet steamed semolina cake with bits of of sultana inside. Now in case you are wondering, this wasn't excessively sweet as one is used to having in Indian desserts. In fact this item wasn't even on the desserts section of the menu. I think this stuff is pretty awesome.


While at it, we grabbed also, a chilli, cheese and mushroom dosa and helped ourselves with an order of rasamallai. This particular dosa came with a healthy kick from the spices and also, the salty cheese. The rasamallai we were told is a milk based dessert. I had something similar back in Mustard which was made of cottage cheese and had a texture like damp cardboard. Does anyone know the differences if any between these two?

These little soft cakes shaped like fat bananas are call Tokyo Bananas have a custard filling which is flavored like...bananas. The flavor of the creamy custard fillings do taste noticeably of the fruit, though not heavily of it. In each of the individual plastic wrapping, there're the mystifying words "People gather to Tokyo from here and there with memories of their home. and then, Tokyo gets the everyone's home town." Lol. I got these from someone who has in turn received them from another person that has gotten them from Japan. Apparently these guys have a website for their product in Japanese.

This is one of the better mixed vegetable rice stores around at Whampoa Food Centre (Whampoa Drive Blk 90, #01-63) it seems. For one, the good was appealing enough to catch my attention. For $3, I landed myself some fried chicken fillet, steamed egg with century eggs and salted duck eggs; and a soft simmered cabbage with black fungus. There's a rich looking curry that you can request for the rice which turned out to be thick with coconut flavor and every bit as tasty as I imagined it to be. I'm sure there're other tasty cooked item options which I haven't yet noticed, so when I'm next in the vicinity, I shall patronise again.

My honest feelings about this place (9 Raffles Boulevard #01-11/12, Millenia Walk, tel: 6837 3960) is that there is probably more gloss than actual substance so if you're a aficionado of Japanese cuisine, Ten-Jyaku is probably not the place to look toward. Because the lunch was simply just a passable affair. I'm not an expert on Japanese food, but I've had enough Japanese, albeit locally to realise that there is more than a few points which could do with improvement. I personally do not believe in a large gap for compromise between lunches and dinners despite the fact that lunches normally lean towards being more economical on the pocket. That is because, it speaks volumns of the attitude of the chef or restaurant towards their line of work and glaring differences only say one thing. There is little to no pride in the place towards their food. It's just a business to them. There's more than a couple of places out there with well made lunches.


There was actually a decent array of lunch sets at the restaurant, but most of them held little to no appeal for me. I ended up with a Sanshoku Don ($25) which features 3 different sashimi bowls with rice, a simmered fried fish, pickles/appetizers, a chawanmushi and miso soup. The first of the bowls came with shoyu marinated maguro that featured a raggled, rather than a clean cut suggesting that there might have been a little scraping involved rather than simple slicing during the preparation of the meat. Marination like heavy saucing usually means one thing in a cuisine that normally prides itself for the freshness of their raw fish. The same type of maguro cut appeared in the mini chirashi bowl, the second of the sashimi bowls in this set which also sees a slice each of sake (salmon), mekajiki (swordfish), ika (squid) and amaebi (shrimp) accompanied by a token scattering of ikura. The third bowl was a small hamachi (yellowtail) bowl that is drizzled with a sesame and peanut sauce, and a sprig of half withered sakura.

I suppose that if one is impartial to marinated fish, this set could be considered pretty decent. I didn't think too well of the chawanmushi that turned out to be much to mushy and a hint too heavy of ginger. But the quality doesn't come quite close to some other places that have what I perceive to be more pride ingrained.


We picked also the tai and hotategai to be aburi-ed just to see what are they about. The char fragrance is rather light and I'm not really sure if the flagging aroma is all there is to it. The scallops are still possess of their natural sweetness, but something inside me told me I've had better. I have nothing to say about the tai. I'm wondering if this was even a good show of aburi items, but it leaves me with a lingering desire not to come back and try.


The atrocity above is suppose to be foie gras on eggplant with miso. I used the word atrocity because the questionable slice of dessicated looking liver had a texture like a rubbery wet piece of Digestives on the inside. The natural foie gras flavor was at best, feeble. I kid you not. It was left unfinished. I thought that the piping hot eggplant wasn't too bad, but my lunch companion felt it overwhelmed by the sweetish miso.

For those of you who have been asking/wondering about why I haven't been here (501 Bukit Timah Road, #02-01 Cluny Court, tel: 6763 1547) , you can stop asking now. I'm not sure why I took so long to visit, but I'm guessing it could be because this is just basically a burger joint, albeit at a more upmarket location and cost. Honestly, the burgers here are pretty decent if not spectacular. At the cost which they go for, one certainly doesn't expect any less since the portions (170g patties) aren't what I could consider big. Where überburger failed, it looks like Relish might succeed from the look of things. For one, this place isn't quite as expensive as the late-former location. And another, the parent does seem to enjoy similar success along with plenty of media whoring.


Lightly peppered fried onion rings. Hmmmm....not bad. Could have scored better with a thinner batter. Next!




The beef patties for the burgers look to be of the same mold for all of them. I remember them being much more juicy back in Wild Rocket. There is still a vivid recollection of having to suck onto the ends of each bite simply to prevent the juices from the meat from dripping all over the plate. This wasn't the case here in Relish, but the taste is as good as I remember them. The thick patty that you see in the picture is actually rather a light instead of dense. Each bite introduces you to them as tender rather than overwhelmingly meaty.

The wild rocket burger which looks at first glance to be the most unexciting is actually pretty good. Despite the fact that it's called the wild rocket burger and that it actually has a light bed of arugula at the base, there isn't really any taste coming from the rockets. That's because the fragrant sarawak pepper cream and tarty tomato relish which while wasn't heavy, tends to overwhelm the flavor from the greens. The lamb pita burger likewise was very agreeable for me with the garlicky hummus like sauce over the top of the patties. Lamb burgers aren't the most common of burgers around and this one was rather tasty. However, I feel that the one at Cellar Door was much better though. Strangely, I tasted no mint.

The ram-lee burger as everyone probably is aware is inspired off the original greasy street burgers that often make their appearance in pasar malams. Well, as you can probably imagine, it tastes somewhat like the original version slathered with mayo and sweet chilli sauce. There are a couple of exceptions. There's a thicker beef patty inside that doesn't taste suspiciously like unidentifiable meat matter (rat!) and this one is definitely less greasy. For the discerning, the omelete wrap for the patty tasted lighter as well. I must say that it did turn out much better than what I had in mind.


I was originally wondering what the deconstruction does to a cake. I have to admit that I thought it felt like a gimmick, but after having this cheesecake, i thought that it is certainly much more enjoyable than the regular sliced variety which I probably would have passed on. I guess what I liked about this was that I could taste the different parts. This definitely doesn't spell synergy. The individuals here are definitely tastier than the sum of it.

So this is another attempt at my strawberry pizza again. I must give myself a pat across the back for them being tastier this time round. Slowly but surely, I will perfect this. Lol. And the final incarnation will probably look very different from these that you are looking at now. So if you're wondering how it tastes like, go try it at home.

This time round, I bought a little basket of strawberries instead of the pre-sliced ones and possibly also because of the strawberries, it tasted better. I used romano cheese and mozzarella instead of parmesan and mozzarella. The results are actually quite similar as romano and parmesan are both sharp salty cheeses. The sliced strawberries are first placed onto the crust and then laid over with the shaven ham pieces. The romano bits are thrown into the crumpled ham to fill the spaces in between. The mozzarella is added after. This shields most of the strawberries from the direct heat of the convection oven and helps reduce char on the fruit while the mozzarella gets the nice browning.

The next time round, I'll probably be looking out for barebone crusts and have specific toppings instead of using these pre-topped frozen variety of pizza.

Disclaimer: All the ingredients used in this dessert are scrounged from my house. You may use similar substitutes for each item as you see fit. If it doesn't taste good, don't look to me. You must have done something wrongly. Lol!

1. Slice bread and cut into small pieces that will fit into a cake tin. Just FYI, we used what was available at the moment at home which was mix of a rolled oat, apple and cheddar loaf from Cedele and and a fruit and nut loaf from Gardenia. Butter both sides of the bread before placing them in layers into the tin and sprinkle at your discretion with cinnamon (and mixed spice powder if desired). Add a second layer of the buttered bread and repeat process with cinnamon powder. Sprinkle the raisins over the top of the bread in the cake tin.
2. Heat 500ml of milk in a pan. Add approximate 5 large teaspoons of the sugar and stir under low heat until the sugar is dissolved. Slowly pour in the beaten eggs as you continue to stir until the mix appears consistent throughout
3. Pour the milk mixture into the cake tin with the bread. Let the bread soak in the mixture for a couple of minutes before placing it into a pre-heated oven. Bake at 180 degrees for approximately 25-30 minutes or until the top of the bread is nicely browned. Check that the custard is set before removing it from the baking process.

Eat while hot.

What a nice little discovery here down at Whampoa Food Centre (Whampoa Drive Block 90, #01-88, S320090). On a rainy afternoon, this place was almost serene at lunchtime which reminds me more than a little of the old hawker centre down at Tanglin Halt.

Eastern Chicken Rice does only chicken rice (roast and steamed variety) with the usual add on options for eggs, liver, gizzard and boiled greens. At $3.00 a plate with an egg option, this turned out to be really nice with plump strips of sliced chicken alongside the garlicky oiled rice that despite not being the most fragrant of their lot, was still pretty decent and definitely wasn't too grainy. I was glad that the taste of the rice leans towards garlic than ginger since the latter flavor isn't something I particularly enjoy. The chicken rice chilli sauce here is a formula of their own apparently, spicy with a decent kick and great with their rice. The portions feel more generous than Chye Kee for sure, but I guess this in a way makes up for the lack of options of other roast meats that the mentioned store provides. I'm definitely not adversed to coming back here again at all, but the options in this food centre seem a little overwhelming for choice.


11/04/2008 update


I decided that I liked this chicken rice store enough to come back again after a couple of days to have it again. Look at this. For $8 this is seriously decent portion for 2 persons (with 2 plates of rice) with an addition of an egg and chicken liver. Note the generosity with the chicken which is not flattened. The meat turned out pretty tender as well.

This roasted meat store (Rocovo Restaurant, 151 Thomson Road, Goldhill Centre, tel: 6256 3888) located just a stone's throw away from the United Square exit at Novena Station seems to be pretty packed during lunch. Their roast meats are actually pretty tasty, however the small portions do make them a little pricey. If you're wondering, Rocovo Restaurant is an old school coffee shop and not a restaurant as most of us term it. Just next door to it, is another coffee shop which houses another Chye Kee store that sells soy sauce chicken.

The roast chicken and duck here are fairly tender and absent of excessive fat. The same can be said for the roasted pork which actually has crispy crackling. The meats however come thinly sliced and portions for two which amounted to $12.00 didn't quite do the job for lunch. Great chilli with lime here though, which adds a good zest to the greasy rice.

Rosemary foccacia with sundried tomatoes. Crispy salty bacon. Buttery light scrambled eggs. Light toasted bread with unsalted butter. Tasty sauteed mushrooms. Thick chicken sausages. Savoury pureed pumpkin soup. Double shot cappucino. Dry black forest cake. Rosemary foccacia with sundried tomatoes. Crispy salty bacon. Buttery light scrambled eggs. Light toasted bread with unsalted butter. Tasty sauteed mushrooms. Thick chicken sausages. Savoury pureed pumpkin soup. Double shot cappucino. Dry black forest cake.Rosemary foccacia with sundried tomatoes. Crispy salty bacon. Buttery light scrambled eggs. Light toasted bread with unsalted butter. Tasty sauteed mushrooms. Thick chicken sausages. Savoury pureed pumpkin soup. Double shot cappucino. Dry black forest cake.

Surprisingly for a place that is so well received, the black forest cake fell short in terms of comparison to the one I had at Brotzeit.

After having walked by this place (6 Dukes Road, tel : 6462 4300) near the junction of Bukit Timah and Farrer Road where Serene Centre is located numerous times in the past, I've finally decided to head in and see what the foods about in this place. I had an idea of what to expect from this place from all the signs that are visible at the front of the shop, but still I was thinking that, who knows? It might surprise me. As to that, I was both wrong and right.

The regular fish and chips ($7.90) at this place was surprisingly, pretty good. There was a garoupa option for the fish that was about twice as expensive which I didn't have because I didn't have any idea if that was really worth the extras compared to this regular version which was already rather enjoyable. The crispy batter being both thin and light turned out to be quite pleasant. I didn't expect to see vinegar in this place as well but it was available along with tartare sauce. The side option for the fish and chips were either fries or mushroom rice. I was glad we picked the mushroom rice option as this turned out to be another unsuspectingly tasty item. The rice was actually infused with the flavor of mushroom and lightly peppered, resulting in it being quite delectable. I must comment that the portions were a little small.


There's a mixed fries order ($4.50) available as a side that comes slathered with mayonnaise and cheese sauce. I'm not really a fan of mayo but I thought that the fries in this place turned out to be pretty good.... and heart clogging. They're called mixed fries as half of them are regular fries and the other half are "spiced" with some seasoning. There was also an additional dollar of extra charge if you decided that you want them all spicy instead of mixed while they didn't say anything if you opted for no mayo. That's bad karma for them to me.

And to tumble further downhill, the Blue Diamond burger that cost about half of what is charged for a burger at Relish, which they claimed to be the tallest burger in town was really, quite disappointing. Obviously, they've either disregarded or have not heard of Botak Jones to make that claim. Heh! The thin and crumbly patty is saturated with fillers and I thought it's probably just 40% meat at best with the others being flour, onion and carrots. Doused with some mayo and other unknown sauces, this becomes one of those unidentifiable meat substances which fared worse than Ramly burgers. If you're a fan of burgers, you're advised to steer clear of this gimmick. If I can't eat it with my hands, it's a failure. Stick to the fish and chips. And plain water is 50 cents here.

I was recommended to try this Indian and Pakistani place in the food court at the basement of Sim Lim Square (B1-15). I was initially a little skeptical about them but went ahead anyway. It turned out to be not too bad after all. The naan was kneaded into shape and added with the bits of garlic to be baked in the that clay/stone oven after you had made your order. All that would be done in front of you as you waited for them to process your order. So, that much of can be seen is truly freshly made. The other thing that I didn't quite expect was that the butter chicken was actually served on a foil sheet on a hotplate which had it sizzling all the way back to the table. This tasted a little thinner than I expected, but had a good level of spice. Which would have been better if the gravy were more creamy. The chicken portions was quite miserable as well and didn't taste as richly smoky like it does at Jaggi's.

One thing for sure as many of you are probably aware already, the coffee at the food court is horrendous.

I was recently seized out of the blue by a craving for beef after a "cold tipoff" which brought me down to Les Bouchons (7 Ann Siang Road, tel : 6423 0737). Since the last visit which was some time back, the menu has gone through some small changes. The price of the cote de beouf has gone up a little (it's now $40 per pax), but is still good value for money in comparison to other French diners that serve it. Previously the steak options were lesser and being me, I didn't think I would pass on the previously unavailable XL US beef ribeye ($42) which the server said was estimated at 400g and would be fattier than the standard ribeye option where the meat comes from Australia or New Zealand. Tenderloin lovers get lovin as well in the form of their enlarged beef fillet ($34) option.


As you can see, the ribeye was the only thing that's on the plate. It turned out to be as large (yes!) as the server had mentioned and the fries had to go on a separate basket. The meat was fatty as claimed, but were also sinewy in certain parts and wasn't as juicy as I had expected. At the back of my mind, I was actually envisioning something else. I had to let go of some of the fat as there was certainly quite a bit of it and my conscience refused to let me ingest them all. Lol.


Despite being less juicy than I had hoped for, I felt that the tenderloin scored quite a bit being every bit and bite as tender as one would expect of the cut. It was leaner and slightly less flavorful than the ribeye, and turned out to be very enjoyable. It was probably is one of the larger cuts I had of them.


There isn't very much of variety in the department of desserts in Les Bouchons. Apart from various flavors of ice cream with fruits and preserves, there is actually only the Ile Flottante ($10) and a Grand Marnier flavored creme brulee to be had. I didn't exactly recall how it tasted like before eating it this time round since it was quite some time back since I had it. However after the first mouthful of that soft wobbly egg white in the caramel milk, the memories of it came steadily back. This stuff is rather light and breaks apart in your mouth more easily than foie gras. The sliced almonds were toasted which added a depth of crunch and fragrance.