Seventh Heaven: "Adults Only" Ice Cream!

With Big MOG and Power|MOG

Single scoop Vanilla with Warm Chocolate Cake $7.80++

For Superman, it was Kryptonite. For Samson it was Delilah. Yes, every man has a weakness, something that would make him crumble to his knees. For the Big MOG, that happens to be ice cream. (His wife can also have the same effect sometimes, but that is not relevant to this story.)

It just so happened that when the Big MOG visited Singapore this time round, I also got contacted by Seventh Heaven to review their "Adults Only" ice cream. I thought that this was an opportunity too good to miss!

You see, Seventh Heaven is the latest player in the growing homemade ice cream market. But rather than going the "Homemade = Low Fat, Low Sugar = Good for You" route, they have gone directly opposite and are offering a "No holds barred, Sinfully Creamy, Don't tell me what the Doctor told you, just eat first and suffer the consequences later" type ice cream. So I was really excited to see whether this would literally send the Big MOG to Seventh Heaven.


Chocolate Coffee Crunch Single Scoop $5.80++ (brandied cherry in shotglass not shown)

The lady behind this ultra sinful dessert turned out to be quite an unlikely candidate. Rather than someone who looked like she really enjoys eating lots of pastries and desserts, she turned out to be a rather petite ex-English lecturer from NUS. And the place this cafe is situated is just as unlikely, being tucked away in "no-man's land" at the Marketing Institute of Singapore (former Gan Eng Seng School) where there is hardly any human traffic.


Big MOG in his moment of Epiphany

This ice cream really is for the true believers. There is no fancy sundaes here and you won't find them giving you a choice of toppings. The ice cream flavours are served as they are with just a wafer. Afterall, when so much effort has been put into each flavour of ice cream, it would be a waste to add anything else to it.

The one flavour that really stood out from the rest was the Chocolate Coffee Crunch which had hand pounded Arabica Coffee beans in chocolate ice cream made from Italian Amedei chocolate and Expresso. Big MOG was so ecstatic about it that he wanted to give it a 5/5 but but I had to moderate it a little. Having tasted the various homemade ice creams around town, I must say that this one is quite exceptional and coffee lovers will appreciate the pieces of crunchy coffee beans in the ice cream 4.5/5. Another one that I really enjoyed was the Chocolate and Scotch Whisky which is has a wonderous chocolate flavour and leaves that bit of Scotch Whisky aftertaste at the back of the palate. This one was my personal favourite. 4.5/5 If you like Kahlua, you should not miss out on that flavour as with all the ice cream here, they don't skimp on the amount of alcohol added, so the Kahlua taste really does hit home. 4.25/5


Lemon Granita

For those who like something a little lighter, you can try ordering the Lemon Granita which is essentially a hand crushed ice lemonade topped with their Vanilla ice cream which is made from a combination of four different Vanilla pods. When you visit, you should ask Dr Sein Chan, Phd herself why she went to so much effort to make a Vanilla ice cream. To me it was a good Vanilla Ice Cream but I don't think I could appreciate the difference that the four types of Vanilla pods made over other premium Vanilla Ice Creams. But eaten together with the zesty crushed lemon ice, it was quite addictive. 4.25/5

Conclusion

Quite a different class of homemade ice cream altogether. You are not going to find your usual Durian and Black Sesame here. Instead, they have the more "Grown up" flavours with a lot of them spiked with liquors and other stuff with fancy European names. Well worth a visit if you are an Ice Cream fan. It would be interesting to see if the "Ulu" (remote) location will play to their favour as the inaccessibility might add to their exclusivity.

Post Script:

I returned to Seventh Heaven with our regular Makan Kakis just before posting this to get their opinion on the Ice Cream. The majority ranked Chocolate and Whisky the highest (which was my personal perference as well) so I am upping its rating to 4.75/5. The other thing that we all agree was very very good was the warm chocolate cake ($7.80) which is probably the best value dish you can get there considering that a single scoop is already $5.80, that means that for an extra $2 you get a freshly baked warm chocolate cake with molten chocolate in the middle to go with your Ice Cream! We all gave that one a 4.75/5 as well.

Seventh Heaven
10 Raeburn Park, (Former Gan Eng Seng Sch)
#01-24/25/26
Marketing Institute of Singapore
Singapore 088702
Tel: 62277787
Mon - Thurs 11am to 8pm
Fri 11am to 11pm
Sat 1pm to 11pm
Closed Sundays and PH

Disclaimer: Please do not overindulge in this if you are suffering from conditions such as diabetes or high cholesterol. This blog does not in any way advocate underage drinking or excessive alcohol consumption.

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Ice Queen Ice Cream: Great Homemade Ice Cream at Hawker Prices!

This stall has closed!

3 flavours of homemade gelato $3.50

Golden Mile Food Centre will soon be turned into a centre for Hawkerpreneurship.

I am amazed that the place has quite a few stalls manned by young Hawkerpreneurs trying to break into the food business. Remember the Belgian Waffles and Pasta Planet which I blogged previously? They are all here, as well as some other new stalls selling "Ang Moh" food that I will blog about later. Yes, the Hawker centres are an cost effective way for anyone to create a brand which is relatively low risk. And the irony is that when you actually sell stuff that usually belong in a shopping centre, you actually attract more media attention.

One of the latest entrant into the "Cheap and Good" category is this little Ice Cream shop in Golden Mile Food Centre called Ice Queen Ice Cream. Opened by a young lady who calls herself a "part time hawker", this is the kind of hobby stall where the emphasis is on making something that the owner is proud of, as opposed to making enough money so that one can pay the bills.

While studying in Melbourne, this "part time hawker" learnt the art of Gelato making from an Italian couple who ran a Gelato stall while letting out rooms to University students. Being a bit of a health nut herself (just a moderate health nut, I guess), she makes her Gelato with just enough cream and sugar to keep the ice cream from becoming icy. So it is low fat, low sugar and no egg which is healthier than your normal ice cream.

This Gelato (ice cream for the heartland aunties) really is "Cheap and Good" and it's every Kiasu Singaporean's dream. I was quite impressed with the Black Sesame Ice Cream 4.25/5 which was full of nutty flavour but without being too rich. The Peanut flavour was again quite excellent as is the dark and rich chocolate flavour. The ones with alchohol, viz the Rum and Raisin and Baileys were notably not "drunk" enough, but you really can't expect too much at $2 per scoop. If you prefer something a little more tart, you should try the sour plum sorbet which a lot of readers from the forum said they like.

Conclusion

Cheap and good Gelato. Where else can you get 3 scoops for $3.50? I really think that this part time hawker is really treating it as a hobby more than anything else and I suspect that after running it for a few more months, she will decide to increase the prices in order to get some money to buy some nice accessories. So better enjoy it while you can.

Update: 29 Nov 2008
Our readers are reporting that the stall has been closed for a while

Ice Queen Ice Cream

Golden Mile Food Centre

#01-86

Closed on Mondays

What do do next?

Find out what the others are saying about this in the forum

Go eat the Hokkien Mee or Curry Mee before eating the ice cream

Read about the other ice cream stalls in the blog

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New Discovery: Ice Cream Chefs: Create your Dream Ice Cream!

Creating of my Dream Ice Cream!

Have you ever wondered what a Vanilla Ice Cream with Lemon Sherbet and Crispy Pork Floss tastes like? Well, wonder no more because at Ice Cream Chefs, you can make the Ice Cream of your dreams (or nightmares) come true! And if they don't have the specific ingredients you want, you can BYO (bring your own) at no extra charge. Kinda reminds me of the days when we brought eggs to give to the Roti Prata man to make egg prata!

Ice Cream Chefs is a brand new Ice Cream experience started by 2 guys who could be sitting at a desk with a laptop. It is a concept that is popular in the US. Basically you have a cold stone top upon which you can mix and match any flavour of ice cream and extra ingredients. The home made ice creams come in different base flavours such as vanilla bean, chocolate, green apples, etc and they provide extras like Kinders Bueno, Rice Crisps, Oreo Cookies, Cashew Nuts, Peanut Butter and even frozen sliced fruits like strawberries. Each scoop of ice cream is $3.10 and each extra ingredient is 70 cents. Oooooh, doesn't it sound like something that you could go crazy over?

I went nuts (literally) with my Kinder's Bueno, Peanut Butter, Nutella, Chocolate Fudge and Cashew Nuts on Nutella Ice Cream creation. Phwaaaa Say. Don't play play ah! 4.5/5



Some of the other more popular (and sane) combinations are the Horlicks and Chocolate Ice Cream with Malteses which you get both the sticky and crunchy textures of malt with bits of chunky milk chocolate. Not very pretty to look at but a wild combination of flavors and textures.

Ice Cream Chefs has been opened for 2 weeks, so the guys are still busy experimenting with new flavors and getting their coffee and waffles act together. Some ideas they are toying with are the addition of Kahlua, Rum and Baileys as ingredients to add to the ice creams. Until they do, you are very welcomed to BYO as I mentioned earlier.




At this point, I would say that they still need to work on the creaminess and flavors of some of their ice creams. By itself, there aren't any killer flavors to rave about yet. But hey it is really up to you to create that "die die must try" ice cream which is limited only by your imagination!

Conclusion

The kind of place where ice cream dreams takes flight! So start dreaming!

Ice Cream Chefs
520 East Coast Road #01-06 (Ocean Park)
Tel: 64466355
Beside St. Patricks School & Along East Coast Road
Sun-Thurs 12pm to 10pm
Fri-Sat 12pm to 11pm
www.icecreamchefs.com

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Daily Scoop: Churn the Cream and Whisk the Waffles

I was sent to this stall in sleepy Sunset Way by the Big MOG who would visit the shop to satisfy his ice cream crave every time he is in Singapore. You may not know who the Big MOG is or maybe you do. He is quite well known among the people at Church of Our Saviour as well as many other churches. Anyway I always enjoy sitting down with the Big MOG to listen to his many stories. You know how there are some people who really put you at ease when they speak to you because their words are full of grace and you always walk away feeling very blessed? The Big MOG is one such person. I never walk away without learning something about life and how to live it better. Big hearted but unfortunately also big bellied, I always have to straddle the tightrope between blessing him with his favourite dessert and looking after his health!

Anyway I found myself in a quiet part of Singapore on a lazy weekday afternoon only to find a small ice cream cafe that was buzzing with activity. Oh yeah, it was like an oasis in the desert.

What makes this ice cream parlor different from the rest is the fact that they churn their ice cream by hand. So it is quite interesting to watch the liquid cream being poured onto the cold pan and turning to ice cream as they churn it around. According to the owner their ice cream has less air than those that are machine churned. In order to make the ice cream more healthy, the ice cream is made from low fat milk, no eggs and is not overly sweet.

I found the ice cream here to be more subtle than the other ice cream boutiques that I have blogged. I tried the brandied fig and honey. It was pleasant but did not have enough kick from the brandy. The butterscotch was much better but I still felt that the flavors could be more robust. 4/5

However, the real gem lies in the cones and waffles which were very very good. On a weekend, you will have to wait quite a long time to get your waffles! It was crisp on the outside and airy inside with a strong buttery vanilla flavour. Excellent with the chocolate ice cream which was not overly sweet and just slightly bitter. The combination of the homemade cone really lifted the flavour of the butterscotch ice cream. 4.5/5

Conclusion

Great waffles and cones. The ice cream is good but I have yet to find the ice cream flavour that I really really like.

The Daily Scoop Ice Cream Cafe

41 Sunset Way #01-04
Clementi Arcade
64633365
www.thedailyscoop.com.sg
Mon-Thurs 11am-9pm
Fri-Sat 11am-10pm
Sun 2pm-9pm

You can listen to some of Big MOG's stories by clicking here
More of his sermons can be found on this link

Search for "Michael Ross Watson"

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Ice Cream Gallery: This is no Hum Drum Rum (n Raisins)

With holydrummer and iwatch_ueat


Thanks to the comments by Kare Kevil, I found myself standing outside this small outlet of The Ice Cream Gallery at Eastwood Centre. I must say that I really do like our very own homegrown ice creams more than the international brands. Their adventurous offerings never fails to bring novelty and delight to my palette.

We sampled a few of their flavours but decided that our two favourites were Rum & Raisins and D24 Durian (as were recommended by Kare Kevil). I will say that at this point in my life, this IS the BEST Rum & Raisins ice cream I have ever tasted! It even got a stamp of approval from our Professor of Rum and Raisinology (holydrummer) There was a generous amount of large juicy Drunken Raisins so Rummy that if you had 2 scoops, you might fail a random breath test! 4.5/5. The D24 Durian ice cream was also Fair Dinkum (Oz slang: No Bull! This is the real thing!). 4/5 But I have to say that I would still rather buy the real thing, chill it in the fridge and eat that! The advantage of Durian Ice Cream though, is that you enjoy the flavour without having the smell on your fingers all day and you can put it in the fridge without having to deodourise the fridge afterwards.

Conclusion

I think each of these Boutique Ice Cream Pallors has their own special flavours. Rum and Raisins is definitely Ice Cream Gallery's Cream of the Crop. By the way, you should try the combination of Rum and Raisins with Chocolate as suggested by holydrummer. Not good, VERY good!


The Ice Cream Gallery
20 Eastwood Road
#01-13 Eastwood Centre
62462926

Main Branch
491 River Valley Road
#01-20 Valley Point
62350870
www.icecreamgallery.com

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Tom's Palette: Not good, VERY good ice cream!

With smart, byron and iwatch_ueat


I seldom rave about dessets. But I am going to rave about the ice cream here because its been awhile since I was bowled over by an ice cream. I always liked small eateries where the people are really passionate about their food. When ice cream is made with such passion the difference is an indelible quality that manifests in tongue tingling delight.

My favourite flavour is the Black Sesame Seed Ice cream. Now, I have been going around looking for the ultimate Black Sesame Paste in Singapore (hot soup version) and have so far been dissappointed. All of them lacked that rich nutty savoury flavour I am looking for. Imagine my delight when I found this taste sensation in an Ice Cream instead! The rich and smooth flavour of the black sesame hits the back of the tongue and lingers for quite awhile after you swallow the ice cream. I was so taken by it that I bought a tub home (first time I bought ice cream for years!). Eunice (the passionate ice cream chef) shared with us that they use a sesame paste rather then powder to make the ice cream and they perfected the receipe only after many trials.

The other flavour that I really enjoyed was the chocolate. No choc chips, Belgian Chocolate or Oreo cookies, simply Chocolate. The Chocolate here is different. It's not overly creamy, but it is a silky smooth and luxurious blend of semi sweet chocolate without the bitterness. Now, we've tasted chocolate from Haagen Daaz, Awfully Chocolate, Ben and Jerry's, Swensen's but I must say that this one has left the most lasting impression for me. Even iwatch_ueat our Godiva Queen, gave it her stamp of approval.



In case you are wondering how to make ice cream at home. Eunice was kind enough to give us a overview of the process. First boil the milk, eggs and sugar to make a custard. Put in the fridge to cool and then add the cream and custard into the Ice Cream churner (shown above) and add your favourite flavours. Sound simple doesn't it? For $2.80 a cup (completely packed not a scoop) I will just sit back and enjoy the fruits of Eunice's labour.

Conclusion

Black Sesame is my absolute favourite. Liverpool swears by the Apple Pie, iwatch_ueat would die for the chocolate, and even smart who needs to cut down on sugar couldn't resist taking more then a few mouthful. Enough said. 4.5/5

Tom's Palette
100 Beach Road,
#01-25 Shaw Leisure Gallery
62965239
Open 11am - 9.30pm Mon-Thurs
11am - 10pm Fri
12pm-10pm Sat
Sundays closed

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Island Creamery: Exotic Ice Cream and other Delights

With smart, liverpool, iwatch_ueat and tamago


One of our readers insisted that I need to try this ice creamery, so I did.

So what makes this ice creamery so special? Well, it's part of the trend of homemade ice creams that have sprung up all over Singapore in recent years. The ice cream is all made in-house and they offer a range of pretty interesting flavours. The reverso shown above is oreo cookies in chocolate ice cream which was the fave of our Chocolate Queen, iwatch_ueat. My personal favourite was the Kahlua Latte which tastes really good though it could do better with a bit more liquor (But then it will have to be rated RA and not PG). Other exotic flavours include stuff that would make you "Stand up for Singapore", like the Horlicks, Milo, Teh Tarik and Chendol flavours. For those watching their weight, they have lighter flavours like pear sake and other sorbets.



Being homemade ice cream, we are told that they don't use eggs in the cooking process and of course the they use quality ingredients. We found that the texture was nice and creamy but it wasn't overly frothy (too much air) nor was it too rich and it was not overly sweet.

Conclusion

Always great to try something new! Nice place to relax and hang out with friends and enjoy some less common ice cream flavours.

Island Creamery
1F, Serene Centre
10 Jalan Serene
Tel: 64688859
11am - 10pm



Acknowledgement: Recommended by Andrew Ling

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