A sweet affair at Grin Affair

I count myself pretty lucky.  Many of the teams in the companies that I’ve worked in, I’ve met some really nice colleagues – some who have even gone on to become friends.  S is one of them.  We worked together for about a year when I was in ‘Sparkle Co’.  Gosh, I feel old saying this but that was about 6 over years ago!  Then, she had been a lovely colleague but as a friend now, she’s ever so thoughtful often bearing me with gifts of wafer-thin Kueh Bangkit when Lunar New Year approaches.

This time was no exception.  A long overdue visit to her home, I went bearing a small little gift but S surprised me passing me a bag filled with goodies from Indonesia and a cute cookbook on cookies.  Thanks S, totally wasn’t expecting this.

And we spent the afternoon catching up, with plans to go to Grin Affair for some dessert as I been meaning to check out the place after seeing some of the pics from S’s Facebook.  I guess I lucked out for I later found out that the place is run by a relative of S.  Tucked in a small corner at Everton Park, we took a leisurely walk from S’s home but upon arrival, we found out that everything had already been sold out for the day! ;(

Thankfully, they were making fresh supplies for the next day and we managed to get two very precious jars of the latest flavour – lychee passion fruit with sea salt pistachio to try.  I doubt that this combination could go very wrong, well, not with my fave lychee and passion fruit in it.   As the store was going to be closed for the rest of the day, we ended up carrying the jars back to S’s home to enjoy the pre-dinner snack.  Be warned, Grin Affair is pretty small with a couple of chairs and small tables for you to have your dessert and then go.  If you are doing that, then do take some time to admire the cute vintage decor placed in the store.  Else, I’d recommend you buy the cakes and then enjoy them at home.

The cakes look almost too pretty to be eaten and I couldn’t wait to sink my teeth into the layered cake tucked in a jar!  So was it as good as it looked?  Oh YES!  On first bite, the saltiness from the sea salt was sharp and distinct but little by little the layers of the sweet lychee mousse (complete with lychee bits), zesty passion fruit along with the moist vanilla cake slowly came through.  The pistachios gave it an added crunch to this delicate dessert.  Never quite tasted anything like this and this was an instant like! A winning combo of sweet with a touch of saltiness that actually worked!  S’s little boy also couldn’t stop ‘stealing’ a couple of bites from his mommy’s dessert.

And when you are done with your desert, don’t trash the jar just yet.  You could return the jars back to Grin Affair and keep the ticket that’s attached with the jar.  Collect 20 of these tickets to redeem for a free jar of cranberry.  Or you could be like me, keep the jar and use it to store knick-knacks around the home.  I think this will make a cute little vase for small flowers on my dresser.

There are altogether 12 different flavours available on the menu.  S says that the Banoffee, Maron and Mango ones are pretty good. So, looks like I gotta be a little hardworking the next time round and head on earlier to Grin Affair to snap up these flavours before they are all gone again.

Thanks again S for the sweet treat and the delightful afternoon spent in your home! 

Grin Affair

Address: 3 Everton Park, #01-77A, Singapore

Telephone: 8282 7375

Opening hours: Mondays – Saturdays (12pm – 8pm), Closed on Sundays

Best served chilled..

I was itching to go back into the kitchen and after getting my hands on a bottle of Yuzu concentrate juice, I decided it’s time to whip up a zesty and citrus-y dessert at the loft.

One of my fave desserts that I learned to make during our stay in Geneva was this key lime tart.  I couldn’t think of a better dessert that would zing the taste-buds and beat the heat.  I thought instead of using the extract from 5 key-limes, I’ll simply use the extract from 2 key-limes and swap it with the Yuzu concentrate instead.

As I cooked the Yuzu and Key Lime curd, the tangy ‘fumes’ filled the kitchen and I almost couldn’t wait to get a bite of these tarts! But something went wrong along the way, I honestly don’t know what for I followed my trusty recipe to the tee with the exception of swapping part of the lime juice with that of Yuzu.  After prepping part 2 of the recipe, I waited patiently for 2 hours for the tarts to be chilled and hardened.  As I took one of them out for this little photog session, I noticed that they were still a little watery.  I thought perhaps they needed more time to be chilled but after placing them in the refrigerator for more than 6 hours, the texture was still not right.

Disappointed and exasperated at the failed tarts, I popped one of them into the freezer in the hope that the Yuzu & Key-Lime filling would harden.  5 minutes on, I went to check on the tart and it worked!  The hardened tart actually tasted like ice-cream!  As I bit into the tart, I thought ‘Whoa.. this is yummy!!’  I guess all’s not lost then, this ice-cream tart worked wonders in cooling me down and providing the much-needed respite from the heat.

I’ll definitely try making this combo again with a couple more tweaks to the usual recipe.  Hopefully this time round it will succeed.  Fingers crossed!

Every day in Rome,

we have our daily fix of gelato at Il Gelato di San Crispino.  It was but a stone’s throw away from our hotel and we couldn’t resist stopping by for sugar fix.

If you’re wondering why the name may sound familiar, that’s because Il Gelato di San Crispino was also mentioned in the book ‘Eat, Pray, Love’.  The Style Princess had her daily fix of Stracciatella while I attempted to try different flavours everyday – Mandarin Sorbet, Lemon Sorbet, Grapefruit Sorbet and Honey Ice-cream.  They all tasted so good especially the Honey one.

Prices for the gelato starts from EUR 3.20 and above.  If you are wondering if they serve the gelato in cones?  The answer is no for the flavour of the waffle cone will change the original flavour of the gelato.  Whoever knew huh? 

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