Chasing Fall in Vermont: Ben & Jerry's Factory Tour

Not too sure about you, but one of my favourite ice cream is definitely Ben & Jerry's! It was my comfort food at one of the lowest point in my life. Until now, its still my go-to dessert after a dreadful day. I think I love it so much, I am almost a brand evangelist. HA-HA.

Thus, one of the "must go" places in Vermont for me was definitely the B&J factory, which comes with a 30 minute tour. The B&J factory is situated in Waterbury, Vermont, pretty hard to get to without any form of public transport. In fact, anywhere outside of Burlington is hard to get to without a car.

Here's how the outside of the factory looks like.

 

As it was rainy and cold (the winds were sooo strong), we quickly entered the compound and here's the welcome counter!

A ticket to the factory tour costs US$4. It includes a video which introduces the history of the company, a quick tour of the ice-cream making process and a complementary scoop of B&J ice-cream in the FlavoRoom!

And this marks the start of the tour! LETS GO!

Room showing video of B&J's history

FlavoRoom (where you get your ice cream YAY!)

This is the flavour of the day. Vanilla bean ice cream with salty caramel swirl and fudge covered in POTATO CHIPS! yeah you've got that right, and it really tastes quite awesome

After exiting the FlavoRoom, you'll walk down the B&J's Walk of Fame. Here are the top 10 flavours. Mine's New York Super Fudge Chunk at #6. What's yours?

Other than the tour, the B&J factory also boasts a flavour graveyard, where they commemorate all their "dead" flavours, a playground and a picnic area. Do check those out as well!

ali's birthday!

ali is finally 20 woots! HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY ALI (:

we had dinner at watami, which was so so satisfying and of course, wonderful desserts at tom's palette (: here are all the photos i took tonight! thank you for being part of my life hubbers, you are really a treasured group of friends <3

and thanks for expanding the group with your other halves heh heh heh!

the group + the other halves (: 

last one of the bday girl! <3

Brunch@A Curious Teepee

Decided to meet Shirlyn for brunch last saturday @ A Curious Teepee. Tucked away in a corner of *scape, beside the Flesh Imp, it was extremely quiet for a saturday afternoon. Well, it actually wasn't very surprising. Afterall, the menu was rather limited and the cafe was not exactly at a very eye catching location. Nevertheless, we managed to try their famous quiche as well as waffles for brunch. (: By the way, the meal came up to be $22.30 for the two dishes. 

Am still quite a noob at correcting confusing white balances. The cafe lights were extremely warm (in terms of colour), my photos were tinted orange (oops!). Should have just used custom white balance to get the optimum colour, damn.

Anyway, the ambiance at the cafe was nice. Maybe because its been raining, or that its was really quite empty, i really enjoyed the peace and quiet away from the hustle and bustle of Orchard Road.

After waiting for a while, say about 15 mins, our food were finally served! 

 Above is the highly raved quiche. On the menu, it is listed as "A Curious Quiche", yet when its being displayed, its labelled as "Quiche Lorriane". I guess "A Curious Quiche" is like Quiche of the day, afterall they only have 1 quiche there.

This quiche is definitely the best that I have tasted. The crust was fluffy and the filling was extremely flavourful and cheesy. I never really liked quiche as sometimes the crust will be too hard or too thick. But this one is just right. The quiche costed $9.50, slightly pricey for such a small slice. But then again, anymore than this size and you may feel a little overwhelmed with cheese.

Next up, we have waffles. I am a huge fan of waffles! I love it when they are crispy on the outside but fluffy on the inside, yet not too starchy. These waffles are on the buttery side, you can immediately taste/smell the butter when you eat it. And its pretty crispy, like quite similar to eating biscuits hahaha! Its served with an ice cream (in the background) and you can choose whether you want chocolate or vanilla ice cream. This dish is priced at $12.80, and I think its pretty much overpriced for waffles and ice cream /: You also can opt for the version without ice cream at $10+, but if I were you, I would just top up $2+ for the ice cream (which I did).

Generally, the food served were pretty good, not overwhelmingly fantastic and the prices are kind of steep. Will I go there again?? Umm, i am not too sure about that. 

happy birthday suaku

it was suaku shawn's 22nd birthday! YAY! so... we decided to surprise him (ok maybe its not a very surprising surprise) with a simple birthday lunch! we met like 1 hour before our supposed meeting time to grab him a little present from Tampines 1, before heading to Bakerzin for lunch! 

Guess the most hilarious part came when we were whassaping him, pretending that we were all on our way there and complaining about him being late, when we were actually sitting inside Bakerzin already! Suaku shawn really believed that all of us were early! (i mean seriously, how could it be that jieling is earlier than he is! hahaha!)

tried different effects on this post as i thought i should just try to make things a little more interesting here (: too bad if it sucks!

and our food arrived (:

 and ter, we have never forgotten you (:

Girls' Day Out

after so long, me Jieling and Alicia (aka ali)  finally had a proper Girls' Day Out (yes, without the intrusion of the boys!) and the guys just HAD to nag at us going out without them, but seriously, i think they will be soooo bored hanging out with us on a GDO (:

we lunched at Shokudo since they had some lunch special at $8.90 for Students. then proceeded to Haji Lane (YAYY!!!) 

see my prettaye girls <3<3<3

and what's a trip to Haji Lane without some yummy ice cream from Pluck?? That's prolly the best place to chill out in Haji Lane. Ok, I haven't actually tried the other cafes along Haji Lane, the ice cream at Pluck is just too good to miss <3 Check out their website here !

My all-time favourite in Pluck is the Lychee Martini Ice cream with REAL LYCHEE BITS <3 YUMS! but this time round, we tried 4 different flavours- Dark Chocolate, Cuppa Break (coffee flavoured), Salted Caramel (mixed with yummy almond bits) and Earl Grey&Fig (which was like OMG HEAVENLY!). 

A Girl's Day Out never so satisfying <3 Lets go out soon behind the guys' backs again WHEEE!

dessert bowl

This is one out-dated post (:

It was a Starhub outing AGAIN! haha went with the gang to Chompchomp, wanted to munch on powsing, dessert bowl and chompchomp! We managed to go all three... BUT WE ATE SO MUCH ): cldnt even enjoy chompchomp properly. haha. No photos from powsing and chompchomp though. only those from dessert bowl (:

Dessert bowl is a dessert shop (obviously) situated in Serangoon Gardens Circus. Its got a little "hongkong" feel to it. The shops decorated with hongkong street-like signs, quirky quotes etc. It used to be our favorite hideout before my friend left for USA (: We could sit there for hours- talking, chilling, eating and playing bridge. What i especially love about that place is its quite ambiance, the awfully huge sofa seats (which can fit like all 7 of us) and the delectable desserts <3 OH! did i forget to mention that they have a stash of magazines for people who wish to chill their noon away! its a great place to hide from the terribly humid weather(:  look at reviews from hungrygowhere.com. its just so awesome!

some photos of my favourite people before we proceed to the desserts okay!

okay, so this is my ultimate favourite dessert! always have it when i am here (: its puloh hitam with ice cream!!!!! <3 max! the combination is just awesome!

MANGO AIYU! this is so awesome too (: a little too sweet for my liking though!

can't remember what's its name, but its nice too (: i prefer aiyu though, dont really like pearls /:

LOOK HOW MUCH WE HAVE EATEN (: ok maybe its not a lot. hahaha.

and how can we not play bridge?? it's just oh-so-fun. although i got pwned many times /: RUSTY ALR ):