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!

Celebratory Dinner @ Da Paolo Pizza Bar

Last friday was the day the Sparkling Fireworks (yes, that's the name of my project group.  Don't judge) had our marketing presentation. The idea was to have it like "The Noose" and we had a ball of a time preparing for it! Just look at this!! hahaha!

Anyway, we planned for a celebratory dinner over at Da Paolo Pizza Bar, located within Chip Bee Garden at Holland Village, thanks to Angel's recommendation. She was raving about the truffle pizza so much that we knew we had to try it! Anyway, click here to check out their facebook page (:

We chose an alfresco seating as the weather was pretty good. The interior furnishing was simply gorgeous. Of fur ceilings and wine cellar walls, Da Paolo offered a classy environment, simply great for a Friday night out with friends (: Take a look at the pictures and you will understand. Probably what I liked most about the place was the lack of crowd (and noise). We had a great time chillaxing and talking, without having to scream across the table, unlike some popular restaurants.

The food were simply delicious! Especially the mushroom dishes! Please please order the Portobello mushroom salad as well as the truffle pizza. They are just yum-tums!

So here's the Portobello mushroom salad, served with rockets and topped with capsicum (i think! didn't get to eat it), feta cheese and balsamic vinegar. The mushroom at the bottom was stuffed with tomato, then grilled. The combination of the taste of tomato with Portobello mushroom is simply heavenly. All the others were so in love with this dish as well! Definitely worth trying!

Next up, we had some cold cuts- parma ham! (: Just look at how thinly cut these ham slices are! They tasted really yummy, especially with the baguette slices (which was slightly stiff by the time I got to eat it).

And, here we have the truffle pizza! The mushrooms smelt and tasted really good! The combination of mushrooms and cheese was lovely! Another of my favourite dish! Please please order this when you visit Da Paolo.

Lastly, we had some smoked salmon with spinach pizza. The smoked salmon was delicious on its own, but somehow I thought that the taste didn't blend quite well with the cheese and the spinach. But well, it could also be that I had to many cheesy dishes by then, it was quite difficult to properly taste this. Not a must-try for me!

We also had buffalo wings for dinner, but I didn't eat any (as I was so full already) and by then it was kind of dark to shoot any photographs, so no reviews for me! A meal like this came up to $20/head (after GST and service charge) for 6 people! Pretty worth it huh!a

Ok! This marks the end of my post! If you do visit Da Paolo's Pizza Bar sometime, tell me what's good and what's not! I will definitely pop by one day after school for another round (:

How to get there

Drop at Holland Village MRT along the Circle Line and exit at the 1st exit you see within the train station. You will find yourself at the back of Chip Bee Gardens. Just walk through the car park and into the small lane. Walk uphill along the stretch of restaurants and about 2 mins later, you will see Da Paolo Pizza Bar.

Fosters English Rose Cafe (:

Thanks to a bunch of gluttony group mates (not that I mind, really!), I got to try high tea at Fosters English Rose Cafe. Along the stretch with Starbucks and right beside Amici, its a quaint cafe tucked in a little corner of Holland Village. With cosy furnishing and no crowd, it was a pleasant high tea experience.

We had three dishes for our lunch-cum-tea session.

First up, we had Calamari (priced at $11.00).

 The calamari were well-fried, not too oily. It was simply yummy~!

Next up, we had their Devonshire Cream Tea Set (priced at $11.00).

This set comes with a pot of tea, 2 scones, one fruit cake, 2 sandwiches as well as jam, cream and butter. The scones were delicious! Flaky on the outset yet soft on the inside. It was nicely buttery and went very well with the jam and cream provided. Definitely the best scones I have tasted yet! As for the fruit cake and sandwiches, they tasted pretty much normal. I don't think its quite worth the money to have the fruit cake and sandwiches. 

Here's a little tip: you can choose to change the fruit cake and sandwiches to scones as well. The tea set will then come with a total of 4 scones.

Lastly, we had a Steak and Mushroom Pie (priced at $18.50).

Besides the scones, this was my other personal favourite of the meal. If you break open the pie crust, you will see a mini beef stew (with mushrooms). The stew nicely brought out the smell and taste of the beef, which was tender and soft. The mash potato that came with the set was crispy on the outside, yet soft on the inside. And, it went very well with the beef stew! Well, I thought that the stew was slightly on the salty side, but its not too bad.

Overall, the food quality at Foster's is above average, but is slightly pricey. The service is a little bit slow (considering the cafe was rather empty at our time of visit). I will probably go back for more (:

house "warning" at yap's

boxing day was spent "warning" yap's house (:

it was a simple night with my favourite people and awesome food. <3 you all.

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. 

Penang Day 3

places covered: Penang Hill, Kek Lok Si Temple, Farlim Night Market

And so, it was day 3 in a flash! we had breakfast at this quaint dimsum 60/80 year old "restaurant" called and the meal was super cheap! it came up to <RM40 for 5 people! and we had quite a few dishes (: (pictures to  be uploaded later, somehow i cant seem to find my food photos!)

We proceeded to explore Penang Hill and Kek Lok Si Temple, which were about 30mins walk away from each other (i.e.: a really quick car/bus ride away).

PENANG HILL

You will need to take a tram up to Penang Hill, which costs RM30 (both ways) for adults and RM15 (both ways) for children. Well, if you want to save some money, try asking a local to purchase the tickets for you! they can get it at RM8 (both ways) for adults and RM4 (both ways) for children! yeah!

view from Penang Hill. it was breathtaking, yet it was a pity that it was too cloudy that day ):

this is so cute! really!

SRI ARULOLI THIMURUGAN (or PENANG HILL HINDU TEMPLE)

On Penang Hill, they have a Hindu Temple, which we didn't manage to enter. However, here are just some photos of the temple!

this is really cool! In this picture, this looks like a cow. (wait till you see the next one!)

and from this angle, this looks like an elephant! COOL ISN'T IT!

 KEK LOK SI TEMPLE
We headed for lunch, near Kek Lok Si Temple.

food tip: there is supposed to be this extremely famous Penang Assam Laksa and Chendol store near the Kek Lok Si Temple. But somehow, it was closed that afternoon we went. If I remember correctly, they are at the food centre called Air Hitam Food Centre. You can ask the locals for directions to the food stores (that's what we did!) yeah (:

Kek Lok Si Temple is supposedly the largest temple in the whole of Penang. I mean, being the largest, its definitely worth the visit right? 

Here you have tiles with hand-written well wishes, for family, success, world peace etc. It costs RM30 to get your well wishes handwritten (someone will do the writing for you with a calligraphy brush). All these tiles will be used to help expand/maintain the temple. 

look! here there is a professional who will help you write your well wishes on the tiles (: Remember, its RM30 each (:

we saw extremely cute animal statues  all around the temple and couldn't help but want to take photos with them! hahahah! it was only later on when we realized what they are made for! (:

YAH! they are part of a bench! (: so cute right!

after kek lok si temple, we proceeded to the farlim night market via public bus. travelling there was a &%@#&%)# as the bus driver dropped us off at the wrong spot!

FARLIM NIGHT MARKET

But I must say, Farlim Night Market was quite an experience! Unlike the touristy night market at Batu Ferringhi, this one is so authentic and local. I simple loved it! Farlim Night Market sells an good mix of food,  clothes and even electronic accessories. The food sold range from local delicacies to taiwan food to local cakes! AWESOME RIGHT! We especially loved the Lok Lok van there, as it has our favourite cheese tofu. yumtums (:

i really really really wanted to try this yongtaufoo! but too bad i was soooo stuffed, i really couldn't  eat any more ):

DIMSUM!!! cool !

our favourite LokLok!

just some of their pastries (:

ok (: END OF DAY 3! oh my, i am just so lazy to blog already! especially day 4 as the pictures were.. quite horrid (due to uneven lighting and different white balance!) but maybe photoshop will save the day! (: ok day 4 last post. lets go!