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.

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

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.

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

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

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"