Grilled Durian With Cheese Or Fried Mao Shan Wang Puffs This National Day?

Popular Taiwanese bakery Wu Pao Chun only opened in June, but because it was brought in by the BreadTalk group, has already rolled out three locally-inspired buns: Bubur Cha Cha, Pulut Hitam and Mango Sago Coconut. Interestingly, these rustic-looking Bubur Cha Cha and Mango Sago Coconut Buns ($5.20 a pair) are served chilled.

Beneath its snowy cloak of dessicated coconut shavings, the Bubur Cha Cha bun holds smooth coconut custard swirls, sweet potato and yam cubes. The Mango Sago Coconut one combines dried and pureed mango, as well as chewy sago for a fun textural contrast. Meanwhile, the individually-sold Pulut Hitam ($2.20) boasts a filling of black glutinous rice and red beans enriched with coconut milk, housed in a Taiwanese brown sugar-infused bread.

Available till Aug 11 at Wu Pao Chun Bakery, #01-19/20, Capitol Singapore, 13 Stamford Rd, S178905. Tel: 6242-9892. https://www.facebook.com/wupaochunsg/.

Forget brown sugar pearl milk for a hot second and consider this Bandung Milk tea with Stawberry Pearls instead. At this point, the beverage probably runs in our veins — no wonder Gong Cha has put a Singaporean twist on it with the addition of rose syrup to its Alisan tea. For the uninitiated, bandung’s usually composed of rose syrup and evaporated milk. Unlike last year’s Rose Milk Tea with White Pearls, however, the renamed ‘Bandung’ Milk Tea gets upgraded with fancier strawberry-flavoured pearls, and resembles the texture of kanten jelly white pearls more so than the typical chewy black tapioca ones.

Available till Aug 31, at all Gong Cha outlets islandwide. Tel: 6200-2288. http://www.gong-cha-sg.com/.

One of the most Singaporean traits you could have is a love for this king of fruits, as Old Chang Kee knows. Instead of their signature spicy curried potato and chicken filling, the green-coloured pastry shell of their Mao Shan Wang Durian Puffs encases bittersweet ‘Grade A’ Mao Shan Wang durian puree, amongst other “confidential” ingredients. The curry puff brand has also previously released other locally-inspired flavours like the Laksa Chicken’O, Chicken Rice’O, Nasi Lemak Chicken’O, and Chilli Crab’O.

Available from Aug 1, at all Old Chang Kee Singapore outlets, while stocks last. Tel: 6303-2400. http://www.oldchangkee.com/.

Chargrilled durian might sound weird, but the durian-lovin’ folks of Thailand and Malaysia have done this before. The whole fruit in its shell is placed on a charcoal grill till the husk is charred and the fruit inside turns slightly smoky and caramelised. Popular varieties like Mao Shan Wang, D24 Sultan and D13 Golden Bun and more are available from $15 per kg (don’t worry, someone will grill it for you at an extra $5). Add on the Cheese Trio at $5 for a layer of salty flame-torched parmesan, mozzarella and cheddar cheeses draped on the sweet, creamy durian flesh if you wanna live dangerously. All happening at Sentosa’s GrillFest.

Available from Aug 2-4 & 9-12, 4-11pm, at Sentosa GrillFest, Siloso Beach, Sentosa. Admission is free. https://www.sentosa.com.sg/en/things-to-do/events/sentosa-grillfest-2019/.

Photo: Sentosa Development Corporation

Cold Stone Creamery’s Nasi Lemak ice cream returns with a new double-spicy flavour. Opt to add on some chilli padi powder for an extra kick, or enjoy its mixed spicy ikan bilis and peanuts, crunchy rice puffs, fresh cucumber slices atop creamy coconut ice cream as is. Top it off with a pandan-leaf-infused Waffle Bowl at $1.90. The slightly salty and spicy ikan bilis pairs surprisingly well with the milky sweetness of the coconut ice cream. It does incorporate the nasi lemak flavours well, even with the interesting addition of cucumber slices, though we wish it’d be cut into smaller chunks. If you rather play it safe, the Chendolicious ($8.50) uses the same coconut ice cream but topped with green pandan jelly ‘worms’, red beans, atap chees and good old gula melaka sauce. Both these flavours are available in medium ‘Love It’ sizes, meaning it’s a good idea to share it with a friend or two.

Available till Aug 31, at all Cold Stone Creamery outlets islandwide, while stocks last. Tel: 6376-9352. http://www.coldstonecreamery.com.sg/en.

This new pork floss and sambal ikan bilis bun from BreadTalk is an adorable rendition of our iconic Merlion. The bun, which is stamped with a rather nonplussed looking merlion face, is surrounded by an ‘afro’ of the brand’s signature pork floss. Hilarious. It’s stuffed with mildly spicy, pretty tasty bits of ikan bilis tossed in sweet sambal. Till Aug 18, this, along with the Bak Kwa Delight, Curry Chicken, Curry Naan, Laksa Bowl, Otah Oleh, Satay Chicken and Singa Shake buns are available at a promo price of $3 for three buns when you use GrabPay.

Available till Aug 18 at all BreadTalk outlets islandwide, while stocks last (thereafter permanently available only at the Jewel Changi Airport branch). Tel: 6592-4434. https://www.facebook.com/breadtalksingapore/.

​​​​​​​Photo: BreadTalk

Shaped just like the crustaceans, this new Curry Crab Puff from BreadTalk stuffs real crab meat with curry spices and sambal shrimp paste into puff pastry. Their original similarly-shaped Chilli Crab Puff ($2.20) is available as well, if that’s more up your alley.

Available till Aug 18, at all BreadTalk outlets islandwide, while stocks last. Tel: 6592 4434. https://www.facebook.com/breadtalksingapore/.

Photo: BreadTalk

East meets West in this Starbucks rendition of the hawker fave. The Starbucks Croissant Laksa Bowl is an almost-spherical-shaped croissant ‘bowl’ filled with thick, spicy laksa paste and taupok, and adorned with a hard-boiled egg and prawn. Perhaps it was inspired by the curry in a bread bowl served at some zi char stalls. Makes for a decent snack as you camp out for the National Day Parade fireworks, we suppose. While you’re at Starbucks, also try the limited-edition cute cheesecakes sandwiched with rainbow sponge cake, styled to resemble heartland pushcart ice cream sandwiches.

Available at all Starbucks outlets, while stocks last. Tel: 6513-7500. https://www.starbucks.com.sg/.

If not stepping out of your house over the long weekend is your idea of a holiday well-spent, this one’s for you. RedMart is delivering a mini 3-cup pack of its exclusive Fresh Scoops ($9.90) range of dairy-free ice cream, created in collaboration with local online ice cream retailer The Ice Cream & Cookie Co. ICC’s existing bestseller Onde Onde featuring pandan ice cream, fresh coconut water, coconut mochi and gula melaka is pretty good, with bits of dessicated coconut and the few pieces of mochi adding texture to the smooth ice cream. The sweet pandan coconut flavours are nicely balanced with the slight saltiness of the gula melaka. Meanwhile, the new Rojak Sorbet stars green-apple-and-fresh-cucumber sorbet with crushed peanuts for a refreshingly crisp flavour, though the nuts kinda overwhelmed the lightly sweet sorbet. What’s missing from this cup that makes it truly taste like rojak? Hae goh (shrimp paste). But perhaps that’s a good thing. The Onde Onde ice cream is available in pints at $12.95 each, while the Rojak Sorbet is only available as part of the 3-cup pack with Onde Onde and the new Peach Teh ‘O’ Sorbet, which has a rather blah plain black tea flavour.

Available while stocks last on RedMart. Tel: 6261-3456. https://redmart.lazada.sg.