Sensational Sweet Delights

Every Friday, a column in NST RED will feature an article written by me. It's all about the unique spaces which I have come across that provide interesting or unusual experiences. Yes, the stories I write for NST RED can be about anything as long as it is related to spaces/places. After all, the RED in NST RED stands for Real Estate & Decor.

So, this Friday 1st February 2013 - I have written an article about the sensational sweet edible architectures of Chef Janice Wong.

As there are always "constraints" in the newspapers' publication, this is the full version with extra pictures and information. 

God gave the angel a pair of beautiful wings, but HE gave us, humans, luscious chocolate that melts with every sensuous bite. There lies the divine creation of humanity. By now, you may already know that I am a full-blooded bona fide lover of all things sweet. In other words, I am a “dessertarian”.

Architectural Edibles of Chef Janice Wong

When dining out, I always make it a point to start with desserts first because life is too short to leave the best for last. No matter which restaurant I’d go, it’s their dessert menu that seals my dining pleasure. So, imagine my utter and complete joy when I stumbled upon a place where they specialize in nothing but desserts.

2am: dessertbar in Singapore

Many moons ago, I came to know about “2am: dessertbar” in Holland Village, Singapore quite by chance. Chef and owner, Janice Wong, had only opened her place not too long ago when I first met her. When I laid my eyes on her dessert menu, I thought I had died and gone to heaven. It was desserts galore crafted in innovative and ever-surprising ways. After tasting some of the desserts from her menu, I found them to be similar to the desserts created by an internationally acclaimed pastry chef and also a friend of mine, William Goldfarb. Will Goldfarb was nominated by the James Beard Foundation to be the Best Pastry Chef in America. He specialises in molecular desserts. As it turned out, Janice was an apprentice of Will’s in his New York dessert tapas place called, “Room4dessert”. That’s how my friendship with Janice was forged back in 2007.

Since day one, I was always impressed with Janice’s courage to strike out on her own at a very tender age of 24 in bringing “2am: dessertbar” to life in Singapore. Her place only opens after 9pm and would close at 2am. In 2007, it was considered sheer madness to just open a dining venue in serving purely desserts for 5 hours each night. However, after staying true to her craft and dreams, Janice has finally made a name for herself in Asia’s culinary scene. Janice was also selected as the sole Asian representative in competing against seven other pastry chefs from around the world at the 2010 Madrid Fusion’s “C3 Competition”. This prestigious event was judged by renowned Master Chefs such as Frédéric Bau and Ferran Adrià. Today, Janice’s name is synonymous with “dessert extraordinaire”.

Chef Janice Wong

Janice’s refined and ever-evolving dessert creations began at “Le Cordon Bleu” in Paris. As she was always eager to perfect her art, she apprenticed in some of the world’s most cutting edge restaurants such as Melbourne’s “Fenix”, “The Botanical” and Singapore’s “Les Amis”, followed by famed New York and Chicago institutions such as “WD-50”, “L20”, “Per Se”, Alinea and of course, “Room4dessert”. She also under-studied some of Europe’s top patissiers such as “Pierre Herme”. It was Janice’s dissatisfaction with how desserts were never given the “centerstage” in every meal that motivated Janice open “2am:dessertbar”. Plus the fact that she is mostly a night owl, and it was near impossible to find a proper Hot Chocolate served in a decent place at the wee hours of the day.

Upon entering “2am: dessertbar” in Holland Village, one may mistake it to be a sushi bar. There is a “U” shaped-like counter top that runs throughout the room. Most of the seats are bar stools, with the exception of the lounge cushion seating situated at the windows’ edge. The décor is stemmed in clean lines and holds a minimalistic theme. The colours are muted, as if they are meant to fade into the background. I dare say that the over-all ambience is plain and almost austere. This is a deliberate stroke of design on Janice’s part. One must never forget that the main “stars” of this unique dining venue are the desserts. Thus, all else are orchestrated to blend into obscurity while each sweet creation steals the whole show. Believe me when I say that every dessert is as visually stunning as its taste. Thus, what will certainly take your breath away and leave an impressionable mark from your visit to “2am: dessertbar” will always be their desserts.

2am: dessertbar 

Janice’s never-ending passion for culinary artistic excellence has propelled her forward in testing the limits of dessert making. This includes the constant blurring of the boundaries between sweet and savoury. Despite the continuous evolution of Janice’s edible “artworks”, she maintains a distinctly Oriental identity through the incorporation of exquisite Asian ingredients. Some of my favourites at “2am: dessertbar” also happen to be Janice’s personal faves as well. They are as follows:-

“Shades of Purple”: This was created from an inspiration of Janice’s first painting. (Yes, she paints too.) It is an innovative concoction of purple fruits, and purple potato accompanied by lavender marshmallows that yearns to be savoured. 

Shades of Purple

“Kayambe H20”: This was designed especially for women in mind. It’s 50% chocolate, 50% water to achieve a mousse like texture and a no-guilt factor when devouring.

Chocolate Kayambe H20

“Cheese Avalanche”: This was chiefly inspired by Janice’s childhood snack of “Kraft” cheese with biscuits. She wanted to create a cheesecake of various textures with a 14-nut-and-fruit-biscotti. The result is a delicious enjoyment to the very last bite!

Cheese Avalanche

Recently, a new menu was launched at “2am: dessertbar”. Each dessert is given an option to be paired with a recommended wine or champagne. In addition, Janice has incorporated some savoury snacks into this new menu. There’s a new item called, “Popcorn” which is both salty and sweet but glazed with yuzu.

However, the dessert bar is not Janice’s only venture. There are 3 parts to her entire business enterprise. They are “2am: dessertbar”, “2am: lab” and “2am: experience”.

2am: lab

“2am: lab” is a 2000 square feet space attributed to creativity, research and special collaborative endeavors of various chefs. It is also a place for experiments and on-going research in the culinary fields. Therefore, you will find temperature climate controls, special cooking equipments and even a “flavour wall” installed in this highly equipped lab. Although it is not open to the public, every 2 months “2am: lab” would host special dinners from several guest chefs from across the globe to collaborate with their own team of chefs to fabricate an exclusive degustation menu for selected invited guests. Each guest chef’s collaboration would focus on different themes, thereby creating a new and unusual sensual dining experience. I have had the priviledge of attending one of these exceptional dinners when William Goldfarb himself was a guest chef in collaboration with “2am: lab”. The experience was definitely a seduction of all my senses, to say the least. Thus, I firmly believe that each dining experience can only be elevated when the owner or chef is someone who never stops learning and experimenting. 

  

Janice shares, “I have always been passionate about what I do, and this most definitely have evolved with time. When I cook, my philosophy would be to balance each dish with flavor, texture and temperature. Flavor being first as it is what your memory remembers most when you experience something delicious.” 

The third aspect of Janice’s business is her “2am: experience”. Here, Janice and her team provide full catering services from buffets to canapes for all types of events. With “2am: experience”, we can all order a distinctive dining experience to be catered to our whims and fancies by the talented Janice.

In September 2011 Janice launched her first book, she made history by creating a one of a kind event. Instead of a holding a cooking demo with a long speech at her book launch, she decided to create seven edible art pieces. Some were hung on the walls, others from the ceiling with the remaining few installed at the ground level. Each edible artwork drew inspiration from a chosen page of her book, “Perfection in Imperfection/Imperfection in Perfection”. As her book was inspired also by her personal experiment of 72 hours of sightlessness, she built an 8m long dark tunnel at the entrance so that her guests would experience 10 seconds of blindness before they entered into the main showcase area. The edible art pieces include a 2.4m x 1.2m marshmallow ceiling and gummy panels. Indeed, it was nothing short of an edible architecture. This might well be the very first time architectural designs and feats tasted so yummy.

With the increasing concern in health, Janice has also started to use considerably less sugar in her desserts. She has begun to substitute it with other ingredients that are naturally sweet, such as stevia herb. While it is never a bad thing to eat desserts in the late hours of the day, Janice cautioned everyone to consume in moderation. She advised, “Everything in moderation will not harm your body.” I am inclined to agree. After all, I only live to eat desserts and I definitely would like to live as long as possible in order to taste the marvels of desserts’ evolution.

I asked Janice what she has planned to unveil to the world in 2013, she shared that a new sweet delightful project is in the making and its name is “JW Sweets”. It would be a global movement where she retails artisanal "talk-worthy" edible architecture in units.  I can only anticipate with bated breath! Especially, the incredible edible architecture pieces.

We are very fortunate that modern technology and culinary talents have progressed to a stage whereby food and space can converge to provide an astounding experience for all of us to relish. Even desserts have taken a new meaning in today’s exciting gastronomic world. As they say, life is uncertain so it’s best that we always eat dessert first. Now that you know my philosophy, let us go make some sweet music with chocolate. And you’d know the strength of your will power when you have a box of exquisite Pierre Herme chocs sitting on your table, but you would only take one piece to savour.

Until next time, have a splendid candied weekend.

The Recipe: Broccoli Florets Sauteed with Ginger and Onion

This is the dish that I cooked from the book: EAT HEALTHY, DAILY

What I love about the recipes in this cookbook is that they are not only healthy simple vegetarian dishes, but they are also medicinal and healing. The recipes in this book are all created by Dr. Jiang, who have spent almost all his life studying and researching traditional chinese medicine through herbs and foods. He is from China.

"Dr. Jiang founded a natural health therapy center to provide natural therapies to enhance health and prevent illness without the use of drugs." (extracted from the book)

And all thanks to H.E. Tsem Tulku Rinpoche, the book became a reality to benefit all of us. Rinpoche has always been a firm believer in natural and holistic healing.

"I felt I would like to bring these wonderful, ancient, healing and special recipes to the world at large. I thought that this book would benefit a lot of people who are particular about their taste buds, and who would like meals which are healthy, very easy to make and economical, because none of these dishes are expensive at all." ~ Tsem Rinpoche (extracted from the book)

I must say, before doing the show and reading this book, I have not been one to care about my health and what I eat. My diet was mostly composed of junk food, junk snacks and lots of carbonated drinks. My all time faves were Cherry Coke and Dr. Pepper.

My most staple food was FRENCH FRIES. I used to just live on french fries! Yes, I know. I am walking toxic wasteland, waiting to explode.

So, doing the show, VEG & THE CITY, is definitely a very good thing for me personally, especially in terms of my health.

There are many exciting episodes coming up. So, do stay tuned. Every episode is a learning experience for me. So, I truly hope that it educates as well as entertain our viewers.

Now, here's the recipe -

Please note that all the combinations and amounts in the ingredients are created as such for its healing properties. So, Dr. Jiang does not advise that we modify them IF we are eating for healing and medicinal purposes. If we are just eating to fill our stomachs and stay healthy, then I guess we can go ahead and modify the recipe according to our own preference. Please do look out for any allergic reactions as everyone is different.

In the show, we used the following :-

300g of broccoli cut into individual florets (this was rather tricky for me but I am sure anyone who is accustomed to cooking will not have a problem)

1 medium red onion cut in half and thinly sliced (Is there any way to cut onions without crying? If you do know of a way, please do let me know too!)

2 inch ginger thinly sliced

1 tablespoon of soy sauce

2 tablespoon of vegetable oil

salt to taste with a pinch of brown sugar

So, we wash the broccoli well. Then we blanch in it boiling water for 1 minute. The colour of the broccoli will change to a brighter green. This is true! It did as you saw in the show. Then we drain the broccoli of the hot boiling water and immediately place it in a bowl of cold water. We drain it and set aside.

Then we heat the oil in the pan. Make sure that the oil is sufficiently heated up first. Then we proceed to saute the ginger and onion till its all fragrant and nice. Then, we add the soy sauce. We stir fry for a bit and we add the broccoli.

Stir briskly to mix all the ingredients well and thoroughly. Add the salt and pinch of sugar to taste. And it's done. Ready to be served and eaten! My favourite part - the eating!

There are many health benefits that broccoli provides. As I have mentioned some of them in the show. In the cookbook, there is a chart that spells out all the goodness and nutritional benefits of each vegetable and ingredient. I love that chart! It's so informative and useful.

What's even better - it also informs us of the side effects,  if any. Like cooking at high temperatures will destroy much of the nutritional value in broccoli. That's why its recommended that we blanch and stir fry briskly. Not too long. In fact, eating raw is really best. Sorry, I can't pull that one off. I can probably eat raw carrots, cucumber and tomatoes, may be some lettuce - but that's it! Well, if it was absolutely necessary, may be I shall be persuaded. But for now, I'll stick to blanching and stir frying.

I really recommend the cookbook. It's only RM20! Very, very cheap. Especially when we consider its healing benefits. So, when you get the book, we can cook together and share more of our cooking experiences together.

Do drop us a note to share your favourite vegetarian recipes and your own vegetarian journey. We would love to hear from you! We appreciate any comments that helps us to improve the show further.

Until the next episode, I'll leave you with this lovely quote from Tsem Rinpoche.


"I would like everybody to have good health, to be free of pain and medicinal problems and to have a very long life."  

VEG & THE CITY - TWO GIRLS AND A COOK BOOK (first episode)

Can a cookbook really launch a journey?

Well, apparently it can.

In VEG & THE CITY, two girls played by Shin Tan and myself, begin their vegetarian journey with the help of a cookbook. The cookbook is part of a house warming gift from their neighbour, Ms. Jamie Khoo.

The show is an all-new series to promote vegetarianism as a healthy lifestyle that is fun, simple, easy and convenient. The show chronicles our every day life drama as vegetarians in the city of Kuala Lumpur.

In the first episode, I cooked (yes, really cooked) a dish from the cookbook. It's Broccoli sauteed with Onion and Ginger. For more information about the cookbook, EAT HEALTHY DAILY, please click here.

EAT HEALTHY DAILY is not only a vegetarian cookbook, it also provides healing through food. Each recipe has been specially selected for its healing properties.

It  is a recipe book of simple vegetarian dishes and more. It is a book of dietary strategies to successfully combat the drawback of modern civilization’s health ills, including cancer, diabetes and obesity. Poor eating habits and too much processed food are hardly conducive to good health. Obesity, as well as diabetes, with attendant problems is on the rise. Cancer, no respecter of status, hits at everyone, rich and poor.

“People sometimes forget to take their medication but they never forget to eat. It’s human nature. We must have our meals every single day. If the food we consume can help prevent illness, then this food is better than any kind of medicine.”


Seriously, if I can cook, anyone can cook. And this is proof that the cookbook is extremely user-friendly and easy to follow.


Hope you all enjoy the show and as we say, "SEE YOU ALL IN THE NEXT EPISODE!"