Pencilicious

I always love those moments when you're desk-deep in work and while checking something, you accidentally mouse-stumble across something inspired.

Yesterday I was sub-editing a story on Japanese designers and came across a clever collab that cool firm Nendo did with Japanese patissier Tsujiguchi Hironobu.



These chocolate pencils come with a special sharpener to create those crucial shavings that people like to shower onto desserts. Although I always enjoyed how pencil shavings would fan out like those paper doll accordions, it's true that the grazed wood is not very useful and understandably tipped into the bin. The designers point out that these sweet objects reverse that idea - instead of being unwanted discards, the chocolate shavings here are the most desirable point of the pencil.

And though the set doesn't come in the rainbow spectrum that your much-coveted primary school Derwent watercolours did, they are available in different cocoa flavours.



If these goodies were placed in stationery cupboards everywhere, pencil-chewing would become a national sport.

Nendo, Japan www.nendo.jp
Tsujiguchi Hironobu, Le Chocolat de H. Tsujiguchi, Japan www.lcdh.jp

Cafe Norita, Sydney

If Betty & Veronica lived in Chinatown, I think they'd hang out at Norita Cafe. Located in the Sydney's Spanish "quarter" (could a quarter be any smaller?), it seems to be a magnet for young folks wanting to sip on freshly-blitzed pineapple juices, crash out on an oversized couch and break out the board games.

There's a random array of things to play - from Tumbling Monkeys to Clue to everyone's favourite party-scene-stealer, Axis & Allies: Europe (which I misread initially as "Arts & Allies: Europe" - a heartstopping game about arts administration set in Basel and Utrecht, I imagined, until I put on my glasses). The games will set you back a few hours and a few dollars (depending on how many houses on the Monopoly board you want to rack up or drawing room game villains you want to nab).



There are also light snacks and the over-the-top desserts you'd expect in a joint that's so close to Chinatown - think green tea and black sesame ice cream scoops paired with sweetened red bean ($9). To encourage you to lounge around, there's free cake on Thursdays and other calendar-coordinated discounts.

Norita has one polarising thing about it - I won't let slip what it is. You'll easily work it out when you're there. It's a little sneaky and is the one aspect that stops me from really liking the place. That and the fact I'm still waiting for Jughead and Moose to turn up.



Norita Cafe, Level 2, 77 Liverpool St, Sydney

Singapore

Singapore is a spectrum of colour when it comes to food - especially the kaleidoscopic fruit displays, all fanned out in vivid rows. Such tropical treats come with a catch, of course, and that would be that the unrelenting weather comes with the package. As a temperature wimp, I found the country's cast-iron unbreathable heat and bullying humidity a bit full on. Walking through the sweaty air was an ongoing battle, like trying to dodge a constant ambush of steamy microwaved towels.

This shirt-sticking climate had a great upside though - it was an endless excuse to try lots of crazy colour-coded desserts and sip icy home-made barley water as I walked around.








In Chinatown, I had this crazy ice-jelly-peach concoction. It was scattered with jelly cubes in suspiciously unnatural colours, sago bubbles, ice shavings, peach crescents and the most un-cherry-like cherry I've ever seen. It was a rather cartoony dessert and quite fun to eat. About an hour later (because that's how hot it was), I had another crazy ice-jelly dessert again, this time with a gelatinous wobble of mango pudding, all creamy-smooth and delicious.

Anyone who thinks with their stomach would find Singapore full of literal eye candy - from the rainbow dumplings in food courts to the spiky durians on outdoor displays to the sculptural reshapings of fruit in restaurants.









In Australia, eating in a food court is like a meal of last resort, but in Singapore, I was truly keyed up about eating in a shopping complex. A lot of stalls had meat-slathered fare, but I did enjoy the "Yong Tow Foo" stands, where you fill up your bowl with a medley of steamer-bound goodies (Chinese greens, mushrooms, tofu - even fried potato), which would then be sent to a bubbling pot as you paid. Ribbons of noodles could be added if you wanted. And then you could slop on different sauces at the end. I liked the whole bureaucratic nature of picking the ingredients and also safeguarding against having to pester waiters with "um, is that vegetarian?" enquiries by screening out weird fish balls and meaty surprises myself.




And though in Sydney, I actively avoid having to eat at the airport where I can (because you pay a depressing amount for mediocre food), I was happy to find a "yong tow foo" stand at Changi's Terminal 3 basement food court.



Food court-courting aside, I also grabbed some local press to check out which restaurants to try. I was intrigued by Kashmir, a restaurant claiming to be the only joint in Singapore that serves Kashmiri fare. The eggplant main had been singled out by Time Out Singapore as being especially good, but when I ordered it, the waiter paused and seemed a bit hesitant to recommend it. He actually suggested I try the Paneer Labbabdar (SG$9), so I ended up getting both just to appease everyone (and my highly hungry stomach). The Choq Wangan (SG$6) eggplant was OK, but not note-worthy. It was, as the waiter warned, rather tart, so you wouldn't want a huge amount of it. But the paneer is incredible: creamy cheese stewed in a velvety tomato sauce, shot through with seductive spice hints and unpredictably good and unguessable flavours. It made me wish Will could teleport straight to the table, because he would find it such a dreamy thing to eat.

I wondered if the chef had mixed feelings about a dish getting recommended by the press when far more order-worthy items were listed on the menu (and bound to be ignored, because they weren't given the reviewer's tick).




Another press recommendation was a vego joint called Food#3, run by a group of artists who want no less than to "change the world", through ethical and creative means. If Napoleon's army marched on its stomach, then I guess indie artists have to dish it out too. I especially liked the laksa pesto (from SG$1.50) they serve with their laksa bread and the fact their bathroom sink was fitted with a giant recycled shower rose (so your hands got elegantly rained on when you went to wash them).

As I sat down to eat, I thought: if only a shower head could spritz water on me every walking moment in Singapore, I'd be pretty happy. Reality, of course, is a lot stickier. I feebly tried to finish my dinner (and failed, thanks to the skin-pressing humidity and appetite-suppressing heat. Plus, was the burger too dry because there wasn't enough kaffir lime mayo on it, or simply 'cos it was so damn hot? ). So I found relief in the spicy mint tea at hand. Icy drinks must be the country's daily lifesaver.

Food #03, 109 Rowell Road, Singapore, 6396 7980, food03.blogspot.com
Kashmir, 52 Race Course Road, Singapore, 6293 6003, www.kashmir.com.sg