Durian Cake and Blue Ginger

For my mother's birthday celebration last Sunday, we got a durian cake from the famous Jane's Cake Station at Jalan Kayu, as I had no time to bake cakes this year (see the 08 cake and 07 cake). My mum loves the durian cake from Jane's as it has a strong fragrance and the sponge is moist and soft, although I think they use a bit too much buttercream in the filling and for decoration. At $38 for the small size cake, it's pricey so I am thinking of getting next year's cake from Goodwood Park Hotel, which judging from their durian puffs, should be even better :-)

Later that evening, we went to Blue Ginger restaurant along Tanjong Pagar road for dinner - peranakan food served in 'semi fine-dining' style. We sampled a huge variety of 9 dishes in their special dinner set menu at $90 for 4 persons - including ayam buah keluak (my favourite candlenut stewed chicken dish), assam fish, and a super rich and fragrant durian chendol. While the quality of the fare was fairly good, I do think that Blue Ginger's standard has dropped somewhat in recent years - for instance, the ayam buah keluak was a bit more sourish than I would have liked and the assam fish could have benefited from a more concentrated and textured fish stock. While Chilli Padi (located at Joo Chiat Place) serves up great tasting peranakan food, however, since we go there so often, a change to Blue Ginger is nice once in a while!