Pang Zi Durian @ Jurong West Street 41 - Durian Cafe In The West Heavenly Durian Puff, Ice Cream and Mousse

Tucked in a small neighbourhood of Jurong West, Pang Zi Durian is a durian speciality cafe that offers not just homemade durian desserts and artisanal ice creams, but also fresh durians during the high season. Founded by two friends who are both durian lovers, they learnt from scratch and started off as durian sellers at their very first own durian stall last year. The cafe concept was conceived out of practicality in fact. As the high season dwindled, to sustain their business during the low season, in the long run, expanding into a cafe was deemed the way to go.

Durian Mousse 4.5/5

Their Durian Mousse ($5) is a must-try here if you are a durian lover. Made with D24 durians with just cream and no sugar, I love its bittersweetness. It comes with a dollop of D24 durian puree, and an additional $1 will get you an extra serving of it.

Durian Puffs 3.8/5

While I was there, there was a constant buttery aroma wafting from their kitchen as fresh batches of puffs were being churned out. All that aroma in the air comes from their signature is Durian Puffs ($10 for 10 pcs). I'm impressed with the puff pastry, which tasted like a high-quality French Choux pastry, crisp on the outside with goodness filled centre. However, I feel the durian custard mousse was slightly too thin to match up with the pastry.

MSW Durian Ice cream 4.2/5

Their other signature item is MSW Durian Ice Cream. The big chunky pieces of durian flesh will make you just want to dive right into it. The ice cream was rich in durian flavour and loaded with MSW chunks. Like the 2 other items, this tasted like the real deal too, with no artificial fillers in it.

Pistachio Ice Cream 4/5

A wide range of artisanal ice creams is available as well, and a few unique flavours might interest you such as this roasted Pistachio ice cream. It's not in the usual green hue as it is made with roasted pistachio, which gives the ice cream a much more pronounced nuttiness, almost like a roasted black bean to me.

Dark Chocolate Durian 4/5

There are also more refreshing flavours such as Peach Yakult, and Melon Coconut. Especially the Melon Coconut, which is one of the founder's favourite, for its milky, melony flavour that will hit the right spots for you too. One of their latest creations is Dark Chocolate Durian, and if that's intriguing enough, do visit them and have a try.

Photos and words by Si An. A girl who is allured by travelling, loves the feel of freedom, smell of the rain and the aroma of fine coffee and food. Note: This is an invited tasting.


Pang Zi Durian
Block 492 Jurong West Street 41
#01-18
Singapore 640492
Tel: +65 81939559
Facebook
Nearest MRT: Lakeside (EW Line)

Opening Hours
Daily: 12pm - 10pm

Directions: 
1) Alight at Lake Side MRT station. Take Exit A. Cross the road. Walk to bus stop opposite Lakeside MRT station (Stop ID 28099). Take bus number 98 and 187. Alight 4 stops later. Cross the road. Walk to destination. Journey time about 10 minutes. [Map]

Avenue 87 @ Amoy Street - Two Gifted Young Singapore Chefs, Retold Their Friendship On A Plate of Flavours

The ever-changing dining scene at Amoy Street sees another new kid on the block. Avenue 87 is a new modern Asian restaurant opened by 2 Singaporean chefs, Glen Tay and Alex Phan. Both of them are childhood friends born in 1987 and grown up in Hougang Avenue 8 and 7, respectively. Hence it is not hard to guess why the restaurant is named as Avenue 87.

Chicken Chips 4/5

I have the 6-course menu that is priced at $98++. Diner can also opt for wine pairing at $50++ for 3 glasses or $80++ for 5 glasses.

Kueh Pie Tee 4/5

We started with two Snack items before moving to our first course. First up is the crispy Chicken Chips that is deep-fried and topped with sour cream and mizuna cress. The other is Kueh Pie Tee which is a meatless take on assam pedas. In the crispy kueh pie tee cup, one can find aerated assam pedas, eggplant, lady's fingers, cherry tomato, and curry leaves. It is inspired by their favourite curry fish head dish.

Salmon 4/5

The first course is a Salmon dish. There are many components on the plate such as diced crystal pear, sour cream, ponzu-pickled wakame, soy wasabi granita and Vietnamese rice paper crackers beside the fresh Norwegian salmon sashimi. They are many flavours and textures at play which works harmoniously together.

AHK Seabass 4.8/5

Next is the fish soup, AHK Seabass using locally sourced seabass from Ah Hua Kelong. In the delicious bowl of fish soup, there are compressed bitter gourd, semi-dried cherry tomato, deep-fried egg floss, and anchovy buttermilk sauce. This is very close to my heart as I love our hawker's fish soup. To elevate the whole profile, the chefs innovate using dried anchovies in place of dried sole fish.

Octopus 4.5/5

Love the Asian take to the classic Spanish grilled Octopus. Inspired by the hawker sambal stingray and squid, the octopus leg is grilled, and served with housemade sambal, stir-fried market greens and crowned with a confit egg yolk. I was initial concern that foreigners may not be receptive to the spiciness, but I noticed the customers a table away were enjoying the sambal octopus.

Baby Lamb Rack 4/5

Moving to the 4th course, we have the Baby Lamb Rack marinated Vietnamese-style, served with grilled Thai eggplant and locally sourced stingless bee honey sauce. The chef draws inspiration from his Vietnam holidays, particular the skewered meats marinated in local aromatics and sauces. The lamb was cooked to an enjoyable fork tender. My friend, who usually doesn't eat lamb, didn't find it gamy at all. 

Diner will have a choice of side dish to go along with their main. During my visit, I have the choice of either Egg Fried Rice or Garlic Potato Mash.

For pre-dessert, we have Greek Yoghurt Mousse with house-made granola, cubed red dragon fruit, 8-spice honey.

Coconut 4.2/5

For dessert, we have Coconut and Pisang No Goreng. The Coconut is a light and refreshing dessert in which the coconut ice cream is served with pound cake crumble, papaya and caramelised pineapple. For the Pisang No Goreng, it is actually fried coconut custard with salted gula melaka and banana ice cream.

Pisang No Goreng 4/5

I think Avenue 87 has a lot of potential with their Modern Asian cuisine. Both the Alex and Glen have bags of experience working for different established restaurants, especially Glen, who last worked at 3-Michelin-starred Ultraviolet in Shanghai. The last they worked together was at Tipping Club. They are back together once again to bring us more exciting gastronomic experience from the individual journeys after Tipping Club.

Avenue 87
47 Amoy Street
Singapore 069873
Tel: +65 98388401/ 69705491
Facebook
Website
Nearest MRT: Telok Ayer (DT Line), Tanjong Pagar (EW Line)

Opening Hours:
Mon, Wed-Sat 1130am - 230pm, 530pm - 10pm
(Closed on Tue, Sun and PH)

Direction:
1) Alight at Telok Ayer MRT station. Take Exit A. Walk to Amoy Street. Turn left onto Amoy Street. Walk to destination. Journey time about 5 minutes. [Map]

2) Alight at Tanjong Pagar MRT station. Take Exit G. Walk down Telok Ayer Street. Turn left onto Amoy Street. Walk to destination. Journey time about 8 minutes. [Map]