23 Years After Birth- A Very Happy Day

Its been a long time since I celebrated my bdae with my family. 

Birthday Night with the Fams

Surprise Lunch organized by the best colleagues and friends!

Cheesecake from 85 degree C.

2010 was perfect. I couldn't possibly ask for more, espcially in a foreign land. My stint at Inchcape was the best thing that happened to me in 2010, I made awesome friends, had awesome memories and learnt an awesome lot. I was very fortunate to have Eli as my roommate; she's like the ideal roommate everybody wishes to have. She's caring, understanding and I even think she's the one behind the whole bdae surprise in 2010. To cut the story short, I had the most awesome bdae surprise anyone cld have!

Celebrating my Bdae in San D's Best Western Hotel

Chocolate Cheesecake from Cheesecake Factory

2011 was alittle rocky, I had both good times and bad times but I guess my sis made everything a whole lot better when she came over to America for her grad trip. We had a not so awesome dinner but bought a delicious cake! I can still remember cutting into that rock hard frozen chocolate cheesecake from Cheesecake Factory... sigh those were the days...

Yup, it's been a long time since I celebrated my bdae with my family; so much so, I kinda forgotten how it's like celebrating with them. 

My fam decided to give me a surprise and refused to tell me where we were heading. When my dad pulled up at Fullerton Hotel, I immediately knew- Fullerton Chocolate Buffet! I was pretty shocked as none of my family members (not even my rubbish in rubbish out dad) could have chocolates for dinner. They actually sacrificed for me.. awwww

Upon arriving at the Courtyard, we were a little disappointed that the limited spread; it was far too pathetic for $38++. I heard from Jie that they were contemplating on bringing me to MBS but because I was raving about Fullerton's, they decided on Fullerton in the end. Oops... Anyway, we sat down and was given a choice of coffee or tea. Once again I was pretty disappointed as I thought they would have a selection of tea. Nope, not Fullerton. 

My first plate was piled with tiny little chocolate cakes. As I don't remember the names of the cakes, I shall name them according to their ingredients. The cake at the top left is a chocolate cake with some crunchy layers in between; it was not too bad but was a tad too soft. Next to it is the chocolate tart (partially covered by the raspberry cheese cake). The chocolate tart was a little disappointing, it was too soft and the tart didn't have the crunch. Blocking the chocolate tart, is the raspberry cheese cake which wasn't good either. The cheesecake filling on the top was a little too gelatine-ish and could do with somemore cheese. As for the brownie base, it was cakey and nothing spectacular. The dark brownish tartlet looking dessert infront of it is the best dessert of the lot. It's super fudgy, just what a brownie should be! The best part is, it wasn't too sweet and embodied a dark chocolatey flavour. The layered cake beside it was some hazelnut layered cake which was soft and aw-so conventional.

Assorted Mini Cakes

Round 2, Begin! Fighting against the Brownie for the "Best Dessert of the Night" title is none other than the chocolate pudding. This pudding resembled the well known chocolate molten Lava cake and is to die for! It was really nicely baked; all crusty at the top while molten and luscious in the middle. Other than the alcoholic chocolates, the other mini dessert aren't worth mentioning. The alcoholic chocolates came in 3 different flavours; each with its own unique taste.

Chocolate dessert 2nd serving

Ice cream is like a must have for any dessert buffet, hence Fullerton know best not to omit it. Their ice cream however was too soft and did not wow me. I liked the mango sorbet as it was soft but had the gelato kinda texture. The chocolate tasted normal and frankly, I was disappointed. They had a couple of chocolates pralines but like I said save your calories and go for the alcoholic ones instead.

More Desserts

After my second round, I narrowed down to my top 3 favorite. I would have love both the chocolate tart and the chocolate cake if it was firmer, maybe it was out for too long. The brownie are to die for and may well be my favorite dessert of the night.

Top 3 Favorite

What is a dessert buffet without some colourful Macarons? Macarons have never been my kinda dessert as it's 99.99% of the time too sweet for my liking. However, greedy me pinched some from jie and I was surprised to find that these weren't that sweet. They were more chewy than crumbly and wasn't overpoweringly sweet. *disclaimer: then again my taste buds might have gone haywire due to the high dosage of sugar from the previous cakes.

Colourful Macarons

Mousse in jars are always present in any sort of buffet. I'm not a fan of mousse dessert, nonetheless I gave these a try as the limited buffet spread allowed me to do so. I must say, Fullerton did try to be unique as the flavours of these pretty looking things are extraordinaire. 

Prettily bottled mousse desserts 

The shot with a green fluffy topping is some Wasabi inspired chocolate dessert. Despite being different, very unique alright, I didn't really care for Wasabi in chocolate. The dark chocolate mousse beside it was lovely but did not wow and so was the other pear chocolate mousse. The mousse that stood out for me would have to be the salted caramel popcorn (white looking thing at your 8 o'clock). It was uber creamy and yet embodied the taste of both salted caramel, as well as, pop-corn.

The highlight of the limited spread (lol sorry can't stop whining about the limited spread) would have to be the hot chocolate station. There's nothing really fantastic about this besides getting to choose the chocolate that goes into your hot chocolate. I guess the only thing I enjoyed about this is to have a hot cuppa amid all the chilled desserts. Its also pretty interesting to find out that the different % of cocoa does affect the final taste of the hot chocolate; I used to think it only affects the sweetness of the final product.

Chocolate Drink Station

I tried both the 70% and 85%. The 85% is down right bitter but in a good way, as for the 70%, it was good but I preferred the taste of the 72% which I kope-d from Jie. Mum's 64% wasn't too bad either. Jo's 32% was a tad sweeter but yummy.

Hidden at a corner, beside the chocolate station is the crepe station. They were only serving 1 flavour, Crepe Suzette which basically a crepe with a sauce made out of caramelized sugar, butter orange juice and Grand Marnier or some orange liqueur. It's traditionally served flambe but I guess due to logistics, it was served flameless.

Honestly, I can't really judge this crepe as I have not eaten a Crepe Suzette before. Nonetheless, I felt the crepe was more spongey than usual and alittle too thick for my liking but hey try it out urself and let me know :)

Crepe Suzette 

Despite my above whining and all, the service was impeccable. It might be because there weren't many customers but I'm just gonna ignore that fact and give credit when its due. Everybody wore a smile, from the lady who showed us to our table, to the guy at the crepe station. In addition, they brought me a bdae cake and sang me a bdae song. I think it was requested by my sis but then again it was super heartwarming as their staffs (around 4 ppl) crowded around and sang me a song. Well done Fullerton, your service just made me forget your limited spread. 

Me Bdae cake!

All in all, I would return to Fullerton only if I was having a special event or if there was a promo. Chocolate hangover is not to be mess with people! Drink loads of water. 

I guess what made Fullerton Chocolate Buffet good, apart from their service, is my family. Having my mum eating dessert is one thing, but having her eat that for dinner is another. I guess fams are there for you through thick and thin eh? lol thanks Jie, Jo, dad and mum.... really enjoyed myself :) 

Happy Birthday to me :)