Singapore Airlines, SQ34, SIN-SFO

Flight Info

Flight: SQ 34
Departure: Singapore Changi
Departure local time: 3:50pm
Arrival: San Francisco International
Arrival local time: 1:50pm (same day)
Duration: 14h 33m (non-stop)

Equipment & Amenities

My aircraft was the Airbus A350-900, the exact same aircraft I flew on to Singapore the previous week, which I reviewed then.  Only change this time is I was in seat 15K instead of 12K, and had kids surrounding me.  Sigh.

Still, I was glad to have a seat in the forward cabin.  I still HATED the angled seat, and somewhat wished I had chosen the middle seat bulkhead row 11 that was available ... it is a middle, with a neighbor, but ... zomg the seat is so uncomfortable.  I did manage to find a way to prop myself up on the side of the seat with a pillow wedged in the other side, but ugh, that seat.

I did still love the other features of the seat, particularly all the well designed storage, and the nice bedding.

Dining

In 14.5 hours, yes, there was ample food to be had: dinner (way too early for dinner time, particularly given lounge hopping!), refreshment (anytime you want, great lineup), and then ... lunch.  No breakfast service, given the timing of the flight, which I was worried would be awkward, but I made work well.

I ... ate a lot on this flight. And it was good.  Very, very, very good.

Dining Experience Outline.

As before, I appreciated that they outline what to expect from the "dining experience", highlighting what meals will be served when, although my flight crew didn't really follow them, serving the first meal faster than I've ever seen on a long international flight (way to early for me!), and the second full meal way too early (5 hours before landing?!).  The Refreshment menu was available after the first meal and up until about an hour before landing.

Drinks & Starters

Our first drink orders were taken before takeoff, and served fairly soon once underway.  The canape came soon after.

Bordeaux / Perrier.

For my first drink once underway, I asked what red wine was available.  I was given an answer of ... "a bordeaux", with no other details.  Well, ok.  On both flights, it was clear the staff didn't care about the wines at all, very different from Air New Zealand or Japan Airlines, where they want to educate you about the wines.

I really didn't care for the red wines on the previous flight, but this was better.  Not amazing, but not harshness, not too tanic.

 Canape: Singapore Chicken & Lamb Satay.

"With Onion, Cucumber and Spicy Peanut Sauce."

Singapore Airlines is known for the satay, I believe served on most flights out of Singapore.  It was served soon after takeoff, long before I was hungry, but the aroma was incredible, and even though I dislike chicken and lamb, I do love peanut sauce ...

So I accepted my "canape", which, to be clear, is *before* the appetizers.  The flight to Singapore just had nuts, this was significantly more substantial, a portion of 2 chicken skewers, 1 lamb skewer, and tiny skewer each of cucumber and onion, all drenched in the peanut sauce.

Now, again, I don't like chicken or lamb, but that peanut sauce!!!  Wow, so good.  Slightly spicy, chunky, served warm.  I loved it.

The cucumber was very refreshing, the onion harsh and crisp, and I just couldn't get over how good that sauce was.  I even tried the chicken, and was impressed ... it seemed ... actually grilled, and quite flavorful (slightly smokey and sweet!), although fairly dry.

I see why people rave about this dish.  It almost made me wish I actually got satay while in Singapore, if the airline version was this good ...

You could also opt for what I imagine is a larger portion of this as the main course, via Book the Cook, that also comes with ketupat rice cakes, but otherwise sounds the same.

"The Australian One."

Later on, once the appetizer cart rolled through, I was asked if I wanted to try any other wines.  I asked what else there was, slightly confused because I thought they only had the one red wine, and I was offered "the Australian one".

It too was actually fine, not something I'd go out of my way for, but again, considerably better then the selections on my previous flight.

Dinner

Spoiler: I really enjoyed my dinner, even though it was served way too early for me to really be hungry (the FAs were too on top of things!  It was only about 4:45pm when dinner was served).  

Incredible Dinner.

This was one of the best airline meals I have had in a long time.  Really shockingly fresh and seemingly high quality ingredients.

I had a very full, but not heavy meal, full of fresh vegetables, flavorful sauces, and quality proteins.  And decent enough wine.  And ice cream.  Oh yes.

Certainly one of the best non-First class meals I've had, although my brunch meal might have been even better ...

Carlo Cracco's Selection.

The simple, I don't want to make a decision option was created by two Michelin star chef Carlo Cracco, featuring a halibut filet.  Many people seemed to get this, and I do like halibut, but, I as more interested in the Book the Cook options.

Canyon Ranch Selection.

The other single decision option is the healthy Canyon Ranch menu, featuring a different appetizer (which I *really* wanted - it had burrata, endive, watercress ... but alas, no mix-in-match allowed!), beef short ribs, and lavender flan (which, again, I wanted ...).

On board Dinner Menu.

The regular onboard dinner menu had a choice of the aforementioned seared halibut or beef short ribs, or Oriental roast duck, or vegetarian Indian main dish, in addition to an appetizer and dessert available to everyone using Book the Cook.

Selecting a dish on Book the Cook was *really* hard, primarily given the vast selection .... nearly 65 choices, ranging from every cuisine.

I really was tempted by the laksa (my newfound love!), or the Lobster Thermidor (because, um, that is just crazy), or several of the excellent sounding seafood dishes, but I made a strategic, simple choice.  More on that soon.

Appetizer: Marinated Prawns.

"With Jerusalem artichocke, bell peppers, and anchovy cream."

The appetizer course was served from the cart once our tables were set.  It was dressed with the anchovy cream as it was served, so I asked for the cream on the side, rather than on top, in case I didn't care for it.  I had backup sauces with me.

I did not need the backup sauces.  The anchovy cream was EXCELLENT.  Serious anchovy flavor, and I loved it.  I immediately asked for more, and was given a HUGE scoop.  I devoured every last bite.

Overall dish was quite good, although I'm not sure about the "marinated" part of the prawns.  I didn't detect anything particularly interesting about the flavor in the prawns themselves, although I was quite impressed that they were not fishy at all, were well cleaned, and weren't rubbery.  They seemed quite fresh.  Very nice, actually.

I was also quite happy with the sunchokes, not something you ever seen on flights.  The portion was four chunks, mostly not visible here, but they were decently well cooked (a bit mushy), and just kinda a fun thing to have on a flight.  The bell peppers did seem marinated, and were grilled or cooked in some way, and I didn't like them, but they were easily pushed aside.

The final component was a few greens, not enough to make it a salad, but that was fine, as I actually had a salad coming for my main course, and I just used most of this dish on top of my salad main dish, to create a lovely entree.

From the Basket: Cracker-Thing.

Bread service came from a passed basket, and I was surprised to see so many tasty looking options, including a cheesy filled bread I almost selected.  But I went for the cracker thing, a huge crispy flatbread, that was actually quite delicious.  Nicely seasoned, a bit cheesy, crunchy ... and I honestly could have eaten a stack of them.  So very munchable.

Best "bread basket" item I've ever had, and I was happy to see it offered again during lunch service.

Main: Book the Cook: Spring Salad Bouquet of Haricot Verte Beans, Artichokes, Asparagus and Tomatoes with Hard Boiled Eggs and Roasted Walnuts.

"Haricot beans are high in protein and folic acid, artichokes are high in fibre and stabilize the metabolism. The alluring colours and flavours of this meal are a delight to the palate. Inspired by International Culinary Panel Chef Georges Blanc."

For my main dish, I used Book the Cook to pre-select my dish, yes, just a salad, but this was a very strategic decision, given that I knew that I would go lounge hopping in advance, and that the canape and starter were both decently sized, AND I wanted several of the Refreshment options too.

When it arrived, I was a bit let down just from inspecting it.  It without the haricot verte beans.  Without the asparagus.  And without the walnuts!  It was literally missing half the toppings, and came with just artichokes, tomatoes, and hard boiled eggs on top.   I was looking forward to the asparagus and green beans, since Singapore Airlines impressed me with veggies before, and I was looking forward to the roasted walnuts for a crunch factor.  And ... I planned to eat around the artichokes and hard boiled egg anyway, just not really my thing.

That all said ... the salad base was *really* impressive.  An incredible mix of greens, bib lettuce, raddichio, endive, spring mix, and more.  All were shockingly crisp.  Honestly, like picked that day crisp.  I don't understand, I haven't had such a good salad base even at most *restaurants*, let alone flights.  Seriously quality greens, and I was also quite pleased with the interesting selection of greens.

I didn't care for the artichoke or hard boiled egg, as expected (although I admit the hard boiled egg was pretty perfect, no graying yolks or anything).  The little tomatoes were good too, somehow perfectly ripe, and not mealy (as usually happens with refrigerated tomatoes).  Seriously Singapore Airlines, kudos.  I don't know how they pulled this off.

I asked for the dressing on the side, but, it wasn't brought at all, which was fine, as I just asked for more of the insanely delicious anchovy sauce from the appetizer, which was gladly provided.

I added the sunchokes and shrimp from the appetizer dish, crumbled a bunch of the cracker thing on top for crunch, slathered it in the anchovy cream, and was very, very pleased.  Fresh greens, interesting veggies, quality protein, crunch, and dressing I loved?

Awesome.  It also felt nice to not eat a super heavy meal.  Who knew, healthy-ish could feel good?  Best in-flight salad I've ever had.

Dessert: Sicilian Cannoli with Ricotta Cheese Chocolate.

"And morello cherry."

The dessert options weren't great: cannoli or "petite patisserie", a trio of very salad look buffet quality items.  I went for the cannoli.

It was very lackluster.  Soggy cannoli shell, really not crispy at all.  They get points for having pistachios on the ends though.

The filling was ok, pretty standard ricotta based filling, slight orange accents, and little chocolate chips.  Not sure where the morello cherry was supposed to be, it certainly didn't seem to be found in here.

I immediately asked for ice cream.

Fruit: Grapes.

After the main desserts, a cart rolled through with cheese, crackers, and fruit.  Given how good the fruit was last time, I was looking forward to this, particularly as I wanted to use fruit on my ice cream sundae, but alas, the lineup was not very appealing, mostly whole fruit (bananas, pears, apples), melon, or grapes.  No berries.  The grapes at least were an interesting darker color and large size, so I tried them, but the skins were bitter, and I wasn't really into them at all.

Refreshments

As always, after the dinner service, you can order on demand from a huge lineup of dishes, many of which sounded great.  I almost wished we had even more time on board to sample them all, but kudos to Singapore Airlines for offering so many different choices.

Refreshments Page One.

The refreshment lineup features a number of actual small meals, including several noodle dishes (bee hoon, egg noodles, or bak chor mee, the later of which is also a Book the Cook option that I had almost selected), the very well reviewed Singapore Fried Carrot Cake, an Indian dish with many components, an omelette if you are feeling like breakfast, two different soups, and a smoked salmon croissant.

So. Many. Choices.

I was able to strategically order my Book the Cook options to compliment this menu, since I had seen it in advance, and was able to enjoy one main dish as my brunch main, and another as a pre-arrival meal.

I was quite pleased.

Singapore Fried Carrot Cake.

"A hearty traditional dish of fried savoury radish-rice flour cake with prawns and pickled turnip."

Um, wow.  Serious wow.

I ordered this for my "brunch" main dish, and asked to reserve one early in the flight just in case it ran out.  I learned about Singapore style fried carrot cake (Chai tow kway) while in Singapore, and found myself totally fascinated by it.  No, it is *nothing* like Western carrot cake, as, uh, it is not cake, and it does not contain carrots.  Heh.  Look it up.  This was the white style, without the sweet dark sauce, but it wasn't particularly eggy.

My hotel had a pretty good version I enjoyed regularly at breakfast, so I knew it would fit in well to my brunch lineup as a savory option.  I also knew people tend to praise Singapore Airlines for dish, and it turns out, for very good reason.   Another very very well done dish by Singapore Airlines catering.

So, uh, they managed to serve this crispy.  Actual crispy.  As if it had just been pan-fried to order.  I don't know how, really.  But, they did it.  The texture was just spot-on, and the chunks of radish were juicy and soft.  It was a delight.

The prawns were a smaller style than the dinner appetizer, and weren't actually a highlight - they weren't fishy or anything but were a bit rubbery.  Fine, but not great.  Garnished also with spring onion.

On the side was a good enough sambal, but there was so much flavor in the base itself with the fermented turnip that it didn't really even need it.

My tied-for-second place favorite dish of the flight full of hits, and I'd gladly get it again.  It was perfect for a mid-morning savory option.  It made me *really* wish I had managed to make it to a real hawker stall for an even better version, but I adored this.

Bak Chor Mee Soup.

"Egg noodles in pork broth, garnished with sliced and minced pork, pork ball, braised mushroom, lettuce, fried pork lard and dried sole. Served with sliced red chilli."

Another fairly signature dish from Singapore Airlines, available via Book the Cook on all flights out of Singapore is the Bak Chor Mee (done in both this wet version, and a dry version).  The soup version was available on our Refreshment menu.  I was eyeing both versions for my Book the Cook pre-selection, but decided on other dishes instead, so I was happy to see it available still when we were about 2 hours away from San Francisco, and I kinda wanted something more, particularly after I saw others eating it.  The toppings looked legit!

It was yet another fairly good dish.  The noodles were the part that surprised me the most - not mushy, not firm, just ... right.  Great texture, and nice egg flavor.

The elaborate toppings line up was a mixed bag: the pork balls were kinda dried out and looked a bit scary (odd color), and the sliced pork was fairly chewy, but the minced pork and braised mushrooms were fine.  I loved the super crispy fried pork lard chunks and strips and bits ... sooo much texture, and kudos to serving so quickly they didn't get soggy.  I didn't really find any of the dried sole.

On the side was sliced red chilli to add as I pleased, really quite spicy.  It needed it though, as the broth was mild and quite bland, although not a bad thing for early morning.

I wouldn't get this again, and certainly didn't like it nearly as much as anything else I consumed, easily my least favorite dish, but, I was glad to try it, and really did appreciate all the extra touches and garnishes.

Refreshments: Page Two.

The next page is mostly lighter options, a vegetarian panini, chia seed pudding, and a slew of snacks: fresh fruit, cheese, nuts, chips, flavored popcorn (!), trail mix, biscuits, and ... Ben & Jerry's ice cream.

I eagerly asked for the honey mustard popcorn, given my total love of flavored popcorns, but alas ... I was told they didn't have it on this flight.  Grumpcat.

And then they found them.  And ... literally about every hour, a FA showed up with another bag for me.  I was not asking for more, but they just kept bringing them, apologizing that they couldn't find them earlier.  Heh.  Score.

And of course I ordered ice cream.  Multiple times.

Ben & Jerry's Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough.

After the lackluster cannoli, I needed more dessert, stat.  So I asked for the ice cream, which is amusingly Ben & Jerry's for flights out of Singapore (it was Häagen-Dazs out of San Francisco).  

Chocolate chip cookie dough isn't really my first pick, but at least it wasn't vanilla (as it was on the previous flight).  It was hard as a rock, but time fixed that.

Yes I added my own toppings, and was glad to have this backup option.

Ben & Jerry's #2: Melty Soup!

Later on in the flight, alongside my brunch waffles, I asked for another ice cream.

The flight attendant told me it was really melty, but asked if I still wanted it.   I'll admit I wasn't expecting it to be *entirely* liquid, but I just asked for a little bowl, and got to work making my perfect dish from it.

But, yes, it was not frozen in any way, a bit surprising, as we had 5 hours left in the flight, and I thought usually airlines kept the ice cream on dry ice?

Ben & Jerry's Cookie Dough Soup + Strawberry Coulis + Berries.

I added berry coulis and fresh berries from my waffle course, and used it as a dip with my waffles, and then just a sweet delicious rich soup, and loved it probably even more than if it was frozen ice cream.  It somehow felt more breakfast-brunch appropriate this way.

Lunch

Since the flight lands at 1:50pm, the next meal is ... lunch, with a full three course service.  Yes, this is jarring after the very short night.  I was NOT pleased to be woken with 5 hours remaining in the flight (!), being told "we are doing the meal service now", as it was only 9:30am at our destination and something like 3:30am in Singapore.  I was even more NOT pleased when others were able to get the full meal service only 2-3 hours out.  I'd certainly do this differently in the future, and I'm still confused why I was kinda forced into it (I was literally still in bed and they quite aggressively wanted to set my table, stat, even though my seat was in bed mode still).

Anyway.  I turned it into brunch, and it was amazing.  And likely better for me to get up and try to get on SF time ...

Lunch Menu.

Book the Cook is available for the main dish, so I again utilized that, rather than selecting an on-board choice of grilled salmon, bak chor mee (also from refreshment menu), or Indian veggie briyani.

All options come with an appetizer (salad) and dessert (cake).

Incredible Brunch.

It shouldn't surprise you that I designed an elaborate, and truly fabulous, brunch, utilizing the standard on board Refreshment option for my savory main course, Book the Cook for a fabulous sweet main course, and another Refreshment as the side sweet.  The regular meal service appetizer salad and dessert rounded it out to a *fabulous* 5 course brunch.  Because ... what else did I have to do but eat?  Ooops.

But seriously.  Amazing meal.  I think the best non-First class meal I've had on a flight?

Illy Gourmet Coffee.

In the "morning", I was again pleased by the brewed to order extensive lineup of Illy roasts.

Arabica Selection: Brasile.

"With an equilibrium of acidity and bitterness, the taste is characterized by the unmistakable notes of caramel and dried fruit."

I started with a regular, caffeinated option, opting for a more intense roast than my previous flight (although I liked that lighter ethiopian too).

It was definitely bolder, bigger, and slightly too strong for me, but I asked for a little extra water, and I was quite pleased.  So nice to have great coffee on board in the morning! 

Espresso Decaf. 

"Decafinated espresso with delicate notes of caramel, toasted bread and chocolate with a sweet aftertaste."

I moved on to the decaf, and had several, and they were all decent as well.  So much better than standard instant decaf on flights.

Thank you Singapore Airlines for caring about coffee quality!

Appetizer: Smoked Duck Breast.

 "With cabbage, rock melon, dried cranberry salad, yuzu pepper vinaigrette."

Since the meal is considered lunch, it comes with an appropriate appetizer, a salad featuring smoked duck.  I never really want the fruit, yogurt, or cereal "appetizer" round on a breakfast flight, so I didn't miss that exactly, but, I wasn't exactly craving salad or lunch food at this point.  I also never thought I liked smoked duck until I had a great version on an Air New Zealand flight, so I was still kinda excited for this.

It was served over a base of a few mixed greens (slightly wilty, not as impressive as the dinner service ones), some slaw (nice, crisp), tart dried cranberries (not too hard, actually quite complimentary), and dressed with a tangy yuzu pepper vinaigrette.  I'll admit I was pretty pleased with the little side salad thing.

I had to push aside the rock melon due to my allergy.

The duck was very nice, tender, lovely smoke to it, almost ... almost reminding me of bacon, but that was clearly my body wanting breakfast, not lunch!

Overall, a good dish, but not really what I wanted at 3am.

I moved on to a more appropriate breakfast-savory dish, the Singaporean Fried Carrot Cake, and the timing of that was just right.

Book the Cook Main Course: Warm Waffle with Strawberry Coulis.

"Warm waffle with strawberry coulis, fresh berries and mascarpone cheese."

The dine-on-board menu had traditional lunch entrees, but this meal service is also available for Book the Cook, with all 65 or so options again.  I knew that I'd be interested in something more breakfast-like at this point, and saw they had waffles (one of my favorite things!), so it was a no-brainer that I wanted this, particularly after I saw photos of it.

I asked for the toppings on the side, as it normally comes topped and I was worried that I might not like the coulis, or that the cream would melt, and I was really pleased with just how cute they plated it!  That tiny little cup of cream and the shooter of coulis were awesome.

Also awesome?  Um, the dish!  I've had such mixed success with waffles on flights before (usually quite poor, like the Air New Zealand ones that always disappoint ... over and over), but I had hope for this just given the positive reviews I had seen).

It might have been my favorite in-flight waffle experience so far, finally surpassing the excellent British Airways First Class pecan waffles with sautéed bananas and cinnamon honey, which have long held that title, and the more recent runner up from Japan Airlines.

The waffles were fairly tiny, but with all the other food I was ordering (as I also had the carrot cake main course from the Refreshment menu at this time), it was more than plenty.  They weren't quite the crispy liege-style quite they looked, but they were soft and fluffy in a good way, not mushy, certainly not soggy, not dried out, not stale.  Fairly impressive re-heating job, honestly not sure how they managed to do this without the edges getting hard or the waffles getting strangely moist.  The base flavor was good.  

The mascarpone topping was excellent - rich, thick, sweetened.  Seriously, so good, and turned this into an epic dessert course.  I didn't mind.

The berry coulis was also very good - fairly thick, bursting with berry flavor, some slight texture.  Sweet but not cloying, no strange spicing, just, very berry forward, very good.

And lastly, the fruit, berries.  All were fresh, ripe, and tasty.  I was again impressed with the freshness and quality.

I may or may not have also ordered another Ben & Jerry's ice cream to go with it.  It was crazy melty at that point, but great to dip the waffle into.  A+.

Overall, this was just absolutely wonderful - good waffles, excellent toppings, and exactly what I wanted at that time.  My favorite dish of the flight full of hits, and I'd gladly get it again.

Dessert: Ondeh Ondeh Cake.

"Pandan sponge cake with gula melaka cream and dessicated coconut."

But the meal just kept on giving!

Since this was a lunch meal, it came with dessert, as those opting for the regular menu had a standard savory entree.  I certainly did *NOT* need more dessert at this point, nor do I like sponge cake, but the server really encouraged me, saying it was so good.  And I do love pandan ...

I think actually, it was good.  The cake was moist, it wasn't dry, slight pandan essence.  The cream layer in the middle was not very think, but the yula melaka came through, and I loved that.  On top was a cream layer (coconut?) and lots of dessicated coconut.  I didn't really care for that part, sometimes too much coconut is off-putting to me, particularly if not toasted, and this fell in that category.

Still, a decent little dessert, if you possibly wanted dessert at that point.

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Corner Bakery Cafe

Corner Bakery Cafe is a chain of fast casual "bakeries", the sort of place that you are pretty sure doesn't actually bake anything there (or, if they do, it is from frozen).  As a "Bakery Cafe", they serve breakfast dishes, sandwiches/soups/salads, and a handful of baked goods.  They don't serve things like, well, loaves of bread.  So like Panera, but, even less legit bakery.

Storefront.

 I've walked by the San Francisco location most weekends (yes, it is kinda on a corner).  I've never given it a second look.  I don't really do sandwiches/soups/salads, and, I doubted the baked goods would be very good.  But, when I was browsing around reading up on birthday freebies, I saw that they give a baked good for your birthday.  And, a bonus one for signing up for the birthday club in the first place.

I couldn't pass up the chance to try two free baked goods, even if I had no expectation of them being good.

Setting

Ordering Line.

Corner Bakery Cafe is a casual place, where you order at a register up front, near display cases filled with the baked goods.  Food is prepared in a kitchen out of sight, and brought out when ready.

I visited about 5 times before writing this review, first to scope it out, twice to successfully get my treats, and 2 other times to fail to get what I wanted as they were sold out.  It was never busy.  Every.  Yet the restaurant has a very long hallway in the middle where you are supposed to queue up.  If there was ever a queue.

Barista Station.

Espresso drinks come from a welcoming looking barista station, but one that lacks an actual quality espresso machine.   You still order all drinks at the main cashier however.

Coffee.

Self serve drip coffee and standard condiments make up a side bar.

Cold Drinks.

Opposite the coffee station is the cold drinks (soda, tea, lemonade), also self-serve, and the rest of the condiments are here as well.

Seating Area.

Seating is a mix of standard height tables for 4, and higher tables for 2.  Seat yourself.  I think they bus the tables, but, on all visits, again never busy, tables always had dirty dishes on them.

Bakery Sweets

The only part of the menu at Corner Bakery that I cared about was the baked goods.  Partially because I'm a baked goods lover, but also, because my freebies were only good for them.

Cookies. $2.19.

First up for baked goods is large size cookies, all of which looked crispy style and not very good, but then again, I don't like cookies.  They had a good selection though, chocolate chip, monster, oatmeal raisin, sugar, and even english toffee.

Cinnamon Creme Cake. $2.19.

The coffee cake, er, cinnamon creme cake, is available whole or by the slice. It did not look very moist, and certainly did not have enough streusel for me.

Hand Pies: Blueberry, Twisted Lemon. $2.79.

The hand pies looked like fancy Pop-Tarts to me, and looked decent, probably the best looking offering.  I was sad that both involved lemon though (the blueberry one was topped with lemon glaze), and the "Twisted Lemon" clearly involved lemon ... somewhere.

Again, only 1-2 of each item was set out.  Still, I tried one.

Blueberry Hand Pie with Lemon Glaze. $2.79. (2017)

The "Hand Pie" was actually substantially larger than Pop-Tarts, which I realized when it was handed over to me, and the pastry bag weighed far more than I was expecting.  "Oooph!", I though.  It was easily the size, and weight, of 3-4 Pop-Tarts.  The 520 calories (!), 31 grams of sugar, and 23 grams of fat suddenly made more sense (compared to compared to 200 calories, 16 grams of sugar, and 5 grams of fat in a frosted blueberry Pop-Tarts).

It was ... ok.  The pastry wasn't flaky though, it was kinda soft.  It wasn't layered.  Not really pie crust or what I expected.

The lemon glaze was substantial, very sweet, and lemon-y.

At room temperature, as served, the hand pie was just ok.  I brought my second half home and warmed it up in the toaster oven, pretending it was a Pop-Tarts after all, and that was much better.  It crisped up, and I liked the warm pastry.  Still, quality fresh pastry it was not.

Blueberry Hand Pie: Inside.

Here you can see a cross-section of the hand pie.

The filling is a blueberry compote, with little berries in it, and lots of goo.  It was very sweet.  It reminded me of the blueberry topping at IHOP - not a bad thing exactly, but not exactly high quality.

If I had my hand pie warm, with ice cream or whipped cream, the sweet filling would have worked.  But just with the pastry and also sweet glaze, it was too much sweet on sweet for me.  And I like sweets.  But more than two bites without something to cut it was too much.

Rugalach: Cinnamon Pecan and Apricot Walnut. $1.49.

Corner Bakery makes two varieties of rugalach, apricot walnut or cinnamon pecan.

These seem to be one of the most popular items, not only was there a pile of them in the display case, they are also the only item I read consistent good reviews for.

Even though I'm not a rugalach aficionado, it seemed like worth a try, even though the cheapest of all the baked goods, and thus, the lowest value for my freebie.

Cinnamon Pecan Rugalach. $1.49.

Given that I prefer pecans, and don't really care for apricot, it was an easy choice to go for the cinnamon pecan.

I did not like it.  On top was plenty of pearl sugar.  That was fine.  But the pastry itself was dried out and tasted stale.  The filling had a couple tiny bits of chopped pecan, and yes, some cinnamon, but barely any flavor, no moisture, and, ugh, currants (better than raisins, but expected, and not welcome).

I didn't even want a second bite of this two bite item.

Cinnamon Roll. $2.99.

Ok, I lied.  Actually, the best looking thing was the cinnamon rolls.  But they were not eligible for either the new member reward, nor the birthday reward.  The $2.99 price was $0.20 more than the others, so I guess that is why?

If I were actually *purchasing* an item, this is what I would have tried.

Fudge Brownie, Maple Pecan Bar.

The maple pecan bar did catch my eye, as I love pecan pie, but closer inspection revealed that it looked like mostly shortbread, not much gooey filling.  I still tried it.

I found it strange that on all visits they only ever had 1-2 of each bar item on display.  It made the case look empty, and made me wonder if they really sell that few?  Are they frozen in back and they just defrost a few when needed?

Maple Pecan Bar. $3.49. (May 2019)

I finally got the most expensive baked good from Corner Bakery Cafe: the pecan bar.

The size of the pecan bar was striking.  I like big desserts, but this ... too much for one person in one sitting.  Which is saying something for me.

Partially, it is also too much due to the sweetness.  Like a good pecan pie, this bar was all about the sweet content, here made more interesting than just corn syrup, with a touch of maple (although I can't say I really tasted maple).  Gooey, and very very sweet.  The base is just a shortbread style, but it was soft and supported the filling.  I prefer pies over bars, so I wished for pastry, but, the shortbread was fine.  On top, tons of crushed pecans, which leads to a different eating experience than a pecan pie which normally has a least halves of pecans.  It made it much less about the pecans, more about the overall sweet and the base.

Overall, it was better than the other items I tried at Corner Bakery, but not special enough to be worth seeking out.  I greatly preferred it in a smaller chunk, warmed with vanilla ice cream to cut the sweetness, or room temp dunked into whipped cream (again to cut the sweetness).

This is their most decadent item, clocking in at 690 calories.  It could easily be made 25% smaller and would be far more appropriately sized.

Lemon Bar, Cream Cheese Brownie. $2.79.

The other two bars were a lemon bar and cream cheese brownie, again, very sparsely populated.  Again, not very good looking.

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SweetHoney Dessert, Cupertino

I've never been to Hong Kong*.  I certainly was not exposed to Hong Kong style desserts growing up.  But I've become rather fascinated by them as an adult, mostly as I've discovered how much I really love ingredients like taro, durian, coconut milk, toddy palm, pandan, and so on.  And, because I just love desserts, and love trying new things.

I was recently staying in the Cupertino area, and was hosting a series of dessert outings with co-workers.  I wanted to share interesting things with them, and started with Somi Somi for taiyaki cones and exposed them to the joys of ube soft serve (zomg, yes).  I tried to get them to try items from 85* Bakery Cafe that same night, but alas, while I have an infinite dessert stomach, it turns out, they did not.  So two days later, I dragged them back to the same area of Cupertino, to seek out more interesting, unique desserts at SweetHoney.  Or at least, interesting to me.  Only two others decided to join.

*besides the airport

Setting

SweetHoney Dessert is a chain, but our visit was the to the Cupertino location.

Curb Appeal?

Our destination was located in one of the strip malls that they call a "Village".  It was right next to an even trendier liquid nitrogen ice cream shop, which I nearly took people to instead.

SweetHoney is a chain, with 600+ stores, mostly in China, Southeast Asia and Australia.  It is casual, but does have full table service.

Menu.

The most memorable thing about the place, is ... the menu.  I had looked it up online before of course, when I was doing my research, and I warned my guests it would be overwhelming, but ... I think no real warning prepares you for the book, literally, that is the menu.

Pages, and pages, and pages of desserts, broken down by categories, all nicely illustrated, which helped since many items were unfamiliar to the group.

But even with the warning, and even with the illustrations, somewhere around page 15, they just gave up, and told me to order.  I didn't object to having the choice to order everything I wanted to try (or, ok, a small selection of things I wanted to try, with a menu this large, you could return many, many times, and barely make a dent).

Seating.

Seating is all inside, in a fairly non-interesting setting.  It was clean, it was comfortable, but had very little personality.

Food

Service was fast and friendly, and we were given complimentary tea as we sat down.

Desserts for 3 People. Yes, Really.

My group was only 3 people.  I knew each dessert could easily serve 1-2 people.  It would have made sense to order 2, or maybe 3, items.  And yet ... I ordered 5.

What can I say, I'm a dessert girl, and even narrowing it down this much was extremely hard.
We skipped the "Sweet Ball" series, featuring freshly made glutinous rice balls, not because we didn't want any, but because we had only 3 people, and ordering 5(!) desserts for 3 of us was already ridiculous.  Same with the "Tofu Pudding' series, again, I'd gladly try these, but alas, we had to limit our selections.  And same with the "Chinese Style Mixed", which had a slew of items I've never had before, but would love to try (walnut, almond, sesame soups!).  We also skipped the more boring drinks, and fruit platter sections.

But we ordered something from every other section of the menu: a sago, a frost, a stew, and of course, multiple items with durian.  We had two warm dishes, a chilled dish, and icy dish, and a room temperature dish.  Lots of variety.  And yet we still covered only a fraction of the menu!

It was fun to try this variety of items, but I don't think we were particularly impressed with anything.

Bowls & Spoons.

After we finally ordered, we were quickly brought little bowls and individual spoons, since we were sharing everything.

Our desserts started arriving 2 minutes later, really considerably faster than I expected.  I didn't even have time to settle in or use the bathroom!

Stewed Series: BLUEBERRY DUN LAI. $5.95.

From the "Stewed" section, we went for dun lai, skipping over the more adventurous swallow nest and stewed hashima or snow fungus items.

Dun Lai is a new item for me, and I selected this after reading reviews where people describe it as like crème brûlée, something I obviously love, but, lighter, fluffier.  It sounded fascinating, and, I do love puddings in general.

We had the choice of almond, red bean, or blueberry for this, and I opted for blueberry, mostly because the fruit sounded like a good compliment with custard.

I ... didn't like it.  At all.  I was surprised when it arrived warm, not a bad thing, just, not what I was expecting.  That wasn't the problem though.

It had a film on top, which actually I liked for giving it a bit of texture, but was rather off-putting at first.  Still not really the problem.  It was lighter, fluffier than a crème brûlée I guess ... but it was also very eggy, and reminded me more of a quiche than anything else.  And that was my issue.  I don't like eggy desserts, I don't like quiche.  And this ... just strange lighter, slightly sweet quiche.  Not my thing at all.

The blueberry on top was some stewed goo, not offensive, but it didn't add anything.

One diner liked it because it wasn't too sweet, and he appreciated a not sweet dessert, but I kinda hated this, and tried several bites, trying to like it, but alas, definitely not for me.  My least favorite.

Snow Frost: DURIAN & THAI BLACK GLUTINOUS RICE. $7.25.

I knew that I wanted durian items, and I knew that I wanted to try a frost item, and I do love black glutinous rice, so, I decided to combine those 3 wishes into one dish, and opted for this.  Frosts come in *many* other forms, and durian shows up in a slew of items, so I certainly had many options, but this seemed like a great way to cross off 3 of my wishes at once.

It was a mixed success.

First, the frost.  I really, really loved the frost.  It was a fascinating icy substance, sorta like ice cream, sorta like shaved ice, but, somewhere in-between, if that makes sense.  Creamier than shaved ice, frostier than ice cream.  It was sweet vanilla flavored, slightly coconut-y, and melted into a really delicious cream.  I could gladly just eat a bowl of that frost.  I now see why so much of the menu centers around it, and I think some of the other creations that use it would be fabulous.  The frost was hands down my favorite thing we tried.

Now, for the rest of the dish.

The black glutinous rice wasn't very good.  I love sticky rice, and prefer black sticky rice.  But this ... was just flat.  It wasn't that it was mushy, nor was it over cooked, or anything particularly strikingly bad, but, it was just very blah.  I think likely not very fresh, and, not very glutinous, really.  Even mixing it with lots of frost didn't lift it up in any way.

Then, the durian.  A very generous big scoop of durian.  It had funk, it smelt bad, it was stringy and strange.  It was, well, durian.  The others were not fans.  And to be honest ... I didn't love it in this dish either.  I think durian goes great in a shake (like I had from Bambu, in nearby Sunnyvale), and I liked it in the other dish we got with durian, but here ... it just didn't go great with the frost, and the rice was so blah it didn't work with that either.

So a very mixed bag.  Two pretty blah components, but also, my favorite component of the day.  The presentation with the scoops of rice and durian was nice, and I'd gladly try another type of frost, maybe with mango or toddy palm?

Sago Series: MANGO POMELO SAGO GRASS JELLY (Add Toddy Palm). $6.25.

This one came from the intersection of the "Sago Series" and the "Grass Jelly" series, a slightly cold dish, more like room temperature, really.

The sago series is the most extensive section of the menu, which is saying something, given just how many dishes are on this menu.  There are ... so, so, so many options for sago, starting with a slew of simple fruit forms (mango sago, watermelon sago, papaya sago, toddy palm sago, etc, etc), or basic soup forms (sesame soup & sago, walnut soup & sago, almond soup & sago, etc, etc), and then from there, the options just explode.  Same with the grass jelly series, so, so many options.

One of the most popular dishes on the menu is the mango pomelo sago, which we almost got, and then I saw the version that also had grass jelly, and opted for that, so we could try not only the signature mango pomelo sago, but also add in the fun of grass jelly.  And ... I added toddy palm, because I wanted toddy palm in something, but was trying to limit to 5 desserts (which was still too many for 3 of us!), so instead of adding a 6th item just to get toddy palm, I added it here.

This ... wasn't quite what I expected either. 

To start, I expected it to be more sago forward.  There wasn't much sago here at all.  We all remarked on this fact.  The sago that was there was fine, well cooked, soft, not stuck together, small balls, but, you had to fish for it.

We also expected, and wanted, more mango.  We only found a few small cubes.  The mango that was there was quite good, soft, sweet, perfectly ripe.  But we wanted more.

I didn't mind that there was just a little bit of pomelo, providing a hint of acid, and not much more.  I'm not a big fan of citrus, so this was fine with me.

The grass jelly was fairly standard, not much to say about that, except that, unlike everything else, there was tons of it.

The toddy palm I added in was also fairly standard, and I enjoyed the texture the pieces added, plus, they were quite fun to fish out, given the larger size.

 And finally, the broth in which we were fishing.  This is I think where I was not excited.  It felt very plain to me.  I thought it would taste like mango, or coconut (was it coconut milk based?), but it was just ... kinda there.  It was orange, and it was slightly milky, but it didn't have much going on.

This dish was the sweetest one we had, but it still wasn't overly sweet at all, which again, one diner liked.

The other two ranked this dish in their top two, but for me it was pretty meh - every component was fine, and it was fun to fish things out, but I grew sick of it after a few bites, and didn't find myself really caring to go back for another bite.  4th pick and I wouldn't get it again.  Next time, I'd try the tofu pudding or one of the asian soups.

That said, I took the leftovers, and mixed it with the leftovers from the durian and black sticky rice frost, and really, really loved it the next day.  The flavors all combined together nicely, and the rice soaked in the pudding base was considerably more interesting than the original form.  The mango and durian even complimented each other nicely.

BAKED MASH TARO SAGO PUDDING. $5.95.

We had a one minute (literally) break, before more items arrived.

From the "Baked" series, I did consider the baked mashed durian sago pudding, but I knew my dining companions were not excited about more durian, and I did actually want a taro dish myself, so, this was a pretty easy pick.  I also knew this wasn't going to be a pudding in the sense that my companions may have thought it would be, as in, not jelly-like.

It arrived very hot, and took some time to cool down so we could eat it.  This was fine, as we had a pile of other items to keep digging into.

Baked Mash Taro Sago Pudding: Side Profile.

The top layer was a warm custard, thicker and more cake-like than a crème brûlée, with a lovely golden top.  The texture and consistency was good, and it wasn't too eggy for me, but it certainly did head in that direction.  Not the most exciting component, but it is what lay beneath it that I cared about: the taro!

Yup, just a bunch of warm, mashed sweet taro under the custard-cake top, with a tiny bit of sago in there too.  I love taro, so this was quite pleasing, but I can't say it was particularly special.

We all liked this dish.  My third pick overall, and I gladly saved the extra for breakfast the next morning (its ... totally breakfast food, right?)

Durian Special: DURIAN PANCAKE (2PCS). $7.45.

And then, at last minute when ordering, I threw on another durian item.  I knew we had too many desserts already, but ... I really wanted just one more durian dish (it didn't matter that one of the other guests said he wasn't having any of the durian dishes, and the other had never had durian).

From the "Durian Special" lineup, I could have opted for durian pudding, or durian mochi, both of which sounded good, but, the durian pancake I knew was likely right up my alley.  They also make this in a mango form.

I knew exactly what to expect with this one.  Not a pancake in the fluffy breakfast carb sense.  No, this was more like a thin crepe, wrapping a mound of whipped cream, with fresh durian inside.  Oh yes.  In my head, I was thinking it would be like the glorious durian (or mango) cheese buns I had in Toronto of all places, from an Austrian bakery, Guschlbauer (seriously, go there!).  And it was, actually, quite similar in some ways.

This item came last, significantly after our other items, and at first, I thought they had forgotten it.  It was clear it was freshly assembled, and came cold, chilled.  The dish came with three small forks, and a knife, so we could cut them up.

Durian Pancake: Inside.

Here you can see inside the pancake.

Yes, nothing fancy here, just thick whipped cream and durian.  The cream was thicker than your standard whipped cream, sweet, and a wonderful texture.  I do love whipped cream.

The cream went sooo well with the durian, complimenting the funk perfectly, balancing it out.  The durian was the same fresh durian we had in the other dish, just, better balanced out here.  And yes, there was plenty of durian, they certainly did not skimp on the durian.

The pancake wrapper was green (pandan? food coloring?), but didn't have a particular flavor.  It was  a good texture, not gummy, not chewy, pliable but not wimpy, it served it purpose of wrapping the fillings well, but not letting them fall out too easily.

I really enjoyed this item, my favorite overall dish, and second favorite bite (to the frost).  The others said they would have loved it with anything but durian inside, and I'm positive they would have loved the mango version.  Oops.  The plus side?  I got to take the extra whole one home!

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