Dessert Degustation at Obolo

This is a food event organized by LadyIronChef where it is held at Obolo Patisserie for a dessert tasting session. For a 12 pieces dessert platter it consists of 3 petite cheesecakes, 4 petite entremets, 2 petite tartlets, a dessert shooter, 2 macarons and a drink at just $24.60 per person.

Although the place is small, it did manage to fit in 16 people and every table was set up nicely with their dessert degustation menu, Christmas menu and a bag of their best-seller cookies, Cranberry-Chocolate Chip. I have to admit I am pretty excited as the desserts at Obolo is not very cheap and to finish all their selections will burn a fair bit of our pocket and load tonnes of calories into our body. Thus, I would like to thank Brad aka LIC to organize such a wonderful event where laughters and joy were shared among a nice company of Brad, Yan, Evan and Vicki at our table.

I am impressed by LIC for organizing a dessert outing as it is never easy to get a good deal, a good attendance and the most difficult task, an array of desserts that impressed the majority. He done it well and tonight's gathering is definitely a success. Without further ado I shall share my opinions of tonight selection.

Starting from the top left, is the

Chocolate Noir
Tartlet filled with dark chocolate ganache

Tiramisu Au Chocolat
Mascarpone creme, dark chocolate ganache & chocolate genoise infused with coffee, cognac and dark rum

Pinada Cheesecake
Pineapple ivoire cheesecake with rum-soaked raisins

Caraibe
67% caramel-chocolate mousse, dark chocolate ganache, pecan chocolate fudge cake base

New York Cheesecake
Smooth & creamy baked cheesecake with a hint of lemon

Nikita
Dark chocolate ganache mousse, cherry-raspberry gelee, Pistachio ivoire mousse & chocolate-almond biscuit with kirsch

Mango-passion cheesecake
Baked cheesecake infused with mango & passionfruit

Le Cassis
Dark chocolate ganache mousse, blackcurrant ivoire mousse, chocolate-almond biscuit & crunchy praline feulletine

Chocolat-passion
Tartlet filled with milk chocolate & passion fruit ganache

The dessert shooter served for the evening is summer berries which consists of tangy mascarpone mousse, red berry gelee, kirsch-mixed berry compote & kirsch-soaked vanilla genoise, garnished with fresh berries and the macarons for tonight were the hazelnut-chocolate and matcha.
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Fen's comments

------------------------- Some thoughts after my dessert spree -------------------------

After eating so many desserts within 4 months, I have to admit I am extremely picky with desserts for 2 reasons. First, to shed these calories, I have to motivate myself to gym and this is never easy as I have been a couch potato for 7 years and second, this hobby is expensive.

When tasting more than 2 desserts, there are several factors which will make it good or bad. First, the selection of desserts cannot be too extreme. Second, it is important to start off with a mild flavour, then followed by a strong one. I know that $23+ is not a lot to justify such standards BUT I strongly believe in any dessert presented on a table, it has come a long way whereby the baker has to decide the ingredients used, its presentation and the time to prepare it. In any case, Obolo did impress me by its use of vibrant colours in the desserts but fails to leave a deep impression despite eating 12 of them.

To me, it is important that the first bite must impress, why is it so?
How often do you eat the same dessert everyday or rather have it more than 1 slice? I doubt it. Thus, the moment the first bite impresses you, it has won half the battle as your brain will automatically register it as a good dessert and trust me, it is good enough to tempt you to go for a second purchase and recommend it to others.

------------------------- Some thoughts after my dessert spree -------------------------

------------------------- Detailed breakdown of individual dessert -------------------------

The best among the entire lot is the Chocolate Noir for its crunchy tartlet and smooth, bittersweet chocolate ganache. Simple as that.

The other favourite of mine is the Nikita. I think Sihan is going to like this one. She can take sour stuff and love pistachio. The unique factor of this creation is the pistachio ivoire mousse but would be better without the cherry-raspberry jelly. Pistachio has a very unique mild taste which is neither sweet nor bitter, hence to match it with something bitter like dark chocolate ganache mousse and the sour cherry-raspberry jelly can be misleading to taste buds. When too many extreme tastes constitute in 1 bite, we don't know what to expect. So, I actually ate this by enjoying the pistachio ivoire mousse on its own, skipped the cherry-raspberry jelly and savoured the finishing bite of dark chocolate ganache mousse and chocolate-almond biscuit with kirsch. I thought pistachio might go better with vanilla mousse.

All the cheesecakes for this evening disappoints. I thought the richness and creaminess of the cheese was not strong enough to my liking and it tasted different from my first encounter last Sept (2007). So far, Hotel Hilton's cheesecake leave the deepest impression and has broken my record to eat 10 types of cheesecakes in a go. Pinada Cheesecake and Mango-passion cheesecake were unique in their own way but I thought it was alittle sour and extreme in its combination while New York Cheesecake lacks the baked crust which Checkers Deli has.

Although I am a fan of chocolate mousse, Nikita, Le Cassis and Caraibe were similar in terms of the dark chocolate mousse. Hence, it gets cloying after eating all of them. The problem with Le Cassis is the extreme sourness of the blackcurrant mousse, thereby it fails to bring out the texture and taste of the chocolate mousse. On the other hand, Caraibe was good but might be better to replace the pecan chocolate fudge cake base with hazelnut praline, flourless chocolate cake or peanut butter. A good chocolate mousse can be gotten easily if one is willing to pay >$6 per slice but whether the cake stands out depends on its "companion" to bring out a different level of texture and impression. Ultimately, a capable gentleman is never complete with a beautiful lady, right? So, the "best chocoholic couple" in Obolo is still Noisette.

Chocolat-passion was too yucky. Just too sour and I am pretty sure that people may get a false impression that either the chocolate is not fresh or the acidity of the chocolate is way too high.

Tiramisu Au Chocolat was definitely better than the one I had the last time round but being such a common and popular dessert, a good tiramisu (in my personal point of view) should have either of the following, strong liquor, well-soaked sponge with espresso and light, fluffy mascarpone

but sad to say, it lacks all 3.

Thus, it is good but not the best. The good tiramisu which I have encounter are HOTEL INTERCONTINENTAL, Prego (take-away) and tcc.

Summer berries is not bad, but by the time it was served after the 9 petite desserts, it has lost its appeal. Would have been better to serve as the first since it is light and refreshing and diners won't be so confused on which dessert to start with.

Macarons for this evening was a complete disappointment. We had pretty good impression of Obolo's macarons on my second visit but somehow or rather, the Matcha tasted artificial, no where near GOBI's. The shells lack the crispy outer layer and the filling was frozen, thereby lacking the smoothness.

------------------------- Detailed breakdown of individual dessert -------------------------

------------------------- Overall impression of the dessert degustation -------------------------

The fact that I remembered clearly the taste of all the desserts sampled means that the ingredients used in each desserts are good. However, since I didn't finish the desserts, it might be due to the wrong order of serving the desserts and its extreme combination of the various layers in each dessert. As mentioned, I thought it might be better if it is served in this (suggested) order

1. Summer berries for its refreshing and light taste to turn on insulin secretion
2. Vanille and Noisette macarons to remove the sour after-taste of summer berries, thereby stimulates saliva production
3. Nikita to allow full enjoyment of pistachio mousse and a prelude to Obolo's fantastic chocolate mousse (Chocolates make everybody happy)
4. Noisette, the best Obolo's signature and Caraibe, an alternative to Noisette for chocoholics
5. Le Cassis, for comparison of 2 extremes (sour vs. bittersweet)
6. New York Cheesecake, something neutral to reduce the sourness
7. 2 other cheesecakes
8. Petite Tartlets

As least when served bit by bit, diners will finish the desserts and unfinished ones can be take-away instead of having lots of left-overs and a mess at the end of the dessert degustation.

------------------------- Overall impression of the dessert degustation -------------------------

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Yuan's comments

Overall I was impressed by the effort put in by Mac and June at Obolo. The platter looks lovely and for $24.60 we get to sample almost all the cakes at Obolo. However I must say apart from the presentation I left the place a little disappointed. For me personally I prefer sweet desserts but alas, almost all the desserts on this platter were sour.

The first dessert which I picked up was the Chocolat-passion - this lovely looking chocolate tart with some gold dust sprinkled on top. I was expecting rich chocolate with passion fruit smell as the backdrop but to my horror, it was sour at its extreme. It took me a courageous second bite to finish it. Not satisfied, I chose the other chocolate tart on the platter - Chocolate Noir. This one didn't disappoint. Rich chocolate on excellent pastry. Often as the chocolate content increases the texture is compromised but not in this case. Smooth and just the right amount of sweetness.

After the 2 tarts, I decided to try the more outstanding looking desserts which were the Nikita (green) and the Le Cassis (purple). As readers would probably know from my previous posts, I didn't really like mixture of extreme flavours. These 2 were a mixture of sweet and sourness but more to sourness. Overall I find the sour blackcurrant of the Le Cassis make its seem as though as I was eating sour chocolate.

Well 3/4 sour desserts so far. Ok, I thought the cheesecakes maybe a more neutral flavour. But yet again I was proven wrong. The mango passion cheesecake and the Pinada Cheesecake were both equally sour. However I must point out that the New York cheesecake was not bad. It is those cheesecake with a moist texture but the cheese scent did not stand out enough.

The last 2 desserts on the platter were the tiramisu and the Caraibe. By now my taste buds were already playing tricks with me as I have eaten 5/7 sour desserts. I was pretty neutral towards the tiramisu but I was a little disapointed with the caraibe. I guess hazelnut or peanut may be a better choice than pecan. Pecan lacks the crunchy effect and gives you an impression that the nut you used has turn bad.

After the platter came the summer berries. I guess by now everyone on my table were a little skeptical as to whether this will be another sour entry. It turn out that it isn't that bad. Maybe I was already getting use to the sourness. I found that it tasted like the berry light from breadtalk silver. Mascarpone cheese with slight vanilla taste and sourness of the berries. It is a nice and light dessert suitable for most dinners.

Lastly were the 2 macarons. As I mentioned earlier, macarons at Obolo were the fattest which I have ever eaten. But tonight's macarons were kind of disappointing. I realised that the filling was hard and dry probably due to leaving in the fridge for too long. Further it lack the fregrance which some macarons have.

Overall, I would say that I was happy to be given a chance to try all the cakes at Obolo although I would have preferred noisette to be part of the menu. However the selection of sour desserts really could not curb my sweet tooth.

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Obolo
452 Joo Chiat Road
Singapore 427665
Tel: 6348 9791

Operating hours -
12:30pm (Tues to Thurs),
12:30pm to 10pm (Fri)
11:30am to 10pm (Sat)
11:30pm to 9:30pm (Sun)
Closed on Mondays and Public holidays

http://www.obolo.com.sg/

Evan's coverage on Food event at Obolo; Brad's after-thoughts of the entire event; FoodieQueen's entry on the degustation; Vicki's perspective towards the Food event