Things Lately Before Christmas

I have been procrastinating on blogging. Things caught up on me. Days before Christmas hubby and I were a little bit busy. Aside from the usual chores and stuff we had our nine-day evening mass or Simbang Gabi. And these are the things that happened lately:

1. Happy sweating it out with hon

2. Giving in to my ultimate guilty pleasure. Peppermint choco from Awfully Chocolate




Awfully Chocolate
131 East Coast Rd.
Singapore, 428816

3. It has been raining the past days and the plants were watered abundantly. After the rain, I was amazed at how lovely they were.




4. And, because of that, hubby bought a bonsai for us to tend.

5. Discovering new guilty pleasure! Shihlin Taiwan Street Snacks' fried chicken chops



Shihlin Taiwan Street Snacks
313 Somerset
Far East Plaza
Suntec City

6. Decorating the center piece for our intimate Noche Buena


7. Completing the nine-day simbang gabi despite our very petty fight on the last night. Thank God for winning over us!

That Dark Chocolate

A lot of studies have shown that aside from being aphrodisiacs, chocolates, specifically dark, helps in lowering blood pressure, reduce the risk of blood clots and therefore minimizes the risk of heart attack.

But, this is what surprised me. ABC News featured the study made by International Headache Congress that dark chocolates, which should be at least 60% cocoa, has healing effects on migraine headaches. Unrefined dark chocolates can be great sources of bioflavonoids which is an antioxidant and anti-inflammatory. And this anti-inflammatory properties is what could help in reducing migraine headaches, which is an inflammatory disease.

I suffer from what is called menstrual headache. Before or during my period I have migraine attacks. It can last from a day or two. And I noticed that the only way to get rid of it is to pop up a paracetamol which I think is better because when I was in college I have to take up to 500mg of mefenamic. Now, I know that this should not be an excuse for me to binge because of the chemicals on it during the processing. But, what if it is organic?!

I was so happy when I found out that there really is an organic dark chocolate! The Dagoba Organic Chocolate.

It was founded by Frederick Shilling in 2001 with a mission to create an organic chocolate that would benefit the people and the environment. Full Circle Sustainability is what drives his company. High standards in Quality, Ecology, Equity and Community.

They have a wide varieties of blends. From the common milk, dark, hazelnut, to lavender, lime, roseberry and spices.

Yes, they have Twilight inspired flavors. Eclipse and New Moon, being the more popular flavor together with Lavender.

It can be ordered online, here. But, sadly they don't ship internationally as they want to preserve the quality of their products. I hope somehow I can find a way.

Chocolate Research Facility

While I was doing a research for our itinerary in Malaysia an idea came to me that every country I would visit I have and need to taste its country's best chocolate. And since I am in Singapore I can try what's here first.

As I browsed through the net I came to stumble upon The Chocolate Research Facility. It was featured in Time as one of The Best of Asia 2009 as the Best Place to Experiment with Chocolate. You can read it further here.

So when my friend, Tina, came over from Phil we visited the shop at Millenia Walk in Raffles Boulevard.

I like the interior of the shop. Simple and modern. At first glance you will not think that it is a chocolate shop.

So many choices! There are wine varieties, exotic, sichuan pepper, local fruits, and different cocoa beans from different countries such as Cuba, Venezuela and Ghana to name a few.

The packaging is nice, very contemporary and yes, not your usual chocolate box. I bought the Pistachio Dark Chocolate. They had a promo, 1 for 1. Buy one take one in other words. The other one is also a dark chocolate but from Venezuela. Yup, I love dark chocolates.

The cut is in different sizea to suit your cravings at a time. Small, medium, large and x-large.

I was aiming to buy the Equateur flavor but it is all sold out so I settled for the Pistachio Dark Chocolate. As soon as we went out of the store I took a small square. I kept taking a bite trying to get the taste. There's nothing special to it except, that it has pistachio on it. It doesn't have the silkiness when it melts in your mouth. And for the price of SGD12 at 70g it doesn't come cheap.

Nevertheless, I think it is really the Best Place to EXPERIMENT with Chocolate because it has a very wide range of flavors that you wouldn't imagine to be compatible with chocolate.

Next time I will try the lychee martini its all time best seller since 2009 maybe by then my experience would be different.

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