On a recent trip to Singapore I fell hopelessly in love with the unholy, neon-colored love child of a Sno-Cone and a Jell-O salad, also known as the ais kacang.

The ais kacang is wildly popular in Singapore and Malaysia (where it's sometimes called an "ABC"), served in outdoor food centers and in mall food courts countrywide. In its most basic iteration, it consists of a scoop of roughly shaved ice drizzled with varicolored sugar syrups and evaporated or condensed milk sitting on a nest of corn kernels, red beans and cubes of herb jelly or gluey sago pearls.

It's the hyperstimulating carnival of desserts, with every texture -- Crunchy! Chewy! Icy! Glutinous! Creamy! -- and dozens of flavors exploding in your mouth all at once. Some versions even include a scoop of ice cream or a pile of fresh mango or (eeek!) durian. More is more, right?

Never mind that it's still 45 degrees and raining here; I've been craving ais kacang as if it's midsummer in Southeast Asia. So I decided to make my own. I simply ground up ice in my food processor and doused it with Torani raspberry syrup (the kind you use to make Italian soda) and a milk syrup I'd made by cooking evaporated milk with brown sugar. I omitted the corn and beans, but next time I'll try adding some sago pearls or chopped fresh berries.

Flying back to the States from Singapore last month, my mind kept flitting back to my suitcase, rattling around in the cold darkness of the baggage compartment. Because in that suitcase, wrapped up in several layers of t-shirts, was a treasure - three glass jars of kaya.

Kaya, a rich coconut jam made from eggs, coconut milk and sugar, is wildly popular in Singapore and Malaysia, where it's eaten on toast with butter (the ubiquitious "kaya toast") for breakfast, stuffed into donuts, and spread between the layers of angel food cakes. My favorite type of kaya is tinged green with pandan, though there are golden non-pandan versions as well. Texture varies dependent on brand, but most kaya has a creamy yet slightly grainy mouthfeel similar to apple butter.

I've been eating kaya spooned over Greek yogurt with sliced bananas for breakfast. It's also good stirred into oatmeal or paired with peanut butter for PB&K sandwiches.

Frustratingly, I can't find new supplies of kaya in my area, despite poring over the shelves of a dozen different Asian markets. I'll be sure to look for it next time I'm in New York. Have any of you seen kaya in your neck of the woods?

No, I didn't shave a Viking's beard. That's pork floss. What? Yes, pork floss. Known as rousong in Mandarin, it's exactly what it sounds like – dried sweetened roast pork pulled to separate the fibers and spun until it has the texture of crispy cotton candy. And it's awesome. It's got the same flavor profile as teriyaki beef jerky - a little bit sweet, a little bit spicy, a lot salty and a lot meaty.

Pork floss buns - fluffy, sweetish rolls topped with pork floss and filled with mayonnaise cream - are a big thing in Singapore and Malaysia. Believe me, they're much nicer than they sound - the comforting flavors of meat and mayo, with an incredible blend of crunchy, soft and creamy textures. Chow Times has an article about the various uses of pork floss, from a topping for rice or congee to a grilled cheese sandwich filling. My personal favorite use is in a Vietnamese-style baguette sandwich, with pate (I substitute sliced turkey), lettuce, cilantro, vinaigrette and mayo.

You can find tubs or bags of pork floss at many Asian groceries. If you're really lucky, they'll have fish, chicken or shrimp floss as well.

In the Chinese communities of Singapore and Western Malaysia, the pineapple tart is the ultimate Chinese New Year dessert. The word "pineapple" in the Hokkien dialect resembles the word for prosperity, so eating the pineapple tarts is said to help bring luck and money in the coming year. For extra value, some tarts are even shaped to resemble tiny gold bars. The Malaysian port city of Malacca is considered the heart of the pineapple tart industry - in the city's colorful Chinatown dozens of bakeries are busy pumping out hot, fragrant trays of tarts every few minutes, to be placed in decorative cannisters with red lids and given as gifts. As we head closer to the Year of the Ox - New Year starts January 26 - the tarts grow increasingly expensive!

Bite into a proper pinepple tart and the ultra-flaky dough crumbles into buttery powder in your mouth. The chunk of pinepple jam inside is chewy and firm, flavored with spices - cinnamon, star anise and cloves - that reflect the influence of the spice trade on Malaysian Chinese cuisine.

If you don't happen to live near a Malaysian- or Singaporean-Chinese bakery, A Consuming Passion has a good-looking recipe for pineapple tart. These would be a great choice for a Chinese New Year party.

"Taking the international sweet tooth by storm." Surely such a phrase could only have been penned by the a PR person for an ice-cream chain.

And so it has.

This gem comes from the press release announcing Cold Stone Creamery's expansion into Mexico and Southeast Asia. I'll admit it's a better turn of phrase than "taking the international sweet tooth by cavity." Full disclosure, I've never eaten the Creamery's ice cream, I suppose I should since there's one in a mall near my house.

The Scottsdale, Ariz.-based purveyor of fresh-made ice-cream that's blended to order with mix-ins on, you guessed it, a cold stone, started scooping up international markets back in 2005, when it opened its first overseas store in Tokyo. Since then Coldstone has opened 22 more stores throughout Japan, Korea, China and Taiwan.

Its first Mexican store will open in September. There's been no word yet as to whether the Creamery stores South of the Border will forgo the signature stone slab in favor of a gigantic molcajete y tejolote to mix the ingredients with the ice cream. The company's next international markets will be Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia. I don't think it's gonna happen, but I'd love to see the Creamery's Southeast Asian stores use young coconut, jackfruit and some of the brightly colored gelatinous squiggles that are a staple of the region's frozen confections.

Don't you hate it when you ask someone what flavor they would like and they say they don't care, whatever, or surprise me? Well, one Singapore company has come up with the solution for your indecisive friends with the launch of new sodas appropriately named Whatever and Anything.

Anything is their carbonated soda which comes in six flavors: Cola with Lemon, Apple, Fizz Up, Cloudy Lemon and Root Beer. Whatever is non-carbonated teas that come in Ice Lemon, Peach, Jasmine Green Tea, White Grape, Apple, and Chrysanthemum Tea flavors.

So what's the big surprise? The cans aren't labeled beyond the names of 'Anything' and 'Whatever', so you truly don't have a clue which flavor you are getting beforehand.

(via TrendHunter.com)

A Thai scientist has managed to strip the durian, a Southeast Asian delicacy, known as the king of fruit, of its signature funky aroma. What's next, fatless bacon?

Songpol Somsri, who grew up on a durian orchard, crossed more than 90 types of the spiky fruit to create Chantaburi No. 1, which is said to smell as mild as a banana. As anyone who's read Tony Bourdain's A Cook's Tour can tell you, a durian's natural aroma is nothing at all like a banana. So noxious is the fruit's aroma that it's banned from Singapore's subways. Bourdain characterizes it thusly: "like you'd buried somebody holding a big wheel of Stilton in his arms, then dug him up a few weeks later." That aside Bourdain likes them. He really, really likes them.

I can understand his attraction somewhat. Several years my fellow blogger and intrepid eater, Jonathan, sampled one with some friends. Sure, the flesh is custardy, creamy, smooth and sweet. But it has a a definite funky undertone, kinda like garlic steeped in jet fuel, that stays with you for several hours. That aside, I say leave the durian as nature made it, in all its stinky splendor.

One of the less well know areas of global cuisine is that of the South Pacific, as you are much less likely to find a Malaysian take-out restaurant in a randomly chosen city than a Chinese, or even a Japanese, restaurant. Fortunately, Cradle of Flavor: Home Cooking from the Spice Islands of Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia offers up much more than a sampling of recipes to anyone interested in learning about - and tasting - the flavors of the region. Author James Oseland is an expert, or at least exceptionally well versed, in the cuisine of Singapore and the surrounding countries. He devotes a significant portion of the book to providing the reader with the background on the foods, ingredients, tastes and techniques. The notes on ingredients are particularly useful, as many will be unfamiliar to someone who has never attempted some of these dishes and will have to be found at a specialty grocer. Oseland does offer acceptable substitutions for some of the ingredients, making it possible to get close to authentic results even if you are in an area where other resources are limited.

Despite the fact that some of the dishes require unfamiliar ingredients, by the time you get to them, you'll have a good overview of the cuisines you'll be working with. The recipes include dishes like Fragrant Fish Stew with Lime and Lemon Basil, Black Pepper Crab and the Soto King's Chicken Soup.

When you hear the phrase "peanut butter and jelly," chances are you think of a childhood snack or a tasty lunch, tucked away in a brown paper bag. The idea might not inspire the same mouthwatering temptation that it did when you were ten, but perhaps this updated version of the classic pair is enough to. Kuidaore used Thomas Keller's take on peanut butter and jelly as inspiration to put together these phenominal treats: grown up peanut butter cups with yuzu pate de fruit "jellies".

They may not be neatly spread between two slices of bread, but I know that I certainly wouldn't turn up my nose after finding either of these in my lunch.

I'm working my way through this book called the Devil's Picnic by Taras Grescoe, which follows the writer around the world in a study of controlled, banned, illegal, and otherwise "dangerous" food products. First there was the Norwegian moonshine, hjemmebrent, which has an alcohol content that takes the imbiber from sober to drunken-sick in seconds.

In Singapore, Grescoe looks at poppy seeds, which are considered illegal. Poppy seeds can contain low levels of morphine, and a person who has eaten poppy seeds can test positive for the presence of controlled drugs. No wonder you feel so sleepy after that giant poppy seed bagel smothered with cream cheese! In 2002, Singapore's Central Narcotics Bureau fined Marks & Spencer $60,000 for carrying poppy seed biscuits.

Food blog Oswego Tea has a post about lemon poppy seed cookies, the photo which shows beautiful stacks of simple lemon cookies studded with poppy seeds. They are beautiful, sound delicious, and now, have slightly more appeal to me with the knowledge that somewhere, poppy seeds are illegal.

[photo: Oswego Tea]

The Greedy Goose is a Singaporan food blog with commentary as beautiful as the photos. And it's not quite as hard to get those breath-taking shots when you have someone who just happens to be a professional photographer in the same house. Lamenting the fact that it is that photographer who doesn't like fancied up desserts, Eggy whipped up something very simple and very delicious for dessert, in the form of this cake. Sometimes the best desserts are the simplest: a scoop of ice cream, a slice of pound cake, strawberries topped with whipped cream. This layered butter cake is no exception. The recipe is from Baking Illustrated and clearly turned out perfectly, equally appealing to those who like fancy desserts and those whose tastes run more simply.

A well made piece of latte art is a beautiful thing, but when it's combined with chocolate, it enters a whole new level. Dessert Comes First encountered this divine drink at a coffee shop in Singapore called Bali Blends. Not only do they clearly specialize in the art of coffee making, they carry a variety of bean blends from Indonesia and, in particular, from Bali. Balinese coffee was, until recently, only exported to Japan, but it is now appearing in new markets. The coffee is supposed to have a deep, earthy tone to it, so it is easy to see how it would pair exceptionally will with chocolate.