I am running late and when I get frantic my decidedly dodgy sense of direction tends to get more frantic (which is why Mr NQN tells me that I would be a terrible Amazing Race contestant). And we’re at The Star, formerly Star City but with an overhaul and a new look marketing campaign. Everything is different and I can’t tell whether we are in the front or the back or the side of the building and I feel a bit like Alice in Wonderland falling down the rabbit warren. And here I am about to see the Adriano Zumbo cake walk. And Zumbo happens to be running even later than we are!

The cake walk is his long held dream of having a fashion parade where models strut down a catwalk holding his creations based on a Parisian cake walk that he once saw.  He had held one previously but that was for the taping of his Zumbo television show and it was more staged for the television show rather than a cake walk. And about 200 guests made up of industry contacts, press, friends and family are here to watch his cake walk which is to celebrate the opening of his new store at The Star.

They’re running over an hour late and guests are kept suitably watered and fed with sushi and sashimi from Momofuku Seiobo next door and cocktails including popcorn martinis. Suddenly with a burst of music and a shimmer of the curtain, long legged models strut down the catwalk, pout, turn and flirt with the cameras and crowd.

And there isn’t just comely eye candy for the menfolk but also some for the ladies!

The latest season’s cakes are paraded on the catwalk and some of them match the outfits of the models. The catwalk is over after about 10 minutes of strutting and posing and Zumbo comes out for a final bow.

They raise the curtain to reveal the new store with a “I Love Zumbo” in red neon, a turning gumboot display, a bathtub of chocolates and spotlit specimens of cakes in the window. Adriano makes a heartfelt speech thanking his family and his staff and tells people that there will be samples of the goodies brought out on platters. He then invites everyone to play in the shop and then to join him at the Cherry Bar afterwards.

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“Auntie, would you like to try some food?” a voice says to me.

I swing my head around and look at him with a look that says “Are you talking to me?”

This was the first time in my life that I have been called Auntie and it was during my Singapore visit. And even more flooring, it came from not the mouth of babes but a full grown adult male. And as someone that is somewhat of denial about my age and most likely to be voted “mutton dressed as lamb” in future decades, it’s a little strange but sweet.

And isn’t it funny how even though I don’t see my Singapore based cousins often (and here everyone is cousin, auntie or uncle) they intrinsically know what I want even without a word spoken. My cousin Tzan and his wife Geok Lee pick me up and take me to Takashimaya where I price a Longchamp Le Pliage bag (eek! more expensive than in Australia, who would have imagined?) and take me out to ice cream at Island Creamery as I express a desire for my beloved sweet corn ice cream. Geok Lee tells me “They’ve got very unusual flavours there-like Cendol” and I’m immediately sold.

Unbeknownst to me, Tzan is an ice cream enthusiast and when he asks the woman behind the counter for “one scoop of everything” I wonder where on earth he was when I was a child as those words are music to a child’s ears.  But as I am an adult and know that I have eaten a month’s worth of food in the last few days I suggest that we limit it to trying the more unusual flavours. I know…what on earth possessed me to limit it?

We start with cendol, pulit hitam (black sticky rice), teh tarik, bandung (rosewater drink), soursop and Tiger beer sorbet. The cendol complete with the wriggly green tapioca worms and the pulit hitam with the toothsome grains of black rice are a favourite along with the tek tarik which gives me a little caffeine pick me up. The Tiger beer is strong in hops and the soursop is a refreshing and we use this as a palate cleanser as we are about to go off to lunch. Yep that’s the thing about my family and I, we can eat pretty much any time

We’re off to lunch where there will be a table of 15 of my family members, some of whom I haven’t yet met as it has been so long since my last visit to Singapore. And Tzan tells me that he chose this restaurant because it specialises in a lesser known type of cuisine called Heng Hwa cuisine said to be a simpler cuisine related to Foo Chow cuisine (my mother’s family background). Originally from the Fujian province of China you could count on one hand the number of Heng Hwa restaurants here in Singapore. There is an emphasis on seafood as Heng Hwa is a coastal town and the style of food is said to be lighter and more home style.

Putien style century egg $7.90

Me? I’m excited to be trying century eggs. Here they are lightly savoury crumbed and deep fried. I take a bite and it is delicious, tasting like a light batter which really just gives it texture and a boiled egg. I’m not quite sure what all the fuss about century eggs is and perhaps the deep frying helps in this regards (to paraphrase Nigella Lawson, how can deep fried be anything but good?).

Braised pig intestine $13.90

I am not usually a huge fan of intestines but this braised pig’s intestine, cut into small pieces is actually very tasty. With a slightly rubbery and spongy texture but with a distinct savoury star anise flavour I actually go back for a second and third serving of these.

Iced bitter gourd $5.90

Another item that I wasn’t expecting to like was the iced bitter gourd. Here, it is very thinly shaved and comes on a plate with the ends curled up like a flower with shaved ice in the centre. It is also accompanied by a watery honey sauce to dip it in. There isn’t any bitterness to this gourd perhaps offset by the honey and the shaved bitter gourd has a crunchy, fresh texture like biting into a crisp apple.

Steamed cold pork belly with garlic $7.90

Oh the less adventurous side, the thin slices of cold pork belly was delicious soft and came edged with a garlic sauce.

Drunken cockles $9.90

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