Gyoza Bar

This week, time seems to fly faster than usual as I over-committed myself to a host of activities so that life is more productive and progressive. I'm waiting to watch Tottenham vs Manchester United as I'm typing this. Can't wait to watch the Premier League LIVE when I'm in London. We might as well call this week a sports week since I'm heading to the indoor stadium tomorrow for the WTA Finals.

This mid-week, I finally managed to meet the ever busy Fat Fat for dinner. Apparently Fat Fat was in Raffles Place for Yoga which she somehow 'missed' and thus we ended up dining at Gyoza Bar. This is an interesting bar cum ramen venue, hidden in an obscure stairway. It explains why the place is fairly quiet and empty when we got there. It's like a secret hidden haunt, and I'm feeling a bit selfish about sharing this to be honest.

We kicked started our meal with gyoza. Obviously right? Given the name of the restaurant....

So greedy Fat Fat and I (trust me, we almost always over order), ordered the 15 pieces Yaki Gyoza ($19.90) to share! I found the gyoza very generous with the meat, taste is on the milder side but the dish seems to jump to life when we dip it with the salt on the side. I'm certain it will appeal strongly to those with a lighter palette.

For mains, I ordered the Chicken Soup Ramen with Egg ($15) and Fat Fat settled for the Mazesoba with Soft Boiled Egg ($12.30). I pretty much enjoyed my chicken soup ramen. I found the soup to be sufficiently flavourful, ramen Q enough and the egg and char siew well prepared. I definitely felt some hearty satisfaction after my main.

Fat Fat too enjoyed her Mazesoba with soft boiled egg. The noodles were well prepared, seasoning sufficiently tasty and the overall dish definitely provided the adequate balance to the lightly flavoured gyoza.

Of course, Gyoza Bar as the name suggest meant we also enjoyed some hot sake to go with our food. There's a range of alcoholic selection and it's an awesome place to catch up with a friend. I liked it that it is quiet and cozy. You can sit there for hours without the stress of a hurried meal with long queues and many pairs of eyes staring at you to finish your meal.

I'll certainly be back again with another companion on another catch up session. I highly recommend this place if your companion loves the occasional alcohol indulgence with a fairly presentable dinner. I even think this is an awesome place to bring a first date! It is inexpensive, cozy with food and wine to complete the night out.

Gyoza Bar
7 North Canal Road, 048820

.Elia

This is a throwback post for Deepavali, It was quite a long awaited rest from running around due to work. I took the time to do some shopping for winter clothing. In any case, anyone who wishes to buy winter clothing in Singapore can visit Uniqlo or Universal Traveller. They have the most stylish winter wears from my observation. Universal Traveller is having a sale at Changi City Point now for interested parties. I'm looking forward to my first trip to London and hopefully catch Manchester United live in the stadium!

.Elia is one of the new kid on the block along the long stretch of cafes in Keong Saik Street. The restaurant is considered huge with two stories. .Elia serves homemade pastas and sandwiches and have earned some strong approval from the food blogging community so far. To be honest, to hear raving reviews about food in new cafes these days is few and far between. So given the rarity of finding such a place, I was raring to give it a try on my first break.

Usually, I won't bother to blog about the beverages because I tend to stick to boring flat white. What's there to write about flat white right? In this instance, this is one of the best flat whites I've had. The .Elia flat white ($5) comes in 3 different sizes - 3Oz, 5Oz and 7Oz. The one I picked was the standard 5Oz. I've tried multiple flat whites in cafes everywhere, some lacked the sweetness which meant I needed to add sugar, some used coffee beans I deemed too bitter, blah blah, just not perfect. This version on the other hand got the mix just right. I didn't have to add sugar because it was sweet enough. The coffee beans was aromatic, and didn't have an overwhelming bitter taste. I enjoyed the creaminess of the milk which meant that the balance of coffee, sugar and milk was just right before it was served. It really made me look forward to give their other coffees a go now.

One thing I need to gripe about is how cafes have weekday and weekend menus. Seriously for working adults, we only ever get to try the weekend menus but most of the much raved about food is on the weekday menu! Does the cafe really think people will visit them to eat their food on a weekend if they work nearby or specially take leave or taxi/drive over on a weekday if their workplace is faraway? There's no logic in appealing to different crowds on weekends and weekdays.

Due to their weekend menu, I settled for the Spice Girls ($16.90), This pasta is made up of fried chicken with curry sauce. The curry has a very authentic Indian flavour, just like how a good curry chicken would taste. It's definitely an interesting way to blend it with pasta. I felt that while the sauce, pasta and chicken was well executed, the combination didn't work for me. It reminded me of curry noodles in Hong Kong cafe with thick mee pok. Not a good match in my opinion.

On the other hand, Vain Pot chose the Italian Job ($16.90) which was a combination of brown butter and egg yolk cooked with generous chunks of Italian Bacon. This combination is very delicious and gives me the eagerness to devour the food. A perfect choice if you love pastas.

.Elia has shown a lot of potential in terms of food execution. I would love to try their weekday menu some time but it's really a bad idea to offer different menus for weekends and weekdays in my opinion. I noted that the waiting time is really long. I finished my flat white before our food arrived. Vain Pot finished her pasta before mine arrived. I wonder how they coped with a weekday lunch crowd with their current efficiency. So good food with slow service, you can give them a chance if you aren't in a rush!

.Elia
10 Jiak Chuan Road, S089264
(remember your parking coupons if you drive here)

Brawn & Brains

It's Saturyay again! Okay, I spent my Saturday working. Yayy because I managed to be home in time to watch Liverpool face off with Manchester United. Man Utd kept their streak of zero losses so yayy to that as well. This week is pretty much a throwback post where I pampered my stomach with brunch after a really long time. For a period of time when I went missing from this blog, I had a hard time finding food that convinced me they are worth visiting. So I dallied for really long with no real craving. Despite the hiatus, I grew fatter. Can't explain why...

I visited Brawn & Brains while on my way to purchase my Surface Pro Core M3 Model. Yes, I'm typing this out with my Surface Pro at the moment. Located in a very much run-down former Singapore Badminton Hall, Brawn & Brains is known for fresh bakes, coffee and awesome brunch selections. When we visited over that weekend, it was packed till the staff had to tell us the waiting time for food was 45mins.

For those who are familiar with my style, I typically do my research on food before making my way down. Coincidentally, the stuff I wanted to eat was exactly the same as Vain Pot so we shared. The food that enthralled us were Bacon with Open Face Toast ($15.90) and Oven Baked Molten Eggs ($16.80).

The Bacon with Open Face Toast came with loads of generous grilled bacon strips on sourdough bread with slow cooked egg on the side, along with cherry tomatoes and greens. I felt this was one of those dishes which starts off really well but becomes overly 'jelat' and difficult to finish. If I were to break it down in parts, the bacon strips were grilled well, perhaps leaning towards the salty side. The slow cooked egg was perfect, the yolk runny if you break it. The toast was great too. Portions are big so maybe it's me but I couldn't finish my meal.

The Oven Baked Molten Eggs with a side of smoked salmon, avocado and melted cheese (full name), was a more balanced dish. I found the eggs very delicious, the melted cheese on it definitely gave it the added oomph! Avocado and smoked salmon taste exactly as it should but it lightens up the richly baked eggs and it makes the meal a lot easier to finish.

 

Another highlight of the place was said to be good coffee so we definitely had to order. Vain Pot ordered the iced version of caffe latte while mine was hot. Iced latte cost 50 cents more. In any case, her feedback was the ice version tasted a bit too diluted. I had no complains with my coffee so perhaps you might want to stick with the hot drinks when you visit. Coffee tasted like what it should but nothing out of this world.

Would I return for another go at the food? I probably won't make a special trip down but I would pop in for breakfast if I'm nearby. I was pretty attracted to the fresh bakes I saw during my research and they were sold out by the time I arrived. That says something about the quality of the buns there, so I would like to try. I found the brunch menu to be above average and the food wins on the eggs. If you love eggs a lot, you probably would wish to try here at least once!

Brawn & Brains
100 Guillemard Road, #01-02 Guillemard Village, 399718

3D2N Taipei 2017

Been ages since I last blogged because of being overwhelmed with work and hobbies. For those who still don't know, my first love is still investment and finding new ways to make money. I like the thrill and empowerment that it brings. Recently, I've been dabbling in the ICO space and it's taking up my play time when I'm not doing my day job. In any case, I'm proud to announce that I'm on track to fulfilling my 4 holiday trips this year. As of now, I've been to Rome, Hong Kong, Taiwan and end of this year, I'm going London.

Given that I've written about Taiwan before and the trip is so short this time round, I've took the opportunity to revisit some of the food I enjoyed and tried very few new food. Our first stop was actually a company dinner at Shin Yeh 101 at the top of Taipei 101. As it's a customized menu, I felt it won't make effective sharing. If you wish to see photos of it, visit instagram and search @bluntandfussyeater. 

The highlight meal I brought my colleagues to was Wu Lao Elixir Health Pot. In my view, it's a must try when you are in Taipei! This is the original beauty in the pot. The experience is exquisite top down from the service, the value for money, the freshness of ingredients to the taste. 6 pax with an over-generous boss ordering freely only resulted in a $200 SGD meal. 

Wu Lao Elixir Health Pot

No 143, Section 3, Civic Blvd

This Lu Di Handmade Shaved Ice is one of the unique experiences I had when I wandered around Taipei myself. The sun in Taipei now is very unforgiving. Treating yourself to shaved ice now will make it taste 10 times nicer than usual thanks to the scorching sun. In any case, Lu Di Shaved Ice isn't easy to locate. Searching for it on google, you need to type its Chinese name 路地冰怪物台北. Take note of the cute shop front to spot the shop! 

The ordering process basically consist of the flavour of the shaved ice and 2 toppings. I settled for milk shaved ice with oreo cheese and red bean with dumpling balls. The milk shaving which looks like tissue paper on first glance tastes really good. I'm not sure if I'm bias because I was soaked head to toe with sweat by the time I found the shop. Creamy and sufficiently solid, I liked it that it doesn't melt easily so I didn't have to gobble it up. The eyes are made of cookies so you can eat it too! Toppings wise if I have to choose again, I'll do away with the oreo cheese. Cheese with ice cream doesn't match at all. The red bean with dumpling balls works fine but I prefer the shaved ice with none of them to be honest haha! The damage was about $10 SGD. Incidentally, some Taiwanese food bloggers were filming a vlog when I was there. It's the sort of thing you'd like to show you did something different and cool in Taipei on Instagram. 

路地冰怪物台北

106, Taiwan, Taipei, Da'an District

I felt the content of this post must have something different besides what to eat there. I'd like to share some of the gifts I brought back from Taipei as well. One of which is Yu Chocolatier, winner of International Chocolate Award 2016. There's a mixture of alcoholic and non-alcoholic flavours. Being lazy, I asked the sales staff to select the award winning flavours for me. One interesting observation my colleague made was how the box was designed like a Rolex box. I guess it adds the premium shine to it. 1 box of 6 cost about $30. There's a bigger box of 12 that cost about $60. They offer a total of 14 flavours. They also have a dine in section where you can try the in-house cakes. Personally, I think this is a unique gift to bring home as everyone else would be busy buying sun cakes and pineapple tarts for friends. 

Yu Chocolatier

No 10, Alley 3, Lane 112, Section 4, Ren'ai Road, Da'an District, Taipei 106

Given that I've been to Taiwan before and participated in the Sun Cake frenzy before, I did quite a bit of research to decide what to buy this visit. Sun Cakes has always been a fight between Li Yi, Chia Te and Sugar and Spice. During my last visit, I already bought Li Yi and Chia Te so this trip I settled for Sugar and Spice. It's a pleasant surprise to know Sugar and Spice won some awards before and the general feedback by those who tried all 3 felt that Sugar and Spice's version of Sun Cakes got the balance just right. Not excessively flaky, not too sweet and sufficiently addictive. 

Sugar and Spice

No 158, Section 1, Dunhua S Rd, Da'an District, Taipei City 106