Cottontail Creamery - Hidden Gem in Serangoon

Cottontail Creamery has been on my radar since early last year. Back then, I've tried their crepes with ice cream and even left feedback on my instagram commenting on how easily their ice cream melted. They caught my attention because they acknowledged my comment and my second visit actually saw an improved effort to cool the crepe before putting the ice cream on it. For some reason, I associated them as an ice cream parlour and didn't take their mains seriously. It's only after one of my friends commented that they serve nice brunch that I made this third visit to check it out.

The Cottontail Big Breakfast ($18.50) came in hearty portion. The menu comprises of home-made Toulouse sausage patty, sunny side-up organic eggs, smashed potato, roasted portebello mushrooms, vine tomato and tomato relish. They got the seasoning and flavours surprisingly on-point. Definitely worth a try.

Next up was this Tuscan Wild Pig Stew with Rigatoni Pasta ($16.50) which also won approval points really quickly. The pig stew is soft, tender and very balanced in their flavours. Eating it will whet your appetite however if you don't have a very big stomach, it might become 'jelat' over time.

The Pulled Pork Quesadilla ($17.50) wins in both appearance and in taste. It caught my attention mainly because of the toasted mozzarella that has crispy edges. Every bite is bursting with flavour and it'll definitely appeal to cheese lovers.

If you are a meatball lover but you don't take beef, you'll know how hard it is to find good meatballs in Singapore to satisfy your cravings. The Swiss Meatballs ($17.50) at Cottontail Creamery might be your solution. It's beef free. The creamy brown mushroom sauce that comes with the dish is richly flavoured and it goes excellently with the meatballs. I find that the mix of fatty and lean meat can be further improved. Nevertheless I was still left pretty much blown away.

For desserts, the crepe with nutella sauce coupled with smoked salted caramel ice cream and Tahitian vanilla is another winner. Granted that their ice cream in general melts pretty quickly, the quality of the ice cream are quite premium. If you like good ice cream with crepe, this is probably your go-to place. If you don't like rushing through your food, you probably will avoid their ice creams.

Summing up my visit, Cottontail Creamery has just achieved top spot in my Serangoon cafe listing. Their mains succeeded in achieving a certain level of food standard that I approve. Desserts carry a certain degree of quality too. While I still gripe about their ice cream because I don't fancy rushing through my food, this is probably the only ice cream on crepe place I'm willing to part my dollars with. It's almost a certainty I'm coming back here again.

Cottontail Creamery
Blk 326, Serangoon Avenue 3, #01-378, S550326

Violet Oon (Ion) - Showcasing Singapore Culinary Treasures

Violet Oon is a household name known for being the Singapore ambassador for local cuisines. The founder whose name is the inspiration behind Violet Oon Singapore, The Restaurant Group, was once named Chef de Mission to lead team Singapore at the Worlds of Flavours Conference and Festival in 2004, 2007 & 2009. The Restaurant Group itself prides its commitment to showcase Singapore food and heritage in the form of Nonya, Chinese, Indian and Malay cuisines.

It is also because of this specialization that I made the decision to bring my mom here for her birthday celebration. I say this because I'm not a big fan of Peranakan, Nonya cuisines where coconut is mainly used in most of the dishes. In fact, I typically steer clear of such food. If not because my mom enjoys local cuisines, I wouldn't have had this Singapore High Tea Set ($58 for 2 pax) experience which I thoroughly enjoyed!

The meal kicked off with a pair of scones served with cream and jam. The pair came with one plain and the other drizzled with gula melaka sauce. While the scones were buttery and crumbly, I felt that its brittle nature made enjoying the scone messy and difficult. Having said that, I like it that the portion was just right because it gave sufficient room for the other dishes.

The first tier of our high tea set came consists of Kuay Pie Tee with julienned bamboo shoots with turnip poached in a prawn bisque, traditionally steamed Yam Cake topped with dried prawn, chinese sausage, dried mushroom, minced pork, five spiced powder and fried shallots and Chilli Crab Tartlet with Quail Egg. I've got to say that the flavours were all on point and they were all easy to eat. The Yam Cake is one of my favourites despite me usually avoiding yam.

The second tier of our high tea set consists of Cream Cheese and Cucumber Openface Sandwich, Egg Salad Tartlet with Pineapple Patcharee, Coronation Chicken on Crispy Wanton Skin and Otak on Belgium Endive. I'd say that the execution of all the items were excellent. Having said that, I felt it'll be perfect if the cream cheese sandwich and egg salad tartlet had been replaced with more localised items. Eating the Otak on Endive and Chicken on Wanton Skin really made me appreciate the genius of the Violet Oon creations. Sometimes you pay a premium for food and have no idea why. I think the creativity on how food can be presented really justifies every cent I pay for this meal.

The third tier is where I sacrifice for my mother because of my dislike for coconut. It consists of a Financier which is an Eurasian moist cake of semolina and ground almonds laced with brandy, Kueh Ko Sui which is a steamed cake made with pandan and coconut infused rice and tapioca flour coated with freshly grated coconut, Kueh Dah Dah which is grated coconut cooked with gula melaka syrup and coconut milk wrapped in a pancake, BuBur Cha Cha Panna Cotta which is coconut panna cotta topped with sweet potato, yam, agar agar, gula melaka syrup and Kueh Lapis which is a multilayered steamed cake. Needless to say, I took an arbitrary bite of most of the food and didn't finish. The Financier and Kueh Lapis were my favourites in this tier but of course I'm biased.

The overall experience dining at Violet Oon (Ion) has been great. Despite not liking nonya food, I enjoyed my time there. It might be interesting to note that the overall dining crowd were relatively sophisticated and you can tell most of them enjoy the finer things in life. There's even a guy who sat next to me who was dressed in plain white t-shirt and FBT shorts with slippers. I reckon his house is walking distance and this is probably his 'Ya Kun'. I guess it's no surprise that Violet Oon (Ion) just got featured on Tatler Singapore days before I visited. So if you want to know how Crazy Rich Asians look like, you might want to have a meal there.

Violet Oon (Ion)
Ion Orchard, #03-28/29, 2 Orchard Turn, S238801

Yin Ji - Guangzhou's popular congee joint in Singapore

As I continue to try overseas food in Singapore, Yin Ji is the latest overseas outpost I'm featuring. I'm assuming they are not only known for their congee and Cantonese fare, their rice rolls should be their main feature considering their Chinese name is 银记肠粉店 (translated to Yin Ji Rice Rolls Stall). This feature is made up of 2 visits, with the first one done way back in May last year. I got too busy with work and travelling and simply forgot about them till my more recent visit.

The "Boat" Congee ($6.50) seen here is a mix of char siew, fried eggs, fish and peanuts. The congee has the smoothness of typical Cantonese fare but lack the sweetness in flavour. To be very honest, I felt a little clueless how to appreciate this rendition of congee because it felt so 'chapalang' (mixed up) that it reminds me of my mom throwing in whatever she could find in the fridge to cook a dish.

The sliced pork congee ($6) perhaps gives the eater less identity crisis. However the richness in flavour is still lacking. Considering how near Guangzhou is to Hong Kong, then the traditional Cantonese standards seems to be open for interpretation.

So partly because of the Congee experience, I stayed away from the restaurant till very recently where I found my favourite Dumpling Noodles ($6.80) in CBD! The Yin Ji's rendition hits all the right notes. Using typical Cantonese noodles similar to those you find at Mak's Noodles, this one managed to get rid of the strange plastic taste which usually puts me off. The broth is also adequately flavourful, with the pork dumplings sufficiently seasoned, in my opinion might even shame some of those Michelin star wonton mee outlets in Singapore.

Yin Ji also introduced some new dishes to its menu this month. One of them is the Salted Pepper Chicken Chop Noodles ($6.80) that is fairly delicious. The chicken is fried till it's really crispy on the outside and fairly tender inside. It might be worth trying if you want something new.

The egg rolls at Yin Ji is the highlight that caught my attention right from the beginning. Having eggs inside the egg roll is something new to me. The Fresh Prawn Egg Rolls ($7.50) did live up to expectations and the eggy rice roll is indeed preferred over the plain ones I usually eat. The sauce used also managed to hit the right notes considering the common assumption that China style cooking is always heavy in the saltiness. All in all, while it might not be out of this world, I felt it was worth my calories.

Would I come back? Honestly, it's a yes and a no. For practical reasons because I work in CBD, I might eat here again due to its fairly decent sitting arrangements and it has air-condition. However, I'm not really impressed with the food except for the Dumpling Noodles. I doubt this will be a place I would choose to impress someone unless I'm craving for dumpling noodles. Haha!

Yin Ji
Far East Square, 133 Amoy Street #01-01 S048775