Boufe Boutique Cafe

Pretty happy I managed to enjoy Saturyay! yesterday. Lately my weekends are pretty much packed with activities. Been very occupied working, pursuing other hobbies and trying to spend time with friends. In fact, this week I met the most number of people for food. I'm also pleased to share that unlike most other weeks where I indulge heavily in cafe and restaurants, I spent my week enjoying simple hawker and fast food. I foresee myself travelling a lot next year, so better cut down on the expenses.

This week I made my third visit to Boufe Boutique Cafe in 2 years. Very often, even if the cafe is tip top I rarely have the opportunity to return because of the wide variety of food available in Singapore. Boufe is one of the most consistent cafes I've tried and I'm pleased to vouch that over 2 years, the quality of food remains. In fact, they even introduced some instagram worthy desserts to their menu. Perfect for the 'camera first' client like me. 

Brunch food is a must at brunch cafes and the Triple B ($20) and Eggs Benedict ($16) were both winners in their own right. To be honest, nowadays I don't order big breakfast meals because I find it too ordinary and plain. I give the Triple B due credit for their creamy scrambled eggs, sauteed mushrooms and richly flavoured sausages and bacon. The choice of croissant to go with the dish is also a smart choice because their sourdough bread seems a tad hard. 

The Eggs Benedict is another awesome brunch dish done excellently. The eggs were fat and runny, meeting the requirements for a good poach egg. I liked it that the hollandaise sauce was generous and their bread choice was brioche. Brioche bread when properly toasted is very fluffy, a joy to eat!

For lunch mains, we tried Truffle House Breakfast ($16) and Tomato Crab Pasta ($19). The truffle house breakfast is a combination of truffle mushroom ragout on top of homemade sourdough. There's a corn on the side with butter and salt. The truffle mushroom ragout is very well cooked but I found the sourdough to be on the tougher side. The corn cob which is a gigantic corn can make it more difficult to eat with utensils. 

I enjoyed the tomato crab pasta. At the point of ordering, I was quite hesitant because I feel pastas are such boring choices. Still, I ordered and don't mind the bland appearance, they ran out of rocket leaves. The pasta was GOOD! I enjoyed the generous chunks of crab meat well mixed with tomato and chunks of chilli padi that made the dish aromatic, spicy and flavourful. No buyer remorse! It definitely ranks amongst the al dente, delicious pastas found in cafes. Not many cafe pastas make the grade. 

I had to try their new dessert menu and we settled for the Milky Way ($8.50) and The Rock ($8). Be warned, both desserts are very tiny and meant for a single stomach. The Milky Way is Boufe's version of a galaxy cake. It is made of white chocolate, yogurt mousse, honey genoise, chocolate sable and calamansi jelly. It's a good blend of chocolate with soft yogurt and a tinge of sour from the jelly. I enjoyed it. 

The Rock is made of 64% chocolate mousse, rum syrup, chocolate genoise, salted caramel, chocolate feullitine and grey milk glaze. I liked it more than the galaxy cake because I got a soft spot for all things chocolate that isn't chocolate itself. The Rock is an excellent choice for chocolate lovers especially if you like the mix of chocolate with a sweet biscuit base like how I like my cakes. 

Boufe is still my all time favourite brunch cafe. For its ambiance, the food quality and the free parking, I can't imagine another brunch place that ranks above it. If you love brunch food like me, you should at least try it once! Maybe you might become a regular...

Boufe Boutique Cafe

308 Tanglin Road, #01-01, S247974

Brunch places worth a visit at Bangkok

Recently, I travelled to the land of smiles and coined this visit my Thailand Cafe Hunting and Lifestyle trip. It's my first trip there since I was age 9 and a lot has changed. I'm really pleased that the places I shortlisted from research proved to be satisfying to my taste buds and made my entire trip all the more enjoyable. I'll be sharing some of the brunch places I went and my thoughts on it.

My first stop was at On Luk Yun. The Thailand equivalent to Chin Mee Chin Confectionary in Singapore which I wrote about not too long ago. This old school traditional breakfast place is almost a must visit for me the next time I come back. There's a couple of key highlights that I like. The French Toast is very flavourful, you can taste the good blend of the eggs wrapped around a fluffy bread. Yummy! I like the egg kaya with steamed bread. Really, the bread is awesome fluffy and doesn't fill your tummy up and goes perfectly with the egg kaya (uniquely thailand). Even bought one kaya home for my mom. The soft boiled eggs served in a cup surprisingly carries a very addictive taste. I kept gobbling up my cup till all is gone and if not because this is such an eggy meal, I'd order a second cup. I think the soft boiled eggs addictive taste has to do with the special nestle thai sauce that is added with the pepper unlike our dark sauce back home. But I'm left blown away given that I never knew soft boiled eggs can taste any nicer. I didn't pay the bill but the total cost for two is less than $15 SGD.

On Luk Yun
72 Charoen Krung Road, Talat Noi, Samphanthawong
Bangkok 10100

Roast is another place I wish to highlight. I felt the portions are really generous and all the dishes were executed technically perfect. Why technically perfect? I felt that the eggs were creamy well beaten, bacon crispy, bread well toasted and salmon properly done, however there's no wow factor. The eggs tasted like a typical properly done scrambled eggs but it isn't a stand out scrambled eggs. There's nothing on the menu that jumps out. Thats the problem. However, if you are looking for a decent brunch fix that doesn't spoil your day, Roast is the place to be. Roast Breakfast (400 Baht with coffee), Smoked Salmon Rosti (320 Baht) and dessert was S'mores Custard Cake (280 Baht). The outlet that I went was at the Commons, a new shopping mall concept that promotes lush greenery. I think that Roast is by far the costliest brunch meal I ate at Bangkok, but it's highly popular among expats and tourist because the ambiance is really relaxing. I enjoyed myself despite not being exceptionally impressed with the food. 

Roast
Unit #T1 (Roast), The COMMONS
335 Thonglor Soi 17, Sukhumvit 55
Klongton Nua, Wattana, Bangkok 10110

Rocket Coffeebar is another satisfying discovery on my first adult Thailand trip. Rocket Coffeebar is a Nordic Cafe and I like it that everything about it is simple and not complicated. The eggs benedict (290 Baht) that we tried had very good hollandaise sauce, light yet brings out the flavour and the eggs were soft and runny. The eggs are fat and generous and goes very well with the sauce and bread. The salmon according to the brother is much fresher than the ones at Roast. I like my order of quail eggs and truffle (240 Baht) tasted really good too. The potato waffle that the eggs and truffle were served on wasn't too hard and eating it didn't feel tiresome at all unlike some waffles I've tried elsewhere. The bacon was fried till crispy something distinctly Thailand. I like that the truffle and eggs blended really well with the potato waffles that I enjoyed eating them together. I'm looking forward to try their other dishes the next time I return.

Rocket Coffeebar
147 Soi Sathon 12, Khwaeng Silom, Khet Bang Rak, Krung Thep Maha Nakhon 10500, Thailand

Whisk & Paddle

This week is a week of learning. I resumed my book reading hobby thanks to some motivation from reconnecting with some inspiring friends. So far I've finished the book Last Lecture by Randy Pausch and have just started on this new book called Bull by Maggie Mahar. I kinda enjoyed my weekend also given the opportunity to catch up with busy Fat Fat whom I hardly get to see.

I kinda let Fat Fat pick the venue because I hardly see her and we both had to rush off to work after our catch up. Honestly, I believe if we are determined to make time for people we can. Busy is an excuse because believe me when I tell you I'm proud to say I know a lot of friends who make meaningful use of their time but still have time for a 2 hr catch up. She picked her regular haunt: Whisk and Paddle. 

Whisk & Paddle is located at Punggol near a cycling area so people hang out there to exercise and the area boast a couple of nice eateries, one of which is Uncle Leong Seafood for example. I first heard about this place when I developed a soft spot for eggs benedict on waffles which I tried with Vain Pot on my first visit to Whisk and Paddle. This is actually my second visit.

I thought I'd include the Eggs Benedict ($13) which first lured me to this place. The hollandaise sauce were in the right thickness and the sauteed mushrooms were great. The waffles which is one of the highlights of this place was baked just right as well. The only problem was the eggs. They served hard boiled poached eggs instead of runny poached eggs. Back then, fussy Vain Pot asked for a change of eggs only to be served another hard boiled poach egg. Getting a poach egg right is a test of culinary skill and that experience kinda dissuaded me from trying the eggs benedict during this visit. 

Fat Fat picked the Whisk Breakfast Pan ($19.8) after I dissuaded her from picking the Eggs Benny. The pan provides a generous serving of eggs of your choice, potatoes, pork sausage, steaky bacon, roasted tomatoes, sauteed mushroom, sourdough bread and french butter. I tried most of the stuff in the pan and they are competently executed. I guess you can't go too wrong with these basic ingredients. I'd like to add that the french butter is my favourite even though the sourdough bread was a little too hard. 

I chose Macaroni and Cheese ($13.80) for my own selection. Mac and Cheese is the standard comfort food that remains a safe choice whenever I can't decide what to eat. To begin with, I like it that it's serve in a pan. Looks so instagram worthy right? The Mac and Cheese at Whisk and Paddle is served with generous slices of ham. It's cheesy and taste really yummy when it's hot. However, this is one of those dish that you can't wait for everyone on the table to be served before you eat. Once cold, it taste very 'jelat' and hard to eat. Not yummy at all. Finish it while its warm.

Usually I'm not adventurous with coffee. However, I find myself thinking about the black sesame latte ($5.50) each time I come here. My black sesame latte was served on a saucer and with biscuit the first time I visited. Why now no saucer and biscuit? Don't you find it very unsightly for the spoon to be served without a saucer? Anyway, complains aside, the black sesame latte tastes great so consider trying it the next time you are there.

While the food at Whisk and Paddle isn't fantastic, I find myself still drawn to this place. I think I like it that the ambiance is chillax and that parking is easy to find. The food has a good variety that I can come back often on days when I'm looking for affordable food.

Whisk & Paddle
10 Tebing Lane
(Please note that brunch is only available on weekends)

SPRMRKT

I'm typing this from high up in the Cingjing farm and it's cold up here. The blog post will be relatively short because the place I went was a rather impromptu visit I had yesterday after Vain Pot's dental took longer than expected and I need to rush home to pack for my trip.

We happened to be at Tanjong Pagar and just wandered around seeking food and Vain Pot led me here. The general appearance of the place generally told me its a brunch cafe but I also noticed that they offered a lot of healthier choices in the form of salads and natural juices. 

For a change from coffees and teas, we picked Orange Grapefruit ($6.50) and Apple Beetroot ($6). Service was good as this mix of fruit juice choices are recommended by the staff. A look at the menu doesn't offer the option of mix and match. What's more, there's no extra charge! 

My love for omelettes started during my visit at Maison Ikkoku. Ever since then, I have shunned away from the typical Eggs Benedict and big breakfast choices for eggs omelette as my preferred brunch choice. Here at SPRMRKT, I settled for Eggs Omelette with Crabmeat and Spinach ($16). It tastes very fresh with creamy tasting eggs and a good mix of crabmeat and spinach. Personally, I always felt that crabmeat is overrated and I didn't really get a very distinct taste outside of eggs and spinach. I only chose crabmeat because the other omelette choices had distinct processed food inside and I am rather health conscious recently. 

Vain Pot settled for Eggs Florentine ($14). It was a satisfactory with properly poached eggs that was runny the moment you cut through it. The taste blended well together. One feedback was that the portion was rather small but at $14 it's reasonable.

SPRMRKT is a fairly decent brunch venue at the heart of town. While the food I tried won't make me specially make a trip down, it's worth a visit if you happen to be in the area. I do think there's not many brunch places near Capitol Tower so here's a brunch idea if you happen to be working on a Saturday morning around the area. 

SPRMRKT

2 McCallum Street

Fresh Fruits Lab (FFL)

It's one more week to my Taiwan trip! I'm pretty much scurrying to prepare for it because the weather these days is kinda crazy and I have never been to anywhere near single digit weather and the weather forecast seems to indicate that some parts of Taiwan are like that. Another aspect we learn from our last trip is that I pretty much can't walk a lot. So... today is foot reflexology day! But of course prior to giving my leg some comfort, we need to eat. I've shortlisted two cafes this week namely Fresh Fruits Lab and Five and Dime. Vain pot settled for FFL so here we are!

FFL is famous for their lab apparatus looking decorations, equipment and as the name suggest, fresh fruits. It's not very obvious from the photo but you can see the utensils served on a kidney dish and complimentary test tube fruit juice. Even their pen used to sign the bill is in the form of a syringe. I was first introduced to FFL when a colleague of mine told me about their Tuesday - Friday afternoon tea promotion. I was very tempted to go because it looks Instagram worthy but coordinating leave with friends isn't easy so I never got round to it. In any case, the blogosphere has mixed reviews about this place so it wasn't high on my to-go list. Yet, I am very curious about their quirky laboratory concept, so heart itchy (心痒痒) want to try. 

And try we did! For mains we picked Eggs Blackstone ($14) and Masago Caviar Pasta ($20). The Eggs Blackstone is made up of poached farm eggs with smoked bacon, beefy tomatoes, sautéed shiitake, toasted English muffin and fruit salad topped with hollandaise sauce. The eggs were runny, bacon went well with the sautéed shiitake mushrooms and English muffins making the meal flavorful. However, it should be pointed out that it basically met all the minimum criteria of a decent rendition of an Eggs Benedict kind of dish where if mistaken for the best eggs benedicts in the world you will be disappointed. Given that I have eaten lots of pricier similar dishes, Eggs Blackstone definitely makes the cut for a eggs muffin hollandaise sauce meal presenting good value. 

I grappled with myself a long time before ordering the Masago Cavier Pasta. I love pasta and most places known for brunch pretty much have served me disappointing pasta during my 2 years of cafe hopping. Moreover prior to coming here, the last blog I read complained that the blogger's experience at FFL was a disaster. So you can imagine, my apprehension when I ordered. The pasta, was as complained oily but I felt most Aglio Olio type pasta that tastes good have a certain degree of oil and this one was no more than the other good ones I have tried. The pasta was al dente and well infused with Masago Cavier that makes it very flavorful and tasty. I've always said that food that retains its taste in your mouth after eating is good food. So I was pleasantly surprised this dish is close. I felt the half shelled scallops were big and was a decent complement to provide a balance for the dish. 

Vain Pot and I both selected green teas from their drinks selection, Paradise Green ($5) and Tokio ($5) which are refillable! The teas agreed with our palate and we ended up ordering a lychee cake ($6.50) to complete a very relaxing weekend brunch. The cake in my view is just decent. But my view is bias as I don't like fruits. Vain pot on the other hand seems to like it and gobbled up most of it. 

All in all, my experience at FFL is a really satisfying one. Will I be back again? It's a resounding yes! Having said that, I'll need to manage expectations. FFL doesn't serve tip top michelin worthy food but it serves above average brunch food that presents good value. It also provides a unique experience in terms of concept and definitely it's paradise if you like to take photos like me. I felt that FFL is among my favorites in terms of satisfying my taste buds without blowing a hole in my pocket. I can hardly find places that cost less than $60 bucks for drinks, mains and dessert with air con and waitering service for two that taste great at the same time! 

Fresh Fruits Lab

351 Changi Road, Lor Marzuki 

(The brunch menu is only available on weekends)

Epicurious Cafe

While I'll be flying out in two weeks time to Taiwan, I'm always kinda adamant to my friends that there's stuff to do on this tiny little red dot. This week is dumpling week! The main event is dumpling making but prior to that I wanted to pamper my tummy with something nice. I have this secret little plan at the end of this year that I kinda dragged fussy pot to Epicurious Cafe despite her lukewarm enthusiasium. Oh yes, I have a special request from Fussy Pot to change her name to Vain Pot. Apparently she thinks it's a more appropriate name for her. One food related reason for this visit is because I've been reading not too good reviews about this place two years after my last visit and I wanted to verify if it's true. 

Epicurious Cafe was first introduced to me two years ago by Bak Bak. Back then, I kinda fell in love with the food there and went back another two times with Vain Pot to explore their brunch menu. Most of the photos you see there is a collection from my multiple visits. Epicurious is located at the Quayside which is along the Singapore River. The view along with the alfresco dining area makes it a very relaxing environment for a carefree day of coffee and food. My experience with the brunch menu exceeded expectations and Epicurious Cafe effectively became my favorite brunch place in 2014. Today's visit was to see if they still keep their place among my top 5 brunch favorite. 

We settled for our favorite Eggs Benedict ($15.60) and a Breakfast Burrito ($15.60) which we never tried before. The Eggs Benedict met our expectations with refreshing runny poached eggs which we chose to pair with spinach (we tried smoked salmon previously and it was a clear winner) this time and it comes with English muffins and hollandaise sauce. This version is pretty well executed too. It's filling, value for money and the ingredients compliment each other really well. 

The Breakfast burrito which comes with two scrambled eggs, chorizo (pork), tomato, cheddar cheese and tomato-chilli relish is pretty good too. While it's a bold choice on my part, I'm not a big fan of tomato and failed to appreciate the dish as a result. Taste wise, I can tell that the scramble eggs is well executed and the combination of tomato-chilli with cheddar cheese, eggs and pork really made the burrito tasty despite my personal dislike my tomatoes. One thing I really like about Epicurious Cafe is the sides which are equally tasty. The watermelon has always been sweet and the roasted potatoes are nicely done too!  

Is Epicurious Cafe still my all time favorite brunch place? Well one of... It definitely still makes the top 5 list. My gripe about this place is that it's too out of the way even with a car (lazy me). Service is still as great as before. No ang mohs discrimination unlike what I read online. I think this is the perfect place to take a morning stroll and have top quality breakfast by the river. 

Epicurious Cafe

#01-02 The Quayside, Robertson Quay

Atmosphere Bistro and Bar

The start of a new year brings inspiration to try something I've never tried before. While we have always seen really pretty looking 3D latte art online, it actually isn't that easy to find any in Singapore... let alone good ones. The original plan was to go for the McRitchie tree top walk, another first, before heading to Atmosphere for brunch. Unfortunately carriage (my car) is still in hospital and we had to settle for a refreshing walk along East Coast Park...

I have to disclaim that I am really anal about food. I do pride myself for bringing my companions to GOOD food, appraised by the companions of course. Hence prior to most organized outings, I take great effort to research on the food before I head there. One pain point I always encounter especially with the food blogosphere is the lack of quality control. Value for money food is mistaken as good food. Instagram worthy food is also interpreted as good tasty food. Sometimes it riles me because the trip can end up being disappointing and time is a commodity we can't replace. 

Atmosphere Bistro at ECP serves decent food. Nothing fantastic but anyway, I personally feel the highlight shouldn't be food. I came here specifically for the 3D latte art. The Eggs Benedict ($17) and Classic Big Breakfast ($20) which we tried met the minimum standards eg, runny egg yolk, brioche bread toasted just right, etc... I felt the scrambled eggs were a bit diluted and so were the baked beans. Taste wise, nothing to lure me back here for seconds. 

The 3D latte art didn't disappoint. Instagram worthy and it did attract praise from whoever who have seen this picture. Yes, I will come back here for coffee with new companions just for the experiential effect. Take your fill of photos to make it worth your trip because you may not touch the coffee much after that if you don't really like sweet coffee. (By the way, 3D latte art would cost you an extra dollar)

If you aren't fussy with food and don't mind paying a bit more, this is a great hangout for morning cycling at ECP and insta-worthy coffee for brunch. 

Atmosphere Bistro and Bar

920 East Coast Parkway #01-25/26/27

Brunch is only available on Sat, Sun and Public Holidays 

(You may try their Alexandra Village outlet for weekday brunch)