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

.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)