Ninja Bowl

This week is meet the friends week! Given that I work everyday but a couple of hours, my free time is spent catching with friends over lunch and dinners. One of the highlights is meeting Bak Bak to try the new fried milk rolls at Tim Ho Wan. It's good so it's worth trying! There's also my long awaited visit with another friend to Ninja Bowl which I'll be featuring today.

Ninja Bowl is the replacement to Department of Caffiene. They serve healthy Japanese bowls and is really suitable for those who eat salad as their staple meal. 

So anyway, my friend and I, starting to get lazy with name inventions because there's too many, we settled for Yasai and Genki ($16 each). Yasai is a salmon bowl with mixed sultanas, onsen egg and tomatoes. Both of us added quinoa ($3) to our dishes as our carbo. As someone who hasn't eaten any white rice replacement before, I found quinoa to be surprisingly tasty. It went exceedingly well with the bowl and salmon were really fresh! However, the amount of ingredients in Yasai is rather little and after a while the taste starts to get repetitive with salmon and quinoa running the show. It is still very healthy! 

My friend's choice of Genki was a combination of Yaki Unagi, roasted pumpkin, beansprouts, onsen egg and pickled beets. Apparently it's a refreshing mix of her favorite Japanese food without the unhealthy additions. The pumpkin and beet root added variety to the egg, Unagi and quinoa which she added and I felt it's a more complete bowl. 

As we were chatting, and the place was rather small, I discovered that Ninja Bowl is probably not the best place to chill out. The staff attempted to clear us out with little actions like clearing our bowls. When we made no attempt to leave they tried to upsell us with their cakes. Alright fair enough, we could try some cakes. Except there're only two cakes to choose from. Some berry cake which was out of the question because I hate fruits in my food and this Thai Milk Tea cake ($16) which we both settled for a slice each. 

The cake was generally light and the milk tea taste was distinct however the sponge cake was a little bit too dry to be a good cake. It's nonetheless edible and not difficult to finish. 

Ninja bowl is one of those places I'll be eager to return to. The trouble with this place is its location. It's smacked in the middle of nowhere and at the outskirts of the CBD area. The bowls which I can foresee myself eating for lunch isn't your typical cafe food but a good replacement to the healthy salads I eat. So because of its location, if I ever eat here again, it'll be because I specially made a trip down. It's still highly recommended if you are into healthy food and love jap! 

Ninja Bowl

15 Duxton Road 

Best 5 waffles I've had in Singapore (so far) [Edited]

Whenever I have a craving, I'll google for "best ________ in Singapore" and hope to get something. Everytime I do this, I'll wonder how other people search for good food. One issue I had was some results gave me like 16 best waffles or 20 best waffles, and I'll start thinking but I only want to eat good waffles tomorrow. So many how to research and narrow down?! Nowadays, with Instagram and Burpple, it's getting easier to stay abreast on the latest 'in' food in town. In any case, I thought that this week I'll share my own top 5 waffles places having spent the last two years feasting on a lot of waffles. I've had fun and much success discovering a number of nice new places this way, and thought I'd share my own favorites with everyone. These 5 favorites are in no particular order. 

This photo was taken 2 years ago when I first googled best waffles in Singapore 2014. Strangers Reunion came out top of that list of top 5. Strangers Reunion is known for their latte art because their owner has won numerous top barista awards and also for their buttermilk waffles with maple syrup and fresh fruit ($11.90). The waffles batter made the waffles light, crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside. Paired with maple syrup and fruits, it's an awesome combination that doesn't make you 'jelat'. In fact, it is so good, I'm motivated to go back and try the ice cream version now that I'm done with my waffles exploration. 

Strangers Reunion

35 Kampong Bahru Road

(Please note that I haven't been there in two years and can't attest that the standard remains the same. The taste 2 years ago is still my top 5 favorite if they maintained the quality today)

This was also eaten 2 years ago as part of the top 5 waffles list that I googled back in 2014. After the visit to Strangers Reunion which was very promising, I told myself next time must try waffles with ice cream. Prior to this visit, my only experience with ice cream waffles was at Gelare which as a poor clueless student, I thought it was very good waffles. Last year I ate Gelare again to check out the difference between good and bad batter. My findings was that the waffles was dry and it felt like tasteless flour that accompanied cold ice cream and there's no satisfaction after eating. 

Anyway, back to good ice cream waffles, the buttermilk waffles with premium New Zealand Ice cream with butter rum bananas ($15) at Department of Caffeine is a clear winner. The butter rum bananas is by far the best rendition of bananas with waffles I've tried. I've always felt that good waffles are the kind you can eat them on their own and still find them awesome. The buttermilk waffles at DOC sure makes the grade. 

Department of Caffiene (Closed Permanently)

15 Duxton Road 

(Again please note that this was eaten 2 years ago and hopefully their quality remains. If it does, then the taste still retains in my memory as top 5 today)

Hatter Street was introduced to me by a friend (let's call her fat fat) few months ago. In 2015 there seems to be more waffles establishments springing up and the modern day waffles have more variations. This pandan ice cream waffles with gula melaka is very different from the ice cream waffles I ate in 2014 (Yes all of them!). The texture of the waffles reminds me of Belgian waffles and it's very flavorful. The batter gave the exterior a bit of biscuit-like crispy and interior was fluffy. I felt that the mix of pandan ice cream and gula melaka goes perfectly together and I have been back twice since. 

Hatter Street Bakehouse and Cafe

212 Hougang Street 21 #01-333

Another waffle place also introduced to me very recently by Fat fat is Oblong. While flavored waffles actually existed since 2013, the craze only caught on late 2014. Oblong offers a variety of waffles flavours with a variety of ice cream and a variety of sauce and add ons. The picture you see is a red velvet waffles with earl grey ice cream with cream cheese and butterscotch syrup. If you order it as a combo with drinks it cost you $10. I really like the mix and match concept and their flavours really go well together. The waffles is light and fluffy. I felt that the variety of flavours gives a refreshing twist to waffles and I like it that the waffles are meant for individuals which means I can walk in on my own after dinner and not worry it's too much for my tummy. 

Oblong

10 Maju Avenue

Last but not least, I specially went to eat here on Thursday with Ms MooMoo. Montana Brew Bar is the "IN" waffles in town now. I found it on Instagram and Burpple with lots of noise from the Blogosphere. Apparently I'm considered late at trying out this place because the hype started late last year. Montana Brew Bar is famous for their creative waffles. The photo you see is their Mac and Cheese waffles with Jalapeños and Salsa Sauce ($13.80) version 4. Based on my research I discovered that the owners having invited bloggers for tasting and have worked on their food and the ones I'm eating is already the 4th version of the dish. It's really one of the best savory waffles I've had. The aroma of Mac and Cheese was very distinct on the onset and the smell alone can wet your appetite. The waffles are very crispy on the outside and the stuff macaroni and cheese inside the waffles really gives it a unique combination that goes very well together. On top of that the salsa sauce was really very balanced, spicy enough not to mask the Mac and cheese taste and provides the added oomph to make this dish my new favorite. 

Montana Brew Bar

1 Selegie Road, POMO, #02-25