Cingjing

Just back from my long awaited Taiwan trip :) I'll share this post in two parts with the first being Cingjing. My initial preference was to just blog about the food in Taiwan but given the lack of information during my research on Cingjing, I decided to help provide some.

Cingjing is a farm area located in the mountains of Taiwan. To head there from Taoyuan Airport, I took the Ubus 705 to Taoyuan HIgh Speed Rail (HSR). There we purchased tickets to Taichung HSR. This journey is rather manageable taking about 15mins by bus and 40mins by train. Train tickets can be purchased online or directly at the station. To purchase UBus ticket, head to ground floor and follow the signages. It's pretty clear. 

Thereafter, you have the option of busing up to Cingjing or taking a cab. I travel with the mentality that if it's too troublesome or time consuming, just spend! So I booked a cab before even flying to Taiwan. The driver's contact is here: Xie Zhiming +886 937 216 180. A lot of travelers use him and on the day he picked us up, his wife and son was with him so I felt safer! They are nice people who even bought us Taiwanese popular buns to try. 

In Cingjing, you can either walk or take their internal bus or call their internal drivers. I tried walking and the distance between attractions and where I stayed is far! Honestly I picked a minsu much closer to the attractions than all the other available options in Agoda so you can imagine the inconvenience. Internal bus on a rainy day is also relatively difficult as the waiting time is uncertain and walking distance isn't exactly the friendliest. The preferred option is to call their internal drivers but it's 50TWD per person per ride. So it's the most convenient but the priciest. See your preference. All minsu should be able to give travelers the number to call. 

The key attractions in Cingjing are mainly the Green Green Grassland and Small Swiss Cottage. It's hard to take pictures when it's pouring otherwise I thought it'll be fun. Both locations can be walkable if you are in a trekking mood but otherwise it's considered far in my opinion. 

One of the places everyone tells me I must visit is the Old England Manor. It's also the most expensive place to stay in Cingjing and much pricier than even many of the 5 star singapore hotels. In my opinion, it's a overhyped place. To enter, you either stay there or eat there. But if you eat there you are only limited to a few places linking the entrance to the dining area. 

Worthy of an English King? The afternoon tea set cost about 500 TWD per pax. It's food are interestingly agreeable with my palate even though they are much simpler than many other high tea sets I've eaten. I particularly like the raisin scones which I normally won't eat. Vain pot felt that the food was just so-so, I guess it's really dependent on individual preference. We both had a very pleasant afternoon though. 

Another must try in my opinion is Urn Chicken. I tried mine at Yi Na Gu, taking the minsu's recommendation. My initial choice was Ah Dong chicken. The difference is that both are really far away and Yi Na Gu provides transportation to and from the place for free! In any case, it taste like a very tasty chicken. I wasn't very impressed with Taiwanese food in general, but this chicken is probably the tastier chickens I have eaten. 

Pretty much this sums up my Cingjing trip and stuff you need to know about the place to have a good time there. The minsu I stayed is Star Villa. It's considered pricey for a minsu at $150 a night. But the rooms are very big and clean. They provide star gazing sessions at night daily. Sadly I failed to experience the sessions due to the rain. They have this observatory tower for star gazing. To get back to Taipei, just do a reverse of everything. You needn't hire a driver again because Star Villa provides a cheaper transportation back to Taichung HSR. 

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

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

Clinton St Baking Company

Every Saturday is my favorite day of the week and today is probably the best Saturday I have this month. I played badminton this morning! Yes, it's only badminton but anybody who plays badminton in indoor courts in Singapore knows how hard it is to get an ideal court at the time slot of your choice so I was really looking forward to today. Apart from that, there's of course the much anticipated brunch at Clinton St Baking Company which I crave for.

And so after a month of blogging, I get questions on why I even bother to blog when there's so many more established blogs out there. For a start, this is a hobby, I like to eat and share the food I eat. As of now, I am not interested to be involved in anything commercialized, if you notice, there's no way to contact me on my blog. I hunt for food every week and I enjoy taking pictures of food everywhere I go. I don't care how distinctly Singaporean this makes me, I like doing it period. I take the trouble to read a lot of reviews so that my Saturdays remain awesome. Plus Singapore has really limited stuff to do but its a food paradise. And since I have taken so much trouble, why not share with people who might not have time to do the homework about interesting food. I even have this crazy idea where this blog can be a go-to place for people who need inspiration for weekly outings and meet ups and have no time to plan. If after so much trouble and I discover bad food, I see it as my responsibility to highlight it too! 

So anyway, today I am really excited to share my experience dining at Clinton St Baking Company.  After all the research, I was extremely looking forward to dining there. Clinton St Baking Company hails from New York City and has won awards for their brunch dishes in particular their pancakes. However, the dish that made me utterly excited was the buttermilk biscuit sandwich ($13.50). When I saw photos of it online, it looked so mouth watering good I couldn't wait for Saturday to come. My first buttermilk biscuit was from KFC. It was dry yet the taste gave me a hint that if executed better elsewhere I'll like it.  Buttermilk biscuits is a very American breakfast ingredient. And the ones I was served were buttery, soft and goes perfectly with the scrambled eggs and melted cheddar cheese. The house made tomato jam is really a winner on its own. It retained the sour tomato taste yet it carries with it a tinge of spiciness that lingers in your mouth. If it wasn't served as a sandwich, I would say it could beat many tomato pasta sauces hands down. 

Apart from the sandwich, we also had Pancakes with Warm Maple Butter with wild blueberry ($18). This is really the best pancakes I had in Singapore. It was fluffy, generous, crispy on the outside soft on the inside and the warm maple butter that goes with it provides the added oomph that differentiates this pancake from its peers. I didn't touch the blueberries, I don't like fruit dishes but fussypot gobbled it up so it must be good. 

After this visit, Clinton St Baking Company has made it into my top 5 favorite brunch places. Their portions are American size so if you have a small appetite, it'll be wise to share. One very distinctive observation I had about this meal was that Fussypot ate more than me and this rarely happens. Either the badminton contributed to it or the food must be darn good! I'll definitely be back as many times as possible to clear as much of the menu as my time permits and this is definitely my go-to place if I ever need a pancake fix. 

Clinton St Baking Company

31 Purvis St
(Parking is a hassle along Purvis St, you might wish to take the train or park at the nearby malls)

Tian Fu Tea Room

One of my childhood dreams has always been to be an Emperor no matter how funny that sound. I am a hardcore Chinese Dynasty drama fan and once scored a B+ for my assignment on my Business History module because I wrote about similiarities in how Chinese Dynasties handled their succession planning like family businesses. B+ because I got penalized for doing my assignment on submission day and did not provide any academic references for my information source otherwise I believe I scored an A. Now that you get my fascination with dynasties, you probably understand why I chose to try Tian Fu Tea Room's Reunion Imperial High Tea this weekend.

The Reunion Imperial High Tea ($38++ per pax) is a limited time only promotion for Chinese New Year. It runs from 8 Feb till 22 Feb. Perhaps due to its short notice, it's not widely marketed and thus explains why we were the only 3 set of guests having the high tea on a Saturday at Park Royal Hotel, Kitchener Road branch. To give you some background on this place, Tian Fu Tea Room is a subset of the more known Si Chuan Dou Hua restaurant. 

The first dish was Premium Black Truffle Yusheng. I've never been a fan of Yusheng. To me it's messy, doesn't taste nice and I honestly prefer cooked food. That said, my first encounter with black truffle Yusheng is a refreshing encounter. It helps that fussy pot didn't make a mess of the Yusheng when we did the usual Lou Hei. I felt the taste was given a very modern twist and it's the first Yusheng I ate more than the customary one bite. 

The high tea basically served three different Chinese teas to go with different types of dim sum the chef prepared. The first tea being Bai Mu Dan (white tea). The accompanying dim sum was steamed siew mai with black moss and bird's nest dumpling in superior broth. I'd be upfront and say the steam siew mai looked pathetically small. However, the taste was pretty good and I particularly liked the chilli they gave me to go with my food! The bird nest dumpling in superior broth while tasted decent left me disappointed. I've drank better soup with less expensive ingredients and fussy pot couldn't even tell that there was bird nest since she asked me which dish had the bird nest after the meal. 

The next tea served was Bi Tan Piao Xue (flower tea) and the accompanying dishes is a mouth full. Steamed prawn dumpling with crab roe, pan-fried carrot cake with waxed meat and peanuts, pan-fried pancake with chicken floss and Sichuan Dan Dan noodles with shredded abalone. This round the food was far more competent. Steamed prawn dumpling with crab roe was rich in flavour and the prawn was very crunchy. Pan-fried carrot cake on its own was ordinary but accompanied with the chilli, I ate more and more. Frankly this place should just be known for their chilli. Everything goes well with it. The pancake with chicken floss was another competently executed dish. The pancake was well fried and the chicken floss left me satisfied. Even though I have no major complains about the food, I kept feeling that something was missing and the Dan Dan noodles was the savior. It's probably the best dish of the day, sauce a tinge of spiciness while possessing the added oomph that makes the noodles addictive. The shredded abalone and vegetables were perfect variety to make you not get bored of this dish. 

The final tea served was Yunnan Dian Hong (Red Tea), incidentally my favorite. The dessert selection was decent but nothing to wow me. To begin with, I am not a dessert person. They had pan-fried soy milk new year cake with soya bean crisps, chilled almond cake with strawberry sauce and homemade fine beancurd with wolfberry. The desserts in general aren't for the sweet tooth. The ingredients used are pure and fresh which is what I like about it. The fine beancurd with wolfberry is the authentic recipe of Si Chuan Dou Hua which I felt was good value for the price I paid. 

All in all, food wise, Reunion Imperial High Tea at Tian Fu Tea Room is really value for money. $38 isn't exactly cheap but for the premium ingredients used and the number of dishes, it's good value. I was a little surprised that there's so little people, but I guess it's partially caused by Valentine's Day. A side note would be the service. The staff seemed a little untrained for this promotion and we felt really lost at the beginning whether we had to order from the menu or wait to be served since we already informed them we were here for the high tea. Other than that, I don't mind feeling like royalty for a day and paying $38 bucks to eat bird nest, abalone and truffle. 

Tian Fu Tea Room

Parkroyal on Kitchener Road

181 Kitchener Road

(There's two other outlets at UOB Plaza 1 and Parkroyal at Beach Road with differing menus under the same promotion)