Some long overdue photos.

The weather here has been somewhat crazy. Terribly hot and muggy and then suddenly, we are plagued (it’s a good thing really I just think that for others, many do not welcome the rain) with days of unceasing relentless rain. Doing the laundry gets a little tricky for most. I’ve seen lots of women queueing at the laundromat for the dryers with bright blue baskets of washing. My sisters have been complaining that the air is getting more chilly and the nights are nippy. By my standard, I really do not feel it. It just feels a little less oppressive and I hope the air stays that way. I don’t mind the rain (other than it annoys my hair a little) as long as our neighbourhood doesn’t flood. Because now that, is a whole different predicament altogether.

When I was in Kyoto in June, it was raining quite a bit as well. Hence, it just sprung into mind that I should upload some of the shots taken there. A little warm it was, a little rainy some of the days in Kyoto. Honestly, the weather then is exactly the same as what we’re experiencing now. Funnily enough, the weather makes me crave for soba ~ cold soba, hot soba whatever. It’s a need. So I dug up these pictures of handmade soba I had in Arashiyama. It was really lush, and fresh, soft but firm and well-made. The dipping sauce for mine and the broth for my pal’s was really delish. Oh how I wish I were there now again, slurping soba on the top floor of a tiny crooked shop with a (somewhat blocked but chilled out) view of the river.

The shop has a lovely, quaint, shadowy upper floor with just a few tables. The ones that are by the window facing the river are quite sought after since you can see the Togetsu Bridge on the left stretching over the river. We were lucky to get 2 spaces next to some salarymen who were quite so busy slurping their soba they didn’t even notice us arriving and noisily shoving ourselves into our seats. It took my friend Mr. Patience (yes that’s his real name) quite some time and effort to fold his lanky long BFG body into the little cranny of a space, obviously designed and built to comfortably seat the Japanese male/female physique.

A lovely rest stop. Fantastic handmade soba, good view, wonderful service, not to mention lovely ceramic cups/bowls/etc. that are also for sale just under the stairs next to the till.

It might seem a little hard to find but look out for its brown exteriors on the right footpath if you’re walking towards the river. You’ll notice a little zen stone garden once past the doors. You’re there.

Yoshimura
2 Togetsukyo Kitazumenishi
Arashiyama, Ukyo-ku

http://www.arashiyama-yoshimura.com

11am-5pm Daily

*ps. Around this area, you might spot geisha…or rather, women who pay to dress up like geisha. I was tempted. Truly. Which girl doesn’t like to get all decked up in shiny silk stuff and have their faces painted!

Yea go ahead, point and laugh. You may jeer at me and say, ‘I told you so.’ When I thought I’d left this blog behind (not so willingly actually) and carried on with life, I found myself here again guiltily putting up one post to share with the world my happiness for a very beloved, special and gorgeous girlfriend who recently got married. There are plenty of backposts, especially those from Kyoto, waiting to go up here on The Sugar Bar but I just never found time. Sometimes anyhow, things get forgotten, places get forgotten, people get forgotten and it’s just all a little sad, nostalgic and bittersweet.

That aside, however, this is just one thing I thought deserved to go into my archives. No great shots whatsoever and the professional photos are not out yet but this little maid of honour here made some wedding cupcakes for her best girl. Royal little red velvets with glittered white buttercream icing and topped with a Chanel red sugar rose.

These cupcakes were all served up on a 3 tier white cake stand (the graceful one from Wilton oh what a lifesaver that purchase was!) and placed onto a whole dessert bar the bride and I ‘curated’. Cakes from Antoinette patissierie, lemon cream & passionfruit macarons I begged off a private chef acquaintance ‘J’, wedding cookies from The Patissier and plenty others. They were all wiped out within minutes.

My dearest S, all married now; and she was married in Vera Wang! She was truly radiant and beaming with joy. I cannot be happier for her and her husband. And what a great time to get married too can I say. This Christmas time, everyone’s in good spirits. Perfect for celebrating.

To their happiness, to friendships, to futures together, jokes and companionship, to homecooked dinners and profound happiness. (Let’s drink to that.)

LOVE is sweet.

Who knew that I’d actually come back here to put up a post. I’d sort of decided to drop the blog (for a while or forever I was not too sure) because work was too hectic for me to have much of a virtual life beyond Facebook and Twitter. I haven’t even had time to sort through photographs from Kyoto and post up all those lovely desserts I so wanted to share with all of you. Lots of the snacks I brought home have been gobbled up without a photograph being taken which means a valuable post lost but more sleep time for me. I’ve been so overworked my Friday nights are highly treasured, weekends are magical (well really I don’t have much of it since there’s work to take home as well), sleep is never 100% recovery time and people tell me I’ve lost weight.

Anyway, today’s my Mama Diva’s birthday and luckily enough, I have a day off! On a day off, the irony, however, is that I’m still as busy as ever running around searching for flowers, arranging them into a nice vase, buying groceries, taking my lil sister to lunch, preparing the ingredients etc. for the dinner menu I’ve planned tonight. Well you can definitely say I’m keeping busy.

And, my ol’ Canon Powershot is still sitting on my shelf covered in soddingly thick layer of dust. Shame on me. Let me just update you on my resolution for 2012 though. I intend to purchase a d-slr. A cheap one. FINALLY. Right, talk about dear ol’ Dave (me) finally going ahead to invest in something worthwhile. For now, this busy bee is resorting to lazy but well-trusted methods via the BLACKBERRY BOLD camera. All photos in this post have been taken on my little mobile. And I’m impressed.

I’m also very impressed with this recipe. It doesn’t look like much and almost seems to pale in comparison to the moroccan couscous which I so adore (and those recipes always look a heck lot more complicated). A spoonful of this, however, shocked me. It is full-flavoured. A little savoury from the chicken stock, a little sweet from the apricot but warm and soothing altogether. I used red onions as well instead of white to get a caramelized taste and give it a little more colour. I’m glad I did. This is what I wanted to share with you really – just a really good and simple quick recipe from the most-loved Ottolenghi.

Enjoy.

Ottolenghi’s Couscous with Dried Apricots and Butternut Squash
Ingredients

1 large (red) onion, thinly sliced
6 tbs olive oil
50g dried apricots
1 small butternut squash, peeled, seeded and cut into 2 cm dice
250g couscous
400ml chicken or vegetable stock
a pinch of saffron strands
3 tbs roughly chopped tarragon
3 tbs roughly chopped mint
3 tbs roughly chopped flat-leaf parsley
1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
grated zest of 1 lemon
coarse sea salt and black pepper

Preheat the oven to 180d Celsius.

Place onion in a large frying pan with 2 tbs oil and a pinch of salt. Sauté over high heat, stirring constantly for about 10 mins (I used less time), until golden brown. Set aside.

Pour hot water from the tap over the apricots just to cover them. Soak for 5 mins then drain and cut them into 5mm dice.

Mix the diced squash in 1 tbs olive oil and spread out on a baking tray to roast. Place in oven for 25 mins, until lightly coloured and quite soft.

While waiting for the butternut squash to cook, cook the couscous. Bring the stock to the boil with the saffron. Place the couscous in a large heatproof bowl and pour the boiling stock over it, plus the remaining olive oil (3 tbs). Cover with clingfilm and leave for about 10 mins for all of the liquid to be absorbed. When done, fluff with up with a fork. Then add the onions, squash, apricots, herbs, cinnamon and lemon zest. Mix well with hands, trying not to mash the squash to bits.

Taste and add salt and pepper if necessary. Serve warmish of cold.

I know I’m not putting up posts for my Kyoto Snaps series fast enough and hope that isn’t disappointing or frustrating anyone too much. Too many things to do too little time running around like a busy White Rabbit with a stopwatch running to and fro back and forth on unending run-on sentences. YIKES. In the meantime, here’s a post I’ve wanted to share for some time too even before I flew off to Kyoto. Talk about taking backward steps.

I was invited to brunch at Brasserie Wolf which had newly opened a weekend brunch menu since a change in their head chef. I’d never been but from the pictures of its interiors, I was going ‘yes yes yes!’ in my head. Almost baroque, decadent with plush interiors and soft lighting, dark woods brought to life with white tablecloths, glistening table setting and pneumatic powdery peach-coloured leather seats – this looked and smelt every bit of Frenchness. A splattering of casualness amidst a canvas of elegance, even the waiting staff were long-limbed and modelesque, serving food with measured steps and gestures and definitely not without an extension of some friendly banter. You were just completely swallowed into their seemingly pretentious interiors but welcomed with warm smiles and attentiveness. I really loved the leather seats, especially these that extended far larger than your body. It makes me feel like royalty. And you sorta do a little in Brasserie Wolf. Even the al fresco seats are quite lush with cushions with an almost Moroccan feel to it, facing the river and such.

On to the food, I was quite impressed. The servings were just right for ladies although if you were hungrier, you might’ve had to order more. These dishes also came after a coffee that was very flavourful. I was very pleased to have sweetened it with a brown sugar cube. You know I have a thing for sugar cubes. They are just so much more quaint!

What came first was the Croque Monsieur. I sometimes have the cheap renditions of this French deliciousness from local bakeries – yellow with heavy fat which can sometimes make me feel just a bit sick to the stomach. Or back in my college days, I never went a week without a grilled cheese sandwich made glorious in a dirty (doubt this was cleaned in years) banged up toastie-maker. So of course, the French know how to make the simplest of things the most royal and give it funky names like Croque Monsiuer oh that’s just precious! This was light, savoury, crispy and almost disappeared on your tongue, disintegrating into a melted mass of ham, emmental cheese and buttery fried bread. It went so quick, I could’ve easily swallowed another. Whole.

A croque monsieur with a fried or poached egg on the top, by the way, is quirkily known as a Croque Madame. I wonder if that had anything to do with the fertility of females. Nonetheless, Brasserie Wolf serves them too and here, they look quite pretty don’t they?

There is not a brunch that goes without Eggs Benedict or some variation, at least for me. I say eggs benedict, we eat benedict. Here, we have Eggs Royale for a change. And I do love the names of these dishes. It just makes me think of similar sounding phrases like Battle Royale and Blood Royale. I mean, that’s just cool. Right? Delicious this was, with a fantastic hollandaise garnished with shaved black truffle. Casual.

On the sweet end of things, we spooned up some Bircher Muesli into our mouths. It never seems quite worth it to order bircher muesli for brunch when you can make this stuff (sometimes tasting even better and fresher) than that you get from bistros and cafés. But something in me just needs to taste the bircher of others, kinda like a self-induced competition I’ve got going on. I quite liked Brasserie Wolf’s bircher muesli although it was a tad too sweet for my liking. Nonetheless, it was impressive and generous with their ingredients!

We also had the Brioche Toast which was lovely, thick and sweet. Although I didn’t get a photograph of the Charcuterie Platter, it is well worth a mention. I was quite addicted to it as there was lamb prosciutto, air-dried beef, chorizo (lovely!), bayonne ham and saucisson on there. Lots of flavour and so moreish and nicely alternated with salad leaves, olives and sundried tomatoes.

This was probably one of the more stylish brunches I’ve had. Although it was still a very casual weekend setting, there was just something about the food, the decor and the service that upped this a tiny bit. Kinda like a touch of gold and that will be yet another story to tell in a few posts to come.

Brasserie Wolf
80 Mohamed Sultan Road
The Pier at Robertson #01-13
Singapore 239013
Tel: 6835 7818
brasserie@esmirada.com

When we ventured into Gion, one thing that motivated us was seeing the streets of this pleasure district, grabbing a few bits of traditional Japanese crafts and also seeing a geisha show if possible. One other motivation, made more intense by the summer heat, was to eat wagashi and Japanese ice. Out of three places I’d noted down to visit in Gion (for these culinary delights), one was shut, the other a little too out of the way and so 祇園小石 Gion Koishi it was! And what a precious little shop this was.

This time of the year, you start seeing shops hanging out ‘氷’ signs which basically say ‘ice’ and more often than not they will have a variety of shaved ices (kakigori) or ice creams and parfaits. Gion Koishi I hear is famous for their black sugar syrup (kokutomitsu 黒糖蜜) made from kurosato sugar which is very similar to dark molasses but we weren’t so much intrigued by black sugar at all. Instead, we wanted anything and everything green and matcha-related!

Here’s what we tried and it seemed everybody else around us (school-kids and adults alike) were all ordering and eating the same thing, most of them in complete silence. It was like stepping into the dark recesses of a sacred cave and joining fellow pilgrims in the humble and elaborate process of licking their wooden spoons off of matcha ice cream, shiratama and kanten jellys. What an atmosphere! When eating something rather sinful, I sometimes do it alone in the dark in the privacy of my bedroom and scoff it down like a real animal. Here, in Gion Koishi, feel free to do the same and wash it down with cups of hot hojicha. You don’t have to feel embarrassed. Because everyone is sorta doing the same, with the occasional hum of satisfaction.

Matcha Chiffon Parfait 抹茶シフォンパフェ – ¥1050

This was the best matcha parfait I’ve ever eaten in my life! I’ve never been this happy with ice cream before. Generous scoops of vanilla and matcha ice cream, shiratama mochi in both plain and green tea flavours, kanten jelly, a Mont Blanc-like mountain of kuri (chestnut) paste, adzuki bean paste and slabs of fluffy matcha chiffon cake. Oh, and whipped cream. Yea, a real list of ingredients and a real tall glass of it all. Mine. Consumed. The experience? Totally beyond words, indescribable.

Wagamama-gori Uji (green tea syrup) わがまま氷の宇治 – ¥970

Next up, what Gion Koishi is notorious for! Their Wagamama (literally meaning selfish) kakigori is just a bowl of surprises this one. It may look more like a luscious green mountain with an egg yolk on the top than a luxurious dessert but this was one real refresher. The shaved ice is heavily doused with a bittersweet matcha syrup, topped with a candied chestnut (love these things!), sweetened adzuki beans and underneath this promising heap of ice lies a bed of kanten jelly, light and sweet. Who needs mints to wake you up when you can have a whole bowl of kakigori to yourself.

Now I merely wish teleportation was possible. I’d throw myself into the fireplace and teleport every evening for the best dessert Kyoto can offer.

Gion Koishi is on the north side of Shijo St (四条通り) about 1 min walk from the gate of Yasaka Shrine (八坂神社). If you are walking towards Yasaka Shrine, it’ll be on the left side of the street.

Where have I been? What’s happened to my twitter? Hijacked? Deleted?

Non! I’ve been away jetsetting somewhere in Japan having a blast of a time eating and snapping photos and eating and walking and more. I think I need a holiday to recover from this holiday. While I sit back and couch potato the rest of my summer break, here are some snaps of Kyoto. Will be doing a whole series of ‘em so watch this space.

Here’s a café we really fell in love with. Kyoto, like us, is in love with coffee and she’s dotted with cafés all over. Not only is Kyoto predictably saturated with little teahouses that produce wonderful freshly whisked hot matcha, iced matcha, etc., Kyoto offers a whole range of cafés that roast their own beans, etc. So what I couldn’t understand was why there were about 4 Starbucks cafés all within walking distance in the downtown area I stayed at. It was lost on me why anyone would want a Starbucks when Kyoto could offer a brew that was delicious, rich, bold and very well-executed. Ok, not many places offered that. Ogawa Coffee, however, deserves a mention.

This coffee place has many stores in Kyoto and Osaka I believe. The Sanjo place is only less than 5 mins walk away from me. It was by far the best coffee I had in all of Kyoto as well, not to mention that the coffee art was très adorable and doubt I’ll find something as kawaii outside of Japan. An added win for this place is Akihiro Okada of this Sanjo café who is said to have won the Japan Barista Championship in 2008. He brews here on Fridays apparently. Although we didn’t get to see him, the dude (above) who made our coffee was a real sweetheart.

Just look at our cappuccinos. Anyone who makes a cuppa like that deserves to be called a sweetheart by my standards. I’m glad I skipped coffee at the hotel for this on a quiet weekend morning. Certainly helped shake off some of that airplane tiredness.

Usagi in my coffee

The neatest little fern ever. Precious!

And never too early in the morning to have dessert for breakfast! A matcha swiss roll with vanilla ice cream and cornflakes on the side. Oh the flavours! This isn’t a breakfast for champions but it was a brilliant one to kickstart our holiday or ah, eating adventure to be more specific.

We were well pleased.

One other thing that made me grin like a nutter, tickled my toes and fluttered my heartstrings – the café bar. If you sit by it, what a pretty sight feeds your eyes. Pastel coloured coffeeware and flowers. And big polite smiles from the coffee staff. Flip, I love this place.

Ogawa Coffee (Sanjo Branch) 小川珈琲 京都三条店
96 Nakajima-cho, Sanjo
Kawaramachi Higashi-iru, Nakagyo-ku
〒604-8004
京都市中京区三条通河原町東入中島町96-2

• Tel: 075 251 7700
• Web: http://www.oc-ogawa.co.jp/shop/kyoto_sanjo/

I think I have completely mastered the art of indulgence. It involves zero baking of my own, merely getting up at a fairly late hour mid-morning, throwing some roomy clothes on, slapping on a decent amount of concealer and makeup, a taxi ride and voila. It is the Life of Brunching. Maybe it’s the change of lifestyle ever since I moved which is a little more hectic and fast-paced now, but such indulgences (trust me they don’t happen that often) feel utterly well-deserved and I’d equate the relaxing qualities of good brunches and quality time spent with girlfriends to that of a holiday. The works. Enough said.

Just last weekend, I discovered something so glorious it had to be shared. Or rather, everyone had to have a mug each because it was ironically too good to share. Graze mocha – refer to photo above. Thick, creamy and rich; more chocolatey than most, this was so decadently good an opening to brunch. It was hard to stop after 3 gulps and put this mug down. I know I shall be craving mugs of these on cold rainy nights.

As soon as conversation started flowing (no doubt lubricated by mocha), the dishes started arriving. I loved that they all looked so simple, honest and homemade, exactly how breakfast food should be! Clean, fresh and sort of understated on medium-sized white plates.

Spanish Omelette

This was by far my favourite dish of the day. The Spanish omelette was delicious with bits of chorizo and mushrooms, topped with fresh rocket and seasoned new potatoes that gave a little sweet citrusy tinge to it all. Those little spuds really made my day, whatever they were seasoned with!

Signature Cast Iron Pan – two scrambled free-range eggs, hash browns, bacon, chipolata, baked beans, roast vine tomatoes and mushrooms

A beautiful dish to behold with that rustic feel to it. I think we girls were a sucker for the cast iron dish anyhow, considering one of us had a little cocotte (imported from France) in her handbag. I hate to admit that this resembled dirty fry-ups with my housemates on Sunday morn. It wouldn’t be fair (to Graze) to do a comparison because I mean the latter had a real variety of ingredients, better execution of the dish, baked beans that did not come out of a can and it tasted delicious. But there were similarities for sure – the whole concept of a fry-up. Graze had just upped their game, polished their shoes you know.

Eggs Benedict – two poached eggs served on brioche toast with hollandaise and two slices of mortadella

This probably wasn’t as good as the eggs I had in a recent brunch trip. The eggs were slightly over-poached and it lacked that impressive oozing waterfall of molten yolk when attacked with a knife though the mortadella was quite scrummy. It didn’t have that swollen body poached eggs tend to have, a slight wobbliness and inability to contain its insides not unlike a huge badass blister under your skin, angrily threatening to explode (wow that’s a gross analogy but you get the idea right that sort of precarious balance between a whole egg and a poached egg come undone). I wasn’t sure why the hollandaise had been browned on the top as though it had been set under a grill for a few seconds.

Scottish Smoked Salmon Bagel with Cream Cheese, Dill and Rocket

Toasted seeded bagel – now that’s something hard to find in Singapore. This was lovely and the smoked salmon has to be mentioned. WONDERFUL! Very flavourful and not at all bland like some smoked salmon can be.

Savoury aside, we come to what we saved our tastebuds for.

Old Fashioned Pancakes Stack – with berries, honeycomb ice cream and maple syrup

The pancakes were as expected, fluffy and delicious although a little thinner than we’d hoped for. But they were delightful and well paired with berries and maple syrup (hard to go wrong with such a classic combination). What we really liked was that fat ball of melting honeycomb ice cream. If we didn’t have quite so many girls around the table and I was mindful of etiquette, I’d have grabbed that soup spoon of ice cream and dunked it into my mug of Graze mocha. Bet that would’ve tasted sublime.

Orange and Vanilla Waffles – with chocolate sauce and cut strawberries

Mmmm. Need I say more? And ahm, REALLY GOOD vanillla ice cream. My heart melted just a little at the sight of those specks of vanilla seeds. The ice cream was so rich I wouldn’t have been surprised if they’d snuck some clotted cream into the mix.

And to end it all on a rosey-hued note, a glass of Libalis Rose Maetierra wine which was of a lovely shade I wanted it as a nail polish colour. Happy smiles all around, food bellies nicely concealed under roomy dresses or blouses and a slight reluctance to leave this beautifully light restaurant. As we stepped out into the street and hailed more taxis to take us to our next destination (yea a crew of fat ladies who lunch), I couldn’t help noticing this slightly lethargic but warm feeling in my belly. I realised that that was the sensation of peaceful contentment and a stomach goblin finally satiated.

Graze
No. 38 Martin Road
Singapore

http://www.graze.com.sg

School’s out. Well, sorta. Other than a few projects that have gotta be done and leftover bits of housekeeping matters, it’s all been folded up and chucked into boxes to be forgotten over the short summer break we’ve got. I am thrilled that we’ve finally got a bit of time to put our feet up, let down our hair and for me, be absolutely lazy lousy hungry like I don’t give a shit.

And that also means lots of brunches and lunches. One thing about being in Singapore is that it’s too hot to walk. I mean it. I love walking to places. It saves bus/train money, its good exercise and it’s always healthy to have some ‘me-time’, get some fresh air whilst you catch up on some of your favourite iPod playlists. But in this humidity and oppressive heat, it’s a one-way ticket to skin cancer, heat exhaustion (for me at least) and fainting spells. So it’s kinda great when people offer rides to those hard-to-get cafés and all that. When they invite you along, ride included, you do the right thing and say yes, and then, BRING THE BANTER (and the appropriate appetite).

So finally I got whisked to the Singapore Turf area where the fortunate few ponce around on beautiful horses on the race course and all that. I had a right mind to turn up in riding trousers and a Ralph Lauren polo. Tucked deep into Fairways Drive situated in Bukit Timah Saddle Club is this lovely, charming colonial house Riders Cafe. The name is simple, direct, speaks for itself and hence, exudes that individuality no other can replicate simply because. It had a nice ring to it as well.

I’d heard quite a bit about their poached eggs here (I rave about eggs benedict so I suppose it’s only natural people recommend the spots where real awesome goods can be found). That was ordered, of course. Two comely ballooned, slightly wobbly, bulbous and comely cloyingly thick molten yolks tenderly shrouded in delicate clouds of milky egg whites, precariously (I mean it) balanced atop two halves of herbed grilled tomatoes, streaks of fried bacon lazying on a bed of sourdough. [pause] And then the whole thing is just ridiculously and generously doused with hollandaise and bits of chopped parsley. Kill me now. I want to relive that again.

But before this was all sat down very elegantly before me — my eyes all this while are eagerly following every gradual fated movement of that plate’s advancement towards the space directly in front of me — one of me poached eggs decided to make a run for it before it got devoured without a care for finesse. Not so much a run, more like a suicidal backflip. But a poor attempt at that.

It went … flop, SPLAT –…–squelch…a puncture somewhere; yolk bleeding. A pool of runny yellowy orange yolk gets bigger and bigger with each millisecond that passes. ABSOLUTE SILENCE. Shock on one end, amusement on the other. The pool of warm yolk is getting to the size of my palm now and threatens to make its way close to my glass of ice water. I’m willing someone to move or say something. I think I see a bit of billowy egg white shudder. THERE’S A CRIME SCENE ON MY TABLE. Somebody do sumfing! Finally, the waitress moves. She apologises. Someone else comes to clean it up. Too late. By then, my whole table’s quaking with giggles all around and I’m doubled over, howling with laughter and grabbing my sides to stop the stitches. I’ve laughed so hard tears have actually sprung into my eyes. Hilarious! Laughter’s so infectious at this point, even the willowy dude cleaning up that murdered mess of egg can’t stop a grin from forming. Accident #1.

A fresh plate of eggs benedict arrive soon after. We wonder if both eggs got replaced or merely one. That thought doesn’t even last a second as I move in onto my plate and gently pierce the fattest part of poached egg with the tip of my knife. Like a surgeon I carefully make a small incision, then move the knife around to spread the waterfall of yoke that floods all of the bacon beneath it. The sourdough slowly soaks up the thick orange yoke. I can’t help thinking, at this point, that the act of eating a poached egg is quite so sensual; I am glad it requires an undivided attention that my focus doesn’t deviate away to check if anyone is observing me. I would not have been able to stop a blush otherwise.

Across the table, the same thing’s happening with a plate of eggs royale: the make-up of which is pretty much the same except for a substitution of bacon and tomatoes for smoked salmon, avocado and sour cream, all with a side of rocket and asparagus salad. The smoked salmon is soft, creamy and lightly smoked. A mouthful of the eggs royale (although this wasn’t my plate) I could imagine would’ve been flavourful, richly enveloped in runny yoke and reinforced with a comfortingly fluffy bite of brown sourdough. Gorgeous.

Next to me, a boy with a hearty appetite and naturally of good cheer is tucking into a plate of golden hued brioche french toast with smoked bacon, grilled bananas, strawberries and maple syrup. It smells amazing from where I’m sat, buttery, sweet and savoury with that scent of strawberries lightly hanging in the air. I want a bite of that. And I do get offered one. The brioche is so tall and nicely browned, buttered and yes, soaked with maple syrup. The bananas look gloriously caramelised although that still doesn’t convince me to like bananas. The whole dish is a plate of fireworks, its beauty is intense – the colours implore you to take a bite and he seems utterly in his own world when he tucks into it. Oh yea, he washed down this handsome breakfast with a tall glass of peanut butter & jelly smoothie…yea, you heard me right – PBJ smoothie. Intense.

Really intense.

The plates are getting cleared as I slurp up the last bits of my iced cappuccino and it appears the disaster magnet I have somewhere in my aura is still going strong. The same willowly dude picks up my plate which is pretty much wiped clean save some strands of rocket. And like a strong force of attraction between myself and anti-rust metals, the knife comes sliding off it. I could see it just aiming for my lap and my hands were too busy rubbing my food baby so I was just about to surrender my black trousers to grease and hollandaise, when this fine young man with a deft flick of a wrist caught that knife and saved me from Accident #2. What a load of drama, and all for poached eggs.

It’s like it was the damn Rape of the Lock going on or sumfing like that today. Anyhow.

We gotta go back for seconds, and dessert. There’s yet more to be explored.

Considering that I blogged about this place two posts ago and here we are again really says something about this place called Strictly Pancakes. It’s good. I think about it a lot. I don’t hafta wait til Shrove Tuesday – or days of staring at eggs, milk, flour and a buttered hot pan willing it to just work by a twitch of a bewitched nose – to have pancakes.

The first pancake café in Singapore. It’s got me hooked. And it’s so legit I nearly cried when I ate my stack of pancakes.

I sat through 3 hours of class today grumpy as shite because I was hungry and deprived of viable options of food. It came to the sorry point that I made a (disturbing) passing comment to a girlfriend of mine, ‘I’m so hungry right now I could sink my teeth into your shoulder blade.’ She was wearing a bareback top. She now thinks I’m weird beyond weird. But that’s fine. We went halves over a plate of pancakes and I think we’re still the coolest pals as gal pals can be. We all find reasons to be amiable with each other in this world, now don’t we? If it involves food, I suppose. Let’s just all try to accept this fact of life and live with each others’ idiosyncrasies.

I’m so glad that pancakes don’t take a million years to whip up so food gets put on your table fairly quick. Three baskets of mysteriously spiced and seasoned chips glide onto the table. Then six cups of iced tap water. A bout of thumb twiddling, of utterly awkward silence and staring at mobile phones willing someone to beep or ring you so as to give you something to do to fill this ridiculously useless and unwelcome period of waiting. ‘Hi I am hungry and waiting for my food and I don’t want to do anything else like talk stupid when I just want to wait for my food.’ Other tables are noisily clanking their knives and forks, cutting up fluffy clouds of pancakes heavily and indecently doused with maple syrup, participating in unimportant sometimes polite chatter between mouthfuls of deliciousness, every bit of movement and noise pisses me off. I am HANGRY. Gimme food!

Then the sound of footsteps, and ka-ching ka-ching. It’s flipping pancake jackpot. I’ve never seen a more beautiful plate of pancakes. Mine don’t even come close, possibly because I never make chocolate pancakes. It’s almost unmentionable in my house. Pancakes must be pancakes, white and fluffy, uncorrupted by what we know as cocoa powder. Oh bugger that. These were glorious. Chocolate sauce, dripping custard, dusting of icing sugar, mini chocolate chips and wet juicy pneumatic and squidgy brandied dark cherries. Hello beautiful, come to Mama! The glorious Blackforest stack. I finally got to have a taste of this notorious babies. But what a shame that Strictly Pancakes had a bad day with their freezer and so, NO ICE CREAM. 20% off though. Yea okay. I’m easy like that.

Across the table, a friend was tucking into Lemon Curd for Nerds which looked suspiciously similar to our Blackforest stack minus a few key ingredients. Chocolate pancakes + lemon curd which resembled, in aesthetics and taste, wet custard but was delicious nonetheless. Would’ve liked the lemon curd to be a little more tart and lemony but figured it might not have worked too well with pancakes that generously rich in chocolate!

I’d love to share what the others ate but I was so busy inhaling my half of the Blackforest (I don’t think I looked up from my plate, okay maybe twice just to check the progress of others around me) I didn’t give two flying fish about getting clicks of their pancakes. But if you wanted to know what they ordered, you can check back to the first post of this café here.

What a great close to the week. The goblin in my stomach is appeased. Until the next food adventures, peace.

TGIF.

Vampires like cool, dark sun-forsaken places. So do I. But dark shadowy areas can sometimes be such a bore (without the right props); this one isn’t. KHA, tucked away in Martin Road No. 38, is a very cleverly lit space. It’s sheltered from the scorching sun, with a basement feel about it. Its shadowy interiors and dark wooden furniture are brought to life, contrasted with beautiful conversation pieces and enamel vases. The only windows in this restaurant provides a view of bamboo plants and nothing else, locking out the rest of the world and leaving you only a tranquility and quiet restfulness. Something about the textures of Kha’s interior makes you feel like you’ve been instantly transported to a fancy schmanshy restaurant of a private resort and yet as welcome and at home as you would be in the living room of a close friend. I really appreciated the menus which were printed as an archived Thai newspaper on browned paper. The design, typography and uniqueness of such an idea surely wasn’t lost on me.

And of course, neither was the food – which was beautiful, immaculate, an exotic explosion of colours and flavours, a real spectacular display of Thai cuisine. It helped that the inviting interiors of Kha were cloaked in a seductive shadow creating a romantic candlelight ambience whilst the plates on your table were slyly shone a spotlight from the snazzy lights above. The food took centrestage really, and everything else appeared but an effortless afterthought. It was a thoroughly delicious and satisfying meal, which left me a little breathless but dessert picked me right up and obviously hit the g-spot well and good. Instantly, I had favourites. The tom yum soup was just gorgeous and extremely comforting for me (I wasn’t feeling that up to scratch in fact I felt as though I was on the verge of destruction with only myself to blame); the prawn & crab cakes were light, refreshing, citrusy and had a lovely crunch against the melting softness of its insides; the desserts were to-die-for and prettily presented (and flavoured – I mean there were FLOWERS in the red ruby). Even the regular mineral still water was delicately flavoured with lemongrass. That’s beaute, dedication and everything which makes a real foodist’s heart flutter!

But lemme really talk about the food (with pictures to show for it).

I was sipping a watermelon juice quite happily waiting for the real queen of drinks to turn up – the pomegranate mocktail – known quite glamorously by the name Ruby Starlet (now you mustn’t mind that it has a real burlesque dancer feel to it). This is Kha’s maroony red signature mocktail with pomegranate, fresh mint leaves, lychee juice and fresh lime juice. It’s a little on the sweet side, but if you’ve a sweet tooth then you’re sorted. Thoroughly refreshing.

Then came the appetizers, hefty, delicious and a force to be reckoned with.

Appetizers

Papa Adun’s Phad Tow Hu – a crispy fried tofu with crispy basil and three flavoured sauce. Light and creamy tofu encased in a paper thin crispy crust which had a sweet savoury flavour quite similar to that of Indonesian fried chicken.

Tod Man Poo – Thai Crab & Prawn Cakes served with green mango salad, yoghurt and sweet chili. This was a real favourite of mine since crab cakes are something I really adore and it was interesting to taste a Thai rendition of this classic. The sweet chili went really well with the smooth sweet taste of crab and prawn. Nice touch on the yoghurt as I’m not a fan of mayonnaise which restaurants so love to pair with crab cakes.

Yam Nua Wagyu – grilled red curry rubbed wagyu beef with papaya salad, yoghurt & chili jam. Like red curry? You’ll love this which goes terribly well with the richness of the wagyu. So tender the whole thing just melts in your mouth once you bite into it. They’re extremely generous with the yoghurt and chili jam here but it isn’t too spicy. The jam would go so well in a salad or just on a cracker.

Crispy Whole Green Chili stuffed with Pork & Herbs with Malibu Chili Soy, Tom Yum, Honey Mustard dipping sauces – In all honesty, I was a real pussy with this one. My reaction when the plate was placed before us, ‘Oh, I don’t eat chilis really and definitely not whole green ones.’ My fear was for naught. The chili seeds have been removed and replaced with a fragrant herbed pork. The chefs obviously do a little surgery thingy on the chilis, seal ‘em back up and then deep fry them in a deliciously flavoured batter. Light like tempura. The three dipping sauces were quite something and so very creative. I liked the tom yum dip. The Malibu chili soy had a real impact in every sense of the word. Careful, it’s bleedin’ hot, like a lady in a red dress.

Tom Yum Goong – soup is always comforting but even within the world of soups there is a hierarchy with my mumma’s herbal soups being at the top, carrot coriander and anything with churned butternut coming way close at second, homemade miso varieties at third, kimchi jjigae kinda tied actually, fish steamboat soups or hotpots coming close after…I mean there’s lots. And of course Vietnamese pho broth. And then I forget that somewhere out there, a tom yum soup is demanding to be acknowledged. I acknowledged, and bowed down. This is one humbling experience. A cacophony of flavours all captured within a bowl – sweet, savoury, citrusy, spicy, sour, taste of the sea, zing of lemongrass. There’s so much going on in here with different bits shrieking for attention, shouting and pulling at your tastebuds but at the same time the warmth and spice of the soup tugs at my heartstrings and breathes life (or fire) into the hearth of my chest. It wouldn’t go away even after I was done with this soup, like a clingy girlfriend or a burning tattoo freshly inked onto tender skin. Yea. It was soooo sick I wanted more.

Main Courses

Gaem Sam Yang – 3 Signature Curries: Penang Beef Curry, Green Chicken Curry, Red Vegetable Curry – The penang beef curry was quite chicly presented. Red vegetable curry very rich and creamy but maybe not so much my kind of thing. The Thai Green Curry? Winner. Enough said.

Red Vegetable Curry

Green Thai Chicken

Penang Beef Curry

Pha Yang Bai Tong – Chargrilled Seabass with Lemongrass in Banana Leaf and Dill Chili Sauce This was a real stunning dish. Maybe it’s cause my poppa loves fish and I am a pescetarian myself but this was really good and had the soft flake-away melt-in-your-mouth texture as steamed fish dishes normally do (and this wasn’t even steamed!). The lemongrass marinade on the fish skin was a nice touch although I couldn’t quite grab any banana leaf fragrance from this. Nonetheless, the dill chili dip was amazing in a violent way. Think wasabi. Wasabi’s perfect with raw fish. Dill is perfect with fish, whichever way. So really…this is >> Genius, fiery and so unexpected. (If you’re thinking of a steamed seabass with Thai flavours quite similar to this, Westlake Restaurant does a pretty snazzy one too)

Pad Thai Noodles – Delicious of course (tasted similar to mee goreng noodles) but not quite what I was expecting. This was a little too sweet for my liking not that it was bad at all but not the pad thai I have usually eaten at other restaurants. But to be fair, I’ve never had pad thai in Singapore so this was fun.

Desserts

Thap Thim Krwap aka Red Ruby – red rubies, coconut jasmine syrup, shaved ice and real jasmine flowers to boot (don’t eat them though!). A childhood favourite of mine because I used to think I was eating real rubies but they’re red coloured starch-covered bits of water chestnuts.

Khao Neaw Ma Muang – Mango with Sticky Rice and Pandan Coconut Cream A Thai favourite and classic, jazzed up with a minty green coloured pandan flavoured coconut cream. Love that coconut cream has a vanilla-y, almost savoury flavour and gives this dish real depth. Hmm, rephrase? Yea, coconut cream can expand your horizons people. Take that.

Sang Kha Ya Pug Thong – Pumpkin Custard with Coconut Ice Cream, shredded apples & strawberries and mango purée Blew.me.away. Really. I wasn’t expecting this pumpkin funny-looking thing to taste so good and rich like a cake, yet pretty light and wobbly in the mouth. Press a bite of it gently between tongue and roof of your mouth and all sorts of wonderful begin. The coconut ice cream impressed my dining partner. It was true to its taste, kinda like a real coconut bashed up into an ice cream maker with lots of coconut milk, a bit of sugar and nothing else. Nice. Simple, raw, uncomplicated food. In a sense. I really liked what I saw (and ate) on this plate.

So, after all that I was nearly reaching a state of food coma. Had to have tea to wash it all down and soothe a rapidly expanding stomach. This helped: Lemongrass Tea from Gryphon Teas. Fragrant and soothing, and it certainly helped bring on a wave of sleepiness.

Meal concluded. I was such a satisfied fat cat. All I wanted to do was lie down to die.

Anyway, remember I was banging on about the ambience and light in Kha? Well that’s not the only clever thing about Kha (and its food), its space is inspired by the industrial warehouse lofts in the big NYC and the big smoke (London) and it kinda does feel like that judging from my repertoire of warehouse partays (Shhh.A lot more civilised, sophisticated and less grunge and grimey of course). What’s more awesome, however, is that Kha is just a humble child of boisterous triplets – No. 38 Martin Road is where a 3-in-1 dining concept has been born. Here, you’ll find Kha, Provisions (all decked out with royal blue Smeg fridges and gourmet food for takeaway) and Graze which is apparently the shiz for brunches housed in the same block. Kha’s siblings interestingly are well-lit and decked out in lots of white walls and furniture. Bright, cheerful yet cheekily rustic. I’ll be visiting soon – the two chirpy siblings and the black sheep of the lot.

Curious? And curioser? Go check it out yourself.

Kha
No. 38 Martin Road
Singapore 239059
Tel. 6476 9000
Web. http://www.kha.sg