NTU Breakfast Set Showdown!

I consider myself a permanent resident of Nanyang Tech University (NTU), having spent a considerable amount of time residing and studying there. NTU may seem cut off and isolated from the outside world, but thankfully there are several canteens and cafes dotted around the campus to feed the hungry student population.

Breakfast is an important meal to start the day right, and definitely an important meal before our daily routines begin (COFFEEEEEEE!). Most NTU canteens serve the usual Singapore style kaya toast, hard boiled egg and coffee sets at really student friendly prices. You should be able to purchase such a breakfast set for under $2! So here is a list of canteen breakfasts I have tried several times so far in the year:

Canteen 9- CHOICE!

You get to choose different variations of toast and coffee breakfast sets here- the options are clearly stated on their menu banner above the stall. I just went for the usual traditional set with bread, two eggs and coffee- Set A I think ($1.80). The auntie behind the counter will ask how you want your eggs done (semi runny or hard boiled), which is nice because other stalls don't usually bother to ask. The eggs came out as requested- semi runny just the way I liked it. The bread were those thin crispy wafer kind of toasted bread similar to Ya Kun, with some kaya spread inside. The bread here is toasted over those open grill so it's as traditional as it gets. And they serve 3 pieces (Even more bang per buck for students!) The bread may come off a bit like a cookie, and it's really a matter of whether you love it or hate the texture. The coffee was really good here, aromatic, full bodied traditional coffee served in a rather retro koi print ceramic cup.

Canteen 11- Kaya Spread!

I've patronised this stall a couple of times and found that the auntie's mood fluctuates with the crowd; the longer the queue, the more curt her replies become. She becomes more cheerier when there are less people or there happens to be a really handsome guy waiting in line. The eggs here are not consistent- sometimes they are over boiled, sometimes they come out runny just the way I like it. I was later told that you can actually request for how you want your eggs done, just tell the auntie. I ordered iced milk tea to replace the usual cup of coffee for an additional 30 cents, but the coffee here is decent nonetheless. The bread served here is the regular toasted bread, but this stall probably serves out the best kaya spread- they use the nonya honey kaya kind and they don't scrimp on it. This is probably the highlight of this $1.80 toast set. Look out for their special scrambled eggs sets which is served like a western breakfast set if you want something different.

Canteen 13- Hard Boiled Eggs

I was a little disappointed when I cracked open the eggs and found that the egg whites refused to flow out- they have been cooked for too long already. Like Canteen 11, I'm guessing you need to request for semi cooked eggs if not the default option is completely cooked. The bread served here is also the traditional toasted brown bread kind with its nice crispy texture. Wished they were more generous with the kaya spread though. Coffee was pretty strong, served in a nice traditional cup too! This breakfast set also costs an affordable $1.80!

NIE Canteen- Not the best coffee...

Runny eggs are the default options here, and so far I didn't need to request for my eggs to be less well done and they usually turn out the way I like them! The bread served here is the regular toasted crispy white bread kind and yes, they could also be less stingy with the kaya. The coffee is served in an army style red plastic mug but unfortuately is a let down; it is a little too diluted although it does have some coffee flavour infused into it. I guess you shouldn't expect too much from a $1.80 set meal. 

Kuishin Bo (Suntec City Mall)

Popped by Kuishin Bo to get our Japanese dinner buffet fix! Judging by the long queues outside the restaurant, people still can’t enough of Kuishin Bo and their glorious food spread. It is also best to reserve beforehand, so you can be directed to your seat once you arrive and start chomping down on the food provided. There is a whole range of Japanese food to choose from: sushi, sashimi, seafood, tempura, teppanyaki, noodles and desserts!

The sushi/sashimi counter is probably the busiest counter, where people snatch up prized slices of salmon, tuna and grab the different variations of sushi available. The sashimi are replenished frequently and are quite fresh. The sushi selection includes standard rolls with various fish, unagi, egg and are quite decent.

Perhaps the highlight of the buffet is the abundance of Hokkaido snow crab legs available for consumption. The freshes, juiciest and meatiest parts of crab legs and claws are stacked in rows, and many diners just cannot get enough of them. Kuishin Bo provides the necessary utensils (scissors, crab crackers) for diners to deshell the crab; each table gets a set but you can request for more. I helped myself to multiple servings of Hokkaido snow crab, savouring the fresh, succulent crab meat. Cholesterol levels be damned, for just one night.

There is a variety of hot cooked food to choose from, we sampled the teppanyaki items which were not bad at all. You place your order for barbecued meat, vegetables at the teppanyaki counter and it will be served to your table. Besides the usual hot cooked food (rice, meat, vegetables), they also serve Japanese style dishes like udon and hotpot. You can choose between seafood, beef, mushroom ingredients for your hotpot but do not expect too much, the soup was decent but there wasn’t much ingredients in the actual hotpot.



And for desserts, there is also a large variety of cakes, cream puffs to choose from. There is coffee machine where you can make yourself a cup of coffee or tea to go with the delectable desserts. Don’t forget about the chocolate fondue too! The place can get quite messy with chocolate stains all over the counter, so be careful.

Every kuishin bo experience is not complete without the sounding of their signature jingle song: “Dong Dong Dong, Kuishin Bo”. That signals the arrival of a special limited food item and like Pavlov dogs to ringing bells, people stop what they’re doing/eating, get out of their seats and rush to the main buffet counter where they are giving out their special food item. The first time the bell rang during our stay, we got a small frozen fresh strawberry.

The second time, we got this puff cake which was filled with bean filling which wasn’t too appetizing. We heard the special items can get exotic sometimes, but so far for our visit, we weren’t impressed. But I guess the element of mystery and surprise definitely works up people’s appetite!

Also there is this ongoing lobster promotion: if you reserve beforehand for dinner at this outlet, each diner will be entitled to an additional free serving of lobster. We were treated to a lobster dish drenched in dark teriyaki sauce. The lobster was decently fresh; we had no trouble prying the lobster meat from its shell, and the fragrant teriyaki flavor actually went well with the thick succulent lobster meat.

I would visit kuishin bo for their free flow fresh seafood, the other items are quite average, but if you are itching to try a variety of food and are not afraid of piling up the calories, this place is for you!

Hong Kong Mongkok Tim Sum @ Chinatown Complex Market

Located on the second floor in Chinatown Complex Market, this humble dim sum hawker stall whips out decent and fresh dim sum at affordable prices. If you are expecting hotel or restaurant quality dim sum from a hawker centre joint, you might be disappointed. But since the prices charged at the stall are much less than those places, so naturally expectations should be lowered too. But that doesn’t mean freshness and quality is compromised here.

There is a ready stream of customers at this stall and a queue system is implemented to cater to customers. So when you arrive here, you should get a queue number first then wait patiently for your number to flash on the electronic board before proceeding to place your orders. The wait depends on how many people are in front of the queue and also depends on how fast the stall is able to churn out dim sum to meet the orders. Dim sum is freshly made and sold on the day and the stall closes once they have run out of dim sum. I waited about 25 minutes and explored the other stalls in the meantime.

There actually isn’t much food choice from this stall: the 6 main dim sum dishes served are shown on the signboard on the store’s front (Char siew bao, siew mai, har gow, chicken feet, prawn and char siew chee cheong fun). Each dim sum item costs $2 and it’s really cheap and good! All dim sum is also freshly taken from the steamer, so they are served piping hot!

Char Siew Bao ($2 for 3 pieces) is incredibly fluffy and soft when it’s warm. Not like those hard, dense overly sticky buns you might get elsewhere. The fillings are a nice surprise- the char siew filling is really fragrant and juicy. The char siew meat had been diced into smaller pieces and you can taste the roasted meat which complements the nice sweet red marinade sauce.

Siew Mai and Har Gow ($2 for 3 pieces of each kind): Siew Mai was not bad- each bite is filled with chunky pieces of fresh, succulent pork. The har gow is also fantastic- the prawn pieces inside were really fresh and crunchy. The outer skin was neither too thin nor too thick; just enough to encase the prawn fillings and complement the prawn fillings.

Prawn cheong fun ($2) was really tasty too- the rice noodle roll was really smooth and each roll contained generous portions of chopped chunky fresh prawns. The soya sauce provided the main bulk of flavouring for the dish and it really enhances the dish with its salty, sweet combination of flavours.

Although you might have to brave the queue and the stuffy atmosphere of the food centre, this is nonetheless a great place for your fix of affordable dim sum! Do note they close on Mondays and Tuesdays.

Hong Kong Mongkok Tim Sum

335 Smith Street, #02-097 Chinatown Complex Market

Eat @ Taipei, JCube

An important thing to note about this eatery- it is located right next to the ice skating rink and gusts of cold air will naturally sweep into the eatery. I was not aware of this the first time I visited and as we were seated near the rink, I felt really cold throughout my meal. The next time I visit, I will come prepared with a jacket. I suspect people who are more heat averse will enjoy the additional air conditioning boost.

The colourful signboards bear the name of this eatery and the wooden tables and chairs in this place tries to replicate the night market scene in Taipei. The Taipei subway map is laminated onto the tables and the menus provided nice descriptions about the origins of street food served in here.



There were unfortunately some hits and misses during our visit here. Since I was filling really cold, I decided I needed to have a nice hot dish to warm me up. So I ordered their Vermicelli with Oysters and Pigs Intestines ($6.90).

This was unfortunately a let down. Visually, it didn’t look as appealing as the menu picture they showed. While the mee sua was soft and slurp worthy, the sauce didn’t really match up. Unfortunately, the sauce was a little too watery and was too salty. The pig intestines were fresh and chewy, but I was only able to scoop up only a few pieces in my dish. Perhaps this particular dish is a little overpriced, and I might be able to get something of similar quality (or even better) at the Shilin snack stores.

We also had Sweet Potato Fries ($3.90), a dish I actually enjoyed eating. Sweet potatoes lend themselves a nice sweet, starchy flavor which surprisingly tastes really good when cut and fried into western fries. The outer layer is fried to a nice, crispy golden orangey hue, but retains a soft chewy texture inside. This dish comes with an intriguing sour plum powder dip, which surprisingly enhances the flavor of the sweet potato fries!

Eat @ Taipei, JCube, #03-03/18

Hoshino Coffee (星乃珈琲店) @ Plaza Singapura

You will not miss Hoshino Coffee, it's located on the third floor in Plaza Sing's swanky new extension. There is this really eye catching display of their food items at the entrance that draws potential customers in.



The decor is very similar to the Shibuya outlet I went to. Lots of wood, warm lighting and even the furniture- the red leather seats and wooden tables are similar. (Even the coffee cups are the same!) I guess it's their trademark image and it's all faithfully replicated here in Singapore's first outlet.

I believe this coffee joint is well known for their hand drip coffee and their fluffly pancake souffles. First off, I had a hot cup of Hoshino Blended Coffee ($5.80)



They claim that their coffee beans are specially selected and their coffee are specially "hand-dripped". First off, this coffee blend is tailored to Asian tastes, so it's less acidic/sour than western coffee but nonetheless, pretty potent in the caffeine department. It's a really aromatic blend and it provides some very intriguing lingering aftertaste. Some may compare this cup to their usual kopitiam coffee and wonder if it's overpriced. Well, many people actually pay a lot for their starbucks coffee. Also, I realised the coffee is actually much cheaper here compared to the cup I had in Shibuya (about SGD9 there!). It's of the exact same portion, same cup, I think it tastes similar but memory fails me here. And you can get a second refill for 50% off here! So whether you are willing to pay $5.80 for a cup of premium coffee, well it's really subjective. They also serve a variety of tea (their matcha teas look really good but be prepared to pay more!)



This is Hoshino Spaghetti ($14) and it actually looks very impressive and big at first sight. It is served al dente with a curious mix of ingredients: eggplant, bacon, shimeji mushroom, sausages, tomatoes and ONSEN EGG, sprinkled with copious amounts of sesame. Well yes, the portion is generous and there is a nice mix of fresh ingredients, but no offence I think this could be the pasta I will make with my dinner leftovers from last night, except perhaps I won't be able to make that perfect onsen egg. It still makes a wonderful and tasty dish, but I might want to try something else the next time.

For dessert, I decided not to go with their souffle pancakes; I decided it is more worth it to eat with friends, since a double serving costs $12, compared to $9.80 for a single piece. BTW, there pancakes souffle style and pot-baked souffle are freshly baked on the spot and will take about 20 minutes to be served. So I ordered their tantalizing looking Matcha Souffle ($9.80):



It was served fresh from the oven, and was still warm when I sunk my spoon into it. The top had a nicely burnt crispy brown layer. Venture further into the core of the souffle and you will find a rich, soft matcha custard oozing out. This dessert isn't overly sweet and there were hints of matcha flavour, which I would have preferred to be stronger. The insides were a bit like molten egg custard, and it really goes well with their coffee. For a moment, I was tempted to get a coffee refill.



Service wise, it is clear they are severely understaffed. I visited on a weekday evening just slightly before dinnertime. There were only 3 waiters to handle the entire dinnertime crowd, and the kitchen became noticeably slower. The food items took some time to churn out the mains and desserts and I noticed many diners had to wait. But it's their first week here in Singapore, and I guess they will iron out these problems in future. I will be coming back for pancakes the next time!

(UPDATE)

So I went down to Hoshino Coffee a second time with a friend to try their Souffle style pancakes. As mentioned earlier, one pancake costs $9.80 while two pancakes cost $12. Not sure why they priced it this way, but it's definitely more bang per buck to get two pancakes!



You will need to wait at least 15 mins for this dish to be served, because it's freshly made on the spot. The pancakes are really fat and thick! They are also immensely enjoyable, since the insides are really fluffy but the outside edges are baked to a nice crispy golden brown. You can choose to have your pancakes served with maple syrup, honey or brown sugar syrup. I had maple syrup and found the pancakes especially the fluffy, cake-like insides easily soak up the maple syrup and goes really well with it!

Hoshino Coffee, Plaza Singapura, #03-84, Singapore

Itacho Sushi @ JCube

The Itacho Sushi outlet at JCube is currently having a happy hour sushi promotion for the month of November. Between 2.30-5.30pm and after 9pm, diners are entitled to purchase selected sushi in their happy hour menu for just $0.80. Yes you heard me right, EIGHTY CENTS!

So I popped by one Friday afternoon to have some late sushi lunch. I was actually surprised that there weren't many people enjoying this special offer, the restaurant was relatively empty and I could enjoy my food in peace. Perhaps not many people are aware of this promo. So after some careful rationalizing (I had to restrain myself from writing the entire sushi menu into the order slips), here was what I ordered:

• 1x Salmon Sushi


• 2x Roasted Blue Fin Tuna with Soy Sauce


• 1x Smoked Duck Roll


• 1x Avocado Tuna Cheese Roll


• 1x Green Roll


• 1x Grilled Pork Sushi


• 1x Salmon Lobster Roll (which costs $3.30)

The bill came up to $10.85 including GST and service charge. It would have been much cheaper if I could resist ordering the $3.30 salmon roll, but anyway, if you purchased above $10 you will be entitled to free flow green tea.

The happy hour menu depicted each sushi item with nice colourful garnishing and long, thick slices of fresh fresh atop Japanese rice. I'm happy to report that the actual thing, matched quite closely to their pictorial representations. Considering that they are serving eighty cents sushi, I would have thought they would be stingy on the fish slices and serve small portions in general. I would say the sushi is decent, but it is quite obvious they reserve the fresher, more luscious and fatty slices of fish for their regular menu. The salmon sushi was decent but really paled in comparison to the salmon roll. But then again, if you want EIGHTY CENTS sushi, you need to trade off a little quality. At least the sushi was not stale or unacceptably inferior.

So if you need to satisfy your sushi cravings and are on a tight budget, add this place to your list!

Selfish Gene Cafe

Walk along Craig Road and you might actually miss this cafe. Located at number 40, it's the last grey coloured shophouse at the quiet end of the road. We visited on a Sunday afternoon and although it was deceptively calm and quiet on the outside, the cafe was actually almost packed to the brim inside.

At the door, you will be greeted by this vintage converted sewing machine, where you help yourself to the menu, water and find a table (if any).



Generally, the cafe is really warm and cosy, but since it was a full house Sunday, noise gets trapped inside the boxy shophouse. Don't expect a quiet sunday brunch here. But surely there's a reason why people flock like bees to honey to this place right? Apparently, Gene (the cafe's owner) is selfish because he will not serve food that he would not eat (hence the cafe name, get it?). Perhaps this is a strong signal that the food has gotta be DECENT and people really like quality food whipped out here.



So you place your counter located inside the cafe and they give these cute yellow paper cups containing your number, receipt and change. A really nice idea to cut down waiting time (for payment that is)

I had the B.O.B. ($15.80) all day breakfast set, which is only available on weekends.



Not sure why it's called BOB (reminds me of a certain singer), but this is a delightful dish served with perfect runny poached eggs slapped atop Norwegian smoked salmon, creme fraiche and multigrain bread. I really enjoyed this dish; the salmon wasn't overly salty and I was quite content munching on the yolk soaked salmon and bread combi. The salad is served with tangy lemon vinaigrette dressing, which really completes the meal.

For other scrambled egg lovers/ deluxe breakfast set lovers, do try their Breakfast Plate ($15.80), which has a little of everything: eggs, sausage, ham, mushrooms, tomato, brioche:



I had a cuppa Chai latte ($5) to go with my breakkie set. I would have preferred a slightly more spicy version of it, but for those who like their milky chai latte teas, you will probably get a nice balance in this cup.

AND FOR DESSERTSSSSS;



You have to try the Banana cake ($5.80) here. Each bite is chock full of banana flavour, it's really not something you can get elsewhere, unless you blend a sack of bananas and bake your own. It has a nice warm and extremely moist texture and it goes so well with their crumble and peanut butter sauce topping. The only downside? It's really really small. If not for my lunch partners, I could have popped the entire loaf in one mouth.



The other dessert item we had was the Lemon Tart ($5.80) also only available on weekends. The lemon curd inside was really well balanced- not overwhelmingly one sided sweet or sour, but a really nice refreshing balance of both. The slightly italian meringue went really well with the lemon curd tart and again, the dessert is unfortunately really small. (Photo was zoomed in!)

We came to the conclusion that Gene is indeed really selfish, for only serving certain good stuff on weekends and also shrinking their desserts to nano-bite size. But for small eaters and people cannot resist the allure of desserts (and their associated calories), the mini desserts and a nice cup of coffee/tea is something you would want to grab at this cafe. Plus, the small dessert size really forces you to take small bites and slowly savour the every bit of goodness.

Marriott Cafe High Tea Buffet

Have you ever wondered how the interiors of the Marriott Cafe is like, especially when you walk pass the junction between Tangs and Scotts Plaza?

Well, we finally had the chance to, when we snapped up Marriott Cafe Tea time buffet vouchers from Deal.com.sg (U.P. $50++ per person).

The buffet specialty spread changes day to day- we went down on a Thursday- which was Sashimi Day, where they serve a variety of thick, fresh slices of raw fish. And like any typical SGrean buffet, the salmon sashimi slices always vanish from the serving plates very quickly.

There is a strong local food focus in the buffet as evident in the wide selection of local dishes served. There is a Chicken Rice station complete with both steamed and roasted chicken and fragrant rice. There is also a rojak station where you DIY create your own rojak with your desired ingredients and sauces. There's otah, satay, dim sum, Taiwanese porridge. I wouldn't load up on carbs in buffet, but I must really commend the nice Taiwanese porridge side dishes like the flavourful braised duck, pork and fluffy oyster omelette, which are definite must haves (with or without the porridge).

For the health conscious- there is a really impressively stocked salad bar and the more ang moh pais will appreciate the bread/baguette station.





Most food items are served in chi chi Le Cruesset cookware, and you will be surprised by how many tai tais lounge around the cafe, whiling the afternoon away over coffee and cakes.



Perhaps the wide selection of cakes, pastries and freshly brewed coffee is a good reason to just sit around the cafe and catch up with the latest gossips with friends. The cakes were okay, but the chocolate puffs weren't very appetizing.

For those who need their sugar rush:



I was pleasant surprised by the ridiculously well stocked ice cream bar. The jars contain every conceivable ice cream topping you can have. Like a sugar deprived child in a candy shop, I grabbed every ice cream flavour with a little of all the toppings available- rainbow bits, gummy bears, jelly beans, M&Ms, nuts, cranberries... sprayed with lots of chocolate fudge sauce. I initially thought the ice cream served were gelato (especially since they dressed the flavours with extra garnishing), but it tasted like normal ice cream from the tub., but with the extensive toppings, I'm not complaining. Don't come near this station if you're on a diet.



Did I also mention about the free flow soft drinks and fruit juices you can request when you visit? Service is really good, as expected from a five star hotel and staff are really prompt and friendly.

Bake A Singapore!

Bake a Singapore was a National Day community event held on 4 Aug 2012, Serangoon CC organized by PAYM. Together with their partners and volunteers, the team aimed to create a whopping 5m x 8m Singapore flag mosaic made entirely out of cookies!

This was their progress at 5pm. Almost done and by 7.30pm when the flag was finally completed, it would take the coveted title of the World's Largest Flag Mosaic in Guinness Records.

Guess how many cookies were needed? 22,500. Every cookie was painstakingly baked by hand a day before the event, even the organizers' hands and clothes were visibly stained by the red dye used in the baking process. So the red cookies were coated with red icing, while the white cookies were coated with white chocolate!

Five stars arising! (Crescent is coming up soon!)

While the volunteers neatly put every cookie in place, people were welcomed to take a look at the progress of the cookie flag formation and were treated to Free Ben&Jerrys, balloon sculptures for kids, and even manicures in red and white.

I was highly impressed by the team's commitment and tenacity to pull off such a huge scale cookie bake-off. Isn't this a great way to show your love for SG?



Thanks Sandy for the invite!

Putien @ City Square Mall

Decided to have Dad's birthday lunch at Pu Tien, City Square Mall above Farrer Park MRT. BTW City Square Mall also offers free weekday lunch time parking with every $50 spent.

We noticed Putien was still serving their Summer Menu dishes (enjoy 10% off these dishes if you pay with any DBS/POSB cards, till 31 July 2012) and we decided to give some of them a try.

This is PUTIEN pork ribs ($5.90) from the Summer Menu. The menu was a little misleading because in the menu they showed a picture of 3 pork ribs on the dish and we assumed that we would also be given 3 pork ribs in one serving, but that was too good to be true- you only get ONE pork rib paired with a slice of chinese yam for $5.90. We were told a fresh batch of  pork ribs just arrived at the restaurant they day we visited and we were fortunate to savour the ribs at its best. True enough, the pork rib was sweet and tender. I'm personally not very sure how the pairing of yam with pork enhanced the dish, the pork rib is good alone I guess.

Also in the Summer menu is this Lychee Mango Pudding ($4.90) which is billed as a "cool, light refreshing dessert" perfect for summertime. It is essentially a smooth mango pudding enhanced with a little lychee flavouring and garnished with mango and strawberry fruit bits. I was personally not too impressed with this, it tasted like normal mango pudding to me.

Whenever I'm at Putien, I will not miss these fantastic starter dishes on their a la carte menu:

The Stir Fried Yam ($10.90) is almost like deep fried yam with an almost crispy, caramelized exterior containing a nice soft chewy yam interior. The outer skin of each yam piece is fried to a nice golden brown, and it is glazed with a very addictive layer of sweet sauce/honey? which gives each yam piece a nice irresistible sweet, savory taste. The dish is also garnished with slices of onions and spring onions which pairs well with the yam pieces you're chomping down.

Another personal favourite, this is the PUTIEN style century egg ($5.90). Soft, bouncy century egg pieces are covered in a layer of crispy flour layer coating which are dunked in a special savoury sauce. Century egg lovers should not miss this!

While you're at PUTIEN restaurant, you will not miss their special chili sauce on your table, contained in this attractive "Spice Mum" container. It's a bit like hokkien mee chili, with perhaps more chili padi bits. The chili sauce might be a tad too spicy for me, but it really enhances the flavour of many dishes. I would high recommend adding a spoonful of their special chili to their Lor Mee. The chili sauce really pairs very well with the rich broth of the Lor Mee, adding a complementary spicy edge to the dish. It's the ultimate combo that leaves me wanting more!