262. Epicurious

We had decided brunch at Epicurious on this beautiful Sunday morning. A few steps out of home came the drizzle, followed by a heavy downpour dampened my spirits but Epicurious kept my momentum going. Clear skies awaited us when we arrived and we were consoled by the cooling weather after the rain.

"There's no sunlight! It's not like brunch", She said. Her brunch has to be with sunlight.

"How about asking the lady boss to arrange a table under the spotlight in place of Mr. Sun?", I joked.

English Breakfast Tea @$4
Mocha @$5 and Latte @$4.50

Very kopi-tiam, we all thought. And maybe human beings, or rather, most of us are habitual mammals, we got used to having mocha and latte in tall glasses. The presentation by Epicurious made me feel I am not having mocha. Milo, perhaps?

Cappucino @$4

Eggs Benedict @$12

Poached eggs with grilled smoked ham on an English muffin with a generous serving of hollandaise sauce. Sauteed potato cubes and a slice of watermelon. I like the potato cubes. Very well-flavoured. The mains were great. Ooze, ooze...the yellow egg yolk flowed and mixed with hollandaise sauce at a tiny slit, the two combined, dampened the soft and thin muffin, you want to shout YUMMYLI-CIOUS!

Breakfast Burrito @$12

Go for the burrito if you want something light. Scrambled egg with bacon, cheddar-cheese, tomato and etc in a flour tortilla. The tortilla wrap was quite bland, seeking flavours from the cheese and bacon. Coupled with the salsa to add a tinge of vinegary touch.

Baked Egg with Toast Soldiers @$12

Time for desserts? No, that wasn't the creme brulee. That's the luscious baked eggs with ham till it was gooey. And don't be too anxious to taste it, you'll burn your tongue. The top layer covered with cheese, I suppose, mozzarella cheese.

Eat it with toast soldiers!

Ratatouille Omelette @$12

Ratatouille - a vegetable stew of Provence, typically consisting of eggplant, zucchini, onions, green peppers, tomatoes, and garlic, served hot or cold. Ratatouille don't just appear in pasta menus. The innards wrapped in the omelette was much like some tomato herb sauce used in pasta. Zucchini was cut in chunks to increase the texture. Epicurious had their egg omelette topped with parmigiano-reggiano (a premium aged hard dry cow's-milk cheese).

"It tasted like Indian curry", She said.

At an instant, it may have tasted like Indian curry but you will realise that's the doing of the zucchini and the herb used on a second taste.

Our bill worked out to be $85.30 for 5 pax. Business was brisk when I was there and I believed with it's popularity, business has always been so good. Food was priced reasonably and taste was YUMMYLI-CIOUS. If the weather's fine, take the outdoor seat, bask in the morning sunlight and the ambience of the robertson quay, brunch has never been so good!

Epicurious has a sister restaurant, Persimmon at the Link Hotel.

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Epicurious

60 Robertson Quay

#01-02 Singapore 238252
Tel : 67347720

261. Bakerzin II

Free-flow bread: Raisin Bread and Ciabatta bread

Like Cafe Cartel, get your free-flow bread at a small counter yourself. Besides olive oil and vinaigrette, there was a toaster which the temperature and timing were adjusted. All you have to do is just put the bread into the toaster. 4 kinds of bread to choose from. Italian bread is by nature hard and with a strong yeast taste. After toasted, it was harder so I would rather not have them toasted.

Soup-of-the-day: Corn soup

Corn soup is never my favourite. I find the taste weird - savoury and sweet combined. Bakerzin's version looked sincere to me. Grainy due to the ground/blended corn and the chef added corn bits whole to increase the texture.

Front: Grapefruit Soda

Back: Passion Fruit Soda

I asked myself if that was the soda I have ordered. Basically, both the two glasses of sodas were not very strong in flavour. Carbonated soda snatched the limelight. They were not sweet enough.

Arrabiatta Spaghetti

Arrabiatta Penne

Bakerzin's all day set menu 1 @$13.80++

The set menu 1 consists of free-flow bread, soup-of-the-day, main course and a beverage. The set menu set 2 was slightly pricier. It is $16.80++. The difference being the main courses. I thought set menu 1 was quite a good deal. After ordering, I looked around me, it seemed that none of the diners ordered the set menu 1. When my plate of pasta was served, I understood why. The portion was a big difference. A hill and a mountain. The portion wasn't big, fulfilling for a lady.

The Arrabiata was of tomato base and with chili padi added. Strong fragrance of garlic. The pasta was done al dente (by adding salt in the midst of cooking) and thus would have tasted floury. Pasta done al dente would mean the middle of the pasta stays hard. However, I felt it wasn't even al dente, it was undercooked. Because when I chewed on the pasta, it got stuck to my teeth and I was right, undercooked.

I recalled watching a reality show some time ago and the celebrity said something which left a deep impression in my mind. He said : "I can't finish the food but I'm eating because they are expensive." This was pretty much the scenario at Bakerzin a few hours ago.

Total bill worked out to be $32.50 after GST & taxes. Afterthoughts came as....it was not such a great deal afterall. I guess it wasn't a good idea to have others than cakes at Bakerzin.

See previous entry here.

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Bakerzin

Jurong Point

#03-58/59

www.Bakerzin.com

260. Sydney - Turkish Delights

Another thing that you can get as a souvenir from Sydney - Turkish Delights. I got a 100g at AUD2.80 just to satisfy my gluttony taste buds. It was a kind of chewy, soft and sweet jelly gummy alike but does not have any gelatin content. It had a strong floral taste - rose. Pinkish in colour and looking very appealing. Covered in icing sugar. Additional sweetness. Normally found covered in chocolates. I felt eating it as it is, was nice too. The trigger being the tangy texture. However, the level of sweetness was the reason why I stopped eating after a few. Too sweet, I thought.

It is very similar to the traditional corn starch candy that our parents would have loved to eat when they were young. This candy is still available at those traditional bakeries. Made in white and pink square cuts and covered with flour. No idea what it is called but it is not as sweet as Turkish delights. Freshly made ones can be much softer and of course, more delectable than Turkish Delights.

Available at all nuts selling outlets.

259. Sydney - Michel's Patisserie

Cappuccino @AUD4.50

Spinach Pie @AUD3.20

It may not be a bad idea to grab a snack at Michel's Patisserie when you are hungry at times which is not near lunch or dinner. I personally preferred spinach pie over those beefy, meaty pies. The buttery crust alone contained so much kilocalories, it will be better to have some greens to complement. The spinach pie was very tasty. Cheesy, chewy and crispy on the exterior. Moist greens on the interior to balance the overall taste. It was not dry. Michel's Patisserie is quite common around Sydney. I grabbed mine at the outlet at the direct factory outlet (DFO) in Sydney.

258. Island Creamery

Nutella @$2.80 a scoop

After a satisfying Japanese meal at Yoshoku Kitchen next door, I headed to Island Creamery. Simple decorations but a cosy place. The walls were filled with photos of the ice-cream lovers. It was a weekday afternoon and the place was filled with students. It's a place for students who don't head home after school without getting a scoop of their ice-cream. A glance at their ice-cream, I noticed Island Creamery is not just a place for normal ice-cream. They sell weird flavours. A few of which I noticed were Teh-tarik, bandung and etc. I bought nutella. Hey, nutella don't just work on bread! It was like vanilla with swirls of nutella in it. The ice-cream was very rich and there was a strong milk taste. For handmade ice-cream, I gave a thumbs-up.

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Island Creamery

10 Jalan Serene

Serene Centre

#01-03