241. Sydney - Delafrance Provincial Bakery

Foodies Queen went for a 2 weeks hiatus at Sydney. Entering into the winter season, the time difference from Singapore was shortened to a 2 hours instead of 3. I stayed at George street and every morning, I see this delafrance bakery crowded with morning breakfast goers. It was also the most obvious place that one could have breakfast as the nearby food outlets were not opened. It looked like our delifrance though.

Chicken sandwich @AUD7.70

They called the bread triangle because it was shaped like a triangle. AUD7.70 for a chicken sandwich was not too bad given the size of it could have last the lady to go without food till dinner.

Add AUD2 for a cuppa regular coffee - cappuccino/ long short / latte

Big Baked Breakfast @AUD12.95

I had this. Well, I wouldn't say that it tasted exceptionally nice but at least it was not bread. Bread seemed to be a regular patron on the menu since I embarked on my journey. The sausages were pretty salty. Sauteed tomatoes were nice. Bacon a tad too fat and greasy for breakfast. I wouldn't have liked swiss brown mushrooms for breakfast, they worked better in spaghetti. Overall, it was a satisfying breakfast but I still prefer my fried bee hoon, carrot cake .......

Live like the Australians do.....

Delafrance Provincial Bakery

605-609 George Street

Sydney NSW 2000 Australia

231. Bongo Burgers

Bongo Burgers. You must have been thinking where this place is. Frankly speaking, I myself have no idea that there is a fast food outlet called Bongo Burgers until today. I went to the Jurong Bird Park this morning. I have not been there since my primary school days. I have no recollections of how the bird park looked like. It was 9 plus and the only food we saw was Bongo Burgers. We have decided to have Bongo Burgers when we were turning into the carpark. They had a banner which showed that a set of Turkey Ham and Cheese sandwich with a cuppa of tea/coffee, costing only $2.50. It was a good deal.

The place didn't look like any of the fast food chains we see in shopping centres. It was like some cafe. Stone tables and chairs....

African style setting. Spears and arrows. The word 'Bongo' was already very African. Bongo is a kind of drum which was a common music instrument used by the South Africans. The staffs were dressed like hunters.

Turkey Ham and Cheese Sandwich Set @$2.50

Buttered on the exterior. Melting cheese and slice ham in the sandwich. The cheese they have used was quite salty. With the butter on the exterior, it was overall quite oily. But it was a good deal. Together with a cuppa coffee/tea, the set cost only $2.50. It was enough to fill the stomach before embarking on the bird trail.

Hashbrowns @$2.90

Hot and crispy. Glad that it was not soggy. Freshly prepared. I must say 4 hashbrowns at $2.90 was not expensive at all.

Sausage Set @$6.90

This set came with a cuppa of coffee/tea. I must say the $2.50 a set was a better deal. The difference being the scrambled egg and sausages. It was not exceptionally good but a fulfilling breakfast.

I must say some planning must come into place when it comes to eating wisely. Wise on the price. We ordered 2 sets of the $2.50 set and a sausage set. Breakfast for the 5 of us. Total bill was a mere $14.80. If we were to order 5 sets on the menu, it would have cost us $34.50. Doubled the price.

Bongo Burgers

Jurong Bird Park Entrance

204. Provence Bakery

I heard of it so many times but have yet to visit it. Each time I was in Holland Village, I somehow didn't manage to find it. Today, I finally know its exact location. It is directly opposite Yi Bao. In fact, if my colleague didn't point out to me, I still have yet to take notice that it was the Japanese bakery. From the appearance, it didn't really look like bakery, it was more of a cafe. And yes....it's a bakery cum cafe where we could sit down and have our bread.

Chocolate Wassant @$6/pack

Don't they look like caterpillars? This was what I thought when I looked at the packs in the basket. Custard or chocolate? I chose the later. A pack of 10 for $6. This was the bread that was so famous. 1 of my colleagues felt it was an expensive bread. I think otherwise. Though appearance could have meant another thing. I would ask you to taste it and you won't regret. I think it's divine! Soft and doesn't stick to teeth. I'm not sure if the bakery uses flour imported from Japan. If it did, then that explains for everything. The flour from Japan is of superior grade, if not, a better grade. The amount of chocolate used was just right. So yummy......

Brazilian cheese bun @$0.80 each

The bun was like the chewy donut except that the interior was lined with cheese. The cheese was not so significant.

I felt Provence is more towards Japanese style instead of the Jap+French style it has want to project to the public.

Provence

17A Lorong Liput

Holland Village

Opens:

Mon-Fri: 9.30am - 8.30pm

Sat & Sun: 8.30am - 8.30pm

176. Hua Yuan

Hua Yuan (华园) coffeeshop. Their toasted bread, something different from the traditional and thick toast. They have used the burger bun type of bread. It was softer and the thin slab of butter which was of semi-melted condition enhanced the taste of the bread. I think this coffeeshop has a good fengshui because at all times of the day, it is always filled with customers. Selling at $1.60 for 4 pieces as shown, I think it was relatively cheap.

See previous entry

华园 Coffeeshop

Blk 23

Sin Ming Road

158. Simply Sandwich

Breakfast can be a big deal too, it depends on how important it means to you. The elders will most probably make a big fuss for breakfast. Most people of my age treat breakfast as a meal that is dispensable. Their lifestyles are most probably owls in the night and breaking 'dawn' at noon and there's only 'brunch' (combination of breakfast and lunch) for them. This is no good for our gastric.

Breakfast, on the contrary, is a whole great deal to me. This is because I'm a person with gastric problems. If I didn't eat, the next minute, I'll be popping pills to reduce the gastric acids. So, breakfast is a must and fulfilling meal for me. :D

Anyway, back to today's breakfast. Today's breakfast is a simple one. Egg baguette from Simply Sandwich. Sometimes, simple do cost. The simple sandwich costs $3.25. The bread, invariably (but not always) softer, tastes fresher than most. Buttered and filled with scrambled eggs, it was a bit too light for me. Maybe I should have bought those with thick lashings of cream cheese, avocado, ham, tuna salad, roast chicken, smoked salmon and etc....this type of sandwich will definitely make a great start for my day. Haha. I still preferred Subway. Woohoo....Subway is making its presence in almost every shopping mall. Getting Subway will be so much easier. Woohoo...

Parakou Building

#01-01
120 Robinson Road
Tel : 6536 6041

135. Freshly Baked

I happened to have some matters to attend to at Somerset this morning. It was still early, just 10plus after I'm done with my stuff. So, I decided to pop by Freshly Baked to get their bread. Freshly Baked is a cafe but with a small bakery at the front space. Not too many breads to choose from. Just some muffins, whole bread, brownies and etc. So, I got this cranberry bread, $3. 4 for $3 is quite cheap. Shaped like donuts. I like the bread because a generous amount of dried cranberrries were added. However, I find the bread slightly dry.

Le Bijoux

57 Killiney Road

#01-01

Singapore 239520

Tel: 67353298

112. Hua Yuan Coffeeshop

Hua Yuan (华园) Coffeeshop is located at a HDB void deck behind the Hua Nam Dim Sum at Sim Ming Road. You wouldn't have noticed it because it is pretty much like a coffeeshop with nothing much to offer. Well, if you are there for lunch, I guess you will be pretty much amazed by the crowd. I am a frequent patron of Hua Yuan but many times I went there at tea-time but today was during lunch time. There are a few nice food to recommend in this coffeeshop.

Rice rolls(chee cheong fun) @$0.80 per roll

This is the chee cheong fun which I always eat whenever I'm there. Must-try! I'm not sure what is the name of this stall because they hung a red banner over their signboard. But, you can see that they have a smaller signboard which said handmade steamed yam cake and etc. Their chee cheong fun and steamed yam cake are delicious. The sauce they used for their chee cheong fun was a clear sweet sauce as opposed to the black sweet sauce we usually have. The plain rice rolls was good even without fillings. They used the same sauce for their steamed yam cake. Sometimes...simple is good.

Porridge from 华英饭店. Relax. This porridge ain't served from a hotel. It is the name of the porridge stall in the coffeeshop. I was surprised to see a long queue at this stall, from the stall all the way out to the main corridor of the void deck. Wow. What's so nice about it? So we ordered from the porridge stall. See the dishes above? Plus 6 bowls of plain porridge, the total cost was just $18.90. It was very cheap. So, this explains for the long queue. The dishes and porridge were not too bad but not exceptionally good.

Besides these two, the traditional kaya toast and thick toast from the coffee stall are good too. I didn't try them today. Thick toast is only available from 2pm onwards.

Hua Yuan Coffeeshop

Blk 23 Sin Ming Road

105. Four Leaves Bakery

Banana Danish

Four leaves bakery introduced the minis a few years back. The idea was very much welcomed by people. Bread is a staple food and to many of us, we have bread for breakfast most of the time. You can always see a long queue of people buying bread at usual knock-off hours, after 6pm.

My usual take from Four leaves is the mushroom and ham bread. But after the minis were introduced, I switched. The minis especially are a favourite among ladies. Firstly, 2 minis are equivalent to the price of a usual size bread. Instead of eating 1 kind, you'll get to eat 2 kinds of bread for the same price. Secondly, Four leaves came up with more varieties which pulled a greater crowd to their businesses.

I am not really a big fan of brownies. Or maybe I have not tasted one that really made me wow. Usually, the brownies I have tasted were too dry and I didn't like the feeling of gulping down water down my throat after the brownies.

I was pretty surprised when I tried out the brownies from Four leaves. It was quite moist and they have added generous amount of walnuts. I must say about the walnuts. They were not smashed to bits. It was a whole nut. This made the brownie nutty and thus created the crunch.

The new creation banana danish wasn't so appealing to me. I have tried the apple danish and I didn't really like it. Basically, it was because of the crust. It was not crispy but rather like left exposed to air for too long and it became soft. The banana danish was just a slice of banana wrapped in the middle of the crust with chocolate syrup dripped over.

The minis were sold at 1 for $0.65 or 3 for $1.80 or 5 for $2.50.