Famished...

was the state I was exactly in at 1PM on Saturday afternoon. Busy with work on weekdays, makes me reluctant too wake up earlier than 11am.. sleep in is all I was for. But realizing that brunch places fill up pretty fast on weekends helps me to get on my feet and made my way to Orchard.

As I said in my previous post, I have been craving for good brunch place and hardly found any. Last saturday, I decided to try Wild Honey to see what's all the fuss is about.

Went with 4 of my buddies, we were asked to wait for our table. Wild honey has 2 outlets, one at Mandarin gallery and the other at Scott Square. We decided to go for the scott square one because word has it, Mandarin gallery's wild honey is impossibly crowded on weekends. At scott square outlet, we were asked to wait for our table (they took reservation but I think they disconnected the line in the morning cause I couldn't get to them that morning). There were 6 table ahead of us but we got the table within half an hour, not too bad a wait for that kind of crowd. While we were waiting, we were offered a complimentary cake for tasting, its cranberry tea bread. In my honest opinion, I would say it's dry and slightly tasteless. If it would to be one of their signature breads, it needs slight changes in their recipe proportion.

When we were seated, we were pretty quickly served, the manager even went with us through their menu. Basically, they have 3 popular dishes: Big Brekkie (named English), Egg Benedict (French), and Baked eggs (Tunisian). We ordered 2 French and 2 Tunisian with accompanying tea/coffee. I had peppermint. The food came pretty quickly, filling up our little table in effect but it was still somewhat comfortable.

The egg benedict was served on their signature brioche (rather than a typical english muffin), mushroom and egg-wrapped in prosciutto and showered with generous serving of hollandaise sauce. The tunisian brekkie (a.k.a baked eggs), was pretty good too, the only thing that turned me off was their choice of chorizo. It is sweet and taste more like lapchiong (Chinese pork sausage). It doesnt go really well with that particular dish.

Overall, the place was a pretty enjoyable experience. I would definitely come back to chill while striving to find a brekkie that's close to Sydney :D

The end and the new beginning

Finding myself in Singapore for good is somewhat exciting. However, I must admit that the food culture isn't as broad and as elaborate as Sydney. True, there are plenty of local delish to choose from but I'm still struggling to adjust myself and be content with whatever the city has to offer. I have some favorite dishes in this country but tbh, I haven't found a favorite place where I am happy with as a whole package (i,e. ambience, food, service, etc). I truly miss finding myself on a sunny saturday morning sitting in a buzzing little suburban cafe surrounded by fashinoably dressed Sydney-siders accompanied by friends while indulging in my brekkie. Singapore, for some reason, lack this aspects of homey-feeling cafe. In general, the design of the cafes are way too modern for my taste and the weather is too horribly hot to suit up for my usual saturday morning regime.

One of the better place I found was the marmalade pantry at the Stables. Nothing like Sydney's cafe but I guess the remote location it established on makes it somewhat cozier than any other place I found so far. To reach the place, one must drive because if I recall correctly, the road to the place is so confusing. As the name implies, it is located near a horse stable so you may try to ride a horse adding to the overall experience in this place. I went there for an afternoon tea so I only get to try their dessert and I chose chocolate deluxe which tasted like the brownie I made (part of the reason I liked it, I guess).

Anw, as I thrive to adjust myself to this new place, I hope to really find something I can fall in love with and return to Sydney in a very very near future.

So long Becasse!

I was so devastated when I read Becasse and all its other chains was forced to voluntary administration. As one of my favorite restaurants in Sydney, Becasse will be very much missed. I still remember the first time I went there, I was served by Justin North himself and was given lots of free dishes (the bespoken vegetables consisted of crushed nuts and radish, bday cake made by the pastry chef himself and more). The second time I went there was with my other friends and although the menu changed and Justin wasn't there to serve us himself, the foods didn't fail us at all. So needless to say, I'm so heartbroken by this unfortunate circumstance. I wish he could re-establish his empire soon for the sake of Sydney's food lovers.