Chock Full Of Beans, Changi VIllage

 How fast Sundays come around! On this particular one we had the car and were heading east anyway, so decided to do brunch to start our day. Chock Full of Beans is quite positively reviewed, and how can anyone not check out a place named like that? Never mind that it's in Changi Village - as we've been told, it only gets ultra dodgy at night, so we were ok in the light of day :)

 Changi Village is one of those places that you just, cannot get to without a car (unless you're willing to take a 40 minute bus ride from Tampines). First time here, ever, and have to say it wasn't what I expected!

 Was already pretty packed by the time we got there. Luckily we got a table without having to wait at all.

{ Flat White & Long Black ($4.50 & $3.50) }

 Our much needed coffee was nice - smooth, aromatic and robust enough. I'd read somewhere that they do really neat latte art, didn't occur to me then to order one.

{ Omelette w/Three Fillings ($12) }

Smoked Salmon / Swiss Cheese / Mushroom (choose from 6 ingredients). Serves with roasted tomatoes & bread slice

 I don't usually order omelette as it's one of those things I tend to shrug off and go 'why, I can make that myself'. However, without a kitchen of my own these days, this statement no longer applies :( also I just wanted good ole fashioned plate of eggs. And this was what I got exactly. No-nonsense, fluffy omelette with the goodness of cheese, salmon and mushroom (my choice of filling). The thick bread it came with was really good too - I have a weakness for the multi-grainy/seedy/wholemeal kind.

{ Eggs Benedict ($12) }

Poached Eggs / Ham / Hollandaise / Homemade Toast / Parsley

 I kinda missed the line where it said homemade toast instead of English muffin, and was millddllyyy disappointed when it came. After a while though - boy that homemade toast was KICK ASS. Rich in flavour and healthy tasting, supremely generous outer layer of roasted sesame seeds was sweeettt!!! Bread lapped up the lovely, perfectly poached eggs pretty well. Hollandaise done right too. All in all a great rendition, and it's in one of the lower eggs benedict price range as well. My only gripe is give me a bigger plate next time - I struggled a fair bit!

Great place for a simple brunch - if for whatever reason you don't mind driving to Changi Village! And yes, no GST and service charge, wootAaaA! 10 points.

Chock Full Of Beans

4 Changi Village, #01-2090 (Corner)

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Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/cfob.changi
HGW Link (100% recommended at time of posting) : http://www.hungrygowhere.com/singapore/Chock_Full_of_Beans/
Rating (out of 4) : 

Cafe Oliv, East Coast Road

 Tempted by a $29 voucher for a Wagyu main (!!!), we made our way to the legendary east side of the island to locate Cafe Oliv near Upper East Coast. A train a bus and a short walk later we arrived at our destination, passing up several other distractions including Katong Laksa!

 By the time we arrived it was pretty late for lunch, and the three or four tables seated were presumably all using some form of set meal voucher or another.

 It's a cosy little cafe that seems to be quite popular with families. We sat facing a little kid who directed food everywhere except into his mouth, lol.

 Cafe Oliv offers a Kurobuta set meal for $49.90++ and a 5 course Wagyu set meal for $69.90. Guess the voucher we had was a little misleading cos we were assuming there'd be a selection of Wagyu mains to choose from - what it actually meant was just the main from the Wagyu set, which was a Australian Wagyu Ribeye. Oh well can't say we had much to complain about!

 What kinda cheesed me off was discovering a few days after using the voucher that there was another deal that offered the complete set ( albeit not Wagyu but Angus, but the whole set was on offer for $15 when our Wagyu main alone was $30)  for a better price. Pah! Guess that's the thing about using group buying sites.. there's just too many of them in Sg nowadays!

{ Wagyu Ribeye (5-course-set @ $69.90) }

 After a fair bit of wait (despite the not-very-packed -ness) our meal finally arrived! The ribeye was visibly rather fatty, and at medium rare was really tender. The fattiness was a little too much for bunneh to handle, but for me I thought this was a really decadent and juicy piece of steak! Came with some wedges and summer vegetables.

 The meat was much softer than other steaks I've had. Not sure if this is really due to the Wagyu-ness of it, or maybe it was just a really fresh cut. I did enjoy this. It was a good hunk of meat, although to be honest I had to leave aside some bits of fat. Sides are tucked away underneath the steak - standard potato wedges with some broccoli and carrots.

 As you can see this was the only item we tried and so our review and opinion is very limited. However from observation the sets seem to be very popular (and they are quite inexpensive too, don't need a voucher lol), as was dessert (the mudpie in particular kept coming out of the kitchen). If you stay out east, this is worth checking out - you lucky east siders get all the good nosh!

Cafe Oliv

220 East Coast Road
(short walk down from Katong Mall)



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HGW Link (85% recommended at time of posting) : http://www.hungrygowhere.com/singapore/cafe_oliv/
Rating (out of 4) : 

Cookery Magic - Of batik aprons and a Peranakan lesson

 It was meant to be a surprise (in our long weekend of many surprises). However when  found out it may have to be cancelled, he had to spill the beans. He was going to bring me to a cooking class! After ducking out of the room for a hush-hush phone call, he confirmed we still had our slot. However I still had no idea what exactly was involved (what kind of food? will we actually get to properly cook? etc). 

Except that we were heading East.

Tucked away in the landed estate of Kembangan is a little house with a front garden and about 5 cats. Ruqxana (how cool is that name?!) greets you and immediately makes you feel at home. We also met 2 travelers eager to learn about Singapore's local culture and cuisine - which is really a great way to immerse in a new country!

We were given a printed menu and recipes of what we would be preparing. I have to be honest.. when I first saw Kapitan Chicken Curry, Sambal Kangkong and Turmeric Rice, I was a tad disappointed because these are familiar Malay food which I wasn't toooo keen about. But then, as if by magic (!), when I put on the batik apron and stepped into kitchen at the back, I was excited and ready to make these dishes from scratch with my most favourite person in the world (hee) and with newfound friends.

Having had 10 years of experience running Cookery Magic, Ruqxana is very much at ease with talking us through the process and happily answers any questions at all. She explains things in a very simple and informative way, and really facilitates a hands-on learning approach.

 Yay cooking class!

 Prepping and cooking was fun! We sliced and pounded the living daylights out of a LOT of chilli (mmm), shallots, garlic, belacan. It was quite hard work but we would later enjoy the fruits of our labour :)

 Obviously no stranger to all these dishes, and having seen my maid and my dad cook them hundreds of times at home I was familiar with the ingredients and the methods. But from making the rempah from scratch with the mortar and pestle, to frying the choking spicy sambal with the kang kong by ourselves for the first time, I guess what I did gain was a new found respect that these simple dishes aren't that simple!

 A dining table was set up by the front door overlooking the garden. Although it was 4.30pm when we sat down (not quite dinner, not quite lunch), we dug into our homecooked meal and wiped the dishes almost-clean :)

 { Chicken Kapitan }
Malay / Indonesian curry with chilli, onion, lemongrass, belacan, candlenut
and copious amounts of coconut milk

{ Sambal Kangkong }
!!!

{ Nasi Kuning }

Pan fried rice with ghee, turmeric and spices, then finish in rice cooker
with more copious amounts of coconut milk

 I'm actually quite surprised how much I enjoyed the class: the cooking, and of course, the eating. I think it was the overall experience of meeting other people who are so enthusiastic about food and eager to learn about the local culture. Over the meal we also discussed Peranakan heritage and Ruqxana even showed us pictures of Peranakan architecture and influences. Personally it was a sort of re-education and therefore renewed appreciation for me, of something that I may have taken for granted.

 Attending one of Ruqxana's classes is definitely much more than 'learning how to cook with a recipe' - was an interesting day of anecdotes talking with her and other (usually tourist) students, cooking and knife tips, and I guess a lot of heritage re-education that even I as a Singaporean sometimes forget! While definitely a lot more interesting to tourists, even locals can get great fun out of these classes and I would highly recommend.

 Really looking forward to preparing Nasi Kuning again now! :) And seeing our new friends again in the hopefully-near future!.

 And of course the teacher herself Ruqxana!

Ruqxana's Cookery Magic home page : http://www.cookerymagic.com/

Saveur, East Coast Road

Edit : Saveur has moved to Purvis Street!

Nestled inside a small coffeeshop along East Coast Road (same side as Awfully Chocolate) - more famously known for tau kwa pau - is a new stall offering cheap French fare. Upon spotting this on HGW I knew we had to make the trip and take a chance with impossible parking to try this!

Parking's always a bia*ch at this area!

It's sort of tucked away towards the back next to a Filipino food stall. Was quite strange seating in a kopitiam, awaiting Duck Confit, Chicken Roulade and Angel Hair Pasta with glasses of iced liang teh, and noisy intersection traffic in the background.

We awaited alright. And waited. And then noticed a table of diners next to us who were also waiting (they shortly ordered har cheong kai and noodles from the Chinese stall, presumably to fend off protesting tummies). After about 20-30 minutes (I had somewhat reluctantly maintained that we should not taint our palettes with other miscellaneous nibbles!), we were told that our dishes were "coming now".

I was so hungry I was about to keel over - I gave in and decided to order some tau kwar pau first but was promptly told they were sold out - it was pushing 830pm and I was HUNGRY.



Let's just say it took another eternity 10 minutes before an apologetic lady brought our mains..

I had the duck confit ($8.90) - seriously, $9 for duck confit? Well time to dive in!

A semi-regular sized duck leg over a bed of extremely mushy mashed potatoes, citrus and some mushrooms. The mushrooms were alright, the mashed potatoes were ultra creamy which was good, and I detected a hint of sweet potato inside (?). Might be hallucinating from hunger but still ...

The duck itself was not too shabby. It is a smaller portion, but for the price I wasn't about to complain about portion size, but the meat wasn't tender enough IMO and the outside was a tad dry - which shouldn't be the case since duck confit is all about duck fat! I also felt that the duck hasn't been cured well / long enough, and so tasted a little closer to normal roast duck than duck confit.

Chicken Roulade ($8.90) was meant to have foie gras stuffing and crispy outer skin. Both, sadly, were unapparent in this dish. Granted, I should align my expectations to the price - but I was expecting a little bit more character out of this. How about a sprinkle of freshly ground black pepper? Or a bit more colour?

What I did like though was the rice. It's just regular ole rice bathed in a kind of mushroom-creamy sauce, with just the tiniest hint of what I guess would be herbs. But it had more flavour and moisture than the chicken. Overall for me this was an 'okaaay' dish (said with a slight scrunching-up of the nose)

I felt the chicken roulade was exceedingly normal!

Now our starter arrived just right after our mains, but no complains here because this Angel Hair Pasta with Kombu ($3) was out of this world! In the best way possible I mean! Seriously this was good sh*t, and *almost* made all the waiting worth it. Such a pity though this bowl only contained like 4 forkfuls. Later when we chatted with the two chefs, we suggested making this a main course by itself - this pasta is that good!

Oh now this is some serious shit - this small pasta portion was heavenly. The thin angel hair pasta perfectly al dente, tossed in just enough (assumably) olive oil with konbu and dried shrimp. Fwa, so simple yet the flavours came out really really strong, the konbu wasn't as much the star as the dried shrimp was, giving it that extra chewy fragrance. If I'm paying $3 for this amount, I would pay $18 for 6 times this amount no doubt about it!!!

I guess the place does serve decent food, though it isn't much more a French restaurant than a restaurant that uses French recipes. The mains were nothing to write home about, the angel hair pasta was heavenlyyyy, but they need some serious work on their service. Granted they're very newly opened (one month), and the personal sincere apologies by the (very very young) chefs was a good gesture.

Still - basic service here - if food's gonna take 40 minutes to arrive, please let us know?!?! And if food's gonna take another 5 - 10 minutes to arrive, please don't say it's coming 'now'. Oh and one more thing, the foie gras ice cream wasn't on the menu yet, and yet was marketed as one of their specialties - disappointed!!!

HGW Link: http://www.hungrygowhere.com/singapore/Saveur/
Rating (out of 4):