We celebrated Pooh Bear’s birthday by going to Hatched, a restaurant which served her favorite food – eggs. In preparation for this event, Pooh Bear had been a very good girl and had abstained from consuming eggs for the whole week. Hatched had cute egg-related decorations in the restuarant and overall felt nice and cheery. I thought it would be a good place for a weekend breakfast or brunch. Apparently a lot of people agreed with me because Blue Avatar said the place was crowded on the weekends.

Si Hamil and I each ordered the Sir Benedict ($12) which was a poached egg, ham and bacon on top of half a muffin. It came with mashed potatoes and salad. It looked really tasty but at the same time it also looked small and not filling at all. The egg was perfectly poached and the yolk ran down the moment I cut into it. I liked the muffin which was an English muffin. There was a double portion had two of the egg benedict and cost $18. I didn’t order that because two eggs was a bit too much. Unlike Pooh Bear, I did not abstain from eggs.

Mao Mao’s and Pooh Bear’s Burly Benedict arrived at the table. Si Hamil and I thought ours looked pretty good until we saw theirs. The Burly Benedict was a poached egg and corned beef on top of half a muffin. It also came with salad and some potatoes. Mao Mao loved the corned beef very much and even wanted to order some more as a side dish. We all knew she loved the corned beef because she said “The corned beef is very nice” at least five times.

Mao Mao and Pooh Bear then shared an Oozy Baked Egg. It contained eggs, cream, bacon, tomatoes, mushrooms, onions and a piece of cheese at the top. They said it was like creamy chawanmushi. It was quite nice but it was too rich to be eaten alone.

I ordered a cafe latte and Mao Mao said that I had a cafe latte obsession. It was quite nice. Nicer than Coffee Bean but not as nice as Forty Hands. It cost same price ($5) as the cafe latte at Forty Hands.

Mao Mao had a glass of freshly squeezed grapefruit juice. It was really fresh. Mao Mao liked it too but not as much as the corned beef because she said “The grapefruit juice is very nice” only three times.

Hatched ( Website | Facebook | Twitter )
26 Evans Road #01-06 Evans Lodge Singapore 259367
Tel: +65 67350012 / 67350013

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1. Corned beef for dinner
2. Lunch @ The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf
3. Lunch at Sun with Moon

Pooh Bear and I went for lunch at The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf. Pooh Bear wanted to buy refills for the CBTL machine so we might as well have lunch there.

Both of us had the set lunch which came with a drink. I had a cafe latte while Pooh Bear had an ice-blended mocha. I felt the cafe latte was pretty weak and seemed a bit diluted.

I had a spicy tuna linguine which was nice but pretty spicy. Luckily I shared half the plate with Pooh Bear because it would be difficult for me to finish the whole plate by myself.

Pooh Bear had the rosemary chicken sandwich which was juicy and thankfully non-spicy.

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1. Birthday lunch for Pooh Bear
2. Mee siam @ Bread ‘n’ Butter Box
3. Lunch at Sun with Moon

After dinner, Mao Mao and her husband brought us to this ulu place in Tiong Bahru for coffee. Her husband said the coffee was very nice and Mao Mao called it “artisan coffee”. It was located in a shophouse and the front part was air-con while the back was open air. We had to sit in the back because the front was already filled with people.

I had a cafe latte ($5) which was nice and smooth. I’m not much of a coffee drinker but I thought this was the best coffee I had drank in a while.

All the coffee had different coffee art. I must say their baristas were highly skilled.

Mao Mao’s husband said this was the best tau sar bao in Singapore. It was served warm and the skin was soft. The red bean paste was quite solid and not too sweet. But at $2.50 per bun, it felt expensive.

Forty Hands (website | facebook)
Blk 78 Yong Siak Street, #01-12
Tel: +65 62258545

Sayang was back for a short while to attend a wedding. I knew that she would be busy meeting up with relatives and friends so if I was going to see any sight of her, I would have to take leave and meet her on a weekday. Even so, her schedule was so packed that she had to keep changing the date and it was not confirmed until one or two days before. So I took a full day because I’m not hardworking enough to want to go to work in the morning. I told Sayang that I made a very big sacrifice because I gave up a day of earning money just to accompany her, ha ha. Sayang immediately said, “Rubbish!”

Sayang wanted to try out a dim sum buffet. We did not make any reservations, thinking that it’s a weekday and there should be enough tables. But when Sayang went at 12 noon, she found it fully booked. So we went to Cedele @ Wheelock Place for lunch. I was feeling hungry so I ordered a Beef Onion Portobello Burger with pumpkin bread ($14.80). Too bad Cedele did not have chocolate chip pancakes anymore or I would have ordered that for dessert.

Sayang brought me to Canele Patisserie @ Shaw Centre for dessert. I had passed by it before but I had not tried their desserts.

I had a triple chocolate cheesecake (around $8). It was nice and did not feel overly rich as the portions of cheese and chocolate were just right.

Sayang had the strawberry shortcake (around $6.50) which was light and fluffy. There were a lot of strawberries in the cake.

Having eaten a full meal, Sayang dragged me to Mango first, then Zara. She wanted to buy some new clothes because according to her, she had a new haircut and none of her clothes matched it. Excuses only. I’m not interested in shopping for clothes so I just followed Sayang around the shop. Sayang kept urging me to pick up some clothes so we could go and try them together. I rolled my eyes and ignored her.

When we finally stepped out of Zara, it was pouring heavily. Both of us had umbrellas but the rain was so heavy that my shoes and jeans still got wet. We hurried to Wheelock Place and then walked through the underpass to the MRT station. If it wasn’t raining so heavily we might have walked to Somerset but it was, so we took the train instead.

After Sayang did more shopping, I brought her to Jewels Artisan Chocolate @ Orchard Central. The shop was an open area next to the escalator but because there wasn’t heavy traffic so it still felt pretty peaceful and isolated.

Both of us ordered the blood orange sorbet ($3.80) which was sweet and tangy. I had a Grand Cru hot chocolate ($6.80) with mashmallow toppings while Sayang had cafe latte. I loved the hot chocolate which was thick, creamy and milky. I supposed that’s the way I like it. We stayed there for a while and chitchat.

It stopped raining after a while and we were able to walk to Dhoby Ghaut. I said goodbye to Sayang who went off to meet another group of people for dinner.

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1. Cedele at Takashimaya
2. Once Upon A Milkshake

Bell and I went the Cedele All-Day Dining Restaurant at Takashimaya for lunch. It was a small outlet and felt rather cramped with the tables placed close together.

I ordered a ABC (apple, beetroot, carrot) juice and Bell ordered a mango lassi. My drink was still okay but Bell’s mango lassi had no mango taste. So Bell asked a waitress about it. The waitress took a look a said that it’s the correct lassi as plain lassi would be white in color. But both Bell and I tried it and there’s really no mango taste.

I had the beef bacon burger with focaccia bread. The burger was pretty tasty although everything seemed to be falling apart. There was a pile of vegetables at the side. I’m not sure if they were meant to be the salad or it was part of the burger but fell out. At first I thought it was the salad but there’s no salad dressing, not even olive and balsamic vinegar. So it was just plain dry vegetables, which wasn’t very nice to eat so I didn’t finish them.

We didn’t eat desserts as none of them looked tempting. We wanted the chocolate chip pancake but it seemed that Cedele had removed it from the menu. Sad

Bell felt that the food and service at the Wheelock Place outlet was better. She also remembered that they had salad dressing with the vegetables. We agreed to avoid the Takashimaya outlet next time.

Cedele All-Day Dining Restaurant
391 Orchard Road #B1-37 Takashimaya Shopping Centre
Tel: 62352380

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After dinner, we went to Laurent’s Café & Chocolate Bar for dessert. I told Mao Mao that I have not been there before and she gave me the “I’m-so-shocked-you’re-so-suaku” look. Damn rude but I take comfort in that no matter how suaku I am, there will always be someone more suaku than me.

We sat outdoors because it was such a cold day.

I tried the hot chocolate and I was glad that this was real hot chocolate, not those thin, diluted cocoa drinks that other places tried to pass off as hot chocolate. I had the Gran Couva which the server told me was one of their best sellers. It was thick, chocolaty with some citrus notes.

We also shared an apple tart. I think it had a fancy name, Tarte Tartin. The caramelized apples were so soft that at the first bite, we wondered if they were really apples. It was soft and yet not mushy. It was quite sweet but not overbearingly so. Mao Mao wished there were more of the pastry.

Laurent’s Café & Chocolate Bar
80 Mohamed Sultan Road #01-11 The Pier @ Robertson
Tel: 62359007

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1. Dessert at Jewels Artisan Chocolate

Pooh Bear and I decided to try the tea at Bread ‘n’ Butter Box after a colleague said that their tea was nice, with a somewhat smoky flavor. We also ordered a kaya toast set to share. The tea and kaya toast were nice. The bread was like the one at Ya Kun but it was thicker. I like that they were generous and put a thick slab of butter inside the toast. What I didn’t like was that the cups tend to be a little sticky, even the takeaway cups were the same. It makes me feel like washing my hands after touching the cups.

Bread ‘n’ Butter Box
154 West Coast Road #02-01 West Coast Plaza Singapore
Tel: 67791018

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It was a small little place and there were very few seats. Even though it was a small place, it felt cheery because it was brightly lit and the whole color scheme was predominately white with some purple. It sold milkshakes, ice-cream and some snacks. But the main draw is the milkshakes. When I was there, over 90% of the customers were drinking milkshakes. Many people also walked in, brought their milkshakes and left.

At Mao Mao’s recommendation, Sayang and I tried the grumbling raisins (rum and raisins) and chocolate truffle castle (chocolate) milkshake. We bought the mini cup ($3.60) which was very small, no taller than my hand. At first it didn’t seem like much, but each milkshake was packed full of goodness. My chocolate milkshake was very rich and thick, almost as if I was eating chocolate ice-cream instead. It was even richer and thicker and Billy Bomber’s milkshake, which for a long time had been my No. 1 milkshake in Singapore. After drinking this, I had to agree with Mao Mao’s husband that this is the best milkshake in Singapore.

Sayang had the rum and raisins which was just as good, full of creamy goodness and a taste of rum. If you like rum and raisins ice-cream, you will love this.

After we finished our first cups, Sayang and I decided to try other flavors, much to the horror of Mao Mao. We tried vainilla pot (vanilla) and spooky mocha (mocha) milkshakes. We felt the vanilla was too creamy to be enjoyable. The mocha was quite nice but our favorites were still rum and raisins and chocolate.

Once Upon A Milkshake
32 Maxwell Road #01-08 Maxwell Chambers
Tel: 98233779

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