breakfast
Showing posts with label breakfast. Show all posts
Showing posts with label breakfast. Show all posts

perth: toastface grillah, barrack street.

went to perth during the national day holiday, and even though there were some screw ups with the flight (*cough* SCOOT *cough*), it's been a great trip (with lots of eating). it was winter in perth, and while i expected it to be cold, it was even colder than i'd expected, because of the incessant rain.



we visited toastface grillah twice- once for breakfast, and the other for lunch. the first time, i was startled to find that it was tucked in an alley, with graffiti-ed walls, no less. 



it was quirky and cool, though, with a small space inside with a counter and kitchen, and outdoor seating. we basically sat facing the alley. 



i was pondering over the steak sandwich (A$9) and the pear grillz (A$9), but my decision was made when i found out that the steak sandwich would only be available for lunch. X got the shroomy shroomy ya (A$9), which was basically a mushroom and cheese toastie. 


we ordered and paid before taking a seat outside, and our food was served after a brief wait. the toastie was delicious- never thought that a toastie could taste like that. 


the bread itself was toasty, golden and crisp, with fabulous grill marks; stuffed with a sweet-savoury combination of stilton blue cheese, cinnamon pear, raisins, currants and lime chutney. i savoured every bite. the flat white (A$3.50) i ordered was pretty good, too. 


tried a bit of X's mushroom toastie, but much preferred mine. there was an underlying flavour that i didn't quite take to. 


the pear toastie was so good that i decided to come back to try the steak one. while it was yummy, i found myself slightly feeling let down, because comparing to the pear, it just didn't quite measure up. still, it was steak and cheese sandwiched between golden slices of toast, and you really can't go too wrong with that. 

they've taken something simple and elevated it by doing it faultlessly. if it was in singapore i'd be back multiple times just for the pear toastie. 



toastface grillah
143 barrack street
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the beast, jalan klapa.

it seems that i always return from a trip with a new (usually hard to find in singapore) food that i'm obsessed with. from the berlin trip, it was blinis, and this time, from perth, it's cornbread. thankfully cornbread doesn't seem that difficult to hunt down- i did a google search and promptly discovered that the beast was serving cornbread. i realise that i've walked past it several times without thinking about eating there. best of all, their brunch menu looked tempting (pulled pork! waffles!) and so i went for sunday brunch with my sister. brunch is only offered for weekends though, but happily enough it runs to 5pm, which makes it a brilliant plan for a late lunch.

we made reservations, which was good, because even though it wasn't packed, the indoor table seating seemed to be limited. the rest were all counter seats, or outdoor (not a good plan in this heat).



interestingly enough, the brunch menu had a DIY option- perfect for (picky) people like me. for $22 you get to pick and build your own plate. i was torn about which carbs to choose, and kept oscillating between cheesy grits, cornbread, and the cornbread waffle. we initially wanted to get a cornbread ($8) to share, since it came with cranberry sauce and whipped honey butter. upon asking the waiter, though, we realised that the cornbread was actually the same size as the one offered in the DIY plate, and the said cranberry sauce and maple butter was actually the same ones offered in the sauce section of the DIY plate. kind of confusing, and we wouldn't have known without asking, because the DIY menu stated bourbon maple butter sauce while the cornbread was described as being served with whipped honey butter . the waiter who took our orders was really nice though! he told us frankly that picking the cornbread as part of the DIY plate was more bang for our buck, and even offered to give us both sauces, free of charge. we didn't need it in the end, since we each got one, but it was nice of him to offer.



so after much deliberation, i got the cornbread paired with pulled pork & bacon, two poached eggs, pickled watermelon and the balsamic cranberry sauce.



the food was served really quickly, and we were both startled by the generous portions. my plate came with a generous mound of pulled pork, topped with a slice of bacon. the cornbread was different from what i'd expected- i'd expected a more savoury version, like the one i had in perth, but the beast's one was sweet. the sauce provided was sweet as well, so i found myself not needing the sauce. i couldn't help but compare it with what i had in perth, and of course, that version won out, being a sweet-savoury combination, but this version wasn't too bad as well. the rest of the plate was quite delicious as well, especially the pickled watermelon, which added some freshness to the plate.



my sister liked her plate as well. i tried a bit of her ribeye, and was pleasantly surprised by how tender and well cooked it was.

i'll come back to try their dinner items sometime. the food was pretty good, with generous portions. i left feeling stuffed all the way to dinnertime. service was excellent as well. still, the cornbread wasn't quite what i was looking for- i'll have to look elsewhere then, it seems.


the beast
17 jalan klapa
http://www.thebeast.sg
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london: chinese laundry, islington.

never expected to want to eat chinese food while in london, but upon hearing J's enthusiastic recommendation of the place, i decided that C and i had to make a trip there, even though it was quite out of the way. i'm a sucker for chinese fusion, so it was right up my alley.



went for breakfast, because their breakfast/lunch menu was different from dinner. there were so many things i wanted from the menu that it was hard to choose- the only limit was how much our stomachs could fit, really.





service was quick. the first item to arrive was the rice & peanut milk (£2.70), followed by the egg bing (£5.50), which was basically a chinese scallion pancake with a glorious sunny side up sandwiched in between.



the pancake was crispy and yet not greasy- i could almost pretend that it hadn't been pan-fried in oil.



the laundry full (£10.50) arrived next. it was a great way of trying what the restaurant had to offer, since it had a bit of all their morning plates- braised beef, peanuts, tea egg, king oyster mushrooms, julienned potato, bacon and what they called milky little buns (basically fried mantous with a drizzle of condensed milk). i loved the milky little buns, especially paired with the other items. the sheer variety made it a fun eat- kind of like a chinese fusion version of a big breakfast, really.



the shrimp cake benedicte (£12.50) was the item i was eyeing all along, and was adamant about ordering it. theoretically speaking, it should've been great, but it wasn't- let down, perhaps, by the shrimp cake. i was imagining something plump and juicy, but it was overly crisp and to me, it barely qualified as shrimp cake. would've liked more of the peanut brittle, too- i could hardly find it, and it was one of the components that had excited me about the dish. probably should've ordered something else- the savoury tofu did call out to me.

C was really full after the meal, but i felt it was just nice. i did like the food in general- just not the shrimp cake benedicte. i would probably go back again to try their other items. i'm sad that i don't have more stomach space, really.

chinese laundry
107 upper street
N1 1QN
http://chineselaundryroom.co.uk
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coyote by spruce, phoenix park.

coyote's brunch menu (tex mex!) intrigued me enough to want to give it a try, so i snagged a $30 chope voucher and headed down on a sunny sunday afternoon for brunch with X. i've never actually been to phoenix park, so i didn't realise how far away from civilisation it was until i google-mapped it. happily enough there was a bus from somerset which cut down the walking (i'm really lazy about walking nowadays, because of the insane heat).



we reached at two-plus, and on approaching the restaurant, we were scared to see that there was al fresco dining (i believe in al fresco dining, but not in singapore). but thankfully they did have indoor seating as well (i quite literally heaved a sigh of relief upon seeing the indoor seating area). happily enough it was quiet when we reached; only a couple of other tables were occupied. we got a table by the window, and while the air conditioning wasn't strong, it at least beat sitting al fresco.



i'd already decided what i wanted, so i barely had to glance at the menu. as usual X was torn between a few choices, but eventually settled on a pulled chicken torta ($20). i got the huevos carnitas benedictinos ($19), which was basically a fancy way of saying eggs ben.



i was starving- i'd had an early breakfast, had hit the gym, and really needed my fuel; so it was awesome that the food came pretty quickly, and at the same time, too. i was impressed by the generosity of the pulled pork and chicken on our respective plates- particularly X's, because it was presented open face, so the pulled chicken appeared as... well, a big lump (in a good way).



i ended up quite liking my food. i was slightly dubious about the presence of hollandaise at first, because the pulled pork, which was cooked in bbq sauce, appeared sufficiently sauced. it turned out that the hollandaise actually matched pretty well with the pulled pork, tying everything together. X wasn't a fan of the corn waffle- i found it slightly limp but alright. enough to finish it, anyway. i just didn't like the poached egg. it was way overdone, so part of the yolk had already congealed.



tried a bit of X's pulled chicken, but i preferred the pulled pork. it was cooked in a different sauce from the pork- kind of a spicy, tomato-y sauce. i was surprised that X, who has a bird-like stomach not unlike C's, managed to finish the entire plate, given the generosity of the portion. i was startled by how full i was, too.



food was not spectacular, but not too bad. it was a nice, quiet place for a leisurely sunday brunch, though it's really a bit too out of the way.

coyote by spruce
320 tanglin road
http://www.coyote.com.sg
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craftsmen specialty coffee, eastwood centre.

came by for a late breakfast with a couple of friends on a tuesday morning. the place was pretty much empty. we'd initially meant to go to the other branch at siglap v, but somehow google maps directed us to the eastwood one. no matter- not much of a difference anyway, since none of us had been there before.

the menu looked promising. being a waffles fiend, of course i picked the savoury waffle option ($16.90) which came with scrambled eggs, smoked salmon, salsa and their signature sauce. my friend wanted the waffle as well, so we decided to share the waffle and the three tier brioche ($15.90). my other friend decided to get just the english muffins and eggs, since he'd eaten something before that.



it was a good thing that i decided to share with my friend, because i actually ended up liking the three tier brioche a lot more. can't go wrong, really- ham, cheese, and poached eggs over brioche, with a side of avocado and salad. what i didn't like, though, was their signature sauce that they'd laden atop the poached eggs. incidentally, it also appeared on the waffle. my friend disliked it more than i did, and we ended up scraping most of it off. it tasted really quite weird, quite unlike any other sauce that i've tasted before, and i'm hard pressed to give it a name.



the waffle looked awesome, but was quite lacklustre. didn't take to the waffle itself- it was dry and had none of the delicious buttery flavour i associate with good waffles. the scrambled eggs were alright, but the dish as a whole just felt disjointed. couldn't understand why there was salsa, actually. didn't go with the waffle at all. think i would've been more forgiving if the waffle had been good, but unfortunately it wasn't.



still, despite the less-than-impressive food, it was a quiet, leisurely meal with friends, and that, i suppose, made everything okay. wouldn't go out of the way to eat there again, though.

craftsmen specialty coffee
eastwood centre
#01-06
http://www.craftsmencoffee.com
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grain traders, market street, 2.0.

swung by for a... post-gym snack (not quite sure what to call it, given that i'd eaten breakfast, and it was definitely not lunch). i had been tempted by seeing instagram posts of their polenta egg rancheros ($8) which was only available for breakfast- wish they would do it for lunch! the roasted pork brown rice porridge from their breakfast menu tempts me too.

service was quick, rather like lunch. everything was already prepared and on the counter, so it was just a matter of putting it together. thankfully it was pretty empty during breakfast- i could envision myself having a leisurely breakfast there.



it came with two boiled eggs, with a dab of guacamole, on top of polenta cakes, with a generous side of mixed bean pico de gallo (which i think also comes as a side for their lunch bowls). also had a small serving of greens on the side. it's a pretty good post-gym meal, actually- full of protein.



i cut into the first egg, envisioning it to be runny, but was sorely disappointed. it was more like a hard boiled egg than one with a runny center. the other egg fared better, with a runny, half molten yolk than ran onto the polenta cakes. also wished they'd been more generous with the guacamole. there was so little of it that i could barely taste it. still, it was a pretty good meal, with a delicious combination of flavours.



will be back for their breakfast offerings- much prefer it to their lunch, given the price point. too bad they only offer breakfast till ten-thirty. will make an effort to swing by to try the brown rice porridge.

grain traders
#01-01/02/03 
138 market street
http://www.grain-traders.com
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