Wednesday, 12 December 2012

Project Espresso Love - The final Singapore Café roundup

Some of you on Facebook may have noticed that during the month of November I gave myself the onerous task of checking out Singapore's burgeoning cafe scene, using my own taste & preferences to separate the good coffee beans from the bad.

Soooo, after a month of pounding the pavements, subjecting myself to copius amounts of caffeine (and therefore sleepness nights), my favourite Singapore café list is now complete (until the next round of cafés open that is!). For more detailed descriptions, please visit Brunch & Co's page on Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/brunchandco

Hope you enjoy it and find it useful. Let me know of any new cafés you happen to discover :-)

My Favourite Cafés for the coffee 

Jewel Coffee, 1 Shenton Way, #01-07 - Handy CBD location, deliciously perfect cuppa. (Closed Sundays)




Nylon Coffee Roasters, 4 Everton Park, #01-40 - Tiny shopfront, that's a little hard to find, from where they only sell great tasting coffee... (Closed Tuesdays)


Liberty Coffee, 131 Rangoon Rd - Not often open (you need to "like" their Facebook page to hear about their open days). Delicious cuppa, and great cakes to boot.





My Favourite café for the food


Sarnies, 136 Telok Ayer St - PROPER sandwiches & other yummy treats especially on the weekend when they serve a delectable brunch menu.




My Favourite café for the ambience

Club Street Social, 5 Gemmil Lane – beautiful fit out like a cool NYC bistro





My Favourite café for the service

The Big Sheila, 15 Swan Lake Avenue, Siglap - Lovely service, felt like I was entering a fancy friend's dining room. Personal service from one of the ladies working there showed that she knew all about the food she was serving in great detail - very impressive! (Closed Sundays)



Other Places worth a visit - grouped by location

North
Carpenter & Cook, 19 Lorong Kilat, #01-06 (Closed Mondays)

Central/South

Tiong Bahru Bakery, 56 Eng Hoon St (Closed Tuesdays)
Drips, 82 Tiong Poh Rd #01-05 (Closed Tuesdays)
PS Café Petit, 78 Guan Chuan St #01-41 (Closed Mondays)
Flock Café, 78 Moh Guan Terrace #01-25 (Closed Tuesdays)
Fine Palate, 51 Waterloo Rd #01-04/05 (Closed Mondays)
Smitten, 60 Robertson Quay #01-11 (Closed Tuesdays)
Oriole Coffee Roasters, 10 Jiak Chuan Rd
Strangers’ Reunion, 37 Kampong Bahru Rd (Closed Tuesdays)

Manicurious, 41 Beach Rd (Closed Sundays)

East 
Café Melba, 90 Goodman Rd, Goodman Arts Centre (opens 8:30am on weekends & they have a jumping castle!!)
Chye Seng Huat Hardware, 150 Tyrwhitt Rd (Closed Mondays)


West 
Henry Congressional, 44 Holland Grove Rd (though will be gone by Feb 2013 - from this location anyway) (Closed Tuesdays)
D’Good Café, 273 Holland Avenue #02-01/02

Other places I visited but didn't quite make it onto my "Fav" List:

Penny University, 402 East Coast Rd (Closed Mondays)
Toby’s Estate, 8 Rodyk St #01-03/04
EspressoLab, 13 Bali Lane (Closed Mondays)
The Selfish Gene, 40 Craig Rd (Closed Tuesdays)
Maison Ikkoku, 20 Kandahar St
Kooka Café, 18 Purvis St (Closed Mondays)
Société Canteen, 501 Bukit Timah Road #01-05B Cluny Court
Overdoughs, Blk 261 Waterloo Centre #01-24 (Closed Mondays)
Coffeesmith, 62 Collyer Quay #02-11, OUE Bridge (Closed weekends)

Sunday, 9 December 2012

Brunch & Co on Wheels!


Brunch & Co had our first outside catering job today! We prepared a spread of sweet & savoury treats for a bunch of hungry tummies attending a 3rd birthday party at Happy Willow in Fusionopolis.

On the savoury menu were smoked salmon & cucumber finger sandwiches, Coronation chicken finger sandwiches, Cuban roasted pork sliders, pesto pasta salad with zucchini, cherry tomatoes & fetta, and an antipasto board consisting of selection of cheeses, slices of proscuitto, marinated olives, homemade hummus dip and lots of other yummy treats.


For sweets we served freshly baked lemon bundt cake, chocolate chip, pistachio & cranberry cookies, and make your own "Eton Mess" - individual meringues (pistachio & cocoa, flaked almonds, rose water), freshly whipped cream & berries.



For drinkies - we provided homemade lemongrass cordial & potent jugs of Sangria - Yum! We also offered a selection of Gryphon teas which were a real hit.


Thanks again Ming Shi for asking Brunch & Co to help out today - we had lots of fun. Happy Birthday Yu Rui and a BIG thanks to Gah Wing for helping too!!


Saturday, 1 December 2012

Brunch & Co's 1st Birthday Party!


Well, as they say, it's better late than never! Brunch & Co actually turned a very grown up ONE back in August this year, so to celebrate we decided to throw a 1st birthday party with a small group of special friends who have helped us immeasurably over the last 12 + months.

Photo by Rach Saba

There were a few notable missing guests but we hope to have another celebration sometime in the new year so we can thank everybody properly - any excuse for another party!!

Our place settings were little personalized bags filled with homemade chocolate chip, pistachio & cranberry cookies fresh from the oven.


Photo by Rach Saba

For the celebration menu today, we decided to pick a selection of our favourite dishes we've served at various Brunch & Co events over the last year.

The starter was an easy choice, a dish we first served back in July inspired by a Melbourne cafe called "Pope Joan" - Rice pudding topped with a tangy rhubarb compote - deliciously creamy with a hint of sweetness offset by the tart fruit.

Photo by Rach Saba
Our second course is a big favourite of mine as it includes almost all of my most beloved brunch ingredients - Ottolenghi savoury pancakes (spinach, green chillies, spring onion & cumin) topped with a chilli & lime butter, layers of smoked salmon, creamy scrambled eggs, perfectly ripe chunks of avocado tossed in lemon juice & golden pan fried cubes of haloumi cheese...heaven on a plate!


At this stage of the proceedings, I completely forgot about the green apple & calvados sorbet I had made for today - woops! I must have been too excited about the upcoming dessert course - Brown sugar meringue topped with delicately whipped cream & fresh juicy berries.  The meringue was an interesting experiment - lovely caramel/coffee flavour, crisp on the outside and soft spongy meringue on the inside.


Special thanks again to all of our friends who have helped to make Brunch & Co such a happy success - each one of you have given your support in so many ways - from lending a hand in our tiny kitchen to spreading the word to your other foodie friends - we couldn't have gotten to this milestone without you.

So here's to great company & many more yummy & fun Brunch & Co times ahead!

Lot's of love,
Mark & Louise xx