Brunch & Co Event #9 - Selective Fitness' Healthy yet Decadent Brunch

Brunch & Co welcomed Chris, owner of a fitness gym called Selective Fitness, and a bunch of his lovely members for a "Healthy yet Decadent" Brunch today.  The gym, in Tanjong Pagar, has been going for about one year and today's brunch was to mark this special occasion. Decorating the table for each guest we had homemade toffee apples to kick off the healthy yet decadent theme - an apple a day keeps the doctor away so they say!  Here's a pre-toffee healthy photo:

...and a photo of the decadence being prepared:

A motivated sub-group of Brunchers even met poolside at 8:30am to kick off a pre-Brunch mini biathlon to enable a guilt free session of indulging. A swim & a run up Mount Faber would surely get the tummies rumbling!

I had heard from Chris during the week that a couple of the members were a little worried that the brunch menu sounded "too healthy" so to ensure that no Bruncher left unsatisfied in the indulgence and decadence department we kicked off proceedings with an amuse bouche of Spanish hot chocolate shots served with mini homemade donuts coated in sugar and injected with raspberry jam.

The Spanish Hot Chocolate called "Valor" was a gift from our friends Eu Hui & Santi who have recently launched a very cool travel guide business specializing in travel guides especially for foodies - the first three launched are for cities in Spain (Valencia, Madrid & Seville) which is where Santi is from. [www.blacksheepguides.com] My rushed photos really don't do this justice - the hot chocolate was so creamy & tasty and the warm, crispy, sweet donut really hit the spot - there was quite a bit of taste testing required for those, all in the name of research of course!

With mouths sufficiently "amused", we served our starter of homemade granola, made from a recipe by the Queen of Decadence herself - Nigella Lawson, served with creamy yoghurt and tropical fruits of Thai mangos, pineapple, lychees, kiwi fruit & passionfruit.

Our main course consisted of fluffy "green" pancakes (made green by spinach, spring onions & green chillies) served with lime butter, grilled haloumi, roasted vine cherry tomatoes & smoked salmon - "healthy" never tasted so good!

After our obligatory seat swap and tummy stretch, we served our palate cleanser of lychee & coconut sorbet.

For our finale course, we served a special dessert by Heston Blumenthal called Tiramisu plant pots - Tiramisu served in "pots" topped with edible "soil" (crystalized chocolate).

It certainly had our guests oohing and aahing! It was fun watching their faces as they dug their spoons into the "soil" to find the tiramisu treasure hidden underneath.

Decadence factor 10 out of 10!

Thanks to the lovely members of Selective Fitness for coming along to today's brunch - it was a real pleasure to have you all over at our place - here's to another successful year ahead!

Cheers,
Louise & Mark

PS. Thanks again to our baker extraordinaire, Hwee Yin, for all her help and of course, her yummy mini scones. Anybody needing delicious baked cupcakes, muffins, scones etc please get in touch so I can pass on Hwee Yin's contact details - she supplies to some of the best cafes in town!

Brunch & Co's Event #8 - Jetsetter's Brunch - Destination Foodie Heaven - HAS LANDED!!

Photo by Pia Facundo

Today, 15 lovely guests boarded Brunch & Co Airlines for a whistle-stop tour to three of our favourite foodie destinations - Europe, North Africa & the Middle East. We had lots of fun setting our table with beautiful travel inspired placemats made by our pal, Lisa and boarding pass name cards which were a real hit!

Photo by Pia Facundo

On arrival, our guests were welcomed with homemade lemongrass cordial or cinnamon spiced iced tea to sip on at the departure lounge.

Photo by Pia Facundo

Once everybody had found our secret location, we swiftly fastened our seat belts and jetted off to Europe (Italy) for our first course of Panettone French toast served with caramelized pears and whipped mascarpone cream infused with orange blossom drizzled with glistening caramel-pear sauce. I had planned to have a go at making Ricotta cheese to go with this first course but will have to save that experiment for the next brunch event!

Photo by Pia Facundo

With tummies happy but still rumbling, we took off again to our next destination of North Africa (Tunisia) for our main course of Shakshuka - a red pepper & tomato stew infused with saffron & cumin served with a baked egg sprinkled with crumbled feta cheese and parsley.  We served this with pan fried merguez sausages, toasted Turkish Pide bread and a sharp tasting herb salad of watercress, rocket & coriander tossed with a lemon, olive oil & orange blossom dressing.

Photo by Pia Facundo

Before taking off for our final destination, our guests did a little seat swapping - it's so much fun watching people meeting for the first time and seeing new connections forming - that's what Brunch & Co is all about!

Photo by Pia Facundo

With conversation humming, we served a palate cleanser  consisting of a very tart homemade lemon sorbet sprinkled with crushed sugar & mint.

Photo by Pia Facundo

At our final destination of the Middle East, our guests feasted on a strawberry, pomegranate & rose Fool (whipped cream, folded with mascarpone) sprinkled with cubes of rose flavoured Turkish Delight and topped with pistachio flavoured Persian fairy floss it certainly made an interesting colour combination!

Photo by Pia Facundo

Along side our glasses of creamy goodness, we served little meringue drops for our guests to mix in to add more sweetness and texture. Destination Foodie Heaven - Landed!

Photo by Pia Facundo

Today, one of our special passengers, Pia, (who also happens to be an amazing photographer as you can see from these photos - thanks Pia!!), was celebrating her 30th birthday with a bunch of her friends - wishing you a happy, fulfilling and delicious year ahead!

Photo from Pia's camera!

Thanks again to all our lovely guests - your enjoyment & eagerness to try out all our new dishes & to meet other guests warms our hearts.

Photo by Pia Facundo

We look forward to welcoming you all again to Brunch & Co in the near future!  In the meantime, as always, Happy Brunching to one and all!

Mark & Louise xx

PS - Huge thanks also to our guest helper Hwee Yin - you're a STAR!

Decadent Afternoon Tea - Easter treats!

At 3pm today our secret location was set for our first ever official Decadent Afternoon Tea Event.  We dressed our two tables with floral table clothes and covered them with invitingly special homemade sweet & savory treats.  Golden Lindt bunny rabbits hopped about the table between the plates to make the tea extra Easterly special!  Each dish was lovingly prepared by myself and our wonderful friend and Baker-extrordinaire - Hwee Yin!  Our menu was a mixture of family favorite recipes and some new "experiments". Happy to say that all dishes were a buttery & sugary success!

Photo by Kelly - Hot Cross Muffins

Our event also broke attendance records - with a staggering 18 special & wonderful guests.  It was lovely to meet you all and get to know a little bit more about you over a cup of tea and a slice or two of cake.

Here are some photos of the event & what the guests daintily tucked into during the afternoon...

In the forefront, Hwee Yin's raspberry cupcakes on the top & green tea cupcakes with red bean centres, and chocolate souffle cupcakes with a peppermint & white chocolate cream topping. To the left, hot cross muffins - a little twist on the normal hot cross buns!

Hwee Yin's lovely cheesecake slices and in the background some Scottish smoked salmon & cucumber finger sandwiches...so cute!

The "heavy weight" of this table of delicacies... a gorgeously rich chocolate, hazelnut & meringue cake - totally moreish with its crisp meringue top and gooey middle.... it may have outdone one or two of the guests!

Would you care for a caesar salad inspired deviled egg?  Why yes please!   Mmmmm, Yum!

Here's a close up:

Photo by Kelly

In the below photo, we have in the foreground, a lovely Elderflower & Strawberry cream cake, followed by Hwee Yin's gorgeous homemade mini sweet & savory scones.  Behind to the left, Kentucky butter cake a la the quintessential all American baking/cooking queen - Betty Crocker...we're talking old school people!

Other yummy treats that we did not capture close ups of included savory vegetarian tarts, filo parcels stuffed with organic spinach, toasted pinenuts, cottage cheese & feta served piping hot from the oven, coronation chicken finger sandwiches, snickerdoodle cookies and some lovely proper hot cross buns made by Hwee Yin's Father - who is also a great Baker.  Ok so we may have over-catered slightly but at least each of our guests left with a "Da Pao" to nibble on later!

Well, what a lovely afternoon we had with you all.  Hwee Yin & I had great pleasure baking up these special treats....we hope you had fun too and that you'll be able to come & visit again soon! Keep posted on our upcoming events on this blog (Events tab) or you can "Like" our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/brunchandco

In the meantime, Happy brunching & Happy Easter
Mark & Louise xx

Photo by Kelly

P.S. My cute tiered cake stand - put to good use!  Thank you A&B!

Brunch & Co's Event #7 - Our British seafood inspired brunch today was a huge hit!!

Photo by Haf Saba

The scene was set for a fun event as we went all out on the decoration front with bunting strewn across our underground restaurant, specially made “London” napkins, and old style English roses to decorate the table. There was definitely some Cath Kidston channelling going on...

Photo by Melvin Lau

Photo by Haf Saba

We had a lovely bunch of guests this month – one special guest, Kenneth, chose Brunch & Co to celebrate his recent birthday with a couple of his pals.  Happy Birthday again Kenneth J.

Photo by Melvin Lau

Today we welcomed all with a very thirst quenching British drink, Pimms & ginger ale along with a homemade lemon iced tea.

Photo by Melvin Lau

To get the party started food-wise we had special mini scones, organic raisin ones and cheese ones, handmade by our wonderful guest helper for this month, Hwee Yin.  Thanks so much Hwee Yin!  (Anybody interested in beautiful baked goods please get in touch and I will pass you Hwee Yin’s contact details – she supplies some of the best cafes in town!)

Photo by Haf Saba

I particularly enjoyed coming up with this month’s menu.  Our version of the classic “Prawn Cocktail”!

Photo by Haf Saba

It consisted of layers of shredded jicama infused with a punchy Thai dressing, prawns coated in the classic Prawn cocktail dressing and topped with some pan fried spicy fresh prawns marinated in a lemongrass & ginger marinade.  This was served with freshly made Irish Soda bread & Welsh butter.

Photo by Melvin Lau

For our main course, we served layers of smoked salmon along side creamy scrambled eggs, asparagus drizzled with lemon infused olive oil, avocado and homemade pesto brimming with toasted pinenuts & fresh basil.

Photo by Haf Saba

Photo by Melvin Lau

Today’s sorbet course was an unusual flavor of watermelon, salt & chilli.  

Photo by Haf Saba

Just a hint & a tiny little zing to cleanse the palates of our lovely guests, I think they really enjoyed this one!

Photo by Melvin Lau

Our final course was an apple, maple syrup & stem ginger crumble served with homemade vanilla ice cream or for those who preferred hand whipped (by Hwee Yin’s powerful arms!!) fresh cream.

Photo by Haf Saba

I tried out an interesting little tip I found in a cookbook called “Bryn’s Kitchen” where he suggested baking the crumble topping separately and adding at the last minute to the apple mixture so it stays nice and crunchy & crisp. 

Photo by Melvin Lau

There was a lot of taste testing going on of the crumble topping mixture that is for sure, very moreish!!  Hmmm, I might add some of the leftovers to my cereal tomorrow morning!

Photo by Melvin Lau

Our little name tags this month were packets of homemade shortbread using a recipe by the famous & inspirational chef Heston Blumenthal.  It is the first of his recipes that I have been brave enough to try – I hope you all liked it!

Photo by Haf Saba

Well all the dishes and glasses are washed and packed away ready for our next brunch on Sunday 22^nd April.  We might keep the bunting up for a little while longer to remind us of the fun we’ve had!

Photo by Melvin Lau

PS. If you are wondering “Where are the photos??” – we had TWO professional photographers at our brunch today so I will be posting their photos up here soon J - Thanks Haf & Melvin!! 

[Update: Ok - now including lovely photos from Haf - check out his website to see more of his wonderful photographs at http://haf.smugmug.com/].
[Update2: Blog now includes Melvin's gorgeous photos too - wow, with TWO great photographers Brunch & Co has never looked so good!  Please check out Melvin's wonderful photographs (he specializes in Wedding photography - so much love! ) at http://www.facebook.com/multifolds.photography and his official website http://www.multifoldsphotography.com.]

Happy Brunching to one and all,

Mark & Louise

Brunch & Co's Event #6 - Surprise Birthday Party!

Brunch & Co had its first birthday brunch today for guest Charlene.  We were honored that Charlene's hubby, Bobby, decided to book out all 12 seats for the special Brunch & Co party.  Charlene - We hope you had a birthday party to remember!

As I was just back from a work trip to the UK, I took the opportunity to share one of my favorite indulgences - Welsh bacon (any British bacon is better than the saline injected version we get here in Singapore!)

But let's start at the beginning!  For nibbles, we had Peach cupcakes with brown sugar cream cheese frosting - I couldn't resist topping them with little Love Heart sweets, seeing as Valentine's Day was just around the corner and all...

For starters, we had Bircher Style muesli layered with creamy Greek Yoghurt, toasted muesli and fresh pineapple & passionfruit salad infused with cardamon sugar syrup.  It's hiding in the jar!

For Mains we served the grilled Welsh bacon with oven baked Portobello mushrooms, wilted baby spinach, creamy truffle scented scrambled free range eggs & toast - YUM!

Sorbet course followed - dished up by the talented Li-Yong who was a great help at today's brunch - Thanks again Li-Yong!!

Dessert was birthday cake!!  Lemon drizzle served with whipped mascarpone infused with orange blossom flower water & topped with Persian Pashmak fairy floss of the same orange blossom flavor (big thanks to my sister Jen for sending it all the way from Australia!!)

Well, 12 tummies fed and all the plates & glasses washed and put away ready for the next Brunch & Co event.  March 11th is fully booked but spaces are available for Sunday 22nd April, hope to see you there!  For more information you can email us at brunchandcompany@gmail.com.

In the meantime, happy Brunching!

Louise & Mark