attas project meeting

this post is long overdue.

last sunday,  i had the most attas (i.e.: high class) project meeting, ever, in my life. it was lunch at epicurious, where all of us had breakfast (: yep, just like wild honey, epicurious serves all-day-breakfast, which has rather good reviews. and so, shirlyn and i decided to just hop by for a meal, together with all our project mates (: for such meals, the more the merrier right (: 

getting to epicurious @ robertson quay was a chore! it was not that accessible without a car (but then again, everywhere's accessible with a car!), and there were little directions from the epicurious website. ended up, i relied on Shirlyn to get the directions to get there. oh ya, she relied on gothere.sg. HAHAHA!

if you are getting there by public transport, take a train to Chinatown or Clarke Quay, then walk. yeah, i guess walking there is the tough part. i cant really give you the directions either, since there are little road signs or landmarks around. but anyway, if you want to try going from Clarke Quay, then walk towards liang court, when facing liang court, turn left and keep walking straight. you should be there in no time! one signature landmark to look out for would be the Allkaff Art Bridge. epicurious is right in front of the bridge yeah.

honestly, compared to rider's cafe, i think epicurious was a slight disappointment. its price range is pretty similar, most food items cost around $15. well, if you compare price to quality, i would definitely say that rider's cafe is a much better choice. the quality of food in rider's cafe was really good. well, of course, it could be the weekend-weekday thing. you know, since restaurants are always pretty quiet on weekdays, they tend to serve better food than weekends. but well, if you ever head down to epicurious, tell me what you think!

enough said. here are some pictures of our attas project meeting (:

did i tell you, we had vodka for lunch?? ok, i kid! this vodka bottle was used to store tap water. (: so yeah, we had a vodka bottle worth of tap water (: 

much was left to be desired from their service level. it could be because of where we sat, but it was so difficult to get the waiter's attention. and the food took so long to come. i know, good food is worth the wait right? but for this quality, i am not too sure if it was worth our (at least) 15mins wait. but anyway, the food still came in the end. so here are our food photos!

ok food review! here are what we ate that day!

supposedly one of the best dishes epicurious serves. yet, i was disappointed. the eggs were too cooked for my liking. i was expecting the yolk of the eggs to be slightly runny, but it was all hard. however, the blend of cheese, egg and mushroom was good. oh yes, there's a minor spelling mistake. this dish is called the baked eggs with TOAST soldiers!

cant review the above two dishes as I didn't manage to try them for myself.

just a vintage looking shot. anyway, they did not collect the money from us. i was half in mind of walking off with our cash but ah well, ended up walking to them to pass them them the money.

in all, brunch was good, thanks to the company. food... hmm. not so i guess. will probably give it just one more chance to prove itself wrong.

on a side note, i am gonna attempt making baked eggs tomorrow for the boy's breakfast! hope my poison will turn out good. maybe i will blog about it tmr (:

riders cafe (:

upon hearing all the raves of Riders Cafe, I just couldn't wait to visit it for breakfast! was really supposed to bring the girls there for breakfast (instead of at Strictly pancakes), but sadly, it was fully booked ):  in fact, i heard its always fully reserved on weekends, so do make your reservations early okay (say 1 week before)! i called 5 days before and there were no seats for us already /:

so yeah, i went with the boy on a weekend morning (before our crazy lessons), just for quiet, serene yet yummy breakfast. he was just nice enough to accommodate to my "weird" request, given how stressed up he was. 

travelling was a chore! its almost impossible to get there without a car. we managed to cab in, but do note that some cab drivers have no idea where it is, because its so packed away in the wilderness. nearest MRT is commonwealth (or so they say), but we realized that Holland Village is even nearer. so if you are going by public transport, do stop at HV and cab in. the cab fare was about $7. and oh, if you are at rider's cafe, so note that flagging for a cab would be... purely based on luck. we were lucky to catch one, but i was certain that if none came, we would have to walk out 1.7km to the big road. haha.

here is the last stretch of road leading into Rider's Cafe.

so here lies a quaint little cafe, way smaller than i expected, given its popularity. 

here's how the cafe look like within!

in fact, there was window side seats. the next time i go back (yes, i intend to go back someday), i will surely request for a window seat as it overlooks the horses! yes, here's prolly one of the main attractions of RIder's cafe. its situated beside Bukit Timah Saddle Club! this simply means that you can watch horses trot by as you enjoy your breakfast, only if you get the right seats.

the prices of the breakfast sets range from $10 to $16. here's what we ate!

and oh, the food was yummy! 

Black Stone Benedict ($15)

i had the blackstone benedict (since it was so highly raved), and i must say, the poached eggs were just heavenly. the golden yolk was watery (my favourite!). their combination of bacon, sourdough, tomatoes and eggs seem simple, but its a power combi! and oh, their tomatoes were so sweet! you will love it! or maybe even like it if you normally hate tomatoes. do give it a try. i will definitely come back for more of this!

Baked Eggs with Spicy Chiroz (not too sure of its name!) ($15)

i can't comment much on on the Baked Eggs with Spicy Chiroz as i didnt get to try it. the boy said it was really delicious (and gave a really satisfied face upon clearing his plate) , but i figure its a little small for him as we had to grab a cup of Starbucks before he felt full!

the ambiance here is.. priceless. away from the hustle and bustle of life, cooling weather, really fresh air (considering how little cars travel in here). i really enjoyed the tranquility this environment offers. the boy was sooo stressed over school work while we were on our way there, but he was obviously calmer when we were about to leave. well, i was hoping to walk around a little more, but given the location, we just had to catch the first cab we see, else we'd be stuck there for... who knows how long.

we walked around for a really really short period of time, and here are just some sights of the surroundings!

horses trotting by...

 and so, the cab came and it marked the end of our little morning adventure. MORE TO COME! after we have settled the crazy heaps of assignments the school hurled in our faces (:

breakfast with love

(edited: added a food review below)

breakfast was a simple affair at strictly pancakes! After oh-so-long, we FINALLY held a successful outing to celebrate yap's belated birthday! ok, it wasn't a birthday-cake-with-candles kind of celebration. it was one of those more heartwarming catch-up sessions where we just laugh at each other and stuff. well, it's really been a long time. 8 years of friendship, and running. growing up together, there was definitely lots of fond memories to relate to together and lots of old joke to crack (: 

decided to try some photoshop actions for this post. its surprisingly simply to apply these actions! and to think i always thought it took a lot of effort to achieve these effects. now i know (: 1st attempt at actions, dont laugh if it sucks!

jmi's creation

 SORRY PHO! somehow i dont have your photo!

love the presentation! 

i love this photo! the smiles are priceless (: anyway, the nutella shake here is yummy! but an entire cup may be too much /: share with your friends! CARING IS SHARING <3

well, i must say, their breakfast menu was not as varied as i expected. well, i was excited to try the butter prawn pancakes (savory pancakes), which my friend highly raved about, but turns out that wasn't in the breakfast menu. there were about 4 different breakfast sets (kind of little isn't it?). here are just some of what we tried.

Berry Berry Fantastic!

Hawaiian!  

All American

ending off with a picture of my favourite girls <3 LETS GO OUT SOON! and we must overcome the inertia to plan our holidays, really! heh!

psssst: i know the photoshopped photos did no justice to how yummy the food actually was. so, here are the original shots and a little food review (: I'm not some food gourmet, so please simply use my opinions as a reference (: we all have different taste buds u know (:

In order of my favourite to least favourite (for Breakfast set only):

to me, Berry Berry Fantastic, was indeed, Berry Berry Fantastic. I always had a soft spot for fruity pancakes with yogurt. This version uses condensed/carnation milk instead of yogurt. While it's sweet and really tasty, it is kind of fattening /: May not be something for the health conscious lot. Within the stack of pancakes, the 2nd and 3rd layer were made with Marmalade, which came as a little surprise. Overall, I really enjoyed the blend of fruits with milk, together with their fluffy pancakes.

 All American was, really an American breakfast (as its name suggests). This dish comes with sausages, tomatoes, bacon and quill egg (yes, that's why the egg is so small. we all thought the chef at the rest of the egg white at 1st!). A savory dish, in contrast to Berry Berry Fantastic. The sausage was yummy but i felt that the bacon was slightly too salty. While I loved the grill tomatoes, it might have been a lot yummier to lace it with a layer of melted cheese heh! This combination reminds me a lot of MacDonald's Breakfast Deluxe set, but its got yummier sides and the pancakes are awesome (:

Hawaiian, probably the least fantastic of the lot. The bacon is the same as the All American. Instead of quill's egg, this has got the normal chicken egg and pineapple bits. As someone who doesn't like pinapples, this dish is a lot plainer than the above. If you're not a fan of pineapples, might as well spend the money on the All American.

 The coolest thing about Strictly Pancakes is that they offer 4 different types of butter to complement your pancakes: Unsalted, Salted, Garlic and Herbs and Rum and Raisins. My personal favourite is still the Unsalted butter, as I felt that it complemented the taste of the pancakes. Garlic and Herbs is the house recommendation. It really tastes not bad, and complements savoury pancakes pretty well. Rum and Raisin was an interesting experience, and I felt it went pretty well with the sweet pancakes. Salted butter was probably the least favourite as it was slightly too salty (especially when combined with the savoury dishes).

Each breakfast set came with a drink (worth $4), choice of a coffee or tea. They have a little selection of the type of coffee and tea you would like to go with your meal. If not, you can simply top up to change the coffee/tea to another beverage on the menu, which was what we did for the Nutella Shake. The English Breakfast Tea was named the Lonely Tea, as all of us were so excited about the coffee and nutella shake, we totally left it aside and forgot about it! The tea was quite fragrant, but slightly diluted. The Chilled Brew Coffee was really aromatic! Not too bitter, and the aroma lingers in your mouth after drinking. TWO THUMBS UP. And the Nutella Shake is pretty awesome too. It really rich and tastes more like melted ice cream, rather than a milk based drink. It's laced with oreo bits YUMTUMS! I have no idea how this compares to the one at EWF (Everything with Fries). Tell you again when I next visit EWF (:

Last but not the least, the pancakes!! Pancakes were fluffy and slightly moist, not too buttery and really soft (: I really enjoyed it! Probably one of the best pancakes I've eaten.