Labels: bali, birthdays, boozing, clubbing, food, friends, indonesia, travel, videos

written at 12:46 0 comments

Labels: birthdays, food, friends, hong kong, macau, travel, videos

written at 15:27 0 comments

So obviously, these are just some of the places I ate at during my recent vacation. I decided to feature only the more memorable places because documenting every eatery seems pretty pointless.

Borough Market had some good eats, but I must say that the food at Old Spitalfield Market was way better in comparison. Not too sure which stalls are permanent fixtures at this market, but if you get the chance, please try The Duck Truck. Honestly, I much prefer duck that's prepared this way than the normal Chinese roast duck we get in Singapore/Asia. There isn't any of that strong iron taste in the meat and all in all, it's just a party in my mouth.

And if you're like me and you need a sweet fix after a savoury main course, I'd recommend getting a Lola's Cupcake. I know Hummingbird Bakery is popular in the UK as well, but I read reviews online that their cupcakes can be dry. I only had the chance to try Lola's and it gets my stamp of approval. Be adventurous and try some of their more unique flavours - the one in the photo is pistachio with rose water.



I think this restaurant chain recently came to Singapore? That or people are trying to introduce this cuisine into our local food scene. The good thing about this place is that there's only 3 options on the menu, so if you struggle to decide on what to eat in a new place, they've eliminated that problem for you.

The place was crawling with Asians, and I noticed that the only people who got the burger were Caucasians. You get an option of either grilled or boiled if you order the lobster whole. My recommendation would be to get it boiled because the grilled one makes the crustacean taste a tad bitter. The boiled option allows the meat to retain that umami flavour.

If you really want to try the burger as well and don't want to have to do a repeat visit, bring along a friend and get the burger and lobster set (a burger each and a lobster dish to share). For me, when I do visit this place again one day, I'm going to try the lobster in brioche bun.



This was actually one of the places recommended by our Edinburgh AirBnB host. I really discovered a new found love for tapas on this holiday. It gives me the freedom to order a whole bunch of things and try out different items on the menu, without having to loosen the belt loop. There wasn't anything in particular that stood out from the rest because everything was so amazing. My advice would be to order what appeals to you on the menu. I don't think you can go wrong ordering that way in this place, ha-ha.



Another place recommended by our Edinburgh AirBnB host. In addition to a new found love for tapas, I've discovered a new found love for Indian food. Aside from the spicy chili chicken, which was pretty mediocre, the things we ordered were to-die-for. Just do what I did, I ordered everything that was the chef's recommendation on the menu. It was also my first time trying lassi. Super good but it also tastes super fattening, LOL. Anyway, if anyone reading this knows of any places in Singapore that serves Indian food like this (instead of only Roti Prata), please let me know where!



The last place I'm featuring in this entry is this 3 storey bar and restaurant I visited in Brighton. I really wanted to have a Sunday roast experience so I turned to Google to see where would be the best place to visit. To be fair, I have no point of comparison in terms of British Sunday roast dinners. But this place is pretty fucking spectacular. Pardon the use of profanities, I couldn't think of a more eloquent way to convey just how good this place is. Definitely get the squid rings in Carbonara sauce. The sauce is so good, I can just eat it with plain bread alone (or drink it like a soup, get judged and not really care, LOL).

I might do another two posts that covers memorable eats from Barcelona and Amsterdam.
Hopefully, I'll be able to find some spare time to do so. Till then, adios from this fat foodie.

Labels: brighton, edinburgh, europe, food, london, photo entry, scotland, travel

written at 21:58 0 comments

More cafe adventures in Japan, this time round in Tokyo! After exploring Shibuya and patronising Muji for the umpteenth time, we made our way to attic room to escape the drizzle outside. Coffee is decent-ish but they have no English menus available, which proved to be a problem. I wanted to order dessert, but from my garbled conversation with the waiter, I inferred that they only serve main courses and drinks? Then again, I MAY be wrong. Something might have been lost in translation along the way. Perhaps you'll have better luck if you speak the language or are better at sign language than I am, LOL.



Having had my coffee fix earlier on at attic room, I settled for a chai latte when we navigated our way to this next cafe. Similar to Cafe Bibliotic Hello! which I wrote about in my Kyoto Cafe Adventures, this was one of the bigger cafes we had a chance to visit whilst in Japan. Hooray for English menus, I finally managed to satisfy my sweet tooth with a slice of banana walnut cake! It was still pouring when we were at Streamer Coffee Company, and I noticed staff members bringing out umbrellas for their customers to borrow. I was impressed by the amount of trust the employees have with their customers, to have enough faith that these customers will have the basic courtesy to come back on another day to return the umbrellas. I'm not sure if I'll ever witness the same act in a Singapore cafe #justsaying



Third cafe joint I visited in Tokyo - as I'm churning out this entry, I realised how uninspired I am to continue writing. Maybe it's because I had just about the same coffee order at most of the cafes. Their cafe-culture is a tad different from ours. They don't often serve food and to be frank, most Singaporeans won't fly all the way to Japan to eat at their cafes. We rather drink the coffee, then head on over to somewhere else and grab a bowl of ramen or chirashi-don.

Hence, it's getting a tad monotonous to constantly keep saying that the coffee is "pretty decent" at all the different joints. Because I've said this many times before, I'm no coffee connoisseur. As long as the roast isn't overly charred or acidic, I'm fine with it. So yeah, maybe just let the photos do the talking for this outlet. In case you can't really tell, it's super tiny and serves as more of a takeaway kiosk in my opinion.



This last place received rave reviews online and was highly recommended by a couple of friends. There was even a long queue when we went to visit. However, I feel that it is ridiculously over-rated. If you MUST give this place a try, order ONLY their hot coffee. The iced options taste very mediocre and is totally not worth waiting in line for. The baked custard, which I ordered just to try, isn't good as well. Overall, I was highly disappointed with the place - partly because my expectations were somewhat built up and partly because the coffee, in my amateur opinion, was average.

I guess that wraps up my Japan Cafe Adventures entries. I'm still figuring out how I want to categorise the remainder of my posts. Hopefully I'll have some spare time in the next two weeks to finish them off before I start work full time. My days of bumming are numbered, sighs*

Labels: food, grad trip, japan, tokyo, travel

written at 21:45 0 comments

Kick-starting my Japan trip posts with one that covers the two cafes I visited whilst in Kyoto. I won't be blogging about EVERYTHING I did in Japan, because let's face it, do you really want to read about my visits to all the different temples on this trip? I didn't do any prior research on cafes to visit so as I stood in the pouring rain after visiting the bamboo groves, I typed "most popular coffee joints in Kyoto" and this place popped up in my google search.

It's relatively easy to find this place with the help of google maps. Like most of the F&B outlets in Japan, this cafe was quite tiny, so I wouldn't recommend visiting it in large groups. The coffee was excellent, but once again, I need to emphasise that I'm not extremely particular about my coffee. We didn't order anything to eat because we visited in between meals. Overall, the place has a nice zen environment that's nice to chill at, alone or with friends. There was only one person working when we visited the place, so do expect a 10 to 15 minute wait for your coffee orders.



Our friend recommended this cafe because it opens till late, which worked out perfectly for us because we had a lot of time to kill before catching our overnight bus (at 00:40H) to Tokyo. It's the largest cafe and possibly one of the largest F&B establishment I visited whilst in Japan. It's well furnished, with dim lighting. So if you want to take nice photos, remember to visit before the sun sets otherwise your photos will mostly turn out bad.

It's a tad pricey here as compared to Sentido and the coffee isn't as good. However, the seats were more comfortable, with a nice back rest, as compared to the stools we were balancing on back at Sentido, ha-ha. Food was decent, but opt for the dessert options instead (unfortunately, I forgot to take photos of the cake we ordered, LOL). Nice place to kick back and catch up with friends because it is less zen than some of the other cafes I visited, where you'll feel self conscious if your conversations aren't held in whispers. Only negative about this place is that they allow their customers to smoke inside. Actually, I think that rule applies to most cafes. So yeah, if you're unlucky and there's someone puffing away like a chimney near you, you'll leave smelling like you spent the day partying in a night club or casino.

Stay tune for most posts about my Japan trip; the next one I'm planning on doing is a post about the cafes I visited whilst in Tokyo.

Labels: food, grad trip, japan, kyoto, travel

written at 18:19 0 comments