Coffee Place

Any recommendations for nice cafes or coffee places apart from Starbucks? No Coffee Bean for me. I like my coffee strong and fragrant. With milk of course. It can be a fresh brew with milk (Canele) or it can be a latte with extra shot of espresso and it would be the best if the coffee is cheap and good. Any place?

Earl Grey Steak at Essential Brew

This steak tasted like a chicken thigh meat which was sinewy at parts. The Earl Grey Sauce did help a bit though I am not sure if I want to go back there to have this again. Maybe next time I could try Fosters.

Beef Laksa at AMK

Beef Laksa

Mixed Tendon/Tripe Beef Kway Tiao Soup

I had this for lunch today. So much for healthy eating huh. Lol. I enjoyed myself a lot! This beef laksa is one damn of a good thing. Pardon the swear but I think I like this more than the regular laksa now.

They have the tastiest beef balls around and I actually had another beef ball soup after these 2 bowls of heaven. The tendons, tripes and beef are tender and packs the beefy-ness that I was looking for in a beef noodle. The laksa gravy was not as viscous but it didn't matter because I could drink it up as a soup.

I would travel to this place, no matter how far and sweaty the journey is. This place closes on Tuesdays and opens from 7.30am - 3pm only.

Mua Chee at Xin Wang, Anchorpoint

I could finish this by myself. So can you. The sugared peanut mixture is quite fragrant but the mua chee itself is quite the star in this dish. Resembling like a tang yuan, this chewy glutinous rice ball does not stick to your teeth and has no fillings. I just want to go to pasar malams and buy mua chees to eat. Why are they increasing their price huh?

Pannacotta from Pizza Pazza

This is a great recommendation by Gab who is a dear friend of mine and has similar tastebuds as me. This ultra smooth and palate pleasing dessert costs less than S$3 (i forgot how much) and can be found at Anchorpoint foodcourt.

This stall by the name of Pizza Pazza sells the usual Italian fare of localized pizzas and pastas to suit the general tastebuds. This pannacotta, however, was pretty impressive and just makes me wanna eat them 3 servings in a row.

Yummy!!!!

update on 25 Feb 2009
Went there again today. Pannacotta price is S$1.80.

Swirl Gelateria at Crown Centre

I wouldn't mind seconds. I mean, another set of six flavoured gelatos. It actually incurred in me that this could be just another gelateria in this neighbourhood. Gab recommended trying these gelatos in a sampler shot glass servings so that the 3 of us can try more. I really can't recall what flavours were there but I think the durian is absolutely flavourful. There was a chendol flavour which I liked a lot. These shot glasses pack quite a bit of gelato so do remember to share them.

Board games are available here so we gals just took a shot at Scrabble. Made the whole experience even more fun. :o)

A little update

The first picture shows what I had for one of the packed lunches. Pesto with scallions angel hair. Seems like I seldom bring or eat meat when I pack my lunches. These are easier to clean.

My Packed Lunch

Cheddar cheese sandwich

Lunch box

I had a few considerations when packing my lunch to work. It must be fuss free aka easy to bring and wash. It must be tasty. It must look interesting.

I had prepared all these the night before and kept them refrigerated until I went off to work the next morning. The cheese sandwich was nice and cold and good to eat for breakfast or brunch or as a snack. In my lunch box, I had angel hair pasta, romaine lettuce, strawberry, seaweed and a biscuit. The bottle of pesto that I kept in the office came pretty useful.

As I had no microwave or any other way of cooking my lunch at work, I just boiled some water and used it to scald my pasta and lettuce. Drain the pasta, and toss in the pesto. Occasionally I would bring some lime and give it a good squeeze so that the pasta tastes good. Tear up some seaweed into the pasta and lunch is served!

Easy peasy.

The strawberry and biscuits are just snacks to munch on when I am hungry. I have tea and coffee to help out in case I feel hungry. But, I did not feel hungry and in fact, I feel much better to have lunch at work.

Any great lunch ideas anyone? Healthy and fuss free ones? Unhealthy and fuss free ones?