Thursday, January 3, 2013

The White Rabbit

The White Rabbit has been on my "Places To Go" list since forever. And the perfect day to visit this beautiful place was Christmas Eve! X made a reservation for brunch about 3 weeks in advance. HAHA very efficient.

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Carpark right beside TWR

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Simple, yet beautiful.

Although I didn't really like the tree in the middle of nowhere haha

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Butter, with salt on it. So you can have unsalted, and salted butter.
How very thoughtful!

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Fresh, warm and fragrant bread

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Affogato
With a cute little cookie

Usually, when we order affogato, the waiter/waitress leaves the small jug of expresso on the table for us to pour it ourselves. But at TWR, the waitress pours the expresso in for you!

An awesome scoop of smooth homemade vanilla icecream in Papa Palheta Coffee.
Ain't no better combination!

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Iced Latte
As I've said before, Papa Palheta probably has the best coffee. The amount of sugar syrup that I added to the latte was like 1/8 of what I add usually. The sweetness of the coffee is really amazing. Still my favourite coffee!

The Festive Set Brunch Menu at TWR is really appealing! They offer 6 choices for starters, 6 for mains and 3 for desserts! Spoilt for choice? Definitely!

Starters :
-Wagyu Carpaccio
-Roqueford and Pear Salad
-Salad Nicoise
-Chestnut and Pumpkin Veloute
-Seared Bay Scallops
-Foie Gras Duet

Guess what we chose!

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Foie Gras Duet 
salt-cured with apple flan, seared lobe with cherry compote

I LOVE FOIE GRAS. So this was an easy choice for me!

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The seared foie gras was very lightly crisp and was very very fat. Hahaha it was delicious! I love how the fats melt in my mouth haha

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This was smooth, tasty and was really good with the little apple pastry.

Loved this dish.

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Seared Bay Scallops
Tomatoes, Mint, Fruity Olive Oil

X loves scallops, so this was an easy one too! Haha

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The scallops were very fresh, and juicy! The way that it was prepared brought out the taste of the scallops. It was good that the taste of the scallops was not masked by sauces or stronger ingredients.


Mains: 
-Poached Snapper
-Alaskin King Crab Tagliatelle
-Ravioli
-Turkey Breast Roulade
-Cher-grilled Mangalica Pork Collar
-Beef Cheek Bourguignon

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Mangalica Pork Collar
Warm compressed apple, celery root puree, calvados cream

The pork collar was tender and extremely delectable. The apples were sweet and nicely done. The puree and cream were a wonderful combination and this dish really sings!

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Tagliatelle
Alaskan King Crab, Pork Broth, Kombu

The pasta was well-cooked and the Alaskan King Crab was juicy and sweet even though it was rather small haha.


Desserts:
-24 Hour Poached Pear
-Chocolate Moelleux
-White Chocolate Tart

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Chocolate Moelleux
molten centre, passionfruit icecream

The lava cake was hot, and its molten centre was a delight. White Rabbit's homemade passionfruit icecream and the lava cake makes a really impeccable team!

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 24 Hour Poached Pear
Burnt Butter Cake, spiced crumble, vanilla icecream

The poached pear was very sweet and soft. The spiced crumble is not overwhelming and everything in this bowl just seems to complement each other really well!

It was a really wonderful experience dining at The White Rabbit! We were really happy with the choices on the menu. The staff were extremely efficient, clearing our plates almost immediately and being ever so attentive to any calls for water or to answer any of our queries. Their homemade icecream is also, really good! It was pretty much a perfect afternoon, except that it rained and I wasn't able to get pictures of the building.

And, the festive set brunch only cost $48++ per pax! Isn't it worth it! I know you think so too!


39C Harding Road
Tue - Thu: 12:00 - 14:30, 18:30 - 00:00
Fri: 12:00 - 14:30, 18:30 - 01:30
Sat: 10:30 - 02:30, 18:30 - 01:30
Sun: 10:30 - 14:30, 18:30 - 00:00

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Love, K

K's rating of TWR: 9/10

Sunday, December 30, 2012

Butterfinger Pancakes @ Gangnam (Seoul)

I've heard alot about Butterfinger Pancakes even before I left for Korea. I had been bugging X to go there ever since I touched down and we finally went there on our last Saturday(three weeks later...) in Korea.

It's within walking distance from gangnam train station but cabs are really cheap in Korea so we suggest that you just cab everywhere haha unless its like REALLY far away.

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A great variety!

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Cute menu

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Iced Caramel Macchiato - 6,900 won
Iced Mocha - 6,900 won

The macchiato was too milky and lacked the coffee taste. We noticed that most tables ordered only a drink and we only realised why later on. It is because you can "remake" your drink! So you can get another glass for free! So 6,900 won is absolutely worth the money

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Butterfingers Favourites - 13,900 won
Pancakes, sausage patty, bacon strips, hash, eggs, butter, syrup
There was nothing exactly worth mentioning in this dish except that the vanilla honey butter was really special and X really liked the maple syrup haha

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French Sponge Bath - 15,300 won
Toasted ciabatta, under a thick corn beef based cream sauce, with grana-padano cheese flakes, parmesan cheese, cheddar cheese and tomato wedge

This was interesting at first but got really boring shortly. The dish lacked savouriness and I got sick of the cheese and cream after awhile. There are crackers hidden under the cream sauce so the texture of the dish was unique. The ciabatta was very nicely toasted. It looks pretty appetizing, doesn't it? Wished it tasted as good as it looked.

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Banana and Nut Pancake - 6300 won
Thick, fluffy, soft and a little crisp. Pretty much the perfect pancake with bananas waiting for you in the middle of the little pancake heaven. It was really awesome. Even the nuts were really fragrant!

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For my choice of butter, I chose "I can't believe its not butter"
And all I have to say is I really can't believe that this is not butter!!!
It tasted every bit like butter. How can this not be butter??!?!

Butterfinger Pancakes is really popular and it was packed when we were there. It was however, very smoky and we reeked of oil when we stepped out of the place. The Koreans are very used to dining in such environment, especially in barbecue joints. X, hates such places though hahaha he can't stand the smell of oil and smoke and wanted very much to get out as soon as possible.

It was quite an expensive meal that didn't quite live up to our expectations.
To be safe, go for their pancakes!

Gangnam-gu, Cheongdam-dong, Seolleung-ro 152-gil, 11 세진빌딩, Seoul
Daily : 7am - 3am 
 

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Love, K

Thursday, December 27, 2012

Sweet Salty Spicy

X stays pretty near Railmall so he has been to this cozy Thai eatery a couple of times. We decided to head there for dinner one night since we were too lazy to travel. Despite it being a Saturday, it was quite quiet.

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Cute wall!

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White wine - $8.50
This was light but strong and was unfortunately, overly chilled.

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Traditional Thai Fish Cake - $8
The sweet chilli was really good! The small bits of cucumber in the chilli made it tastier.
The fishcake was lightly crisp and delicious.
However, it's a little expensive for 3 small pieces of fish cake.

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Traditional Thai Fried Rice - $10
With pineapple, prawns and chinese sausge

There were pork floss, raisins and cashew nuts in this dish too! The dish was full of different flavours and textures and it doesn't get mundane.

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Pad Thai with prawns -$18
The prawns were fresh and juicy and the noodles were smooth, well cooked and pretty tasty. The portion, however, was very small for a dish that cost $18.

Service was quite slow and inefficient considering that we were the only ones there. And the waiting time for the food was also a tad too long. If you're looking for a cozy place for simple Thai food, you could give this place a try! Parking is readily available in the compound and its free.


392/394 Upper Bukit Timah Road,
The Rail Mall
Monday- Friday : 11am-2pm, 6pm -10pm
Satuday, Sundays and PHs : 11am-4pm, 6pm-10pm

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Love, K

K's rating of SSS : 6.5/10

Sunday, December 23, 2012

The Cheesecake Cafe (II)

This is our second time at The Cheesecake Cafe!
Photography is not allowed so we didn't take any pictures of the cafe this time round but we did take a few the previous time! You can check out our previous blog post on The Cheesecake Cafe! X and I both love the decor of the place. Intricately designed and painstakingly decorated, The Cheesecake Cafe is definitely not a cafe you want to miss! Especially if you're a fan of cheesecakes!

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Chocolate Brownie Cheesecake -$ 7.80
Thick creamy cheese topped with a layer of smooth chocolate, with soft bite-sized brownies.
I definitely preferred this to the American cheesecake and the Peach Jelly one!

Photobucket Chocolate Truffle - $7.50
There are raisins in the cake so I took them out haha. The chocolate truffle cake was extremely smooth and every bite melted so delicately in our mouths. So so good!

The Cheesecake Cafe does live up to its name, as it carries one of the best cheesecakes in town! However, do give the other cakes a shot too! They might just surprise you like how the chocolate truffle cake surprised us!

685 east coast road, Frankel estate
Opening hours:
3.30pm – 12mn (Sun/Wed/Thu)
4.30pm – 12.30mn (Fri/Public Holidays)
3.30pm – 12.30mn (Sat)

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Love, K

K's rating of The Cheesecake Cafe : 8.5/10

Friday, December 21, 2012

B Bakery

X and I have been wanting to go to B Bakery for the longest time. We've actually gone there twice. First to find it closed because we did not check the opening hours and the second time we went there, they were supposed to be open but the lady boss told us they were closed... We can be quite unlucky when it comes to this, for some reason. Haha

So I was supposed to have a photoshoot at Haji on a Saturday afternoon and it was the perfect opportunity to visit B Bakery!

X and I got there around 12pm and it seemed like they just opened for business.

Simple and cozy. 
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Cinnamon Buns!!

We were pretty disappointed to not find any baked goods such as croissants or pain au chocolat as it's supposed to be a bakery. And there wasn't a brunch menu too. So we decided on a sandwich and a pasta.

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Iced Cappuccino - $4.30

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Iced Latte - $4.50

The coffee was alright.

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Ham and Cheese sandwich -$7.50
Ham, cheddar cheese, tomatoes, pickled cucumber, lettuce and onions

The sandwich came with a very generous portion of garden, on top of the existing vegetables in the sandwich. Not a good idea to order this since I don't take vegetables haha. Ham and Cheese sandwich is one of the items that will never go wrong! In this case, the ham and cheese were great together but the bread was too hard.

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Linguine, salmon, prawns in tomato cream wine sauce - $18

The pasta was well cooked and the tomato cream wine sauce was tasty! They also gave a generous portion of fresh juicy prawns.

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Cinnamon bun - $3

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The cinnamon bun was sooooo good. It was super soft on the inside, and it wasn't too sweet. Also, the cinnamon taste wasn't overwhelming. The bun wasn't overly coated with the cinnamon sauce and you could still see and taste the really soft white parts in the bun. I think it's better than the one at Simply Bread! This is certainly the best part of the meal!

We didn't try the desserts because X was getting bitten by mosquitoes and he wanted to leave asap haha. Its a waste though, because I've heard so much good things about their desserts.

We were a little disappointed when we first entered the shop. We checked out the display chiller to find out that there were only two desserts on display. And the chiller was pretty empty...? Not really a very positive impression. Service wise, the only service staff that was on duty was quite attentive and efficient. Prices are also pretty reasonable

Will probably return to try the desserts someday


15 Bussorah Street
Mon to Wed: 9.30 am - 6.00pm
Thu to Sat: 9.30 am - 9.30 pm
Closed on Sundays and public holidays.

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Love, K

K's rating of B Bakery : 6.5/10