&MADE by Bruno Menard

After reading my favourite columnist, Tan Hsueh Yun's write up on &MADE by Bruno Menard on Lifestyle(The Sunday Times), I've decided to head down to &MADE for dinner on friday, 27th July 2012.

The boy and I were lucky to get seats without having to queue as we arrived rather early at 6.30pm. (By the time 7.00pm, there was already a queue that was formed).

We ordered the Salads to drink, green, ($9) which came with savoury bites, It sounded interesting and the concept of cold soup is indeed intriguing, however, it tasted rather weird and I would recommend to avoid this if you are adverse to strange tasting things. The savoury bites were lovely those, tasting like a brioche topped with cheese

B burger ($19)
I love burgers and this can easily be one of the best burgers in town! Juicy and succulent beef patty with a soft bun that tastes like croissant ! Yup yup!! The garlic sauce accentuated the flavor of the beef patty. As usual I change the fries for salad! And the salad was fresh! :))

The barbecue sauce on the left went extremely well with the fries (other picture).

Three little pigs burger($23) that the boy ate :) 

It was really salty, according to him! When I tasted it I would also agree that it was a tad too salty, and with the fries it can be rather overwhelming. The fries were rather ordinary, though the option of upgrading to truffle fries was available ($3)

Lollipop waffle($9) 
The three dips(dark chocolate, caramel and white chocolate) were extremely good and went well with the slightly sour waffle! Wonder what dough do they use...

 

In all, I enjoyed the meal pretty much as the B burger was good (Cant say the same for the boy though).The portion for the waffle could increase as I felt that it was a little too small. Furthermore, I would also advise against buying the Salads to drink. With few hits and misses,and a rather hefty price tag for the portion, I might revisit &MADE again, only if I happen to be around the area.

Broun Cafe :)

Headed to Broun cafe that day looking forward to muffins and realized sadly that they were only available during their brunch menu!

However, there were other desserts available that day(as part of their regular menu) so we decided to try them out.

My friend ordered the brownie with ice cream ($6) while I ordered the day's special , pear cake with vanilla ice cream ($10)

The brownie (I tried a bit of hers) was chewy and chocolate-y, which went well with the plainer vanila ice cream.
But I've definitely tried better brownies :)

The pear cake was something unusual which I particularly enjoyed. The cake itself was rough in texture(akin to that of a carrot cake) and the fragrance from the pear made the cake smell really good (and it tasted good too)
The poached pear , when eaten together with the ice cream or cake, added texture to the mouthful of cake pear/ice cream pear combination.

The ice cream was placed on top some crispy cinnamon sugar base and it made the ice cream a delight to eat on its own!

The only grouch against the pear cake dish is that the cake was a tad too little, and I found myself longing for more soon after I finished the cake.

The ambience at Broun cafe is perfect for brunch, tea and to chill out and catch up with friends. In the evenings I understand that there are live performances too. I'm definitely going back for brunch :)

Since the brownie and pear cake are rather different in terms of taste, I'm going to give 2 different grades!

Brownie :5/10
Pear cake : 8/10

The Pizza Place at Raffles City

The pizza place

Good company always makes food taste better! 
 

But going back to the main review, we decided on patronizing The pizza place after walking around the basement of raffles city mrt. 
The black and dark interiors did no merit to the cafe, but the affordable price attracted us to it. 
 
The Chicken Royale Pizza was interesting. Instead of the usual tomato base, this pizza had a cream base that went exceptionally well with crust (soft in the inside, crispy on the outside)
 

The Carbonara and smoked salmon pasta was a disappointment though. Perhaps from an overdose of cream on the pizza, the pasta tasted over creamy and one dimensional. The smoked salmon did no credit to the dish, tasting at odds with the cream base.
 

In all, since this is a pizza place, just stick to the pizza to satisfy your taste buds. They're definitely worth a try (: 
 
8/10 for the pizza
5/10 for the pasta 

Marmalade Toast

A testament to my weakness for cakes, 3 days later on Thursday, 8 december, I went with my lovely classmates for tea (a break from all that shopping) at Marmalade Toast.

Having heard all the rave reviews, I had pretty high expectations of the cakes available and thankfully, they didn't disappoint!
There is a tea time promotion going on, where one can order any cake (except the meringue cake and chocolate fudge cake) and tea or coffee for $6.90. An extremely affordable price :)

Being extremely pragmatic( the typical Singaporean behavior), I chose the most expensive cake available, which was the carrot cake.

The carrot cake was moist and sweet, with ample walnuts to provide the needed crunch to the cake. The cream cheese frosting was lovely as well, although a tad too sweet for my liking.

My friends chose the chocolate truffle cake (which i also tried). This extremely sinful cake was worth the amount of calories that it contained. The "truffle" layer of the cake(2 thick layers) was smooth and velvety, and of course, rightfully chocolatety.

I have a personal preference for more cake-y chocolate cakes, so this truffle cake didn't resonate with me much.

The tea and coffee were of a decent standard and definitely a good companion with the cakes.

Overall, Marmalade Toast does live up to its reputation :) I would come back to try the chocolate fudge cake, or even maybe the cupcakes available. However, the obscure location means that some searching around needs to be done before locating the shop in Takashimaya.

A 8/10 :) (the great company made everything even better (: )

3 Inch Sin

Ah it's been some time since I last updated the food blog so there will be a simultaneous posting of 3 blog posts :)
Also look out for the high tea buffet at Barrack House at Dempsey road post :) can't wait to have high tea there!
3 inch sin, as the name suggests, offers cakes (literally 3 inch tall) that ooze of chocolate and other calorie laden goodness ( think caramel and crunchy bases)
I visited 3 inch sin at Cluny Court on 5th dec with Joey and Benji. However disappointingly there were only 3 types of desert on offer because it was a Monday.

Thus, we got a death by chocolate (chocolate cupcake with a generou

s serving of chocolate ganache, sprinkled with crunchy chocolate balls) and a 3 inch sin( something similiar to a lava cake, with an oozy centre that you can customize)

-death by chocolate

Contrary to the rather pompous name, the chocolate cupcake was slightly disappointing. The ganache was average, thick, creamy, chocolate-ty but lacking in complexity in flavour. Every bite of the chocolate ganache tasted the same and after a while it became a little gelat (Malay word to represent that something is over cloying )
The cake base was even more disappointing, tasting like an average cake that you can get at any bakery.

My friend(benji) tried the molten cake and commented that it was gelat after a while as well. It was also too sweet for him, although it may be due to him picking white chocolate as the molten centre.

Perhaps the catchy name gave me high expectations of the cakes available at 3 inch sin, eventually leading to disappointment when they are not as delightfully sinful as purported.

But I'm willing to give it another try, in believe that the other cakes available will be 3 inch sin's saving grace.

6/10

Strictly Pancakes-Room for improvement (review)

The menu on the first story--I love how the chalkboard menu invokes a sense nostalgia

I love this quote <3

My dad and I came across a programme advertisement featuring Strictly Pancakes and he decided to bring my mum and myself(my sis woke up at 2pm so she wasn't with us) to Strictly Pancakes before the crowds flock to it when the actual programme shows.

Reviews from my friends (Vanesse and Joey) were generally positive so I had pretty high expectations of the food at Strictly Pancakes.

Thankfully they didn't disappoint(for most part)!

Apple and Cinnamon Pancakes-ordered by the table beside mine. The cinnamon aroma was extremely strong, but I am sceptical of how drenched(maybe even soggy) pancakes will taste.

Tiramisu Pancakes--Comes with Chocolate Pancakes, a scoop of vanila ice cream and mascarpone cream--$12

Chicken A-la-King--$14

Pancakes are like instant cakes. They only require 5-10 mins of cooking and you'll get a cooked pancake. If done well, the pancakes will be thick, fluffy and flavourful.

The pancakes at Strictly Pancakes certainly met the minimum requirement of a thick and fluffy pancake. However, I have one gripe against it--that it was flavourless on its own.(for the plain ones that accompanied the grilled chicken) I would have hoped that it was a little tastier(maybe saltier or sweeter). However, with the butter (my dad picked the salted one), the pancakes tasted lovely :)

The chocolate pancakes that accompanied the tiramisu pancakes were slightly better. The chocolate flavour was strong and it tasted like eating a real chocolate cake. However, the vanilla ice cream , although spotting vanilla beans, lacked the fragrance of vanilla and tasted merely creamy. The mascarpone cream was slightly better, though I would have hoped for a more generous serving of it instead of the mediocre vanilla icecream.

For drinks, I ordered the iced vanilla latte, which unfortunately, was too sweet and left a bad aftertaste.

In conclusion, the pancakes at the pancakes Strictly Pancakes nailed the texture but still requires certain refinement on the taste. Given that pancakes are the main focus at this eatery, it would be in the best interest of them to improve on their pancakes.

For those comparing Strictly Pancakes with the pancakes available at Hatched, those at Strictly Pancakes are definitely nicer and more consistent.

A 6/10. I probably would return in a month's time and hope that further improvements are made.

Cheers!

Michelle

Barcook Bakery-The king of cream cheese buns

(I'm sorry this is unsightly but I just had to highlight how creamy the cream cheese was!-and I was also too absorbed in gobbling the bun :/)

Good food often takes you by surprise and of course, leaving you unprepared and at mercy of your cravings. Walking around aimlessly today at one raffles place, I came across barcook bakery. Instantly my stomach demanded the raisin cream cheese bun which impressed me thoroughly when I first ate it in the beginning of the year. Forgoing my diet before prom (ah well, theres always a reason why the dietingstartstomorrow ), I bought a cream cheese bun for myself and devoured it in less than 5 minutes

9 months has past since I last ate it and I'm very glad to say that the quality of the cream cheese bun remains extremely good. The velvety cream cheese with plump raisins inside the soft bun simply melts in your mouth(I mean literally--and was also because of it that I finished the bun in 5 minutes) After one bite it is impossible to stop(unless you don't like cream cheese in the first place) : D

In the monopolistic competitive market for cream cheese buns, Barcook's generous cream cheese filling and extremely soft buns differentiates its buns from the other bakeries where the cream cheese tends to be a pathetic layer of curd like substance. The high turnover of buns also means that you can be guaranteed of freshness and if you are lucky, buns fresh from the oven!

A clear front runner in the race of cream cheese buns(and of other variety of buns that I'll try after prom ;) ),I firmly believe barcook bakery is here to stay

4.5/5

(0.5 was subtracted because it was so sinful I have no choice but to hit the pool and swim 20 laps today :( )

Che *burps* ers

Michelle