FIRST TASTED: Chye Seng Huat Hardware

Last Christmas when I was having my day trip in Singapore, I suggested coming to this unique hardware shop that sells good coffees. It was really unfortunate yet embarrassing that I was firmed that shops like this would definitely be having their door wide open to do as much business as they can. I supposed I was running out of my quota for luck (since that was the end of the year). Since then, I swore that I will certainly come back for a visit whenever I’m free visiting Singapore again.

Here we are, at the beginning of 2014, trying to bump our luck and see if I can finish the unfinished business. And yes! After one whole torturing month, I finally got a chance to find out what’s so fancy about this shop and why it’s so crowded most of the time.

Ambient/ Environment:

Looking from the outside, it looks exactly like a hardware shop selling tools. The business sign looks exactly like what any other hardware shops would use and the previous-decade metal gate gives antique feel. One could really be fooled by the outlook of it and go in there buying a hammer or spanner. However, the closer we get, the more the hardware feel vanishes.

The previous-decade metal gate is not really a gate for anyone to enter the shop. In fact, it’s only for decoration purposes. To enter the shop, we have to walk through the side door on the right hand side of the shop.

First step into the shop, there’s a coffee beans toasting room right in front of us. The actual café is just right next to it where the antique metal gate is blocking. This place is free seating, one can sit wherever he/she likes, be it open air or indoor. I chose to sit indoor, as I was not really keen to expose myself to the elements that day. First door into the café, there’s wafts of coffee fragrance greeting my nostril, it’s intoxicating. Not only that this shop is free seating, it’s somewhat self-service too. One has to walk to the counter to order the things that they want and bring your own drinks to your own table once it’s done. If you’re lucky enough like me, waiters might help out by bringing the drinks to where you sit.

The decoration inside is a mix of simplistic and retro feel, there’s even vinyl disc and player found at the water refill station! I wonder why that thing can always catch my attention, not too sure if they are still working though. Overall, it’s very pleasant place to stay.

      

Food:

Those were just the tiny details. What matters most is the food and drink that they serve over there.  As usual, 3 of us ordered 3 drinks and 3 deserts to go with coffee.

The following is the 3 coffees that we ordered- Daily Hot Brew, Cappuccino and latte.

      

I personally like the cappuccino over the other two. The foam was of professional grade, it’s very smooth; the coffee taste was strong, but not overwhelming. The harmonious balance of the milk foam and the coffee makes a very good cup of Cappu. I have to say “This is the best Cappu I have ever tried”. The other 2 drinks were pretty good as well, but I prefer the creamy texture of the Cappu more.

Coming up next is the 3 deserts that we ordered- Creamy Fudge, Chocolate Almond+Banana Crumble and carrot cake.

I have no complaint on the Creamy Fudge and Carrot Cake, as they were pretty much flawless. The texture, the fragrance and the taste were in a great balance, it’s not something that one would easily be bored with. I personally recommend the Creamy Fudge. It really is “What the Fudge”. One bite followed by a sip of coffee, all of a sudden, you’re in heaven (that’s a bit exaggerating, but it’s really good!). One small complaint goes to the Chocolate Almond+Banana Crumble. It’s a tad too dry to my liking.

Service:

It’s just average. Some of the crews were friendly; some were not, especially the baristas, maybe they were concentrating in making a good cup of coffee. I did have a brief but informative chat with one friendly part-time waitress working there. I got to know that this café is run by a group of baristas (no wonder the coffee is so good!) and they have other restaurants & cafés of different concepts opened around in Singapore.

Verdict time again…

It fits all the bill of a good café. I personally quite like the retro yet modern feel of the café. Without a single doubt, I will be going back this café again and I believe the revisit is going to happen very soon.

PS: I nearly did something silly again, but I’ve learned to take it slow this time round. Not too sure if it’s good for me though.

FIRST TASTED: Ling Nam Kedai Kopi (嶺南咖啡老店), Paloh

Every once in a while, I will be doing something that might sound silly to many, but I adore doing- drive hundreds of kilometers to sightseeing around and eat around. This time round, I went to Paloh to try out the coffee shop that I wanted to go for quite a while- Ling Nam coffee shop.

Paloh is a small town located around 20 minutes drive away to the north of Kluang. It’s not as developed as where I stay, but I adore the simplicity of the Kampung feel. People who live here are somewhat kinder than those living in city. Instead of going highway, I chose the more twisty and bendy road to come to this place, which was brilliant, despite some potholes on the way up north.

After a short 1 hour plus of driving, we arrived at this historical coffee shop- Ling Nam kedai kopi. Looking from far, the outlook of this coffee shop is not different from those traditional kopitiam that we see every day. Once we stepped into the shop, there’s a surge of instant classiness can easily be felt.  It’s not hard to notice that this shop has been operating for countless years; in fact, the current boss is the third generation since his grandpa.

         

The decorations (or you can call them antiques, as some of them are indeed older than either of us) drew my attention away quite a bit. Those are the memories. If you’re like me (getting attracted by those items), that simply means that your childhood was as awesome as mine.

   

Besides those antiques, there are some meaningful & informative words hanging on the wall. I suppose they were written by calligraphy, they are simply amazing!

Once we were done appreciating all the art works, our coffee and toast were served. Some said the water to make this cup of coffee was from a well, I don’t really bother as long as it tastes nice. So, was it good? It was good enough- smooth, gentle and there’s no sign of sourness from the beginning till the end. Slightly stronger would be perfect.

How about the toast? The bread was made by another traditional break maker in Paloh. It’s soft, fluffy and bubbly on the inside. The taste and texture are very much similar to the one we have in Kulai. The Kaya was handmade too. It’s at the right color, right sweetness, right taste and right fragrance.

It looks as if the kaya is over flown, but don’t be fool! The kaya wasn’t being spread onto the bread. In fact, the kaya was being squeezed onto the gap between 2 halves of bread. The combination of everything was good, but it could be better if the bread was charcoal toasted.

So, would I come back to this coffee shop?

I would if only I happen to pop by here. I won’t come all the way here just for this coffee and toast. It’d be worthwhile for the first time, but silly to do it again. I personally prefer Kluang railway coffee slightly more, as it is equally good with more choices of bread and food to offer.

Aftermath:

After visiting this old-timer coffee shop, we headed to one famous curry noodle stall in Paloh (next to the Capitol Theatre) for a bowl of eminent curry noodle. It has the traditional taste that I like and the portion is very generous indeed. It’s mild and not surprising, but good enough to fill your stomach if you feel like having some curry.

   

Something about Tyres

It’s been a while since I last wrote automotive related stuff..

Today, I would like to share something about the thing that I have just replaced on my little puppy (the name of my car) a couple of weeks ago- The Expensive Rubber.

Before I get started, I would like to send my best regards to our beloved government, chiefly the ministry of transportation. If there haven’t been so much of “nicely” paved public roads, whereby the potholes are as easily available as the speed trap cameras that they are implementing in the country and mended as cheaply as KANGKUNG, otherwise you wouldn’t get such an important piece of information from me.

The above photo shows the predicament I was in (indicating that I could go sideways?). The lucky bit was that this tyre didn’t explode right at god-knows-where I hit pothole, which gave my some time to do some survey on tyre selection.

There are a few things we need to look at while choosing the correct tyres- type, size, brand, and of course price. And I will discuss each of them one after another.

Type:

Generally, there are 3 types of tyres- performance tyre, comfort tyre, and normal tyre. Performance tyres are for those drivers who like driving fast on the road at any conditions, be it wet, damp or dry. Comfort tyres are for those people who appreciate peacefulness and comfort while travelling and can’t be bothered to go very fast on roads. And the normal tyres are for normal people.

Size:

Most of the cars in the market would not have any issue with size, as those standard sizes are easily available in the market. My little puppy is going a bit extreme. The rim is the maximum size my car can possibly fit in, to keep the fender to tyre gap as small as it possibly could. That’s just a joke. Having the biggest rim in the world for this purpose is what those ah bengs like to do and I am not one of them. To me, bigger tyres simply mean tons of grip and better handling. For this very instance, size matters when it comes to tyre selection. I have to go very low profile to avoid tyre rubbing against fender. The tyre size that I looked for was 215/40 R17. This size is super odd and not easily available in the market. I was having hard time to look for one; hence, I decided to downsize a little bit to a more standard size- 205/45 R17, for better quality tyres. This size is only 5mm per side narrower and a couple of millimeters taller.

Brand:

Brand is important. Different manufactures produce tyre differently. The products that they are offering give different characteristic and driving experience (only sensitive people could tell the differences). Ones have to try out each brand to know which brand is more suitable to them. My tip on this- always go for reputable brand, even it costs you slightly more.

Price:

Pricing is highly dependent on the aforementioned factors-for the types of tyres, performance tyres tend to be the most expensive, as it requires some serious engineering design on them; follow by the comfort tyres which require some not that serious engineering design and then follow by the normal tyres which don’t require much engineering. While for size, bigger and wider tyres tend to be more expensive and vice versa. Brand wise, reputable brands (such as Pirelli, Michelin and etc.) tend to be more expensive.

I hope this short and concise article gives you the details that you would like to know about tyres.

So, what did I choose in the end?

My choice is Michelin PS3, which is best known as the performance tyre that doesn’t compromise much on the ride comfort. It’s slightly more expensive than other tyres, but I hope it’s worth it. After a few weeks of running it, I can conclude that the PS3 is softer and grippier than the previous tyres it was running. Now, it’s down to how long these goodnesses can last to prove if it’s worth the price…

FIRST TASTED: Kith Café @ Park Mall

A week after Christmas 2013 was New Year of 2014. It seems like a good arrangement for us to finish our unfinished business for Christmas. Since it fell in the middle of the week, it would be more convenient for me to just stay in Singapore to explore more FOOD.

This time round, my friends and I chose to go somewhere that’s simpler than PS for a brunch (we were pretty sure we won’t have any breakfast, as we had a long New Year countdown night cum buddy birthday celebration came together.). This place was recommended a while ago from a good buddy of mine after he tried, he said I would love this cafe due to the simplicity of the menu. Immediately, I gave him a “WTH” face through the phone. Food, ambient and many other things should be more important than the simple menu, should they?

So here we were, arrived the Kith Cafe at about half past one in the afternoon, for brunch.

Below is the brief review on this café.

Ambient/ Environment:

This Kith Café is located in Park Mall, right opposite of Dhoby Ghaut MRT. When we stepped close to the café, it’s not hard to notice that it’s full house. There was no table that’s big enough to accommodate 6 of us. That’s no problem to us, because it’s a holiday, and we can wait. They are kind enough to provide stools outside the shop, so that people don’t need to stand while they are on the queue.

While waiting, I took a chance to explore the café a bit. There are 3 areas for ones to sit on. Firstly, it’s in the shop, that’s where the barista and coffee machine located, I believe that’s where the kitchen is too. The other two areas are open areas, located outside the shop, whereby ones could get more exposure to the environment. Since it’s always crowded in the shop and there were so many of us, we chose to sit outside. Despite the crowd, the surrounding was rather peaceful, seemed to be a great place to have a lay-back afternoon, chill and chitchat with buddies.

Food:

My Philosophy: A good day always starts with a good cup of coffee.

I ordered myself, as usual, a cup of Cappuccino. It’s just as weird as the one served in the PS café, they put chocolate on the foam. I asked one of the waitresses: “why is there chocolate on my coffee?” She was nice enough to go and ask the barista (that was her first day working in Kith). She came back with an answer, saying that “This is how a Cappu will be served in Kith.” Albeit it’s a bit off from the originality, I was okay with it, as she was earnest enough to be forgiven.

I made a mistake by asking an extra shot coffee for my Cappu. The coffee taste was too strong, beyond where a Cappu should be. The foam of the Cappu was not smoother than that of PS, but it’s above average, quite acceptable for the price we paid.

For solid food, I ordered myself a big breakfast. It comes with Choice of toast (which I chose Multigrain), Choice of eggs (which I chose scrambled eggs), bacon, smoked Bratwurst, sautéed mushrooms, grilled tomato and lastly the Strawberry jam!

This plate of scrumptious big breakie was just excellent to wake us all up after the celebration last night. All the items were in great balance. I might be too hungry to have my breakfast so late. Instead of slowly enjoying the meal, I swept the whole plate of big breakie into my stomach within a really short period of time. I’m not too sure if they were tasted well (not a good food reviewer that day, as I was too hungry and tired), but what I remember is that the strawberry jam was really good. It tasted natural, not sweet, no taste of chemical additives in it at all. Good recommendation, The-first-day waitress!

Services:

I would say the waiters and waitresses there were completely different from what we encountered in PS. They were friendly, attentive enough, always put a smile on their face at all time, love their job and know their product really well. There was, however, at some point of time, I faced some difficulties to get a waiter/waitress to help up (with the billing, if I am not mistaken), but it’s quite understandable, as there were limited staffs working and there were 3 areas (which were quite far apart) to be taken care of. Most important of all, it’s holiday! We can wait.

Verdict…

The overall experience was considered pleasant. The foods served here were of certain standard and quite comfortable; environment was cozy enough and not intimidating; the smile from waiters & waitresses could easily warm my whole day and the best part of all was that it only cost us about half of what we paid for in PS, which was very good value for money.

I will definitely come back to try out other dishes. They do have a really long list of food choices for me to choose from… 🙂

FIRST TASTED: PS Café, Palais

Christmas 2013 fell in the middle of the week. It was one of those rare occasions where I stayed in Singapore to have a taste of being a tourist in Singapore. It’s not easy to plan for a day trip in Singapore, especially for a fussy guy like me. Hence, I came out with a simple itinerary, which comprised of good food (reviewed and recommended by some blogs) and those commercialized tourist spots for a couple of us to walk around. Some says “No plan is always better than a master plan”, this is really true for our case, as we didn’t achieve much (of the plan) in the end of that day.

Anyway, a good day always starts with scrumptious breakfast. Our buddies and I decided to go this place, called PS Café. There are a few branches around the island. My friend suggested the one in Palais, as according to him, the ambient and the foods served there are good. So, we headed there for a late breakfast or brunch, to be exact.

Below is the brief review on how I felt about this café.

Ambient/ Environment:

This particular PS café is located in a shopping mall called Palais Renaissance, an extremely quiet shopping mall on public holiday, like Christmas, was super odd. I realized that none of the shops, except for restaurants and cafés, was opened. Look at the PS Café from far, there’s a strong festive feel spreading out from the café. It reminded us that it’s Christmas day, not just any public holidays, which was very good and beneficial to someone who got infected by the hottest disease to all modern people (including me, obviously) – The vicious short-term memory lost.

Stepping inside, a lay-back European feel was easily noticeable. All of a sudden, the tense feeling that I always feel in Singapore had all gone. Hmm, so far so good then.

Food:

To me, good foods + a good cup of coffee are always the recipe for a perfect café. There were 6 of us coming all the way here for the brunch. As usual, we ended up ordering 5 brunches and 2 desserts to share. I will keep the review short and concise.

I ordered myself a cup of Cappuccino to start off my day. Looks good, isn’t it? It tasted good, but not great. The foam was smooth enough; however, the coffee taste was too light to my liking. I was quite baffled by the chocolate they put on top of my Cappu.

First dish to be served was the Egg Benedict. Looks like a piece of art huh? It tasted great too. The poached eggs were well cooked; the bacon was crispy and tasty; the bread underneath was soft. The combination of everything was just wonderful.

Next to be served was Green Goddess Pesto Pasta. This was a rather green and very healthy dish. It’s a cold dish which simply tossed the pesto pasta together with green vegetable, such as broccoli, string beans and some basil (maybe). A couple of pieces of cheddar cheese were placed on top while it’s being served. All I can say is that this pasta is the healthiest pasta that I have come across thus far in my life. The cheese was a bit too salty to my taste though.

Next up was something that’s completely different from the Green Goddess Pesto Pasta. It’s one of the heaviest meals of the day, called PS. Bacon & Eggs. It’s somewhat like those big breakfasts that we have seen in any brunch cafés. This huge plate of thing comprised bacon, scramble eggs, sausages, roasted mushroom, toast and baked tomato. The combination of all these was just great; none of the items was overpowering the other.

After the heaviest of all, a special dish was served- The Mushroom Wellington. This thing was something similar to the meat pies that we normally eat. We could almost call it a mushroom pie. The skin, like any other butter skin, was crispy; the filling was juicy, the mushroom taste was all locked by the skin. This was the first time I tried this, which gave me a rather special experience. However, surprises could only work once; I will pass this dish for my next visit, if there’s any.

The last to be served was the Brunch Burger. Look at the thickness of this thing! I believe none of us has mouth that’s big enough to actually bite it through from top to bottom. The ingredients used to make this burger were fresh. The patty was juicy and nicely grilled. The bread was soft. To my surprise, I didn’t find this burger too heavy. It may because of the great balance between the meat patty and vegetables.

   

After the main courses, we ordered 2 desserts to share- Ultimate Fudgy Brownie & Sticky Date Pudding. I don’t recommend either of them, as they are way too sweet.

Services:

Some of the waiters there were not friendly enough to do service industry, some I could even call them rude. They didn’t have much smile on their faces, as if they didn’t really like to work there or even in service industry. I would rather have self service style than those black-faced waiters to serve.

Verdict…

The foods served here were of certain standard, I would say they were above average, in term of taste and surprise. However, I would suggest the operator of this café to do better filtering job while hiring the waiters & waitresses. Sometimes, a warm smile could certainly make the food tastes nicer.

Price wise, sorry to say, it’s as good as the foods they served (or you can say it’s as unfriendly as the waiters working here..). I honestly believe that we could have comparable foods at two-third of the price (if not half) we paid here. To be frank, I wouldn’t mind paying extra for a great café.

The PS Café is good, but not quite there yet.