Kith Cafe

I visited Kith cafe sometime in August last year, right before I started work (Almost eight months ago!) with Rachel who was also having her holidays. I remember that it was a drizzling weekday afternoon when we were there, but we decided on sitting outside anyway because the cafe had such a pretty outdoor area.

Interesting hand-written (but photocopied) menu for the day's specials. I opted for the Linguine!

I look too eeriely fair here, must have been rotting at home too much since school ended.

Linguine with Crabmeat, Tomato, Cream and Vodka. ($20)

Big Breakfast ($15.50)

For a cafe located right in the heart of town (just a short walk from Dhoby Ghaut MRT Station), Kith's prices are relatively affordable. The interior is nice and spacious, unlike most cafes around in Singapore nowadays. The food was good, but I regret not having tried any of their coffees or drinks. But since the cafe's located so conveniently, I'm pretty sure I'd be going back soon! 

Kith Cafe

9 Penang Road

#01-01E Park Mall

Tel: 6338 8611

Winter 2012: Hong Kong Day 1 - Arrival & Tsui Wah

Myself and the sister. (She has a habit of making faces for the camera.)

This trip happened around mid-December last year. Procrastination got the better of me and I've only started editing and uploading the photos now. T.T I bought the Olympus Pen E-PL5 right before the trip, cos' my Canon compact was dying and I've been thinking of getting a Micro Four Thirds camera for a while now. Thing is, because I bought it so last minute, I didn't have much time to master using it, so a lot of my photos were actually shot on Auto mode (Don't judge!). 

I flew over to Hong Kong with the sister a day earlier as the mother had some matters to settle back home. Wanted to fly Jetstar initially, but we realised that the fare only differed by a little if we flew by SIA, hence we chose the latter.

Upon landing, we headed for this bus limousine service called Vigor. We paid 140 HKD per person for a single journey to our hotel - Park Hotel in Tsim Sha Tsui. Their buses apparently leave every hour. The bus took a huge round around the Tsim Sha Tsui area so by the time we got to our hotel, it was almost an hour odd. It stops at the back door of Park Hotel, near DNA Mall.

They give you these stickers to identify you.

When we got to the hotel, Trent (my HK friend who also did his exchange in Korea with me) was waiting for us at the lobby! He waited for us to settle in and then he brought us to Tsui Wah, the quintessential Hong Kong cha chaan teng. They have outlets everywhere in Hong Kong. The Tsim Sha Tsui one was about a 5 minute's walk away from the hotel. 

Visibly happy to meet up after so long!

The only way we could get a group shot without troubling the very-busy waiters.

Fish Balls & Fish Cakes with Rice Noodle in Fish Soup. A little milky-tasting. Felt like there was quite a bit of MSG though.

The sister with her faces...

Prawn Balls with Stirring Noodle in XO Sauce. This was really good! The prawns were so succulent. 

MILK TEA! I must have had like 2-3 cups a day when I was in HK. 

Cripsy Condensed Milk Bread. We were so full by the time we got to this, but it was still SO good.

Swiss-style Chicken Wings. I don't know what's in the sauce but it's both savoury and sweet. Had two of these!

The spread for us three! 

After the really satisfying first meal we had in HK, Trent brought us to Harbour City, about 10-15 minutes walk from where we were. 

I loved the view, and it reminded me a lot of the Shanghai Bund. We also stopped by 1881 Heritage to view the festive decorations. (My photos there turned out pretty bad though, so not posting them up!)

Tsui Wah (Tsim Sha Tsui)
加拿分道2號地下, Hong Kong
G/F, 2 Carnarvon Road, Tsim Sha Tsui

Amethystory Mineral Yogurt Mask

Received this via courier the other day and I was pretty excited to try it! Due to work, I've been spending lots of time in an air-conditioned environment and it has caused my skin to become pretty dull and dry. When I received this mask, I was glad to find out that it promises to:

• Nourish and rejuvenate your skin, giving you a soft and smooth complexion
• Whiten and brighten, giving you a naturally fair and radiant complexion
• Hydrate and lock in moisture for supple and healthy-looking skin
• Keeps skin refreshed and cool

It is also non-greasy and absorbs easily into your skin.

This should be applied after cleansing. Massage a sufficient amount on your face and leave it on for 15-30 minutes for the nutrients to be absorbed into the skin, and then rinse it off.

My skin is quite sensitive and usually breaks out when I try new facial products. I'm glad to say that not only did my skin react positively to this, I also felt that my skin became fairer and brighter. In fact, I think I'm gonna put it on later before I go to bed. (:

Amethystory Mineral Yogurt Mask retails in a 60g bottle (as pictured above) at S$18.90.

Winter 2012: Hong Kong

It's been more than a month since I've returned from Hong Kong, and I've finally started on editing the photos. In the 6 days I spent there, I think I snapped a total of 500-600 photos, but I've since whittled it down to about 300. I predict I'll get the posts up by Chinese New Year latest. Till then!

Mini Instagram Update

01. Bowls of coloured vanilla cupcake batter. 02. The end-product!

I made rainbow cupcakes last week for a friend's birthday. It was pretty easy to make actually. Just use any simple vanilla cupcake recipe, divide into five portions and drop food colouring into them. I dropped about 1-2 teaspoons of cupcake mix of each colour into the cupcake lining, baked for 3-4 minutes so that each layer would set nicely. I wanted to put a simple butter cream frosting on top, but it kinda failed.

03. Cupcakes from Plain Vanilla / 04. Shio Ramen from Santouka

I tried my first Plain Vanilla cupcake when Xin bought them for me for my birthday this year. I proudly declare them my favourite cupcakes in the whole of Singapore! My favourite flavours from them are the Red Velvet and Salted Caramel ones. Fluffy but moist with a very light but flavourful icing. The only gripe I have is that their shop is all the way at Holland Village and they don't have a sitting area, so it's just grab-and-go. $3.50 a piece, $19 for six. Please do try it if you're a cupcake fan!

I also finally tried Santouka Ramen (after queuing for about 45 minutes on a late Friday evening)! The egg is so good, but I'm not quite sure about the ramen... I think I still prefer Ippudo and Marutama at Central. (The one at United Square isn't as nice.) But I think I'll give it another shot and try the pork cheek ramen the next time. 

PS: On a side note, I update on Instagram more often than I blog. You can follow me using the widget at the side!

Plain Vanilla Bakery

http://www.plainvanillabakery.com/

34A Lorong Mombong

Holland Village

Tel: 64655942

Ramen Santouka

21 Cuppage Road

Cuppage Terrace

Tel: 62351059

Tiong Bahru Bakery

Since we were in the vicinity, having visited Orange Thimble a few hours before, we decided to pop by Tiong Bahru bakery to see what the hype was about.

JY and her chocolate muffin.

Me looking like a gerbil with our table tag. 

I ordered a Kouign Aman ($3.50). Think buttery pastry with decadent caramelised sugar coating all over... Super good!

The coffee here is from Forty Hands. (Points to cute coffee graphic on the wall.)

Subsequently after this trip way back in August, I also visited the Tiong Bahru bakery branch at Raffles City. I liked the Raffles City branch a lot better. It was bigger (ie. lesser waiting time for seats) and more convenient.

Parma Ham Focaccia and Hot Chocolate.

Tiong Bahru Bakery
56 Eng Hoon Street
#01-70
Tel: 62203430

Raffles City Shopping Centre
252 North Bridge Road
#B1-11/12
Tel: 63334160

Hada Labo Arbutin Whitening Lotion

I was quite pleasantly surprised to receive yet another bottle from Hada Labo within such a short span of time, this time I received the Hada Labo Arbutin Whitening Lotion. I am already using the Hada Labo SHA Hydrating Lotion but decided to give this a try because I've seen this blue bottle for quite a while and was pretty curious if it was as good as the SHA Hydrating Lotion.

Arbutin is an extract from the bearberry plant. It has whitening properties that are supposed to enhance skin fairness and fight dark spots, turning dull skin into clear, fair skin. The product also contains Vitamin C which also enhances skin fairness and repairs dry, dull skin caused by exposure to UV rays.

My verdict? It did make my skin visibly fairer and brighter the next morning, however, as mentioned by some reviewers, the product did give me a few small bumps on my skin. I seldom have pimples or bumps and I had read on some sites that the Arbutin might cause a mild reaction for some people. I was hoping it wouldn't do so for me, but sadly it did. But I do have some dark spots on my face that I really want to get rid of, so I guess I'll spread out my use of the lotion for now, so my default will still be the SHA Hydrating Lotion, but I'll use the Arbutin one every few days.

The Arbutin range of products retail from $21.90 to $31.90 at all Watsons, Guardian, Sasa, Unity, Fairprice and departmental stores islandwide.

Oh and you can claim a FREE 20ml travel size bottle of Hada Labo Arbutin Whitening Lotion at Hada Labo(sg)'s Facebook page - http://www.facebook.com/hadalabosg (from 1 November 2012 onwards)!

The Orange Thimble

Yet another back-dated entry from August! (I have several more from August to clear - Tiong Bahru Bakery, Kith Cafe and Mad Nest!) JY and I first spotted this cafe when we were in the area for an indie fashion label launch a week earlier. We decided to come by another day to try the rather affordable brunch menu. However, we went there only to realise that the English Breakfast ($11.50) is only served on weekends. Nonetheless, we liked the ambience of the cafe and decided to stay on to see what other options we had.

In the end, I opted for a BBC ($8.50), which I suppose might stand for bread, bacon and cheese?. Walnut bread with bacon, brie cheese, lettuce and cranberry sauce in between. ($8.50) While I'm not a big fan of walnuts, the sandwich was a good mix of sweet, sour and savoury flavours.

JY ordered Good Ol' Shepherd's Pie ($9.00). It wasn't bad, but it wasn't very good either. Plus the portion seemed really small.

If I didn't remember wrongly, it was the eve of National Day. We wanted to pop by Tiong Bahru bakery for a cuppa next door, but it was teeming with the lunchtime crowd so we headed over to Books Actually for a little look-see first.

The Orange Thimble

http://www.theorangethimble.com/

56 Eng Hoon Street

#01-68 

Tel: 6223 8068

Books Actually 
http://www.booksactually.com
9 Yong Siak Street
Tel: 6222 9195

Group Therapy

This was way back in the beginning of August. Pardon the huge time lapse. I've just started work and it's wrecking havoc on my sleeping habits, hence the lack of entries. Audrey and I met up with Robin for a farewell brunch cos' he was due to leave for the States for his exchange. I had heard of the awesome poached eggs dish at Group Therapy for a while and suggested this location for our brunch. We went on a Sunday afternoon and the cafe was really packed, but they managed to get us seated within 5 minutes.

The menu which was just a piece of A4 paper, which I think they change everyday cos' there's a date on top of the menu.

Thick toast, smoked salmon, Gruyere (a sort of cheese), and creamy hollandaise sauce on the top. (S$15)

Of course, I went for the poached eggs dish. It came with a huge serving of hollandaise sauce, but I'm seriously not complaining. It complemented the dish well and it tasted really good. The eggs were poached nicely too. The dish was extremely savoury without being too overwhelming.

Grilled Ham and Cheese Panini. (S$16)

Croque Madame (S$18)

I liked the vibe of the place and how bright and spacious it was even though there were a lot of people there that afternoon. Service was pretty slow though, we waited about 20-30 minutes for our food, we didn't really keep track because we were busy talking. But I'd gladly say the poached eggs were worth it. Not so sure about the other dishes though. If I do return, it'll probably be on a weekday evening. Hopefully the crowd is smaller then so I wouldn't have to wait too long for the food.

We ended off with some healthy drinks at Takademi!

Group Therapy

49 Duxton Road

#02-01 

Tel: 6222 2554

T.AKADEMI

22 Cross Street

#01-63

Singapore 048421

Batter Fluffy Flaps

I first knew of Batter Fluffy Flaps (BFF) when I was walking to my usual bus stop at Katong after church, late one evening. Of course, the shop was closed, but what caught my attention was this cute little sheep hanging right outside the shop. While there are many eateries along the Katong stretch, cafes tend to be a bit less common. Having found this new cafe (they opened in May), I decided to grab my own BBF, Juli, to give this place a try.

What I love about this place is that they actually allow you to customise your own pancake dish (S$14), choosing your own type of pancake (plain, blueberry or chocolate chip) fruits, toppings, ice cream and sauce. If you prefer something simpler, they also sell original pancakes served with butter and maple syrup. Apart from the usual sweet type of pancakes, they also have savoury ones, with prawns, beef and more. 

We went on a weekday afternoon so the place was empty except for us. I think the lack of crowd is also because it's relatively new. It looks like a great place to hold a party though, with all the cute decorations and furniture. I saw some photos of a friend having her twenty-first there recently. Makes me wish I held mine in a cafe too! But that aside, the decorations are very clean, bright and cute. How can the restaurant not be cute when they have a fluffy little sheep fronting it, right?

Looks like a great spot to chill. But we opted for the normal-height tables for easy dining.

Juli posing proudly with the beer menu!

My Chamomile tea which came with a M&M cookie.

Truffle Ruffles (S$8). Loads of truffle oil in this, not that I'm complaining.

Banana Bonanza (S$12).

Spicy Chicken Mid-wings (S$8)

Juicy Beefy Patty (S$14)

Our spread!

True to it's name, BFF does serve really fluffy pancakes! It was so fluffy and filling that Juli and I could hardly finish the two plates of pancakes between us. We liked the sweet pancake dish more than the savoury one as the ice cream definitely helped make the pancake a lot easier to munch on. For the savoury beef pancake dish, it felt a bit dry. Perhaps we should have drizzled maple syrup on it and eaten it ala McGriddle style. 

That said, I really loved the vibe of the place and the menu offerings. Given that I'm often around the Katong area because of church, I'll definitely be back to try other things on the menu. It looks like a great place to chill too, with the wide selection of coffees, tea and other drinks. 

Batter Fluffy Flaps 
https://www.facebook.com/batterfluffyflaps
89 East Coast Road
#01-01
Singapore 428790
Tel: 6440 7071