Our favourite cafe

Like many Singaporean families, we like going to cafes, especially for Saturday brunch. We look up recommendations online and make our rounds to those that sound interesting. However, many of these cafes turn out to be unmemorable, for a few reasons:

1) The coffee served in some of these cafes is weak and insipid or has a nasty acidic aftertaste, like the beans have been over-roasted.

2) Many cafes have very limited food options. Seriously, there's only so many times you can eat poached eggs before it gets really jelak. Quality too, is questionable. More often than not, I attribute a cafe's popularity more to its ambience than its food.

3) Price is a huge factor. I know cafes have to pay rent lah but I balk at having to cough up $16++ for Eggs Benedict or $6 for a latte. By the time you add service charge and GST, you can end up with a bill close to $100 for a family of four. For nothing more than a fancy version of breakfast.

So this post is to share with you the Tan family's favourite cafe to date. This is NOT a paid post. I'm also not related to the owner in any way. I'm spreading the word simply because we love it and all good things should be shared. We started coming here a few years ago and over the years, we've discovered that amidst our cafe hopping, we somehow wind up back here, and the experience has been consistently great. We're like the fickle boyfriend who keeps checking out the new pretty young thing, and eventually realise that the best one is the one he had all along.

The cafe is Oberstrasse on French Road, right behind Lavender MRT station. It's opened by an enterprising young man and is named after the street in Switzerland where he stayed when he was studying there.

The interior is simply decorated but welcoming. You order and pay at the counter, and they serve your food. The menu is typed on A4 paper and the food selection itself takes up 4 sheets. Drinks take up another page and there's one for dessert pies. It's a crazily wide variety of food and we're always amazed at how just two cooks in the kitchen can whip up so many different dishes.

We've met the owner and he told us he's constantly looking at ways to improve the menu and add new items (as if there's not enough choice!) What an enterprising spirit.

You would think that with such a long list of food items, there would be hits and misses, but honestly, we've tried loads of stuff and we haven't found anything we dislike yet. Most of the dishes are seriously delish. We even brought my mother-in-law a couple of times (she's a notoriously fussy eater) and she said the taste reminded her so much of the great English breakfasts she used to have in London.

Here are some of the items we've tried over the past few years:

Norwegian rosti (with smoked salmon) $14.50

Do you know how difficult it is to find good rosti in Singapore? I only know of Marche and the rosti here is better. Crisp on the top, perfectly cooked in the centre and without any oily residue. There are four types of rosti on the menu, just choose your topping.

Mushroom baked rice $9.50

They don't stinge on the cheese so it's a plate full of cheesy, gooey goodness. Again, there are four types of baked rice. Personally, we like the chicken baked rice best.

Grilled cajun chicken with baked potatoes $9.50

According to the owner, this is one of their best sellers. A very tasty option for chicken lovers.

Crabmeat Arrabiata $15

Yes, they serve pasta too! 12 different types, in fact. Their cream sauce pastas are pretty good. This one is loaded with crab meat.

Classic French Toast with berry compote $10.50

I only tried this on my recent visit and I was completely blown away. It is honestly the best French toast I've tried. The combination of berry compote and mascarpone cheese with granola bits elevates this usually boring dish to a whole new level. The portion is huge though - three thick slices, so unless you have a very sweet tooth, I recommend sharing this with someone.

Smoked salmon avocado sandwich $10.50

This is one of Lesley-Anne's favourites - the sandwich is generously filled with chunks of smoked salmon and a hefty spread of avocado. It normally comes with chips and a small salad but she always asks to replace the chips with more salad. They're very flexible that way. Note: you should order this only if you like chewy bread, which is typical of German bread. If you prefer soft pillowy bread, you probably wouldn't like this.

Chicken mushroom pastry pie $10.50

One of the newer additions to the menu. There are two types of pie: chicken and beef. We prefer the chicken as it comes in a creamy white sauce. The beef pie sauce is a tangy tomato base.

BBQ Babyback ribs $18

This is possibly the most expensive item on the menu but you get a long slab of fall-off-the-bone ribs in an addictive BBQ sauce.

Buttermilk waffles with berries $10.50

Comes with butter and maple syrup (the waffle, not the kids). The waffle is light and crisp, not soggy like in some places.

Flat white $4.50

And finally, the coffee! A very decent cup of joe at a very decent price.

We've sampled more food than the above, but I only posted the ones I had pictures of. The poached eggs and big breakfast here are superb, so are the duck confit and molten lava cake. The full menu is available ALL DAY, so you can eat breakfast food for dinner, or dinner food for breakfast, however you wish to define them.

The prices here are truly reasonable, considering the portions and quality, and have I mentioned, all prices are NETT? That's right - no service charge or GST.

Some other plus points:

1) Free wifi (so you can post food pics without using data).
2) Free water (help yourself at a counter).
3) Accessible - it's located a #01-50 Kitchener Complex, which is just behind Lavender MRT station. If you drive, there's coupon parking along the road.

They open every day from 9am to 9pm, except Saturdays when they close slightly earlier at 5pm. I recommend making reservations for lunch as it can get quite crowded. You can book a table online via Facebook.

So support small local businesses and make your way to Oberstrasse! Your tastebuds will thank you.

When boredom turns to creativity

As mentioned, Andre is on a long break and even with his part-time job and lounging around, he was bound to get bored at some point. Some kids like Lesley-Anne, would have no problem filling their time in productive ways, like reading, but we all know this has never been Andre's favourite activity and he wasn't about to start now.

"Play a game with me!" he would pester but to this mum, a two-hour Monopoly game is as mind-numbing as reading maths equations. "Play mini table tennis with me!" asked the hopeful boy, lugging the table into my office. Sometimes, out of sheer guilt, I obliged but after a while, every sedentary bone in my body would whine in chorus, so I fell back on the age-old excuse: "I have to work!"

Left to his own devices, Andre figured he had to find ways to entertain himself. So here: let Andre show you how mini table tennis can be a solo sport. Not just one, but three different ways!

At the start of the holidays, I told Andre he should use the time to do something worthwhile. One of the activities he told me he would do during the break is to restart his piano playing. Those of you who have followed my blog those many years back might remember how I decided to stop his piano lessons when I grew tired of fighting with him about practising. That was back in 2011 and I was mentally prepared that it would be the last time I would hear Andre on the piano. 

So when he told me he wanted to start playing the piano again, I was skeptical, to say the least. (I think my exact words were, "Yeah, riiight! I'll believe it when I see it.") True to form, when he asked me for help, I realised that he had completely returned his few years of music training. I mean, COMPLETELY. This is a boy who had actually passed Grade 5 theory and Grade 4 practical piano exams, but he asked questions typical of a new student, including: "What's a rest?" "What's a bass clef?" "What's this black note with a stick??" DOH!

But then, he started searching and printing out sheet music of pop songs. With just cursory help from me, he diligently plodded through them, note by note. And quite to my astonishment, he stuck with it. Not only did he learn song after song, he even played them from memory. These past few weeks, my piano has sung more than it has over the last few years. I can scarcely believe it.

As a friend said, it's amazing what kids can conjure up when they have enough free time to dream. I whole-heartedly agree. Forget about classes or curriculum to nurture creativity. Just give them time to be bored.

So Andre's no Lang Lang but it's a mini miracle to me that he actually returned to the piano on his own. That makes my heart sing. 💖

Hymn for the weekend

We had a celebratory weekend. First, we had an early birthday celebration for Lesley-Anne because she wouldn't be able to come home the coming weekend. As a surprise for her, we decided to go vegetarian! I say surprise because except for her, we're pretty much carnivores in our household. Even our helper, knowing our preferences, once served macaroni salad as the "salad", much to Lesley-Anne's chagrin.

But hey, it's Lesley-Anne's birthday so we eat what she likes! After some surfing, we decided to go to Original Sin at Holland Village, which many consider THE place for vegetarian food. Here are our orders:

Feta cheese balls

Broccoli pesto pasta

Absolut - penne in pink sauce

Fried corn fritters for grandma

Spanakopita

Cannelloni verde

I say this unreservedly: everything was delicious. And I mean, everything. Even the cannelloni verde, which doesn't look like much in the picture, was super tasty. After the meal, Kenneth said, "if all vegetarian food tasted like this, I can easily go vegetarian!"

Ok, so it's quite pricey, which would be the only reason stopping us from making this a regular haunt, but if you're looking for a nice vegetarian treat with lots of options, I highly recommend this place.

Dessert was, of course, birthday cake at home - Over the Moon cheesecake from cheesecake specialist, Cat & the Fiddle.    

This is the year she enters her 20s and I shall refrain from going into the usual lament of "where did my baby go?" as I do every year. But seriously, WHERE DID MY BABY GO??? 😆😆

The second "celebratory" event of the weekend was the Coldplay concert I attended with Andre. I just HAD to write about this because it was one of those incredible experiences that you don't just remember but bask in for a long time.

Perhaps it's no secret that I consider Coldplay the most, musically brilliant band of our time. In my book, The Good, the Bad and the PSLE, I named some of the chapter titles after their songs. When they burst into the scene in 2000 with Parachutes, they caught the world's attention with their very different and intriguing sound. Then A Rush of Blood to the Head propelled them to fame and there was no looking back. 17 years later, they are still mesmerising the world with their iconic musical style, meditative (and sometimes trippy) lyrics reminiscent of the Beatles, and often earworm-inducing melodies. With the exception of Ghost Stories, which I personally feel was an insipid letdown, each of their other 6 albums is exceptional.

I attended the last Coldplay concert in Singapore in 2009 with Kenneth at the Singapore Indoor Stadium, and it made such an impression that I promised myself I would bring the kids if they ever played again in Singapore. Unfortunately, Lesley-Anne was uninterested in being at a venue with loud music and 50,000 other people, but Andre was game. Purchasing tickets was a nightmare, as you probably know, with tickets being snapped up within minutes. Fortunately, thanks to a friend, we managed to secure terrific seats.

How can I describe the experience? It was like being in a dream bubble for two hours. The choreography was superb. Psychedelic, kaleidoscope backdrops synchronised perfectly with wristbands (given to the audience) that flooded the stadium with colour. There were pyrotechnics, lasers, balloons - perfectly paced to keep the momentum going.

Chris Martin is the consummate showman. His infectious energy (running and jumping around on stage) kept the audience enthralled. It's no easy feat to engage a 50,000-strong audience for two hours but he did it. Up tempo songs were interspersed with ballads, where his hauntingly plaintive vocals soared. Every time the distinctive opening to a song started, the audience cheered. Viva La Vida, Fix You, The Scientist, Yellow, Hymn for the Weekend, Every Teardrop is a Waterfall, Something Just Like This - we lapped it all up.

A very rapt boy

Two hours of unadulterated bliss, according to this Fan Girl. Who says you need drugs to get high 😍. After that, Andre and I lived in a happy glow, even till the very next day. Andre has had Coldplay on loop in his playlist ever since that evening.

I am a firm believer in paying for experiences rather than things...and what an experience that was. A sky full of stars, a head full of dreams. Call it magic. 

The rooster beckons

Hope everyone had a good CNY break! For us, Chinese New Year is the time where we visit relatives that we see only once a year.

Sometimes, this is bittersweet, especially when visiting the elderly. One of my aunts is suffering from dementia and can no longer recognise us. Over the years, the number of relatives to visit has slowly diminished, as some of them pass on. A grim reminder to not take our loved ones for granted.

Nevertheless, CNY is a time for much celebration - of family, most of all.

Kids continuing the tradition of serving tea to their elders.

Extended family

And of course, food! This year, since Andre has extended holidays, he learned how to make a few traditional CNY dishes from his grandma, including ngoh hiong. I dream of the day when he can cook us a meal!

We had a delectable feast, as always.

From our family to yours, have a very happy and fruitful Year of the Rooster! 🐓🐓

Hong Kong revisited

Happy New Year! Bucking the trend, we were on holiday last week, during the first week of January, instead of December. We were in Hong Kong for an eat-sleep break - a great way to recharge before starting 2017!

Will write a few posts on my Travel Blog on where we ate and stayed. The first post is already up, so if you're looking for foodie ideas for Hong Kong, do check it out!

Meanwhile, here are just a few sneak peaks of food shots to tempt your tastebuds 😋

 

You are what you eat

If, as they say, you are what you eat, then essentially, I'm a chicken. Oh wait, that's my Chinese zodiac animal! Cluck.

In our household, we eat very well, thanks to our long-time helper who has a fantastic knack for cooking. Her Chinese recipe repertoire, learnt from my mil, is pretty impressive. Anything from stir fried beef and popiah to curry chicken and char siew.

Sweet and sour pork

Kong bak pau

She's equally adept in the western food department, from recipes I've given her over the years. Shepherd's pie, lasagna, boeuf bourguignon - she's got them under her belt. She also makes a mean oxtail stew with mash. Better than the one from Jack's Place, in my opinion!

And just when we thought her cooking couldn't get any better, she ventured into Indian, learning from her friends who have Indian employers. Here was the spread she laid out for a gathering - mutton curry, brinjal curry, fried chicken and chickpea salad with homemade chapati.

So as you can imagine, we're very much foodies in our household. We'd never been part of the healthy eating camp just cos we love our food too much (and so much of what's bad for you tastes so good!)

Only Lesley-Anne was very careful about her diet and that kinda happened by accident. When my kids were young, I tried to impose vegetables at every meal (okay, every dinner). Actually, since we adults weren't so keen on the veggies either, it was usually a half-hearted attempt and if they'd eaten a few strands, we'd let it pass. I know, bad role models, us parents! Andre would eat his favourite dishes first, then plead to be let off his veg. Lesley-Anne however, who believes in saving the best for last, would always eat her veg first even though she didn't like it. Through this habit, she astonishingly enough, grew to love veg, so much so that when we eat out, we have to order veg for her. As time went by, she become more conscientious about taking care of her body. She would religiously work out and watch her diet, especially over the past year.

Then earlier this year, Kenneth's doctor advised him to cut out simple carbs from his diet to improve his health. That's when I realised this constant throwing caution to the wind regarding our food intake could not go on forever. We're not spring chickens any more and much as I would like to deny it, I knew this uncontrolled intake of sugar would only have detrimental effects.

When I suggested we make some changes at home, Lesley-Anne of course, cheered. Quite to my surprise, Andre instantly agreed as well. Influenced by his sister, he had started recognising the benefits of eating healthier. Since my mil lives with us, we had to go slow because I was afraid she wouldn't be used to the new taste. We began by changing white bread to wholemeal bread. My mil didn't take to the grainy wholemeal taste so we found an alternative - Sunshine Extra Fine Sprouted Wholemeal bread. It's still wholemeal but the bread is soft so it works for everyone.

Next was the rice. I wanted to change the rice to brown rice but again, I was afraid I would face resistance from my mil, since she's from that generation that believes unrefined food is inferior. Then out of the blue, one day she told me that if I felt changing to unrefined rice would be better for the family, she was open to it. That taught me never to assume anything! That pioneer generation is hardier than we like to believe.

So we tried the Fairprice Thai Rice Blend - a mix of white, brown and red rice. And whadya know, everyone in the family loves it! Andre declared it tastier than white rice (which he was never a fan of to begin with) and for the first time, started having second helpings of rice at dinner. It definitely has more flavour and more bite.

We're trying to take things one step at a time. More veg, less fried food. I have to say it's a lot easier when you have the support of the whole family. I'm most encouraged by Andre's attitude. First, you need to know that Andre loves food. I mean it - he lives for food. This is a boy who can't remember when his exam is but can recall what he ate at a restaurant four years ago. When we go to Sushi Express, he easily polishes off 17 plates. That's 34 pieces of sushi, by the way.

Pic from 2 years ago

Yet, he has embraced this healthy approach with gusto, for which I'm very proud of him. One Saturday, I brought him and Kenneth to my chef friend Tat Hon's restaurant The Bento People for brunch. I had written a review of the restaurant previously, about how I was pleasantly surprised to find that healthy food could actually taste good!

I was a little apprehensive but I needn't have been. The food there is honestly so tasty that my two boys gobbled it up and were happy campers. Since then, Andre has been clamouring to go back, so we returned again last Saturday.

This is our favourite combi - brown rice, salmon and broccoli in green curry. It's amazingly delicious and satisfying, and fills you up all the way till dinner. I suspect the Bento People will become one of our regular brunch haunts.

As Tat Hon once told me, make the change when you can still make the choice, not when illness strikes and you have no choice but to make the change. This way, the healthy transition will be more painless and once your palate adjusts to the taste of natural foods, you might find that you never want to go back to the processed and refined options.

Slow and steady, we'll get there!

19 candles

For quite a few years now, Lesley-Anne hasn't had a big birthday celebration because there always seemed to be something going on - school, exams, CCA, etc. So her birthdays were typically celebrated with just a dinner and cake.

Since she didn't have school this year, I insisted she organise something special. So she had her friends over for a sleepover last weekend and they had a blast. They played games, ate lots of food and chatted the night away. No pics though cos teenage girls don't like having their photos plastered online. Bah!

However, I do have pics of our family celebration. We went to Prive at CHIJMES and the food was not bad at all. The ambience is lovely - we sat inside which was cool but still gave us a great view of the surroundings.

Here are some pics of what we had:

Salmon penne in pink vodka sauce

Signature burger

Pulled pork ciabatta

Fish and chips

On Easter Sunday, Lesley-Anne had an early birthday surprise. We were conducting a creative writing workshop for 12 kids organised by Jenn, a mum and long-time blog reader. After the workshop, Jenn brought out a specially made Danger Dan cake for Lesley-Anne!

Pwoar! The fact that Jenn remembered Lesley-Anne's birthday was astonishing enough to me. Can't believe she went out of her way to have the cake made. 

We're very touched by the thoughtful and generous gesture. Thank you, Jenn! In case you're interested, Jenn blogged about the workshop here.

Workshop kids singing the birthday song

Back home, we had our very own cake-cutting session yesterday. Nothing quite so elaborate as a Danger Dan cake. Just chocolate would do.

As for presents, Lesley-Anne is a simple girl with simple needs. She never asks for anything, except books. Which makes gift-shopping really easy. Books then!

With that, my precocious daughter is now 19. Not gonna go on and on about how time flies because that would be repeating myself every year (plus it makes me feel really old). So I'll just say how very blessed we are to have her in our family and I hope that she will continue to shine a light in the lives of those she meets.

May God shower her with boundless joy and love always ♥ ♥