The Little Prince Cafe @ Somme Road

I suppose many of you are familiar with the story of The Little Prince. I, for one, haven't actually read the book yet, but I kind of know the story or at least the more memorable parts. This trip to the cafe made me want to get the book and really read it. :)

So anyway, this place was recommended by a friend, who brought me here. Before coming I actually did some research, reading other people's reviews on what they recommend here and stuff. Of course there were mixed opinions. Afterall, everybody thinks differently.

This place is tucked in a small corner of Farrer Park, near a condominium, but it is easily by the brightly lit interior of the cafe. The cafe is not very big, just one storey (don't be fooled by the hand-drawn staircase on the wall). But it is a very cosy place.

The first thing you notice when you approach the cafe would be the decor. Guess what, they are all hand-drawn by the owner. Also, everywhere in the cafe, you will see different versions of The Little Prince, in all kinds of languages. Feel free to take one down to read. (Of course return it back to the original place after that). At the counter there are also stuffed toys of the famous elephant-eating snake and other memorable characters. 

The menu is also interestingly presented above the counter. So, my three other friends and I decided to each order a drink and share some food.

I ordered a hot rose latte, since a rose latte isn't very common around. It came in a glass cup as shown above. The first sip of the rose latte comes to me as a very interesting taste. Although this cup has two shots of coffee (according to the owner, all coffee drinks on their menu has two shots of coffee), it is not as bitter as I think it would be. The bitterness is probably downplayed by the milk and the rose component. This is good for those who don't want to add sugar, but don't wish to drink coffee that is too bitter as well. A friend ordered the iced version, and she said it tastes kind of like bandung. I guess the rose taste comes out more in the iced version. There is also the non-caffeinated version of rose latte available as well.

Another interesting drink available in the cafe would be this iced rambutan tea. There are whole rambutans in the drink, and the sugar syrup comes in a small beaker by the side. This drink is refreshing and I would recommend it on a hot day. 

Foodwise, we did order quite a lot of things. First up, would be this savoury seaweed scone. (I can't really remember the exact name sorry ><). There's only two types scones they provide, one is the original raisin scone and one is this savoury seaweed scone. We decided to try this as it is the first time we encounter a savoury scone. Guess what, we ended up ordering a second one. This is recommended to be eaten hot otherwise the cheese inside would harden again causing difficulty eating the scone as it would be very hard to cut.

We also ordered a smoked salmon bread. (the vegetables are outside because one of us didn't like to have the vegetables in. haha) The sauce they put in the sandwich tastes a bit like honey mustard, but it has a tinge of wasabi. Very interesting, and nice. Personally, I love the bread as well.

Time for cakes! We ordered four types, here are two of them. The one on the left is the strawberry marshmallow cake that is highly recommended by many. I love it too as it is not too sweet, and the texture is just nice. There are even bits of marshmellow within the cake. The one on the right is the chocolate truffle/fudge(?) cake. For chocolate lovers, this is highly recommended.

Another of their bestseller is this strawberry swiss roll. It comes in two per serving because it is actually mini. The texture is very smooth, and it is not too sweet as well. The group of us really loved this.

A less common flavour for cakes would be this avocado cake. To me, the taste of avocado doesn't come immediately as you eat it, but more of an aftertaste. As an avocado lover I like how fragrant it is when you eat it. (fragrant as in not the smell but the taste xD) However I suggest that if you want to try, you should share it with someone as the taste might be a bit to overwhelming for one person to finish the whole slice.

Overall, the food is nice and I really love the atmosphere. I love that all things link to The Little Prince - even the plates they provide for sharing food:

It's a nice place to sit down and just chill, taking a break away from all the hectic lifestyle. :)

Lastly a quote for everyone, although it is not very clear in the picture, here it is:

~ Slow down and enjoy something small ~

Shots Cafe @ Ann Siang Hill

8 Ann Siang Hill 
Singapore 069788

Located at Ann Siang Hill, with another branch down at Club Street, Shots Cafe is a place that doesn't just provide food and drinks, but a place to showcase talent as well. Currently there's a instaArtist exhibition going on in the cafe, where instagram photos are printed and pasted on the walls of the cafe.

As a fan of flavoured coffee, I ordered one that caught my eye - Tiramisu Latte.

The coffee came in such a cup, which I thought was quite cute. And, it didn't disappoint me. I could really taste the Tiramisu in the coffee, but at the same time, the bitterness still managed to come out. However, it might be a little too sweet for some people.

My friend ordered Hazelnut Latte, which was perfectly to her liking and she enjoyed it a lot. It wasn't that sweet, but the flavour wasn't overwhelmed by the bitterness.

Furthermore, this place has a quiet environment, with appropriate background music. It is brightly lit, and the dark coloured furniture kind of gave it a relatively posh feeling. The staff was friendly, and provided very good service. I really liked this place a lot.

The Plain

50 Craig Road #01-01 Singapore

Just down the corridor where Selfish Gene Cafe is located, there lies another cafe - The Plain. As I entered the cafe, I was greeted by the friendly staff which also kindly made recommendations when I asked for it. The cafe made use of orange lighting to create a dimly lit, but warm ambience. The coffee fragrance filled the whole place, making me really looking forward to trying their coffee. This place offers espresso based coffee, and does not do drips.

menu

There's a dessert trolley located inside the cafe, holding cakes and pastries not on the menu. I was too full though, at that time to order food so I only ordered beverages instead.

My friend ordered a regular latte, with a pretty coffee art presented to us.

As for me, I decided to go for something I had never tried before - Iced Generra. It is basically coffee, but the special thing is it has a tinge of orange taste in it. Quite interesting, having a zesty feeling with coffee. To be honest, my first sip reminded me of the Van Houten orange chocolate. What surprised me more was that as I finished the drink, I found that there's orange peel inside. No wonder there zesty taste was quite strong, but not overwhelming till it covered the taste of the coffee.

Overall, this place is very welcoming, but it does get a bit noisy sometimes. Hence for those that prefer a quieter environment, this would not be as ideal.

Selfish Gene Cafe

As summer 2013 starts, and I begin a new journey out of school, I start engaging in another activity - cafe hopping. Cafes have always interest me because of their drinks. Not just coffee, others too but mainly, coffee. I do admit that I do not know much about coffee, but just the taste alone makes me love drinking it.

I have visited several cafes, but just didn't have the time to write about them. So starting from now, here are my cafe hopping experiences.

40 craig road
singapore 089678

This is one of the three cafes that I visited today. Heard much about it so here I am, to see what it has to offer.

My friend and I ordered a smoked salmon sandwich, iced chai tea latte, iced matcha latte and a banana cake.

The sandwich wasn't to much of my liking as the bread was quite hard. We were given knife and fork, but it wasn't easy to cut the sandwich. However the smoked salmon was really nice. Kind of makes up for it. 

Iced matcha latte. It just taste of powder, and doesn't really have an authentic matcha taste. It also tastes kind of diluted. An average drink. Nothing to rave about.

This was what made the trip worth it. The banana cake, with banana slices and peanut butter on top. Furthermore, it was warmed and the cake was very moist. The texture of the cake really just made up for everything else. A must try in this cafe.

台灣～ 內灣，阿里山，苗栗

I keep forgetting to update, so here it is, the rest of my trip. I hope I remember most of it though.

Anyway, sometime in November, my family came to visit me and here are some of the places we went together.

內灣
this place is very near hsinchu, reachable by TRA on the 內灣 route.

here, there's the 內灣老街, basically a street selling food and stuff.

the landmark here would have to be this theatre, but it has been changed into a restaurant as well as a souvenir shop.

i would say this is the main attraction here! it's a must eat for all who come here. although a dumpling, it's not the big ones like the nonya dumplings. it's actually quite small, and the rice is not too sticky.

don't have a close up view of it but this is a stall selling the dumpling. there are many stalls around actually.

another landmark, the bridge.

basically there's not much to do here, but since that day i ended school quite late, this was a good place to go.

阿里山
so, during the weekend, we travelled down south, to alishan. we took the rail down to chiayi, were there would be someone to pick us up. by the time we reached, it was late afternoon, so we stopped by to have dinner while on the way up to alishan

in chiayi, there would be loads of these stalls around, because this place is known for their turkey. Not the kind we eat for christmas, but a smaller kind.

look at it, it's just like chicken rice, just that it is turkey. haha. not bad to try i would say.

so after dinner, we continued our journey up.

and we arrived at our accomodation!

the people here are really nice, like they just treat us to tea, without wanting us to buy any of their products. the guesthouse owner has his own tea plantation by the way.

we rested early because we were gonna be up very early the next day to catch the sunrise! and indeed, the next early morning, we went up into the mountains further to by tickets to go up to watch the sunrise. here's the catch. there's only 700 tickets being sold for the train up to the platform where people would see the sunrise. so you have to go early to queue.

it was so cold up there, because it's so high up in the mountains i regretted not wearing thicker >< but the view when the sun rose was amazing~~

after watching sunrise, we decided to walk around alishan. the forest is known for their very tall and old trees, many of which are more than a few thousand years old. it was a refreshing walk because the air is so fresh and the surrounding is very peaceful and quiet. a good getaway from the bustling city

so after a few hours in the forest, we left and went down to another railway station that is no longer in use - 奮起湖

a must do here would of course be, to eat their railway lunchboxes! what is special about these lunch boxes is they are made of wood.

the trip to Alishan roughly concludes around here, as we headed back to our accomodation to rest and pack up to leave the next day.

So, I happened to be free in the middle of the week, hence we decided to go to Miaoli. What made me want to go there was because of the Hakka culture, and my dialect group is Hakka. Again, we took the TRA down to 三義鄉, where we got into a taxi and travelled to our accomodation.

didn't manage to take a photo of our accomodation, but it was called 向陽田園 and it had a very nice environment. The owners were very nice too, helping to suggest the places we could go and how we could plan our route. They even offered to drive us to one of the attractions. there were only two attractions that we went to, but i would say it's quite sufficient. The only regret is that we didn't get to pick fruits because none was in season at that time. (strawberries picking season only starts in december).

龍騰斷橋 (broken bridge)

from the name itself, it is obvious that this bridge is broken. what made it a tourist attraction is probably its history i guess. however, if you are one that likes to explore, there are several paths you can go which actually take you to a different sight, for example:

otherwise, there's not much. we didn't stay here for long, because this wasn't the main purpose we came to miaoli.

勝興車站 (Sheng Xing Train Station)

this train station is not an abandoned one. however, it is only in use during a certain period. hence the tracks are actually open to tourists. just beside this train station is a street, full of hakka cuisine restaurants and cafes, and this is what i came for.

so we went to this restaurant recommended by many other bloggers - 勝興客棧

the place is not big, and quite cosy. and it had a retro feeling to it. the owner then passed us the menu - not the normal kind but:

and of course we had to order the well known hakka dishes. we ordered 4 dishes:

from top left clockwise: 梅干扣肉， 客家小炒， 菜圃蛋，客家豆腐
sliced pork with preserved cabbage, vegetables cooked in hakka style, scrambled egg and tofu 

as a Hakka, i'm very proud of these dishes, and i can't describe how nice these are. I can only show it to you:

TOTALLY GONE

we also went to a cafe, somewhat, to drink a famous hakka beverage - 擂茶

apologies for the blur photo, but this place is also recommended by other bloggers. the decor inside was also very special

anyway, my mother ordered the original 擂茶 while i ordered the almond flavoured one. it came in cups like this

there is also the kind where you can grind the powder before adding water to it. the DIY 擂茶 but we didn't felt the need for it. the owner was very nice though, he gave us free muahchee! freshly made

it came in a lump, with peanuts all over and you have to cut it up yourself. very much like the ones sold in pasar malams, just that this one is much nicer. the peanuts are very fragrant and the muahchee isn't as sticky as what we thought would be. what's more, it's hot so it tastes especially nicer.

so after eating so much, we had to exercise. so we decided to walk back to our accomodation via this:

by that time it was getting darker so we had to walk fast. torchlights are needed inside because the tunnel is actually quite long. while walking inside, two service trains passed us. but it doesn't really cause any problems because there are places for people to stand in when trains pass by. and this tunnel leads straight up to the doorstep of our accomodation! walking through the tunnel is quite an adventure i would say. 

and that's about the end of this little journey! more to come, though. :)