The Betterfield

When I first heard of the Betterfield, I kind of relate it to battlefield and was rather curious about the food they serve. Betterfield is hidden at a secluded area among the old HDB estates in Waterloo Street. I wouldn't know there is a cafe exist if I didn't walk into it.

The Better Field

This less than a year old Cafe is founded by Shaun Gian who happened to serve us during our visit. Observing this young chap throughout our meal, I find that he is full of passion on what he is doing, his service was friendly and he really took extra efforts to take care of his customers well by communicating with them. Not only that I also observed that he ensured that his customer would not over order the portion base on the number of pax.

Wall

Starter

These Sashimi grade Salmon was served in a familar plate that I had from Ikea which make me felt like home.With capers, gerkin, white sauce, tomato salsa, spinach topped onto the Tartare, it made a very good start in welcoming the upcoming dishes. The intermittent of the fragrance from its truffle oil had somehow seized my appetite, keeping me wanting for more on their appetizers.

Salmon Tartare

Main 

2 versions of spiced ribeye is ordered. As I'm someone who prefers to have medium-well done while the recommendation by Chef Shaun was medium rare, both of us ordered each type. If you are here in Betterfield, their beef is a must try as they use quality beef. For Cafe Week, the Hickory Spice Ribeye was marinated with cajun, and then smoked with hickory. It is served with secret spiced duck fat mousseline & mesclun salad.

Hickory Spiced Ribeye - Medium Rare

Comparing the Medium Well and Medium Rare doneness, my vote still goes to Medium Well for their meat is not that bloody which is easier to chew and tear apart.

Hickory Spiced Ribeye - Medium Well

Dessert

Going into the desserts, we thought that the local flavored would be interesting and had ordered the Ondeh Ondeh. Consisting of alternate layers of sponge cake and coconut with gula melaka, the cake sums up the traditional local snack we had here locally.

Ondeh Ondeh

Chocolate Lava Cake was disappointing. Perhaps all we have to was to set our level of expectation lower if you are going to cut the cake. Be prepared that there will be no lava flowing out even though the cake was warmly heated up.

Chocolate Lava Cake

The additional appetizer we had ordered out of the Cafe Week menu, Pops Mentaiko Chicken was interestingly made with shredded charcoal bun over a pool of burnt mentaiko.

Pops Mentaiko Chicken - $15

Prices are nett and if you are fond of beef and happen to visit The Betterfield, do try them out. Overall experience from The Betterfield was decent however we find that the ventilation in the cafe is not very good as we walk out of the restaurant bringing the smell on our clothing home.

Thanks Openrice for the winning voucher to Cafe Week in The Betterfield.

Rating: 3 / 5

The Betterfield
Location: 261 Waterloo St #01-23 Singapore 180261

PeraMakan

Special Thanks to Colleague who had introduced this place for lunch. Never did i know that there is a hidden gem within the area of a country club. I always have the mindset that anything in the club is only exclusively for members and not the public but this is not the case.

Talking about PeraMakan, it excites me as Peranakan Food is not commonly found and even if so it's only the few that we have been visiting.

PeraMakan

Longan Drink

Environment

Starters for the Peranakan Cuisine is none other than their Ngoh Hiang. Meat with prawns were rolled and deeply fried. There were 3 rolls and they were all cut into 12 pieces, easiler to paired with the sweet sauce or a saucer filled with chilli, black sauce and Luak Chye.

Nyonya Ngoh Hiang - $12

I felt that Buah Keluak makes Peranakan Cuisine outstanding in the sense that I have not come across other cuisine making use of this Indonesian black nut as part of their dishes ingredient. Chicken was braised and soften among the richness of the black nut and Garam Assam Gravy. It might taste on a salty side if you are having just the dish alone without any plain rice. Do note that Steam Rice are served at $1 per head and refillable.

For those who love Buah Keluak, each serving only comes with 2 nuts and special spoons were given to retrieve the flesh in the nuts.

Ayam Buah Keluak - $16

Braising in yummy tau cheo gravy, the dish was awesome. Pork belly was cooked with dried shitake mushrooms and winter bamboo shoots too. Presentation was dull in colors initially but was brightened up by the used of green chilli as garnishings.

Babi Pongtay - $14

The default order that cannot be skip during a Pernakan Cuisine! Simply loves its braised vegetables coupled with dried ingredients in bean sauce.

Nyonya Chap Chye - $10

The last to be served will be their red snapper fish head cooked in Nyonya Curry. Curry gravy was very appetizing indeed and makes a perfect pairing to the white rice. Assorted vegetables like egg plant, lady's finger and tomato among the items in the curry. Fish head was relatively fresh and was pleasing to the tastebuds.

Nyonya Curry Fish Head - $28

Desserts

There can never be short of the taste of Gula Melaka here in their Chendol. Our desserts were shared among 5 of us and it was not a bad idea too. With freshly squeeze coconut milk over shaved ice with chendol strips and kidney beans, its all what you can find all in a bowl of chendol.

Chendol - $5

Buboh Cha Cha can be served either hot or cold, depending on your liking. The best thing is that freshly squeezed coconut milk was used and was good with yams, sweetpotatpes cubes that was steamed to its softened form, not forgettging my favourite tapioca jujubes!

Buboh Cha Cha - $5

Desserts for Durians lovers! Serve in a plate of 4. These choux pastry was filled with delicious D24 durian mousse. Taste was good but if they can come in chilled form, it would be perfect.

Durian Puffs - $6

Knowing that Peranakan dishes are never too easy to prepare and requires alot of perparation, they were always priced at a dearer side, that includes dining in PeraMakan. However, I find that the cuisine serve here is rather authentic and was not too commercialized like other places. However for parking, it may cost a bomb and you might want to take note.


Rating: 4 / 5

PeraMakan
Location: Keppel Club, 10 Bukit Chermin Road Level 3 Singapore 109918
Website

Prive

Prive is another place you can dine in for a casual yet romantic ambiance. Special thanks to my pal, Doreen for having me as her dinner partner during the cafe week. If you have visited Keppel Bay, this place should be of no stranger to you. If you have not, the place may seem inaccessible for those who are taking public transport. It takes about 15minutes walk from Harbourfont MRT to Prive Cafe.

Wonderful View

I find this therapeutic! 

Prive Cafe offers indoor and outdoor seating. And if you enjoy having with a good view of the docking bays with private yatch, ferries around, similar to Raffles Marina, this will probably fits the bill.

Outdoor Seating at night

Indoor Seating at night

Starter

Clam Chowder caught me by surprise in their squid ink bread bowl with bacon. I would have thought its another charcoal bread again if I have not read the menu details. Chowder was chunky, thickened by the use of Idaho potatoes. Celery, parsley and clam stock were also part of their ingredient.

Boston Clam Chowder

An interesting start to our dinner with a healthy salad. Broccoli was charred to slight brown on the stalks yet still retaining its green and water content without being too dry. What I like best was the healthy mix of virgina ham, baby gem lettuce, avocado, spiced almonds, spanish onions, coupled with blistered grapes and shaved parmesan, drizzled with sweet honey-garlic dressing.

Charred Broccoli Salad

Main

Going into the mains, we had pasta and duck leg. Aglio Olio was meant to be spicy with bird's eye chilli included. Pasta was kind of under done and still abit away to achieve from the ideal texture. Chilean scallops , wilted spinach, smoked bacon and sundried tomatoes was in the right portion.

Linguine Aglio Olio

Another Main Course we had would be the tender Duck Leg Cassoulet served with carrots, pearl onions, mushrooms, Brussels Sprouts, Garlic confit and bacon.

Duck Leg Cassoulet

It tasted abit at a salty side but what I like best was the combination vegetables used and the fork tender meat in its luscious gravy. It would be perfect at a lighter taste.

View of the Duck Leg

Dessert

It was the best Sticky Date Pudding I had so far, I swear. It lives up to the name as their signature dessert served with housed butterscotch and vanilla bean ice cream sprinkled with walnuts. The warm spongy pudding was awesome!

Sticky Date Pudding

Creamy chocolate served in a glass jar with summer berry coulis and pistachio biscotti. Similar to sticky date pudding, both desserts were filling and if you were to asked for my choice. I will cast my vote to their signature sticky date pudding without much consideration.

Chocolate Posset

Rating: 3 / 5

Prive
Location: Marina at Keppel Bay, 2 Keppel Bay Vista Singapore 098382

NunSongYee

With Bingsu craze coming into Singapore for the past 1 year, I have always wanted to give them a try and it was such a coincidence that my pal who lives in the East side wanted to give it a try as much as I do.

Buzzer

Since it was a weekend, we chope a seat before placing the orders. I made the choice of ordering Cheesecake Bingsu to share between us and never have the slightest regret about such decision!

Environment

I was stunned by its pleasant surprise, the scoop of vanilla ice cream is sitting on spongy cheesecake cubes and beneath them all we could see was a generous portion of crushed digestive biscuits.

A small container with milk was given as a topping to the Bingsu but I guess the trick over here is not  to directly pour all at a go without eating some of them up to prevent overflowing. Portion is big and definitely more than enough for 2 ladies.

Cheesecake Bingsu - $14.90

Yummy!

Rating: 3.25 / 5

Nunsongyee
Location: Century Square, 2 Tampines Central 5 #02-25/27 Singapore 529509

Feng Zhen Lor Mee.Yong Tau Fu.Fried Slice Fish Soup

Stopping over at S11 near my friend's place, I decided to join the Lor Mee queue after being convinced by the long queue as well as my friend's introduction. The Lor Mee Stall is unique as it sells more than just Lor Mee with other food items like fried fish soup and Yong Tau Foo available too.

Lor Mee Stall

Keeping the traditional way, I ordered the yellow flat noodles instead of others. The bowl of Lor Mee ingredients looked just like any other standard bowl comparatively with braised egg, braised pork belly and fish cakes. What caught my sight was the additional fried minced pork ball that was added generously to my minimum portion ordered. The dark brown minced pork balls were fried into dark brown in colors and were really yummy. Braised gravy on the other hand was not too bad too! If you are looking for some stomach warming Lor Mee in Choa Chu Kang area,this pocket friendly bowl of delicacy may just fit the bill.

Lor Mee - $3 (Small)

Rating: 3.25 / 5

Feng Zhen Lor Mee.Yong Tau Fu.Fried Slice Fish Soup
Location: Blk 787B Choa Chu Kang Drive #01-241 Singapore 681787

Chia Bee Lor Mee

Looking randomly for a quick breakfast fix after my errands at ICA Building and got to know one of the popular Lor Mee around the area.

Chia Bee Lor Mee was housed in a coffee shop among the old estate and if you were to look left and right, you will only get to see those old folks enjoying their meal and chats with their friends on a lovely Saturday morning.

Chia Bee Lor Mee

Presentation of Lor Mee was typical with standard ingredients like fish cake, fried fish, bean sprouts, chinese parsley ladled with the starchy brown gravy aka "Lor Chap". The taste of the noodles and gravy was rather bland without adding chilli and garlic, and if you are looking for herbal taste, don't bother about it.  Fish cakes were relatively small but the portion as a whole is more than what you can get at $3 outside.

Lor Mee - $3 with Chilli

Even though that bowl of Lor Mee maybe standard rated, one good point to note will be their fried fish that deserved to be complimented. Fish was battered and deep fried to golden perfection. You can really tell that the fish was fresh and stands out most.

Lor Mee - $3

Rating: 3 / 5

Chia Bee Lor Mee
Location: Blk 10 North Bridge Road Singapore 190010

Kiosk

Another recommended food around King's Cross station would be none other than the tastiest roasted meat stacks at Kiosk, located meters away from St. Pancras International. Having passing by the station for few days, we were always either stomach full and no room for supper or forgotten all about it.

KISOK

Before waving good bye to London in our 2015 trip, we took the munch and nibble on it while waiting for our train in St. Pancras International.  As its name suggest, Kiosk is just a small place located at one corner of the station.

Menu

Menu

We ordered their salted beef reuben which was excellently prepared and nicely wrapped. Black. Salted beef came in two sizes and contains their roast salt beef, sauerkraut with Russian dressing and swiss cheese sandwiched by toasted black rye bread. Living up to its name sake, the beef was salty if you are eating that as an individual item off the bread.

Well Packaging

Salted Beef Reuben - 7.75 / 8.75

Cross Section

If you are thinking of having McDonalds / Burger Kings before taking the train, I would strongly recommend you to have a change in your breakfast / meal idea to Salt Beef Reuben at the Kiosk! It's simply worth every penny spent!

Rating: 4 / 5

Kiosk
Location: King's Cross Station, London N1C 4TB