I had never liked vegetarian food that much years ago because the ones I had were either greasy or simply boring in terms of selections. Ever since I tried this vegetarian stall in Ang Mo Kio, I’ve changed my perception of vegetarian food that comes in a variety of our everyday local hawker fare dishes nowadays. And since this coffee shop operates 24 hours, my husband and I can also enjoy ‘guilt-free’ suppers in the wee hours of the night.The stall owner puts up this paper signage on the right hand side pillar beside its menu signboard where she would indicate the two special dishes that are available on that day. This particular menu changes daily. Except for the vegetarian fried beehoon which is never available whenever I want to order it, the rest of the items such as dumpling noodles, laksa, kway chap, fish ball noodles, etc are available round the clock.Satay beehoon is only available on Saturdays as it’s one of the special weekly rotating dishes. It comes in a huge portion for just $3 a plate with plenty of ingredients (mock meat, prawns, tau pok) and lots of bean sprouts and kang kong. Best of all, it is so generously covered in the satay sauce that you can’t even see the beehoon at the bottom. The sauce is really creamy (with bits of coarse ground peanuts) and fragrant though it’s more on the sweeter side compared to others. And I like the textures of the mock ingredients too that are a little springy and of the vegetables that give a good crunch. Very satisfying dish indeed.What I really like most from this stall is this kway chap. The robust and fragrant broth has a nice subtle flavour of herbs. In fact, I enjoy drinking the broth as it is. The kway is cooked perfectly with the right firmness and bite. The mock offal, tau pok and tau kwa soak up the braising liquid which is savoury and delicious. Even the hand made chilli sauce makes a great accompaniment to the ingredients. Spicy with a tinge of sourness.The mee pok which is the stall’s signature dish is probably only average to me. I am biased because I still prefer the non-vegetarian version with pork lard. While the noodles are firm and springy, the sauce that is just made up of chilli sauce and ketchup reminds me of the wanton noodles I used to eat from my primary school’s canteen. The mock fish balls and fish cake have the same rubbery texture but the mock meat is tender and more flavoursome. Overall, it’s decent but just not spectacular though I see most people around me ordering this.

For full review and pictures, please go to http://www.springtomorrow.com/2014/03/06/vegetarian-food-coffee-express-2000-ang-mo-kio-street-61/

The husband and I headed to Marina Square for Lady M’s mille crepes but didn’t expect it to be closed that day. Since we already had lunch and was just looking for desserts, we settled for St. Marc Cafe which I recalled was featured in the local tv food programme, Snack Attack <<超级小吃赞>> a long while back and its croissants drew a lot of raving reviews.

Saint Marc Cafe is a Japanese chain that serves up freshly brewed coffee, daily baked breads, ice creams, parfaits and more. Its first cafe opened in Tokyo in 1998 and it has over 300 outlets in Japan now.Saint Marc Cafe is best known for its signature chococro (‘chocolate croissant’) which is made of the ‘best blend of Ghana Beans and finest Ecuador beans’ (dark chocolate) wrapped with a flaky and buttery croissant dough.When I took one bite of the original Chococro, I was expecting it to ooze chocolate custard but the ratio of filling to crust was just miserable. Even though the chocolate was supposedly made from the finest cacao beans, the taste was no where near finesse. I thought the chocolate tasted weak, like it had been diluted with too much of other ingredients so its consistency was quite thick. However, the croissant dough itself was really good. It was rich in butter flavour without being too greasy and it was light, flaky and airy inside. Definitely one of the best croissant doughs I’ve had in Singapore. Even though the Chococros were put out on bread shelves for self-service, they were warm and crispy.The Matcha Daifuku Chococro consisted of the original crispy croissant filled with matcha custard, chocolate, red bean and mochi (sticky rice cake). I actually preferred this to the chocolate one because I could taste the sweetness of the soft red beans, the bittersweet fragrance of the matcha and the chewiness of the mochi that gave different textures with each bite.

If Saint Marc could come up with plain croissants without any filling, I’d probably get more so I could enjoy them with tea. The croissant dough was amazing but the fillings were truly forgettable.

For full review and pictures, please go to http://www.springtomorrow.com/2014/03/02/saint-marc-cafe-marina-square/

Ever since I tried my first slice of Meat Munchers pizza a few months back, Pezzo has now become my next top favourite (besides Domino’s) pizzeria in Singapore. With its numerous outlets all over the island, it is just so convenient to grab a few slices to go anytime.

So what did I have this time?This is chicken with red onions, cheddar & mozzarella cheese topped with a nice smoky BBQ sauce. As usual, the pizza crust is of the thicker type and tastes more bready than the usual ones I have but I like its slightly salty flavour and moist, stretchy texture. It may look plain with few ingredients but it’s all about the cheese and sauce here. Cheddar, mozzarella and BBQ sauce are WINNERS!Chicken breast, onions, button mushrooms and turkey bacon. This pizza slice is overflowing with ingredients that with every bite, something will just fall off. I love how juicy the mushrooms are. The turkey bacon is also lean and tastes just like ham. And the chicken breast is tender and surprisingly moist. Overall, it seems like a ‘healthier’ choice of pizza (minus the cheese!) with lower fat alternatives as toppings which is good. The flavour of this particular pizza is not as robust as the BBQ one because there’s no sauce in this that really tingles the taste buds. But with wholesome ingredients, it’s still a worthwhile treat.

Have you had your Pezzo yet?

For full review and pictures, please go to http://www.springtomorrow.com/2014/03/01/pezzo-pizza-revisited/

In this hot and sunny weather, enjoying a bowl of shaved-ice dessert is just so gratifying. This dessert house at Tiong Bahru Market is one of my favourites because it serves up a huge variety of hot and cold desserts in both traditional and innovative flavours so there’s always something for everyone. And the reason why I’d keep coming back to this stall is because the lady who takes orders is probably one of the most amiable hawkers I’ve ever met who is appreciative of every customer, every business regardless of how small or big each order is. It just makes patronising the stall a joyful experience each time.The soupsop itself is soury hence it’s soaked in a sugar syrup to make it more palatable. However the syrup is really sweet. So sweet that I felt sick of eating it after a while so I dug into the other half of the bowl that didn’t touch the syrup while the husband had all the soupsop since he loves sweet stuffs. I like the different textures of the various ingredients especially the chewy nata de coco and the liquid-squirting ‘fish roe’ jelly. Very interesting combination.This is our all-time favourite. A standard ice kachang drizzled with a good quality chocolate sauce and topped with coarsely ground peanuts. What I love best about this is that the food colouring syrups do not taste artificial at all and in fact, blends well with the chocolatey and nutty flavours too. Of course, at the bottom, you’d get the usual ingredients of attap chee, red beans, etc. This is a really delightful ice kachang that is well concocted on the whole. Not too sweet, absolutely yummy.

For full review and pictures, please go to http://www.springtomorrow.com/2014/02/01/tian-tian-yuan-dessert-house-tiong-bahru-market/

Having dinner on a weekday at Novena area is quite a breeze because most of the restaurants there as well as food courts are never crowded so seats are always readily available. A couple of years back when my old office was located in Novena, I often combed the area with my colleague after work for dinner options and that was how we discovered the Lotus Thai Viet food stall at the Fork & Spoon Food Court at Square 2. I normally don’t fancy eating at food courts much because food isn’t that great (with exceptions of course) so this is one of the few food courts I frequent as it serves up some decent fish soup as well as laksa yong tau foo.Spending $18 (used to be $16.90 but prices are inflated these days for obvious reasons) for a set meal for two persons in a food court sounds ridiculously expensive but this is one stall worth returning because the dishes are cooked by Thai chefs and are pretty authentic. Most importantly, their food tastes good.

The husband and I went for our usual Tom Yum Steamboat Set Meal that comprised of an omelette with minced pork, oyster sauce chicken or beef, seafood tom yum soup and steamed white rice.Can a simple dish of omelette ever go wrong? Yes it can. I’d eaten omelette that was over-fried hence the exterior was a tad too brown, overly salty ones and under-seasoned ones too. But this was perfectly done. The minced pork filling was well seasoned and the sliced onions gave a good crunch too. It wasn’t greasy either. I liked dipping the egg into the sweet chilli sauce. Yum. On previous occasions, the omelette was served on a bed of bean sprouts that really gave depth to the dish but there wasn’t any this time.Very home-style cooking. The oyster sauce gravy was savoury salty, a perfect pairing with the rice. The meat was tender, so were the sliced carrots and button mushrooms that seemed to soak up the lovely sauce. I loved the side serving of the green mango salad that was fresh, crunchy, sharp and simply moreish! I just wished the ginger strips could be sliced bigger so it’d be easier to remove them. Just not nice to bite into any!I totally heart this tummy warming soup, not just the temperature (kept hot by the flame) but also the spices in it. Spicy and soury – an absolute appetite whetter! In it was a generous serving of prawns, squids and sliced fish with accompaniments like button mushrooms, onions and tomato wedges.

For full review and pictures, please go to http://www.springtomorrow.com/2014/02/04/lotus-thai-viet-fork-spoon-food-court-square-2/